Beyond Sycamore

Introducing...

2010-11-20T05:28:00.000-08:00

Ariana Neive Hurley

Born September 19, 2010 at 7:58 AM. 7 lbs 9 oz and 21 inches.

This is Aliyah waiting before (I think she was searching for some "Law & Order" on her phone):

We were in the same prep room as last time. We also went to the same delivery room.

This is what Aliyah looks like when someone has cut her in half and is digging around in her internal organs.

Ta-dah! We know she's going to try and do things in her own unique way because she came out hand first.

The adults in this picture went to college for 8 years to learn how to count tiny tiny fingers and toes.

She can complain at ear-splitting volume, so we're sure she's part New Yorker.

She opened her eyes soon to check out mommy. That expression means "You look very different on the outside."

First group photo. There are pictures of Yarden, Mommy, Ariana, and Daddy together but they have too much nipple for public distribution.

Big James brought Deb and Alexa to visit.

James was happy there was no blood. Alexa and Deb were happy Grandpa Jay let them have turns holding Ariana.

Everything is going well. Aliyah is already walking a little and eating real food. Ariana let us take a nap in the afternoon and is eating Ariana food. Yarden is happy to see her little sister ate sushi last night. Oso and I have no idea what's going on and are eating dog food.

A Few Pictures

2010-10-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

Yarden and I are watching "Julie and Julia" and it reminded me that it's been a while since we blogged. So here is the laziest post I could do: some pictures we haven't published yet. Lame? Maybe, but if you're a fan of this blog then we're probably giving you exactly what you want.

Yarden has become somewhat fixated on band aids, "medicine" (bacitracin creams), and claims the littlest bump necessitates basic levels of first aid. Maybe she'll become a doctor? I gave her a box of Sponge Bob band aids. She went through them in two days.

ROAR! Los Angeles Natural History Museum.
Mead fermenters in Portland, ME.
Yarden at the aquarium in Coney Island.

Big Foot at the Cryptozoology Museum in Portland. It's also a book store where I found a great book of cocktail recipes.

Get on the Bus

2010-08-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

Yarden decided she wanted to ride a bus. She probably thought it would be just like the song "Wheels on the Bus." There were less monkeys, but here are some pictures:

We walked to the bus stop.

We missed the west-bound bus by one light change so we had to wait.

We changed our minds and decided to go downtown. We almost missed that on too but we made it. At last we were on the bus!

The thrill wore off.

We went home.

Announcing...

2010-08-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

Ms. Leprechaunus Maximus! She will be arriving mid to late November. Her interests include kicking, swimming, and making her mother throw up.

And congratulations to Chris, Helga, and Sofie on the arrival of Mr. Anders Albert Wilson.

Yarden is getting big enough to play on her own, but sometimes that leads to unfortunate incidents. Here’s a picture of one that didn’t involve poop:

She put on her own sun block. Right before bedtime. She was worried about getting a sunburn while she was asleep.

It’s become clear that she’s right handed. She throws and draws that way, so I guess she won’t be playing first base. Maybe she will bat clean up.

She is also drawing a lot. Drawing usually involves a lot of broken crayons, at least one attempt to draw on something other than paper, tearing the paper, and naming the banana shaped objects she has drawn something very Matise-like, such as “Helicopter” or "Mommy."

She's also become a much better conversationalist. Here’s a typical conversation:

Y: What are you doing Dad?

S: I’m making dinner.

Y: What are you doing Dad?

S: I’m chopping carrots.

Y: You’re chopping carrots. What are you doing Dad?

S: I’m making a salad.

Y: What are you doing Dad?

S: What do you think I’m doing?

Y: I don’t know.

S: Am I making a monkey pizza?

Y: Nooooo!

S: What do you think I'm doing?

Y: You're making dinner!

S: That's right. You're so smart.

Yarden Dance-Off

2010-07-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

Yarden is not shy.

Despite a boo-boo on her foot that had her in tears just moments earlier, a band-aid from the waiter was all it took for Yarden to take center stage at Dar Maghreb last night.

I credit reality TV, specifically So You Think You Can Dance, for her moves.

The fearlessness I just admire.

You can watch in on youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ffi3Z5xQMs

** There were somersaults too, but the camera missed them.

This post is really just for family - or anyone looking for a great LA preschool

2010-06-26T20:13:00.001-07:00

One of the dads at Little Huntley shot a video of all the kids one Friday afternoon.
It's gorgeous and really captures Yarden and her friends.
I love this school.

Video is on the link below:
http://vimeo.com/12783091
password: huntley2010

Fathers Day = Good Eats

2010-06-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

We started the day early - because one of us (the shortest one) insists that we start every day early. Two year olds rise with the sun with all the alert intensity of a rooster.

Sure - sometimes she'll snuggle in our bed for fifteen minutes, but she soon bores of sleepy mommy and sleepy mommy's lack of willingness to be jumped on. Sooner than I want, she demands that I get out of bed to pour her a juice and fire up the Upside Down show.

This morning though, Seamus and I beat her to the rise and got to enjoy some foul mouthed TV (Mr. Show) before little Miss PG commandeered the DVR.

We decided to go to breakfast at Huckleberry's. Those of you who see me on a regular basis will know this as the place in Santa Monica that I drove to one Saturday morning in search of the buratta and prosciutto sandwich that was featured on the cover of Los Angeles magazine's food issue.

After much classy, artisinal deliciousness we took Yarden down to Santa Monica pier and the beach. She's been talking about the beach lately and listing its virtues (kites, birds, water, sand), so we were excited to take her. On the way home, we stopped at Bay City Delis to grab take out lunch. Yes, more prosciutto - don't judge.

Tonight, we are having friends over. Seamus is whipping up a shrimp dish from Boy Meets Grill and I plan on polishing off a blender full of strawberry, mint lemonade.

What a lovely Fathers Day.

Below is a slideshow I made for Seamus.
It's about 5 minutes long.

Two!

2010-05-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

Today she had a party at her daycare. She wore the birthday crown again which officially makes it a tradition.

Mommy made a mix CD as a party favor and Yarden danced to it.

Everyone else joined in. Daddy threw out his back while playing "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes."

Yarden blew out her candles, but also burned her lip.

That's Eli next to her. It's his birthday too.

I think right now Yarden can be summed up by explaining her new maneuver I like to call “The Armadillo.” Every morning I put sun block on her face and every time she says “Not in my eyes” and then covers her eyes; sometimes while running and that usually does not end well. When I do manage to get some on her face she smears the lotion into her eyes while attempting to wipe it off. I’ve gotten good at boxing her in between the couch and my legs, but she has come up with judo-like move of her own: She waits until my hands are covered in lotion and blocks like a boxer while simultaneously resting her thirty-ish pounds of dead weight on whichever limb is holding her up. Eventually I have to put her down or risk smearing the couch and/or my dress shirt with lotion. She folds into a ball on the floor and scoots backwards (The Armadillo) until she can make a run for it. My favorite part is that when it’s finally done and she has stopped complaining she calmly turns to me and says “Thank you Daddy.”

I’m very proud of her problem solving skills, and I’m guessing that she is on her way to becoming a lawyer because she can turn any ten minute task into a half hour.

Any suggestions?

2010-04-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

Yarden will be 2 next month. What are we going to do for her party?

We could go to Travel Town.

But what if no one comes?

We could have a virtual birthday party.

We could do crayon/play doh sculptures:

We could have a nachos party:

But it's so hard not to eat them before you serve them.
Any suggestions?

And while we're updating holiday pictures...

2010-04-11T16:10:00.000-07:00

Merry christmas from Simon and Henry.

Easter Pictures

2010-04-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

In no particular order here are pictures of Yarden hunting Easter eggs in the back yard and Yarden at the annual hunt at Cheryl's and Brent's house.

Cheryl's and Brent's cat:
Grace hanging out with Yarden.
The cat again:
Found a blue one:
I need a basket:
Showing Grammy:
A yellow one!
I'm crushing your egg:

Just some pictures

2010-04-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

Yarden and Grammy eating matzo ball soup at the 2010 Seder at Margie's and David's.
Yarden chillin' while watching Red Sox v. Yankees March 6, 2010.
Yarden watching Red Sox v. Yankees March 4, 2010. She learned to say "Boo Yankees."
Mommy was going on a trip and Yarden said goodbye.
We bought and kept hiding about 4 Easter eggs. She didn't care. She can put on the "red shoes" all by herself.
A rare time when she lets James ride on back.

The Frog Plague.

The Fairly Boring Death of Danger Baby

2010-03-21T15:21:00.001-07:00

Can you mourn a fictional character? A lot of people cried during the last episode of "M.A.S.H." and/or "Cheers" (cough-cough Grammy cough-cough). Does it matter if the actor playing the character is unaware that she is playing a part? Yarden has several alter egos: Upside-Down Baby, Naked Baby, Baby On-My-Head, Lumpy Couch, Snuggle Bunny, etc. But if she were a super hero her name would be Danger Baby - the Baby Without Fear. Ready to climb tall furniture in the turn of a back. Willing to leap off of changing tables whether or not the anyone is ready to catch her. Able to strip from the waist down and pee in the middle of Target in the time it takes to reach an item on the top shelf (true story).

I know fearlessness not an unusual trait in small children but it's one that really reminds me of my (younger) self and so I find it fascinating to the point that it doesn't occur to me until later "That could have turned out VERY differently." Then I think I must have the superpower of extra fast reflexes because I always manage to catch her. But if we are both super heroes then are we a team? Are we on opposite sides? Is she my sidekick, or am I hers? And how does Oso fit into all of this? And because I'm thinking this while cooking I usually drop a lemon or a knife on/near my foot and my fantasy disappears faster than The Flash.

But on to the point: I think Danger Baby has lost her supernatural powers. On Wednesday Yarden had managed to open the can of uncooked oatmeal and shoved a couple of handfuls in her mouth. I got the vacuum to clean her up she freaked out. I didn't think too much about it until the next morning. The street the daycare place is on can be a little busy and like every other parent with a two door car and I have to multitask getting my (fearless) child out along with her lunch and extra clothes while also keeping her from running away. Solution? Putting her on top of my car and that seemed like a good idea. It would keep her near me, away from speeding cars, and contained - right? Yes, but... when I came back out of the car with all of her stuff she was freaking out again. She didn't want to be up there, but she didn't want to jump off. She was panicked.

So what does a super hero do once she loses superpowers? Usually it's replaced with something new. In the running right now are yoga and gardening. Her after school caretaker has a roommate who will sometimes do yoga with her, but that may just be because she's offered bindi sticker dots to put on her forehead. Gardening is a natural fit since it involves playing with water and getting dirty. I just have to keep her from drinking from watering cans that contain fertilizer. I've heard that for small children it can cause them to mutate into half human, half plant creatures that don't eat bacon - essentially a Yankees' fan.

House Breaking and How OCD Develops in Early Childhood

2010-03-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

Yarden's language skills are continuing to grow. She is trying to learn the difference between "Daddy's beard" and "Daddy's beer." She has picked up a couple of things from the new daycare for better or worse. On the upside she is clearly making words plural intentionally, such as "dog" vs. "dogs," or "boob" vs. "boobs,"; and on the down side she has picked up a penchant for declarative sentences like "Daddy sit down!," (which usually includes a push); "Give me that!,"(which includes a pointing gesture); and "I want beard." (or "beer" - I'm not sure).

The outstanding highlight of the week was this morning. It started with the incomparable and delightful sound of Yarden singing to herself in her room. Aliyah and I quietly crept down the hall to peek in on her. She caught us and smiled that really awesome kind of smile that happens when she sees Aliyah or I and that lights up a room... and then she stood up. That was when we noticed she was not wearing her pajama bottoms. Or a diaper. And then we saw there was a lot of poop in places that poop should never be: on the sheets, on her hands, on Purple Monkey, and there was a vaguely cute poop-outline of her butt on the headboard.

We know this is not a very exclusive club. (My parents have a favorite story about me painting the walls by swinging a full diaper over my head like a lasso; I love the Delvecchio's story about Lina being very tidy about the way she soiled her own bed.) Somehow we have to get Yarden to understand not to do it again, and probably to agree to use the potty before going to bed. It’s not an insurmountable challenge but Sleepy Yarden is the wildcard version of Yarden, and because of her pedigree if she doesn’t want to do it then there is no amount of dog and monkey stickers will convince her otherwise. Maybe we’ll just get her some union-suit-style pajamas until we figure this out.

We didn’t need any coffee that morning; the thrill of cleaning it all up was enough. And the clean up lead to Yarden’s new favorite activity: washing hands. It is difficult to understate Yarden’s enthusiasm for washing hands. We have to lock her out of the bathroom. Yarden's obsessive hand washing would test a grandparent's patience. It's a problem most parents would like to have, but the other edge of that sword is it goes hand in hand with the new streak of not listening to direct instructions. I think she's been punished more for that than anything else recently, (and, interestingly, the more she is punished the more she is affectionate; this has been one of her most affectionate weeks and I'm not sure how I feel about how that bodes for her future but right now I can only roll with it) and by "punished" I mean she has to sit in a toddler-sized chair until I get bored of watching her sit or I have taken enough deep cleansing breaths that I remember she's not even two yet and she's not doing whatever it was too purposely make me angry (and by angry I mean makes me see bright red spots and get so tense it feels like my head is literally going to pop off of my neck).

It's really more of a time out for me.

The defiance has created an somewhat-but-not-really-irrational fear in me that she will somehow burn herself. Of course she could burn herself; that part's not irrational. In fact she has. She touched the ultra-modern built-in wall heater last week. (She's fine. It's the best technology the 1930s has to offer.)

My fear is more of a horrific "Tom and Jerry"/Vietnam napalm carpet-bombing charred-to-a-jet-black-cinder fear. I haven't gotten much sleep for a couple of weeks because of a reoccurring dream. In the dream I am sleeping and Yarden has her back to me. I smell smoke. I realize she has gotten a hold of matches and is lighting them one at a time. I yell at her to stop but she keeps lighting the matches. Usually I wake up when I'm walking across room trying to stop her.

What does this mean? It means that it only took 22 months of parenthood for me finally go crackers. I'd love to hear other parents' reoccurring nightmares so feel free to share in the comments section.

Hell's Kitchen Update

2010-03-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

I just heard that Hell's Kitchen will premier on June 10th, so Cathie, Margie, Vivian & Abbie...just 3 months till you can watch televised versions of the meals you ate!

Special Birthday Video for Uncle Josiah

2010-03-01T08:12:00.000-08:00

After trying (and failing) all night to capture Yarden's spontaneous rounds of the Happy Birthday song for Uncle J'siah, this morning she made him a bath toy birthday cake.

Here's the birthday cake - and the song!

This Girl Wants to Potty!

2010-02-27T06:59:00.000-08:00

Yarden's language skills and hygiene skills happen to be developing at the same time, which often leads to one of two conversations.

Mommy: Yarden, are you ready to go to the the party?

[takes off pants]

Yarden: My pod-dee?

Mommy: No, Sofie's party. We're going to see Sofie.

[takes off diaper]

Yarden: My pod-dee!

Mommy: Yarden, put your clothes back on. We have to go.

[half naked toddler runs away]

Yarden: My pod-dee!

Mommy: Yarden, do you have to go potty?

Yarden: (singing) Happy burt-day to you.

Mommy: Thank you, not it's not my birthday. Do you have to go potty?

Yarden: Happy burt-day mommy!

Mommy: It's not my birthday. Do you have to go potty?

Yarden: My burt-day pod-dee?

Mommy: Not a birthday party. Just potty. Do you have to go potty?

Yarden: My burt-day! My burt-day!

[Yarden blows out imaginary candles, then gets half naked and runs away]

Both conversations usually result in some kind of present. I'll spare everyone the sticky details, but Aliyah and I have come to understand that having a child who is marginally more independent requires both more and less supervision. Our favorite event so far is the time Yarden asked Aliyah for a sticker (we are bribing her with monkey and dog stickers for every time she uses the potty). Now Yarden still had her pants and diaper on (for once) so Aliyah was dubious that Yarden had earned a sticker, but she agreed to check anyway and mysteriously there was some golden fluid in the potty. It turned out Yarden had taken her apple juice poured some in there.

There's other hygiene-language comedy going on. We're trying to get her to understand that while she is technically correct "wipe your mouth" does not mean she should shove the napkin inside her mouth and scrub down her tongue. This is usually preceeded by Yarden asking for one of the lingering jars of baby food, which she calls "apple sauce." Old MacDonald apparently only has ducks on his farm. She finally outwitted us and peed on the couch. Actually that last one wasn't funny.

Yarden's First Day at Huntley Preschool

2010-01-25T22:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a short video of Yarden's first day at the new preschool.

I'd say now I'm officially "that mom" - except I'm pretty sure I already was.

It's also on YouTube at a better resolution.

Let's Get Down to Christmas!

2010-01-01T22:35:00.000-08:00

My father's birthday is December 25th and this year was the big seven-oh, so we all decided to go to Simsbury for Christmas.

We flew the red eye from Burbank to JFK with a nice lady in seat A who let Yarden kick her a couple of times without complaining. Jay and Tamar were nice enough to pick us up at 6:00 AM NYC time. After breakfast and a short nap, Aliyah, Yarden, Grandma-ma Roz and I made great time up to Simsbury (except for the 5 mile traffic jam caused by last minute shoppers around the Danbury Mall). Jay and Tamar were nice enough to wait behind for Liam's last puppet show at Macy's, and Kenzie and Yoda. And then it was a very musical Christmas...

First Aliyah sang lead while Yarden kept the beat

Then there was the accapella trio:

Yarden was shy about her singing voice:

But fortunately (?) Nashville and Dr. Doctor were not. They led everyone sing-a-long.

Thanksgiving in Denver

2009-12-01T21:36:00.000-08:00

This year Aliyah’s brother and his wife, Josiah and Felicia, bought a house in Denver and to celebrate they offered to host Thanksgiving. Flying 3 hours with a 25 pound kicking baby is about five hundred times better than 6 hours of the same so we agreed, and because my parents and Aliyah’s parents will go wherever their grandchildren are we knew we’d see them too.

They day started off a little roughly - we missed our flight by about 4 minutes, briefly considered driving there (16 hours), and Yarden barfed up about a pound of string cheese into our cupped hands while we were waiting in line to re-book. But if you remain calm it turns out to be very easy to get on a standby flight, even on Thanksgiving, and showing handfuls of cheesy barf really seems to convince other people to hold your place in line, even on Thanksgiving. And on the upside our friend Elisabeth was on our new flight. On the downside someone had a cat on the flight, and my allergies made me nearly blind from breathing 3 hours of recycled cat air.

The flight itself was full but pretty uneventful other than a greater than usual amount of turbulence when landing, which made me think about Rosie Perez’s monologue in “Fearless” so I did my best to split the difference between holding Yarden tightly on my lap and squeezing her until she barfed another pound of cheese.

When we touched down I turned on my phone and surprisingly our house sitter Milwaukee Matt was calling at that exact moment. In the background I could hear the house alarm going off. I hadn’t given him the code, so I told it to him and thought that would be the end of it. Later we found out the following: (1) Aliyah’s phone was defective and needed to be replaced (2) The alarm company will try to call Aliyah if the alarm is triggered (3) If they don’t reach Aliyah, they call the police (4) Police response time on Thanksgiving is really good (5) Officers who have had their turkey dinners interrupted show up with guns drawn (6) Milwaukee Matt has a great sense of humor about being frisked (7) The City does not have a sense of humor about these things and will send you a bill for false alarms.

Felicia, Josiah and their son Jackson have a very nice place in suburban Denver , and they made a really great turkey dinner (and it’s not as easy as you might think find a kosher turkey in Denver ) and the night ended with Yarden and Jackson having a big splashing fight in the bath tub.

Next day we took a trip to Boulder . There is a promenade on Pearl Street . It was a little bit of a cat heard to try and get 8 adults and 2 toddlers all with various bladder strengths to all do the same thing. Eventually I just left everyone at a boulder-themed playground and found a specialty store offering a tasting of local wines. I did a flight of 4 for $3 and bought the last two bottles of chardonnay. We stopped for the world's smallest ice cream cones on the way back to Denver.

That night we left the kids with the grandparents and all the parents went out to bar called City Grill. They boast the best burgers in Denver , and they might be right but they were no Umami Burger. Josiah kicked ass in darts, I put some Def Leopard on the jukebox and discovered that my pool skills have not improved by not playing for 10 years, and Aliyah discovered she is a master table-top shuffleboard player.

The next morning my parents, Aliyah, Yarden and I met my cousin and godfather Mike Jr. for breakfast. He lives in the area, but he was in the middle of traveling around so he had to meet us on his way to the airport. It was really good to see him again. He has some work that may bring him to Pasadena next year, so hopefully we will also see him then.

All the men were going to get shaves and haircuts at a specialty barber’s, but they were booked so we went back to my parents’ hotel room to check them out. It was uneventful except for the opportunity to indulge one of Yarden’s constant wants: Ice.

I gave her a big hotel bucket full of ice in the middle of the floor and let her run amok. She’s mostly fascinated by how ice is cold, and her favorite game seemed to be freezing her hand and then warming it up in her mouth, or sometimes my mouth.

The rest of the day was spent preparing a large dinner. Aliyah had found a picture of tenderloin in GQ, and everyone agreed this would be a good plan. At the grocery store there was some confusion over the cut that we wanted so we showed them the picture from the magazine. That same page had the actual recipe on it, so it was kind of a problem later when we couldn’t find it again. Nobody knows where it went, but I suspect that Aliyah dropped it when she caught her hand in the car door. Josiah, being the great bother that he is, took off running for help and came back with about 2 pounds of crushed ice in a plastic shopping bag. Aliyah’s hand was okay, but we never saw the recipe page again and someone wound up buying another copy of the magazine later. Undeterred by possible further hand trauma, Aliyah got up the courage to use a food mandolin again (first time since she cut off the end of her finger 2+ years ago) and put together a sweet potato and leeks dish from memory.

Fortunately our old Simsbury friends the Feldcamps decided to come over and help us eat this enormous meal. They live a little west of Denver . My parents were staying with them that night so after dinner they gave Yarden a big hug and left. Yarden slept in the bed with Bubbie and Grandpa that night, which meant that Bubbie and Grandpa didn’t sleep much, but they still drove us to the airport. first thing in the morning. Yarden sang for us about “Apples and Bananas” and managed to get all the way to “G” in ”The Alphabet Song,” then we flew back to LA and got ready for Monday.

Guest Blogger Yarden on Her 1st & a half birthday

2009-11-18T21:22:00.000-08:00

Shhhhh! Mama and Dada are going to be soooo surprised I can write. Don't tell. Now that I'm a big girl I have a few questions that need to be answered:

(1) Why does Dada call Oto "Oso"? I think Dada needs to work on his diction.

(2) Why can't I go to school every day? Those kids are delicious (and they have the bite marks to prove it)!

(3) Who is this baby Mama and Dada have all these pictures of? Should I be nervous?

(4) When is this recession going to be over? It seems like it's been going on my whole life!

(5) Will the Red Sox win the World Series in my lifetime?

Yarden is Almost 18 Months

2009-11-15T22:54:00.000-08:00

We haven't written for a while.
It's been an exciting time, and I can't hope to recap it all.

I spent a few weeks dedicated to developing new shows with my friend Dan and we are in a good place now. Two different production companies will be taking out our projects.

I took a job through the end of the year that has turned out to be far more creatively fulfilling than anticipated, and I've had a great time writing, producing and directing a show for Spike that will air in February. It's scripted and that's been a nice change of pace.

Yarden and I went to Colorado for cousin Jackson's 2nd birthday. It was a great time and my folks, grandmama, and Felicia's folks all descended on the Soiferstein residence. Yosh and Feesh have a gorgeous new house (large enough to accommodate us all!) and a playroom so big that I'm pretty sure that Yarden thought it was a school.

Jackson (as Superman) and Yarden (as a gorilla) went trick or treating and they took to it like gangbusters. Neither of them had any interest in the candy, but they liked running up to houses to knock on doors and the accumulation of stuff.

We're heading back to Colorado for Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks.

Which brings us to today.
Other than the fact that we are all sick, it's been a great weekend.
Seamus got to catch up on his sneezing, and Yarden and I have been out on the town for girl time adventures.

Yesterday Yarden, my friend Lisa and I went to see They Might Be Giants do a family show at UCLA.

It was incredible, the band was great and there was a confetti cannon, songs about science and live sock puppet theater. All shows should be family shows - 3 in the afternoon, no opening band, the lights stay up, everyone is friendly and dancing and there is zero attitude. And even if the person in front of you has someone on their shoulders you can still see over them.

Afterwards, John and John handed out stickers and then the kids all ran out in the middle of the grass and had an impromptu recess.

Then Yarden, Lisa, her son James and her mother Ruth and I went out to Korean BBQ and I got to come home in a delightful meat coma.

Today, Seamus, Yarden and I all slept in late and then snuggled and watched Australia which is a 6 act movie. Captivating, beautifully shot, heartwarming and approximately 8 hours long.

When it finally ended, Yarden and I met Sofie and Helga for dumplings (Chris is sick too).
Yarden ADORES Sofie, and Sofie LOVES being the big girl. She did a great job of herding Yarden who refused to sit still and wanted only to climb into the fountain near the dumpling shop, or run through the crowded restaurant where the overworked waitstaff carry boiling hot stacks of soup dumplings. If they weren't adorable the two of them would be in trouble.

After the dumpling orgy, we went to kidspace where the girls made bracelets and rode bikes. Yarden dumped a bucket of water on herself and Sofie climbed to the top of a rock wall.
All in all a fun day.

The high points of this week are:
1) My buddy Houman is going to come edit with me on this Spike show.
2) Liam is coming to town with Josh Ritter and will be playing the Wiltern this Wednesday and Thursday along with Swell Season. We feel hipper just by association.

It has been a long time since we updated.
Here are some new things that Yarden has started doing since the last time we wrote.
- She can do all of the hand motions for "Wheels on the Bus".
- She knows the names of all the single and double syllable kids in her class. Sorry Xavier and Francesca, maybe in another 6 months.
- She knows all her body parts (the words boob and butt make her giggle).
- She spontaneously hugs and kisses.
- She has strong opinions, and you can't phrase anything as a question unless you are prepared to hear "No".
- She may or may not understand that she can pee in her potty, but she likes to dance to the three songs it can play. She will sit on the potty just long enough to set off the sensor, then the dance party starts.
- She can mimic a lion, gorilla, elephant, monkey, dog, and a cat. There may be more animals she can do that we just haven't thought to ask yet. We assume she learned these in school.
- She's now WAY into books and will make Seamus or I read her 5 or 6 in a sitting. Her favorites are "Are You My Mother?", "Caps for Sale" and "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed". She mimics the peddler and the monkey in "Caps for Sale" and - if you pause at the appropriate points during "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed"- she will offer up "head", "bed", "doctor" and occasionally something that sounds like "no more monkeys".

More later,

Aliyah

Gone Fishing - Well Lobstering

2009-09-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

We are almost two weeks into our family vacation and it's been phenomenal.
We've hit DC, NY, Woodstock. Maine and Connecticut.

Yarden's been on a lobster boat, picked blueberries, played in a thunderstorm, played at 2 museums, rode her first carnival ride, met twins, and made friends with 5 different dogs.

We'll be posting more photos, but in the interim here's a video Uncle Liam shot of Yarden wrestling "Baby Erica", my doll from 1973.
(The doll is from 1973, not the video)

The Year of the Dog

2009-08-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

Oso came to us in August last year. I got him as a birthday present to myself. Thinking back, it’s funny how his first reaction when we all met in person was to lick Yarden. It was just the right way to let us know he could get along with babies, or at least that he likes the taste of babies. Yarden still loves his kisses, although she’s gotten stronger and better at pushing him away if he overdoes it. I’d say he’s settled in nicely. This is what he does what he thinks I’ve left for work:That’s the same grill he marked as his the first time he was brought over to our house. He still lets me use it sometimes, but he never offers to get more propane. I think he just likes to have a meat-scented bed. I would like that too.

When the vet wanted to know when his birthday was I just gave him mine. I really wasn’t using it. I had already asked Oso when his birthday was before we got to the vet’s office, but he just looked at me like this:
He looks very confused. I asked him in my terrible Spanish, so it’s entirely likely he is thinking “What’s a kay-annoe?” or “I’ve been adopted by an imbecile.” In my defense it’s equally likely he’s thinking “Walk me.”

I have a love-hate relationship with how focused he gets on the squirrels and birds in our yard. Barking up a storm at 6:00 AM is embarrassingly rude to our neighbors, and he runs away from me if I try to make him go in the house. But on a Saturday afternoon there’s nothing more entertaining than a doggy-daddy-daughter squirrel hunt!
Since the landscaping in the back yard Oso has become a master night time hunter of snails. He chases the bugs, and occasionally regrets catching a bee. These are pictures of Oso being allowed in the newly landscaped backyard for the first time:

Very cute, but this one has it beat by a mile:
For a long time Yarden couldn’t manage to pull herself into his bed. Now she loves it. And when she was smaller it was fine. But these days I try to keep her out, at least while he’s in it, because trying to share a bed with Yarden has evolved into a full contact sport and she doesn’t believe in any rules. Aliyah’s got the scratched cornea to prove it.

Thank you again to everyone who made it possible for Oso to come to us. I asked him to thank you himself, but all he said was “grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrras-see-us,” whatever that means.

Our Tiny Tuberculosis Victim

2009-07-20T17:55:00.000-07:00

These are pictures of my adorable, life loving daughter when she is NOT in the grips of teething pain.

Yarden hit 102 fever on Saturday night and again last night.
She's got 4 teeth coming in simultaneously and when the pain hits her she wails like a banshee and flails her body around. Occasionally she punctuates the meltdown with a random headbutt, just to keep us on our toes.

She sometimes can be calmed enough to let me cool and hydrate her by wetting her lips with with pedialyte ice pops - like a tiny tuberculosis victim. She also has added the word/demand "ice" to her vocabulary rotation, as in "I'm handing you back this sippy cup of water because it's not sufficiently chilled." Of course she simply uses the efficient one word demand "Ice!"

Oh - and who can forget the diaper rash, stinky pee, and constant drool that herald the arrival of new teeth.

Only infant tylenol and nursing and sleeping on daddy make her feel better.

We kept her home from school today.
This was the scene when I left the house this morning.

As Seamus aptly observed this morning, it's interesting that evolution didn't make babies MORE appealing when they are sick. What keeps animals from leaving their teething offspring in trees?

Natural Stage Project

2009-07-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

My snuggly little mama and her glowing rice cracker.

Yarden is camping ready.

Let me start by saying - I'm not easily impressed and I have an aversion to hipsters.

Which makes it all the more weighty an endorsement when I say that my friend Jon co-produces the most impressively unpretentious guerilla live events featuring good music, friendly folks & spectacular settings.

This week he presented a show at the vista of Topanga State Park.
Each band did one song off of In An Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel and the final act did two original songs comprised entirely of lyrics from Princess Bride.

Yarden and I braved the 405 to the 101 and then made a whole bunch of dodgy u-turns in a frustrating search for a hidden turn-off to the state park.
Note to CA, better signage might help park attendance.
Yarden napped while I debated ditching my search in favor of farmer's stand fruits and veggies and a trip to the Lululemon store in Calabasas.

On our last attempt, we found it. And thank goodness. What a beautiful idea.
(OK I found it. Yarden was useless - she just slept in the backseat.)

Jon's girlfriend Megan (who is also a mad knitter) took these photos.

I call this photo, "I am the luckiest mom in the world."

Yarden looking like she is popping a squat.

24 Hour Grandparents

2009-07-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

I posted a photo like this on Facebook and got asked if Yarden had stacked all of these.
The answer is that Yarden is way more into re-distributing (read hiding my stuff) than color coded organizing.
But having a daughter that was a savant organizer is a contender for a genie wish!

My parents breezed into town this Sunday, flush from a million dollar wedding in San Francisco (I saw the photos and tasted the cake. If you've got the money to spend on a party, this is the way to do it).

They arrived around 3pm and left early Tuesday morning- so it was a fast trip, but we packed in A LOT!!!!

Sunday night was our first proper dinner party in the new backyard - replete with fancy dishes, a campfire & our friend Allison Binder. I have no photos - but it was delicious and very fun. I'm very proud of myself, and hey it's my blog I get to brag, because I made all the courses all by myself and even timed them out pretty well.

Everyone has soup as their last course, right?

Wine poured liberally and - if you aren't already drinking it - Opala is my summer white recommendation (under $10 at Whole Foods). MB and I discovered Vinho Verde a few years ago and dubbed it the perfect summer stoop wine, a wine to be bought be the case and enjoyed at summer rentals or on apartment fire escapes. This is an excellent VV, sparkling, crisp, a little sweet and addictive.

So did I mention we were drinking?
Because that will explain the following photos.

Seamus and my dad claim that Zombies attacked and chased Yarden around the yard - but these photos tell a different story.
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She was literally squealing in delight as they chased her around.

This next photo was taken at almost 11 at night, and I think this expression alone should count as baby sign language for "I want to go to sleep now". Normally this expression is reserved for hipsters on the 4am L train on their way back to Williamsburg.

Yarden slept over in the "grandparent storage compartment" with my folks.

Because Yarden in a terrible, horrible, no good sleepover guest - rolling over, kicking, swinging her arms and occasionally headbutting in her sleep - only she woke up refreshed for breakfast with Cousin John.

After breakfast we were off to LACMA, where Yarden became a museum member (free till she's 18 throught the NextGen program) and brought me in as her guest.

This is part of an exhibit by South Korean artists.
Yarden was initially unimpressed.

I'm going to take it as an indication that we've given this girl an exciting 1st year that a floor to ceiling plastic maze is de rigeur and barely worth looking up from a bottle for.

At some point she soaked her diaper and her pants had to dry off.
This photo cracks me up because only a baby can be this blase pants-free in public.
When we left the museum, Yarden was WAY more into exploring the plastic.

I love these "action" shots.
Check out the knee. Despite the pirate shirt she's got a little captain in her.

Yarden dogged by paps.
We stopped at the La Brea tar pits - mostly at the gift shop - and also went to lunch at Mani's.
Yarden was very interested in the installation of recyclables along the walk.
At home we don't let her play with garbage, but at the museum you can touch them, bang on them, march around them, and then try to put them in your mouth and get scooped up by mommy.

Yarden is a good sharer.
Here she is offering to share her straw with Grandpa.
Back home, we skyped Grammy and Yarden showed off her baseball skills.
You can see my mom holding the computer in the lower left hand corner.

Making daddy proud.

Here we are showing Grammy the "just add kid" Indiana Jones shirt we got at the La Brea Tar Pits.
** In other news, I'm really into twitter this week.
I'm recording this in my blog so that I can remember in the future that this is the week of my life that I was really into twitter.

I'm also doing really well at running 4 mornings a week and getting to pilates.
Trying to make it a lifestyle, still feels like a chore.

Aliyah

Baby Meets Lobster

2009-06-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

In celebration of Fathers Day, we had a daddy day.

Extra bacon for breakfast followed by a relaxing afternoon at Home Depot.
Here we are at breakfast with Seamus rocking his daddy shirt.
For dinner, Lisa and James came over and we made lobsters and had a campfire with delicious wine. Here are some shots of Yarden investigating our dinner.

At some point she realized that they were moving and became less brave.

In Focus and Nobody Has Their Eyes Closed

2009-06-09T09:42:00.000-07:00

Family photo from the Memorial Day visit, the first time that all the grandparents were out in LA at the same time!

They all rented an apartment together in Mid-Wilshire (strangely referred to as Beverly Hills by the rental agent) and Yarden had sleepovers in the room between the bedrooms. If you are familiar with the game "Snatch the Bacon" - that's how I imagine it went, though all the grandparents claim they shared nicely.

Liam had already left when this photo as taken, so I'm posting a separate photo of the two of them. He and Baby Y really bonded.

Liam - if you have a photo where people can see your lovely face, please send it!

Monday Morning Yardeny Goodness

2009-06-08T17:24:00.001-07:00

Above: These top two are just generic Yarden cuteness.

Below: Photographic evidence that Yarden spent the bulk of her birthday party cruising other people's plates for food.

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Below: And occasionally, riding a doggy.

Better Videos, So I Don't Bore the Grandparents

2009-06-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

I've been making myself crazy posting way too long videos because I didn't know how to trim quicktimes - but man do I love Mac.
Turns out that I already had iMovie on my computer.
So here's my first attempt to edit out the boring stuff.

I call it "Yarden in the Garden with Oso".

And this second one is "Dust Angels", Yarden's failed attempts to walk just 7 days ago.

Yarden Walks and Feeds Her Dog

2009-06-04T20:09:00.000-07:00

This is insane.
A week ago Yarden had never taken a step in front of us & now she is already tooling all over the place.

I just shot this video outside.

Quick Updates

2009-06-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

My friend Lisa Cole and I created on online community for working moms in entertainment.

It's called Industry Mamas ("Nurturing our careers and our families") and the website is at http://www.industrymamas.ning.com. We launched on May 19th and we already have 114 members! If you are a mom in the industry and you want to join, please send me an e-mail with your name, title and name and ages of your kids.

Also - and only because a few facebook friends have asked - yes, I did win my office's weight loss challenge. I didn't think I had a prayer since I'm still nursing, but the $50 entry fee was a small price to pay for some some structure and a deadline (and I am damn competitive). I've been cooking all my own meals and walking and/or running every day.

I lost 36 pounds which actually puts me just below pre-baby weight. I'm getting examined for life insurance this Saturday mornng, so I'm running every day until then in the assumption that the lower my BMI the lower my rate.

And finally, the babies are coming - some are even here!!!

Avi and Alex gave birth to their triplets on May 11th - Maxine Lola, Kuba Oscar, & Zack Jules. And in the last couple of weeks I found out that Courtney MacGregor is expecting her first, Shiran & Joel are expecting their second and Kristin Gentile Hooten is expecting her fourth!

I am so excited/a little jealous.

Nostalgic Already / Yarden Walks

2009-06-03T23:32:00.000-07:00

Seamus is in Conecticut with his parents while Da recovers from a recent operation.
Yarden's been put to bed and I'm going through and archiving videos we've shot over the past year.

Here are a few of her attempts to walk (and her successes).

Oh My - What A Busy Month!

2009-06-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

It's been amazingly busy here.

Grammy and Da and Grandpa and Bubby and Uncle Liam all came out for memorial day weekend to celebrate Yarden's birthday. The visit was wonderful and the party was everything I hoped for.

My friend Jon and his wife took amazing photos that are up on Shutterfly at this link.
I'm getting a disk and I'll be posting photos next week.
In the meantime, here are a few shots.

We spent a lot of the family's visit drinking beer, wine and tequila based drinks (and milk of course) in our new "Outdoor Room". We hired our fantastic neighbors Brent and Cheryl Green of GreenArt to transform our dusty backyard from this

into this
and finally this!

This yard has has had the effect of turning us into truly social animals.
In the last week and a half we've hosted a party, a fundraiser, and two union meetings.
Starting next week, OTB classes outside!

Jello Pool Party

2009-05-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

This week' OTB was a Jello pool party.

As with the pasta party, Yarden quickly figured out that she was sitting in a pool of food and began to leisurely to eat her surroundings.

(* Not all of the OTB activities are food related, in fact only two out of about 30 have been - but they do make for ridiculous photos. If you are interested in seeing other activities, there are tons of OTB photos here.)

Happy Birthday to Joey Ramone, Malcolm X, and Yarden.

2009-05-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Distant Future Yarden:

We know that you were secretly walking at daycare, but we appreciate that you waited to do it in front of us until all grandparents and your Uncle Liam arrived. It's probably for the best because it is entirely possible that you will be photographed every second of the next few days. I just hope Slightly Future Yarden doesn't get cold feet. I'm not glad that you learned how to hide things from me after that time I busted you holding your own bottle at daycare, but I am/was making fewer surprise visits for the last couple of weeks so maybe I'm partly to blame too.

Anyway, I hope that your (next) piano concert goes well. You've probably come a long way since "Itsty Bitsy Spider" and I'm very proud of you. And I hope that you've gotten that second black belt in karate, a second Golden Glove, had a nice weekend on the Moon, and that you're coming over this weekend to do laundry.

Love,

Dad

Happy Birthday Yarden

2009-05-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today is the one year anniversary of the last day that Seamus and I spent in the labor room at Cedars Sinai.
Me hooked up to god knows how many monitors - drugged, scared & blogging.
Seamus crammed uncomfortably into a variety of hospital chairs - stone sober, scared & blogging.

For hours, then days, we waited knowing the ending, but not knowing whether we were minutes or hours from the magical moment we were waiting for.

At some point, whether pushed, pulled or forcibly extracted, Yarden was coming and in that instant two would become three. We were going to have a daughter. We were going to suddenly go from being a couple to a family. We were going to be Yarden's parents, meaning that kids would someday call the house and greet me as Yarden's mom. An not soon enough, Seamus and I were going to be handed a tiny, phenomenal, sleepy, cuddly thing to love & feed & financially support & teach & be legally reponsible for for at least 18 years.

No way of thinking about the impending, seismic change made it any less surreal.

It was an amazing time.

And then, in a blog entry appropriately entitled "AT LAST" on May 19th 2008:
Yarden Fenway Hurley was born at 1:57 PM via c-section.
She is gorgeous at 7 pounds and 21 inches.
Well it's one year later, and this beautiful thing:
has morphed into this beautiful thing:
And is weighing in at a whopping 20.6 pounds (40th percentile) and 30 inches (75th percentile)
Yarden's birthday started with an early 5 am wakeup and we were joined in bed by a demanding, heavy lidded nursey baby who seemed baffled by her hyper alert parents and ths strange birthday song they kept singing.

We tried to give her a "Birth-Quake", but she seemed disinterested.
I guess that was just a baby thing.
Now she's a toddler.

We spent some time in the backyard which is slowly becoming an "Outdoor Entertainment Space" thanks to Brent Green, fantastic neighbor & lansdcape architect extraordinaire. More on that later.

Then it was off to Dr. Shaheedy for her one year exam.
Her first exam:
Today's:
She still seemed suspicious of the doctor.
And with good reason.
But a bottle makes it mostly all better.
I briefly got Yarden to wear her birthday crown.
But mostly she wanted Mommy to hold it.

After that, she went to school.

What did she do at school?
I don't know.

I don't know because today, for the first time since she was born, nobody tracked what she ate, drank, peed & pooped.
Nobody even wrote down when she napped and for how long.
Because she is now a year old & the deal is, starting at one year, no more reports from school.
I miss them already.

Here is your moment of zen.

And two other AWESOME things that happened today, both of which esem like great tributes o Yarden' birthday.
The trees in our yard got planted and IndustryMamas, the group that my friend Lisa and I started to support moms working in the entertainment industry launched TODAY. We've been live for just a few hours and we already have 35 members.

Happy Birthday To Me - and what a birthday!

2009-04-30T15:47:00.001-07:00

Seamus just left my office. He surprised me with champagne and a dozen roses.
I love my thoughtful husband.
We toasted in my open cubicle out of small plastic champagne glasses.

Ryann, my co-worker and baker extraordinaire, made an amazing chocolate torte and cupcakes.

Other than my slight buzz at work - or maybe including it - it's been an amazing day.

I woke up snuggling with my two favorite people.
I got to work in time to go for a long walk and catch up with Nancy.
Instead of lunch, I indulged in a massage courtesy of Vivian (aka The Brooklyn Healer).
Rebekah - the other Supervising Producer, who I think is awesome & inspiring - wrote me the sweetest card ever.
I've got 36 Birthday Wishes on Facebook and another dozen on Geni and real e-mail.
And I can't think of a thing that I want/need for my birthday.

Yup, it's feeling like a great start to another year of life.

I've always liked the age of 36.
It's a sexy age. More than any year, it's an age that I've felt I needed to be ready for (down 20 pounds already - 36 deserves better than baby fat). Yet, somehow 36 comes with no pressure to achieve.

It's an age that I associate with Madonna at her height (ironically, in looking for a photo of the Material Girl at 36, I've discovered that she's 36 again!).

Things I'm looking forward to during my 36th year:

Yarden's first steps and more words.
Fitting back into my entire pre-pregnancy wardrobe.
Our massive birthday bash over Memorial Day weekend (featuring appearances from Grammy & Da, Bubby & Grandpa and Uncle Liam).
Landscaping a gorgeous "dinner-party-ready" backyard.
Visiting Nancy in San Francisco.
At least one more overnight getaway with my wonderful husband.
More great gigs like this one.

More later, I've got to get back to work.

Aliyah

It's Rare That An Entry Isn't About Yarden

2009-04-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

But I had to post this photo. This past weekend I went to my friend Lindsay's 25th birthday.
It was - as the photo suggests - a moustache party held (in public) at Edendale grill in Silver Lake.

How frighteningly do I look like my dad?
Not a poll, just an observation.

Passover and Easter Adventures

2009-04-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

What a week!

Yarden celebrated her first and second Passover seder, followed closely by her first and second Easter egg hunt, then followed up by a visit from Cousin Jackson, Uncle Yosh and Auntie Feesh.

Could this week get any better?

Well yes! Because Grammy comes to town tomorrow.
Our heads are going to explode with joy!

Plus, my mind is already racing with all the exciting possibilities for Yarden's first birthday party.
It'll be held the Sunday over Memorial day weekend - but I get ahead of myself.

Here are some great photos from the last week.

OK - these first two aren't from the last 7 days, but the holiday prep started early
with a Hagaddah making session at the Synagogue.
Bubby was there too.

All that prep meant that Yarden was all ready to lead the services at Margie and David's seder. This happy photo with daddy was early in the evening - before her total meltdown (not pictured).
The brisket was AMAZING and the service was really lovely - as always.
Thanks M&D.Also before the meltdown, Yarden spent a lot of time delicious time
snuggling with Aunt Shelley on the couch.

Thursday night we had our friends Lisa & Andy and baby James over
for the much anticipated first annual "Baby Seder!"
The seder featured plush seder plates, a bag of plague props,
a picture book of the Moses story, four questions puppets and a lot of singing.
(Thanks to my folks for shipping the Jewish toy bonanza - faster than Amazon)

I'm very excited to turn this into a yearly tradition and expand in numbers and learning.
Hopefully this is something that Yarden and James will look forward to the way I still look forward to the seders. After the baby seder, it was time to go outsde for the grown up seder. I made my own Hagaddah for everyone and I have to say, I'm really proud. If knew how to link a PDF here , I would.

This is an awesome photo of James!
We tried putting the kids in a play area while we did the service, but they staged a riot.
On Saturday, my friend Jacqui (who REALLY knows how to throw a party) put together an Easter Egg hunt at her house. I brought eggs in my pocket so Yarden wouldn't have to compete, but I didn't have to worry.
She was a natural!

James guarding the tube. That's Jacqui introducing the kid's band Egg.

Check out that form at the keyboard!
Jacqui has good toys.
Sunday we went to Helga and Chris' and played with Sofie.
Sofie taught Yarden that it's ok to climb onto furniture.
Yarden, if you ever read this, it's not.
Yarden and the Eike/Wilson clan's newest dog, Bobby.
Yarden hearts dogs.
After that, we were off to the Soifer residence.
In looking at the pictures from Sunday night, I realize that I only took pictures of the kids!

Sorry - they are the cutest.Pure photo op. Or future blackmail material.

The cutest thing Jackson does in the bath is try to pour a cup of water over his head.
He misses a full 4 out of 5 times, and when he's successful - he looks shocked.

Or maybe the cutest thing is this...

If somehow this isn't enough for you, you must be a grandparent.
All the photos are up HERE

My Little Cheerio Monkey

2009-03-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

Yarden is now crawling like a champ!
She follows us, or Oso, from room to room and pulls herself up onto various surfaces.
And NOTHING motivates her like cheerios.

Adventure Baby

2009-03-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

This was a Sunday of firsts. Yarden went swimming in pasta and flying through the air.

First, playgroup.
The event this week was my special request.
I'd seen photos on Betsy's website and thought "what could be more fun - for a baby or parent - than swimming around in a pool of warm oily pasta". But alas - only babies fit in the inflatable baby pools.

For the parents, Seamus and I put together a spread of wine, cheese and leftover quite delicious bread from Hell's Kitchen. Not as good as swimming in pasta - but tastier.

Class started as usual.

This photo breaks my heart because Yarden is watching me prepare the pasta
while all the other kids are with their moms.

Then we got out the pool.
Kids intuitively know that pools = fun.

Each family brought 2 quarts of warm pasta.

Intrigued - the babies moved in for a closer look as Betsy tossed the oil into the pasta.

Yarden climbed in and acted nonplussed.

Some babies got overwhelmed and escaped to momma's arms.
Others fully immersed.

By the end - Yarden determined (correctly) that she was sitting in a pile of food.
She took full advantage.

Two More Adorable Photos From Sunday

Big Brother / Little Sister

Adorable Max.

And here's a couple of shots from the park.

I took Yarden on the baby swings.

At first she was NOT happy.
This is the face of a MISERABLE (& toothy) baby!

But we tried again, and I'm really glad we did.

My girl is fearless!
That's Sofie in the swing next to her.

Playing With Others

2009-03-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

Yarden and her best friend - Mirror Baby

Every Sunday at noon, Seamus, Yarden & I host an Outside The Box class at our house.

It's an amazing educational play program started by a former breakdancer turned doula/innovative children's educator. Every other week is a "Sensory" class, so Yarden's dug for treasures in sand, crawled around in a lentil filled baby pool, swam in "wiggly worms", played baby soccer, climbed a mountain of cell phones and remotes and done full body fingerpainting. There's a few dozen Sunday adventures that that I never would never have imagined.

And yes, of course there are photos - http://aliyahandseamus.smugmug.com/Children
Here are a few if you don't feel like browsing...

Yarden and the spider.

Yarden as baby scientist.
Glamorous in her blue scarf.
Gnawing on her riches.
Climbing a drum.

So we spend our Sundays with James, Max, Finley, Ricardo, Oliver, Milo, Gabriel, Isaac and the rest of the gang. I love seeing Yarden get excited as the playmat gets expanded with foam tiles, the safety gate comes down, and the vacuum comes out, She knows that something fun is afoot and then she crawls around greeting everyone as the house fills with kids.

She's actually rolled and crawled for the first time in classes, so the synapses are definitely on fire.

And if she does hold onto her first friends, I'll have photos of the first time she sat on James, had a slap fight with Oliver, or had her head bitten by Isaac.
Yarden and Ricardo are buddies from swimclass, so they are friends on land and water.

Yarden and Oliver's first slapfight.

Yarden & Oliver's 2nd slapfight.

Yarden, Elise, and James playing baby soccer.

The kids are great - of course - and so are the moms!

One of the best things about being a mom (other than the obvious)...is that you meet other awesome women with very similar lives. I think I've got this on my mind because we are about to open the doors to Hell's Kitchen and two of my OTB friends will be dining with us tonight. Betsy - our teacher - is celebrating her birthday, and Abby and her husband will be going out for their first date since Gabriel was born.

In honor of the OTB gang, here are some photos of this week's class...

Yarden clapping along to "Wheels on the Bus". She's in GLEE.
This week she wouldn't do any of the other movements,
but once the clapping between verses started, she was all over it.
Tired from all that clapping, Yarden passed out for about 45 minutes.

And then woke up groggy with the play mat imprinted in her face.
After everyone left, she was fully alert & ready to play!

UPDATE:
Betsy celebrated her birthday at Hell's Kitchen, and her entire party went home hungry. :(
But they had fun, she looked great in her green dress and had a TV moment that just might make the cut.

I'm hoping that Abby and her husband enjoyed their filets.

Daddy Finally Caves

2009-02-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

I'll pretend it's the first time I've ever given in to her demands. (It's amazing what someone who weighs 20 pounds can accomplish by crying.)

Yarden has been eating Cheerios for a while now. As part of the routine in the morning and when we get home at night, she will allow me to leave the room if she is in the high chair with a large pile of them. This week Aliyah got her a snack cup - one of those cups with a lid that allows people to reach in and pull out food, but won't dump it all out if you turn it upside down.

She tried knocking on it politely.
She tried biting the top off.
She tried dropping it from a great height.
Eventually she figured it out. It didn't get a picture of that, but I can tell you that she played it very cool. I applauded for her. She looked at me as if she had always know how to get them out but just wanted to see if there was a better way.

For a while now her favorite changing table toy has not been the Dragon Friend (the stuffed animal with a pacifier for a mouth that is no longer manufactured so we paid some undisclosed sum on ebay for one). It has been the half empty box of tissues. So I picked up an extra at the grocery store today.
I assume tissue boxes are like magic to babies: the tissues just keep coming!

Once she realized I wasn't going to stop her she went into a cottony-soft paper binge.
It turns out tissues can do other things than come out of the never-ending box.
This 2009 vintage has a very light bouquet, but finishes with a strong almost medicinal aftertaste.
In the end, it's whatever makes her happy.
Maybe she let me wipe her nose once in a while now.

So THAT'S why we've been so busy

2009-02-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

I was sent this article today and now I know why the past 9 months have felt like the most glorious and frenzied of my life.
And why I've made almost so few personal calls.

If you don't have microvision, you can read it here.
The two photos below are what Yarden looks like eating a piece of cake. And what she looks like getting caught eating a piece of cake. * Thanks to Linday Kugler for the beautiful images.

And here are a few other images that I've been dying to post.
They were taken by a professional photographer who we met at a party.
The photographer creeped Seamus out, but I liked the idea of taking Yarden to a photo shoot in a studio.
The photos weird us both out.

Yarden's Tupac Tribute.

I actually like this one. Yarden looks like she's in space throwing gang signs.

Yarden at Nine Months

2009-02-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

Here's some things I want to remember later:
1) This week Dr. Shaheedy said that you are almost 20 lbs., 28 inches, and you have an ear infection.
2) You have 7 teeth so far. I turn up the radio when you grind them.
3) I cried during the movie "27 Dresses" because I realized someday you will love someone more than you love me right now.
4) My heart melts every time you tuck your chin in and smile at me. It is so hard to leave you at daycare every day.
5) I may have had the best night of my life this past Sunday night: You fell asleep in my arms, we watched the Oscars, and your mother and I drank a bottle of Coppola Claret 2005.
6) That's a Cheerio on your lip in the picture above. Right now the only time you don't scream when I, your mother, or Oso leave the room is when you have a small mountain of Cheerios in front of you in your Ikea high-chair. This also makes Oso happy: he gets about 50% of the mountain.
7) I cried when Dustin Lance Black won the WGA Best Screenplay award for "Milk." You deserve to live in a better world; I will do what I can.

Photo Shoot With Mommy

2009-01-18T16:55:00.000-08:00

Is someone having a party without me?

Sunday afternoon Yarden and I had a couple of hours alone with a gorgeous sunset and a dress she's about to outgrow, so we had an impromptu photo shoot. The Martinez family was having a party next door and Yarden was distracted by the Spanish karaoke and the irresistible draw of the crowd, but we still got some great shots before she crawled up onto my lap and made me take her next door for roast pork, fried Yucca and lots of attention.

The full shoot can be viewed at: http://aliyahandseamus.smugmug.com/gallery/7156371_FBYnN/1/459229628_YyYGF

If I'm good - will you take me to the party?

Oooh - dirt!

What's that I hear?
Mommy - we are done! Carry me to that party!

Grandparents In Residence - An entry by Grammy as dictated by Yarden

2009-01-17T14:22:00.000-08:00

Less than a week after the Laks/Silversteins vacate the “storage shed” (as the guest accommodations have come to be named) on Sycamore, the Hurleys arrive for 10 days of fun in the sun. We did lots of fun things with The Girl, most of which are captured in the photos below, with her comments.
***********
The Skirball Museum (skirball.org) in Pasadena has an enormous hands-on Noah's Ark exhibit with animals made from recycled materials. I made friends with the gorillas,
and then sat down to listen to a story by one of the docents.
I know you think I’m too young but look how attentive I am. We stopped for lunch and I slurped up some udon noodles.
No chopsticks necessary.
We visited part of the Hurley clan in Laguna Beach, Da's cousins Brian and David, and Brian's lovely wife Candace.
We had a snack at their house before a late lunch at a great restaurant overlooking the ocean. They knew I liked fruit so Grammy said I could help myself.
And their dog thought I was cute. On the night before my mom (and dad) had to go back to work, we had a belated gift exchange.

Grammy gave me this bunny and everyone told me I could play with it when I was 21. "21 what?" I asked. "Months? Surely you can't mean years!"
It's made from a mink stole that belonged to Grammy's mother.
It even has her initials on the bunny's bow - EMH (Elizabeth M. Hanley).
Dad asked what the M stood for, and since it was Margaret, we decided to name her Margaret Bunny. Most mornings I go out to the “storage shed” and hang out with Grammy & Da for a while.

(I do the same thing when Bubbe and Grandpa are here. Do they live together? Do they all sleep in the same bed?)
We bounce around and this time they gave me an empty box to play with.
It tried to swallow me.

One day Gram and Da took me to the Farmer's Market.
We had lunch at a French restaurant. I was still hungry when I got home, so Grammy gave me a banana.
Sometimes they put me in my play corral, but I get bored and try to sneak out to where the real action is.

And Da is so nice - he takes me for walks in my stroller.
I know he's trying to get me to nap, and it usually works.

Mom had to work for the WHOLE day and night (I think she's going to be doing that a lot), so Grammy decided to dress me in pink (not Mom's favorite color on me) while Mom wasn't around. I really wish Mom would reconsider - look how cute I am!
And speaking of wardrobe, Mom arranged for me to pose in a photo shoot for a kid's catalog. Me and some other kids (kinda cute, especially that little hunk Luciano) were all modeling clothes for kickypants.com, and boy did I have to work my butt off! They dressed me in this sleeper - cute enough, but get this - size 0-3 months! Something about wanting the stretchy fabric to appear smooth on camera. Grammy kept muttering something about stuffing a sausage while she was dressing me. And they even put the mittens over my hands - how babyish! But I sucked it up and smiled - even shared the camera with a few of the other kids. I think you'll be able to see it all on the kickypants website - Mom will let you know.

On Saturdays I have swimming lessons and the YMCA. We splash and blow bubbles and kick kick kick. Grammy got in the water with me, and I know Bubbe and Grandpa were here too. Do they all share the swimming pool too? My favorite thing is to "body board" on Mom's body.

On Sundays a bunch of friends come over to my house and we do "Outside the Box" (OTB), a very creative one hour playgroup.Last week we played with beads, lots and lots of beads.
I won.
And Mom took me to an extra OTB session so Grammy could see first hand how well I can finger paint.
Someone else wrote my name for me.
One morning Da and Grammy took me to UCLA's Museum of Natural History.
They have a Discovery Center full of all kinds of stuff (stuffed stuff, actually).
Some real stuff too, like this king snake that this guy was playing with. Yuk!
Mom and Dad tell me that Uncle Liam played drums here last year at a Josh Ritter gig.
Go, Liam!

On the last weekend Da and Grammy were here, we had a few friends over for dinner. (I even shared my toys with James and Jocelyn).

And Mom and Dad went on a date night while Da and Gram took care of me.
I know this seems to be all about me, but then again, it is.

Fingerpainting

2008-12-21T23:44:00.000-08:00

Today we got MESSY.

Very few words are necessary.

Contemplating the blank canvas.

Carefully selecting colors.

The view from above.

Do you think anyone will notice if I eat this paper?

Busted.

Yarden's friend Lennon looking way too cute.

More photos of the event are here.

I've Been Tagged

2008-12-19T22:19:00.000-08:00

I'd never seen this before or heard of it - but my friend Kristin tagged me on her blog (http://thehootenfamily.blogspot.com/).

Evidently she posted this back in early November, so imagine my surprise when mid-December, while casually perusing her postings when I found myself called out by name to lay my soul bare and answer a whole bunch of personal questions (honestly no less), then post the responses PUBLICLY on my own blog.

I don't like this at all.
But it felt like a fair challenge, so here goes.

I am: grateful. Also - highly opinionated (others have said "control freak").
I want: a solid sense of community.
I have: a wonderful nuclear and extended family.
I dislike: superficiality. It's disarming/distancing to interact with people who go through life with a veneer or an agenda.
I miss: having Nancy in my life every day.
I fear: losing my parents, getting in in over my head financially, getting complacent. More superficially - rats & roller coasters & that I will regret the time I spend watching TV.
I feel: back pain. I should be writing my holiday cards on a desk, not a TV tray.
I hear: Bluegrass on my daughter's night ipod mix, a load of diapers in the laundry, a wimpering dog, the fire from our wall panel heater.
I smell: dog - back up Oso.
I crave: pasta with parmegian regiano so I can try my new microplaner grater. Seamus is at the store buying the cheese now.
I cry: wow, when I regret my behavior, about the effects of Prop 8, thinking about kids who have basic holiday requests that will go unfulfilled, knowing how fleeting this period of Yarden's life is and fearing that something bad might someday happen to her.
I usually: run things by Seamus.
I search: etsy, amazon, google, for balance.
I wonder: whether the school system is as bad as I fear & whether it will really make a difference.
I regret: looking for a fight instead of enjoing the moment - especially with my mom (but not just her). Not spending better time with my Great Grandmother. I only realize way to late how lonely she was.
I love: being snuggled by my husband and baby.
I care: about being a good mother.
I always: am keenly aware of my "To Do" list.
I worry: about my posture, about being liked, about balancing work and motherhood and being a high achiever at both.
I am not: a stay at home mom. I know I couldn't hack it.
I remember: less than most of my elementary school days. I would not be my own best biographer.
I believe: in the best in people, even when there's good reason not to.
I dance: to make my dughter laugh out loud.
I sing: along with the radio.
I don’t always: floss, load the dishwasher,...where to begin. I'm obsessive at work - secretly lazy at home. Seamus would ask, "secret from whom"? I'm like the CEOs who frequent Dominatrixes (dominatri?).
I argue: about whether to have a Christmas tree in our home.
I write: blog entries, e-mails, production calendars, to do lists, holiday cards, host copy, and the ocassional letter to settle my mind but never, ever be sent.
I win: most of the "discussions" in our family.
I lose: important papers in the piles around the house.
I wish: I had a toned body and could keep an organized house - both without expended inordianate amounts of effort. And that I was better with names. And that Facebook could distinguish between Friends, Aquaintances and Business Colleagues. And that I was craftier. I admire the no tv, DIY/Do It All moms who make a rainy afternoon's activities look like a Martha Stewart Kids layout. Maybe someday...
I listen: to This American Life.
I don’t understand: why Miley Cyrus?
I can usually be found: via cell phone.
I need: a vacation without my laptop or cell phone.
I forget: people's names the moment we are introduced.
I am happy: sleeping in, when my baby smiles, eating food that exceeds my expectations, having conversations with friends that move beyond catching up, reading a good book, playing Taboo, waking up with my daughter. I'm happy most of the time.
I tag: Nancy
So now, Nancy (you lucky woman you), you get to copy and paste and fill this out on your very own blog.

I'm Starting to Crawl!!!

2008-12-13T10:48:00.000-08:00

Check out this video.
I show off my bottom teeth at a minute or so in and then I crawl at 1:17.

OK - gotta run, I mean crawl, my parents will add more later.
There is lots to report.

Today I Am Six Months Old

2008-11-19T18:48:00.000-08:00

We woke Yarden this morning with a rousing rendition of "Happy Half-Birthday" and a special "BIRTH-QUAKE!!!"
She seemed non-plussed - sleepy, but smiley & happy to see us.

She celebrated at school by eating lots & sleeping little.
I had major dental work done (ow) and found an awesome consignment shop that has Splendid baby shirts for $10 a piece (wow).

Here are some pictures from little mama's big day.

She now turns the pages of her books by herself.

Yarden's Big Weekend

2008-11-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

With her 6 month half-birthday approaching, Seamus and I keep planning to do a photo shoot with Yarden with an array of accouterments so that whatever she shows an affinity for later in life, we'll have that predictive baby photo from her first 6 months of life. Yarden with a guitar, in a swimming pool, wearing a chef's hat, in a spacesuit, playing poker...the list is exhausting.

But in the real world, Yarden has actually been racking up the experiences - and this weekend added a few more to the list.

This morning at 9 AM, Y & I had our first infant swim class. There are only a few other babies in the class, Conner is my favorite. He's got two dads who showed up for class with a flip video camera. They also helped me with Yarden so that I could go pee (Note to self: Why did I think it would be easy to navigate a public locker room and bathing suits for both of us on my own when I can barely get out of the Burke Williams locker area without losing the key attached to my wristband?)

Yarden checks out the water.

Conner & his parents.

The swim lesson was awesome. The water was so warm and the class environment so friendly that I didn't even mind being in a bathing suit in public. Yarden loves to splash and kick and was braver than her mommy when it was time to dip completely under the water. We did a water version of "Wheels on the Bus" - already one of her favorites - and water "Ring Around The Rosie" ("splashes, splashes - we all fall down").

After that, Y and I headed home to shower, nap and head out to Baby Loves Disco.
I can't beat an article my brillliant friend Anna Cranage Conathan wrote about Baby Loves Disco
so I'll just share her article.

Three days have passed and I still haven't posted, so here are some updates ...

Mila Jovovich was in my Tuesday swim class. Ron Livingston was at the pool too. I'm now slightly more self conscious about my bikini body.

A group of 11 other moms and I are starting an Industry Moms support community to help balance the babies we love and the careers we nurture (and vice versa). We had our first planning meeting on Sunday and I've built us a blog - website to launch soon. We've got 100 members so far :)

And Outside The Box continues to meet at my house every Sunday. The activity this week was water tornados and puppet play. Click here for photos, including Yarden looking really blase about the activity.

I'm super tired, but feeling good.
Prop 8 is going to get overturned, I can feel it in my bones.
Trading Spaces is wrapping up and things look good for ideas I've brought to my employers.
I'm about to kick off 2 months of time off with my daughter with 10 days in NY.
Then I get to start a dream job on Hell's Kitchen.
Big picture I have a husband and daughter I adore, small picture I'm about to fall asleep watching the end of the Paul Rudd SNL from last week.

Life is good.

And Yarden's pretty happy too.

Yarden at Six Months

2008-11-15T23:06:00.000-08:00

We don't have a baby book.
We haven't recorded the frst time that Yarden rolled over, or the first spoonful of rice cereal, or when her first tooth finally broke through her gums.

What we do do is obsessively photograph our daughter and sporadically blog about our family's - in which she figures centrally.

So - with her 24 week mark behind us and her official 1/2 birthday coming up on Nov 19th, it seems like a good time to use the blog to take stock of all the things our girl is up to.

Yarden is now 17 pounds and 25 inches long/tall.
She can roll to pretty much wherever she wants to get to within a room. No crawling yet.
She can sit up on her own, but eventually keels over. That head is big.
(So far) she's never rolled off the bed or been dropped.

Yarden's default temperament is sweet and loving - generous with her big flirty gummy smiles and no fear of strangers. Even at gatherings with lot of babies, like at her school, we get told she should model (hmmm....)

She has 2 tiny, tiny sharp teeth (like the size of a crumb of feta) poking up on the bottom row and she sometimes uses them to bite my nose, and occasionally my boob. And speaking of beating us up, she pulls my hair (hard enough to get out strands), grabs daddy's eye, and I've seen her pull Oso's cheek.

She is big enough to stand in the exersaucer and the bouncer and she loves both.
She wears 9 month size clothing and (despite my best efforts) she outgrew adorable things before she had a chance to wear them.

In the last month, she's been needier than usual (doesn't like it if we leave the room), but can still be cheered up with a hug or the ABC song, Her favorite game is still EARTHQUAKE!!! (see the bottom of the Oct 29th entry if you've never seen this game). On the other hand, the trick of running a finger down the bridge of her nose doesn't make her close her eyes anymore and it's harder to get her to sleep.

She's eaten rice cereal, peas, & squash.

She is no longer fully swaddled at night, just under the arms.

And her favorite blanket is the one I made her :)

The View From My Toilet Seat

2008-11-09T21:45:00.001-08:00

Yarden's figured out how to roll and she needed a space to practice, so we've remodeled the living room to accommodate her new hobby.

We got rid of the futon/guest bed and moved the table - replacing the grown up furniture with 72 square feet of Alphabet Puzzle Foam.

Here's Yarden enjoying her new room.

But it turns out that Alphabet Puzzle Foam is to dogs what catnip is to cats.
Yarden may like the new setup, but Oso loves it.
He can't stay away.

SOOO - the full 72 feet gets covered with dog hair.
We've tried brooms. mops, wet swiffer, lint roller, and old fashioned getting down on hands and knees with a wet sponge.
None of that works.
Since we have playgroups at the house once a week, we have to keep it better than clean.
We have to keep it "up to 8 other parent's standards" clean.
(see photo below)

So Seamus has come up with a solution. Wash them in the shower and hang them dry.

As I type, this is the view from our toilet.
I love my ingenious husband.

Six Months

2008-11-08T11:42:00.000-08:00

She is still getting the hang of feeding herself.More baby food should come in lollypop form.
I think she likes it.

Yarden Prefers to Feed Herself

2008-11-05T15:45:00.001-08:00

More to come - but this was too good not to share.

Yarden has Competition

2008-11-04T20:13:00.000-08:00

Declan Murphy has arrived. We look forward to meeting you in person over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Give the People What They Want!!!

2008-11-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of what's her name:

Thank you to Grandma Karl for the outfit. We hope we find an occasion that rises to the clothes.

And congratulations to Mike and Kelly. A picture of cousin Declan will be posted here soon.

Happy Birthday Charlotte. Sorry I missed brunch.

Please vote "No" on California Proposition 8. No matter what the advocates of "Yes on 8" say, you aren't being honest if you vote no on equality, but condone/support/accept your homosexual co-worker/neighbor/relative. Justice is for everyone. Also, keep the government out of our love-life.

And for our friends in North Carolina, please send State Senator Hagen to Washington. Senator Dole's "Godless" slanders are hard to believe when Sen. Hagen is a Sunday school teacher and board member at her church. America deserves better than liars in the Senate.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2008-10-31T14:29:00.000-07:00

Yarden with Teacher Carla and Baby Joey
Yarden at her Play Table
Yarden experimenting with wigs.
Our Monkey Baby
You can be too thin!
Oso as reluctant Yoda.

Rebecca as Princess Leia and Yarden & Mommy as the world's tiniest tandem sky diver.
Note the red goggles.
We left before winners were announced.

Random Video and Snapshots from the Last Month

2008-10-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Yarden has disovered Oso - and fallen in love.

Yarden rocking a pantsuit that Betsy was given for Seamus over 30 years ago.

The only evidence of my first ever Karaoke! Thanks Alan & Sonja.
We enjoyed celebrating your 2nd anniversary as much as you did.
Yarden's friend Devon dressed as Yoda.

Yarden looking like a hipster in Daddy's Red Sox hat.

Yarden stole the rally monkey's outfit.

Yarden is pretty sure Jon is up to something.

Not posed.

At OTB class.

Water is awesome!

Still her favorite game.

I just flew in from LA and boy are my arms tired

2008-10-17T17:17:00.000-07:00

Yarden looking gorgeous in her bunny coat in chilly NY.

I took Yarden back to NY for a weekend at the beginning of October and it was a great trip.

THE THING ABOUT FLYING
Pre-child, my computer, wallet and I would board a plane. I'd have a stack of gossip magazines and my Bose headphones and I'd be asleep before I got any return on my $5 movie investment. Flying used to be the closest thing to teleporting I'd ever experienced. Board a plane, fall asleep, wake up, check face for drool, change watch to new timezone.

Post-child, flying is an entirely different beast - involving outfit changes, the potential for eruptive poops, and a collection of distractions.
But you do get to board early.

Everyone told me that between the low oxygen and the white noise - infants will sleep the whole trip.
Not our girl.

She was up and alert, smiling, flirting with anyone who walked down the aisle, and mostly interested in being held over my head to see the rows of folks behind us.
Thus the title of this blog entry.

I sat next to missionaries for my trip out and they were friendly enough that I felt comfortable leaving Yarden with them when I went to pee.

The trip was fantastic - with one small hiccup.
Upon arrival I was exhausted. I've literally never done anything on a flight before but sleep. Then I realized that I kept thinking of the time change wrong and that I was going to have to wait until 11:30 PM to bathe the girl every night if I wanted to keep her on LA time.

SHOPPING WHILE POST-PARTUM
Initially, Yarden was flying with me to be my date for Tyler and Kate's wedding, but since all 4 grandparents were chomping at the bit to babysit - I was persuaded in the final week to leave her with them in Brooklyn.

This put a ton of pressure on my last few days in LA since I now had to find a dress that I could wear to a wedding solo. If I have Yarden in a sling - she's the outfit and food stains are easily explainable. Without the comfort of Yarden strapped to me as distraction & conversation piece, I had to find something formal that didn't scream "baby weight!" and could also accommodate the fact that my boobs would expand about 3 cup sizes in the 8 hours I would be away from her.

It took 3 trips to Nordstroms, but I finally found something "adequate".

BUT BACK TO THE TRIP...
To make the most of our two days in Brooklyn, I crammed in visits with a lot of my favorite folks.
Steve Christenson was in for the wedding, so he and his long term girlfriend Mary Kay came to breakfast. She's awesome. Sassy, funny, smart, outspoken. For all the fans of Steve who read this - you'll be glad to know that he's got a job he likes that seems to be leading him into a career in green building and a great lady by his side. He's left Detroit for Atlanta and when I've asked him how he likes that he starts with "Well Aliyah, y'know I sweat a lot..." I think he and MK wish they'd found their dream life somewhere else.

After breakfast, I met up with a mix of awesome elementry, high school and college friends for brunch. Liz, Mara, Jessica, Nancy and Greg and Di all met up at Greg and Di's with children in tow. It was adorable. Liz, Jess and Greg & Di's second kids are within a month or so of Yarden so little mama got to meet her lifelong Brooklyn buddies. She just didn't know it yet.

Benny & Hannah

Diana & Sammy

Jessica with August (aka Auggie)

Nancy with Yarden & Jessica's head

Liz with Seth

Mara with Hannah & Yarden

Greg with Yarden, Sammy & Benny (2nd tallest)

The wedding was fantastic.
Kate and Tyler both looked fantastic and over the moon happy (fuzzy photo attached). The decor was classy with a victorian/speakeasy feel and a Brooklyn based jug band called the "Jug Addicts". It was a crowd of aquaintances that became friends over the course of the night. Just a wonderful night. In the course of after party bar hopping till 2 AM, I discovered that nobody parties more intensely than married folks with multiple kids who have been left with inlaws an entire flight away.
In the meantime, Yarden was pampered and massaged (literally, its part of her bedtime routine) by all four grandparents. They posed for pictures and aparrently put stuff on her head.

Sunday was amazing. My folks put together a kick ass brunch and Yarden got to meet Aunt Debra and Uncle Bob and Uncle David all for the first time. All the grandparents were there and Great Grandmama and Yosh and Feesh and Jackson and Liam and Kenzie and Joel and Emet, etc... Mary Beth even showed up for an afternoon visit.

Yarden & Cousin Jackson (who turns 1 the day before Halloween!)

Yarden & Aunt Felicia & Uncle Josiah

Jackson looking very mature.

Yarden & Uncle David

Mom with Jackson & Emet (Joel & Shiran's son)

Yarden holds court.

Yarden with Grandmama Rosaline, both looking very ladylike.

Yarden & Aunt Debra

Family photo #1

Family photo #2 - featuring last minute baby proofing on table.

Yarden exploring on a gorgeous quilt Danielle Weinstein made her.

I've created a new album of Yarden photos that starts on October 3rd 2008.
October 3rd of 2007 was the day I found out I was pregnant - so it's an auspicious date that coincides with Yarden's frst Brooklyn visit. Here are two links to the photos.

A Slideshow of New Photos

A Link to the Album of Downloadable Photos

OVERDUE BLOG ENTRY

2008-09-17T16:49:00.001-07:00

OK, I'm sorry.

I know now that there is actually a fan base for this blog and you have all been very vocal in your frustration about our lack of entries. And speaking of vocal... SHE SPEAKS! Yarden said her first word at the tender age of 16 weeks.

Seamus & Yarden & I were all hanging out in bed on a rare lazy Saturday morning and we were talking to Yarden and saying, "Hello" when she turned to us and responded "Hello!".

Seamus and I were dumbstruck and could not believe what we had heard so we tentatively said, "Hello?". She parroted back, 'Hello" - again, clear as lasik, in an adorable sing songy way. We then spent about an hour trying to get her to say it again, which she didn't.

We told Teacher Carla who reported that Yarden said "Hi" to her in clas when she woke up from her nap.

Since then I haven't heard many words, but she babbles in full sentences to the ceiling fan.

LAKS SILVERSTEIN VISIT III
Is it 3 visits or 4 since May? All I know is that grandchildren are awesome visitor bait.
I haven't seen my folks this much since I lived back east.

On the last visit with Grandma, we stayed pretty close to home and mostly basked in the baby. This visit was all about the valley, ventura & venice. We visited with Mell and Sally, then spent the night at Herb & Shelley's beach house, then visted Felicia's folks on the way back. On Labor Day, Margie threw a party and we all hung out in Venice.

Ventura was Yarden's first overnight and she loved staying at Herb and Shelley's place.
They were pretty cool about letting her take a bath in the sink.
I cannot imagine other guests getting away with that.

I'm hitting "Publish Post" for now because we are so horribly off schedule.

I still need to report on:
Mommy and Baby's First Trip / AKA Christmas Comes Early for Yarden
Yarden vs the Wiggly Worms
& Yarden is the best behaved baby at the Rosh Hashana Services (really that's all there is to say on the topic but it's true).

With Uncle Mell

With Aunt Sally
Loving Life
"I don't get this at all!"

At the beach.
Outside Yarden's school.
Pretty in Pink (and that's rare)
The loves of my life.

Introducing Guest Blogger Betsy-Mom

2008-08-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

SO -
We've adopted a Guatemalan former street dog, had family portraits taken, overflowed the washing machine, had the freezer break on us, shot another episode of Trading Spaces, and Yarden is about to start "school" tomorrow.

We are way behind on blogging - but luckily the best thing about this past week is that my fantastic mother in law Betsy Mom has been visiting and taking care of her grandaughter all week. She's been keeping her own hilarious blog of life at 2224 S Sycamore at http://gogrammygo.blogspot.com/

Visit there now by clicking here.

Yarden's Latest Fascination

2008-08-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

More than anything, I wish I knew what my daughter was thinking.
She gurgle, coos, talks to herself, laughs, gets antsy and rewards both the live and inanimate with huge smiles.

It's clear there is a rich interior monologue going on.

For the last half hour she's been trying to muster the nerve to touch her current fascination - the pig attached to her bouncy chair. She smiles coyly, grins at it, reaches out, then pulls her hand back like, "oh - I daren't".

I imagine her thoughts are something like this:
Yarden: Daddy - have you seen this thing? It's a pig with corn. Isn't that silly!
A pig with corn! Who thought of such a thing. Absolutey amazing. (Giggle.)

Daddy: You can touch it. (Reaches her hand out to show her that the corn is also a spinning rattle)

Yarden: (Laughing) I can't believe you did that. I hope the farm gods don't punish your hubris. Daddy there's so much you don't understand.

Yarden loves/can be cheered up by:
1) The part of Mommy that feeds her
2) The ceiling fan (really any ceiling fan, they all look the same to her)
3) Mirror baby
4) Mommy
5) The reflection of a fan in a mirror
6) Daddy
7) Diaper changes
8) Baths

Any of the following can increase their ranking by singing to her.

I Aint Gonna Work No More

2008-08-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

Well - not me, but Yarden.

Her time at A. Smith has come to an end.
Next week she'll be hanging out with Grammy Hurley and the week after that she'll be starting at ABC Educational Center.

As this stretch of her life comes to an end, a HUGE thanks to my incredible employers who made her feel so welcome, wanted even, and especially to Mecia and Shannon who gave Yarden all sorts of love and quality time.

Here are some photos from her time at the office.

First day.
She settled in very easily.
With Shannon.
What a difference 2 months makes.
Above, Yarden with Mecia at 4 weeks.
Below, Yarden at 11 weeks.
Mecia looks pretty much the same. A closeup of her dress, my mom made it for me over 30 years ago. What I imagine she was thinking.

The room that was Yarden's playroom at work had been a storage space.
When they found out that it was her last day in the office - the PAs started moving stuff back in.
I took a picture because - well, without photographic evidence you wouldn't believe me.

The saddest part of it all was saying goodbye to Jessica.

Jessica has been Yarden's first teacher and friend and I feel like she was an amazing third caregiver to give her a safe, nurturing and loving start in the world.

She recorded a message to Yarden that I'll post here in hopes that this site will be here when Yarden is old enough to be able (and interested) in reading about her first few months of life.

And I couldn't post photos of my office without posting these:

Just 137 days until Christmas.

WE'VE GONE CLOTH (AND WHY THE ORTHODOX HAVE TOO)

2008-08-08T23:46:00.000-07:00

If you think that people who use cloth diapers are preachy, proceed directly to the next blog entry.

About two or three weeks ago we decided to try cloth diapers.
I've been kind of quiet about it because it seemed like a big commitment - and possibly a gross one - so I didn't want to make it too public in case we couldn't follow through. BUT I'd been reading a lot about how much landfill waste disposable create and feeling very guilty (plus, they are ultimately less expensive).

In actuality, it's not hard at all (as long as you own a washing machine). We have 16 cloth diapers, enough for 2.5 days and a flip lid garbage can with a laundry bag liner. There is a special sprayer that attaches to the toilet to spray off particularly poopy diapers - wet ones go straight in the hamper. Every other night we wash them.

And they are WAY cute.

AND THE BEST REASON - I am a bit obsessed with laundry and there is nothing more satisfying than the magic of seeing a diaper go from dirty to looking brand new.

SO - now the plan is to stick with cloth by day and possibly one disposable at night.
Once she starts eating solids at 6 months we'll regroup and decide if we are sticking with cloth or going back to disposables.

Here are some of the staggering statistics about disposable diapers:

Disposable diapers are the largest single product in the waste stream. Each disposable diapered child creates about 2 TONS of trash that does not decompose (approximately 5,300 disposable diapers).
It takes 440-880 lbs. of fluff pulp and 286 lbs. of plastic (including packaging) per year to supply a single baby with disposables.
And washing cloth diapers at home uses the same amount of water as an adult flushing the toilet.

I had assumed that most pepole's reasons for using cloth were either financial or environmental - but I found a local site run by a stay at home orthodox mother of 5 (the site is ironically called "ANGEL BUNZ") who had this to say.

At Angel Bunz, we think re-usable diapers help us follow the Rabbinic dictum not to be baal tashchis/to be wasteful.

"G-d placed him (the man) in the Garden of Eden to work it and protect it." (B'raishis/Genesis 2:15)
"Do not corrupt or desolate my world: for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you." (Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13)

"We live today in a throwaway society where nothing is forever. Its not just aluminum cans and foil that gets thrown away after one use."

If you are interested in reading more - here's the link to this particular store.
http://www.angelbunz.com/info_why_use_cloth.html

Dogs Love Our Baby

2008-08-08T22:41:00.000-07:00

Brady (Gina and Clarke's dog) loved on Yarden this past weekend.
Yarden wasn't so sure about the whole experience.

The sniffing was fun - well fun for Brady, tolerated by Yarden.
But the licking was too much for the girl.

After the face lick - Yarden took refuge on Daddy's lap.

This picture looks scary - but really Brady is yawning and Yarden is looking at a ceiling fan.
Ah film magic.