Fingerpainting

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yarden has Competition

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

Give the People What They Want!!!

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!

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

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

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