OVERDUE BLOG ENTRY

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

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

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

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)

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)
  
  
Maybe we can't solve the entire landfill problem on our own but as Rabbi Tarfon says in Ethincs of Our Fathers (Pirkei Avot), "It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it." If you are serious about Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), you should be serious about cloth diapers!

Additionally, Rabbi Yissocher Frand, in his book Rabbi Yissocher Frand In Print, (Mesorah Puplications 1995. p. 88-90) discusses the state of society today:


• "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."

We at Angel Bunz feel that something is lost in our lives and our relationships when we just throw things away after one use, because, as Rabbi Frand continues, "this attitude spills over into every aspect of our lives.

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

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.

Something Oso This Way Comes

Introducing the newest member of our family, Oso!



It's very tempting to give him more name: Oso Silly, Oso Happy, Oso Much Better Than a Cat. So far, he is just Oso.

Oso is a 3-years-old yellow lab mix. His personality borders on aloof, but he licks my face. He re-affirms my sense that I am a dog person. It feels really good to have a dog who should hate every human the world declare "I like you."

"Oso" means "bear," which to me is like having a gerbil named "Lion." The story of his life (this far) is long and very amazing. The short version is he is a rescue dog from Guatemala. The longer version can be found here:

http://www.murphysbone.com/oso.html

The longer-longer version is below.

Tonight Oso's foster parents, Minoo and Bobby, came over. They've been taking care of him at their house in Northridge since September last year. At one point another family was going to take him in but they had to move to Israel.

Oso showed up with Minoo and Bobby at 7:30. Oso promptly established himself by barfing green/yellow muck on the floor. He was nervous, and they had warned me about his I.B.S. (irritable bowel syndrome).

We all talked about getting Oso not to pee indoors. Oso perked his one un-torn ear and contemplated peeing on the fabric covered music box that lives next to my Wii. Bobby told him "no."

We moved to the back yard. Oso marked the grill as his. I could see it from is point of view - make sure you try to claim the thing that smells like steak. Then Oso barfed on the platform that will eventually become my storage shed. I could see his point of view - it had been a couple of months since I had worked on it and I was a little disgusted with myself too.

Oso poked around the backyard and barfed a couple of more times while while we humans talked. Minoo told us this story:

Her sister bought her a trip to Guatemala. Because Minoo is a student of anthropology she traveled by boat to the isolated fishing village of Livingston - a village on the Atlantic Ocean side where the indigenous people were/are ethnically homogeneous. There she met the second-worst mangy street dog in all of Livingston.
He cowered from all people because he had been abused so badly. But he stared at Minoo. A friend had told Minoo not feed the street dogs in front of the people of Livingston. So Minoo ate at a restaurant and saved half of her chicken in a bag. When she looked, this dog was still staring at her. Minoo offered the dog the chicken.
The dog had been so abused that he would not take it, even though the dog was almost starved to death and could smell the chicken through the bag. Minoo coaxed the dog down an alley. She put the chicken on the ground and said "This is for you." The dog ate it in one bite.

Minoo asked some children in Livingston who the dog belonged to. The children said that the dog didn't belong to anyone. Minoo asked if the dog had a name. The children said the dog's name was Oso. None of them knew who gave it that name. Minoo decided that she had to help Oso.

Minoo put Oso on a boat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tBhIl_IOc8

She took him to a shelter another part of Guatemala.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6iJJtlTiBo

He got beter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4_NE7mZhY4&eurl=http://www.murphysbone.com/oso.html

Eventually, Oso got well enough to come to the USA.
So anyway... Minoo and Bobby asked their friend and professional dog trainer/therapist Parker [(310) 560-5665] to come by and give us advice on canine thinking around a human baby. Parker was excellent. What I most regret is that we don't have a picture of Oso giving Baby Yarden kisses. Then, on his way out, Oso threw up.

I think everything went well. Oso was a little nervous - Minoo, Bobby, and Parker were sure he knew something was up. We expect Oso will be a little on edge for the first few weeks he lives here. Also Oso was in recovery. Last week, Minoo took Oso to the Vet Surgeon for a couple of things: the removal of floppy dew claws, the benign growth on his ear, the teeth cleaning, a tooth that was pulled, etc., etc. Minoo then sent out the call to the O.F.C. (Oso Fan Club) for a little fund-raising. They were very generous. Some have been fans for a long time. Some have been fans from far away. Some have been both. All had been moved by what Minoo and Bobby did for this boy, by his story, and I feel special that I am person who gets to be Oso's human. Anyone in the O.F.C. should feel free to add a comment to this blog. Please check in regularly. In case I haven't had the opportunity to say "thank you" to you personally, I thank you publicly here.

P.S.
My mother is coming Sunday to spend time with Yarden. She did not expect to or sign on for caring for 3-years-old Guatemalan rescue dog too. But, when I was born, her mother traveled to Massachusetts to help take care of me. Instead my Grandma ended up mostly taking care of our black lab Alice's litter...

P.P.S.
I thought of a couple of more things I want if you are shopping for my birthday:

(1) Cork City Football Club jersey http://corkcityfc.buy.ie/catalog/index.php?cPath=63_292

(2) Some kind of shirt or hat from here: http://www.peeyourpantsforthebrewers.com/store.php

(3) "Three Amigos" on DVD

This entry has nothing to do with my baby.

1) Babies are one reason not to sleep well at night. This is another: Article

“…McKinnon used a simple brute-force Perl script over a 56Kbps modem that tested default passwords…”

He did this from overseas. It undermines my confidence in the US Military’s security; on the other hand, if hostile countries and terrorists hadn’t figured this out it may be comforting that our enemies just aren’t that bright. We hope:

“Further muddying the question of exactly how much damage McKinnon did are his claims of finding evidence from other hackers who accessed the same computer systems he did, but successfully evaded detection.”

2) I’m thinking about buying a new car. Or something… http://www.martinjetpackusa.com/

3) Congratulations to Denise and Wael on the birth of their daughter Olivia.

4) Congratulations to Daisy on the birth of her first born son George: Baby!

5) In Red Sox news - The Manny Trade. Aliyah found the silver lining. She hopes that his uniform change will mean no more Red Sox players will look like they pooped their pants. Hopefully the Dodgers can get him a clean helmet. They can probably afford it since the Sox have decided to continue to pay his $20 million salary.

6) My birthday is coming up. If you don't know what to get me please make a donation in my name to the San Diego Zoo gorillas:
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/adopt/project_gorilla.html
Or an iTunes gift card. I still have a few things on cassette tape.

Watch Yarden Learn

Here is a video of Faerie Poppins teaching Yarden how to intentionally shake her toy.



I need to buy Quicktime Pro again so that I can edit the the videos from the flip - but in the meantime, sorry that these are so long. I'm torn between my editing instincts as a tv producer and my proud mamaness.

Yarden Lately

Yarden turned 10 weeks old today and she's now a sizable 12 lbs and 23 inches, which puts her firmly in the 75th percentile of height and weight.
And oh my goodness - she continues to be painfully cute.
Just look...

This week Yarden attended her first union rally, her first bowling party and went to the uber fancy LA sushi joint Katsuya for the second time in her young life (once courtesy of Holly & Tracey - our friends at the network - and once in celebration of my friend Meg's birthday).

Yarden dressed for the rally.

Yarden is becoming more alert and more active every few days.
She does everything with seemingly more attention & intention.

During the day she now rejects the reclined position and prefers to be held in either a sitting or standing position - balancing her giant skull on her skinny neck like a bobble head. And man does she make her preferences known.

She used to have a gradual whimper to scream build-up that meant a fast acting mom or dad could avoid any of the heart wrenching, uvula shaking, screaming that we dread. Now she's quicker to exercise her lungs. And just to keep us guessing, she's added another option to the list of what might be wrong. When she's not gassy, hungry or dirty - screaming may be the cue to whomever is holding her that she wants them to sing.

At night, she flails her arms and legs almost continuously, earning her the nickname "Kicky Monster". At just (the aforementioned) 23 inches, she manages to dominate our entire bed.


Here are a few photos of Yarden doing her best cousin Jackson startle eyed impression.
She's wearing an orange shirt that was mine as a baby.



And here she is looking like a baby detective in an outfit Bubbie bought her (I think it's the hat).
With all the Law and Order we watch, she might just grow up to be a homicide, special victims or major case detective.

Our time with Faerie Poppins is winding down.
If anyone has a lead on a cheap Burning Man ticket, that's what we'd like to buy her as a thank you gift.

In two weeks Grammy Hurley will be here to spend a week with Yarden and then the girl starts infant day care. The time is just flying by.