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

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.