Adventure Baby

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.
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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.