Monday Morning Yardeny Goodness

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.

h


Below: And occasionally, riding a doggy.

Better Videos, So I Don't Bore the Grandparents

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

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!

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