Our Tiny Tuberculosis Victim

These are pictures of my adorable, life loving daughter when she is NOT in the grips of teething pain.


Yarden hit 102 fever on Saturday night and again last night.
She's got 4 teeth coming in simultaneously and when the pain hits her she wails like a banshee and flails her body around. Occasionally she punctuates the meltdown with a random headbutt, just to keep us on our toes.

She sometimes can be calmed enough to let me cool and hydrate her by wetting her lips with with pedialyte ice pops - like a tiny tuberculosis victim. She also has added the word/demand "ice" to her vocabulary rotation, as in "I'm handing you back this sippy cup of water because it's not sufficiently chilled." Of course she simply uses the efficient one word demand "Ice!"

Oh - and who can forget the diaper rash, stinky pee, and constant drool that herald the arrival of new teeth.

Only infant tylenol and nursing and sleeping on daddy make her feel better.

We kept her home from school today.
This was the scene when I left the house this morning.

As Seamus aptly observed this morning, it's interesting that evolution didn't make babies MORE appealing when they are sick. What keeps animals from leaving their teething offspring in trees?

Natural Stage Project

My snuggly little mama and her glowing rice cracker.

Yarden is camping ready.

Let me start by saying - I'm not easily impressed and I have an aversion to hipsters.

Which makes it all the more weighty an endorsement when I say that my friend Jon co-produces the most impressively unpretentious guerilla live events featuring good music, friendly folks & spectacular settings.

This week he presented a show at the vista of Topanga State Park.
Each band did one song off of In An Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel and the final act did two original songs comprised entirely of lyrics from Princess Bride.

Yarden and I braved the 405 to the 101 and then made a whole bunch of dodgy u-turns in a frustrating search for a hidden turn-off to the state park.
Note to CA, better signage might help park attendance.
Yarden napped while I debated ditching my search in favor of farmer's stand fruits and veggies and a trip to the Lululemon store in Calabasas.

On our last attempt, we found it. And thank goodness. What a beautiful idea.
(OK I found it. Yarden was useless - she just slept in the backseat.)

Jon's girlfriend Megan (who is also a mad knitter) took these photos.

I call this photo, "I am the luckiest mom in the world."

Yarden looking like she is popping a squat.

24 Hour Grandparents

I posted a photo like this on Facebook and got asked if Yarden had stacked all of these.
The answer is that Yarden is way more into re-distributing (read hiding my stuff) than color coded organizing.
But having a daughter that was a savant organizer is a contender for a genie wish!

My parents breezed into town this Sunday, flush from a million dollar wedding in San Francisco (I saw the photos and tasted the cake. If you've got the money to spend on a party, this is the way to do it).

They arrived around 3pm and left early Tuesday morning- so it was a fast trip, but we packed in A LOT!!!!

Sunday night was our first proper dinner party in the new backyard - replete with fancy dishes, a campfire & our friend Allison Binder. I have no photos - but it was delicious and very fun. I'm very proud of myself, and hey it's my blog I get to brag, because I made all the courses all by myself and even timed them out pretty well.

Everyone has soup as their last course, right?

Wine poured liberally and - if you aren't already drinking it - Opala is my summer white recommendation (under $10 at Whole Foods). MB and I discovered Vinho Verde a few years ago and dubbed it the perfect summer stoop wine, a wine to be bought be the case and enjoyed at summer rentals or on apartment fire escapes. This is an excellent VV, sparkling, crisp, a little sweet and addictive.

So did I mention we were drinking?
Because that will explain the following photos.

Seamus and my dad claim that Zombies attacked and chased Yarden around the yard - but these photos tell a different story.
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She was literally squealing in delight as they chased her around.

This next photo was taken at almost 11 at night, and I think this expression alone should count as baby sign language for "I want to go to sleep now". Normally this expression is reserved for hipsters on the 4am L train on their way back to Williamsburg.


Yarden slept over in the "grandparent storage compartment" with my folks.

Because Yarden in a terrible, horrible, no good sleepover guest - rolling over, kicking, swinging her arms and occasionally headbutting in her sleep - only she woke up refreshed for breakfast with Cousin John.

After breakfast we were off to LACMA, where Yarden became a museum member (free till she's 18 throught the NextGen program) and brought me in as her guest.

This is part of an exhibit by South Korean artists.
Yarden was initially unimpressed.

I'm going to take it as an indication that we've given this girl an exciting 1st year that a floor to ceiling plastic maze is de rigeur and barely worth looking up from a bottle for.

At some point she soaked her diaper and her pants had to dry off.
This photo cracks me up because only a baby can be this blase pants-free in public.
When we left the museum, Yarden was WAY more into exploring the plastic.

I love these "action" shots.
Check out the knee. Despite the pirate shirt she's got a little captain in her.


Yarden dogged by paps.
We stopped at the La Brea tar pits - mostly at the gift shop - and also went to lunch at Mani's.
Yarden was very interested in the installation of recyclables along the walk.
At home we don't let her play with garbage, but at the museum you can touch them, bang on them, march around them, and then try to put them in your mouth and get scooped up by mommy.


Yarden is a good sharer.
Here she is offering to share her straw with Grandpa.
Back home, we skyped Grammy and Yarden showed off her baseball skills.
You can see my mom holding the computer in the lower left hand corner.

Making daddy proud.

Here we are showing Grammy the "just add kid" Indiana Jones shirt we got at the La Brea Tar Pits.
** In other news, I'm really into twitter this week.
I'm recording this in my blog so that I can remember in the future that this is the week of my life that I was really into twitter.

I'm also doing really well at running 4 mornings a week and getting to pilates.
Trying to make it a lifestyle, still feels like a chore.

Aliyah

Baby Meets Lobster

In celebration of Fathers Day, we had a daddy day.

Extra bacon for breakfast followed by a relaxing afternoon at Home Depot.
Here we are at breakfast with Seamus rocking his daddy shirt.
For dinner, Lisa and James came over and we made lobsters and had a campfire with delicious wine. Here are some shots of Yarden investigating our dinner.

At some point she realized that they were moving and became less brave.

In Focus and Nobody Has Their Eyes Closed

Family photo from the Memorial Day visit, the first time that all the grandparents were out in LA at the same time!

They all rented an apartment together in Mid-Wilshire (strangely referred to as Beverly Hills by the rental agent) and Yarden had sleepovers in the room between the bedrooms. If you are familiar with the game "Snatch the Bacon" - that's how I imagine it went, though all the grandparents claim they shared nicely.

Liam had already left when this photo as taken, so I'm posting a separate photo of the two of them. He and Baby Y really bonded.

Liam - if you have a photo where people can see your lovely face, please send it!

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.

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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).