Yummy yummy fingers!

Four day weekend!

First off, I just have to say that I got the best Hanukkah gift ever this year! Jonathan gave me the collector's edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the fairy tales by JK Rowling set in the Harry Potter world. I'll have to get a picture up so you can see how cool the book is, it comes in a gorgeous box and the book is leather-bound with embossed silver skulls on it. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan but never would have bought it for myself, so it's perfect. I got Jonathan a black t-shirt that says, "No, I will not fix your computer." :)

The last few days were relatively uneventful. On Christmas Jonathan and I hired a babysitter and went out for Indian food. The babysitter is 16 and is my madricha (teacher's aide) at Sunday school. The baby was fine; I think it was harder on me than it was on him!

Jonathan and Xander both relieved that we're home.

Aside from going out for a few errands, we've just lazed around. I watched It's a Wonderful Life, which I used to do every Christmas as a kid. And I shared An American Tail with Jonathan. I remember it as being much more dramatic, with the cats chasing the mice and poor little Fievel Mousekewitz being lost and scared. Then I looked at the date, and apparently the movie came out when I was five years old! That explains a lot.

Snuggling and doing nothing. I love vacation.

I'm determined to lose this pregnancy weight so I've been walking a couple miles a day on our treadmill. I've done this four times so far. And I'm not thin yet! What's up with that? (Footnote: half the time I'm on the treadmill I hear Joe's voice in my head, telling me in his British accent that treadmills were originally part of a prison punishment system and I'm voluntarily participating in the quest to go nowhere. Darn that historical context!)

And Hanukkah, of course, is still ongoing. Pictures of it are below. I realize most of them are of the baby, and that this blog is quickly becoming in danger of being solely baby-focused. It will even out more, I'm sure, when I go back to school next month.

In Hanukkah onesie from Chana, and his menorah socks.

In winter gear from Aunt Sandra and Uncle David.

Shabbat and Hanukkah all at once! Xander is looking at his hands - he'd been eating his fingers a moment before we put the mittens on, and he was very confused.

The kitties got gifts too. They love their new ball.

And in closing, a series proving that our boy is a flirt:

How I know I'm half-Israeli

Jonathan and I drove Maura to the airport today. There were NO cars on the road. We coasted all the way to the airport, passing by closed restaurants and shops. When we got to the terminal, it was completely empty. There was literally only one other car in the entire drop off/passenger unloading area.

"Wow!" I said. "It's like Yom Kippur for Christians!"

This disgusts me

In Madoff Scandal, Jews Feel an Acute Betrayal

His actions go against every value I've ever been brought up to believe.

A pictorial first night of Hanukkah

A dramatic retelling of the Hanukkah story. The baby had never heard it before!

The tale of the Maccabees is riveting.




Explaining the menorah before we light candles.

Playing a fierce game of dreidel. I taught everyone how to spin it upside down.

Jonathan made homemade latkes, but as he was putting them onto the plate we realized we had forgotten to buy the garnishes! He earned many many brownie points by going out into the 6 degree weather to go buy applesauce and sour cream. When he got back we ate til we were sick from the grease. Then we sang tons of songs.

Last but not least was gift exchange! Becca brought a gorgeous traditional Korean outfit for Xander called a hanbok. This one will fit him in about two years.

In the spirit of the holidays we also drank eggnog, and what do you know? All my life I've thought I hated it, but after drinking it virgin I realized that I'm fine with the eggnog itself, it's just the rum in it that I don't like! Here is our toast to friendship, holidays, and a joyous life.

Happy Hannukah, everyone!

More of Becca's visit

Becca babysat last Friday night so Jonathan and I could have a date night! We got all dressed up and painted the town red. Well, really, we got all dressed up and went out to dinner, but hey. For anyone in the Cincinnati area, I highly recommend the Indian restaurant Tandoor. They make the best mango lassi I've ever tasted.

We took advantage of her visit to do some fun things that usually don't happen, like Sunday brunch. (I'm also usually teaching, but hello winter break!)

Becca and Jonathan, the syrup connoisseurs

Xander was very vocal about our menu choices. Or maybe I should say that he's very vocal now, period.

Conversation at IHOP.

Becca is awesome with the baby, and we played, watched some ST: Voyager episodes from her IPOD, made more chocolate chip cookies, and just hung out. She loves Rummikub, just like I do, and we're evenly matched - she ended up beating me, 5 games to 4. Hmph, I say. It was all the luck of the tiles. :)

Playing with Becca.

All of us sang songs. Becca knows the ABC song backwards! Sadly, I do not have this on tape. But Xander was happy to sing along with me the regular way.

Singing along with Mommy.

And since last night was Becca's last night, she and I then stayed up so late talking that the menfolk crashed.

Sacked out on the couch.

On a more serious note, she and I had a really good conversation about changes in people when they become parents. This made me think of changes in my own expectations about parenthood, specifically how my newfound realization that practicality does not always live up to my ideals.

Here are four specific ways off the top of my head: when I was pregnant I wanted to do cosleeping, with Xander sleeping next to our bed. But Jonathan likes to sleep with the room at 65 degrees, and Xander needs it closer to 75. So off to a nursery the baby went. Two, when I was pregnant I had wanted all the baby's clothing to be organic - now, after going through so many outfits that he's outgrown (already!) I just want clothes that aren't itchy. Three, philosophically, I'm still deeply into Montessori. We aren't buying toys that flash or light up, or that make loud noises. And I still prefer wooden toys that I know aren't coated with potentially toxic paint or chemicals. But now, if someone gives us something plastic, I'm not going to give it back. And lastly, when I was pregnant, I thought I would never use a bouncy chair because I would be so into babywearing; now I thank my lucky stars for the chair, because I find the wrap really inconvenient at times, and I'm tired of always eating to the side so as not to drip on him.

Becca saw these expectations of mine kind of dashed against a wall. What about other people? Does this whittling down of ideals to reality happen to everyone? And if so, what has changed/do you think might change? I assume that this keeps happening in parenthood at every stage. Actually, I guess it just happens in life in general...

Xander explains his week

Car trips are so much fun!

No way, Auntie Becca! The moon really IS made of cheese?!

I like to participate in the holiday consumer crush. I am an American, after all, even if I'm little.

Shopping wears me out. But I do look stylish when I sleep, thanks to my special Disney outfit from Savta.

Oooh, keep talking, I'm paying close attention!

I wuv you!

Just call me Superman when I sleep.

Josh is so cool. He's the only rabbinical student who can quote Star Trek along with Mommy!

It's great when Daddy works at home. At least for me. Here he is on a conference call at 11pm, helping me go to bed.

My cats are gay lovers. Are all cats this way?

Rudolph's first cousin on his mother's side, Shlomo.

What's been going on, in no particular order

Becca's visit has been wonderful. Now that I'm feeling better and am over the flu, we've been going out and having fun. Mind you, she's been teaching in Korea for six months, so going out means doing "American" things like having Mexican food and visiting Target (both of which I love). We've been renting movies (go see Forgetting Sarah Marshall), watching Star Trek:TNG episodes, baking cookies, and playing with the baby. Last night Xander refused to go to bed until nearly 1am, and Becca stayed up and kept me company - we had long conversations on multiple subjects, all sung to the tune of Brahm's Lullaby so that the baby would still feel relaxed. Today she went running on the treadmill with him in the wrap, and the baby kicked his feet and gurgled along happily.

We went out to buy a cloth diaper bag yesterday (literally a bag to put used diapers in when we're out), at this cool store downtown. But I was so excited to find a good parking spot and I was focused on getting the baby out of the car out of the rain, and I just took the kiddo into the store and locked the car. I completely forgot to put money in the meter. We got back and lo and behold, I had gotten a ticket. I told Jonathan about it and felt very sheepish. "The diaper bag was $18," he said. " And the ticket was $25. So all in all, we spent $45 on that little bag?" "Um, yeah," I replied. "I'm sorry. I feel really stupid." "That's okay," he said. "I spent $83 on a hammer once."

Xander is growing by leaps and bounds. Two weeks ago, at eight weeks old, his 0-3 months clothes stopped fitting. All the outfits are too short, even if they fit him perfectly in width. Some of the clothes we got as gifts that I washed so he could wear (like Savta's cute elephant sleeper), he never even wore! I put him in a new 3 month outfit today and his feet are already at the end of the sleeper and the sleeves stop before the wrists. He's tall, Daddy's kid by far. He's also started to spit up and drool some, as well as gurgling and making noises. He now grabs onto things, like my hair when nursing or Jonathan's nose when he sings him songs. So yay for reaching new developmental milestones! Another new discovery is that he doesn't like it when I drink milk or eat tomatoes (we were finally able to narrow it down). So as long as I'm breastfeeding, I guess I'll have tomato-less salads and stick to soy chai at Starbucks.

The cats have now fully adapted to all the changes. Simcha's as friendly as ever, and Osher goes outside for a few hours a day and then comes back in. Sometimes we'll hear major hissing outside that sounds like a catfight, and whenever I run to the door I see Osher all fluffed up standing on our porch, defending our house against the errant neighbor cat. He's also still very much into squirrels, and will chase them around the neighborhood regardless of snow.

And that's about it on the home front. Pictures/videos to follow soon.

Urg

Recovering from a bad case of the flu. Will update later. Thank god Becca is here to take care of both me and the boy when Jonathan's at work.

Note to self:

Never bring cat to the vet with baby in the backseat. They were fine on the way there. But on the way back Osher was very unhappy with his vaccination shot, and the baby was hungry.

My ears are still ringing.

More videos and pics

#1 - Awake and chillin' with the parents

#2 - For full context.


#3 - An hour later. Passed out kid.

Wow, it's snowing!

See all the tracks directly under the window? That's where Osher circled back and forth meowing to Simcha, who was still inside.

Side wrap = how I spend most of my days.

A very busy week

Xander (pronounced Zander) had his two-month checkup yesterday, and is now officially growing like a weed. He’s up to 11.2 lbs, and is 23 inches long. Basically, he’s tall and lanky. The pediatrician also said that she thought his eyes wouldn’t change. Meaning, he’s gonna continue to look exactly like his daddy. But that’s okay, because so far, with his aversion to cold and love of sleep, he acts exactly like Mommy!

Here is a picture that makes him look chubbier than he really is, but it’s a good shot of eye color:


He also had his first vaccination shots and took them like a trooper, just sleeping a lot.

Waking up slowly with a stretch

We spent last weekend morphing the spare room into the guest room, and the previous guest room into the nursery. The nursery is still in progress, so pics will follow in a couple weeks when we get a mattress (right now we’re using a crib, but I’d like to shift over, according to the Montessori method). We also moved to cloth diapers from disposables. I feel much better about it, seeing as it’s better for the environment as well as for his tush. But oy, I do a laundry load of diapers every day now.

Xander has been having many outings lately:

Here we are with Maura at a restaurant called Noodles. You can see his cute red outfit, but you should know he’s also wearing fabulous “My First Hanukkah” socks sent by Tante Edna.

Me and Xanderbug

With Jessica. She brought over a gift from her mom (hi Lynne!), who sewed him a very cool homemade full-body bib.

A few more pics from last week, when Holly was here:

Simcha and Greg exploring each other.

Almost artsy shot of the boy.

Carrying a sleeping child up to bed.

I realize that many of the baby shots are of him in his bouncy chair. He actually spends very little time in it, unless we're eating or I'm doing something that is uncomfortable for him to be in a wrap (like chopping salad). For some reason it's only when I'm looking straight at him in it though that I remember to take a picture... have no fear, he won't get a flat head from lying down too much!


In other news, Park and Vine, this great organic eco-friendly store, had a huge sale, so Jonathan and I picked up the cutest diaper bag ever, as well as some stainless steel water bottles.

Bottles and animal-print diaper bag

What else? Osher is a silly, stupid cat who likes to go outside in all weather, then meows piteously at the door five minutes later when he realizes it’s raining sleet.

Me one, Bethesda North Hospital zero: they were charging us fifteen hundred dollars for “Baby Boy Loving”’s hospital stay, namely the nursery, labs, and pediatrician. None of which we utilized. They argued that even though he was born at home, he COULD have needed all those things, and they were available to him. I finally said that I COULD have cancer and needed chemotherapy drugs, but I didn’t. And they don’t charge me for those, either. Needless to say, I got a message today from the supervisor saying that all the charges were revoked. Hooray!

Life is slowly reverting to pre-baby, or shall I say integrated-baby-ness: Jonathan is working insane hours so that his team can make all the January 1st deadlines, and I resumed teaching my adult Hebrew class again today. It was great, they didn’t mind at all that I changed a diaper and nursed during our session! I also met with the dean at HUC, and it looks like I’ll be going back to school part-time in the spring. But between an intensive one-week course (on LGBT issues and Judaism!) and my summer classes, I won’t be too terribly behind class-wise.

Now off to Shabbat pizza and movie....

The mommy list

When I was pregnant people would always tell me that life was about to irrevocably change. Sure, I said, but how? "I can't tell you, it's hard to explain," they said. But now that I've had a baby, I disagree. So here is my list of how life changes pre- to post-baby. Feel free to comment with criticisms or additions!



- Whatever you’re doing is less important than the baby. Whether it’s the last paragraph of a book you’re reading, or in the middle of sorting laundry, or whatever, you have to drop everything when the baby cries. To your surprise you find that this is only sometimes frustrating. Most of the time it is strangely fulfilling.

- You will always be late when going somewhere, even if you prided yourself on being on time before the baby was born. And you won’t mind it, because the lateness is related to meeting the baby’s needs: s/he will always need a diaper change or want to nurse the moment you finish adjusting the car seat straps.

- You schedule social events based on the baby’s nap and cranky times.

- Your pets, who had been your babies before, become mere pets. They’re still adorable and lovable and are your babies’ brothers or sisters…but you only have one “babeleh” now, and it doesn’t have fur.

- Your house becomes imminently messier. And it bugs you to death, but you have to let some things go, and housekeeping is one of them.

- The things that have always been of paramount importance in your life – dreams, hopes, whatever – will go on the back burner in light of the baby's presence in your life (I.e. I still want to be a rabbi, but I don’t mind so much now if it takes three more years instead of two).

- You will never again watch a rented movie without at least three interruptions.

- You always hated those people who had children and then only talked about baby things, but then you find that you’ve become one of them. You have to work hard to have a conversation about anything else. And it doesn’t bother you as much as you think it should.

- You find it possible to have various conflicting emotions at once: loving the baby in your life while wanting your old life back. Loving your partner for taking care of the baby, but wanting your partner to put the baby down and pay attention to you. Wanting to stay home with the baby forever, but wanting to go back to work/school/un-baby things. Being frustrated with the baby's helplessness while loving it for that very dependence. And you feel all these at the exact same time.

- The biggest act of service your partner can provide for you becomes something like changing a diaper at midnight.

- You will almost never finish a meal with the food still hot, and you will always be the last one eating.

- Your friendships morph into two distinct categories: those with kids and those without kids. You are still close to people in the no-kids category, but you also find yourself seeking out new communities and relationships to help you adjust to this new part of your life.

- Bodily functions cease to gross you out.

- If the baby is a morning person, you become a morning person. No matter how unlikely that may seem before the child's birth.

- You start to see the world in a whole new way, whether it be politics or the environment or the food you eat. All it is now filtered through the lens of how does this affect my child? What will s/he inherit?

- You consciously think of your own childhood much more often, so that you can either duplicate your parents' successes or avoid their mistakes.

- Free time becomes precious. You horde it. Child-free emailing or blog posting restores your soul in a way that you never before could have imagined.

- You become adept at doing most tasks one-handed.

- You are ALWAYS tired. Make that exhausted. It's not that the baby doesn't sleep; it's that you can't sleep in small increments like he or she does and feel rested. And when you are awake, general tiredness means you often can't think clearly and do the things you wanted, even when you do have the time.

- You find that you have less to say to your partner at night. Interesting things have gone on, and you want to share, but you've also been keeping up a running monologue to the baby all day and you're tired of talking.

- Washcloths, which you never really thought about before, all of a sudden take on prime importance as you discover their nuances and myriad uses.

- You live through someone else's emotions. The baby's smile makes your day. The baby's pain feels like your own.

- And last but not least, you love in an entirely new way. Not like for a friend, or a parent, or a partner. It's a unique type of eros that you've never before experienced. You would do anything for your child without so much as blinking. You just... love. Unconditionally. And in this case, you must admit, you honestly can't explain why, or tell someone without children what it feels like. It just... is. And it's beautiful.

A glimpse inside our relationship

Usually in this blog I write about life in Cincinnati, school, or fun general things. I rarely write about my and Jonathan's marriage, primarily because (to quote a friend) we're "disgustingly happy." But something happened the other day that I thought was fascinating.


Scene: Late afternoon on a dreary gray day. Michal is in the kitchen, cooing to the baby while doing dishes. Jonathan is outside using the leaf blower to collect the leaves from the yard.

Michal: "Hmm, I want chocolate."

Michal brings mini-Snickers outside, tells Jonathan to open his mouth. Jonathan looks befuddled but complies. Michal pops chocolate inside.

Jonathan: "Thank you."

Jonathan chews chocolate, swallows, and returns to leaf-blowing. Michal returns to dishwashing inside the house.


Now, this seems like a very simple transaction, but Jonathan and I have since dissected it to death. Why did I bring him the mini-Snickers? Because I love chocolate and wanted to show him I loved him. One of my love languages is food, so by providing Jonathan with a Snickers by surprise, I thought he would feel overcome with tenderness and know immediately that I appreciated his yard work.

Jonathan, on the other hand, does not have the same association with food that I do. Instead, he thought that I had wanted chocolate and felt guilty about eating it, so then gave some to him as a way to alleviate my guilt. It was only afterwards that he realized, "OH, it's a sign of love." At around the same time I realized, "Jonathan doesn't care about food. That probably meant nothing."

Later that night I asked him what would be his quick symbol of "I love you, thank you for doing icky lawn work." And you know what he said? "Come outside and give me a kiss." "A kiss?" I asked. "That's it?" "That's it. A kiss means love much more than chocolate ever could."

It seems so simple. This understanding is better for our marriage. But, still, I don't get it... how does food not equal love?!

Important things to know

Fresh Market Bakery has a superb chocolate fudge pie. It didn't even last one night in our house. That's bad... it was a big pie.

Due to Simcha's habit of smothering the heat vents with his body, he is now constantly full of static electricity. If one were to say, hold him up over the humidifier and let the mist engulf him, one can neutralize said static electricity. One would think Simcha would mind such treatment. He does not. He in fact, purrs.

Jean can make amazing Thanksgiving brisket. We were stuffed with stuffing when we left her house.

All praise the woman at Costco who said that Xander looked wise. She thought he was at least three months old because of the way he held up his head and was so alert.

The yard has a LOT of leaves. We know this because Jonathan spent an inordinate amount of time cleaning them up before they attracted bugs.

The baby loves Black Friday shopping with Dad. Mom loves it too, because she got in a three-hour nap while father and son steam-rollered the stores.

And the best part... there are still two more weekend days left!

Fabulousness

My MA thesis postulated that according to Immanuel Kant's philosophy of personhood, gays and lesbians should be allowed to legally adopt children. In it I quote from various state and federal laws. Happily, one of my chapters is now inaccurate: the Florida ban on gay adoption was declared unconstitutional!

Pictures and videos

Swaddle boy

With Holly and Greg

Hanging out in my bouncy chair.

Lots of other pictures can be found here.

Xander learning to stick out his tongue.

Here is the babeleh hiccupping as we talk.




Smiling at the mobile, part one.




Mobile part two.




Ignore my terrible scratchy voice. Here he smiles when I sing.




Osherle chasing the laser dot.

Long belated update

Wow. I think this has been the longest lag time in posting, ever. Oh well. That’s good, it means I’ve been busy!

Liz not only brought over her recipe book but made us fudge! She got me an introductory sewing kit and taught me a few basic things (like how to sew on a button) which I desperately needed. Her visit was wonderful, and Alexander was always quiet whenever his Shamma (Gaelic for grandmother) rocked him. We drove up to Columbus on her last day to see Natasha and Kevin's new apartment and meet Kevin's family. Liz played Wii bowling while I pigged out on Natasha’s homemade spinach artichoke dip.

That same day Holly flew in from Omaha. She and her 17 month old, Gregory, helped teach me how to go out and about with a baby. We did everything, from grocery shopping to going to bookstores to singing kid songs to figuring out new ways to use my wrap (I can now put Alexander sideways as well as facing me). She and I met up with various crunchy home birth friends of mine, each with other toddlers, and went out to lunches and errands. For example, Maria brought over her son to play and we later saw her again at a La Leche League meeting. On Friday our outing to the Children’s Museum expanded as there were three adults (me, Holly, Pam) and four kids (one mine, one Holly’s, two of Pam’s). Her last night we had over Elbie and Dave for dessert and whipped up some fabulous chocolate fondue.

HUC students have been wonderful about keeping in touch and bringing us meals (THANK YOU). Osher has decided that he wants to be an indoor/outdoor cat, so we got him chipped and gave him the feline leukemia vaccine. And I went back to teaching Sunday school two weeks ago and didn’t realize how much I’d missed it. Two quick stories: one, last week in art the kids were making clay mezuzahs. One decorated his in silver and gold puffy paint. “Cool!” said the 3rd grader next to him. “Jewish bling!”

Two, I loved how Noah, the rabbinic intern, discussed the Torah portion where Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, chose Rebecca to marry Isaac. In attempting to relate to the children at youth services, he said, “Eliezer was Abraham’s right-hand man. Nothing would have happened without him. Think of them like Batman and Alfred. Where would Batman have been if Alfred hadn’t been there to clean the cave and make sure everything worked right?!” I cracked up.

In terms of baby news, Xander – which is what we’ve decided to call Alexander instead of “Alex,” when we choose to use a nickname – has hit many baby milestones in the past few weeks. He can now… drumroll please… blow spit bubbles! He smiles and coos (and is oh so adorable when he does it, if I may say so myself). He’s very alert when he’s awake, and is fascinated by Jonathan’s face, a rattle that Holly brought, and the burgundy/cream tile pattern on our living room fireplace. He sleeps four to five hours a time at night starting at around midnight or 1am, then usually nurses once and goes down for another two hours. He’s still meticulous about his diaper and lets us know immediately if it needs to be changed. We introduced a bottle and a pacifier, and he’s taken to both, though we only use them in moderation (the bottle when I’m at Sunday school, and the pacifier when I’m not around or in the car). He's up to 10 pounds now, and has grown out of his "newborn" sized clothes and is in "0-3 months." I have probably about 200 pictures and ten videos of the past two weeks to sort through, so once I get them organized I'll be sure to post.

And last but not least, since it has actually snowed twice here and my neighbors are already stringing up their Christmas lights, I don’t feel too early in posting this link in the spirit of Hanukkah. Courtesy of Sheryl, behold the Seattle Men’s Chorus Ensemble singing cowboy Dreidel.

A non-baby post

So a long time ago I was tagged by my cousin Katie to list six of my quirks:

1) I'm obsessed with Brangelina. They're beautiful people who exemplify the concept of mitzvot. I love them. How many celebrities actually donate a third of their paycheck to charity?!

2) For the life of me I have to concentrate to be able to tell my right from my left. Honestly, it's really weird, it takes me a split second to process. I blame the fact that I skipped first grade when we learned the difference. It's easier for me to translate Hebrew on the spot than to figure out if a turn is L or R. I have this feeling that this is directly related to #3,

3) I can't give directions to save my life. Most of the embarrassing moments in my life are related to this fact.

4) When I go to sleep I have to be lying on my right side. Otherwise it's just not "sleepy position," and falling asleep takes three times longer.

5) I have to take notes in class with paper and pencil or pen, not a laptop. I'm one of only two holdouts in my rabbinic school class to do so. It's so visual for me, I can't remember anything if I type it. But if I physically write, I retain the information.

6) I have great willpower in eating, except with Hot Tamales candies. For some reason half a box disappears in one sitting!

And now for shout-outs: happy very belated bday to Chana P., mazel tov on Jessica and Michael's engagement, yay to Gwen for her new office, and another mazel tov on the birth of Eden, Jonathan and Yael's new son.

As if I had any doubt...

I feel like I am now officially the mother of a baby boy.

Today, changing his diaper, I got pee in my eye.


Also, check out today's NY Times article about the rising popularity of home birth: Baby, You're Home. Many thanks to Becca for the link!

More pictures

Abba, myself and the baby the day he left. Alexander has grown even since this picture. He had his one-month checkup on Thursday, and he now weighs 8 lbs, 12.4 oz, and is 21.5 in long.

Baby's first trip to Target. It was Mommy's first trip to a store by herself with the baby, too. A 20 minute errand took an hour as we had two diaper changes, crying, and hunger to deal with. But like Obama, we did it!

For the next shopping trip to Meijer's I went with the wrap. Holly introduced me to babywearing in this type of wrap, and I was scared at first (it seemed so complicated). But one of my home birth friends came over and literally helped me to wrap it and put the baby in, and now I love it! It's hands-free, so I can do errands around the house, go shopping, and even take walks around the neighborhood (which I've actually done once, thank you for scoffing). The only bad thing is, I try to take him places to stimulate his senses (we even visited HUC!), and then the walking and my heartbeat lulls him to sleep! So maybe it isn't working as well as I want. :)

Jonathan making dinner. The baby was completely awake the whole time, and looking all around (perhaps there's something interesting on the ceiling?) I think he stayed awake because Jonathan wasn't walking around so much, just moving between the stove and the counter.

When the baby was first born he slept in a co-sleeper next to us, a sort of crib that attaches to the bed at the same height as our mattress. But he kept waking up in the middle of the night with cold hands. So as an experiment, we set up a travel crib that Carl and Anne had lent us in Jonathan's office, and put the space heater up to 78 degrees. He then slept 5 hours straight! So there goes the sleeping-with-us thing... apparently he has my Mediterranean thermostat and loves heat! Also note the mobile hanging from the fan, he loves the black and white cards. We'll move the crib into the guest room in December once guests leave, and then we'll transform the room into the nursery.

Speaking of guests, Jonathan's mom, Liz, is visiting from CA. She's going to teach me how to sew (because at this point I can't sew on a button), and today she got the ingredients to make a cherry cream cheese pie. Next up, taco soup!

My sister-in-law Natasha lives in Columbus, and drove Liz down from the airport. Alexander had a ball playing with her and making faces.

I said that the cats were acting weird? Osher found the highest spot in the house from which to look down on the baby: the top of the front door.