Friends of Long Standing September 28, 2009

(I like to use long standing instead of old.)

One of oldest and dearest, Dori, came in last weekend. She’d never met Sweet Ari (as she calls him) before. There are people you really hope make an effort to continue to be a part of your life as you move away and through the paces, and Dori has always been one of those people. Aside from being really fun and great company, she reminds me how far we’ve all come.

Also her brother is a really great blues guitarist and we went to see him with Ruthie Foster (who is incredible) at the Monterrey Jazz Festival, which I highly recommend. She also joined us on our apple-picking (and pie eating) adventures.

You may notice Ari movin and groovin in these pictures.

Tradition September 27, 2009

One of the things I love most about parenting is the responsibility to both honor and reinterpret tradition, in a way that connects my family to the broader world while also feeling special and unique to us.

As many of you know, Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is a celebration of life, the year coming full circle, and the sweetness of the year to come. Its a harvest festival. We dip apples in honey, as it wouldn’t be a Jewish holiday if there weren’t a food tie-in.

So we went apple picking. Amazing how you can go apple picking practically anywhere. It was awesome and really a lovely way to get out and honor the new year.

Cultcha September 27, 2009

At the end of said very long week, Roy surprised me with a date night. And I gotta give the guy credit, he found the coolest thing around. Perhaps the best thing we’ve done since we moved here.

Pop-Up Magazine.

Lets just be crystal clear here. We’re as quick as anyone to critique the so-called intellectuals of the Bay Area as being too liberal to be practical, too technology-constrained to be able to interact with normal people, etc. One, we may have to stop doing that and Two, we may have found our people.

Pop-Up Magazine is like the best magazine you’ve ever read, performed live (kind of like the Moth, but timely and nonfiction). Journalists, filmmakers, photographers, people who work at NPR, urban planning people, political people and just people who know stuff tossing around ideas. Excellent storytelling, excellent and wide-ranging topics. The stories behind the stories. It was pretty awesome.

One of those weeks September 27, 2009

Do you ever have those weeks where everything just feels like its falling apart?

I had one of those this past week, a bad one (hence the silence on the blog), predicated on nothing really within my control. It was a little scary, actually, I haven’t felt this way for a whole week before, only compounded by now being responsible for another life whose moods reflect mine.

As I pick up where I left off (last week, Before), I’m left trying to gleam the lesson. Say No More doesn’t really fit these circumstances. Relax is kind of impossible. Go With It? Life Happens? Stop Trying To Be It All?

None of these sound quite right. I do know that I’m supremely grateful to have friends, including some local (which feels like a marked achievement 2 years into our life here), who were not only there when I called, but who came pretty close to forcing themselves on me. It is often hard for me to ask for help until too late, and I’m just so glad that when I did there were people willing to drop everything.

I’m so glad to be getting away for a few days this week. I need a re-group.

The Monkey Men September 27, 2009

Um, my son is a sports fan?? September 26, 2009

First baseball game. Cubs at Giants. Cubs won.

Techmology September 21, 2009

When Roy is away we call him every morning on speakerphone. As this photo perfectly demonstrates, the speakerphone button is the one that lights up and stays lit up, and is therefore a prime target, making the calls, well, punctuated?

We miss you honey- you can come home now.

Ari is 1 September 18, 2009

I am starting a tradition. Every year, on (or, um, around) our child’s birthday, I am going to write verse. Specifically, a haiku. And I will add one additional stanza every year. This first one is a little lonely, but you have to start somewhere.

Our mini-man
Looks like Sara or like me?
Just himself, Ari…

Sleep Training September 16, 2009

Part of me is hesitant to write about sleep, because I want to do nothing to change the fact that we are blessed with a pretty good sleeper (or reduce the chance that this repeats itself with subsequent children). But alas, we’ve alluded to it twice and its a popular topic among us parental units.

We spent the first year of Ari’s life hearing horror/success stories from other parents about crying it out. We could never do it, and we didn’t really need to. Ari started sleeping through the night at about 3 months, and we’ve only relapsed two or three times, after travel. After this last vacation, we changed our tune a bit. Ari’s figured out how to manipulate us through crying, so we figured we might as well give it a shot. So we read the copy of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child thats been sitting on our shelf for months. Its a great book (Roy’s favorite quote: Sleep begets sleep. The more they sleep the more they sleep. It isn’t logical but it is biological.) It comes down to teaching your child to relax on his own. It does involve crying-it out, though it also offers more gentle methods.

Tip: go with rip-off-the-bandaid, let em cry, just read the book while they are crying!

At any rate, after an hour and fifteen minutes of crying on night one, zero morning naps for 4 days in a row last week, etc, ad nauseum, Ari now goes down for bed and naps on a schedule with zero fuss, and has for 3 days in a row. We taught him how to sleep in 5 days.

Anyone out there tortured? Try this book.

Vital Stats for the Arinaut, 1 year, 2 weeks, 5 days September 16, 2009

Head- 48 1/2 cm (96%)
Length (Height)- 31 1/2″ (92%)
Weight- 25 lbs (77%)

He peed on the doctors scale this morning, and is presently sleeping off his shots.