Granite Greetings

It'd wrong to start a blog about my impending move to New Hampshire and then not let people know what happened when I got there, right? Fear not my 3.5 readers. I'm here. We've been in NH for a week. N. went to work on Tuesday so Bean and I were alone for the rest of the week. We did pretty well because Bean is actually a very excellent baby. I recommend getting one like her. When she cries or fusses it's generally because she's hungry or wants to be picked up so (thank god) I'm able to console her. By Friday though I was going a little crazy mostly because I was sick of the house. I did make it a point to go out at least once a day but it was hard because it's sunny and unlike the city there's not a ton of shade in the middle of the day because there aren't any tall buildings and it's bad for the Bean to be in the sun. Plus, there's a ton of construction on our street and wheeling the stroller in the heat and up the hills is pretty intense.

But we went to post office, the bank, and on Thursday we went to this moms meeting in town. I need to talk to adults and even though baby talk can get a little ridiculous, it was helpful and the women were nice. I even went to the pub across the street with a bunch of the ladies afterwards.The back room is only for the moms so you can breast feed while eating your burger and not alarm the non-breast feeding patrons.

If our big mommy-baby outing wasn't enough, later that evening I maneuvered the Bean back down to the town Green for the farmer's market. N. met us there after work and we bought: the tastiest heirloom tomato I've ever had, organic wheat bread, corn, lettuce, and jam. We ate some dinner there and listened to some music. It was pretty fun but they do not know how to make a samosa in New Hampshire. At least not here.

If you are planning on getting a baby, I recommend getting the brand that can nap in their bassinet during the day. Our Bean is not that brand. She'll nap during the day but only while being driven or wheeled. It's very dangerous to nap while strollering so I end up pretty beat.

I do not recommend moving with a 3 week old baby because they are not conducive to unpacking. Our place is finally starting to look livable and that's thanks to N's parents who came down this weekend.

The weather here has been really nice. I hope it stays that way for the rest of the year.

Will I ever be able to post in a more narrative, less jumbled fashion? Don't hold your breath but do stop back for some other bigger than a baby news soon.

Bye-Bye Brooklyn

Last night was our last night in Brooklyn. Fittingly, we spent it eating pizza with two of our closest friends. I only cried once and that was because before we went to bed N. hugged me and said he loved me in Brooklyn. I got all weepy because this apartment has been really important to us over the last (almost) 3 years. N. and I moved here together in October 2005 when we'd been dating less than a year. We threw a 40th anniversary party for his parents that summer in our backyard; at the peak there were more than 50 people here. We got engaged in the apartment in March 2007 and returned here as husband and wife nearly a year from today. And, not to be to graphic on this family read, not far from the engagement spot was where the magic happened that landed the Bean on my lap as I write this.

It's been a great run, Brooklyn! A wonderful husband, a fabulous baby, terrific friends, and of course, mouth watering pizza.

Get ready New Hampshire, here we come!

Sleeping Beauty

You know how hard it is to get up when you have a sleeping kitten on your lap? It's 1,000 times harder with a sleeping baby. As i write this Bean is totally conked out on her Boppy which is on my lap. I could move her, but she'll probably wake up and then I'd have to nurse her (again), which would make her pass out (again) so i figure I'll just let her sleep. She's curled up like a little kitten so I really don't have the heart to move her.

My butt is totally asleep and her dad put the bottle of water out of arm's reach but I've still managed to accomplish quite bit with the phone. I changed addresses on my two magazines, renewed said magazines, changed me and N.'s address via the postal service, activated the credit card that had been sitting on the window sill for the past month. This doesn't seem like much now but it felt like things had been accomplished.

Yet another lame post. 2 for baby, 0 for blog.

Why I Haven't Been Posting

Yes, it's partly because of the nursing, cuddling, and diaper changing demands of the Bean, but it's also because my darling husband tinkered with the blog and inadvertently took away the option to post new entries. But now it's fixed. Of course because of the nursing, cuddling, and diaper changing I don't really have much to say. My brain is mushy, people.

But today we took the Bean to the Queens County Farm Museum. It's where N. and I got hitched about 50 weeks ago. Bean kept her eyes open for quite some time and we had our first semi- public feeding (there was no one around) and public changing. Good times in Queens!

We have a date for the move to NH. We're gonna be out of here on the 23rd. In a way I'm relieved we have a date and UHaul reservation and some semblance of a plan. I need to start living and being a mom in NH rather than worrying about it from afar.

And that's all I can think of right now. Hopefully, future posts won't be so random and lame.

It's A Baby, Not A Bean!!!!!

Our daughter was born at 10:42 AM on August 2nd. She was a pretty big bean at 8.5 pounds and 21 inches long. We might be a little biased but N. and I think she's incredibly beautiful.

I'm not going to use her name on this blog. The five readers who know me will know Bean's name. And just in case there are some lurkers (which is cool:) I don't want to give out her name to strangers. That way when she's 16, she can't guilt me into a bigger allowance because I like totally violated her privacy by giving her name out on the Internet, which will probably be totally old school by then. So she'll remain Bean.

Because she won't look like this soon enough, I will share a picture.



Pretty cute, huh?

Friday Books: Please Kill Me and The Ten-Year Nap

Actually, Boris, I have been reading. While in NH, I began reading N's Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. The book is a series of interviews with people in and around the 1970's Punk scene. I found it interesting, easy, and light---the kind of book you can pick up here and there without losing any plot points. It was a good to read when I was up in the middle of the night since it's pretty much gossip about all the boozing and sex that went on back in the days of Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Television, MC5, The Velvet Underground.

Man, those people could party. At nine months pregnant with nary a memory of the last time I stayed up past 1 AM, I felt pretty removed from the scene. But it was fun to read about.

Closer to home, I finished Meg Wolitzer's The Ten-Year Nap. It's her most recent book and I enjoyed it. I don't know if it's because I took a break between her novels or if I just found the topic more interesting. My problem with The Position was that I wasn't sure if it was supposed to tragic or comedic. I found The Ten-Year Nap a solidly good summer novel.

The book is about these four mothers raising young kids who aren't young enough to necessarily warrant them still staying at home. The kids are in school and a lot of the women and their families struggle financially in New York City. Yet, something holds them back from returning to the working world. The chapters dealing with the four women---a failed painter, a lawyer, a failed academic/film producer, a math whiz /econ person---are intersected with stories about their mothers--many women who had to work or truly enjoyed working. These parts tended to be shorter and at first I felt they were gimicky, but by the end, I enjoyed them more and recognized why Wolitzer needed this device.

Wolitzer remains, in my opinion, a terrific, line by line writer. She really nails the human condition and has a great sense of endings. Read this book but get it from the library. I don't see why you'd need to own it.