Heading South

So, tomorrow morning we're going to load up Stanley and drive down to NYC. We looking forward to meeting new babies, seeing old friends, eating some Shake Shack, and maybe seeing a movie or two. Then, on the 5th day of the new year, The Bean will be taking her first flight to Florida to meet her great-grandmother. How cool is that?

I'm a tad daunted by going away for 10 days, but things already seem good as The Bean went to sleep with no fuss and, more importantly, N. and I seem to have gotten it together to get the bulk of packing done tonight rather than our usual harried morning packing and cleaning.

I know y'all will be a tad depondant that posting might be a little light in the next ten days. To keep your sprits from dampening too much, I'll leave you with another image of N. and the crazy new stroller he got in the snow.



Makes you feel a bit better doesn't it?

CONGRATULATIONS BETH AND SUSIE!!!!

I don't think these kids even read my blog before the birth of their son so there's no chance they will now now that their darling boy has finally made his appearance. But still I thought I'd give the new family of 3 some blog love! Their son was born on December 22, was 21 inches long and weighed a whopping 8 pounds! Since I don't name my own kid, I certainly won't name theirs but N., The Bean, and I are all so super excited to meet The Frog when we're back in Brooklyn (whooo hooo!!!) next week!

If you happen to see Beth and Susie and their son before we do make sure to give them some non-cyber loves!

SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW and GUESS WHAT? MORE SNOW!

So, winter has happened. And it's ugly. It snowed for something like 69 out of the last 72 hours. I know this firsthand, actually because when I wasn't changing a diaper or nursing The Bean, I was looking out the window and watching it snow. This is the extent of the conversation in our house over the weekend.
Me: It's still snowing.
N.: You can't keep saying that. It's getting old.
Me: I know. Snow is getting real old, real fast. And you know what it's not even officially winter! What am I going to be like in two months? Three? Where did we move to? How is it possible that it's STILL snowing?
N. walks out of the room to get The Bean who is screaming not because she's hungry or tired or wet but because there's so much snow.
Twenty minutes later....
Me: It's still snowing!
N. You can't keep saying that. It's getting old.
And so on and so forth ad nauseum.

We got around 2 feet of snow here since Friday. 2! Feet!
Completely unrelated to the snow, but no less tragic is that N. ran over the baby's stroller. Really. There was so much snow to get off his car that he completely forgot it was in the driveway and wham. Luckily the Bean wasn't in the stroller and luckily she has two back ups, but still. Snow makes good people neglectful parents.

Anyway, we're off to the Adirondacks for The Bean's first 1/2 Jewish Xmas. Apparently there's slightly less snow over there. Bah humbug!

Is a Lame Post Better Than No Post At All?

Probably not, but who cares. The Bean and I both got colds over the weekend. A cold is a bummer in general. Having to get up a lot to nurse with a cold is even more of a bummer. But it's worstest for The Bean since she can't blow her nose and her dad has suck up her snots with a bulby thing that he puts up her nose. Ouch! We're both on the mend though.

I wish I could say the same for the weather. We had a major ice storm, which you probably heard about. We got super lucky that our power was only out for about 9 hours and most of that was during the very early morning. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power for DAYS! N.'s school had to postpone finals till after the holidays since they were powerless and couldn't heat the dorms. So N. got an extra week to hang with his ladies in the daytime, the lucky man. The storm did teach us a lesson and we went out and got some flashlights and shotguns. You know, just to be prepared.

It snowed yesterday and it's going to snow tomorrow. And soon this blog will be nothing but rants against snow. I'm that will really build the blog's readership.

On a positive note, I got my eyebrows waxed this morning for the first time in months. There's nothing like a little personal grooming to weather a bad storm.

Friday Books!!

I was psyched to see my moms had a copy of Assisted Loving by Bob Morris on her shelf back when I was home in November. I always liked reading Morris' columns in the Style section of the Times and in radio interviews he was pretty fun. My mom lent me the book over Thanksgiving and I just finished it, but only because it was light and easy and I was too lazy to find something better.

The basic premise of the memoir is that Morris and his 80-year old recently widowed father are both dating. The problem with the book is the cover. Really. It's such an obnoxious cover that I think it brings the whole book down. It sets the wrong tone and seems to really exaggerate Morris' father's flaws. Less superficially, I think the book itself is dumbed down---the cute overrides any interesting story. I got to page 50 and thought I could really stop reading this right now because I'm not exactly enjoying it, but then out of laziness I didn't. But I feel like that also speaks to the author. I just can't believe that Morris--a total fashionista/snob--would like the cover. But one would not say no to a publisher who would push such a cover. I also bet his editor pushed him to dumb down the book. Maybe they're hoping Hollywood would buy it and they probably have, but it seems to be to the detriment of the story. The cuteness just doesn't work.

Say, Do You Still Hang in New Hampshire?

I've heard that perhaps the blog is getting a bit Beancentric and that the peoples might be interested in life in NH, which was the reason this blog was born. So....I'll answer a few questions I think you might have and then, gentle readers, you can ask me some more and I will answer them. Really. The weirder the better. Fun, no?

1. Is it cold there?
Lots of people asked me this last week and the answer WAS not really. I mean it was cool, but all of the Northeast is cool in December. But Sunday night a cold front came in and it dropped like seventeen degrees in an hour! It got so cold so fast. When I went to the dentist on Monday morning it was a whopping 4 degrees! Tuesday and Wednesday were on the warmer side. Today And it snowed like a mother. Luckily I just got new ugly boots and snow tires.
2. Do you have any friends yet?
Um....I'm not sure. I know a lot of moms and I do things with the moms but it's always about the kids, you know. What I need is someone I can call spontaneously, which I might be able to do but haven't done lately. But I certainly do go out to lunch a lot. Us moms love our lunches. Making friends with moms is a lot like dating or the first month of your freshman year. Read this if you're so inclined.
3. What do you miss most about NYC?
I missed the city the night Obama won. NH seemed so quiet although realistically I probably wouldn't have been out in the city either the quiet felt particularly isolating. I miss having my family close by. If they were around life would be different. N. and I would probably have more date nights and on those long Tuesday afternoons I could just bring The Bean to grandma's. Plus, my family is pretty cool. I miss my friends, people who have known me for years. It's hard establishing who you are with people you've just met. I miss good ethnic food. I also miss people of color. I really miss the ease of curbside recycling. In the battle of the family vs. recycling it seems the recycling is going to win.
4. Are there things you don't miss about NYC?
When I was back in the city last month I could see what a drag city life can be with a big stroller and even-bigger diaper bag. It's kind of nice having a car where you have more of an option of nursing or changing a diaper than on the 2 train. The crowds can be annoying. N's schedule was horrible back in NY and not conducive to having a Bean.
5. What else?
I don't know. Ask and all shall be revealed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BROBLY!

30 years ago today life as I knew it came to a screeching, 7lb, halt.
My brother Jacob Nunu Vasqensalez Dakini Thurston Moore Wunsch aka BROBLY was born. My reign was over. What did I do? I coughed my three year old germs right in his face the minute my folks brought him home. It's been all good since then.

I wish I was back in NYC to cough some b-day wishes his face right now, but instead I'll have to send him to cooties via the web.

Happy Birthday, little brother. Here's to a great decade, you old man!
xo, sissy

FOUR!! Months! And Couting!

Crazy that The Bean is a whopping 4 months today. She's totally rocking her four monthiness. She weighs over 15 pounds and seems very very long, but we'll get the official measurements on Thursday when we go for her second round of shots. I mean when she gets to have more of that delicious grape Tylenol.

To celebrate we tried to get crafty with some NH moms and make Bean a felt hat. N. says she looks like a Shriner and that the hat looks more like an open-ended pencil case but what does he know. (Actually he's totally right, but in our uncrafty defense we basically had another mom do the whole thing for us).

Cool Bean Things you might not know about:
She's sleeping unswaddled. In her crib. In her own room.
She's a champion at rolling from her back to her belly. The belly back to the back is still a problem though.
She's into holding her bottle and feeding herself although we don't let her do this for long stretches since she is only four months.
Jumperoo! That is jumping on her mom or dad's lap, really fast and bouncy since she has very strong, very muscular legs.
Scream-yelling because it's fun to be loud.
Pulling mom's hair and soon to be forever off hoop earnings.
Holding things in her own two hands.
Sucking her big toe!

Go Bean Go! We love you very much and can't wait to see what exciting adventures this next month will bring!

I Can't Think of A Good Title

Because I'm too stuffed. Highlights of the weekend include:
The Bean sleeping like a champ on our many long car rides.
The Bean sleeping like a champ on Thanksgiving. Two 6! hour stretches.
The Bean sleeping like a champ in our hotel room in Newport. She slept till 8:15, but that might have been because the room was freezing!
Eating a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.
Eating a great brunch on Friday.
Eating tons of pizza on Friday night.
Going out to dinner on Saturday with J. and K. and not talking about babies!
Getting to see Milk with N. while the 'rents (thank you so much!) Bean sat. This was a great movie; timely in a sad way because of Prop 8. Sean Penn is on my short list for Oscar nominations.
Hearing about the Bean's baptism from my aunt's ancient dog.
Finishing the Ms. Hempel Chronicles in only 5! days. This was a good book and although it's about a woman, it's not chick lit. Really.
Learning about Mark Whalberg's 3rd nipple!
Woohoo! Too bad Thanksgiving only happens once a year!