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Ess gezunterhait…

… as my grandmother would say – it means “eat in good health” (and this before passing a huge bowl of instant chocolate pudding).

I think the boy is ready for food. He’s watching the food from our plates to our mouths and occasionally putting his hands right into one of our plates. The pediatrician told us a few weeks back that we could start giving him food if we wanted him to sleep through the night, but we felt like if that was the only reason, it didn’t make sense, since he’s been waking up only once per night (hallelujah) for the last few weeks, and we’re pretty happy with the goat milk formula we’ve been giving him. We would wait.

Well. The last few nights the kid just can’t get full. Instead of eating a full bottle at 11 and then a couple of ounces between 2 and 4, he’s been up at 1:00, 3:30, 6:30, and so on, eating almost twice as much as he usually does at one night feeding. I think it’s almost time – and he’s 5 months old today!

As an aside: when my friend J. started giving her daughter food, she said it became immediately clear what kind of parents they were. She would put 2 bibs on the baby and feed her with a towel held under her chin; her husband would strip the baby down to her diaper and then throw her in the bathtub afterwards. Heh.

So I’m looking for tips. We want to make a lot of it ourselves, so I’m looking for a recommendation for a good (and not too expensive) baby food grinder and for good organic jarred baby food for back-up and diaper bags. And if your kid is a good eater, esp. of veggies, how did you make that happen (besides good vegetable-eating genes)? I would love to be the mom of THAT toddler – you know, the one who eats pickles and vegetarian sushi and sauerkraut.

Also, assvice about getting organized and not making the whole thing into a huge production would be appreciated.

I got a taste of it the other night – NSG got a tiny cup for Roo and put some formula in it because he kep grabbing for her glass. It all went great until it came time for him to close his mouth. But we’ve got to start somewhere.

A really, really good man

Jon was a really, really good man. He was so good that it is, in retrospect, not entirely surprising that he only lived for 40 years.

Jon and NSG were friends for many years. When Roo arrived, we gave him the Hebrew name of Jonathan, thinking that Roo would make us proud if he carried any part of Jon’s gentle and passionate spirit.

Jon’s partner Liz is making a documentary called A Passion for Change about his life. Please go read about Jon at the blog Liz has set up; if you’re so inclined they’re also looking for donations to support the making of the documentary.

I didn’t know him nearly as well as I wanted to, but I knew him enough to know that he is still contributing to all that really matters.

Panicking/reveling

I am all alone.

This morning NSG took the kid a few hundred miles south for a few days to visit some friends. It’s the first time I’ve been away from Roo for more than a work-day. He was cuteness personified this morning: giggling hysterically when I pretended to eat his feet, clutching at my face and trying to put my nose in his mouth, kicking his legs like mad as I stripped him for his bath. It was really, really hard to leave.

I panicked when I left this morning, and it seems reasonable that I’ll have a repeat performance tonight when I go home to an empty house. 

On the other hand, I’m going to sleep through the night for TWO WHOLE NIGHTS (my second and third since July). And at home I have pulled together the critical supplies: a bottle of wine, wicked spicy food that NSG can’t tolerate, a brand new paperback book, a DVD I haven’t watched yet, and knitting needles, very soft merino wool, and a pattern for something I can’t mention here (yet).

Wish me luck!

Grinch

If one more person – especially one more person who should know I do not celebrate Christmas – asks me if I’m excited about baby’s first Christmas, my head may explode.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I feel free to go off and enjoy my Jewish Christmas (movies and Chinese food, what else?) and to wish you a happy whatever-you-celebrate or just a happy (and hopefully) long weekend.

Now, off to the fray that is downtown to observe all the wild-eyed, frantic 11th-hour shoppers in their protective helmets and elbow pads.

Yeah!

No more waiting

Godot has arrived!

Go congratulate Shirky!

Happy

Random happiness today…

Leaving work at 4:30 to go to they gym and getting a great, endorphin-full work out in and still home in time to make dinner for my family

The perfect, perfect avocado I had with my lunch

The news about a friend’s adoption of her son and her impending arrival home on a date previously thought to be too soon to be hoped for (my friend, it would be way un-kosher to blog your story for you but I’m so thrilled for you I had to say something)

Roo’s discovery of his voice and the non-stop squealing and laughing he’s doing these days

The fabulous conversation we had tonight with Roo’s (bio)grandmother, who had lost our phone number and was beside herself when we called because she had been praying that we would… and the blessing I felt from her when she said she felt that she hadn’t lost a grandson but had gained two daughters

The upcoming solstice, the darkest day of the year that always feels like such the cozy, comforting kind of dark.

Anyone else want to join in?

New post

My next post, An Open Letter to the Outgoing Governor, is up at lesbian family dot org.

Go see!

Hrumph

We have been trying to buy sheets for Roo on ebay. Today, for the THIRD time in two days, we lost the auction by $2.50. I can see how people get sucked into paying exhorbitant amounts for things on ebay because of the thrill of the chase.

****

The body shop has had my car for almost two weeks. Last week they told me it would be ready the beginning of this week; today when I called they said Friday. WTF?

So I yelled. I told them I lived 25 miles away (the place is by my office), that we have two jobs and two people and that generally people who own cars actually need them. I needed it no later Wednesday, I told them.

The guy passed the buck to the appraiser, who he said had come back today for a supplement since he missed some things the first time. Fine. But why didn’t they call the appraiser after he was there – LAST MONDAY – and why did they tell me last Thursday that it would be all set at the beginning of this week if they knew the appraiser had missed some things?

Tomorrow my co-worker has agreed to play rent-a-husband and call them. It freakin’ kills me to do that but I need my  car and I’m sick of them fucking around.

****

Someone in my family is driving me up the while. I am walking on eggshells ALL. THE. TIME. I don’t know yet if I can write about it but for now I will say grrr, aaargh, and foot-stomp.

****

Bitch session over. Despite this, it wasn’t such a bad Monday. How was your Monday?

OPR

Operation Pacifier Reduction (OPR) has begun in earnest today.

We’re trying to wean him down to only sleeping and car with the damned thing. We’ve stuck with many of the things we swore we would or wouldn’t do as parents. This is not one of them.

Win some, lose some.

Today was harder on mamas than it was on baby.

Roo was very, very loud today – some whining, but generally lots of happy screeching. Tonight he couldn’t be more amped if he was plugged into a socket.

It’s after 10 and I finally managed to put him down to sleep. Small noises still coming from the bedroom suggest he’s still giving off wild electrical energy.

Fourteen hours down. A billion more to go.