"Why don't we give some water to Winnie the Pooh"
I said and held Nat's cup up under the bear's nose. (This particular Winnie the Pooh does not
seem to have a well defined mouth.) Nat liked this very much. He proceeded to "give water" to his
tiger, another bear and his zebra. (Covering
their protruding muzzles with the cup seemed to qualify.)
Monday, May 6, 2013
Imagination
"Our son has imagination," said Nick as we watched
Nat walk around the house with an empty cup in his hands. Notably, one of the things he was doing with
the cup was holding it up to his mouth and tilting his head as far as he
could. He was clearing doing what his
dad does when he is finishing a cup of juice.
And then we took it to the next level.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
A Long Weekend in Philadelphia
A couple of weeks ago we visited Philadelphia --our
first time traveling with Nat to a place we have never been before.
Overall the trip was definitely a success:
Philadelphia
definitely holds a lot more for us to explorer.
My only pet peeve was how unfriendly the city's public transit system
seems to be to traveling with babies.
And I am not even talking about elevators at every subway station--that
would be luxury. When we boarded a bus,
we were immediately asked to fold the stroller.
The trolley doors are so narrow, that it is hard to walk on just
carrying a folded stroller. These issues
did not present a problem for us because there were three of us, and because
Nat is not tiny baby anymore. However,
it seems that a parent traveling alone with a child under 6 months could not
use the bus or the trolley system unless the child was in a carrier and not a
stroller.
He did pretty well, minus a tantrum on the way back when he woke up crying inconsolably. On the way back Nat also met a very nice 13 month old girl, Menea. This little girl was clearly used to spending time with other babies. She alternated between giving Nat her toys and taking them away. When prompted by her mom, she would also give Nat and me hugs. Nat, who has not had a chance to meet other babies, mostly just stared. Clearly curious, but also a little bit afraid, he just did not know what to do.
Overall the trip was definitely a success:
- We visited Brooke (Even IF we did not drive her crazy by our slow pace and loud banter late into the night, we surely drove her cats crazy.)
- We saw a little bit of different parts of the city
- We ate some excellent food
- Nat did not have too much of a hard time with all the traveling, and he loved the kitties
Hopefully, this trip was our first, but not our last trip to
Philadelphia . We strolled around different neighborhoods, admiring the all the different row houses. We walked by the Independence
Hall, peeked at the Liberty Bell through the window, and stopped by the Reading
Terminal Market for lunch. Nick even had
time to explore the Philadelphia Museum of Art with Brooke, while Nat and I walked along the Schuylkill
River and learned a little bit
about the first water works in the country. We even said "Hello" to New Jersey from Penn's Landing area on the Delaware River .
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| A view of New Jersey from Penn's Landing across the Delaware River |
Nat really enjoyed eating out--being held hostage by the
high chair is much easier when there are all these interesting things and
people to look at. He also really liked
the two kitties who are temporarily living with Brooke. It did not take Nat long to start chasing the
cats around the apartment trying to grab their tails. We kept trying to teach him proper cat
petting etiquette, but the wagging tails were just so enticing and just at the
right height. I have to say that these
two cats were extremely nice--they did not retaliate against him not
once.
The trip marked the second time that Nat traveled on a
train.
![]() |
| Martino |
He did pretty well, minus a tantrum on the way back when he woke up crying inconsolably. On the way back Nat also met a very nice 13 month old girl, Menea. This little girl was clearly used to spending time with other babies. She alternated between giving Nat her toys and taking them away. When prompted by her mom, she would also give Nat and me hugs. Nat, who has not had a chance to meet other babies, mostly just stared. Clearly curious, but also a little bit afraid, he just did not know what to do.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
More Socks
Here is my third attempt to make it to the finals of the Design A Sock contest, held by Sock It To Me. Wish me luck!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Point!
Sometime this morning, Nat took a sock out of my boot and carried it around for awhile. In case you do not know, socks are excellent for shaking, holding above your head, covering your eyes with (especially while walking), and stuffing into your mouth... When he was done, he put the sock back in my boot. When I went to put on my boots this afternoon, I found 3 toys stored in my boots.
In other news, Nat started pointing today. When I tried to rock him to sleep for his nap this afternoon, he held his head up and pointed to his crib. He wanted me to put him in his crib, so that he could walk around on his mattress while wearing his sleeping sack...
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Time Just Flies - Recapping the Holidays
There is so much to write about and so little time to do it. In the meantime our baby is rapidly turning
into a toddler.
First of all I have been meaning to recap the holidays--they
were great. All three of them!
(Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years).
We lit candles for Hanukkah every day--a first for us. Of course Nat will not remember any of it,
but it still felt nice to do.
Our Christmas might have been a little frenzied, but we hit all the "essentials": family (one of the bigger turn outs this year), rolls, Christmas jello, sugar high, interesting cocktails (ok, Nat might have skipped those last two...).
ClearlyWalla
Walla deserves a lot more coverage than just one
sentence. In contrast, there is not much
to say about our New Years celebration--just us at home, with a little bit of
cake, strawberries and champagne.
Our Christmas might have been a little frenzied, but we hit all the "essentials": family (one of the bigger turn outs this year), rolls, Christmas jello, sugar high, interesting cocktails (ok, Nat might have skipped those last two...).
Clearly
Of course there was also Nat's first airplane ride, and he
was a trooper. He fussed a bit, but not
unreasonably. During take off and
landing, he fell asleep instead of screaming.
Unfortunately, our car ride to and fromWalla Walla ,
which is only marginally shorter than the plane ride, was not nearly as
pleasant. Nat hardly slept, and screamed
bloody murder for over an hour each way.
The short periods of time he did not scream were all due to Aunt Brooke's
creative entertainment. (Thanks,
Brooke!)
Unfortunately, our car ride to and from
In addition to meeting a lot of family for the first time
over the holidays, Nat also got to spend quality time with several dogs. Being a very small animal himself, he was
cautious at first. While Mojo, the
energetic pug, scared Nat out of his high chair for good, Roo, the super mellow
Newfoundland mix was the favorite
despite his enormous size. After a
couple of days in the same house, Nat chased Roo with happy squeals. He also maintained what he must have deemed a
safe distance of about a foot when the dog was facing him, and promptly
"ran" away with similarly loud squeals if Roo moved towards him.
Now over a month has passed.
While Nick and I have barely had time to recover from the holidays, Nat
grew two more teeth, started walking on his own, and stopped being a
vegetarian. He is still attracted to
kitchen cabinets, but has discovered how to open and close the bedroom door, and grew absolutely obsessed with lifting the flaps in his Toes, Ears and Nose! book.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Donating Bone Marrow
Five years ago I registered with the National Marrow Donor Program. It is notoriously difficult to
find a match for someone needing a bone marrow transplant, and I wanted to
help. At the same time, because it is so
difficult to find a match, I did not really expect to ever be contacted.
So you can imagine my shock when last October I received an
email informing me that I was a possible match.
I followed the instructions and got in touch with the people in the
donor program. I had to make some
difficult choices. For a variety of
reasons the program provided me, the perspective donor, with limited
information while asking me to make an unconditional go/no-go decision
upfront.
For example, there are multiple methods for extracting bone
marrow. The least invasive and the most
common one used currently requires the donor to take medication for at least a
week. For a breastfeeding mother like
me, 7 days of medication implied 7 days of pumping and dumping, while my baby
ate frozen breastmilk or formula. I knew
my baby would be in no danger of malnutrition, but I worried that he would
inadvertently be weaned by the time I was ready to breastfeed him again.
Many questions whirled around my mind. Who is more important to me, my baby or a
leukemia patient I have never met? Can I
compare the benefits of breastfeeding to an attempt to give someone another
chance to live? Can I subject my family
to the extra work that will result from my pumping around the clock, having to
feed the baby from the bottle around the clock, not to mention dealing with me
potentially feeling weak and/or sick from the medication and the donation
itself?
Feeling overwhelmed, I called my very good friend whose
brother has now been cancer free for two years after having a bone marrow
transplant. Talking to her made the
decision easy. I never wanted to wonder
whether someone could have lived but died because I was worried that my baby
might wean too early. I never wanted to
wonder if parents lost their child because I was worried about the possibility
of having to feed formula instead of breastmilk to my baby. I never wanted to wonder if children lost
their parent because I was worried about having to do more work while feeling
tired. My concerns fizzled away in
comparison to losing someone who could have lived.
So I agreed to proceed.
As it turns out, my bone marrow was not needed this time
around. Perhaps a better match was
found, or the patient decided against the procedure, or the doctors decided
against the procedure for this patient.
I will never know what really happened, but I am glad that I will never
have to think back to this episode in my life and wonder "what if..."
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Our First Sensory Bag
Since I never have enough time to write for the blog, I thought I would try a more visual approach.
Here is what I did last night after putting the baby to bed, baking some shortbread and making my lunch for the next day.
This is our first "sensory bag", something I came across on the internet (where else). This taped Ziploc bag contains baby oil, water and food coloring. It is squishy. The color blobs change shape. It is supposed to be a great thing for the baby to explore. Nat liked it, but I think I was more excited about it than he was.
Here is what I did last night after putting the baby to bed, baking some shortbread and making my lunch for the next day.
![]() |
| Later Edit: This is NOT blood (Это НЕ кровь.) This is food coloring! |
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