Settling In

Here are a few more Jacob shots. He's such a lovely little lump of baby.

The many faces of Jacob:

 Big sister pics:

As you can see, Natalie has no ambivalence whatsoever about the role of big sister. Clearly.

Do they look alike?

Jacob has a real appetite for life!

Sometimes.

In the afternoon, we all snuggle together.

In closing, Jacob is ready to take on the world!

New Jacob albums

Here's the latest round of Jacob pictures. I've actually pulled everything from birth, the hospital stay, and our first few days at home and organized them into separate (although not necessarily expertly edited) albums.

Here's my favorite shot from Jacob's birth, followed by the whole album.

Here's my favorite shot from our hospital stay, followed by the whole album.

And here's my favorite shot from our first few days at home, followed by the whole album.

It's been going fairly well at home. Natalie is definitely interested in Jacob and always wants to touch him and bring him stuffed animals. We're still working on gentle touches and appropriate stuffed animal placement, but, hey, we'll get there. 

Jacob "sleeps" like a newborn at night (he's much better during the day, alas). Natalie spent our first night home "sleeping" like she has much of the past four months. Last night was an improvement, on both fronts, over our first night at home, so maybe things will continue to improve?

We've also been getting lots of lovely calls, emails, and texts with welcome baby wishes. Thank you! It's my goal to reply, but I'll admit I've been slow, for some reason . . . .

Jacob Samuel

Jacob Samuel Strausz was born last night (1/12/13) at 9:22pm. He was 7lbs, 6oz; 19 inches long. We are smitten!

Everything is going well: Jacob has received good reports from the pediatrician and from his hearing test, he's eating like a pro, and Natalie and Aunt Jenny were up this morning for visit. Natalie was interested in him and proclaimed that his bassinet was his "fish tank". So make of that what you will!

 We haven't pulled the immediate post-birth photos off the big camera, but here's a small album of photos taken today with my phone:

Winter Break Wrap-Up

Well, the post title is a bit misleading, since Natalie and I went back to school / work on Wednesday and Mike still has another week to go. Of course, we're all waiting on baby #2 (the porpoise-dolphin) who can come at any time and upend the work / school schedule.

Our winter break was lovely and low-key. We really didn't do much, go anywhere, or get together with many folks. It was just us, laying low. Awesome.

First, here's the promised picture of the menorah that Natalie made in school. I love the creative idea behind the branch and the washers. That said, the menorah exhibited a certain tendency to pitch forward, so we didn't actually light the candles on it every night.

In the spirit of another festival of lights, we went to the Chinese Lantern Festival over in Dallas. Our good friends had some extra tickets, and they were kind enough to share them with us. What fun! Best, since it was Texas in December, we strolled around the festival wearing only light sweatshirts.

The pictures, of course, don't do it justice. One thing that was pretty cool is that the dragon (pictured above) was totally made out of porcelain dishes, cups, spoons, etc. It was really neat to see how the artists had put ordinary kitchen things together to create a very realistic dragon.

Part of our cozy holiday was just staying in and relaxing together. In the holiday spirit, we had bean soup ("THE SOUP"), baked pumpkin doughnuts, tea, and toshikoshi cinnamon rolls.

Contributing to our cozy times, we had snow! But, luckily, we were (mostly) ready for whatever Mother Nature dished out!

 The extremely talented and generous Miso sent Natalie a knitted kitty cat.

In a challenging winter event for Mike, the TCU football team played the MSU football team in a bowl game. That called for divided loyalty cookies!

Regarding the new baby, we're all just sitting tight, waiting. Watch this space!

On Newton

I found out about the Newton tragedy while sitting in the parking lot at Natalie's school, watching the pre-k class file in to the building after lunch. The incongruity of it, the senselessness, the pain - it was too much to take. It still is.

The following is what I'd share via Facebook, but my Facebook is bound up with my employer. So I'm putting this stuff on here, on my personal blog. 

1. Newton and the Madness of Guns. This is Adam Gopnik at his best (forget Paris to the Moon). I really, really encourage you to go read this link; it's short, and you can skip the comments. I almost don't want to quote it, because I really, really feel like the whole piece is worth reading. But, well, this has been stuck in my head for weeks now:

Whatever satisfaction gun owners take from their guns—we know for certain that there is no prudential value in them—is more important than children’s lives. Give them credit: life is making moral choices, and that’s a moral choice, clearly made.

2. Silencing the Science on Gun Research. You know what I like? Science. Peer-reviewed research. Policy that is informed by both of the above. This piece is from the Journal of the American Medical Association, and it concerns CDC funding. These are our taxes at work. Or not, as it were.

3. Million Kids March. The planning for this looks like it's still in its infancy, but I think it will happen. Other than a certain inauguration four years ago, I've never wanted to do the whole giant-crowds-on-the-mall thing. But I would do it for this. The timing may not work for me, what with the whole baby-coming-any-day situation, but I hope that you'll consider attending. Or consider supporting it financially.

4. I happened across this 1997 Cheryl Wheeler song the other day.

If we, as a nation, can't get it together to restrict assault weapons, it will be a sad day.

Breaking the fast

The other day, Natalie slept until after Kate had already left for work.  Natalie was disappointed, and later Natalie asked Kate about whether Kate would be around when Natalie woke up the next day so that Natalie, Kate, and I could have an "eat party."

We have since gotten some clarification on the term "eat party."  According to Natalie, an "eat party" is when she, Kate, and I eat breakfast together.  If we eat another meal together, that is not an "eat party."  It is also not an "eat party" if we eat our "morning snack" (food Natalie usually requests before breakfast) together.  So, please update your dictionaries.

Addendum: Yesterday Natalie was telling me about a project that she did at school, which seemed to mainly involve eating M&Ms and pudding.  We asked if that project was an "eat party," and she said "No, it was a SWEET party." 

Thanksgiving dinner, birthday, and Chanukah

We're not lacking for yummy meals around here!

First, a little Natalie update: she's much, much better than she was - but still not all better. During the day, she's actually fine, and has been back at school for some time. We're still struggling to get the pain and itching under control at night, with some sleepless nights for all of us. One consequence you'll notice are that the transitions are somewhat lacking in this blog post. I guess you get the writing you pay for, no? 

But, hey, here's a picture of her being cute:

 

After the shingles diagnosis, we considered just skipping Thanksgiving - we weren't going anywhere and no one was coming over, so it wouldn't have been a big deal if we'd just decided to go the frozen burrito route. But Mike was adamant. And so we cooked the meal we'd planned. And it was great, and so worth it.

We started with my favorite easy appetizer of goat cheese, dried cranberries and roasted salted pistachios. The tangy of the goat cheese, the sweet of the cranberries, and the salty of the pistachios just all taste so good together. Try it, for real.

We also had garlicky green beans with pine nuts. We served our beans in my great aunt Toni's china dish. Green beans were always her thing at Thanksgiving, and while we didn't use her recipe, I wanted to use her bowl.

Next was the vegetarian turkey: enchiladas. Mike went all out on these and made his own tortillas and his own sauce. And, yeah, they were that good.

And what goes with pretend turkey? Real mashed potatoes, of course. We used (as we always do) the recipe belonging to Miso's mother.

For dessert? Pie. Please. I made two pies, because, really, how can you choose between apple and pumpkin-praline on Thanksgiving? And I know that there are people who might suggest that two pies for three people is excessive. In fact, pre-shingles, I was one of those people, and had planned to freeze half of each pie. Post-shingles, I needed 50 pies. So, two was, really, quite a modest amount with that perspective, no? And since you can't have pie without ice cream, I made some cinnamon-vanilla ice cream.

Official pie-taster:

Post-meal smiles:

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we started to think about how we'd manage the week ahead. I had the sick time I could take from work to care for Natalie, but - being pregnant - I wasn't really supposed to be caring for her all that much. And it was Mike's last week of classes, complete with student presentations - so he couldn't really cancel class. And so you know what the tough do when the going gets tough? Yeah, you do. You make some calls - and not to ghostbusters, either. 

My mom arrived the same day we called. She stayed for six days. You don't know how much help you need until the help arrives. We are so appreciative.


Switching gears for a minute, here are some pictures a friend's father took about a month ago. These were taken at the jungle-themed birthday party for Natalie's friend, Liam.

And, well, I guess that cupcake shot provides a nice transition back to my birthday. I had a cupcake, nicely provided by one of my co-workers.

The weekend before my birthday, Mike went all-out again, making me a lovely birthday dinner at home. We started with some delicious artichoke-potato soup (no picture, sorry) and then had some of my favorite eggplant patties with yogurt sauce:

And then, smoked paprika cod with olives and peas:

Followed by my favorite, yellow cake with chocolate frosting:

The official cake-tested approves:

Here's some more proof of Natalie's daytime return to health:

  

 

And here's Natalie practicing writing her name (or some approximation thereof):

Friday was Natalie's Chanukah celebration at school. This was less of the kids putting on a show and more of just some Chanukah celebration tacked onto their regular Shabbat program. However, the snack on Friday was latkes + jelly donuts + gelt. Natalie was okay with that.

Mother-daughter shot:

Her school sent home presents for the kids and their families - she made the sweetest little menorah in class (pictures forthcoming).  

Last, I'll share with you this Chanukah gift of toddler logic from a conversation between Natalie and Mike:

Natalie: At gymastics class my teacher called me a rock star.
Mike: What is a rock star?
Natalie: It is someone who makes good choices.

I mean, you can't write it better than that, right?