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?

Thanksgiving, 2012

Well, I think it's unlikely that we'll be forgetting this Thanksgiving any time soon . . . .

Let me start at the beginning. Last Friday was Natalie's Thanksgiving Program at school. It was, as you'd imagine (and as I tell you, as an unbiased observer of such things), totally adorable. The picture quality isn't the best here, but this should give a sense of both the cute and the chaos that went into the whole thing.

Pre-performance seat hijinks:

(For those lacking vision, that's a handprint turkey on her headband. Duh.)

The show:

 Post-performance victuals:

So, you'll notice in the pictures above, Natalie has both a plate and a napkin in front of her. She actually started with an oatmeal cookie on a napkin (the picture on the right, but it looked better on the left, so that's where it is, narrative flow be dammed). She ate her cookie with no problem, and then very sweetly turned to me, took a sidelong glance at the pumpkin cheesecake remaining on my plate and said, "Mommy, let's switch plates now." Well played, kitten, well played.

In sum, adorable is hard work:

That night, Natalie started complaining that her leg was hurting because one of her classmates had kicked her. I had actually witnessed the kick in question, and while it had drawn a rebuke from the teacher, it hadn't actually drawn a response from Natalie in the moment. So, the injury didn't seem major to me. The pain came and went all weekend long, seeming to appear when she was being asked to clean up, wash hands, etc. But not really interfering with gymnastics class or trips to the park. We gave her teachers a heads-up on Monday, and they suggested that maybe it could be growing pains. We still weren't sure, and she seemed to have a pretty good day at school on Monday.

Except. Except. On Tuesday, she was worse. Not, like, a little worse, but MUCH worse. She wouldn't walk or put any weight on the leg. Mike had planned to stay home with her, anyway, since her school was closed. So he made an appointment with the pediatrician for that afternoon. When you call up and say your kid can't walk, that, um, actually generates a fairly swift response. The doctor ordered both bloodwork and xrays, both of which were normal. So, on Wednesday, Mike and Natalie went to the children's hospital for an ultrasound. Which was also normal. We were totally stumped. The kid was clearly getting worse, but everything seemed normal. Wednesday afternoon, I noticed a rash on her leg, and we called the pediatrician back. At that point, I didn't know if the rash was related, but, well, since we didn't have a diagnosis, I figured it wasn't too pesty to call again. The doctor wanted to see us.

We were there for quite some time, the night before Thanksgiving. And everyone was so kind, so pleasant, and so not-rushy. And we left with diagnosis: shingles. I know, right? Kids can get it. And they do, apparently.

And, oooh boy, compared to the things this could have been - the things that ran through my mind and the things none of the medical professionals say to you, but you suspect they are looking for - shingles is a relief. In that, you know, people recover.

Natalie is still in pain and not really walking, but we're having more moments where she's herself, so that's good.

It's not the low-key, stress-free Thanksgiving we'd planned. But sometimes the Thanksgiving you get is the one for which you're really, truly thankful.

Goat Birthday

So, the goat turned 1u,39y8,456h98j7 in goat years a few weeks ago.

After the stress of October, we were hoping November would settle down a little. Alas, both of the first two weeks of November had Mike on the road. So his birthday turned  out to be a quiet affair. We went for pizza at our new favorite local place and then came home for birthday dessert. Mike had requested chocolate cream pie after tasting some a few weeks back at a delicious place that we've just discovered near our house (bonus: it's actually really, really close!). I don't have a picture of Mike with the original pie, but here's Natalie in the restaurant in a post-pie sugar coma:

So, using the Cook's illustrated recipe, I set out to re-create that. This wasn't my cooking process, but it is a pretty cute sort of cooking-related picture, so hey....

 Anyway, here's how I did:

Not bad, eh? 

The goat also received a tortilla press for his birthday, and so far we've been treated to some magnificent tortillas!

So I mentioned that Mike had been on the road a lot. One of his trips was to speak at a university alumni event. The alumni were attending a lecture by Gorbachev, and it was the goat job to provide some insightful background and context. That left me trying to explain to Natalie what, exactly, Mike was doing. Our conversation went like this:

Me: You know how Barack Obama is our President, right? Well, Gorbachev was the leader of another country a long time ago. He did some really big, important things. And he's a very important person. So listening to what he has to say is really interesting.
Natalie: [Pause, thinking] Kind of like SuperFrog? (SuperFrog is the TCU mascot)
Me: Exactly.

For those needing a little additional visual, here's SuperFrog (he's the one on the right, kids). 

Also, here are Mike and Natalie flashing their horned frog signs (or at least attempting to do so!):

The weather's been strange (or, typical - whatever). We've definitely had a few cold-cold days, and frost enough to kill the garden - and hopefully the West Nile-laden mosquitoes. But we're still having warm and pleasant days in the 70s, too. I guess all we can say is that the misery of summer is definitely over! Anyway, long sleeves and long pants are definitely making an appearance these days. Here's Natalie, modeling some new togs from Bubbe:

 
Hope you are staying warm! And happy Thanksgiving to you! Next week (in theory), I'll have a separate post all about Natalie's Thanksgiving program at school.

Fall Fun

Natalie took her first field trip a few weeks ago! Her class (and the class above) boarded buses and went to a local farm. Given that this was her first field trip, no way was I going to miss chaperoning it! A lot of other parents also felt the same way; there were so many parents that the big joke was that we should put all the kids on one bus and all the parents on another! Actually, many of the parents (myself included) ended up driving separately - a plan guaranteed to save our sanity and our eardrums and get us back to work on time. 

Thus, we were quite the sight making our way down the freeway, two buses with kids all in car seats or booster seats, followed by seven or eight minivans / SUVs. That's a field trip, Texas style, ya'll.

But we eventually made it to the farm, had the obligatory potty stop(s) and started seeing, petting, and feeding the animals. Much fun was had by all!

The class was even (sort of) willing to (semi-) pose for something approximating a picture. You be the judge:

Before leaving the farm, they even got to go on a hayride!

Next up on the Fall Fun List was Halloween. Like last year, we went to the TCU dorm event. This is fast becoming one of our favorite fall traditions - the students are so sweet and put so much time and effort into their decorations, Natalie loves being on campus, and it's so cute to see all the other kids dressed up. And the candy, oh, yes, the candy (more on that in a minute).

First, time capsule back to last year:

And here's this year (same costume: when you're golden, you're golden, you know?):

Natalie is in Daddy's arms here because the dreaded SuperFrog mascot dared to make an appearance:

Our friend Charlotte also hosted her Toddlerween Halloween party in a local park. Unfortunately, the party fell on one of the truly cool weekends we've had so far (now we're back to comfortable 88 during the days, so weep no more for us, dear friends. Except, maybe do. Because, you know: seasons?). Anyway, it was chilly, but the kids had a blast!

  Group party shot, sort of:

So, I mentioned the Halloween candy. We came home from the TCU event with a fair amount of candy. And unlike last year, Natalie was highly interested in it.

So we settled on one piece a day for a few days. However, the genius of the TCU Halloween event is that it was about a week before Halloween. So by the time Halloween came, the candy wasn't quite so new and exciting anymore. Since we'd done our trick-or-treating at TCU, we'd decided we weren't going out again. Better, we managed to convince Natalie that Halloween was the night where you give away all your candy (I mean, why else would people be coming to your house all dressed up, right?). We'd bought some bagged candy, too. So we started with that - and it was rocky going with the first few groups of visitors. But after that, Natalie got totally into it and we stealthily added her candy to the bowl. And by the end of the night - who'd have thunk it! - all the candy was gone. I know this totally won't work next year, but, hey, we'll take what we can get.

Last, I attended the family and friends Shabbat at Natalie's school:

In conclusion: Fall fun - rock on with your kitty cat on: