In Cold Books

This proliferation of posts is definitely procrastination. I am supposed to re-read In Cold Blood by Sunday for my book group, but I just can't bring myself to start. I read it 3 years ago and I have pretty good recall of it, but not sufficiently fresh to bring anything scintillating to a discussion. I remember reading the description of the murders and thinking, "Man, I hope I don't ever have to read that again." Sadly, I have not yet seen Capote, despite my worship of Philip Seymour Hoffman, since the suburban moms that Reel Moms serve wouldn't actually be interested in a movie with substance, as evidenced by the drek that is shown. Anyway, hopefully those who have can regale the rest of us with anecdotes.

Last week I read The Illuminator, which was one of those books Amazon recommended and pitched to me at paperback price for a hardcover. Sucker. Historical fiction that read like a fantasy novel, only not as intricate in its plot. For those with an inner medievalist, it's not bad, but I am never trusting reader reviews again.

I read something before that and, since I didn't put it on my list, I am momentarily blanking on what it was. Yikes. Mothering-induced amnesia. Before the missing book, I read Michael Malone's Handling Sin, which was brilliant and hilarious and, the more I think about it, the more I love it.

The Murakami story in the New Yorker 2 weeks back is also doing reruns in my brain. Our next cat will be named Haruki.

I continue to pick up a book on brain development during the first 5 years, What's Going on in There, whenever I find myself nursing in my bedroom without any other reading material handy. It is fascinating and surprisingly well written. If you're interested in cognitive development but don't have a degree in neurobiology, I highly recommend it.

Report from kitty sick bay

Cherubino has not thrown up for about 5 days. He's still on the anti-nausea meds for a bit, but the forecast is postive. Thank God.

The hunger strike of the feverish firefly

I am supposed to be at a sheva brachot dinner right now but, after a funky week, Yelena is back on a reasonable sleep schedule (easy to bed and 7+ uninterrupted hours) and I just didn't want to mess with a good thing by dragging her to a social event that began at 7:30. We sent off Eli with kisses and my couscous salad to represent for the Lifcos. Poor guy, I had to remind him of the married couple's names a few times. Social butterfly he may not be, but Firefly fan he has become and, hopefully, he will be back early enough to watch an episode. Yup, the lovely Marsha has led us back on the path of television addiction by lending us the DVD of the one-season show Firefly. If Eli didn't have to go to work and I didn't have to get up to take care of Yelena, we'd probably watch them all within a day or so. Damn, that Joss is a genius.

Yelena was under the weather last week. The contributing factors, per my hypothesis: 1. shots; 2. picking up a bug from some contagious little bugger either at a. Suzuki class, b. tot Shabbat, c. at the doctor's office, d. yoga; 3. teething. Friday she felt warm and her rectal temperature was 102.7. (I am a little disturbed by the fact that Yelena did not appear to mind me putting a thermometer in her bum, but that's neither here nor there.) It went down right away with some Tylenol and by the end of the day it was normal. She perked up and stopped spitting up (more than the usual dribbling) a couple days ago, but her pooping is on the verge of the diarrheatical and she is drooling a river, the latter two classical teething symptoms. That, and the sudden chomping of my nipples.

What disturbs me most about her malaise (or malaises), is her sudden refusal to eat solids. Thursday she ate a full serving of oatmeal in the morning, with some peas and carrots, and in the evening she had 2 T of oatmeal and a 1/2 jar of sweet potatoes. Friday she clenched her mouth shut and, except for a spoonful here or there at the coaxing of Daddy, has kept up her hunger strike. I decided to give her a day of rest from the spoon today, hoping that the novelty tomorrow will rekindle her interest. It worked before when I was introducing the rice cereal, so it's worth a shot now. The sources say not to worry and I don't want to force the issue, but I am having nightmares of her breast feeding in high school. She hasn't seemed to lost her appetitie for that any.

Health, baby and feline

Just a super quick update, since I should already be in bed. Yelena had her 6 month check-up today. She weighed in at 16 lbs. 14 oz., just shy of the 75th percentile. She is 25.5" long, or tall, however one chooses to perceive these things; she shot up, now her height is nearly at the 50th percentile. Her head circumference is steady at 75%, but don't ask me how many centimeters it is, because I didn't ask. She is healthy, developing way ahead on fine motor and social/verbal areas and, despite my concerns, she is fine on gross motor skills. I was worried because she can't sit up by herself, unless a cat is doing something so interesting she forgets to wobble, but the doctor said by this point she is only expected to sit up with assistance and do the tripod thing. (Sure, some babies can sit and scoot and boogie oogie oogie at this point, but that's the exception rather than the norm.) Either from books or the Competitive Mommies League I gathered that she should be sitting by herself at this point -- I am listening to the pediatrician instead. Anyway, no issues, healthy and diagnosed as officially beautiful by Dr. Ramadan.

My other beauty is not doing as well. Cherubino's blood work came back okay, but he is still throwing up, with quite a bit of blood on Saturday and this morning. We started him on an anti-nausea medication today and de-wormed him for good measure, in case he ate a bad bug at some point in the past 6 months. (And he is quite the little bugger.) Allegedly, there are no side effects to de-worming and the meds are cheap -- a lot cheaper than actually running a test to see if there are parasites in the stool. If he doesn't show signs of improvement, he is going in for x-rays and an endoscopy on Thursday. He is still cuddly and otherwise showing no signs of discomfort, so here's hoping.

View through whiskers

I like the way the light hit Cherubino's whiskers in this picture, seeing Yelena through a shower of silver. Not to draw any comparisons between my daughter and Danae, a Siamese cat and Zeus.

The big guy has been throwing up a more than hair balls and gorged food lately. The good doctor came over tonight and, indeed, the Buddha has lost 1.6 lbs., which is a lot if you weigh only 19 lbs. Blood was taken and the diagnostic process has begun. God willing, it's something easily treatable. We popped a pepcid down his gullet for good measure and will continue to do so to see if it helps his tummy. He's been acting healthy, purring and cuddling like usual, so no panic yet. I repeat, no panic. No panic.

Happy Half

Saturday Yelena hit the six month mark! To celebrate she went to her first Suzuki class, to synagogue for Neshama, had Tony and Eric over for homemade pizza and ate her first peas. It's difficult to believe it's only been half a year since she was born, yet it is even more difficult to imagine our life before her arrival. Well, that's a lie. I have a very vivid imagination and impecable recall of my life before she came, but that seems like the kind of thing a parent ought to claim. Regardless, my life before was great, my life now is great but a whole lot cuter and cuddlier! These past six months have been terrific, as our daughter is a true joy and pleasure.

Yelena is by far the youngest member of the Suzuki class, with all her fellow students at least a year old and toddling or significantly crawling. The age range was allegedly 6-18 months but no other baby babies are there. It's fine, she'll be the among the youngest in her class since, for some ludicrous reason the cut off for Chicago schools is September 1 and they are reportedly unbending about it. (Growing up in Long Beach, grades were based on the calendar year, but there were still holdovers and precocious ones from the following and subsequent years.) So she better get used to associating with older kids. We sang songs and the kids shook rattles, banged triangles and strummed a pentatonic lyre. We had to help Yelena do all these things, but she seemed very interested and smiley, and a good time was had by all.

We are going to the weekend class so Eli can join us, since he misses out on so much during the week. He was the only father there. Where are all the other dads? Napping? Dreaming about golf for when the ground thaws? Surfing the internet for porn while the wife and kids are away?

Yelena is eating 2-6 tablespoons of cereal over 2 daily servings. Oats are yummier than rice apparently. We decided to start her on veggies since some professionals fear that introducing fruits first leads kids to have a sweet tooth and refuse veggies later. She's not so into the peas, but more than she was first into cereal, so she may grow to love them. I'll give it a few more tries, and then break down and offer carrots.

Comings and goings

We have returned from California, again without incident. It sure is easier flying on a not completely full aeroplane. Yelena was probably in her car seat for a total of 20 minutes, but just being able to place her somewhere secure for a minute while I wrangled with the overhead compartment and tray table was very helpful, in addition to not having to share an armrest while nursing or worrying about spraying breast milk all over a fellow passenger.

It was a quick trip. I didn't get to see any friends and I didn't take many pictures, although I did get one of Yelena fast asleep in Grandma's arms. We did make it to the Gregory Colbert Ashes and Snow exhibit at the Santa Monica pier. It was definitely worth seeing, issues with colonialism aside, for the temporary structure by Shigeru Ban as much as the photography (I am a temporary architecture nut) -- but dim lighting, droning music and sepia toned prints weren't exactly baby friendly. And nursing in a port-a-potty sucked. I joked to Aaron that Yelena needed to go to a Lichtenstein exhibit as an antidote.

The pictures of Yelena feature her in an orange (of course!) coat from Uncles Tony and Eric and slyly smiling in the exersaucer.

While in Long Beach I managed to read Jonathan Coe's The Rotter's Club, which was excellent. Very funny, very moving and very political, the triumverate of great literature, if you ask me. It was quite a different writing style than his The Winshaw Legacy, the only other book I have read by him, which was a satire bordering on allegory about the Thatcher years. A sequel to The Rotter's Club, The Closed Circle, was published last year and I am debating whether to wait until June 6, when amazon claims the paperback will be released, or to just break down and get it in hardcover. Ah, the debate of the unemployed. We do have these amazon gift certificates...

Finally, I mark the passings of two remarkable women, Wendy Wasserstein and Coretta Scott King.