Our Growing Family Tree

New times, new blog

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 07:02:00 +0000

Our growing family has outgrown this blog. To see our new password-protected photo-journal (updated weekly) go to www.beattiemoss.shutterfly.com and sign up as a member.

The password is the name of the city my parents were born in. If that doesn't help you,
just drop me an email at melissabmoss@gmail.com

Thanks!
M.

Summer Evening in the Park

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:16:00 +0000

Stress levels are still generally riding high around here, mostly due to work deadlines and Sophie (still!) not sleeping through the night. "Fatigue" just doesn't cover how deeply exhausted we are...Yowza! But even though we're working quite hard these days (did I mention we're building a house? did I mention that involves thousands of teensy-weensy yet critically important decisions? did I mention how tired we are?) our spirits are fortified by lovely moments such as depicted here. Enjoy!

Meeee-OW!

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:34:00 +0000

No, we haven't gotten a cat. The above photo is meant to illustrate our current situation: We unpacked our boxes in our apartment and tried to settle in, only to discover that the wall-to-wall carpet has a pervasive, stomach-turning cat piss odor. The previous tenants (or generations of tenants...there's huge turn-over in these apartment units) had a cat or multiple cats who seemingly enjoyed peeing on the carpet in the dining room. It's gross enough that there's wall-to-wall carpet in a dining room. When Sophie dropped a chunk of banana onto the floor and I bent down to pick it up, that's when the unmistakable CAT PEE! message really reached my brain. Since then we've had a long stretch of rainy weather which has made the cat pee so unbearable that we've actually moved out temporarily. Luckily for us, my parents' trip to Germany for two weeks coincided with this stinky crisis. So we packed Guthrie off to "doggie summer camp" --AKA the luxury kennel he loves to go to--and we hightailed it over to the Mom and Dad's swanky digs on the other side of town, where we enjoy the clean hardwood floors, hotter showers, and a beautiful view from the living room of the empty lot next door where our house will be built. Our "moving in day" in November can't come soon enough. I loved my cat and still miss her...but Lordy the smell. There is hope though. The apartment management recognizes the problem and is replacing the carpet this week while we're away, and then we plan to buy and run ionizing air purifiers for good measure. Cat odors are the main issue, but we also are adjacent to a parking lot, there's tons of pollen about, plus the place also kinda reeks of air fresheners used over the years, no doubt in attempts to mask the toxic fumes arising from the cat litter box they kept in the dining room...Gaaaaaah!

Okay, enough of that. How's the family, you ask? We're all fine. The Cliffnotes on the kiddos:

Sophie: 17 months old, our spirited girl, climbing EVERYTHING, throws a ball like a 5 year old, would live on tomatoes, strawberries and water in her ideal world; distributes kisses every evening, not speaking much yet or rather speaks her own distinct argot: "Isitabus?" and "Isitgold?" are frequent questions: You'd be amazed to know that "Is it a bus?" and "Is it gold?" are often quite appropriate things to ask. She also has a wide vocabulary of distinct dog barks. We're so proud.

Noah: AKA Spiderman---He has discovered a passion for indoor rock climbing walls and man, is he GOOD at it! Strong, fearless, smart...Up he goes, right to the top. His other super powers: Reads whole books in a single bound; Surfs the--what else?--Web with alacrity. We're counting down until camp in late June, two whole weeks away from home. It'll be great for him and of course we'll be counting the days until his return!

Anne and I had a good Mother's Day, mostly focused on making it a nice day for Pauli. Anne brought her to my parents' house for a lunch I purchased at Wegmans and then arranged artistically on plates at home. Good not to have to cook since we'd gotten back from Philly at 1 a.m. the night before. It all worked out fine. Pauli is using a walker now and tires very easily, but had a nice afternoon with us.

I promise photos in the next post. Plus more info about our new house-to-be...We're getting pretty excited about the whole thing and feel, more than ever, that this is the RIGHT decision.

The end of an era

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:13:00 +0000

Everyone is sleeping and I should be too...but I may pack a few more boxes before flopping into bed. Tonight is the last night in this house...this house that has been home for five years. So much has happened in our lives while we've lived here...Noah went from kindergarten to 5th grade; Pauli had five good years spending time with us and enjoying living with Anne; I got a second Master's degree and found a good job here; Anne and I decided to have another child---and welcomed beautiful Sophie. We've gotten through some sad times and some tough challenges--both my grandmothers' deaths; Pauli's strokes and move into assisted living; my mother' s heart surgery--as well as all of life's normal ups and downs. we've celebrated so many things--friendships, parties (big, blow-out July 4th parties!), Pauli's 90th birthday, Sophie's 1st birthday, achievements large and small, Shabbat dinners and Sunday brunches...Quiet times sitting on the deck swing together, eating fudgesicles and watching the sunset, and amazing times like the double rainbow that arched over our house...or the time the hot air balloon almost emergency-landed in our back yard! Memories of Noah and Guthrie--little boy and puppy--playing together with the hose in the kiddie pool...Memories of some hard times, trying to juggle all our care-taking roles...Wondering when the time would come when we would have less responsibility (elder care is hard!) and feeling at times like this big house was just another demand on our time and energy...but despite the tough moments, feeling grateful for the space and light and security this house has given us...

And now it's time to move on. Tomorrow bright and early, the movers will arrive to carry our furniture and boxes out the door...

A new era is about to begin for our family, one we're very ready for. One with an emphasis on "just enough and not too much" and peace, organization, fulfillment...

May it all come to be...after one more night's rest under this roof!

An insanely busy time

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:13:00 +0000

This will be a short post, just to share that we are unbelievably busy at the moment. Even I, who generally likes to be busy, am finding this a lot to handle. Between getting ready for our move (in three weeks!) and working full time, plus making endless decisions about the new house we're having built and getting all that paperwork signed so the construction can begin, plus getting Noah to his various activities, and the exhausting nights with Sophie, and with my fibromyalgia symptoms in a painful flare-up...no wonder I'm stretched to the limit here. I haven't even mentioned that Anne broke her foot again and is in pain...or that she's juggling all this plus daily visits to her mother (Pauli is now back in assisted living).

BIG SIGH.

It will all work out. Moving is just so stressful. I wish I could take off work for a month to deal with all this, but since that's not possible I'll have to find a way to do all of this.

There's a lot of good stuff going on...In fact, it's mostly good (except for the health struggles...working on improving that.) Trying to keep my focus on the positives: We sold the house, we figured out where we want to move, we are really looking forward to our new chapter in the new house, we're both gainfully employed, the children are wonderful, it's great having my folks nearby, we have terrific childcare help in Evelina and we've found an excellent new (live-out) nanny for when she leaves, it's starting to feel like spring.

Well, this wasn't SUCH a short post after all. It's 10 minutes before 10 and Anne just came downstairs with Sophie who resisted an hour-long attempt to put to bed. Dear God, why oh why couldn't we have gotten ONE child who goes to sleep easily and sleeps through the night? (None of the three kids were good sleepers as babies, Arthur included.) They're such great kids...and Sophie---the worst sleeper of all three---has a delightful personality: cheerful, affectionate, curious, a great sense of humor. But not a sleeper. I guess we can't ask for everything.

Anne put her into the playpen for a little while (she's in there now "reading" books) and I'll try again with the night-night routine in a second.

Time to sign off and get busy, busy, busy again.

The many moods of Sophie Isabelle

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:17:00 +0000

To make up for not posting for so long, here's a bonanza of photos of Sophie taken one evening about three weeks ago. Our little baby girl is getting big so fast...and she's keeping us laughing with her many expressions and "busy busy busy" activities around the house.

Hanging out with the family. Check out big brother Noah on the computer in the background!

Breaking free, ready to run!

Siblings and good friends

Sophie's furry big brother, outside on the deck

A pensive moment

Pretending to be a crawling baby is so much fun!

Who are you lookin' at?

What the heck does this expression convey?

As I was saying...

Let's see...what's that number for late-night milk delivery?

Message machine? Drats!

A big lapse in blogging...and big news!

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:04:00 +0000

Hello there to anyone who tunes in to our blog from time to time. It's been way too long since my last family update. We've been in major "coping/functioning/no time to think" mode with so much going on in our lives at the moment. The very good news: We've sold our house! The closing is set for the end of April and we're delighted to be moving forward. Speaking of moving, what do you do when you sell your house but have nowhere to move? The answer used to be "crash with Mom and Dad" but that's no longer so easy when we're a family of five (with Evelina) plus the dog. House-hunting was a discouraging experience. We saw a bunch of houses, but not a single one seemed right. A brief summary: There was the Mold on Basement Wall house; the Steep Driveway/Psychotic Neighbor house; the Amazing Curb Appeal but Smells Bad Inside house; there was the Mismatched Linoleum/Tile/Carpeting house; the Pepto Bismol Pink Bathroom house; the Greco-Roman Wall Coverings and Mural house; etc.

After seeing all these places, we finally realized that our best option, for many reasons, would be to build in the condominium community my parents recently moved into. We're feeling very "been there, done that, don't need to do it again" about yard work, shoveling snow, deck staining, mowing...all that home maintenance stuff that is expensive and eats up your free time. We've never been into grilling outdoors and we'd be satisfied with creating small-scale gardens around our house and in containers on our porch and deck. So........another big announcement....we have put money down on the lot next to my parents and are getting the contracts signed soon...Yeeeee-ha! My folks are delighted and we are too. We'll enjoy those walking and biking trails a lot, and it'll be great to walk Noah to school every day. And as my dad put it recently "It's amazing...I don't even own a snow shovel any more" --- Sounds good to me!

Signing off for now. Photos of the kids will be posted tomorrow!

Getting through the winter

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:59:00 +0000

It's been a month since I've updated the blog, perhaps a record lapse.

It's been a challenging month.

On our minds:

Anne's mom: Pauli ("Nana" to the kids) fell last week and fractured her pelvis in two places.
We spent 5 hours in the emergency room with her and then she was transfered to a nursing home (adjacent to her assisted living residence) for at least 6 weeks of rehab. Poor Nana! It's not easy to cope with injuries at 91, but she's got a strong constitution and we're hoping she'll be able to go back to her assisted living room when rehab is over. Needless to say, we're thinking about her (and visiting her) a lot, and hoping for the best.

Fibromyalgia: My struggle with fibro has intensified lately. Major muscle pain (especially neck and ribs) and headaches and mental fuzziness and fatigue. No fun at all. I'm back to raw food eating and juicing and taking supplements (malic acid, enzymes, etc.) and trying to keep my spirits up.

Sleep: Sophie's sleeping pattern hasn't improved...She wakes every couple hours. We are getting VERY exhausted by this demanding night-time parenting. On two separate occasions, for no apparent reason, she slept through the night---and then immediately reverted to the frequent waking pattern again. I don't know what to say about this...We've read the books and we've tried lots of approaches...but we'll have to keep looking for some solution, because we all need our sleep!

Real estate: We have some nibbles on our house---and we continue to house-hunt as well. Email me for more details if you'd like.

Work: I don't believe in blogging about my work life...Suffice to say, I've taken on some interesting new projects and I'm trying hard to do a good job at them, regardless of life being rather demanding lately.

That's the mid-February update. More cheerful and photo-filled posts to come soon...Counting my blessings...Ready for spring! Ready for change!!!

Sleep update

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:05:00 +0000

Who knows what's going on? Not us. We're clueless. Either she's slowly--and erratically--catching on to our sleep training routine...or we're just desperate to think that she is. Which is it, I wonder.

Since the "miracle night" when she didn't wake once, she has had the full range of success levels at this sleep training thing: a couple "ready to party at 4 a.m." nights, a "waking briefly only once" night, a "worst ever" night (last night) and who knows what's in store for us tonight.

The "worst ever" episode last night = woke crying at 1:30, I spent over 2 hours trying to get her back to sleep, no luck, crying baby, exhausted me...Finally woke Anne so she could take over (and I could get enough sleep to function at work today) and--when I came upstairs at 7 to check on them--Anne and Sophie were both asleep on the rug, with a blanket over them!

Sophie was so tired this evening, she barely could stay awake through dinner and her bath.
I let her toddle around her room playing with her toys after her bath, as usual, but she was so exhausted that she actually brought me Good Night Moon and tried to climb up onto my lap:
We always read Good Night Room right before lights out...so she was basically telling me "Let's move this routine along Mommy!" Very cute. She went to sleep at 7 pm after a few minutes of lackluster fussing...

Anne and Noah are out at youth orchestra so I think I'll watch Colbert Report and eat some popcorn. Yes, I live a wild, reckless life. Right on the edge, that's me.

Happy Birthday Noah!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 02:46:00 +0000

Today is Noah's 11th birthday! Those who know him all agree: He is one fantastic, smart, sweet, funny, adorable, handsome, lovable...what am I leaving out?...talented, musical, charming, sensible, caring, helpful, amazing young man. I was going to say "boy" but eleven really is the beginning of pre-teen, isn't it? How can it be? Time is really a mind-bender...Eleven years tonight I held him in my arms and stared down at his little face and thought "This is my son!" And every possible wish and dream I had about being a mom and sharing life with him has come true...and more wonderfully than I could have imagined. For instance, I knew that Noah would be a very good big brother. But even I didn't know how absolutely phenomenal he is with Sophie. They are truly a mutual adoration society, the two of them. And he is so gentle and patient with her...the perfect big brother.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAREST NOAH! WE LOVE YOU!

Great news, but....Shhh...Don't jinx it...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:05:00 +0000

I'm here to report AMAZING news: Sophie slept through the night last night!

Let it be recorded for posterity that on the night of Saturday, January 12th, 2008, Sophie slept more than 4 hours in a row for the very first time since birth. I put her to sleep at 8:30 p.m. and she woke up at 7:30 a.m.!!!

Some readers (family) will recall that Noah was a very light and...er...extremely resistant sleeper and Anne & I basically didn't get a full night's sleep until he was three years old. No wonder we waited 10 more years to have another...We had to catch up on missed sleep in preparation for Round Two with another "sleepless wonder" as we called him.

I got my first uninterrupted night's sleep last night since September 2006...(yes, two months before Sophie's birth...because when you are as hugely pregnant as I was from 7 months on, you're not sleeping too well, believe me!)

It WOULD have been wonderful to get some good rest, but ironically I had a fitful sleep with nightmares all night...about...what else? Kidnapped babies, missing babies, even a plot to murder a baby (Anne and I intervened heroically). I think my psyche clearly was VERY uncomfortable with the missing baby in my life, the one usually in my bed from 1 a.m. on. I woke up very confused at 6 a.m. and immediately checked the bed in a panic for Sophie. Ah, there's nothing like that terrifying "Where's my baby?!" adrenaline rush to start one's day. I then went upstairs to wake Anne (who had slept in the guest room so she could get a good night's sleep) and insisted that she come with me into Sophie's room to check on her...I was really nervous. I thought something terrible must be wrong for me not to have heard from the baby all night long. Yes, melodrama is not foreign to me. Needless to say, the baby was sleeping like a baby, for the first time ever. Sound asleep at 6 a.m. Anne and I were able to go back to sleep together for another hour and a half, completely and utterly amazed.

What made this miracle happen?

I don't want to jinx it--after all, it was just ONE night and all nights before it were very difficult--but we are several days into a new routine, courtesy of the advice of sleep expert Dana Obleman http://www.childsleepcenter.com/ whose report I purchased a couple weeks ago. Though I felt a bit like a chump for buying it, the advice was good...stuff you could call common sense, but having it all laid out for me clearly was very helpful and...

2 HR. LAPSE SINCE THE ABOVE POST...

Well...I took a break from typing to put Sophie to bed. Whereas last night, she cried for 7 minutes after being put in her crib and then fell asleep, tonight she screamed for almost 60 minutes (the first 40 with me and then Anne took over for the second shift) before conking out. The word "screamed" falls short of describing what my girl can do. These are loud, glass-cracking, piercing high notes. These are shrieks of agony that sound like she's being tortured with a red-hot poker. All while Anne or I sit right next to the crib, patting her back gently, humming a lullaby...This is after warm milk, a soothing bath, Goodnight Moon, "white noise" machine...I'd LOVE to be put to bed like that. Right now. Please, somebody. I guess it's just my fate that my kids, when little, flat-out detest going to sleep.

I was so wiped out afterwards, I just sat on the couch eating Raisin Bran and watching Martha Stewart. Yes, my dirty little secret is out. I don't DO a damn thing Martha Stewarty but watching her on t.v. is like Valium for me. Watching Martha Stewart organize a linen closet is some kind of baby-shredded-my-last-nerve antidote.
Then Anne came downstairs and we watched an episode of The L Word and got a chuckle or two out of that.

Off to bed now with the baby monitor hissing on the night table...Will I see Miss S. at 1 p.m. (in an hour and fifteen minutes) or at 7 a.m.? Tune in next time...

First illness

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:57:00 +0000

Our darling girl is on the mend from her first bout of illness and thankfully will be just fine.

We've just come through several days of Sophie running high fevers, doctor appointments, and finally a trip to the emergency room Saturday morning.

What started with a slight fever (100) on Wednesday evening turned into two days of spiking temperatures (up to 105.6 at its highest Thursday afternoon, prompting an immediate trip to the doctor)and two sleepless nights for all of us. Poor Sophie was HOT, listless, miserable, wouldn't eat or drink (we were feeding her Pedialite with an eye dropper at the worst point) and had three vomiting episodes.

Thursday's doctor visit seemed to rule out ear infection (he removed wax and pronounced her ears fine) and urinary tract infection (he catheterized her--while I held her down, awful, awful--and her urine test was normal), so the doctor's assumption was that she had some kind of run-of-the-mill rhinovirus, aka a cold. Nothing to be done except keep her comfortable and let it run its course.

Except that she didn't have any cold symptoms...no runny nose, no stuffiness, just a blazing hot fever, despite our alternating doses of baby Tylenol and Motrin every three hours (it would knock it back a degree or two, but she was still above 102, crying, exhausted and miserable). We gave her tepid baths, put cold compresses on her, and just waited for the fever to break. Noah never had such high fevers so this was a new and quite scary thing for us.

By Saturday morning, she was 104 after her cool bath and seemed dehydrated (crying w/out tears, for instance). I just felt the diagnosis of rhinovirus was not correct...She should have been on the mend by then. The pediatrician on call agreed that we should go in to the E.R. She said we should be prepared that they'd want to run blood tests, do a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia, re-catheterize to check urine again, and probably insert an IV to get fluids into her. We absolutely dreaded putting her through all that, but we had to take her in. She was so listless from the fever when I carried her into the E.R. Awful to see her that way.

Luckily, we were spared that whole scenario of interventions. The ER doc took one look at Sophie's ears and said "Wow! Bad ear infection going on in there" (Anne looked too and later told me it was "blood red"...yikes). I guess the doctor who examined her at 4pm on Thursday didn't see any sign of it brewing, since he said her ears were fine. Sophie is now on a 5 day course of antibiotics and is doing better already. Last night she slept peacefully next to me, cool as can be...I just kept feeling her forehead all night to check and feeling so grateful that my baby was on the mend.

Just think: One of my grandmother's brothers died in childhood from a tooth infection. As primitive as our medical knowledge will look to future generations, I'm so thankful we have antibiotics when needed, live in a place with skilled doctors available, and have health insurance. The alternative isn't pretty.

Sophie goes to class!

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 03:26:00 +0000

Whenever music is playing, Sophie starts bopping to the beat, clapping her hands, and moving her feet...so we thought she'd love taking a weekly music class. And we were right...She loves it! Here are some photos from the start of class: The instruments are spread out on the rug and the toddlers are let loose to play. Let the wild rumpus start!

Sophie likes that cymbal

She examines it closely

Wait a minute...This pink tambourine is mighty cute too!

And that girl's green teddy bear would be a perfect match with my green teddy bear, but I'd have to drop my pink maraca to take it...What to do, what to do....

I know! I'll just get into the bin with ALL the instruments so I don't have to choose!

I'm on top of the situation now

Music class is tiring! I think I'll hang onto Grandma for awhile.

Grandma wants me to wear a tambourine hat when it doesn't even match my outfit! Glad I have my buddy Eliana here for support.

Noah's holiday recital, 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:20:00 +0000

Every year, Noah's music school plays a holiday recital to collect donations for the local food bank. Last year's concert in early December was Sophie's first time out in public after being born. That was a fun evening for us, as we got to show our new baby to the community and enjoy Noah's musical accomplishments. Well, this year was even more fun because Sophie was able to enjoy the music along with us--and beam with pride at big brother Noah, her hero. The other families were all amazed at how Sophie has grown in one year...She was toddling around, smiling, clapping--a big girl and a real music lover, just like the rest of us.

A few images from the evening...Enjoy!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Saint Lucia Day 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 17:29:00 +0000

As some of you know, Sweden holds a special place in our hearts. While many of our Hungarian family members perished in the Holocaust, those who survived were rescued by Swedish humanitarian organizations and were given safe haven in Sweden after the war. Some of them made lives there, married, had children and grandchildren...which is how we come to have many relatives in Sweden who we've not yet met. Having a Swedish au pair live with us this year has given us another connection to the country...and we look forward to visiting before too long (perhaps next year). In honor of Sweden's place in our lives--and to bring a little Swedish holiday cheer into the house--we held our first Saint Lucia party. Scandinavians celebrate "Sankta Lucia" on December 13th with songs, pastry and lights...most notably the Lucia crown girls wear. We opted for the battery lit version rather than risk setting our hair on fire! Evelina demonstrated how to make her mother's recipe for Saffron cake, as well as gingerbread cookies. Both were truly delicious! I set our a smorgasbord, made a big pot of glogg (spiced wine) and then friends came over (braving a dark, icy evening) and we had a wonderful time eating, drinking and making merry. Here are some photos from our little celebration. Pictured are Jacquie, John and Sarah; Tony, Deb, Pilar (Daniel and Noah were having fun downstairs); Evelina the Pastry Chef, and of course Grandma and Grandpa, Anne and Sophie.
Happy Saint Lucia Day!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

November birthdays

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:45:00 +0000

I know we're already into December, but I can't leave November behind without a post to commemorate what is The Birthday Month in our extended family. It's extraordinary how many folks in our circle have November birthdays, including Sophie of course. Something about March is good for baby-making it seems!

I feel like I've been a bit delinquent in my attentiveness to birthdays (other than Sophie's of course!) and other matters of socializing, etiquette, etc. simply due to being too busy and too tired most days.

So before November is too long gone, here's a big birthday hug and wishes for a healthy and happy year, sent out to:

My mother-in-law Pauli

My sister-in-law Pauline

My brother-in-law Scott

My nephew-in-law (for want of a better term) Steve

and my friend M.B. the Knitter too...thinking of you often and will call soon.

The second-runner-up for most popular birthday month in our family is April, so I have some time to get my act together and send proper gifts and greetings to those folks!

House search update

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:44:00 +0000

Pin Oak
Originally uploaded by ian.crowther

I thought it was high time for a real estate update. Our house is still on the market, and while we're waiting for a buyer, we've been fixing it up quite a lot. It looks so fabulous now, we're tempted to stay (just kidding...we want to move on, but it really is pretty.) We may have a repeat showing soon...fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, on the house-hunting front, I should inform you that almost immediately after I posted that starry-eyed post about the "Mountain View House" complete with tons of photos uploaded to flickr (!) we discovered a moldy wall in the basement...DEAL BREAKER! I'm highly allergic to mold and know from experience that it's almost impossible to get rid of. The basement has poor ventilation, isn't a walk-out and only has one window...so we've crossed poor old Mountain View House off our list for good.

Since then, we discovered another house we shall call the Pin Oak House (hence this post's image) because of the large pin oak that stands on the front lawn. We've been back three times and eventually did end up making a contingency offer...which they rejected because they don't want to get tied up in a holding pattern waiting for us to sell, and I can't blame them. But we've been keeping our eye on Pin Oak House and, so far, it's still on the market. So maybe, just maybe, the timing will work out and we'll get it yet.

The pros:
Its location is both convenient to town and also private, on a cul de sac lane. A great combo.

We have friends who live across the street.

A good price for a well-built home.

The cons:
A steep driveway

A sloped backyard...not much yard to run around on but plenty of trees for a treehouse, key item on Noah's wish list! And room for a large deck with a hot tub, key item on Mommy's wish list.

I'll keep you posted.

Happy Hanukkah!

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:30:00 +0000

One For Each Night
Originally uploaded by skasper

To everyone celebrating, Happy Hanukkah! Tonight is the first night and we kicked off the holiday with a wonderful meal at my parents' house. Mom made a heaping platter of amazing latkes, served with chunky applesauce and light sour cream, along with a braised red cabbage dish. Yummy! We had coconut macaroons for dessert. Of course, we needed our chocolate fix so we melted some dark chocolate and dipped the macaroons in it like a fondue. Fun! We ended the meal with a pot of berry tea. So begins Hanukkah 2008. I didn't take any photos tonight unfortunately (picture Sophie with a mouthful of her first latke and picture Noah's elation at his gift, a 2 gb USB drive he's been begging us for (yep, he's a computer fanatic at age ten)...So in lieu of a photo of my own, I borrowed a public one from flickr to accompany this post. Noah actually has this menorah and has lit it every year since he was tiny...but we packed it up when we were doing prep work for our impending move (fingers crossed). Wishing you all a season of light...and health and happiness for the new year ahead.

Too pooped to party!

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:02:00 +0000

After a very exciting birthday party last Saturday, Grandma put our darling one-year-old put into her high chair for some lunch. After a few bites, when Grandma's back was turned for a moment, Sophie fell fast asleep right there on her tray.
My mom came tip-toeing into the other room to get us and we all stood there giggling at this sight! A memory we'll treasure for years to come...so glad I got the photo!

12 month check-up and the vaccination talk

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:05:00 +0000

Sophie had her well-baby pediatrician visit yesterday and was weighed, measured and examined. Here's the scoop! Our girl is in the 75th percentile for weight (at 22 pounds) and in the 95th percentile for height and head circumference. So she's sturdy, tall, and has plenty of room for deep thoughts in that big, beautiful head of hers! Her eyes, ears, and heart exam all were perfectly normal.

As I expected, I had another go-round with the pediatrician about the fact that we are delaying vaccinating until she is 15-24 months old. An "agree to disagree" exchange as usual. I'm not sharing our decision on this blog in order to incite any debates on this question. We've given this complex topic loads of careful thought and I'm just posting a bit about it here in case it's "food for thought" for other parents.

It's not a knee-jerk decision for us, one way or the other. We are not against vaccinations altogether, as some people are. We plan for Sophie to receive many of the recommended vaccinations. But after doing lots of reading, we do have many concerns about the current schedule. We're concerned about the wisdom of American kids routinely getting upwards of 25 different vaccines, in various combinations, in their first 15 months. And we take seriously the numerous reports of side effects following the vaccines and the possibility that neurological damage has been caused in some cases (autism, seizures, etc.)

In short, we don't want Sophie to receive so many vaccinations in her first year of life; or to receive live vaccines as combined shots, such as the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella)or DTaP (diptheria, tetanus and pertussis); or to be injected with upwards of six or seven different vaccinations at the same visit; or to be vaccinated with very new formulations that don't have any track record; or to be vaccinated against relatively harmless viruses such as chicken-pox or very rare/unlikely diseases such as HepB. And though pediatricians routinely dismiss the notion of "overloading a baby's immune system" and even dismiss the concept of immune systems altogether, we don't share our doctor's view that "there's no ceiling" on the number of vaccines that can be given at one time. He means "no published data" telling us there's no limits, referring to new vaccines that were hastily hustled through the approval process after testing done by researchers funded by the same pharmaceutical companies seeking the drug approval; drugs on which there are usually very few double-blind trials conducted and that are too new for the claim of "no long-term side effects" to have any weight.

This article by a pediatrician touting combined "super" vaccines as a fantastic approach is just the kind of approach we want to avoid: http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/immunizations/a/combo_vaccines.htm

Pediatricians routinely talk about the "convenience" of combining vaccines and eliminating the number of needle jabs a kid has to receive (and doctors have to administer, more to the point). But we feel that a momentary needle jab is NOTHING compared to the potential harm in combining different strains.

While I have great regard for medicine, medical advances, and the noble medical profession, I also know that today's certainties can become tomorrow's disproved approaches or discontinued drug. So caveat emptor.

And if anyone wants info on how to obtain Merck's single formulations for measles, mumps and rubella (instead of the MMR shot) let me know.

Happy 1st birthday to my baby!

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:48:00 +0000

I'm a couple days late posting (life is just too busy lately) but I want to note that my baby girl turned ONE on Wednesday!

A whole year has gone by already...so quickly it's hard to believe. And it's also hard to imagine life without our precious Sophie!

November 28th, 2006 to November 28th, 2007 has been a year full of so much EVERYTHING...joy, hard work, changes, discovery, sleep deprivation, pride, contentment, upheaval, depletion, completion, nesting, loneliness (at work, away from the baby), struggle, peace...

Wow. As I said, EVERYTHING!

I'm way behind in posting photos to the blog and hope to catch up this weekend (in which case you'll see some retrospective Halloween and Thanksgiving photos here!)

But meanwhile, here's a snapshot of Sophie and her new friend Eliana on their (shared!) birthday Wednesday. Isn't that fun that she has a birthday buddy?! Eliana and her mom Stephanie are both terrific and we enjoyed sharing a fun first-birthday-playdate with them. The girls played well together -- sometimes doing their own things, sometimes playing right next to one another, negotiating about who holds a toy! Evelina made a banana birthday cake and we all sang Happy Birthday and had a little party, complete with Elmo party hats. More photos to come soon!
P.S. Sophie's polka dot dress was a gift from Evelina -- so sweet of her.

The best thing

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 02:45:00 +0000

CIMG1072
Originally uploaded by Mommy Sasa

I'll leave you with another good, good thing--the best thing: another image from the summer...Noah and his gang of siblings hanging out with the grinning lobster at Ben & Bill's ice cream emporium in Bar Harbor. I love those cute faces and it lifts my spirits just looking at this photo!

Hope all is well with everyone out there. At one o'clock tomorrow, will you all please send a powerful psychic message to the couple coming to look at our place. The message to send is:

"You have an overwhelming desire to buy Anne and Melissa's house!"

A conversation taking place tomorrow at 1:15 p.m....

Wife: Honey, the oddest thing just happened...I literally heard a chorus of voices in my head urging me to buy this house...this gloriously beautiful house...

Husband: That's amazing, sweet-ums. I'm getting the same overpowering feeling...It's like I'm being urged on by an unseen force to make an offer on this house right here and now. And you know what else? To heck with bargaining! Let's pay them the full list price. In fact, they're being too modest...let's round it up!

Well, a girl can dream...

The long and winding road...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 02:26:00 +0000

CIMG1016
Originally uploaded by Mommy Sasa

Here's a pleasant image from this past summer...a long and winding road in Maine on a carefree afternoon. With my camera still out of commission (it just needs a new memory card but I've been too busy to even stop and buy one) I rummaged around in the Summer 2007 album to come up with a couple images to share. I guess I could have blogged without an image (but what is the use of a blog, thought Alice, without pictures or conversations?")

So...there's a picture and here's a bit of conversation:

Boss: "How's it coming along?"

Me: "I'm totally stressed out and don't know if I'll make the deadline this week."

And here's another conversation:

Realtor: Have you thought about dropping your listing price? It's a competitive market out there.

Me: Gulp. Okay.

And yet another...

Anne: Did you call the painter, make the hotel reservation, call the handyman, pick out the paint colors, and speak to the realtor?

Me: Yes. Did you clean the house, pick up the dog at the kennel, get the rugs from the cleaners, and return the carpet swatches?

Anne: Yes. Bye. Love you.

Me: Okay. Love you. Bye.

SIGH.

That should give you a general picture of things around here.

On the happy side:

The kids are beautiful and well and a joy to us. My parents are settling into their new house in town and we are so thrilled to have them here!
We're getting through this period of some discomforts and uncertainty, reminding ourselves that there are far worse things than moving...

Such as losing a spouse and a parent...A friend of ours in town lost her husband after a year-long battle with leukemia. Their nine year old son has lost his father. We're so terribly sad for them.

I find that recently I'm feeling a bit hemmed in from different sides by bad news...the war...the economy...global warming...illness...tragic early deaths...and petty everyday worries like work deadlines, my own aches and pains, my health/diet goals and how far I fall from attaining them lately, and the worries about how long it'll take to sell, whether we'll find a new place that pleases us all, etc.

And to top it all off---the height of stupid problems---the flooring guys unplugged the tv and cable wires in the tv cabinet and now the cable won't work...no television, no DVR, no taped episodes of the Colbert Report, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Office to watch after getting the kids to bed...That's been my stress-valve lately and I miss it.

Comcast comes tomorrow afternoon, free of charge, to re-plug all the wires and bring Steve Carrell back into my living room. And in my stressed out world world lately, that's a good, good thing.

And now back to our program...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:50:00 +0000

Sorry for the long "commercial break" between blog entries. Anybody still checking in here? (Making a big assumption that I have a loyal readership...testing, testing...anyone out there?!)

Well, it's been way too busy here at Casa Loco. We have been working non-stop to get our house ready to go on the market. This has involved carpet cleaning, furniture moving, wall painting, baseboard trim scrubbing, home decor staging, and lots more truly tedious tasks. We have more than 50% of our stuff in three storage units in town...and while the house looks nice, it doesn't look like our home any more and isn't a comfy place to relax. I was supposed to bleach the bathroom grout with a toothbrush tonight but I'm playing hooky in order to blog. "Fun with Grout" can wait until tomorrow evening.

October has required two "run away from home" weekends so far. The first was two weeks ago when I took Evelina and the kids to an upstate New York lake in order to let Anne focus solely on settling Mother into assisted living. (She's doing well there, by the way. It was absolutely the right thing at the right time for all of us.)

We runaways had a lovely time at the lake on Saturday, including a terrific get-together with my Aunt Susie and Uncle George. And what a glorious warm Saturday it was, the kind of deliciously unseasonably gorgeous global warming weather that my clever brother has dubbed "geo culpa" days.

To give you some idea of the lusciousness of the early October day, Evelina went water-skiing. And I'd have a photo of that event to share with you except that my memory card went ka-flooey and it seems that I've lost a whole "roll" of fun shots. I ran a memory recovery program on it and reclaimed a few precious ones...and maybe my photographer friend Tamar will be able to rescue more.

Here's one shot that thankfully survived -- Sophie (in a sun dress!) in a pile of autumn leaves.

Last weekend we all ran away to my hometown, NYC, to escape the paint fumes in our house and to see Arthur and our old friends Orla and Robert. It had also been too long since I was home and it was perfect timing for a city infusion. Although much has changed about the town since I lived there, it's still undeniably the turf that shaped me and will always have a hold on me. You can take the girl outta Brooklyn but you can't take Brooklyn outta the girl!

Here's Sophie hanging out in the Village:

Noah and Evelina turning the Astor Place cube:

Visiting the dinos at the Museum of Natural History:

Lunching at Aquavit for a taste of Sweden, New York style:

Some highlights of the weekend had no photo accompaniment, such as going down memory lane while walking around our old neighborhood, Park Slope; catching up with our friends; seeing Arthur.

Though I loved the weekend away, I returned more tired than ever and haven't caught up yet. Oh come on, who am I fooling? I haven't caught up in over a year and there's no "sleeping through the night" in sight. But even though I can't make babies who can sleep worth a damn, I do make cute ones, don't I?

Mom, this last photo of this post is for you. Sophie is saying "Hurry up and get here Grandma! I'm ready for you to feed me!"

She loves to eat and tonight she took a serious chomp out of her board book titled, aptly, FIESTA! I should have taken a photo of the corner missing and little pieces of book all over her cheeks. Talk about a love of literature.

Before I close, a quick update on our young Scout:

Noah is en route to earning a "handyman pin" in Webelos and was all excited this evening about his den meeting, where they learned how to identify engine parts; oil the gears on bicycles; use a tire gauge and pump; and then they had a ride on an older Boy Scout's go-kart. (Holy Beaver Cleaver, Batman!) But seriously, I'm so glad he's doing this and likes it. Anne and I have many things to teach him but engine parts aren't up our alley.

Well, this post has been pretty chipper given that much of the time lately Anne and I are pretty overwhelmed and exhausted, not knowing where we're going to be moving to, keeping fingers crossed that our house sells fast and full price, just so exhausted. But we're counting our blessings too...My mother-in-law is adjusting well to Assisted Living and we are looking forward to our family's new chapter...

Just have to keep paddling and we'll get there.

Baby sleeping, so I'm heading to bed.

Be Prepared!

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:37:00 +0000

Guess who is a Boy Scout?! Or rather, a Webelos, the step before becoming a full-fledged Scout...

NOAH!

Noah's buddy D. (friends since Kindergarten) was already involved in Scouting so we thought Noah would feel comfortable joining his den. There are 7 or 8 boys and some dads involved too -- and they do manly-man things related to knots, ropes, tomahawks, building objects out of smaller objects, making fires, etc, etc. He had his first den meeting today and seemed to really enjoy it. The leader is a professor and a self-described pacifist. So let's be clear: this is far from the stereotypical homophobic, narrow-minded, war-mongering Scout image. We're excited for Noah and hopes it's a lot of fun for him.

I'm tired beyond words right now...We're moving my mother-in-law to assisted living tomorrow, a milestone that deserves it's own separate post.

Let's keep the focus on Noah right now: Here's our almost-11 year old Scout wearing his uniform for the first time, along with his good friend D...Aren't they adorable? I mean, handsome :-)