Roll Call: Last day to respond and I'll donate $1 to AMC Cancer Research

Amy attended her first and a very special Bat Mitzvah yesterday. My twin nieces, had the most beautiful Bat Mitzvah I've ever been to. Now I haven't been to many Bat Mitzvah's. I have been to a million Bar Mitvah's, though, and this was the most moving, entertaining and clever Bat or Bar Mitzvah on earth.

Melanie and Alison were little peanuts when I first met them. They now are beautiful, sweet, and smart 13 year olds. What caused me to shed tears, was their incredible beauty as they've blossomed into young women, their confidence and competence in performing their Bat Mitzvah, including reading and chanting Hebrew from the Torah, and their voices were beautiful.

Now, the party: that was fun! Every time I'd try to sit down, the DJ/MC would put another fantastic song to dance to and I was history. Amy had a blast dancing, and meeting so many lovely relatives. I loved the dog theme, and I find it funny that someone at one of the tables took home a framed picture of Chuckey and Tommy as the centerpiece for their table.

Here are the gorgeous gals doing the candle-lighting ceremony, Tanta Linda, Uncle Mike, Amy and I, and Mom showing off her strange dental appliance. Mom, you just say the word and I'll remove the picture and the reference to it in the text. If I don't hear from you on this, the picture stays!

Roll Call: Just respond and I'll donate $1 to AMC Cancer Research

I am so tickled that you are reading this blog. If you would click on comments (at the end of this particular post and identify yourself), I pledge to donate $1.00 to AMC Cancer Research Center (Diamond Chapter). My mother, a two-time cancer survivor, is an active member of this organization. See link to the right to learn about this philanthropic organization. At the end of April, I will donate $1.00, for every comment that comes in to this particular post, and then I'll publish the receipt subsequently. The rules:

1. The comment is made at the end of this post only.
2. The commenter is known by Don or I, or somebody that Don or I know, and that relationship is revealed and sincere
3. I have total discretion to disregard crazy stuff, and
4. Only $1.00 per commenter
5. Please let us know who you are

More pictures! Here's our sports girl. We have a helmit now, which will help with the head flop in the behind-bike chariot. We also have a baby PFD (personal flotation device/ life vest). With the baby jogger, our quiver of active baby toys is complete. He who dies with the most toys wins!!!!!

Uncle Paul, that comment you made was beautiful.

#@$%%^&*#@!! I just accidentally erased the beautiful 20 comments and original roll call post. I'm such a dork. If you posted before and are reading this, please post again. I'll start with $20, and add another dollar for your second post. I'm sorry. This is what happens when a novice does their own blog. Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

So basic, yet SO elusive!

I know this all will be so obvious to you, but the learning has been revolutionary for me. I took Amy to daycare for some errands this morning, and then picked her up for a noon-time pediatrician appointment. During this appointment, she took three jabs in her thighs. No different than all of her previous pediatrician appointments. Well, I don't know if these jabs had more juice, or if she is just more comfortable expressing discomfort with us, or what.

So, from noon till about 8p, Amy has been an absolute kvetch. Totally clingy, cries on a dime and not too much fun. For those of you "goyims" (affection intended), the definition of "kvetch" is: (Yiddish) a constant complainer. Don and I were half way to our rope's end. I tried walking with her, baby bjourning with her, playing in the tent, watching DVD's, VHS's, biter buscuits, frozen bananas for teething, reading to her, holding her, milk, diaper changing, a bath, and finally the light bulb lit. "DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH", I said to Don. Maybe she is in pain.

I ran to the zip-lock bag, yet unzipped from China, containing the OTC apothecary. Hmmmm.... Acetaminophen? or Ibuprofen? I asked Dr. Don, which would be more effective bringing down a potential fever, and Dr. Don suggested Acetaminophen. Amy readily sipped the sweet oral medication from a syringe, and we went on to have a KVETCHY dinner. Soon after the last bite of food was consumed, the original sweetie-pie emerged.

Amy has not stopped smiling, laughing, walking and babbling since. I wish all lessons in life could be this overt.

Oh no! The aliens have descended upon our previously minimalist family room

I set up the beautiful princess tent inside today. What a charming tent. Can't wait to put it up outside. It was from the Downs family and maybe also the Yaeger family. I hope I got that right, please forgive me if I'm wrong. It scared Amy at first, but knowing her, she'll warm right up to it. I hope she takes to going inside this tent vs. her current passion for trying to go in the dog crates.

In honor of the Juggling Act of Parenting

If you haven't figured it out, we are loving the Juggling Act of Parenting. Thanks to all the modern conveniences, things have been very easy so far. Mom marvels at things like the disposable bibs, disposable bottle liners, disposable diapers and diaper pads, the Baby Bjourn, the simple, fold-up stroller, etc., etc., etc.

The juggling act wasn't so easy in 1960, when Mom had me. I've heard a million times about chores like laundering the diapers, and sterilizing baby bottles. She said the strollers, cribs and high chairs were much more cumbersome. Forget the car seat, we just rode in the front passenger floor area, in case of a collision (just kidding). Mom, I have it much easier being a parent now.

While things have been easy and fun, so far, soon we'll have the juggling act of working parents. In honor, of current and past parents who have juggled things and felt the joy, please click the link to the right. The link is called," Juggling to the Beatles", and we are impressed with this guy. Please have some volume on so you can hear the music. Enjoy.

Karli, Chuckey is a Yorkie and Tommy is a Maltese.

First photo session

We all dressed up in white today for a photo session. We'll see the proofs in a couple weeks. Below is just a snapshot from the photographers yard, taken by our camera. We don't often go out as a family in solid white, so I wanted to capture the moment.

The poses are unbelievable. We have family shots, mom and Amy shots, dad and Amy shots, Amy solo shots, and delightful theme shots, all against a white background. These are going to be something.

Today, Amy is 16 months old!

70 degrees and sunny

Today was stellar. Very little on my to do list except to spend as much time with Amy around water as possible. Started the day with our stop at the oceanfront Starbucks. Amy played in the sand while mommy drank coffee. Then we walked from 36th to Rudee Inlet and back with all kinds of stops along the way.

We found Mensch reincarnated along the walk (tee hee). Mensch was our family poodle when Linda, Michael and I were kids. Supposedly he was a standard poodle, but he squatted the rise. If you know what the yiddish word "mensch" means, and you are not part of my immediate family, click on the comments and share it!

Finally, the whole family had lunch at the best place in the universe to be today, Chick's. Amy had her first cheese (milchik (dairy))-burger (fleishik (meat)). Good thing we're not keeping kosher, she loved her cheesburger with a milk chaser.

At Chick's, Amy was interested to note many adults drinking from bottles. These bottles didn't have nipples, nor did they contain formula or milk. The adults were happy drinking their beverages from bottles. Most of the bottles said, "Corona".

I need an adventure: these poses are so cliche

Baby in high chair, baby in bath, blah, blah, blah....

I hope to have something a little more original soon. This week my life is getting less adventurous, as I ramp Amy up in hours to daycare, and take care of appointments in preparation for going back to work. But all appointments and no twirl, makes Amy a dull girl, so I plan to spice things up soon.

And for your information, the brown squiggly things on her high chair tray were not worms, they were delicious buckwheat Yaki Soba noodles. However, she did wholeheartedly reject them. If I had to guess what Amy's favorite healthy food is, I'd have to say yogurt. The 'Yo baby whole milk yogurt by Stonyfield is the bomb-diggety for her.

I think I might be running out of things to say, so I'm resorting to the old messy eating child in high chair pose

Amy started daycare today!

I took Amy to daycare today for the first time. Mommy went to Hot Yoga and then picked up Amy. They told me she did real well, playing indoors and outdoors, and being very content. When I came in to pick her up, she smiled and laughed as she ran to me. That was the high point of my day.

Amy went SHOE SHOPPING today too. She wasn't as crazy about it as I am, but she'll learn in due time. But seriously, why are baby shoes $10.00 an inch? In China, we bought her tons of shoes for from $3-$5.00 a pair. I have closed toe shoes for her from now till whenever. Now I'm sure they aren't as high quality, like the shoes (made in China probably) from Stride-Rite. Anyway, with summer coming, I wanted Amy to have a pair of foot-healthy sandals. We went to Stride-Rite and bought brown boys sandals. All the girl sandals were ucky and had lots of colors and stuff on them. Solid brown is neutral and won't compete with her many cute outfits. The price tag? $40.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is Amy, dressed and ready to go to daycare for the first time.

Happy Easter and Happy Passover

Most importantly, yesterday was our 2 month anniversary of gotcha day! We had a lovely Passover dinner at Tia Maggie and Tio Ben's. The gorgeous outfit she is sporting is a "Lily Pulitzer" from Auntie Sheri. Tia Maggie and Auntie Sheri are displaying the adorable Hello Kitty Radio/CD player that Tia Maggie and Tio Ben gave Amy. Amy dug the chicken matzoh ball soup, and also plain matzoh. The highlight of her evening was the flight of stairs going to the second floor.

Today, Easter Sunday, we had an epic family day. We tested the new bike trailer (chariot) with a ride to the beach! We stopped on Kingfisher trail, so Amy could play in the park. When at the oceanfront, she played barefoot in the sand. We had a tasty lunch of sushi at Sakura Oceanfront. While riding back through the park, on the way home, Amy ran her legs in the turtle section of the park.

She did not fight me when I put her in her crib at 3:40, for her 1:00 nap.

Happy Passover and Happy Easter to anyone reading this.

Amy's first day in First Landing State Park (formerly and affectionately known as Seashore State Park)

Don refers to this place as "nirvana". I prefer to reserve that label for catalog shopping.

Amy thought it was pretty kickin' too. Amy is quite a walker. We walked the length of the two boardwalks off of Osmanthus, and part of Osmanthus trail. She is fast and steady. This lovely dress is from Auntie Louise who is counting down the days to go to China to bring Michele home. We can't wait to meet her.

We saw these turtles and this snake. You can't tell, but the snake was the length of a yardstick.

Thanks for the comments. There have been several people mentioning that they didn't know there were comments, or know how to make comments. Just click on the comments part after any post, and you will get prompted to leave a comment. You can click anonymous, and then sign your name in the text if you want. Any way you choose to leave a comment will work. Thanks.