Craigslist, how would I live without you?

What was our quality of life like before Craigslist existed? How did I purchase anything? These are things I shudder to contemplate. Those were the days when I bought things new without a thought about adding to the amount of crapola that exists on the planet. There are some people (but just Steve when he is teasing me. Ok, not just Steve, my siblings too) who might say I have an addiction, an addiction to Craigslisting. If there were an entry in Wikipedia it would read: "Craigslisting is the addicton to searching for some exact item in a used state at a bargain price." And while it is true that I can obsess about finding certain items, and will rage on occasion about those who don't follow Craigslist etiquette, I think I've got the addiction under control.

So here is my most recent acquisition, for free mind you. Samuel et al thought it was the best thing ever when I hosted lunch last Friday. And look at how it kept all of the children outside, so that Lillian was the only one who managed to track smashed fig all over the house, AND only one half of Samuel's toys were strewn throughout the house instead of 100% AND I didn't find any toys in the toilet. Miraculous I say.

Golden Gate Park

I have many fond memories of the Children's Playground in Golden Gate Park. Before we took Samuel there for the first time, these memories were pretty solid, and I could have drawn you a map of the playground and described in great detail each play structure.

It has changed a great deal in the last 25 years, but it is still a super cool park. My memories of what it used to be like are beginning to be replaced by what is now there, but the trademark cement slides are still there.

When we visited the park with Joe, Dhea and little Joey this last weekend Samuel enjoyed his first ride on the merry go round where I believe I also had my first ride and it hasn't changed a bit.

The Gang

As a mostly stay at home mom, in order to maintain my sanity, I belong to a number of different mom's groups. A few of us created a little sub group.

My original idea was that we would get a group of four of us together, and two people would watch the four babies while the other two moms would go do whatever they wanted. A great idea in theory, but one that we have yet to feel truly comfortable with.

What it morphed into was a Tuesday meetup at some fun place, and a Friday lunch hosted by one mom at her house. The host provides all the food for moms and babies, and we destroy the house. When it is your turn to host, it isn't the most relaxing, but the rest of the Fridays are fabulous.

The group has grown and it's pretty hard to get 6 toddlers to sit still for a group picture, but we did our best.

My losing battle with Plastic

I've always been a little freaked out about plastic and I've known about the BPA thing for awhile.

But just last week I decided I was done with any plastic food containers in our house. I obsessed over where I could find glass containers that would not cost me an arm and a leg and Steve made it all the more difficult by insisting that they must be a certain size and shape so that they would fit properly in his lunch bag.

After many hours of internet searching and an impromptu trip to Bed Bath and Beyond, Steve reminded me that we still had a little bit of money left to spend at Crate and Barrel (was our wedding really 3 years ago? How can we still have these gift cards? Oh yeah, because I'm cheap and I hate to accumulate things.) I recycled all of our fake tupperware like items (oh if only I had freecycled them!) and stocked up on a myriad of shapes and sizes of glass containers.

What happened next, of course is my mom came to take care of Samuel while we were on our Parental Getaway, and when we returned Samuel had a new favorite snack cup - in the exact plastic we had been avoiding all this time. Yah mom! Do you think she tortures me on purpose?

Anyway, this snack cup, which is the most ordinary thing on earth, and we have seen a million other kids with at the park, will only be pried from Samuel's cold tantruming hands.

How come I don't get that much joy from the ATM?

Parental Getaway Part 3

Did I mention how amazing it was of my Mom and Barry to come and take care of Samuel for a whole three days? Thanks Bubbie and Popsy, you go above and beyond!

Parental Getaway Part 2

As you can see, the raccoons followed us all the way to Canada and made themselves known when we took a little walk in between the ceremony and dinner, luckily they decided to take their dinner from the garbage can instead of crashing the wedding.

The toasts at the dinner were charming and amusing and I enjoyed the company of our table mates. Since I had only met Mary one time and knew not a single other soul at the wedding and Steve knew only two other people there, I was pleasantly surprised that we felt very comfortable and had an excellent time.

The centerpiece of each table was a cake, which I assumed must not be real - as you can see I was inappropriate as always. Best cake I've ever had at a wedding (well, ok, it was equal to our ice cream cake).

The Parental Getaway

On August 23rd, Steve and I took our first trip without Samuel. We went to Vancouver to attend Mary and Renald's wedding. In a break from my usual high achieving personality I did not plan any activities other than to sleep as much as possible.

On Saturday we went to the pre wedding picnic and Steve and I were able to hone our competitive edge while learning a new game called "cups". To my surprise this game did not involve any alcohol, but instead required us to throw a frisbee between two poles that had cups sitting on top of them. I will not go into the boring details on the rules of said game, but Steve was a ringer considering his Ultimate prowess, and I didn't do too badly myself. I believe we exited the field undefeated :) Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of Steve and myself playing, however, I did take a couple of pictures of Mary and other picnic attendees.

That night we went out to a great tapas place for dinner, I got to drink as much as I wanted since I was pumping and dumping, and I slept through the night for the first time in 15 months.

Scene of the Crime

We had some unexpected nocturnal visitors two nights ago. Samuel woke up at 1am on Tuesday and while I was putting him back to sleep I heard a loud noise that I could not readily identify right outside his window. I naturally assumed it was the child thief that I always hear in the middle of the night coming to steal Samuel (because let's be honest, who wouldn't be lurking around in our suburban town breaking into houses specifically to steal little boys who wake up multiple times in the night. I think I read too much Roald Dahl as a child).

The unidentifiable ruckus was followed by the sound of splashing water and the clicking of plastic toys. As any reasonable person knows, child thieves do not swim in kiddy pools, so I peered out the window to see three fluffy tails sticking out of Samuel's wading pool. Baby raccoons were frolicking in the water and playing with the baby toys. They were so boisterous they managed to spread the toys halfway around the yard.

I sent Steve to scare them off. When he opened the sliding glass door, two of them scurried a couple of feet away, but the mama showed up and seemed to be about to mosey into our kitchen. Steve shut the door and left them to their devices. They became fans of Steve's footwear, and he now needs a new pair of flip flops. I regret not being awake enough to take pictures at the time but here are some before and after shots.

first words, first steps

I have been ruminating on this post for a long time. In fact, there has been some existential angst in our household regarding the topic of "firsts."

How does one define "first word"? And if you want to get really deep, what qualifies as a word? Does the sound just need to have intention, or does it need to be a real English word? Does it count if only your parents can understand you? Do you have to be able to use it on cue? What if you say it only once? What if you use that same word for many things? What if you say a word that no one can understand? What if you say it in a forest and no one can hear? What if you say them on a train, on a boat... oops, wrong story.

Likewise, when are you truly walking? Is it when you have taken your first two steps? When you can retrieve something by using walking as locomotion? When you can walk across the room? Or when you use walking as your main form of transportation? These are the difficult questions that plague Steve and I when we aren't too tired to think.

Perhaps Samuel's first word was dog. He uttered what his doting parents believe to be doggy and kitty as early as 11 months. That said, he called just about everything that he liked doggy, including me, for about two months, at which point the word disappeared from his lexicon rarely to be heard again. In the past four months, we have heard what we believe to be any number of words, including but not limited to: help, please, up, no, yes, mommy, daddy, nose, this, keys, music, raspberry (I know, we're crazy, but it was clear as day), kitty and happy. We believe his first really intentional phrase was "No no no," which actually meant, "Give that to me," because that is what I always say to him before I rip knives, scissors, ice picks and other dangerous objects out of his hands. "Nose" is currently his most consistent and reliable word, and I think we can attribute it's use to Grandpa Tom who never fails to ask Samuel where his is.

On the subject of walking, it is similarly difficult to pinpoint the "first" moment in time. Again, Samuel's first steps took place at about 11 months. He was getting to a standing position on his own even earlier than that. It wasn't until about 13 months that he started really walking, however, and within two weeks, he quit crawling altogether.

At some point, I hope to add some walking video to this post. If I ever get some talking action I will add that as well.

Amazing Park Feats: Ode to the Camera Phone

After going to the museum and zoo we stopped by the park that is right next door for the first time. It is not a great playground because there is very little shade and today was a pretty hot day, but Samuel needed some extra play time and so the gang (Kathy, Jesse, Shannon, Sophia, Eric, Lillian, Samuel and I) proceeded on to the park.

As I was sitting on the other side of the park from Samuel I saw his torso begin to disappear as his legs moved off the ground. Unbelievably, he was climbing this ladder on the play structure. Even more surprising is the fact that he was doing this with no encouragement from me, and without me in sight.

I went to make sure that he was not going to fall to his death, then promptly realized that Steve needed to see this. Whatever did we do before camera phones? I sent this picture to Steve while he sat at lunch with his coworkers. Coincidentally he was bragging about how Samuel was going to be a rock climber due to his proclivity to scale every item of furniture in the house. Perfect timing!

first teeth

People began to tell us that Samuel was teething when he was 4 months old. It only took another 9 months for his first teeth to show up. Contrary to popular belief, a baby can be cranky and drool, and NOT be teething.

I used to tell Steve that the late teeth came from his side of the family as Grandma Susan likes to recount how the dentist told her she was a liar when she told him how old Judith was and she still didn't have teeth.

However, as you can see from these pictures, it's pretty clear these teeth are all Silberman. After perusing my baby book I found that I didn't get my first teeth until 13 months, either.

Simcha Celebration

Auntie Janet and Uncle Nate hosted a party this weekend to celebrate Shana's new home and engagement, Josh's pending move to NYC to pursue his theater career, and Abby's graduate degree.

It was pretty cool to see all the little ones playing together. If you'd like to see more photos, go to our smugmug page.

a true california native

Samuel, a true Californian, has started his love of the automobile at the tender age of 14 months. While he still has no desire to sit in his car seat, he is ready to start driver's ed. In addition to steering, shifting and trying to take off the emergency brake, he can open the car door from the inside on his own.

the oregon trail

Family vacation in Sunriver, Oregon. Grandma Joan and Grandpa Lou graciously watched Samuel while the rest of us went on a rafting trip (Steve's first). The rapids were fun; I even swallowed my caution and went down a rapids (with Lauren holding my hand, and only after Lena did it too) sans boat. Samuel indulged his love of bicycles, and found a new love of swimming. All in all, we had a great time. Thanks Joan and Dad!

first time in the pool

Samuel enjoyed his first time in the pool. He was a little cautious in the beginning, but was beginning to enjoy himself when it became too chilly for us to stay in wet bathing suits. As soon as he was warm in his dry clothes, he wanted to jump in fully clothed! He must have been thinking of Sandra Boynton's turkey.

my boys :)

Samuel at 13months, sleeping peacefully with Daddy

samuel turns 1

So we arrived almost an hour late to our own party. It's a long story mainly having to do with me setting the actual time a half hour early thinking that everyone else would be late (and then forgetting that I had done that), and Samuel deciding to take a 2 hour nap - which he never does.

In our mad dash to do everything that we planned, we didn't manage to take any pictures, but Gil saved the day with these photos. Samuel of course had no clue that the day was anything special, or that all the fuss had anything more to do with him than usual, but you can never go wrong with a day at the park and a bunch of people to play with you.

the lime green ibert

I really wanted to get back on my bike again, so I needed to figure out a way that would allow me to take Samuel with me. After a bunch of research, I came upon this seat that goes on the front of the bike. I really like it because it keeps my center of gravity and the weight in the right place on the bike, instead of having a seat on the back which makes it very hard to control the steering, especially for someone like me who doesn't weigh very much. It's nice for Samuel because he can see everything I can see.

In the beginning Samuel really hated his bike helmet, but we learned to put a little beanie on underneath, and that seemed to help quite a bit. Now he runs into the garage and pulls on the bike, tries to put on the helmet, and yells at Steve and I to let us know he wants to go for a ride. The only problem is, he wants to ride the bike, and he frequently pushes my hands off the handlebars.

Our newest feat on the bicycle was Samuel nursing while I continued to ride. Complicated and tiring, but it stopped the crying. I knew I could put those bike racing skills to use somewhere in my life.

chef in training

Samuel loves to help around the house and one of his favorite things is to "help" me cook. He is not above taking a sample or two, either, especially if it is one of his favorites, like hummus.

This kid is a tool user for sure. Spoons for stirring are very popular, as is the Cuisinart. Samuel agrees with his Aunt Suzette, though, the Kitchen Aid is by far the best kitchen innovation. Samuel likes to make pizza dough in it, however he is not above mixing water with it, as his Bubbie lets him do.

how cute is crawling?

Here is video of some early crawling moments. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "If you think it's hard now, wait till they can move." I can't disagree more. Crawling in our household is the best thing since peanut butter. That's right kiddo - now you can go get that toy for yourself. Doesn't hurt that it's so darn cute, either.

barcelona, wow!

We took a side trip to Barcelona before returning home from Paris. Guell Park, Catalonian food, Picasso, Gaudi, Miro. Wonderful. It was rainy but the people made up for it. Everyone loved babies (in both Paris and Barcelona) and we were treated well everywhere we went. Our last night we took Samuel to the Parade for the Three Kings. He was mesmerized.

paris for christmas

Tom and Susan brought all of their kids and spouses on an amazing trip to Paris this winter for their anniversary. A free trip to Europe - need I say more? Thanks Tom and Susan.

It was also great that the European branch of the family could join us there. It was wonderful to see Francis, Teddy, Nik and Nicola