Day 1065 - Heave Ho!

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Whenever I am around Ruth and Eleanor, they play nicely. But I hear they mix it up at school - for a while, I could pretty much count on finding either Ruth or Eleanor on the "red" circle at school when I got there (depending on who won?).

Day 80 - Simcha Bat

Yesterday, we held a Simcha Bat (baby-naming) for Ruth. So, now it's "official." Our Rabbi, Ben, came by and did a nice little ceremony, we told the stories of her names (recounted on this blog here and here). There was almost a crisis over the food (not my hummus - my hummus was great), but nobody died. Some of our local friends stopped by, and a bunch of my Mom's side of the family were able to be there. But don't worry - Ruth is going up to Boston to visit M's family in a couple weeks, and then in August we're taking her to LA to see my Dad's side.

With Mom, in my grandfather's Christening dress (I know, it's not really a Christening).

Establishing shot of the party (I baked the challah, but M braided it, so that we'd both contribute to the central symbolic food for Ruth's naming)

Rabbi Ben doing the ceremony - we had colorful handouts!

Ceremonies can seem long in warm weather. Jeremy and Alex are getting antsy.

Throw me the Idol!

Day 31 - meeting our friend Jason (oops, forgot to post this one before)













Day 38 - Hanging with cool uncle David. No, her neck's not broken.












Day 39 - Meeting Rabbi Ben. Fortunately for their relationship, it'll just be a Simcha Bat, not a bris.

In honor of the return of Indiana Jones, Melissa and I have gotten quite adept at pulling the idol trick from the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Ruth is having none of pacifiers (communist). But, it often works to calm her for someone to put a finger in her mouth to suck on (she has not yet mastered the art of sucking on her own fingers). This, unfortunately, puts a damper on whatever else you might want to do with your time. But we've found that, if you're quick enough about it, you can slide one finger out and slip another finger of similar size - but attached to someone else's hand - in, in that bare moment before she begins squalling.

Sigh.