Sunrise Ruby

It comes as no surprise that the New Yorker supports Obama. But this (somewhat long) essay by the editors of the magazine explains clearly and passionately why many of us believe the choice we’ll make as voters in this election is so important, and why many of us believe that Obama is the presidential candidate most suited to lead us in the next four years:

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/10/13/081013taco_talk_editors

Less than a month until the election–I can’t wait until it’s over. All the hate that has recently surfaced at GOP campaign rallies depresses and frightens me.

Ben took his first steps this morning!  He was holding on to the nightstand in his room, he turned around to look at me, and he toddled forward a few steps before falling onto his hands.  He looked surprised, whether at his discovery of how bipedal legs work, or my overly enthusiastic reaction to his steps, I can’t say. Can’t wait to see him do it again!

Later this morning I took him to a Books & Babies storytime at the Austin Public Library, where he got into a tugging fight with a little girl over a stuffed dog named Jack.  No photo of that either.

To anyone who, like me, is trying to understand the current mess the markets are in, I highly recommend listening to This American Life Episode 355: The Giant Pool of Money.  It aired way back in May, so it obviously doesn’t address yesterday’s events, but it provides great background information for understanding the current credit crisis.

Nathan and I listened to Ira Glass’s riveting story of hungry investors, unscrupulous mortgage brokers, and fabricated credit ratings last night after Ben went to bed.  It was a little like watching a runaway train crash and burn.  A train that we all happen to be on.

My guys, completely exhausted after helping me with nesting projects this morning:

Saturday was more of the miserable same described in the last post.  But by Sunday, Ben was finally feeling better, so we met friends for pizza at Mangia on Saturday afternoon.  (Ben tried a few tiny bites of the pizza and seemed to like.)

On Labor Day morning I made minestrone with veggies freshly harvested from our garden.  We were listening to a jazz/bluesy mix while I cooked, and Ben danced to a B. B. King song; watching him dance is one of the greatest pleasures of my life so far.  In the evening we had a sitter for Ben, so we visited more friends that we hadn’t seen in a while.  We all watched Red Dawn, a movie from the 80s about a Soviet invasion of small town America during the Cold War.  Holy cats was that a weird time for the collective American consciousness.  Glad I don’t really remember it.

As mentioned in my last post, Ben has his first cold this week. I guess it’s a cold. He’s not used to being sick, I’m not used to him being sick, and it’s been pretty miserable. He’s not eating much, not drinking much, he’s tired but too uncomfortable to sleep much.  Being 25 weeks pregnant and toting around an inconsolable 25-pound 1-yr old all week is a sure recipe for physical and emotional exhaustion. Two visits to the pediatrician have been the bulk of the human interaction we’ve had this week. Thank the gods the weekend is here.

Nathan took over Ben care when he got home this evening. Ben is snoozing for now, and Nathan just left to go pick up some comfort food for dinner (spicy thom yum with tofu from Titaya’s on Lamar–*drool*).

I really, really hope our little man feels better soon.

What to do when you have your first cold:

1.  Wear a solid green t-shirt with matching hot pants (so the snot blends in).

2.  Stay home from your usual Thursday play group, and play pots in the kitchen instead.

I made hummus today to take to a group birthday party for a bunch of babies who all turned 1 this summer.

• 4 cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 jar roasted red peppers, drained and rinsed
• 5 cloves garlic (which I pan roasted)
• 3 Tbsp. tahini
• 4-5 Tbsp. olive oil
• handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt to taste

I just tossed all the ingredients into the food processor and let it go until it was smooth, like hummus.  It’s tasty, but I think I could’ve added more garlic.  At the party this afternoon I’ll serve it with celery sticks, carrot sticks, and grape tomatoes.  I think it would also be great on a veggie wrap.

I imagine that some of the babies at the party will try the hummus.  For a baby less than a year old, you could omit the lemon juice.  It apparently makes a good snack for preggos, too–I’m using carrot sticks to shovel large quantities of it into my mouth as I type.

Ben’s babbling has seemed much more varied and complex during the last week.  Instead of chains of the same syllable over and over again (’da-da-da’ and ‘ga-ga-ga’), he’s combining different syllables into babblings such as ‘da-ga’ and ‘bo-bo-ga’.  He’s making more and more consonant sounds (I occasionally hear a ’sh’ or a ‘t’), and I think we’re hearing some of his first words, too–things like ‘dog’ and ‘dada’.

Then this morning Ben was throwing a fit when Nathan was trying to put him into the highchair for breakfast.  Nathan lifted him back up before trying a second time and said something like, “Ok, let’s try again.”  Ben, who obviously still didn’t want to sit in the highchair, replied, “Shit!” pretty clearly in a hideously cute, high voice.  Niiice…I’m sure it was just a coincidence, but it was awfully clear and made sense in context.  We, of course, reacted totally inappropriately if that was actually what he said, by exchanging a surprised glance and then giggling.