Wheels

I have 2 bikes. A semi fancy race bike that is purely for fun/exercise and a cheapy bike that I bought from Craigslist. The latter is the bike I commute with and the one I was going to affix the baby ride along seat to for Mariana in about another month when she's big enough. Well, plans have changed.

Last week I had a friend at work help me draft a letter to the building owners where I work; 7 World Trade Center owned by the Port Authority. I wanted to request that they find a secure bike storage room somewhere inside the building so that people like me can bike to work and not have their bikes stolen. A few co-workers were willing to sign on as well. I decided I'd better run it by my boss before sending to anyone but he's travelling for a couple weeks so I'll just sit on it for now. Yesterday I got stopped at a light in my neighborhood by a guy with a clipboard doing a survey for the city. He asked a bunch of questions about bike stuff ie: "Have you ever been injured?"(yes) "Do you wear a helmet?" (yes) "Have you ever ridden on the sidewalk?" (whoops, yes) "Do you want to see more bike lanes and racks?" etc. Wow this is great, the tide is turning and people care about making the city more bike friendly. He gave a water bottle for my participation and I rode off to work. As I came down the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan I was feeling pretty damn good. It was a bright sunny day and the tourists were not yet clogging the pathways. I thought "Why would I ever ride the train to work?"

At the end of the day I was going to ride home through Chinatown to pick up some food for dinner. I found what was left of my bike by the rack in the back of the building. Someone had stolen the fork and front wheel and left the handlebars hanging by their cables. The rear wheel and frame were still there, locked to the rack. That's some timing huh? The letter, the survey, the jubilant morning rider. Well, I'm not getting Chinese food tonight. I'm not riding this bike with Mariana. Shit, I'm not even riding home today. I clipped the cables to set the handlebars free, took the seat and left the rest to bring home today- if it's still there. I'm not sentimentally attached to that bike and it's paid for itself already in the $4 a day it saved me by not taking the subway. But it still sucks. That was my only form of exercise these days. It's something I didn't have to make time for because I had to take 1/2 an hour to get to work either way. It's been rough adjusting to how much less time I have to do everything that I want to do now that Mariana is here. They say it will get better. ugh. She's lucky she's so damn cute and sweet and perfect. 

C-I-L-L my neighbors

Yesterday we went to a gathering at my parents house. Unfortunately my Mom is in the hospital again so the party was moved from the Poconos to their house. We're all worried about her and hoping for the best. We went to visit her in the Hospital and I hope Mariana brightened her day a bit. Back at the party Mariana was passed from lap to lap and arms to arms by the 423 people in my family. She was a trooper, smiling and being her usual chill self. 

 

I want to kill my neighbors. Dead.

We got home at 10pm or so and just as we had feared there was a party going on in the building behind ours. The music was loud- really, REALLY f*ing LOUD. Mariana slept all the way home but was now waking up to the thunderous bass echoing between the buildings. We had left all our windows open so when we came upstairs it felt like we were inside a club. Closing the windows reduced the noise only slightly and we still had to practically shout at each other while sitting on the couch. We put her down to sleep and crossed our fingers. They've been having parties back there recently and she grew up in Bogota so she can sleep through plenty of noise. But this one was so far over the top it was unbearable. They were set up outside with a DJ and a full-on PA system. Hilary went to ask them to turn it down and they basically laughed at her. The 81st Precinct did pretty much the same thing when she called them. Mariana slept for a little while but then started waking up every 2 hours or so. Finally sometime past 3-4 am the noise stopped but Mariana still couldn't sleep. THEN ALL DAY. The poor thing is so exhausted she can barely crawl. She's all limp and whiny. Who is this kid?! We went for a long walk in the stroller. Nothing. We went for a long drive and only got a few winks out of her. It was almost like she was afraid to sleep. Every time she started nodding off she'd wake herself up crying and then have to be picked up. It screwed up her eating, napping, everything. It was such a beautiful day here in NY and the entire day was wasted. SOOO I want to kill my thoughtless scumbag neighbors. I laid in bed fantasizing about hosing them all down with the garden hose on the roof, making sure to give the turntable and speakers a good soaking. Zap, music's off!! I thought about throwing a Molotov cocktail down on them. Ok, that's a lie but I'll never understand how some people can be so completely disrespectful of everyone around them. In walking around with Mariana in the stroller today I could really see the incongruity of this neighborhood through my sleep deprived haze. Lots of flowers and people taking care of their houses, kids playing on the swings in Saratoga Park. It's really a very pretty neighborhood with lots of decent people. We chatted with a few neighbors who were also pissed off about the music. Maybe if enough of us say something, they'll listen. Then again, a well placed firebomb could do the trick too. Kidding! I'm just kidding.

here is a picture of Mariana with Poppi and some of her girlie cousins

Mornings with Chunky

The mornings are really starting to fall into a routine. Mariana starts rolling around, googooing and gaagaaing around 6 - 6:30 am. I often wake up and hear her through the monitor. Normally I've got tissue stuffed up my nose to stop the whistling that Dr. Mehta gave me when he "corrected" my deviated septum. Thanks Jackass. My ears are plugged because the neurotic pit bull in the yard just outside our bedroom windows has been squealing and wailing all night. Probably I gave up trying to ignore the noise at around 1am and resorted to the ear plugs. So when I awake at 6 to the muffled sounds of my daughter I feel like I'm in a sensory deprivation chamber, albeit a lousy one. Once I've dispensed with the plugs and nose tampon, I try to go back to sleep with mixed results often lying awake until 715 when I have to actually get up and start our day. I go downstairs, feed the cat, make Mariana's bottles for the day, put away the coffee table, lay out the blanket, prepare my cereal bowl and head back upstairs to get my lil' girl. Sometimes awake already, sometimes face down and drooling she wakes up with a big smile every day. Within 10 seconds she sits up and utters her first word "Cat!". Does she just love the cat or is she just happy to use the only word she knows how to say? Since our cat is completely anti-social and prone to hissing at our new bundle of joy I'm inclined to think the latter. Either way she is always smiley and heart burstingly cute. We go to the bathroom for a diaper a change and then downstairs for a little Daddy/daughter time. I feed her her first bottle which she usually takes and drinks on her own now. It's sort of the calm before the storm. I can stare at her and talk to her and play with her hair and she's occupied with the bottle so she sits still. If the cat should happen to walk by she'll start saying cat with a mouthful of bottle. "grgrcagrat!" he he She's funny.

Next

Mariana likes to play with tupperware, toilet paper rolls, socks, and remote controls. Regular toys? Eh, not as interesting. (Though she does dig the hamburger Aunt Maria gave her) She's starting to learn that when we say no that we mean it. We'll let her play with a cell phone but we won't let her put it in her mouth This doesn't stop her from trying over and over and over. She's just starting to show that it's very frustrating to play with some things but not be able to lick them. Sorry, them's the breaks kid. 
Work has been all consuming at times in the past month. This is very difficult to deal with. It means Hilary has to work overtime too. She has been doing a fantastic job but it's not easy. Yeah the economy sucks, yeah people are getting laid off left and right. I can't help but feel like those days and nights spent at work away from my family are lost. I'll never get back that time with them. The work that I do has so little socially redeeming value that it adds to that feeling. I'm giving up my life and time to help Northface sell more crap? I traded a weekend with my wife and baby for Tropicana? What a waste. 
Mariana is learning little things every day. Sometimes we forget that there are so many things that she has never seen before. Everything is new. I guess that's why she's so curious about anything new; the vacuum, flip flops, the cat's bowl, tissues- and you know that all that stuff makes great kids toys. 
My Spanish still sucks. I try to speak to her as much as I can but I'm afraid if she picks up anything it will be with all my errors. It still hasn't sunk in that someone else is going to have to teach her Spanish.

Also check out these videos when you get a chance. Mariana caught on tape babbling in the park and also her first time climbing 2 stairs. pretty exciting stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDTEzlWcf5I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXHKxFzIzZk

Father's Day

Today was Father's Day. My first as a Dad. It's been a long time coming and it was worth the wait. I have THE most wonderful daughter a man could ask for. 

It's been a while since I wrote and I've traded writing posts for sleep. I'm going to try to start writing on the subway. We'll see how that goes. It's summertime and I've been riding my bike to work when the weather is decent so my plan may be scuttled quickly.

Mariana continues to be the dream baby. The occasional cold leads to a few broken nights sleep but nothing too bad. She continues to make my heart swell. The talking/babbling is in full force now. We try to decipher things she's saying because they often sound close to being right. The only word that's clear that she knows is cat- although it sounds more like "dat". She points at the cat and smiles and says "DAT!" She also points at dogs, animals in the zoo and a gray stuffed squirrel and says "DAT!" She's learning still ok?!

She is crawling a lot and starting to pull herself up on the couch and on the drawer handles. Scary. We still need to do much baby proofing. I came into her room this afternoon after she was supposed to be napping and found her up on her knees, hands on the bars like she was down for her crimes. Very cute but it illustrates how soon she'll be trying to climb out of there.

Last weekend was the double whammy of Hilary's birthday and Mother's Day. I wasn't going to make time to write a new post with all that action going on. We bought her a casting kit so we can make a plaster cast of Marianas foot or hand as a keepsake. Pictures are nice but it would be cool to have a handful of that chunkiness preserved in 3-D. We had a visit today from Dina, the amiable social worker we worked with to do our home study for the adoption. 

She had to do the 3 month follow up to make sure Mariana wasn't living in squalor with festering wounds since being brought to Brooklyn. She found the child as happy as ever, making her parents proud by playing comfortably and eating all her food without a fuss. Afterwards we went to my office where she was received like rock star. We holed up in my workshop and my colleagues filed in to kiss her feet. Actually that's what my boss did. Who wouldn't?! They're irresistible. 

Then we went to lunch as a family. It brought back memories of the Halifax Hotel, us sitting together and eating lunch - albeit with tastier burgers this time. We don't do that now. We're lucky if 2 of us at a time are together for a meal. I hope some day we figure out all that. 

Below is a picture of Morgan and Mariana at Hilary's b-day gathering. Mariana is sporting the awesome outfit that Talia made especially for her. She rocks any outfit but this is just over the top.

adjustments

Did I mention that I was busy? Having a kid leaves precious little time for personal hobbies, not to mention doing all the little things around the house like cleaning, sleeping etc. We can't just lounge around all day on the weekend anymore. This is not news to anyone with kids, or to us for that matter, just sort of the way it is right now. I have not yet learned how to manage my time to fit in stuff like exercise, writing, or house projects, not to mention thank you cards. Hilary has been working on them but as of yet we have not sent any yet. 

My work is driving me nuts. Just having to work at all kind of sucks, especially after 6 weeks off. Adjusting to this new schedule of seeing Mariana only 2 hrs a day and on the weekends has been much more difficult 

than I anticipated.

 Staying an hour late was no big deal before, the norm even. Now it means I don't see her at all before her bedtime. It's torturous to be there any longer than necessary and we have not even been all that busy yet. 

Just look at how damn cute Mariana is and you'll realize how she can make the stress melt away. She is such a good baby. We are incredibly lucky. We find ourselves saying this a lot and wondering how we would handle having a baby that was very fussy. Would it matter? Would you love them just the same and just deal with it? yeah, of course...

This video is from Hilary's afternoon in the park with our friends Rachel, Malchus and their twin daughters. I think Hilary is adjusting very well to her new (and temporary?) role as stay at home Mom. It helps that the weather has been so nice and that she has been able to hook up with friends a lot. 

The picture at he top shows Mariana enjoying her first taste of chocolate sorbet. Hilary drew a Van Dyke moustache on her face in chocolate. Nice Mom, nice.              

Latest accomplishments for Mariana: peekaboo, crawling (backwards a few steps today) saying Dada (ok, maybe a stretch but I heard what I heard ok?!) eating more and more solids - this week: avocados, bananas with yogurt, cheerios, and sweet potatoes. She also seems to know the word kiki for cat.