Sari's away at Yaddo for two weeks - one more week to go - and this is a representative sample of Phoebe's conversation:

"I'm a friendly little birdie! And you're the friendly daddy birdie! Peep peep!" And "I'm a friendly little kitty. And you're the friendly daddy kitty. Meow!" And "I'm a friendly little doggy. And you're the friendly daddy doggy. ( Read more... )

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The last five weeks have been an incredible growth period for Phoebe. I can date her progress because we've been "homeless" since February 11, living over at Sari's parents' house in Brooklyn Heights while our apartment is being repainted and baby-proofed. (The job was supposed to take two weeks. Don't ask.) During that period, our little infant ( Read more... )

Inspired by the birth of our baby girl, my travel companion, sometime-collaborator, and life-long love, Sari (who's also a published fiction writer and a former Stegner and Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center fellow) has joined the blogging ranksTitled "Muttering," her online journal uses the occasion of first-time motherhood as its jumping-off ( Read more... )

The other day Sari had an appointment in Manhattan, so I took care of Phoebe for the afternoon. Couple hours into it and Phoebe wakes up starving from her nap. Just as I sit down with her and a bottle of pre-pumped breast milk, the phone rings. It's Sari ( Read more... )

That's what was coming out of Phoebe's butt this afternoon in the middle of changing her. It got on everything: her onesie, the cloth covering the diaper pad, the diaper pad itself. And nothing would make it stop. Not multiple wipes, not a new diaper, nor the one after that. In the confusion, Sari slapped a diaper on her, and somehow not only put ( Read more... )

So today is the last day of thirties. I'm trying to spend a little time thinking about that milestone ( Read more... )

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The nonchalent way Dr. Russell said "It's time to start pushing" really caught me off guard. Even though we'd been given that extra time, and even though Sari had finally fully dilated, I was still very much anticipating that a C-section was imminent. After all, as far as I knew, the baby was still "malpositioned," and Sari still seemed in a ( Read more... )

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