Six Month mark
Well it's more like 6.5 months. I've been remiss recording all of Nora's accomplishments. So much has happened since her 3 month birthday...
We moved from Minneapolis to LA. It's been a big change. Our apartment is smaller, living expenses are higher, daycare is cheaper, the air is dirtier, etc. Fires have been burning around LA so the sky is smoky while the weather gets warmer.
I'm on furlough this week. I've had time to myself without the baby around and it's been nice and lonely at the same time. I joined the gym and have been trying classes there. We're also pretty much screwed financially. My income, though I got a raise, is going to barely cover our necessary expenses. That's not including John's tuition bills.
John's in orientation this week, and all I can say is, if this is how much I'll see him during the week while he's in school, we need to think seriously about our lives together. It's no way to live.
I feel guilty giving Nora to the daycare every day while I'm off work, but relieved at the same time. She's a big hit with the kids and the gan ladies love her. It's good for her to be around other kids (and germs) because she seems to really thrive on stimulus, which is hard to provide constantly at home. Weekends are a challenge since she's so smart and gets bored by the same surroundings if we don't go out every few hours.
I miss her as I'm sitting here. My hand still smells like baby from where I held her - the scent of milk and her individual perfume.
Her latest accomplishments are two front teeth on the bottom, waving hello, and sitting up. She likes sitting and rocking, which is rather funny. I think there are more teeth coming in - perhaps the top two? - that make her sleep schedule a little irregular. Over the past 2 weeks she's slept through the night at least 3 times. She charms everyone she meets, and finding babysitters is going to be a breeze.
We've now met several of John's classmates and last night had a wonderful dinner with the Board of Ziegler. He seems to be in a good place, though he probably has the most to learn of any of the students. Not having Hebrew school backgrounds is proving a big hurdle for both of us.
I'm looking for music groups to join, but feeling that I don't have the time yet with Nora still breastfeeding and working full time. I just know I miss making music with decent musicians (hard to find in the Jewish community in my experience so far - nothing is written down; all music is learned by going to Jewish summer camps when you're a kid, and clearly I haven't done that, so I'm out of luck there). I can only pick up on so much, and usually it's melody lines. Never mind words - Hebrew is bizarre, and written right to left, so everything would need to be transliterated to fit with western notation. Even the melody lines don't make sense in a western music context. There's no ABA format or normal V-I cadences, so just as soon as I think I've got the melody down, it changes for no apparent reason and ends somewhere unexpected. This results in me singing the wrong notes; very embarrassing for a music major. Generally this makes me incredibly self conscious because it makes me stick out as a misfit in services.
At least I've met a few people our age; generally other students or spouses of students. One in particular seems cool: Orly Henkin. She and her husband have a daughter who's 1.5 months younger than Nora and attends the same daycare as Nora. They are good people, and it's nice to have someone else with a baby and a husband in school to talk to. They moved from Atlanta so the culture shock is another thing we have in common.
As much as I'd like to fit in, it would mean learning Hebrew (a language that makes no sense to learn, in my opinion, since it's spoken in 2 places: Israel and Jewish communities of the diaspora, neither of which place I desire to live) and studying all things Jewish. It might be interesting from an anthropological standpoint to study Jewish history and culture, but I thought I was done with the whole thing upon conversion. I have no desire to go deeper beyond satisfying my occasional curiousity about a point; I mean, I'm not going to school for this stuff, John is. But the expectation, although unspoken, is that I know all the stuff he knows. That expectation is causing me to dig in my heels and obstinately say no.
Learning Hebrew, however, may become required since we will be living in Israel for one year out of John's schooling. The common opinion from people I've spoken to is that Israel is great and everyone should go. I like traveling as much or more than the next person, but the middle east has NEVER appealed to me. At the same time, Nora will learn Hebrew if only from the Israeli women who run her daycare, and will be bilingual from the start.
I have to stop for now...gotta pump and run and do errands beforee a birthday massage. ;-)
We moved from Minneapolis to LA. It's been a big change. Our apartment is smaller, living expenses are higher, daycare is cheaper, the air is dirtier, etc. Fires have been burning around LA so the sky is smoky while the weather gets warmer.
I'm on furlough this week. I've had time to myself without the baby around and it's been nice and lonely at the same time. I joined the gym and have been trying classes there. We're also pretty much screwed financially. My income, though I got a raise, is going to barely cover our necessary expenses. That's not including John's tuition bills.
John's in orientation this week, and all I can say is, if this is how much I'll see him during the week while he's in school, we need to think seriously about our lives together. It's no way to live.
I feel guilty giving Nora to the daycare every day while I'm off work, but relieved at the same time. She's a big hit with the kids and the gan ladies love her. It's good for her to be around other kids (and germs) because she seems to really thrive on stimulus, which is hard to provide constantly at home. Weekends are a challenge since she's so smart and gets bored by the same surroundings if we don't go out every few hours.
I miss her as I'm sitting here. My hand still smells like baby from where I held her - the scent of milk and her individual perfume.
Her latest accomplishments are two front teeth on the bottom, waving hello, and sitting up. She likes sitting and rocking, which is rather funny. I think there are more teeth coming in - perhaps the top two? - that make her sleep schedule a little irregular. Over the past 2 weeks she's slept through the night at least 3 times. She charms everyone she meets, and finding babysitters is going to be a breeze.
We've now met several of John's classmates and last night had a wonderful dinner with the Board of Ziegler. He seems to be in a good place, though he probably has the most to learn of any of the students. Not having Hebrew school backgrounds is proving a big hurdle for both of us.
I'm looking for music groups to join, but feeling that I don't have the time yet with Nora still breastfeeding and working full time. I just know I miss making music with decent musicians (hard to find in the Jewish community in my experience so far - nothing is written down; all music is learned by going to Jewish summer camps when you're a kid, and clearly I haven't done that, so I'm out of luck there). I can only pick up on so much, and usually it's melody lines. Never mind words - Hebrew is bizarre, and written right to left, so everything would need to be transliterated to fit with western notation. Even the melody lines don't make sense in a western music context. There's no ABA format or normal V-I cadences, so just as soon as I think I've got the melody down, it changes for no apparent reason and ends somewhere unexpected. This results in me singing the wrong notes; very embarrassing for a music major. Generally this makes me incredibly self conscious because it makes me stick out as a misfit in services.
At least I've met a few people our age; generally other students or spouses of students. One in particular seems cool: Orly Henkin. She and her husband have a daughter who's 1.5 months younger than Nora and attends the same daycare as Nora. They are good people, and it's nice to have someone else with a baby and a husband in school to talk to. They moved from Atlanta so the culture shock is another thing we have in common.
As much as I'd like to fit in, it would mean learning Hebrew (a language that makes no sense to learn, in my opinion, since it's spoken in 2 places: Israel and Jewish communities of the diaspora, neither of which place I desire to live) and studying all things Jewish. It might be interesting from an anthropological standpoint to study Jewish history and culture, but I thought I was done with the whole thing upon conversion. I have no desire to go deeper beyond satisfying my occasional curiousity about a point; I mean, I'm not going to school for this stuff, John is. But the expectation, although unspoken, is that I know all the stuff he knows. That expectation is causing me to dig in my heels and obstinately say no.
Learning Hebrew, however, may become required since we will be living in Israel for one year out of John's schooling. The common opinion from people I've spoken to is that Israel is great and everyone should go. I like traveling as much or more than the next person, but the middle east has NEVER appealed to me. At the same time, Nora will learn Hebrew if only from the Israeli women who run her daycare, and will be bilingual from the start.
I have to stop for now...gotta pump and run and do errands beforee a birthday massage. ;-)