For the last few months, I’ve been trying to use up our “vegetable” oil before Noah started eating people food. Apparently, when the cooking oil is just labeled “vegetable,” peanut oil is often included. And the risk of severe peanut allergies decrease significantly if you keep the baby from eating any peanut products until they are at least 2 years old.

So, no “vegetable” oil for Noah.

We finally used it all up about 2 weeks ago.

I promptly forgot to get cooking oil at the grocery store. We have olive oil, and super-mild-tasting olive oil, and butter, and the margarine we use on toast, and some leftover soy margarine from when we thought Noah might be allergic to dairy in my diet.

Popcorn hates them.

We eat a lot of popcorn. And we’re purists. None of this microwave in a bag for us. Popcorn is cooked in a pot, on the  (gas) stove, with oil. And then sprinkled with salt and drizzled with butter.

Jill tried first. She used the toast margarine. So awful she threw it out.

Then I tried. Butter. Almost as awful but I ate it anyway.

Days pass.

Groceries acquired. But not cooking oil.

I curse myself and try to make popcorn using olive oil.

It works better than the butter. But just barely.

So…corn? Or canola? What’s a canola? Which makes better popcorn? Is there any argument against the store brand that I should consider seriously?

I don’t know why, but it’s a lot harder for me to blog about good things and big events than stressful things or minutiae.

Which is why I still haven’t blogged about the wedding part of our trip to DC for a wedding, or the baptism part of Noah’s baptism yesterday.

The Wedding

The wedding was for a couple we just adore. Mikki and Claire went with us to St Martin on vacation last Thanksgiving week. Jill and Mikki have been close for years. Both of them are generous and loyal and smart and funny and we miss them so much. We are beyond happy that they found one another.

The service itself was intimate, sweet, charming, and moving. It was a Reconstructionist Jewish ceremony, including many traditional elements of a Jewish wedding, and a few personal touches.

My favorite part was that the Rabbi interviewed Claire and Mikki separately before the wedding, and asked each of them “Why her?” She took amazing notes on the answers, and told us what they said. It was a touching — and funny! — insight into their personalities and their relationship, and a great element for a wedding.
Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day:

Good times.

The Baptism
Noah and another baby, Madeleine, were both baptized yesterday. She was adorable, just a few weeks younger than Noah. During the preliminaries, she kept grabbing his hand and arm, which I thought was too cute.

I don’t know if this is unique to our church or is a Presbyterian tradition, but my favorite part is that they involve all the children present in the ceremony.

One child stands in front of the congregation, while the rest sit on the floor in front of the pews.

The child standing asks all of the others if they will promise to stand by Noah and Madeleine and be their friends, to help them if they fall down, and to guide them if they need help.

And they answer that they will.

It is the sweetest thing I have ever seen at church.

Here’s what the actual baptism looked like to me:

After the baptism, they finish the rest of the regular Sunday worship service. Noah sat with us, and when the choir started singing, Noah went wild! He loved it. L.O.V.E.D. IT. It looked like he was directing the choir. Only bigger and more wild.
And because of the baptism, we were seated in the front row of the church, so the entire congregation could see his enthusiasm. Approximately 1/3 of them mentioned it at the lunch after the service.

We also took a picture of the whole family, after the service and the lunch:

Today

J, partner of The Baby Juggler, is in town today, and she came over for dinner.

We had a great time catching up, hearing about all the challenges they’ve had moving all the way to the other side of the US with twin 2 year olds, and watching Noah dance.

But wow was it hard listening to her talk about living in her hometown. It made me so homesick for Milwaukee. Especially the part where J talked about all the people in her hometown whom she’s known for 25 years.

Last night, Noah went to bed around 9 pm, and slept soundly until 2:25 am. Sadly for me, I indulged myself for my birthday and read until 1 am.

He went back to sleep around 3, for 5 minutes. Then we played various “go back to sleep” games until almost 4 am, when I thought I was going to die of sleep psychosis.

I tried putting him in bed and just standing there, trying to soothe him without picking him up. Noah screamed a whole new scream we hadn’t heard before. Think demonic possession. For easily 15 minutes.

Now Jill was also awake, and although she didn’t know any more than I did, she was less delirious and psychotic, so she came up with some ideas of what we could do, and we decamped to downstairs where Noah played contentedly on the floor and we watched some Murphy Brown (and Roseanne, and Different World) reruns.

I miss Murphy Brown.

Noah finally wound down around 4:30 or 4:45 am. Jill went back to bed, but since I was petrified that we would do another few rounds of the psychotic crib dance, and I just could NOT face it, I fell asleep on the couch with Noah nursing. He woke up again at just after 7 am.

To complicate things, Noah got baptized today, so we’d been hoping for an easy morning before church and good behavior while we were there. One out of two?

Noah charmed everyone, including the other baby getting baptized today, who kept grabbing his arm and hand while the minister did the preliminaries.

Poor guy, though. He’d been napping in the nursery during the beginning of the service, and I had to wake him up to make it to his baptism on time. Total nap time: 25 min.

But he stayed charming all the way through lunch after the service, in the car on the way home, and until he finally fell asleep again at 4:30 pm. By which point both of us thought we were going to collapse. Again, I let him sleep on top of me on the couch, and Jill also crashed.

We slept until 7:30 pm.

Tired mommies.

[A is for age:] 37 – Today!
[B is for beer of choice:] Uff Da Bock, or maybe Belgian Red, from the New Glarus Brewing Company (or nearly anything else they produce)
[C is for career:] Lawyer. Writer. Once and future activist.
[D is for favorite Drink] So many choices…coffee, very good beer, watery apple juice, or really good chocolate milk.
[E is for essential item you use everyday:] Large Mug
[F is for favorite song:]
[G is for favorite game:] Right now? Build a tower of blocks so Noah can knock them over.
[H is for hometown:] Milwaukee, Wisconsin
[I is for instruments you play:] None well, but I did take piano for 3 years, and “saxette” for 1. (A saxette is a cheap red and white plastic picolo-type instrument.)
[J is for favorite juice:] Publix Greenwise 100% organic apple juice, cut 25% juice/75% water
[K is for kids?:] YES!
[L is for last kiss?:] Lots on Noah as we played this morning.
[M is for marriage:] Spiritually, with a big party, and recognized by our families and communities, yes; recognized by any form of government, no. But we do have a DC registered domestic partnership and a VT civil union.
[N is for full name:] If you must know, and you don’t know, click on the writer link. (Especially if you are a librarian.)
[O is for overnight hospital stays:] In reverse chronological order: From Feb 9-14, 2006, when Noah was born; 1.5 nights (we went in around 3 or 4 am, I think) in 8th grade, for severe menorrhagia that had me blacking out from blood loss most times when I stood up; ??? when I was 18 months old for a tracheotomy due to a throat infection.
[P is for phobias:] Scary movies. Maybe also bugs.
[Q is for quote:] “Imagine the difference between these two marriage proposals: The first goes, ‘I want to marry you, because I love you, you make me so happy, I want you to spend the rest of your life with me.’ The second goes, ‘I love you, and I want to marry you, and spend the rest of my life causing your life to work for you.’” (A paraphrase of the real quotation that inspired Jill’s proposal, and indeed, our vows and our entire marriage.)
[R is for biggest regret:] Having been so serious and rigid as a young person. I wish I’d realized how much fun I could have.
[S is for sports:] Sprouts? What?
[T is for time you wake up:] 5 am, then 5:30 am, or whenever Noah gets up.
[U is for updated question because I didn't like the original one; what's most unfair?] That my marriage isn’t recognized by my government.
[V is for vegetable you love:] Broccoli, brussels sprouts, and basically anything that my eating causes in Noah unbearable gassiness.
[W is for worst habit:] Nit-picking
[X is for x-rays you've had:] Horrible ones of my fallopian tubes, also neck and back (post-car-accident), left wrist, twice, 1 year and 1 day apart (confusing the hospital to no end) when I was in the 5th and 6th grades. Teeth of course. Mammo and innumerable follow ups to try to identify the teeeeeeny-tiiiiiiiny, too-small-to-be-biopsied lump. Maybe others I don’t remember.
[Y is for yummy food you make:] Most of it, thanks! But if I have to pick one item, it’s roladen just like Oma used to make. (Don’t click on the link if you’re veg/vegan and have a weak stomach for meat on meat recipes, this is 100% cholesterol. And don’t google roladen looking for recipes, the first full page of results make it completely wrong, with horrifying ingredients like pickles. The linked recipe isn’t exact, but it’s tolerably close to Oma’s.)
[Z is for zodiac sign:] Sagittarius

This is the first Thanksgiving with Noah, and our first Thanksgiving cooking for ourselves, and celebrating it just our little post-nuclear family.

Noah’s ear infection is still bothering him, leaving him crabby, fussy, and sleeping badly, much to everyone’s chagrin.

However, he is still having fun, as the linked video clips demonstrate. The newest games involve knocking things over and dropping them, both of which are accompanied by the word “Ooooooooooohhh.” The funniest is when he announces his intentions first and THEN drops the item.

I think we’re done with baby food. Or close to done, anyway. If we try to spoon feed him something, he pretty much doesn’t want it. But dribble a little on his high chair tray, and he’ll try it. If he can see that we are eating it too, it must be good. As long as he can pick it up and eat it himself.

(Except tiny particles of hamburger. After Grandma shared her burger with him last weekend, Noah horded the particles of meat in his cheeks for about 10 minutes and then dribbled them out on her carpet. So we’re going very light on the meat.)

Thanksgiving dinner turned out well (turkey breast, brown rice/corn casserole, potatos), except for this: I’m calling it a stuffing puck. Noah especially liked the rice dish. He’s also a big fan of mushy carrots.

I think I hear the witter-watter of a little whine.

1. My family, especially how supportive Jill has been since Noah was born.
2. Noah is growing into a healthy, thriving little boy.
3. Jill was able to adopt Noah, so she is his parent under the law as well as in fact.
4. My pregnancy, birth, and nursing experience were relatively easy and had no out-of-the-normal-range complications.
5. The first national election I didn’t find depressing since 1994, especially the part where Arizona rejected an anti-gay ballot initiative.
6. My job is interesting, and I work with great people.
7. My home is a comfortable place, and I have no serious unmet physical needs.
8. I am making a difference.
9. I have wonderful friends (although I wish we lived close to more of them).
10. The connection and reconnection to people that has taken place because of blogging and this crazy creation, the Internet, which I have been intrigued by since I first encountered it in 1987.