Uptown

Thalia and I took a subway ride last night to Harlem, where we had dinner at my friend Karen's lovely new apartment. Here is our gracious host, with subway-lagged baby (it's a long way to Edgecombe Avenue!)



Liza and Ivan joined us. Ivan doesn't seem to remember Thalia from the other two times he met her, and he got a little jealous when his mom held this strange little creature. But then he made a peace offering of his sippy cup and all was well again.



Ivan helpfully showed Thalia some advanced baby skills, such as how to play with electrical cords and heat-generating appliances.

Meanwhile, Bryan is still recovering from a hell of a week. A pipe burst in the apartment above his bar, and he spent days in the cold getting it fixed and then cleaning up the bar. He took refuge and held business meetings in the 773, an unreconstructed old man bar a few blocks away. I took Thalia there after our Flatbush new and expecting parents (and babies!) meeting.

She hasn't been carded yet.

Now reading...

It's been 11 weeks, 5 days, and I thought: how long can a girl go without reading? So this morning Thalia and I read "Babies Everywhere," a lovely gift from a colleague that celebrates babyliciousness (and thankfully avoids sentimentality). She was really into it. Then when I put it down, she started looking at my chest, and of course my first thought was, "She's hungry." Then I realized something else was going on:





She was looking at the picture on my shirt, depicting a warrior squirrel and what I like to call Droog Girl (the bowler hat suggests "A Clockwork Orange," no?). Thalia is looking everywhere, now, checking out her environment, though she slept through her first visit to a museum, yesterday. We went to the Museum of American Folk Art, to see the Martin Ramirez exhibit. That girl loves her Bjorn.

Cabin, no fever

It's been super-cold in NYC, and Thalia hasn't left the house since Saturday. She doesn't seem to mind, and she's been getting her Vitamin D in liquid form.

I think Thalia might be a lefty. She's not exactly reaching for things yet, but when I dangle objects in front of her it's her left arm that tends to hurtle up.

Bryan got her a CBGB's onesie.



The club may be gone--didja know Bryan organized one of the last shows ever there??--but the merch lives on. Thalia was there, in utero, to see the Avengers. She kicked a lot in her amniotic mosh pit.

Luckily it's a medium, because Thalia is outgrowing her newborn clothes. Also note the fetching double chin.

Why hello!

By popular demand: the new Katz Swirsky blog! We'll bring you all the family news that's fit to print (and lots that's not).

Let's get right down to the important stuff: new Thalia pictures. This is from a couple of weeks ago, on a visit to the Cornerstone.


Yes, she's underage. Yes, she visits the bar all the time. And yes, she drinks (milk) there.
Here we are in Florida, by the pool. Ahhh.


Bryan and Thalia have a staring contest at least once every day.

She attracted attention everywhere she went, including her bedroom:



Thalia slept through the alligators and rare birds and Florida's newest attraction: the Miami condo forest. But she had a great time with Grandma Fran, who carried Thalia slung over her shoulder while she went about her business at home. We new parents have a lot to learn.