blur

It's all a blur.

You'll notice that my last post was on July 4. It seems like holiday weekends are the only time I let myself have a little space for the nonessentials...though I'm sure some in our family consider Avenue Oy posts essentials! Please forgive me, and I promise plenty of Oy-ness for your joy-ness.


Aunt Laura was in town at the end of July, right after her birthday and just in time for (our) Uncle Mike's 80th. I brought our new camera (Nikon Coolpix--thanks, mom!).






Bryan, Thalia and I went to Vermont for a few days. Bryan and I miss the old Swirsky homestead terribly, but the condo at Jackson Gore had its advantages, like indoor and outdoor swimming and a kiddie pool. Thalia cried at first, reasonably, but she's since taken to the water like a shark. She also enjoyed the petting zoo at the apple orchard near Springfield, where we watched 10 piglets suckle on a sow. (I will spare you the pictures.) I was thrilled to discover that one of my favorite towns in Vermont, Proctorsville, is now home to Six Loose Ladies, a fabu yarn and fiber store. We wandered in there on their first anniversary and enjoyed cupcakes and good company, as well as a silly hat.





Baby bunny. I had to.

The lovely Bobby Schayer has been staying with us for the past week, on shore leave from the Interpol tour, where he works as the drum tech. He makes Moe Stooges faces at Thalia and makes her laugh. Every photo I have of Bobby is blurry because he moves fast.





Yesterday we ended up in Fort Tryon Park, which set both me and Bryan to thinking about what would have been had we gone ahead and rented that apartment on Cabrini Boulevard...well, we would have had a gorgeous park.

Thalia and I took a long walk today to the incredible Sababa bakery on Kings Highway, a Sephardic burekas-and-pita joint owned by family from Cairo descended from generations of bakers.

Back in the house, we feel the absence of Pearl, our cat of the last six years. We had to euthanize her right before we left for Vermont. She had a vicious tumor growing in her gut, and by the time she went down it had nearly paralyzed her hindquarters. We all had a hard time saying goodbye. Thalia won't remember her.




And now, the Bryan Swirsky cellphone gallery, series 3.




Doug's first slice of DiFara's.

Wheeling Around

We haven't forgotten you!! We've just been out and about a lot, gulping down summer, getting work done, traveling and, oh yes, experiencing obnoxious travel delays.

But let's start with the stroller. The U.S. importers of Micralite, the space-age English pushcart that Thalia spends so much time in, have asked us to write a testimonial to their product. And you know what? We're going to do it. Yes, we are shills for a $400 item. We drive a car we bought for $1 and has the body of a defensive lineman on medical retirement. Our "new" bathroom sink is a 1920s number we bought on ebay (and is currently serving as a planter on our terrace). We are not prone to material indulgences. But.

This stroller can be steered with one hand. Its huge rear tires bound up or down stairs, and the whole thing is light enough to be carried, child strapped in, into or out of a subway station. It's a smooth driving machine. It folds in half at the click of a button. And it's damn cool looking.







Look how many places it's been already. The above are:

Salt Marsh, Brooklyn. A lovely spot next to Jamaica Bay, just off Marine Park.

Chicago, Millennium Park. We were there for grandma Sandy's 65th birthday party...and she didn't even know it. Thank you, Toby, for a fantastic weekend. Happy birthday Sandy! Happy birthday Helen! (Our moms have the same birthday, June 15.) The party itself was in New Buffalo, Mich. When you're in town there you must go to Redamak's, one of America's great burger joints.

Coney Island. This photo was taken outside Nathan's Famous minutes before a wild deluge. We took refuge inside Nathan's, but with sheets of rain blowing sideways we didn't stay especially dry. There was nowhere to sit so I nursed Thalia standing up (I have a photo, available on request).

We almost didn't make it to picture #3. Getting back from Chicago was a 30-plus hour ordeal. Eve flight was cancelled due to thunderstorms, they reschedule us for 1 p.m. the next day (which was a second surprise treat for Sandy), and then...we board the plane and we sit on the runway. For 3 hours. Wait, that's not the bad part. Then: THEY LOSE THE STROLLER. My theory...for the first time in all my flying life, the airline (American) did not preboard the babies!! When we griped to the agent she said, "Well, we don't consider that to be a disability." Well, we were among the last to board, and instead of coming in all at once our strollers trickled in one by one. And some didn't make it onto the plane.

Stroller and child were happily reunited the next day.

OK, you've waited long enough. Here you go:

Thalexicon

Since you know me and Bryan, you know that we're extremely fond of neologisms. We're downright compulsive about creating our own, remixing, back-forming, homynymizing (our way of harmonizing) and otherwise mangling the English language, with help from Yiddish and popular culture.

Here's a sampling of the ones that come to mind right now. But seriously, these are so much part of our conversation that I'm not conscious of it anymore. If we're not careful, Squid, I mean Thalia, is going to grow up speaking an alien language.

BATCH
A lot of baths. As in, "Thalia, you need a batch. You are covered in peas."

CHUCK
See May 8's post.

THE OOZ
We keep planning to take Thalia but never make it, since one has to travel backwards to get there. The Prospect Park Ooz is remarkably improved since I last went there in 1988. Gentrification kicked out the bobcat who used to pace in his cage.

SQUID
A squishy kid. That was Thalia, right after she was born. Remember this?

Yes, that's Squid, also known as Squiddo, kiddo.

THE VET
Where Thalia goes for medical care. This a flub Bryan and I make consistently, and we've done so starting with her very first visit to the lovely Dr. Aviva Oppenheim, who is assuredly not a veterinarian. I think Bryan and I are feeling guilty that we haven't taken Django or Pearl to the vet in a good five years. Culpable. Wrong. Completely miserable failures as pet parents.

Thalia, meanwhile, knows what to do with words. She eats them. Lately she has taken to chewing on The New York Times, showing special interest in the City and Styles sections.






I leave you with 17th Street playground, Memorial Day:

Chuck

Okay, everyone's been very polite (well, almost everyone), but it's time to talk about Thalia's hemangiomas.

Hemangi-what? You know. Those red blotches, one on her nose and the other on her lip.



Let's set the record straight. Hemangiomas are not permanently disfiguring. They are not malignant or otherwise scary. They're just clusters of would-be blood vessel cells that got lost and didn't know where to go.

They'll eventually turn kind of purple-gray, and then start fading away. Docs even have a formula for it: 30 percent are gone by age 3, 40 percent by age 4 and so on. If a kid is in the 10 percent that don't disappear by age 9, then the cosmetic surgeon brings the laser out. Done.

No one knows what causes them. For a while there was a theory, since discredited, that hemangiomas were stray cells left over from the placenta. Another time they were the subject of intense study by cancer researchers, who wanted to understand why these tumors only started growing a few weeks after birth. If we could figure out what triggered them, maybe we could figure out what caused cancer cells to reproduce. No go; the scientists found another explanation.

We call Thalia's hemangiomas her "chucks," as in "Chuck Mangione." For those of you too young to have lived through the glorious summer of '77, Mangione was the bearded and behatted trumpeter who had a hit with "Feels So Good," an easy listening instrumental.


He looks nothing like Thalia's chucks. Hers are much cuter.

But like her birthmarks' namesake, Thalia has also been making pleasing and loud noises lately. I'm too busy/lazy to get audio tracks on here, but rest assured we have professional-quality recordings of our daughter singing along with Debbie Harry.

She grabs. She laughs. IT'S ALIVE!!!

A visit from grandpa

Grandpa Bill came by for a visit over the weekend, bearing lox and mini bagels. The latter proved perfect for Thalia to teethe on, and Dr. Bill pronounced our drooly delight ready to bust her lower incisors any moment now. Not that she needs them to eat rice or barley cereal, but hey, they'll be fun to chew fingers with.

Much baby-flipping ensued. For your viewing pleasure:









Bryan is doing flipping duty. I've been busy getting started on my book. Yes! I'm thrilled to tell you that I have a deal with Bloomsbury USA for "Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us." You'll be hearing lots more about it.

Here's what Thalia wants to tell you: "Ahohooohahowowahaaathwwwhwwwhwwwthww."



Alas, we neglected to take a picture of Bill. Take our word for it, he's looking great. Thank you for the awesome photos, Bill! Thalia was glad you came (ditto from me and Bryan).

At last: the long-in-demand Katz Swirsky family portrait. Enjoy.