The three of us are so grateful to Magen for spending the last few days meeting Franklin, helping out, and cooking some delicious food! And very grateful to Dave, who's back in Illinois taking care their three kids!
Can't wait until Franklin gets to meet his all of his cousins!
He's also been enjoying meeting a few more of our friends. Wendy stopped by the other day:
Bria came by too (no picture, unfortunately), and she brought some wonderful quinoa and cauliflower casserole and a tasty apple crisp. So yummy!
Tough to have to get dressed and go back to teaching, but at least coming home has gotten twice as awesome.
Speaking of family, a distant cousin of mine in Poland has been putting some family trees together, and he just sent this photo of the ship that brought my great-grandfather to the US:
Okay, one more shot of the handsome new branch on the family tree:
Having a blast with our new friend these days.
Thanks, Laura, for getting this great shot of Franklin and Emily.
And thanks Emily for this great shot of Franklin and me reading the Times:
We were reading that fascinating review of the exhibit about female writers at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Also having fun keeping track of the details of Franklin's new life (one week old this afternoon!). Found a nice iPhone app called Baby Connect that helps us generate all kinds of interesting data. An account of the last couple of days: Franklin's Activity - 2-23-12 to 2-24-12
Not only did Franklin receive this adorable Baby Bunch yesterday, but the package was even addressed to him. Too cute!
The most touching part, for me, was my sister including one of my very favorite quotations on the card:
From the eminently quotable God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.
Thanks Grandma Christine, Aunt Merrica, and Aunt Dorothy!
Speaking of deliveries, I know some of you are curious about the Group Health Family Beginnings Birth Center. Here are a couple of shots of our awesome suite:
My only real regret concerning EJ's birthday is that I had to miss the event I'd organized for my colleague William H. Smith in celebration of the publication of his book. I heard it went very well, and he put up a nice blog post about the event.
All right, reader, it's time for me to make breakfast for our recovering Mommy. In the meantime, here are some recent shots of our beautiful baby boy:
Jen was one of his first visitors:
Thanks also to Laura and Kascha for visiting and bringing more supplies!
The labor went long, and EJ's umbilical cord seemed to be wrapped in an uncomfortable way; eventually Emily ended up needing a C-Section. I'm not going to say that the whole experience was easy or pleasant, but the end result is just awesome.
And I am thrilled to report that everyone is happy and healthy and looking great!
A few more photos of our precious little man:
UPDATE: born at 2:58pm. 6 pounds 6.3 ounces. 19 inches.
In anticipation of the amazingness about to get going here, we've been out enjoying some of the joys of life in a vibrant city.
An unanticipated and striking theme's begun to emerge: some of the most fascinating and arresting works we've taken in involved little or no speech. No language, no words; no λόγος. An exciting break for someone like me...
And what better way to share it than by talking it out here? ;)
First, a few weeks ago, we saw Melancholia. Quite impressive (if challenging) from start to finish, but as Manohla Dargis wrote for the Times, the opening eight minutes were wonderful. One of the most beautiful stretches of cinema I've seen in quite a while.
Trailer:
And we had a great time at the Pacific Northwest Ballet's production of Don Quixote. As you may already know, it's pretty cool. The Seattle Times loved it. The New York Times (aka "the Times") liked it well enough... but hey, they reviewed it, which I think says quite a bit.
And speaking of dance, we just today saw Pina. Words fail me, but it sure was cool.
Trailer:
New Yorker ran a great review. Here's a great excerpt:
The question is, What do you get from “Pina” that you could not get from watching the Tanztheater live? Answer: More than you could possibly believe. This is not just a matter of the al-fresco scenes, or of our proximity to the dancers, near enough to hear them pant. There is also Wenders’s decision to shoot the film in 3-D, and, in so doing, to goad stereoscopic technology into its first leap since “Avatar.” Not before time; 3-D was stalling badly, but now we are back on track, thanks to Scorsese’s “Hugo” and to Wenders, who takes no more than a minute to flourish his credentials. Dancers file across a stage, then loop around a transparent curtain. We watch for a moment from the wings, as they process toward us, and our vision carries us down the line of people and through the veil. You can trawl through cinema and find few more beautiful, more unforced, or more fleeting representations of the bourn between the living and the dead.
