Putting Moochkie to Bed

Here's a video of us getting Romi ready for bed, which explains why his parents are so darn tired.

Channeling His Inner Ezra

We miss our crazy kitty, but luckily our little guy has enough of Ezra's traits and characteristics to bring us happy memories. First off, Romi, like Ezra, can't stand being on the other side of a closed door, especially if it's the bathroom door. He will sit outside of it and, in essence, meow. The bathroom in our bedroom was one of Ezra's favorite places, and Romi finds it irresistible. Romi's most vocal in the morning, just as Ezra was; both also make loud incomprehensible sounds. I hate to admit it, but they also both chewed on the furniture. I'd like to say the teeth marks on the futon are from the cat.... Ezra loved being in the sun room; whenever Romi sees the sliding glass door open he beelines it for that room. Ezra also adored looking out the front door, which is where you will often find Romi. We still have to keep the closet and pantry doors closed. Ezra may be gone, but there's a new troublemaker in town who wants into places he shouldn't be just as much as Ezra Splat Gludt did. Yep, our baby reminds us of our cat--it's little consolation, but it's some.

Our newest MOT

At times, I feel that Romi suffers from a few disadvantages, one of which is I don't think our little monkey will ever learn to walk. It's not that I'm in a hurry to be chasing after an even more mobile baby or that he can't reach the next milestone, it's just that most babies first furniture walk, using pieces of furniture to get from point A to point B. If you've seen the sparsity of furniture in our living room, you would understand why I think Romala is a bit deprived. Being the good Ima that I am, I decided to reconcile his deficiency and headed out to Toys R Us. The quest: a walking toy.

All we wanted was a simple toy with wheels that would support our little man's weight and that he could walk behind, getting some much-needed leg workouts. It sounded easy enough, but things have gone high-tech since the days of the plastic grocery cart. The cart now comes with groceries and it talks, narrating your shopping trip. Or the darn thing comes with lights and sounds. It took a good hour, but we finally found a walking toy that had only the most rudimentary bells and whistles (literally).

Here's a photo of Romi's first ever cozy coupe:


And here's what Romi actually uses to stand up and push himself around the room:


True to baby form, he is far more interested in the box then in the toy itself. He not only tries to scale the box, he uses it as walker. And he shows his undying love for this box in his own special 10-month old baby way--he eats it.


The only non-box item this kid has used to pull himself up and roll around to date is his highchair, and that is something we are emphatically not encouraging.

The good news is that we officially dunked Moochkei on Monday, February 23. The bet din was made up of the senior rabbi, the cantor and our good friend Michael Hoffman. The water was quite warm, bordering on hot (according to Rob), but our little guy proved to be quite the trooper. He had to go completely under three times and he never once cried. The cantor noted that as soon as he got out his hair went right back up.

Romi was quite excited to become the newest member of the tribe.


And here's a photo of our little Jewish Taiwanese kid!