The Zog Blog

Now that the difficult fast of Yom Kippur is over… well, let’s be clear about one thing first. The fasting is actually not so bad. Going without food and water for 26 hours? Not so difficult, as it turns out. Going without caffeine for 26 hours? Ye gods, please just run me over with a [...]

Life with a grandfather continues to be quite a lot of fun for Jacob. (And quite a lot of exercise for my dad, I think. Me, I’m just happy to get the break. :) Yesterday, we drove a few miles down PCH 1 to Big Sur and hiked our favorite hike, to Pfeiffer Falls. Dad [...]

…Jacob would like you to know that:

Friends are cool,

Trains are OMG FRICKIN AWESOME,

Challah is yummy,

And baths are sad.
*****
Also, we’ve now both finished reading the new Harry Potter book and expect that vaguely important things like eating and showering will resume shortly.

Red hair is really, really rare out here on the west coast, so Jacob attracts a lot of attention. Given the craze about the Harry Potter book and movie coming out this summer, we’ve been getting a lot of Weasley comments lately. I usually think people are out of their mind, smile politely, and back [...]

I’m no Martha Stewart, I’m no June Cleaver. But some days, I come closer than others.

Challah. Jacob and I make it together every week. I get all teary whenever I think about how his childhood will be anchored and woven through with the smell of baking bread, the feel of flour and dough on [...]

I know, I know. All I can say is, I promise to update at least twice a week from now on. I am hereby stating it publicly with many witnesses!

So what’s been happening? Well, a steady stream of visitors, which I guess shouldn’t surprise me since we live in one of the most beautiful places [...]

I don’t let Jacob watch much television, but lately he has been requesting Sesame Street. Watching it is a really neat trip down memory lane. They still use some of the little shorts from when I was a kid! (Although the ones I recognize are invariably pocked with film-marks and scratchy.) Cookie monster liking carrots [...]

And not returning until January 2nd! Traveling this long with a toddler presents a packing challenge. Wish us luck with that. I don’t yet know whether I’ll be taking the laptop and blogging from the road, but in either case, Happy Hannukkah to those of you who celebrate it.

Last weekend we attended a holiday [...]

First things first: I really, really enjoyed reading and hearing about what all of you are thankful for. This time of year always makes me sentimental and mushy, and I love knowing that you are all surrounded by beauty, joy, and good things. (Even through very, very rough times.)
Jacob is 15 months old.
(!!!)
When the [...]

Ah, fall.

That special time of year when a boy’s mind turns to one thing: puppies.

Just kidding. One of my favorite things about Jacob as a toddler is that he has such a wide range of expression with us, now. When he was very little, it was basically crying. Then crying and smiling/laughing. Now, [...]

Thank you all so much for your warm wishes, nice comments, and memories of my mother. They really mean a lot to me.
I was worried that I’d really miss fall this year. (It was nonexistent in LA, and I hated that.) I needn’t have worried, though. While fall here in Monterey isn’t as pronounced [...]

Of course we had a lot of fun with Jacob’s second Halloween. Trick-or-treating still seemed like too much for him, but on Saturday we had a great party with lots of other families, old friends and new. Adults were supposed to dress up as tv characters. Jon was Jamie from the show Mythbusters, and I [...]

Son, I love you more than words can say. Nevertheless, here are ten things that I really wish you’d hurry up and learn.

Triscuits are not an interior design element.
Egg salad is not a fashion accessory.
When you are so exhausted you can no longer walk, the solution is not ‘try to nurse, [...]

Jacob has been a very busy bee. He got his first real haircut, in a barbershop no less. It was very Normal Rockwell. He seems to go faster, now that he’s not weighed down by his locks.

He attended the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival:

He got all the decorations when we took down the [...]

We’re smack dab in the middle of the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. Formal practice of this 8 day holiday includes building a “fragile hut” in one’s yard and “dwelling” in it, and waving around a collection of greenery called a lulav and smelling the citrusy scent of an etrog. (Informally, one simply spends 8 [...]