Noah's Headdress for his pow-wow

In honor of Thanksgiving, Noah had a Pow-wow in school.  In the weeks leading up to the event, they learned about native americans and picked for themselves, native american names.  Of course Noah, being Noah chose this name for himself.  Yes, that does say, “Brave Mattress.”  We have no idea what it means, but he is very proud of it.

We went to buy some clothes for the kids today. Four of the 5 items we brought up to the register rang up for at least 50% more than we thought they were going to be. Had we not been paying attention, we would have been charged $74 instead of $50. Why did this happen? I went back to look at the sign for the baja sweatshirts we tried to buy. I took a look at the sign on the rack (and snapped a picture of it too). How much do you think the tops are? Can you read the tiny letters above and to the left of the “$10″ that say “khaki pants” referring to the pants below? Neither could we. The actual price of the bajas was $14.50. The pants had a similar setup and were actually $16.50 while we thought they were $10. As everyone should try to do in order to control the marketplace, we did not purchase any of the “mislabeled” items. When in Old Navy … Buyer beware.

It’s Gabriel’s birthday today, Marni opened this present for him, looked at it and said, “Just what I need another thing with balls that makes too much noise.” … Completely unintentional, and hilarious. Anyone with kids will understand the frustration of cleaning up toys which are free to roll around the house and under furniture, and the headache that comes with noisy toys. Any mother with a husband and two boys will understand Marni’s memorable pun.

I have to head into the city to pick up my Zip Card, stop off at NYCVS, and pick up a book at the book store. I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to take Noah Darwin with me.

Are you kidding me?! 900 calories is 1/2 the day’s energy. I hope that’s only included on the advertisement because they are required by law to warn people of the mistake they are about to make. If you are truly conscious of what you put in your mouth, and live a deliberate lifestyle, then you would not pay $3 at 10am to pack in 900 calories unless you were planning on hiking for 12 hours to the next McDonalds to eat dinner.

My friend Lee Burstiner from our hospital in Tampa came into town last night and stayed over on his way to Boston this evening.  Noah, who had last seen him 2 years ago, and couldn’t have possibly remembered him, took an immediate liking to him.  I took Lee to see our hospital in Manhattan which he hadn’t yet seen.  The kids had a great time.  Noah was cranky at the beginning as usual, but slowly warmed into it.  He never does this, but take a look at that picture of him putting his head down on Lee’s shoulder.  The other image is of Gabriel–comfortable of course from the start–pressing his nose against the glass of the inpatient ward.

Check out this shopping cart full of magazines that are being thrown out at the supermarket near me. Imagine this happens millions of times a day at supermarkets and news stands around the world every day. How do we justify this waste? How much of it is informative news?

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

- Thoreau

So excited. I just picked up a used set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. I’ve always wanted one since I was 15 years old. It weighs 122 lbs and stands 4 feet tall when stacked!

Noah Darwin Bessler playing Rush Hour

Noah loves puzzles.  He got that from me and from Marni.  He never gives up either.  His favorite game is Rush Hour which he is playing in this picture.  It’s a great game.  The Junior edition which is what we have is designed for kids 6 to 8 but he does just fine.  He loves setting up the board as well as solving it.  He works through the cards in order from easy to hard.  We’ve seen him get up to 11 or 12 so far, but he gets further every day.

Will edit later