Time For A Change

Since posting to this blog clearly hasn't been working very well (correction: the posting works great, it's the post writing that is the bottleneck) I've decided to try something new to help me stay of top of things. "What is it?" you ask that will make me post to this blog more often. Nothing.

That's because I'll be posting to a new blog. I'm happy to say that http://adailydoseofdavid.blogspot.com/ is up and running and that I have posted for two days in a row! My theory is that if I'm home every day with David, I should be able to post about one interesting thing that David or I does every day (weekday that is).

So check out the site and get your daily dose of David :)

What's in a Name?

Several people ask for the explanation of David's name, that I read immediately following the brit. Here it is:

Our son, David Scott Shain, has the good fortune of being named for several people. He is named for my papa, David Weiner, who passed away in 2005; my grandpa, Samuel Shain, who passed away in 1992; and my grandma, Susan Shain, who passed away last October, during Sukkot. Scott is also a favorite name of Michelle’s grandma, Jean Smith, and the middle name of her uncle, Tom Smith. Tom never had children of his own, and we’re happy that his great-nephew will share his middle name (and with a little luck also his 6”4’ stature).

For David’s Hebrew name, we’ve chosen שִׂמְחָה דָוִד. דָוִד comes from the Hebrew root ד-ו-ד, which means “beloved.” It was my Papa’s Hebrew name and I would like to say a few words about my Papa at this time. He embodied the meaning of his Hebrew name as he was beloved by everyone he knew. I remember the extreme sense of loss I felt when he passed away. I was overcome with grief and I tried to understand why my sadness extended even beyond my deep sense of personal loss. Finally, I realized that at the root of this feeling was the fact that with his passing a force for good was gone from the world. Because that was what my Papa was. Good. Pure good. His heart was filled with the love of his family and the joy he felt at selflessly helping his family in every way possible was palpable. Whether it was walking the Ponkapog golf course collecting lost balls, singing songs in the kitchen or watching a Red Sox game, he wanted nothing more than to be with us and we returned this sentiment 100 fold. He never missed a family occasion, traveling frequently between his home in Florida, our house in Boston and my cousins in Chicago. My papa was a true mensch and while I can only hope that our little David will inherit my Papa’s love of helping others, I know that he will be just as beloved as my Papa was.

We chose the name שִׂמְחָה - the Hebrew word for joy or happiness– for David’s middle name because the name שִׂמְחָה begins with the same letter as my grandma’s Hebrew name, שׁוֹשַׁנָּה, and my grandpa’s Hebrew name, שְׁמוּאֵל.

During Sukkot, we often sing,
וְשָׂמַחְתָּ בְּחַגֶּךָ וְהָיִיתָ אַךְ שָׂמֵחַ

“You shall rejoice in your festival, and you shall have nothing but joy,” from דברים ט"ז, Deuteronomy 16. This past Sukkot, as my family mourned the loss of my grandma, we did not feel much joy. But a few weeks later, when Michelle and I found out that she was pregnant, we knew that joy had come to us from that difficult time. We also felt that this name was appropriate because my Grandma had a love of life that was infectious. Whether it was going out for ice cream or playing golf she enjoyed every minute of it. I will always cherish the memories I have of sitting with my grandma and grandpa learning how to play cards while eating chocolate covered graham crackers in their kitchen. Since the time I was born, my grandma always referred to me as adorable. Even towards the end of her life, as her memory began to fail, she would still call me adorable every time that she saw me. I know that somewhere she is looking down on this beautiful baby boy, who brings everyone around him such simcha, and can see just how adorable he is.

Weight Just A Minute

I know that people are waiting for brit stuff, but first I want to write about something that strikes me as pretty surprising. As a newborn, doctors like to keep pretty close track over David's weight. He was born at 7lb 7oz and subsequently dropped to 6lb 12oz which is completely normal. If he had lost any more weight the doctors would have been concerned but by his next appointment, David was already up to 7lb 1oz.

Why do I share all of this information with you? Because today, a visiting nurse came to our house to weigh David and her scale said that he still weighed 7lb 1oz. The fact that David hadn't gained any weight in several days wasn't an emergency, but the nurse felt that we should see our pediatrician just in case. As you can imagine, this didn't give Michelle and I any warm and bubbly feelings. When we arrived at the doctor's office a nurse re-weighed David. Low and behold, David weighed 7lb 6oz.

As you can imagine, Michelle and I were pretty relieved. However, we were also slightly disturbed. In a situation where a couple of ounces can make a pretty big difference, not to mention guide a course of medical action, how can scales be that far off? Maybe they should include a margin of on these things and save us all a lot of worry.

David Scott Shain

In case I forgot to mention.....

Our son has a name: David Scott Shain || דוד שמחה שיין

Pictures and thoughts on the Brit coming soon....

Nobody Mentioned That

Babies should come with warning labels that read:

Caution: Caring for this baby may result in crystallized urine getting on your nose.

Not that anything like that happened to me....

Home

We got home form the hospital yesterday and have been settling in with the help of friends and family. And by "settling in" I mean actually settling in, planning a Brit, planning a Shalom Zachar, going to the pediatrician and buying stuff that we probably should have bought beforehand. It's pretty much been a whirlwind and we are still learning how valuable naps are in the child-rearing process (both ours and his).

Some hospital pictures are now posted on facebook, but here are a few in case you missed them:

News! News! News!

Extra extra, read all about it. Baby Boy Shain born today. Extra extra read all about it.

In a future blog post. For now I have to sleep.

Details and pictures to follow.

No News is....No News

For those keeping track:

No baby yet. Due date is Monday so keep checking back for updates :)

Another Madoff Victim

As the time before the baby grows short it's time to get my blogging muscles in shape.

And what better subject to address than that of the notorious Bernie Madoff. After he received a maximum sentence of 150 years the press has begun to turn its attention clients who could potentially asked to return "returns" that were in reality other people's money.

First off, let me say that I think asking people like Carl and Ruth Shapiro, who have lost over a half a billion dollars in the Madoff scandal and who are known for their generosity, to return money is silly. But if we are going to start asking people for money I would like to know why nobody has suggested that the IRS should return money to Madoff's victims. After all, the IRS collected money from victims on "gains" that didn't actualy exist, on income that Madoff didn't actually generate and on profits that Madoff's business did not actually earn. Maybe that would make more sense than asking people who have already lost millions to pay in a little more.

Moving On

As the saying goes, "all good things must come to an end" and such is the case with our house-sitting arrangement in Newton. As many of you may know, Michelle and I are going to be renting an apartment next year in Sharon. It's a little farther away from work/school/friends in the Brookline area, but you get more bang for your buck in Sharon and the community has been extremely welcoming. The apartment is also conveniently only about 10 minutes from my parents house in Canton giving us easy access to both the swimming pool and babysitting help.

For those interested, our new address is:

63 Pond Street
Apartment #13
Sharon, Ma 02067

We'll get a new home phone number as well, but we aren't sure what it is yet. I'll let you know as soon as we hear.