Ask and Ye Shall Receive

I'm in the process of writing a report at work, and in order to do the literature review, I needed 8 books from the library. I had asked this morning if any undergraduate research assistants were available to get them for me, but as of 2:00 this afternoon, no undergraduates had materialized. Then, just as I was whining to my office-mates that I was too pregnant to schlepp 8 books by myself, an undergraduate walked in the door and said, "Hi! I heard you wanted someone to go to the library for you."

It was awesome.

I Could Be Governor

In case you couldn't tell from the picture below (the one outside of Grauman's Chinese Theater) I am contrasting the size of Arnold Schwarzenegger's hands and feet. If you look closely you can notice that his hands are a good deal larget than mine (no surprise there) but his feet match up with my size 8.5's!

Next Year in...Hollywood?

Adam and I went to Los Angeles for the first half of Passover this year. We had a lovely time staying with our good friends Suzanne and Marcus in Pico-Robertson, L.A.'s most Jewish neighborhood. And we managed to fit in a little touring amongst all the holiday and Shabbat festivities.

At the La Brea Tar Pits, with friends Mike and Yael from Jerusalem, who were also enjoying Passover in L.A.:

Resting with Mickey Mouse on Hollywood Boulevard:

Outside Grauman's Chinese Theater:

I would like to put in a good word for Shilo's kosher steakhouse, where we had a really excellent dinner last Saturday night. Why can't Boston have a kosher steakhouse like that?

Twitter What?

Many of you may have noticed that most of the recent posting on this site has come courtesy of Michelle. Ok, maybe that's been true for a long long time. But in the last month or two, my inactivity on the blog hasn't meant that I'm not posting anything online. Where, you may ask, am I posting then? To my twitter account of course.

I've been aware of twitter for several years, but only recently decided to join up. From now on, if you want to know what's going on in my day-to-day life you can either follow me on twitter, or check the new box in the top right of this blog. It will always show my last 5 posts. You can also see a longer history of my "tweets" by visiting www.twitter.com/adamshain (you don't need to sign up).

Enjoy!

Plans Take Shape

Pregnancy brings with it many surprises, among them the infamous "nesting instinct," which can kick in as early as the fifth month of pregnancy. The nesting instinct motivates expectant mothers to clean and organize their homes in preparation for the baby. It can be funny to watch this instinct at work -- I remember one of my friends dusting high shelves like a maniac when she was close to delivery.

For someone like me, already slightly compulsive about neatness and organization, it's difficult to tell whether I am experiencing this nesting instinct or just my usual drive to bring order to the chaos. But I've definitely been feeling wholly, irrationally unsettled about the fact that Adam and I didn't know where we would be living next year. So I'm happy to report that we finally have an answer!

We will be staying with Adam's parents for ten weeks this summer while the family for whom we're house-sitting is back in their house; but they will be returning to India, and we will be returning to their house, in August. So I won't have a nursery where I can stencil ducks onto the walls, but as people keep reminding me, the baby won't care about that. And I feel much better having everything settled, with actual moving dates. Hooray for house-sitting!

I love craigslist!

Adam and I bought a crib today!

We found it on craigslist. A single-child family in Winchester bought it several years ago at Boston Baby (now defunct) and kept it in beautiful condition. It's a sleigh crib by Pali, a higher-end baby furniture manufacturer that we would never have considered at retail prices. Solid hardwood with a lovely cherry finish. The best part? The crib, plus a good crib mattress by Colgate, cost us less than half of what they would have cost new!

Double Trouble

I threw my first baby shower last Sunday, for my good friend Lauren, who is exactly 10 weeks further along in her pregnancy than I. I did a bunny theme, with bunny ears, bunny prizes and carrot cake. We played silly baby shower games, like "Celebrity Baby Names" and "Nursery Rhyme-Down", and we ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the cute baby gifts.

It was lots of fun, although there's a part of me that can't quite believe we've reached a place where maternity leave policies, life insurance and the relative benefits of cloth versus disposable diapers are normal topics of conversation.

Baby Bump

Conventional wisdom holds that you should never assume a woman is pregnant based on her body shape. After all, if you comment on a non-existent pregnancy, you could really insult someone. But over the past few weeks, strangers have started asking about my baby. And since it's so obvious, I thought I would post a photo of the bump for all of you who don't see me regularly!

"Very Superstitious"

Now that I'm in my 22nd week of pregnancy, I've been thinking a lot about superstitions. In the Jewish community, superstitions about pregnancy and babies abound. Most couples keep the news that they're expecting private until at least the end of the first trimester. When they do finally go public, the traditional response is the Hebrew phrase "B'Shaah Tovah," which means "in good time." You're not supposed to say congratulations or mazel tov over a pregnancy -- it's tempting fate.

Lots of people also avoid buying things for the baby before he or she is born. Some couples will bend to expediency and buy a few necessities, like a car seat and some diapers, while other couples literally buy nothing, sending family and friends running to the stores after the delivery. Baby showers are generally avoided. Jews of Eastern European descent won't name the baby after a living relative, lest the angel of death become confused and take the baby when he comes for the older person. For months, my mother-in-law's favorite phrase has been "Kain ein horeh,"which is Yiddish for "No evil eye." Her mother says it, too.

It all traces back to medieval European Jewish folk traditions, most of which were frowned upon by the rabbis and scholars of mainstream Judaism, but which nevertheless survived. These traditions involved angels, demons and other spirits, and people invented ways to protect themselves from the demons and evil spirits. Remember the spitting in Fiddler on the Roof? Warding off the evil eye.

I have to say, after a few months of intense exposure to this stuff, I've come to have a bad opinion of it. It was really hard for me to keep my pregnancy a secret from most people during the first trimester -- I was going through a lot, and it was lonely keeping it to myself. And as someone who prepares for change by gathering lots of information and generally being prepared for eventualities, I really feel the need to buy baby gear before the baby comes.

Maybe the whole superstition thing has to be ingrained early in life. I don't know, but I am officially rejecting all of it. (Kain ein horeh.)

Purim 5769

Last year, Adam and I were on vacation for Purim. We spent the day walking around in the warm Jerusalem sun, delivering mishloach manot to our friends. This year, Purim was a regular work day for me and, even worse, an exam day for Adam. But we still managed to have some fun. A few highlights:

• Purim night with the Washington Square Minyan. We dressed up as Antony and Cleopatra. (Cleopatra had two children with Marc Antony, so the pregnancy bulge did not spoil the costume!)

• Daytime megillah reading with the Newton Centre Minyan before work. Don't ask me what time I woke up.
  
• Matanot l'evyonim through Yad Chessed, an amazing local organization that runs a Purim program where needy families in the community get certificates to the Butcherie (a kosher grocery store in Brookline). Thanks to Brandeis Hillel for organizing this!
• Mishloach manot put together with items from BJ's, the wholesale club of the east coast. Wouldn't it be great if Israel had BJ's? 24 perfect little packs of peanuts for under $10! It's amazing!
  
• Seudah (festive meal) with Meg and Eli and Taam China, the finest kosher Chinese food in Boston!