fromacafe

Announcing India

2011-12-01T11:24:00.000-05:00

In plenty of time for Thanksgiving, and a healthy 2 weeks before her due date,
on November 19th, at 4:28am,
weighing in at 6lbs 12oz,

INDIA MARIA CHILOV

arrived safe, sound and cute.

Since arrival she's:

Nursed
Slept
Nursed
Slept/Nursed
Peeped
Stretched
Filled tiny diapers
Opened eyes long enough to gaze on brother Wyeth

Repeated above - on a 24-hour clock of her own keeping.

She's lovely, sweet, gamely bundle-able into Ergo and a remarkable feeder for one so small...

Wyeth is mostly pleased, and proud to show her off at school,
Ruslan is truly pleased but will probably be more pleased when we find a rhythm and he gets his wife back and

I'm very very pleased, relieved to have her out and healthy, and catching an hour's sleep here and there.

And we're ALL looking forward to Christmas as a newly minted family of 4.

Sending love and thanks for all we've been given,

Cheers from

Courtney, Ruslan, Wyeth and India

First day at the Co-Op School

2011-09-09T10:50:00.005-04:00

Our brave-ish, small-ish, intellectual hit the board books at the Co-Op School yesterday. His first day as a Rolly Polly.

Wyeth was all business and activity on arrival - investigating the toys, room, crossing legos with a few classmates. When R made move to leave, there were tears and demands that Daddy "sit", then the same when I headed off, but he survived and received a glowing report for the day. The principle herself, a thoroughly hands-on school-head, emailed me late morning:

Hey Courtney -
Wyeth is doing much better - I know its hard to leave him when he's crying!
We sat together at Circle Time and he's been on the playground.
There are still a few tears but in between bursts of action and play:)
Hope your having a great day.
Meredith

Leaping cushions towards Wyeth's own 'W' with moon and star cushion - set up for circle time.

When I picked W up at 4, he + Rolly Polly classmates were in the second floor playground, absorbed in bumping and backing up in their Little Tikes cars. Not one child ran to his/her parent - to a child they all kept on bumping and playing with a wave here and there.

(W in car but mid-summer in playground, not at school.)

With relief and an exhausted but proud little guy ready for a full 3 days next week,
love to all.

Brooklyn Summer

2011-08-09T13:52:00.004-04:00

To follow: Wyeth, on a series of sweltering afternoons, amidst the cooling wonderfulness of Underwood Playground's summer sprinklers.

The wonder of this local playground is I like going to it with W - a playground first for me. Clinton Hill's Underwood Playground has the elusive playground magic combo of shade and layout and kid/parent mix to render it consistently fun.

Fun for Wyeth - very much yes, but also fun for me. It's also what any urban planning/civic-developing soul would hope for with its mix-it-up of ages, races, apparent incomes, caregiver-profiles...More dads also. More grown-ups joining the kids, getting sopping...

In cahoots with the drain-blocking-swimming-pool-making crew.

Refreshing shaved ice break

Just frolicking

Brooklyn's great, we all think so...

We did indeed

2011-02-10T22:04:00.006-05:00

Last Weekend: Us and/at/with IT (17 Lefferts that is)

We signed!

And, being unable to not,

though there's a fireplace to open, carpets to un-tack and walls to paint

before we lay our heads there,

(Wyeth's laid his - 3 fine on-site naps to date),

we started feathering and picnicking

and buying lots of local coffees and pastries (Rus),

kicking balls clear across living room/dining room without repercussion (Wyeth),

and toting non-needful but home-ful by subway from the city, then loving the house with candles and little dishes for rubberbands and twisties and well-turned out soaps and fresh toothbrushes and bringing my sad little light-starved plants by subway from darkness into the home's great light.

In photos then, evidence of this.

Tomorrow, work begins and feathers fly.

Rus + my room-to-be (when it will not be pink)

my command set-up on a counter vamoosed to basement tomorrow,

looking on the dining room that shall soon be not red

living room with just exactly as many furnishings as Wyeth would like always.

He's visible in last bookshelf opening by palm, testing each shelf with his car

the last night

2011-01-31T22:28:00.002-05:00

the unexplored territory (of new home's front hall)

without a Brooklyn address.
For tomorrow,
we sign.

And so will begin the
BIG BROWNSTONE ADVENTURE
of little Family Chilov in Clinton Hill
and all the life-shifting,
borough-exodus-ing+entering,
washing-machine-of-our-own claiming,
Brooklyn-exploring,
home-owning,
grill-on-deck having,
snow-shoveling,
no-super-to-call-so-leak-be-gone wishing,
"it's upstairs/downstairs" stating,
happy + sun-loving plant nurturing,
backyard-a-clutter-with-children's-crap evolving,
BUY IN BULK-adopting,
room-for-more (books, shoes, umbrellas, large pot, king-size bed, dining table, child) toasting,
neighborly-feeling,
subway-commuting,
stuff that lies ahead.

So, mr/ms 17 Lefferts Place. Get ready and gather your skirt + wits about you, there'll be a new (family) of sheriffs in town...

AND WE CANNOT WAIT

With love from Manhattan's Upper West Side, for now.

a frog's measure, in a boy's estimation

2010-12-14T20:12:00.002-05:00

taking the measure

of the frog

Wyeth's skepticism

vs.

Frog's smug stoicism...

(who knows who won the face-off.)

Further proof (of business/focus)

2010-12-02T23:02:00.002-05:00

Dad's collection of stone eggs transfered bowl to drawer, while Hudson plays with top

Dad's glasses case, decoded

Re-Potting Pens

2010-12-02T22:45:00.002-05:00

Our busy, busy man (in Portland for Thanksgiving)
We talked melon and menus, Wyeth got down to the business at hand - re-potting pens.

Unbridled, focused, business.

Current object-crush: magnets. All types, including the dishwater dull magnet-grey discs from Staples. Fridge is stainless steel, so our garbage can and cast iron bathtub are his canvas.

Wyeth's top 3 list for 2010: balls, crayons and magnets.

Stay tuned,
More pictures + reports to come,
c

our lobsterman (catch + release)

2010-11-01T10:28:00.002-04:00

(Elements of outfit not shown parts because they either fell or were cast off:

Rubber boots,
Authentic/child-sized S'Ouwester Hat as you'd have seen on Gordon's Fisherman for which I searched on-line, ordered with rush delivery and which, in the end, our little Lobsterman refused outright
String bag of 12 plush lobsters)

The aftermath, candy-count and sticky strip.

Nice halloween, fun kid holiday. However, not sad that holidays ahead require no costumes.

c

Ignore the clown

2010-10-30T09:21:00.004-04:00

Friday at the Westside Y (where Wyeth attends Tender Care a few days a week), Looney Louie to perform for the little people.

In attendance (with teachers), sitting nicely behind the masking tape and besotted with Louie, riveted by his humor - were all the other school kids. Ages ranged from 8 months to, say, 6 years.

Wyeth is 1.4 or so and showed no interest in Louie. He is scared of balloons but getting braver. Mostly, he likes balls and ball-like things and crayons. When he wakes, as soon as his feet hit the floor he's either squatting beside his tin of seedy, broken down crayons and launching a masterpiece or yelps "baa" (ball) and starts kicking the nearest orb.

Anyway. This video should illustrate. We will not attend the circus for now. Not till Wyeth can be convinced to stay in the stands.

This evening, Wyeth will hit the streets as a Lobster Man ( Gordon's Fisherman look but catch-and-release variety). Having not done a dry-run of the costume, not at all sure that various lobsterman elements will make it (S'ouwester hat, yellow rain pants, boots, and a string bag of 12 fuzzy lobsters c/o ebay). Will record results and post.

Happy Halloween to all.

Holidays way WAY cooler with kids. Planning snacks for Santa and the reindeers already....

(boo)

house!

2010-10-30T09:05:00.002-04:00

Joining the exodus - Brooklyn it is.
And here will be the home-base: Clinton Hill, Lefferts Place, pretty house.

YAYAYAYAYAYA.

Early next year. And, till then, we dream of backyard and storage.

c + co

Summer, ohhhh

2010-09-15T14:50:00.003-04:00

We spent a healthy chunk of summer at this beach - Quogue Long Island.
A Hampton, sort of, but more a secret, not good-shopping and not celeb-spotting, close-ish (by our warped standards - 1-1/2 hours vs. 4 to Montauk at the end of the island...)

Got sandy, got brave, got waves and got way happy.

I know I'd want the first summer of my toddling life to be spent here...

Hope Wyeth will agree when he sees the albums...

Love, more posts too, soon.

c

newly chic, they gather

2010-08-04T10:53:00.004-04:00

In eras past, textile collectors were a musty bunch. Murmuring of wefts and weaves, brandishing Naga marriage cloths and fingering thready Coptic fragments they'd an air of the library carrels about them, and gone-thither look in their eye.

Their official meeting place (when not burrowing in the backrooms of textile dealers, Damascus to La Paz) was the Textile Museum in Washington DC.

In the past few years, their citadel's been stormed.

Central Asia's textiles - the ubiquitous suzanis and ikats - have trickled down so far that their bold patterns currently appear in Pottery Barn bed spreads, the ragged edges of the ikat showing up in Forever 21 t's.

Good for business? Good for the world? For Central Asia's weavers and dyers and the women of the households for whom suzani's were a life's work and legacy? Hmmm - why not but no, unlikely.

This fall the Textile Museum's hosting a symposium: Tying the Rainbow, Reexamining Central Asian Ikats. This is awesome and a sure crowd-pleaser. I'd love to go to lecture:
At the crossroads of Eurasia: The Changing Central Asian City and Textile Producton in the 19th Century and dream Marco Polo dreams of Samarkand and Bhukara in a darkened theatre. I won't, oh well.

But I will be wondering this October, what sort of crowd has gathered to celebrate the now-ubiquitous textile and whether the textiler-s of ages past will present a nattier front to the newly-intrigued world at their gates.

Warp, weft and weaving-ho.
love
c

my other life

2010-08-03T16:32:00.003-04:00

Initially, perhaps I wouldn't be the one who 360-ed a blog from looking outwards and onwards to one that focused,
obsessively,
on a baby.

Silly.
Of course I couldn't, wouldn't and, to my mind, shouldn't have resisted.
And, lo, I did not.
And since roughly June 23 2009, fromacafe has become, for all intents,
life-from-Wyeth's-crib-side,
or welcome to the small small world that orbits my baby Wyeth.

Who knows if I've lost readers as a result.
Or gained?

But with our boy now being one and forging his own wobbly path in the world, I'm going to try my hand at occasional grown-up things here.
Like showing some of my recent photos of the maine house,
talking about houses in Brooklyn loved + lost,
mentioning a blogging-on-design job I applied for (cross fingers),
finally market the silver shell necklaces I've created but never sold,
re-introducing the semi-languishing Circa Trade...

Which is not to say there won't still be TONS of Wyeth here. Blogger-bias after all.

So, with that little piece of house-cleaning - on + off we go.

love to all
c

Where we were

2010-08-03T12:45:00.001-04:00

And wish we were still...

(MAINE)

Micah's Afghan Photos

2010-07-27T21:41:00.003-04:00

I am lucky, our family lucky, to be friends with an incredible man named Micah Garen. His skills are many, heart huge and knowledge of the Middle East - Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey in particular, is breathtaking.

He is also a genius photographer.
He is also incredibly brave and, more so or plus plus, he has a way of friending (more direct than be-friending) and gently working his way right into a culture, a place.

Baby Wyeth's been the lucky subject of Micah's camera.

But more recently and more relevantly on a world-scale (even a mom can admit this), Micah's been in Southern Afghanistan with his Wisner 4x5 camera where he's shot the inhabitants of Marja - poppy farmers to bomb-sniffing dogs - and Vanity Fair is featuring them.

We're very proud.

we're busy

2010-07-14T12:51:00.003-04:00

Busy not-yet walking but making tracks everywhere anyway.
Copying sounds, matching pictures and getting the whole shoes-goes-on-foot thing.
Changing-up favorite-food: yoghurt tumbles -unseated by blueberries, pasta loses favor, waffles gain momentum.
Telling everyone, everything, just not intelligibly just yet.
Going to the beach, often, and stirring buckets of saltwater and sand.

Photos of the past few weeks are here

And in meantime, we play...

Love

us

Almost...

2010-06-21T13:35:00.004-04:00

Our not-quite 1 year-old boy

It's Wimbledon again, and Father's Day and boy was life/the world (ours) a different place one year ago.

(Official birthday Wednesday, June 23rd but more fun to party/picnic on a Sunday afternoon...)

myohmyohmymy

where we picnic-ed 'neath the trees

More big thoughts on the very big first year will come - first, must compose them and will need Wyeth's input.

love
c

GOAL

2010-06-13T21:25:00.003-04:00

Me + W - he in Scotland jersey (c/o cousin Hudson and no, Scotland wasn't/isn't playing but how many small fellow even have jerseys?) and me without. Rus does have (Bayern Munich) but he didn't get in the shot.

Saturday: watched US-UK with friends in Brooklyn.

Rather, Wyeth ate some banana, foodled with the ball, climbed the stairs, stood on his chair, pushed around a tomato, gnawed on bread with avocado, tried to get my beer, tried to pet a dog, yelped, fidgeted, then - when all of the crowded cafe erupted in cheers after UK's goal - looked terrified and he and I took ourselves for a long wandering, Fort Greene-exploring walk.

For the record - he does a sort of dribble-crawl move with his ball that shows enormous promise.
World Cup 2030 or bust.

xo
and a dribble
c

of men and dog(s)

2010-06-07T09:40:00.003-04:00

Rus + Wyeth + dog at Rila Monastery

Wyeth LOVES dogs and is FEARLESS.

Fortunately, Bulgaria has lovely dogs including well-mannered strays without the grim/needy temperaments and weedy, splotchy, bedraggled appearance of strays I've known elsewhere.

That's it - not a big post, just had something nice to say about dogs and Wyeth requested a dog post...

c (woof)

on baptism

2010-06-06T19:44:00.005-04:00

I'd saved this.

From amazing book GILEAD by Marilyn Robinson.

Speaking is a pastor in his final days, writing a record of his life for a young son he'll soon leave behind.

"There is a reality in blessing which I take baptism to be primarily.

It doesn't enhance the sacredness, but acknowledges it, and there is a power in that. I have felt it pass through me, so to speak.

The sensation is of really knowing a creature, I mean really feeling its mysterious life and your own mysterious life at the same time."

Right?

(yes yes)

we went to Bulgaria and baby's been baptized

2010-06-06T19:37:00.002-04:00

Last week, our threesome, plus Dad and Sarah, joined Vladimir and Maria Chilov in Sofia Bulgaria.

Wyeth's first and second trans-atlantic flights (and, were it possible, last till grad school),
first (and second) Heathrow transit,
first shopska salad and kufte, and, in the banner event of the week,
his first (and only - unless in later life he wanders into something else altogether) baptism took place on Monday, June 24th at the St Sofia church.

He handled like a pro, if there can be such a thing.
(Babies are stunningly game. )

Photos of the 10 days are here.

Now we're back in New York and Wyeth's maintained that just-baptized glow...
We miss Bulgaria though.

love, and more reports soon
c

sheeps below

2010-05-13T17:04:00.002-04:00

"Troupeaux de Moutons" Tapis

In an ideal world,
(once the babes are loved, clothed and fed,

the lonely befriended and the hurting un-hurt),
Wyeth would grow up with this troupeaux de moutons 'neath knee, then foot...

By husband-wife team (lovely) Francois-Xavier Lalanne - have a way with the wooly ones.

(For auction at Sothebys, soon.)

cut 1

2010-05-11T10:26:00.002-04:00

We went for Wyeth first hair cut yesterday.

How sad! and how cruel to stop nature's work in its follicular tracks...

Ah well, eternally tucking and brushing back from the face and pinching banana in gluey clumps had worn me.

Did his eyes light up at the fire-engine salon seat, Elmo on the TV, Elmo on the lap, a lollipop, balloons, two women singing and cheerios? Nope, it was rough right on through.

(big tip)

c + w (shorn)

mother, i

2010-05-10T16:49:00.006-04:00

Mother's day - my first on the celebrated-side of the fence - and I'm amazed just how poignant.
(They like us, really really do - or today they make a point to mention it, with flowers.)

I also attended the baptism of a beautiful baby-friend (Heidi) and so happened to be in church (!) on mother's day. Fortuitous. Rus was home with Wyeth (who's had a run of fussy days as we await tooth 2) and so had some quiet pew-moments of ordered peace, and god-sanctioned praise and truly felt the guts of the holiday.

And, because I was tired and the minister wasn't above the emotion of it all - he was baptizing babies for god's sake - I had a little cry for my mom (lost to ALS in 2002), my sister (lost in childbirth 4 years ago, mom-in-making) and for all moms - also lost or uncelebrated and for the celebrated ones too, we all deserve.

Could I have know 17 months ago (Wyeth now 10 months so 10 + 9) what this would give/take/entail/provide?

Yee gods no.

But it's a daily miracle and MOTHERING - the daily as well as the extraordinary of it - should be an all-caps verb.

Here's a note from my diary of Feb 18 2009 - having just found out Wyeth (just "baby" then) was/is a boy):

Finally, 37 years-in and I hand over the reins.
Miracle of universally-sanctioned growth, of ownership with the strangest price and extraordinary in the mostly-till-now ordinary of my body, interloper in dialogue of me.
A being, or state, so far beyond mere body-hood, so much more and intrinsically divine.
I will have a boy.

Happy Mother's Day all.

he moves too

2010-04-29T10:12:00.002-04:00

Can't stop, won't stop
must (got to)
MOVE

(Commando-crawl's given way to full-blown, text-book, CRAWL.)

Stands too.

c - who thought baby-proofing was a take-or-leave proposition and now sees apartment as the fraught collection corners, sharp objects and oven doors that it is

Baby's got a tooth (and it's spring)

2010-04-23T08:38:00.008-04:00

baby swings on a slightly overcast city day

Okay, this one's been waiting in the wings (draft-form) and never got posted.

blossoms!

Since its inception, the tree-bound blossoms are pretty much over (save for some lilacs), peonies for a king's ransom just hit the corner deli selection, daffodils given way to the next, slightly less flamboyant rounds 2 and 3 of the spring roll-out and we (Rus + Wyeth + me) have been south to Sea Island for my Grandpop's memorial.

But - without further ado - photos of the spring underway:

sand!

art! (and open floor)

Besides the tooth, celebrated daily, Today is: Wyeth's 10 month birthday.

What with the tooth and travel and playing, we've got big hopes for months 11 and 12.

Here's to our baby, babbling...

xo
c

Happy 37th Linds

2010-03-30T21:23:00.004-04:00

Little Linds, May Day at Shady Hill, c. 1984

You'd be 37 today. Chad + Hudson baked a birthday cake for you.

Hudson was accepted at the "Shady Hill" of Dallas a few weeks back so thought this photo of you in all your homemade-t-shirt May Day splendor was appropriate.

We miss you so much dear Linds. There are a lot of new little folks we would like you to meet. (I can think of one in particular but, really, there are many). Anyway, hopefully you know about them all and are looking after their wobbly passages.

And our bad news is a little bit of sunshine for you. We lost Grandpop but you, and Grandma, and mom and baby Steven, got him in your quarter. Look after him, look after us.

People we miss

Hugs from us all and happy birthday happy birthday happy birthday.
much love,

your sister (now a mom!) c

Grandpop's Gone

2010-03-18T10:17:00.006-04:00

At 11pm last night at Marsh's Edge, St. Simons Island, GA, the world lost Grandpop.

Peacefully they tell us and I trust.
He was ready to go - said as much our last visit (over Christmas). He was quieter these last months and for long moments gazed out the window, hands crossed on chest, and an expression of real, bright, peace.

Grandma has him back and Grandpop's returned to his great love;
she'll have made congo bars and a batch of iced tea for his arrival.

We miss him so much already.

The world's lost a gentleman and great soul and we'll struggle as a family to fill Grandpop's Topsiders.

Grandpop's been given top billing in this blog. For posts-past about him, http://fromacafe.blogspot.com/search?q=grandpop

meeting of great men, 12.2009

We love you so much Grandpop.

c+r+w

12 hours at RSW

2010-03-14T22:40:00.002-04:00

Left Boca house at 7:15am
Arrived Ft Myers airport at 8:45am (for 11:18 flight to JFK)
Flight cancelled (I choked up, Wyeth calm)
Re-routed - Newark at 1:18
9:30am-9:10pm - boarded and un-boarded 3 x (collapsing + re-building stroller 3x), perpetual movement via Ergo, stroller and arms, missing naps will-nilly, accepting Gerber Strained Peas donation from mom of Patrick,
Wheels up, finally, at 9:10pm

Last 1/2 hour of flight a bucking hell of plane attacked from all sides by the same winds that had downed large trees across New Jersey all day. Wyeth slept, soundly, through it all - just a little wimper when we landed; a trooper of uncommon courage.

Maybe my (naive) pre-baby dream of baby-in-a-backpack across the Asian steppe/trans-Siberian, India-by-rickshaw dreams not utterly mad afterall...We appear to have a robust small traveller on our hands.

For now though, happily in our semi-dull but awfully stable routines.

Love, and safe travels,

c+w (R in Bulgaria till week's end)

baby in a ring (la la la la la)

2010-03-14T22:27:00.002-04:00

Wyeth + I +, for a time, Ruslan were in Florida this last week with cousins and baby cousins (second? removed? babies of cousins = cousins to me).

Boca Grande (Key West as you'd want it to still be, but wasp-y) where, with family, we spread through a 3 story, bajillion bedroom + baths and porches house. Excellent for baby wrangling, multiple feeding scenarios, baby-in-the-sun moments.

Cousin Susanna bought the babies these excellent tubes at the supermarket. We took turns inflating. $2.99 - never better spent. The ring has little, also-inflated, seat attached so Wyeth not actually treading water and suspending self. Though I bet he could.

He + Kate did love these things.

And I loved him loving it.
As I do,
often these days,
(also love his new sun hat)

c

went to library

2010-02-25T21:44:00.003-05:00

The US Postal people, Fresh Direct deliverers (groceries-to-your-door nyc-style), the city's door guys with shovels...us.

Out and about in today's winter mayhem. Pushed massive stroller with all-weather accessories adhering, held umbrella, dragged heavy boots through curb-cut puddles. All to reach - the library. Best use of taxes and civic rah, ever.

Not so much for the books, though they're gaining ground, as for the little people watching.
Wyeth's gaga for them - arrested mid-gnaw by a tiny guy toddling, 8-month old Henry toppling, baby Emmet melting-down.
A little bit of motor-function envy I suspect.
And many miles till our first book club.

xo
us (one asleep)

Winter, hell + snow - poetically

2010-02-25T16:11:00.004-05:00

Too dark?

Even a son brand-new-ish and cute as ours can't dispel astounding grim-ness of this winter.

And so...

You must ask yourself:
where is it snowing?

White of forgetfulness, of desecration—
It is snowing on earth; the cold wind says

Persephone is having sex in hell.
Unlike the rest of us,
she doesn't know what winter is,
only that she is what causes it.

from Persephone the Wanderer, Louise Glück

love
and wet snow
c

Wyeth's weekend

2010-01-20T17:11:00.002-05:00

where's Wyeth?

A big weekend upstate.

Visiting Hudson Supermarket (Circa's home) and sitting in many chairs (what's cuter than a little guy in a big chair),

being amidst snow (unclear if he gets but there must be recognition by now),

playing by the fire (attended),

belly laughing at "bison" - in Bulgarian, beeSON and very, very funny,

wobbling in high chair (first go)

eating bananas...

Everything's nicer with Wyeth...

Love

Haiti

2010-01-14T22:21:00.003-05:00

Amidst crazy riches of family, health and prosperity, it's hard to imagine Haiti's decimated reality. I look at Wyeth in all his boisterous, growing aliveness then at the images of injured, motherless, babies on the streets of Port au Prince. That the two realities can co-exist in the same hemisphere, world. Babies for god-sake, and Haiti has so many.

I don't have the hands-on, life-saving and limb-splinting skills that would truly help in Haiti right now (though I could still provide milk for the orphaned, but that's another story).

The one thing we can all do is donate funds. And the organization that has established clinics already running in Haiti, and skilled people on the ground, is Paul Farmer's Partners in Health (see Tracy Kidder's NY Times editorial.)

To donate, click here.

With prayers and hope,

Solids, standing and other 2010 goals

2010-01-12T00:11:00.002-05:00

Happy holidays and New Year from Wyeth and us.

Mostly we're just really happy to be a family, be healthy and hug a lot, but when asked to state a few benchmark goals for 2010, Wyeth did mention:

Curtail squirming on changing table

Sleep right on through the night

Check drool before it puddles

Practice patience with traffic lights and other things that stop forward motion

Better explain triggers for mini-meltdowns

Not chew toes, soggy socks

Nap lots

Laugh lots

Like pureed vegetables besides squash

(He continues to work on his list.)

And we (me) vow to post way more, so stay tuned...

With love to all, everywhere

C + R + W

cousins, ahoy

2009-12-14T15:55:00.004-05:00

with Austin, Brady and Ava

Biggish gap there, excellent excuse: Wyeth, Ruslan and I were on the road.

with Honor + Will

We spent Thanksgiving in Portland OR with Dad + Sarah, toodled around the new-for-all-of-us state, then Wyeth and I continued on to meeting baby cousins and big cousins (second cousins to be exact) in San Francisco/Bay Area, then onwards to Dallas to see true blue cousin Hudson, then home.

With Hudson

Wyeth has been on 8 flights to date. He isn't getting better at them. You still don't want to sit next to us.

mr frequent flier

A glimpse of the cousin meet-up at Tenley's (Wyeth un-napped, then Pep + Marty's twins Austin + Brady fresh from their naps, then Annie + Taylor's Ava - ever fresh and agreeable):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soh3RVQU3Qk

More reports and photos soon, I hope.

love to ALL

love him

Our day

2009-11-10T08:58:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was beautiful.
Without jacket, in shortest pants and smallest socks,
we headed to the great lawn.
Read a book
Played
Checked out other babies, strollers
Got grumpy
Went home
And so to nap...

But for 30 minutes or so there, we were really chilling in the park.
How awesome it was.

love
me+him

the hippo sleeps

2009-11-04T16:25:00.004-05:00

We'd bought the costume months ago and
hung it in the closet to wait.

My first anticipated Halloween ever.

Halloween dawns and, lo, it's a day of nap-striking
so that by the time we're dressed

for trick-or-treating on 69th street,
the pumpkins set out and candy bowls filled,

our little guy is THE GRUMPIEST hippo on the upper west and,
having fought sleep through the day,

promptly passes out,

hippo-head nodding, as soon as we're out the door.

and baby hippos

abroad in the city/world

2009-11-04T15:48:00.002-05:00

Marathon Morning (marathon men)

As Wyeth makes headway into his 4th month

(or 12th, depending on your thoughts/politics),

he gets daily curious-er, chattier, more ticklable and somewhat more reasonable nap-wise.

Me and Wyeth in Central Park

He is not getting happier about hats and jackets, negative on mittens.

I fear snow-suit season, the bundling hurdle to departures,

already difficult by the urban logistics of strollers and other trials.

at the DIA Beacon (arty men)

He comes along to every event we can in the hope that,

even in a dream-state of stroller-napping,

Wyeth's absorbing and

tucking away impressions

of cafes, museums, neighborhoods, zoo animals and city bustle...

on the Lower East Side (city-wandering men)

Love from

us 3

unputdownable

2009-10-28T12:41:00.003-04:00

Wyeth is...

the bundle you can't put down.

(Don't want to,

wouldn't ever,

couldn't)

love

Love him so

2009-10-14T11:07:00.004-04:00

From Wyeth, Month 2 and 3-ish

(photo by Marie Helene and Micah)

We'll eat

him up,

we love him so.

c + r, loving our Wyeth, our baby wild thing (who pooped this AM!)

Ananda Balasana (happy baby pose)

2009-10-11T09:40:00.002-04:00

Okay, not true Happy Baby pose -
Wyeth's not got grip/coordination/recognition of own extremities to make pose plausible, but close.

Wyeth and I attended our first Mommy + Me Yoga class last Thursday. Had planned to attend for weeks but as the hour would approach, we'd be mid-nap, or meltdown or on cusp of a poop (the elusive...)

But last Thursday dawned and Wyeth and I decided that nothing was stopping us - there being no such beast as a well-rested, bowel-emptied and/but well-fed, appropriately suited Wyeth and mom.

Off we trucked.

We weren't the oldest or youngest (many tiny pink bundles, and an enormous 4 month bruiser beside us),
neither best behaved nor worst (thank god - one small pink bundle took the honor), we sat out a few poses,
had some nips at the boob,
probably spent more time prone on the blanket then asana-ing but,
all tolled,
we participated
and got our practice on.

Yes. Wyeth now has his practice god bless.
Ganesha save him from becoming a pre-potty-trained Lulu-Lemonhead.

ommmmmm
out
us

telling jokes

2009-10-11T09:28:00.001-04:00

Here:
me and him,
kicking back on the bed,
telling funny jokes
and cracking each other up.

Love him.

c

man on the streets

2009-10-08T10:39:00.002-04:00

of Fort Green Brooklyn last Sunday. Looking for a home...

xo
c+w

pea pod, bumblebee and my baby's smile

2009-10-01T13:52:00.002-04:00

No, not earth shattering and certainly not well shot, but when this boy smiles...

A long stretch between postings just means more play, walks, reads and tummy time on this end of things. And, Wyeth's abandoned the sleep-nearly-all-night routine, and we're back to every 3-4 hours.

But all's well and our boy is smiling, even without prompts and rattl-y toys.

Love from
us

fascinating (?)

2009-09-16T07:33:00.002-04:00

Riveting footage - hello baby Wyeth.

Note - this taken in Maine, almost a month ago, so Wyeth that much more eloquent these days. Watch this space for evidence.

Love and many, many hiccups.

c+w

all we need's a flat surface

2009-09-10T11:49:00.003-04:00

On topic of moving with young one and judgments I will no longer pass:
Pre-Wyeth (PW ) was boggled and disturbed by diaper changes taking place on the floors of airports, restaurants, park benches...

The indignity!
promiscuity!
the bum-in-the-air of it!

etc.

No more. Moms and Dads - have at it.

The world doesn't provide enough nicely screened, ever-so-lightly padded, self-cleaning, non-chilly/well-ventilated waist-height flat surfaces, period.

Wyeth, Rus and I are only beginning this journey but already have christened
the wall-to-wall in Grandpop's nursing home,
backseat of MH + Micah's rental car in Maine
and set up temporary shop on beds in 3 states.

Topic for another day, same that theme:
breastfeeding on the road or, why I wish we lived in France.

Stationery love, to all

c (at rest)

much a-moving

2009-09-10T06:21:00.002-04:00

Wyeth's logging flight time.

Monday was his 4th flight in his first 10 weeks with a week in Sea Island to visit Wyeth's great-grandpop.
Air travel post-9/11 + baby-gear proliferation + colic = CHALLENGE.
We managed, wore flip-flops, checked two bags and a loaded bassinet.
Like so much of early baby weeks - I had no idea.

Now, we're sticking for a while and I've had time to climb atop the photo mayhem.

Maine photos are here.
More recent, including Sea Island trip, are here.

And, from home base, much more catching up soon.

Love

us

all Wyeth, because

2009-08-20T14:13:00.003-04:00

mother's prerogative

c (the mom who posts)

Even more handsomeness

2009-08-20T13:10:00.009-04:00

Two more foundational-fellows in the small man's world:

Grandfathers x 2

Grandfather Pyle

and

Grandfather Chilov

The two grandfathers -

awake and minus the sleeping off-spring -

seen here discussing Wyeth's future

over popovers at Jordan Pond House.

Feeling my son's in fine hands...

Handsome men

2009-08-20T13:08:00.004-04:00

From Maine 2009

Gratuitous handsomeness, sorry.

That's dad Rus and Wyeth, very briefly down for the count, on the couch in Maine.

Feel the love + mutual adoration...

reveling in it all,

Little family on vacation

2009-08-20T09:07:00.001-04:00

Yes, we did make it -

much more soon.

Love

c+w+r

Mt Desert, or bust

2009-08-01T07:33:00.004-04:00

Approaching Mt Desert

We're going north, babe-in-arms.

Packed too much? You bet. Sure to have too many, say, onesies and completely not enough, or wrong altogether, of some other baby necessity. Worried about the milk through security, worried about stroller/car seat logistics, worried about melt-down en route...

next post - many miles north (I hope)

we hang, often

2009-07-29T11:26:00.004-04:00

Wyeth and I hang out, all the time.

There's a lot of:

inadequate focus for sustained reading,

insufficient window for a phone call,

small baby between me and keyboard so can't do that

and head too bobbly to not support

so can't simultaneously eat a yogurt either

time.

Like half-day and a half-night's worth sometimes.

Which is fine by me.

Sometimes I sing (Jerusalem and One Tin Soldier in current rotation).

Sometimes I read aloud (his Hungry Caterpillar, Pat the Bunny and mine, Sum)

Sometimes we listen to NPR, or Big Band, or Donavon, or classical.

More often, we're quiet, rocking, gazing and wondering and days disappear.

Love

c + w

Cousin Hudson

2009-07-29T06:49:00.011-04:00

Hudson Brown, circa August 2006 -

Seal Harbor, ME

PW (pre-Wyeth), I knew of newborns:

to swaddle and shush,

to document blow-out bowl movements and waterworks,

the un-holdability of a bathing baby,

the what and why of tummy time,

of colic's ominous threes (at age 3 weeks, 3 hours a day, at least 3 days a week...)

weathered with the night mantra that this too shall pass,

and the heart and soul crushing love for a tiny being -

I learned alongside Wyeth's cousin Hudson 3 years ago

and apprenticing to Hudson's grandmother Lynn Brown.

(Photos here. Hudson's blog continues here.)

Hudson Brown, circa May 2009

Colorado

Hudson's now 3 and the cousins will meet soon in Maine.

Where Wyeth will observe, and Hudson (I hope) will demonstrate,

the why's and wherefore's of blueberry picking,

and nuances of being a fine small boy.

I see glimmers of Hudson, and shadings of Lindsey too, in our little man...

Love

(wishing Linds was here)

!kung vs. iCal

2009-07-24T06:40:00.002-04:00

simple context: Wyeth 'neath the tree

NB. A "technical", somewhat jargon-y, post.

Slow through pregnancy, by Wyeth's arrival I'd ingested a stack of baby how-to books and announced to any who'd listen (Dad and Sarah, Wyeth) that we'd be working with a schedule. Yes, 8 days old was young but a schedule's a schedule and Wyeth would benefit from this early rigor, be the better adult for the clarity of his daylight hours.

I encouraged Rus to read up on variations on the schedule, in case we'd missed some nuance.

When Wyeth had missed his nth morning activity slot because he was napping/pooping/fussing, I switched over to the more touchy-feely, Happiest Baby on the Block. Harvey Karp cites other cultures, notably the !Kung of the Kalahari, as time-eternal examples of mom & babe grooving into a primordial rhythm of breast and sleep and lovin' that transcended time clocks. !Kung babies don't distinguish a night feed from a whatever. What The Baby Whisperer admonishes as "snacking" is the !Kung babe m.o. in the blissfully small realm of his mom's chest, breath...

bigger + messier context: Wyeth's room

Lo, I realize I am neither.

I will not, as Baby Whisperer demands, establish a schedule for the next 6 months so iron-clad that the world, and Wyeth with it, must contort to align, but neither will I wear my dear baby night and day, forgoing the personal space of us both.

Neither !Kung nor scheduler we will be. Instead? Some very messy, un-schedulable combo of the two.

With love and the day ahead.

c+w

Happy Wyeth's-a-month

2009-07-23T07:05:00.002-04:00

I don't doubt that other people have cute babies...
(but)

love c
and contemplating-jade-plant this morning, Wyeth

Super-Abundance

2009-07-22T17:31:00.002-04:00

"But the child? Where did it come from? Why? Who was it?

He was quite unable to grasp this,
unable to accustom himself to the idea.
It seemed to him something excessive,
a super-abundance,
and it took him a long time to get used to it."

from Anna Karenina

c
love c, and r too - both blessed

Newell Convers (NC), Howard et al.

2009-07-22T08:32:00.004-04:00

An NC Wyeth illustration

The name:
"WYETH" (not Wyatt and not "with" as by the pediatrician's assistant).

Rus and I culled family history, too many opinions and 5 million plus popular baby names to end up with this one. (More on journey to middle name "NICHOLAS" in a future post).

Why? Reasons including:

Strong, silent name/type.
"Would I take a call/accept a date/loan money to/share a ride with ________ Chilov". In the case of "Wyeth" - resounding yes.
"Wyeth, please choose your team for dodgeball/math camp/nap time" and only our little fellow steps forward, not a herd including Wyeth W, Wyeth R, Wyeth with blond hair etc.
Howard Pyle, possibly (and, for here, conveniently) a vaguely linked ancestor of mine, taught painting and illustration to NC Wyeth (and Maxfield Parrish, among others) at the turn of the century.
PIRATES, COWBOYS, CASTAWAYS, DEERSLAYERS, MOHICANS, KING ARTHUR, SCOTTISH CHIEFS and a small deer - all illustrated by NC Wyeth and all about as "boy" as they come.
Rus + I visited the Brandywine River Valley, then Rockland Maine - two prominent Wyeth family sites, and absorbed, were inspired by, took pictures...

NC Wyeth in studio

Howard Pyle in his studio

And, lastly, because Wyeth looked liked Wyeth (and not Howard) from the very start.

love

c, and the aptly named Wyeth, and father R

Where's Wyeth?

2009-07-15T13:14:00.002-04:00

From Wyeth Nicholas Chilov Arrives

The dreaded raised fist -

universal calling card

of the unswaddle-able.

love c + r + w

who loves him?

2009-07-13T09:10:00.001-04:00

From Wyeth Nicholas Chilov Arrives

Perhaps...
his grandparents?

(Chilov grandparents en route - they love him too.)

Wyeth at rest

2009-07-13T08:38:00.002-04:00

From Wyeth Nicholas Chilov Arrives

Wyeth's mini-repertoire varies only in coloring/consistency, duration, decibel, ferocity and sweetness.
Lovableness, constant.

Post-nap stretches too. Freed of swaddling, Wyeth looses sleep from his system, re-acquaints with limbs and nudges the digestive track into high gear.

From Wyeth Nicholas Chilov Arrives

His pal in this leisurely transition state: sleep sheep. (Sleep Sheep plays whale sounds. My baby finds these familiar?)

love from the supremely lovable
mr wn chilov

Wyeth's-eye view

2009-07-13T08:06:00.002-04:00

From Wyeth Nicholas Chilov Arrives

"One day son, all this..."

Belatedly, happy 4th from Wyeth et al.

In angelic perfection

2009-07-05T13:42:00.001-04:00

From Wyeth Nicholas Chilov Arrives

Bathed, fresh Carter's kimono top, possibly empty diaper, milky breath...

What's finer?

xo
c+w+r

Wyeth's home team

2009-07-05T13:11:00.002-04:00

From Wyeth Nicholas Chilov Arrives

Not stealing the little man's thunder -
impossible -
just to show supporting cast.

From Wyeth Nicholas Chilov Arrives

with love to all from
c + r + w

Wyeth-a-Day

2009-07-01T09:20:00.002-04:00

(Calendar to come...)

Voila Wyeth being weighed - moments before beaming parents told he'd gained an ounce on his birth weight.

Our baby's fattening.

7 lbs (baby)

and gaining...

This breast-feeding thing's a topic for a whole 'nother post.

Love and mother's milk.

c+r+w

Behold these limbs

2009-06-30T14:38:00.002-04:00

From yesterday's knowledge input:

"Under the age of three months, babies have no control over their arms and legs...when they're overtired, babies become more hyper - their arms and legs jerk or wave in the air when they're exhausted. Babies don't even realize the limbs are attached to him.

As far as he is concerned, those moving objects are part of the environment - they distract and disturb him."

from, The Baby Whisperer, Tracy Hogg

love c

At home in the world

2009-06-30T10:26:00.002-04:00

From Wyeth Nicholas Chilov Arrives

Here slumbers Wyeth (N.C.) in the patented "double lock-down swaddle" - our weak defense against the small man's wily, wriggly, ways. When we're pushed to the 5-layer swaddle we'll need another solution.

Our small man had a great first week in the world: beguiled nurses, charmed doctors and slayed his family and new friends with his winning ways and well-held head. All bodes well for Wyeth-week 2, the sequel (except with greater motor control + recognition of own limbs).

Can't imagine what he's got up his too-long sleeves.

Love from the home front.

c + w + r

Wyeth Nicholas Chilov

2009-06-29T11:06:00.005-04:00

From Wyeth Nicholas Chilov Arrives

It's official, Wyeth's with us.

At 10:04pm, June 23 2009, a little man of huge character, remarkable looks, vigorous vital signs, long limbs, exceptional extremities and an already-adoring public, arrived.

WYETH NICHOLAS CHILOV
(6lbs, 15 oz)

(photos here)

to Ruslan Vladimirov Chilov + Courtney Pyle Chilov

who could not be more smitten.

Love from us 3
c + r + w

Bulgarian or bust (or babble...)

2009-04-13T15:04:00.003-04:00

Rus turned 40 Saturday - with dignity, gravitas and a few drinks.
There wasn't much I could give him (having given hand in marriage, in two months a son...) so wrapped-up "Teach Yourself Bulgarian" and promised unflagging study of his mother tongue.

New favorite phrase:
Корабът ми на въздушна възглавница е пълен със змиорки
(Korabãt mi na v'zdyšna vãzglavnica e pãlen sãs zmiorki)

(My hovercraft is full of eels)

love
linguist
mrs. c

Happy Birthday little man Hudson

2009-04-13T11:52:00.003-04:00

Three years ago today, the miracle boy entered our lives.

Hudson continues to be a thriving, all-you-could-hope-for, dyed-in-the-wool boy of a being and I'm (juice) toasting him and his remarkable dad and hoping their birthday cake is sweet and the year(s) ahead all blue sky.

Much love + birthday hug,

(aunt) C

R & I, on April 10, wed

2009-04-11T11:21:00.001-04:00

At the City Clerk's, we wait....

Then (wed), exit amidst rose petals (thank you MH!) and so many great friends and family.

Onwards drinks and beautiful food at Matsugen (stealth-organized by Christian with help of John + Daniel), brief stop home for re-group, change out of wedding coat, and, at 6:30, to Barcibo for celebration, cakes + toasts into the (wedded) night.

Such an amazing day, so many people to thank and tip of the bouquet to City Clerk's office for most memorable launch.

Love to all, more photos to follow (HUGE thanks to Micah + Marie-Helene for capturing whole day via still, video, large format negatives - doing work of a camera crew of 15).

Some photos here.

C (Mrs. C) + R
and the little man who attended it all

HAPPY BIRTHDAY dear Linds

2009-03-30T13:53:00.000-04:00

Lindsey would be 36 today.

She'd be mother of an almost 3-year old, maybe there'd have been another one in the meantime or, to join the crowd (we're all doing it), one on the way.
She'd be alive to enjoy life in the new administration, alive to witness lilacs that'll be here soon, alive to make plans with...

I miss her more than ever.
I hope they're pulling out all the stops to celebrate her up where she is.

Love you Linds.
love
c

(So many great photos of Linds so narrowed the field to Linds + a few of our/her/my favorite men : ) Biased, but my blog...)

Packing them (HIM) up, out...

2008-11-04T15:07:00.002-05:00

by Jill Freedman (who didn't take a donkey photo)

Buoyed by the massive power force that is a group of unintroduced citizens crowded into a gym-ish room and waiting (ecstatically, chattily, peacefully) in tangle small lines to enter toilet stall-size black tents with the worried expressions as they pull the flap aside that once within they'll forget the instructions for lever-pull-direction and inadvertently not only elect the woman from Alaska but possibly undo everyone else's good work/votes in the process.

Or so I feared.But didn't, I think, do - lever thing makes me as nervous as red light/green light buzzer tests from kindergarten.

I voted in the west village Gay/Lesbian/Transgender Center. A few months back I walked by it as it was hosting a party, celebrating some theme that embraced all costumes including lots of backless leather chaps. All bottoms clothed in booths today.

Hope everyone exercised their inalienable right too - I swear it's an awesome thing. And claim your free Starbucks coffee - just tip the barrista.

Love + so long elephants

And we ran

2008-10-06T10:13:00.006-04:00

I came late in life to running, later to organized running and as racer, am days old.

3 weeks ago, after a hideous, hot, hung-over mid-Sunday 7 mile run along a dusty (turtle-dotted) canal during which I hadn't died, I decided to be a bit more serious. And so began a double-time training that culminated just a bit before 11am on Saturday morning with the finish of a half marathon, meters beyond Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

Ruslan, Nadine, John, Anka and I ran Grete's Gallop (Norwegian-themed, either to specifically shout-out multiple marathon-winning Norwegian woman? a Nordic bottler? or so that earlier kids event could be called Trolls Stroll.)

I learned:

Late again, now I grasp: the payoff of the day-in-day-out of just showing up and doing. I began running (c/o R) a few years ago. The first hundred runs weren’t that fun, the afterglow was the thing. Much more recently and without hoopla, the runs just got, well, simpler. All of a sudden it wasn't the labored breathing, the cursing of far lampposts and second-guessing of miles – now strength issued from some un-introduced core being and only my legs' capacity and bouts of tedium were imposing limits.

I no longer feared hills.
I crossed the running-for-an-hour threshold.
I found stillness in the forward motion.
I felt the near (working on it) limitless strength of my own body to just go, and then go on some more.
I joined - first time in forever - a group and was buoyed by it, didn't chafe or become malformed by the contact.
And I wore tiny pink shorts amidst thousands, and would again.

Thank you to friends, Dad (fellow soloist) and Sarah for support + spirit and Nadine for pushing protein drinks and, by example, okaying chocolate too.

love + runs
c

a small sale

2008-09-15T12:32:00.002-04:00

Paper pulp, Jaipur INDIA 10.06

Sold a photo via Flickr!

(for use by a British company to illustrate the recycling well, cycle - paper to pulp to paper to the nth.)

Modern age-ahoy...

c

Zoom decorating

2008-09-11T10:17:00.003-04:00

From Grandpop's Apt Marsh's Edge

Last week was the speedy culmination of a 3-week soap-dish-to-chandelier decorating project for Grandpop. Having decided to leave the Sea Island house and join friends/community/security of a retirement home, and staying in an assisted living apartment there in the meantime, Grandpop had a few weeks to make his new apartment habitable.

I ordered furniture apartment-unseen (worked from floor plans and a few dark photos) and tried to budget along the wavery line between IKEA and Conrans/Restoration Hardware so Grandpop would be cozy but not suspect a brand new/aspirational lifestyle had been bought on his dime.
My Grandpop is 92 after all and not - probably - immortal. Or hankering for a new look/life c/o coffee table.

Grandpop reports that he's hosted friends
Made morning hot chocolate
and begun his further-feathering.

(some pictures)

C

Single beds and bathtubs

2008-08-30T11:13:00.000-04:00

My Maine bedroom - sea below and full-size bed as of just this year.

Slowly, so slowly, the house of almost 100 years stretches, wakens, observes that maybe now's the time for little changes.

My Maine bath - view and bucket hair-rinse.

Next up: non-antique bedcovers and knives that cut.

From the porch

2008-08-30T10:31:00.001-04:00

this view

Maine maine MAINE

2008-08-30T10:17:00.002-04:00

approaching Bar airport, tiny plane (everyone's an aisle and window)

I love this place and would have written sooner to report that
but the whole point of being here
is to be HERE
and not posting,
though that's the distracting temptation..

Fortunately though, not distracting enough and so have had my
halcyon days of blueberries, hikes, popovers, contemplate the waters and book-drops-to-floor naps.

this my view when I sea glass

running man

2008-08-20T10:34:00.001-04:00

Before I left the city there were errands -
some took place in the rain.

At the corner of Houston + Broadway, the rains broke and I took shelter with the fruit vendor (bought a banana).

c - who stayed dry for the price of a banana

Olana, that was

2008-08-03T09:25:00.003-04:00

The night before

The Olana Summer Party - was...

(saris and salwars and kurtas and men in pajamas and jodhpurs and get-ups ethnic/eastern)

Some last-minuteness to the set-up but party a success (not just my estimation):
Turning away people (bottom-line good but tough news for those who'd left farmhouses counties away dressed in funny Indian outfits for the party's theme only to be sent right back home, now salwaars drooping, bindis sliding...)
The dance-floor never emptied,
Guests found the food (last year's had been fast-moving tray-targets of too few passed hors-d'ouevres),
Guests liked the food (refills, fast-emptied vats of saag-paneer, curry stains)
Folks appeared happy and mingling, befriending and proud to be on a hill-top over the Hudson on a summer-eve,
It didn't rain though it had rumbled and did big-time Sunday),
Olana itself looked magnificent
and I imagine Mr. Church was pleased?

(Able + Africia, arrive via long/dramatic entrance route)

Anyway - it happened and I'm relieved and I would have reported all of this earlier except now in Sea Island, visiting Grandpop, and computer access has been a shifting thing...

Love to all,

c (cloistered)

Still there

2008-07-11T11:43:00.004-04:00

Too caught up in my own small stuff of late and trying to live via Blackberry and, meantime, PACT has continued on with their remarkable and effective work in Burma.

Distributing clean water, safe delivery kits, deploying doctors, collecting and administering grants, helping to locate lost relatives and - this one gets me - we delivered 300 dignity kits containing basic clothing and undergarments for women (including personal female hygiene products).

Read reports of their progress here

A first-person account by Pact's Deputy Country Representative in Myanmar, Erica Tubbs here.

Funds are needed more than ever as PACT moves into recovery and rebuilding work...
so consider donating here.

Love to all

c

shift, shift again

2008-07-02T09:27:00.002-04:00

This wasn't planned (decisions-under-fire school) but lo, there it was: the very big apartment, empty and me now bursting out of my (other, soon former) Hudson apartment. 2,500 sq. feet of STUFF, plus some barn contents were temporaruly shoe-horned into 600 sq. feet, low ceilings.

This last week has been scrubbing of many-tenants'-worth of life + cooking (Easy Off as floor cleaner), painting over previous tenant's visions of blue and preparing for second move in 30 days this Friday.

Many fine points to the new place, including a small guest room/study, 2 doors down from Mexican Radio (serving till 11), huge farmhouse kitchen sink for bathing dogs, babies?, high ceilings, back porch/deck over looking jungly garden and a carriage house...

c - still moving, soon at rest

Olana (goes) Indian

2008-07-02T01:10:00.003-04:00

Spiked lassis + Hudson Valley views + Moorish fantasy-estate setting + sitar =

Olana Summer Indian Party.
(sign up now, ready the sari/salwaar)

c - anticipating

celtics

2008-06-18T00:38:00.000-04:00

Raised on Bird and Mchale - never a sports person but a Boston person so impossible not to care.

c -

the journey

2008-06-18T00:19:00.001-04:00

The trip -

leaving this

arriving to this:

c - space of 2 hours

stair

2008-06-16T23:06:00.004-04:00

Many small towns have auction houses - Hudson has Stair Galleries. Like a country auction, including cast of regulars (local dealers) and you can fit a preview into afternoon's errands.

Unlike though in most other ways. No fly-bitten chipped Victorian, no cardboard box lots of campaign buttons, no farm equipment. I went by yesterday and had Stair's two floors almost to myself.

To preview for Saturday's auction: ancient persian gold arm cuffs, Doug Hall photos, Khmer buddhas, Rauschenburg collage on silk, Barcelona chairs, Bugatti cabinet (with tassles), Islamic incantation bowls (catalog: "used for casting magic spells"), dogan mali mask, zeppelin memorabilia...

dogan mask/me

c -

peacock-keepers of germantown

2008-06-16T22:46:00.004-04:00

Can't make up:

This man-made, hand-hewn labor of love + folly sits on route 9G, south from Hudson, just before Germantown turn-off, shy of the gas station trifecta.

An Indian husband and wife team have given us:

Indian cafe + landscaping + enormous cage of at least 5 peacocks (less on pecked to death by dominant white male), plus some fancy hens.

c - admiring

meantime, wedding

2008-06-15T23:38:00.002-04:00

Sam and Laura's wedding yesterday - gorgeous and best damn dj-lp dancing by Scott Anderson.

Photo: pre thunder storm

and we're off

2008-06-15T23:22:00.003-04:00

No right way to say goodbye.
Have spent the last 10 days absenting myself, sweeping my footsteps from my house. Till there's no trace - that's how it's meant to hand over afterall, trace-less.

I did a decent job of that but god it's been tough. Or layered. You sweep away one and lo you're still, annoyingly, not gone from the closet, the corner.

(I sold the house, closing this last Wednesday)

More when I'm not box-battered and bat-escaped.

xx
c

Wasp-waisted in headdresses

2008-06-05T12:29:00.005-04:00

Mrs. Arthur Henry Paget (1853-1919), 1891 (Costume of Cleopatra originally worn to 1875 Delmonico Ball, NYC)

Two shows at The NY Historical Society running til mid-August.
ALLURE OF THE EAST: ORIENTALISM IN NEW YORK, 1850–1930
to inform and introduce some of the collectors, and the city scene that inspired the main exhibition: WOVEN SPLENDOR FROM TIMBUKTU TO TIBET: EXOTIC RUGS AND TEXTILES FROM NEW YORK COLLECTORS

Tajik Bridal Veil, 18th Cen.
Besides being beyond bling, what's intriguing (to me) is this piece contrasted with our NY lady above. The bridal veil has a small mesh cut-out in the upper part of the veil, for the bride's eyes. Otherwise, she would be - I imagine - a visually vibrant but otherwise silent spectator at her own wedding. Her voice, I guess, the piece itself which she would have helped to design and create - a visual roar of pink peacocks.

And we contrast to Mrs. Paget doing the Eastern Lady thing, NYC late 19th century style. Imagine if the lady had actually gone native? Emerged from her carriage the night of the ball just a visually stunning but shape-indeterminate Tajik lady, for the night...

The show's pieces are stunning - ikats, Bakhtiarian camel bags, Turkmen camel knee-covers, Geija baby carriers, Ottoman silks, Tibetan Tiger Pelt rugs, Persian horse covers, prayer rugs from wherever there's not enough room on the mosque floor, Uzbek felt mats, Ikat chapan robes. Riotous colors from sand-colored lands, magnificent patterns punctuated with intimate little pattern "riffs" of the lady weaver - a section of abstraction amidst the historically-informed larger piece, a woman's signature.

c - not dressed as Tajik bride, not today

Hudson town, weekend with Dad, the lady who watches over

2008-06-02T21:07:00.004-04:00

Dad walks Hudson shore (train below)

Dad came to visit and Saturday afternoon, after a magnificent storm, we walked the town.

The lady with the view

Watching over all of us, and Hudson.

c (back in the city)

Union Street, greening through the window

(and this just in: Hudson in the WSJ)

sun's path

2008-05-27T17:50:00.003-04:00

Manhattanhenge: the celestial wonder when the sun aligns with Manhattan's grid.
On Friday (and just after sunset Thursday), the sun will center itself on our east/west grid
so that if you stand far east on a main cross-town avenue (14th, 23rd et al)
the sun will fall from view as if cued by a divine, city-loving, God.

And the Burmese junta has agreed to give visas to allow in aid workers, (even while extending Suu Kyi's house arrest). Too slow, too cruel but there are still miracles, even in the confines of our modern world.

(look to the heavens).

c

Listen closely

2008-05-14T10:24:00.002-04:00

Burmese boys, Palong Village, Shan State 1997

I can't understand why so many people would be hurt at one time, how the horrendous earthquake in Sichuan Province can happen even as Burma still reels from Nargis and reports of contemptible corruption and inhuman politics roll in.

Our hearts are very big. The responses I've received, the direct support that's gone to PACT, have been deeply empathetic - people desperate to help, eager to be of any service...So much compassion.

One of the cruelest things Burma's ruling junta has done is to shut the Burmese people off from the world's compassion. Reports from China are harrowing, but they are reports. In allowing foreign journalists simply to be there and report individual stories, the Chinese government has done a two fold good for its people: the world knows the extent of the damage and so can help in kind, and the Chinese people are being heard and this very basic human right to a voice is bedrock in this time of unbelievable crisis.

The Burmese people not only do not have a voice, but they have, largely, no sense at all that the world is aware, is caring.

Criminal.

An unnamed (for his safety) BBC journalist in Burma's delta region yesterday reported that the Burmese were resilient, few complaining and those that did warily, they were friendly but went about their business, resigned to surviving. He warned that the more serious trouble still lay ahead for the country - the aftermath so much worse than the storm itself - malaria, dengue, the loss of some enormous percent of Burma's rice paddies and so starvation...But he also said, with a still severity I was surprised by:

"There will be some reckoning."

Please continue to follow the news from Burma and in whatever way you can, find a means of hearing its people.

c

Meanwhile in McCain's camp

2008-05-13T00:21:00.003-04:00

There's too much to take in - sleep, switch stations, choose music over news...

I almost missed this, a recent McCain hire to run his convention resigning, so quietly...

Why?

Something about his firm representing Burma's military junta/government...

"Mr. Goodyear is the chief executive and a founding partner of the DCI Group, which has offices in Washington and Phoenix. He offered his resignation after Newsweek reported that his firm had been paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent the junta."

c - trying not to lift too many rocks...

UN halts aid

2008-05-09T09:15:00.000-04:00

Very latest c/o the AP

UN halts aid to Myanmar after junta seizes supplies

A U.N. official says the World Food Program is suspending cyclone aid to Myanmar because its government seized supplies flown into the country.

He says the WFP has no choice but to suspend the shipments until the matter is resolved.

WFP spokesman Paul Risley said Friday that all "the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated." The shipment included 38 tons of high-energy biscuits.

Risley said it is not clear why the material was seized.

Day 6

2008-05-09T06:48:00.003-04:00

The Burmese government is still banning all foreign aid workers from delivering aid directly to the Burmese people. They have accepted some aid from "trusted" neighbors India and China but all other teams, trained to deal with flooding and its aftermath (contagion, poisoned drinking water, the corpses etc.) are denied visas.

Listen to any report (the BBC is doing an excellent job but depending largely on accounts from Burmese living outside Burma and receiving information from family members still there) and the impossibility of the situation is mounting, unprecedented. For a ruling government to not act in its own populations' best interests to this extent, when hundreds of thousands of lives are being lost, is beyond appalling. That level of paranoid xenophobia is criminal.

World leaders are deciding what our response will be, what our responsibilities are.

In the meantime, PACT remains one of the few aid organizations with teams in Burma, with access and directly able to deliver aid where it's needed.

So please support PACT's efforts.
The Burmese people must know there is concern, the world has not stood by once again.

Thank you and please spread the word.

c

Villages vanished

2008-05-08T12:19:00.005-04:00

From: Erica Tubbs
Sent: Thu 5/8/2008 11:32 AM
To: Newhall, Sarah

Our assessment team came back from the hardest hit areas of Bogale and Laputta yesterday and immediately brought home the message that food and clean water were essential.

They cut their mission short to ensure that the response could be ramped up immediately and that supplies could begin to flow. As we sat in the dark office without electricity listening to their report- perhaps we were all half-way still reflecting on our own tragedies. No water, favorite trees and gardens destroyed, houses without roofs or in the case of many in the Yangon office entire trees in the middle of our family rooms.

But then came the quieter stories. The stories mentioned in the hall or to individuals in a whisper. Stories about entire villages vanished. About the boats that couldn't pass the small tributaries because of floating bodies. About the man who threw himself in front of the vehicle as the team was leaving Bogale shouting "please hit me! I don't want to live anymore!"

And then we began to realize... the scope of this tragedy can never be about a single sorrow. It's just too big.