The Sacred Coffee Hour

Before we had Remi, Drake and I used to sit in bed for the Sacred Coffee Hour. We sipped the sacred beverage, read the paper, and shared tidbits of news. We made lists and planned our day. And oftentimes, we crawled back under the covers and went back to sleep.

Such decadence is no more.

Now we're lucky if we sleep till 6:30. We wake to a bouncing baby, a girl on the go. She grabs for coffee, steals the paper, and crawls for the edge of the bed. Protecting yourself, your elixir, your reading material, and the baby takes fast hands and a quick eye: The Sacred Coffee Hour has become a precision sport.

But we hold out hope.

Someday, calm will be restored. Hot coffee will be safe again, the news will be read and absorbed, our ninja reflexes will be tucked away, unused. If only we could instill into a 9 month old the glory of the sacred hour.

Remi Eats Manhattan

I never thought I would raise a carnivore. In the baby food section I buy a wide variety of jarred fruits and vegetables, but NONE of the meats. And all was fine. Until Remi got hold of a chicken bone.

She loved it. In all fairness, though, she loves all food. At times, it really is kind of like a Godzilla movie in which the protagonist -- in this case a giant baby in diapers -- lumbers through the streets of New York putting anything and everything into her mouth. To date, she has attempted to eat

• the letter Q
  the number 7
• our wine saver wine stoppers
• wood chips
• corn cobs (sans the corn)
  

and pretty much anything she can get hold of. A list of her more conventional diet at her current age of 9 months includes

• peas
• carrots
• squash
• hummus
• guac (and any form in which avocado comes)
• potatoes
• yams
• mashed fruit (apples, blueberries, pears, mango, apricot, bananas)
• Annie's organic bunny crackers
• cheese (cream cheese, cheese sticks, monterey jack cubes)
• cottage cheese and yogurt

And most recently we have discovered that she loves steamed artichoke hearts.

Keep in mind that the child still has no teeth. They are coming in now and making our lives h--l. It feels like these teeth will never make it through, but when they finally do... look out, Manhattan!