For those who come looking for the latest Rainer photos…

Posted on August 30, 2009
Filed Under Blather, das kiddo, family, photography | 2 Comments

Rainey in the swing

Rainey in the swing

Playing with the cow toy

Rainey, yo

Thank God It’s Friday

Posted on August 28, 2009
Filed Under Blather, Red Sox, das kiddo, dining, family, knitting, music | 2 Comments

I’m tired. It’s been a long day. Rainey’s been fine, but today has been one of those days when he fights a nap. It makes me tired just thinking about it. He would only sleep on my lap, which, while kind of nice, made it hard to do much.

So what HAVE I been able to do? Well, I made my little gift to the Jimmy Fund. I imagine they’ll be hard-pressed to make their 5 million dollar goal for this year’s telethon. I started Rainer’s Christmas stocking. I’m using the same kind of yarn I used for Ezra’s stocking–probably 10 years ago. I’m listening to The Kinks. One of my many ideas for calming Rainey (this is after exhausting all of the usual techniques) was to put on a CD he’s never heard before. I’m not sure the CD helped at all, but I’m enjoying it.

I’m also waiting on pizza and salad delivery. Ah… it’s here. Excuse me.

…

That was good.

The Sox are playing the Blue Jays in the rain. Tomorrow I am getting my eyebrows waxed. I’m excited. I still feel pretty dumpy since having Rainey, and this is one of my first steps toward feeling a bit more myself again physically. I’m also hoping to go to the gym this weekend for the first time in an embarrassingly long time.

I love the weekend now even more than I did before.

Californian, French ambassadors greet Rainer

Posted on August 21, 2009
Filed Under Blather, das kiddo, dining, family, friends | 2 Comments

Rainer has now attracted visitors from far and wide. This past Monday evening he met our good friend Matt, who was making a stop in Boston to visit his dad and friends before returning home to Los Angeles after a work trip to Ithaca. Matt seems like a pretty big fan of spiffy wee kiddos in general, and since he showed interest we chatted him up about all things Rainey. It’s always good to see Matt.

On Tuesday evening we had a bit of an adventure leading up to our visit with Ezra’s sister April and her husband Manu–hailing from France, they were Rainey’s first international visitors. The original plan had been for April and Manu to meet Ezra at his office when he got off work. Alas, Rainey had just had a rough 18 hours or so. He kept me up much of the night on Monday and then refused to sleep until late in the afternoon on Tuesday. As I was a bit of a wreck, I asked Ez if there was any way he could come home a little early so that I could take a quick nap and clean up before April and Manu arrived. So, Ez came home, picked up Rainey, and drove into town to collect April and Manu. As I was drying my hair, Ez called to say that our car’s brakes had failed on the on-ramp to Storrow Drive. Naturally, I freaked out! But everything was okay. Because it was rush hour, traffic was moving slowly, so Ezra was able to rely on the emergency brake to inch the car into the nearby parking lot of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s office. He called to have the car towed and then walked to the T. Rainey slept through most of this! April and Manu took a cab (in classic Boston-area taxi style, their cab driver needed help figuring out how to get them to our house).

With everyone here safely, we had a lovely evening introducing Rainey to his Aunt April and Uncle Manu, catching up, dining at House of Tibet, and filling Rainey’s ears with his first taste of the French language. April and Manu brought him two cute little kids’ books in French. One is the French translation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. They’ll be good practice for me, and I’d love for Rainey to learn to speak a bit of French, too.

On Saturday, after Ezra made a big batch of delicious oatmeal (Manu had never tried it before), we walked around Harvard Square. It was SO HOT and uncomfortable. We ended up stopping at Daedalus for a drink so that we could relax in the air conditioning. Poor Rainey minds the heat (as I do). After that we walked down by the river and then took Manu to Legal Seafoods so he could eat his first lobster roll.

Somewhere there is a delightful little video of Manu cooing at Rainey in French. I must find it and post.

More visits

Posted on August 17, 2009
Filed Under Blather, Gastronomie, das kiddo, dining, family, friends, the 'hood | Leave a Comment

Last Wednesday Kim, Glenn, and Hope arrived and met Rainer for the first time. It was sort of weird that they hadn’t met him sooner. Aunt Kim, Uncle Glenn, and Cousin Hope were sooo helpful! I think they enjoyed their time with the little mister, too. During their visit we played in the park, went out for ice cream, took lots of walks, visited the ducks in the Public Garden, went to the Davis Square farmer’s market, and ate lots of good food (both home cooked and not). They left yesterday.

Friday was Rainey’s four-week birthday. He’s growing and developing every day. He loves when Mommy and Daddy sing to him. The other day we sang and danced to “How High the Moon” and he got so excited! It seems that he is starting to be able to focus better on things a little further from his face, so he’s starting to enjoy the mobile in his crib more and he’s getting better at batting at the animals in his play yard.

Hope has a birthday coming soon, too. She’s getting so big! I was very impressed with how polite she is, and if she ever misbehaved I could always tell that she knew she was misbehaving. She must have good parents or something.

On Sunday our dear friend Heather came by to say hello and meet Rainey. She brought us fresh pies–peach and apple–from local shop Petsi Pies. Every time we drive past their shop on Beacon Street in Somerville I wonder about them. We tried the peach because it was still warm and it’s so good… tastes like they went out and picked the peaches that morning. Heather’s so lovely–always a breath of fresh air. She also gave Rainey a great book–Bruno Munari’s ABC. It has wonderful illustrations and is more creative and appealing than a standard ABC book (for example, a quail represents the letter Q). Thanks, Heather!

The bunny’s early accomplishments

Posted on August 10, 2009
Filed Under Blather, das kiddo, family | 6 Comments

Yes, I call him Bunny sometimes.

For those interested in the play-by-play, I submit the following early accomplishments:

Last night, Rainer discovered my hair… or rather that he can grab it and hold onto it. I’ve been keeping my hair up during the day, but last night and this morning he hung onto it tightly.

Today he managed to hold the bottle I was feeding him by himself. I know it sounds crazy–he’s only three weeks old, but I swear he held it. He did have gravity helping him out a bit; the bottle was sort of balanced on his face in a way. Ez has witnessed similar feats.

In the play yard, with the monkey
In the play yard, with the monkey.

He’s very fond of the play yard our friend Lisa gave us. He likes to bat at the hanging animals (he can’t really aim at any animal in particular, he just waves his arms around) and generally wiggle making noises and looking at things.

More updates soon, I’m sure.

Now it can be told

Posted on August 10, 2009
Filed Under Blather, das kiddo, family, me and my brain, nostalgia | 4 Comments

Before our son was born (2 and a half weeks early on July 17th), we kept secret the name we’d chosen for him. Now that he’s here, I can share the scoop on his name–what it means, why we chose it, etc.

Rainer Eli Wise Ball
(Rainey)

Rainer is a German name meaning “strong counselor.” In German it’s pronounced roughly “Rye” (like the bread) - “ner,” but we pronounce it “Rain-er” (or “Ray-ner”)–which I think is the Anglicized/Americanized pronunciation.

On May 3, 1997–early on in our relationship, Ez and I found ourselves wandering in the rain en route (the wrong route, as we later discovered) to a Kentucky Derby party. We never did make it to the party, but basically spent the day grinning and holding hands like school kids. We were struck by the idea of the rainy planet—that we live on and are a part of this sort of mystical, magical place where things are alive and breathing and changing… where things are charged and growing. The rainy planet is the mood and the place where we came together and where we live, still. That’s where the name Rainy Planet Press came from.

When we were searching for names for our son, we were looking for something that would feel right and have real meaning for us. Once we fit Rainer into the context of the rainy planet—we’re pretty sure it hit us sometime in May—we knew that would be his name.

Eli is Ezra’s late great grandfather’s name, and it’s Ezra’s middle name.

Wise Ball came about somewhat randomly, somewhat by default. Ez and I had been trying for a long time to figure out what to do about our kid’s last name. In the end, the woman at the hospital called about the birth certificate–Ez and I had been sleeping. I turned to Ez and mumbled something, he mumbled back, and we ended up with Wise Ball–no hyphen. Maybe someday Rainer will sign his name Rainer Eli W. Ball or Rainer E. W. Ball. However he decides to do it will be okay with me.

Some famous (some more than others) people named Rainer:

Rainer Maria Rilke (poet)
Rainer Gross (contemporary painter)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (director)
Rainer Hosch (professional photographer)
Rainer Schluetter (ATP tennis player)
Rainer Ptacek (blues musician)

So, without further ado… the mister:
Rainer

Song of the Day

The Essex Green-Sorry River 

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The Knitting Turnip

On My Needles

Rhapsody in Tweed cabled pullover for Ezra! using Tahki Donegal Tweed in Forest, from Fall 2004 Interweave Knits. I've just picked this one up again, so it's moving up in the queue!

Sweater with Cable Patterns pullover using Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in Mauve, from Rebecca Magazine Number 28

Heather Pullover using Classic Elite Wings in Larkspur, from Rowan’s A Season’s Tale... This needs the knit doctor. I'm going to have to frog back a little bit and redo the shoulder area. Long story.

Hush Pullover using Jo Sharp DK wool in Wine, from Rowan’s Calmer Collection

More scoop on my knitting endeavors can be found at my home on Ravelry (clicky here).

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