East Lansing Take 2

My apologies to all of the loyal Yoni fans. We are in the process of hiring a publicist, but Yoni always finds some fault which each of the potential hires. For example, Harry the Horse just didn't have the dexterity; Mr. Wazzup had a tendency to embellish, and Donkey, well, Donkey is just a stuffed animal (I didn't have the heart to tell Yoni that the others are too). I hope this post will alleviate your DTs.

Below are some pics from Yoni's trip to E Lansing several weeks ago. Below is Saba Mort talking to Yoni about Midrash. It took a while for Yoni to get that Midrash had nothing to do with the itching on his belly.

Here is Savta Aviva and Doda Ronit entertaining Yoni. What does Yoni think is so funny, you ask? Ronit just told Yoni that MSU's basketball team will be in the Final 4. In all fairness, they did better than predicted. Now "Go Green!" can be returned to the environmentalists.


Saba Mort and Yoni share a moment of play on the bed. Saba Mort had to take Yoni from the living room because he wasn't able to stop laughing at Ronit's MSU comment. Luckily, Yoni and Ronit can root for the Detroit Tigers together. By the way, baseball's opening days are today and tomorrow, so you might not see any additional posts until September.

Yoni is sharing a big smile with Savta Aviva. Aviva has always been able to make him smile, but recently he is much less stingy with them. We absolutely love his gummy smiles, and will probably be a little sad when they are interrupted by little white teeth.



We're back home now, although these pictures are still several weeks old (from the beginning of March)!
Yoni is an excellent airplane, but much like the frozen discs of urine from real airplanes, it is necessary to dodge the strings of drool that occasionally leak from his mouth. However, unlike frozen urine pucks, drooly spit in the eye isn't all that unpleasant.

I'm not sure why we don't have a picture of him more visibly enjoying airplane, but he really does. The pictures below are better at demonstrating that even when he looks like a dork, he's still pretty cute.


Yael and Yoni had a play session in the mirror where Yael would smile and laugh in the mirror, and Yoni would return the favor.


I think Yoni finally figured out that it's him in the mirror, and well, it came as quite a surprise. What do you think?


Yoni had his first solid food today. We gave him spinach, although generally all the doctors suggest rice cereal. Perhaps spinach isn't recommended due to the possible interference with muscle development --- we were quite shocked by the acute and dramatic results. Yoni also spoke his first words today; they were something about a sailor man, and then he kept asking for Olive Oil.

I just had to include this picture of the cheese counter at Zingerman's. Mmmmmmm, cheese!

Dancing Fool

What more can we say!!

Yoni goes to East Lansing and Chinatown

Yael took Yoni to East Lansing to visit his grandparents two Sundays ago, taking advantage of the generous and brave Pearlmans who were driving from Chicago after visiting their four grandchildren.

Below is a picture of Yoni with Saba Mort. See if you think the two share foreheads, and hair coverage (Yoni might be in the lead). Lucky for Yoni, hair loss is a sex-linked trait. Unluckily for Yoni his dad is somewhere between Yoni and Saba Mort in terms of total hair coverage.

Saba Mort is consoling Yoni after he learned this news. A hand in the mouth can make everything seem blue skies.

Yoni thinks it's funny that Savta Aviva uses a pacifier too.

Below is Doda (Aunt) Ronit and Yoni. They are very fond of each other. If there was a balloon over Ronit's head it would say something like: "Hmmmm, a little green dye number 22 and those pants could be Spartan green. Whaaaaa ha ha ha, whaaaa ha ha ha!" Luckily, Yoni, his parents, and Ronit can all root for the Tigers together.
Now Doda Ronit is trying to talk Yoni out of his pants.


Here is Yoni visiting Rachel, Tom, and Zoe (the baby who appears to be on the Brady Bunch set) good friends (prior to that comment) of Yael and Andrew's who live just outside E Lansing. Not surprising to us, Zoe is making a move on Yoni. Yoni thought the fact that Zoe was almost twice his age was too much of a generation gap, and told her to check back in another six months.

Luckily gender stereotypes are still firmly enforced. I'm not even sure if girls are allowed to have fuzzy ears on tops of their heads, or if that is solely a boy thing.


O.k. So this picture is a non-sequitur, if such a thing can be said for pictures, but it's kind of cool. Yoni and his Abba were off for a walk while Yael got a cute bob-cut.

Yoni has been getting exceptionally (slight exaggeration) good at holding objects. Below are some examples. . .

(Yoni reading a book by himself)

(Yoni threading a bear rattle onto his arm [with some help from his Eema])

(Yoni holding a purple hippopotamus all by himself)

(Yoni holding the bear rattle and purple something-or-other)

Below Tsar Yoni is contemplating the political ramifications of hanging the traitor Frogavov by his rump for speaking ill of Duckalia and knocking her from the royal berber carriage. Frogavov is quite popular among the marsh-dwelling serfs for his hoppity ways, while the feudal baron Duckalia is generally highly regarded by the serfs for her generosity in giving passage on her back across deep areas of the marshdom to stranded amphibians. Tsar Yoni hopes the stability of his serfdom will not be affected by the Frogavov-Duckalia incident.

Below Yoni is visiting Chinatown for the second time, although this is the first time he has been conscious for it. Here his good friend Jeff is teaching him to use a chopstick. We await with great curiosity to see how he breastfeeds with chopsticks. In reality, Andrew asked Jeff to give Yoni the chopstick so that we'd have a visual landmark of our location.

Hilit and Jeff pose with a Yoni who's starting to get a wee bit cranky. Notice the skill Jeff is demonstrating in supporting Yoni's head while also keeping the pacifier in place. Quite impressive.
Don't worry, this is not Yoni, but yet another and even more extreme non-sequitur.

Inspired by Yael's birthday gift to Andrew of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman, and my love of all meat-like non-meat items, I made my own seitan (a.k.a. wheatmeat). Below is a picture of the seitan as it just finishes simmering in an asian-style simmer sauce of water, veg broth, soy-sauce, garlic, star-anise, and miso. The seitan itself is just vital wheat gluten and water. The hardest part of making it is cleaning the bowl the dough was mixed in. Even if you never eat it, watching the transformation of the dough from flour to what looks like giant alien turds is worth every hour of pot scrubbing.

To give you some feel for the consistency of the thing, and hopefully drive home that fact that we really didn't cook Yoni, is the pic below.

Tada! Spicy seitan and broccoli in orange sauce with a side of roasted parsnips and Brussel sprouts. I think I slept alone that night.


Don't worry more pictures of Yoni will follow to allay the fears of those who are still dubious that we cooked Yoni.