Passover Tires Me Out

and my first blog-to-blog link:
The Trixie Update

I was out for a couple of days for Pesach. [fn1] Pesach is tremendously centered on the education of children, and over the course of the holidays I had some thoughts about some of what I could take away that would relate specifically to Rachel. But simple (yet extraordinary) fatigue has cleared my mind of these thoughts for now. I'm still recovering from two nights in a row of seders going to three o'clock in the morning and then early Shacharis (morning prayer) the next day. So I'm going to hold off on the entry for now.

[fn1:] Also known as Passover. Information at the OU site or the Aish site. Although lasting eight days, the first two days are considered centrally important, and include the night-time ritual of the seder (plural seders or sedarim ).

Maybe when I'm a bit more coherent.

While I'm making some sort of entry, though, I pretty much have to make mention of The Trixie Update (TTU). I have mixed feelings about even putting up the link. On the off chance that this blog actually gets a visitor who isn't, you know, me, I don't know about the marketing smarts of linking to a site as awesome and easy to get lost in as TTU.

I'm taking some solace in the fact that TTU is more about Trixie, with some fatherhood insights, and I'm trying to make this blog more about the fatherhood insights and only a little about Rachel. Though of course I'll probably end up writing as much about Rachel as anything else, since between her and G I'm as in love as I've ever been, ever, with anything or one.

But at the end of the day, it's really just an awesome site, and I can't help myself. It's clear all over that this guy is super-geek-dad (the 'super' to modify both, I think), but it was this post that finally convinced me that I would be checking the site regularly as long as it was up.

I have to admit that I think Rachel is (a little) cuter than Trixie, but since this is a kinda-sorta-anonymous blog I'm not going to be able to put up pictures and you're just going to have to take my word for it. Also, Rachel is a little bit older than Trixie, and of course the development of each child is unique, so Trixie shouldn't feel insecure that Rachel is already riding a unicycle and playing master-level chess.

That last, of course, is a joke, and is in fact a modification of the line I've told all concerned parties to use if they ever find themselves involved in playground olympics [fn2].

[fn2:] Not any sort of real playground olympics, but the kind where parents sit around the playground and make each other feel insecure. "My little Johnny is walking, and he's only 9 months old," says one, and another ups the ante with, "Oh, Jennifer walked at eight months, but she's busy learning to read now," etceterah. While the third mother sits quietly and thinks she should have eaten more folic acid during the pregnancy. My mother has a competitive streak, and my lovely wife G can sometimes let people get to her, so I've asked both not to play that game by simply trumping the entire issue as soon as it comes up: "Rachel is riding the unicycle pretty well, and her piano playing has really gotten better since last month," or like that.

So, anyway, The Trixie Update. Great site, interesting stuff. There's a little community springing up over there, too, which is one of the best things about the blog-verse. In my own lurky way, I guess I'm a part of it. I don't expect this post to generate a ton of traffic for TTU, but I think it needed posting anyway.

--FD