Update

Hello everyone,

So many of you have called and emailed to send their love and offers to help. Thank you so much for being there for us in this crazy time.

Aydin and I are still in North Carolina. Mimi and Skip have been amazed to watch our little one "blossom." We don't know if it's just getting comfortable, getting over a developmental spurt, or perhaps even the lead poisoning leaving her system... but Baby Panda has been absolutely darling these last few days. She is inquisitive, sociable, imitative, and very interactive when she's awake. Since yesterday she has been almost exclusively good-humored. She goes down for naps happily and sleeps for long stretches. She plays independently and even crawls off on her own to explore the house (not minding where Mommy is). We're also back on "Walking Watch," as she cruised back and forth along the sofa edge on Saturday. Perhaps most dramatically, she has started EATING again. Finally! Since we have been here she has happily eaten turkey, fresh tomatoes, a teensie tiny little nibble of bacon, toast with a touch of grape jelly, roasted red peppers (!!), roasted garlic flavored hummus, oranges, strawberries, and lots of blueberry soy yogurt. This is good news because we received confirmation that Aydin is highly allergic to both dairy and whole eggs. So... no birthday cakes in the foreseeable future (or cheese, or yogurt, or even anything with milk or whey in it... as we learned the hard way last weekend. Which is why we travel with Benedryl whereever we go). She might outgrow the allergies, though. We certainly hope so. It's almost unfathomable that our little one can't eat cheese or drink cow's milk. Aydin comes from a long line of dairy enthusiasts on both sides of the family!

In terms of our living situation: short answer is we're moving. Ozan spent all weekend combing through listings and cold-calling real estate agencies in Prospect Heights, Park Slope, and Fort Greene (we've pretty much been priced out of our neighborhood so even though he's looking there, the chances of getting a place with the space we need are pretty slim). Repair work to ameliorate the lead paint violations begin a week from tomorrow. So... Ozan, Kitty, and all our stuff will be moving out next weekend, we suppose. Right now we're exploring sublet options / moving our stuff into storage to give us a little more time to find the right longer term rental. We believe that the rental market is softening dramatically. Maybe by the end of the year Cobble Hill's rents won't be so astronomical anymore.