Day 23 (forgot to hit "Publish" before Shabbos)

This morning was an exciting sort of a morning. After last night's laborious but ultimately successful communication with Tamara (the lady who's really been helping us settle in; she's the non-English-speaking head of new member absorption [this is not as silly as I initally thought: most new members are Israeli]), I knew how to tell the plumber that our shower drain was clogged. This morning, with the help of not one, not two, but three whole kibbutzniks, I found the box where repair requests are submitted. In my defense, the box is camouflaged as a utility box on the side of a building that may or may not be in use. About an hour later, the plumber was at my apartment. (Interestingly, I had described my location as follows: "The second floor of the young-couples apartments. There's no number on our door, but we're next to #5, and diagonally across from #8." [Oh no! Now everyone on the internet knows my house number as well as I do!]) Less than 10 minutes after that, my drains were clear.

The next excitement was one we'd been waiting for, and had given up all hope of ever occurring: we found Gold Bond powder, baby nail clippers, peach iced tea powder, warm socks, small scissor, and a flask of bourbon. We knew we had packed these things, but we didn't find them when we unpacked. After going through the suitcases three times, we concluded that they fell out when TSA inspected our bags, and we shook our fists at TSA with great indignation. What we hadn't realized is that we neglected to go through the side pocket of the broken duffel bag that we're using to store the baby clothes that are too big for Baby Spiderman. This morning, I went through those clothes, and found our stuff. Happiness at last.

In less thrilling news, The Urinator made his first bathtub-poop. I will leave the details to your imaginations. I will say, however, that the bidet-hose on the side of the toilet has risen mightily in my esteem today.

And back to more thrilling news, we finally hooked up the baby monitor last night. I think I see why so many people use these things: we can hear when BSM starts to yench, and catch him before he becomes full-blown hysterically awake. It also gives me a sort of a two-minute warning: "Hey! Don't pour yourself a bowl of soup right now--the kid will need nursing in less than three minutes!"