The Buck and Mike Blog

Robert, our adorable 6-month-old grandson, was just fitted for a helmet to treat a mild case of positional plagiocephaly. Since the early 1990s, doctors have advised parents to place their babies on their backs to sleep to avoid SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). As a result, SIDS cases have declined 40% but positional plagiocephaly cases have increased by 600%. In plain terms, there are 6 times as many babies out there whose heads are slightly flattened in the back or on the side. The treatment is to wear a custom-made helmet for a few months so the skull resumes its regular shape.

Rob does not like his helmet or the fashion statement it makes. To show solidarity, we created a short video. Rob’s Helmet Video

A writer for the Washington Post had a son with the same condition and and wrote an interesting story about it from a parent’s perspective.

positional plagiocephaly, SIDS

This past Saturday night, Buckley took me to the 9:30 Club to see Rufus Wainwright perform. We’ve loved his music since he released his first CD. He is a wonderful performer, coming from a long line of performers — his dad is singer/humorist Loudoun Wainwright III, and his mother is Kate McGarrigle of the duo Kate and Anna McGarrigle. » Read the rest of this entry »

Rufus Wainwright, Loudoun Wainwright III, Kate and Anna McGarrigle

At the end of October, I went to Australia to spend just shy of two weeks with my sister Ellen. Ellen’s been living in Australia (and mostly in Melbourne) for about 18 years now, maybe more.

I haven’t written about it before because it’s too big to write about! I was hoping to have a photo gallery up so that I could show everyone the photos I took during the trip, but that hasn’t worked out too well. For now, I’ll do a shortened post about the trip with a few photos thrown in. » Read the rest of this entry »

No matter how you spell it, tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. We dutifully came home and lit the first candle of the holiday. I had neglected to buy real Chanukah foods, so I prepared the weirdest and worst meal of our married life. (At least I hope it’s the worst.) » Read the rest of this entry »

Chanukah

I’m blogging a bit backward here, reviewing a book I finished reading while in a cabin in West Virginia, before blogging about my trips to Australia (during which I also read this book — it’s long, but worth it) and West Virginia.

I picked up “The Lost” in an airport as Buckley and I flew out of Albuquerque about two months ago or so. It sounded interesting, with the subtitle “A Search for Six of Six Million.” The first few pages of the book reminded me very much of my own childhood growing up among a large Jewish family in South Florida.

But from there the book gets to be so much more. It has caused me to rethink so many things: what is family, what do our pasts and our ancestry mean, even what is a book. There was one part in particular that I read while in Australia that was so horrifying (and true) that I had to put the book down for a couple of days to catch my breath. » Read the rest of this entry »

The Lost, A Search for Six of Six Million