John and I left Nina with her nanny on Friday afternoon and went to do some work outside the house (reading, etc.). Along the way, we stopped at one of the restaurants in the highly-lauded Momofuku chain, Momofuku Ssam Bar. We sat at the counter and had the prix fixe which included a really good squid salad, Momofuku’s famous pork buns, and a spicy dish of beef and rice cakes. All these were delicious, as were the two desserts (I liked the Blondie best; John preferred the PB&J). There was also a grilled branzini dish (branzini is apparently some kind of mild, white fish), which was fine but not memorable. This was my second time at Momofuku, the first being when my parents visited last Christmas. It took me a long time to get around to going to Momofuku, because I’m a purist when it comes to Japanese food, and I was sick of all the hype surrounding the place. But David Chang knows what he’s doing. Like combining mochi with hot spice, like in the rice cake dish had yesterday. I’ve never had anything like that in Japan, but it really works.

An episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Travel Channel show, “No Reservations,” was being filmed in the restaurant while we were there. We were sitting right behind Bourdain and Chang as they chowed down and talked about food for the cameras. John drew the ire of the cameraman when he stared at the camera at one point. We’ll have to find out when this episode will air, because I suspect you’ll be able to see us pretty well in the background.

On the Nina front: she has begun sucking her left thumb. She comes by this honestly, as I sucked my thumb until I was four. My mom sucked hers too. She has also taken to waving her right fist up and down, hitting her head and then her stomach, or anything that comes between the two (like mom’s chest while nursing, which hurts). I’m trying to get her onto more of a regular nap schedule. She definitely needs the sleep. We got back from Florida, and for the first couple of days she was really tired and cranky. She cried a lot and refused to play on her rug or ride happily in the stroller, which is very unusual. It was overwhelming, actually, because I’ve never had to deal with a lot of fussiness from her. It’s incredibly draining when a baby wails and wails, without apparent cause. I sympathize with mothers of colicky or otherwise very fussy babies. But she’s gotten a few very good nights of sleep since then (going to bed now at 7 PM or earlier) and this has helped. She’s also taking two naps in the morning of about 45 minutes each. She takes an afternoon nap too, but unlike the AM naps, I haven’t quite figured out when this nap should occur.

My friend Yishane made an effort recently on her blog to place her baby’s life into context of the current financial crisis. I’m not sure how I can do that with Nina — Does commercial paper crinkle loudly? If so, she will probably like it — but I will say that while I was playing with and then nursing her yesterday, I listened to an incredibly informative This American Life podcast about the events in the markets over the past couple weeks. I highly recommend it, as well as the NPR blog, Planet Money, that gives regular updates on what’s happening.

Nina and I are down in Florida visiting Grandmama and Grandaddy (who I would love to see Nina call “Gramps”…not sure how Gramps feels about that). Traveling solo with an infant, including a change of planes in Atlanta, was not nearly as easy as doing it with John, but it still went just fine. The hardest thing was keeping wiggly Nina from kicking our seatmate. She loved being on the crowded plane and looking around at all the people. When she wasn’t staring, she nursed and slept. At one point on the longer flight she got to moving around a whole lot, so I put her in the Ergo (this thing saved my life on the trip) and hung out in the back of the plane, bouncing. We met a very nice man named Matt, who is from Pensacola but works on a barge in the Brooklyn Navy Yards. He told me about a historic dive bar near the Navy Yards that is worth a visit (sans baby, I’m guessing). John and I will go check this out when I’m back in Brooklyn.

Nina’s enjoying the QT with her grandparents, and turning on the charm with lots of smiles and giggles. She’s sleeping well, including naps, in the Pack ‘n Play. She loves to reach for things like flowers, coffee cups, books or basically anything else you put in front of her.