cousins

This one is for little g. She misses her di-chi and an-ya (it's supposed to be ah-hia - big brother). She found her old elmo birthday candle yesterday, so we got to talking about her birthday party. This is months away but she plans these things with the same immediacy as this weekend. I asked her who she would want to invite. The first people she mentioned was her di-chi and an-ya. She hasn't really mentioned them in the last 2 weeks.

That seems to be her way. She may not say much at time but she seems to absorb all this information.

What would you do?

This is a continuation of the "mean" discussion that is currently going on in my head.

I have read this article and saw a feature on CNN about this kid. It is a story about the horrors of bullying. This kid has been a target for a few years with his bullies (yes, plural is intentional here) even putting up a MySpace page devoted to the "cause". This seems really extreme. <>

What would I do if I were Billy Wolfe's mom (that will not land me in jail)?

Though there were suggestions all over blogsphere that the mom should just pull the kid out of school, which I admit would be my course of action, there is an implicit defeat in that move. What would she then be communicating to her son? What is the message she's sending to administration and teachers who don't seem to want to do anything?

What would you do?

In Billy's case, his mom filed a lawsuit against the creators of the MySpace page.

Phthalates in J&J products

There's been a whole flurry about Phthalates (pronounced as thowl-ates) in the last few months. A study has found in elevated levels in the urine of babies who'd been recently shampooed, powdered or lotioned with baby products. Read more here.

Someone in one of my mommy groups actually wrote J&J and got this response. It was a thorough response but not exactly a very reassuring one. I am posting the response here.

Thank you for contacting the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies,
Inc. Information Center. It is always important to hear from our
consumers, and we appreciate the time you have taken to contact us.

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies would like to reassure parents
that their children's safety is our utmost priority. For more than
100 years, we have been known as a trusted health care partner, and
we value highly the trust that parents place in us.

Phthalates are a large family of compounds used in a wide variety of
everyday products.
Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies uses only one of the many
phthalates-diethylphthalate (DEP) -in some of its personal care
products as a component of fragrance preparations. Both the Cosmetic
Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel, an independent, nonprofit panel
of scientists and physicians who assess the safety of personal care
product ingredients in the U.S., and the Scientific Committee on
Consumer Products (SCCP), the body that advises the European Union
Commission on safety matters related to cosmetics, have determined
DEP to be safe as used. DEP has been extensively researched and is
not linked to reproductive toxicity or endocrine disruption.

The study in the journal Pediatrics references seven phthalate
compounds, yet only DEP is used in baby care products. This suggests
that most of the phthalates found in the urine samples came from
another route of exposure. The researchers for this study did not
test baby care products for the presence of phthalates or control for
other possible routes of exposure.

Again, thank you for your interest in our company. Should you have
any comments or questions in the future, please contact us via our
website or by calling our toll-free number, 1-888-638-5242. Our
specialists are available Monday through Friday between 8 AM and 5 PM
EST and will be happy to assist you.

how to deal with "mean"

This happened quite a few months back but I still remember it and it still saddens me.

We went to a costume party. There were other kids there (2 boys and a girl). g had never met them before but she seemed willing to try since they seems to be having so much fun running around. As usual she proceeded cautiously, sort of running close to the group but not really with the group. Then a little closer and then closer. I stood nearby talking to the parents of the kids. The two boys were brothers and the girl was a friend of theirs.

As g was finally within touching distance from the group, the girl loudly declared to "her" group, "let's not play with her. " The "her" was little g. I was so crushed. Yes, I was crushed by a 3 year old's comment. I looked around to the parents. I didn't think they heard her because they were in the midst of conversation. (Now that statement does not begin to approach the textbook definition of mean but she was referring to MY BABY!!!!)

Though this seems to be one of those things that every child has to learn to deal with, I can't help the impulse to give that kid a good talking-to.

Thankfully, I don't think g heard.

I wonder though what I would do or say when the day comes when she will hear a comment like that.

Shyness - nature or nurture?

This is a surprise. I have seen it for a while but I am still amazed at how shy little g is. At home, she is a rambunctious, playful and all-around nutty little girl. Outside and in public (this could be a "public" of one other person, she retreats into her little shell. This was something that was apparent since her first birthday. At the time I had thought that maybe in time she will just grow out of it. She has not.

It is most evident when we take her to her gym for a regularly scheduled class. She has been coming to this same location for the last year and a half. Granted that in that time, she has been through many classes and many different instructors, but on a whole, she sees the same people.

Every week without fail, when we bring her to the class, she will spend the first 10-20 minute clutching my or her dad's leg. She will insist that we sit beside her in the classroom. This also happened with her dance class last year but she grew out of it when two-thirds of her semester was over. So I thought that since she sort of "got over it" that last time, this time will be cinch. Not so.

I have done everything I have thought of to gently nurture a more independent spirit but she still remains really closed and slow-to-trust.

How does a parent encourage a more forward child?

Summer is coming

OK...I admit that I am being a little hopeful here given the cold wet weather today, but I am beginning to look forward to warmer times.

So I am once again collecting things to do nearby and places to see a little farther out.

For those interested in indoor pools (while it is still a little chilly out), Manhattan has a cool assortment of indoor pools that fit the bill. I found this article in the NY Magazine site with surprising locations for indoor pools all over the city.

Now when the heat finally arrives but the family prefers a quick jaunt into the city rather than a lengthy trip to the beaches, this article lists the best outdoor pools around town.

I have to dig around now for some jersey equivalents.

The Solo Flight

Last Saturday, in a fit of bravery, I decided that since G was still sound asleep, I would take the kids out alone. I think this is the first ever substantial outing of its kind. I might have taken them out on a short walk or maybe a drive to our local Targay but this time we went to the MALL.

It was a spur of the moment decision really and was not meant to have monumental implications. As all things monumental, it started with a relatively small idea. Typically our Saturday morning consists of waiting for G to wake up. This Saturday, the sun was shining and I was so over this winter-freezing thing. So I thought, "how about a jaunt to Targay?" g was amenable. She likes going there. s just liked being out. I checked the time and realize that if I had gone out that very minute, I would not make it back to prepare lunch. Well, then we'll have lunch there. Seems reasonable.

I packed some diapers and juices. In my walk to the car, I realized that Target was pretty horrible as far as food choices. The thought of having to pack the kids back in the car to go to another place for food really tired me out.

I decided on the mall. It turned out to be brilliant. I went there early in the morning before the typically mall rats would get there. We walked around and window shopped mainly. We ate at the food court. Lastly we checked out the pet store. the kids loved looking at animals though s seemed really nervous about getting up close to it.

So it is brand new day. I am excited that it actually opens up Saturday mornings for short field trips (other than the mall). Anyone want to playdate?

What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?

Wall Street Journal Article here.

Greetings from the Philippines

 

an s update

s new stats:

@14 months
weight - 19.1 lbs - around 10th percentile
height - 29.13 inches - around 25th percentile
head - 18.11 inches - around 50th percentile

I should stop obsessing about s's weight. I thought that if she gained a little in percentile that I could finally let it go. It's hard, very hard. Well, for one, she didn't gain in percentile. She is a little below 10th percentile which she once was. However she did gain everywhere else. I got upset with her this morning because of food and intake.

I looked online today and found this Nutritional Guide for Toddlers where they listed a standard portion size for 1 year olds. I discovered something that I probably subconsciously knew....that g is the ODD one. Based on this guide, s has been eating more than what is required. I have just been so used to g eating her adult-sized portions that I felt that s was always starving when she probably wasn't.

Though it is true that she is more picky than her sister was, she is not as picky as some of the horror stories I have read online. s loves flavorful foods. She does not like bland, but if she's hungry she will eat a minimum amount of food in order to satiate herself and then she'll start to reject. However if it is something she likes, she will definitely eat more and be easier to feed.

Armed with this new knowledge, I will try harder to let this go PERIOD For the record, the pediatrician has never expressed a concern, has not recommended that we start replacing milk with ice cream or anything like that. I am just going off the deep end about this rather than letting her be herself. The stress of this is probably not helping her feel excited about meal times.

I guess that is the price of being second born, there's more to live up to.

Updates...Now reading this article makes me feel extremely guilty about literally trying to shove food into her mouth.

Going Light Green

I know I am joining the green "revolution" rather late but I have always been reticent about joining in what is being touted as a "big deal" (or at least I try to be .... see post on bisphenol bottles). Anyway the past is the past. Now I am trying to figure out ways to go green without a complete overhaul. Thus light green.

Some thoughts for those who want to go "light green"
1. Avoid buying individual containers of anything (ie juice boxes) Buy a safe plastic sippy or a stainless steel option and just refill. This will save money as well since you "pay" more for individual packaging.
2. Cut down on paper napkins. Apparently doing this will save a whole bunch of trees, even if you cut down your consumption by one napkin a day. I have decided to use washcloths as napkins for the kiddies. It actually is gentler on their faces. Just dampen and clean that ketchup stain off their little chin.
3. Saving "graywater" for reuse. This is a cheapskate thing that I have been doing for a few months now. Since the kiddies have fallen in love with baths, I have been saving the bath water to use to flush the toilet. The combined amount is almost enough that we don't have to use the flush mechanism on the toilet.
4. There's the obvious "use compact fluorescent bulbs"
5. For my daily x cups of coffee, I still use a paper cup because no "normal" mug will fit under our office machine. I have made an effort though to reuse the same cup for the whole day rather than getting a fresh one each time.
6. When I do the wash, I wash everything in cold water. One good side effect - less shrinkage.


Some things that I am not ready to try yet:
1. Unplugging all electronics that are not in use. I would just hate losing all the clock times and the settings. Though I do unplug chargers.
2. Using a cloth (non-plastic) grocery bag. I need those grocery bags for my garbage. So I guess I do recycle them.
3. Signing up for Greendimes For a $20 fee, this service will stop 70-90% of the junk mail that comes into your homes. I have heard about this but have not been able to find any other reviews of it. So I am skeptical.

Of course, for more ideas on green living, there's treehugger

Any more tips are welcome.

Liberty Science Center

Thanks to Mr. GS, we got into Liberty Science Center for Free. Well, thanks to Auntie K too.

The LSC has been under renovation for almost a year and has opened sometime late in the summer.

 

The kids had a really great time. The place is really set up for young kids. There are quite a few interactive exhibits like the skyscrapers exhibit where bigger kids can walk a beam (with safety harnesses, of course), maneuver a small crane trying to move small part of earth from one pile to another.

 

There was a cool Hudson river exhibit. There was just a lot of fishes but the cool part is you can navigate a small underwater camera through a large aquarium. You can see on the video display what you are focusing on (or trying to focus on).

 

There was also an iExplore exhibit for the younger kids where most of these pictures were taken. It was great to just let the kids lose throughout the entire area.

 

On the whole, it was great to get out of the house. There was a lot of open space there for the kids to just meander for a bit.

Some tips:
Come early. We were there at around 10:30 and noticed that there wasn't a lot of cars in the parking lot. I just thought that maybe the place wasn't so popular, but the crowd began to build around noon. By the time we left at 2:30, the place was packed.
Bring a lunch. Although I have to say that their cafeteria has a lot more choices than most, it isn't a cheap place to eat. One entree and a sandwich with one drink came up to almost $20. At the very least, bring stuff for the kids.
Try to use the corporate discount.

Time Out New York Parents Choice Awards

This is for some of the local moms who might be looking for tips for things around town.

This is the results of a readers' poll taken by TONY for the best playground-shoe store-clothing store-salon-etc around town. All for the little people in our lives.

Travel Toys

If you have been reading along, thefamilyc is planning our migration back to the motherland (well, my motherland) in a few weeks. So I thought I might put the question out there for what toys should I bring for amusement for my 3 and 1 year old.

Any ideas????

The S word

I am unsure as to how to react to this. Gmom had started calling s stupid. I am not sure of the exact context since she is speaking cantonese, but I think it has to do with s not being able to listen, eat by herself and speak clearly. She says (progressive tense intentional since she has done it more than once) this usually when she is trying to urge g to do something, calling her smart and then comparing her to her one year old sister.

Far be it for me to say that g is not smart which I think she is. I don't think that it is good nor is it a fair comparison. I admit to doing comparisons but usually I contextualize it as g being the big sister needs to help s out on things. Like, "you can pick your toys. s needs help picking up her toys because she is still a baby." or "you can use your words. you have to help s learn words so that she can tell us what she needs."

However it really hurts me to hear her call s stupid for not knowing a word or mispronouncing something, as in she would say "te te" or jie hie (mandarin for big sister). She knows exactly what she is referring to though.

How would you react? I have asked G that if it comes up again that he should tell Gmom that she shouldn't use that word. G doesn't think it's a big deal since that is how he was raised. I don't think I want to raise them like this.

Another Sleep Experiment

In preparation for our migration to the homeland (we're going to the phils), we had decided (ok, I decided and G sort of went along with it) that we had better train s to sleep in the same room with us and her sister. To those who do not know, s had been sleeping in her own room since her birth. She and I shared the room for the first 4 months but when we started sleep training, she slept alone. I have found that whenever I tried sleeping in her room with her, she tended to wake up more because she wants to be held or carried. My reasoning is that back home, we would probably all be in one room anyway and it'll be hard to have her crying all night there. I won't hear the end of it from my parents, I am sure.

So we did it. We took advantage of G's time off and we just did it. We moved her crib into our room and put her to sleep the same way. I was surprised actually that she slept the same way in our room. G would do the same routine and put her down awake. She slept. Of course, she awoke a few times at night. The first night, she cried loudly and incessantly at 5:00 AM, waking up her poor sister. We have a rule that we don't go to her before 6:00 because I don't want to encourage her waking up any earlier than that.

So far it's going better than expected. It hasn't been quite so hellish. However I do have to get used to her numerous nightwakings, her grunting and random 2 second cries. However my experience with s has taught me that the only constant with her sleep habits is that it is bound to change sooner than later.

What a way to spend a day!!!!

Turned out to be a perfect day for the park. The weather was not too cold and the kids had a serious case of cabin fever.


Come here, doggie.



higher!!!!



Gratuitous photo of the 'hood.

QOTD (Question of the Day)

 

What is the orange thing supposed to be?

For the uninitiated, this is a picture of shiumai (siomai, if you are pinoy). There is commonly an orange spot on top. Sometimes this is roe of some kind (which kind though? who has heard of pig roe?)

Just wondered if anyone can shed light on this?

One of Santa's cute little helpers

 Couldn't resist posting this one.

It turned out to be a family day for the family c. Originally the plan was to have dimsum with Gmom's mom (PP) but PP decided that since she was having dinner with her sons, that's more than enough merriment already. Oh well...

So we dimsum'ed anyway. This time we headed towards 8th avenue, which is a blast from the past for us since we haven't been there in at least 2 years. Even Gmom hasn't been there in a long while. We headed for the restaurant we usually go to for dimsum only to find that it is now a bank. Thankfully another place further away from the 8th avenue hubbub still serves dimsum. As expected it was crowded. There was a line outside the door. Thankfully we got there a little before the crowd really started to come in. g and s like dimsum. The restaurant actually served dishes that we haven't seen ourselves (like durian wrapped with noodle...doesn't even sound like a good idea, does it?)





I am not sure what this stuff is called but it is good and didn't stand a chance with g. It seems to have been made with some sort of tapioca soft shell that has the consistency of fruit snacks and stuffed inside were 3 different kinds of custards (egg, lotus paste and mung bean). It was really delish that we ordered 2.

So this is before:


And this is a picture of g sucking the insides out:


After a hearty meal, we strolled (more like fought) our way to 58th street for a bag of rice. The crowd, the lack of respect of personal space (heck, the lack of personal space) - all remind me of home. It made me a little homesick. I think I will always miss living close or in a chinatown despite the attendant noise and grime associated with it. I know I look back at it with much nostalgia but I do remember distinctly being annoyed at the fact that my brothers and I never really had a place to play. All we had was a little bit of sidewalk.

The kids retired at Gmom's home while G installed a cell repeater. After that we went to dinner. Another Chinese joint, of course. Then again, I love Chinese food.

It's just pretend (g says the darnest things...the series)

Today we wrapped Christmas presents for Gmom. g helped by tearing pieces of tape. s helped by keeping out of the way and not tearing any wrapping paper. We finished the roll of wrapping paper leaving only the paper center roll. The kids latched on to their new toy. It was first a megaphone (daddy's idea, I think). Then a club. So they were gently bobbing each other on the head.

g used it for balance as she walked on her "balsam beam" (balance beam). This went on, hours of fun from a paper roll.

I was cooking when g put on an old straw hat and put the paper roll between her legs. She proclaimed herself a girl cowboy and started calling her dad a buckaroo. She said that the roll was her horse. She took a liking to a hobby horse that she saw at a toy store recently and this might also have something to do with repeated viewing of Elmo's Wild Wild West.

Her dad responded, "well, where's your horse's eyes?" To which, g replied, "daddy, it's just pretend."

OK, g, I think he got it now.

g on the cell

Overheard today. g had recently memorized our home phone number. Today she was playing on an old cell phone. She was talking and reciting our home phone number. I asked her who she was talking to. She said that she was telling A (P & K's son) her phone number. Then she proceeded to babble as if carrying on a real conversation.

Her dad from across the hallway called out to her. He pretended to be calling her on the cell phone, saying "hello, g. How are you?" g looked at him incredulously and says, "why are you calling me? I am right here."

Later on, g showed me her "notes". She was "writing" out our phone number for A.

s' Christening

 

It was another sad comedy at the Christening. It is supposed to be a deeper and more meaningful event than it turned out. However I guess it was not surprising because the same person made the same crazy mistakes when g was christened.

Before the ceremony began, we spoke briefly as we waited for some other kids to show up. There were only two families there at the time (mine included). He was from the Philippines so he asked the same basic questions (ie where are you from? where's your family from? how long have you been here? where is your accent?) He was nice enough. After a few more minutes of waiting, he decided to begin.

He began the prayers asking the Lord to watch over Cindy and Julian (the other child there to be baptized). No, s's name is not Cindy. I chuckled and he probably saw it and quickly corrected himself. However as he proceeded with prayers, he constantly interchanged Cindy and s throughout.

During the actual annointing with oil, he called s "julia". HUH??????

Finally we came to the final prayers. He asked the small congregation to welcome new Christians, Julian and Sylvia (again, not s's name). ::::eyes rolling::::

Just as an aside, Julian (the other kid) was raising a holy ruckus during the whole thing, running around the church and throwing tantrums. That might excuse him a little but only a little.

It turned out to be really funny and entertaining for the non-christians. It is sad though that her initiation into the church will be remembered more for doubts on a deacon's sobriety and/or his inability to remember a simple name.

Updates from dad

Since I missed my train tonight I have a few moments at work to catch up on my blogging. It's been such an adventure with two kids. things of note...

- when s turned 1 year old earlier this month I took the opportunity to test where her heart lies. It's a Chinese tradition to place several objects in front of a 1 year old and see what they gravitate towards. So we had s sit on the living room floor and I simultaneously revealed to her four objects. The objects included a plastic pen from Commerce Bank, a solar powered Casio scientific calculator from my high school days, a chinese red envelope with a $20 bill sticking out of it and a Hello Kitty note pad. After being distracted a bit with her nearby toys she finally focused on the objects and chose... the pen.

When her mom returned later that evening I recounted the trial and we proceeded to test here again. And sure enough she went for the pen again. Well actually she went for almost all the things individually this time but the pen held onto her attention the longest this time. So I'm declaring the pen the winner again. I'm not sure what that means exactly. Maybe she'll be bookish one day.

As a side note, my mother told me when I was tested at one years old I grabbed everything in front of me simultaneously. I'd like to think that it means I embrace all things in life...or maybe I'm just greedy.

- Since I've been working nights for the last year I've had the extreme joy of bringing g to the Little Gym weekly. For a while we attended a parent/child gym class. She really enjoyed my company running around with her. Then since she was getting older in September we decided to put her into a kid's class only of tap and ballet. Although I don't join her in the class she still clearly can see me outside the door or behind the big piece of glass. Well the last two and a half months have been difficult. G has never really warmed up to any of the other girls in the class nor the teacher. It's odd though since when she gets home all she does it talk about ballet and shows us her dance moves. It got to the point that last week I was already contemplating yanking her out of the class. It has become increasingly frustrating for me to watch her either stand by the doorway disinterested in the class or even throw a tantrum if I should walk more than 3 steps away from the door. But miraculously something in her brain clicked this Monday.

November 26th, 2007 - I had my usual pep talk with g at home before class where I encouraged her once again to pay attention and try to dance. Before we left for class I applied a bit of her new grape flavored chapstick to her lips. She seemed really happy about her new chapstick so I let her put it in her coat pocket and take it with us to the little gym. Once at the little gym I had a talk again with g and told her I wanted her to have fun today. As soon as class began, g went in willingly and started to do the dance exercises by the doorway. I saw that as a sign of improvement. Standing by the doorway myself I told her to get closer to the teacher and other girls...and she did. She spent the rest of the class at the front of the classroom holding onto the hands of the other little girls and dancing her heart out. She was talkative and engaged in everything. She became the crowd motivator and egged the other girls to dance when energy levels seemed down. Every so often she would run to the door where I was standing and tell me "See daddy, I'm not crying anymore." I was so proud of her that day. Little Gym comes around on Monday again. I hope she still has that same enthusiasm. But as an insurance policy I will bring the chapstick again.

New Project - Scrapbook

I thought that creating a scrapbook for Gmom will make a nice Christmas/Holiday gift.

It is a work in progress but I have a third of my sketches done.

These are the pics I am using. Not all of them are winners. Some months, despite the preponderance of shots, there is a shortage of winners.

Amazing memory

I am amazed at g's memory. However, she seems to have a memory for odd bits of information that will not win her a scholarship on teen jeopardy.

Last night, she brought out our swiffer and was "cleaning". As she was cleaning, she said to G, "j's daddy has a swiffer too and it is purple." Mind you, we visited j and e at their home months ago when baby j was just a few weeks old. I didn't even remember that j was cleaning when we arrived. So G emailed j to confirm whether or not they had a purple swiffer and indeed they did.

Wow.

g says the darnest things (part 2)

This happened last week but it was so funny.

Picture this:
Gmom, g and I were seated on the couch (in that order).

Gmom was telling g something. I have a working knowledge of some short Cantonese phrases but what they were talking about was beyond my meager comprehension. Gmom went on for quite a bit. g was looking at her and listening intently (or so I thought).

At a pause in Gmom's conversation, g turned to me and said, "what she talking about?"

Once again, hilarity ensues.

g says the darnest things (part 1)

I have a feeling that this is going to be a series.

Picture this: G had ordered some new bathing suits for Gmom. We are at the kitchen as G opens the packaging to check the items out. They were a little loud (in my opinion) but I kept quiet.

g says, "Papa, is that for the floor or for the bed?"

hilarity ensues....well, it took me a while to stop laughing as g looked at me, puzzled.

A thought on Thanksgiving

As everyone seems to be gearing up for the upcoming turkey day, I can't help but feel a little lost. I have much to be thankful for and I am profoundly grateful for it all.

The holidays seems to always be a rough one for theFamilyC because of conflicting expectations. Back home, we celebrated almost everything. When my brothers and I were younger, we celebrated Christmas, New year's, Chinese New year and birthdays (there were a lot of birthdays). Well, our version of a celebration really meant that we had a home cooked special meal or we went out to lunch or dinner as a family. Those were the times when we were allowed to have soda (or soft drinks). G's family is quite the opposite. They seem to celebrate nothing. I understand not celebrating the Hallmark holidays (ie made up ones like valentine's) or holidays that were more "american" like Thanksgiving. However they don't celebrate anything. After the death of G's grandfather, I can only remember once when most of the members of his small extended family gathered together. Even then, they gathered in shifts while we were at dimsum. The whole family was never together all at once. That seems really sad to me.

Aside from a tradition of celebrating, I like marking these holidays because it forces me to pause, to break from the rhythm of my usual days and acknowledge the people around me. A case can be made that this is something that should be done at all times but it is nice to have these days as reminders. More importantly, I think celebrating as a family reinforces a sense of family, a sense of belonging to a tribe.

I have my own selfish reasons for wanting to celebrate (I personally love the "feeling".) However I want to instill in my kids the same sense of excitement and more importantly, the same sense of family, a family that is beyond the nuclear one that they are exposed to daily). This is one lesson I will have a lot of fun teaching.

The original Sesame Street carries a warning label....HUH???

Apparently the old Sesame seems too "off" for today's kids. Hmmmm.....what does that say about me?

From New York Times' columnist, Virginia Heffernan:

Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.

Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of two, finally. The show rolled, and the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.

Nothing in the children’s entertainment of today, candy-colored animation hopped up on computer tricks, can prepare young or old for this frightening glimpse of simpler times. Back then — as on the very first episode, which aired on PBS Nov. 10, 1969 — a pretty, lonely girl like Sally might find herself befriended by an older male stranger who held her hand and took her home. Granted, Gordon just wanted Sally to meet his wife and have some milk and cookies, but . . . well, he could have wanted anything. As it was, he fed her milk and cookies. The milk looks dangerously whole.

Live-action cows also charge the 1969 screen — cows eating common grass, not grain improved with hormones. Cows are milked by plain old farmers, who use their unsanitary hands and fill one bucket at a time. Elsewhere, two brothers risk concussion while whaling on each other with allergenic feather pillows. Overweight layabouts, lacking touch-screen iPods and headphones, jockey for airtime with their deafening transistor radios. And one of those radios plays a late-’60s news report — something about a “senior American official” and “two billion in credit over the next five years” — that conjures a bleak economic climate, with war debt and stagflation in the offing.

The old “Sesame Street” is not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for softies born since 1998, when the chipper “Elmo’s World” started. Anyone who considers bull markets normal, extracurricular activities sacrosanct and New York a tidy, governable place — well, the original “Sesame Street” might hurt your feelings.

I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody “Monsterpiece Theater.” Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, “That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — “so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.”

Which brought Parente to a feature of “Sesame Street” that had not been reconstructed: the chronically mood-disordered Oscar the Grouch. On the first episode, Oscar seems irredeemably miserable — hypersensitive, sarcastic, misanthropic. (Bert, too, is described as grouchy; none of the characters, in fact, is especially sunshiney except maybe Ernie, who also seems slow.) “We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,” she said.

Snuffleupagus is visible only to Big Bird; since 1985, all the characters can see him, as Big Bird’s old protestations that he was not hallucinating came to seem a little creepy, not to mention somewhat strained. As for Cookie Monster, he can be seen in the old-school episodes in his former inglorious incarnation: a blue, googly-eyed cookievore with a signature gobble (“om nom nom nom”). Originally designed by Jim Henson for use in commercials for General Foods International and Frito-Lay, Cookie Monster was never a righteous figure. His controversial conversion to a more diverse diet wouldn’t come until 2005, and in the early seasons he comes across a Child’s First Addict.

The biggest surprise of the early episodes is the rural — agrarian, even — sequences. Episode 1 spends a stoned time warp in the company of backlighted cows, while they mill around and chew cud. This pastoral scene rolls to an industrial voiceover explaining dairy farms, and the sleepy chords of Joe Raposo’s aimless masterpiece, “Hey Cow, I See You Now.” Chewing the grass so green/Making the milk/Waiting for milking time/Waiting for giving time/Mmmmm.

Oh, what’s that? Right, the trance of early “Sesame Street” and its country-time sequences. In spite of the show’s devotion to its “target child,” the “4-year-old inner-city black youngster” (as The New York Times explained in 1979), the first episodes join kids cavorting in amber waves of grain — black children, mostly, who must be pressed into service as the face of America’s farms uniquely on “Sesame Street.”

In East Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1978, 95 percent of households with kids ages 2 to 5 watched “Sesame Street.” The figure was even higher in Washington. Nationwide, though, the number wasn’t much lower, and was largely determined by the whims of the PBS affiliates: 80 percent in houses with young children. The so-called inner city became anywhere that “Sesame Street” played, because the Children’s Television Workshop declared the inner city not a grim sociological reality but a full-color fantasy — an eccentric scene, framed by a box and far removed from real farmland and city streets alike.

The concept of the “inner city” — or “slums,” as The Times bluntly put it in its first review of “Sesame Street” — was therefore transformed into a kind of Xanadu on the show: a bright, no-clouds, clear-air place where people bopped around with monsters and didn’t worry too much about money, cleanliness or projecting false cheer. The Upper West Side, hardly a burned-out ghetto, was said to be the model.

People on “Sesame Street” had limited possibilities and fixed identities, and (the best part) you weren’t expected to change much. The harshness of existence was a given, and no one was proposing that numbers and letters would lead you “out” of your inner city to Elysian suburbs. Instead, “Sesame Street” suggested that learning might merely make our days more bearable, more interesting, funnier. It encouraged us, above all, to be nice to our neighbors and to cultivate the safer pleasures that take the edge off — taking baths, eating cookies, reading. Don’t tell the kids.

Monster virus

TheFamilyC was struck. Well, at least the female branches of our little tree. It started with vomit, little s' to be exact. It was a hectic saturday. I had double-booked ourselves (many apologies for running out) and we went from party to party. After the first party at p and d's house, we had driven barely out of Q when s threw up. Now those of you who know little s know that she is pt no pot stranger to vomit. Tiny thing seems to specialize in it. So we thought that maybe her seat belt was on too tight. Maybe the avocados didn't agree with her although she couldn't stop eating them.

So we proceeded to party #2. She wasn't very happy but I thought that no one would be happy after losing his lunch like that. The next day she had another episode at lunch which I thought AGAIN that probably she just choked on a pumelo. She threw up the next meal again and this time she was becoming really warm. She was burning a 102.8 fever. Upon ped advice, we gave her tylenol which lowered the fever but only until the next dose was due. Sometime that night I started to feel queasy and proceeded to lose my dinner. So I fell sick Monday. On Tuesday, g said that she felt sick and promptly threw up on the kitchen floor. When she woke from her nap that day, she was 103.5. Against my own instinct, I took off all her clothes and dunked her into a lukewarm bath. That and a dose of tylenol, she was well within the day. I got well within the day too with lingering queasiness.

Poor s had it the worst. She had a fever teetering on 102 almost daily for a week. She barely ate although she must have been hungry. She would try to drink milk but would throw up each time. We did a load of laundry almost daily. It was so hard to see her that way since she could not afford to lose any more.

The fever finally abated after a spike of 103.8 in the middle of the night Thursday. At 2:00 AM, I was alone (G had gone to work and Gmom was also stricken by the puking virus) and s was burning up. I thought that she was going to go into convulsions. I took off all her clothes and dunked her into a lukewarm bath. She cried for the first few minutes and afterwards she settled down and began to enjoy it. She was intrigued by the liquid nature of water. She couldn't understand why she couldn't grasp the stream of water with her hand. She kept trying.

That broke the fever. Either that or the 4 days of tylenol. She has been fever free for the last 3 days and is beginning to eat again. We have to rebuild her appetite but at least I know that she is able to keep everything in.

This was an almost surreal experience with all of us being sick at the same time. An experience that is best recalled than relived.

to school or not to school

This is not a homeschooling issue although the thought has crossed my mind. Since g was born a few weeks after the pre-k cutoff for our fair city, she is not eligible to go to public pre-k. However we can pay for this out of pocket.

A compelling argument has been building for weeks and months largely surrounding g's slow-to-warm personality. G has shaped up naturally as a pretty shy child. Believe me that because of my own shyness, i tried my best to encourage her to be anything but reticent. However nature won against nurture and I have a child now who slinks behind her daddy whenever she is faced with new people. New people encompasses just about everybody that she doesn't see weekly. This includes other kids she herself calls her "friends".

This brings me to the question at hand. I had thought that maybe taking her to school would not be a bad idea. Yes, it will be like paying for a luxury SUV, but can I really put a price on her growth? My hope for school is that she will learn to be with other kids, learn to play with other kids and learn to deal with other adults giving her direction. Socialization is one aspect of her life that I cannot give more attention to. We do playdates but not regularly. She does a dance class but spends most of that attached to her dad so it almost doesn't count. It has come to this.

The opposing argument though is whether or not there is a need to rush. Can this socialization wait till next year? Will she miss anything by not having any peers at this point?

I am wholly undecided. I have expended a little effort to schedule some appointments but because I am still on the fence, I spend more time wondering than following up on forms that I need to fill out.

What do you think?

Random musical thought

I am sometime gripped by moments of clarity regarding this whole parenting thing. It's scary.

It came yesterday as we drove to a costume party. We have mercifully loaded a new CD for g containing a random assortment of kiddie songs, the Beatles, motown and broadway. (her old selection was driving us bananas since she insists upon listening to it the minute we open the car door.) I was struck momentarily with the thought that maybe we should start listening to classical music in the car. The popular belief has made its way around the mommiverse that listening to classical music is supposed to make a genius although recent research has debunked this totally. The myth persists though with the advent of Baby Mozart, Baby Bach, etc. I am sure that there is probably a grain of truth in there somewhere, not commensurate to the craze that has been created around it though.

So as my stream of consciousness continued on I280, I thought of my own passion for music. How despite any craziness in my life, music was always my home, always a "place" that I can go to. Then the big "duh" --- why was I going to try making them listen to music, though I appreciate, don't love? Why wouldn't I want to teach them how to tap into musical passion?

One day they will love their own music (maybe someday they'll be listening to some funky version of acid rap, who knows) but for the meantime, I held my g last night and rocked her in my arms to Moonriver.

Happy Birthday g!!!!

g turned 3 yesterday.

It doesn't seem like 3 years have passed but it has. It's been a wild ride but I wouldn't want it any other way.

s is not HAPPY!

I love this photo. Of course, s would really prefer not to be tortured by the clown wig.



(Thanks for lending it to her, Auntie E. By the way, good luck with the birth. Fingers crossed for a speedy l&d!!!)

g in Bermuda

Here is a preview of the video that will be shown at g's wedding someday.

Enjoy.

A Campaign for Real Beauty

I have been a big fan of Dove's campaign for real beauty. I love the images of real women on the billboards that I see, especially the Annie Leibowitz series on older women for Dove Pro Age.

Dove has decided to take it up a notch and speak to moms (and dads) about the other images our children see.

Watch this video.



I know I fret about having girl babies a lot. Parenting them has meant more definitive choices from the start. I had tried my best not to be rigid and yet not to play to any stereotypes. I sent g to gym class. Well now, she is also in dance class. She is more proficient in doing a basket hang from the uneven bars than she is with a plie. Hard as I have tried though, I can't seem to stop calling g beautiful. I know that she should be praised for kindness or for talent, but she is just 2 and she is my baby. She will always be beautiful to me. I guess as the years come, I will have to watch my words. Better yet, try to live a life that relies little on prettiness.

Hmmmm

This was going to go straight to the annals of "what were they thinkin'". However it has gotten me thinking. It is true that s is becoming really wild with her cruising attempts. Last night, she had slept without a sleep sack. When she awoke this morning, I caught her trying to make a break for it (ie climbing out of the crib). Is this a bonnet situation? Granted she has only fallen on her face once and usually when she tries to overcome an obstacle while crawling. Even then she was only barely 6 inches off the ground.

However there is a great risk when she is playing with her sister. g tries to carry s from one place to another and this often results in s falling or getting strangled (which is outside of the bonnet range of safety).

So I am on the fence as to the usefulness of this bonnet. If anyone else is interested in buying or reading reviews, here you go.

A Leap of Faith

I have often spoke about g & s and how dissimilar they are. One big difference is their eating habits, specifically s' lack of desire for food. For those who know g, that couldn't be further from her reality. g has always had a healthy desire for food. She was always easy to feed. s is almost the exact opposite. She is pretty finicky with food, liking one thing today and hating it tomorrow. So making her something to eat is hit or miss. Well, mostly miss. I can't help but be anxious about this though. She is a shrimp. She is barely 18 lbs which put her in the 0-25 percentile. I can't measure her height because she moves around so much. I just know that based on the hand-me-down clothing that she is wearing, she is a lot shorter than her sister when she was the same age.

I know that I can't expect that she would have the exact same appetite as her sister but I would like to see a desire for food. It is sometimes there. This weekend was a good appetite weekend. She ate and ate. However that was the end of that. She is done with food and today, she even refused to drink milk which she never had before.

The books and all these baby guides for picky eaters have all advised the same thing...that if the child refuses to eat, she is probably not hungry and that parents should just trust that she will know when she wants to eat. Parents should also trust that she will eat. That's the leap of faith that I am grappling with, trusting that she will eat when she wants to and not wrangle with her.

I will let go but it is difficult. She is so close to falling off the charts already. What my salvation has been is the pediatrician does not seem worried. No one else seems overly concerned but me. This is a comfort in a way. That her gains in weight seems to be sufficient that it is not a major cause of concern. Her seeming lack of an appetite more a worry for me than a medical problem.

Sigh....and the adventure continues.

g on the 'net

g is at that age when she frequently says the funniest things.

Today she took an old make-up case (the big ones that a make-up artist would be lugging around) that I had laying around for her to play around with. She asked me to get it and open it. I asked her why. She responded, "I need to check my email."

I didn't know that the case had a wireless card.

my little sous chef

g seems to be beginning a new phase in her eating life. She has begun to be a picky eater. She used to do this occasionally for a meal but is usually back to her old happy eating self by the next meal. However this seems to be going on for over a week now. Even Gmom wasn't able to make her eat.

I won't sweat it though. Her diet is still fairly healthy. She is just not eating bowls and bowls of stuff but she will eat as much as needs to make herself full.

To encourage her eating, I thought that maybe if she helped prepare the meal, she would be more inspired. It worked out pretty well. She ended up not liking the hotdog but ate the eggs (and a nice-sized bowl of rice). Earlier she already had a handful of tomatoes for a snack. Afterwards she had a plateful of figs for dessert.

I have to say that she really did a great job with cutting up hot dogs and beating the eggs for the "hotdog omelet". I gave her a kiddie "knife" from Ikea and she proceeded to cut them. She knew how to do it and didn't make a mess. Cracking the egg was a little more problematic. She cracked them properly on the counter corner but then she proceeded to crush it with her hand. I had to fish out some shells. She mixed the eggs rather than beat it, but not bad for a first timer and a not-quite-3-year-old.

Here are some photos. Enjoy.

Ber-meu-la!!!!

That's how it sounds like when g talks about Bermuda. We had just returned from the p&k wedding. It was wonderful. Everything was just perfect and g really liked bermeula. What's not to like? We arrived to slightly windy conditions. Upon arrival, we made a mad dash to the hotel. There was to be a sunset cruise that first night. It was set to leave at 6:00 PM. Our flight arrived at 5:10 pm. I had assumed we were not going to make it.

We arrived at the hotel close to 5:30 pm. We had no idea where to go for this cruise so we asked the front desk and the concierge. Both had no clue. G stood at the balcony of our room overlooking the bay and was taking in the gorgeous view when he noticed that there was a party boat docked at the beach. There was a bunch of Asians milling around it. G was convinced that this was the boat. So we put in a call to k and verified that we were looking at the party boat. They were already boarding. The race was on to get the kids' stuff together and run to the boat.

And run we did. We made it. Since we called, they held the boat just a little bit for us to arrive. It didn't help that we took the longest way possible to get down to the beach since we just arrived.



The cruise was lovely. g enjoyed it. She spent most of it shaking and grooving to the music. I have never seen her dance so much before, but this was just the beginning.



Wedding day was again another beautiful day. Sunny and breezy but not so much. We spent the morning swimming and doing a little sightseeing. We took to the caves which was nice albeit small. It was a nice 5 minute cave.



The wedding was picture perfect. g did her part as flower girl...well, sort of. She was moving along ok until she noticed her partner, d make a run for his mom. At that point she didn't know what to do, so she made a break for it as well. She streak across the aisle rather than doing a dainty little walk. At least she made it across. She spent the rest of the wedding playing with sand, totally ignoring the beautiful ceremony. I guess that is to be expected.

The reception was another story. g went nuts, dancing the night away with ys and k. She actually stuck to k for hours. k couldn't shake those kids!!! The dance floor was littered with kids. ~~~Video to come on this one.

no eatin'

I have to accept it. I have to accept that s is a squirt and that at the rate that she is going she will be a squirt. She and g are dissimilar again in that way. To this day, she rarely eats more than 4 oz of food at a sitting. More often her nanny would only feed her 2 oz and about an hour later would feed her the second 2 oz.

g at this point ate 4 oz a sitting and drank 8 oz at a time. s have at times drank 7 but we are surprised by that since it is so rare. A side effect of so little food means that she wakes up more often at night to eat.

I guess I grew in the school of thought that the happy eater is a happy child. This was further reinforced by little g who never had a problem eating. I thought I could just let go since it seems that I was the only person who had issue with this. The ped does not seem concerned.

I recognize that it is probably more my issue than it is hers. I think I will still have to move her towards having 5 meals a day instead of 10 but I just have to accept that will take time.

g's first daddy portrait

 

I was pretty amazed that she finally got it. I have been trying to get her draw something other than circles and lines for the last few days. Today after doing her usual cutting and pasting, she said she wanted to draw a picture of Daddy who she says she misses. I didn't even have to help her on this one...well, maybe a little verbal coaching. I told her to draw the head, then the eyes, then a nose, then a smile...you get the picture. She did it. She even drew in some glasses.

She loved her portrait so much that later on when I cut out a house and a little portrait of herself, she asked to cut out her Daddy as well. When we pretended that she was leaving her paper house to go to the imaginary park, she said that Daddy had to go with her and push her on the swing. Then Daddy took her home and put her in bed.

Awwww....shucks.

This is the picture of the "artist" and her work. This is also g's first picture with her "snazzy" new haircut. It's growing on me. I think the shape of the cut emphasizes her little chin. Cute.

Two Different little people

I have to get over the idea that I have one child in two bodies. I do in fact have two separate and very different little people. It is definitely not a case of one being better than the other. They are just different. After I had g, I was lulled into complacency. Though she was never an easy child, we have "figured" her out. We know what she liked and disliked, and mistakenly thought that most children (or at least my own future children) would like and dislike approximately the same things, that they would approximately have the same temperament, etc, etc.

Well, s took that concept and smashed that to bits. She has chosen mainly to do things her way. From the simple physiological standpoint, they don't look much alike. g had teeth at 5 months and had a few of them already by 10 months. s (at 9 months) finally sprouted her first set which have only begun to peek out. Where g is a voracious eater (her eating has become legend), s can take it or leave it. Today she might drink 7 oz of milk at a session, tomorrow she refuses more than 3 1/2. Solid foods is still a chore for her whereas g attacked it with gusto.

I could go on. I have come to this realization a little late or maybe I just refused to let go. Letting go has been difficult. I see g growing up so quickly. She is now almost 3. Her little personality is set. She is funny to talk to and she loves to be the comedian. Her stories are a little far fetched still but at least she creative. In a twisted way, I might be wishing to relive a little of g's babyhood again in s. I don't know if that is the case really but I have no choice but to see them both for who they are.

Van Saun Park

Otherwise known as the Bergen County Zoological Park. I got a tip from one of my mommy groups that this was a nice zoo to go to. I had pretty low expectations especially since after going to the zoo's website (or lack thereof). The website consisted of hours, ticket prices and not much else.

I figured it was pretty close to our home. At the worst case, we could all go to Ikea and try to get g into the ball pit again (she was less than an inch shy of the 36 in minimum.) I packed some snacks for g, some food for s and off we went.

At 10:30, the 2 parking lots closest to the zoo was already full. We got lucky and got a space just as someone was leaving. The zoo is part of Van Saun park so parking is not limited to zoo visitors. From reviews I have read online, parking seems to be a bad situation. On the bright side, there are many lots around the park.

The zoo was small as all the online reviewers had stated but it was really well maintained. Another plus is the train ride and the carousel. Both of which were very fairly priced ($1/piece) The carousel was a welcome surprise. It was really well maintained. The animals on the carousel does not look like it has been worn or weathered.



The only drawback is the food concession. There was a choice of hotdog or pretzels and that was it. There was a "roadside cafe" outside the zoo that has a slightly expanded menu (chicken fingers, grilled cheese, etc) but not that much more of an upgrade. My suggestion is BRING YOUR OWN. Everyone else seem have gotten the memo. There was more than ample picnic tables, benches strewn everywhere (inside and outside the zoo).



There were age separated playgrounds which was cool and a large area where people were grilling and throwing parties. I saw at least 4 birthday parties complete with man on stilts going on. There was also a clean bathroom for everyone's use. Nice.

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better park experience.

More gratuitous photos:

g at the beach

This is g with her first sand castle. We had thought that the beach was going to be a bust since g doesn't like sand. Apparently what she doesn't like is sand IN her shoes. When she is barefoot, she doesn't mind at all.



g and the "big" waves

Potty Training (g style)

Just in case you have not heard...g is fully potty trained. I would like to say record time but I think that honor still belongs to D (S's son) who was potty trained in a day. g potty trained herself really.

Finally at 22 months, g decided to potty train herself. Gmom had been on a campaign to potty train her since she turned one. Aside from the physical impossibility of that, I really didn't think she was ready. Why physically impossible? The "official" definition of potty trained is being able to "say" or know that she needs to go to the potty, toddle to the bathroom, pull down her pants, do her business, wipe herself clean and pull her own pants back up. At one, she had just learned to walk and wouldn't have the balance to bend down and clean herself much less pull up her pants without tipping herself over.

Anyway, fast forward to 22 months, we have been doing a small campaign to convince her to go to the potty for a few weeks. She was never interested though. She has gone to the extent of even holding it until we put the diaper back on. This went on for a bit until we went on a trip with K's family. A, K's son, has been potty trained for a while. g noticed while they were playing that A wasn't wearing a diaper and K told g that she should tell me when she needs to go and that she doesn't really need a diaper. She took that comment and pondered.

She repeated that phrase for a few days. She also made a connection with Ikea's ball pit. There's a policy for that play area that everyone in there should be potty trained. So we have been trying to play this card for a while but she didn't seem to care much. Now she put K's comment and Ikea's ball pit together. Within days of our return from that trip, I decided that maybe she was finally ready. We used the pull-ups for a day until I realized that she treated the pull-up like a diaper. So that night, we went to Target to pick out underwear. She chose a Dora and an Elmo pack.

The next day we went cold turkey. She chose the elmo underwear. We expected that we would have to do a load of laundry every day, but in fact, she went to bathroom from the first day onward.

She has had a few accidents, mainly during wake up time first thing in the morning. Sometimes she doesn't quite make it and would drip a little but on a whole, she went in the potty for both #1 and #2 within a week.

YES!!!!

Speaking of Hershey Park

I usually post a review of any spot that the family c find ourselves in. However this time around, there doesn't seem to be much to say.

Short version: Not worth the trip until the kids are older.

Long version: We spent a few hours in Hershey Park. It was a nice ride and we made it there fairly quickly. After lunch, we started exploring the park and found that aside from handful of rides, there really wasn't much for the kids to do. By the time we had gone around searching for rides to take, it was pretty much the end of the day.

Nice thing though is the small zoo that they had in the premises. We also really liked the chocolate factory tour and of course, g loved the samples. This is one of the several "firsts" of this trip. This was her first taste of chocolate and she is hooked.



Here was her first solo ride. I thought she might freak out when the ride began but she handled herself like a champ.

This trip marked the first trip she has taken diaperless. Yep, our baby is potty trained. We had bought a travel potty for just this purpose but she didn't even need it. She went in the adults potty and never had an accident.

Aside from this, there was nothing much else for a toddler. Too bad.

Another gratuitous shot

I just got a new camera so there will be many gratuitous shots to come.

Here's one of s while we were waiting for her sister to wake up from her nap at Hershey Park.

My little squirt

Despite having thunder thighs, little s is still an ounce shy of 17 lbs, putting her in the 10th percentile. She's a shorty as well, measuring just 26 1/2 inches. I think she might have gotten my height. The ped doesn't seem too concerned as long as she is growing....I guess.

Yet again this is another departure from her big sister who never strayed from the 50th percentile. Little s reminds me constantly that she is very different from her sister. It is good that she is very much an individual. It can be difficult as well because just when I think I have gotten a handle on this mommy thing, s comes in and blows up all the rules. So once again as parents, we are left to make it up as we go along.

pulling, crawling, cruising

Just when I was beginning to worry that she might not be meeting all her milestone, s decided to pull them all out of her hat in basically the same week. She went from a cute smiling little lump who rolled from side to side to a crawling and cruising little dynamo. She loves this. She loves her independence. We have put down some alphabet mats on the floor and she just starts crawling away, gnawing at anything. Of course, she would not gnaw on the basket of teethers that we have purchased for that expressed purpose. She prefers the foam mat that she is lining the floor, the foam that is protecting her from the table corner, pieces of tissues that she finds on the floor. Yes, lots of fun.

This weekend we will begin the exercise of baby proofing. Video to come.

s...for no special reason

here's a gratuitous shot. I just thought she looked so adorable here.



and another....

Chasing the sun

Today's weather was predicted to be stormy and windy. I was bummed and couldn't think of any rainy day activity to do at home. We woke to what seemed like a gorgeous day. We checked the hourly forecast and found that rain was scheduled for the mid-afternoon. That gave us at least 5 hours before a downpour. So we thought of taking the kids peach picking. We logged on to check on the hours of our favorite place, Lee Turkey Farms but found out that they don't open till 2:00 PM on a sunday (that'll be about the time the storm would have arrived. So I went quickly to see if there are any other pick-your-own-fruit farms around the area and found Alstede Farms in Chester, NJ. It was less than 50 miles away. So by our calculations, we could get there by 11:00, pick some fruit, see some animals and be home before 3:00 PM.



The peaches were good. They weren't huge like the ones at Lee Turkey but they were tasty. g got a kick out of picking things out for herself. The place is definitely more organized though. They had picnic tables with a nice tent for anyone wanting to do an impromptu picnic. They had a few horses and cows for the kids to feed and pet (you have to pay $1 for a bag of carrots for the horses though). All told everyone had fun. I took s on the backpack and she was taking it all in. I gave her some peach on her fruit strainer. She really liked that.



We were safely at home by 3:00 PM. Of course the thunderstorms never really did arrive. I saw a bit of rain tonight at around 9:00 PM. I am glad we soaked up the sun.

g is for....

this is how the dialogue went....

G - ok, g. what is the letter g for? (expecting the answer to be g is for her own name)
g - g is for kenny g (or something that sounds like it)

She picked up on the hilarity of this comment and decided to run with it.

At a later time, we spoke again...

G - g. What is the letter g for?
g - g is for kenny g
f - when did you see kenny g?
g - I saw him yestuhday.
f - really? Where did you see him?
g - in the basement.
G - what was kenny g doing in the basement?
g - he needed to go to hospital.
(after this, g must have felt that the conversation was going nowhere and promptly left the room.)