It's Electrifying!

All She Wants

Rosemary and I discussed her holiday wishes today and here is what she says she wants for Christmas. All are direct quotes.

1) Ringing Bells. From the sleigh.

(This from the book Polar Express, which she been requesting as her bedtime story all week.)

2) The moon

3) Pineapple

4. Pumpkin Pie. Eat pumpkin pie and chocolate. And chocolate ice cream.

My Name Is

We are getting ready for polite society. Rosemary's Grandma Max taught her to introduce herself formally. This means she now refers to herself most often in the third person, first and last names both. It always makes me think of that old Saturday Night Live sketch where Norm MacDonald plays Bob Dole on the Real World: "You're sitting on Bob Dole's chair...That's Bob Dole's peanut butter you're eating." Who's yogurt is that? Rosemary Sanders's yogurt! Fancy.

Movies are hard to get these days because more often than not the funny thing she is doing or saying before I whip out the camera disappears and is replaced by please to hold and play with the video camera. I just deleted 70 three-second videos. That is apparently the time it takes for R to push the record button twice, once for start and again for stop.

In other news, she does the alphabet song in full (slurring through the middle part) and counts to 13, although she doesn't point and count yet. She also uses 13 to indicate the distant future, like the other day when I was trying (over her protests) to cut her fingernails. I asked when she'd like me to do it instead and she replied "13 o'clock."

Parkour

Every toddler's favorite, fashionable activity. (And an homage to the Office). She will improve in time, I'm sure.

At the Risk of Putting Too Fine a Ring On It

Thanks to Leo's mom Dara for sending this article in Time magazine about how toddlers love that Beyonce song. Golly. There's a link to a couple of other youtube kiddos dancing and this one is pretty mindblowing.

Pure Glee

One Year Ago: Hello, Crazy Harry

An important milestone for any infant.

All Shakered Up

Rosemary's been spending a lot of time at museums lately but this weekend's trip to the old Shaker museum near Lenox, MA had them all beat hands down. Reason number one: the presence of Bea Tucker, 8 months older and wiser than R. This weekend was the museum's annual county fair, so we spent more time roaming around outdoors than looking inside all the historic buildings. I did peek into one and it's true what they say, those Shakers did know their way around a built-in. Nice cabinetry. The round barn (which you can see way in the background in both these pix) is pretty amazing and made more so when filled with cute animals and fall sunbeams. Also, Rosie hit her share of sandboxes this summer but this year's best by far was the one someone (recently, therefore presumably not a Shaker) built here. It was filled with unpopped popcorn instead of sand and it was near impossible to get Rosie out. Bea meanwhile was kicking around in a big pile of hay nearby, but somehow we didn't get a picture of that. A few pix of the whole weekend here.

Brighton Beach

We've got this board book called "Good Morning New York" kicking around here and on one of the pages they go to Coney Island. This morning Rosie was looking at it and she started talking about going to the beach and kicking in the water (specifically she said "Beach. Kick. Yes."), which seemed kind of remarkable since the last time we went to the beach was on vacation in February. So later on Jason suggested going there -- a fabulous idea since it was one of those Indian summer enjoy-it-while-it-lasts days. We drove out to Brighton Beach. (Coney Island stayed so near yet so far. We could see the Parachute Jump and all the rest just down the boardwalk, we never made it all the way down there.)

It was kind of late in the afternoon so I didn't bother with a bathing suit for her, which in retrospect was kind of silly since 1 1/2 year old + 1 ocean = sandy wet 1 1/2 year old, no matter what time of day it is.

R and J joined by classic eastern seaboard beach-goers: a guy and his metal detector and (too far in the background to really see here) a bathing beauty wearing a hot pink bathing cap.

Much splashing, still looking pretty dry:

We ended the day at Cafe Glechik, a Russian-Ukranian place on Coney Island Ave that has really good dumplings. A New York Times review described the potato ones as being "as light as carbs stuffed into carbs drenched in melted fat can be." Rosie preferred the pickle platter, which had cucumber pickles but also something more exotic: pickled watermelon.

Beautiful Day

Some pix from yesterday's afternoon outing with Uriel, Pia, Henry and Annie. This playground is right near both Pia and Annie's houses, and oh, what a playground it is! A three tiered slide, sweet Henry on tier 1 and Rosie on tier 2.

Uriel and Rosemary in a pensive turn. They stayed like this for quite awhile. We hadn't seen Uri in months, I guess they had a lot of wordless catching up to do.

Jumping:

Ok, from the pictures I got of Uriel you would think he is a boy of only poetry, not of action. But he was running around a LOT. In fact it was impossible to get all three kiddos in one shot, like wrangling kittens.

Monday Moma

We made a lil jaunt to MoMA on Monday, plan being to see the James Ensor show before it closes later this week. That was my plan anyhow. Rosemary was plainly not interested in actually going into any of the exhibitions, but no matter, we had a fine, fine time. Highlight#1: Perching on the marvelous couches at the entrance to the designer Ron Arad's show:

Highlight 2: Um, vertigo? 6 floors down into the atrium gallery.

Highlight #3: Sack PBJ lunch in the sculpture garden where Rosemary worked up this little gem, another copycat pose with The River lady:

Oh the Horror

Tonight I asked Rosie what she wanted for dinner. She turned down my offer of guacamole, usually her favorite, and instead requested "Mommy." [Pause, pointed look.] "Eat you up." I blame Where the Wild Things Are.

Also, I noticed our cable bill said it was past due so I went online to make sure the autopay thing was set up right. Lucky I did, since by sheer coincidence I noticed a battery of charges made last Saturday, total $119. They included something called "Premium with Pod Service" as well as HBO, Starz, Cinemax, Showtime, TMC. I called and the Time Warner lady put me on hold to check it out and then came back on and said, "Ma'am, those channels were added from inside the house." Inside the house??? Cue scary music. Looks like our kid has nimble fingers and a penchant for a sweet entertainment package. (Happy ending: Refund granted. No sequels, we hope.)

Accessorizing

Mrs Potato Head is paying us a visit. Being another tag sale find she came with no eyes and three ears, plus a few other missing and extra parts. She's an instant potato hit, especially the glasses, which she may never get to wear herself.

Relaxing on Labor Day

A few pix from this weekend, which we spent up in the Berkshires again with Jason's parents. And oh, it feels like fall, folks! Up there and back down here. Rosie enjoyed many pleasures of late summer including devouring an entire ear of corn (we thought she'd lose interest but we thought wrong):

Attending a massive Labor Day tag sale, where she became the proud owner of a step stool (which Jason painted this fetching green with pink highlights):

And visiting the Columbia County Fair. We stumbled upon a parade of smallish farm animals, and it turned out to be an impromptu petting zoo. Last year Rosie totally lost her cool when we put her face to face with a cow (granted, it was a HUGE cow), so I thought it was a marked improvement this time 'round when she got busy petting this little lovely moo cow. I wasn't so thrilled when she stuck her finger up the cow's nose, but I frankly I don't think Rosie was either. Beside her is the crowned dairy princess of Columbia County! But there were still irrational toddler fears aplenty, the worst of which was her fear of the water gun/balloon game. More's the pity since that one happens to be the only fair game I ever win.

Hug It, Nibbits!

A few recent exchanges:

Rosemary pointed out a morning glory to me, actually calling it that by that name, and then added, "Mommy. Smell it."

Jason asked her this morning where she thinks he goes everyday when he goes to work and she thought for a second and then said, "Park." He asked what he did there and she said, "Sandbox."

We went to the zoo and she nabbed a piece of sheep food at the petting zoo and popped it part way in her mouth. Ick. We talked some about how that food was for the sheep, and yet she elbowed her way in again and took another piece from our friend Annie's hand. She ate that too. I asked what it tasted like and thought for a moment and said "Apples."

She has a roster of favorite songs, and Twinkle Twinkle seems to top the list. She likes to sing it and I often hear her crooning softly to herself. Her delivery is a little bit like William Shatner: "Twinkle...Twinkle LITTLE!! star."

Rosie is big into hugging but often announces that she'd like to hug something or someone rather than actually going ahead and doing it, as in "Hug it - Puppy!" Neighbors comes out 'nibbits' when she says it and the other day she heard someone out in the hallway and ran for the door yelling, "Hug it, Nibbits!"

Downward Facing Copycat

From our trip to Governors Island today:

This nice lady in the background lent us her hula hoop and then got to work (inadvertently) leading a yoga class.

Grandparents' Summit

Rosie was lucky to have all four grandparents -- Grandmama, Baba, Grandma, and Granddad -- all in one place. My folks came to the Berkshires for a visit. They arrived while she was down for a nap, and when she woke up and saw everyone standing in the kitchen, I honestly thought she was going to lose it for a second. Wonder, confusion, and finally excitement - all in quick succession. Then she settled in for a fun weekend of being the total center of the universe. We spent most of the weekend poolside:

Just One More Reason to (Heart) NYC

We finally got down to visit the Highline, a new park that is up on an abandoned elevated train track in Chelsea, my old and beloved neighborhood. I can't count how many times I've gone under those tracks, always kind of pathetically race-walking to avoid the fat, random drips of water and (worse) pigeon poop. So, wow, what an amazing thing it is see how different the city and all those familiar places look when you are just a couple of stories above it all. They did all these plantings of native flowers and grasses, and played up the old railroad tracks in utterly simple and fantastic ways. I'm smitten. (We went back three times in four days. The last time was with my cousin Kev, when he visited, but bad blogger me did not have my camera that day.)

What I love most, I think, is how varied the vistas are as you walk along. There's Phillips auction house, which makes the most of its Highline-side real estate by displaying a batch of contemporary art to be auctioned off, and then there's also a stretch that borders some sculptor's moldy old backyard, which is filled with towering stacks of removed insulation, a very sad looking Statue of Liberty replica, and some other junk. I'm sure that'll change - probably just as soon as that guy's landlord figures out how to shoehorn him out - but for now it's a little slice of life up there.

Little Piggies

Learning about the little piggies and the market and whatnot with cousin Mimi, when she and cousin David came by for a visit in early August.

W-A-S-H-ING-TON, baby, D-C!

Does anyone else get that old Magnetic Fields song running through their head when they say the name of the nation's capitol? Just me? Oh. Anyway, we went down to visit my folks in Bethesda, MD and for a very fun, very whirlwind afternoon at the Farbrother family reunion in Reston, VA.

Our cameras spent most of their time in handbags and backpacks so there are only a few pix. First, a pic of my mom and Rosie hanging out in my folks' backyard:

Dash and the world's best and weirdest party favor:


Two cousins:
Hanging out poolside with Elijah and Dash, and Aunts Sonja, Laura, and Sam

Looking Way Back: 4th of July in the Berkshires

Here are pictures from the golden, olden days of 4th of July weekend, which we spent in the Berkshires with the Sanders fam. This first picture reflects the difficulty of getting all three kids in one shot (forget getting them to all smile in one picture!). We corralled them for about five seconds in the sandbox and got all 3 kiddos deep into their doing own pensive thing:

Heavy rains created a chilly creek right in the backyard. Too cold for adults, just right for toddlers:

Dash and Elijah, hanging in ye olde smoke house:

Back to the sandbox:

Eating fig newtons (included just in case you thought there was no adult supervision):

The frog whisperer:

Thanks to Sam who took every single one of these pretty pix! A bunch more loaded up here.

It is Done!

Lovely Latoya the baby beautician, Elmo on DVD, and a snack trap of cheerios got Rosemary through it. She wasn't too happy about the whole sitch, but it was over before it had half begun. Really her new do looks pretty much the same, maybe just a little less shaggy on the sides. Hair still flops inconveniently in her eyes until we can chase her down and get a barrette all up in it.

Finally

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it
Long as God can grow it
My hair...

...will be a little shorter after tomorrow morning.

Germaphobes Read at Your Own Risk

Yesterday's Highlight: Listening to Jason patiently, sweetly explain to Rosie that just because a dog licks her on the lips doesn't mean she has to lick him back on his, at the same time. Apparently there was some pretty serious action going on between her and our neighbor's sweet-natured yellow Lab in the elevator.

Little Miss Defoliation

Well, I'm a little behind but hey, summer days drift away, don't they? The refrain around here has been pine cone, pine cone, pine cone. These pictures are from June, which was probably the height of Rosemary's pine-cone picking obsession. We couldn't walk outdoors without her asking for a "pie-known." (Later in the summer she doubled down, asking for "couple pie-knowns" at a go.) She started out because she liked to count them, or have them counted for her, but mostly I think that she's got the magpie bug (like a lot of toddlers) and likes to collect fistfuls of the same thing.

Rosemary owes me a Coke

Since I last posted we moved, went to DC for a sprawling family reunion, spent a bunch of time in the Berkshires...but more on all that later after I sort through the pix and video. For now, just a quick little anecdote from breakfast this morning. I handed Rosemary a spoon and a big bowl of yogurt. I mused out loud that I had no idea where her bib was. Watching her take a big, messy spoonful, I was about to say "Oh well!," which I did, but not before she said it too, first. Which I suppose means it wasn't technically a jinx. I guess that's not the first time I've said that.

Splash

We're almost at the end of the wettest Junes in NY history. There have been loads of foggy, misty, drizzly days, but yesterday we got a super duper downpour, more in keeping with usual summer rain around here. We went out afterwards in search of some good puddles.

Hey Good Lookin'

Toddlers hit the Old Homestead

Last Friday we visited the Lefferts Historic House with Maple and Henry and I left wondering one thing - why did we wait so long to get there? It's an 18th-century Dutch homestead in Prospect Park that has period rooms, all sorts of historic replica artifacts, and a big garden out front with (a highlight among all the other stuff) a patch of dirt for digging in. It's all done in this lovely, unfussy manner where they seem not to mind one bit that a small pack of toddlers is roaming around rearranging everything and trying to eat the historic replica checkers like Oreos. Left to right: Miss Ponytails, coy Maple, and adorable Henry.

Maple and Rosie enacting Dutch genre scene: