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!"