Two and Three-Quarters

What is half of two and three-quarters?

Halloween, Just Around the Corner

Brooklynites are getting their decorations up. Here's one Rosemary wanted to stop to check out on our walk to school this morning:

October Pix

All tricked out for Halloween. Those are Halloween pants and we discovered there is a hole in them, prompting R to sing all week long, "There's a hole in the bottom of my pants! There's a watermelon on the hole in the bottom of my pants!" to the tune of "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea," which I think she learned at school.

A few from apple picking in Connecticut yesterday:

Note the ginormous watermelon above, which I guess it what she should have been sitting on given the song she made up. Below, Rosie and Beatrice taking a load off courtesy Bea's dad Dale:

Big girl bed. Transition from crib was a crazy success. Hallelujah:

Playing Candyland. Her way.

Licker Fan

Rosemary has been known to eat a brussels sprout or two, so last night when we roasted some with maple syrup-roasted, I put a couple on her plate. She started to eat one and then decided just to lick all the maple syrup off instead. Jason or I, can't remember which, said, "I thought you were a fan of brussels sprouts?" to which she said, "No. I'm a licker fan." Welcome to the family. But not for 18 1/4 more years, missy.

On another topic, there are a couple of things she says that I don't want her to stop saying, or at least I don't want to forget:

Blanklet instead of blanket

Crumeshan cheese instead of Parmesan cheese.

School's Neighborhood

School is still cool. It's like some secret society though, since they don't let us come in past the cubbies. (Have I said that already? Probably, sorry about that.) A lot of nursery schools have secret viewing windows, but at R's school they smartly keep the grownups out of the classroom spaces.

Anyhow, today Rosemary's teacher sent us this picture of the neighborhood they've been building together. Not too exciting unless you have been hearing tell of it for the past few weeks. It has everything you need: house, house, playground, park, airport, restaurant, chocolate shop. Looking at this picture I can't quite see how they navigate around it without knocking it all to pieces but I guess they make it work!

A Conversation

Rosemary to Jason this morning, while they were playing in her room: "Jennifer should say goodbye."

Jason: "Who's Jennifer?"

Rosemary: "You."

Fort Tilden

We set out today to go to Floyd Bennett Field, the abandoned airport-turned-parkland in Brooklyn. Turns out Sat not Sun is the day to do this - they have a hangar full of old airplanes and a visitor center, both open only Saturday. Not a bust though. To paraphrase Jason, it was one of those outings where we think we're in uncharted territory, but of course nothing in Brooklyn is uncharted territory. We stumbled upon girls' gymnastics in a big airplane hangar, and model car racing somewhere outdoors. Heard it first rather than saw, as it sounds like killer robot bees from Africa flying by. (Here is someone else's video that looks/sounds basically the same.)

Then we decided to go over the bridge into Rockaway to walk on the beach at Fort Tilden. It was gorgeous. Just a few fisherman and a few other people running their children and/or dogs. Sparkling day. Here is Rosie taking a pretend picture of us:

And us sitting on "the square" as Rosie called it.

Chelsea Morning

We three went to Chelsea to see some gallery shows today. Art, at least a lot of it, hasn't been Rosemary's thing lately. I have been dragging her occasionally anyhow, but I think we'll cool it for now. Paintings and sculptures and photographs are pretty boring, and videos are interesting but tend to freak her out if they're loud or in an immersive environment an any sort. Usually we go in somewhere and after about 15 seconds she just looks at me and says, "Let's get out of here."

Today we went into see Pipilotti Rist's show at Luhring Augustine gallery, which has big videos of sheep in it (therefore of potential interest), but when we got there she graciously declined to go in. Even when I told her that there was a big hanging sculpture made of underpants in the back room:

She told me it was "too gallery-y." Instead we went to a park (new to us) called the Chelsea Waterside Park for a good runaround.

Apples and Pears

Here are a few pix (and picks) from, I think, Labor Day weekend? Not sure exactly, but not so long ago. Now it's thoroughly turned to fall in the Berkshires, so these pictures feel ancient. There are two old apple trees up there. We don't know what kind they are, but in the past they have both produced lots of puny, bumpy apples that are tart and delicious if you can find a place worth biting. I guess it must be a great year for apples because this year we got tons of delicious, pretty decently sized ones. We have applesauce coming out of our ears. And actually out of our freezer, too, since there is just not enough room in our city freezer for a country bumper crop. My mom once broke her toe when a container of meat fell out of her freezer on to it. I should be careful. (Broke, Mom? Do I have that right?)

Oh, and there's a much newer pear tree, too, that was not to be outdone.

Here's one R took a special liking to:

Overheard

Jason gave Rosie a carrot yesterday. She ate some, then handed it back. He said, "Do you want anymore? If not I'm going to toss it." (This often leads to reconsideration and more bites.) She said no. But then, instead, he took a bite. She said, "Toss it into your mouth?"

And, an unrelated bonus: here's the price I pay for making dinner. A pen-and-torn-paper angel? That used to be one giant piece of paper.