How Does Anna Like Her Pasta?

"long and
lots of !"

Translation: don't even think about cutting her spaghetti.
And make it a double.

Now that's Italian...

Christmas season: Day 1

Poor Santa. I don't think there is any way he's going to make it through another month of photos, much less stay up all night and deliver those presents.

You have to love the two screaming toddlers and one suspicious preschooler. Clearly, we're trying hard to keep it real in this season of materialism.

For the record, I never never never would have attempted this, but it all went much more smoothly than I expected. Thanks for the push, Grandma & Papa.

"It smells like chicken in here..."

And so goes another Thanksgiving, at least from Anna's point of view. She tried the cranberry sauce and enjoyed it. I think she was mainly attracted to the color of the cranberries; she referred to it as "the red stuff in that bin".

"Bin". I love that. I love how she uses her toy organization lingo.
She also tried the rice stuffing. Not so into that. She also prefers dark meat to light.

We were in Rochester for the holiday and had a great time with Grandma and Papa, Tyler, Nana, Aunt Stacy & Uncle Mike. The last-of-November weather was downright balmy by Rochester standards so we even got some quality outside time. (See photo for us in our hats.)

By far the best part of being outside seemed to be that Grandma still had the pool toys readily available. There were multiple instances of "American Gladiator"-esque fights with noodles and lots of beach ball-kicking. (It's a good thing the neighbors are nuts, too.)

The Answer Is: "I Did Crazy, Mommy!"

What is...
What don't you want your potty-training toddler to say to you as she walks out of the bathroom with a very satisfied grin on her face?

Fortunately for us all, she was referring to the stickers that she uses for her "potty reward chart". According to her chart, she had gone poo 34 times that day.

There's a Little Sigfreid...

... in all of us.
(Or was that Roy?)

At any rate, it's nice to know Thomas will always be able to find good, steady work in Vegas.

In other news, we went to our good friend Nya's birthday party on Saturday. An excellent time was had by all. Especially Thomas. At one point, Steve and I looked up from trying to cut pizza for Jack and control Anna and the drinkbox and wondered "where's the knife?"

Oh, no worries. Thomas had it.
heh heh! But he's fine! No worries, grandparents!

The other highlight was post-pizza and cake when most of the kids had moved to the other room for games, but the remains of party food were still out on the party tablecloth on the floor. I guess Thomas was thirsty, because I found him methodically picking up a drinkbox, slurping the last few drops out of it, tossing it aside and moving onto the next one. Over and over again.

I hope he's not that person who tosses back everyone else's half empty glasses at a cocktail party--

Heh heh heh... uh, Mom, are you filming this?

Ah, Jack.
Jack Jack
Jack Jack Jack.

Caught in the act.

It is always advisable not to pull hair while Mommy is trying to get the Christmas photo.

So let's See. Jack:

• Jack knows camera flashes. If you hold a camera in front of Jack, he starts blinking over and over again. Before you take the photo.
  (Until he decides to charge you for your lens cap.)
• Jack loves to whip his head and his hair back and forth in a "no" motion. He's even started to close his eyes while he does this. And smiles like crazy. I think he likes the feeling of his (admittedly somewhat) long hair in the back swishing around.
  For his part, Thomas thinks he has never seen anything funnier in his life.
  
• For a while now, one of Jack's favorite toys has been the doctor kit. Now, he can even get the latches open by himself.
  With his teeth (a few weeks ago).
  As well as his hands (just last week).
  
• For a long while, Jack was scared of all things Baby Einstein. The caterpillar, those puppets: it all scared the crap out of him. He would scream bloody murder whenever we put the DVD on. We have one Baby Einstein soft hand puppet and when Jack saw it, he screamed at that, too, and actually pointed to the TV (how did it get out??)
  And for a while, I think the hand puppet thing soured him on all things stuffed and furry. When I brought out some stuffed animals to sort through, Jack screamed and crawled away at high speed.
  But after a few days of doing this, he seemed to get a bit braver. He started to cautiously crawl towards the animal pile, poke one harmless-looking animal in the stomach with his index finger, turn around and crawl away. He would stop about 5 feet away and just watch. It was like he was checking to make sure it was dead.
  The good news is: after a few days of this, he seems acclimated to our furry friends.
  Thank goodness. Baby TV is Mommy's friend...
  

Learning To Eat

Jack is more of a "shove it in my mouth so you can see my nostrils" kind of guy, while Thomas clearly prefers the modified chopstick approach.

This Ballerina Doesn't Take Any Crap

Or, to paraphrase a very short former sitcom star and ex-California gubernatorial candidate: "wachoo talkin' about, Mommy?"

The Parent Teacher Conference

So. I've had my first. All good, for which I am thankful.

And guess what? Despite being the youngest in her class, the teacher said she is one of only a few who are working on writing her name.
And guess what? She can even write it.

Check it out...

I said "Anna! You wrote your name! That's fantastic." And she said "Yeah Mommy, but look I drew the ocean and those fishies, too!"

Shall We Dance?

While they are not exactly J. Lo and Richard Gere, Anna and Jack have enjoyed a turn or two around the dance floor of late.

And you are right: I never do seem to get any photos of my children wearing pants. Not sure exactly why.

Anna Quotes

• Anna in the middle of our preschool globe demonstration (for no reason apparent to myself or anyone else, mind you):
  "Jack is my boy!"
• After taking Anna with me to the Prenatal Yoga Center to hear a friend give a talk:
  "I did yoga when Winnie was in my tummy."
  
• Anna, it's time to stop wearing diapers to bed and start wearing Pull-ups.
• "but that doesn't make sense..."
• "but that is just not acceptable"
• Recently I found Anna holding one of her stuffed animal Nemos, a bit soggy. Our conversation went like this:
  

"My fish is wet."
Where did the water come from?
"My butt." "My fish jumped into the pee-pee."

• Anna, returning from a playdate with Cole that Jenny took her to, upon seeing Mommy taking the brothers out, all bundled up, in their stroller:
  "Mommy, how did you get out of the house?"
• "If you don't push me in the laundry basket Mommy, I'll put you in time out."
  As an aside: Anna never just makes me go into time out; she straps me in using any available restraining device.
• We are in the library. Anna sees a globe. She gets excited and walks closer.
  "Mommy, does it have a smart pen?"
  
• Anna wakes up one morning at 5AM. We get downstairs, I sit in the chair with her. She looks at me.
  "I think somebody is hungry..."
  Wow maybe if I teach her how to use the toaster and leave the syrup out on the couter I could sleep another hour. Or two.
  

Intensity, thy name is Anna

I love the look on her face.

It was just going to happen; there was no way I was going to avoid getting leaves dumped on me from a blue plastic shovel.

Well, It Had To Happen Eventually

Jack. Toilet. Lots of splashing.

You get the picture, right?

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

Right... that means I won't communicate in any way the fact that for the past week:

• Anna - vomiting
• Thomas - diarrhea
• Jack - fever.
  

Jack seems to be progressing nicely and is in good spirits. Anna & Thomas are going to the doctor tomorrow, as nothing is staying down.

heh. Or in.

Yikes.

Gotta Have Cowbell

It's Marathon Day!
We made it to the park on Sunday to watch the racers with our buddies Sebastian, Hugo & Jasper. It was a beautiful day & a great time.

We saw Lance go by!

Congrats to Mommy's friends Doc and Lilly who made it the whole way, right on Lance's heels. Better women than I, to be sure.

When It Is Us Against The Elements

We are not afraid of fall.
Or winter.
Or rain.












Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these children from Horsey Park, Hippo Park, River Park, the library or the Children's Museum.

We may lose assorted hats & gloves somewhere along the way, however.

The Edamame Gene

It may yet need to be isolated and identified by scientists, but it exists. My children have it.

They love this curious green bean. I had never in my life heard of it until maybe 2 years ago. I can't imagine why, as it even has its own web site: http://www.edamame.com/.
That's right: its own web site. Hmmnnn, vegetables today...

That's right: it's a vegetable. And it's green. And my kids love it. Must be a recessive, skip-a-generation kind of thing.

Anna loves it when they are unshelled so that she can pop the little beans out of the pod. Jack will push aside hamburger, french fries and pizza to stuff his face with it. But then, I think Jack is a vegetarian. He loves all things green and will go for green things before anything else.

In case you were wondering: Jack is definitely my kid--I saw him come out. He is the only baby I have ever seen with highlights at birth, so I know we took the correct one home.

Yuki Sushi

Pronounced "yoo-key" Sushi. It is a restaurant on the Upper West Side where Anna and I have lunch on Thursdays with Nya and Olivia.

Anna is totally enthralled by the chopsticks and little green dish for the Wasabi sauce. Given her Nemo-centric world view, she does not actually eat raw fish; right now, she prefers the Miso soup and chicken teriyaki. But she absolutely insists on using chopsticks. And she loves the edamame appetizer, especially the part where she gets to pop the beans out of their shell. Great fun.

What's So Frightening About This Photo?

Well, not much I suppose. Until you are told that this was taken immediately after Jack got into his highchair.

By himself.

That's right. Everything was quiet (much too quiet). I stopped loading the dishwasher and peeked into the dining room. There was Jack--and if I may mix my similes for effect--grinning at me like he had swallowed a million bucks. He was sooooooooo pleased with himself. He had climbed up the foot rest, crawled over the black tray, turned around and sat himself down in the seat.

I'm going to have to think a bit about how to babyproof this one...

Thomas Walks!

Yes! Proof. We are up to six steps. I think things would be progressing more quickly except for he fact that that Tommy's goal seems not so much to walk, but to be able to stand up and clap for himself. Which he is now quite good at.

And so what if he occasionally gets his butt stuck in the walker?

Thomas' other new trick: pulling divets out of Jack's hair.
It has happened twice. But only when Thomas is really, really mad.

Thomas also likes to play ball! He can throw and roll the ball to me and actually shows some interest in attempting to catch it. Or at least block it with his face.

Halloween Continued

So... Anna, Daddy and I went trick or treating at the Museum of Natural History. And it was quite nice. All the kids came dressed up in their costumes, there were lots of Halloween crafts, candy was given out at all the exhibits, there were numerous special shows and even well-known characters roaming about.

Like Nemo.
Who took the opportunity to fishie dance, in full costume, in front of the museum.

Even better: how often do you see this combo--Mommy, Nemo, and George Washington's face carved into a pumpkin? (Not sure what the other pumpkin was supposed to be).
Only in New York, kids. Only in New York.

But by far the standout items of the night were:

(1) A quote from Anna. As we gazed into the dolphin exhibit and I read aloud about dolphin diet, habitats, and mating, I tried to get the point across to Anna that dolphins are mammals, not fish. Mommy knows that humans are mammals too, so I tried to point out certain commonalities we have with our dolphin friends that she would be able to relate to. I have no idea what was in my head, but of course I mentioned nursing. I said something to the effect of: Just like Mommy nursed Thomas and Jack, dolphin Mommys can give their babies milk, too. Which of course prompted the question from Anna: "But where are their bras?"

(2) Chasing Clifford the Big Red Dog through the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs and then the length of the Millstein Hall of Advanced Mammals to get our photo op. I think Clifford was looking for a fire hydrant or something because he was moving and not so patient with the hordes of adoring fans. Anyway, about halfway through our chase I picked Nemo up by the fins and started running and Daddy sprinted ahead, blocked that Doggie's way and made him stand there until we caught up for our photo.

Thing 2, Nemo, Thing 1

Happy Halloween!
We went trick or treating at the Natural History Museum! (more to come on this tonight...)