Hand over hand, foot over foot

Venturing forth both to a new favorite place nearby & gaining confidence, bravery & ability. We don't need to go far for adventure & beauty.

For the birds

Draping bits of beautifully colored sheep's wool roving in the trees & bushes for the birds to find. Perhaps this spring will find many rainbow-hued birds' nests in our neighborhood?

Want more of this

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Princesses

Little M's fascination with princesses is catching. I, too, find myself enchanted with castles, keeps, moats, guards, tall towers with banners flying... and the little princesses who live there.

1. Princess Anne's pet bear

2. Princess Ingrid

3. Princess Anne

4. Princesses Grace & Stephanie ice skating

5. Princess Grace and little Princess Stephanie

6. Wee Princesses Margaret & Elizabeth

7. Princess Margaret all grown up with her own wee ones

Swandives & Jackknives off the Couch

M & I love to dance to this song. The rug is the ocean, the couch is an island & the chairs are rocks & beaches. We play it again & again & again.

Mommy's Girl

So Baby M has got a big case of Mommy's Girl. It's gotten pretty bad. Only I can take her out of the highchair. Only I can wash her hands and face. Only I can pick her up in a crowd. Only I can read her stories, even though she loves being read to almost more than anything else in the world. You get the picture.

It's gotten so bad that last weekend, I picked up a little board book called Daddy Loves Me. Yes. Propaganda. We've resorted to propaganda. "Look, MarMar! Look at the daddy pushing the baby in the swing! That baby sure is happy. Look at that big smile!"

Funny thing is that she LOVES this book. She wants to hear it over & over again... but only if I read it to her. If R tries to take a turn, it's tears, snot & a panicky begging for "Mommy, hold you!"

I hope, hope, hope this phase will soon be over. Don't get me wrong. It's nice to be needed & loved, but I'd much, much rather share that honor (and the hand-washing & the holding & everything else).

Newness

A new haircut that feels just right.

A new blankie & a super-soft new doggie added to the bedtime menagerie (Thank you, Anie!)

And soon to leave for a family beach vacation in Florida. Three cheers for sand, waves & ocean breezes. I can hardly wait! Doesn't it look amazing?

Images here

A Star is Born!

Looks like today was the day we'd all been waiting for.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a little yellow & black striped caterpillar feeding on one of the milkweed plants in our backyard. Every day, I'd go out to check its progress & watch it grow fatter & longer, until one morning it left its feasting grounds & was hanging upside down from a vine tendril nearby. Next time I checked, it looked like this:

I clipped off the bit of vine & set it up in its new mason jar home on our kitchen window sill. I could not wait for it to emerge.

This morning, the bright green, ever still, unmoving chrysalis had turned black & I could make out the wing markings of the monarch butterfly curled up inside. It was time to let it go.

Amazing! Godspeed, beautiful butterfly. I hope you have a long life & your journey goes safely & smoothly.

Baby M auspiciously wore her beautiful new butterfly dress today. What luck!

Fearless Flying

Browsing the bookshelves in R's parent's house, I stumbled across a book co-written by R's Uncle Fred. It's a guide to help people with airplane-o-phobia. I enjoyed looking at all the early '80s photographs of airports, airplanes & stewardesses and was surprised to find myself sucked in by the remarkably lively language. At the very end of the book, the authors conclude with this sentence:

"We leave you with the hope that [this will help] you achieve an orderly, meaningful & optimistic life."

That's it, isn't it?

(Photo of me & my Dad, neither of whom are afraid of flying)

Der Struwwelpeter

Baby M is obsessed with this book and it's kinda making me worry. I know it's a classic, but dang. I don't know if it's a good idea for her to be looking at this. Every story ends with some naughty kid getting punished in some bizarre moralistic way. Death by fire anyone? Or drowning? Or how about that tailor who snips off the fingers of the bad children who won't let their parents trim their fingernails? I'm sure they had it coming.

Ring Around the Rosy

This morning, Baby M kept looking at me & saying Asheh Asheh. It took me a minute to realise that she was asking to play Ring Around the Rosy, a game we had only played twice before and several weeks ago, at that. So, I took her hands, sang the song & walked in a circle with her & she sat down at the Asheh Asheh part. Of course, we had to do this over & over again.

It is so amazing to me how much she remembers & takes in. It gets me every time.

Illustration from Kate Greenaway's Mother Goose

A walk in the park

This morning, M & I went to Central Market on 35th Street to pick up what turned out to be many, many bags of groceries. Before I buckled her into the cart, though, we took a turn through the little park behind the store. M walked up & down the steep embankments to the wet pond, we greeted a few dogs & little old ladies, then stood on an arched bridge & fed the ducks (so many different kinds here this winter!)

It's a tiny urban park, but you'd never guess it from these photos.

Grackles & ducks:

Baby locks no more

Yesterday, I took M to get her first haircut. It was a bit sad to see those sweet, soft locks fall to the ground, but really, that mullet had to go. She has the cutest little bob now, very classic baby girl style. Here she is waiting to get her hair cut:
The shop has little cars for the kids to sit in while they get their hair done.

They have little video screens too. M watched her first ever Elmo show & got very, VERY excited... and then very, VERY agitated when Snuffleupagus appeared. Can you blame her? Creepy!