The Long March

I have been ditching the stroller and walking home with Cecilia from daycare all Winter, because once the streets got too clogged with snow it became more trouble than it was worth. I swear the space between Chestnut and Franklin streets along Pleasant will be permanently imprinted in my brain forever, like the walk from my mom's house to the subway station at 86th and Broadway or the drive from New York to Philly.

It is about 2/3 of a mile and takes almost 45 minutes with Cecilia walking and playing at least half of the way. At first it was really aggravating as I just wanted to get it over as quickly as possible (I still have some of the New York City speed-walking mentality) but eventually I started to look at it as a fun activity for us to share. Given that no one is home waiting for us for dinner or anything, there is really no reason to be in a hurry. What a blessing to be able to enjoy a stress-free commute home together, instead of fighting the traffic or cramming into a bus like most of the world!

She gets to explore everything and we talk about all of the things we see - it is amazing when you step back to notice just how much there is to see on the street. I got the idea from one of those kids books that shows different scenes and labels all of the objects in it. Buses, trucks, bicycles, moving cars, parked cars, driveways, garages ("car live there!"), fire hydrants, fences, gates, mailboxes, trees, cats, dogs, birds, people of all kinds, pumpkins, plants, telephone polls, pipes, airplanes, the moon, snow, snow, more snow, and the latest favorite, puddles.

With the snow melting there have been lots of puddles on the street and - like most kids I assume - Cecilia loves to jump in them. Lately we spend the walk scouting out the good puddles and her charging into them and jumping. Last night was pretty cute, because she wanted me to carry her the whole way once we passed River street, but then every time we passed a puddle I had to put her down so she could jump in it. Mission complete, she would turn to me, raise her arms and say "carry you!". Needless to say we are still working on pronouns, but I'm really not too worried about it.


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I can think of two people who will really like this video

Sorry for the sideways video.

Dragon Dance!

We went to Chinatown for the Chinese New Year parade and some Dim Sum today. Cecilia and the boys LOVED the dragon dance. You can't really tell from this video but she was totally into it. We must have watched this 25 times already on my phone.

Note to self, don't flip the camera around during filming!

Grandma's BIrthday

We spent the weekend at my Mom's house for her birthday weekend. Jerry and Arlene came over for dinner and Joanne cooked a delicious prime rib. Pictures are on Picassa here.

Blogging as Catharsis

I am sure at some point it will sound really silly, but this morning Cecilia told me she didn't love me and I was totally devastated. What a terrible morning - I may not survive her adolescence.

UPDATE - Thanks to everyone that helped me get perspective on this, I realize I over-reacted and need to toughen up about this kind of thing. The other alternative I am considering is cutting off my ears...

Catch Me If You Can

My mom was here the other weekend and everyone came over for brunch. Jacob and Cecilia had a good time together usual.

No More Shoveling for Me!

More pictures here.

Drinking the playground water

More oldies but goodies. This was when she was a little over a year old in the playground right by our house. The first one is pretty funny because she sees some water, and what are you supposed to do with water?? Drink it, of course!



And here she is playing with the toy truck and the playground pebbles.



What a wonderful little girl.

Cecilia's Kitchen

Cecilia has a new play kitchen! She spent the first few days trying to stuff everything in the oven, then in the microwave, and now she likes to cook "Rice and egg with (oyster) sauce!" and also "hamburger!". :) Here are a couple videos of the first day with the new kitchen.



This second video is a little bit later. Note that ALL the drawers are open, which is as she prefers it, and that everything is a mess. :)

Eating watermelon!

Here's another oldie but goodie. This is Cecilia when she was just over a year old. She was going through watermelon like crazy, but this was probably the first time we gave her a whole slice of watermelon to try to eat on her own.

Batman!

There's a boy at her school who (surprise) is really into superheroes. As a result, Cecilia knows how to say "Bad guy in the closet!" and knows the songs to Spiderman and Batman. What's really funny is that the Batman song she knows is from the 1960's, starring Adam West... more than 40 years before she was born. Here's an example: