SUCH a Big Girl

When you get a baby photo album or look through those books on baby health, they always have lists of milestones for your kid. Some of them are pretty standard - first tooth, first time in the big bath tub, first steps. Others are a little more strange - discovers toes, scoots on bum, etc. I find that there are several really endearing ones that just don't seem to be covered in the books, though.

For example, first time behind the wheel. My first time behind the wheel was when I was three, I think. I drove the silver bullet (silver station wagon) over a pine tree at Aunt Cindy's, across the road and a nice old oak tree stopped us. Thankfully, several safety measures have been put into effect to prevent such an adventure occurring with Penny. You see she goes for the gear shift just as I did. Nowadays, you have to press the brake pedal in order to get the gears to shift, though. Ah, technology - it can be a real life-saver sometimes.

This week also saw Penny's first nap in a big girl bed. We installed the bed in her room a few days ago right next to her pack-n-play. She often would go in and lay down when she got tired, but most times she would just pop back out again in five or so minutes. And thus while away a couple of hours. Today she took a solid two or three hour nap in there. I was beginning to worry she'd get TOO much sleep, so started taking flash photos of her big moment. I'm a mean mommy, I know.

Then there's things like really getting that something is wrong. I have been beating my head against the wall with Medicaid of late. I made some call recently where the customer service person told me as nicely as possible that Medicaid wouldn't cover any of my recent expenses. Well, I'd just had it that day and started to cry. Penny came over, gave me a hug and patted me on the back. She's just so supportive sometimes. I don't know what I'd do without her sometimes.

We may have a little rock star on our hands here. Penny really enjoys singing along with music, especially when she's the one making it. I'm not sure what this song is about exactly, but it is obviously very heartfelt. We have to work on the importance of singing pianissimo to make the forte parts more dramatic, though.

Tomorrow is the beginning of our next big first - first time Mommy goes on a trip without Penny. I've tried to prepare Dan and I've explained to Penny that I'm going to be away for a bit, but it might be a bit of a challenge on that first night. I know that when I was in the hospital Penny was pretty wigged out. But perhaps with regular calls and the occasional video conference we'll all make it through ok. Keep Penny in your prayers as she embarks on this next big adventure with Daddy.

What is Penny up to?

With Dan finally finished studying, he has been getting to spend more quality time with Penny. Among the first things on my list for his time home was getting a family portrait done. Maria was kind enough to do our portraits back when Penny was maybe four weeks old and we just haven't been able to find the time to do them again since then. So we made our appointment over at J.C. Penney, got all dressed up and I at least attempted to get a good night sleep. The sleep plan was viciously thwarted, but I wasn't about to risk rescheduling. Plus, it seems more realistic/accurate to be photographed that way, I guess. The photographer was impressively cheery and got some good shots despite Penny's repeated attempts to escape or get the camera. When we get them back, we'll be sure to share.

Here is some of the excitement that Penny and Daddy get to share on a daily basis. Now...Daddy has been a bit distracted recently: World Cup Football is on whenever a match is in progress. Penny has choices, though, because Grandma prefers watching the Yankees. So I think Penny might grow up either hating or loving sports, depending on how she likes her treatment when the game is on.

Meanwhile, I'm having fun working at the zoo. This lovely gentleman usually greets me in the morning on my way in to the office. Sometimes I get quite a show; other mornings, I seem to arrive before he has primped properly. It's a fun workplace - where else can you handle python in the morning, scare a few teachers onto tabletops by lunch, and snuggle a chinchilla before heading home for the night? These days, I'm practically full time as I put together my lesson plans for summer camp. I'm looking forward to hanging out with kids again. I just wish I had kept a little more of my handouts from various lessons I've taught before. It took me a while to compile some of the resources and it's not a lot of fun tracking them down all over again. I'll get it all together soon, though. It should be a really fun summer.

Governor's Island

Governor's Island is a little island in New York Harbor that used to be a US Coast Guard post for many decades. Due to restructuring, the post was abandoned and after what I understand to be some serious debate, it has become a national park. Though a New York native, Dan had never been to the island - it had only become a park in 2005 and it is only open to the public during the summer it seems. So, when I heard about family day there, I thought it would be an exciting adventure for everyone.

Dan, Penny and I hopped the FREE ferry from South Ferry (How cool is that? We get off the Staten Island Ferry, walk a block over and get on the Governor's Island Ferry.). It was time for lunch when we arrived, so we found a shady spot on the beach and took advantage of the conveniently located food carts. The island affords amazing views of downtown Manhattan - a little Grenada flavor here in New York? You also get great views of Brooklyn and all its bridges, the New Jersey skyline (skyscrapers and oil refineries), and the Staten Island skyline (an urban, yet surprisingly green lump).

After lunch, we headed inland to Colonel's Row. Here there were bikes you could rent for free - even this strange golf-cart-looking deal where four people could pedal to power it. We contemplated borrowing, but couldn't quite figure out how Penny would fit into the picture. Later, we discovered an adult bike with the kid seat on the back AND that you can put the little one into the front basket of the golf-cart-ish thing. Helmets were also available and I'm pretty sure I saw someone only a bit older than Penny wearing one. She's got a big head, so they had a good chance of having her size.

Since it was family day, there were concerts, organizations hosting activities, even an environmental theater performance. I volunteered briefly at the Cornell Cooperative Extension table where I showed kids how to use a dichotomous key to identify city trees and how to match photos of birds to their shadows. The shadow matching game is to help prepare kids to do citizen science. I love citizen science - it's an opportunity for everyday people to contribute data to scientific research. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is huge on citizen science. They're always coming up with fun things anyone can do - matching patterns in pigeon coloration, identifying the birds that visit a bird feeder, watching bird nests, etc. By looking at this information from all over the country, they can tell the geographic distribution of species, how colors vary, fledging rates, all kinds of fun stuff. It's a great way to get kids to appreciate nature, understand how science works, and feel like they're really making a difference. I jumped at the chance to volunteer because I really love that my school invests in this and I think it's fun stuff to tell people about.

While I was volunteering, Dan and Penny went for a walk because it was approaching nap time. Penny snoozed in her stroller while Dan read the signs telling about the island's history. I'm really pleased how much use we're getting out of this $25 EC stroller (that's about $8 USD!). Dan and Penny met up with our friends Karen and Paul and enjoyed some ice cream, running around screaming and other summer fun. We piled onto the return ferry at about 4:30pm and all headed home. All in all, a wonderful place to discover. I may volunteer for another event in July so we can go back. It has fishing and a number of other things we didn't explore yet. I'm not exactly thrilled about the idea of eating fish from New York Harbor, but it could be good casting experience for our family members who haven't done much fishing yet...

First Family Vacation

Ok, so arguably, Penny and I have been on "vacation" on and off for much of her life. However, this felt a little more familiar - my family used to do the long family road trip thing when we were younger. Florida was also our destination at least once or twice, so we were even covering familiar territory. So Dan took his USMLE step 1 test at long last on Wednesday, packed his bags and away we drove Thursday morning. The mid-Atlantic seemed to pass rather quickly and as evening approached, we found ourselves in the South. I recognize the South by the appearance of lots of pine trees whizzing by and the sheets of Kudzu covering the roadside forests like a big green blanket.

We got to our cousin's house at 9pm or so...just when Penny was starting to get a little slap-happy from being in the car for so long. She stayed up for another hour just to blow some of her pent-up energy. This being a solid three hours past bedtime, it meant she was in no condition to say hi to cousin Brighit in the morning. Brighit celebrated her first birthday the day after we headed out - can you imagine a whole year of family gatherings where the two of them always just miss each other. We'll get them together at some point, though, I'm sure.

Our next stop was in Macon, Georgia, where Penny got a taste of hotel living. She quite liked it! They have fancy rides like this one, Cheerios on tap, and huge runways just outside the rooms. We didn't even get to explore the pool - that would have really sealed the deal. She would have wanted to live there forever. As it was, we were just within striking distance of our final destination. We slept in and headed into the Pecan groves and Spanish Moss-draped forests of the Florida panhandle.

After a quick rest in our Tallahassee hotel, we headed over to the house of the bride-to-be for an informal BBQ. Here's some serious fun! Penny was one of maybe half a dozen kids and everyone was in the mood to play. There was some indoor playing during dinner, but then she took to running in the huge back yard. Cousin Noah was having a good time playing, but sometimes hugs turned into tackles. No one was injured, don't worry.

Penny also tried her hand a few times at taking photos for herself. This is one of Penny's pictures of her cousin Catie. Catie was passing a ball around with some of the other cousins and helped keep Penny from running out into the driveway or anything. Penny seems very much in awe of Catie whenever we see her - she's one of the few people with more energy than Penny. So Penny was likely pretty psyched to see her there and hung out with her for a bit at the wedding as well.

So here's the really lame part of the story...we forgot the camera at the hotel the day of the wedding, so no pictures of that at all. Pretty sad, no? It was really just beautiful, though! We sat in little folding garden chairs looking through a collonade of ten-foot high bushes to a still lake reflecting the low-hanging tumultuous gray clouds. Birds seemed to chirp everywhere and were occasionally interrupted by a cicada call, making it seem later in the summer than it really was. Spanish moss clung to the trees over a trail that curled away to the right of the ceremony area. The bride wore a strapless satin a-line dress that had the beautiful simplicity of the gardenias whose scent hung heavily in the air. The groom looked handsome in his gray tux, though he had to be sweltering in the muggy heat. After a brief ceremony, family and friends meandered through the garden through the reception area, enjoying the friendly dragonflies and delicate blooms hiding around every corner. Penny and Catie enjoyed a walk down to the lake, where Penny was quite intent upon wading into the pondside weeds to get to the refreshing water. Luckily, I was on the ball and managed to snag her before she dove in. Thunderstorms threatened all day, but refused to break the heat and humidity on the ground. Finally, as the frogs began their evening serenade, we headed back to the hotel.

Monday morning, we struck out nice and early in hopes of getting to North Carolina. Sadly, our plans were dashed - I was feeling a little ill by lunch and downright horrible by dinner. Somewhere in South Carolina we decided to call it quits for the day. And there we stayed for the next day as well because I hurt all over, had zero energy and the GI system was generally not too pleased. So...Penny got to enjoy some more hotel Cheerios and ran Daddy ragged all day. She especially creeped him out when she was running down the hall, stopped at a random door and put her hand on it for a solid minute, then exclaimed something to him and ran shrieking down the hallway (something about "The Shining"). We were pretty much the only patrons at this hotel and the staff at the Holiday Inn Express were nice enough to comp us some ginger ale and other comforts for upset tummy. After 24 hours, thankfully, my biggest problem was that I was STARVING and didn't trust my stomach much (though it handled everything from then on just fine).

We were quite relieved to make good time that day and arrived safe and sound in suburban Maryland around 8pm. It was funny stuff tooling around our old neighborhood looking for parking. There were YET MORE buildings that had gone up in our absence, even though they seemed to have built on every available inch when we were there. Penny made a good impression on our friend Mike, who hosted us for the night. She did exactly what I said right when I asked her to do it, no goofy stuff or running around screaming. Then she was exhausted enough to settle right down to sleep after checking out the condo briefly. This excellent behavior allowed us to get in a game of Settlers of Catan before heading to bed ourselves. I don't know that it would have been right to visit Mike without playing. The next morning, we stopped by my old office to say hi to folks. Everyone was excited to get to meet Penny in the flesh. Sadly, I had again forgotten the camera and it seemed wrong to disturb everyone all over again just to get pictures. After a quick lunch, I got to drive the home stretch. At long last, just before dinner on the seventh day, we made it home. And we rested. And it was good.

And I thought WE had a long drive!!