New York Hall of Science

In our ongoing endeavor to explore every cool corner of New York, our adventure this week took us to the New York Hall of Science. Located just across the grass from the U.S. Open, we were lucky to hit it before all the tennis afficionados flooded Queens. Penny and Paul grabbed pole positions to test their reaction times - it wasn't a very accurate test because their feet couldn't reach the gas pedals. It was tons of fun steering, all the same.


The best part of the day was when we were joined by little buddy Kylan and we headed to the Science Playground outside. As usual, splashing in any form of water was infinitely fun. Sadly, the rather overdressed Penny was the only one with a spare outfit, so our buddies got to show off their muscular chests when we returned indoors for lunch.

We spent some time exploring some very advanced topics. Here, Penny is learning about networking and the world wide web by connecting various black and pink terminals to each other using the strange little blocks. Unlike her daddy, who dreams of networking all our CPUs to create a super computer capable of unspeakable calculations per second (we finally got our CPU count reduced to match our people count in the house, I think), Penny prefers to have a single unnetworked system that won't be infected by the bugs in the other terminals.

We were just getting into the preschool area when naptime overtook us again and we had to head home. Curse you, sleep! Thankfully, we had a good 90 minute drive in stop and stop traffic all the way home, followed by a visit to the mall, so Penny got a good two hours of napping in before we got home for dinner. Whew! What a full day!

Birthday Extravaganza!

Well, it has been a whirlwind week or so. The celebrating began with a week off between teaching at the zoo and starting my new position at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. During that week, I caught up with some colleagues, hung out with folks from Grenada, and generally didn't do any relaxing whatsoever.

On Wednesday, Penny and I joined some of our neighbors from Grenada for a visit to the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Ok, I'll be seeing a lot of the place for a while, but what better place to take our friends than somewhere they can touch and do everything they can reach. And there's lots for them to reach! We arrived and went straight to the section for folks under age 5 and before we knew it, lunch time had arrived. After lunch, little ones were feeling sleepy, but they hadn't even gotten to my section of the museum yet. The additional water play, tunnel under the pond and other fun stuff made them forget all about napping...for a little while. Eventually, though, the exhaustion became overwhelming and we had to leave. This was Penny's second trip and it was just as fascinating and fun as the first. We discovered all new things this time around and she had friends to show around as well.

It was really fun meeting up with my colleagues as well. It has been a few years since I've seen them and it is nice to find out what has been happening while we were away. Moving to a city this size, I kind of assumed I had to know someone here, and it is nice to find friends and reconnect. They were interesting sources of information on how folks and institutions in the field are doing. It was also really nice to get a little encouragement as I tackle my new job - getting told that I was always very reliable and timely at delivering on my promises. I've been nervous lately, so it's good to hear.

Then, as icing on the cake, my Dad came out to visit. I was a little sad because his visit was short by necessity. We had a quick visit out to Coney Island, where we also met up with my cousin Emily. We all enjoyed some Nathan's hot dogs...something that folks back home might refer to as a "Coney Dog," but is called just a Nathan's hot dog here. I remember when Dan first brought me here, I had asked if they had Coney dogs at Coney Island and he had asked what on earth that was. I guess it's sort of like going to England and English muffins are just called muffins. Sadly, it started really pouring down rain before we were even finished eating. We drove by my museum, then dropped Emily off at her place (she lives right by the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge Park - a definite must-see for anybody with kids!!).

Then on Monday I started my spiffy new job at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. I seem to choose jobs with steep learning curves, it seems. On my first day, I discovered I've got quite a lot of ground to cover and some deadlines coming up pretty soon. I'll likely take this week to tackle one or two big deadlines, then I'll have a nice spot in September to do some planning and approach the coming year a bit more strategically. So much to do and so little time...

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes!!

Day of Hope

A friend of mine recently referred me to a blog she'd encountered by a friend who had lost two pregnancies. She has set aside August 19 as "A Day of Hope" to remember the lives of her two children. It seemed a good time for an update on Augustine.

Augustine now has a permanent marker over at Resurrection Cemetery. She shares it with quite a few other beloved little ones. It's a strange place in the cemetery - so many stuffed animals, toys, and odd little things that only a child would pick up because they strike them as fascinating.

There was an analysis of the placenta and cord showing some clotting, but no reason why it might have done so. I've been seeing a hematologist to figure out if perhaps I've got some blood clotting disorder. We have discovered 1) I am heterozygous for a gene called MTHFR. That means I have one bad and one good copy of the gene. As long as I've got one good copy, we're a-ok. Penny should stay away from mutant MTHFRs, I suppose, but most sci-fi movies indicate that is generally good advice. 2) Though I test kinda low for a number of blood clotting factors on occasion, I am not consistently deficient in any of them, so it is unlikely I have a blood clotting disorder that would have caused Augustine's demise. 3) I am terrible at taking blood tests. After my last round, which drew smelling salts, several rounds of vomiting, a complete change of wardrobe and an entire DAY of recovery, I pretty much decided that we're done with blood tests. 4) Medical insurance causes more complications than I have time to describe here. One result is that I must continue to take baby aspirin (a safety precaution to help thin my blood in case I did have some blood clotting issue) until I get my new insurance, determine if my hematologist takes it, and then reschedule with him or another hematologist so they can give me the official blood test review and ok to stop taking aspirin.

I was really excited to finally get a primary care provider. Since we've been overseas, I haven't had a regular doctor who has all my medical history and is willing to spend a minute talking to me. This lady is one Dan found and she's an SGU alumna. She was really nice, listened to what I told her about my health problems, answered my questions and generally made me feel like I was in good hands. She and the other doctors in her practice recently had kids, so she recommended an OB/Gyn that they really like. Dan and I do want to try again, but I have really been dreading trying to find an OB/Gyn who will actually listen to me, not laugh when I tell them my method of birth control, not tell me that I've been hiding things from them, and won't look at me like I'm crazy when I describe how I delivered Penny and how I want to do it like that again. I know that now I'm in a high risk category and the likelihood of a doctor actually letting me deliver the way I want to is ridiculously low. I'm scared to death of being trapped in a bed for hours on end where I'm just expected to lay there while the doctors do what they think is best. I've heard too many horror stories and I fear that doctors here have been taught to think that birth is a medical procedure, not a naturally occurring process. My fear of the OB/Gyn almost outweighs my fear of losing another child. I really hope the doctor I got referred to takes my new insurance and turns out to be trustworthy and nice.

All in all, I can live with the answers I've got at this point. I have enough to move forward. My life isn't in danger, there's no known reason why we can't try again, it's just a matter of figuring out timing that makes sense. Probably not soon - gotta at least see what the new job is like! It promises to be really interesting and I'm sure there will be lots of opportunities to grow. Though the route has been rough, God has carried us this far and laid opportunities before us that we didn't even think to ask for. We'll get to where we're meant to go.

Time Off

This past week I had some time off because we didn't have quite enough 4-6th graders to keep me busy at the zoo. With Dan home as well, we decided to live it up and see some sites before I start my new job. Our first excursion: off to the beach to find the elusive beach cleaning machines. After researching when low tide would be (seemed a good time to clean in my opinion), Penny and I headed off to the nearest beach on Staten Island figuring we'd either see the machines or just keep heading South until we passed them. Thankfully, we found a couple of guys on their coffee break. The machine on the back of the tractor picks up the sand and gunk at the high tide mark, shuffles it through some brushes and other doo-dads, then spits out just the sand at the back. Penny drove right through the break where the guys must have turned off the machines because there is an abrupt end in the weeds, trash and seashells where her tire marks are. For me, this type of machine is pretty impressive, though it frightens me that there was a driving need to invent it. At the same time, though, I know there used to be needles and other medical waste washing up onshore around here, so I definitely respect that someone took matters into their own hands to make the beaches safer.

The weirdest part of the excursion, though, was the drive to the beach. Penny and I were about to turn into the parking lot for the beach when I spied an animal crossing sign. I wondered who had such a pampered pet that they had managed to convince the city to put up a sign. When I looked below the sign, I spotted this handsome gentleman and five of his siblings. I pulled over to snap a photo and he came right up to the window to see if I had any snacks to share. It felt like some kind of strange Thanksgiving safari park. Once home, I asked if it was normal to spot these guys and, sure enough, these are regular residents/beggars for this particular Staten Island beach scene (Midland Beach). I wonder if they're protected birds or if they have to worry during turkey season. Hmmm...he looks juicy, doesn't he?

On Wednesday, we headed to the New York Aquarium in Coney Island (Brooklyn). Penny had a blast checking out the fish, being buzzed by the walrus in the underwater window gallery, trying out all the little hands-on thingies that were at just her height in some of the galleries. My favorites were the jellies, though some of the open-air tanks were also impressive. Dan had fun meeting up with some of his old forkling buddies (remember the Grenadian combo of snorkling and fishing?) in some of the tanks. He had fun asking Penny if she remembered seeing them from the dock. It was a little crazy there with all the summer camps visiting, but once they started leaving at 2pm or so, we were able to get much better views of everything. Sadly, that meant that Penny was WAY overdue on her nap for the day.

Yesterday, we got up bright and early for a hike in Greenbelt Park before the sun got too hot. I like that bright and early here means we were at the park by 8am (not the much earlier hour down in Grenada). It was a nice little trail, though somewhat tough with an umbrella stroller. Penny got out and drove for a little bit when we got to the golf course. She REALLY wanted to go on the green, but I thought the golfers might object. At some point, I explained to Penny that the little symbols on the trees let us know we're on the right path. We were following the "nature center trail" so our symbol was a blue box with a white letter "n." As I paused to take a picture of a spider, Penny rather insistently yelled "ON." I figured she was telling me she wanted to move on. But as we continued, she would say that over and over. Soon, I discovered she was pointing to the trail signs, telling me we were on the right path (or which path to take when we got to an intersection). I'm excited - knowing how to stay on the right path is an important skill for hiking. Now we just have to train her to walk for more of the hike and we're good to go on some serious walks.

This coming week is my last week of camp. I've been a little exhausted by the process, so there is a certain amount of relief. At the same time, it's a little sad to not get to play with the kids any more. I'll have a short period to get things in order before starting at the museum, and maybe see one or two more exciting things in NYC on weekdays. So much excitement and so little time!

Flashbacks

It has been lots of fun working summer camp over at the zoo. I get to tap into all the fun activities I have led over the years. For example, this past week we did a little mummy wrapping, which is a total rehash of the Girl Scout overnight programs we used to plan at the Dayton Museum of Natural History back when I was a Cadette/Senior (I might be the back of head in the right foreground here, my sister Amanda obviously has a question). The new twist was I could show off pictures of my recent trip to Egypt to talk about where they would find cartouches and pharoah's names. I have been frustrated from time to time because I remember these great activities and handouts that I had. I'm all excited about doing the activity for myself, but have to make the handouts afresh because I left them at my prior workplaces. Lesson learned for next time!

Another fun part of teaching camp is that it gives me an excuse to visit amazing sites here in NYC. I have now been to all five boroughs. This week's field trip took us to the Bronx Zoo, which is pretty darned snazzy, BTW. I definitely hadn't expected to find a totem pole there. Even though the Bronx Zoo is the biggest blockbuster zoo in the area, our little zoo on Staten Island has something they don't - kangaroos! So our campers got to see the best of both zoos, really.

I don't know that I remember camp being as exhausting as this back at the Dayton Museum of Natural History, though. These 4-6th graders have me ready to collapse by the end of the day. They're good kids, pretty knowledgeable and enthused about animals. It's just summer and they're ready to have some fun running around and stuff. It has been entertaining trying to keep the balance between science content and trying to wear them out with an ever-changing variety of tag games. Hmmm...am I getting old? Or do I just need to get more than 6 hours of sleep per night?

We had a little flashback to Grenada this weekend when we helped Paul celebrate his second birthday. It was nice seeing some of our friends from pool day, even when there is no pool in sight. It was fun seeing the kids able to enjoy the sand-like gravel at long last. In Grenada sand was just a nuisance, getting into every crack and crevice, then getting ground into the eyes. I'm almost tempted to take Penny to a beach at some point. The folks at the party seemed to think we have some decent beaches here on Staten Island. They might have thought I was joking about the sand zamboni machine, though. The need for that machine really creeps me out. I promise, I really will get a picture of it at some point to post. That may require me to go to a beach around here. I guess I've got a few days off before starting my next job and might find time to squeeze it in. We'll see.