Clean Toast

Katie has been resisting breakfast lately. Being such a big eater, this surprises us. She, like many other people, goes through phases of what she likes for breakfast. Lately it's been "drinking yogurt" and toast. Katie often asks for the toast "clean." Of course we know she means "dry," but it's pretty funny to hear her ask "may I have some clean toast please?" Monday morning, Katie thought her cowgirl hat was appropriate breakfast attire.

** what I recently figured out that in Katie's pre-potty learning world, clean=dry. When her diaper is clean, it's dry. I think this may have something to do with it, but it's just my guess.

Dinosaur Night!

Nana and Papa came on Sunday afternoon and Katie said she wanted to take them to Dinosaur park. We were surprised because Hippo, as you know, is her favorite, but dinosaur is closer so it was fine. Dinosaur is named, as you see, for the statues in the middle of the playground. Katie really did more walking up and down the stairs than playing on the equipment, which again reminded me why we like Hippo more. But it was very nice of Nana, Papa, and Yeshey to put up with Katie's wandering.

And then after dinosaur playground, we had dinosaur bbq. My parents wanted to see my inlaws, so they came in for dinner and picked up dinner on the way. Dinosaur Barbecue is this great restaurant in Harlem. It's pretty difficult to get a reservation there and they don't deliver. However, they are convenient to the West Side Highway (across from the big Fairway), so it's a good thing to pick up on the way from NJ to the UWS. My mom suggested that we give Katie a rib. "How can you deny her?" my mom asked. Okay, I didn't know what she'd do with it because we haven't encouraged her to eat off the bone before, but as you can see below, she loved it and took the job very seriously

Break Fast

My parents invited all of their friends and their friends' children to a big breakfast. Katie had a great time playing with her friends and cousins. Of course Pete, Mitch, & Robin were all there. At one point I even found her hanging out with the "big boys" on my parents' bed watching a non-2-year-old appropriate movie. I lured her out of the room by offering to share "Panda" with her. You see, Panda was my absolutely favorite stuffed animal when I was little. I got him at a store called "Bear Necessities" in Quincy Market, in Boston when I was 4 and I slept with him almost every night until I went to college. Looking at Katie's puppies, Panda is in amazingly good shape for a 29-year-old well-loved bear. And I still wear a Bear Necessities t-shirt that was Rachel's she got a few years later. Anyway, Panda was enough to lure Katie away from the ever-intriguing boys and she played with him the rest of the night. Panda now spends his retirement years with my dad.

I loved catching up with some of my favorite people. And Katie loved playing with the girls. Here she's playing Ring around the rosie with Maddie, Robin, and Abby. Here are all the girls

Kol Nidre

I cooked dinner for Erev Yom Kippur at my parents' house and Katie had a special treat - Aunt Lesley came! We all went to Kol Nidre (my dad sings in the choir) and my mother stayed home with Katie. We got back at 10 and there was Katie - up and playing. A late night for Katie, and a nice holiday.

Kobi comes over

Very often, Katie will say to us in the morning, "We go to somebody's house today?" or "I want somebody to come over today." She's pretty clear about this, sometimes adament. I think she's a social child - either that or she's bored with Mommy. Either way, she loves playing with people. And today, we went to someone's house and had someone over, so Katie was one happy little girl. We went to Jamie's house first and she was so excited to go. "I want to bring a snack with me and share with Jamie. I want an apple. I want a red apple and Jamie wants a green apple."

And then Donna and her dog Kobi came over. I don't know Katie was more excited to see, she loves them both. Katie had on her best manners for Donna. I was making lunch and she asked me "may I have some tomato?" Katie's "May I" requests are so cute, they sound so polite and formal. I think Ania has encouraged her to say "may I have" and that's really great. But so funny to hear it come out of this little mouth.

Katie's saying a lot of funny things lately. Out of context, some of them sound kind of snide, but they are not when she says that and I don't think that's her intention at all. This morning I suggested that she kiss Daddy goodbye before he left. She told me "You kiss Daddy goodbye Mommy. I'm too busy." I know kids parrot what they hear - but I can't imagine where she got this one - we're never too busy to give her a kiss or attention. Similarly puzzling is her answer to why she's doing something, "because I can."

Katie sees Stacey

One of the treats for me at many holidays is seeing my friend Stacey and catching up with her and her family. As I lamented recently, we don't get down to DC as often as we'd like so the only time we see her is her trips to Teaneck for the holidays. Stacey is one of my few friends who was actually well acquainted with the "original" Katie, my Cabbage Patch Kid. So it's so special for me that she knows the "real" Katie so many years later. Katie put on quite a show for the Werner clan. It was clearly past nap time during our visit and at one point she took off her shoes and socks, laid down on the carpet, and said she was going to sleep. She didn't, but it was amusing nonetheless.

My cousin

Katie woke up from her nap today and said, "Mommy, when's my birthday?" I told her when it was and that she had a few more months to go. "My cousin's coming to my birthday party." My cousin always refers to Robin, unless she specifies Pete or Mitch.
"Yes Katie, your cousin will come to your birthday party."
Katie continues "My Aunt Lesley will come to my birthday party. At my house. My Dima will come to my birthday party at my house."
I don't know what she was dreaming about, but so funny to think of Katie having another world of dreams that we don't see. But in general, we often wonder what goes through her mind.

Here are some pictures from Rosh Hashanah dinner at Debbie's house. Robin decided to play dress up with her Belle ballgown so Katie got to dress up in Robin's sleeping beauty dress. You can guess correctly that Robin is very into the princesses. We're hoping Katie skips that phase... At one point Robin decided she wanted her "alone time." Poor Katie was absolutely crushed! Peter took her outside and played on the jungle gym type thing. Here they are sharing a swing. Being an urban toddler, you must know that it was quite the novelty for Katie to just go outside to a swing.

Katie's pushing Peter on the swing. My mother seemed to think that it was okay that Katie was barefoot.

L'Shanah Tovah

I usually send out a Rosh Hashanah e-greeting with the girls and apples and honey (for a sweet new year). I spent a lot of time trying to get both girls to pose. Meadow was much more cooperative than Katie. This is the best one and I'll make it into a card tomorrow. But I'll share some of the others because they are funny. Katie kept trying to get Meadow to eat the apple, practically shoving it in her mouth.

Meadow's interested in the apple, Katie's run away.


Katie tries to get Meadow interested in the apple


Katie pushes Meadow's face into the apple. Meadow ignores child's desires in favor of adult expectations. Yeah Meadow.

Rainy Day Meadow

There's a huge storm here right now and Meadow's pretty upset. As I've mentioned before, she hates heavy rain and thunder. Here's Meadow hiding under Ania's chair while she feeds Katie lunch.

Happy Birthday Kevin!

For even more fun this weekend, it was Kevin's birthday party. Here's Katie sitting next to the birthday boy eating pizza - possibly Katie's favorite food. We had a fun time in the playroom and it was nice because a lot of the dads were there, something that doesn't happen often. At one point I was chatting with a friend and we realized that the dads were watching the kids so the moms could actually stand around and chat and not chase the kids around the room. Peter even made it to the party, despite a lot of work this weekend.

Here's Peter helping Katie with the tricycle.

And here's Katie very interested in the cake

There was an overall Sesame Street theme to the party - Kevin's a big fan. When she was done with her piece of cake, Katie said, "I want Cookie Monster to wipe my face! I want Cookie Monster to wipe my face!" It took me a minute to realize what she was talking about - there were napkins with Cookie Monster's face and she wanted one of those. I thought this was funny and mentioned it was probably blog worthy and another mother there mentioned she had a blog of her son too. I think it's probably pretty common now since blogs are so accessible and such an easy way to keep people updated. But this woman also said that keeping a blog has been "one of the best things she's done as a mother." It's a journal and record of her son's life. I couldn't agree more. Katie now loves seeing pictures of her and it's fun for both of us to look back at how she's grown. And I realize that I wouldn't remember all the little details of what she's said or done when if it was not for the blog. So thanks for reading and giving me a reason to write this.

Happy Birthday Aunt Lesley!

That's Lesley there, on the left. The reason Katie's grandparents were in this weekend is that it was just Lesley's 30th Birthday and there was a really fun party for her on Saturday night. What made it so fun was all of Lesley's friends. She has really wonderful friends and it was great to see them. Lesley's a wonderful person herself, so it's not surprising that her friends are too. I've met so many of them over the past few years and I love that they all ask me about Katie and know what a terrific aunt Lesley is to her. Will post a pic of the party, if I get a good one.

This picture of Lesley was from her Ride for the Cure bike ride in Montana a few weeks ago. Lesley achieved her goal of riding 100 miles in one day and raised an incredible amount of money for juvenile diabetes research. Her dedication to the ride and the training involved is so admirable and we're so happy for her that she's done this and will continue to do more rides in the future.

A fun weekend

Katie had a fun weekend with her grandparents visiting. Tonight we spent time together at home and Katie played with Nana, Papa, and Yeshey, and Nana even got to give her a bath. Here's Katie in her butterfly towel.

And Katie danced with Lesley


And she pretended to put Papa to sleep with all her Sesame friends.


I think Katie continues to amaze all of us that she's generally just so happy and cheerful. She certainly has her moments. We went out for brunch this morning and Katie was pretty restless. She's usually a good restaurant kid, but much better if she's in her little booster seat. Katie doesn't do as well in booths where she tends to lounge around and climb on everyone's lap. But overall, she's just so happy and fun to be around. She likes to be social and wanted to make "coffee and tea for everyone" with her teaset.

Katie was a little direct today and I don't know whether to consider it bossy or empowered. She told us each where to sit at the dinner table and she kept getting us to do what she wanted, to dance or listen to what she wanted to listen to.

Shoe shopping with Nana

Nana came in a day before Papa so she could have some extra Katie time this weekend. Katie was thrilled when Nana wanted to take her shoe shopping. Shoes are one of Katie's favorite things. One of her first words was shoes and she loves trying on everyone's shoes (flip flops are her favorite). So Katie was really in her element when she got to try on many, many pairs of shoes. The salesman was very impressed that Katie was so cooperative. He actually said it was as if she was a model on the catwalk with the way she strutted around the store in various pairs. We ended up getting really cute navy mary janes with turquoise flowers and a pair of boots.

Freezer Smile

I'm writing this as Katie is in the other room. I love overhearing her conversations with herself. It is so amusing. She's doing her alphabet puzzle and saying, "this is an X." And looking at all the stuff in the room, "this is my book and this is my other book." And of course she's singing. Tonight's entertainment is Old MacDonald and Laurie Berkner's "I'm Me and You're You." This last song she sang to her doll "Baby." When people ask her what her baby's name is, she says "Baby."

I took this picture yesterday. Ania did Katie's hair in a beautiful updo bun. It was so cute and so grown-up looking. In the morning Ania took Katie to Hippo and Katie was in a very serious mood. Ania asked Katie if she left her smile at home. "Maybe your smile is in the crib? Is your smile under the couch?" Katie's response, "my smile's in the freezer."

Labor Day

It was a beautiful sunny day when we left. Katie and I took a last stroll on the beach. We had some traffic on the way home and after a few hours, Katie was getting pretty restless. When she's restless in the car, thankfully she doesn't complain about being trapped in the carseat. Instead, she's really demanding. "I want that CD. No, not this song! Not this song! I want the other CD. I want milk. I want water. I want teddies. No, not teddies, I want goldfish. I want Clifford. No, not Clifford, I want Big Bird. Where's my puppy?" Okay, you get the point. We eventually got to the point where we said that there wasn't going to be any music because she wasn't being nice. And we followed through.

We picked up our canine child on the way home. Katie was really happy to see her big sister. And suddenly Fussy Fusserstein in the backseat became happy and nice. I think she wanted company. "I'm snuggling Meadow," she told us. I tried to get a picture, it didn't work. So this cranky toddler who had been demanding for the previous 2 hours suddenly started laughing and singing. She sang. Katie's very into singing lately and I have to say that it's so cute that Peter and I just laughed. Such is life with a toddler.

Lobstah!!!

Sunday night we went out for lobster. Despite her lobster boat trip, I'm not sure it registered with Katie that the lobster you catch in the sea is the lobster that appears on your dinner plate. I think that's okay though. So here are Katie, Rachel, Dipa, and Peter all picking out their lobsters for dinner. Okay, so Katie didn't get lobster but it was entertaining for her anyway. When the waitress came to take our orders, Katie didn't wait a second, she immediately shouted "I want pizza. Pizza. Pizza." We had to laugh that first of all she knows the routine at restaurants and also that she knows what she wants. She also cracked us all up at dinner when she asked where Daddy went. "Daddy went to the potty." "I go help him?"

Of course I've decided that I have no desire to ever go back to a primarily lobster restaurant which I'm sure will be a struggle for my crustacean loving husband. In case you don't know, I really don't like seafood. I've only recently started to eat fish, and unless it's hidden under lots of breading, spices, or other flavor hiding materials, I really don't like seafood. And you don't go to Maine to eat chicken. [though honestly, do you ever go anywhere to eat chicken?] I'm proud that I've expanded my repertoire to include clam chowder and lobster bisque. Katie will eat small pieces of lobster, but that's all. She did love the chowder. But like her mother's daughter, she didn't like the clams as much as the broth. Here's a picture of her eating chowder at dinner.

Katie plays with Dima-Dipa and Aunt Rachel

While we were in Rhode Island, Katie spent time alone in Maine with my parents and my sister. She had a blast! I don't think she missed us at all. I have to say that my family chose to do really special things with her and it was terrific. On Saturday afternoon, my father took Katie on the trolley. Ogunquit has a number of trolleys that run around the town to try to cut down on traffic. Katie loved seeing these and it was such a nice thing to do with her Dipa. It was the first time that she did something with Dipa all by herself, no mommy and no Dima. And I think it was special for both of them.

The next day my mother thought that she would have her special time with Katie and take her on the lobster boat tour. Turns out that my dad and sister wanted to go too. So they all went on the lobster boat together. My mother was very impressed that Katie remembered that she had been on a boat before, in Seattle. And she loved the boat and seeing the cormorants and lobsters. I'm so sorry that I can't blog this with pictures because I would have liked seeing her reaction.

It was really so great to have my parents and Rachel share Katie for 24 hours. Rachel stayed in "our little house" and learned 2 important things: diapers may leak overnight; and putting Sesame Street on is a good way to take a shower if no one else is around. Katie adores her Aunt Rachel and I'm so glad they got to spend the time together.

And here's a picture of Katie napping in one of the beds in "our little house." I don't think that I've included enough sleeping Katie pictures.

Rhode Island

We had a little vacation within our vacation. We left Katie with my parents and her Aunt Rachel and off we went to Providence for Amy & Josh's wedding. Amy grew up in Rhode Island and so it was a natural decision for her to get married there, even though she and Josh have been living in DC for many years. We're always happy to have an excuse to go to RI, especially Brown. Rhode Island is a pretty unique state and very small in many ways besides just geography. Amy's sister included a number of references to this in her speech and Peter and I were very amused.

You see, despite it's small size, Rhode Islanders don't actually believe in driving any large distances. It's a big joke to anyone who wasn't born there. Amy is from Warwick, which is actually the town the Providence airport is in, about 8 miles away. Thanksgiving of senior year, Amy's parents wanted her and her brother to coordinate their schedules for the weekend because they didn't want to make 2 trips to "the city." I had to laugh when I heard this. I'm from NJ, I went to school in NY, and it was a longer distance from my house to my high school than from Brown to Amy's house. I told her it really wasn't a big deal, I'd be happy to drive her. I'm not sure that I did, but I think it's a funny story to illustrate how RI-ers view distance... Amy's a big Urban Meadow fan, but she's off on her honeymoon in Barcelona so I'm not sure she'll read this.

Peter and I are standing in front of the Brown Bear on the main green of campus. The wedding was right next to campus and in between the ceremony and reception, we took a stroll around campus. We have a series of these pictures of us in front of the Brown bear since 1998 - which I wish I could share b/c it's pretty funny. But without a digital camera then, you'll have to have to see it frames by our front door. So here's a pic of us in front of the Brown Bear in 2003.

At the beach

Saturday was gorgeous and sunny - the kind of weather you dream of when you go to the beach. Somehow, my family missed the idea that a beach vacation is supposed to have warm water to swim in and, well, at least Katie loved the water in Maine. Actually, it didn't feel that bad this year. So we walked to the beach, put our stuff down, and Katie just took off. I mean really, just took off running, like we've never seen her. Here she is running. No cars to be afraid of, no streets to cross, no obstacles and she was running. It was so great to watch.

Katie dancing in the ocean

Katie and Daddy building tunnels in the sand. This is the river side of the beach. The little square house with one window behind them is the house we stayed in.

Playing in Maine

Friday was a little overcast, but we still went to the beach which Katie loved. We had a little cabin along the river and we could hear the water lapping right next to us. It's a little deceiving because it's an inlet and the beach is on the other side of the river. So you can really hear and see both the river and the ocean. Pretty neat. Here's Katie playing on the steps of "our little house" as she called it.

For dinner we went to a classic Ogunquit restaurant where you can eat outside along the water. Here are Katie and Daddy - both in Bs - as Katie calls her bibs. Katie did try the lobster each night. Probably not her favorite, but she did eat it.

We're back

We had a nice time in Maine and Peter and I made a side trip to Providence for our friends Amy and Josh's wedding. Here's a picture of Katie from our one not sunny day. Except for Friday, the weather was beautiful. More pics soon.