Katie's Beach Party!

Katie had the best time at her birthday party! I have tons of pictures to share. After much debate about having a party at all, we decided to have a swim party. Our building has a pool and there's an open space outside of it where you can have parties. Everyone had a fantastic time! Swimming was a lot of fun, I bought lots of beach-themed (well probably more Hawaiian themed) decorations, and it was really, really special. I think what made it special was having so many of our friends and family there. And the fact that Katie absolutely had the best time! Being the fun, happy, easy going kid she is, she is definitely someone who enjoyed her birthday party. If you ask her what the best part was, she'll probably say "playing with Robin." Robin and Aunt Debbie were both there and the girls swam and ran around and had an absolute blast. Well, in Katie's world, not much could be better than having a chance to play with Robin and Erika. But really, I think all the kids were comfortable and had a great time playing with each other, even those who didn't know each other. Besides swimming, we had a ton of little beach balls in the racquetball court so the kids could run around and throw balls and scream. Everyone loved that. It's amazing that all the kids entertained themselves so well, I didn't even bring out the special ocean-themed collage stuff I bought.


In the pool with Daddy


Katie and Robin in the racquetball court

Water Gardens

After the Japanese Garden, we went out for barbeque and then to the water gardens. The water gardens were neat, in a very concrete, 1970's way. I think if it had been a really hot day, it would have been harder to get Katie to leave.

Spring in Dallas

We decided to go to Dallas for Passover because we hadn't been away in a while and it's a nice time of year there. It's so funny when you ask Katie what she liked about something.

"What did you like doing in Dallas Katie?"
"Playing with Aunt Lesley."
"That's great sweetie, but you know you can play with her in NY too. What did you like in Dallas?"
"Eating lots of fruit at Nana and Papa's."

I have to hand it to my happy, laid-back, adaptable child. She loved sleeping on the aerobed in Nana & Papa's room - and even chose that over a real bed in Aunt Lesley's room. She loved being on an airplane and thought the blue water in the toilet was really neat. And she loved going to Whole Foods, even if she didn't get the cart with "pretend car" each time.

These pictures were was at the Japanese Garden at the Fort Worth Bontanic Garden. Katie loved feeding the fish. There was one fish that seemed to have a very crooked spine. She said she wanted to feed the "sad fish." I think it's great that she recognizes differences, but seemed strange to me that she would already interpret this as "sad." Of course, being the wonderfully emphathetic child she is, she wanted to make sure to feed all the small fish too... and the turtles... and the ducks...

"My scooter, so I can scoot!"

Peter and I both worked last weekend and we traded off days. Katie and I went to Dinosaur park on Saturday with her scooter. She loves her scooter. She'll even scoot into the bathroom. She says "I need my scooter so I can scoot!"

Here we are checking out the first cherry blossoms of the season in Riverside Park. It was a beautiful day. Notice, no coat!

On Sunday, Peter took her to Hippo and then out to lunch at Homer's Malt Shop. They both got milkshakes, but Katie didn't like hers because it wasn't pink and she wanted a pink one (it was "banilla" as she says).

Happy Birthday Dinner

We had a really nice, laid back dinner with some of our favorite people. Aunt Lesley, cousin Danielle, Dima, Dipa, and Aunt Rachel all joined us. The funniest thing was when I asked Katie what she wanted for dinner - she said "ribs." I asked her this many, many times and she always had the same answer. I wanted a nice dinner, not bringing in food (wasn't attempting to make ribs), so I had to say no. I made a chicken recipe that was so good that Katie asked for "birthday chicken" for days after it was gone.

Katie and Aunt Lesley.

Dipa and Katie's new "Rexy" who she ignores now. Nice idea

Scooter - a much bigger hit. But no surprise that even scooters are gendered and Katie loves her pink one.

Getting dressed for birthday dinner

Ania, in case you can't tell from Tuesday/Thursday pictures, is absolutely amazing at doing Katie's hair. Katie had a special bubble bath and Ania put 2 French braids in her hair. And Ania bought this special dress for Katie for her birthday. Katie calls it her Cinderella dress because it's blue and because she thinks it makes her look like a princess. Right now things are divided into pink for Sleeping Beauty and blue for Cinderella. Such is life with a 3-year-old American girl.

Special Birthday Lunch

Katie had been talking about having a special birthday lunch for days. We invited Ania and our friend Donna. Katie only wanted to go to the "orange juice place." It's a Japanese restaurant in the neighborhood that we went to one night and Katie got a huge glass of orange juice, so she's been calling it the Orange Juice Place ever since. She loves it and doesn't quite seem to recognize that you can get orange juice at other restaurants in NYC. Of course she also knows the name of many restaurants and when I ordered Pad Thai tonight, she wanted to know if came from Asia Kan (it didn't).

Anyway, lunch was fun. There's something almost decadent about going out for lunch on a weekday. In reality it's a lot easier to go out for lunch because it's cheaper and less crowded (though Sunday brunch in some parts of our neighborhood is often insane). As ladies who lunched yesterday, we had a good time. Donna and Ania finally got to meet and Katie had fun with her kid chopsticks, though one of the shumai ended up on the floor.

The restaurant made a big fuss for her birthday and gave her this cute strawberry ice cream heart. Katie couldn't have been happier. She and Ania then went off to the Children's Museum. We past the CMOM with my mom last Friday and Katie said "That's my museum. That's the children's museum. I like to do circle time there." My mom loved this aspect of her urban granddaughter. Truthfully though, NYC apartments can be so small (at least ours is) that you spend lots of time other places. It's not that different than a suburban kid saying "that's my playground."

Ballet Birthday Katie

Then Katie went to ballet. Because it was her birthday, she got to be number 1 in the class and the all the girls got to sing her happy birthday. With prior permission, I brought in cupcakes for the class. Katie and I decorated them in the morning with pink icing and mini m&ms. The icing wasn't strawberry, just pink from food coloring. Katie was first a little disappointed with the m&ms because she was expecting "Minnie" m&ms, as in Minnie Mouse. She wanted Minnie's face on them. But she was happy once she got to help put them on the cupcakes, one for her, one for the cupcakes.

By the way, parents/caregivers aren't allowed in this ballet class so this is about the closest you get to seeing the action. Katie's teacher is amazing and the girls look so cute lined up in their leotards and tights.

Happy Birthday Katie!

The 3rd birthday in the life of Katie...

Katie couldn't have been more excited that it's her birthday. In fact, she's still excited! She told me today "I'm a big girl now. I was 3 yesterday." Katie has her own version of what Peter and I call a "happy dance." Meadow's happy dance is prancing around in excitement. Katie's is jumping up and down and shaking her arms.

April 8th 2008 - How on earth do I have a 3-year-old daughter? My thought yesterday morning. Quickly followed by, damn, my dissertation is 3 years late and I'm still not thin. But this is about Katie, not me... I'm just the mom, though I'm happy to report that Katie will often say spontaneously "Mommy, you're the best Mommy ever!"

We started the morning with some gifts. Katie had only one request for her birthday. She wanted a stuffed tyrannosaurus rex, preferably blue. One of her favorite tv shows is currently Caillou and Caillou has a stuffed "Rexy" so that's what Katie wanted. Well you can buy a stuffed Caillou doll, but not a stuffed Rexy and I found an appropriately lizard color one instead. Happy dance time "a dinosaur!" Katie screamed. And I thought that I'd start off her dress-up collection with a dress I actually bought with her. Happy dance time. "I look like a princess!"

Happy Birthday Dipa!

Friday was a big birthday for Dipa and we all went out for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate. Katie was thrilled because she got to go out with Robin. If you look you can see that they are almost the same height - a woman at the restaurant even thought they were twins. Can't really tell they're 19 months apart.

Talking to my dad that night, he told me that his grandchildren cheer him up that he was really depressed about turning 70. I told him that it never would have occured to me that it would be a cause of distress, I thought it was an achievement!

Happy birthday Dad! We're so glad you've achieved 70!

Saturday at the zoo

It was a beautiful sunny day on Saturday so we went to the Bronx Zoo. The last time Katie was there, she was a month old and slept the whole time (it was Mother's Day and the zoo trip was for my benefit, not hers). We had a great time and stayed for hours. Here are some highlights. Above, Katie is feeding a goat. For a kid who is used to feeding an animal (Meadow), she was a little more cautious than I expected. She'd rather drop the pellets on the fence and watch the goats take them.

Katie, in the children's zoo, acting like a prairie dog

Katie on the giant spider web all by herself

Katie and Daddy on the bug carousel. She's on a ladybug, but you can't tell in the picture. And yes I went on it too.

And no trip to the zoo is complete without a picture of Katie with a bear. Daddy's shoulders is Katie's favorite mode of transportation at the moment.

Katie, almost 3

I'm never really sure how Katie sounds to those of you who read the blog but don't interact with her regularly. She's such a confident kid and so much fun to be around. Katie finds joy in everything, even the most mundane tasks. "You're making coffee Mommy? Can I put the sugar in?" Yesterday we went shoe shopping and she was so thrilled to try on shoes. She kept saying that each pair hurt and I think she said that so she could try on more. Today we did laundry in our building's basement laundry room. Not an even remotely exciting place, just a dreary city laundry room, but Katie still manages to have fun. She brought a puppy (Brother), her laundry card, and her doll stroller. There happened to be a girl there about her age and Katie immediately went over to talk to her. Within about 2 minutes, they were playing and chatting and having the best time. I heard her say "I'm Katie. I do ballet. My new friend Anna and Daniella and Sophie B. do ballet too. Do you do ballet? " And she was dancing the whole time she said this. I love the fact that Katie is gaining an identity from taking a ballet class. But I also love the fact that she's so confident and will go make friends with other girls her age. When we go to our friend Kevin's playroom, she's generally the only one among her friends who will talk to the other kids. Recently I heard her shout to the girls across the room, "Big girls. Big girls. Come play with me."

Katie's the kind of kid who looks forward to going to the dentist. Now being the person I am with a zillion cavities, I don't get it at all. But you learn a lot of your fears and apprehensions and I've tried my best not to pass these on to Katie. And Katie loved going to the dentist. She still talks about it. The dentist, by the way, congratulated me on how clean and beautiful her teeth looked and said, "Save your money for braces. She's going to need them."

One of my favorite things is seeing how she entertains herself. Katie sings songs and has imaginary conversations with her friends. She'll make lots of pretend snacks and tea and coffee. And she makes sure to share Meadow's food with her puppies because inevitably Sister or Brother or Cousin is hungry too.

Puppet Show!

Katie's newest favorite Daddy activity is a puppet show. Aunt Lesley bought her this a while ago and Katie's interest was recently renewed, in part because the puppets are no longer under the crib as they have been, since there's no crib. I have to say Peter creates the best skits, all imitating Katie's world. The tutu elephant is Katie's favorite, although sometimes the tutu elephant doesn't want to walk because she says her trunk hurts and she says "Pick me up! Pick me up!" I think Katie does get that she's being lovingly mocked and thinks it's really funny.