Lawyerish

2011 In Brief

It's that time again!  Everybody's doing it! This is the year-end questionnaire from Sundry (here are my answers from last year).  I have to note that, as I have read other people's responses to this, I have had so many ideas about what I would say, but when I sit down to actually write it, my mind goes completely blank and I can't recall a single thing I did this year, let alone conjure any reflections on what I've learned or what I hope to do in the year to come.  Seriously.  A TOTAL BLANK.  But!  I shall soldier on.

(Also, I started out putting in links to relevant blog entries, but then I got tired and naptime was over, so...)

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?  Wrangled a toddler of my very own.  Flew by myself with said toddler. Drove all the way to the end of Long Island.  Attended a college reunion (not my own).  Ate a blowout anniversary dinner at Del Posto.  Hosted my child's first birthday party.  Found a church home in our neighborhood. 

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?  I didn't make any last year -- it had started to feel like setting myself up to fail, since I usually keep approximately none of them -- but this year I do have one:  instead of doing almost all of my shopping online, I am going to make more of an effort to shop locally.  We have a lot of great stores in our neighborhood and I would like to keep it that way, rather than have them all close because Amazon is just so damned convenient.  I have no excuse other than laziness for not spending a little time checking out the toy store ten blocks away rather than automatically going online for every single thing in the world.

3. Did anyone close to you have a child?  Yep, a bunch of friends and relatives gave birth to their second babies!  We're sitting this round out, and I'm very content with that decision.

4. Did anyone close to you die?  This question sends me into a PANIC every year, because I don't THINK anyone close to me died, but what if I am remembering wrong?  How screwed up would that be?  I can never remember which famous people died in a given year, so this is an area where I am doomed to mess up. 

5. Where did you travel?  Upstate for a spa retreat with my moms' group (sans kids and husbands!); Chicago for the aforementioned reunion (and our first getaway together without the shorty); Nantucket for a fantastic week with my family; Charlotte for an AWESOME spa weekend with Allison for my birthday; Montauk with Joe and Felicity over Labor Day (fun until we got rained out); and Florida with Felicity for my Granddad's 95th birthday. 

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?  A second home (haaaaa).  More time with friends.  Monthly date nights with my husband (we...don't get out very much).  A Zen-like calm about everything (HAHAHAhaaaaaa).  Enough energy and discipline to stay on a good running schedule.  Independent wealth.  The time and drive to write my damn novel. 

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory?  March 12 (Felicity's first birthday and party); July 4 (looking at the stars from our porch in Nantucket and feeling like I could explode from the perfection of life).  And I don't know the specific date, but this fall I went to the ballet one evening with a friend and NYCB was doing a presentation of an award to pretty much every great living City Ballet ballerina, so I got to share airspace with virtually ALL of the dancers I have idolized my whole life (these are women whose photos I cut out of magazines and hung on my wall when I was a teen, alongside all the Jon Bon Jovi posters): Gelsey Kirkland (GELSEY KIRKLAND), Suzanne Farrell, Darci Kistler, Margaret Tracey, Jillana, Violette Verdi, Merrill Ashley, I COULD GO ON; they were ALL THERE -- and after the presentation and the wild ovations (Gelsey got the biggest crowd response -- people went INSANE for her), all of those exquisite ladies came out into the house and sat like TEN FEET BEHIND ME, so when we left I almost BRUSHED ARMS with Suzanne Farrell.  It was a night I will always remember.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?  Mumble, mumble [redacted work-related thing (the first rule of work is you don't talk about work on the Internet, amiright?)], mumble.  Finished another half marathon (without really training for it).  Also, I think flying solo with a toddler who vomits all over herself en route to the airport and not completely losing my shit when the flight was delayed and I was almost out of baby wipes was pretty good.  And this might sound dumb, but in the past few months I feel like I have had a remarkable amount of clarity about a lot of things (deciding to stick with one awesome kid; knowing that the city is where we want to live for the foreseeable future; [redacted career trajectory stuff]), and for me that is a big accomplishment.  It's not like I have ALL the answers, but I feel like I have SOME, and feeling that even a few big questions are settled allows me to focus my energy on other things. 

9. What was your biggest failure?  This may sound silly, but I have a tendency to LOSE MY HEAD when I can't find something, however minor (Felicity's hat, a small toy), and I would really like to be able to keep my composure better over little stuff like that.  I think that I need to have less of a hair-trigger for annoyance in general.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Just the usual colds and the endless runny nose from having a small person in the house, spreading germs hither and yon all winter.  And a bad migraine. 

11. What was the best thing you bought?  Probably an iPhone.  Also, a few days ago when I was about to throw our desktop PC out the window, we bought an iMac -- between it and the fancy new router I got Joe for Christmas, our Internet is way faster and it makes life less aggravating. 

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?  Felicity's -- I think she is a really good kid; she has her challenging moments (on a daily basis), but on the whole I am really happy with how calm, focused, expressive, polite, funny, joyful, and sweet she is (even when confronted by jerky kids at the playground).  I also, as always, have to give Joe the credit he deserves for putting up with me even when I'm at my moodiest, for being a thoughtful and conscientious husband and father, for making me laugh, for pulling big, fun surprises out of his hat at least once a year, for giving me unflagging support in all areas, and for generally going along with all of my overthought, inexplicably rigid, ideas about life and child-rearing.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?  I am always thrown by this one.  Appalled AND depressed?  What if I am appalled but SHOCKED, or appalled and ENRAGED?  Ahem. Well, I don't know.  Honestly, I try not to let other people's conduct affect me that much -- but then again, there were those wretched children who were mean to Felicity in the park that time, so I think I'd have to go with them.  Oh, and that gross so-called church that goes around protesting at people's funerals -- I find them hideous and sick, and when I think about some of the hate that gets thrown around in the name of religion and conservatism, I guess I DO get kind of appalled and depressed.

14. Where did most of your money go?  Taxes (sigh), mortgage, savings.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?  How much fun Felicity has been.  This year has been a BLAST, and if, as I have been told, two is even better?  WHOA NELLIE.  Fasten your seatbelts!  I also got VERY excited when Joe told me I would be spending my birthday weekend with Allison at a spa in Charlotte (we had SO MUCH FUN), and about all of our other trips. 

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?  Probably one of the songs that Joe made up for Felicity, like the chart-topping "Piggie and Bear" song that he composed on our four-plus-hour car ride back from Montauk in heavy traffic with a cranky child.  Also some of Felicity's music class songs, like her favorite "Jumpin' Josie."

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:  a) happier or sadder?  b) thinner or fatter?  c) richer or poorer?   Happier (last year was practically off the charts, but it just KEEPS GETTING BETTER); about the same weight-wise (I really, really need to do better in terms of fitness and reduce my general bloat-tasticness, and my SHAPE has changed, but the scale pretty much hasn't moved -- aside from pregnancy and breast-feeding weight -- in years); and financially we're doing just fine.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?  Running.  I have GOT to get my butt out of bed and run four times a week.  It affects my energy and mood SO much.  I have been sleeping until Felicity gets up just because I CAN, and that's just not cutting it. 

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?  Worrying about things I can't control; getting annoyed by things I can't control; trying to control things I can't control. 

20. How will you be spending Christmas?  We spent it here at home, and it was lovely.

21. Did you fall in love in 2011?  Over and over and over again.

22. What was your favorite TV program?  Happy Endings and SYTYCD.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?  Not that I can think of. 

24. What was the best book you read?  I really enjoyed State of Wonder by Ann Patchett and Time and Again by Jack Finney. 

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?  As a general rule, I don't make musical discoveries. 

26. What did you want and get?  Great trips; a lot of beach time; an iPhone; time alone with Allison; a terrific, healthy toddler who sleeps and eats well; a great church; many great nights at the ballet; a cough*work-related thing*cough; a sense of balance; a lot of clarity (see above).

28. What did you want and not get?  A bag of money on my doorstep.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?  The Descendants and Crazy Stupid Love. 

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?  I turned 36 (oof, late 30s), and Joe sent me on a spa weekend with Allison which I MAY HAVE MENTIONED several times above.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?  Pretty much the same as last year:  A 2,000 square foot apartment with a terrace overlooking Central Park, central air/heat and an open kitchen.  Also a personal assistant, butler, and chef. 

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?  Fully clothed (same as last year and every year before and every year to come).

33. What kept you sane?  Joe and Felicity.  My parents and my brother.  Our nanny (part of whose job is also to be my friend).  Allison.  Danielle.  Cathy.  Jonna, Gayle, Jennie, Dianna.  My moms' group.  The ballet.  Running.  Having time to breathe.  Putting away my iPhone and just being here.  Fall in Central Park.  The Museum of Natural History.  Writing about the minutiae of my life here.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?  I still dig Barack Obama, no matter what they're saying.  I also like his wife a whole lot.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?  I was thrilled and proud when New York legalized same-sex marriage. 

36. Who did you miss?  Pretty much everyone I care about who does not live right next door, which is TOO MANY PEOPLE.

37. Who was the best new person you met?  Some of Joe's college friends I hadn't met before; a friend's very lovely fiancee; and someone who helped me through a potentially tough transition.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.  The more open I am to possibility, the more things fall into place.  That is, things happen not because I force them to happen, but because they are meant to happen in their own time.  This is a lesson I've had to learn six ways to Sunday, for years and years, and it is finally beginning to sink in.  We walk by faith, not by sight, and all that. 

The Christmas Magic

When I was growing up, Christmas morning was always magical, and I say that without even a touch of sarcasm.  My parents created so many traditions that made the holiday special, and they created such a sense of joyous anticipation that I always -- even as a teenager who should have been, like, so over that sort of thing -- woke up at 5 in the morning and had to be cajoled back to bed until a more sensible hour.  I would stay in my room, breathless and unable to sleep, positively vibrating with excitement over what was to come and watching the clock crawl along toward 6:30, when I could finally rouse everyone to go downstairs and see what awaited us. 

Since Felicity's still so little, I wasn't sure if she would have much enthusiasm for Christmas yet, although as I've relentlessly detailed here we did our best to make Advent and Christmas Eve special.  By the end of all that, I could tell she was pretty interested in the prospect of Santa bringing her a new baby doll, and had a toddler-sized sense of the much-ballyhooed birth of baby Jesus (when she saw the Little People Jesus for our nativity scene, she said, "Baby Jesus!  Asleep in the hay!").

And sure enough, the build-up paid off.  This is a lengthy video, but all you need to watch is the first minute or so to get a feel for her excitement.  It makes me tear up a little, because passing on the thrill of Christmas mornings is one of the things I've looked forward to the most about being a parent. 

(Transcription: "Do you want to go into the living room and see what Santa brought you?"  "A COOKIE!" [She was clearly still hung up on the cookie from the night before.] Then, as she runs into the living room, "LOOK AT THE BABY!  And a teddy bear."  Later on, she says, "Santa Claus ate up all the cookies!"  She talked about that AT LENGTH throughout the day, so I think that was her main takeaway -- Santa brings baby dolls and eats up cookies that are rightfully hers.)

This was the array of loot that greeted us all Christmas morning:

She handled the explosion of new stuff really well; she took some time to check out and play with each toy before moving on to the next one, and she didn't seem overwhelmed as I had feared she might be.  Nor did she fixate on one thing and refuse to acknowledge anything else.  It was actually very fun, although she did start to fall apart as her blood sugar dropped (I'd brought her milk and a cereal bar when I went to get her out of bed so she wouldn't be facing the Santa haul on an empty stomach).  So after a breakfast interlude we tackled the wrapped gifts.

New Baby, as she is so aptly called, was close at hand for all of the festivities.

When Felicity pulled this Little People traveler out of the airplane, she said, "It's Daddy!"  Haaaaaa.  (Incidentally, I got her the pink plane because it has a female pilot. Girl power!  Or...whatever.)

Felicity helped Joe and I open our own presents, and she was very patient as we went around and opened everything individually.  When she got bored seeing our books and shirts and hand-held vacuum (we are BIG on romance around here, y'all), she would play with some of her new toys or sit at her table and draw on the chalkboard or marvel over New Baby some more.  She was totally unimpressed by the clothes she got from us, I should note.  When she'd tear the wrapping paper and see that it was a sweater or some jeans, she'd cast it aside, ready to move on.  (She did like the dress that she found in her stocking, though -- she held it up and said, "A new clothe!")

All told, it was such a fun morning.  Years from now, I may not remember what all was under the tree (though I did get some fantastic gifts, so that's not to say they were unremarkable) or what we had for breakfast (or that I spent MANY HOURS in the kitchen that evening making dinner, ahem (all Pioneer Woman recipes and ALL worth it)), but I will remember how that day felt:  cozy and sweet and, yes, magical. 

(And now Felicity has lots more toys to play with, which makes our jobs easier during this looooong vacation week, with many hours to fill.)

"The Christmas magic was here at last, it has come at last, as it always has, and always will." -- Lauren Thompson, The Christmas Magic (my new favorite Christmas book of all time)

The (Day and) Night Before Christmas

On Christmas Eve morning, we went to the zoo.  It was about 30 degrees outside, but sunny, and we almost had the place to ourselves (though we did get to see Felicity's buddy Henry and his family for a few minutes before they tore off toward the snow monkeys and left us in the dust).  The animals seemed to be in a festive mood; the sea lions leapt through the air and popped their heads up as if to say hello -- then they zinged us with a huge splash for good measure. 

Despite having been to the children's petting zoo a dozen times before, Felicity fuh-reaked out when we took her to see the goats and the sheep, to the point that she fell over her own feet trying to get away from their pens.  I'm not sure what that was about, but she perked up as we left, yelling "Glockenspiel!" as we cruised under the big clock. 

That evening we got gussied up and went to the 5:30 church service.  I think Felicity may have enjoyed the getting dressed up part, but it's hard to tell for sure.

Girl, you better WORK.

As has become her habit, when we walked into church, just before the processional began, she shouted, "In a house!  Peaceful!  CHURCH."  Then she made it known to all that she really wanted to "TOUCH THE BABY JESUS" in the creche.  Oh, and she thought the gold wreaths on the walls "look[ed] like a BIG PRETZEL." 

There wasn't child care during the service, and since the 5:30 hour is precisely when she is at her most energetic and contrarian, we spent most of the hour herding her around the periphery of the sanctuary and trying to convince her to talk about the "LIGHTS" and the "BIG PRETZEL" in an indoor voice.  We hustled her out just before communion, figuring we were sufficiently imbued with the Holy Spirit for the night.

When we got home, we hung Felicity's stocking from Joe's antique typewriter (as one does) -- though first, Felicity peeked into it and said, "There's nothing in it!"  (Easy, kid; give ol' Santa a minute.)

Then we set about putting out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  I hadn't even thought about the fact that she had a plush Santa and reindeer sitting under her stocking, but when she dug the carrots out of the fridge, she ran into the living room saying, "Feed the reindeer!" and she went right over to the stuffed Rudolph and shoved the carrots at him.  Then she did the same with the cookies.

At that point, a certain reluctance registered on Felicity's face, and I asked her if she wanted to eat the cookie she was holding, and without hesitation -- not wanting to give me a chance to rethink it -- she shoved the whole thing in her mouth.

Then, of course, we gave her some milk to wash it down; she slugged it back, then shared it with Mary, Joseph, and the wise men.

And then off to bed with her.  She had no trouble falling asleep...but I did. 

Advent Overload

I think Felicity has become desensitized to Advent gift-getting, and ennui is beginning to set in.  She's only shown a passing interest in the last few Advent Bag delights, preferring to don Daddy's shoes and clomp around the apartment.

And pull the ornaments off the tree, despite countless instructions to the contrary. 

She did get several mornings' worth of enjoyment out of the felt tree my mom sent, with felt decorations (did you know that felt adheres to itself? Blow me down!). She took the whole thing very seriously.

The weather has also been unseasonably warm, so we have squired Naked Baby around to many area playgrounds.

We also braved the chaos of the Children's Museum one rainy morning (burning daylight at all cost is what it's all about, even if it means putting up with some of the horrible children who were there, hoarding publicly available playthings (following many of your leads, I stepped in several times and said to other kids, "Let's SHARE! She can play, too!  You've had your turn" and so on) and -- no exaggeration -- ELBOWING Felicity off an interactive display).

Another day we took Felicity for her second haircut.  She loved it.

I have been taking advantage of this dual-parent vacation time and going running or doing Ye Olde 30-Day Shred almost every day.  And what do you know: I feel more energetic and less draggy and bloated!  Of course, it takes me about twelve breakfasts and five lunches until I no longer feel like I could eat the coffee table, but presumably my BLAZING metabolism will take care of all that, plus all the Christmas cookies and the daily intake of all the food Felicity refuses to consume from her own plate after I so lovingly prepare her a delicious, balanced meal three times a day (plus two snacks).  NOT THAT I AM BITTER. 

(In general, she is a good eater, but she eats MUCH BETTER for her nanny than she does for me or Joe.  WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?  With me, she'll refuse completely normal foodstuffs that she will INHALE when J is here (avocado, turkey, PIEROGIES, for crying out loud).  Oh, it is maddening.  AND she has been one-hour napping me for a week, although today she finally deigned to sleep for a full two and a half hours.  I almost didn't know what to do with myself, but I did manage to assemble the table and chairs she's getting for Christmas -- a process that wasn't as enraging as it could have been, even though the directions had a BIG ERROR in them.  Sigh.)

Anyway, I am hoping that we can build Christmas/Santa up enough that she will overcome her meh-ness about the holidays and be appropriately awed by the magic come Sunday morning.  I suspect she's going to zero in on ONE gift (i.e., the baby doll that she mentions every time Santa comes up) and refuse to look at anything else for the rest of the day.  We shall see.  As long as she's absorbed enough that I can see what's waiting for ME under the tree, that's fine.  (Yes, I am twelve.) 

Now who is PSYCHED for Christmas?? 

Bish, please.

 

More Anything? More Everything! Except That One Thing.

The Advent Bag (TM) has continued to offer up wondrous seasonal wares, from Christmas pajamas to Nativity stickers to a Fair Isle sweater dress. 

Though frankly, some people seem to find empty boxes just as thrilling as all those carefully selected goodies.

We're all home for the last two weeks of the year, which means lots of family togetherness and many hours logged in playgrounds to burn off the ya-yas of one mighty energetic child. 

This kid is apparently impervious to cold; after a few minutes in the park in the screaming wind, Joe and I are ready to start a brush fire to keep warm and she is racing around, mittenless, only keeping her hood on to humor her fretful parents.

As you can see, nothing truly newsworthy has been going on -- oh, except for the night when Joe called the paramedics because he thought I was having...an episode, I guess is what one would call it. 

One evening last week, I started getting a dreaded aura in my vision, the harbinger of a skull-crushing migraine to come.  I took some Excedrin Migraine and curled up on the couch, my face pressed into the cushions to block out the light.  An hour or so later, I was still seeing flashing, squiggly lights and my head was starting to pound, so I took two Advil and retreated to my prone position. 

After Joe got Felicity ready for bed, I suddenly felt like I was going to be sick, so I crawled down the hall to the bathroom.  I felt really strange, like my brain was full of fuzz, but my heart was hammering away in my chest and I was sort of panting.  I tried to tell Joe what was happening, but I couldn't really get the words out.  So of course we both think that I am stroking out on our tile floor, and he calls 911 while Felicity wraps herself around me on the bathroom floor.  Even as he was calling them, I started to feel better and could think more clearly, but the dispatcher said they would send an ambulance to check me out anyway.

The EMTs came and did some mumbo jumbo to see if I might be having a stroke, which I was not.  My blood pressure was pretty high, especially for me (usually it's just a notch above cadaver level), and at first I was still stammering and having trouble getting words out, but within a few minutes of Lance and his partner arriving and calming me down, I could talk normally.  I still felt very weird and of course had a blazing migraine; but they assured me -- with legal caveats that they still recommended I go to the hospital -- that I wasn't having a brain bleed or anything.  I declined the ride to the hospital, signed a waiver, and they packed their things up and left.  Then I put Felicity to bed and was able to piece myself together enough to eat some dinner and watch TV.

So!  That happened.  I hope it does not happen again anytime soon. 

(I realized after the fact that the Excedrin Migraine has rather a LOT of caffeine in it, and I haven't had caffeine in quite a while so my tolerance is way low.  Considering that a decaf latte can give me a serious case of the shakes for HOURS ON END, probably that was part of what made me feel so messed up.  Whoops.)

Friday Baby Dance Party!: Jumpin' Edition

The CDs from Felicity's music class get a LOT of play in our house.  "See How I'm Jumping" has been in heavy rotation lately:

I think she needs to work on her plie. 

Whenever we have one of our song-and-dance extravaganzas, Felicity has to take periodic breaks to lay on the cat.  

Atticus is surprisingly tolerant of her lounging on him and he will even nuzzle her when she comes running over to "HUG AND KISS THE CAT!"  This cat has never been much of a people person, but he knows where he stands so he pretends to like her.  The dog, on the other hand, has been spending increasing amounts of time in his crate; the unpredictable movements of a toddler and her exuberant attempts at giving him kisses are just not what he's about.  He has basically given up.

I guess I'll just make do with snuggling this bunny.

Since Felicity isn't old enough for ballet classes yet, she does "gymnastics" once a week, and she has become quite diligent about working on her pike position:

She also loves to hang on a bar of any kind (sometimes when she's in the bath she starts eyeing the shower curtain rod, presumably imagining the half-twisting double-back dismount she could execute onto the toilet), although her off-the-charts height makes it less hanging than...standing:

For nostalgia's sake, here was our little dance partier last December:

Happy weekend, everyone! 

I Am So Trademarking the Advent Bag

When December 1 came around and I didn't have anything resembling an advent calendar, I improvised with a sparkly red gift bag I got from Michael's for about $1.99.  For the first few days, I used foam sheets and stickers to make day markers for the Advent Bag (which, as festive monikers go, does not have a very high-end ring to it, but I think it could catch on, at least when kids realize that a bag has a lot more capacity than a small felt pocket), but then I dispensed with the formality and just stuck the bag on an ottoman and called it a day. 

There it is:  the Advent Bag, bathed in its holy light.

Every morning since the first of the month, Felicity has woken up and demanded to know, "What's in the Advent Bag today?" Then she has trotted out to the living room to find out for herself.  She has mostly enjoyed what she's found in there; each book has been read roughly 452 times on the day it was received, and she likes to get her Christmas sticker art, made with one day's Advent Bag offerings, off the fridge and parade around with it for a while on a regular basis.

She now has almost the whole nativity scene, save for the angel and -- of course -- the Christ Child Himself, and she very much enjoys having Mary and Joseph "watch [her] eat" (she always has to have a baby or stuffed animal sit in the kitchen with her when she eats; the girl likes an audience, it seems).  We have told her the Christmas story a bunch of times (mostly with books and visual aids), and now when she beholds all the wise men and animals standing by the manger, she says they're "waiting for baby Jesus."  

Meanwhile, we've been telling her stories about Santa and his reindeer, and the load of booty that Santa Claus will be delivering after she goes to sleep on Christmas Eve, and mostly she seems able to keep the theological discourse and the secular celebration separate.  However, from time to time she makes Mary and Joseph slide down the chimney of her Three Little Pigs house, so it's possible the signals have gotten a bit crossed.   

Felicity has also gotten to wear some holiday-themed outfits and we have taken her to see some of our fair city's most popular Christmas sights. 

I think you'll find her enthusiasm for both rather infectious! 

I am calling the Advent Bag a success, and I look forward to rolling it out (and reusing all the contents!) in future years. 

Twenty-One Months

Before we go somewhere new, I ask Felicity what she'll say when she meets someone.  She grins and responds, "Hi!  I'm Bish-tee!  Nice to meet you."  And then, when faced with an actual real-live new person, she usually hides behind my legs and stares wide-eyed at them, not emitting a sound.  Other times, though, we'll walk past a random dog person in the park or the grocery guy will come to deliver our food, and she'll run up to them and yell, "HI!  How are YOU doing?" 

She's constantly surprising me; she's bold when I would think she'd be shy, and vice versa.  Unlike me -- one of the shyest kids who ever lived -- she goes right up to other children at the playground and starts chattering away.  Granted, she is usually drawn to them because they're holding a baby doll or pushing a doll stroller, and her intent is to peel their hot little hands off it and make that toy HERS; but still. 

She continues to try her best to share by holding out her own Naked Baby and saying, "SHARE IT"; but when the other child moves to take the offering, Felicity grabs it back and says, "Noooooo."  This exchange devolves quickly into whining and recriminations by both parties, as parents step in to gently explain turn-taking and making friends to the littles.  It's hilarious to watch.  She gets it -- for example, she likes to have the three wise men from the nativity scene "share the gifts" while they're "waitin' for baby Jesus" -- but it's a tough thing to put into practice, I suppose.

One of her favorite things is to take another child's hand at class or at the playground and lead them around saying, "Walkin' together!"  Then if she can lure them onto a slide or a ladder, it's "slidin' together!  Climbin' together!"  Many times, she is met with suspicious stares; some kids pull their hand away (ow, my heart), but from time to time she will find a willing participant who's open to her overtures and the end result of two toddlers traversing the playground hand in hand is to-die-for-cute. 

But then sometimes, the playground dynamics drive me to drink.  Consider, if you will, the following scene, which just about sent me over the edge (and it was pretty minor, as these things go):

At the safari playground the other day, there were a bunch of 5ish-year-old kids from a nearby daycare/preschool (I only wish I knew which one).  Felicity was "feedin' the hippo" some sticks but this girl kept coming over and blocking the hippo's mouth with her arm.  I played the friendly card and just said, "Oh, hi!  We are feeding the hippos!" but the girl didn't move. 

Then Felicity ran to climb on some other hippos, and the girl BLAZED over to get there first.  This time she brought another girl with her and they LAID DOWN on the hippo so there was nowhere for Felicity to climb.  So Felicity tried to sit down next to them, but the second girl held up her hand and didn't quite push Felicity, but she kept her from sitting down.  Same thing happened when Felicity went to clamber up a rock -- they beat her to it and wouldn't let her on.

By this time, I was about to BLOW MY STACK, so I led Felicity over to the sunken canoe in the middle of the playground.  There, this OTHER girl from that same group looked up and me and said, "We're playing a game and we don't want her in here."  I said breezily (I'm BREEZY!), "Oh, it's okay! She can play in there; she won't bother you!" but the girls moved around so there was nowhere for Felicity to sit.

Then it was time to go so I put Felicity in her stroller, and the first two girls came running over again and stood looking at us with unknown intent.  One of their teachers came over and said to them, "Oh, are you saying bye-bye to your little friend?  It was so nice of you to play with her!"  I wanted to tell her that actually they were wretched children, but I smiled and got the hell out of there. 

I KNOW I should just walk it off and forget about it, but I felt so SAD because Felicity was so eager and unaware of what they were doing and it just broke my heart that she thought they were playing with her and ugh I can't think about it or I will weep into my seltzer.

Now I need to cheer myself back up with some stories that will likely be mild-to-moderately grating to anyone other than me and immediate family, so feel free to skim to the end. 

One morning this weekend, Felicity came into the kitchen and pointed out some water on the floor and she said, "Don't you worry, I'll clean it up!"  (Don't you WORRY?  Where did she COME from??)  Then she demanded a paper towel and proceeded to wipe the floor (and the table, chairs, and cat) until it was clean enough for her exacting standards. 

She has also been saying, "I need it!" when you have something that she wants, like a heavy glass or a bottle of water on which she would like to smear her drool.  Another favorite is "Oh, thank you!" when you give her something.  The best is when she asks for a hug (usually because she has just done something naughty) and then she says, "Oh, thank you for the hug, Mommy!"  (MASTER manipulators, these children.)  Another one that cracked me up was overhearing Joe say to her during bath time that the water was almost gone and she said, "You know what that means!"  And she's become used to hearing us answer for her, so when I ask if she had a good breakfast or had fun at the park with Daddy, she answers, "She did!" 

Finally, the one thing she says that never fails to make me laugh is when she asks to put some music on.  She goes over to the stereo and says, "Make some mogurt?" and then she cracks up because she knows it cracks ME up, and it sounds really silly, but I absolutely have to get it on video, because before I know it, like everything else, she'll be saying, "Put on some music, please" -- clear as day -- and I will want to cry for a hundred years that "Make some mogurt" is gone from our lives forever.

I fear that every one of these posts is almost unbearable for others to read and smacks of "my kid is THE BEST IN THE WORLD" smugness; but you know, it's something I can live with, because I want to remember all of these things, however trivial, and I hope that if Felicity one day hauls out all the old scrapbooks in which all of my hopelessly biased and overwraught accounts of her childhood are kept, she will feel from those very pages just how much she was loved -- will always be loved -- and how she will forever be the best kid in the world to me.

Santapalooza '11

We made it out of Macy's Santaland alive, for the second year running. 

Here's last year, for reference (her expression has not changed, but at least Santa seems a bit less stunned this time around) (OMG LOOK AT MAH BALD BABEH!) (who takes a baby to see Santa barefoot?  THIS GAL):

This year, I had the sense to bring backup and a stroller, so I didn't have to hold an almost 30-pound kid while we wended our way through the North Pole (it's much warmer there than you would think, and the tourist hordes are pretty out of control). 

When we got to Santa's cottage, he and his elves welcomed us and tried to curry favor with Felicity by asking what she wanted for Christmas.  She said, "Baby doll?" (which I may have whispered in her ear just so she would say SOMEthing) and then, to make sure her request had been duly noted, she repeated "baby doll? baby doll?" about a hundred times during the rest of the proceedings. 

When Santa asked Felicity if she would like to sit in his lap, her answer was a firm "no."  So I scooted onto the settee for the photo op (I'm not sure what I was doing, exactly, that was captured in the shot above, but it appears that I was gazing up to the mezzanine seats for adulation in a curtain call).  Felicity said, "baby doll?" about 78 more times, half-heartedly blew kisses to Santa after rejecting his request for a high five, and pointed out the huge ornaments on the ceiling as we waited in the cashier line. 

We spent enough additional minutes in the store looking for the ladies' lounge and finding the right exit that my faith in humanity -- or at least in humanity's ability to move efficiently and swiftly through a crowded, hot, fluorescent-lit department store -- had been sapped by the time we left. Then we took the hobo toilet elevator back down to the subway platform and came home.  Santa visit: accomplished!

The rest of Advent has been proceeding apace.  I'm having trouble believing that we're only seven days in:  so far, Felicity has received several books (some Jesus-themed, some Santa-themed); the animals (sheep, cow, donkey, camel) and the manger from the Little People nativity scene; and a Santa ornament that I had purchased at Michael's because I THOUGHT it was PLASTIC (it was being marketed as a gift FOR KIDS) but then F dropped poor Santa before we could hang him on the tree and he shattered all over the floor so apparently, DAMMIT, he was glass. 

We've also been to two Advent Sunday church services, and at the second one, we decided to give the toddler nursery a whirl.  Much to my surprise, Felicity LOVED it.  She didn't bat an eye when Joe set her down in there (there were TOYS, many TOYS, all much more fascinating than anything we have at home, apparently), and she didn't even look up when he left.  When we came down to get her after the service, she barely acknowledged us and proceeded to continue playing for another ten minutes before I could lure her out with a snack.  WIN.  Maybe from now on we'll just park her there and go out to brunch.  (Just kidding, God!)

All this, plus I've ordered our Christmas cards, baked two different kinds of cookies (so far), AND put up our Christmas tree.  We are ROCKING the holiday season this year, y'all.

To close:  just LOOK at this little Christmas ham one year ago.  I HAVE NOW DIED.

 

Friday Baby Dance Party!: The Triumphant Return

It's been...really quite some time since we had a Friday Baby Dance Party(TM).  This is mostly because my attempts at photographing Felicity in action tend to turn out like this:

Nevertheless, TJ and Maura recently mentioned that they missed Ye Olde FBDP, and I am happy to revive it, at least to the extent I can get enough dance photos/videos to post one every now and then.   

Since she's crazy big and no longer confined to the supine position, Felicity has developed lots of new moves.  Here, she's prepping for a pirouette:

Here she's doing a bit of a Degas pose:

Here she's letting her bunny do all the work ("BUNNY'S DANCIN'!"):

 

She was not entirely satisfied with bunny's performance, however.  She has very exacting standards and clearly they were not met:

 

And finally, the stern taskmaster realized that if she wanted it done right, she'd have to do the dancing herself.  (Though, as you can see, she does not take direction well.  Really all you need to watch is the first 15 seconds and the last maybe five -- the rest is me trying to get her to show off her dance moves, and her ignoring me.)

Happy Friday, everyone!