mother's day serenade

Sean had taken Josephine shopping for Mother's Day the weekend prior to the event, so she was prepped and primed for the whole idea all week.  Randomly, she would burst into some little ditty that repeated the phrase "Happy Mother's Day" over and over.  The morning of, when she came into our room, she also sang it to me.  I turned on my camera and caught a clip of it, but being the second time around and upon request, it wasn't as good as her initial serenade.  

So like any persistent, perfectionist mother, I asked if she would do it again, hoping to get a more representative, enthusiastic version out of her in the next attempt.  And like any child with a mind of her own, she naturally wouldn't do it at all, and avoided it completely... though I admit she gets bonus points for creativity.

As you'll recall, Five Guys is her baby doll.  And lately, she has become quite the channel for Josephine's imagination.  Occasionally, Five Guys gets blamed for mishaps, and I frequently am being updated on what's happening in Five Guys' day-- where she is, where she's heading, what she's doing, why she's been put wherever she is, etc.  The other morning, Josephine had been requesting that we have a "special day" (one where we go on an adventure), and had been a little disappointed when I informed her it was just a "normal day" that day.  In the middle of her blanket time, Josephine excitedly popped her head around the corner and announced, "Mom, today IS a special day!!"  Me: "Really?"  Josephine:  "Yes!  Five Guys has a wedding today!!!"
She then proceeded to chatter about dresses and who was coming and her OWN wedding, and what kind of dress she would have for her wedding when she was older and at that point no fewer than 50 grey hairs sprouted on my head and I nearly burst into tears listening to my little one discuss her WEDDING DAY.
Of course, all that is on her mind because of my sister's upcoming nuptials, but I was entirely unprepared.  I will definitely NOT be watching her traipse down the aisle in her flower girl gown, lest I smear all my matron-of-honor make up... I will already be floodgate prone with the idea of my baby sister getting married!

Anyway, Mother's Day was lovely.  A couple shots of Josephine at dinner...

 ...first lifting her doll's hands, then mimicking.  I'm sure there was a good reason.

And they did a good job with my Mother's Day gift, although having bought it in advance, Josephine became well-rehearsed in a rather unfortunate drill... as with everything, this situation set a precedent that her little 3yo mind carved in stone as a rule to be followed for all time.  Now whenever she packages up various toys as "presents" for me, I receive them excitedly, ready to open them and play along, but am always firmly instructed, "You cannot open it now.  You have to wait until Sunday."

east river ferry

It's a fairly simple expedition to take the subway to Long Island City and catch the East River Ferry down to Brooklyn, so that's what we did a couple Saturdays ago.  

We thought about it pretty hard... we're nearly sure this has to have been Josephine's first boat ride.  She was into it-- enjoyed the wind and the churned up water.   I've decided I must be a bit on the slow, southern side of life, because this ferry trip was a bit like the bug carousel at the zoo; once we were going, I was pretty shocked at how we were GOING.  I remember thinking our ferry captains were perhaps college-age frat guys fulfilling a thinly veiled longing for a speedboat and lake.

 But that's okay.  I don't mind a little amusement-park thrown into my daily life.  Just keep getting surprised by it.

 The carousel under the Brooklyn Bridge was your more typical, granny-paced ride.  In fact, we had to go twice, because the first time I accidentally put her on a horse that didn't even go up and down!  Unacceptable.
I don't remember details, but this carousel has some degree of fame in these parts; something about it being super old and them spending many years and millions of dollars restoring it.  (The millions of dollars part is not a vague exaggeration.  I remember reading that and having a "what is this world coming to" moment.)

We walked down the waterfront park/boardwalk thing to Pier 6, which has some cute playgrounds for kids.  I thought the part with all the swings was pretty neat.  Josephine couldn't quite stay on the one below-- one slip off and she was done riding it-- though I think she'd have stayed there and pushed it for hours if we'd let her.

This was one of our first truly warm days.  We all got a little too much sun, did a LOT of walking, and were plain worn out by the time it was done... evident in Josephine's slap-happy expression on the ferry ride back (pictured below) and my swollen, achy, third trimester legs (not pictured below-- you're welcome).

Good day, on whole, though.  Despite getting pretty worn down, I do enjoy categorizing these physically exhausting adventures as "excellent exercise"-- which is about the only thing I'm doing right (albeit on accident) when it comes to "keeping the baby small" (that is the one piece of advice every doctor/midwife keeps recommending to me).  Josephine was 8 lbs 7 oz, and yes, I do feel very motivated to keep this baby smaller in hopes of a successful VBAC, but it is STILL insanely hard to avoid the extra calories.  I just hate feeling fatigued!  With restrictions on caffeine, if you want energy, you eat!  It's hard to tell myself, "no don't eat that sugary thing that will perk you up at least temporarily.  Just sit there and feel completely depleted instead." I have a three year old with boundless energy; it's tough to keep up! 

Anyway, I'm 32 weeks along, and according to the babycenter e-mail that arrived in my inbox today, faithfully reminding me of the impending pain (and subsequent joy) of late July, our little guy should be encroaching on 4 pounds at this point.  He'll put on 30-50% of his birthweight in the next 7 weeks.  So I'm going to try to be ESPECIALLY MINDFUL in this home stretch of how much plumping I let him do.  That's my public profession, in hopes that it will help my sticktoitiveness.   :-)

Failing that, we can at least take comfort in the fact that physically exhausting adventures will likely keep popping up.  And we'll get a clue about his weight status in a little over a week; my OB here sends patients in for a growth sonogram at this stage, so that's on the calendar for a week from Monday.  Here's hoping all my inadvertent exercise is paying off!

Bronx Zoo

About two and a half weeks ago, a combination of a good weather forecast and some ants-in-the-pants compelled Josephine and I out the door for a "special" day... our first real adventure since being in Astoria.  Previously I'd been focused on fostering a calm, stable schedule-- getting us both accustomed to the little routines here-- not really bothering with taking the train anywhere exciting.

It was certainly a rewarding day; pretty tiring getting there and back, but the zoo itself was gorgeous and made it easy to forget about the work required to push her up and down hills in a stroller.  Plus it was just fun to watch her see all these animals for the first time!

Her reactions to most of them were pretty anticlimactic, honestly.  The ones that we have learned to fear as an adult, to be impressed by and appreciate, are just one more blip on a screen of things that are large and unfamiliar to a small child.  In general, she just takes in stride most situations that I find chaotic, intimidating, or exhausting-- and I supposed it's just because everything has seemed that way for her entire life so far.
The squawking peacocks roaming everywhere, however, were very impacting and concerning to Josephine.  No doubt, they just seemed more threatening, eye-level, and loud.

For example:  Tigers = eh, whatever.  The fish in the tigers' pond that swam back and forth "with" Josephine as she paced in front of the tank = AWESOME.

When we got to the brown bear exhibit, this one walking around on the rock kept shaking his head-- kind of in a neurotic, twitch sort of way.  Josephine asked about it, and I said I didn't know why he was shaking his head.  She thought about it a moment, and as one of the MANY groups of jubilant, chattering school children approached the exhibit, she concluded that the bear was dancing because "maybe he likes all the music the kids make."

She also went on her first carousel ride.  Took it pretty seriously, and for a while, especially when it started moving MUCH faster than I remember any carousel moving, I was worried she was going to decide it was a very bad experience-- the same way Sean and I were certain that she would HATE the noise and rambling of the subway trains.  We were wrong about both... this new edge to her, which developed a little before she turned three, decided carousels were amazing.  I'm proud of this new facet of her personality that likes climbing, jumping, riding, running, and generally moving independently and rambunctiously.  I can tell I have a good amusement park partner in the making!

 By the afternoon, rain clouds were rolling in, making things pretty chilly (for those sitting in strollers as opposed to hauling them).  Hence the long-sleeved zoo shirt that I had to pick up for her.  Thankfully, it never rained enough to send us home early-- just sprinkled a bit.

 The last thing we did was take a monorail ride through the Asian section of the zoo-- which was the only way to see elephants (a must).  The picture below is in our little car.  (Can't remember what I was getting the stink-eye for.  I think I was refusing to let her hold something that I didn't want dropped overboard.)

 I was pleased that right as we went over the elephants, one of them let out a great big trumpet.  That made a huge impression on Josephine, who hid her face behind my back for the next two minutes.  I was ready for her to stop acting so unimpressed with very impressive animals!!

 The monorail concluded its journey by heading back over the Bronx River (above), and then Josephine and I concluded our adventures by double-checking our zoo map to make sure we hadn't missed anything.

 We took one final snapshot before heading out of the park, embarked on our journey back home, and slept very soundly that night!

random pictures

I don't have a very cohesive report on the last week and a half in Astoria... but all is well.  A much easier adjustment than last time, probably due to the fact that our previous stay here introduced Josephine to the pace and boundaries and rules, while also giving us time to get things set up in a workable fashion for Josephine and me.  So we were both a lot less overwhelmed by newness and little inconveniences.  Also, this time we arrived on a Friday rather than a Wednesday, so we went straight into a weekend with Sean being around and not having to disappear to the office all day.  Which was a huge relief to me and delight to Josephine.  

Add to that my own mental state of being much less frazzled.  I was exhausted, yes, but exhaustion is a lot more tolerable when you're facing two months of rest than when you're faced with two weeks of adjustment followed by a return to total chaos!  So in general, I've been more present and paced and Josephine and I have both enjoyed that mentality.  

For instance, I actually feel the freedom of mind, time, and energy to point out little things like snails on the sidewalk after a rain, talk to her about them, find a kids book at the library about snails, read said book several times, humor her while she makes up songs about snails, etc.

It's nice.  It's the way mommying should be, at its most ideal.  I'm hugely grateful to have this time with her before our son comes along and distracts me.  What a blessing to be able to focus on and cherish our current family dynamics before it all changes.

Especially because she's at a really precious age.

Sean and I spend a lot of time swapping stories of her antics and trying to stifle our laughter at her behind her back.  She's so exuberant, creative, talkative-- always eager to find something funny, laugh, try new things.  Her conversation topics are increasingly amusing, lending humorous insights into how her mind is working and processing things around her.   She happily waves and greets strangers when we're out and about, and truly is a delight to be around.  Naturally, all of this is enhanced by having Sean around-- it's more fun to parent when he can watch it all firsthand, too.

I haven't taken many pictures yet, but I'll share what's accumulated on my camera so far...  

We got a couch.  The back lies down and makes a bed.  (Between that and an air mattress, we're ready for you!)  Most importantly, though-- it serves as a place to sit other than the floor, much to this third-trimesterly-pregnant woman's relief!

Josephine patiently awaiting her pancake breakfast at the Family Corner Restaurant... We could both eat there every morning and not grow tired of it!

A few pictures of her hiding behind one of her birthday presents-- a green bean bag chair:

You can see in the above picture that one of our fun little projects has been finding curtains for our bedrooms.  It's really bright in our apartment by 6:30 in the morning, and that is simply not the wake-up time I feel called to observe in my precious few months pre-newborn.  I can't do much about the three huge skylights, but I figured darkening the bedroom windows would at least help us sleep in a little longer.  I found some plain brown linen ones for Sean's and my room at a thrift store, and we found the fabric for Josephine's at a hole-in-the-wall fabric shop a few blocks down Ditmars Blvd.  I miss my sewing machine a little bit... I'm slowly getting around to running darning stitches to keep the edges from fraying.  It would have all been properly hemmed in 10 minutes flat with a machine, whereas by hand I get about two sides pinned and sewn per naptime.  But that's okay.  So far, I'm all about this spirit of keeping things slow.  It's the antithesis of my normally obsessive tendencies with efficiency, and it feels healthy and therapeutic.

Okay.  That's all for now.  I'll try to remember to take more pictures!

last Sunday: Astoria Park