Family Vacation

Labor Day Weekend began our week long family vacation this year with my parents, and sister and her family in Upstate NY. Not bringing our journal in which we capture all the fascinating things Katherine does in her development, I thought I'd capture some of them here. She's speaking in sentences already...."I want this yogurt." was the big one the other day. And she's catching on to everything we say. It's truly amazing. At 21 months, who knew she could truly learn shapes like rhombus and trapezoid....horse vs. pony.

Being in Saratoga, we headed for the track where she saw both horses and ponies - the former, racing and the latter, giving kids rides - and later at the hotel, she noticed a framed print of a horse racing and started to say "pony" and stopped just short, and corrected herself and said "horsie".

She's met again Aunts, Uncles and cousins, second cousins..etc. She is affectionate with them all...especially "NonnaPoppa" or sometimes, "PopPop". Nonna babysat so we could go to dinner on our anniversary and Katherine was so good - going right to bed. She's been going to bed VERY late...of course...but she still goes right down. Lays there a bit and shuts her eyes and goes to sleep. It's so cute.

Belated post - Kati's 1st Birthday

Amazed by this big beautiful cake from Aunt Mimi -

a comment on Marianna's blog remarks how cool it is she's trying to use her psychic powers to put out the candle.

Then she finally digs in, well sort of...her first touch of the icing struck an "ew" face at the odd feeling.

First Halloween!

Have you ever seen a cuter pumpkin!?!
I think not!

my first trip to staten island

....was to attend my friend's baby shower. It's amazing what you'll do when you want to be someplace. When else would I have a reason to go to Staten Island. I'd tease I never went over those bridges...Goethals...Rt 278...why go there? "I don't go east of Manhatten." I'd say. Now I had a reason, so Peanut and I trekked out together and I'm feeling quite adventursome. Tuesday I go to Brooklyn for the first time and now I'm not even worried. :) do i sound like a country hick? or a NJ-ite? I'm excited, though, b/c now I'll know how to get to Brooklyn to visit the new baby once it's born...all very exciting. And all very good reasons to adventure past the East River!

Customer service is dead.

I should probably edit that to "is hit or miss", which I guess can be said for just about anything. However, when you're in a retail setting, the one thing you'd think you could count on is employees helping you - with a smile would be even better. I have to say, my initial disgust has been somewhat metered by a second experience at the same store which was much more pleasant. I can only accredit this to the fact that my first experience was at 5pm on a Sunday, and the second was at 6pm on a Tuesday. It is a well known fact around here (being the metro-NY area) that weekend shopping is hell. And if you dare, or must, you risk being the recipeient of poor manners and rude behavior and this is from both other shoppers, as well as employees. Now on Tuesday (or almost any weeknight) you can be in the same place with the same people working and experience smiles, offers of assistance, and fewer shoving by shoppers b/c there are just fewer shoppers.

The NY Metro area on weekends is like the rest of the country during Christmas shopping month....so imagine what Christmas is like here.

As for people and rude behavior, I'm just sick of drivers as well. Now that I've been commuting 45 minutes on highways that are blocked up in the morning, I experience more inconsiderate behavior. I've concluded these people have not been taught the difference between right and wrong; they were never told to treat others as you'd have them treat you....rather, it's bite or be bitten these days. The world can be a sad, sad place some days.

Starting work again...

Well my first 2 weeks back to work were memorialized yesterday with my first illness due to day care. What a whopper and it barely made a dent in my kid. My stomach did cartwheels all day. But my child is taking to day care, and the routine, quite well. There are ups and downs, but overall her smiling, friendly, cheery personality is coming through each day. It's still not easy for me to leave her each day, but I know it's good for both of us.

Miracles...

As I sit pondering the year and the future, I hold my child and kiss her lightly on the cheek as she rests in my arms after what apparently was a very satiating meal from my breast and realize what a miracle she really is. It’s not that I haven’t realized this since the moment she was born and placed on my chest, with two very large eyes gazing at me and around the space all new to her, but it really hit me today. Her skin was made from our skin….and it’s the softest skin in the world. Being Winter, my hands have been so dry, I hate to touch her for fear of rubbing fingers like sand paper against her soft new skin. What a miracle babies are...and thus, we all are such miracles. How cells know to create each small detail on the body to make it run for years to come. But with the birth of each new child we are reminded of the precious life we are, that we created, that we should honor each day.