Do you think this is a sign of a child who is ready to be potty trained? Apparently the potty is an excellent place for a book (I will sometimes agree with this) and a snack (not so sure about that one.)
Monday, March 31, 2008
Potty Training
Do you think this is a sign of a child who is ready to be potty trained? Apparently the potty is an excellent place for a book (I will sometimes agree with this) and a snack (not so sure about that one.)
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Drinking Milk From a Straw
Clio learned this new trick when we had lunch yesterday at Macy's.
I've never seen the kid drink so much milk in one sitting!
I've never seen the kid drink so much milk in one sitting!
Bouncy Horse
At her last well visit, when going through the major milestones for 18-month olds, our Dr. seemed surprised that Clio is not all that adept at climbing. When she heard that Clio crawls up stairs and basically refuses to go down them at all (at one point I swear it was reaching phobia proportions), she said "Hm. Well, I guess it will come in time."
Then, at a recent outing to PowerPlay and a subsequent playdate at Statia's, I realized that Clio can't seem to figure out how to climb on to physical toys, like rocking horses or play vehicles. She wanted very badly to ride Zoe's truck, but wound up just sitting sidesaddle and not going much of anywhere.
"Does she have any toys like this?" Statia asked me. And the truth is, she doesn't. We seem to have a lot of art and music stuff, a LOT of animals and babies, and a number of small-motor skills games, like puzzles and stacking cups. We don't have anything you climb on or ride on partly because our house just isn't that big, and partly because most of that stuff is pretty ugly.
So about a week ago, Clio and I went off to Target to get a wooden bike I had seen there many times, part of the line of toys Parents Magazine has developed:
But just like every other time I have ever gone to our small and non-suburban Target on a mission for a specific product, they did not have the bike. Loath to leave empty handed, I contemplated the ride-on toy section for quite a while, trying to decide which plastic toy was least offensive. The Barbie versions were out (baby number 2 could be a boy) and they were sold out of the Dora and Diego options, which would have been the obvious choice considering Clio's obsession with all things "Dorla", so we narrowed it down to a Mickey Plane and a Finding Nemo dune buggy. I finally left it up to Clio, who chose the plane:
Now, in his own way, Dave is more of an aesthete than I am, and knowing his penchant for wooden, European-made, quirky toys, I left Mickey in the car until he came home to confer.
Long story even longer, Dave had spent the better part of his afternoon doing research, and had determined that the Skuut was just the thing for Clio:
We called every Brooklyn location and found that this is a popular item, sold out all over town. Except at LuLu's. The next day we went off to this local kids hair salon and toy store, and learned pretty quickly that the Skuut is just a little big (and a lot advanced) for Clio. Thus began the looooong debate over radio flier tricycles versus a lovely wooden rocking horse (the former has too large of a turning radius (according to Dave), and the latter is also a bit too big for now).
Eventually we went with the Rody, an inflatable bouncy horse that grows with your kids- you simply inflate it more or less to fit their size.
(As an aside, can you see why Dave and I rarely get anything done? Research, more research, and crippling indecisiveness.) Anyway, we got the thing home, and Clio wanted to sit on it immediately, even before we got it out of the box.
And then still and some more once it was uncrated.
Once it was actually inflated, she took it for a spin - and a number of spills. Eventually, she really got the hang of it. She has figured out that stability helps, and drags the thing over to a chair, table (or her dad) in order to support herself getting on the thing.
And she has learned to swing her leg over the top- which is exactly what I was after in the first place. In fact, she might be a little too comfortable with this toy already:
By the way, the Mickey plane is still in the car. Who knows, maybe Clio will build a fleet of vehicles to get around the living room in style.
Then, at a recent outing to PowerPlay and a subsequent playdate at Statia's, I realized that Clio can't seem to figure out how to climb on to physical toys, like rocking horses or play vehicles. She wanted very badly to ride Zoe's truck, but wound up just sitting sidesaddle and not going much of anywhere.
"Does she have any toys like this?" Statia asked me. And the truth is, she doesn't. We seem to have a lot of art and music stuff, a LOT of animals and babies, and a number of small-motor skills games, like puzzles and stacking cups. We don't have anything you climb on or ride on partly because our house just isn't that big, and partly because most of that stuff is pretty ugly.
So about a week ago, Clio and I went off to Target to get a wooden bike I had seen there many times, part of the line of toys Parents Magazine has developed:
But just like every other time I have ever gone to our small and non-suburban Target on a mission for a specific product, they did not have the bike. Loath to leave empty handed, I contemplated the ride-on toy section for quite a while, trying to decide which plastic toy was least offensive. The Barbie versions were out (baby number 2 could be a boy) and they were sold out of the Dora and Diego options, which would have been the obvious choice considering Clio's obsession with all things "Dorla", so we narrowed it down to a Mickey Plane and a Finding Nemo dune buggy. I finally left it up to Clio, who chose the plane:
Now, in his own way, Dave is more of an aesthete than I am, and knowing his penchant for wooden, European-made, quirky toys, I left Mickey in the car until he came home to confer.
Long story even longer, Dave had spent the better part of his afternoon doing research, and had determined that the Skuut was just the thing for Clio:
We called every Brooklyn location and found that this is a popular item, sold out all over town. Except at LuLu's. The next day we went off to this local kids hair salon and toy store, and learned pretty quickly that the Skuut is just a little big (and a lot advanced) for Clio. Thus began the looooong debate over radio flier tricycles versus a lovely wooden rocking horse (the former has too large of a turning radius (according to Dave), and the latter is also a bit too big for now).
Eventually we went with the Rody, an inflatable bouncy horse that grows with your kids- you simply inflate it more or less to fit their size.
(As an aside, can you see why Dave and I rarely get anything done? Research, more research, and crippling indecisiveness.) Anyway, we got the thing home, and Clio wanted to sit on it immediately, even before we got it out of the box.
And then still and some more once it was uncrated.
Once it was actually inflated, she took it for a spin - and a number of spills. Eventually, she really got the hang of it. She has figured out that stability helps, and drags the thing over to a chair, table (or her dad) in order to support herself getting on the thing.
And she has learned to swing her leg over the top- which is exactly what I was after in the first place. In fact, she might be a little too comfortable with this toy already:
By the way, the Mickey plane is still in the car. Who knows, maybe Clio will build a fleet of vehicles to get around the living room in style.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Going on and Egg Hunt
We were thrilled to have the company of Abe, Amelia, and their parents for Easter brunch. (Okay, so when we planned the brunch it was really intended as a farewell to the Kwongs, who leave us for San Francisco tomorrow, and we didn't realize it was Easter.) Still, it made our day to have a family play date, and we did "set up" an Easter egg hunt for them.
Because eggs for toddlers basically need to be hidden in plain sight, we couldn't prepare in advance. Dave wanted to take the kids out of the room while we hid the eggs, but it turned out to be easy enough to "hide" them right under their noses. They actually did get into it, and eventually found them all- with a little help from their parents, aka the cheering section.
We also didn't have much to put IN the eggs, because none of these kids really eat candy, and my ideas (grapes, raisins, etc.) would have just made a mess. The kids didn't much care- they just wanted to show them off to each other - but Dave got a little creative with one special egg for Clio, nonetheless.
Easter Spoils
This kid is spoiled.
Not by us, mind you- it's by all of YOU out there in the world, sending her cards and gifts and toys and all kinds of STUFF. In fact, Clio was so wonderfully celebrated this Easter that I need to devote an entire post to the receiving and opening of packages.
They started to roll in around Wednesday, at which point we clued in to the fact that a holiday was coming. Dave didn't want to open anything until Easter itself, so we had to sort of parcel it all out during the day, to avoid overload. We started with the cards, and let me tell you, those were exciting enough to keep her occupied all morning.
Especially when we opened Great Bonnie and Great Granddad's SINGING card, which starts in on "Here comes Peter Cottontail" every time you open it (video coming soon, I promise). Clio thought that was about the coolest thing ever. Can you tell?
On to the packages.
Together with the singing card, Bonnie and Granddad sent this very cool bunny backpack, which Clio put on and took off and put on and took off, and paraded around and around the kitchen island.
(She did not, however, think it was so great to carry plastic eggs around inside the backpack- the concept of the thing as anything other than a wearable toy is lost on her at this point.)
Uncle Brian and Aunt Maud are the greatest offenders when it comes to lavishly spoiling Clio. Towards the end of the day, we dug in to the entire Easter basket they sent along. (As it turns out, we did not provide any kind of easter basket this year, so without this special one, Clio would have had to go without. In fact, we didn't manage to provide much except a meager plastic-egg-hunt with about a dozen eggs (the dollar store was out by the time we went to get them. On Saturday. Go figure))
Clio is a BIG fan of this special bubble blower
(she even managed to blow a few herself. Good thing the soap is non-toxic, as she did eat a bunch of it in the process).
She is perhaps and even bigger fan of this rainbow bunny (it does fall into her A-number-1 category of Babies and Animals, after all),
and has taken great delight in identifying the various colored parts ("purple arm!" etc.)
But perhaps the best part of all is this bunny-head-shaped sidewalk chalk, which she and Daddy put right to use while the Mommy made her way off to an afternoon yoga class.
Despite NO parental effort, Clio had quite a fantastic Easter.
So, thanks Easter Bunn(ies)
(Bok, Bok!)
Not by us, mind you- it's by all of YOU out there in the world, sending her cards and gifts and toys and all kinds of STUFF. In fact, Clio was so wonderfully celebrated this Easter that I need to devote an entire post to the receiving and opening of packages.
They started to roll in around Wednesday, at which point we clued in to the fact that a holiday was coming. Dave didn't want to open anything until Easter itself, so we had to sort of parcel it all out during the day, to avoid overload. We started with the cards, and let me tell you, those were exciting enough to keep her occupied all morning.
Especially when we opened Great Bonnie and Great Granddad's SINGING card, which starts in on "Here comes Peter Cottontail" every time you open it (video coming soon, I promise). Clio thought that was about the coolest thing ever. Can you tell?
On to the packages.
Together with the singing card, Bonnie and Granddad sent this very cool bunny backpack, which Clio put on and took off and put on and took off, and paraded around and around the kitchen island.
(She did not, however, think it was so great to carry plastic eggs around inside the backpack- the concept of the thing as anything other than a wearable toy is lost on her at this point.)
Uncle Brian and Aunt Maud are the greatest offenders when it comes to lavishly spoiling Clio. Towards the end of the day, we dug in to the entire Easter basket they sent along. (As it turns out, we did not provide any kind of easter basket this year, so without this special one, Clio would have had to go without. In fact, we didn't manage to provide much except a meager plastic-egg-hunt with about a dozen eggs (the dollar store was out by the time we went to get them. On Saturday. Go figure))
Clio is a BIG fan of this special bubble blower
(she even managed to blow a few herself. Good thing the soap is non-toxic, as she did eat a bunch of it in the process).
She is perhaps and even bigger fan of this rainbow bunny (it does fall into her A-number-1 category of Babies and Animals, after all),
and has taken great delight in identifying the various colored parts ("purple arm!" etc.) But perhaps the best part of all is this bunny-head-shaped sidewalk chalk, which she and Daddy put right to use while the Mommy made her way off to an afternoon yoga class.
Despite NO parental effort, Clio had quite a fantastic Easter.
So, thanks Easter Bunn(ies)
(Bok, Bok!)
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Leopards and leopardsand leopards, oh my!
Start with a leopard jumper (and notice the pink fur and silver tinsel cuffs on the onesie) 
Add a leopard coat,
And don't forget the pet leopard!
Clio has decided this is the coat of the moment because it looks just like her "cat."
With this much animal print, I'm sure Nonny is very proud!
Add a leopard coat,
And don't forget the pet leopard!
Clio has decided this is the coat of the moment because it looks just like her "cat."
With this much animal print, I'm sure Nonny is very proud!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Happy Birthday Grandma!
Here's Barb as a new baby:
As a new mom:
And as a new grandma:
Similar to the way that Dave is trying to teach Clio something in most of their photos, and my mom is usually trying to make Clio laugh, I love that most pictures of Barb and Clio show Barb looking at Clio, as if the photo itself is not as important as whatever Clio is doing at that very moment. She's doting that way. It's just like the look she's giving Dave in the picture above. Sometimes I wonder if it's because she sees Clio fairly infrequently, so she's savoring every move that her only grandchild makes; but I think it's probably just her way.
Occasionally we do catch her looking at the camera, with good results.
When last I wrote about Barb here, she had been diagnosed with cancer; some of you have asked for updates, and I'm so glad to report that the surgery was a success, the recovery is going very well, and while the verdict is still out on next steps, all is looking good for a complete recovery. So this is a very special birthday, as we truly feel the celebration of Barb's life.
Happy Birthday, Grandma!
As a new mom:
And as a new grandma:
Similar to the way that Dave is trying to teach Clio something in most of their photos, and my mom is usually trying to make Clio laugh, I love that most pictures of Barb and Clio show Barb looking at Clio, as if the photo itself is not as important as whatever Clio is doing at that very moment. She's doting that way. It's just like the look she's giving Dave in the picture above. Sometimes I wonder if it's because she sees Clio fairly infrequently, so she's savoring every move that her only grandchild makes; but I think it's probably just her way.
Occasionally we do catch her looking at the camera, with good results.
When last I wrote about Barb here, she had been diagnosed with cancer; some of you have asked for updates, and I'm so glad to report that the surgery was a success, the recovery is going very well, and while the verdict is still out on next steps, all is looking good for a complete recovery. So this is a very special birthday, as we truly feel the celebration of Barb's life.
Happy Birthday, Grandma!
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