Hilarious Video

While we're on the subject of fabulous kiddie video, everyone should check out Yo Gabba Gabba, on youtube or on Nickelodeon. Melissa, Peter, and Eva turned us onto this on Eva's blog, and we just watched an episode where Elijah Wood teaches Yo Gabba and pals how to do the "puppet master" dance ("raise your knee, raise your other knee, raise your foot, raise your other foot, walk in a circle, do the PUPPET MASTER!")

Which made me think of the funniest video I have watched in a while. Blog action has been a little slow around here (okay, maybe it's just me- I've been laid up with a virus for three days and have probably checked all the baby blogs incessantly), so I branched out to blogs linked to from my usual blogs. Through The Hewitt Chronicles, (which, incidentally, has two laugh-out-loud back-to-back posts right now, link to the left), I took another look at the Millers' blog about their twin boys, Conrad and Nolan. These kiddos are always up to something (and their mother Renee is quite funny), but this video of the two dancing to Manha Manha in matching pjs is especially worth a look. Check it out here.

Pizza: A Love Story in 2 Parts

I made a MAJOR error in parental judgment the other day, when I mentioned the word "pizza" to my pizza-obsessed toddler before I even got it out of the freezer. Clio is so enamored with pizza, she has taken to calling all tasty foods after her delicious favorite (e.g., frozen corn = "pizza"). Here we are talking about pizza, before I employed every distraction tactic in the book while the oven preheated and the pizza baked for an excruciating 21 minutes. (toddlers don't understand the concepts of "almost," "not quite yet," or "soon.")



Finally, Clio gets to sit down to lunch. Now, because I am overenthusiastic about art-directing these little videos, and because we often take video on our regular camera, I tend to forget that you can NOT take video in the portrait layout; normally I would do everything possible to cover up this foolishness (and did in fact find open-source editing software through a google search, which I downloaded and learned how to use all by myself), HOWEVER, for some reason when you flip a video from portrait to landscape it's 5 times as big as it was to begin with and therefore too big for youtube, so you're gonna have to watch this one sideways.

It's mostly the audio that's pertinent anyway.



And for the record, the coordinated plate, bib, and sippy cup is a total coincidence.

A Whole lot of Pink

Pink from head to toe...almost. My favorite thing about this group of pictures is Clio's insistence on carrying around her pink mary janes like a couple of toys- showing you all that I could have gone further, but showed some restraint when it came to her feet!



Love the head to toe Ralph Lauren in the first batch, too.

A Hat Goes on Your Head

The Running of the Pigs

Clio has taken to running around with her stuffed "an-maux," especially Baby and Mr. Pig. Only problem is, she often looks at the person in the room with her (or other distractions), rather than WHERE SHE'S GOING. This weekend she almost fell off the little landing at one of the tot playgrounds in Park Slope.

Here she is essentially running in circles around our kitchen island. My brothers and i used to do this on a slightly larger scale- running in the circle made by kitchen, dining room, living room- and we called it "chase." Now there's a game that doesn't get old!

Mimic

These days, Clio is learning by doing. Specifically, she is trying out some of our actions (on us). I first noticed this when I put her in her front-carrier recently, and instead of raising her arms over the sides as she usually does, she slipped her arms under the straps so she could rub my back. I thought this was very sweet and affectionate. A few minutes later, when I found myself reflexively and habitualy rubbing her back, I figured out what was going on.

Since then she has spent quite a bit of time trying to take her bib (and her shoes) off herself to put them on her baby, brushing her teeth when we brush our teeth, and trying to feed her "animals" the meal we are trying to feed her. (Related video coming soon).

It even seems that I have been underestimating her powers of observation. Last night she pulled a number of her books off the bookshelf- and tucked them behind her back. Dave thought this was a little strange- until I explained that that's what I do when I don't want her to be distracted by a second book before we've finished reading the first!

What a smart girl! Stupid, transparent mommy needs to start thinking about her actions!

Turning Japanese I Think I'm Turning Japanese I Really Think So

Grandma and Grandpa took a trip to Japan this summer to visit Uncle Derek, and today, Clio showed off her special kimono in the unusually balmy October weather. (Another outfit of the week!). I love that Dave took these pictures outside (how inspired: photos of Clio taken somewhere other than our living room!), and I especially love how incongruous the vibrant little outfit is amidst the cars and cement of our blah sidewalk on a gray day.


As an aside, Clio has reconnected with her book collection lately, and this picture, which happened to be taken in the Kimono and is therefore being included here as an aside, captures the intensity with which she loves certain tomes.

Now, another aside and just for fun, check out the video for the Vapours Turning Japanese on youtube; apart from the low production value, this could almost be a contemporary video- isn't it amazing that 80s hair is back?

My Cousin Connor

Connor was just staying with us for a couple of weeks. He is the very best kind of houseguest: we rarely saw him, but when we did he kept us highly entertained with tales from the nightlife. He also does dishes if you feed him and brings ice cream into the house on a regular basis. Connor has made several pit stops here in Greenwood Heights between stints in Asia and Europe, and watching him work through hangovers with gas-station coffee, we remember what it is like to be young and childless. You know what? As glam as Connor makes it look, I wouldn't go back for a minute. The late nights and social drama just seem so exhausting; However, I have to say that I wouldn't turn down one of those long days on the couch, watching E! news and America's Next Top Model! As Connor himself pointed out, this was all excellent practice for Clio's teenage years.

When Connor stayed with us in March, he terrified Clio. We thought it had something to do with his voice, which can be somewhat booming, but he claims that he has this effect on all children. I'm happy to report there has been some progress: this trip, Connor apparently picked Clio up. Now, I happened to be out of the room, and it is just possible that the boys are simply corroborating each other's story. Both have the same ending: Clio cried.

I do, at least, have evidence of some interaction.


Need I say more?

Beyond the finger painting, Connor added a new skill to his repertoire: babysitting. Not, of course, when the baby was awake, but still. Baby steps. Thrilled to get out to a nice dinner, Dave and I hit the town... and crawled home at 10:30 with our tails between our legs. That's like having dinner at 4pm to someone of Connor's ilk. Is this an ode to parenthood, or what?

We miss you already, Connor!

Winter Coats

Okay, so this would be an Outfit of the Week: Special Edition, but since we just did one yesterday, the post will have to stand on its own. Winter Coats. It's finally a little chilly around here, and I did the wardrobe swithchover in Clio's closet. (Dave- and even Connor- were appalled by how many clothes the kid has. But what can I say, hand-me-downs from three excellent sources, PLUS lovely gifts from grandparents, plus I feel the need to pick up a little somethin' somethin' every now and again.)

Anyway, Clio has some excellent outerwear; all, I think, courtesy of Lucia.

Let the cuteness begin.

Check out the profile of the hood:


I love this papparazi shot:


Can't wait for a little snow!

The Return of Outfit of the Week

Okay, so this feature never became exactly regular. But Clio's been wearing some interesting combinations lately (plus she has some REALLY cute new gifts and hand me downs), so it seemed like a good time to bring it back. I was going to go for a category-buster and choose these new PJs from Nonny,


But in the end the competition was just too stiff, from a little ensemble put together by none other than The Daddy:



Someday maybe I'll let you all see these panties with their coordinating reverse-stripe top! (an adorable hand me down from Carrie's girls Morgan and Greta, I never did figure out the perfect situation in which to wear just panties on the bottom and long sleeves on top...)

Portraits

I saw my friend Wendy yesterday, who is expecting a baby next month. Naturally, I pressed upon her to look at "the latest" of Clio, and scrolled through many weeks of blog posts, looking for a good picture. Which is when I realized that with all the action and adventure lately, we haven't posted any straight-up pictures of our darling daughter.

Consider this amended.




You'll also notice that Clio has bangs. I fought the impulse for weeks, but finally gave in. We were in the bathroom, she was busy trying to get into the cabinets, I saw a scissor, picked it up and just reached down and snipped. This technique has worked fairly well for three subsequent trims.

Who's Teaching her this stuff, anyway?

Dictionary Update

Clio seems to be in that phase my aunt Molly calls the "explosion of language." She mimics everything we say, and while I sometimes think she's not retaining some of her older words, she'll pull them out when we least expect it.
All weekend, she's been saying "Dadoo," and we kept thinking that maybe she was saying Daddy; but tonight she said it after I gave in and gave her some "pizza," (she did say "please"), and I figured out she's saying "thank you." Dave said, "where did she learn that?" Funny, we can't take credit; it's the influence of the lovely ladies of Knock Knock day care.

So, the New Words list includes (but is not limited to):

thank you
pizza
please
yellow
green
blue
bird (the word and the sign)
outside
stroller
hi
bye bye
be-bo ("you may not know what be-bo means, or maybe you've forgotten: it's just the tiny hippo way of saying belly button")
boon (balloon)
Titi (like "aunt" in Spanish)
bee (and "buzz" is "bee bee bee bee")
butterfly
strawberry
shoes
spoon
hiss
tree
animal (my personal favorite)...

...and "mine."

She learned this on the playground yesterday, from a little girl, about her same age, named Stella. Stella got to the top of the slide and declared it "Mine!" or showed off her bucket and ball and told the other kids, "mine!" Clio picked this up very quickly, and did battle with her new friend Lydia over a toy stoller: each grabbed one handle and took turns saying- you got it- "Mine!"

Full Circle (or, Clio's First Brush With Fame)

I started this blog back in May, and one of my favorite posts to this day is "Driving to Amenia (Or, the 6 Hour Tour)" about the adventures we had on the way to our friends' Sara and Roy's wedding. Well, Marni just sent around a photo album from the weekend, and let me tell you, there's more to report! To bring you back, here's Clio, not yet one year old, back when her smile was mostly nose-crinkle


Checking out the top of Marni's head,

And having her toes tickled by Diana Taylor, good friend of the bride (and girlfriend of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg)


And here, I'm not sure which is more striking: Dave in an (orange) yarmukle, Mayor Bloomberg standing THIS CLOSE to us, or the fact that Clio has not idea that she is in the presence of greatness.


Now, wasn't that worth revisiting?

Letting it slide

Honestly? I'm letting a LOT slide around here- the laundry, the meal planning, my memory... the loosening of standards is on my mind.

But mostly this post is literal. Clio is into slides.

At our local playground, she spends a lot of time trying to climb up the slide.
In Minnesota, she did the same with the toddler tube-slide:



But needed some help from Nonny to get down the big slide (this is not even just a "big-kid slide"; I swear this is an adult slide.) Clio thought it was just about the best thing ever.




Back down on the ground, Clio and Papa used the climbing wall to work on her color knowledge.

She used to call every color "Blue." Lately, she has taken to calling Blue "yayou" aka yellow (which I think is just about the cutest thing ever.)

Marni's Story

For the Minesota Zoo photos:

One day while Clio and Lucia were on safari, they came upon a small rodent behind a glass wall (very odd in the jungle). Clio knew that this rodent spoke her language and she cried out in joy. She tried to convince Lucia that being a part of this world, her world, was far superior to anything Lucia may have experienced in her past but just as Lucia was on the brink of believing Finn came and swooped Lucia up and told her that cults are bad.

Meanwhile, an evil man was lurking in the bush.

Back in their normal lives, Lucia and Finn decided that the best way to keep cultish safaris at bay would be to start their own! They dressed up in smocks (as shown in the picture which was obviously taken by the paparazzi) and led their classrooms in an anti-safari cult dance.

Clio calls for reinforcement from Lucia & Finn's mommy... and it works! Just look at that triumphant smile!

Moral of the story is that safari cults are fun because you can talk to rodents behind glass walls. But we still don't know about the lurking man.

.... To be continued.

Story Contest (aka The MN Zoo)

So, I have some great photos from our trip to the zoo with Finn and Lucia and all the attendant adults (plus lots of terrible pictures because I was showing off with my fancy camera but somehow managed to cover half of the lens more than half of the time), but for some reason the story's not coming together. Lots happened that day, but none of the narratives are represented in the snapshots. Blogging is hard work people! So I'm including some of the most intruiging pictures from that day, and it's up to you to tell the tale. Go ahead and put it together in the "comments" section. That's right, today this blog is interactive.










By the way, I really think Clio and Lucia should have a book series, the Clio and Lucia books (like Frog and Toad, Gossie and Gertie, Elephant and Piggie, Betsy-Tacy and so on.) Don't you think? They would both make excellent little cartoon characters.