Clio turns 6, in pictures

Eleri Turns 4, in pictures

Three Candles

The girls each blew out several sets of birthday candles this year, but this is Eleri's actual birthday.  We had dinner at Rory and Nicole's house (my parents and other brother were in Idaho for a family reunion), and leftover cupcakes from a dinner with Hewitts and Harringtons.

I forgot my camera, but Rory got this shot on his phone.  I love seeing us through someone else's lens, and will admit to getting a little teary when I saw this in my inbox.

Three Years in Three Minutes

Music: "Baby," Devendra Banhart

Dave would like you to know that he chose the music.  Nice work honey!  We make a great team!
Also, happy third birthday to our lovely little one.  I think it's hilarious that you tube chose this still form the middle of the slideshow as the thumbnail, and in it she looks very worried indeed.

Enjoy!

Birthday Cake

I truly can't believe that it is July 6th: where have the days gone?
There are many, many things to catch up on here (will I ever truly be caught up?  Doubtful!)  But for now, there are important matters at hand, like birthdays.  And cake.

For months, Clio has been saying that she wanted a tiered cake with a cupcake on top and an edible dolphin. Not at all specific, right?  To be honest, I wasn't completely phased by this.  The tiers, the cupcake, totally doable.  And disappointment is part of life, isn't it, so I figured I would just toss one of those German figurines of a dolphin on top and say, oh, oops, that Dolphin's not edible.  Silly me.  I know, mother of the year, sitting right here.

Well, this weekend as we prepared to make said cake, we revisited the plans with Clio, and while she had been insisting on that dolphin for ages, she suddenly and inexplicably veered to something easier.  Two layers (not tiers), cupcake, and a cherry on top.  Oh, and hearts on the sides.  It's possible that she has learned another important life lesson here: that reducing expectations also reduced potential dissapointment.  Or maybe she just wanted to let me off the hook.  At an rate, to be SURE we knew exactly what she wanted, we had her draw a picture.  And then through discussion we arrived at that little inset drawing.

And here's the actual cake.

A pretty good likeness, I'll say.

And darn delicious, too.

After sharing some cake with friends and family on the 4th, we enjoyed the cake a second time on Clio's actual birthday, in what is becoming something of a tradition.  (I hope to put a candle in the final quarter on Saturday, for Eleri.  I wonder if there will come a time when this practice bothers the girls, or if it will just be one of those weird things our family does.)

You may notice that the cake says "River."  River is the son of my younger brother's friends, who joined us on the fourth.  The 4th happened to be River's 4th birthday.  When she learned of this, Clio suggested that we include him on the cake, which I thought was awfully sweet of her.

Want to know something weird?  When I took these pictures (above), I got a strange sense of deja vu, and realized that Clio wore the EXACT same outfit on her birthday last year!

What do you think, does she look a whole year older?

Her birthday letter is coming soon.

The belated birthday post

In recent years, my birthday hasn't felt much like something of note. You know, a day like any other. And this was shaping up to be more of the same. I do not say this with bitterness, or sadness, or any other -ness that might denote negative feelings. I say it in the matter-of-fact way that I feel it. So many other, bigger, better milestones have been hit in the lat 5 years, my own birthdays pale in comparison. Like many other "special" days for me, the trend has been to take it as a "me" day, to go out, by myself, shopping or manicuring or even just running errands in peace. These days I have a lot of that kind of me time--while I always seem to be busy, it is not busy with a job, and time for errands is a plenty. I did get to bring my mom along for that kind of lovely meandering day, and lunch--a bonus of our new proximity. Dave and I were planning a night out together this time around, but my birthday fell on a Friday, and we forgot to call sooner, and out sitter was busy, and, well, no date night.

So we did something revolutionary. We celebrated my birthday as a family. I know, this is the obvious thing to do for so many of you, but for the first time in my life as a mother, it seemed like such a nice thing to choose to spend time with my kids on my special day instead of cashing in my chips for time off.

We went bowling. A first for the girls. I had noticed a throwback bowling alley on my way to bring the girls to the doctor last month, and it came back to me in a flash of inspiration. They have a little ramp that the girls got to send their balls down, and bumpers to keep them in the lane, and you can order dinner right at your table, lane-side. Eleri got cranberry juice and Clio got chocolate milk, so they were happy....and hyper. But they took turns nicely and waited patiently and didn't get upset if they didn't get a lot of pins down. The people in the lanes on either side of us were charmed by the children. And I bowled okay. Even broke 100. It was a nice birthday.







Though I will admit, it would have been nicer if the snow hadn't rolled in that night, closing airports and keeping Marni from getting here for the show-up-on-the-doorstep surprise she had planned with Dave. Just the thought of it is so wonderful: a night of bowling with my family followed by a weekend of girl talk, good restaurants, wine, and cake with my maid of honor.

Sigh.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Clio at Perch Babies turn one:


Clio at Perch Babies turn two:


In a way, nothing has changed. This year Clio attacked the snacks with every bit as much gusto as she attacked this glass of water last year. You'd think we didn't feed her or something.

Perch Babies Turn Two

Who are the Perch Babies?

I know I've made many references to my mom's group in these pages, but I've never explained how I came to be part of such an amazing group of women (and husbands and children).

Perch is the name of a restaurant in Park Slope where "kid-friendly" is not jut reflected in high chairs and kiddie menus, but in the very business plan, which encourages groups of moms to gather in the back room at off hours. When Clio was a tiny baby, my friend Emily and I took her son Abe and Clio there for lunch. As we ate (and the infants slept in their car seats), a woman came in with a stroller, and as she passed, asked us, "Are you here for the mom's group?"

There is a maternity and baby store in Park Slope called Boing Boing, where you can buy nursing bras and take classes to learn how to use various baby slings, and where you can sign up to be part of an email list of mothers whose children are born in the same month as yours. When I was pregnant with Clio, I bought a maya wrap sling there with my friend Liza after pre-natal yoga one day, and when asked if we would like to be on the June babies list, we politely declined (having both learned at Vassar how not to be joiners.)

Sure enough, what Emily and I happened upon at Perch some months later was one of the first meetings of the July babies group, and knowing better than to look a gift horse in the mouth, we moved to the back of the retaurant, met a slew of women with babies in all shapes and sizes, and began to compare stories. Every Tuesday through my maternity leave, and plenty of Fridays after I had returned to work, I drove to Perch and enjoyed delicious decaf coffee and the comfort of talking to woman facing the very same issues as I: breastfeeding and pumping, sleep trouble, the best high chairs, separation anxiety, exhaustion, and so on.

Eventually, the lunches at Perch became a thing of the past, but we began a google group called Perch Moms, arranged regular movie nights and craft nights and mom's nights out, started swapping free babysitting and borrowing equipment, and became a support network, especially for those of us with no local family. These are the women whose blogs are linked to at the right, who I call on when I have kid questions practical or emotional, and who were literally on call for the graveyard shift every night for a week leading up to Eleri's arrival, waiting for the phone call that I was in labor, that they were needed at my house to be with Clio while her parents went to the hospital. Despite having met just two years ago with nothing in common but the month of our babies' births, these are the women who, it sometimes seems, make being a mom in Brooklyn possible.

Today we got together in the park to celebrate two years of parenthood. It was amazing to all of us to see how much our children have changed- last year they were babies, this year they are truly kids. And as kids, they tore the place up. Statia recalled that last year, only Melissa's daughter Eva was walking, and how impressed the rest of us were. Melissa remembers wishing she could sit like the rest of us, rather than running after a new walker. This year, run they did. Up and down the hill, after various balls, pushing strollers. A good time was had by all.



But it was also a little bittersweet: since the perch babies' first birthday party, Rebecca, Anneliese, Cari, and Christine have all moved away, and Stephanie and Melissa are next. At the same time, we have welcomed three new additions to our family, Amanda's son Sam, Eleri, and Millie's son Ibrahim (below, with big sister Zuzu); Statia is due in a month, and Stephanie and Jennifer are both due in October- Jennifer with twins! It is my hope that I will meet and get to know all of these children, and that Clio and Eleri will count all of the "perch babies" as friends for some time to come.

And Baby Makes Four

Eleri Ruth Peterson
9 lbs. 20 1/2 inches
July 9, 2008, 8:32 am

Birthday Present, Take Two

After her unhappy encounter with the little razor scooter I originally picked out for her birthday, Clio, Dave and I headed back to Lulu's to check out the tricycles. A trike had been our original plan for her birthday gift, but apparently 2 is an in-between age in trikes, and without her there to test them out for size, I couldn't quite decide. And since Clio has now figured out the concept of presents (she keeps finding the wrapped Big Sister gifts we're planning to bring to the hospital and saying, "present for me?"), it seemed important to let her actually open something. She's still warming up to the "Classic Flyer," but I think it was a good choice in the end.



We did eventually take all the packaging off, too. It just seemed better safe than sorry.

Happy Birthday from the Duggans

Brian and Maud really know how to do birthdays. Not only did they send Clio an adorable wood cradle for her baby Stella (great for a 2 year old, perfect for a 2 year old about to become a big sister), they also left a message singing happy birthday. I put it on speaker phone and it completely delighted miss Clio.

Then, to add to the fun, they emailed us a "making of" video.

Here's Brian, Maud, and cousins Finn and Lucia making their birthday tribute.

Clio's New Book

A week or so ago, Grandma emailed me to say she had made a little birthday present for Clio, and to keep an eye out for the package. As she herself pointed out, she doesn't usually make things, so we were intriuged. Well, it arrived, and we let Clio open it as an early gift (her birthday is July 5). And it may be one of the single best gifts ever.

This one needs some background, too. When Dave was a toddler, he was given a book called Come Play With Me. The authors were Barbie and Glenn Peterson; as Dave's parents also happen to be named Barbie and Glenn Peterson, I suppose Aunt Fern couldn't resist the coincidence. The book addresses the reader directly ("I'm glad you came to play" "Would you like some milk and cookies?") with a series of full-bleed photos depicting a day of play-date activities. Clio loves this book. When we're in Morrison, she forces us to read it over and over again.

Clio opened her present yesterday afternoon,

And discovered Come Visit Us, by Barbie and Glenn Peterson.

Following the same format as the original, the book is full of pictures of Clio doing various activities on the farm, from feeding the calves to collecting branches. ("you can help Grandpa feed the Calves" "You can help Grandma collect the branches")

What could be better for a self-portrait obsessed toddler than a book all about her? I think I have already read it 4 dozen times. It would have been more, but I pulled a bait and switch and hid it for a little break.