Another Fire Island weekend

We spend another weekend in Fire Island last weekend, this time with our friends Dia, Josh and their toddler Maurice.

We were extremely lucky with the weather. Thunderstorms were predicted, but we only got showers while we slept on Saturday night. The daytime hours were sunny and beautiful.

Fay continues to like the beach more and more. She had fun walking with daddy down to the ocean edge and then handing him her bucket to fill with water. She also had fun scooping sand into the bucket, and throwing stones and seashells into the bucket.

Maurice and Fay had a blast. Each morning it was as if they'd received a gift of each other's presence. They were very very excited to have the other there to play with at 6 in the morning. The house is a 3 bedroom, so it was our hope that the kids could sleep in the same room together and each set of parents could have their own room. Fay and Maurice are 20 and 22 months respectively, so they sleep through the night, but they do have occasional shout outs and sometimes they wake up early. We were concerned that one kid might wake up the other kid, but we were willing to give it a try.

Well, I have to say, the antics of the kids trying to sleep together may have been the best part of the weekend. On Friday night, we put Fay in the kid room about 10 minutes before Maurice. When Maurice got in there and we closed the door we started hearing "Faaaaaay....Faaaaaay.....Faaaaay". Maurice could not see Fay because we had a sheet blocking his view of her crib, but he knew she was there and he was very excited to have a bunk mate. Fay answered with some "Da!"s and some little screams of recognition. Although we put them in there at 7:30, I don't think it was quiet until 9pm or so. The following night was a bit shorter, but they still chatted before falling off to sleep.

The other highlight of the weekend was some live band toddler dancing. Unfortunately Ryan was not there on Sunday night because Ryan returned to the city Sunday afternoon. I switched my work days this week so I could stay on through Monday. On Sunday Fay and I went to dinner with Maurice's family and the kids had the best time. After some yummy food (burger and sweet potato fries!) we went to the open air back yard of the restaurant where there was a band playing. Fay and Maurice ran in circles around their parents and danced like crazy. We were told by several tipsy onlookers that our kids were quite cute.

Summer Fridays

Fay and I really enjoy my days off from work when we can hang out together. But there is something especially fantastic about Fridays. We usually see our neighborhood friends either in a park, or class, or in an apt on rainy days.

Fay continues to come out of her shell...she is especially fun to watch when we go to Hillman park (one of our co-op's parks) in the morning when there is no one around but her close friends. She is obviously extremely comfortable in this environment and she runs around without a care in the world. Most noticeably, she doesn't need her mommy by her side constantly.

Today she had fun holding hands and running around with Maurice and Orion -- so cute I had to capture it on the camera phone.

punk rock festival for Fay

Last Sunday we decided to go on a bike ride with Fay. Sunday gave us our tiny window of sunshine for the week so we tried to make the most of it. Its been raining in NYC for about a month now almost non-stop. It is either raining or threatening rain 24 hours a day. I always carry an umbrella with me now and I have not problem going to the playground in light sprinkles. You may even hear me exclaim "what fantastic playground weather!"

So on Sunday we took Fay and the bikes to Governor's island off the southern tip of Manhattan. It is a free Ferry ride that lasts all of 8 minutes. There are lots of fun things about Governor's island. It used to house military or at least coast guard families, but is now basically vacant. So there are a bunch of old 70's style cookie cutter townhouses sprinkled around the island. The island is now devoted to housing outdoor events and encouraging bike riding (you can rent bikes on the island). So you are pretty much guaranteed to run into a festival of some sort when you arrive on the island during a summer weekend.

The first time we went to G's island last year, we stumbled upon a 1910's/1920's music and dance event. They had free dance lessons for the peabody and tons of people were dressed in period outfits (or at least hats).

This past weekend we were lucky enough to find a punk rock festival in progress. Its seemed an odd venue choice to me at first -- seeing all these urban dressed-in-black kids hanging out in such a grassy picnic-y idyllic setting. But as we cruised around the island I could see the vision of the organizer. There were a handful of locations where a rather intimate gathering of fans would watch a band perform. The "stages" ranged from the parking lot of an old housing complex, to a small archway with a mosh-pit in progress, to a small grassy hill with the fans at the top and the band at the bottom. It really was perfect for small gatherings, and the old, abandoned buildings added a nice edge to the grassy perfection surrounding them.

We also found a patch of hammocks provided for the public and Fay enjoyed "pushing" her daddy in the hammock.

We managed to depart the island and arrive in Manhattan just as it was starting to sprinkle. Good timing. We had a nice shower on the way home on our bikes. But again, after the weather we've had, none of us mind getting a little wet anymore.

fire island (1st weekend)

Ryan and I have rented 3 weekends in Fire Island this summer -- one in each month. We just spent our first weekend there and it was a fantastic weekend. The house we rent has 3 small bedrooms, so we are sharing it with one other couple -- our friends Joe and Vanessa. They have a 3 year old boy.

We spent the first day traveling and hiding from the rain because it was pretty miserable. The rain was light and constant. They dads decided to have a couple (several?...many?) drinks in the nearby bar, while the moms entertained the toddlers in the house. We didn't bring that many toys, so we pretty much tore apart the kitchen trying to have some creative fun.

Saturday and Sunday turned out to be beautiful hot summer days though. We didn't expect such great weather for an early summer weekend in June. We spent both Sat and Sun on the beach. At first Fay was very much against walking on the sand. She seemed afraid that she might fall while walking over a sand mound. I'm sure the texture and terrain was very foreign to her. But after a day, she was quite used to it, and she was enjoying sitting by the ocean on the harder, flat sand, drawing and looking at shells. She also enjoyed the many friendly dogs on the beach and looking at a kite flying overhead.



Friday and Saturday nights were fun. One couple cooked each night, so the other couple could have the night off. On Friday, Ryan cooked and then we all played Cranium. On Saturday, Ryan and I got to got on a long walk alone while Joe and Vanessa cooked. I can't rave enough about the benefits of sharing a house with another couple when you have kids. Its like having another set of hands/eyes around all weekend long. And you can be more loose with your time -- like being able to just go on a brief walk without calling in a babysitter.

Joe loves to take photos and he is very good at it, so I roped him into a mini-photo shoot with Fay when I saw how cute she looked in her swimsuit. Its nice to have a couple photos of mommy for once.



One of the highlights of the weekend is seeing Joseph (3) and Fay (19 mo) play together. They didn't do it much, but there was a moment on Friday night when Joseph and Fay decided to make a game of chasing one another. Fay would chase Joseph and scream, then Joseph would turn around an chase Fay. It lasted for about 10 min and we all wished we had our video camera because it was so cute. Most of the time Joseph points at Fay and says "baby". So this was a surprising turn.

We go again in about 4 weeks and will share the house with our neighborhood friends Josh and Dia who have a boy around Fay's age.

petting zoo and ketchup

On Saturday Ryan and I decided to take Fay to the petting zoo in Central Park. Fay was just getting over a cold which makes her really tired. So she went down for a 2+ hour nap at 9:30 in the morning. This left a huge portion of the day after her nap to get out and do something fun.

Fay LOVES to feed the animals. She didn't even have to be shown what to do, she just took to it naturally. Could be her nurturing nature. :)

We managed to capture a video of it. I think we've discovered the fun of video. We have video right on our camera, so its really easy to decided to film something without having to remember to lug out the specialized video camera.



After the zoo, we took the bus home, landing a good 20 min walk before our apt. We took a stroll along St. Marks and stopped at our favorite hipster hot dog joing -- Crif Dogs. Fay has really liked tater tots since she first tried them (about a month ago). But today was different. She noticed mommy and daddy dipping their tots in to ketchup and decided to try it for herself. V. cute.



(Wow, do I dress Fay in the pigeon shirt a lot or what? Mommy likes her shirt creations)

summer is here

How time flies. I haven't posted in over a week, and now it seems as if summer is HERE. Today we are having 80 degree weather. And it is supposed to continue tomorrow.

I had to make an emergency show run to Target in Brooklyn last Sunday because Fay had grown out of almost all of her shoes! Now she is set for summer. She has her pink crocs, her pink "flip flops", her new pink sneakers, and her white dressier sandals.

I personally think that toddler shoes may be the cutest part of the itsy bitsy wardrobe. But then, all the sweaters and dresses are pretty cute too. And we mustn't forget swimsuit cuteness.

We had a surprise hand-me-down gift from a neighbor yesterday. Her 4 year old has long grown out of her trike, so she offered it to us. I don't think Fay will be ready to ride it until she's a few months older. But it is definitely the right size. Fay had fun pushing it around the house by the mommy handle as if it were a toy. She loves to push her toy dragon, so I think this seemed the same to her. She was pretty reluctant to get on the seat of the trike, so we'll have to try again at a later time.

I have some great videos that I've been taking lately with the regular camera. Its so much easier than getting out the big video camera, and somehow easier to upload. Its fun to let the computer go through a slideshow of all our recent photos now because the videos are integrated so you get the stills, and then moving pictures all in the same slideshow. Fay loooooooves to watch herself on camera. Everytime the computer is taken out she points and grunts at it, essentially asking to watch a video of herself. Definitely tops even TV watching.

Baby biker (happy mother's day)

Today was mother's day. Ryan treated me to a long morning sleep and a wonderful brunch. I was able to sleep in until 8am while Ryan took Fay outside for a little morning exploration.

The highlight of the day though was the after nap activity. Ryan installed our new baby bike seat on his bike last week and we acquired a little baby helmet on Saturday so today was family bike day! We actually took Fay on her first bike ride a couple weekends ago, but we were on a borrowed bike with a baby seat. And let me tell you...the traditional baby bike seats which ride in the rear of the bike DO NOT COMPARE to the front riding baby seats.





Fay had so much fun riding up front with daddy that she instantly got over her annoyance of having to wear the helmet (cry!) and never fussed again. Well, she only fussed when she thought mommy was being left behind. She insisted that I ride along side her, or in front of her, so she could see where I was. I guess she is afraid daddy might leave me in the dust if she were not there to look out for me.