A Special Message for Alex

Alex received a video in the email today.  It was from a very special person indeed.

Alex was both amused and astounded by it.  He seemed dumbstruck at the fact that Santa knew where he lived.  He was positively riveted to find out what list he wound up on.  Then, he was cheering for being on the "green list" and continued to talk about it for a while afterwards.

At other times, he seemed to take it all in stride, as if he knew...

Aw, whatever.  I'm just grateful that I get to live this magic time again.

Astrophysics = Cool

Today, Alex asked me how "they" set up the whole world. Who made the clouds? Who made the sky? How did the world get built? How? How? How??

I decided to go with the scientific explanation as I understand it and hoped it stuck.

"No one is actually certain how it was all made," I said "But most physicists today believe that it happened spontaneously - that means "all at once and in an instant". A bunch of particles in space grew together and the whole of it grew so tight and compacted and dense that it blew up."

"What blew up?" he asked - surprising me with his willingness to listen to more.

"The universe blew up into existence," I said, "And that included the earth and the things in the earth that would wind up making the sky and the clouds."

"And this is what physi- physhi..."

"Physicists" I offered.

"Physicists!" he declared "That's what most physicists believe happened?"

"Yes, I think so."

He didn't even pause a beat.

"That's so cool." he declared.

Wow! I never expected the Big Bang theory to be an easy one to cover.

'Tis the Season Y'all

Since we couldn't get our tree yesterday, we had to bring Daddy along to get it today.  Good thing too.  I would have had to get a smaller tree had I had to bring it home myself.  Daddy carried the 6+ foot tree we wound up getting.  He said it wasn't too bad if he kept changing positions. Oh dear.

Alex was really excited for this.  This is the first tree he can remember getting.  When we selected it, he declared it to be the biggest tree we ever had!  (Our artificial tree, not used since his first Christmas, is actually bigger.)   He didn't want any mini-tree this year.  He's a big boy now!



Alex at Mangone's among the mini trees

When we got it home and tried to get it into the tiny stand we had, I remembered why I'd bought my first artificial tree some 24 years ago and never looked back.  There was no getting this trunk into this tiny stand.  We erected the tree in a planter loaded with soil, soaked the soil and then Daddy took Alex to White Plains for some shopping.  He would include a new tree stand when he returned.

Even then, it took some doing. 

Alex wanted to decorate it so badly.  He was quite upset when we explained that it would have to wait until tomorrow.

This is so exciting.  He actually gets it now.  He really gets it.

A Do Over Day

Today was a rough day for potty training and every thing else.  I decided to take a break from it all and go get our tree.  Ooops! Mangone's tree guy hadn't yet unloaded all of the inventory.  In fact, he hadn't set out most of it.  We had to come back the next day.

We had hot chocolate when we got back. 

Do over!!

Happy Turkey Day

Another Thanksgiving Day without pictures. What is it that makes me forget to use my camera on this day? I did this last year too.

So, a recap: Alex was soooo excited to have a holiday and have guests over for dinner.  Beginning at around 7:30, he kept asking every hour or two when Aunt Ellen was going to arrive.  Then I told him that Robert would be coming too.  That was about all he could take.  He was so excited that he even helped me clean.  He even stayed behind to help Daddy clean while I went to the store for some last minute things.

Ellen had ordered a pre-made dinner from Shop Rite.  All that I had to prepare was the Butternut Squash soup, the oyster and bacon stuffing and, of course, the Yorkshire Pudding.  Ellen and Jason love that Yorkshire Pudding.  But since I had a real English person coming for this dinner, I decided to look up why my puddings are so bland.  I found out that it's because I make them with olive oil instead of roast beef drippings.  I couldn't get the roast beef, but I did have bacon drippings.  They worked.

Robert was with us for Thanksgiving dinner last year too.  That year, he brought Alex a 4 train from the Transit Museum Store.  This year he showed up with a Long Island Railroad set.  It was exactly what Alex had been asking for for weeks!  (I can only guess how Robert knew that.)   To top off the gift, Jason gave him a monthly ticket for the LIRR. He was in his glory now! He's been talking about the Long Island Railroad ever since - and how we have to ride it now.
Alex's level of excitement lasted long enough for him to eat most of his dinner.  He likes turkey anyway, but I never expected to see him eat so much of it and more.  He still had room for desert too, which consisted of a bite or two of every cookie placed out. 
When it was time for the guests to leave, Ellen offered to take Robert back to Manhattan. Alex was still too into his new trains to give everyone a hug goodbye.  He just called out "Bye!" and went back to playing.  He was long excited into bedtime too.  He didn't get to sleep until after 9.  At least I got two photos of him while in bed.

Thanksgivings are definitely getting better.  Now, if I can just remember to take photos at the next one.

A Countdown - Of Sorts

Many out there are complaining about how early commercial establishments are starting their Christmas season.  I say "Bring it on!!"  PBS was no exception, despite being partially supported by public funding. Not sure how that works.

But anyway...

Yes, PBS and the holiday season.  It's the day before Thanksgiving and it already had Christmas programming on.  In order to encourage Alex to sit on the potty, I put on a Curious George Christmas special.  George didn't know what Christmas was and the Man in the Yellow Hat was excitedly decorating their apartment, telling George that preparing for Christmas is almost as exciting as Christmas itself.  Eventually, George caught the Christmas Bug in a big way.

In order to help George pace himself, the Man in the Yellow Hat drew up a countdown in the shape of a Christmas tree.  It had been 12 days before Christmas when they started.  Each morning, George would excitedly hop out of bed and dash to the countdown - only to see that it wasn't yet Christmas that day.

It gave me an idea.  Alex needs some stronger "encouragement" to make steps in potty.  We got him to agree to getting potty trained by Daddy's birthday, but he kept saying he would potty train ON Daddy's birthday.  Soooo, I did up a countdown.

Just like George's, I drew it in the shape of a Christmas tree.  It just happens to be 12 days before Daddy's birthday.  At the top of the tree, I drew a star and wrote the number 1 in it.  That was the day to aim for. Until then, we will X off a new day.

Alex was really excited about it.  We put it up on his easel and he wanted to start crossing off days right away.  It took some explaining about why he couldn't, but he eventually got the idea that he had to be potty trained by the time we got to the star. 

Now if he'll just understand that this is a countdown to Daddy's birthday and not Christmas.  I plan on getting him an Advent Calendar anyway.  Maybe it will prove to be doubly exciting for him.

A Treasure Hunt Among Islamic Art

Today was such a busy day!  Normally, we have music class on Tuesday afternoons, but  today we also had plans with Robert Ferrugia, mommy's friend from London. He's in the US this week and plans to visit his girlfriend Allyson in DC later. Today would be the only feasible day to meet him outside of his visit here on Thursday for dinner.  But I knew we also had to make sure we got to music class for the free trial drum lesson that Cameron was offering today.  Alex wouldn't want to miss that!

So, this morning, we took Metro North into Manhattan with Daddy.   We left him at Grand Central because we walked to Robert's hotel on Lexington Avenue.  Robert came down from his room at 9:30 and we set off for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  They were holding a 10:30 "Clue Time" (we don't call it Storytime) for kids at the Nolen Library.   Built from the stories, they give out a Treasure Hunt list, asking for kids to find the things on the list in the given gallery.  Today's was of Indian gods.

Alex listens to a story about a mixed up chameleon.

Meanwhile, Robert visited the galleries on the Second Floor, knowing that Alex wouldn't be interested in things like photographs and portraits.  We met up again an hour later, when "Clue Time" had ended and they'd given us our list of treasures to find.  I also picked up a set of cards about the Islamic Art exhibit, so Alex now had two treasure hunts to complete!

While we waited for Robert to meet us, we toured the Met store on the Ground Floor. Alex saw toy knights and horses in armor.  He LOVED them! We played with them for a good 15 minutes.  When the saleswoman saw him dancing, she asked him if he had to go to the bathroom. He said "No" (we'd tried twice already), but I convinced him to try again.  That way, he could go home with a knight and horse!   We tried it again but Alex couldn't go.  I wanted him to have a knight and horse so badly.  I promised him that he could soon see real knights and horse armor.

When Robert met us again at 11:30, we headed straight for the Arms & Armor gallery.  Alex was LOVING it!! He was pulling Robert here, there and everywhere.  He dashed from one gallery to the next, from European to Asian armor to guns and then back again.  He couldn't make up his mind which gallery he liked better.  He knew that he loved the Equestrian Gallery, though.

We got him out of there only with the promise of even more cool stuff. Since Alex had been so interested in the Egyptian set of Playmobil (that he'd seen in the catalogue), I told him that we could see a real Sphinx and a real temple.  With some effort, we located the Egyptian Art gallery and visited the Temple of Dendur, which includes a real Sphinx statue.

Exiting the Temple of Dendur

By now, Mommy and Robert were pretty hungry.  We stopped for some lunch at the American Gallery cafe where Alex really surprised me by eating a pumpkin yogurt parfait with granola and cranberries.  He was really digging those cranberries!!
After lunch, it was time for Alex's treasure hunts to begin.  We located the Indian Art gallery to conduct the first one we'd received from the librarians.   Alex located every single one!!

Alex locates a statue of child saint Sambanchar, who holds a bowl.
At the library, we heard a story of a boy and a bowl.

At a statue of Ganesha, the Indian elephant head god.
The mixed up chameleon in the story wound up with an elephant head.

Alex wound up doing SO well with the concentrated Treasure Hunt (all in one gallery), I decided to make it interesting.  I added the cards I'd found for the Islamic Art hunt. This one was spread across several different galleries.   Don't you know that he found all but one of them? (And the one he didn't find may have been switched out from display.) 

Robert and Alex match a card to a mosaic niche.

Alex shows Robert that the lamp in the glass is the one on the card.
(The glass lamp was from the 13th century.)

 At the end of his Islamic Art Treasure Hunt, it was time for us to go. We had to catch a 2:37 train to Harrison in order to make it to music class.  We tried one more time to use the bathroom so that Alex could get his knight and horse.  No dice, but Alex was oddly OK about it.  He was more upset about leaving the museum.  (Since I bought a membership today, I will absolutely have to make sure he has a Treasure Hunt for every visit.  He loved them!)
We walked into Central Park briefly so that Robert could get a photo of the Alice in Wonderland statue.  We then exited to get on a Fifth Avenue bus, which we rode down to 46th Street.  By cutting through the Helmsley Walk, we were able to get to our track in plenty of time.  We said goodbye to Robert and said we'd see him on Thursday. 
What a cool day at the museum!
But the day isn't over yet...

"Next stop, DUMBO!"

Once the Friends had contacted me to tell me that my notebook had been found, I knew I would have to go to Meeting the very next Sunday to make sure I got it (lest it get misplaced again).  I told Alex that we'd be going to First Day School again this Sunday, which made him happy.  I was hoping that it would be a nice day so that we could visit Jane's Carousel in DUMBO - which you can see from the East River Ferry.   That morning, I checked the weather; a balmy 63 degrees with some sun and no rain. How awesome. Not only could we go to Jane's Carousel, but we could go to a playground too.

I'd woken up late which meant I'd have to get breakfast in Manhattan.  We made it to 14th Street in enough time to get to Dunkin' Donuts, have breakfast and walk to the Meeting House and down to the nursery where Mylitta gave me my notebook.   It was a busy Meeting, loaded with messages - about which I hope to write in my other journal.  It was a good Meeting for me, since I was not really prepared to attend again so soon. That many messages makes the hour go by so fast.

On the steps of the Fifteenth Street Meeting House

After I got Alex, we traveled down to lower Manhattan on the 4 train, where he told another passenger that we were going to DUMBO, but only after we visited Occupy Wall Street.  Ooops! I guess he didn't realize that we couldn't visit the camp again since they'd been evicted only two days after we'd visited them last.  I promised him that we could visit Zuccotti again if he wished.   We did and it was all he could talk about - despite the fact that the protest in progress at the time was entirely in Spanish. That was until we got to the river and saw the ferry pull in.  That was when he was calling to the ferry to wait for us. 

Once on the ferry, Alex said he wanted to go upstairs. When we got there, he sat directly behind the pilot's room, slightly to the right.  "I like to pretend I'm the pilot", he said. "I like to steer the ferry.".  When a crew member called out "Next stop, DUMBO!" Alex repeated it and made the guy laugh.

"Next stop, DUMBO!"

"I like to steer the ship, like the pilot does."

We got off the next stop.

It was a quick and easy walk down Water Street to the turn off to the carousel.  While we walked, Alex was driven crazy with suspense! "Tell me!", he begged, "Tell me the surprise!"  I gave him hints until we were able to see the carousel from Water Street. He cheered.  I paid for our tickets and hoisted him up to a moving horse.  It was so cool to go around and around, seeing the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges alternatively. 

Once the ride was over, Alex overheard me ask one of the operators about finding a playground. She directed me to the Main Street playground, a nautical themed one. He was just in his glory.

Soon enough, I was feeling pretty hungry.  I knew we had to go get some lunch.  Over much objection from Alex, we left the playground to find a place near the ferry landing. Only as we crossed Water Street did he admit that he was hungry too.   And he was!  He ate half a bowl of penne and nearly three-quarters of the bread brought for the table.

At Pete's Downtown on Old Fulton Street

The view from the window of Pete's Downtown

While we waited for the ferry to 34th Street, we watched the boats on the river.  Alex got excited each time he saw a tugboat in action.  Prior to that, as we walked from the playground, he commented that this used to be a beach - because you could see the beach past the rocks that have been erected near the shore.  I think we may have found a suitable replacement for the Seaport.

East River beach on Brooklyn's western shore

The trip back to 34th Street went on as the sun was going down. By the time we reached 34th Street, it was nealry dark.   We arrived at Grand Central just in time for the 5:37 train home. 

I'd end this fairy tale with a claim that Alex went right to sleep, but that's not what happened.  He was so overtired that he stayed up with me to watch "Tales of Despereaux" and didn't fall asleep until it was nearly 11.  

He said his favorite part of the day was playing with the magnets in First Day School.  Those magnets beat out a carousel ride, a ferry ride and a new playground???    We'll have to tell Santa about those.

Potty Training - Take Four

After addressing some of my own bad behavior lately, I realized that I was taking out my frustrations on Alex.  My major frustration being a sense of feeling "stuck".  I realized that I'd waited long enough and that Alex was never going to show independent interest in becoming potty trained again.  We had to be proactive in setting goals and holding onto incentives.

So, today, we sat down and wrote a letter to Santa.  Alex wants some pretty Big Boy toys this year. I told him that Santa would not bring him Big Boy toys if he didn't get out of Pull-Ups by Christmas.  We had to pledge to Santa that he would be out of Pull-Ups and that he would get Big Boy toys like a remote control car and a marble run in exchange. 

In the meantime, I formulated a plan to get him moving on this.  We'd take it one skill set at a time this time, focusing on nothing but potty training steps.   The letter to Santa went up on the refrigerator to remind us both. 

First step - using the potty first thing in the morning.