My "Zoo-ey" Day

We took the kids into New York City on Tuesday (the 14th) for a summer day trip. Our reason for heading into the city in the first place was to visit NYU's child development lab where Toby was going to participate in a language study. But our appointment wasn't until 4 in the afternoon so we we down early and took in the Bronx Zoo first.

The day before we went down Toby figured out how to spell 'zoo' and wrote it all over our front steps in sidewalk chalk. (One of the words is still there, despite all the rain we've had since then.) He was excited to see the zebras. (Notice the trend with z? It's his new favorite letter, after t "for Toby") The weather was perfect and the zoo wasn't too crowded. We saw lions, zebras, a camel, monkeys, the Mouse House, and even the Madagascar House (which he liked because of the movie "Madagascar"). We also saw sea lions, polar bears, and a huge tiger that came right up to the window where Toby was standing. (The weirdest thing I saw was a mom with 5 kids who was walking around the zoo in stilettos--only in the Bronx, I guess.)

From the Zoo we drove into the city and down to Greenwich Village, where the NYU campus is located. Toby's language study went really well--it wasn't a test or anything; he was just a participant in this study. He did the study while we watched from the other room. He was really cute and would say the funniest things to the researcher, such as "In two weeks me and my dad are going camping" (what?) or "I have a bike I like to ride" (yep!). The study was on homonyms and how 4 year olds can figure out their meanings based on context clues. I wasn't surprised that Toby didn't know the difference between "moose" and "mousse" and that he knew the difference between a baseball "bat" and the animal "bat."
After the study we walked around Washington Square Park and the fountains and then drove uptown to a restaurant near Central Park. It was Bastille Day and the French soup restaurant we found said they were totally kid-friendly but their idea of kid-friendly was sticking us in a corner, giving each kid a balloon and then telling us that their only working high chair was already in use! Oops--apparently Bastille Day is not the best day to bring your kids to a French restaurant (it wasn't a super fancy one, either). But once we got the kids fed they did a pretty good job of letting us enjoy our meal.
From there we walked up to Central Park and let them play in this huge playground area. Toby made some quick friends and played happily for a long time while Norah tried out the swings and the slide. It was a beautiful night and there were tons of families out. After bribing Toby with ice cream to leave the park we walked back to the car (past the famous Plaza Hotel) and drove home. Both kids passed out pretty quickly and slept in extra late the next day!

My "Summer Vacation" Day

Today I took both kids to the beach--all by myself. And, of course, I left the camera at home.
They loved it. Toby made a little friend and played with him for an hour. He got buried in the sand, helped make a sand castle and moat, and played his version of "chicken" with the waves. Norah ate a bit of sand (including two sand-coated fruit snacks) and didn't want to go into the water. I didn't either; it was freezing. I was worried about the kids being so close to the water and not knowing how to swim, but Toby did really well obeying me and staying close to the shore. There was only one or two times where I had to chase the kids down because they went in different directions. Norah ended up sitting by Toby and playing with water in a bucket. She'd pour in sand, mix it up, dump it all out and then point to the water and make the sign for water. I'd go back and fill up the bucket and she'd do it all over again.
All in all, it was two and a half hours well spent, and the 5 minute drive home was great! The trip today encouraged me to take them there more often, and I'll bring the camera next time.
You know, sometimes people say that something easy is like "a day at the beach" or like "a picnic in the park." Personally, I can't think of two more complicated or energy-draining activities to do (WITH KIDS) than going to the beach or corralling kids for a picnic in a park. Just a thought.

My Favorite Art

I love it when Toby gets into a drawing mood, which is rare for him. But sometimes I can convince him to create something with a pen on paper (as opposed to the floor, which he has been known to do).

Here are two pictures of his.

The picture in red is Toby with his dad. (His dad has really static-y hair and a beard.) He drew it in April.
The picture in black is something I had to scan because he drew it on the back of an old grocery list. He drew this one a week or so ago. Any guesses as to what it is? I'll tell you later this week!

My Kids Love the Park!

What kid doesn't love the park?
We like going to the one in Mystic because it's all fenced in--no escapes!
Here they are at the top of the slide. Toby's learning how to have fun with baby sister.

My Daughter, Learning her Chores

Actually, she's a princess and doesn't do anything other than look cute.
The broom is just a prop.

My Sneaky Son

OK, one more quick post.
We have a chalkboard in our kitchen where we write down our grocery list. Toby has been able to reach it (it's not really at his height) and sometimes likes to draw pictures on it. He's also on a kick where he likes to write his name, whether it's on paper, on his dry-erase board, or on whatever he's working on. Sometimes, though, he decides to write just the T and the B in his name, or he'll leave out the Y or something. So imagine how cute this was:
I noticed a little scrawl at the bottom of our chalkboard list (you know, paper towels, honey, dish soap, etc) that looked like Toby tried to spell his name. But he left out the B, so he spelled TOY. I pointed the list out to him and said "Hey, what's this?" where he wrote on the board. He said "I did that!" And I said "You wrote TOY on there. Did you mean to add "toy" to our grocery list?" Of course he replies, "Yes! I want a toy!" He then runs off to his room and comes back saying "Look, I have some money now so let's go get a toy!" He thought he was so clever for writing down toy on the list and thought he had found a great way to get a new toy.

My Riding Instructor

When I was younger (by about 20 years) I used to horseback ride. There are two things I remember my instructor telling me (or yelling at me) while I was riding that I actually hear in my head while I'm running. I thought about them both today:
"Dont cut those corners!" My instructor would yell this to us while we rode around the ring doing circles and firgure eights. Apparently, every horse in the barn was inherently lazy and liked to do the least amount of work possible. As school horses they were used to all the drills we had to learn as riders. I had to push the horse into the corner with my leg while riding at whatever speed was required. If the horse cut the corner sometimes I'd have to circle back and do it again (the old "teach him who's boss" routine). While I'm out jogging around I hear that woman in my head saying "Don't cut those corners!" when I see a line in my path up ahead that curves. I have to teach myself to run every inch of the way down to the corner or around wherever it may be.
""Don't lose your form" I was in a riding competition one time when I was twelve that I still remember to this day. I had completed a two-week riding camp and we (the campers) had a show (a competition) for all the parents. I spent two weeks with other intermediate-level riders learning all kinds of stuff and having tons of fun riding twice a day. On the day of the show my instructors decided to bump me to the advanced group for the competition. I should have taken it as a compliment but instead it made me lose all my nerve (since I would be competing with other girls who had brought their own horses to the camp and were all older than me). One of the tasks the advanced group had to do was individually make your horse canter from one end of the ring to the other and change the lead halfway down. I'm not going to waste space explaining what that means. Suffice it to say, I wasn't prepared for this level of competition and I'm just glad that I stayed on my horse for the class. The feedback from the judge was simply "Good work, even though this was a tough group, and remember not to lose your form when the horse is cantering--you still need to be in charge." (A side note, the canter, or lope, is my favorite gait on a horse because it's like a rocking chair.) In hind sight I realized that I relaxed way too much in the canter and just looked sloppy. Not the way to compete. What on earth does this have to do with running? There was a little hill on the last part of my jog this morning that I got to go down. And while I was excited to get a break on my legs (yes, running on flat surfaces is still pretty hard for me--let's not even mention going up hill) I remembered that judge saying "don't lose your form," which convinced me that the best way to finish my jog was to do it right, not sloppy. We'll see if my legs thank me for that tomorrow when I'm going to do the same run--and I have to make it a little bit longer.