Countdown to Walking

So on monday night the babe took his first unassisted steps...he took 3 steps away from the couch, stopped and then took 3 more. Then went down on his knees to crawl the rest of the way to me.
We have not caught this on video yet, and he has yet to do it again...though he will walk the length of three houses while holding onto my pinky. I can't wait till he can walk on his own!

PAAS

Last night we sat down to color some easter eggs. This is our first time coloring them as a family and I must admit that the Babe is probably not ready for egg dyeing quite yet. We broke out the 5 in 1 coloring kit- it was from last year and had sponges for speckling and three different kinds of dye. All of which ended up in the Babe's mouth, on his hands and on the kitchen table. The egg seemed to confuse the child, he kept putting it to his mouth to eat it; I don't think he understood why we wouldn't let him eat the eggs.Over the course of half an hour we got one egg dyed and I realized gone are the days of drunken egg dyeing.Gone are the days of eggs with messages like 'Holy Balls'- at least I assume until the babe is old enough to appreciate his mom's humor...

It was traditional for me and my friend L to dye eggs for our friends' in college. We would steal hardboiled eggs from the dining commons for about a week before hand to obtain enough for everyone, this coupled with salad bowls and green construction paper made for some very interesting baskets in front of people's doors. As the years went on, our drinking got in the way of the dyeing process, and there was at least one occasion where instead of dye on the eggs there was black sharpie marker. And then came the years of living by myself and still dyeing eggs. Then Montana where for a holiday treat my friend Jamie and I donned rabbit ears and drove 4 hours to bunnynap our friend Mary. This was the year the dye got out of hand and ended up in the stuffing as well- not a pretty picture if I recall correctly. (and now thanks to Mary can show you all)This was also the year I tried to be Martha Stewart. I attempted a very classy dessert of orange sherbet in hollowed out oranges set on fire. I had eaten it at Chicco Hot Springs and was certain I could recreate the yum factor. But no budget tequila does not set a orange ablaze, but does make for some tasty dessert though.

And now I wonder are all these egg dye mishaps a thing of the past? Will I have to be a responsible dyer now? PAAS has changed with the times, gone are the over the top lillies and crosses on their easter stickers, so I suppose gone are my over the top eggs.

more on lisa

This morning, I received the following letter from my grad school. I wrote last week about lisa and I justed wanted to share this with everyone, so that more people will know where their condolences can be sent...


We were all shocked and saddened to learn of the unexpected death early last week of Lisa Pellettiere. As well as pursuing her master’s degree at Bank Street, Lisa was a beloved mother and teacher. She taught at Beginnings Nursery School for 3 years, where she was a gifted, respected and cherished teacher.

Over the course of the past week and a half, the outpouring of emotion for Lisa has been amazing. The hundreds of e-mails and letters that have been exchanged within our school community tell the story of a woman who touched many people's lives. With her death, we have lost someone whose incredible spirit has given so much to our children. As one parent said, "She cherished each and every child for who they were...she accepted their differences and allowed them to feel secure as they explored who they were."

As you may know, Lisa was a single mother. Her son Nicholas was everything to her. She adored him. Her pride for Nicholas shone through every time she spoke about him. And she spoke about him constantly. Our children felt like Nicholas was a part of their world as well.

Our school community is utterly heartbroken that she leaves Nicholas behind. As parents, we felt that we needed to do something, not only to honor Lisa’s’ memory, but to do anything we could to help Nicholas. To this end, we are collecting donations for a fund being established by Lisa’s brother, Richard, for Nicholas to benefit his welfare and education.

If you would like to contribute to this fund, please make a check payable to "Beginnings Nursery School" and indicate on the check that this is to be designated for the Nicholas Pellettiere fund. Your contribution can be mailed to:

Beginnings Nursery School
130 East 16th Street
New York, New York 10003

Beginnings will hold the donations in a segregated account until the structure and logistics of this fund have been finalized. Lisa’s beloved and trusted brother, Richard, will be the custodian of the account. All proceeds of this account are to go solely to Nicholas.

With our deepest condolences to the Weisenhoff Family and to Nicholas,

Lisa’s family at Beginnings Nursery School

Please note: These donations will not be tax deductible.

Baby's First Patty's Day

Today was our first St. Patrick's day as a family, well the official first since the babe was in-utero last year. We had the whole day planned out, beginning with a breakfast in Connolly's and ending with a marching in the parade. We ended up not having breakfast, but we did go to Connolly's which was the important part. You see, me and the hubby met in Connolly's 3 years ago today.
I was there with some friends (and some boys who my friends thought were my friends) and he was there annoying me. He kept standing behind me, poking at my bobbly head shamrocks and telling me not to get on strange boys' shoulders; he annoyed me so much I had to talk to him. We chatted and at the end of the night he left with my phone number and I left hours later with another man....
We went on one date that ended weirdly; and he swears that if I hadn't called him for a second date we would have never ended up together. He was/is the only man I have ever asked out. Our second date ended much smoother, and I realized that I was going to marry this near stranger that same night. He moved in with me soon after...
Flash Forward one year, same bar, same band (Shilelagh Law). The man I love got up on stage and said " One year ago today I met a girl here, that night I asked her for her number and this year I want to ask her something else" and he got down on one knee and proposed.
Flash Forward another year, same bar, same band but I am pregnant by 7 and a half months and we have been married for about 4 months; do the math and see that I was indeed pregnant at our wedding.
So from this timeline you can see St. Patty's Day is pretty important to us as a couple and we'd like it to be important to us as a family. So we bundled up the babe and headed to Connolly's. We had seen the band on friday night for our own couple fun so we just wanted to be in the same bar for commemoration purposes, and so our tradition still stands. We had some tea, watched the parade and then the hubby went off to carry the banner for County Down. I joined the parade for the last 15 blocks and we celebrated as a family as we will for the next zillion years...

A Serious Note

I recently (like 3 minutes ago) found out a friend (not a longtime, super close friend but friend nevertheless) past away late sunday morning.
This woman, named Lisa Pellettiere was taking a math class with me; we missed her in class this past monday but we thought she had simply decided not to make the long trek up broadway to join us in our graphing for the evening. She also shared the first leg of my train ride home each monday night after this class. We would part at times square, she to her train and I to mine; each of us rushing home to kiss our sons goodnight. She was a single mother to a 7 year old son; a son who, we had discovered, had been one of my favorite children in my last student teaching placement.
My heart aches to hug her son but I will make do by hugging my own extra tight when I get home. And I will keep Lisa in my thoughts and prayers as a reminder to live life to the fullest, and to never forget to say goodnight to my boy.

Lazy days

Our schedule today: 430am awoken by screaming babe- he screamed as if someone was ripping out his insides and feeding them to the dog... turns out he is insanely constipated.
10am the babe wakes up happy and ready for anything
noon- lunch and he is back down for a nap

what will the rest of the day bring? more sleep? no adventure? more time for me to write the thesis? here's hoping

questions answered

Yippee the first anonymous comment! This post is for you reader L:

I got the finger paint from where i work, they order from dickblick.com, but i generally make our paints with this recipe

2 cups white flour
2 cups cold water
food coloring
Put water into a large bowl. Slowly add the flour while stirring. Once it's all mixed together,if it looks too clumpy add a bit more water until smooth and liquidy divide into smaller bowls and add food coloring.

and the highchair is a chicco attach to the table chair...babiesrus has them. It is a great space saver and the cover goes right in the wash every two weeks or so...i shake out what gets caught in the seat part onto the floor for the dog after every meal...

documentation

I am in the midst of writing my IMP or independent master's project; but IMP makes it sound like a carefree little fairything that can do you no harm. This is the first in a series of documentation photos I will be putting in...Yes I am using my own child as a guinea pig, but I don't have access to many others right now.

I am writing an art curriculum guide for parents and caregivers of children aged 9 months to 2 years for use in home and daycare settings. I was frustrated with the lack of open ended art experiences available for kids this young, so ta-da creating my own

Here is the babe having the first of many fingerpainting experiences

Looks like mom is on the right track

felt like 5555

It seems I am destined to sleep through life changing events. This morning a bomb was thrown into the military recruitment offices in times square. I woke up to this news being whispered to me by the hubby in the dark while I was still asleep, he left me soon after to travel via subway into the city. He left me with no more info than a bomb went off in times square.
My heart raced and I cried into my pillow with memories of the last time I was woken up with news of bombs in NYC. It was 2001 my last year in college, and I was awoken by a ringing phone and my friend Lil telling me to turn on the TV. I turned on the TV just in time to sleepily watch a plane fly into my skyline, and my friend James who was living with us at the time worrying where his mother was. A morning of frantic calls through clogged and static filled phone lines assured us most people we knew were safe; my own parents were holed up in our attic watching the horror unfold.
The rest of the day was spent not watching TV and trying to ignore people who shamed us for sitting under a tree getting high.
I learned that day that there is no way to get high enough to erase that much pain

So these memories flooded me at 6am and made the day a saddened one, even though the bomb was barely worth mentioning on the news apparently.
Here's hoping it stays that way