snow=winter (part 2)

And apparently it also means that I suddenly have the boon of extra time! Because I just posted all the comings and goings for October earlier, and now... onto November!

Oddly it seems that I gave my camera the month off because I took very few pictures. And oddly, I have very little memory of this month... it seems that it went by too quickly. So, I will try to memorialize what I do remember!

Ma and Baba (sorry... Didun and Dadu!) came to visit and we went to the Shenandoah one weekend. It was beautiful! Zoë really enjoyed seeing the deer playing. The timeshare location and the lodgings were very relaxing and peaceful.

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in New York City... visiting several friends and enjoying our time very much. Zoë was so oddly comfortable and at home there...given the amount of fussing in the car towards the end of our drive, she immediately became hyper-observant and interested as we entered the City-- pointing out "taxi!" and "choo choo" and mesmerized by the lights and tall buildings. Maryam had a beautiful apartment and was so sweet to share it with us and make us so comfortable. Simona made her first Thanksgiving meal, turkey and all, in our honor and it was delicious and lovely and ... TOO MUCH FOOD! Then Jen and Brendan hosted Fakesgiving and we went over in the morning. It was nice to be a part of the cooking-all-day and getting ready. We had a wonderful time... but Zoë was beginning a bad cold. We spend the rest of the visit much more low-key, resting and chatting with old friends. It was nice spending some time in the department (my previous second home!) catching up with Jacqueline (my Professor and a very supportive mentor).

After NYC, we all spent a week sick and struggling to stay afloat with our responsibilities... a depressingly common feeling this past year. It was frustrating to have been in NYC surrounded by support and friends, and return home where in our dark hours we feel so alone. It is better now. Partly it was a struggle because Mom had to participate in a Proposal Review panel and evaluating the proposals while sick was a challenge, and then leaving Zoë and Dad to stay in a hotel was hard too. But we all survived, and it was important and a great experience ... and in the end, it didn't kill us, but it did make us stronger!

snow = winter (part 1)

Which means that I better get with the program and summarize the rest of our Fall :) The days are going by so fast that I didn't realize it's December and I blinked and then we are now halfway through this month! The good news is that December means the holidays and that means visiting California-- we are so excited! YAY...

But hurry hurry... what happened in October and November?

Well... in October, we played with pumpkins and had Halloween and Nina and Boris came to visit. Zoë was the moon for Halloween and Mama made her costume (with Zoë's help!) We practiced wearing the costume and that was good because she was so happy and comfortable in her costume during the Halloween parade at school. But, on Halloween... somehow we got off schedule and Zoë fell asleep when it was time to trick or treat! Then she awoke ready to go out at 9pm... when only the older kids were out. It was fun to surprise the homes when we rang the doorbell, the people would expect a grown up kid and be mildly shocked that a little toddler (cute as can be, might I brag) was there requesting a "treat"! It was, in fact, a fun little "trick" for us :).

We also had a nice trip to the pumpkin farm and took a haystack ride on the tractor to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins and then of course... carved them into sppooooooky Mr. P. Umkers.

We had several other fun adventures like saying "au revoir" to Rinka and Rumadida, and wearing cute boots, and watching the leaves change color, and eating Butternut Squash risotto, and ... well, you can check out our pictures here for a summary of October, 2010.

And though we have no visual record of this (shock!) we went to the Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert rally in D.C. with Nina and Boris and showed our support for sanity. Zoë slept.

Fall has fallen! (part 3)

So my September posting has gone into November -- perhaps that says something about how frantic our lives have been last few months. In October we had a day trip to the pumpkin patch, Halloween and Nina and Boris' visit for the "Rally for Sanity" (where I forgot my camera , so no pictures for the blog!) These tales will have to wait until... January? Just kidding. Hopefully just until next week or so-- although we do have some fun and busy weeks planned ahead in November: visit from Basu Grandparents and a trip to NYC for Thanksgiving.

But now... September! The other wonderful and momentous blog-worthy event was having the Zych grandparents visit and our trip to the Homestead Farm for apple picking. Here's a slideshow of the pictures from those days, including: the apple picking, adventures at the "choo choo" park, cupcakes and bubbles! In these cases, I think the pictures do tell you the story fairly well about the fun we had and the big girl that Zoë has become.



During this trip to the apple orchard, Zoë also made friends with some chickens. After observing them carefully, she choreographed her own "chicken dance" -- complete with clucking, arm (wing) waving, and several squatting gestures, but some spins and Zoë flourishes too! Unfortunately she become rather self-conscious (relatively) with the video and I was not able to capture the full splendor of this dance. Enjoy the video and imagine it 100 times more hilarious! :)



Once she got the sillies out with the dance (actually she was pretty serious about that too), she grew very diligent about the apple picking experience. She did manage to pull a few apples from the tree with the help of her tall father and grandfather, but mainly she thought someone should pick up the apples on the ground (who cares that they were rotten!?) Here are two videos of her working very hard to collect apples.




The days are flying by. Just the act of writing this blog for our life 2 months ago forces me to reflect on quickly Zoë is growing and becoming a full-fledged (no pun intended!) little girl! In these short two months (short for us-- went by in a flash, barely time to upload the photos!) she has really mastered several skills: walking, climbing, drawing circles, thinking, reasoning, communicating, her vocabulary has grown from ~40 words to ~120. She sings her "ABC's", she throws fewer tantrums because she can articulate what she wants. Her fascination with the world around her impresses me and reminds us to slow down and enjoy life a bit more -- she seeks out the "moon" and "stars" (Mommy is proud) and likes to ride "bus" and watch "Choo choo" (Daddy is proud), she discovered the magic of watching the autumn leaves swirl around her on a blustery Fall day. She helped make her Halloween costume -- but that is a story for a different day ...

Fall has fallen! (Part 2)

September was the month of visitors. In one weekend we had Ben, Simona and Dan visit! (Next weekend the Grandparents Zych were here -- more on that in the next blog entry) Zoë was thoroughly stimulated and had someone to play with her nearly all the time... no wonder that when they left she was especially needy. It seemed that in the mornings before dropping her at school she suddenly needed extra Mama time to assure her that 1. Mommy wouldn't leave like the other visitors and 2. that she has my attention too some of the time. I think this is better now!

I digress now with a recent tale: She is still testing her boundaries, in her wise toddlerhood -- and with only limited communication skills she sometimes asserts her wishes, opinions and independence in shocking ways. Like the day that she bit Haven in school because Haven tried to steal a cheerio from Zoë. The teachers were rather relaxed about it, but I had to have a stern talking with Zoë: "You don't like having bugbites. It is mean of the bugs to bite you. You can't go biting other people-- it hurts. Use your words!" Eventually she did say "Soree" to Haven. The teachers said that this was age-appropriate behavior -- she is testing different ways to communicate. Generally she is so sweet and sharing and friendly. But not about her space. And definitely not about her food. Hmmm...

So when the gang was visiting, we went to the park. Lately Zoë has been coordinated enough to scramble up the stairs and find her way to the reward-- the slide doooooooown. Whhheeeee! Here's a video:



Also this weekend, Zoë was invited to her first birthday party! Emil (the son of friends of ours from New York -- and introduced to us by Simona and Dan, no less!) turned two! Here are some pictures of Zoë at the party. The outfit fit her perfectly (from Didun, brought from India several months ago!) Unfortunately she was in a mood -- overall pleasant, but once Mommy wanted to take a nice picture with her Zozo, she was sour. Sadly, no good shots of the two of us :(



Ok-- I did not make my deadline to finish September blog entries by September... oops! (But did anyone really notice, I wonder?) More updates soon...

Fall has fallen! (Part 1)

There goes another month. Like last month (or was it two months ago) we have several stories to tell and only so much time to give in telling them. Here is a "table of contents" foreshadowing future posts (hopefully I can cover all of this by end of September... 4 days to go!? Can Mama do it?):

Growing up... Eating Corn

Attending Emil's birthday party

visit from Dan and Simona and Ben!

Grandparent (Zych's) visit

Apple picking at the Farm and chicken dance

miscellaneous cute-ness :)

---

A little teaser for now as we await the rest of the pictures to finish uploading and getting organized -- could take days. Really? who knows.

Zoë has become quite a little girl. She's not a baby. If you show her a picture of herself where her hair does not resemble the crazy-clown-cute-curly-wonder-that-it-is-locks-of-glory, she calls that "baby". To be fair, she does feel fondly of babies and has two dolls (three now! but the third is a gorgeous Eskimo doll from Alaska, courtesy of her grandparent's, and can't justly be called "baby") and she feeds them "baba" (bottle) and cares for them.

But SHE is NOT a baby. She dresses in jeans or corduroy pants and real stylish shirts (rarely a onesie!) and is offended if we forget to put on her pants after a diaper change (only babies walk around in diapers without pants!). She insists on feeding herself with a spoon (and does very well, getting most -- 80 % of the food actually into her mouth). She uses words well: Moon, apple, cheese, socks, shoes, pants, elbow (and almost all body parts from fingers to toes!), walk, eat, cook, park, cookie, ... there are so many and she can mimic and say practically whatever you tell her. I think now is the time that we have to start watching our words and actions... to avoid embarrassment later! (Not that we do anything weird or embarrassing that we don't want perfect strangers to know about. Really! we are very normal. Ahem.) She doesn't play as much as she cooks, sweeps, and does work (evidence forthcoming in the "Zoë gathers apples in a bucket" video). And don't think you are the only person who can blow bubbles -- oh no! She needs to control the soap wand and blow them herself (drinking large amounts in the process... are we fools for feeling better somehow that the labels say "non-toxic"? Gotta pick your battles!) She loves looking at photo albums -- unfortunately, these aren't as rugged as her board books and she is learning to be gentle with the pages!

So given that introduction (or summary), here's a video of Zoë eating corn (or I think attacking, is more appropriate of a term!) right off the cob. It is both heartwarming and pride-inducing, as well as appropriate advertisement for the late summer-early Fall bounty that we have here in Maryland. In Zoë's words: "Num num!"



Stay tuned for more in the next few days!

Proud day for Astronomy

Sorry Zoë fans, this is a digression about Mom and her friends this time! NO worries, we posted only yesterday, so you can read about Zoë below.


Check out my friend, Amber, here at Goddard, NASA in this video from the Jimmy Fallon show. She's the pretty redhead. Yay, James Webb Space Telescope... we look forward to your inception :)

Now back to work.

July Part 3 -- Life is Art!

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~Pablo Picasso

Oh! the calendar did it again... another month managed to race by before I could keep up! But fear not! I am two days late, but here's the last of our July trilogy and so as to be fair, I am even going to add a few highlights fresh from August.

From the title and first quote, I bet you can guess that we spent a nice part of July in museums! yay :) We are making an effort to actually enjoy D.C. since it has so much to offer. Over a couple of weekends we headed to three museums:

1. National Portrait Gallery -- we LOVED the courtyard! They also had several neat American impressionists like Mary Cassat and I found I also liked Childe Hassam.
2. Building museum -- this is a great space! They also have some interactive play. Zoë liked helping to build the arch with giant (as big as her!) blocks. Also, the building itself is pretty awesome.
3. The Phillips Gallery -- this is not a free collection. I know!
What were we thinking when we are in D.C. surrounded by free museums... ? but it was sooooooo worth it! The museum is located near Dupont Circle in what appears to be a lavish home. Many rooms have furniture from the same time period as the corresponding art. The pieces ranged from Monet's Luncheon of the Boating Party to more modern Rothco, with some Goya and Matisse's thrown in. I was impressed by the unique Van Gogh selection-- many I have never seen or heard of! We bought a cool boardbook for Zoë with Van Gogh paintings and a simple story to go with it. Feel free to check out all the pics in this slideshow...



Some other fun that we have had around town:

• Zoë's favorite park has the usual playground stuff, but also lots of toys to share. Here she is driving a police car!
• We've been exploring neighborhoods. U Street is a little like Telegraph in Berkeley. It has a long history of African American activism and is where the poet and activist, Langston Hughes, worked as a busboy. In his honor, a wonderful cafe/bookstore/restaurant/brunch locale named "Busboys and Poets" was founded. It was yummy and fun! (Thanks to Nina for the recommendation, ages ago!)
  
• Nearby in Adams Morgan, we also found a fun cafe/lounge/restaurant called Tryst. How awesome that a bar also has a large number of kids toddling around and has bookshelves stocked with books, boardbooks (for kids) and toys. Zoë loved the Etch-a-sketch and shapes matching toy-- which was high quality, made of wood and everything. AND the coffee is good! We are going to live @ Tryst. Matt doesn't know yet... but it's sort of a must. Zoë rocked the milk drinking with a straw-- we were duly impressed. Rather, relieved since it was our fault for not bringing an extra bottle. When will we learn? Apparently now it is unimportant! Ha.
  
• Zoë loves her Box. She loves "baby" (her doll) too and the two of them live inside Box. Box once housed Mom's new printer, but now it is where Zoë brushes her teeth, hides, plays, ... etc. We like Box.
  
• The weather has been nuts! The heat and humidity have caused crazy storms that no one could have predicted... well, except for the global warming experts. We had a tornado watch. The hurricane level winds took out most of the power in our county (luckily not ours but Zoë's school was closed for 3 days). On the plus side, when the storm cleared, we had pretty sunsets. Talk about a silver lining!
  
• We all went on a bike ride! Zoë liked it enough in the end to subject herself to more helmet wearing, even for fun. Plus, the helmet has ducks on it. She can practically form a story, with WORDS. It goes: "helmet ... bike? oh no! Bye bye ducks (these would be the ducks on her helmet) ...". Translation: "If I wear helmet, can we go on bike ride? No? Ok, then bye bye ducks (since not wearing helmet requires a polite goodbye to her good friends!)" We rode to the Farmer's Market and got vegetables and yummy bread, including these french morsels of delight called "Canèles" -- they are chewy, custardy, crispy and AMAZING! Zoë, with her cuteness, scored herself (and us) the sweetest, juiciest donut peach (tiny peach shaped approximately like a donut).
  
• Check out the pics here for more fun! Like: Zoë eating messy foods all by herself and Mommy making castles for Zoë to demolish (the prettier the stack, the better it falls, I tell you!)...