Skipping Town

Greta slept last night till 5:30am--and so did I! It's pretty sad that this is cause for celebration, but those six or so hours of sleep I got felt pretty exciting. Greta's obscenely early rising is particularly frustrating, however, because if we were at home, we could let her stir and fuss herself back to sleep--instead, here, we rush in to quiet her so she doesn't wake up Lucia, which just wakes Greta up more. Sigh. The early morning notwithstanding, we had a fun day. I took the girls to the zoo again today in the Bosque de Chapultepec--I know a much better way to go now, so the walk was very reasonable. Both Lucia and Greta loved seeing the animals today--I took them only to the Tropical Animals section to see the large selection of monkeys, which is ideally arranged for Greta to see and enjoy too. Lucia likes the zoo and seeing the animals up close, but Greta absolutely goes crazy--she runs up to each enclosure, waving both hands above her head and screaming "Hi...

I haven’t been blogging as much this summer as I should have. And so, now that summer’s over, a brief recounting of some of the highlights: A Trip to Fairport At long last, Andrew, the girls, and I traveled to Fairport, NY, in August to visit my grandmother and aunt. The visit was long overdue, and though the drives up and back were not easy, we survived (barely, on the return trip), and were glad we went. We stayed in a suite at the Hampton Inn, and the girls did fine. Both enjoyed the free breakfast in lobby each morning—Lucia always chose a waffle, and Greta was introduced to the wondrous world of Cheerios. We played in my grandmother’s yard and on the porch and even went to a family reunion, which was unfortunately cut short by a rainstorm. I thought it would be strange to return to a place where I spent so much of my childhood with my own children in tow, but things have changed so much—the state of my aging grandmother’s house, my grandmother herself—that it seemed fitti...

Friday was one of the hardest days I’ve had as a parent. First of all, Lucia’s paw-paw withdrawal has intensified in the past couple of days, leading to extreme meltdowns in the morning when she gets up, more acting out during the day, and some nap- and bedtime resistance (though she has, knock wood, ultimately slept each time). Friday dawned with an epic meltdown that just wouldn’t end. By the time Andrew left for work, she’d been crying and/or screaming and/or whining for two hours. I’d planned an outing for us that day: the zoo with a friend. Through her tears/screams/whines, she kept saying she wanted to go to the zoo, so I felt sure getting out of the house and to a fun place would snap her out of it. Indeed, once I’d lugged the double stroller down the stairs, loaded it up, carried Greta out to put her in, and corralled Lucia outside and gotten her to stand on the stroller’s riding board, Lucia was in a much better mood. She loves the double stroller and each time she gets on say...

It’s been a busy week last week. Last Wednesday Lucia and I went to the zoo, where Lucia had a splendid time greeting (“Hi!) and feeding sheep, goats, llamas, and geese, as well as greeting and waving at sea lions when they surfaced in their pool. We walked both there and back—a mistake, since the day grew hot and it’s a really, really long walk. I felt fine while I was doing it and then, that evening and the next day, felt like I might not be able to get off the couch. I’m really looking forward to not being pregnant anymore—not because I don’t like being pregnant, because I do, with this charmingly kicking/squirming little one inside that makes my stomach look like it has a mind of its own, which I suppose it does—but because I just want to have my physical capabilities back. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been in shape; at least when Lucia was born I was doing mommy/baby workouts once or twice a week. But since moving to NYC last year I have done exactly three yoga cla...