I have been a little sick this week with bronchitis. This was disappointing because, for instance, Naomi and I had big plans to go to storytime yoga and then a trial gym class Friday afternoon--both activities I can't really do with her in a regular week because they're a little far away and during the time I'm typically at school. In any case, we did go to the zoo (in the rain, as you may be able to see in these pictures), and to the Met. The Met was humorous, because our trip consisted of Naomi literally *running* from room to room for an hour and a half straight, shouting "wow!" "doggie!" "horse!" "baby!" or simply "aaahhhhh" (as in, I am simply too excited to be bothered with words). She had a couple of meltdowns (wanted to touch the rails, and wanted to spin in circles on a narrow bench), but was for the most part happy. She also climbe the enormous set of stairs near the entrance of the museum.

Here are some pictures of the zoo.


Naomi insisted that the goats were dogs, and that the seals and penguins were fish.

Happy Easter!

Naomi got to spend Easter this year with her Grandpa John and Sarah and Jayne, who visited us for the long weekend (my mom was going to come, but had to stay because she is running for Utah State House of Representatives...vote Becky!!) Here is Naomi getting ready for church in her new easter dress from her great-grandma Barbara. She had two minor accidents at church involving blood, so we didn't get any pictures afterward, but the blood luckily came out completely with cold water.
Walking to Central Park
Jayne, Naomi, and Sarah at the pyramid playground just north of the Met. This is a great playground. We went to the Guggenheim and then to this playground when Naomi hit her museum limit for the day.
"Turtle!"
Cars from the Cai Guo-Qiang "I want to believe" exhibit at the Guggenheim. This exhibit was really kind of amazing. Naomi walked in, saw the cars (which are depicted as exploding), and said "Uh-oh"....so apparently she got that much. Cai Guo-Qiang plans and enacts actual explosions as art in real life, and then uses gunpowder somehow as a medium for visual art. The *only* slight problem with the exhibit was that Naomi really wanted to touch the art. She is a stubborn kid.

Jayne reading to Naomi
Lacking only the "y"...
The circus! We all went--what a different world! Naomi lasted until intermission...really liked the animals, but just wanted to go out there with them and participate.
Sarah reading to Naomi
The Guggenheim again.

The aftermath of a red-eye flight.
Naomi, Sarah, Jayne and I eating at Pax before a show. We ended up seeing Wicked and Mary Poppins this weekend, both of which were awesome!
Saturday morning, we took the subway to Union Square, walked around a bit then over to the Chelsea Food Market (Jayne loves cooking shows, so this was her request), then walked down through Soho. Naomi stayed home with Matt.
Sarah and Jayne resting at a park in the West Village.
Grandpa John, Sarah, Naomi, Jayne.

Two weekends ago. Tunnel:


We went to Tot Shabbat at the Park Avenue Synagogue. I didn't really learn anything about Shabbat, but it was very age-appropriate and fun for Naomi.

Delicious blackberry/blueberry/raspberry pie (in spite of being simultaneously burnt and undercooked). Naomi put the berries in:
"Goodnight Gorilla"

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sepia-toned lovin'...

Nice weekend. Nice date, nice walks, nice fresh air. A few pictures, here, of a little easter-egg hunt (just the three of us) in Central Park. We came home and immediately did another egg hunt with Naomi (and another one today). It's fun, Naomi seems to be at the perfect age for this--she gets very excited when she spies an egg!





Only four hours of studying this weekend, by the way (though Matt had to work a bunch today). If I do well on my physio final this week we will know I am really starting to figure out how to use my study time well. Low stress, life is good. We even organized our kitchen cupboards and all of Naomi's toys (though not my side-of-bed teenager clothing heap). Actually, *that* was not low stress! But the weekend overall was.

Of note, Naomi is now liking to sit and look through books on her own. This is new for her, really. And neat! It seems she is mellowing just a little without losing any of her exuberance or love (she truly hugged *everyone* who wouldn't let her and a few that wouldn't today at church).

I also should mention, since I am not sure I have yet....her obsession this past week or so with megablocks. She puts them together now to build towers eight or ten blocks tall (she will only put blocks the same shape together, and if the tower breaks in half, she'll take every block apart and start from scratch). She'll stay doing this for up to an hour and a half. (Up until a week ago she was only interested in tearing megablock towers down, and then only for a few minutes at a time).

What is next up Naomi's sleeve?

Some of the books we have from the library right now

GREAT BOOKS
How are you peeling? : by Freymann, Saxton.
Sing along song / by Macken, JoAnn Early, 1953-
"More more more," said the baby / by Williams, Vera B.
Pat-a-cake / by Herman, R. A. (Ronnie Ann)
Subway / by Suen, Anastasia.
Beethoven's wig by Perlmutter, Richard.
Vamos de la ronda en torno al moral / by Lewis, Jan.
Oso pardo, oso pardo, qué ves ahí? / by Martin, Bill, 1916-
Cookie's week / by Ward, Cindy.
Wheels on the bus by Raffi.
Es mejor con Maisy! / by Cousins, Lucy.
El pollito / by Kimiko, 1971-
Froggy goes to bed / by London, Jonathan, 1947-
Jesse Bear, what will you wear? / by Carlstrom, Nancy White.
Juguemos a contar / by Ballart, Elisabet.
La mariquita malhumorada / by Carle, Eric.
Lola at the library / by McQuinn, Anna.
Wow! City! / by Neubecker, Robert.
De colores and other Latin-American folk songs for children /
Good night, Gorilla / by Rathmann, Peggy.
Knuffle Bunny
Please, Puppy, Please




A little too hard still, but good to read during dinner:
Gato y Pez / by Grant, Joan, 1931-
Giggle-wiggle wake-up! / by Carlstrom, Nancy White.
If you give a mouse a cookie / If you give a pig a party
by Numeroff, Laura Joffe.
Perdona, pero ese libro es mío / by Child, Lauren.
Puddles / by London, Jonathan, 1947-
The rainbow fish / by Pfister, Marcus.
The runaway dinner / by Ahlberg, Allan.
Un léon en la biblioteca / by Knudsen, Michelle.
Girando la vida / by Mar, Fiona del.
Jugando con las vocales / by Robleda Moguel, Margarita.h
Carrot soup / by Segal, John.
Harold y el lápiz color morado / by Johnson, Crockett, 1906-
La isla/ by Dorros, Arthur.



Just OK:
Where's Spot? by Hill, Eric, 1927-
Whose nose? / by Rowe, Jeannette, 1954-
The napping house / by Wood, Audrey.
Diez, nueve, ocho / by Bang, Molly.
Cómo plantar un arco iris / by Ehlert, Lois.
Draw me a star / by Carle, Eric.
Lola en Nueva York / by Gutman, Anne.
Olivia-- and the missing toy / by Falconer, Ian, 1959-
Todos al tren! / by Eduar, Gilles.
Corre! Corre! / by Ashbé, Jeanne.
Counting in the garden / by Parker, Kim, 1963-
Neli y Gus : by Godon, Ingrid.
Perros! Perros! = by Guy, Ginger Foglesong.
Palabras / by Law, Felicia.

Last week I went to a nutrition lecture at school. Actually our school includes NO nutrition classes, which seems a little unfortunate in light of how incredibly important nutrition is to health....so this lecture was organized by a new nutrition club that is going to work on getting nutrition included more in the medical school curriculum. This seems so obvious, because nutrition is NOT completely intuitive, and anyone in the health care field should probably know enough about nutrition to be able to have an educated conversation with patients who may be on different diets, or wondering about nutrition, or may have different nutritional needs because of other things, etc. Everyone should learn about nutrition!

Including me, it seems. Anyway, I am making a bit of an effort to be more conscious of what we are eating as a family. We have been eating a lot of pasta and pizza. So at this point...

1. I'm making an effort to do more cooking. Since Naomi loves participating, this is actually a great thing for us to do together anyway...a little messy, but then not much ISN'T messy with Naomi. We're sticking to things that can be made in under 30 minutes *with significant involvement of a 16 month-old*. That is about my cooking level anyway. This means either things I have made before and know are easy, or recipes in FreshDirect's "Real Simple" category, where you can order all of the ingredients at once (I love FreshDirect!!).

2. We are shifting somewhat toward organic foods. For now this means organic dairy products and antibiotic-free meats. This is to avoid loading Naomi up with exogenous hormones that are known to play a role in precocious puberty, etc. Also because too much of any hormone is bad. If I read my physio textbook, I could probably say all of the specific reasons why. I forgot why specifically the antibiotic-free meat. I do remember that most pesticides are lipid-soluble (apparently), so buying organic water-based fruits and vegetables is not as important.

3. Buying a greater variety of fruit and vegetables, even if Naomi won't eat all of them. At least she will be exposed, and Matt and I can eat them.

4. Lastly, having everyone take their vitamins. I'm also thinking about giving Naomi fish oil pills (for DHA)...but haven't really decided yet whether that is necessary if she's already getting DHA from a couple other sources.

5. Oh yeah, the fifth thing is to find some kind of nutrition book to read over spring break.

6. Oh yeah, and the sixth thing is to sleep 7-8 hours a night most of the time.


Anyway, we'll see how it goes. So today, Naomi made a pear-arugula-goat cheese-sesame seed salad (which she didn't eat much of other than the pear, but I loved), and we had some salmon and toast with jam. I have been doing pretty good with the sugar ban.

Marathon Walker

Naomi pushed her elephant in a stroller the entire way (about 0.4 miles) to the library, and part of the way back.
It took a very long time, and began to rain.
Hanging out!

Naomi hugging Isaac, the baby of some friends of ours who now live (so far away!) in New Jersey:

Naomi and the Purple Crayon

Pez y Gato

Watching a Persian New Year celebration:

Naomi was very adamant today about NOT wanting any help climbing up to or going down the slide at Ruppert Park. Lo and behold, she was a total pro on her own! (I did stay close by to mediate falls, though she didn't end up falling at all)
By the way, it was not pitch black, I'm just not great at putting the camera on the most ideal setting.
During the afternoon, Naomi had a playdate with Hannah and another little girl on the West Side (where apparently they painted faces). During dinner, I asked her completely out of context if she rode on anything today, and she immediately replied "on the bus!"

Naomi the Who:

One berry, Two berry, Pick me a....

Ah, sweet bliss.
Not bad in muffins either. Naomi did everything to make these (very complex jiffy mix) blueberry muffins except put the egg (which she did actually crack, though that was not the plan) in the bowl, and transport the pan to and from the oven. Her first batch of muffins I burnt to a crisp, but the second batch turned out ok.


NAOMI IS STARTING TO REALLY TALK. I *LOVE* IT.
New sentences: "Where's the baby?" (weh-da-beebee), "There's the baby!" "I love baby" "What's that?" "That's a _____" "I drop it" "Hold it" "Read the book" (wee-da-boo) "Bring the baby bus" (bee-da-beebee-bus)
Matt's favorite word that Naomi can say: "Zapatos!" (she says it really well)
Favorite toy: Baby Becky!
Favorite activity: pushing the stroller around the loop formed by our kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway....over and over and over again. Or simply running this same route, also over and over and over.
My favorite thing to do with Naomi: play with the flashlight under the parachute in the dark
My favorite thing about Naomi: Aside from the occasional tantrum, she is truly the happiest person I know.

EVEN Murray Hill...

It is perhaps best known as Manhattan's most (only?) boring neighborhood, but...Naomi and I had a very exciting afternoon today in Murray Hill. First, we rode the fast (limited stop) bus down 2nd Ave to 34th Street. Naomi spent the entire time flirting with strangers and delightfully singing about buses and cars. This came as a *very* pleasant surprise after our last bus experience, in which Naomi screamed at the top of her lungs for 20 minutes straight!
Then we visited the Glass Garden (part of NYU's hospital and focused on rehabilitation but free to the general public too). We saw finches, parrots, doves, several species of cockatoo, bunnies, giant fish, insects, and all kinds of plants. Prickly plants, soft plants, bumpy plants, spikey plants, leathery plants, plants with tiny leaves and giant leaves...the place is beautiful, green and refreshing in the unending slog of winter, and an all-around awesome exploration zone for a toddler woefully deprived of dirt most days.
It was a little too cold to stay out for long, but the outdoor kids' garden is fun too.
Bonzai:

After the gardens, we walked West a few blocks to the Scandinavia House, which has a couple of nearly-free Nordic-themed playrooms that are open to non-members on Saturdays. Naomi steering a Viking ship:
Accompanying a sheep to a child-sized home:
Not quite as unique as the room painted with beautiful scenery, but the Viking made out of legos got a thumbs up.

Happy 1st Birthday, Ella!
We need to start saying something other than "cheese".