Hat Play

When Douglas gets ready to go to work in the morning, he puts his hat on.  That is a cue for Levi that Pop is about to leave.  He signs "hat" and drops whatever he is doing at that moment to say goodbye.  He also started signing "thank you."  When he hands someone an object, he signs "thank you."  Um.  It's the other way around, sweetheart.

The teacher in me saw an opportunity.  So I pounced.

How to Combat Cabin Fever

                           

   

Walking Away

Levi is walking!  Yes, yes, at long last.  No, no, already?!  I'm thrilled he's walking because that means his legs are perfectly fine.  I'm melancholy about him walking...they say that once your baby starts walking, that's it.  Babyhood is over.  Toddlerhood is here.

I don't know how parents pinpoint the exact moment their child takes his first step.  Levi started walking two months ago.  7, 8, 9 steps and I videotaped it.  Then as suddenly as he began, he stopped and returned to his one legged crawl.  

Then last week it happened again--Levi took a couple steps here and there.  A few more.  Today I watched him walk from the living room to the kitchen.  My boy has his very own gait!  Once upon a time he could not hold his head up.  Now he's sleeping longer, eating more and capable of independently peeling stickers and sticking them in his notebook.

My baby has walked away.  Hi, toddler.

Babywearing List

1.  K'Tan

2.  Sakura

3.  Baby Bjorn

4.  Didymos (4.6)

5.  Moby

6.  Ergo

7.  Girasol

8.  Didymos (4.2)

This is a chronological list of babywearing items I own.  I was pregnant with Levi when I watched a friend skillfully maneuver her baby onto her chest with a long, soft stretchy wrap.  The baby fell asleep immediately and I fell in love with the idea just as quickly.

Five for Friday

(May 24, 2011 - Source: Bauer Griffin)

It's the weekend again!  We're going to sit down and prepare our taxes.  Fun, fun.

Organization is on my mind.  Organizing paperwork is easy enough.  But what about digital photos?  This article is great!

I have been obsessing over play kitchens like this and this.  Wooden kitchen sets can be handed down and could be seen as an investment piece.  Or not.  How much would you blow on a play kitchen?

Can you imagine meeting 12 presidents?

Once in a blue moon I drop a note in Doug's lunch bag.  I love those reusable lunch bags--they even have a separate pocket for writing notes!

I was a participant in a longitudinal study that began when I was a senior in high school and ended when I turned 24.  But this series, shot every seven years, has covered almost five decades!  A must see.

Matzo Soup

I began feeling sick suddenly last Friday at about 1 pm (see the time in the photo above?)  I was sitting there, fooling with my camera when WHAM! 

43 Degrees

Hard Work

Hard work is private.

Doing something strenuous is fine, as long as no one is looking.  Ballet dancers are trained to exude grace and lightness when doing pirouettes.  No one really wants to see a person grunting, straining, giving it his all.

List #4: Almond Butter Cookies

Recipes are considered lists, right?  As a kindergarten teacher, I used recipes as an introduction to procedural writing.  Procedural writing involves lists.

Here is a recipe that Levi LOVES.  I wonder if I'm lying to Levi when I say they're cookies--the cookies are barely sweet enough to be considered cookies.  Not very sweet but definitely yummy and healthier than most sweet snacks...and a cinch to make.  If Trader Joe's or Whole Foods is close by, chances are that you have most of those ingredients in your kitchen already.

Ingredients:
1 c. raw crunchy almond butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup chia bran or flax meal (if in a pinch, I'd use flour)
4 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix all the ingredients together (I suggest mixing the dry ingredients together first before adding the wet ingredients).   Roll dough into 1 inch balls and they're perfect for little hands!  Press gently onto baking tray.  Bake for 8 minutes.  Watch the inaugural address as the cookies cool.

Five For Friday

My 88 year old grandfather is in the hospital being treated for pneumonia.  I wish I could bring Ikaria to him.  But what I can do is send him positive thoughts and plenty of love.  I took out my photograph box and will find time this weekend to post a photo of my grandfather.

This exhibition at the Met is inspiring--fun to see how people did it before Pixelmator and Photoshop.

Levi got his first book installment from the PJ Library--a book a month, for free!

I loved Noonday Demons written by Andrew Solomon.  He recently came out with a mammoth of a book about children who are different than their parents.  Two of my friends are in this book!

A friend of mine sent me this link to read after my "Worry Doll" post.  Thanks, Keri!

While You Were Sleeping

Each day has two sweet spots: Levi's morning nap and afternoon nap.  Oh yes, baby!  30 golden minutes per nap.  Yes, that's it.  He isn't one of those babies that take 2 hour long naps.  

Levi's Birthday Party

   

Worry Doll

Photo Credit: Joanne Scott (Thanks, Mumsy!)

 I worried.  I fretted.  In junior high school I spent so much time worrying about the most minute details of events at school and recorded those worries in my diary.  That wasn't unusual--not many people dodge the tragedy of junior high school scotch-free.  What was unusual was the gift my mother gave me.  She presented me with a small yellow box that held six worry dolls.  She told me it was Native American magic.  

List #3: Appreciation for this Old Breuckelen House

We live in a 102-year old rowhouse.  Half brownstone, half brick.  I was secretly pregnant with Levi when we moved into our newly renovated home and for the next few months I embraced my crazy nesting urge as I added the finishing touches to our home.  Or so I thought.  Now that Levi has been here for a year, I find that homemaking has only begun.  Our home is a process, changing day by day to meet our needs as a new family.  I love being home most of the time (naturally there are days when I want to get out, go out, be somewhere, anywhere, please!), and I find that the more I stay at home, the more I realize how merciless my critical eye can be.  Peeling paint.  Light switches in weird places.  Steep stairs.  An iron gate that needs replacing.  This old place has been getting a lot of work done.  It also needs love.  So today I am focusing on what I love about this fine old building,

Five for Friday

Tomorrow we're finally having Levi's birthday.  Levi's birthday party was originally scheduled last month, but we had to cancel it after Levi caught a nasty bug. We're looking forward to seeing our guests and tasting Levi's birthday cake made by Ana of Boca Doce Baking. 

In the meantime, here are some things to check out:

Mr. E'Toile

In high school I failed a pop quiz.  In English class we were studying Ernest Hemingway, reading A Clean, Well Lighted Place.  I was the outlier--the only girl in class at Gonzaga, an all-boys school.

I had done my homework.  I read the story and loved it.  I analyzed that short story with my friends the day before, so I was not fazed when my English teacher announced we were having a pop quiz.  I knew the story and was confident until I saw the question.

What was the old man's handicap?

Nap Away From Home

Non-Toys

            

    

We have two laundry baskets masquerading as toy bins.  Inside those bins are toys that run the gamut from soft to hard, safe to supervision needed when in use, made in the USA, made in China, natural, Fisher-Price plasticky. Toys, pshaw.

List #2: Levi's Reading List

Levi reading with Kathy, my parents' neighbor.

There is no shortage of books in this old Breuckelen house.  This list is what Levi grabs for reading on a regular basis.

Levi's Top 5 Books

Waiting To Board

 

            

My favorite time to travel to Chicago is on the day of Christmas Eve.  All is calm and bright at the airport.  Levi is able to explore and I am able to shadow him.

List #1

I think of bloggers as chronic list makers.  Bloggers make word lists and photo lists.  A list of must-sees.  A list of things they love.  A list of pictures taken every ten minutes in a day.  A blogspot is a long list of ideas, tagged, sectioned and dated.

I.  Am.  Not.  A.  List.  Maker.  To a fault.  So this year I resolve to dedicate one day a week to the art of making lists.  I will blog those lists--the mundane and the creative.

Today is List #1: My resolutions for 2013.

Dear Virgil

My older sister Cristin always kept a journal. Because of her, I wrote my way through my tweens and my teens, confessing my life to a diary with the name Virgil.  Why Virgil?

I have absolutely no idea. I stopped writing to Dear Virgil when I went away to college and life shifted from the written word to the typed word.  That meant I stopped recording my life in the writerly sense.

Last month my mum reminded me that I am thirty-something (in the same breath she also reminded me to take better care of my elbows).  I'm a mama myself now.  Raising Levi has made the sunny days long, the seasons fast.  The milestones, big and small stones are fast piling up, and I have been chasing after those "stones" in a scatterbrained way: Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook.  Those are all the awww moments.

So the camera Douglas gave us me is the impetus for this blog.  Brooklyn Sweet Brooklyn is far more significant and succinct than Dear Virgil.  As I record our life, including the aww and the ehhh and even the eww moments, I will not forget why I chose the name Brooklyn Sweet Brooklyn.