We now have an invisible line down the middle of our backseat.

We've been enjoying a busy month here in the Monkey household. I'm trying to soak up as much fun with our friends as possible. After biking on Monday we went hiking with some friends on Wednesday and to the beach yesterday with a different group. Today I think we'll go to the park to bike again, although I'm not sure yet if anyone else will join us.

M2 loves to copy the bigger kids, especially M.G. and their friend Walter. Walter is 3 and can get M2 giggling just about as much as M.G. can. The two of them had a rousing version of Baa Baa Black Sheep going on at a playdate last week.

M.G. and M2 play so well together at times. He watches her to see how to join in and she likes to teach him things. On the beach yesterday he'd run across the sand to her yelling, "Baba, baba!" (His name for her.) But, sometimes they are like oil and water and he watches just as carefully to see how to best antagonize her. They often talk, giggle, and dance together in their car seats, but once last week they were having some sort of a pinching fight and for the first time I shouted, "Hey, break it up back there you two!"

At bedtime they give each other a big hug and it is very cute to see how much they care for each other.

M.G. teaching M2 to sing "Row Row Row your Boat."

Vote for Missy!

My friend Missy's blog is still in the running for best parenting blog in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. The voting ends in a week, so I encourage you to vote! Check out her blog if you haven't yet. She has a lot of great tips and ideas.

She was neck and neck with one of the other contestants and now the difference in votes is being kept secret for the rest of the contest!

Get on your bike and ride!

Yesterday I took the kids to our favorite park so that Monkey Girl could ride her big girl bike with one of her friends. M and his sister have the same age difference as M.G. and M2, they were just both born in the spring, so each is a few months younger than my kids.

The park has a lot of paved paths through a wood, across a meadow, and around a pond. The kids had so much fun! Before this, Monkey Girl had just been on her bike in our parking lot. That didn't give her much of a chance to really get going and I loved seeing her take off down the path.

She did a great job steering and using her brake - two talents she didn't seem very confident in before. The path had a few steep hills and she handled them well. She did fall a couple times, but it seemed to happen at random times on flat ground. Both times she jumped right up and got back on her bike. I wasn't sure how far she'd be able to bike on her first longer ride, but she wasn't ready to stop when the rest of us were.

She and and M had a lot of fun riding together too. Seeing them talking and laughing together while peddling off made me wonder when M.G. had gotten so big! And I love hearing her converse with other people. She told M all about her new bike and when she got it and he told her about how fast his bike was and how good he was at riding it. I like hearing that other 4 year olds have trouble being humble as well!

M2 and J watched with interest from their strollers. M2 shouted out when the older kids would shout and if I held the stroller still for too long he'd rock forward and back in order to propel himself.

Several of M.G.'s friends have big kid bikes now and so the running joke is that we'll have a biker gang on our hands with a pack of moms running behind. But, I'm looking forward to more rides before we move at the end of the month.

Happy 4th of July

We had a pretty low key 4th of July, especially in comparison to the normal get-together with my extended family. We missed being home with them all this year!

We did enjoy playing at the playground and grilling brats at home. Poor M2 is way too young to be out when the grill is hot.
Here is our tall tomato plant! We're hoping some of them ripen before our move.

A friend of ours tipped us off to a great fireworks watching location. We sat at a boat launch across the river from the fireworks site. M2 said "ooh" and "aah" like an old pro, but was also enamored with the Jeep parked next too us, throwing in "jeep" every now and then. M.G. enjoyed staying up late, being outside in the dark, and the fireworks.

NYC!

On Sunday we drove and took the train down to Manhattan for the day. We've had so much rain here lately, but managed to pick a good day with sun and not too much heat.

It is only a 2.5 hr drive to the town where we catch the commuter train. We picked the scenic Taconic Parkway instead of the interstate and it was a beautiful drive. From the train station we caught an express train and were at Grand Central station 45 minutes later.

Like our previous trip, we walked along 42nd street until it met with Broadway. We checked out Times Square and then headed toward Central Park.

M2 really enjoyed the street vendor hot dog that I shared with him. Really, he shared about 3 bites with me before devouring the rest. Monkey Girl loved chasing the pigeons around Columbus Circle.
We strolled through Central Park with our friend Erica, who lives in NYC, and her boyfriend. The kids could have spent all day without moving very far. They loved watching the horses, dogs, birds, and people. It was difficult to tear them away from climbing on the rocks and dancing to the street musicians.
After saying goodbye to our friends we took the subway down to Battery Park. Monkey Girl had seen a "statue of liberty" street performer near Central Park and kept wanting to walk over and wave. But, she was too timid to get her photo taken. In Battery Park there were at least 6 "statues" waiting for tourists and at this point she was really excited to pick her favorite and pose.
Last week she and I watched An American Tail for her first time. The Statue of Liberty figures prominently in that movie and she was very excited to see the real thing. Today when she saw this picture she told me that she didn't realize how far away we were from the statue!

From this point we walked back toward Grand Central Station, passing by the Stock Exchange and through Soho and Noho. We headed into Greenwich Village, but ran right into the Pride parade. We had been crossing paths with the route all day, but ran into a huge crowd of people in the Village and had to detour a bit. We made a point of seeing the Woolworth, Flatiron, and Empire State buildings, but again the parade prevented us from getting any closer to the Empire State building.Monkey Girl liked running around in the Park and seeing the Statue of Liberty (both real and pretend.) She walked a lot in the beginning of our day and then rode in the stroller for our hike back to the train station. M2 started the day in the stroller, loved running in the park, and then seeing the craziness from the safety of the Ergo. I can hardly believe it, but he rode on my back for about 3 and a half hours straight! I was happy to have them both constrained when we passed through the crazy street vendors in Soho and the crowds near the parade. I'm glad we made it down there again before our move!

"Today Duck is going into space. He is excited and scared. I taught him what to do in Space and he will call me from Space. I've been before so I will be able to talk to him about it."

Apartment-sized ball pit!

Deere jammies!

CSA 2009

We are a month into our CSA shares for this year. We went with the same farm we used last year and again we are very happy with the produce we've gotten so far. (Here are previous CSA posts.)

We invested in a salad spinner, after washing a lot of greens last year, and it has made life easier!

CSA Week 1
bag of spinach
head of lettuce
bunch of collard greens
3 small bok choi
bag of radishes
garlic scapes
parsley
mint

CSA Week 2
strawberries
lettuce, green and red (shown in above picture)
scallions
broccoli
Napa cabbage
radishes
garlic scapes

CSA Week 3
strawberries
lettuce
Swiss chard
Napa cabbage
zucchini
summer squash
broccoli
scallions
basil

CSA Week 4
strawberries
lettuce
mesclun greens
turnips with greens
beets with greens
broccoli
basil

We've had a lot of good salads and cooked greens in the past few weeks, along with very fresh stir-fry and veggies sauteed. I made pesto with some of the basil. And we've had no problem eating up the strawberries!

Day Trips with Chris and Jenny

Chris and Jenny, a pair of our Minnesotan friends, came to stay with us for a few days last week. Jenny has a 4 year old nephew -so they are well prepared for a few days with kiddos. We relaxed around the apartment and took a couple day trips.

Chris drove his parents' mini-van from Minnesota and it was great that we were all able to fit in one vehicle for our excursions.

On Friday we visited the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, NY. I had been wanting to visit the Adirondack park since we moved to New York and it was a beautiful drive.

The museum itself was great for adults and children. Each building had at least one activity for children to try and a couple of the buildings were full of hands on exhibits.

The area is just beautiful. Here are some photos I took from the back of the mini-van while we were driving. I will miss the scenery of upstate New York!



On Saturday we drove, and took the train, in to Boston. We walked the start of the Freedom Trail and ate lunch at Quincy Market. Then we hopped the train to see the Bunker Hill Monument and the USS Constitution.

Papa and I have now walked the entire Freedom Trail, if you combine this trip with the one we took last Fall.

Monkey Girl dancing in Boston Common

M2 likes real animals and animal statues.

Bunker Hill Monument

Inside the Bunker Hill Monument - 294 steps to the top, M.G. walked half way up and all the way down! Papa and Chris went up with her. (And this random guy...)

The view from the top of the Monument.

M2 walked parts of the Freedom Trail too. He's gotten much better about letting someone hold his hand while he walks.

USS Constitution

We all had so much fun during Chris and Jenny's visit. The kids really warmed up to them and even shy M2 was holding hands, playing with them, and trying to say their names. We packed up the ball pit for their visit, but the hit of the weekend was letting all the balls loose in the living room. M2 loved to run through them, throw them, and try to empty the bag while we picked them up.