This weekend was all about the boys.
First, a trip to suburbia ville to visit with her great grandfather Ted and then a stop over at her cousin, Lincoln’s first birthday bash, filled with Halloween inspired decor and cake.
Sunday was about the local men. We made nice (as I try and tell neko to do when someone wants to play with her or next to her…Nice - she has a funny way of saying it right after a fierce no) and invited neko’s best friend’s parents over for brunch. Hey, if the kids can play, why shouldn’t the parents?
Gus (otherwise known as Bus) loves neko and sings ‘neko neko neko neko’ to the tune of ‘twinkle twinkle little star’. It was really cool to watch two kids that are obviously used to being together: they were on the same wavelength and knew each other’s jokes and were un-phased by the screaming fits or the no sharing episodes of each other. Neko’s cheeks were flush (her hair gets all wild and crazy when she is excited) and she was so giddy and silly and ran around screeching…I watched with total delight!
After a nice nap we took her to meet up with da-des (Douglas) at the playground and the two showed off their skills at chasing, stealing other kid’s trucks and riding scooters! Scooters…they are only 19 months old.
Last but not least was Isaac…or as neko calls him: Baby Eye-Sik (pointing to her eye)
All that’s left now is to calculate her dowry!
Neko’s got a BFF. Her name is Suralia, but neko calls her Rara.
Just like she calls fish ’shish’ and sock ‘fock’ (more on this later). The girls recently took a trip out to the edges of the borough and spent a beautiful fall day in Cony Island. They ran around the boardwalk and spent the afternoon looking at sharks and sea lions. They ran and giggled and held hands…..how cute is that?
I have to say, my natural Jewish guilt at being a working mom (not spending enough time with her, not knowing her friends well, on and on) is somewhat assuaged when I see images like these and hear how much fun the girls had. Five minutes later, I find myself tormented all over again.
This was neko’s second time at the giant fish bowl. We took her there on a rainy Sunday way back in September, but I think she liked with rara much more:
I have been mildly pre-occupied with neko’s verbal, motor and emotional development since she was, well, since she was in the womb. (Peter can tell everyone the story that I was convinced, crying with real tears, that she was blind when she was 6 weeks old). I get these weekly newsletters from parenting websites that come attached with a warning (which i obviously don’t heed) that developmental projection stages are generic and by no way mean that your child is slow if he/she doesn’t say 50 words by the day they turn 20 months. (yes, I did make an excel sheet with all her words and I could only think of 58 not counting animal sounds or names)
So, we decided, in preparation for going to nursery school (hopefully), for acquiring social skills and for learning to follow directions and play nice with others, that we would sign her up for something challenging.
So far, neko loves her 1.5 hour packed activity, tumbling, motor play time, music, art and gym class.
Progress thus far:
Following directions - not only going back and forth on balance beam - still working on that.
Making art - not eating the art - still working on that.
Sharing - not only screaming mine at anyone that approaches the rodeo toy - still working on that.
Building stuff - really good at it.
Eating goldfish snacks - excels!
(Sorry for long post but felt background was needed)
Sometimes I get all wrapped up in chores, daily duties and schedules, and I need something to center me again, to ground me and make me feel strongly what this is all about. Last night, Neko and I laid down on the floor in her tiny room and read books, right before bedtime. As we nestled into the pillows, neko clutching her shmatta (diaper cloth that she must hold under her chin to sleep) I began to read a long story out loud. In the middle of all this, I turned to look at her, only to realize that she has been watching my face, my lips move the whole time, her round cheek resting half on my shoulder and half on her pillow. She smiled at me and said mo’.
My heart overflowed.
Everything makes sense at moments like this.
I know that Israel is having a heat wave right now. If we were there, sweating in 100 degree weather, we would be at the pool. This post would have lots of clear blue water, frizzy hair and neko in her zebra print bathing suit. (and we have had a few of those already)
In stead, we have neko in snow gear (just wait until my immense research into the best snow boots becomes a post) with farm animals. Every time we get into the car and explain to her we are going upstate she begins her ritual of: animaaa…food….and nodding yes and saying animaaaa….fooo…and pointing to her hand….this cuteness gets rewarded by feeding farm animals. Yes, once again.
This weekend was also spent chasing after E-E and Oompa. Neko is in love with her grandmother, as are we.
Thank you for playing, giving, drawing, sticking, reading, making, feeding, supervising, jumping, dancing and taking such good care of us all!
(Note: please do visit the Woodstock Animal Sanctuary (will re open in spring) if you are ever in the area: the staff is amazing and the place really rescues and helps)
It’s official.
This is my longest relationship ever.
It also produced the best little person.
Too bad she is not best when it comes to going out for dinner to celebrate.
BUT - when she’s older, we’ll hold it all against her 
Peter - here is to 333 more years together!
We had high hopes.
We filled these hopes with a LOT of merchandise; purchasing various water wings, floating vests and inflatable rings. We even got a new bikini.
Neko’s first reaction to the Olympic pool, was, well, a huge type of disappointment for us gear laden parents. She sat on the first step at the shallow end and kept saying ‘no,no,no,no’ while holding onto to her six ducks.
We didn’t give in and tried every day (although the beach was a huge hit, especially eating the sand and picking up cigarette buts). After three days of us begging (short of throwing chocolate in the pool we tried it all), three neighboring kids jumped into the pool making a lot of that happy children in water sounds.
Neko followed them in.
Two hours later she was convinced she could swim - trying to walk/swim all alone (actually pushing our hands away) and putting her head in the water, making frothy bubbles.
I wonder if this approach could work with potty training?
The weekend:
Crisp blue skies - Fall clear with the whispy clouds and the cold morning air
Crunchy golden leaves - Technicolor everywhere
Two cool cousins to chase after - Mispronounce their names (Sopha and Rara)
Halloween festivities start super early in upstate NY- Making money where you can
Kelder Farm Visit yet again - Neko requests to ‘foo’ and ‘animaaa’ every time we get in the car
It’s strange to think that Neko has an aunt that is closer to her in age than to me (her sister).
What’s not strange is the adoration she has for her.
From the minute we landed Neko wanted to be near, with and around Joy. Each morning, she opened her eyes, pursed her lips together in that all famous neko smooch face, and said: Jeeeeyy.
She ran into her room and the two played blocks, re arranged the hundreds of mini figurines she collects, jumped on the bed together and watched baby television. She chased her in and out of the apartment, collecting flowers on the deck, looking for the cat (Amber hid in terror most of the time) and played hide and seek in her cavernous shower stall.
Joy, being the patient sweet girl she is, didn’t even blink once when neko ripped the Jonas Brothers poster from her wall (yeah, Joy, they really aren’t that great).
So, Joy, get yourself over here, your position as babysitter is waiting!
Everyone knows how much I love humus.
What does that have to do with anything? Nothing. But it goes well with everything, I swear.
Our vacation included lots of food, some of it kinda high end fresh international type cuisine, but a lot of it, as per Peter’s, the tourist, insistence included street food. (do you hear the disaster rumblings?)
Even neko’s self proclaimed diet (confined to the three major food groups of cookies, chips and oddly enough, vanilla yogurt) was banned and replaced by a penchant for Israeli food: schnitzel, rugelach, bamba, kiosk smoothies and a slice of farmer bread with chocolate spread were big hits. I know I know, where is the nutritional value in all that, you ask yourself, well, there isn’t, but she went ‘mmmmm’ when she ate, and that was enough for me.
