Steelykid!
drorzel | June 27, 2011On Saturday, we took SteelyKid to the Bronx Zoo. It was kind of hot, and she got a little over-tired by the end, but it had a lot of amazingly cute moments, too. And, unlike Sunday's trip to the beach, I brought my camera and shot a couple hundred pictures of various things. Including this shot of SteelyKid on Grandpa's shoulders at the start of the day:
That's a keeper, all right. What was she looking at? Well, this happy couple:
Hello, large predatory cat.
And hello to you, too, Aslan.
(These could probably be improved further with some slightly more sophisticated image processing-- the…
drorzel | June 23, 2011SteelyKid is in a bit of a "no pictures" phase at the moment, which makes it kind of difficult to get weekly shots. Hence the run of Toddler Blogging pictures without Appa in them-- when we pick Appa up, she runs away.
Thus, this shot with the color balance all wonky (I could do a better job of cleaning it up, but I'm lazy), because the flash hadn't warmed up yet, and she started freaking out before I could get a better shot. It does, however, show the finest balloon animal you can get from "Mr. Twisty," who does his act at the Greenmarket every now and then:
That's a monkey climbing a tree…
drorzel | June 19, 2011My parents came up today to go out for dinner for my birthday/ father's day. On the way home, SteelyKid announced that she wanted to go to a playground. We explained that first we needed to go home and get Emmy, and then we would see about going to a playground. SteelyKid then suggested that we bring Emmy in the car with us to the playground, and I said "Well, we'll ask Emmy."
When we got home, I let Emmy outside before SteelyKid came into the back yard. When she saw Emmy was out, she ran right over, calling "Hey, Emmy, you want to go to the playground?"
Then she answered herself, in a…
drorzel | June 16, 2011Kate here while Chad is at DAMOP, with this week's Toddler Blogging.
What, you may ask, is SteelyKid counting on her fingers?
In fact, she is counting down to . . .
Takeoff!
drorzel | June 9, 2011SteelyKid is in an intermittently shy phase right at the moment. Sometimes, she's really outgoing and shamelessly mugs for the camera, other times, well...
Of course, two minutes after hiding behind Appa and insisting that I not take pictures of her, she marched over and demanded to see the pictures on the camera.
We've had an extremely busy couple of days-- her day care was closed yesterday and today for a Jewish holiday-- so that's all I've got the mental energy for tonight. I almost forgot to past anything at all, but Kate reminded me, and I thought I had better head off the angry/…
drorzel | June 5, 2011Why no blogging today? Among other reasons, because we went to the playground with SteelyKid. And this:
is a whole lot more fun than the Internet.
drorzel | June 2, 2011I didn't post anything to acknowledge Memorial Day this past Monday, because Union doesn't take the day off, so it was just another Monday around here, albeit with fewer stores and restaurants open than usual. SteelyKid was at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend, though, and celebrated by going to the annual parade. Which was enough of a hit that she was still marching around on Tuesday when she came home:
Where was she marching to, you ask?/p>
Why, to the pond, to throw leaves in:
What's that got to do with Memorial Day? Nothing. But it's fun, so there you go.
(No Appa picture today…
drorzel | May 26, 2011Kate is off at Wiscon (or at least en route-- her flights are all screwed up), and SteelyKid is off at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend. Which means I don't have an Appa picture this week, but in honor of the pagan origins of the name of the day, here's a picture of SteelyKid enacting a scene from the movie Thor:
Well, OK, she's just gesturing dramatically with a fruit twist on the steps of the Nott Memorial. But it sort of looks like she might be declaiming some of the ludicrous dialogue of the Asgard sequences... Maybe?
I dunno. That's all I've got, really: she's out of town, I went…
drorzel | May 20, 2011This was a hellishly busy week, and today was especially bad. I barely had time to read non-work-related email, let alone write anything for the blog. And now that I have time, I'm too fried to write anything.
So here's a bonus cute-toddler photo, with an ego-blogging element:
That's SteelyKid sitting in my desk chair, watching the National Geographic video clip from the other day. She's pointing at the screen to say "That's you walking Emmy!" Which she does every time we play it, and it doesn't get old.
I don't think she really gets the physics yet, but there's plenty of time for that...
drorzel | May 19, 2011Earlier tonight, I was sitting at my computer, and SteelyKid came running over. "Let's go to Israel. Pretend Israel." she said in a conspiratorial whisper.
"Why are you whispering?" I asked. "Do we have to whisper in pretend Israel?"
"Yes," she replied immediately. "Because there are bears."
The origin of this odd conversation was today's "trip" to "Israel" at the JCC day care. The pre-schoolers all got out in the hall, sat down, and pretended to ride an airplane to Israel. Once there, SteelyKid's class made like good American tourists, and went shopping. She excels at shopping.
This was a…
drorzel | May 12, 2011Tonight's Toddler Blogging features SteelyKid taking a picture of me taking a picture of her, while Appa does the forced perspective thing again:
The "camera" in this case is the salt shaker that came with her kitchen playset. Which is a versatile object, serving also as a drinking cup:
The beverage in question was "fish juice," squeezed from the green plastic fish you can just make out in her hand. She made us all drink some, despite the fact that it was, as she put it, "little tiny yucky."
I'm a little amazed we got these, because at dinner a little while earlier, she slipped off a chair…
drorzel | May 5, 2011That title isn't a euphemism-- SteelyKid decided to use this week's Toddler Blogging to try to teach an old Appa a new trick. First you go up up up on your head:
Then you flip down:
Ta-daa!!
drorzel | April 30, 2011SteelyKid and Kate are down in Boston this weekend, which has given me time to get some work done around the house, and go to some restaurants that they don't like. It's left me a little deprived of cute, though. So, as a counter to that, some cute video of SteelyKid riding her "motorcycle" (her term) down the small hill by Grandma and Grandpa's:
(She can just barely reach the pedals, but can't use them very effectively, so she just scoots it along with her feet, and picks them up once she gets going. The abrupt stop at the end of this was in order to demand another jellybean from Grandma.)
drorzel | April 28, 2011Kate and I have spent a lot of this week being thwarted by technology in one way or another, so SteelyKid decided to set us straight about how things work. First, she demonstrated how to work the tv:
Then she showed us how to take pictures on her phone (because, of course, all phones take pictures):
And, finally, she explained to Kate how to view the pictures she had taken on the phone:
We'd be embarrassed at having to be taught how to use common devices by a two-and-three-quarters-year-old, but we're so relieved to have Internet connectivity back in Chateau Steelypips that we can't think…
drorzel | April 21, 2011I'm sitting on the couch reading when Emmy trots in looking excited.
"Hey, dude, I've got a great idea!" she says cheerily. "You know how your puppy is away for the week?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I think this is the perfect opportunity to class up your blog a little. I mean, you always post pictures of her on Thursdays, but she's not here to take a picture of, so..."
"So... What?"
"Well, you should post some pictures of me, silly!"
"Yeah," she says. "Just like that. I'm an excellent dog!"
"Yes, you're the best. The Queen of Niskayuna." She flops over, and I rub her belly. She's quiet for a minute,…
drorzel | April 14, 2011SteelyKid has been sick this week, which made it a perfect time for me to fly down to Maryland for a couple of days. Fortunately, she and Kate have both forgiven me. I did break out the new friend I purchased for SteelyKid a couple of weeks ago, and have been holding in reserve:
The fuzzy blue fellow is a plush Eeyore, who was a big hit. We read the story from The House at Pooh Corner where Pooh and Piglet build Eeyore a house at bedtime tonight, and when Eeyore made his first appearance, she had the stuffed Eeyore kiss his picture in the book.
"They haven't got Brains, any of them, just…
drorzel | April 7, 2011A shot from this morning, before SteelyKid had gotten dressed:
Why is she balanced precariously on the arm of that chair, you ask? So she could do this, of course:
This was the exciting game of the morning: climbing up on the arm of the recliner, then doing a dramatic drop back to the seat. Over, and over, and over, with much giggling.
Hey, you might've done the same, if given an armchair of the appropriate scale. SteelyKid sure made it look like fun...
drorzel | March 31, 2011SteelyKid has extremely fine hair that doesn't grow very quickly. While this leads many people to mistake her for a boy (that, and the fact that a lot of her play clothes are from the boys' section at Target, because lots of girl-toddler outfits are ridiculously impractical), it does lend itself to spectacular bedhead:
She's actually admiring her own crazy hair in a mirror (out of frame to the right) in this shot. She liked it enough that she insisted on keeping it that way, so that her friends at day care could admire it.
And, of course, it wouldn't be Thursday without the traditional Appa-…
drorzel | March 24, 2011SteelyKid would like to remind everybody that sometimes you just need to kick back on the couch, eat some snacks, and watch tv:
In her case, that means watching the same episode of Good Eats over and over and over...
Other times, of course, you need to get out and feel the wind in your hair:
Even if you're just saying "BA BA BA BA" into an oscillating fan.
And that's as profound as we're capable of tonight.
drorzel | March 17, 2011SteelyKid is actually at Grandma and Grandpa's this week, having a ball, and freeing Kate from having to do solo toddler duty for the days that I'm traveling. As a result, you get some week-old pics (though if Grandma and Grandpa send us a picture from this week, I'll post it). Here we have an action shot of one of her current favorite games, which is riding on Kate's back like a backpack, while Kate runs around the house:
This is a big hit, but as you may well imagine, it's exhausting for everyone:
It's been a productive day here-- I wrote almost 4000 words on the book today, which mostly…