Bluet at the Ancient Playground

Behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art there is a playground made to look like ancient Egypt, or something. We go there with Bluet sometimes. She walks into places that are too low, and we have to crawl after her. I guess that is her idea of fun.

Talking update

So we are getting there with this learning to talk business. Bluet definitely quite often says 'thank you' at appropriate moments. She can also say 'baby', 'doggy', 'daddy' and 'mama', although we don't hear those do often as she mastered them a while ago and therefore they don't need practise. She can also say banana, particularly at breakfast time, and 'nose' one time - she even can identify both her and our noses about 50% of the times we ask, so it depends on whether she can be bothered or not. And often her pointing finger points too enthusiastically and ends up up ones nose. Also, if you ask her where her belly is, she lifts up her shirt and puts her finger in her belly button. A video of this will surely soon follow.

She also does this thing where she takes her toy plastic mobile phone (a v. generous Christmas gift from Angela's parent) and puts it to the back of her head, then runs around the apartment talking into it. I tried to record the sounds, but it is difficult as she gets distracted by my recording equipment*; this is the best I could do:





*iPhone

Bluet the predictive baby

Hey Bluet, do you think England will win Euro 2012?

You can stake your house on it! Bluet has never been wrong.

(The video is from last week when we were in Missouri, but since England are still in the competition, it is still v. useful).

Cow girl

After a marvelous trip we are back in the big city. The last two days we all got our first experience of cow farming on the Brunot farm owned by Emily's parents. Initially, things were looking bad as we couldn't find the cows. Fortunately rather than having been rustled, they were simply hiding under the trees for shade from the 37 degree heat. My first farming experience started poorly when I was stung on both ankles by a wasp whilst opening a gate. Bluet was not with us at that point, so when we introduced her to the cows yesterday morning, she was rapt, as you can see. She watched them for maybe 10 minutes, leaning out the car window. She practiced mooing. And then as we drove away, Bluet pointed out the window and told us all about the cows that had been in view previously. Unfortunately we don't understand Bluet language yet, but suffice to say she loved them.

She also really liked playing in the sand, gravel and water at Big Creek. Sadly no one had a camera, but she was happy there for at least 2 hours

Missouri summer break

This week we are in Missouri. On Friday we headed to Emily's sisters house; Bluet was delighted to be in a place with more than 2 rooms, stairs and a garden. We watched England beat Sweden in Euro 2012, and Bluet agreed that England were almost unwatchable until Walcott came on. Mind you, she slept through most of the game.

Bluet and her cousin Lila are almost big enough to play together. Unfortunalely at the moment both Bluet and Lila only want to play with a toy if the other one already has it. I feel that soon they will bond over their shared love of Elmo (although Bluet's favourite sesame street character is Murray). Bluet also became extremely excited by the cat, chasing her around the house.

Yesterday we went to the baseball; wisely we did not take Lila or Bluet, improving our ability to actually watch some baseball immeasurably. (Scott looked after Lila and Bluet at home, and Bluet kindly rewarded him with a 30 min nap rather than her usual 2-3 hours. I think she just wanted to watch more Euro 2012 action).

Taking our leave of Abatha and Scott's hospitality, this morning we drove to Emily's parents house. Bluet is asleep after a hard morning's chasing dogs and cats and playing in the paddling pool. The farmers are out farming. Emily is showering after a run. And I am watching Euro 2012 (come on Holland!)

Weekend

The weekend passed in a hot heat haze. Saturday, 1st Avenue was closed for a street fare. These things are usually pointless. Saturday's was a collection of stalls selling $10 'designer' sunglasses (the designer, in this case, being 'China'), clothes you cannot buy in shops, and food stalls selling corn on the cob (actually, this is delicious if overpriced), smoothies, kebabs, and some fried mozzarella and cornmeal monstrosity (who knows, maybe it is delicious), and a band playing Beatles songs, poorly. The good thing was the road was closed and Bluet could run free, and I could photograph her against the backdrop canyon of buildings lining 1st ave.

Later we went to central park. Whilst Emily ran around it, Bluet and I settled in for her first football lesson, ready for euro 2012 (come on England, as they say, although there are too many players from a mediocre Liverpool team in the squad for us to actuall win,but I digress). Even though Bluet was more interested in nearby dogs, and even though, being half American, she was unsure of which part of her anatomy should contact the football, eventually she got the hang of it as you can see.

Sunday we negotiated the Puerto Rican inconvenience day parade to get to Central Park, where Bluet amused herself by sticking one finger into the child friendly jets of water, and laughing as it slashed her face.

Sprinklers

When we returned to New York the weather was hot enough that the park people had turned on the sprinklers in John jay park, a nearby playground. These sprinklers are strictly for entertainment purposes only seeing as the mostly water concrete. Presumably they are needed or else new York kids would still be going around and "shooting the pump", which I believe is still street lingo for opening up a fire hydrant and dancing in the geyser that erupts from within. Sadly I have never seen this New York tradition in action so I guess these legitimate sprinklers not only keep Bluet entertained, but also help reduce crime.

Last Weekend

we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, filled with artistic treasures from around the world. Bluet particularly liked the stairs. We also hung out on the roof for a bit, where Bluet did her best Elton John impression