Wilder Walking

Finally, in the last 2 weeks, Wilder is walking, and walking fast. Here is an early video from his walking progress, more to come.

Running home

hello! we are in Florida, in the sun (more of which later). But here is a video of the kids walking/running home from the supermarket last weekend

Sunday afternoon fun run

Emily left this morning to attend a meeting for one day in San Francisco (she is back on Tuesday afternoon, 24h on a plane and 24h in America). After she had left and Ilona had napped we headed to the school playground where there is a 100m running track. Bluet and I did a couple of running races (she definitely won the one where I was also carrying Ilona), whilst Ilona did lots of standing and some quite fast walking. There was also a Dad and his kid flying a small remote controlled biplane which entertained them both, as did a big patch of virgin snow which Bluet quickly filled with footprints (with a couple of handprints from Ilona, until she learned it was 'cold').

Bluet stops and poses for a photo (saying 'cheeeese', as you can see)

Snow with footprints, handprints and tyre tracks

Moving surprisingly fast

Ilona walking

I have been trying for ages to get a video of Ilona walking, as she is getting good at it - usually she also carries something in one or both hands at the same time. Unfortunately it is difficult to get a video as she likes to walk towards you to catch her at the end, which is incompatible with holding a camera. Also, she does not walk on cue. So using a new app on my phone I pieced together some short bits of video I did manage to take. Including a big section of Ilona blowing raspberries, but I hope after you watch it you will be convinced Ilona can walk.

Today's the day

That Ilona finally mastered walking. We knew it was coming - here is a photo of Ilona standing by herself from a couple of days ago, but today she did her first real walking, back and forth between us as we held out our arms. It made her very very happy. Even when she had only one shoe on and walked like a pirate

Garden Games

Some activities that use up Bluet and Ilona's energy

1. Standing up and walking

2. Crawling away. It's like running away but a little slower. Not much slower though.

3. Umbrella time (allows playing in the rain)

4. Watching "the little mermaid" (in German!)

5. Playing at 'the flowers' in the shopping centre

6. Playing in the autumn leaves & scooting

Nearly there

and now Ilona can nearly walk, which is great news for her. Here she is stumbling round the garden (with help).

More fun from Zurich

Here are some other places we have been. Zurichorn park can be reached by water taxi, and has a Henry Moore sculpture which Bluet likes very much.

As does Ilona.

Meanwhile, Ilona now pulls herself up to stand anywhere and everywhere - here she is at a playground down by the river, which is known as the bird playground (by us) because there is a big bird cage of tropical birds there. Today she was standing in the living room and lifted her hands for half a second, standing free. She also takes steps if we hold her hands. Walking cannot be far off. She can also crawl very fast, and is interested in learning to go up (but not necessarily down) stairs. This is not my favourite game.

And then at the end of a long day of standing and crawling, eating and napping, nothing makes Ilona happier than the bath, because she knows shortly after that she will be able to go to bed, which is her favourite time of day.

Central Park

So let's see. We were staying in our old hood, Yorkville, on 88th and 1st. Of course the first thing Bluet managed to do was get her fingers caught in the door of the lift. They were stuck for what seemed like several minutes, but was probably 10 seconds. We thought she was going to have to go to the Hospital, but we realised she was ok when she started asking for Hello Kitty plasters. And although 2 fingers swelled up, the next day they were not bothering her at all. Phew!

One of my favourite New York things is to walk many, many blocks to get somewhere. We started with breakfast at PQ, then as one of Bluet's favourite things is to run around, and another is to climb stuff, we took her to Central Park (unfortunately only one time, although she did go to the Ancient playground later in the week). Bluet was thrilled to have the long, winding paths to run down without us telling her she had to stay close to us. Then we walked all the way to the Lego shop in the Rockefeller Centre, and she made three Lego people. Then she fell asleep in Ilona's buggy (Ilona was in the carrier), allowing us a quick trip to Bloomingdales. Emily has good photos of the latter part of the trip.... In fact, Bluet was so happy in New York (as were we all - Ilona was definitely stimulated by all the things to see around, her little head would poke out the carrier, eyes wide open) that we were sad that she isn't living somewhere so walkable right now, but thrilled to be moving back to Europe where places like New York are the norm, albeit on a smaller scale.

Stay tuned for tomorrows exciting installment of 'What we did on our holidays'

Breakfast in PQ

To the park! Wrap up warm

All aboard the Alice in Wonderland Statue (Bluet was a little apprehensive of giant Alice)

Snug as a bug in a rug

Asleep in Bloomingdales, Lego bag held tightly in hand

Ilona wakes for coffee time

Conversation

On passing a person on a bicycle this morning on the way to school:

"Bluet ride a bycle too"

"Does Bluet ride fast?"

"No, Bluet ride slow"

Guided tour

Saturday, when the morning was still young and few others were out and about, Bluet and I found ourselves in the ancient playground. Alone, Bluet was able to run free, and go anywhere, as you can see in these videos. Afterwards, we went for Brunch with Michelle and Alan and Linnea and Astrid, and Bluet almost stole a teaspoon. Then, the Zoo, where they played in parallel.

Hotels

I don't know whether you have ever entertained a 1 year old in a hotel for a whole day by yourself. To be honest, I haven't either as it is only 15:13 and Bluet is on her afternoon nap. We are in Houston for 3 days - they (probably) say that you haven't lived until you've visited Houston. But we've done it now. Emily has a job interview at the MD Anderson Cancer Centre, which she is tending to right now. To make her time in Texas (where everything is bigger except the hotel rooms, apparently) more enjoyable, she wanted us to come too. So here we are. There is a limited amount one can do in a small hotel room, even if you are an inquisitive baby. So today we have already been swimming twice (which she really enjoys, especially when I disappear then reappear from under water), run around the lobby (Hotels have escalators, which are like stairs, but better because they are oh so dangerous; Bluet loves escalators; fortunately she found some Bluet safe stairs in the lobby which entertained her for a few minutes), had a nap (Bluet only, I am also trying to write a paper whilst she is out here during her naps, as you can see right now) and eaten a Chipotle burrito.

Asleep on the Plane

In Swimming Cossie

Being European, I thought it would be nice to go for a walk and see a bit of the city. There is a University nearby (Rice University), and the land around Universities is always nice and well appointed with entertaining facilites. The guide book that comes with the hotel room (they also have a Gideon's bible and a copy of the book of Mormon, which I intend to read before we leave) suggests that nearby there is "Rice Village", a popular destination for locals and visitors; that has got to be nice. They also suggest that you drive, but seeing as 1) It isn't very far (maybe 1 mile) and 2) I can't drive we walk. We get there. It is rubbish. We come back. If you lived in Houston it would be great as you could do your shopping, but why visitors from outside would go there is beyond me. Still, it was nice to go for a walk even if we were the only people on the pavement. Later I looked at the map and see that there might be a park in the opposite direction.


Tomorrow we are going to the Zoo.

Busy weekend

Well, that was a busy weekend. Friday we paid tribute to the beastie boys' Adam Yauch, and Bluet did her dancing thing videoed here:

Then Saturday we went to Central Park to celebrate Liisa's birthday. Bluet ran around in the grass, fell over a few times, ate cheese, and discovered the joy of dandelions. They are apparently hilarious.

Also here is a photo from last week

Visitation

Bluet's party in the park yesterday was a great success - no one was arrested, there was plenty of food and the cake was delicious. Bluet had a great time, despite missing out on her afternoon nap, and I even got to play football with Caroline, who appears to have learnt my name, which is very sweet.

Still, we're not quite caught up with the events of Friday and Saturday; after the park (see previous post) we walked down to grand central to meet Gran Helen and Uncle Nick. As you can't really go anywhere interesting from Grand Central these days, we instead went to the Oyster bar for lunch. After that, we went round MoMA, and took in some art. Della apparently liked the Pollocks, whilst Bluet was too tired, and had to head home.

Saturday, we met at the Jackson Hole diner for breakfast, then Emily, Bluet and I went off to run errands in preparation for the BIG DAY Sunday. Saturday night, it was adult party time (not that kind of adult party) to Celebrate Angela's birthday; mexican food at Cascabel, followed by a trip to an English bar (James Wood Foundry) and then American Trash. Let's hope everyone recovered from that in time for Bluet's Birthday Bash!

walking

Yesterday, around 18:00, the time when we both usually arrive home, the evening was particularly pleasant. Emily decided that she and Bluet would come and meet me on the way home - we met on our block (a nice surprise for me). Then Bluet walked halfway around the block (almost) by herself in her new green shoes.

Shoe Fiasco: notes from the weekend

Yesterday was St Patrick's day, the day when all Americans pretend to be Irish by wearing green and milling around New York, not drinking, just like real Irish people. Anyway, it was co-incidentally nice out, so we found ourselves in Central Park, where Bluet tried her best to jump in the boating lake, but was thwarted (see video). She also found herself some green sun glasses which were of some fascination for a while. But she became distracted long enough that we did not have to take them home.

Check out the blue sky, Bluet and people in green

Later we met up with Steve and Caroline.

Today, we headed out to buy Bluet some shoes and get some lunch. When I was little, I remembered the shoe buying process as quite laborious, as a fastidious shoe shop clerk would measure your feet with some crazy mechanical contraption, then find some well made but boring and uncomfortable leather shoes ideally designed for growing feet. This was not the case even in the Step Rite (equivalent of Start Rite), where unhelpful shop staff took forever to measure Bluet's feet, and the shoes that fitted her were only available in synthetic pink materials. This process took so long that even though Bluet enjoyed playing with the kids in the shoe shop for a while (it was very busy) she eventually got too hungry and/or we did, so we that we left without purchasing anything. Although I was thinking of making Bluet go barefoot to avoid undergoing this horrific process ever again, I realised that as we now know her shoe size (4 1/2, extra wide) we can order her shoes off Amazon from the comfort of our own home, and never ever go into a children's shoe shop again.

As long as her feet don't grow. So all in all a thoroughly successful shopping trip, aside from the failure to buy shoes, and the missing salad in Emily's lunch.