Do we have a teenager on our hands?

The newly arrived 2's are not terrible yet, but Bridget seems at times like a teenager.. other day we are driving home and she tells Megan and I, "no looking", we then asked her about a series of people and whether or not they could look at her and she said no to all of them... big pause, then she mentioned her amigos Aidan and Ronan, twin boys her age, they merit special treatment... wherever we go in public, Bridget says "hi guys, ladies" to whomever she meets, fascinating to watch her, so curious and outgoing, we will have our hands full for years to come...

Great Weekend!

Just finishing a great weekend. We had Monday off for the MLK holiday and a snow day today (third of the year so far)... Saturday, we did our typical Gym and Swim class at the Y. Bridget had fun at the gym part, running around, anxious for circle time right away, she is getting more comfortable climbing, jumping, etc. Circle time mesmerized her with Dawney Dew's songs and animals and she loved getting a ride on the parachute and running under it... Meg took her swimming where she did really well, doing some actual swimming and jumping in, helped by the fact that a grandfather was encouraging her...while Megan worked out, we headed out for our usual walk to the library. We looked in on the firehouse for our typical view. This time however, we saw a fireman washing his car inside the station - Bridget was fascinated with the hose and got invited inside. The guy was very nice and let Bridget sit inside one engine, turned on the lights, gave her a firehat, then watched as another engine backed in..she likes all things firefighting so much, I think she was overwhelmed... that afternoon, with no nap happening, I took her to Stepping Stones children's museum in Norwalk, assuming she would fall asleep en route (she did). The museum has some nice features, though it is crazy busy with tikes. The highlight was the water area where she put on a smock and played with some beakers and containers, pouring them out, she couldn't get enough, had to drag her out...the next day we hit the aquarium in Norwalk as well... nice facility, lots to see, we got there as they opened which was a smart move. Bridget loved the seals swimming just in front of her, seeing lots of turtles, sharks didn't impress her as much....

What a Birthday

Today, I celebrated my birthday and it was a good one. Last night, we went to my favorite barbeque place, Q. It is a good place to take Bridget. It is a large open room where you can watch the cooking being done, with occasional flames shooting up, good times.... this morning Bridget got up at her customary crack of dawn, literally, 5 a.m...Megan made her fantastic pancakes from scratch, funny moment when Bridget realized she had sticky fingers, kept saying "sticky" and cracked herself up for five full minute belly laugh, saying "sticky"... she is so cute and cuddly... I took her to the park as per usual on the weekend, she cheers when we arrive and loves to see other kids, there is so much there, slides, swings, tunnel, sandpit, etc., I feel like a bodyguard foll lowing her around, making sure she doesn't jump off anything too high, she took a gentle header at the end of one slide ride... we had lunch and took a great nap, Bridget sleeping nearly two hours, yeah!!!... we met grandma and poppy at a local Irish restaurant, they gave me the recent Colonel Roosevelt book and a nice card, my dad giving me the highest compliment of being a "gentleman and scholar". Bridget ate up her veggies and some steak and took in all the stimuli (only downside having lots of TVs on, tuned to football). She loved looking at all the people. The best part was live Irish music provided by two musicians who were terrific. Bridget got up and was mesmerized by them, then she started dancing and was joined by two other "big girls", perhaps 4 and 6 years old. It was adorable to watch her dance along to the music of her people, she is so social, we'll have our hands full years from now. She called me over and my heart melted as it always does with her... she even sang me her happy birthday song before falling asleep... it doesn't get any better. I am very blessed with Megan and Bridget.

Wedding Wonder

This past weekend we went up to Hull, Massachusetts to attend our good friend Cecilia's wedding. We timed it perfectly heading up Friday afternoon during nap time and Bridget slept most of the way there. We took her to the rehearsal dinner Friday night for a little while. She was taking it all in, people got a kick out of her. Then we went back to the hotel and put her to bed, Meg returned to the party and I konked out on the bed...as is our custom, we got up at 5 a.m, why not get an early jump on the day and played, went out for a walk, out to breakfast (arriving before the place even opened) and explored the hotel... Bridget saw some of the ceremony, but I had to take her out when she started asking questions (what is this?)... I went to the first two hours of the reception and Meg watched her (we were originally going to leave her with our friends' two young boys and their sitter, but it turned out that he got really sick)...I took Bridget out to dinner to Starz, a diner type place meg and I used to go to on occasion in Hingham. They have good food, lots of people, very reasonable, great place for her. She ate really well, not always a given in a restaurant. We then went for a walk in the dark on the boardwalk along the water, asking questions all along the way. ..there must have been a big game because we saw a schoolbus filled with cheering kids, along with a fire truck and police car with sirens flashing, other cars honking... Bridget is still asking about this schoolbus and firetruck.. it is fascinating to watch her try to make sense of the world, by finding patterns.... meg took up after me.. Bridget slept pretty well and we went to Starz, and World's End, a gorgeous park on the water in Hingham. Bridget was adorable in her full blue coat and pink bunny hat, got lots of comments... she didn't sleep on the way home, but didn't make a fuss, what a trooper.

Spanish culture, where do I sign up?

The difference in culture in Spain was striking. As an American, I am so used to our isolation, go to work, go home, eat, etc. It takes real effort to get together with family and friends and some of the time, I don't summon the will to do it. It is easy for us to remain isolated, not knowing our neighbors, etc. Vilanova, where we stayed in Spain, was different. The city all but shut down from 12 or 1 until 4:30 or so, practically tumbleweeds going down the streets. With a hot summer day, this is understandable. I don't know if the schedule persists throughout the year. It seems the whole town comes out after 5 p.m. to stroll the ramblas and sit and eat/drink. I mean everyone from babies to young people to the elderly. Even if you didn't make plans, you would likely run into people. The drinking was casual. What was nice, was that you could get beer, wine, soda, tea, etc. all at the same place. We met a lot of people because of Bridget. We knew that she was a happy, outgoing kid, but Spain made it obvious. Bridget went up to people constantly with her adorable "hola" and the public nature of Spanish life suited her so well. When we went to playgrounds, invariably there would be a host of other kids, which she loved. She thrived in this atmosphere. It is depressing here in that nearly every playground is deserted and kids only get together in scheduled play dates. I miss the culture in Spain, would love to live there or similar country at some point, and look forward to returning.

What have we gotten ourselves into?

Our first few days in Spain led to some anxiety. Not knowing what to do or our way around the city, we wondered aloud if we had arranged for too long a stay... what were we going to do? The apartment was fine, clean, basic, two bedroom place in a downtown neighborhood. We thought about coming back earlier. I wondered if we had been seduced by the price and time off we had. But as meg said, "what would be do back in White Plains anyway (we also learned later that there was a prolonged heat wave back home). It took some time to find our way around, not helped by imprecise answers to our questions and a lack of information on the part of the tourism and other officials. However, once we got into the swing of things, we really liked the city. It took nearly a week to track down the elusive mystery tourist train - a kind of tram that went throughout the city and had a stop behind our building and also went to the beaches. There was also a nice municipal pool down the block and a friendly neighborhood restaurant with good food down the street, plus many playgrounds with lots of kids playing. By the end of the month, we didn't want to leave, the sign of a good trip.

How's that flight?

We arranged our reservations for Spain in the fall for a June 30th flight and the closer we got to that date, the more nervous I was to travel with a toddler. We talked about how to distract her and sought the advice of anyone who had flown with a little one. For months, I kept my eyes open for toys or electronic devices that would do the trick. I bought and later returned a portable DVD player and we also got an iPod touch. I feared a nuclear meltdown on the flight, tracked aboard for hours with hundreds of angry passengers. It made for a long day, getting a ride to the airport from Grandpa, going through security - as tedious as it is as an adult, it is awful with a little one. The flight itself went fairly well, she slept, but not for too long. We spent the rest of the flight pulling various toys and snacks out of a bag and praying for surrounding passengers to play along with her. The trip was all the longer with a stop in Madrid (where they had a terrific children's play area) before going on to Barcelona. All in all, Bridget got through it with flying colors making friends along the way, a relief for us.