A busy Memorial Day Weekend

We had a busy and bright Memorial Day weekend, the three of us.

Saturday was spent running a few errands at Costco and even a Babies R Us. (We need an "Air Bjorn" now that the weather has turned warmer. Our old workhorse of a Bjorn is too warm. But it will be fine once autumn rolls around, assuming we can still carry her by then.) We started off our day, however, with a trip to the Broken Yolk, as we always do on Saturdays, and we discovered an odd flower on the bike path on our early-morning walk.

While we were at Babies R Us, we spotted Caesar and brought him home. May's favorite toy right now is Freddie (who is either a firefly, dragonfly, butterfly, or grasshopper, depending upon to whom you speak). Aunt Nikki, who gave Freddie to May, let us know that Freddie's got some close relatives so we picked up Caesar to keep Freddie company.

Saturday was also Grammy Grace's birthday, so we called her in South Carolina, where she's visiting for her class reunion.

Then Sunday, which is Christopher and Amanda's wedding anniversary. We all piled into the car and drove up to the Haraseeket Launch and Lobster, in South Freeport, Maine, for lunch. It was a bit of a drive for lunch but May sleeps well in the car and we really wanted to get a lobster roll in before the summer season. (Despite the touristy tendency of people to assume that lobster is a summer food, I hold firm to the fact that lobster taste best in cooler months. Thanks to the warm April, it was very nearly too late as it was.) It was very hot and very bright, so May wore her flappy hat and super-cool sunglasses the whole time.

We also hit L.L. Bean where we used up a thoughtful gift-certificate from Mr. & Mrs. Hoberman (the elders) on a very cool hat and t-shirt.

Today has been mostly errand running -- dishes and groceries and whatnot. We had lunch at Redbones and are going to have dinner with Mr. & Mrs. Hoberman (the youngers). Tomorrow, Christopher has the day off, so it's laundry and a picnic in the park.

(Note to Grammy Grace -- the photo of May in the sun without her hat was taken in the five foot walk from a shaded interior to another shaded interior.)

Death to the pink

Here's a little fact.

If I take May out and she's not wearing pink, everyone assumes she's a boy. "Oh, he's so cute," the butch lesbian will say. "Oh, look at the blue-eyed boy," says the Harvard professor of women's studies. I'm in Cambridge, the center of East Coast liberality for two hundred years.

The metaphor here is so obvious that it's painful. Girls can only be one thing (pink) and boys can be everything else in the world.

Sometimes, even if I've got her in pink, she gets mistaken for a boy. This afternoon at Costco, she was wearing a pair of faded denim capris with butterflies and flowers on them. (Aunt Nikki, who is far more stylish than I am, got them for her.) And a pink top. And yet a woman looked at her and said, "Oh, what a handsome boy!" When her daughter corrected her, she said, "It's so hard to tell when they wear jeans."

So now she not only has to wear pink, she has to wear a dress?

As the mother of a daughter, I feel like I'm waging a guerilla battle against the legions of Pink Princesses. Anything "for girls" is necessarily pink. Usually with the legend "Princess-in-training" emblazoned across it.

What up with that? Princesses don't need training. You get born a princess or you marry a guy and become a princess but it's a temporary state, a waiting state. Princesses are queens in training.

(Christopher feels the need to point out that in a principality, like Monaco, you remain a princess. But I smack him and we continue with my rant without paying any attention to that.)

What's more, the Princess Meme is so insidious that it's taking over a lot of the other "traditional" girl memes. Fairies are now always fairy princesses. Ballerinas are princess ballerinas. Ponies, ponies for the love of little green apples, are princess ponies!

That's all you can find in the girls' section. I spent twenty minutes this morning in Babies R Us looking for any top that was blue and (so as not to add to her impending gender identity) flowery. May has blue eyes and looks best in blue. I found, in the whole of that giant mega store, exactly one flowered blue top.

I blame Disney. Is there a female lead who isn't a princess to start or becomes one by the end of the movie? Yes. Three. Lilo, yes, from Lilo and Stitch. And Mulan from Mulan. Jane from Tarzan. Though Tarzan is the Lord of Greystoke and he's the king of the apes, so.... (We don't remember if the Beast is a prince or just a lord in Beauty and the Beast. But if he's a lord, as he is in the fairy tale, he's close enough to a prince that I don't count her.)

But when do you see Lilo or Mulan at Disney stores? Never.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Thanks to a suggestion from David Hoberman, you can now comment on my blog without having to be registered! Please, comment.

About town with friends

Today was a very out-and-about day for us. May wasn't in the mood to sleep at home, so I strapped her on and went for a walk to see if I couldn't lull her to sleep. We were headed for Harvard and a chocolate stop at Cardullos. (Grandma Pat has developed a chocolate habit but she's eating Hersheys. I can't save everyone, but I can save a member of my own family. I got four Scharffen Berger bars as a sampler to determine her cocoa-level preference, 62 percent to 82 percent.)

Just as we reached Porter Sq., however, we bumped into our friend Mary. She was also headed to Harvard, so we had a nice chance to chat during our walk. Mary just got a job at Lincoln Labs, which means we won't be able to have lunch anymore, so it was nice to get a last day-time visit.

Then, after a pit stop for diaper changes and feeding, we headed to 'Bucks for a visit with Jenna. She's finished classes and we talked about her impending academic conventions, what books we've been reading, and sketched out a plan for a game board night in the future.

Then home again and we had lamb and rice for dinner.

The hic-cup rag

Saucers, pot, and tea cups.
Bunny, kittens, three pups.
Baby's got the hic-cups
And they won't stop!

Honey, milk, and tea cakes.
May has treats that she bakes.
Something, something, some-akes.
Let's invite pop!

Any suggestions for the "something, something" section?

A beautiful day in May's neighborhood

Christopher and I thought it would be interesting to record a typical Saturday in the life of May. So here goes.

5:00 a.m. May wakes up her mommy and the two of us go out into the living room to watch "Numbers" and let Daddy get some more sleep. I eat my "first breakfast."

7:00 a.m.We wake up Daddy because we're having breakfast with David and Jen at 8 o'clock. Daddy isn't much thrilled with this because he was up late.

7:30 a.m. The three of us hit the bike path. May spends most of her weeks strapped to my chest, so she spends the weekends strapped to her father's chest. Wouldn't want mom to get all the cardio benefits of parenthood, now, would we? Because it's bright, we grab for our Sox cap, only now realizing that May doens't have one. Must buy soon.


7:35 But first, we hit Davis Sq. Starbucks. Two iced grande chai lattes, with three pumps, light ice, and organic milk, please. $7.77. The baristas all know us there. Here's one of our favorites.


7:55 a.m. We usually go to the Broken Yolk for breakfast on weekends, but figured it wasn't fair to make the Hobermans walk that far.

8:00 a.m. to ... about 11ish We have breakfast with Auntie Jen and Uncle David. We hear all about their trip to Scotland and Ireland and they hear all about our lives while they were gone. (I find out that apparently you need to register to comment on Blogger and contemplate moving the blog to LiveJournal.)



Breakfast was at the Danish Pastry Shop on the far side of Tufts. Everyone was happy with ham and cheese croissants, blueberry muffins, and cinnamon swirls.



After breakfast we went for a walk around David and Jen's neighborhood, mostly until May fell asleep, and then headed home.

Noonish While May took a nap, I went and got sandwiches at Sessa's. This was followed by a nice quiet siesta.





2:30 or 3:00 Since we still have various gift-cards from Borders left over from Christmas, we decide to go get some more books for May at the local Borders. We all grabbed the T and rode into downtown Boston. Being a born Bostonian, Mayhew demostrated the importance of having a good handhold while riding the train.We bought May a handful of Dr. Seuss books, plus two of my favorites for older readers: Little House in the Big Woods and The Cricket in Times Square.

The Borders downtown is near the Old City Hall, so we made a pit stop to ensure May got a little history lesson.

We might have walked around for a while, but since it was commencment weekend for most of the city's colleges, the Freedom Trail was packed with lost tourists -- how they get lost when the line is painted right on the sidewalk is byond me, but they were all lost -- we hopped back on the Red Line at Park and headed home.

Early evening After light dinner, we all went out for a walk again to enjoy the lovely evening. We stopped to admire the graffiti on the construction wall at Tufts. As the higher-education-capital of the world, Boston and its 'burbs can boast a higher quality of graffiti than most places.



About 7ish Since May had had a big day out in the big (dirty) city, we made sure she had a thorough bath before going to bed.

Six-foot two, with eyes of blue...

My Uncle Jimmy is something like 6'8". My father and brother are well over six feet. Even my Grandmother -- Annie Laurie -- was tall. Okay, I'm average -- 5'6" -- and my mom's a little shorter, but we clearly carry tall genes.

Christopher, of course, is 6'5". He's got an Aunt Diane in Hawaii who's over 6 foot. Clearly he's got the tall genes, too.

So it shouldn't be a big ole shock to me when my daughter is tall. She was born into and remains firmly in the 95th percentile for baby girls. But. But! She's outgrown a whole slew of onesies in the past week or so. Onesies intended for 6-9 month babies. Okay, the 3-6 month pants still fit her becuase it looks like a lot of her height is going to be in her torso (like her mom, poor thing. Makes buying jeans a bear). But the fact of the matter is, she's going to be very tall if she keeps this up.

Happily, thanks to the generosity of my friends and family, we still don't need to buy her any onesies. She's got literally dozens left that do fit. However, I am going to have to go out and buy lightweight night clothes for her. She's outgrown all the sleep sacks we have, never mind that they are heavy winter-weight things. Maybe I'll just put her in t-shirts and legwarmers.

Indulging in her Scottish Heritage

David and Jennifer got back from their honeymoon trip to Ireland and Scotland on Saturday. And, as all good travelers do, they returned with gifties! Among them, this excellent t-shirt for May with a "heilan' coo" -- highland cow -- on.

(Sorry it's such a dark picture -- she spat up all over it right after I took this snap.)

Those who aren't well versed in niche livestock may not get the joke, so here's a picture of a real highland cow -- aka "a herry coo". These very hairy cows dot the highlands of Scotland and the Scots are inordinately proud of them.

David and Jen also brought back a brilliantly red fleece top with a puffin on, and a book called, hang on, I have to look this up... "Da Peesterleeties."

Now we're about to head out to pick up some chocolate so that we can make a birthday cake for Nikki.

Sun, at last!

I woke up this morning and thought, "Look, blue clouds. How strange." Took me a minute to realize that the sun was out. I blame my lack of sleep.

Aunt Thelma apparently came out of surgery well. She doesn't have telephone service in her room so I haven't talked to her, though.

There's an interesting article on NPR this morning about teaching Mandarin in schools -- Christopher and I are determined to make sure that May speaks Chinese. Combined with a fascinating article in Wired a few months ago about the same subject, it paints an interesting picture of the educational landscape that May is going to have to deal with.

(Why, I can hear some of you asking, do we want May to speak and read Mandarin? Well, Christopher and Steve -- both of whom know more aobut history and war than any two geeks should -- have managed to convince me that the Middle Eastern thing is just a Red Herring and the next big conflict is going to involve China and India. It's not an original thought, frankly. Great minds from Joss Whedon to Kim Stanley Robinson to Steve Jackson to Herman Mast have all thought that. Probably some more academic minds have, too, but I know more about books and sci-fi movies than I do about academia.)

Mother's Day

Seth, May, and Grammy Grace play on the ottoman.

I had a lovely Mother's Day -- my first one. Christopher, May, and I went to Full Moon in Huron Village for breakfast. It's a great little restaurant -- a family restaurant for adults and kids instead of just for kids. I had buttermilk pancakes with whipped cream and then a piece of apple crisp. Christopher had poached eggs with "polenta" -- Cantabrigian for cheese grits -- and some random cocktail -- the name of which I don't recall -- made of part cranberry juice, part OJ, part lime, and little bit of soda. He had maple bread pudding for dessert.

Mom, Dad, and Seth came up and we had pie from Petsi's for lunch. We had a roast veggie quiche, a spinach-ricotta tart, and a chicken pot pie as well as apple and key lime for dessert. Also, Seth's girlfriend, Sarah, who couldn't come because she was with her own mom, sent up a fabulous strawberry-rhubarb pie that made Christopher in particular very happy. He has a passion for rhubarb.

Mom and Dad got me a lovely silver locket for a picture of May and Seth got me a big box of my favorite pears. (That may seem strange to some people but I really really love these pears.)

But the highlight of the day was the present that Christopher (and May, I guess) got me. A truly lovely string of pearls.

Blue Monday

Cheryl Mendelssohn says that Mondays were called "blue" because they were traditionally laundry day. Well, today was laundry day for all of us but that's not why it was blue.

It started out gray rather than blue. The whole Boston region is experiencing massive flooding and the rain doesn't look like it's stopping any time soon. Christopher had the day off and we trudged to the Broken Yolk in the pouring rain. (May, of course, didn't care -- she was safely tucked into her daddy's jacket, as you can see by the photo.)

Then we found out that Poly -- Nikki's cat -- died. Which sucks beyond telling.

Then we found out that Aunt Thelma fell and broke her other hip last night -- as opposed to the one she broke right before Noel's wedding -- and that she's in surgery to get it replaced. (Which means she's going to be hell on metal detectors for the rest of her life.) We're all thinking of her up here in Boston and hope she come out of surgery well.

I'll post about my fabulous Mother's Day tomorrow, when it's a less blue day.

Here's a picture for you all

Toes and tongues

May has discovered her toes! Okay, only the toes on the left-hand side, but she grabs them and yanks when she's getting changed. She can pass a toy from right to left but not left to right yet, and if she grabs something, it's usually with her left hand first. We think she's going to be a lefty -- both her grandmothers are, so Christopher and I are carriers of the gene.

Her current favorite toy is "Freddie the Firefly" which Christopher and I call the grasshopper. (Nikki included it in May's Easter basket. Or, May's Easter bag I should say.)

What's more, she's discovered a new noise. It's essentially a matter of her working her voice up through the her entire vocal range until she reaches a nigh ultra-sonic pitch -- very like a fire alarm or dog whistle -- and she makes this noise until she runs out of air. Her whole body gets into the action and her little feet and fists vibrate with intensity as she squeals loud enough that Danny hears her over the sound of his motorcycle.

New favorite ridiculous thing

Punkin Pockets has baby legwarmers. Must have them.

May's four-month check up

May went to the doc for her four-month well-baby check up on Monday. She's healthy as a horse and the doc was impressed with her size. Officially, she's 15 lbs. and 7 ounces and 25.5 inches, though I think she's really closer to 26 inches. She got four shots and screamed through each one.

Skip and Betty -- very generously -- drove all the way up from Connecticut to baby sit while Christopher and I went to Sandrine's for our seven and eight year anniversary. (We met on May 1, 1998 and got engaged on May 1, 1999.) Then, moments before we were going to leave, May started screaming, even when I tried to nurse her, which was singular. For a few minutes it looked like every sit-com was about to come true as the new parents try to go out for dinner and then can't because something's wrong with the baby. Happily, Betty's calm head and experieince prevailed, she figured out that May's thigh was simply sore from the shots (and I was holding onto that sore spot when I nursed her).