All of ONEderful

For months Calvin has been eyeing (and borrowing) other mini-strollers. Finally he has one to call his own. That's thanks to an extended Sunday stroll through my ex-ex-neighbourhood on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

State News, a toy shop on E86th Street that I remember as being uninspiring, is more on the other end of the spectrum. I suspect that las less to do with a merchandising change than it does a significant change of perspective on my part. Having unsuccessfully sought a minature pram that was not a lurid shade of pink, we happily happened upon this one. The result, I think, speak for themselves.

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Calvin loved hanging out with his aunt and cousins. He remembered his aunt from her recent visit where she helped us with our move-mentous relocation, and enjoyed swinging with her at the family reunion. But maximum fun was had playing with his cousins C & P. He and P spent two days yelling, "Allo!" at one another to mutual delight.

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Calvin personalified the tadpole stage addressed by the lyrics of this children's song. It continues,
"Hey polly wiggle and hey polly wog,
One of these days you'll be a frog,
You'll kick your legs and swim around,
With never a splash and never a sound.
(Make rhythmic croaking sounds)

He got to enjoy zooming about a large pool balanced in various athletic postures on dad. And with me, he got to try out proto-swimming moves akin to wiggle, wriggle and kick. Calvin became quite fascinated with the idea of blowing bubbles in the water and was quite cavalier about getting his face wet.

Undoubtedly, his favourite pool time was in the baby pool... But you'll have to wait for the next installment to hear more about that.

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For me it wouldn't be summer without some blue skies, braaivleis (BBQ) and daily immersion in a big body of water. Promises of all the above were kept and for an entire week, I got to swim to my heart's content, along with the big guy and the little guy, the latter sporting his new spring suit. (For reference, this 17-month-old is in a size 4T wetsuit! With some room to grow.)

More pool side and pool-immersed tales to come.

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There are worse reasons for inexplicable absences. But really, these past weeks have been chok-a-block with all moments (spare and otherwise), accounted for in a whirl of getting into a new strategic planning job, a pedestrian commute that's killing me (seriously, speak to my physical therapist about the litany of pains that start with rotated vertebrae and ribs and go all the way down to someting that sounded like 'decrepit' knees), and most importantly of all, a healthy dose of fun and family as my mom is here. We even have the family portrait to prove it! This one taken by my mom-in-law at a family reunion.

Keep tuned, more tales of recent high jinks to follow.

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You may have wondered why the blog stalled for weeks, but I can easily explain with a simple, three-lettered word: box. Or a four-lettered word (now, now): move. Happily, I can also report that all but about 10 of the former are out of our lives and that we have pretty much successfully achieved the latter.

Yes, we've moved. And it would not have been possible without sister-in-law R (seen above with an able-bodied assistant), whose optimism and sheer heavy lifting kept me sane and kept us on track with the seemingly endless packing and unpacking. *PROPS to R!* Thank you, thank you!

As will be revealed over time (and now that our wireless router has ensured we can get online again after 10 days of going cold turkey!), our lives are now filled with twice daily riverside strolls, waking up to the sound of birds tweeting, and being constantly amazed at the size of our living space. Example? Calvin can happily run laps in it, and we even managed to host an impromptu Aussie sleepover this weekend featuring two six-footers.

More later, for now it's time to head to bed without the Ninth Avenue symphont/cacophony of alarms, hooters and sirens. (Though there is much else to evoke Ninth Avenue nostalgia.)

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A few weeks ago Calvin and I took a trip out to the new apartment. We wanted to refresh our memories as to the size and possible layouts of the rooms, and to figure out our closet situation. It helped us identify that we're losing kitchen storage space, and hopefully the fact that we've now put formal glassware and linens into storage will alleviate this somewhat. (One day those fancy dinners will be back!)

Predictably, the little guy was fascinated by the tape measure. But surprisingly, he was a tremendous help! He immediately worked out what I was trying to do and had a steady grip in keeping the tape level and didn't bend it or let it go.

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Numbers of various kinds are running through my brain...
* 33 and some number of less than one additional inch = height of C at check up, which puts him in the the 99th percentile for height.
* 25lb 10oz = the little guy's weight at his 15 month check up. Although to pick him up you'd agree he must have the specific density of lead! Imagine if he were heavier than the 75th percentile for weight.
* 1 = Number of weekly massages required by me to ease shoulder, back and elbow tendonitis pain... from handling aforementioned plumbum parvulus
* 14 = number of boxes we've packed
* 126 = number of boxes to be packed
* 15 = number of days we have to get everything packed for our move
* 5.11miles = physical distance we will be moving
* 1,000 miles = psychological distance between move origin (happening Hell's Kitchen) and destination (rustic Roosevelt Island)

And now you'll have to excuse me, we've run out of newspaper so it's time to hunt down some packing material.

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One of the few pleasures of my parental life is watching TV on occasion. My limited roster of viewing pleasures includes Home and Garden TV, PBS and the odd episode of 'Law and Order.' It also includes catching any flavour of the CSI franchise.

If you're unfamiliar with the latter show, Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) is basically a high tech, who done it with funky production values. Calvin unwittingly constructed the type of scene that might start any CSI episode: Using some new, little minature people (part of a Playmobil set) he placed the man, woman and car upside down inside his toy aquarium. Is this what educators think of when they talk about 'imaginative play'!

What amazed him was the idea that objects other than the balls he is used to placing in the aquarium also activate the splishy sounds and Caribbean tunes. Evidence? The random assortment of objects that quickly joined the crash scene which included lids, a pig trough (did I mention this was a Playmobil farm set?) and a butterfly rattle.

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Over the course of a few weeks, with barely double-digit riding experience, our little guy has become a carousel connoisseur.

Admittedly connoisseur is an over statement, considering that he has ridden only one carousel, the one at Bryant Park. But he has sampled the various animals on the carousel from rabbit to frog, a cat to various horses. We think he likes the rabbit (touching those long ears as he rides) and the frog. Sometimes he is simply mesmerised by watching the gears at the top of the pole going round and round.

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Calvin only recently worked out what these odd, playground features were meant for. And I must admit that I was totally mystified the first few times I saw them. After observing a few older children taking wild spins on them, he decided he wanted to give it a try. With more moderation but no less fun, take a look at Calvin getting dizzy!

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The little guy loves to laugh, enjoys being tickled -- especially the anticipation of being tickled -- and at the moment, he thinks the word "Banana" is hysterical. Watch the video to witness some of the former.

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Sounds over the top? Despite the spin it's not too far fetched. Today Calvin got to join me in the office to be a part of the launch of a new 'Mother and Baby' facility aimed at helping new moms care for and breastfeed their infants.

At first he was convinced I'd lost my internal GPS. As we walked down the right side of the street and into the building where I work, he kept pointing vigorously to the left side of the street where his creche is located. But after a warm reception from loads of colleagues, he quite enjoyed the unusual morning.

He got to meet our Executive Director, and tested out a telephone while the various speeches were being made. (He contributed quite a few words in the process, but was pretty well behaved for an almost-fifteen-month-old!) Plus how can you not enjoy a little guy with a pinstripe chapeau?

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I'm not sure if Greek mythology is a universal educational rite of passage, but it certainly was for many people I know. So cast your mind back to the tale of the one-eyed monster, and you have a fairly good idea of my visual experience in the past 24 or so hours.

The reason for my unbalanced view on life? The inadvertent intersection of a bath brush being wielded by a certain approximately 32-inch tall mini-Amazon and my right eye last night. I raced off to my opthalmologist first thing this morning and was relieved to receive a report that while there were quite a few abrasion, there were only two scratches on my cornea which would heal fully within a few days.

So I played Snoopy's Joe Cool all day in the office: wearing a pair of sunglasses indoors for the day. (Apparently my shadier take on the office reminded colleagues of either Lucy Liu or Yoko Ono. I'm sticking with Snoopy!)

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...really does taste better! Especially for Mother's Day. What better way of being celebrated than a generous sleep in, a fabulous breakfast, followed later by a relaxed exploration of our local community garden? A maypole celebration was in full swing, the plants have erupted into a vibrant celebration of life, and Calvin managed to track down his favourite gardening implement -- the rake!

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Whether indoors (above) or outdoors (below), Calvin is an energetic little helper. We're unable to vaccuum without pint-sized supervision, and not even the city parks staff were exempt from his taking control of the mighty rake at our community garden on volunteer Spring Day. Calvin also has his own bath srubber and assists in the nightly ritual of ensuring the bath is cleaned after he splish-splashes in the bubbles. Now if we can figure out how to sustain this enthusiasm in helping with the chores for the next 17 or so years...

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This weekend was a goodie. Saturday dawned brilliantly bright and Calvin and Jay romped around Bryant Park in the morning. It didn't take too long for the little guy to spot the carousel and make his way over, hanging on to the fencing and staring longingly at the ride. Jay called me and said, "Come on over, he can't get on without you!" I zoomed over to join them and we had a family ride with Calvin on a frog. Of course he had to go again, this time on a charming cat.

Sunday was diner day, so we enjoyed waffles and pancakes, with Calvin opting for healthier fare in the form of one-and-a-half bananas. And another thing we got to enjoy as a family -- although this photo shows just one of us -- are the fabulous South African rusks my mom mailed us two months ago. They arrived in tact and are being devoured -- in a double fisted fashion by some.

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If you're someone who grew up on, or is familiar with, the works of children's illustrated book author, Richard Scarry, then you probably remember the cute (but now we are adults we realize quite trying) character, Babykins. Fortunately Calvin today emulated only one Babykins characteristic.

In the book, Richard Scarry's Busy Busy World, we have the tale of a day in the life of Babykins. (Upon cursory review, Scarry's world is a gender stereotyped patriarchal one! But I digress.) The final installment in Babykins' busy day is to go to sleep clutching his newfound favourite thing -- a monkey wrench. (In case it bears mentioning, Babykins is a boy.)

Today Calvin became enamoured with a toy dog at his creche, taking it to bed for naptime and apparently trying to say "Woof, woof." And this evening he only relinquished his hold on his new blue plastic strainer (meant for use in the sandpit but oh so much fun in the bath too!) when he was almost asleep. Seeing Calvin's arms wrapped around the strainer transported me to my childhood delight at the quirky end of Babykins' day, an illustration of him clutching his wrench.

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This past weekend Jay had a wonderful plan -- meet up with friends in Brooklyn for brunch, and then head to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens to see the cherry blossoms. Though not yet fully in bloom, the blossoms were a cascade of boughs and blooms and we managed to capture a wriggling giggler for this family snap.

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Yesterday's warm weather also gave Calvin a chance to try out his new shoes! This was his first time wearing a pair of sandals. I wondered if the different between having toes open to the elements would throw him off compared to his experience with Robeez, Skechers and Eccos thus far. But he zoomed along per usual.

That gives me cause for optimism, as I believe I have about a three-day symptom lag behind Calvin. He looks cute even with a runny nose; I on the other hand, do not. Add to that the fact that my throat is sore *and* that I have completely lost my voice... well, I look forward to soon being restored to better health, just as the little person who kindly shared his germs has been.

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We have been enjoying a grand weekend as Calvin's Pop and wife, Carol, are in town. The cherry on the top has been some unexpectedly good weather. Over a delicious supper at Bar Blanc last night, we had been musing on toddler-appropriate activities for today. Saturday was forecast as being rainy, so our thoughts included the Manhattan Children's Museum and the Museum of Natural History -- great options, but ones always over-run on weekends and even moreso on wet ones.

Fortunately we got to have a day of the great outdoors:
* Breakfast at our local diner.
* A stop at our community garden. It was Spring volunteers day so we stayed long enough for Calvin to charm some of the hard-working volunteers with his raking skills and for him to show everyone his favourite spot in the garden -- the pebble patch. (Seen below.)
* Exploring Central Park. It took us an extended time to make it from the Columbus Circle gate to the new Hecksher Playground, where Calvin finally got the attraction of the giant sandpit. He also had a super swinging session. Then it was time for some al fresco lunch and more exploring of drains and muddy pools of water, and then time for us to take him home to nap.
* Post nap, Calvin and I got to make some new friends in the playground across the street, where he is sharpening his jungle gym skills. We bumped into our new babysitter Ilva there, and a few hours later she enabled us all to have some adult time together over dinner in our neighbourood at Whym.

All-in-all a delightful weekend... and it's only Saturday night!

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I just changed the selection of Calvin photos in my office, and this one is my current favourite. He grabbed a neck scarf I had just removed and dragged it around the house. We had fun tickling his nose with it, and then he made off with it and pretended to run away from me around the kitchen. How could I resist snapping the photo? When I reviewed it it reminded me of a pint-sized rocker, missing only his entourage and shades.

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There must come a day in every young 'un's life when this particular type of milestone comes to pass. Yes, folks, yesterday our little Calvin's cute, strong, ever-so-adorably pudgy hands proved to be too irrisistable to one of his friends. And yes, you guessed it, they bit him.

It's a wierd phone call to receive. "Your son's been bitten... by a friend." Growing up were I did the words "child" and "bitten" would normally be succeeded by something ranging between "spider," "dog" and "snake" and sometimes "crocodile." Not "friend."

So of course, I simply had to smile.

At home time Calvin wasn't in his creche room. I spotted him walking down the hall next to one of his teachers wearing a fetching Hawaiian shirt (thanks to Grammy who brought it back all the way from Hawaii!) . The procedure is for a bitee to be checked out by the centre management, which had just been completed. Upon spotting me, raced into my arms. The masticated digit was produced for examination. Frankly, I couldn't see a thing.

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Calvin has been a real sport about not doing the things we'd hoped we could this weekend, like going to the zoo. Instead he's had a great time going to our community park, chasing his mini soccer ball up and down the corridor and reading. This weekend both Jay and I got to enjoy extended periods of Calvin going through books on his shelves, selecting one, bringing it over for us to read to him and settling on our laps to listen and help turn the pages. I think we both have read a few dozen books in this fashion this weekend.

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Calvin is starting to talk, a little at a time. Of course he has been babbling to us for ages and it's just we who don't get it. But in addition to "mama" and "dada", may we present "nanana" (banana to the uninitiated), "da-da!" (water) and the latest item to the vocabulary, "cracker." As least it seems like he won't starve as he's learning words for food and drink!

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Blocks. I thought that this would be a simple toy purchase for my son. After all, I've always known that a set of those plain, non-toxic, unpainted wooden block sets would be in Calvin's future. Only now do I realize that it's not such a simple choice. There are numerous different sources -- from Plan to Brio -- and to add to it, the fact that I've just realized he will need two different sets of blocks.

Funny how those detaisl don't stick. I remember a much loved set of wooden blokcs, and also a much played with set of Legos. But only on browsing up a storm did I recall that these were two, distinct block entities. One wooden, the other plastic. One that creates structures 'glued' by physics; the other by ingenious little indents and outdents that fit together.

A visit to the Lego site made me sad to see that the product seems to have sold its soul to franchising, from Pooh and Disney versions to various products related to TV programmes. It was a hard search to find a simple set of locks for someone aged 13 months.

Searching elswhere turned up an embarrassment of options. So do we get the Mega Blocks wagon which he loved at the doctor's office? The Modo Maxi Blocks that he likes at his creche? Are these things he can grow with or will we end up buying a third set of blocks in a few years time?

And that's not even contemplating the comment one parent reviewer made on the BabyCenter.com site, "Where do we put it?"

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You know who gets to grips with the first two letters of his name.

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We had Calvin's one year appointment today. It went well, with him getting the thumbs up on all fronts from his doctor. FYI, he weighs 25lbs, is 31 inches high and has a head circumference of 47cms. He also endured his two immunizations very well. Of course he cried, but was soon over the experience and had fun with the stickers he received.

Ironically, we were telling his doctor that he does lots of gestures but doesn't seem interested in waving goodbye. This evening when we were saying goodbye to his teachers and creche mates, what do you suppose he suddenly decided to do? Yup, wave.

Our little guy is also adding another tooth to the eight already out. This time it's a molar, so is a little painful, but he is handling it well.

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Savour the celebrations in pictures (if not banana cake!) of our little guy's first birthday. You can see the slideshow of the get togethers at home and at creche by clicking here.

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What more can one say when these photos say it all? What a difference 12 months can make! At the same time, you can clearly see it's the same bright-eyed little person. Happy Birthday Calvin!

This year's activities will be grouped into a new category called 'ONEderful.' (The Stowaway Diaries will remain linked form the top navigation.) In the coming weeks I plan to create a nice logo to go on the right, but as always, watch this space for the latest and greatest on our little... say it... toddler! From first haircuts to reportage on today's party at Calvin's creche and more. But for now, it's back to icing cake number two! (Hint: it's a ball.)

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