Library Card

I got a library card and started taking out books right away. It's awesome. I got this book called Daddy Mountain about climbing my daddy's body, one part of him at a time, and pulling myself up to his head. There's a whole world to explore through the books at the public library.

I told Emma as long as I don't have to pay any overdue fines she could keep her card.

Annie and Ira

I have a lot of funny visiting grand-ma Annie (silly!) and grand-pa Ira (silly!) Annie plays Tubby the Tuba, all the way from the 40's and Ira steals all my gold fish. Bo is funny too.

It's great to bring Emma to see my mom and dad and to see how much fun she has.
Annie took this photo of Emma on a walk around the snow covered block.

My Toes

It's wierd. My dad keeps pushing my to play tennis and now my mom has me in a pink leotard. What will the future hold? What next?

Emma has a lot on her mind. We're just trying to keep her busy. Like those centrifuge machines, where you're spinning to fast you don't even have to hold on to the walls.

Life in the Big City

I can relate to Oscar the Grouch. He lives in a garbage can and decided to embrace his environ-ment and therefore loves garbage. New York, my parents tell me, is much cleaner than it used to be, but it definitely is not San Diego. I am comfortable in garbage and could see myself spending a few night in the Duane Reade.

Maybe I've been spending too much time with Emma at, as she likes to call it, the Duane Reade.

Trains

I enjoy building train tracks. I tried building a subway but my mom and dad said subways are underground and we live on the third floor, so at best I would build a train tunneling through our grumpy neighbors underneaths apartment.

Shopping in Ikea, I was perplexed. Should I buy a toy traditionally thought of as something for boys, trains, for Emma. Or, are there no longer boy toys slash girl toys. Right now it's a unisex world for toddlers, so I'm leaving all doors open and all trunks unlocked. (Do those metaphors perplex you as much as they do me?)

Children's Museum

Why do they call it a museum? It's an awesome place with green hippos, Dora the Explora and TVs that sing. I was at an adult museum, where they had bones of old animals and stuffed beasts and giants minerals and dusty coffins. A children's museum should have really old children's shoes, prehistoric cribs, the first McClaren ever made. We could see the first mommy giving birth, the first stork. Museum curators, board of directors, let's name museums for what they are and the Children's Museum on 83rd Street is simply the Chill/Bug-out Museum.

It's true. Emma has a fair point.
Maybe the word Museum is a word whose time has past.
Maybe next time we'll see what's happening at MOMA.

Potty Time

I had to go and I went. Watch out world.

It was as if the sea parted and all the parents and grand parents through history walked through the great sea walls. It was a mighty miracle as my wife and I saw Emma plop herself on the potty. I'd like to say we convinced, cojolled or begged her to go to the next developmental stage, but really, it was Elmo's Potty time DVD. Emma decided if the potty was good enough for Elmo, it was good enough for her.