Temperatures finally went up to ‘balmy’ lower 30’s and we got some new snow. Just enough to play around with – the sidewalks are still very manageable stroller terrain. After building snowmen all over the neighborhood, it was time for a snow cat when we got back to our building.
Mika had her first sleepover at (slumber party veteran) Olivia’s house. The girls had a blast: 3 kinds of lip gloss, ice cream for dessert, bathtime, bedtime stories and chit chat until about 10:30 p.m. … no wonder they greeted the daylight a bit reluctantly this morning. Thanks again Wendy and John for hosting, and for the photos.
I’ve been meaning to catch a little video of Tobin saying yelling bye-bye to Mika and Sung on weekday mornings, but the weekend version is even cuter. Unfortunately, Sung had to go to the office today but as you can see, he got sent off in style!
The day lived up (er, down) to it’s chilly forecast. Still, we made it out of the house twice: in the morning to Mika’s pre-registration at PS29 (followed by Choo Choo Train dropoff), and in the afternoon to stroll with Bruno back to the subway station (followed by Choo Choo Train pickup). Almost 3 hours of crisp winter air total. Apart from my face, i didn’t feel cold thanks to pushing all the kids, bags, and stroller. Tobin and Mika were dressed appropriately as well, and their faces lathered with ‘extreme weather’ face balm. Thank you Sabine and Bruno for making it out to a BK play date on this day!
The sunshine at afternoon pickup glossed over the fact that we had near record-breaking low temperatures today. Still, the kids enjoyed playing in the snow until the sun set, the wind started picking up … and suddenly the cold air nipped our fingers and noses. Hard. Mika and i envied Tobin’s warm ride home (snowpants, furry hat, and being tucked into a warm foot muff). Tomorrow morning we’re supposedly going to hit 9°F (-13°C), with a windchill of -4°F (-20°C). Frosty greetings to Sung, who is sweating it up in sunny L.A. at 85°F (29°C)!
Tobin came along today to welcome the littlest member of the baby boy club, Harold. He’s perfect … except he didn’t want to share blueberries yet. Congratulations, Cynthia and Phil!
What’s better than having two kids you love? Seeing them show each other some love!
Mika and Tobin play quite well together already. Going for a stroll with the wooden doll cart is the favorite activity of the moment, followed by bouncing on (our) bed, having pretend picnics, and … drawing pictures. Below is their first joint work from a few weeks ago: Mika drew ‘Santa’s car‘ (red on red), ‘driving over water‘. Note that ‘the presents on the roof have Korean writing on them’. Tobin scribbled with black and a few other colors from the other side, and Mika quickly colored ‘the fish he drew falling from the sky’ green. Turbulent story. Hope Santa didn’t get hurt.
Now that walking is all the rage, Tobin decided to throw us a bone: he interrupted his usual i-am-just-standing-here-and-holding-my-balance routine with repeated rounds of actual … walking! 10 deliberate steps do count as ‘walking’, no? Mika was so excited that she put on the song ‘Runaround Kid’ to fit the occasion (see below).
Yet another exaggeration of the local weather news: we were supposed to get 5-10 inches of snow today – not an outright blizzard, but a big snow storm. The kind that would wreak havoc on flight schedules (and because of which Sung extended his stay in LA into tomorrow). Well, it didn’t snow all day until close to sundown, and then it accumulated to less than 1 inch. However, Mika had been talking about making snow angels since 6:30 a.m. when she busted into the bedroom, so i bundled both kids up for “dinner and a snow walk”. She had so much fun, skipping and hopping all the way…
First play date with Bruno in the New Year! Maybe it was the matching sweaters, but the day went in full harmony: the boys played quarrel-free, ‘unsupervised’ for the longest time (almost an hour?), then fell asleep in the stroller in perfect synch, and woke up to enjoy their lunch together at Whole Foods. Bruno was so eager to start his meal that he tried to eat with his fork still in the plastic wrapper.
Today was the only chance for prospective parents of PS 29 to tour the school. Since we had Mika’s pediatrician appointment set around lunchtime in Manhattan, i decided to do the impossible: keep Mika out of school for the whole day and bring both kids along in the morning (with friendly permission of the parent coordinator). There were a few other baby siblings in the audience, but no other prospective student. Mika did a great job staying quiet trough the ‘boring’ part (the introductory speeches) – Tobin was kept in check by an endless supply of strawberries, Cheerios, and … stickers. The actual tour was very interesting for Mika as well, as she could catch glimpses of kids in grades Pre-K through 5 while classes were in session.
Tobin played phone tag with Omi and Opa today: he left two messages for them in the morning, “hi” and “hiii” (with lots of inaudible smiles and waves, of course). They called back when we were out to pick up Mika from school and missed us. I played him the message they left in return, which he is listening to in the movie above.