long island for a year

In this post I won't be writing anything about motherhood - which rhymes with Robin Hood, did you ever think about that? Here are the pictures from the Mother's Day Tea at Carlotta's pre-school: I did enjoy it. I do believe that my four year old understands what it's meant with the words "I love you, mommy!"...   I had to bring my favorite cup of tea Cookies, love of mine!   And enjoy the treats my daughter was getting for me It was hard to keep the tears from falling (tears of joy, damn cookies what are you doing to me?!).

As a Bnl employee's spouse I take part in some activities connected with the Lab, mainly a playgroup where my kids meet children their age and with a similar background. The playgroup has a designated meeting place but sometimes moms and kids would meet outside, or decide on some specific activity. Bottom line, because of the kids I get to go to places I would not dream of going to - or I wouldn't be allowed in. One of these is the CMEE, the Children's Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton, designed by Lee Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership . What an amazing place! On a beautifully arranged mix of interactive spaces  children can dress up as princesses or pirates, explore the interior of a submarine, fish, play in the ice-cream parlor, sit in the library, exercise or do crafts. Just to give you a sample of the choices offered . I forgot the fire fighter truck, a hit for Bastian When they say that TV substituted the fire place ...

Last Saturday we had the very unique chance to be invited to one of Carlotta's friends' birthday party. I say unique, because this was about the fanciest thing I have been in my entire life. One of the few. A little wedding party - and although I have been invited to some weddings either I didn't show up because I couldn't or I was too far (or both) or the kids were too small or whatever. I feel sorry for the couple that get into so many troubles to make everybody happy and ends up being exhausted and, in the best case, criticized (for whatever reason, don't ask ME). Back to the birthday party. The little one to be celebrated was a five year old girl and the invitation needed a RSVP: the setting was an Italian restaurant, about an hour away from here. There were a DJ, a magician - who did the fire alarm trick so good he sent us all outside in the cold weather until the fire-fighters declared that the place was safe "again". Who else was there apart from th...

In front of Lever House, in NYC I am an Hello Kitty fan, so what? There is one thing that warms up my heart in the last days: one of Bastian's new words (after poo and no) is: KITTY. Sometimes he would say KITTIKY, which is fun, but he really likes this cat too and steals his sister's stickers or books with Kitty and friends. How blame him?

So, today I was - in spite of the snow - driving to this place to get an ointment and a new tape for Bastian's lip, since the old one was coming off last night and I was told by some surgeon's secretary "not to touch, remove or apply anything, just come here and we'll do it". Driving half an hour isn't as terrible as it used to be some times ago and the snow had left almost no trace on the streets BUT going to the surgeon, filling some forms in the hope that someone is fixing the problem and then getting two small packages of ointment ("do you have this at home?" you think if I had this at home I would have come all the way to a facial treatment spa with two kids to make an ass of myself?Excuse me, but no.) was as ironical as it sounds. When I finally get to go to an hair salon, it will be enough beauty. Then, I took the kids for a stroll in Port Jeff and went to the burrito bar , because we wouldn't have time to cook and there were no left-over...

On Sunday we did make it to the City, managed to find a free parking spot not far from Moma and we enjoyed the Bauhaus exhibit...Carlotta was busy eating her candy necklace and she didn't complain much and Bastian was fine. Visiting museums with kids isn't always a piece of cake - and if you add to it that in winter you need half an hour to get dress, then undress and maybe go to the restroom just when you would like to see the last rooms or the last work of art then it all becomes more a stress than a pleasure. I am very glad though that Carlotta liked at least one of the works of Bauhaus: a stained glass composition of Albers, that is. Well, it was colorful and very pretty and not so strict like many of the other works of art. No, let's don't start a discussion about art, I am trying to think with the mind of a four year old girl. To turn this a bit, I'll tell you about the game she wanted to play yesterday afternoon: she said we were supposed to play "mom w...

Carlotta and Buster - that's the American name Bastian got! - are having fun together.

Of course there was another important meal, i.e. Bastian's pureed carrots yummi!!