Pictures
drorzel | June 2, 2011I didn't post anything to acknowledge Memorial Day this past Monday, because Union doesn't take the day off, so it was just another Monday around here, albeit with fewer stores and restaurants open than usual. SteelyKid was at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend, though, and celebrated by going to the annual parade. Which was enough of a hit that she was still marching around on Tuesday when she came home:
Where was she marching to, you ask?/p>
Why, to the pond, to throw leaves in:
What's that got to do with Memorial Day? Nothing. But it's fun, so there you go.
(No Appa picture today…
drorzel | May 26, 2011Kate is off at Wiscon (or at least en route-- her flights are all screwed up), and SteelyKid is off at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend. Which means I don't have an Appa picture this week, but in honor of the pagan origins of the name of the day, here's a picture of SteelyKid enacting a scene from the movie Thor:
Well, OK, she's just gesturing dramatically with a fruit twist on the steps of the Nott Memorial. But it sort of looks like she might be declaiming some of the ludicrous dialogue of the Asgard sequences... Maybe?
I dunno. That's all I've got, really: she's out of town, I went…
drorzel | May 20, 2011This was a hellishly busy week, and today was especially bad. I barely had time to read non-work-related email, let alone write anything for the blog. And now that I have time, I'm too fried to write anything.
So here's a bonus cute-toddler photo, with an ego-blogging element:
That's SteelyKid sitting in my desk chair, watching the National Geographic video clip from the other day. She's pointing at the screen to say "That's you walking Emmy!" Which she does every time we play it, and it doesn't get old.
I don't think she really gets the physics yet, but there's plenty of time for that...
drorzel | May 19, 2011Earlier tonight, I was sitting at my computer, and SteelyKid came running over. "Let's go to Israel. Pretend Israel." she said in a conspiratorial whisper.
"Why are you whispering?" I asked. "Do we have to whisper in pretend Israel?"
"Yes," she replied immediately. "Because there are bears."
The origin of this odd conversation was today's "trip" to "Israel" at the JCC day care. The pre-schoolers all got out in the hall, sat down, and pretended to ride an airplane to Israel. Once there, SteelyKid's class made like good American tourists, and went shopping. She excels at shopping.
This was a…
drorzel | May 12, 2011Tonight's Toddler Blogging features SteelyKid taking a picture of me taking a picture of her, while Appa does the forced perspective thing again:
The "camera" in this case is the salt shaker that came with her kitchen playset. Which is a versatile object, serving also as a drinking cup:
The beverage in question was "fish juice," squeezed from the green plastic fish you can just make out in her hand. She made us all drink some, despite the fact that it was, as she put it, "little tiny yucky."
I'm a little amazed we got these, because at dinner a little while earlier, she slipped off a chair…
drorzel | May 5, 2011That title isn't a euphemism-- SteelyKid decided to use this week's Toddler Blogging to try to teach an old Appa a new trick. First you go up up up on your head:
Then you flip down:
Ta-daa!!
drorzel | April 28, 2011Kate and I have spent a lot of this week being thwarted by technology in one way or another, so SteelyKid decided to set us straight about how things work. First, she demonstrated how to work the tv:
Then she showed us how to take pictures on her phone (because, of course, all phones take pictures):
And, finally, she explained to Kate how to view the pictures she had taken on the phone:
We'd be embarrassed at having to be taught how to use common devices by a two-and-three-quarters-year-old, but we're so relieved to have Internet connectivity back in Chateau Steelypips that we can't think…
drorzel | April 21, 2011I'm sitting on the couch reading when Emmy trots in looking excited.
"Hey, dude, I've got a great idea!" she says cheerily. "You know how your puppy is away for the week?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I think this is the perfect opportunity to class up your blog a little. I mean, you always post pictures of her on Thursdays, but she's not here to take a picture of, so..."
"So... What?"
"Well, you should post some pictures of me, silly!"
"Yeah," she says. "Just like that. I'm an excellent dog!"
"Yes, you're the best. The Queen of Niskayuna." She flops over, and I rub her belly. She's quiet for a minute,…
drorzel | April 14, 2011SteelyKid has been sick this week, which made it a perfect time for me to fly down to Maryland for a couple of days. Fortunately, she and Kate have both forgiven me. I did break out the new friend I purchased for SteelyKid a couple of weeks ago, and have been holding in reserve:
The fuzzy blue fellow is a plush Eeyore, who was a big hit. We read the story from The House at Pooh Corner where Pooh and Piglet build Eeyore a house at bedtime tonight, and when Eeyore made his first appearance, she had the stuffed Eeyore kiss his picture in the book.
"They haven't got Brains, any of them, just…
drorzel | April 7, 2011A shot from this morning, before SteelyKid had gotten dressed:
Why is she balanced precariously on the arm of that chair, you ask? So she could do this, of course:
This was the exciting game of the morning: climbing up on the arm of the recliner, then doing a dramatic drop back to the seat. Over, and over, and over, with much giggling.
Hey, you might've done the same, if given an armchair of the appropriate scale. SteelyKid sure made it look like fun...
drorzel | March 31, 2011SteelyKid has extremely fine hair that doesn't grow very quickly. While this leads many people to mistake her for a boy (that, and the fact that a lot of her play clothes are from the boys' section at Target, because lots of girl-toddler outfits are ridiculously impractical), it does lend itself to spectacular bedhead:
She's actually admiring her own crazy hair in a mirror (out of frame to the right) in this shot. She liked it enough that she insisted on keeping it that way, so that her friends at day care could admire it.
And, of course, it wouldn't be Thursday without the traditional Appa-…
drorzel | March 24, 2011SteelyKid would like to remind everybody that sometimes you just need to kick back on the couch, eat some snacks, and watch tv:
In her case, that means watching the same episode of Good Eats over and over and over...
Other times, of course, you need to get out and feel the wind in your hair:
Even if you're just saying "BA BA BA BA" into an oscillating fan.
And that's as profound as we're capable of tonight.
drorzel | March 17, 2011SteelyKid is actually at Grandma and Grandpa's this week, having a ball, and freeing Kate from having to do solo toddler duty for the days that I'm traveling. As a result, you get some week-old pics (though if Grandma and Grandpa send us a picture from this week, I'll post it). Here we have an action shot of one of her current favorite games, which is riding on Kate's back like a backpack, while Kate runs around the house:
This is a big hit, but as you may well imagine, it's exhausting for everyone:
It's been a productive day here-- I wrote almost 4000 words on the book today, which mostly…
drorzel | March 10, 2011"I do not, for one, believe that the problem was that the band was down. I believe the problem may have been that there was a sky bison on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a toddler.
"Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the animal."
(A tiny bit of context. And no, we're not going to play "Stonehenge" tomorrow.)
drorzel | March 3, 2011When I told her it was Thursday, and thus time for a picture with Appa, SteelyKid sprang into action with a very definite idea of what she wanted. As a result, there's a lot going on in this week's Toddler Blogging photos:
This is my favorite, which was an intermediate step on the way to her final vision. To unpack it a little for you, though, we have:
First and foremost, we have a big collection of stuffed toys being carefully arranged. This is all SteelyKid-- when I said I wanted a picture with Appa, she said "No, all my friends!" Then she started arranging them.
You can also see a remnant…
drorzel | February 25, 2011We're having our umpteenth winter storm here, which means everybody has to work at clearning snow away. And I do mean everybody:
OK, I did most of the work of clearing a path to the door, but SteelyKid insisted on helping sweep some snow up with her little broom afterwards. The color's a little wonky because it was getting dark, and this was taken with my cell phone. Had I had time to go in and get the good camera, it would've been a million times cuter, but you get the general idea.
Between making a snowman, clearing the door of her house, making snow angels, stage-falling into the snow…
drorzel | February 17, 2011Look, sir, look, sir, Mr. Knox sir!
Let's do tricks with bricks and blocks, sir!
-- Dr. Seuss
Sadly, the only trick SteelyKid has really mastered with bricks and blocks is piling them into a gigantic obstacle in the middle of the floor. Well, that, and building tall narrow towers then knocking them down. And, I suppose, you don't need much more that that when you're two and a half...
drorzel | February 10, 2011Appa appears in all the weekly Toddler Blogging pictures, but he's not the only stuffed animal in Chateau Steelypips. the others were getting a little resentful of Appa's blog time, so here's the full cast of characters:
In the back row, from left to right, we have: SteelyKid, Baby, Audrey, Appa, Dolly, Lorax, and Mommy. In the front row: a green bird whose name I don't know, a reindeer left over from Christmas, Dijon the knit giraffe, Bertha the Big Bear, and Emmy.
SteelyKid was sent home from day care with a fever today, which has kind of thrown a wrench into everything, and made her…
drorzel | February 3, 2011Given that the snow banks on the sides of the driveway are taller than SteelyKid, it might not seem like time for golf. If she's going to reach her goal of being the first toddler to win an event on the PGA Tour, though, she can't afford to take time off from practicing:
Swing coach Appa says "You might consider holding the club with both hands..."
From that range, though, she could hardly miss. Which gets us to the most important part of the game:
Jumping up and down after making a shot is the best part of golf.
drorzel | January 27, 2011Since we had a Mommy-for-scale picture last week, I thought it was high time we had another Daddy-for-scale picture. So, here's SteelyKid before going off to day care this morning:
(Photo credit: Kate)
She's been more than 0.5 Kate in height for a good long while, but now she's coming up on half a me. She's a great big growing toddler, all right.