Halloween Poll

Thank you everyone for your great suggestions for my Halloween costume. I've picked the four ideas that I liked best and put together a poll. I thought that since you were all so helpful with the suggestions that it was only right to let you help me decide too. Here are the top 4 choices:

1) Underdog

2) Mighty Mouse


















3) Gnome




















4) Charlie Brown

















All you have to do is go to the poll on the left and submit your answers. You'll have a week to respond and the winner will be revealed on Halloween!

Saba Hugs

Shriner's Hospital for Children

Another doctor's visit? Why is it that I always seem to be going to the doctor? This doctor, then that doctor, then this specialist. Geez. That's a lot of medical visits for a boy who is just 18 months old! So here's the story, when we were visiting Auntie Blenda, Uncle Lane and Owen in Wisconsin over the summer, we took this picture and it shows my shoulder looking a little bizarre. Can you see how my shoulder blade (scapula) is jutting out? Weird, right? Mommy and Daddy sent the picture of Yee-Ma (she is an orthopedist specializing in hand and upper extremities after all) and she shared it with some colleagues.

Yesterday, I had an appointment with Dr. Scott Kozin at Shriner's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. Why Philadelphia you ask? Well, Dr. Kozin is a friend of Yee-Ma's and he's one of the best pediatric orthopedists in the area. He saw the picture of my shoulder and wanted to have a look for himself.

Luckily, there's nothing wrong with my shoulder. It appears that my shoulders are going through some sort of growth transition. The range of motion of both my shoulder joint and scapula is much greater than what the "normal" range of motion is for older kids and adults. Slowly but surely, my shoulder will also settle into this normal range. All in all, I had fun during my visit to Shriners!

What Should I Be for Halloween?

I'm having a hard time deciding what I want to be for Halloween this year. If you remember, last year, I was a piece of sushi. This year, I have no ideas! So, loyal blog readers, I'm asking for your help and your suggestions. Please submit your Halloween costume ideas to me via the comment section of this post. Thanks in advance for your help!

Happy Birthday Wujek Chris!

An afternoon in the park with Dziadek

Today I spent the afternoon in my favorite park - Brooklyn's Prospect Park - with Dziadek and Daddy. I got to do lots of fun things, like watch the swans in the lake...

Dip my toes in the water...

Learn to whistle like the park's wild birds...

Wrestle down a big skunk...

Have Dziadek carry me around...

And sit on the park's new abstract sculpture...

What a fun afternoon!

Dawidowicz Weekend

Things were not looking very good for this weekend - I was just getting over the fact that Daddy was gone all week for work, and then I found out that Mommy would be away over the weekend, visiting her good friend, Aunt Erin in Ithaca... I was sad, very, very sad...

But then, just in time to cheer me up (and feed me my dinner - the most important part of my day!) Dziadek, Babcia and Ciocia Olga came to visit!


And they let me eat all the watermelon I wanted - I *love* sweet, cold, juicy watermelon... don't even think about taking it away from me...


With Daddy included, that meant the whole Dawidowicz family was here to keep me company!

I had lots of fun playing with Babcia and Ciocia Olga -


And Dziadek taught me how to play the flute he brought me as a gift from his recent trip to Israel. Everyone was very excited when I learned how to blow and make it play.


In the end, while I'm still very sad that Mommy is not here this weekend, I'm happy to have the company of the Dawidowicz clan to keep me in good spirits until her return.

Quack Quack

Where's Daddy?

When I woke up this morning, Mommy came to greet me and bring me my cup of milk. That's odd, I thought. Usually Daddy is the one to come get me up and I am the one who has to go wake Mommy up. Since I was still just waking up, I thought that I must be imagining things.

But then I rubbed my eyes and it was still Mommy standing in front of me. Where's Daddy? I know that I didn't see Daddy last night when I came home from daycare but I just figured that he was hard at work.

Mommy realized that I looked a little confused so she explained to me again that Daddy had to go on a business trip and will be home in a couple of days. What?! I'm not happy. I miss my Daddy!

Bye Bye Ah-Boo

Today Ah-Boo had to leave to go home to California. I was very sad to say goodbye because I have had a lot of fun playing with her and being silly. She has cooked some very yummy food for me to eat too (and manages to get me to eat rice which I never do). So, before she left, we took some time to relax in the lounge chair. Bye bye Ah-Boo! I'll see you in a couple of weeks in California!

P.S. I had my 18-month check up at the doctor's today. Here are my vital stats (in case you're wondering...)

Height: 33 inches (68%)
Weight: 27 pounds (64%)
Head circumference: 50 cm (95%!!!!)

Breakfast at Mia and Claudine's

Today we were invited to breakfast at Mia and Claudine's house - they live in the same condo as us, so they're neighbors, and they are the daughters of Jenna and Mark, who you may remember from an earlier post in May, "Fun Brooklyn Sunday."

Jenna and Mark are the ones who recently started their own baked goodies business, Whimsy and Spice, and they make some of the yummiest treats ever so Mommy and Daddy were very excited to visit for breakfast. And in fact, there were some delicious treats to be had, including Mark's scrumptious blueberry scones.

But the best part was the bacon - and I got to try some for the first time ever! Not only was it delicious, but I didn't have an allergic reaction, so looks like pork is safe for me - yippee! Once I knew that, I was able to really dig into my food and enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast - here I am with Mia and Beatrice, who also came to breakfast:

After breakfast there was plenty of time to play with new toys - though since I was at breakfast with three girls, too much of the playtime involved dolls...



Oh well, I guess I can deal with some dolls if it means eating bacon for the first time... you win some, you lose some...

Thanks for the great breakfast Jenna, Mark, Mia and Claudine!

Turkey & Cheese and New Kicks

Today was my second full day at daycare and I'm getting used to this whole thing. This morning, I only cried for a little bit (while I only cried for a short period of time, it was the intense sort of crying) when Daddy dropped me off (even while I took off my shoes and brought Myriam my lunch bag). I have so much fun with Myriam and all my new friends that I'm starving by the time I get home. Tonight, Daddy made me a turkey melt sandwich.

It was DELICIOUS! I even squealed and then immediately showed my pleasure by rubbing my belly. Yummy yummy in my tummy!

Is there any more? I want more!! P.S. This is my sign language for "More."

Then it was on to dessert, my favorite - watermelon! I am my mother's child.

After dinner, Mommy and Daddy gave me a present - new kicks. Aren't they cool? I've always wanted Vans. Just what every California kid needs. But wait, I live in Brooklyn. I guess Mommy is rubbing off on me.

18 Months Old!

I'm 18 months old today. Can you believe it? When I think back at all that I've accomplished in the past year and a half, it makes my head spin! To start off my half birthday, Mommy decided that I needed a haircut because my hair was falling into my eyes. I think that next time, I have to go back to Lulu's for my haircut. Mommy can't seem to cut straight. Now I totally look like a typical Asian kid with a bowl cut!

In the afternoon, we took a trip to Tribeca and Battery Park City. It's a beautiful part of the City and I haven't had a chance to explore it too much yet. There's lots of parks with grass to run around on and playgrounds to play in.

The best part is that all the playgrounds really were big sand pits. You can only imagine how happy Mommy was to discover this after she dressed me up in nice clothes.

This girl had BUBBLES. I looooove bubbles. I try to catch them on my tongue sometimes. I had to edge out some of the other boys who were trying to steal my bubbles.

We also took a walk in Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City to see Tom Otterness' The Real World. If you remember back to last year, Tom Otterness is one of my favorite sculptors and we visited his studio. This part of the park is filled with Otterness's trademark bronze cartoon characters engaged in elaborate vignettes that represent the struggles of real life and of power and control among the various social classes. While that might be a lot for me to understand (while I may seem advanced to some of you, I am only 18 months old), the sculptures were a lot of fun to touch and play around on.

I too am trying to climb my way up to the top. While I may not know where this staircase will lead me, I know that I have only just begun my journey.

Surprise visit from Babcia

What a great surprise - Babcia came to visit me today, and she brought back all our outdoor plants that we were storing at her house for watering while we were away on vacation (yes, it took us a while to get them back...)

I loved playing in the temporary indoor garden before Daddy put all the plants on our balconies, where they belong...



And then I spent the afternoon playing with Babcia - but why is Daddy always pointing that darn camera at my face?!

Jasper the Friendly Ghost

Lately, this has been my favorite activity when I'm bored or when Mommy (or, in this case Yee-Ma) needs a good laugh.

First Day

Ah, the day after Labor Day. Guess that means that summer is officially over. Today was the first day of school for the public schools in New York. There was a buzz in the air all around Park Slope this morning as parents readied their kids for class, snapping pictures all along the way, and all the kids were giddy with excitement. I too was excited this morning. Mommy, Daddy, Yee-Ma and I all left the house for an adventure and I was ready with my backpack.

We walked through the neighborhood but instead of walking up towards the park, we kept walking straight. Hmmm, are we taking a new route to the playground? Or maybe we're going to a new sandbox? After a couple of minutes, we arrived at Myriams's and I knew something was fishy. After Momy and Daddy exchanged a few words with Myriam, they all left!! What's going on??? Little did I know, today was my first day of daycare.

After a few... OK about 20 minutes of crying, I was OK and started having fun playing with the other kids and all the new toys. We took a fun trip to the playground and then before I knew it, it was 11:30am and Daddy was there to pick me up! I was having so much fun that I didn't even notice the time pass. When I got home, I ran right past Mommy to greet all my toys. Myriam said that I passed with flying colors and that I should be ready to spend the whole day with her tomorrow. I can't wait to play with all my new friends!