Happy Birthday Mummy!

In a year of first (as in - my first year), it's my first "Mommy's Birthday." Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Or, as Jasper and I wrote in the card we made - Happy Birthday MUMMY!

(Coca helped us with the card, and that's what you call Mommies in St. Lucia :-)

Jasper and I were so excited to wake up first thing in the morning so we could show Mommy the gift we made for her - we filled a digital frame with tons and tons of pictures of the three of us.

Mommy loved it, and it kept me and Jasper busy in the morning while Mommy got ready for work (Daddy was in Boston for work, so couldn't help take care of us like he usually does in the mornings.)

Unfortunately, since Mommy had to work and Daddy was away, we couldn't celebrate Mommy's birthday as a family (we'll have plenty of time to do that starting tomorrow, when we take a five-day family trip to Milwaukee), but fortunately, we had company to keep us entertained all day - Turneka!

You see, Turneka is Coca's daughter, and she comes over with her Mummy sometimes to help babysit us. Those are some of our favorite days! Turneka is lots of fun to play with, since she's young enough to remember what it's like to be a little kid...

...But old enough to know lots of big kid stuff that she shares with us - and it looks like she was sharing some big kid secrets with Jasper (here at a picnic that Coca took us to this afternoon with all of Jasper's daycare friends...)

As much as we loved hanging out with Turneka today, we still can't wait to spend our mini-vacation with Mommy!

Stayin' cool

It has been a HOT few days in New York, so we did our best to keep cool without staying in our air conditioned house all weekend, which is what we were really tempted to do...

And there's just one way to stay cool outdoors in NYC - water! First, at Coney Island...

Where, in addition to frolicking in the water, I enjoyed building - and then destroying - sand castles over and over and over again...

And then in the sprinklers at a nearby playground (no, not Pier 6, "the best playground ever" - I think I'm over it. Yes, already.)

I sure hope it's going to be at least a little cooler in Milwaukee next weekend!

Take your kids to work day

Well, maybe today wasn't the "official" take your kids to work day, and I actually have no idea when that might be, we decided to make it the "Take the Yu-Dawidowicz Kids to Work Day."

We got Daddy's workplace out of the way first thing in the morning when Jasper and I walked into Mommy and Daddy's bedroom and glanced at his tiny desk wedged into the corner of the room (we still have no idea how Daddy manages to make a living sitting at that little desk in his bedroom - often in pajamas - all day...)

But the real excitement came in the afternoon when Daddy took us to visit Mommy's office at City Harvest in Manhattan!

While Mommy's office might not look all that exciting in the picture, it was great to see the place where Mommy goes to spend all that time every day, and that she tells us about when she comes home for dinner in the evenings.

Jasper, of course, got right to work on the computer as soon as we got there...

And seemed to get lots of satisfaction out of getting an afternoon's worth of productivity in.

I, on the other hand, definitely don't take to the office environment, and can't even imagine sitting still for a full eight hour day. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even sit still for the twenty minutes we were there, apparently much to Mommy's delight...

What kind of a job can I get when I grow up that doesn't require working in an office?

Father's Day Weekend Part II

While Everett seemed more than satisfied playing in his baby pool all weekend...

...the kiddie pools at Babcia and Dziadek's house only increased my thirst for more water. And so, more water was what I got - much, much more water...

As in a lake full of water. Oswego Lake, to be exact. You see, Oswego Lake is located in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and is less than an hour's drive from Babcia and Dziadek's house. Daddy told me all about how he used to come here swimming when he was a little boy, but since he had not been back in over twenty-five years, we decided that Father's Day weekend would be the perfect time for Daddy (and Dziadek) to get a chance to visit the lake again, and for me to be introduced to it - and, apparently, the joys of kayaking, for the first time.

And who do you think that is in the kayak in the distance in the picture above? Yep, you guessed it!

Yours truly! It turns out that kayaking really is a lot of fun. So much fun, in fact, that I first had Dziadek take me out for a spin, then Daddy for another spin, and then finally Ciocia Olga, who joined us with Uncle Chris for part of the day for one final spin around the lake.

Of course, as is always the case, being out on the open water put me in the pensive mood for a while....

But only for a little while, since I soon discovered that the best part of the lake was just what Daddy remembered from when he was little (and when Dziadek didn't yet own a canoe) - swimming! The lake water was just right - not too cold, not too deep, and very clean. And of course I had Dziadek there, who I can always convince to play with me for hours on end...

The real fun, though, started when I discovered that the "life jacket" Daddy said I had to wear in the canoe would actually let me float and swim on the lake on my own.

I had so much fun, as you can see, that I'll definitely be going back to the lake again the first chance I get.

But next time I definitely have to bring Everett along, though I'm not sure where we're going to find a life jacket to fit his current physique...

Father's Day Weekend Part I

Happy Father's Day to all the Daddys out there! Happy Father's Day to my Daddy, Dziadek, Coufou (fou-fou) and K-Yeh!! I hope that you all had as much fun this weekend as Jasper and I did with Daddy and Dziadek. After lunch on Friday, Daddy packed us up in the car. We went to pick up Mommy from work (since she took a half day) and then we were off to Dziadek's house in New Jersey. It was a hot day so as soon as we arrived, Jasper and I made a beeline for the pool. Jasper jumped right in, with a little help from Dziadek.

I eased my way into the big pool. This was only my second or third time swimming you know. Daddy brought out the little boat for me so that I could leisurely float around the pool.

Hmmm, its a little hard to stay balanced in this thing.

Whoooa. But that water looks kind of refreshing. I just want to take one little sip.

But Jasper didn't think that it was such a great idea. He had a couple of things to teach me about swimming.

After a while, I started to a little overwhelmed by all the splashing and waves in the big pool. Time to move to the baby pool. Except that I couldn't quite get out of my little dinghy...I was stuck!!

Help!! Good things Jasper is around. He helped free my legs

Much better in the baby pool!

Yay! This is fun!

What, I'm not supposed to crawl in the pool? Why not? I'm just trying to get the mini basketball.

After the pool, it was back to the house to hang out with Saba. Hello Saba. You want to know what we did the rest of the weekend? You will just have to wait and see.