Scenes from a birthday

Actual birthday boy not pictured. It was a low-key but lovely celebration, and halfway through it we realized it was Oliver's first birthday spent in New York. We were in Germany last year, trapped in Peru the year before, and camping in Canada the year before that. This year's simple gifts, dinner at Fornino, handmade card and homemade cheesecake were technically no match for meeting a brand-new baby (last year), dipping our feet in Lima's Pacific (two years ago), and canoeing to an island campsite (three years ago)... but it felt every bit as fun. Hm. Wonder what it is that made a relatively mundane birthday so good...

The best part of our apartment

 

Our apartment is quirky. We love it, but it probably isn't everyone's cup of tea. The ceilings are low (cheaper to heat! Cozy and treehouse-like!). It's at the very top of our 5-story walkup (the stairs keep us so fit!). Etc. etc. Who cares about these things - it has a skylight.

 A skylight! A peek at the sky from our living room! An extra breeze blowing in when open windows don't cut it. More light pouring into our already-sunny home. Sometimes when it rains I lay on the floor beneath the skylight and watch the rain drops hit. You can hear them pattering; it's like being in a cabin or a tent. It always reminds me of that magical Saturday I sat on the floor in the young adult section of my local library. I was trying to figure out which Encyclopedia Brown books I hadn't read yet when it started to rain. I was right beneath the skylight and the noise was deafening. Mesmerizing too. It made you glad to be inside, but also tempted you to run outside and get soaking wet.

  

Other good things in our apartment:

 The "big blue thing" we purchased in the neighborhood a couple months ago. A million drawers hide a million pencils, knitting needles, rolls of tape, cords, etc. I hugged it the day we brought it home. No joke.

The lovely way our dining stuff came together. Quick and easy re-upholstering of chairs, quick and easy sewing of table runner... I'm loving it.

A bookshelf that also creates a little hallway in front of the bathroom (can you see the door behind there?) and hides a bunch of important but unsightly stuff (love you, baskets!)

The best part of the park

  

One of the best things about living where we live is the park. Prospect Park, Brooklyn's answer to Central Park. There's a bit of rivalry even, with Brooklynites turning their noses up at that bigger, more famous Manhattan cousin. Sniff. That was just Olmstead's first attempt. Our park was his masterpiece.

We live a scant block and a half from that masterpiece, and spend time in it whenever we can. Oliver runs there in the mornings, we picnic there on the occasional summer evening. Nils and I meet up with other moms and babies there and sprawl out in the grass. It's one of our favorite places, and within the park itself is my favorite of favorites: the woods.

That's what I call them, anyhow. They probably have a more official name. No matter. You come into the woods from the relentlessly sunny lawn and the temperature drops 5 degrees. Giant trees keep the sun to a filtered minimum. Paths diverge here and there. There are never more than a handful of people in the woods, and you can be totally alone for minutes at a time. You can hear birds and running water. You cannot hear the city. The trees are enormous.

I walk more slowly in the woods. I push Nils in his stroller and hope he's seeing all the things I'm seeing. I make a mental note: go hiking soon! When I take a peek at him he is, inevitably, relaxed.

We do a lot of loitering in the woods. I walk back and forth slooowly, and loop around multiple times. I take Nils out of the stroller from time to time and hold him, letting him look around from a different elevation. There is so much to see!

Ponds!

Waterfalls! Gorgeous peacefulness everywhere you turn! Nils, are you taking this all in?

Oh, right. Still relaxed.