Stuff I made: 2012 / 2013 (first installment)

Remember back when Nils was born? I kept posting about all the little things I was making him. Ah, that was fun. In the months (almost 24!) that have followed, I haven't been so good at posting. I've made a number of things that I never blogged about.

I know. Your heart's just breaking. Isn't it.

In recent weeks I've gotten caught up in knitting fever. Maybe I can even post about some of these things? And maybe I can go back in time and show you some of the other things I've made? Things I've sewn, knitted, etc.?

First up: a winter hat for Nils. Knitting cables! My first attempt. Turned out pretty well. Which is more than I can say for a number of the knitting projects that preceded it. Which, hm, might be why I haven't been posting so much. Ahem.

Photos?

 Standard view

 From the side!

 Hat in action.

From the top

To me, there is nothing cuter than my little boy in something I made for him. Thank you Nils, for not pulling this hat off .5 seconds after I put it on your head. Thank you for not tossing it out of the stroller somewhere in Brooklyn Heights like you did with the first hat I ever made you. (Serves me right. That wool was scratchy) Thank you for posing so sweetly and allowing me to document this hat before we inevitably lose it somewhere this winter.

Thing #7

     

Getting close to the end of the year, aren't we? I think we're going to have to let this little to-do list bleed over into 2013. No matter.

Thing #7: Go to 3 new museums

Oliver and I were good at museums before Nils came along. Art, history, design, etc. I have a wonderful memory of going to the Met one Sunday afternoon while I was 8 months pregnant. By myself, just wandering, feeling warm and happy while I looked at landscape paintings. Post Nils we have done very little in the way of museum visits, but this year I wanted to give it a go. Maybe find a new place or two that we could all get something out of. Thank you, New York. You make this sort of thing so easy.


#1: The American Museum of Natural History

Okay, full disclosure: I had actually been to this museum before. Oliver hadn't though, and neither had Nils, so two out of three counts. It was too dark inside to get good photos, so please excuse the blurry shots of Nils in the hall of mammals.

Nils spent most of the time running around, stopping only occasionally to point at something and say "elephant!" or "fish!" (though we did get him to thump his chest like a gorilla) Oliver and I managed to take in some of the exhibits, but this museum is probably better with an, um, 4 year old? 5 year old? Time will tell.


#2: The Intrepid Museum

So cool. It's an aircraft carrier (The USS Intrepid) with all sorts of planes and helicopters on the deck...

a captain's bridge complete with dials to turn...

And best of all, a space shuttle! The Enterprise, which I was excited to see. A space shuttle! In person! I don't know if Nils was all that into it, but Oliver and I were pretty thrilled.

#3: The Transit Museum

A no brainer. Trains and buses... paradise for this kid. He cried when we had to leave, and even I felt a little pang when I had to part from the museum's lower level - an out-of-commission subway station full of old subway cars. Cars that span the whole of the 20th century, complete with vintage advertisements and interesting details like wicker seats and ceiling fans. A tiny, tiny little slice of world history. I love that sort of thing.

       

Thing # 6

Thing # 6: Go to a parade.

 


There are so many parades here each year. The Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, the West Indian Carnival right in our own neighborhood, the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village... alas, we missed them all this year. Vacation got in the way, one parade was cancelled, etc. Luckily for us, we were in town for Thanksgiving. Macy's Parade!

We had mixed feelings about going to this parade. The crowds, good lord the crowds! When you get to your spot two hours before the show begins, they're manageable. Come 9 am though, it's like being in a clown car. A clown car full of clowns who don't know each other, don't necessarily like each other, and don't want any other clowns touching them. And then there is, of course, the clown from Long Island who pushes his way to the front - in front of all the people who have been waiting in their spots for two hours! - because "I've got kids with me." Really? You've got kids with you? Why didn't you say so? Clear a path, everyone! This guy has KIDS with him!

Ahem.

We put up with it all though, even going so far as to look forward to the parade, because we knew he would love it.

And he did. Parade = success!

Sandy

       
It's weird. I feel like I should say something here. If I just put up another post with pictures of my kid, sweet-but-inane content, and exclamation points... it won't be right. It won't be fair somehow, and it won't feel right to me. But then what to say? Talk about my personal experience with the storm? That's ridiculous. It's trivial, self-centered, and in the face of such a broad swath of destruction it's a waste of time. Do I talk about the fear, then? My certainty that this was NOT the storm of the century, or even a once-in-a-generation storm, but the start of something new? I don't want to do that. Not here, anyway. I'll save all that for myself (because contrary to what the world keeps telling me, keeping things like this to myself actually feels better than sharing with anyone else).

I'll just keep this little paragraph then, and sit with this silence for a few days. That feels like the best thing I can do.

Fishkill Farms

   

It's an unfortunate name, but a great setting for autumn fun. Going to a fall festival was like Storm King - something I'd been trying to do for years. God bless you, Zipcar. Our membership has made us feel like so many things are possible. Even if you have to suffer through NYC traffic on your way to those possible things. And on the way back, too. *Shudder*

So Fishkill. Up in the Hudson River Valley. Hayrides. A store selling pies. Hot apple cider. A bouncy castle (maybe next year, Nils).

Doughnuts!

Chickens!

Pumpkins!

Chairs! (Made of pumpkins!)

And best of all, apples. A giant orchard of Winesap, Empire, Ida Red, Golden Delicious, Macoun. We came home with 25 pounds of 'em, apples we had picked ourselves. Imagine that. Nils did his fair share of the work too, once properly tempted:

Waaaay up high...

And he enjoyed the fruits of his labor. Though I don't think we were supposed to eat any apples before we paid for them. *Cough cough*

The best thing right now

 
The best thing right now, the absolute best, is the view out our living room windows.

We live on the 5th floor of our building. That's high enough to look out directly onto the treetops. It's all green, and when the sun is setting a golden light tends to shoot in between the leaves. We leave our curtains open from spring to the end of autumn - ain't no one seeing through to our apartment. The leaves are too thick. Sometimes I pretend that we live in a treehouse, that if I wanted to I could just walk out onto one of those branches.

The leaves are beginning to change color now, and the maple seeds are drying out and browning. Any day now I imagine I'll see a few twirling down to the ground.

Toward the end of Nils's nap today I had about 20 minutes to just lay on my couch and look out the window. All my naptime tasks accomplished, NPR playing softly on the radio, a pillow beneath my head. Moments like these are rare enough that the sheer peace of it might have been enough, even without those lovely maples to admire.

Of those 20 minutes to myself, 10 ended up a catnap. This has been happening to me a lot lately. If I sit down in the afternoon, bam! Out like a light. This pregnancy has been just about as effortless I any I could imagine, but it has exhausted me nonetheless. Many times I have put Nils down for his siesta, then proceeded to take a nap myself. It has been wonderful to be able to get that rest (since my body is screaming for it), but those naps... sigh. They've been keeping me from doing everything else. All the cleaning, cooking, and logistical tasks I could be doing while Nils gives me a break. Instead, those things pile up around me until I lose it and start yelling at Oliver.

I know what this is. It's preparation for the arrival of Little Steffwomann. Once she's here, there will be no chance to catch up each day. I'm going to have to find a new way of doing things. Maybe I'll have to let some things go. I just hope that every once in awhile I'll find a few minutes in the afternoon to look out the window. You know, before I fall asleep.

Storm King

       

   
It has become a joke between us, Storm King. I've been talking about it forever - "we need to go to Storm King." "Once the weather cools down, let's do a day trip to Storm King." "Once spring is here, let's go to Storm King." It's far enough away though, and hard enough to get to, that our best-laid plans have never matured into action.

Until this past weekend. Finally.

Storm King Art Center is a 500-acre sculpture garden, though to call it a "sculpture garden" misses the point.   "Sculpture landscape" I believe, is another term often used. It is about an hour and a half from the city, and... wow. No photos I took can do it justice; please believe me when I say that it is beautiful. The sculptures and the landscape work together, and the result is so much more than anything I have seen in a traditional museum setting.

An added bonus for us: it is child friendly. There is no way I would take Nils to an art museum. Storm King was different. Lots of open space to run around in, enough distance between us and the "normal people" to make shrieks and an overabundance of energy totally okay. He ran around with abandon:

Rolled around in the grass (with a little help):

Paused occasionally to maybe? look at the art?

Nope. Just looking for rocks.

     

An update on all of us

     
So we go to movies, bike around the city, visit relatives, etc. ... that doesn't begin to cover everything that goes on around here. Especially with Nils. There are so many details I want to share! Care to join me for an update?

Nils

Nils is the most fun to write about. He's just so dang cute! And he's constantly doing the cutest things... gah! It's too much. Some highlights:

He's talking quite a bit now. No sentences yet, but lots of words. Recent additions include "oatmeal", "poop", "mine", "tractor", "spoon", and "Nils". He's also speaking German! It makes up a very small percentage of his vocabulary, but it's there. He says (the German versions of) "car", "tree", "hot", "no", and "more". Pretty cool.

He loves all things transportation related. Cars on the street, fire trucks, buses, street sweepers... if you can think of it we've probably stopped to stare at it. His newest fascination: planes and helicopters. We live directly under a flight path (to LaGuardia?), and this being New York, there are constantly helicopters flying overhead. Paradise. When the drone of an engine begins in the distance, he will stop whatever he is doing and point up at the sky. 

More than airplanes or any other street-bound vehicle though, Nils loves the subway. He doesn't get all that jazzed about actually being on the subway (go figure), but he loves to hang out in a station and watch the trains come and go. Here he is below, keeping his eyes on the lead car of the 2.

He loves so many things! Running, slides at the playground, playing with "choo choos", reading stories, leaping into piles of dirty laundry, splashing through puddles and fountains...
    

Pushing his stroller...
    

He was a sweet, lovely infant. Without question though, this is even better. It just keeps getting better.

Oliver

Oliver continues to work hard. He's been getting a lot of 5:30 and 6:00 am phone calls from staff in India lately - issues they need help fixing before trading starts at 7:00. Can you imagine? You wake up, not to an alarm, but to a pressing need to "work! Work now! Wake up, your work day has begun!" Yikes. I'd need a caffeinated beverage and 10 minutes to sit and stare out the window first. He doesn't complain, though.

Much more relaxing for him: running. He's training for the marathon again this year, and this time I plan to take pictures.

And a final note: he is officially a U.S. citizen. There was a ceremony (cameras were confiscated... alas, no photos), a certificate, and ta da! The days of hassles at the border are behind him. I told him he needs to stop making fun of Americans now. He told me he was voting for Clint Eastwood this November.

Me

No photos of me (guess who's always behind the camera), but plenty of things to tell. They're all sort of jumbled together right now, so I'll just mention the big one: there's a girl on the way! She's due in mid February, and when I'm not feeling guilty for ruining Nils's life, (My poor little baby! What are we doing to you?) I'm pretty excited. We've got 22 weeks to go, give or take, and I'm trying to really make the most of these last months as just the three of us.
     

Thing #5

   
Thing #5: Go see a historic monument or marker.

This one was pretty easy to knock off the list. This is New York! So many notable things have happened here! So many places are famous for one thing or another. The real question was then, what to choose.

I decided that the Village and its environs were a good place to do a little historic site hopping. We could bike there (we're always looking for excuses to take the bikes out), and we could hit up a few different not-so-on-the-map places.

 Site 1: Teddy Roosevelt's childhood home. 

Did you know that President Roosevelt grew up in Manhattan? I certainly didn't. Here was his house, though, just sitting there on a quiet block of 20th Street. 

Site 2: Margaret Sanger's clinic. This unobtrusive building was the site of a bold new idea: giving women access to birth control. Controversial then, and strangely controversial in recent days. After we left I wished I had gotten a photo of both Nils and I - he is, after all, the product of family planning. As am I.

Site 3: the Triangle Shirtwaist building. I remember being a middle school student and learning about the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. The women working there had been locked in the 8th, 9th, and 10th floor factory to prevent unauthorized breaks. When the fire broke out many jumped out the window to their deaths. It was apparently a turning point of sorts for the rights of factory workers. At any rate, I'm glad no one can lock me in my office.

And then, since it was getting close to Nils's nap time, we cut short our tour of progressive New York history (another day, Stonewall Inn) and headed home. But not before a little bit of playground time.

      

Thing #4

     
Thing #4: Do something offbeat and/or New York-y.

Did it seem like I had forgotten about my New York list? Nah. Other things just got in the way. We went out of town, we socialized, we took Nils to the playground. Etc.

We had time a couple weeks ago to tick off another item from the list, and we did so by going to see a movie. Wait, it gets more interesting! It was a rooftop showing of Detropia (the New York premier, no less) at the old American Can Factory. The factory itself has been converted to artists' studios - very cool. And did I mention that one of the film's directors was there for a post-film Q & A?

Number 4: check! This also happened to be our first date night since, um, February? Sad. This needs work.
    

This way! 

The setup, pre crowd 

Ghosts in the yard

         

About a month and a half ago we went to Upper Michigan with family. Specifically, we went to the farm. My dad's childhood home (the home in which his own father was literally born), and the 99 acres that come with it.  My grandparents have not been with us for many years, and my dad and a couple of his brothers currently own the farm. None of them live there, but they all go up there from time to time to see old friends, fish, chop wood, and do other things that let them know that they can still call Tapiola, and more specifically that 99 acres, home. 

This trip had been in the works for a year or so. It was my idea, actually - I wanted Oliver to see where the other half of my extended family comes from (more or less), and I wanted my dad to show Nils the U.P. The U.P. and the farm mean more to my dad than, say, Kenosha and my parents' house mean to me. Some people are "of a place", and my dad is of those.

I hadn't been to the farm in nearly 10 years - the last time was for my grandma's funeral. Seeing it again after so long was wonderful. I have a lot of good memories: running around with cousins, playing with animals (back when there were still animals), walking through the woods by myself and finding a secret place to read. It was a bit sad, too. I looked out at the grass and saw myself and my cousins running around. I saw my aunts, uncles, and grandparents drinking beers and chatting. There were always so many people... and now it was quiet.

My dad told stories from his childhood, and I could tell that he was also watching people run around in the grass. There was the summer that his mother's sister and her (5?) children came to live with them. 10 kids, three adults, a steady stream of visitors. Mayhem. There was no room in the house, so my dad slept in the hayloft of the barn all summer - he said it was the best summer of his life.