Week 64: At the Brooklyn Public Library

It was raining on and off through the whole weekend. The best we can do was to take Sophia to a library. There was a story reading event at the Brooklyn public library. We were in the children's library section. She sat through one story book, got a flower made of balloon and had her face painted. I was at a volunteer desk asking about the regular story reading time. I assumed that Oliver was holding Sophia. When I was looking for them, I only saw Oliver and he was looking for me. So where is Sophia? We looked around the whole library and couldn't find her. I almost went into panic. I heard the librarian said that they found her. She was standing right behind the volunteer's chair and browsed books... She is getting bigger and can run around to every where. I have to think new strategies to make sure that she won't get lost.

Week 63: Visiting Ctigroup Child care center (Toddler's group)


This Friday I took Sophia to the Citigroup daycare center to try the toddler's class. At the beginning she was very excited to take subway with me and Oliver. But when I left her to the teacher at the daycare, she cried. I hided behind the classroom wall for a while. She just cried couple minutes and started to accept the teacher. I took her out for lunch at Bubby's. After lunch we walked around in a little sculpture garden in Battery Park City. Later Sophia visited my office. It was her second time visiting. One year ago I took her to my office when she was 2 month old. Now she can walk around and gave balls to each of my co-worker...
From this week we start to use our backyard a lot. I fed Sophia lunch and dinner in the backyard gazebo. She sit in boost chair for a while, run around for a while. Most of time there were other kids in the backyard that she can play with.

I can't believe that Sophia is now 62 weeks old. From now on, I will write a weekly update about our family and her. To recap what happened from since her first birthday party, here is a brief list:

53 Week: Even before her birthday Sophia could walk a couple of steps here and there. But on her birthday she started to walk mainly on her feet (not hands & knees any more). We went to the playground and took a lots of pictures to document these changes. From then on we almost go to playground everyday after work.

54 Week: It was Easter weekend and Sophia had her first egg hunting in our backyard. We also went to Oliver's coworker Scott's daughter's 3 year birthday party. On the same day my friend Karen visited us with her boyfriend John from England. It was quite busy to have everything done at the same time.

55 Week: Oliver's mother visited us from Germany. As Oliver would have his final exam next week when his mother was here. He used the weekend to study. I made myself a bad name because I called him back from a board meeting after 1 and half hour. We had a little frustration with registering Sophia's swimming class. The one year old class was already full. For the next 8 weeks Sophia won't swim on Saturday. :(

56 Week: Oliver's mother was with us the whole week. On Monday I took a trapezee class. Oliver and his mother watched and taped my class. I was very happy with the result. I'm still quite fit after giving birth. On Tuesday Oliver and grandma looked after Sophia for the day. I took them to the library after work. I took grandma for a drink after Sophia slept. So Oliver could study for his exam. He had his exam on Wednesday. On the weekend we went to the Brooklyn botanic garden to see the cherry blossom. We also took the whole family to the top of Rockefeller Center. Sophia really enjoyed the roof top view and flowers. When Sophia slept, we watched movie "Brokenback Mountain" together.

57 Week: We took a break after grandma visit. We went to Costco to get household inventory stocked. This week Oliver started to work for a different group in his company. It was a good move for his career. We were very happy for this change. We kept the new tradition and watched another movie "Match Point".

58 Week: On Tuesday I tried to take a diving class and left Sophia with Oliver. But it didn't work. I worried about them. I decided to take the class next time. We had a busy weekend. On Saturday we went to Dumbo for Brooklyn Design week exhibition, checked a couple of new condo developments. After that we walked to State street for an open house show. Then we decided to walk home. Sophia was very excited to see so many new things. She skipped her afternoon nap. On our way back, she was tired of sitting in the stroller. I had to carry her for a very long time. We ended up in a street park and she cried and drove out all the people from the park. That was one difficult hour. From 6:45pm she slept to the next morning.... Sunday was Mother's day. I invited Michelle, Jared and Michael to our place for dinner. It was a nice event.

59 Week: Oliver worked quite late for the whole week. I was very unhappy with him toward the end of the week. He said he will change it. This week I took Sophia to a different playground in the park. She liked it a lot. Saturday was our wedding anniversary. Oliver and I was busy looking after Sophia and forgot it. We did play frisbee in the park and watched movie "shortcuts". Sunday I had to visit my dentist for my brace adjustment. We managed to take the annual Park Slope House tour. Last year we lost tickets in the middle of the tour. This year we got to see all 6 houses.

60 Week: During the week one big thing was that we went to the German consulate and applied for Sophia the EU passport. It was on our todo-list for a long time. The weekend was Memorial weekend. We had a very busy social schedule. We had dinner with our neighbor's at apartment 2C on Saturday. The nest day we went to Miranda son's bris and brunch celebration. We almost hanged out with them for a full day. On Monday Sophia and I hang out with Michelle and Michael in the park.

61 Week: We went to Fishkill for 6 days. It was a big environment change for Sophia. We used this chance to wean her from the bottle. It was a cold turkey and very successful. Wednesday was my birthday. We went to the CIA for dinner. Sophia enjoyed dining out a lot. We went to Dia:Beacon museum on Thursday. It's pity that we weren't allowed to take pictures. Sophia was so cute playing in the big open space. Every visitor smiled to her... We went to Vandabilt mansion and FDR's home the day after. At our vacation place Sophia played on the deck everyday with water and new toys. We also took many long naps with her. We used this vacation to catch up some sleep.

62 Week: After a week of vacation Sophia very easily got back to her regular schedule. She slept a lot at her sitter's place, run a lot with Michael in the playground after I got back from work. Oliver went to Brighton in the UK right after we got back from Fishkill. I was a single mother for 3 nights. Everything turned out fine. I was very happy when he came back. We registered the swimming class for Sophia for the coming session. She had MusicTogether class two days in a raw. Over all it was a quite relaxed weekend.