Edison and Stamford

We are entering a very important week here at 34 Turner Street: on Thursday my dear Celia turns one, and tomorrow Celia's best friend, Juniper, also turns one.

I'll write more about this later in the week, but right now I'm thinking about how much happens in the first year of life. From her origins as a squirmy baby, Celia has grown into a mobile baby who loves to play with anyone, especially her brother. She's even beginning to play games like "peek-a-boo" with us. It's hard to believe that a year ago today neither Celia nor Juniper had been born yet (though, in fairness, they were expected anytime); the whole idea that I didn't know my daughter--or even whether I was having a daughter or another son--seems ridiculous.

But more on that later. This weekend Tom and Madhabi were feting Juniper for the NJ/NY set, so we made the trip down to Edison, NJ to party with them. We drove down Saturday morning and were lucky enough to encounter neither traffic nor tantrums along the way.

Since it was both Juniper's birthday and Diwali, nice clothes were in order--Andres wore a new shirt/slacks/sweater-vest outfit, and Celia looked resplendent in her purple dress. She even managed to keep it clean for most of the party.



While Celia entertained herself by crawling everywhere and playing with other babies, her big brother thought it would be a great idea to act like different animals, using the little stage area as his own personal circus. His act was met with some enthusiasm by Juniper:



That is, until he bumped her a little bit. Juniper's cousin Mira was not as fond of his act.

We partied hearty for a couple hours and then, when energy was flagging, had some good birthday cake to wake us back up again. Andres was a little sad that he was not asked to blow out the birthday candle.



The timing of Juniper's party was quite convenient as Natalia had a baby shower to attend in Stamford on Sunday. So instead of driving all the way back home, we settled in at a hotel for the night. (Dinner was at The Rainforest Cafe at the Menlo Park Mall; it was fun, but perhaps a bit overwhelming for a 3-year old and a nearly-1-year old. Food was good though.) Both kids conked out easily when we got back to the hotel room. I think it was the first night of uninterrupted sleep for both Natalia and I for about 6 months.

Sunday morning we all awoke refreshed and ready for the day. At breakfast, it took Celia about 10 minutes to ruin the outfit we had just put on her...her brother, meanwhile, enjoyed sitting in a high-chair like a baby.



We eventually cleaned up our room, changed everyone, and made it out to the car in one piece, and then it was off to Stamford for the baby shower. After a brief stop to say hi to the mom-to-be (and lunch at her house) I decided to entertain the kids by taking them to the Stamford Museum and Nature Center for the afternoon. It seemed like a nice open place with a small working farm and a lot of kid-friendly activities--and look! Today they were also hosting a "touch a truck" event. Thinking that there was no way it could go as poorly as our last experience, I thought we would give it another shot. Nothing ventured nothing gained, after all.

This time it was actually a hit! A few less trucks to touch, but much less noise, fewer people, and generally just calmer than the Newton event. As we were walking up towards the museum I pointed out a couple of the fire trucks on display to Andres; he seemed really interested, and before you know it he was climbing all over diggers and dump trucks.





We stayed there for nearly 2 hours. Celia did her best to stay interested as she was cooped up in the stroller, although I did let her crawl free for a little while...sadly, there were not many interesting places she could crawl to. (And we were surrounded by woodchips, which inevitably find their way into Celia's mouth when she can roam free.) I did get a few photos of her in a truck and also cruising around the side of one.

3:00 came and it was time to rendezvous with Natalia and then drive home. The time change was beginning to catch up with all of us; though the clock said 3, it felt like 4 or 5 pm. The three of us napped while Natalia drove.

Tonight, Andres recapped part of the day with his own trucks:



Good to see the little guy having a better time today than he did this summer!