Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Category: Danielle

  • No training wheels

    Today was a big day. The training wheels came off Danielle’s bicycle. We had been talking about it for a while, but I wasn’t that optimistic. Danielle is a total city girl and she rides her scooter everywhere, not her bike. She’s not even that good on her bike, I end up pushing her up hills.

    But it’s time and she wanted to try it. So we took the training wheels off and went to a nearby playground. This one has a small track with soft artificial turf in the middle so I figured we’d start in the middle so her falls wouldn’t hurt much. We even broke out the knee pads just in case.

    Lo and behold, she did good. I had to help her get started at first, but she rode. First just straight. Then some laps around the track. So I was quite pleased.

    Later in the day she had her swimming lesson (with the Olympic Gold medal winner – who by the way is very nice). She wanted to ride her bike there. Brooklyn sidewalks tend to be a bit crowded, so this is a much greater challenge. And to make it trickier, this weekend is the Atlantic Avenue Artwalk on our street. So lots of people on the street.

    Danielle starts weaving in and out of the crowds with no problems. Where did this come from? First day and she’s actually quite good. Go figure.

    So a very good day…

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  • Quite a weekend

    We packed quite a bit into a three day weekend.

    Saturday morning started with a couple of promised purchases for Danielle. A friend of ours won a Wii last week and since she already had one she gave it to us. Very nice. Of course it’s the kind of present that costs you money because my wife then wants the WiiFit and we need an extra controller and a Hannah Montana game, but still, a nice gift. So we had promised Danielle that we’d get the stuff Saturday morning.

    We also promised that we’d get her a hula hoop (after you’ve promised Wii stuff, the $7 hula hoop seems like the deal of the century). At Danielle’s school, being an urban school, recess is on the roof. They have a nice playground there. And they put out a bunch of hula hoops. This is one of those remarkable things about having kids. The last time I saw Danielle try a hula hoop I think she was four and couldn’t do it. We saw her last week doing it at a friends house. She’s a total expert. She barely looks like she’s moving and she can keep it up for hours. So we promised to buy her one.

    OK, a quick trip to Target in the morning (trip being a euphemism since it’s four blocks away). Done.

    Next we were going to visit my wife’s sister. This is the traditional holiday get together. But our no car experiment continues. All week I had been trying to pin down my wife on whether we were going Saturday-Sunday or Sunday-Monday. She can’t make a decision.

    One of the obvious problems with ZipCar is holiday weekends. The whole thing works on the premise that only a small percentage of people need a car at any given time. On Memorial Day weekend, everyone wants one. So planning ahead is crucial. We did not.

    My wife just said, “we’ll take the train”. Now the train is actually pretty convenient to her sister’s. But when we go up there with two kids we tend to bring a lot of stuff. Scooters, stroller, toys, etc. So I was skeptical. But ZipCar was booked, so we had little choice.

    We went with maximum minimalism. Change of clothes. Pampers. Three books, two DVDs, cards and snacks for the train, Victoria’s blanket and two stuffed animals that she sleeps with. It all fit in one small suitcase and a backpack.

    Oh yeah, we took the hula hoop too.

    I’ve never traveled with kids and so little stuff. It was awesome. And the train was great. The train ride from Grand Central to my wife’s sisters is about 10 minutes quicker than the drive. But you have to get to Grand Central and it’s about 15 minutes from the train station to their house. So overall about 30 minutes slower.

    We took a taxi to Grand Central. It’s Memorial Day weekend so everyone has cleared out of the city. No traffic, we’re there in 10 minutes. So early, we get some snacks for the girls. And drinks for us. We show Danielle the “whispering gallery” in Grand Central which she, of course, thinks is the coolest thing ever.

    Then we get on the train and head up. I’m sitting with Danielle and my wife is with Victoria. I play a few games of cards with Danielle and then she watches out the window for a while and then she says she’s tired and lays down with her head in my lap. Normally I’d be fighting traffic. Instead I’m relaxing on the train, drinking a beer, with my daughter napping on my lap. I’m starting to like the train.

    Of course a visit to my wife’s sisters would not be complete without a soccer tournament. Matthew (15) was playing on Sunday at one of those soccer fields that can only happen out in the ‘burbs. Six huge gorgeous soccer fields, nice facilities, even a playground for the kids. Matt’s team won 1-0 and the girls had fun at the playground (the finals would be the next day after we left – in the championship game Matt took a cleat to the head. 34 stitches. But they won).

    We took the train back Sunday around 5:00. Again, very pleasant. The ride goes right down the Hudson and is quite pretty.

    Monday was Wii day. I set it up in the morning and played with Danielle. Thankfully she likes the sports games more than the Hannah Montana one.

    But it was a gorgeous day, so we weren’t staying inside. I took the girls to our favorite park. The sprinkler were on and they ran wild. We had Italian ices and capped off the day with an early dinner at a Mexican place that we like and is kid friendly.

    Then home for a bit more Wii.

    Overall an excellent weekend.

  • Bad Zip Car, great weekend

    Well, I guess it was inevitable. We had our first negative experience with Zip Car last weekend. But we still had a great weekend.

    The weekend started early with parent/teacher conferences on Friday. Of course, it’s just kindergarten so let’s not get carried away here, but it’s really nice to hear teachers say wonderful things about your daughter. And since our conference was at 4:00 we asked our nanny to work late so we could do (gasp) an early dinner and a movie. Truth be told, we don’t get out that much.

    There’s a new place near us that we wanted to try. It was a beautiful day so we sat outside. The food was great and so were the drinks. (My wife had The Fair Harbor and I had the Ommegang Witte – tasty)

    We saw State of Play which was good, not great. But for someone who hasn’t been to the movies in ages, just relaxing with the popcorn was worth it.

    The next day we were visiting my wife’s sister. But we had also agreed to take Danielle’s best friend while her mother was doing an all day class. It was another great day. We went to the park in the morning and Danielle had her swim class after lunch.

    Have I mentioned who her new swim teacher is? You can look him up here or here (Anthony Ervin). Really, an Olympic gold medal winner teaching 6 year olds is serious overkill, but he’s really nice and good with the kids.

    To look at him you wouldn’t guess how good he once was. Yes, he’s tall and thin with 0% body fat (and tattoos covering both arms). He’s a bit geeky looking. When you get close you notice the huge feet. And teaching in the pool you can’t tell. Except for one time when he was out of the pool and the three kids were doing the backstroke. They weren’t supposed to go all the way to the other end of the pool but they did and once they started they couldn’t hear him. So he walks about halfway down the pool, does kind of a sideways dive into the water and about a split second later he emerges at the other end of the pool. OK, he’s still fast.

    After swimming we we going to my wife’s sisters. We had the Zip Car reserved for 4:30. When I left swimming I had a voicemail from Zip Car. The person who had the car before me wasn’t going to be back until 6:00. Well that sucks. I called them to see if there were any other cars available. The first totally gorgeous weekend of the year. Any guesses? No cars. So we’re basically stuck. It was very annoying, though in truth it didn’t really impact our weekend overall. Funny how an hour and a half can seem like a disaster at first and be a non-event later.

    Apparently Zip Car has a pretty emphatic no tolerance policy on lateness. The other driver will get fine $50 for every hour she was late (would be nice if the inconvenienced party got some of that…).

    We got up to my wife’s sisters place a bit late, but the girls napped on the way so they were ready to go. Everyone played and had a great time. We played the next morning had lunch and headed back. And since Danielle’s friend’s mother wasn’t going to finish her class until 6:00 on Sunday, we did a picnic in the park.

    There’s a park in Brooklyn tucked in between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge called Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park. It’s a great little park, and will eventually be park of a much bigger park. It’s also very close to one of the best pizza places around (at least according to Zagat’s). You can count on standing outside in line for at least a half an hour to get a table. But they take pick up orders. So 45 minutes ahead of time, I call them. Then later I just walk from the park, skip the line, pick up my pizza (really annoying the 30 people waiting in line) and walk back to the park.

    A delicious end to an awesome weekend.

  • Ringling Brothers – 2009

    Going to the circus is becoming an annual tradition with Danielle. Ringling Brothers arrived at Madison Square Garden right at the end of her spring break, so we booked the tickets a while back.

    The last time we went she noticed that a small group of people got to go onto the floor of the show and sort of participate. She wanted to do that. So this year we got those tickets.

    For the most part, they just bring you onto the floor to sit in these mini-bleachers that are just really close. There was one clown standing behind us and he befriended Danielle. They were joking around the whole time. And at one point the ringmaster needed a volunteer from the group and he looked right at Danielle.

    “What’s your name?”

    “Danielle”

    “How old are you?"

    “Six and a quarter”

    And with that he brought her out into the middle of the show and had her help with a magic trick. So the whole experience made her day.

    The obligatory pictures:

    Pre show:

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    Her clown friend:

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    Helping with the magic trick:

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    And her friend waving goodbye during the finale:

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  • Orlando Cheap

    We’re watching our money (who isn’t?) but with Danielle off for two weeks we wanted to do something. My wife’s brother lives in Orlando so that seemed like the thing to do.

    We got cheap flights, planned to stay with my wife’s brother for a few days and at a hotel near Disney for a few days.

    Spending a few days with the in-laws was pleasantly relaxing. We didn’t do a lot. They have a pool (not heated, a tad chilly), and a park nearby. They also have a pond in the back where you can fish. That’s about all we needed.

    And of course the girls had a blast at Disney. Danielle has hit roller coaster height so she rode Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom and Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney Hollywood. She loved them. So I’m excited to have someone to ride cool rides with. Victoria was surprisingly timid on the kiddie rides, but she’s only 2 so I’ll cut her some slack.

    Her are the obligatory pictures:

    This one is out of focus, but I had to include it anyway. Tori with her sister’s iPod shuffle:

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    Danielle climbing in the park. All she does is climb…

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    Catching a fish with her uncle:

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    At the Magic Kingdom with Alice in Wonderland:

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    With their new tattoos (Danielle has Hannah Montana sunglasses and a Hannah Montana tattoo):

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    At Mickey’s Toontime playground (Tori is small but tough, she will win this confrontation):

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    Dan just climbs…

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    And finally here’s Danielle at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground:

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    We did ride rides, honest. But you can’t take good pictures on them…

  • Back to the Park

    Spring is finally arriving so it’s time to get back to the park with the girls. And it’s getting a bit trickier to keep track of both of them.

    Danielle, at 6, is still the one who wants me around the most. She doesn’t need me (though she still likes to be pushed on the swings), she just likes me watching her.

    Victoria, at 2, is perfectly happy to take off on her own. She’s the boldly independent one. And she likes to climb on the big girl stuff. By herself.

    As I watch her climbing up the ten foot tall ladder, I’m reminded that this is the girl who was getting physical therapy a year ago because she was developmentally behind. Hard to believe that now.

    So I spend most of my time running back and forth between them, trying to watch Danielle and trying to keep Victoria from killing herself. Still, it’s pretty fun.

    Some obligatory pictures:

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    Danielle hanging from one of those things that Victoria is perfectly happy to climb all by herself…

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    Hanging seems to be a theme with Danielle, and yes that’s Victoria in the background. Up high all by herself. I’m such a good father…

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    Finally, Victoria does something safe…

  • The girls

    I haven’t posted any pictures in a while. Here are a few pictures of Victoria (2) and Danielle (6).

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  • Parenting Gem

    Danielle (6) takes a ballet class and a hip hop dance class at a local dance studio (in Brooklyn local means about 2 blocks away). This is nothing serious, just good fun kids dance stuff.

    This week was “Open House” week, so parents could watch a class. Of course, I have the more flexible schedule these days, so I’m the parent at Danielle’s hip hop class today.

    Aside from being big fun to watch (imagine 6 year olds doing an “attitude walk”), there was a point where the teacher wanted the parents involved. She told the kids to grab their parents to do some freeze dancing (if you aren’t familiar with freeze dancing you clearly don’t have kids – you dance and when the music stops you freeze like a statue).

    Danielle runs over to grab me, and then she runs over to grab Victoria (2). So there are my two girls doing freeze dancing in the dance studio. A very nice big sister/little sister moment.

    Victoria doesn’t completely get the “freeze” part of it, but everytime everyone else freezes, she just laughs out loud.

    One of those little parenting gem moments…

  • Merry Christmas

    Or Happy Holidays depending on your preference. This year the holidays totally seem to have snuck up on me. But we did manage to get Danielle and Victoria to see Santa at Macy’s.

    We were pretty confident that Tori would be fine with Santa. She is totally not shy (unlike Danielle). If you’ve seen Santa at Macy’s, they have an amusement park like method of winding the long line around. At one point you walk through the inside of a “train” which is supposed to be the train to the north pole. When you come out on the other side there are all sorts of cool things for the kids to see while the line continues to Santa (actually multiple Santas, but they do a very good job of hiding that fact).

    Right at the beginning of the “north pole” there is this huge tree with a big face and the eyes move. Kind of cute. Freaked Tori out. All the sudden we weren’t so sure how it would go with Santa.

    Thankfully we got past the big tree and then Tori got into all the other cool things. And when we finally (actually the line wasn’t bad, maybe 20 minutes) got to Santa’s little building, Tori saw Santa and started yelling, “Santa!, Santa!”. We had to hold her back until it was our turn. She went right to Santa’s lap (Danielle, of course, is an old pro).

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    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all…

  • Where have I been?

    OK, I’ll admit it. I’ve been a blogging slacker. And I’m unemployed so you’d think I’d have tons of time.

    In an attempt to catch up, this will be a fairly random posting.

    Fist of all, what have I been up to? Hmm. Not telling. There are some things going on that might work out or might not and for now my answer is no comment. I do not currently have a job, I am not currently making any money, I am strangely busy and having fun. Create whatever rumor you like based on those minimal facts. You are unlikely to be correct.

    To get in shape, I’ve been trying to get into swimming. We belong to a new YMCA with a nice Olympic sized pool. I take Danielle there, but when I’m with her I basically stand around trying to teach her to swim. My running tends to slack off in the winter (between the cold and the dark I am just not motivated) so swimming seemed like a good approach for someone with some free time (though lately not as much).

    So I’m still a fairly lame swimmer, but I’m to the point where I can do 20-30 minutes of lap swimming at an easy pace with no breaks. It is really good exercise. The strange thing is that as a runner I expect to be sore after a workout, but swimming is so low impact that I’m not. So I feel like I didn’t work that hard. Until I walk home. Then I realize that I’m exhausted.

    What else? Football season has been interesting but not so great. My Packers are just beat up and lame. I’ve been following the Jets as a Favre fan, but they are all over the place. I’ll root for the Giants if they aren’t playing the Packers, but they are starting to show major problems.

    The past few years have taught me (as a Knicks fan) to not pay much attention to the NBA. This year the Knicks are actually watchable, though they are clearly laying the groundwork for 2010.

    Normally I’d be gearing up for college hoops, but Indiana is going to be so bad this year. I like their new coach but he has a couple years of rebuilding to do. I’ll be doing a pool for March Madness so if you are interested enter your information here.

    It will be a mild Christmas this year as we try to be frugal, but we’ll do the usual. We always go to my wife’s sister’s place for Christmas morning. That’s a good, casual Christmas day. Close family, minimal stress, fun with the kids.

    The girls are doing great. Danielle just turned 6 and Victoria just turned 2. Victoria has started to (occasionally) use the potty which is awesome. She has a while to go before she’s doing it for real, but I can see the end of Pampers forever.

    Victoria is a piece of work. In many ways she is the total opposite of Danielle. Dan is a typical first child. Generally well behaved, smart  (OK, I’m biased), a bit shy, always wants her parents.

    Tori gets into everything she shouldn’t. Just today she managed to get to the power strip with the plugs for cable/phone/cable modem/router and turn everything off. I think she’s smart like Dan, but at 2 it’s hard to tell. But shy? Forget about it. If I’m staying in the apartment and a random stranger is going outside, she’s going with the random stranger.

    Danielle is starting to read on her own which is huge fun. She’s really into it and will try to read every book we have. You realize how wacky many English words are when you are helping someone learn to read. When she sees a word like “right” telling her to “sound it out” just isn’t that effective.

    My mom’s Alzheimer’s is a bit worse. She’s to the point now where she forgets words so often her sentences are total gibberish. It’s hard being far away because talking to her on the phone is largely pointless. She was given hospice care a few months back which is supposed to mean that she has 6 months or less, but I think she’s going to be around a while. Which is somewhat ironic because I know that she wouldn’t want to stick around in her condition. Probably the hardest thing this fall was not being able to discuss the election with her. My mom was a hugely political person and extremely liberal. She probably would have voted for Hillary in the primary to try to elect a woman, but she would have been incredibly happy to see the first black president elected. Sad that she has no clue.

    But otherwise our family’s health is good. My wife’s brother (who smoked like a chimney) had a mild heart attack and then had triple bypass. That turned out to be the best possible thing because now he’s quit smoking, is exercising and is really turning his health around.

    2008 was definitely a challenging year, but 2009 should be much better. I am definitely looking forward to the new year.

    And I’ll try to blog a bit more…

    Random links:

    Cool astronomy pictures

    Might only be funny if you’ve been in NYC cabs…

    A tremendous "year in pictures" page. The last surfing picture is amazing, but there’s something about #23. It looks like a bunch of guys at a park until you look close and realize they are shooting bows and arrows.

    And finally, I’ve said this before, but the best Christmas album ever…