An ode to friendship

Q and her best friend Esme at the zoo.
In this picture, Q takes "goosestepping" quite seriously.

new and dangerous things ;)

I got Q her first skateboard the other day.
I no doubt will live to regret this decision. Q's cousin Harrison still bears the scar of roadrash on his forehead from the time he tried to go down the porch stairs headfirst while lying on his stomach atop his skateboard...age 3. Q, for all her height and maturity, is only two and a half.
But she is a natural with all sports, and a bit of a stunt-girl by nature. She instantly knew the correct position in which to stand on the board (thanks to her favorite show, Yo Gabba Gabba, which is skater-friendly). Almost immediately after first trying it out, she hopped on and - to my utter amazement, start shuffling her feet gently toward the nose of the board, where she proceeded to attempt to "hang ten" (I did not get any shots of this maneuver since I was two busy trying to snatch her out of thin air before she hit the floor).
This trick is also a byproduct of her YGG obsession (thanks to an episode where a surfer named Alex shows his old-school form on a wave). I guess she figured if it worked on a surfboard, it ought to work on a skateboard.
Life is evidently going to be one long series of heartstopping moments for us as the parents of the astonishing Q. But, well, let's just say it's worth it.
Her daddy also recently bought her a slide. Since it is not yet warm enough for outdoor sliding most days, the slide has taken up temporary residence in our livingroom (!!) much to the Q's delight. She also, incidentally, instantly began performing stunts on this apparatus, including climbing up it backward, and, once balanced at the top, stretching up like a high-dive artist, arms raised over her head, very nearly on tiptoe. This performed in front of her shocked speech therapist as well as her scandalized mommy.
But that's Q. She am what she am.
No, these are not her glasses.
They belong to her bunny, FooFoo.
As far as we know, her vision is good. But should she ever prove to need glasses, I will be looking for a pair exactly like these. How cool does she look in them??

A favorite dinner

Have you ever had real Korean BBQ? We have a wonderful place down the road from us that we discovered a year or two ago. It's always quiet, the food is subtle and very fresh, and the ritual pleasing to the senses.
There is a round grill built into the center of the granite table, and it is lit for you when you sit down. twenty or thirty condiments and side dishes are then placed in a circle around the grill.
You choose the meats, and they are brought to the table in what appears to be overwhelming quantities - huge heapings of shaved and marinated beef, ribs or hocks or whatever you have chosen. With large tongs, you place them on the grill bit by bit, and when they are ready you set them aside on lettuce leaves, fold in the condiments as you choose, and eat. This is, at least, more or less the proper method, as we have gleaned it from the waitresses, who speak a little English but are not usually fluent.
There is also a wonderful raspberry wine, if you're in the mood - light and clear and just barely sweet. Though we were just having hot tea on this occasion.
The condiments are maybe the best part - each a sensual experience unto itself. There are many different varieties of pickled items, some sweet, some spicy or sour in varying degrees. There are hot sauces. There are cold egg dishes. There is a mild apple salad that Q adored. This place makes some of the best kim chee, if you like that sort of thing, and one can walk in and order it by the tub to go.
Q, who is not usually a fan of extreme spices (though she is open-minded), really liked some of the more unusual pickles, much to my surprise.
Here, she is trying to hang a spoon from her nose (one of the "cool tricks" from her favorite show, Yo Gabba Gabba).

An illustration exclusive

Special announcement:
I recently created a special outfit for my paperdolls, Evelyne and Mathilde, based on the gorgeous and ethereal Brooklyn-based Loup Charmant line of organic cotton clothing. The set includes the two dolls plus two Loup Charmant outfits, and the above original illustration based on the line. Printed on 100% cotton watercolor rag, this set is exclusive to Loup Charmant and available only on their site.

Because I am so very delighted by the friendship we've forged with Anne and Muguet, whom we met initially through the blog world, and then last year in the "analog" world, that I am thrilled to have finally arrived at the photos of our most recent day together in NYC.
After many days of frigid cold upstate, our day of meeting with them dawned gilded with sun and fairly balmy. We met on the steps of the Natural History museum, but decided, on the basis of the fortuitous weather, to head into Central Park for a play date instead.
Q was thrilled to rediscover her adorable friend Muguet.
The two of them chased eachother up and down the slides and play structures. We also had the good fortune to meet Anne's husband, who had the day free to join in the festivities.
After about six months, Anne and I had a lot to catch up on in the "real world".
And it's always such a joy for both of us to watch our little ones playing together.
Anne is a brilliant knitter, and we arrived to find she had a very special gift for the Q...an aviator-style hat knitted from the finest grey wool. It suited Q to a T, and she has worn it through the chilly months of winter since.

After the playground, we all six took a stroll through the neighborhood, my old stomping grounds on the upper West side. It is more than a little surreal for me to traverse these same blocks where I spent so much time in my wild and woolly 20s, now accompanied by my husband and daughter. How things change, and how time flies!
Anne and her family had in mind to take us to brunch at a favorite restaurant in the neighborhood, but it was the weekend, and also one of the most beautiful and balmy days of the winter in NY, so that every family on the upper West side had had the same idea. As a result, Mike and I dragged the poor things to our standby hot dog joint, Gray's Papaya. Now, I realize there have been an inordinate number of hotdogs in my recent posts. So just let me say that we do not eat hotdogs on a regular basis. Hotdogs are a "special occasion" treat for us, like birthday cakes or candy. It's just that when we're back in NY, we tend to take the opportunity to stop in to Gray's Papaya for a classic dog and a freshly-squeezed and restorative papaya juice.
Anne and her family saved the day by taking us for dessert to the Magnolia bakery, where they make fresh, homemade cupcakes on a daily basis.
The kids were entranced!
And so were we! We very much look forward to our next meeting with Anne and her family in the city for more delightful adventures!

Corner view: coffee companion
I don't suppose it will surprise anyone to discover who my coffee companion is. In fact, she is my constant coffee companion...but on this occasion, I have to admit, it was coffee and hot dogs. Not your most common combination.

I do, trust me, realize that my "corner views" are almost always posted late, and that I fly by the seat of my pants for many of them. I do have a reason for this, and the reason is that Wednesday is smack-dab in the middle of our family "weekend". Since my husband works every weekend, and has his days off mid-week, this is inevitably the time when we're madly dashing around trying to get in our quality time as a family of three before his work week begins again.

So here we were, after a particularly sunny and pleasant morning with friends at the zoo, finishing our belated coffee with lunch at Steve's Snappin' Dogs.
Here's the Q telling me to wait while she runs inside to check on our order. I love when she tells me to wait. It cracks me up.
Though the hot dogs are far and away the best in town, the thing I really anticipate when we stop in at Steve's is the fried, salted green beans. Flash-fried in oil just long enough to be as crisp as wafers, while retaining all the green freshness within. This, along with the fresh-squeezed limeade, is my favorite dish.
The Q must be growing again (though I can't think why, since at just barely two and a half, she is already taller than most three year olds, and a fair number of four-year-olds as well) because she's been packing away the food like it's her job for the past few days. I might ad (as you look in horror at all this "junk food") that she has no dietary restrictions. The Q is persistently underweight, so we let her eat anything and everything that strikes her fancy. Fortunately, she's fairly experimental with foods, as two-year-olds go, and so gets a good variety of nutrients.


Here, she is painting on the war-stripes that she so loves to wear on her cheeks...in ketchup.
Sure, I suppose there's some faint part of me that daydreams about sitting in a coffee shop with a laptop, like those neatly-attired people you often see using the WiFi connection...just dreaming away the afternoon doing work on the computer and not worrying about where the sugar packets are going. But really, I have no desire at all to be single and rootless again. Honestly, I could sit and watch my daughter lick sauce off of her fingers for hours on end. While she is not the neatest or the most tranquil coffee companion I can envision, she is far and away the most entertaining.

Now go to Jane's place and check out many, many more (undoubtedly more clever and creative) corner views from around the world!