bearshorty | Sunday, June 14, 2015

Friday

I'm not a very girly person. I rarely go to nail salons, for example. I can paint my toes myself and I don't generally like nail polish on my fingernails. I went before my wedding and I can't think of another time. My Mom, however, was insisting I go, especially since I'm going to Broadway next week. And since I was over their house, she would watch Tanya anyway. She started feeling under the weather on Thursday but on Friday morning she still told me to go like we planned since taking a walk with Tanya made her feel better.

So I went. I had to wait almost an hour. Pedicures are nice but I still find the whole process pretty tedious. I got peach color for the toes to match my new dress and light pink for my fingernails so that it looks shiny but natural colored. I still rather save $30 (tips included).

I also stopped by Baby R Us next door to get more baby food jars and squeeze tubes. Most fruit though she can eat as is. I give her apricot to bite a bit and peach. She likes a bit of finger food now.

When I got back home after almost three hours, my Mom was feeling much worse. She had a sore throat and her temperature was slightly elevated. She went downstairs to isolate herself and to rest. Initially she was thinking that my Dad should just drive Tanya and I home but we later decided that since she can stay in relative isolation on the ground floor, where my parents sleep in the summer anyway, it would be fine for us stay another day as planned. Papa came home early from work though. We had more baby pool time in the backyard.

In the evening, I managed to watch the first episode of the new season of 'Orange is the New Black'. I missed those characters. And it was a nice episode too. Can't wait for the whole thing. I can't binge watch; so I get to savor it.

Saturday
In the last 10 years, Staten Island really renovated the beach area. It's super nice. I used to roller blade there a lot when I was living with my parents. It's only 5-10 minutes away by car. In the last year they built a few fancy playground with 3 play areas for different ages and also a tiny amusement park with 4 rides for very small kids. My Dad' wish was to take Tanya there.

So on Saturday, after her lunch, my Dad and I and Tanya went. We just went on the little train ride. Free adult with tiny kids - so that was fun. She liked it too. Then we went to the playground for the swings and baby slide. After her nap and dinner (where she ate a gigantic bowl of her baby soup), we packed and my Dad drove us home. Usually my Mom packs but since she was still in self imposed isolation, I had to do it. There are many things to remember from clothes to food. My Mom is starting to feel better today.

Sunday
I saw yesterday that there was a rain forecast for Monday. We rescheduled aquarium after it rained on my birthday and now it would be raining on Bear's birthday too. So we decided to just go today, despite crowds. And Tanya seems to love people (if she is an extrovert it would be very weird, since both Bear and I are introverts - Bear more introverted than me).

We had a normal morning where I even managed to watch some 'Agents of Shield' at breakfast, and left closer to one o'clock. Bear went to the store before that and then made sandwiches to take with us. The aquarium is a very short train ride away.

We saw the big fish tank with some nice middle size fish and sting rays; then we saw smaller lake fish and giant lake fish. I got hungry so we went outside and up to the table area to eat. Then we watched a walrus show. Tanya liked to watch the fish but was paying attention to other people more than to the walrus. We went back to inside aquarium again and looked at more fish like piranhas and coral fish.

Then it was time for a nap. We took a Bjorn with us so Bear can put her with back to him to watch the fish better. I tried using that for nap time, with her facing me, and it worked out really well. She hated the Bjorn when she was tiny but now she likes it. She napped for an hour, hanging on me while I walked aound looking at sea lions and tiny penguins. Most penguins were hanging on the rocks but one was swimming. It made me realize that I never really saw one swim that much.

At 3pm, we went for a Sea Lion Show. She woke up just before it started. She wasn't looking much at the first sea lion, she was looking around at people more but she definitely enjoyed the second, bigger one.

After the show, which was really fun, we went back to the tables to feed her. She ate some veggie chicken soup jar and then I nursed her. She is starting to wean herself. She doesn't want any milk at 11am meal and doesn't drink much during the other meal times either. Water is more fun, especially out of the grown up plastic bottle. (I hold it and control the water flow, of course) Morning and night time nursing are still good.

After her meal, we saw the temporary shark tank with six sharks. The aquarium was devastated by Hurricane Sandy so they are rebuilding right now. They used to have a much bigger shark tank. But now they are building a giant one, so it gave them a chance to really redesign.

We went home around 5. She started getting cranky in her stroller, so I put her in the Bjorn again. And we got ice cream from the ice cream truck before our short train ride back. It was really fun despite the crowds.

Dante Project
Inferno. Canto 4

Dante enters the first circle of hell - Limbo for those born before Christ or unbaptized.

I read it last Tuesday but didn't have a chance to jot down thoughts. Let's see. Limbo is such an unfair concept, especially for babies. All those people could not make choices. I guess this level of hell is just similar to the Greek afterlife. It doesn't sound very bad. You hang out with pretty interesting and famous people. Dante, of course, fan boy that he is, hangs out with famous poets and just puts himself among their group.

I don't remember the castle at all - I'm paying attention to the background more. I've read this book twice before but only now I finally got that the rings of hell are actual rings, with abyss in the middle. For some reason I pictured them as whole circles before. The hole is the middle didn't occur to me.

When Dante woke after passing out, he was all refreshed. That was not my experience. My head was woozy for like a week.

I didn't need to use footnotes to understand Greek and Roman references this time. That was pretty fun to realize. He didn't mention Aristotle by name but I knew who he meant. Yay, education and learning Latin.