Nate Walks

Nate walked this morning. Not just a few steps either -- which he did over the weekend with Ron, Simma, Shana and me at Love's Folly -- we're talking walking down the hall and into rooms, his hands up by his elbows, his wrists bent like a drunk and his legs wobbling unsteadily and bird-like. Remember, he's 18 and 1/2 months old. To put this in context, some kids walk at a year or even 10 months. I know that at my first year birthday party, there is film of me running. For whatever reason, Nate was never interested in getting on his two feet. There were theories: the physical trainer-woman Jackie ruined him, or his crab-crawl got him where he wanted to go, or he was overly cautious, or he was simply resistant to what we urged him to do. It all seems rather goofy now. Of course he was going to walk. And with this, Nate grows up a little. Next up: diving to catch a ground ball up the middle, hopping up on his two feet, pivoting, and throwing that ball on a line to first base...

Daddy Dancing Ska

On this night, after Shana and I met our friends Marc, Aimee, Stephanie and Doug at Roberta's Restaurant in Bushwick, Marc had a ska gig nearby in an apartment which was illegally converted into an underground music venue. Shana went home to relieve the baby sitter, while I had some more drinks and danced to wicked ska in the front of the stage. I found out later that the whole thing is on video; there I am in the front, my ska moves on full display, just another Bushwick hipster tired of yuppies and corporate greed. When Nate sees this one day, he will be horrified, but he should be proud!

Nate with Nana

Nate spent the weekend with Nana and Grandpa in Huntington, as Shana and I took a little weekend getaway to Woodstock (gig with Bro Jo at the Bearsville Theater). Nate was in good hands. Before I left, me and my mom took Nate to Heckscher State Park in Huntington. It's got a lot of goose poop, but it's a cute park with lots of stuff for toddlers to look at and play with. Here's my mom holding Nate as he sits on a rocking horsy...

Nate and Mama

Nate and Shana hanging out in the bedroom.

Eat Play Nap Adventures

We're getting towards the end of winter and we're sick of being inside. The weekends are long if we don't get out of Brooklyn and staying in the apartment is a recipe for disaster. So on this date, we did what we're calling Eat Play Nap Adventures. These involve about a 4 hour excursion to a different part of town, involving something fun for Nate to do, pizza or the equivalent in kid-friendly food, and shopping for some delights that such neighborhood has to offer.

On this Sunday, coming home from a day and night spent on Long Island with my parents -- my foks were mostly out of town but that did not deter us from invading their house -- we thought we'd do Greenpoint. We consulted www.idreamofpizza.com, our favorite pizza blog and were reminded of Paulee Gee's, a top 10 in NYC pizza and near to Nate and Shana's favorite play center, Play. Nate napped in the car as we drove towards Play. As we hit Greenpoint, Nate was still sleeping. There's no way we were going to wake him so we kept on driving around, kind of aimlessly. Didn't we hear stories of our parents driving us around for no reason? Were we really doing this? We drove around Eastern Williamsburg. Then we drove to South Williamsburg. Then we headed to Long Island City. An hour later, after driving through an industrial area where bodies were likely buried and toxic waste dumped, we went to Play where Nate, well, played. But Paulee Gee's was only open for dinner. Damn it! So our pizza dream had to be exchanged for Greenpoint's famous Mac and Cheese place, Brooklyn Mac.

After, I phoned my buddy Dave Herman -- he lives in Greenpoint and seems to know every excellent thing to eat in every friggin' neighborhood in New York -- he directed us to a polish market where he shops regularly. Polaski Meat Market. Shana was delighted with this tip and we headed there in the cold. We bought soups, pierogies, bread and other polish essentials. Nate came home happy and enriched; he did Greenpoint well.

We will go back to Greenpoint though and get us some of that Paulee Gee's pizza very soon.

Nate at the Farm

Nate visited the little animal farm/plant garden store in Huntington. He squealed with delight as we got up close with roosters, ponies, chickens, ducks and goats.

Those roostes are no joke though, what with their loud bossy cockadoodledoo's. Who the hell do they think they are anyway?? Shut up!!!

Brooklyn Library Rock Concert with Aunt Margot

On this Saturday, we piled into the Prius and headed towards Prospect Heights to see the Idy Biddy's, a folky-clever-nerdy-kid-friendly 3 piece band (Shana is friends with the bassist (upright!) Saskia) at the Brooklyn Library. We'd never been there and it was kind of excellent, what with it's grand elegance and multitude of handicapped ramps. Margot met us there for the show.

After a tune or two, we brought Nate to the front of the stage and soon he found himself in a scrum of kids all dancing and carrying on in a kiddy mosh pit. He looked kind of bewildered. He balanced himself on the stage and peered up at the musicians. Chaos collided all around him. He didn't say much.

Indeed, Nate was kind of like that creepy music fan who plants himself in the front and doesn't react or sway or anything. Except Nate would try to grab one of the chords snaked on the stage. We think Nate had fun though at this point it's hard for him to convey when his vocab is essentially "Hi", "Dadda", "Mamma" and "Bye". It was good to hang with Margot though and for Nate to mix it up with his Aunt.