happy birthday, penny!

another year has flown by and you, my dearest daughter, will be four years old when this is published.  year two of school, year four of bringing incredible joy and laughter to everyone you know.  this year has been one of incredible creativity.  you are constantly singing, dancing, drawing or telling stories.  you can now reach shelves, sit in a regular chair at the table, choose your own outfits, get yourself dressed, brush your hair & teeth, write your name and the names of everyone in your class.  you can put together a 25 piece puzzle with no picture for reference.  you can entertain yourself for hours at a time.  you can cut, glue, and tape.  at the beginning of the year, you took a notebook everywhere so you could take notes, which meant scribbling.  now you bring a notebook and write lists, draw pictures of what you see and actually take notes.  it's remarkable.  you are remarkable.  i look at you, and I cannot comprehend how I had a part in creating someone so lovely, so generous, so compassionate, and with so little interest in dessert.  seriously.  what is that about? 
penny, I love you.  i love your four year old face, and i am so excited to spend another year watching you learn and grow.  happy birthday, little one - i don't know how much longer i'm going to be able to call you that.

Snowy day!

Penny the candle lights the menorah!

The story of Thanksgiving, as told by Penny

Once upon a time, there was a very mean king. No one could do what they wanted to do how they wanted to do it. Everything had to be HIS way. The Pilgrims got on a big ship called the Mayflower, and sailed to America.
It was Winter, and they were freezing. They had no food and no houses. Do you think that they were happy? (pause for reply) The Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to plant food. They had a harvest. They had a big feast.

Happy Thanks-a-latke!

Here's the menorah Penny made in school and her list of things she's thankful for. I am thankful for all of these things, plus our continued health, our amazing daughter who can now write her own lists, and yarn.

bye bye, two boots

last night was the closing night of one of our beloved park slope institutions, two boots of brooklyn.  the restaurant was a kiddie paradise, with a window looking into the kitchen where the pizza chef tossed mini balls of dough to the onlookers; the whole place is done up in mardi gras decor; and the menu was child friendly to say the very least.  as of today, the alligator outside is gone and the space is closed until sometime in january, when it will open up as a more upscale something or another.  we went to ride the alligator one last time, order our last mac and cheese with trees, please, and get our last ball of dough from the window.

halloween (and beyond)

remember last year when we had big, exciting halloween plans that i couldn't wait to tell you about, but then i couldn't because hurricane sandy cancelled them?  i'm sure you do.  this year, we finally got to do what i have been DYING to do since we first heard about it - trick or treat at the American Museum of Natural History!  the one with the dinosaurs!  for real!

in each major hall of the museum there were two tables, one for trick or treating, and one for crafting.  penny made a halloween card:

a spooky tree:

a paper bag owl and a bookmark!  she got an amazing amount of candy, plus a toothbrush and toothpaste.
i asked penny to take a photo with the dinosaurs, and she told me that this is her fighting crime face:

we left the museum in time to trick or treat in park slope.  we caught the parade, got a ton more candy, and decided to head home just as it started to rain.  it was a GREAT halloween!

just for fun, i put together this collage of penny's halloween costumes throughout the years:

penny took a series of selfies with my phone:

sometime over the past week, penny has learned to write:

she has been practicing writing Ns for 20 minutes at a time, and wrote a thank you card for our friends where she wrote the words DEAR  KIRK AND LEAH and PENNY all by herself!  we had a great weekend, and even though the time change knocked her for a loop a little bit, penny has been an amazing person to be around - she's right on the brink of being able to read, she is polite and funny and generous, and she has taken it upon herself to clean up her room in the mornings.

also, she got a haircut!  and a new vest!