FAMILY NIGHT AT MOMA

At first pass, that sounds wrong. A family night at the Museum of Modern Art? A bunch of kids running around, hopped up on cookies amongst masterpieces from over a century ago? Would they try to climb into the helicopter suspended from the ceiling? Would they try to drive the Indy race car mounted to the wall?

Don't know, but our kids didn't, and we had a great time. We took Bella and her good friend Caleb to MOMA for an after hours event. In retrospect, it was perfect. There were stations in almost every room of art for kids to sit and observe a work, and then respond to it using aluminum foil, straws, pencils, tiny mirrors and the like to recreate or create new works.












































And best of all, the swarms of tourists were absent so those of us who wanted to up close and personal for a few minutes with a piece could do that, too. As much as I thought I'd never say it: we'll be back for the next Family Night at MOMA!

YEAR OF THE DRAGON

One of the nice aspects of life in New York City is that we get to celebrate a New Year seemingly every two to three months. Yes, there's the Jewish new year, the regular New Year, but the one that really knows how to start with a bang is the Chinese New Year.

This year, Bella and her dad went down to Chinatown for a dim sum brunch with her friends Colin and Alex and their parents. Bella's dad ate more food than he thought possible, and still managed to walk to the parade route and stand with Bella on his shoulders for two hours. Superdad!

We spent a lot of time next to this first dragon. We were on a side street from which bands and karate kids and dancers and cars with women perched on them would enter the main parade route. The sidewalks were mad packed - meaning they were really crowded - and people kept throwing snap-n-pops and this poppers that shot confetti into the air. This dragon was about 25 feet long and had six or seven people operating it.



































These second dragons were kind of lame, but they were dancing - lamely - with a minor orchestra of percussionists and chime/gong players who knew what they were doing and had obviously practiced. They represented the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Trans-Gender Asian Society (or something akin to that) and people walking with them carried the greatest signs about family I almost wept.

Ah yes, commercialism was alive and kicking in the Year of the Dragon parade. Ronald McDonald was there surrounded by b-boy dancers. When he saw Bella (now standing on a temporary metal fence) he gave her this thumbs up and said "I like those shoes" to her. This from a guy wearing giant red shoes.



















Oh, here's the boots she was wearing that day. On sale for $40 at Harry's Shoes for Kids! Turns heads everywhere we go...

DAREDEVIL!

Yes, we've known for quite some time that Bella is a daredevil at heart. She likes to prove it each time she encounters some new playground equipment or park or obstacle. If there is a way to climb over, swing from, slide down or ride fast - she will try it whether her parents (or grandparents) give it their blessing.

But, Bella usually knows what's she doing, and stays out of trouble in such predicaments. She knows what her body is capable of, knows perfectly well she "has great balance" (she told us this while hiking one day), and pretty amazing strength. In fact, I don't know of a time when she bit off more than she could chew on a playground and came away with anything more than a bump on the bottom when she fell.

Last summer, her goal was to master swinging from the monkey bar rings at Hippo Park. And she got it. She was so proud of herself. That became all she wanted to do, and folks would actually gather to watch her artfully swinging her body from ring to ring. Moms were amazed that she was only three-and-a-half, other kids that thought she was too little to do the rings ate their words, and her parents just sat back and enjoyed the show.






















Since then, as you can see...































































... she's tackled plenty of obstacles and tricks and stunts, and so far so good.

That last shot in the snow was of Bella right before she made her first solo sledding trip down the hill beside Hippo Park. I tried to convince her that we should ride together, or that I should ride beside her in the other sled. But she would have none of it. So praying that her mother didn't find out - and that nothing terrible happened - I gave her a little push. She started zooming downhill, and bumped out of the sled about 100 feet away, crying. I ran down to her side. She was scared, but mostly concerned that she got snow blown up in her face. For the next hour, she rode with me with a washcloth over her face - sledding blind - and loving every minute of it.

As for the horse swing picture. The horse swing is named Gunsmoke. He lives across the street from Izzy & Bud. And, yes, this was the first time Bella's mom saw her on it. However, she's been riding Gunsmoke with Bud since she was two. Giddy up!

BELLA YEAR FOUR

Finally - FINALLY! - got around to putting this together. What a year!




More posts coming soon... I've got a week off!

PS: In case the embed above does not work, here's a link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwjlJrFUwlo