To pick up from the last time I posted, my parents took the boys and me to the Bronx Zoo last Thursday, which was the nicest day weather-wise. Seems to be a trend: the last time Nikita and I were in NYC (two years ago!), the weather was also best on our last day, and we went to the zoo. Nikita specifically requested to see the giraffes, lions, frogs, and snakes. The interest in reptiles was news to me. Of course, we also had to go to the Children's Zoo, where Nikita had a fantastic time, particularly on the rope spiderweb (though we had to wait quite a while until the school groups left) and the petting zoo. Vanya also had fun walking around. Our zoo trip was capped off with ice cream and a ride on the Bug Carousel.
In all, the trip was quite fun, and amazingly, marked a number of milestones for the boys. Nikita figured out how to buckle himself into his car seat. Vanya started feeding himself with a spoon, although the spoon often arrives at his mouth perpendicular to the floor.
This past week saw these milestones: successfully catching ants, and trying to climb into the bathtub. The latter scares me to death. Before, Ivan cried whenever I gave him a bath. Now, because he likes playing with the water so much, he cries when I take him out of his bath. And since I've forgotten to mention them earlier, he also likes to tickle people. Or at least try to. Instead, he pinches people, and says, "Tick, tick, tick". ECing is also going well. He grunts when he wants to pee, and he insists on peeing standing up.
As for me, I spent sleepless nights in NYC editing photos. All caught up on the ones on my camera. And I finished two books: A Box of Matches and Things I Learned from Knitting (Whether I Wanted to or Not). The books are super short, however. Now, when I wake up in the middle of the night, I read The Balloonist and a story from Tellers of Tales.
I *really* want to like Tellers of Tales. I tracked it down while reading a review of "John Lithgow: Stories by Heart"; the book was the Lithgow family Bible. The pages of the version I have are like rice paper, and it smells like a real book (pointed out to me by a colleague). Reading the table of contents is like reading a who's who of literature: Poe, Chekhov, Forster... I wasn't inspired by the stories, however, until I read "The Happy Prince" by Oscar Wilde the other night. So, I'm suspending judgment.
Yesterday, I was in the bookstore, and came upon two other short story collections: Points of View (memories of high school?) and The Art of the Tale. There is also The Granta Book of the American Short Story. Which one to include in my list of Nightstand Books for Guests?
