Portrait of a Three Year Old

Fishy February

February 8th we took a drive to the pier in Dunkirk for something to do, since the sun was shining despite the blanket of snow on the ground, and Adriana got her first chance to fish. It's sad she wasn't able to do it with my father, since he loved fishing so much and loved it even more when he had the opportunity to teach a little girl (first my sister Maria, then me, my cousin Ann and finally Gabriela). In a way, though, it seemed like he was there - as if he had cast a line down from heaven and said to these burly but kind men on the docks, "Hey. This is my grandkid, and somebody's got to show her what fishing's all about. Help me out, would ya?" Three different guys showed Adriana their fish, poles and minnows, and one guy even let her reel two or three fish in. They were biting hard that day, since the water was warm (or so I was told). She absolutely loved it, as all kids do.

January 30

Dressing up in Daddy's clothes, inspired by the cover of the book Father to Daughter, a gift Jodi gave to Mark at one of our showers.





Teenager.

Adriana loves watching movies now. Her favorites are Shrek, Shrek II, Shrek the Third and Shrek. But she's also watched Cinderella, Snow White, Ice Age, Ice Age II: The Meltdown and Ratatouille. We tried to take Disney's The Little Mermaid out from the library, but ended up with the Shirley Temple version instead, which Adriana watched three nights in a row with Grandma, after having watched it once at home.

“Happiness is the longing for repetition.”

-Milan Kundara, via ThinkExist.com

Static

Yes, things around here have been a little static, but that's not what I'm referring to. I've lost a little interest in Adriana's blog, which by no means indicates that I've lost interest in Adriana, but rather have been focusing more on actually being together rather than worrying about documenting every second of our lives, for two reasons: one, she's older now, and her changes are not less significant (learning how to walk is a big deal, and very obvious) but more subtle (expressing yourself in a more complex way is also a big deal, but more abstract). Also, this blog is deeply tied emotionally for me to our time as a family, and since Mark and I are splitting, I want a sort of fresh start that I'm not sure continuing here allows. But I don't want the end to just fizzle out, I think there needs to be some sort of proper wrap-up, so let me catch you up on a few things, mostly via photo and video.



Now that's static! Adriana in Daddy's new place, enjoying the electromagnetism.

Here she is, that same night, Inauguration Day (January 21), talking about Obama's presidency:

Triptych

Hannah Montana

New York City

Two weeks ago, the three of us went to New York for a long weekend. Our lovely friend Adira let us stay at her place while she and her husband Bram were in Holland. Here are some shots of us waiting for the train, which also happens to run right through Adira and Bram's back yard. (You may remember how much Adriana loved that facet of the house from the last time we stayed at Adira's place.) The shot on the bottom right is Adriana and I screaming with the dinosaur at Toys-R-Us in the background. We had a lot of fun there as always, walking through the Barbie castle and playing with the Thomas stuff.



Another thing Adriana loved the last time we were in Ridgewood was playing with the Amram-Muller bridal ukulele's. Here's a funny video with one starring Adriana that I call "Guitar Hero."

Mark's New Apartment

I made a short slideshow of Mark's new place. Adriana has her own little room there. (It's still our family home until mid-February, anyway.) It's very cozy. You can check it out here:

And here are some pics from the night Adriana sang in the Rudolph/Frosty video:

EXISTENTIAL PARENTING CRISIS

This is a little piece I submitted to Reader's Digest the other day. Who knows if they'll bite, so I thought I'd post it here just in case.

The morning started like any other, with the gurgling of the coffee maker and a humble breakfast of bread and cheese. My husband Mark and I were just hanging around the kitchen, gazing out the window at the grey January sky, when our three-year-old Adriana interrupted the silence.

Adriana: Nobody outside thinks I’m pretty!

Me: I’m sorry, what?

Adriana: Nobody outside is lookin’ at me!

Me: But we haven’t even left the house yet!

Adriana: But nobody doesn’t think I’m beautiful!

Okay, wow. I don’t even know how to address this statement. A double negative? Who is teaching this kid grammar?!

Me: Everyone thinks you’re beautiful. Why do you think Brian threw snowballs at you yesterday? Because he thinks you’re cute.

Adriana: But nobody even saw my nail polish!

Mark: Yes, Brian saw it yesterday…

Me: …and the lady at Starbucks commented on it right away!

Mark: That was a lady?

Me: No, a different lady. There was a woman there.

Mark: Oh.

Me: Anyway, everyone thinks you’re beautiful.

Adriana: But nobody thinks my old clothes are pretty.

Alright, now I’m really stumped. How could she be thinking these things? Has advertising somehow infiltrated her three-year-old consciousness? But this is why we don’t watch the Disney channel! She watches only limited amounts of PBS and wears practical but fashionable clothing bought on-sale at The Children’s Place. Where have I gone wrong?

Me: Adriana, life isn’t about being beautiful like that. It’s nice when you have your nails done and your hair looks good and you have new clothes on, but you’re beautiful because you’re a beautiful person. On the inside. So that’s that.

Adriana just smiled and bounced off, back into her bedroom. The gurgling of the coffee maker subsided in favor of the toddler babble I’ve become so accustomed to as my background soundtrack. A ray of sunlight crept in through the window, and peace was restored again.

Interwoven

This is something Adriana said to her father yesterday, as dictated to me by Mark:

Jesus died just like Grandpa and rose from the dead, but my Grandpa didn't rose. Grandpa was a carpenter and had rosy cheeks in the winter, not in the summer when he was alive.

All that after only having gone to church three or four times in her life. Whew! Kids connect things in the most brilliant ways. There are so many parallels: Rose/rosy cheeks, Dad/Jesus were both carpenters, No rosy cheeks in the summer - Dad didn't live through the winter. Fascinating. It's interesting - I wonder how much Adriana actually remembers my Dad and how much of this is her hearing us discussing him (and his death). Either way, as long as she's not sad or morose about it, I think it's sweet that she has a lingering notion of Grandpa. After all, he was a guy who left a big impression on everyone he met.

Rudolph/Frosty

This was taken last week. There's always some "holiday hangover" with Adriana, which I guess makes sense. She probably thinks, if we spend a week or maybe several weeks leading up to a holiday being excited about it, why not stay excited about it for a week or two afterwards? So here she is, singing Christmas songs well after New Year's. This is probably my favorite video so far:



I mean, look at that BELLY! Adriana was eating 6 times a day or something last week and the week before. She's my little hungry, hungry hippo! She's not at all fat, but it's just funny to see the baby that was once too skinny ("You must switch to formula!" said in French accent) with a little tummy on her. Too much beer New Year's Eve, I guess.

The Dresser Song

Here's a slideshow I made to a recording of me singing "The Dresser Song." It's our bedtime ritual. Some people pray, but we sing goodnight to the people we love, which is really the same thing.


The Dresser Song from CarolynCastiglia on Vimeo.

Ring in the New Year!

Adriana and I went to visit Jodi in Cleveland for New Year's, as it's only two hours away from Fredonia. Jodi had lovely Christmas gifts waiting for both of us: me, a beautiful pair of earrings bought at "The J," where Jodi spends most of her time teaching Pilates, and for Adriana, a princess doll by Melissa and Doug. So sweet!



Adriana and Jodi were like two peas in a pod right away, with Jodi teaching Adriana Pilates and giving her a bounce on her Yoga ball:



Shortly after we arrived, we headed out to Mint Cafe, a nearby Thai place. We had a fun walk in the snow - and the food was delicious!




Somebody suckered somebody into carrying somebody, but I won't name any names.




Adriana and Jodi looking wistfully in the window of Big Fun, a gigantic toy store across the street from the cafe that was closed the entire time we were there. Next time!


Big Fun knows what's up.


Yummy! Honestly, I think I had the best Thai food of my life in Cleveland Heights. Makes me hungry just thinking about it!


HAPPY NEW YEAR! Jodi kept pimping Adriana to say that to everyone we saw in the hopes we'd get free food/drinks. Adriana got a candy cane out of the deal, so I guess it worked.


Adriana loved the "noodles" (Pad Thai) and appetizers (Golden Bags - so suggestive).


Um... I plead the 5th.

Adriana went to bed around 10, and since Jodi doesn't have cable, she and I stayed up watching Burn After Reading. At 12:02 I said, "Oh, Happy New Year!" It was right that our celebration was low key. I can't think of a nicer way to ring in the new year than with an old friend.

The next morning, we went to Starbucks and enjoyed drinks while we all wrote out our resolutions. Adriana seems resolved to spend 2009 doing a lot of scribbling.



Jodi drove us around the city, which is much bigger and more beautiful than I ever imagined, then we met her friend Jared and his friend Michelle for brunch at a place called Grumpy's. Again, delish!


Adriana and Jared had fun playing Tic Tac Toe.



By the time we left, Jodi had covered Adriana in girly trinkets: glittery lips she could clip to her jacket, handkerchiefs, a purse. Adriana was overwhelmed by Jodi's kindness and said in the car, "That was so nice of her." Aww. Second-generation BFFs!

Leftovers

It's taken me so long to get the pictures from Christmas and New Year's up! What can I say? I'm shuttling around all the time, I helped Mark move - I had to drive to Oswego yesterday to meet the divorce lawyer - I'm trying to write my show that I have to perform February 5th... there's a lot going on. But I still have my head above water, and most importantly, I'm really looking forward to the future. Just a few more months and there will be some normalcy. My friend Jen just said, "I don't know about you, but I think good things are coming in 2009." I replied, "Let me put it this way: the past two years have been so crappy, there's nowhere 2009 can go but up." Let's just say I'm poised to have a fabulous 2010. Ha.

Some pre-Holiday remnants:



Adriana and Grandma made cookies after Gab's recital!



Didn't Gab look so beautiful at her recital? Here's what she was secretly sporting underneath her fancy dress:



Kids! Can't live with 'em, can't get them to keep marker off their bodies. Even at 11 years old. (I keep telling you... the tattoos are coming! I think I'll just tattoo Adriana next year when I take her to get her ears pierced. That way, at least I get to pick her ink. I'm thinking Caillou with a music note... or maybe Elmo smoking a blunt.)

***

CHRISTMAS EVE AT GRANDMA'S!



No doubt Adriana looked absolutely stunning Christmas Eve. (And us two old broads don't look half-bad ourselves, if I may say so.) But boy-oh-boy did she sound awful... she cried through almost the entire mass until right after communion. Never doubt the holiness of a priest - that man blessed her and she fell right asleep!



Here are the cookies and milk we left out for Santa:



Lo and behold, they were gone the next morning!



I should also say, the threat of Santa skipping our house because she was not asleep was not enough to get Adriana to close her eyes Christmas Eve. What finally got her? Cookies for breakfast. Desperate women make desperate offers.



Adriana with her presents from Santa! She got a lot of great presents this year, from family members as well as the big man himself. Here she is in her prized Hannah Montana bathrobe with a "candy can."



We had a beautiful dinner Christmas Day with Maria, Howard and Gab. Our party was small, but change is in the air. I told Howard, he was literally "the man" for the day. What an honor!


The table, before we ate Grandma and Maria's delicious food.

We went to Watertown December 26th, and even tho I brought the camera, I didn't take a single picture! What a shame. It was so nice to see April and Judy - and my mom came, which was awesome, because the Neujean Mother-Daughter team got to brag all about The Edible Schoolyard. My mom was so proud to see pictures of April with her hero, Emeril "Bam!" Lagasse. Next time, we meet in NOLA, ladies! I promise!


That's it for now! New Year's coverage and new apartment to come!