Big Bones

Not to worry, Eliza has not suddenly morphed into a "big boned" person.  But, she did get to live out a dinosaur-loving-budding-paleontologist's dream and take a Behind the Scenes evening tour at the American Museum of Natural History and visit the Big Bone Room and the Preparation Room.  The place was awesome and the tour was even more special since her dino-loving friend Archie and his mom joined us on the adventure.

The place is pretty impressive and the bones housed in the Big Bone Room are 70 million to 210 million years old.  There are over 3 million dinosaur specimens at AMNH, and only about .02% are on display.  These are some specimens that no one, except those lucky enough to take the tour, get to see:

We met one of the AMNH Preparators (what a great job title!).  This guy has an awesome job since he gets the first peek at the fossils when they arrive at the museum, or in some cases, finally taken out of storage since there are thousands of specimens that have yet to be examined.  The Preparator essentially "unwraps" the fossil from its casing of plaster and earth and prepares the fossil for further examination.  Archie chimed in with some good questions for the Preparator about the tools he used for his job.

Our other tour guide was Carl, the Paleontology Collections Director.  Eliza asked Carl some pointed questions and advised him that Triceratops was related to Chasmosaurus and Protoceratops (which they are).  Not bad for a five year old!

In addition to the big bone collection, AMNH has a huge collection on loan from Mongolia, including Oviraptors with their eggs found in the Gobi Dessert.  The Gobi Dessert fossils are bleached white and the consistency of chalk.  Here is Carl with an Oviraptor fossil:

Did I mention Carl was there too?

We really liked Carl :)

If you are a lover of all things dino and paleontology, I highly recommend a night time Behind the Scenes tour at AMNH.  You can see more about the tour here.

Since I left my camera at home, the photos above are courtesy of some other kind folks.

Children of the Apples

Let's be honest, even though this is my daughter and she is pretty adorable, is this not a "Children of the Corn" look she is giving me?  Then again, the glare may have been designed to scare off the other pickers from the tasty Gala apples in the orchard.

Eliza has perfected the art of animal feeding and we only suffered the loss of some grain when we were attacked by the psychotic Emu. The goats however, were pretty happy to see us:

The alpacas were in a good mood (thanks to the food) and thankfully did not spit at us as they tend to do when annoyed incessantly by small children and large adults:

We found the actual Three Little Pigs and are pleased to report that all three houses were standing tall and there were no wolves in sight (note to the crafty people out there, it is amazing what you can do with an old dog house!):

Eliza was accompanied on her apple picking trip by a few of her "men."  They were all very compliant to her demands, orders and instructions but she did let Otto have some alone time "driving" the old tractor:

Eliza did take command of the life-size toy tractor and, like her grandfather, was quite the driver, although I didn't have the heart to tell her she was driving on the wrong side of the road:

The tractor ride dramatically improved when J joined Eliza and provided the appropriate tractor sound effects:

Otto and Eliza were pretty excited to carry the empty half bushel bags, but not so much when they were "heavy" ("heavy" meaning one apple in each bag):

And no trip to a farm in the fall is complete without a good maze to run through.  Eliza and B had a delightful time running through the maze and taking turns "winning" even though they are both winners:

Welcome to Kindergarten!

It's official.  Eliza is a Kindergartner! Eliza was none too pleased having to wake up an hour earlier than she did for preschool, but once she realized she got to wear her new backpack and meet her new friends, she was pretty excited.

Each morning for preschool, our building super and good friend, Zeljko, waits with us for Eliza's bus.  Since we were walking to school the first couple of days, she got a good luck hug and kiss from her buddy, who did not spill his Starbucks Vente coffee even as Eliza barreled into him!

Eliza's enthusiasm was pretty apparent as she ran down the street (diligently avoiding the cracks and lines since surely she does not want to break her mother's back or spine!).

Eliza is pretty good about playing freeze tag, so I didn't have to worry about her getting too far ahead!

Eliza had been to visit her school for orientation earlier, but the century old building looked grand in the morning sunlight.  She was so excited to see her new "big girl" school as we reached the corner.

Thanks to the confidence that Eliza gained in her two years at Gramercy School she was happy to enter her new classroom, found her coat hook in the closet and her cubby to store her supplies, introduced herself to her two teachers and her aide and cheerily announced to her classmates "I'm Eliza Grace and I am happy to meet you!"  She gave me a kiss good-bye and said she would see me after school.

Who would have thought that my tiny 1 pound 4 ounce baby, who was given a poor chance of survival, who overcame so much adversity in the NICU, who was delayed in achieving every milestone a baby and child should reach, would be going to school with her typical peers, with confidence and a smile on her face.

A whole new adventure begins.

Remember and Reflect

We're Back!

Thanks to Hurricane Irene our stay on Saba was extended by a week.  Irene paid us a visit early last week, before it headed to New York and Jet Blue decided is was prudent to cancel our flight rather than flying into "weather"  (isn't everything out there "weather"?), but I digress.

Eliza had a grand time with her Saba cousins, German cousins and Saba Best Friends.  I had a pretty good time too with family and wonderful neighbors.  At last count we barbecued about 40 pounds of ribs, 50 pounds of chicken, untold ears of corn and I even made fungi (polenta to you Americans) with the help of my neighbor Melisa.

We took a nice walk on the Dancing Trail before Hurricane Irene paid us a visit.  There are spectacular views and Eliza was quite good about not falling off the cliff!

We also ventured into the world of traditional handline fishing off of the Fort Bay Pier with some cousins.  Eliza caught her first fish and while it was definitely in the "catch and release" size category, it was a bit bigger than the fish her mentor Leonardo caught.

Hurricane Irene was nothing compared to Earl of last year.  There was a bit of wind, but no so much as to stop the Hell's Gate Women's Club from our usual 6 pm cocktail hour.

Eliza's swimming has improved and she was finally willing to give up her tube (unless it was for relaxing!).  We split our time between the Fort Bay and Cove Bay.  The Cove Bay was nice until it was inundated with seaweed.  So if you don't believe in Global Warming, just visit any Caribbean island and you can see that they are all awash in acres and acres of seaweed.  The kids didn't seem to mind though!

She does look a bit like she is adrift off the Titanic though!

 Beers on the beach:

Filling a dingy with the seaweed:

Sargassum Seaweed from the Sargasso Sea in the mid-Atlantic (the only "sea" not to surround a body of land) is all over the Caribbean, likely due to a change in currents and the warmer temperatures:

Despite the seaweed Eliza and her best buddy Maya enjoyed themselves everyday and particularly liked their sleepovers and were inseparable everyday.

While Eliza has not quite outgrown her hammock, I think it is fair to say she has outgrown taking a bath in the kitchen sink:

But despite the seaweed, the hurricane and the too tiny kitchen "tub" we enjoyed some beautiful rainbows and spectacular views everyday from our front porch.