i'm a republican

last week, after romney made his ill-informed "47%" comment, i was reading something on the washington post and his picture was on the front page.  siri asked, "who is that?"  i thought i should take advantage of this moment and do a little civics 101.  so, i quickly searched for a picture of obama, and told her he's the president of the united states.  siri has a good understanding about countries and knows that we live in the united states.  okay, that was easy enough.  her next question -- "what's a president?"  oh shit.  i didn't really know how to describe that role in an age-appropriate way.  i said he's kind of like the parent or boss of the united states, and romney (toggling between both pictures) also wants to be president.  siri thought about it for a second then wanted to know why they couldn't share. i then tried to describe divergent political parties saying that only one person from a party can be president a time.  i also told her the two primary parties are democrats and republicans.  then, she wanted to know the difference between them.  so, in my quick response to appease the three-year-old, i said "well, republicans don't really like sharing with other people, and democrats are a little better about sharing."  siri: "oh, i like republicans.  i'm a republican."

we then had a little age-appropriate lesson on sharing and why it's important to share.  she argued that she shouldn't need to share with strangers and she would only share with people she knew.  i validated her argument, but then presented a very dumbed down inequality scenario of someone who is less fortunate, and even if we don't know them, we should share for the better of society.  her response to that: "i'm a republican."

Clarence Fahnestock

we just returned from camping at clarence fahnestock state park with a colleague from my department and some of her friends.  each family had a kid around the same age, and they played together beautifully.  we sort of love group camping.  the state park was only a short hour or so drive to get there and back, and it was absolutely beautiful.  the landscape here is a lush and gorgeous...just getting ready for the brown soon.

siri at campsite #1

here's our tent!  the rain fly came in handy as it rained from about 9:30pm - 4am.  we didn't get wet, although the corners of the inside were a bit damp

siri and her beloved emilio

beaver tracks!

"fishing" for trout

closeup of beaver tracks.  it was pretty awesome-looking

lone mushroom in the wild

someone brought around her new umbrella.  mommy spent a long time researching umbrellas, and we decided on hatley

the kids "posing": alex, siri and oscar (parents in background: jasmina, carolina, ted and jeff)

cool-looking moss

campfire/headlamp fun

roasting marshmallows before bed

late morning stroll

small brook

the kids being silly: emilio, oscar, siri, and alex.  note siri's fishing pole.  i made one for each of the kids as a part of our morning activity.  after a few hours of pretend fishing at our campsite, we could only find siri's.  not sure what the boys did with theirs.  

fishing with phil

emilio and siri getting ready to check out a den

Fall - ish

i'm not sure that it is officially fall, but we've been feeling it in the air here in nyc.  we'd forgotten what it was like to feel and smell fall, and it was great.  the weather changed rather abruptly, or so that was how it felt to us.  one day it was hot and humid, and the next was crisp and cool.  i'm really enjoying this late summer/early fall weather, and am bracing myself for what comes next.  some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

someone held up her end of the bargain for night time training and got this awesome scooter as reward

practicing scooting

big girl on scooter

racing daddy 

first day of prek, getting ready to leave our place

on the subway

medium-sized kid

so excited about prek

proudly standing outside of new school

wearing mommy's cardigan while being held by daddy

scooting around in carroll gardens after chinese school and brunch

on swingset at the old stone house playground

we stop by mommy's office each morning before going to school

and play with fun things like the mouse (about which siri was initially confused but quickly learned its function)

Catskills

We took advantage of Labor Day weekend by camping in the Catskills.  It was a nice getaway from the city, and at various times, we'd forgotten we were in New York.  Upstate is quite gorgeous.

our campsite and zipcar for the weekend, pritzkar

not entirely sure bees know how to read

daddy teaching siri how to trap water skippers

siri and a pretty rock (we let her keep it)

footbridge

first s'mores ever!

family of dorks

hiking the kaaterskill falls

dipping siri's hand into the water

hiking to the second level of the falls: where rip van winkle slept

hiked up by myself (sans jeff and siri)

going behind the falls

came out the other side

the amphitheater -- tons of people were relaxing in the pool here

i'd like to imagine this is where van winkle slept

right next to this

me again

back to our car

gorgeous view

child woke up from her nap in the car and immediately pulled her blanket over her face and continued sleeping

town of phenicia

river

outside some store

roasting marshmallows for dessert