A plug for seatbelts

They're not just for cars, folks. Last week, I left Evelyn unbuckled in her stroller for the first time while cruising through the Met. (For anyone who was wondering, "Washington Crossing the Delaware" is in storage until 2009, but we got to see the giant yellow balloon dog and lots of superhero costumes, so it worked out OK). We left around closing time, along with hundreds of other people of course. Not wanting to block traffic,* I thought, I'll just wait until we're across the street and then stop to buckle her in. Of course, while stepping onto the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street we hit a mini-pothole not easily navigable with stroller-sized wheels. She tumbled forward onto the concrete. Judge all you want. You won't be the first. That honor goes to the man walking in front of us, who turned around and stared with a combination of horror and disdain for a full 3 minutes or so as I tried to calm her before continuing on our way. I expect a call from CPS any day now.

Ruth said, "You probably shouldn't blog about this one." But when your blog is stereotypically devoted to your kid, it's difficult to post anything if your kid has road rash on her face. And by this time, I think I've probably told pretty much everyone within a 2-mile radius what happened anyway. We get a lot of questions. Lying seemed like a bad idea, and it's hard to explain how a child can fall out of a stroller without some negligence on the caregiver's part. Learn from my mistake. Buckle up.

It's amazing how quickly her face has healed, actually. So much more quickly than my scrapes and bumps fade. Just look at the difference between these pictures from one and two days later versus yesterday's pictures, below.

July 31

August 1

Yesterday we headed to the Children's Museum for a little 10-month birthday celebration. I knew she was too young for most of the exhibits there, but they do have a little baby play place, and I thought it would be good for both of us to go somewhere new. I think she enjoyed herself.

She saved some sea turtles with Diego

Rocked out at Dora's fiesta party

And then found one of her favorite toys - a baby! - in the baby play place

After all that excitement, she completely refused to take her afternoon nap yesterday, which left both of us more than a little frazzled, leading to my calling John at 5:30 and telling him that if at all possible he really, really needed to come home and put the baby to bed and let me go do something else (first time in 10 months that I've done this). Thank you, honey. He is a both kind and wise man.

*Yes, traffic. In a city where most people commute, run errands, and go about all their other business with a combination of walking and public transportation, sidewalks are major roads. Please don't stop in the middle of a busy sidewalk and just stand there. Would you stop your car in the middle of the freeway during rush hour? Exactly. Particularly, don't do it with 5 of your closest friends. Not only is it excessively annoying, but it also marks you a tourist and easy prey for pickpocketers (especially if you spend your sidewalk-blocking time talking loudly about things like where is Seredipity/Toys R Us/Times Square/the Empire State building or the dirtiness of the streets or how confusing you find the subway system).