nerd to be

My first sledding advanture, and my first snowman. At home, anyway. But my daddy and I were cold, so we kind of just sledded in front of the house, and made a baby Frosty. This was our 6th snow of the season (and it’s not even Christmas!) adding another 16 inches to the already large sum of white stuff from the sky - until it all freezes into ice tomorrow when it is 20 below (F, which is more than 30 below in C - granted this includes the wind chill, but STILL). But it does make for pretty photos and hot cocoa in front of the fire!

sledding, weeee!

baby Frosty

pooped (snow angels)

See more snowy photos here.

Sid-a-Nonie Ridgway Stern - 2 1/2 years old.

Nonie’s favourite things:

Tapping my forehead like Pooh and saying, “fink, fink!” Oh, and speaking of Pooh, I love Lumpy (the baby Heffalump - which is kind of like an Elephant - in the new movies).

Telling stories (I always begin with, “One little time” and end with “the end”.)

Halloween (dressing up, trick or treating, going to parties).

I ride so well I can do it in a tutu now.

Obama (yah! and it makes Daddy smile, a lot.)

Yay, we won, we won, we won.

Singing (especially Old Mac Donald, Frosty the Snowman and Rock-a-bye Baby).

Puppets (sock, finger, and my “just pretend” hand puppet, “Bobbie”).

Bathing (”I big, I swim”).

Making houses and having tea parties.

My house, come in, please.

Friends (at Lifeways — my creche — and Isaac — who I spent Thanksgiving with. We also had a make-Christmas-cookies playdate. We like “hanging out” and “chillin” — Daddy is teaching me a lot of American slang).

Hide and seek (most especially when we run into the closet, taking “tiny, little tiger” to hide from “big bad tiger, he huge”).

Snow (we’ve had five snows so far and although it can be “so cold” and I wish it was “too warmer,” I like it a lot and cope better than Daddy and Mummy.)

Dancing (to everything, with everyone, but especially to “They Might be Giants” … see video post below).

Food (broccoli and olives, and Parmesan and Asagio, and chickpeas and cumin, and marshmallows. Did I mention marshmallows? More, please).

Having my ow-ies (real and imagined) kissed a lot (and bandaids, I like them a lot).

Saying, “I don’t like it.”

Holding up a finger in a rather schoolmarmish way and saying, “I’ll be right back”, “Just a minute”, “Not do it that way”.

Going to parades.

Christmas Parade, Downtown Milwaukee

Putting up our Christmakkah Tree and opening my chocolate advent calendar.

Having my haircut in a salon!

I love this look!

Running, jumping, laughing, teasing, tickling and being tickled. Reading, and playing with my toys, and talking (a lot) and helping with the dishes and vacuuming.

Oh, and of course, cards and presents.

Happy holidays one and all. Love and Hugs!

More pics here or as a slideshow here.

Nonie and Abrianna went trick or treating at the Zoo! See pi and a slideshow below….

I’m a butterfly!

Boo!

So here are 150 photos or so, in slideshow format, from July - October of this year, covering our last days in Dublin, the stopover in Switzerland, our lovely trip to see family and friends in South Africa, and the start of our new life in Milwaukee (via NYC).

Click below to play.

My fans can also view them one-by one and for print-out from here.

Mommy and daddy told me to apologize for their lack of postings lately. We are about to go on holiday and visit family in Zurich and South Africa, then it’s time for the big move to Milwaukee!

Here is daddy’s post on our holiday in Belfast. And here are more photos from that trip.

Here are some great photos from my Second Birthday, including visits from Baba (Granny Jeanette) and Papa-p (Grandpa Phil). A sample:

And, just to keep you fully up to date,  photos of: some other visiting friends, my good friend Solana’s b-day party, and early spring.These have all been up for some time, but Daddy hopes to post more pics, perhaps even some video, before we leave on Monday….

The details are slowly trickling in via (brief) transnational phone calls and texts from daddy’s not so tech savvy family, but it sounds like Leonardo Mazzola was born around 5:15 5:00 AM EST, 5 and a half 5.7 pounds (he’s little, but strong! 3.5 weeks early, is all). We’ll get a pic up when we have it - he’s in for quite a ride. Congratulations Aunt Sam and Uncle Emy! I can’t wait to meet Leo!

Yay, sun!

For. A. Day. (sigh)

In celebration of the first no-rain-day of 2008 (in February!), I thought I would give the avid followers of all things Sidonie a sense of a few of my favorite things. Or at least, as they stand today in the ever-changing Sidonie-ness that is me:

My bike: for me and sometimes others

Calling myself “Nonie” and naming “Nonie’s” things

All fish - actual, virtual, animated and drawn (”Meemo” - er, Nemo - rules!)

Speaking of fish, I love the part in “Nemo” when they say they are looking for Sydney - I always shout “Me!” and point at myself delightedly

Making Mummy be a train and using her legs as a bridge. Daddy screams “toot toot!”

“Dih,” also known as Stitch from Lilo and Stitch - I like to watch him dancing to Elvis on YouTube

Jumping (I can’t get off the ground yet but I fling my head back and yell as if I can)

The concepts (and saying the words, of course) of “mine,” “more,” and “me”

Laughing, making people laugh, smiling at people on the bus, charming cashiers, and making friends on the “deedaw” in the park (seesaw for those who don’t speak sid)

Tea parties with my plushies and water play in the sink (”bah” still equals water)

Glancing from under my lashes to see if my pouting is working

Standing in the buggy and letting my hair blow in the wind (a romantic like both of my rents)

Wearing Daddy’s shoes

Flinging my hands to my mouth and melodramatically declaiming, “Oh No!”

Eating leek and potato soup, star spinach and ricotta ravioli, peas, vanilla yogurt and, horror of horrors (says Mummy), I climbed on the chair and crawled halfway across the dining room table to nab some chocolate (which I am developing a taste for when no one is watching)

Putting lip ice on my chin

Finding the stars in the sky

Playing with balls (I am good at kicking and throwing, but not so much with the catching, yet — watch this space)

Walking funny, practicing the splits, standing on tippy toes, spinning around, doing rolypoly on the floor, and DANCING!

Playing run, hide and boo!

Flinging my changing mat over my shoulders like it is a cape (I saw that in a movie Mummy was watching last night)

Learning new stuff like “two” and “up/down” and “red, blue and green”

Practicing words first thing before I have even woken up properly, especially fun ones like “elbow” and “light”

Making a huge mess but insisting that certain things be in their place, like my buggy (I am my parents’ child)

NOT brushing my teeth (especially, to my mother’s dismay, after eating chocolate)

(link: more new photos here)

pink with flamingoes

chrismakkah bush

emo daddy and pensive mommy

santa is it my turn yet? and ta, santa

matthew and sidonie solving the problems of the world

More new photos here.

Click for a lo-res, phone-grabbed video of our wobbler, walking about in our cabin in Kasterlee, Belgium.

I missed daddy so much I tried to start walking my way to Croatia!!! But I only got about 5 steps… Still, mommy and daddy are so proud! Click to play…

.

That’s right, as my first birthday present to myself, I stood and walked several steps from my aunt to my ouma with no help or support. I AM SUCH A ROCK STAR.

Just a few pics from the celebration (thanks to my god-mommy for the party favors, to all my grand-folks for their wishes and gifts):

So there I was, only 364 days old (doll)…

… when suddenly my world turned upside down!

AUNT SAMANTHA! (we love Aunt Samantha. she was waiting for me when I woke up.)

As you can imagine, today is an exciting day. I’ve already gotten so many lovely emails and text messages from family and friends all over the world; I’m verklempt, totally knotted up…

Ouma and Oupa also arrived last night, and I’m looking forward to seeing them again (promise to upload pics soon). In the meanwhile, mommy gave me my first ever birthday present, which daddy helped me to open (including the sequel to my favorite book, The Gruffalo!).

BIRTHDAYS ARE DELICIOUS.

More soon from the big girl: 1!

OK, so this is a bit late, but that’s what academics do. Like Ross Geller once said, “Yeh, like, when was the last time HE got a conference abstract in on time!? HA!” (See my friends video.)

Hit up my first conference on Consciousness in Wales, something I’m slowly coming into… Below are some pics of the surrounds, along with titles of my fave papers.

“Who needs a womb with a view: Postmodernist Postfeminist Postnatalist mediations on the (un)importance of looking at things before you put them in your mouth.”

“Consumption and Subversion: thinking the between of candy and coffee.”

And finally, “On the Boardwalk: Judaic traditions and their (non-)existent Welsh interrelations, or, Flock of Seagulls: re-birthing Benjamin in Aberystwythian penny arcades.”

Altho we have not been able to get her to repeat it since, Sid said her second word about 5 times on Monday night. She pointed at a painting of a little furry thing on the wall, and exclaimed “Cat!” followed by many giggles.

(She also says “no” and “ow,” because she likes the “oooh” sounds her mommy thinks, but we are discounting those because we don’t like the former, and the latter is less a word than an exclamation… “Hello” is uttered at least 2 dozen times per day lately…)

OK, so it’s not the best “hello” she’s said yet - often she actually manages to do the full “h” sound, and doesn’t go up at the end, so you can really hear it enunciated properly (like mother, like daughter); but we thought it was great to finally get something on video - and it’s in context, so you know it’s real, people! Click to play.