Happy Birthday Ms. President

I can't believe our baby's first birthday is this Friday. She is the loveliest and most amazing thing I've ever seen and she can be anything she wants to be, whether it's President of the U.S., a social worker, an astronaut, an actress, a math professor, a mommy, or all of the above.

Ebony and ivory

We have been having some fun family time playing the piano that we moved from my parents' house. Like the proverbial bicycle riding, I'm hopping back on the piano bench again and quickly re-learning my skills from about six-and-a-half years of lessons when I was a kid. I'm also teaching Webhamster the basics. Isabel likes the music and also enjoys plinking--sometimes mashing--the ebonies and ivories.

In other news, Isabel has started attending a neighborhood child development center so that I can find some time and energy to work on my dissertation. The place is conveniently located only a block away, so I can walk her over in the morning instead of the added stress of getting all of her supplies for the day loaded and getting her buckled into her car seat. If I forget something, I can simply pop over to drop it off.

The proprietor of the center, most of the staff, and nearly all the children are black, but Isabel doesn't seem to notice anything different about them. They're just new friends, new people. She's in a classroom of one-year-olds, so I doubt most of them really notice that she's different.

It seems like a great place for her, thus far, though it is a bit unsettling to see such a segregated environment. Many people would say she's getting an early introduction to diversity, but how can one call it diverse when a place is 97% one race? I wouldn't be the keenest on her attending a place that was 97% white, either. However, this place is convenient and the director and staff I have met are professional and caring, and they are working with us on accommodations for Isabel's vegetarian diet. I suppose it is diverse in terms of socioeconomic backgrounds--there are families receiving childcare subsidies and there are private-pay middle-income families like us. One baby in the nursery is the daughter of a Kentucky Shakespeare Festival employee.

Bottom line: she's participating in stimulating, well-planned activities and socializing with other children.

Stair Master

(with me kneeling and crawling one step behind her) Isabel climbed 19 steps from the first floor to the second floor today. It's a good thing that I ordered those baby gates.