Toda

I should rename this blog "8 million reasons why I was late ..." Today we started out good. Everyone was up at 8:30 and things were moving along nicely. But then B ran a bath for me and rather than take a shower as planned I sloshed around in the tub for 20 minutes and (you guessed it) arrived 20 minutes late for the show Ella and I were going to see. To be fair, I actually thought that there were continuous activities and it wasn't just one thirty minute show. But it was just one 30 minute show and so we ended up missing half of it. It was such a shame because the group was excellent.

The show, called Toda (miracle in hungarian children's language) was at the Hungarian Institute over in the 6th. The group had a show based around Hungarian folk music and soft building blocks/shapes that could be attached and detattached from each other to transform into different things as the story progressed. There was a carpeted area with pillows where the kids could roll around and play and a man accompanying the actors with a guitar. Ella loved it. She probably was the most excited kid there, once she got over her nervousness (since we walked in late everyone turned to stare, which she HATES. )

So after traveling for 20 minutes to get there, we were done after 15 minutes and had to find something else to do to make the trip worthwhile. Thank goodness it was an absolutely gorgeous day and so we walked over to Luxemburg Gardens and played. It is perfect fall weather- a little bit chilly outside but with a great big blue sky. The leaves are starting to fall so the air has that dry dusty smell but it hasn't been cold enough yet to kill the flowers and so the gardens around the fountains were full of blooms, bright red and purple. Ella kicked up leaves for awhile, handed me mounds of stones to keep in my pocket, and chased bubbles. I sometimes watch her on days like today and think what a charmed childhood she has. I wish I had my camera with me today so one day I could show her the photos from this morning and say, "This is how happy you were when you were a baby. " Maybe what I really mean is "This is how happy I was when you were a baby."

Its odd, but I don't mind having had such a miserable day on Wednesday because I think it made me appreciate even more the quiet perfectness of this morning in the Gardens.