Monday, September 24, 2012

10 months

Hard to believe but AY will be turning 10 months on Wednesday.
He is a big boy! In the last two weeks, he has finally gone from creeping on his belly to crawling on all fours consistently. He pulls himself up to stand and is pretty steady on his feet, although not quite letting go.
His favorite new place to play is the bathroom. Primarily splashing in the toilet but also emptying out the garbage, eating dirty tissues and emptying the cabinet beneath the sink. He is definitely exploring a lot. I do not have to do much baby proofing since most of the stuff in our apartment is locked up anyway, but I do need to remember to close the bathroom door. And convince the kids that it is not funny to let him have access to the bathroom.
about to get into stuff again!

AY is happiest when he wakes up in the morning and from his mid-day nap. He smiles and laughs a lot and is babbling quite a bit too. He talks with a certain cadence that makes it sound like he is having a real conversation.
He seems to have adjusted to my being at school twice a week although he does get super excited when I walk through the door. He loves food, particularly bananas and yogurt, like his big brother Y. He gets very excited when he sees food and wants whatever we are having. He has four teeth now and is getting pretty adept at chewing food. We were at an event in the shul on Sunday and one of the other Moms there was amazed that he was having a piece of bagel with cream cheese.
The kids love him but it is not all perfect. A. gets upset because now that AY is mobile, he is touching some of her stuff, which is a big no-no. M seems to be jealous of all the attention he gets and tries to hit him at every opportunity. It's a work in progress, this too shall pass.
a little too much "love"

I wish I had some wise words to share with you for Yom Kippur, but I have not had much time for introspection. Since school and the holidays have started, it has been pretty much go-go-go all the time. What it comes down to in the end though, is a sincere desire to grow and change. The most important part is taking all that passion and turning it into some action, no matter how small. Progress, not perfection, Wishing us all a little bit of progress in the coming year.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

busy

I am still here...just really busy with kids back to school, taking the GRE (did well- yay!), starting school myself (good but hard and still need to work out childcare), Rosh Hashana and a million other little details.
Hope to get back into a more regular blogging routine when all the craziness calms down.
Wishing everyone a Shana Tova- may we all have a year of revealed good!

Friday, September 7, 2012

First Day of School

After a long and fun summer, the first day of school has finally arrived! Y started 2nd grade and A is a first
grader. I brought them to school the first morning to meet their teacher and help them feel more comfortable.
A's school had a special assembly for the first graders, where they got name tags and got to meet their teachers.
They then said good bye and went upstairs to be divided into classes. A was happy to be with many of her friends from last year.
Here she is in her new uniform

Y was a little hesitant about going to school, even though we had prepared him for it for a few weeks already. Once he saw his teachers and friends, though, he was much more at ease.
I also met the newest member of his class- the cutest little boy who just happens to have Down Syndrome. He is only 5 and so little, I can't even remember when Y was so little.
M went to school for a grand total of 15 minutes to meet his teachers. He starts on Tuesday, although they are still doing phase-in so he will be going for only an hour.
I start school on Wednesday- I am a little nervous because I will be in school more hours this semester, but hopefully it will all work out.
This morning was the first morning of school buses. We got up extra early because I was not sure when exactly the buses were coming. In the end, Y's bus came at 7 30 and A's bus came at 7 40.
It is going to be hard to coordinate because Y's bus stops in front of our building and A's bus stops across the street. But hopefully once the buses are more regular, we will figure out where to go first.
Y's bus driver is really nice. she gave me her cell phone number and told me that she will keep me posted with updates.
Looking forward to getting more into a schedule...although Rosh Hashana will be interrupting it again :)

Monday, September 3, 2012

Last Summer Outing

Today was the last day to do something fun as a family, so we decided to check out Victorian Gardens in Central Park. We had gone there a long time ago, when Y was about 4 years old and A was three and it had not been a success. It was very loud and Y freaked out and refused to even enter the park. They were also too young to enjoy most the rides.
Fast forward a few years and we are giving it another shot. We still were not sure how everyone would do with the loud noise and fast rides but this time it was a total success! We bought the unlimited ride option for the kids, which was a good thing because they went on every single ride- all the fast, up and down, swings, cars, roller coasters. My husband and I were saying how we would never get on these rides ourselves, but the kids all had a great time. AY mostly just watched from his stroller and napped a bit.
We came home tired but very happy. We would definitely go there again although the cost was a bit steep- but we have come to expect that, as Manttan just won the designation as the most expensive place to live in the US.
Here are some of the rides we went on
the fast swings- Y was screaming but came off saying "more"

the tame train

swing- also pretty tame

jumping frogs


the "scariest" ride- M was not allowed on it and was pretty upset about it . we were relieved :)
Let's not forget that today is "labor" say, so I am also sharing something related to birth- check out this great quote from Ina May Gaskin
Happy Labor Day to all!