4 years old!

I think blogging is like exercising. When you are in the routine, you do it regularly. Once you slip, it's hard to get back into it. I'll use that to explain my long absence from this blog. No real excuse other than life, family visits, finals and other fun things. Moving right along...
M turned 4 today! His English birthday is still two weeks away but we decided to celebrate the Hebrew date. He helped me make his birthday cake and we decorated it  with frosting, chocolate chips and sprinkles. We had cake and pizza (in that order) and he wore a cute little crown we made him.

birthday boy

ay enjoying the cake a bit too much

Our little man has really grown up this year. I have finally gotten used to his short hair cut, although I still miss his curls. He is getting used to wearing a kippa and tzitzit every day.
M loves coloring. He could sit there for hours and uses up reams and reams of paper. He has a great imagination and colors people, robots and other things. He can also write his name. Lucky for him it is short. He loves the color red and superheroes such as spiderman and superman. He also loves music and can often be found singing to himself.
Another thing he likes is books. We try to go to the library weekly for new books and he loves to sit and read together. He also likes puzzles and games such as memory, chutes and ladders or Go Fish. We are still a little wobbly on all the rules but he is learning.
M has a great personality- very easygoing and loving. He is friends with everyone in his class and his teachers tell us how everyone vies to play with him. We love the preschool he is in and he loves going there. He is disappointed when there is vacation and often asks when he can go back.
M says the funniest thing such as "If I watch too many videos I will be a potato couch" and he also asks very smart questions. Of course he is mischievous and always thinking of creative ways to wreak havoc, but that is all part of the fun of having a boy.

wearing my headscarf and heels

in the newspaper box

When he is tired, he can get a little whiny and tantrumy but so do most people. He is still a little jealous of Baby AY but I do try to give M attention when the others are not home. We go to the library together and we usually bake together- another activity he loves. We usually make muffins or cookies and M is a great helper..when he is not spilling flour all over the place or putting his cookie hand prints on the wall.
I can't wait to see how much more he will grow and learn this year!

being silly w the siblings

PS: For the few of you who like this stuff- a link to M's birthstory

Happy Birthday AY

Today, Rosh Chodesh Kislev is my little AY's first birthday.
Hard to believe that in one year he went from this

to this

He is such a happy kid, a pleasure to be with, as long as he is well slept and fed. He loves playing with his brothers and sister and interacting with people in general..his giggle and infectious laugh are an often heard sound in our apartment these days.
For those who are interested in such things and I know most of you are not, his birth story can be found in this post

I hesitated to write this post with all the craziness going on in Israel...it seemed too happy and carefree. Rest assured Israel is in our thoughts and prayers. We mourn the tragic loss of life and feel for our nation who is once again under fire. May the month of Kislev bring lots of light and miracles into the world.

We have arrived

Because we are crazy like that, we have had a busy week. First, we were severely delayed on the way home from Florida... due to rainstorms in NYC we got home with 4 cranky and exhausted kids after midnight. After very little sleep, Thursday and Friday had me disassembling and then reassembling the contents of all my kitchen cabinets so an exterminator could aggressively treat out kitchen (and the rest of the apartment). Due to construction in the building, we had been dealing with some unwelcome visitors and the situation was getting out of hand. I am hoping this finally took care of the issue.
Friday was also spent packing, running last minute errands and trying to get the apartment cleaned up before our Sunday flight (more on that later).
Shabbos was my birthday- ta da. I was a bit too tired to get really excited for it, but it ended up being a nice day. My kind husband gave me the gift of sleep and did some extra diaper duty and the kids had made me nice cards. Still on my wishlist for my birthday:
-sleep (will probably not be getting much of that
- massage- will definitely be doing that. My back is still giving me problems.
- some more alone/quiet/mommy time, whatever you like to call it ;)
Notice how all these gifts involve some sort of self-care/indulgence. Every once in a while a care-taker has to take care of herself/

Sunday was the big day- our long awaited flight to Israel for our yearly trip. Honestly, I was a bit too stressed/anxious about getting ready to be really excited for this trip. But now that we are here...it's so nice.
The flight was about as good as you can expect when traveling with 4 little kids. No delays or waits, a bassinette and an extra seat and mostly cooperative kids with no major tantrums/meltdowns. The stewardesses and passengers around us all fell in love with Baby AY and commented on how cute and smiley he is. He is all of those things but after 6 plys hours of holding him almost non stop, I was quite ready for his royal cuteness to sleep a bit!!
We are all kind of exhausted and jet lagged but psyched to be here to see family and friends...after we get some more sleep!!

Happy 5 month Birthday AY!

Today, AY turned 5 months old. At the risk of sounding very cliche, I cannot believe how the time has flown.
At 5 months, AY is rolling over from his back to tummy and also tummy to back. He can pivot and also push himself backward a bit. Basically, this is the beginning of mobility.
He can grasp rattles and toys and likes spending time on his playmat reaching for things.

I am not sure if he is teething or not but he is constantly sticking things in his mouth, whether toys or his fingers. 

When he is in a good mood and not tired, he is a very smiley, happy baby. He smiles a lot and also laughs and coos.

As is to be expected, when he is tired, he gets very cranky and just wants to be held or rocked till he falls asleep. In general he likes to be held a lot and I often have him in the Ergo or my Moby wrap. He seems to enjoy both of them.
 He is exclusively nursing and at 17 lbs, a big boy but has become increasingly fussy about breastfeeding. He only likes to nurse lying down or when it is quiet and sometimes even screams when I try to feed him that way, which is very frustrating. My mommy intuition fails me when it comes to this problem and I wish I had an answer to his fussiness as it is making nursing increasingly unpleasant.
He is not yet sleeping through the night but I am okay with it, as long as I do not get woken up too often. What confounds my sleep deprivation is AYs siblings who seem to always find a reason to wake me at  the lovely hours of 2 30, 4 or 5 30.
The older kids love AY and love speaking to him, playing with him, making him laugh and watching him take a bath. He has definitely become part of our family and I almost do not remember life without him.
Happy Birthday AY- and many many more :)

PS: More importantly, today is Israel Independence Day, Yom Haatzmaut. More on that a different time.

My Baby is Three

Today is M's Hebrew birthday! I cannot believe he is three years old already.
M is a happy and easy-going kid, who almost always has a precious smile on his face (see pictures below). He loves puzzles and coloring and also loves attending his preschool which he territorially calls "My Chabad".

The birthday boy

Other thing M likes to do:
- sing- particularly Uncle Moishy and 8th Day (how is that for eclectic taste?)
- go to shul on Shabbos
- play in the playground
- play with his siblings: football, building houses out of couch cushions and going on pretend trips
- pet dogs
-watch videos on the iPad- current favorites: Arthur, Yo Gabba  Gabba and Arthur
- eat lollipops, ice-cream and other treats (in moderation of course)

He is a very stubborn and persistent little man, but all our children seem to have inherited that trait. Hm, I wonder who they got that from. He will say the funniest and smartest things and it is hard to be mad at him, even though he definitely has a mischievous streak.

We had a birthday party today at school where he got to practice his aleph-beis. He got a kippa and tzitzis from his teachers. We sang Happy Birthday and shared cupcakes and sunglasses with his friends. A great time was had by all

Pointing to the letter "Mem", the first letter in his name

Hugging the Torah

Giving Tzedaka

Big Brother with  Mommy and the baby

With his Abba. Check out M's million dollar smile

M was so excited to have a party. It was a good practice round for Sunday, when we will be having a bigger party including the Upsheren, M's first haircut. I am curious to see what he will look like, though we certainly will miss that beautiful hair.  More picturs and updates to come.

PS: Funny story. I had bought mini-cupcakes on Tuesday for the party on Thursday. I was hesitant to buy them early because I knew the kids would want them. So I hid them in a cabinet before anyone came home. Turns out I need a new hiding place because when I woke up on Wednesday morning, I was greeted by the sight of Y and M enjoying the cupcakes. They had eaten about 8 of the dozen. I told M that those were the cupcakes for his friends and asked him what his friends would eat now. I obviously bought another package on Thursday morning and when I took them out of my bag at the party, M announced to the class "Oh, we bought new cupcakes!"

Happy Birthday to Me

So yesterday was my 28th birthday. At times I feel ridiculously young, others I can't believe I am already so "old," slowly but surely inching towards the end of my twenties.
I celebrated by going to my favorite yoga class in the morning and out to dinner with my husband in the evening. And trying to stay indoors most of the day and out of the sun!
It has been a busy year and I have much to be grateful for. We also have many exciting things coming up this coming year, among them a trip to Israel in August, my "baby" M starting preschool in September, as well as the arrival of a new baby at the end of November!
I felt kind of superstitious announcing my pregnancy on the Internet, but on the other hand it is such an important part of my day to day life these days that it is hard not to talk about it.
I have had a fairly easy pregnancy. The first three months I was nauseous and miserable. This coincided perfectly with cleaning and cooking for Pessach. It was truly a challenge to keep moving and cleaning when all I wanted to do was sleep and to cook yet more chicken when the sight and smell of it made me sick. But we got through it, and had a nice time.
Towards the end of May, I started feeling better although I still can't eat chicken or ground beef. I am not quite sure why, but I still can barely go near the stuff. I have been (over)compensating with a craving for, go figure, egg salad. The egg salad wraps at Seasons were my staple lunch when I was truly too sick to eat, although my repertoire has expanded a bit since then. My friend suggested that craving eggs was a way for my body to make up the protein I am not getting from poultry. Sounds plausible to me.
My energy level is still not at its normal level but I am doing my best to keep up with the kids and their needs. We shared our news with them but only A. really grasped the concept. I tried to explain to them that I cannot pick them up and that they cannot jump on me, but they need a lot of reminders :)
The crazy heat here is definitely not helping matters in terms of stamina. I try to take M out to the park in the morning before it gets too hot, but then we spend the rest of the day indoors. I am just hoping this humidity and excessive heat breaks soon...at the moment it is really not manageable.
We are leaving to Florida on Sunday for a week. I am sure if will be hot there too but it can't be worse than here! Also looking forward to some pool time to cool off!
Wishing everyone a wonderful shabbos and hope you stay cool and near the air conditioning!

Birthday Party

Yesterday was Y's birthday and last day of school. We celebrated by having a small party in school. It was very sweet, even though Y kept asking when we were going home. To him, Mommy and Abba at school means he gets to leave early :)

My trio having their birthday cupcakes. A insisted on missing camp to come to the party. Sisterly love

Y and his beloved Abba

And check out M in his fancy hat and glasses. I loved the look and he almost stole the show looking so cute!

Birthdays are times of joy but also always a time of reflection for me. Of how far Y has come and how far we still have to go...one step at a time. My life was profoundly changed the day Y was born, although I guess any parent would say that about the birth of their child. We have learned a lot on our journey and I am sure there is more to learn. What I can say is that Y is such a happy and lovable child. All the teachers and therapists at school have remarked on this and we are greatful that everyone can sense and appreciate his "chen".
I have more to say but I will instead leave it to Sheva, who has a great post on her blog about her daughter's first birthday. Thanks to my mother-in-law for sending this my way.
I will keep you posted on the iPad developments. I am hoping to buy it next week and will be taking recommendations for educational and communication apps and hopefully giving some myself.

Happy Birthday Baby M

Today is my little baby's second birthday. Although he is not so little anymore. He is turning into a big boy- one who loves Elmo, Ernie and Uncle Moishy and who says the funniest things in his little squeaky voice. He is mischievous and a troublemaker and has the greatest smile. The kids adore him and he loves them too, especially his big brother Y. I love the way they hug and greet each other each day when Y comes home from school. I cannot imagine our family without him.
For those of you who like to read birth stories, you can find it here.
In other news, it was raining and too warm today for skiing because everything was wet so we were not able to go skiing. So I spent some more time walking around the center of town which I love and, of course, shopping. The truth is, I haven't even bought that much, I just like to look.
Can't believe tomorrow is Friday already. Am definitely enjoying myself but am also looking forward to going home to New York on Sunday....ready or not, here I come.

Happy Birthday Y

Today is Y's 5th birthday! It's pretty crazy that I have a five year old. Makes me feel old or at least like a grown-up :)
He had a birthday party at school two weeks ago and we got him a guitar for his birthday, which he loves.
My children's birthdays are always reflective days for me, especially Y who was born with an extra chromosome and whose day of birth was quite emotional for both my husband and me.
But I won't dwell on that now. Instead I'll leave you with some pictures of my birthday boy! I know I'm biased, but isn't he the cutest thing?

Birthday party at school


Enjoying his new guitar