Wednesday, December 31, 2014

happy new year!

this was a giant year for us - we added milo to our family, and penny started kindergarten!  we have a grade schooler and a baby!  milo is doing his very best to crawl, and he loves to eat food (peas are his current favorite), sit up, and look at penny.  penny is reading, writing and drawing all the time.  she loves to take care of milo, and they are quite a team.  penny's resolution for this year is to get better at the monkey bars.  alex has resolved to not use his phone at all tomorrow, and i am going to try to remember to water the plants.  milo is going to work on crawling, talking, and sleeping through the night in 2015.  those of us who were around last year did a pretty good job of keeping the apartment straighter and cleaning up after ourselves.  hopefully it's enough of a habit now that we won't have to make it a resolution again in 2016.
while this year came with challenges, it had lots of amazingly good moments, too.  i am grateful to have such amazing friends and family surrounding us, and am looking excitedly forward to this new year!
from our super family to yours, happy 2015!

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

We realize it's Penny's birthday and all....

but someone is trying to hog the spotlight.

five years old!

Dear Penny:

If I showed you this blog entry, you could probably read it by yourself.  You might have a bit of trouble with the word "blog", since that's not something you've heard of before, but I have every confidence that you could even work out the word confidence.
Speaking of, you are such a self assured, funny, caring, wonderful person.  If you weren't my daughter, I would still totally want to hang out with you.  You have an indomitable spirit, fashion sense, and are a fearless crusader for fairness and logic amongst your friends.  I know that you get frustrated with us because you can't have your way all the time.  I know that your will is strong and that you want what you want when you want it.  I am so proud that you are learning to control your frustration and calmly discuss options when the answer is "no".  I am so impressed by your quick wit, by your huge heart and by your awesome dance moves.
I cannot believe that you've been keeping me company for five years.  Five winters.  Five birthday parties.  Five "check ons" each night.  You're my girlfriend.  I love you more than I can say, and I am so proud to be your mom.  Bring it, five.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

my heart is full

this morning, milo was playing on his tummy while i got dressed and made lunches.  penny came into the bedroom to grab a pacifier for him because he was getting fussy.  a few minutes later, she came to find me in the kitchen to say - "mommy, please come feed milo, he must be hungry.  i tried giving him his pacifier, i checked his diaper and it's not wet, and i gave him lots of pats and snuggles so he wouldn't be lonely, but he's still crying.  the only thing left is being hungry."  this child.  it's her last day of being four, and she is taking the most amazing care of her brother.  i hope she knows how much i appreciate her - i try to tell her all the time, but it's never enough.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Sunday, November 23, 2014

My chocolate covered princess

We went to Jacob's 5th birthday party today, and Penny got her face painted.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

family portrait!


16 weeks of milo!

milo is now 16 weeks old, and all he wants to do is sit up
seriously, that's all he wants to do
both of these photos are from today.  as i was waving goodbye to him, his teacher told me that if he waved back they were both outta there.  they are very impressed with him.  he fingerpainted yesterday!  the teachers said he really enjoyed it.
i've been back to work for a month now, and i'm really enjoying our snuggle time on the subway.  now that it's gotten seriously cold, it's very nice having a little radiator strapped to my chest.  we're all settling nicely into our new family routine!

Thursday, November 13, 2014

15 weeks of milo, a little late

milo is now 15 weeks old, and it's been such a big week!  he started rolling from his back to his tummy (which according to everything i have read, is impossible).
on saturday we moved him into a crib and moved the crib into penny's room!
the first night, i brought him back to our room after his first wakeup at 11:30.  the second night, i brought him to our room at 4:30, when penny asked me to.  since then, he's slept there all night, and his first wakeup last night was at 2am!  i got four and a half hours of uninterrupted sleep - the last while of which was filled with dreams about losing the baby, having diaper overflows, and his crawling out of the crib.  probably unrelated.

on tuesday, he spent the whole day with Grace for veteran's day, so she took the official day-of photo.

then, tonight, i took a photography workshop at milo's daycare and got some adorbs photos!




the woman running the workshop happens to be an old friend, so she took some too!



aren't these great and professional?  check out Alicia Levy at JoopaShoots Photography - so many cuties!
also, just btw, last week we all went to a birthday party for one of penny's friends and she got her face painted, and she wanted me to take a picture of her holding milo before she washed the face paint off.  so here you are.
milo thinks penny is the bees knees, and he totally lights up when he sees her.  the feeling is definitely mutual, and i hope it lasts a long, long time.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

14 weeks of Milo!

This week we Fell Back, and I am super sleepy. Luckily there's lots of leftover Halloween candy to keep me going.
In other news, 0 - 3 month clothing is not kidding around. Basically, the moment Milo hit three months, everything I had out for him became too small. Luckily we are pretty well stocked for clothes until.he's about 18 months - having neighbors with three boys really helps us out a ton.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

milo is three months old!

this post is a few days late, but as of the 29th of october, milo is three months old!  that's a whole season!

Friday, October 31, 2014

Happy Halloween!

Once again we were SuperFamily for Halloween, but this time we have a new crimefighter!
Alex told us to "think of Justice".
Penny's new Supergirl costume came with nail stickers!
Penny and Milo are partners in crime (fighting)
The first trick or treating of the evening!
This is my team!
Penny ended up with a ridiculous amount of candy, and we ran into a surprisingly large number of SuperFamilies in the neighborhood, including one of Penny's old friends from her Music & Movement class.  Everyone was totally enamored of Milo, and we were stopped several times to have conversations about his cuteness.  Overall, it was a fabulous Halloween!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

13 weeks of Milo!

Milo has had a bit of a cold this week, so our mornings have been spent cleaning up his nose and using the snot sucker. Delightful. He has remained super cheerful throughout the whole thing, though!
His daycare teacher has gotten him to take a pacifier, and for the past two nights I have put him in his basket awake with the pacifier in and the sleep sheep going and he has basically put himself to sleep. If this continues, I will be the happiest mama around!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

SuperMilo!

Amanda Trautmann took these photos of Milo at Parker's first birthday party at the zoo today!

Big sisters are awesome.

Penny helped us clean up the living room and her bedroom, then decided to read some comic books while Milo napped and Alex and I cleaned up our bedroom. When we were finished folding our laundry I poked my head out to check on them, Penny was teaching him the alphabet.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

yesterday

yesterday we said goodbye to alex's grandma mae.  she was a very special lady, and this is the first death that penny's going to remember.  we took her out of school and milo out of daycare so we could attend the service and sit shiva together, and penny was pretty incredible.  she and the rabbi are now friends, alex held her while he spoke at the graveside, and penny got to learn all of the best hide and seek spots at the house.  it was an appropriately gloomy and cold day, but it was as full of laughter and family as i hope mae would have wanted.
speaking of, while i was changing milo's diaper in the bedroom, this happened for the first time:
this is the first of many laughs to come, i hope, and i hope i'm there for lots of them!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

daycare!

yesterday was milo's first day of daycare, and my first day back to work.  luckily for me, milo is still young enough that he doesn't notice when i'm not in the room, so goodbyes aren't hard on him, and the place where we're sending him is super awesome.  getting back to work has been great for me, too.  i've had a wonderful time non-stop snuggling for three months, but i think it's great that milo has other babies to learn from and hang out with!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Shopping for pants

I am trying to find pants that fit now that I am a totally different shape, and I picked up several different styles in 8, 10 and 12. After trying on a bunch, and finding that most of them did not fit, I frustratedly turned to Penny and said "Ugh, I don't know how clothes work."
She raised an eyebrow at me as I zipped up a pair of pants and said "Yes, you do."
I said, "You're right. I don't know how clothes' numbers work."
"Mommy, you forgot how numbers work? I can help you."

And that's why you always bring a Kindergartener with you to try on pants.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Milo is busy.

Look at this boy using both hands at the same time! I'm so proud!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Eleven weeks of Milo

I took Milo to Coney Island to meet his Great Grandma Miriam today. He was a total charmer, and gave her many smiles and drooled all over her. She seemed very impressed.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Two month checkup for Milo, Family Friday for Penny

On Thursday I took Milo to the doctor for his two month checkup. He is now 12 lbs, 4 oz (60th percentile) and 23 1/2 inches (70th percentile). The doctor commented on his cuteness, alertness, and amazing head and neck control. I couldn't get Milo to smile for the doctor, but he has been smiling and chatting up a storm lately. He is super cute.

Friday was our first ever Family Friday at PS 321 - they will be the first Friday of every month from now on. Milo and I got to join Penny in her classroom, where we learned her reading games, and got to spend some time together in her environment. The teacher is really great, and has the kids working as a unit so nicely already.
Ready for Family Friday!
My big girl! (She's a Super Hero)
Tonight, the exciting news is that Milo grabbed his foot! He stared at it for a while, then reached out and flung his hand at his toes and held on!

Monday, September 29, 2014

two months of Milo!

it always strikes me as odd when i post an "eight weeks" and a "two months" photo, but they are, of course, not at all the same.  i can't believe this little man has been in our lives for two months already!  he's totally a charmer, spending more time awake during the day, making adorable cooing noises, and starting to reach out and grasp things.  i'm working on getting him to sleep in his basket rather than in bed snuggled with me, but i am torn (and lazy).  on the one hand, the more he sleeps in there now, the easier the transition will be down the road, but on the other hand, he's a great snuggler, and it's so much easier to feed him when he is RIGHT THERE.  i'm sure it will all work out - for now, i am enjoying him so much.