December 2010 Update

The fall continues to fly by! We made it to Chicago for Halloween to visit with the Breits. Maya had a ball with her cousins as usual - she loves the attention, and really loved her cousin Anna's stash of princess costumes. We couldn't get them off of her, at least it was Halloween so heading to downtown Chicago with a Cinderella dress pulled over her jeans was not all that uncalled for. We made it back to trick or treat with our neighbors in our building Sunday - craziness as usual but a lot of fun. Maya ate the chocolate as it was given to her at each door: "moooore choche?" became the phrase of the night. The girl is obsessed!!!!!

We made it to Wellesley for Thanksgiving  - just us and Brian's parents, and oh yeah - 6 dachshunds all demanding to be let in and out of the backdoor at different times. Burger had a blast romping and rolling with his littermate Duke, and was disciplined more than once by mama Gina. It was freezing in true New England fashion.

Sadly on Friday evening, Brian's Grandma Charlotte passed at the golden age of 94. The family is headed to Chicago this weekend for the service and funeral.

Pumpkintown

Love, love, love the Hamptons in the fall. The farms are all bursting with produce. We made our third annual pilgrimage to Hank's Pumpkintown last weekend outside of Bridgehampton, and bought enough pumpkins, apples and indian corn to sink a ship. The apples went to school with Maya (it was our turn to provide the snacks) the pumpkins were carved, some will be roasted and the rest are decorating our front door and dining room table. We've certainly gotten into the spirit of the season.  There were tractor rides, and hay rides, a corn maze (which is fun for about 45 seconds and then you just really want to get out and can't figure out how), mountains of pumpkins and play equipment for the kids. The trip made for some fun pictures, especially when you compare how small Maya was last year in relation to the pumpkins.. hee hee.

Two weeks earlier we flew to Rochester to visit Roshni and her family. Maya and Liam did well playing

together and being roomates for the weekend.

Fall Milestones

Ahhh September. My favorite month of the year, lots of sunshine and cooler temperatures mean open windows and bearable subways rides, and it's safe to turn on your ovens to roast all the amazing produce available at the farmer's markets.

This month we celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary (that's right folks, count 'em - FOUR years!) with a dinner cruise on the Hudson river and around New York harbor. We started on the west side at Chelsea piers, went south on the Hudson, around the southern tip of Manhattan and up the East River a little before turning around and sailing south to New York harbor. The highlight of the cruise was sailing right by the Statue of Liberty (picture below although a little hard to see and doesn't do it justice). It was very fun, the NY waterways provide you with a whole new perspective on this crazy city. Highly recommend.

The other significant milestone was little Miss Maya starting nursery school and she's done so well with the transition it's been so fun! She whines a little when I leave but settles down very quickly and continues with whatever art project or activity she is engaged in. I've started my part time work schedule (which I'm loving) and need to be at work during the hours that she is at school and the fact that she has transitioned into school quickly and easily has made the whole experience very pleasant and fun. I pick her up at 2pm and we come home for a nap.  Here she is on her way to her first day at school with her Disney princess lunchbox. So grown up!

Happy Birthday Maya!

Although this post is coming a tad late, we did do a good job of celebrating Maya's 2nd birthday on August 30th. Yes, little munchkin turned 2 and firmly secured her status in toddlerhood. We celebrated with cake at home and presents from family, followed with an informal and very festive gathering of neighbors on the shared terrace of our building. Luckily we have quite a few neighbors who love to gather and have children all around the same age. They played, ran, ate pizza, cake and cupcakes, sang happy birthday and opened gift bags before heading home for some much needed baths :)

Maya was a very fortunate little girl and received presents from all her buddies, several books and alphabet cards and puzzles. We gave her a scooter which she is far from mastering and currently entails her standing on it while we pull it along (the intention was to foster some more independence). To further mark her 'twosome-ness' she can tell you how old she is when asked, and has started school at Little Ones, a nursery school across the street that is well attended by several kids we know. So far she's had an additional visit to drop off some items and meet some of the teachers and see the space. This Tuesday she attends school for an hours, Thursday for two and maybe in an additional week build up to the full schedule of 9-2pm. We'll see how that goes (fingers crossed).

Some pictures of her birthday celebration.

The Burger has landed...

... and is so far doing very well adjusting to life in the big apple. He plays well with his older brother Bailey who has accepted him into his crate at night, has dealt with the tugs and pulls and hugs of the resident toddler and has come along with with the concept of leash walking and pottying. He's a sweet as can be. A little video of the boys with Maya laughing in the background.

Jamaica

We just returned from a week long trip to a Beaches resort in Jamaica. We enjoyed our first resort type vacation.  Lots of different pools and a water park with slides even Maya could go on which she loved - 'more slide, more slide' became her phrase of the week.

We also took advantage of the child care center, dropping Maya off most mornings so we could head to the beach for a while, picking her up just before lunch. She did pretty well. We even dropped her off one night so we could go to dinner which was a fun little experiment. The fact that she handled the drop off with minimal drama made us optimistic about the fall when she starts at a nursery school 2 days a week.

 Nice to be home too, even if it is back to reality on Monday morning

Along came a Burger.

We have succumbed to the scrumptious sweetness of puppy smell, surrendered to too-cute-to-be-true pictures of puppy eyes and floppy ears, and finally gave up when we realized that Bailey was still sitting by the door after we left for several hours because he still has not gotten used to being alone.   Despite our best efforts to remain a one dog household, we have failed profoundly and as result Bailey and Maya have a new little brother  -  and his name is Burger.

The smallest of the 4 boys in the latest Hennessey litter of 6 long haired dachshunds, Burger has started to steal hearts at his very young age of 3 months.  He's a lover who asks to be held and give kisses. Although we were resisting for a while, we had given the option of adopting a Hennessey bred hound some considerable thought. Bailey was clearly in need of a friend but needed his companion to be the emotional rock that Kahlua was, visceral wreck that he is. Working full time and being in a NYC apartment with a resident toddler - made puppies or a rescue dog needing training and time to adjust challenging, and a little more than we felt we could handle.  So after some careful consideration and planning for the little guy to join us at the end of the summer to give him a little time to grow up and learn some doggy manners, we committed to the dog. It was the best option for us and the right thing to do by Bailey.

Of course now that I know he's headed this way I can't wait to have him! Maya will love her new roommate, she's always asking to see the puppy pictures ever since we went to Wellesley to see the 10 day old litter. She spent some more time with Burger man and the rest of the crew last month, (at 8 weeks old, seen here trying to eat Maya's shoe) when pulling ears, tails, biting and shredding papers were the preferred puppy activities.  The several puppy crates in the kitchen created a personal petting zoo.

The best thing is that Burger is coming to visit this weekend in East Hampton and spend some one-on-one with his older canine brother, who will undoubtedly skulk that he has to put up with a puppy, though I'm confident he will grow to love the idea, and Maya the Menace who is going to be all over him yelling 'puppy! puppy!'.  Burger & Bailey - have to admit, it has a nice ring to it.

Hot town, summer in the city

Despite the heat, it'll be alright
In the summer, in the city....
In the summer, in the city....

Almost famous

After 31 years in this city, I finally made it into the New York Times (see slideshow).  Brian was interviewed last week by a reporter doing a story on our neighborhood and how LIC has changed, and then asked if he could send a photographer to take a pic of us to go with the story! We picked up the house continuously, nervously for a couple of hours before she arrived and we didn't  let Maya touch anything!  We took several pics on the couch and got Bailey in there too (his 15 minutes of fame!), but they ended up choosing a picture of us standing near the kitchen counter. I really would have loved for my dog to appear in the paper with his name under the pic! But Maya has a goofy grin on her face in the picture they chose. The article is great for the neighborhood.

Please contact our press secretary for any autograph requests.. haha.

Vegas, baby - literally

We thought it was time Maya went to Vegas and hang with some high rollers. In truth, Vegas was a fun place to go with a kid. There is a lot to do during the day. The hotels are amazing (Paris, Venetian and Mandalay Bay  - they built a beach including waves in the pool! -  were some of our  favorites).

We went to see the dolphins at the Mirage, the very cool shark reef aquarium at Mandalay, lionesses and their cubs at the MGM Grand, and some animated creatures at the Rain Forest cafe were a hit as well - so there were plenty of animals to keep her entertained.


We kept her up one night to see the dancing fountains in front of the Bellagio set to music which she loved. She was rather freaked by the wax figures at Madam Toussaud's - I can only imagine what she was thinking (but we did take a picture with the President!).

It was in the 80's but felt much hotter in the dry desert air and we spent some time poolside as well. Overall a great trip.

Go Bunnies

Spring 2010 is making Spring 2009 look even worse that it was when we had 21 days of rain in June and practically no sun or warm weather before that. The weather these past two weeks, albeit punctuated with a few consecutive days of heavy rain and floods all up the east coast, has been stunning. Lots of sun and weather consistently in the high 60's and 70's. 

The weather this past weekend for Easter was no different when we headed to Wellesley and got a bonus visit from Lauren and Nathan, who just celebrated his second Bday. Maya and her cousin Nathan played well together and we had a really nice weekend - enjoyed time in playgrounds, walks with the 4 adult dogs, played with the six 10-day old puppies and enjoyed Easter festivities on Saturday including baby animal petting zoo and an Easter egg hunt and baskets for the kids. Mmmmmm... chocolate for breakfast. I mean how can you say no. 

Maya loved the puppies, after asking to see pictures of them all week long on my phone, the real thing was pretty thrilling for her. We played with possible naming options for the little things, all still with eyes closed and weighing just shy of a pound, with a few of us agreeing that Greek Gods and Goddesses would be a fun way to go (I mean Apollo,  Hercules, Hera, Aphrodite - how cute is that?!). Maya was darling in her pink and green Easter dress and the weekend felt like a real break. Some highlights in pictures...

What do urban babies do?

Urban babies go to art class.

Urban babies walk their dogs.

Urban babies go to the gym.

Urban babies check out the sights.

Urban babies go shopping.

Urban babies play on swings.

Urban babies stand in their strollers to eat at the counter at Dean and Deluca.

Urban babies go to story time.

Urban babies hang with their friends at the playground.

Urban babies practice the piano.

Urban babies go for strolls in the park.

Urban babies just try to keep it cool.