Happy 1st Birthday Laila!

 Awwww.. little girl turned 1 year old. The year was a crazy blur managing two kiddos, part-time work and planning for our future moves, but she is at an adorable age if I do say so myself - has already taken several steps on her own before hitting the 1 year mark but doesn't trust herself, only two teeth (bottom) but we're working on that and already a dessert connoisseur (did Maya have sugar before a year old?). Hey it's the second, you're a little more relaxed and probably so are they.

But we had a little celebration for Laila (albeit in the middle of a hail storm!! no seriously hail the

size of peas crashing to the ground as we stared
 out the windows in the lobby of our new apartment building wondering when we could make a run for it!). Laila had herself an ice cream party at Malu, local shop with several brave neighborhood friends who came out with their kids despite the end-of-the-world summer thunderstorm we were experiencing.

It was super cute - ice cream for everyone and strawberry ice cream cake for Laila. Of course when we got home the storm was over and the clouds parted, I'm sure rain (and hail?) are good luck on your birthday in some cultures.

After her party we packed it up and headed to East Hampton to celebrate again with Tata and Abuela for a double whammy re-do for Laila and a happy birthday to my mom who turned 45 +/- the next day.

Nice dinner, and two cakes of course for a double singing. Happy birthday Laila! Happy Birthday Mom! What should we do next year? :)

Laila the menace

The little crawling speed demon is now pulling up on everything and anything that might get her even an inch off the ground, and before really mastering the whole balance thing and getting herself back down she likes to show you how she can hold on with one hand, or no hand at all. This has quickly led to her learning how to bend at the hips and throwing herself back to land squarely on her tush. She is quite the busy body, evan tackling the playground steps this week for the first time. Very motivated to move perhaps to try and keep up with her sister. Favorite activity right now seems to be pulling clothes out of the laundry basket and sometimes taking the bully stick away from the dog for a taste herself. Delish. A little video catching her red handed.

Belle Paris

We did it! Trekked 5 kids through the streets of Paris for a whole week. We met with the Breits and cousins Noah, Anna, and Nathan for a family reunion in the belle city.

Our itinerary included lots of walking, the big sites (eiffel, arc de triumph, Notre Dame, Tuileries, Seine, Sacre Couer, ...) several playgrounds and carousels (they're everywhere!) a day trip to Euro Disney, the science museum, lots of ice cream eating, cafes, crepes, delicious goodies from local food shops, bread, pate, croissants and more bread, a parents dinner out night and several family meals together at home.




Laila was a total trooper, taking all her needed stroller naps. She really started to crawl while there and is now obsessed with pulling up on everything - we often find her standing in her crib waiting for someone to rescue her because she's not great and getting herself back down. Totally untrustworthy.

And would you believe that we had sun and 70 degree weather the entire week! It was marvelous, and quite cold when we returned to NY. We did get bumped off the flight on the return but they put us up at a nearby hotel and almost completely reimbursed our ticket, so no complaints.

Maya had a total blast with her cousins, especially big cousin Anna and she was sad to leave them. Overall a great trip that will hopefully be repeated in the future.

Another year and a couple of firsts

Well.. Happy birthday to me! 33. I think a few years ago that number would have scared me (getting up there!) and today it just feels like another day and I feel so lucky with all that I have in my life. I mean just look at this DAY!

Not a cloud in the sky - it's been gorgeous out. Low key celebration planned for tonight, strawberry shortcake and good champagne, rents coming over to say hello and Brian set the slow cooker this morning so I don't have to make dinner. Opera tickets for Friday.

We listed our apartment for sale last week. A staging company came and rearranged all our furniture and yes the space does look better and bigger. We had a good turn out for our first showing and a few more appointments lined up for this weekend, we shall see what happens. Since we had to get everyone out of the house (no easy feat) we decided to take Maya skiing!

We went to Mountain Creek in NJ and after a few tears she agreed (well... was strongly encouraged, well actually we just kind of threw her down the hill) she liked it! Went up and down the bunny hill a few times and liked the magic carpet and even made it on the chair lift twice with her dad - once with only one ski on :)

But she made it down the hill a couple of times and went thorough the motions which was what was important - knew she would like it once she didn't think it was so scary. Laila and I watched from the sidelines and videotaped (you can hear her babbling on the clip below). Needless to say everyone passed out in the car on the way home. We will definitely be making one more trip before the season is over. There's been virtually no snow this season but it's been perfect for beginner as it keeps the crowds away.

Little Laila is starting to rev up her crawling motor. I frequently find her on all four rocking back and forth and she's getting better at clearing longer distances backwards.

And yes sometimes she ends up under the furniture, with wild animals perched above her head. But such are the perils of crawling. She's a lot of fun these days, very smiley and curious and still her sister's biggest fan.

We're busy getting our summer plans together - we will most likely head to East Hampton for most of the summer and take advantage of some camps out there, including (and this one I'm super excited about) horse camp! Maya's going for a couple of weeks and will take a few lessons - buying half chaps for a 3-4 year old is a pretty amusing experience. But I would love to get into riding again, and getting her interested seems like a good excuse :)

Happy end of February everyone... onto Spring!

Laila and her bouncer

6 months old!

Little Laila became 6 months old this month - the speediest 6 months in my life that's for sure as I now find myself staring down the second half of her first year, knowing how much more active she will be, crawling and cruising are around the corner as is watching everything that she will try to put in her mouth and contemplating how to celebrate her 1st birthday.

How quickly we got here and how much of a baby she still is to me as we are still in the nascent stages it seems of figuring it all out. Sleeping - not quite yet sleeping through the night although we've made a lot of progress, naps more or less happen at the same time 3 times a day and eating - well we've
tried! But Laila is not really interested in anything we have offered so far, pursing her lips, turning her head and if we persist breaking down in tears! ummmmmmm this was not like our first experience. Eventually she will learn to eat, right?

But my little lady keeps me company all day and tolerates having her schedule interrupted as we drop off and pick up her big sister who she adores above all others - turning her head to look for her if she hears her and becoming all smiles when she approaches. So fun to watch.



I imagine the grabbing- for- whatever-toy-my- older- sister- has phase will be right around the corner too - and oh how much fun that will be!

Happy New Year

We had a wonderful holiday at home this year - Maya was really into it and in good spirits and much more able to handle all the overstimulation of a huge pile of presents to tear into. She even helped open her sister's gifts. We spent Christmas Eve at Tata and Abuela's house where Santa came early and then hosted the Arnabal group for lunch on Christmas day for present opening #2. We took her to see the Rockettes and both girls to the tree at Rockefeller, where we ran into the SantaCon crew (thousands of folks dressed as Santa and Elves).

Brian took the week off and we did a lot - including our first attempt at ice skating (she tolerated it, made it around the ring twice), a trip to the NYBG to see the Train Show (really cool!), a trip to Delaware to visit with Roshni and crew in their new home and an outing to the Please Touch museum in Philadelphia. The week ended with a trip to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. She's discovered shows and has demonstrated she can handle the 3 hours so we plan to take her to see a lot more. 

Please Touch museum in Philly.

Laila is doing great at 5 1/2 months and sitting up now. Eating is not particularly her cup of tea but she's staring at us while we eat so hopefully she'll catch on in the next month.

Picture of the girls in their new dresses New Year's Day.

New Year's Eve we watched Kathy Griffith beat up Anderson Cooper for a while and fell asleep around 11:30pm - so close! But alas sleep is better, and we hosted friends for New Years Day brunch. The weather in NY has been great - few days of bitter cold followed by 50 degree weather that allows us time in the playground. 

The arrival of Laila Marie

 She's here! Laila Marie Hennessey was born at 6:44pm on 7/20/2011 (her official due date by one count, a day early by another) weighing in at 7lbs, 5oz and measuring 20 1/4 inches long - with lots of black hair like her sister, and really looking a lot like Maya in general.

Her birth was nothing like I expected (of course). After dropping Maya off from school last Tuesday, I made my way to the grocery store when my water broke! What is this!? I couldn't believe it. I ran home and put Brian and mom on alert and headed to my midwife's office who quickly confirmed that it had indeed broken, but there was plenty of fluid left and 20 mins on the monitor showed baby was doing great and I was having regular contractions. They expected me to go into labor within the next couple of hours and were hesitant to let me go back home to LIC. Oh well! I was not in labor yet and had a few things to take care. Brian got the call to head home from Westchester and we all convened at home for lunch.

Maya was picked up form school and went home with grandparents to spend the night, dogs were dropped off at their boarding home, bags were repacked and the waiting game began. It was 90 + degrees in NYC last Tuesday but we tried to go for a walk to a local ice cream shop to see if walking would bring on real contractions. We didn't last long - the heat was brutal. Went for an acupuncture session to try to stimulate labor and started some homeopathy at the suggestion of our doula. And then we watched movies, prepped dinner, cleaned the house and rested in the AC. At around 10pm contractions were coming regularly and slightly more intense but a far cry from any real labor. So we went to bed, had a full night's rest and at 11am on Wednesday headed to the hospital as our 24 hours were up and labor was nowhere to be seen.

We narrowly avoided a pitocin induced labor as labor finally kicked into high gear at around 3pm. Finally! Huge relief that it was going to happen on its own and that it was likely we would have the natural birth we planned for and were expecting having had such a good experience with Maya. A little over 3 hours later in what ultimately was one super speedy delivery our little Laila was born. We were thrilled to be able to bring her home the next day and have our first night as a family of four at home.

Maya thankfully has really taken to her little sister and asks about her, is concerned when she cries, wants to touch her and make baby noises at her and occasionally tells us what to do - "pick her up, she's hungry!" A lot of adjustments for an almost 3 year old, but the big sister has taken it all in stride.
We've had a wonderful week getting used to our new routines. Of course having Brian at home has been great - he's done his own outings with Maya and she has been fine with that understanding that for now mom needs to stay home with the baby.

Tomorrow Brian heads back to work, Maya will be at school most of the day and then the fun really begins - we'll see how I manage both little ladies on my own. The intense heat is not helping, but Maya being so accepting and Laila being a pretty chill baby so far will definitely make a huge difference.  Now that she's here we're hoping to enjoy some more summer activities and hopefully a trip to the Hamptons next weekend. We feel truly lucky to have to beautiful healthy little girls.