Maya's Prek Graduation... and moving on.

Yesterday was Maya's Prek Graduation from Little Ones which perhaps was the first thing in a while (as we've been running and running with projects) to give me some pause and reflect on what a good place that has been for her these last 3 years, and really for all of us- a neighborhood school where she and I have made so many friends that we will dearly miss when we leave.

They did a great job - the kids participated in skits in small groups that reflected the work they had done over the course of the year - their frog study, the rainforest, construction ..., they sang "One Love" (above) and they walked across a bridge to receive their diploma and we watched a video montage of what the kids wanted to be when they grow up (Maya said a ballerina). It was so sweet, yes there were several tears shed - tomorrow is the official last day of school so at least it wasn't a whole lot of goodbye's all at once, but Maya although excited for her new school in Larchmont has already expressed how much she will miss her teachers. I can't believe it's been 3 years that I have been walking her to that school - time indeed flies. I will miss them too. Can't believe how much she has grown while there.

It's been a doozy of a couple of months. We closed on the house in May and got straight to work - refinishing floors, painting, carpeting, tree pruning, furniture shopping etc.. etc... it's coming along and we're in a good place with the house for our move 2nd week of July. 39 weeks pregnant and baby still seems plenty content, unlikely to make an appearance early as I fully expected. Better perhaps as it gave us the time we needed to get organized and plan and pack. We've even started to work on our remodel for next year - playing with floor plans and options. Hoping that construction won't be overly stressful.

But for now our plan is to head to the Hamptons soon after the baby is born and get out of the way of the big move leaving Brian to it. And when we come home it will be to Larchmont, and not LIC, which will really feel weird at first. More on that to come...

Happy Birthday Maya!

4 years old! Maya and her classmates celebrated with her at Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge park with an Olivia themed event, lots of Uruguayan specialties and a piñata and lots of mini cupcakes.

She is very excited to be four, and asked me all summer when her birthday was, and if she was four yet and if she could now go to pre-k. Going to pre-k is a big deal apparently because it means she will be in her separate classroom and be the oldest group in her preschool.


On that note, pre-k thankfully starts tomorrow for a half day of school. I am ecstatic at getting back into a routine. Although our summer was lovely - most of it spent in East Hampton with time divided between YMCA camp, beach, pool, yoga and horse back riding! Maya started taking lessons and we went together to the barn once a week and both rode - it was nice to get back into it having not ridden regularly since college. And Maya loved the whole experience from getting the horses ready, to her lesson, to the sponge bath she treated her horse to afterwards. Merrylegs is the name of her white pony by the way and she talks about her frequently.

  We've spent the last several weeks taking advantage of all those fun city family amusements that we hadn't gotten to all summer - Natural History museum, Bronx zoo and I think there is a Renaissance faire trip in the future - any excuse to be outside in a medieval princess dress and eat a turkey leg. Some pics from her birthday party. Happy September everyone!

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!

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.

July it is!

38 weeks and counting - official due date 7/21. We'll see if this little girl makes it to then (I'll suspect she will) or if she'll be late like her sister (although I really hope not a whole week late). Still feeling fine thankfully, managing the heat as best we can (it's consistently 90 degrees in NYC these days) and taking it easy now that work for the time being is over with no foreseeable timeline of resuming in the near future.

We started off the month as if on a vacation - childless! Maya went to East Hampton for the long July 4th weekend with my parents and brother - and really how easily one adapts to being childless. We slept in, ate out nearly every meal, saw Billy Elliot on Broadway, Bridesmaids one night and Midnight in Paris the other - both really funny and worth seeing. Sad to say but it's been ages since we've been to a movie - and it will be ages I'm sure before we get to another one. We live by movies on demand and netflix (although we are working through all the episodes of Lost at the moment which we never watched and are rather hooked - averaging about 2-3 episodes a night, I highly recommend it if you've never seen it).

Ms. Maya had a ball and went to the beach with her grandparents and apparently didn't ask about her parents once. She knew she was going to be spoiled and they would put up with her shenanigans - which included driving around until they found some deer grazing in a field because she asked to see Bambi - an indulgence her parents would likely have little patience for. But that's what grandparents are for I guess.

She started her summer program at her preschool this week which carries a whole rainforest theme for the summer. Her challenge has been to say goodbye to her favorite teacher who did all the art and yoga for the school and who Maya adored and was very attached to. Her not being there resulted in some tears this week when I dropped her off. But she won't be back in the fall so sadly for Maya she will have to adapt to not seeing her there everyday.

And so the waiting game begins in these last few weeks of my pregnancy and being able to take it easy and stay local with lots of trips to the neighborhood playground and sprinklers is pretty heavenly. And yes... the cake in the picture was as fun to make as it was to eat. Butter cream cheese frosting, mmmm.

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!

Brain growth

Lately, our little blabber mouth has put several new words under her belt in a short amount of time. These last two weeks we've been rather taken aback by her development, as she seems to be learning a new word almost everyday. Its as if she was on the verge of a developmental explosion, observing the world around her and then finally hit the brink.  She's also become quiet interested in her own body parts and will point to her head, nose ears, mouth on cue - and today belly button, which she can't say but has become totally fascinated by. Now Maya of course many of you know has quiet the belly. So getting around it to actually see her belly button requires some maneuvering.  She'll take both hands and push her belly in while leaning over to view her 'bee bo'. She'll admire the button on her middle for quiet a while, before coming over to try and see yours (and stick her finger in it! it's maddening). It's pretty funny to watch.

We have her signed up to start at a nursery school across the street in the fall right after she turns 2. That's right, you heard correctly folks, she will be two this coming August. And although that is still a ways off somehow we now have this little person living with us. I'm rather excited for her to start school, she'll only be going two days a week from 9-2pm and there are several children in our building that go to nursery school there and everyone loves it. The space is very cool - a large loft space divided up with short book cases to create smaller spaces, reading areas, science area, drawing, eating area, a little gym and music room. I wonder what she'll wear on the first day of school.... hmmmm