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.

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. 

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.

New Year, New Projects

The year kicked off with a bang for all three of us. After hosting 10 toddlers for a Christmas cookie party, a special surprise building visit from Santa, a week off for the holidays spent in East Hampton and at home, and a quiet New Year's eve spent mostly cooking in preparation for a fun New Year's day brunch we hosted for friends, things actually got busy (ha!) with work, school and activities.

Maya started attending nursery school 3 days a week (instead of the 2 she did in the fall) - in large part because she loves it and the weather has been so miserably cold and wintery that she was far more engaged with her friends, music and yoga class (that's right folks - 2 year olds do yoga, her downward dog is actually really good) and art projects than she was at home cycling through Disney movies that it felt like the right thing to do. Plus it gives me a day alone to run errands :) Never a bad thing.

She also started ballet for 2's at the Long Island City School of Ballet - which is just adorable. Two of our neighbors also attend and the girls get to play with lots of props - wands to put magic on their feet (so that they'll do magic ballet steps) and get to strut their stuff around the room.

She was a disaster the first class (lots of lying on the floor with her eyes closed), much better the second time although a little shy during her solos and apparently very cooperative and motivated for her third class (today, dad went, mom had to work). It definitely requires that they perk up their listening skills to follow all the directions given - no small feat, and a great confidence builder when they realize they can do it. It's been fun to watch her progression in just a few weeks.  

We've contemplating doing and easy ski trip with her to a local mountain, but realized it would be a challenge when we trekked her through the snow to do some sledding at the Gantry state park near our apartment and she wasn't too thrilled - until she figured out the sledding part, that was fun! Might need to wait till next year, although Brian is itching to take her.

Brian's been busy at work but pleased with his year's performance and looking forward to projects on the horizon.  I continue to work part-time and from home which has been a great arrangement. We're gearing up to go to Disney World for 5 days in March which we are really looking forward to.  Maya will surely be on princess heaven - overload and it should be a lot of fun. My parents in true retired fashion are spending 2 months in Uruguay, the warmest months of the year there and rounding off their travels with a trip to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

 Now if we could only get NY to thaw - but by the looks of it another Northeaster is just around the corner. Stay warm folks!