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!

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