Month: June 2014 (Page 2 of 2)

Last week.

Start with a little sleep.  If Sam sleeps until at least 6:15, that’s a good morning.  If he lets me go back to bed for twenty minutes after I fill his tummy, that’s even better.

Exercise first thing to get it out of the way.  Sam plays on the floor and dances to Ke$ha with me.  Meanwhile Jack gets himself up and is watching Digimon in the kitchen. 

Breakfast next.  Leftover crumpets (yay for Trader Joe’s!) with fruit and smoothie.  A fried egg for me.

BWAA HAHA HA HA!  They had zucchini in their smoothies!  I win at mothering!

Shower and style my new do, that I dyed last night.  Summer always makes me want to do something new with my hair.  This might be the most fetching self photo I’ve taken in years, despite the broken dresser and unmade bed.

Sam took a nap and we cleaned Jacks’ room.  It was remarkable because we did it together without tears shed by either party.

Then off to the usual story time.  

 

 
Oh wow.  There they are.  Beautiful.

Stopped at MickleDonnull’s for cold drinks and a bag of ice before having lunch at home.  Sam is starting with some leftover hamburger, and Jem thinks Sam is A-OK. 

Quiet time for both boys – the best part of the day.  Sam woke up shortly though.  I have him play while I finished up some work. 

Not pictured: Me having an anxiety attack over Sam coughing and sneezing this morning.  I can’t break this healthy streak yet!

I’m a day late in posting here, but the pictures are from yesterday’s Friday the 13th when Sammy turned 9 months old!  Sam’s personality has bloomed this month.

He pulls a lot of funny faces.  He smiles at the camera.  He hides himself to play peek-a-boo.  He roared at Jack today while they were play-wrestling.

He grew three new teeth over the past month.

This is not a great picture below, but it captures a bit of his full-face grin.  He squints and bares his teeth and it’s so cute!

He still loves being in his bouncer.  He jumps with his hands in the air, like a roller coaster thrill-seeker.  He dances with his arms in time to music.  He likes books.  We read Goodnight Moon every night and he always stops on “Goodnight kittens” to pet them.  He turns the pages too. 

He shares his food and pacifier.  His eating skills are a lot better after New York.  We can let him sit and eat on his own at meals, instead of constantly managing his food for him.  We’ve been doing signs and he might be starting to do them.  It’s hard to tell, but I think he has a proto-sign for “more” and “all done.”

This photo session was super brief.  He flailed, rolled, and lunged all over the bed.  I can’t leave him on the bed anymore.  I used to put a pillow barricade and let him play up there while I exercised in the same room.  When Jack was with him, I would take a quick shower.  Now I can hardly have him on the bed while I hover over him.  He fell off the sofa-bed in NYC and didn’t learn his lesson.  He will gladly plunge headfirst into the rock pile off our patio if I wasn’t there holding him by the waist.  

He’s so close to crawling.  He leans forward to get up on one foot and one knee.  Sometimes he gets on all for and rocks.  Andy day now he will figure it out. 

My phone is the holy grail for him.  I pulled it out to check a message, and the smiles were over.  I had to hand him my phone to get more pics. 

THE GLORY IS MINE!

I rarely let him touch it, because it goes in his mouth.  Look at my flickr set for evidence.

Nine months and ready to take on the world.

The best way to shop for shoes with kids.

Last week I came back from the New York trip and I’m FINALLY getting around to blogging about it.  It was so much fun.  Tiring, anxiety-inducing at times, and very trying for Sam, but totally worth it.  Amanda arranged a fabulous package of the city for the students and us chaperones, and I my parents were wonderful in accommodating and assisting with my eight month old.  Sam was a trooper, really.  Considering how strange and off-routine we were, he was generally happy.

The best way to share is with pictures!  I decided to break tradition.  Instead of sharing chronological photos, I’m grouping them by type.  All my photos are in this flickr set.  You can click on any below to see the bigger version. 

Sam’s first flight

Dad holding Sam up to things
First, the departure sign, then the welcome lady at the hotel, then an Egyptian sculpture:

Kids being forced to pose as a group
Their enthusiasm waxes and wanes.

Times Square

Central Park

Battery Park

Rockefeller Center

The Rad Hotel Atrium and Elevators

Your ears pop as it zooms up.

Chaperones trailing the kids

Various Tours

The Met, brief tour given by Mom

St. Patrick’s by Amanda

Radio City Music Hall – This was awesome, I recommend it!

Extra cool because they were setting up for the Tony Awards!

Our guide, showing us the “Men Without Women” mural.  My favorite part was seeing the bathrooms, hilarious as that is. 

The Lincoln center tour, here in the lobby of the Opera house.  Sadly, we couldn’t take photos in some of the best parts.  But I got to see a ballet rehearsal on stage and the symphony tech rehearsal.

Grand Central Station (briefly) by Amanda

Getting Around the City

Lunches and Dinners

Hearty Italian at Tony DiNapoli

Food Trucks outside the Met

Turkish Restaurant (not sure the name)  

Pizza after seeing A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (which rightly won Best Musical!  Yay!)

Lunch at Union Square Farmer’s Market

Dinner at Ben’s Kosher Deli

Snacks, Snacks, Snacks

Featuring Sam: the Bottomless Pit

Pinkberry’s and bagels

Falafel and cupcakes

Black and white cookie and rugalach

 

Celebrity Sightings


The Genie from Aladdin (who won his Tony and deserved it!)

From across the street, the green jacket is James Franco and his mob of fans.

Chris O’Dowd seemed friendly.  Dad wanted a picture for his father, who is a fan.  Which makes this even funnier. 

Star of Gentleman’s Guide

Me and my baby

Yay!  Asleep (in a stroller!) in Central Park

On the roof garden of the Met

In Rockefellar Center

In Union Square

We had to come home a day early, so I didn’t get to do Dim Sum or Blue Man Group, but that’s ok.  I think Sam was done done done.  It was a super fun trip.