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11 Weeks Old

Dear Evalie,

Its the second day of Fall, Arielle is back at school and you and I all of a sudden have time alone. Even though you still sleep quite a bit, we do have some quiet time together in the morning and we exchange smiles, I catch you in a gaze and we see each other clearly, we laugh and we talk. You are a very content little bundle and are very generous with your smiles. I don't know if this feeling will ever leave ( I hope it doesn't), I am still amazed by you. You have made it pretty easy to become a mother again, a mother of two little girls. You are a patient baby, you barely cry but rather express your feeling with little sounds. You already personify a lot of what you feel, for example, I can see when you look at your sister how much you admire her, I believe you will be best friends, she loves you, she protects you. She will not let you cry for one moment, once she hears you awake she warns me of this and urges me to pick you up and put her next to you. Every morning on the way to school (and any other time we are in the car) she holds your hand to make sure you aren't scared. 

You have two new tricks, they are sounds and sitting; you have started to attempt to sit up rather than recline when someones holding you. You also spend quite a bit more time in the bouncy chair and make the most wonderful and deliberate sounds, usually at the objects hanging in front of you but sometime at daddy if he's sitting next to you. You also are trying very hard to get you fingers in your mouth but this skill continues to elude you. Like your aunty said on Saturday, you are so loved. I love you more than I ever believed my heart could. 

Love Mummy.

Time to vote!

While pondering your vote in the upcoming presidential elections, here's an easy vote you can make today, would you please click the button on the right ( and the owl on the left) to vote for my blog and help us get into the to fifty on Top Baby Blogs.com! The counter reset this morning and I need your votes, if you like reading the blog. Thanks.

Oktoberfest// Bear Mountain

One of the benefits of living outside the city is the lovely parks and serene outdoors. If you are an outdoorsy kind of person, the hudson valley is for you (unless you have allergies, then it'll just make them worse!) For the next 5 weeks, the Bear mountain state park is hosting the Oktoberfest, its pretty funny, packed with vendors, music and of course endless jugs of beer. We happened to stumble upon it last weekend but came just before they packed up so we'll have to go back. Have a great weekend.

2 Months Old

At 2 months old, Evie is deliciously chubby, very smiley and just precious..I know I'm her mother so I couldn't possibly feel any differently. She actually was 2months over a week a ago but I waited until now so I could get the stats..its also a bit tough to get a baby ready for her close up..so we were just now able to get her at a good time to take a few pictures. She had her 2 month appointment with the pediatrician yesterday and weighed in at 14lbs and 24.5"long, she's healthy and happy. She smiles deliberately, she is able to recognize a few people ( me, daddy and her sister..) so she "tracks" when she hears our voices, she holds her head up pretty well but still is not a fan of tummy time at all. She is starting to "coo" and responds to us pretty well which is great but also blows my mind because I feel like she was just born..she was born 10 weeks ago! I'm still amazed. Anyway, all is well with the sisters, Arielle loves her but I do observe a change in her personality and the odd things she says sometimes which must be as a result of this new person in her life. She's got a lot going on in her little life with a new Preschool, new friends, teachers etc and of course a baby sister..so I feel like I need to cuddle her even more although it make it hard for her to leave me in the morning without crying. 

I had a "bad mommy" moment yesterday with her. After receiving several vaccines injections, I decided to take Arielle and Evie to see grandma because she was home from work (schools were closed for Rosh Hashanah). Once we got there, Evie was fine and happy, she then took a nap for a short while. When she woke up from the nap, she was not happy, she started to cry which quickly escalated into a screaming and kicking fit..I couldn't console her enough..I tried to put her in the Bjorn and walk around because she enjoys that but she cried even more, I took her out and held her but every time I bounced her gently she would cringe and scream even more..after about 25 minutes, I realized she was getting warm, red and crying even more intensely. I had never seen her cry so much before. I realized that she must have been in pain from the vaccines so my mother rushed out to pick up a pain/fever reducer to give to her. After administering it, she cuddled her for about 20 minutes and she calmed down. I should have known or at least been prepared for the possibly of her to have a reaction. 

Break//Sweet Little Shop

I started this online blog and shop a few months back, the shop combines my passion for designing, clothing and my daughters and was really a lot of fun (and stressful) to put together. I learnt a lot in the process and still have more to learn about this business. I am taking a break to focus on a few other projects in the next few months, while I also learn more about marketing this product and getting some more inventory and new styles for the Spring/Summer 2013 line. The website will remain up but there will be no way to purchase anything until we relaunch in a few months. Thanks for your support and I look forward to bringing back some new stuff in a few months.

Happy Birthday// to me

A few days ago I hit what I refer to as "middle aged", although its not technically considered that but for many reasons, I feel like it is within my current perspective on life. Its always an interesting week for me because for most of my life except for the first two years, my brothers birthday has been the day after mine, you see he interrupted my 3rd birthday party with his entrance into the world and really has stolen my thunder ever since (he would agree..). He's my only brother from a family of seven children and he was greatly wished for and had been greatly celebrated ever since his arrival so I guess its OK but really..he could have waited a few more days rather than to disappoint a whole bunch of three year olds who came out to eat cake.. but I digress. 

Anyway, since 2001, the day before has been charged with somber remembrance of the day the two planes were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center towers in NYC and this creates the sandwich that is my birthday. I have become rather cynical about celebrating my birthday over the years not for any particular reason really; I'm not afraid of age or getting older, I'm the first to announce my age to anyone who wants to know ( even if its thought of as a faux pas) so maybe I just lost the vigor for it in general. The day I was born is probably most special to my mother, because she did all the work that day, I just came out and slept probably! So, I had always imagined this year to be more glamorous, nights out on the town after long days at my posh job in the bright white corner office looking over central park, with a secretary names Susie, then a few months back I decided to come back to earth and just to have a big birthday celebration and then lost all my steam by July and as things happened, the weeks flew by, there it was was staring me in the face, my birthday was here and I had nothing to do, I was crossing this line into the middle-age, in pajamas, with unkempt hair, spit up on my arm, smelling like old milk! This was what my life had become..I am a mom........and these two little ones are the best gift I could have given myself. 

So one of my sisters called and asked if I wanted to go to lunch which forced me to clean up and leave the house, with one daughter in school and the other in tow, we went to lunch and had martinis with our salads, talked and laughed about old times and new (she is a new mommy too.. to a lovely little boy). After lunch, it was such a nice day that we decided to go shopping and then take the kids to the playground for a while. And in the end, there was a celebration, not the kind I had dreamt up, but the a respectable one,  dinner and cake..impromptu with people who care and some who just happened to be there..

Another year of Fabulous!

Petit Maison: Part 2

After assembling the shell of the house, I quickly sketched out a plan for the house and began to measure out the fenestration. I basically drew them in lightly in pencil for all three sides and then began to cut them out using the x-acto knife. Its important to change your blade after a few cuts because otherwise you will either end up with really messy cuts or loose a finger or both. 

The windows made a big difference to the house, it now looks much lighter and brighter. The next thing I did was to start to adhere colored card stock to the wood for walls to divide up the spaces and give some color to the house. Arielle loves pink and yellow so of course the house is going to be pink inside. We started with these sheets. Basically, once I decided where walls would go and cut them down to size, I glued the card stock to the wood with sobo glue and weighed them down for  a little while to make sure it was smooth and fully sealed, then I would cut out any openings in the walls. 

At this point, I was ready to start gluing the whole thing together, so I removed the tape and glued the exterior walls together and then glued them to the sides of the bottom floor. The I glued the interior walls to the both the floor and the exterior wall which gave the house some structure and rigidity.

I thought it was looking pretty good, but of course Arielle wants to know where all the furniture is and why its taking so long to do..I guess I could have just purchased the three story barbie house!

8 Weeks Old

Why am I wearing this headband?..I'm a baby!

And now I can smile..

As the time goes by, I am reminded everyday of how lovely innocence can be; the world is blossoming around her everyday and as she learns and responds to all that surrounds her, she brings light to our lives. At 8 weeks, Evallie is really cool to be around, she recognizes us and spends time scanning around to see what we are doing. You can "talk" to her and she responds with a very enthusiastic wiggle of her entire body, a smile and sometimes even a sounds. Its an exciting time for her as well, she spent the last few days discovering her hands..and fighting everyone uncoordinated bone in her little body to get it into her mouth and keep it there. I don't know what she weighs yet but I do know we do not wear nb sized clothing anymore and we're deep into our box of size 1 diapers. 

Her schedule is actually becoming just that..she is pretty good with what time she sleeps and wakes and eats..she's still a very quick eater so my awake time at night is very limited if any. Half the time she sleeps from 12-6am and the other half she will wake up at 3am for a quick feed and change depending on what time she went to sleep. 

We're fully out of the fragile newborn phase and into the chubby baby stage, she can hold her head up pretty well so I carry her around in the Bjorn or the Moby Wrap and she loves it. As far as tummy time, she isn't a fan..she could do without it but I realized the other day that Arielle was rolling over by now so I've really go to get her down on the floor more often. I take responsibility because, when Arie was young we had carpet which we have replace with hardwood so laying on the floor isn't as inviting to me, it can be hard on my old bones! In the last few weeks she's met a few more family members, been to the park many times, been out to dinner, been on a train, in the city, on the beach...

Anyway, I decided to stay home with her, the semester has begun and I turned down the courses I was scheduled to teach, I am looking forward the next three months I have and really want to make the best of the time I have with her. Anyway, enough of this mushy stuff. 

and sometimes I even laugh..

I watch my sister do funny things..

She's really silly..

Coney Island Beach

Labor day weekend is usually the weekend everyone goes away but we did the weekend before and stayed home for Labor day. So we decided to take some local day trips hoping that the city would be empty and we could squeeze in a few more days of summer. We went to Coney Island beach which was kind of an adventure for us because although my husband is from Brooklyn, he hadn't been to this beach since he was a child. Coney Island is kind of an icon but doesn't boast of the best (cleanest) beach. But for our purposes, it was perfect that day. I was just looking for a relaxing afternoon, the cool breeze, smells of the ocean and sounds of the waves while Arielle wanted to play in sand (which she wants to do everyday!) It was nice to see I wasn't the only one dragging a Bugaboo down the sand, I needed to because my little Evie was sleeping the whole time although every time she got hit with a cool breeze she gasped and cooed! It was very cute. It looks like we are getting better at balancing outings with the two kids..we are still not able to leave the house as quickly as we'd like but at least we leave the house...showered..and looking somewhat decent.