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..