Everyone Is Doin' It

When she should be napping...

2012-01-21T14:37:00.003-05:00

This could almost be considered live because she's up in her room right now dancing the nap away. It's cute until later in the afternoon when you ask her if she wants a drink of water and didn't you know that was the wrong time to ask and the angry screaming begins.

Twin Day and "Do the Dance Now"

2012-01-15T14:53:00.006-05:00

The photo above was for an actual "twin day" at Zander's school. It didn't matter to Zander that Cassandra goes to a different school.

The video below is from a random day when they decided to dress alike. This happens surprisingly often. Sometimes they are so darn cute it's hard to stand it. (Other times when one is pinching the other and screaming "It's mine" it's a lot easier to stand it.)

Time Travel

2011-12-11T17:03:00.008-05:00

In an amazing feat of time travel, my daughter (who was just born a few months ago) turned three today! She is joyful and delicious and fun. I can't get enough of her (except when she is insisting that she needs five pairs of underwear, two shirts, and two pairs of pants and we are running late or when she is stalling at bedtime).

In a similarly-related feat, Cassandra wears pull-ups for nighttime and that's all we see of what resembles a diaper. It's especially remarkable given how much we messed up the potty training with Zander. This time around, we let Cass lead the way and we simply provided support. Sure there is the occasional accident, but we're pretty much over that hurdle. (Knock on wood.)

I get it now -- why women who know they are done having children are nostalgic for the baby years. A friend just had a baby and I commented on the facebook newborn photo: "Enjoy these years. They go so fast." The post-partum Jill would have scoffed at such a comment. In fact, I did. Wistful sigh.

Brown Applesauce?

2011-12-09T22:22:00.005-05:00

On the way home from school today Cassandra said she wanted applesauce with dinner. I told her that would be fine. Then she excitedly asked for "BROWN APPLESAUCE!" Since the organic brand we sometimes purchase is a darker color, I thought that is what she meant. But when I offered her some of it at dinner, she insisted it was NOT the brown applesauce she had in mind. She went to the pantry to show me herself. Want to know what "brown applesauce" is to Cassandra? Pudding!

The Requisite Halloween Photos

2011-11-02T12:53:00.006-04:00

Our "Patriot Boy" amidst a sea of ninjas...

When we first told people he was going to be a "Patriot Boy," some thought he was going as a New England Patriots fan. After seeing the costume, someone thought he was George Washington and another thought he was Christopher Columbus.

Cassandra was a lion. But then she decided not to be a lion. Luckily we dug up a giraffe costume from our dress-up bin, but that "felt funny." So she donned Zander's old firefighter costume for three minutes before turning back to the lion. Call this "second-child-syndrome," but I only have one grainy photo of the adorable feline taken with my phone.

Did catch a trademark roar on video though:

More Puddles

2011-08-17T21:31:00.007-04:00

It's rare that Brad asks me to post something here as he knows I already feel bad about not posting enough and he doesn't want to add any pressure. But he asked that I post this and I agree that it shows a few important things:

how we have changed as parents since Zander was this age and that we actually support -- even encourage this behavior; and
a demonstration of just a sliver of the joy Cassandra gets from jumping in puddles and being all-around-wet.

P.S. The loud hissing sound in the background is from crickets. Cassandra is saying "My bottom is wet mama! My bottom is wet!"

Next time you think your child isn't paying attention, think again.

2011-08-02T21:02:00.007-04:00

Zander started Taekwondo in June and, unavoidably, Cassandra has sat through a few of the classes. Usually she spends the time yelling, "I see Zander" while I keep reminding her to whisper.

But I was shocked when she counted to ten in Korean the other night. I don't know that she understands the words. Scratch that. I'm sure she does *not* understand the words, but she *has* memorized them...

Here's the real Korean (from wikiHow):
1 = 하나 = Ha-na
2 = 둘 (dhul)
3 = 셋 (seht)(t is almost silent)
4 = 넷 (neh) nett (t is almost silent)
5 = 다섯 (DA-seot)(t is silent)
6 = 여섯 (Yeo-seot)(t is silent)
7 = 일곱 (il-gop)
8 = 여덟 (YUH-deol)
9 = 아홉(AH-hop) (say as one syllable)
10 =열 (yeol)

Cousins on the beach, there's nothing better

2011-07-11T16:13:00.006-04:00

Zander and Fin meditating at the beach during the July 4th weekend.

(Title of post pays homage to a favorite song of mine from when I was about twelve years old.)

Camp!

2011-07-03T08:46:00.000-04:00

It's as if I've been hit with some kind of writer's block. But,it's not writer's block, it's blogger's block. I write quick posts and never hit "publish." Here's one from over a week ago with some photos from Zander's 1st week of summer camp at Discovery Woods...

* * * * * *
For the record, the theme for the week was "gardening" and that's fennel from the camp/school garden:

Climbing what the children call "Mt. Everest:"

Old Hickory

2011-06-22T10:06:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Zander's last day of 1st grade. It seems fitting to post this photo of him prepared for his presentation on Andrew Jackson many months ago. The poster and head-costume-thingy did not make it home successfully and I feared (gasp!) that we would never be able to see it in action. Luckily, his teacher had taken a picture. He didn't actually wear the poster, just the giant $20 bill.

Ye Olde 7th Birthday Party

2011-06-06T15:02:00.009-04:00

I spend a lot of time explaining how I "lower the bar" these days in terms of what I find acceptable. My house is a lot less neat than I'd like it to be and I'm a lot less organized that I used to be. Half the time, I have so many details swimming in my head that I forget why I came in the room in the first place. Wait, what was I going to blog about?

Well, for the record, Zander's 7th birthday party is *not* an example of lowering the bar. Every year I say, "never again" yet every year I/we end up stressing way too much over the details of his birthday. We keep trying to steer him to having a party somewhere other than our home -- say, for example, a nice bounce house place where they do all the party planning for you. Heck, they often provide the invitations and the goody bags. No luck though. (For the record item #1: he was debating between the following themes for the party: aliens, karate, and colonial.) We ended up with a colonial theme, although a hybrid of all three would have interesting.

Activities included bobbing for apples, sack races, three-legged races, foursquare, make-your-own-spice-sachet, painting a clubhouse, and more. A friend of the family (affiliated with Cassandra's school) came dressed in full colonial garb and brought her goat (see photo above).

Oh, we also had a colonial moon bounce. Okay, so it wasn't colonial. (For the record #2: I was *strongly* against the moon bounce as I thought we didn't need it and it would ruin the colonial ambiance. But in hindsight, it allowed the children to burn off lots of excess energy from the rock candy.)

A huge thanks to the many people who helped make the party a success: Brad (my full partner in planning and execution), Grandma Paula and Pap-Pap, the Mitchells, Savannah, Rebecca, Betsy of Vranko Village, Lisa Bloch, Levi Wallach, the Karkowski family, and Grandma Susan. (For the record #3: Many of the people on this list are there because they patiently listened to me bitch and moan and stress, or maybe they put the phone down while I talked. Doesn't matter. It helped. Thanks.)

Babies, babies, babies

2011-05-10T09:38:00.003-04:00

For Cassandra, a good part of the trip to Florida and Disney was about babies. We gave her this baby at the airport before we left (new toys are part of my distract-the-children technique of traveling):

It's name is "Tiny Baby."

A day later, she got "Big Baby" as a present from her great, great Aunt Nettie (92 years old). She spent most of the next week dressing, undresssing, and putting these babies to sleep. ("She" being Cassandra, not Aunt Nettie.)

Here's Cassandra putting Tiny Baby, Big Baby, unknown-stuffed-thing-found-at-rental-house, and Popeye all down for a nap:

And just for the record, in her own words (out of the blue), here is Cassandra emphatically "NOT pinching Big Baby:"

Cass and Characters

2011-05-03T21:47:00.014-04:00

More from our trip to Disney (mentioned here, here, and here), which already seems like ages ago...

Cassandra was surprisingly drawn to the Disney characters, although we managed to avoid all Disney princesses. (Honestly, she wouldn't know what to call one if we did see one, but I'm sure she would be very interested.)

Anyway, one story has it that she was under the care of one of my parents and they turned around just as she was yelling, "PIGLET!" and running toward the ole' guy.

She went on lots of rides that probably meant nothing to her. That is, she doesn't know the story or characters in "Toy Story," so the 3D "Toy Story Mania" ride/game at Disney Hollywood Studios was over her head. That being said, she rode it and had a blast.

If you ask her what her favorite part of the trip was, she would said, "The tam." This means "The Tram."

The early bird gets the worm...

2011-05-03T21:35:00.002-04:00

...or if you're talking about our trip to Disney, "the early bird has to wait in fewer lines." Most days, we arrived when the parks opened. Here's a shot of Cassandra at Hollywood Studios:

Who is this boy and where is my son?

2011-04-28T21:37:00.006-04:00

Zander had been on some mild roller coasters prior to the Spring Break trip. We weren't sure what to expect on the more exciting and scary attractions. After a few basic rides, we thought he was ready to try Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as his first thrill ride. From there we were going to gauge what to do next. Well, there was no looking back. He did the railroad coaster twice and moved straight on to Splash mountain which he also did twice. Later that afternoon, he experienced the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain (twice).

These rides might not mean much to anyone else, but I grew up in South Florida and went to Disney World many times. It blows my mind that now my child went on those same rides. It doubly blows my mind that Zander is that child.

The following day at Disney's Hollwood Studios, Zander rode the Tower of Terror (twice!). Here he is posing in front of the Rock n' Rollercoaster, which he also went on (thanks in large part to his father's fast pass skills):

Also at Hollywood Studieo, he tried out for American Idol. He was actually too young for an official tryout, but they let him go through the motions:

Below is a photo of him in front of Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom (third day), which he road three times (thanks to the child swap pass and fast pass). Are you getting tired yet? How about nauseous? 'Cause my stomach was queasy after Expedition Everest, but he wanted to keep right on going.

Not pictured, but also on the list of enjoyed rides: Mission: Space (Epcot), Soarin' (Epcot), and many, many more. For the record, he/we went on lots of non-rollercoaster rides too.

Finally, here he is during out last day in Florida jumping from a three-meter diving board:

Who is this boy and where is my son?!

A Magical Spring Break

2011-04-27T21:21:00.008-04:00

So much to blog about and so little time. My life is full and I feel blessed, but also (and always) guilty for not doing more.

Over an extended Spring Break, we took a magical trip to visit my parents in South Florida and then road trip with them to Disney World. I hope to do a few posts on the trip in the next few days, but the quick story is that Zander became a roller-coaster/thrill-ride aficionado and Cassandra basked in the joy of swimming daily and having grandpa read her the same book over and over and over again. In between it all we had a Passover Seder, caught up with Popi and Grandma Joan, visited with Aunt Nettie (age 92) and Nat (age 98), and had a rare visit with Uncle Alan.

Like I said, full and busy! More to come...

A Small Misunderstanding

2011-04-11T10:08:00.004-04:00

mis·un·der·stand·ing/ˌmisˌəndərˈstandiNG/Noun

1. A failure to understand something correctly.

Here's the background:

Cassandra has a little self-propelled ride-on car which we keep in the house for reasons which I am still not sure. She often likes Zander to push her around in the car. By now, Zander is fairly used to requests from Cass, including thing like: "Zander: Ding Ding," which means he should feed her and simultaneously say "ding ding," etc.

So, one day recently Cassandra was scooting herself around on the little car. She decided she'd rather have Zander push her around, so she parked the car and went to find him.

In her cute little two-year-old voice she asked, "Zander...you push me?" To which Zander, somewhat surprised by the question said, "Sure!" Then he took both hands and gave her a good shove.

Tree for Tu BiShvat in Honor of MLK

2011-04-04T15:15:00.003-04:00

Each year for the Jewish holiday of Tu BiShvat there is a drive to plant trees in Israel. I remember doing this when I was growing up too (not the actual planting, but the sponsoring of the planting). Zander chose to plant his tree in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. We just received the certificate and today, being the anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, seemed like a good day to post it.

Alone time? What is he a teenager already?!

2011-03-25T11:13:00.012-04:00

Zander has been leaving us all kinds of notes lately. The above is an example. We found it outside of his room one evening last week. It says:

To mom and dad I love you but want some alone time please come at 7:25 to read me a book if you are really just chilin out I may come out before that.

love:

Zander Kuebler

look on the back

From the back (not shown in the scan above):

top secret

I love you dad! I love you mom!

Hitting the Jackpot

2011-03-23T20:14:00.010-04:00

The fun fair (mentioned in the last post) has a raffle. In fact, they raffle off about 30 or 40 things from electronics (Wii, Xbox) to activities. Zander won "Principal for a day."

Let me back up a bit and say that the elementary school that Zander attends has an enrollment of 970+ students. The principal is a rock star. Now part of that is because the current principal is charasmatic, well-qualified, and good at his job. The other part is because, well, he's the principal!

We pretty much assumed that Zander wouldn't win anything in the raffle because the chances were slim given the high participation. When we got the call that he *did* win and it was "Principal for the Day," we felt pretty darn lucky. Now that he has actually been "Principal for the Day," we're sure that he (and we) won the jackpot. Here is *some* of what he did during his day-long tenure:

walked around the entire school outside to make sure things were safe and the buses were coming in on time;
made a decision with the PE teacher about the parallel bars;
went into all the kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and most 6th grade classes;
answered questions from children in each of the classrooms;
signed some budget paperwork (not real);
signed a leave slip for a staff person (real decision, but with the principal's prior approval);
made a decision about an item to include in the school's weekly newspaper;
placed a new child into a kindergarten class;
spoke with a 6th grade student and decided a discipline issue (not real);
had lunch in the teachers’ lounge and sat and chatted with teachers (photo above); and more!

Brad said it best -- most of the other things that he could have won in the raffle could be purchased. His day with the principal as "principal for a day" was priceless to him (and to us).

Born to Be Wild

2011-03-21T21:49:00.006-04:00

I embed the video below for posterity. I do not expect anyone other than the parents (and perhaps grandparents) of these two wild boys to watch the entire thing through. And honestly, we've already watched it. But, I do think it needs to be preserved.

Here's the backstory: Zander has been a fan of the song "Born to be Wild" ever since he was first exposed to it in "Dooby, Dooby Moo" of the "Click Clack Moo" series. Fast forward a year or two to this week. During his school's annual "fun fair' (aka a fundraiser for the school where hundreds of children run around trying earn prizes and win raffles). Zander and his friend Max decided to perform the song on the karaoke stage. Zander is on vocals and Max has some rad moves. Oh -- right beforehand they had their hair done in the makeshift salon, hence the green and pink mohawks...

Video shot by Max's dad, John V.

For the record, this is Zander's 2nd official karaoke performance. His first was during a recent birthday party at the l0cal "Bach to Rock." And yes, I realize the subtle irony between the subject matter of the songs in the last post juxtaposed with the lyrics of "Born to Be Wild."

God

2011-03-19T10:31:00.002-04:00

Realizing I need to post something so the "penis" post moves farther down the page.

So here's a one about god. Well, it's not really about god, rather songs about god. Let me explain. The choir in which Zander sings (at the synagogue to which we belong) had a joint concert with Peter and Ellen Allard a few weeks ago. Z was over the moon about singing with "famous people." All of the songs were rather god-heavy (for lack of a better way of explaining it). As individuals and parents, Brad and I do not necessarily emphasize god. But, Zander's Sunday school sure *does* and Zander himself has been known to pray to god (although often before the roll of dice in a close game).

Anyway, here is a snippet of the performance:

"That's a Silly Penis"

2011-03-06T18:36:00.006-05:00

We stumbled across this guy outside a toy store as we exited the temporary location of our local library, which is under renovation. Pretty clever for a toy store to be next to a library and also to put this outside to attract attention. Cassandra took one look at him and said, "That's a silly penis!"

My baby is 2!

2011-02-24T20:23:00.001-05:00

Actually -- Cassandra has been two for more than two months already. I just never got around to finishing this post. And also, she's not a baby anymore and will even tell you as much. She walks and talks and sings and dances and jumps and screams and has a personality all her own. She wants to do everything herself and is frustrated that sometimes she cannot. She is as fearless as her brother was cautious at this age. (One could argue that his caution was a result of -- or at least supported by -- my "first child" nervousness.)

For the most part, Cassandra adores her older brother and will pretty much copy whatever he says or does. This makes 1st visits to the dentist a breeze. It also (usually) makes things like riding in an infant swing or sitting in a high-chair out of the question.

She loves to cook. At the risk of never having dinner guests at our house again, here she is in a montage from 'cooking' sessions with Brad, Grandma Susan, and Auntie Jenna (all taken months ago).

I am head-over-heals in love with every ounce of this strong-willed little girl. Remind me that I said that come the teenage years.

Cloudy with a chance of rain...in the kitchen!?

2011-02-17T13:05:00.004-05:00

No, there was no rain in the kitchen or even in the forecast on this particular day last week. This is just Cassandra insisting on what clothing she wants to wear and when. She picked the raincoat and then spied the umbrella a few hours later. Truth be told, we're lucky she is even clothed at all, ever. She seems to much prefer to be naked. I have no idea how they keep clothing at her at school, truly.

Wait, you want to know why she is standing on the chair? What else would a two-year-old do when she wants to reach something...simply push said chair over to counter (near knives, toaster, etc.) and get whatever it is you want.

Happy _________(holiday starting with the letter "V") Day!

2011-02-14T19:44:00.005-05:00

In January, I stumbled across a mention of some MadLibs-themed valentines by a crafty, mommy-blogger friend whom I've known since I was a little girl. I always knew she was talented, but further digging revealed that she actually wrote an article about her MadLibs valentines. (See page 22 of this issue of Modern Handmade Child for the article or just go to her blog to see a photo of her masterpieces.)

Anyway, Zander loves MadLibs these days and knowing I am nowhere near as artistic as Kristi, I decided to take her idea and work with it best I could. Zander was thrilled to come up with the text for a personalized class valentine. In all honesty, I *did* steer him from having each blank be a "noun" in which the word "poop" or "booger" would easily fit. He is a six-and-a-half-year-old boy, after all.

He dictated and I typed. Afterward, we printed it and tested it a few times for good measure. (I'm sure this breaks every copyright possible, but it's 1st grade, so I'm hoping to avoid jail time.) Next, Zander wrote the names of his classmates and his name on each sheet, we affixed individually-wrapped lifesavers, rolled the papers up, and tied them with a ribbon. (See photo above for the finish products.)

Below is only an excerpt. (I've blurred out a few identifying characteristics to protect the innocent.)

A Tribute to Lisa on her Birthday

2011-02-12T13:08:00.020-05:00

This is an tribute to my dearest friend who also happens to be my cousin. She turns the big 4-0 today and having just experienced this same 'big' birthday, I am taking this opportunity to express myself about her and our lifelong friendship.

We've know each other since we were young girls...

....although from the very start, our purpose together seemed to be to act older than we were. Think of pre-tweens putting oranges in their shirts and pretending to be hookers. (Wait, what? You didn't do that too? Oh, forget it then.) We had x-rated inside jokes that dissolved us into fits of uncontrollable giggles, which in hind sight, we didn't even understand ourselves. None of that mattered though.

She's who I call when I need to vent or cry or laugh or share something embarrassing and/or disgusting. I say "call" because she lives in California which sometimes feels worlds away from D.C. When we lived in the same city we had the capacity to be dangerous and quite silly together. See, for example, a Halloween on which we chose to dress ~~slutty~~ like twin jesters. (What you've never heard of kissin' cousin twin jesters? Oh, forget it then.)

Over the years, we've traveled together -- although not nearly as much as either one of us would have liked. Here we are on our way home from a jaunt to Boston...

...and in Amsterdam...

...and San Francisco, which she now calls home with her husband Chris and daughter Zoe.

She stood with me when I got married, and I with her.

She's cuddled my babies, showered them with thoughtful gifts, and clothed my little girl with hand-me-downs from her well-dressed daughter (and has thrown in some adorable etsy purchases which I couldn't afford myself).

I know that deep down she thinks she doesn't deserve any tribute, but I am quite sure that she does. My life would be so much emptier without her. I daydream of us as old Jewish ladies reminiscing about our exploits. Wait, I think we *are* there already.

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY LISA! I love you.

P.S. I also know that she has never seen a photo of herself that got 100% approval (much like me) and that I am taking some serious risks posting these.

Boys sledding (or "Smokin' Six Year Olds")

2011-02-08T21:06:00.003-05:00

Note: Alternate title suggestion compliments of Brad.

In the first part of this video Zander and his buddy Champe are sledding off of the back porch of Champe's house. Brad requested some "whooping and hollering" and the boys oblige. In the second part of the clip (at a hill at nearby Wolf Trap), the boys rode facing each other and I'm pretty sure they should have been wearing helmets considering the speed of the sled. Glad I wasn't there as I would have aged a few extra years watching. Yes, yes, I'm a neurotic Jewish mother. I realize that.

Coming Soon

2011-02-07T08:38:00.000-05:00

I have all these great blog posts in my head and rarely the time to get them down....Long sob stories about historic gridlock, thundersnow, and seven-hour-commutes only to arrive to a home sans power....Local grandparents to the rescue with loving arms and warm beds....Clever things that the elder child comes up with and toddler things that the younger child does (e.g. walking by a counter where bagels are being sold, grabbing one, and taking a big bite).

I mean it when I say that I don't know how people do it with more than two children and full-time jobs. I love our life right now, but it's busy. Really, really busy.

The good news is that last night while the rest of the country was watching a certain football game, I got caught up on some blogging. So, coming soon...Cassandra's cooking videos, Zander speed sledding, and more.

1934

2011-02-06T14:37:00.001-05:00

My mom recently transferred thousands of slides and old family photos to jpeg format and gave each of us a CD with the photos. The picture below, which has always been a favorite of mine, is of my maternal grandparents on their honeymoon taken in Atlantic City circa 1934.

"Very"

2011-01-06T11:21:00.005-05:00

Ah, so very much to blog about. I do hope to steal a few hours sometime soon to post more about our holidays. (As some already know, January is a busy time for my organization.)

* * * * * *

In the meantime, this quick post is about "very." Early in my undergraduate journalism studies, I had a reporter-turned-professor that loathed the word "very." He didn't want us to use it in news stories -- or any other stories for that matter. Although I'm sure that professor would have objected to Cassandra's use of "very," I think it's pretty adorable even if not quite right:

About water in the bath: "That's very, very wet!"

About the sound machine in her room: "That very off!"

While we're talking about current favorite phrases here's another few:

"My have a BIG, BIG, big poo poo!
"Do you have a BIG, BIG poo poo?"
"Baby [doll] has BIG, BIG big poo!"

I realize that no one outside of my immediate family cares about this stuff and that posting such things adds fodder to the jokes about mommy blogging. But her babyhood / toddler-hood is going so very fast. I just want to document some of it before it's completely gone.

Three Generations

2010-12-29T09:59:00.000-05:00

This photo of three generations of women (from my side of the family) was taken in September at my cousin Cyndi's wedding. If it looks familiar that's because a cropped version was used for the 'Jill' cake.

The Polar Bear Club

2010-12-22T20:00:00.004-05:00

At some point, Brad started the tradition of a "polar bear club." This brilliant activity consists of going swimming in the ocean when it's freezing cold both outside and in the water. Let me be clear -- this is not a tradition I particiate in.

This Thanskgiving in Rehoboth Beach, Cassandra was initiated (of her own free will) in the club. There was no stopping her really. See photos below of Cass walking with Aunt Jenna before she jumped into the water.

The 'Jill' cake

2010-12-18T08:00:00.002-05:00

My family had a few surprises in store for me to honor my 40th birthday. One of them was t-shirts each emblazoned with photos from a decade of my life and the tag line, "Four decades of excellence." EXCELLENCE I tell you! See photo below of my mother-in-law and my father wearing the couture.

Another surprise was a slide show with photos and videos from those four decades. I expect it to go viral anytime now. Here's Zander and me watching it:

And yet another was a cake with -- what could it be -- ME on it!

Finally, I also got a fancy new iPad to play with.

THANKS family! Here's to four more decades...

Glad I'm not in 1st Grade

2010-12-15T22:51:00.005-05:00

My son's 1st grade math homework leaves me dumbfounded. Not sure if this says more about my poor math skills or more about the specific work of Zander's class. (No jokes please, Brad.) Below are a few questions from today's work. The sheet was titled, "At the Park" and the directions said to "Read the clues. Solve the problems."

1. There are 16 red, yellow, and purple flowers by a bench. There are 4 more yellow flowers than red flowers. There are 2 more purple flowers than yellow flowers. How many are there of each flower?

On the backside of the sheet the theme was "Snack Time" and the directions were to "Solve the problems. Draw pictures to help you."

1. There are pears, oranges, and bananas in a bowl. There are 12 fruits in all. There are twice as many pears as there are oranges. There is the same number of bananas and oranges. How many pears are there?_____ How many oranges are
there?_____ How many bananas are there?_____

Not impossible, sure. But that's some challenging stuff. Clearly, I am not made for 1st grade.

Oh Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah...

2010-12-14T08:00:00.004-05:00

(Cool menorah photo taken by Pap-Pap Phillips)

...come light the menorah.

Hanukkah is getting bigger and bigger in our household as a certain six-year-old understands the present part more and more. This is somewhat ironic because the present part is more a function of the holiday's proximity to Christmas than anything else.

Nonetheless, below is a picture of Zander singing in the choir at the Hanukkah service. A doting grandparent was able to get a photo of him actually singing. For the record (ha, ha), he sings these songs all the time from start to finish -- in the car, while putting together Legos, etc. But, on stage, he sometimes gets distracted. (I am watching what I write now that Zander is a fluent reader.)

Siblings, Part II

2010-12-12T20:54:00.009-05:00

If I posted as often as I had content to post or even half as much as I think about posting, there would be something new here everyday. Then again, if there was something new here every day, I wouldn't have much to post about. I guess what I'm trying to say is part of the reason it's hard to find time to post is because my (our) life is so full and so busy. Some days I am barely holding it together. (No jokes please, Brad.)

But, tonight I have carved out an hour or so to catch up on some blog posts. They should be showing up over the next few days and here is the first...

* * * * * *

My brother was in D.C. again last week on a quick work-related trip. At the last minute, I was able to join him and my sister for dinner. It was surreal in some ways -- sitting at a nice restaurant drinking wine with my siblings. It was so...grown-up. Pardon the fuzzy picture.

21st Century Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T20:00:00.004-05:00

Trading "surprise" faces with cousin Ruben in Shanghai via Skype on Thanksgiving day...

This was a new one

2010-11-14T20:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I went in to tell Cassandra -- who seems to have prematurely decided to join the 'terrible twos' -- that it was, indeed, *still* time for her nap since she hadn't slept at all in the hour and half she had already been in her crib.

I went in and what did I find? She was NAKED! Completely naked! She had taken off all of her clothes and her diaper, the latter of which she was holding out to give me. Thankfully it was not soiled.

"My naked!" Cassandra said proudly. (She says "my" instead of "I or I'm.")

"Yes, you sure are," I said, trying to keep a straight face.

Confessions of a Helicopter Parent

2010-11-11T22:37:00.008-05:00

Honestly, I'm not sure who these photos say more about -- Cassandra or me.

I was (am?) such a helicopter parent with Zander. When he was Cassandra's age, if a playground had a sign that said "Ages 5 and up," gosh darn it I'd go find one that was appropriate for his little legs. I definitely would not have let him hang from monkey bars or climb up at a ladder at 23 months old.

I know, I know. It was a disservice to him. There is some kind of famous saying about treating your 1st child as if he or she were your 3rd child. I had heard it and I knew it, but I couldn't do it. It's in my nature to over-parent and I have to fight the temptation all the time.

I'm still a nervous nelly of a mom when it comes to things like below, but at least I let her try them. I spot her and try my best to keep her safe (in between grabbing my phone to take pictures, of course.) The truth, worrying less gives me more space to enjoy this stage, which is going by all too quickly.

Duh.

2010-10-26T21:32:00.004-04:00

This evening while doing his math homework...

Zander: "I have a math test on Thursday."

Me: "Oh yeah? What's it on?"

Zander: "Paper, I guess."

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

2010-10-13T20:42:00.003-04:00

Our driveway has somewhat of a slant to it at the top and then also down the bottom. This makes riding trikes, scootering, and the like sometimes tricky and a bit treacherous. Where Zander is/was cautious, Cassandra is carefree. The faster she goes the bigger the smile. And we simply cannot get enough of the smile so we indulge. But make no mistake, being out on a driveway with an incline and this 22-month-old is a full-time job.

Here are a few short clips from one afternoon over the weekend.

Picture Day!

2010-10-07T08:59:00.001-04:00

One morning last week when Zander heard it was picture day at school, he decided he wanted to wear a tie and get dressed up. Who was I to stop him? Unfortunately, you have to order the photos beforehand and the last two rounds were terrible so I didn't get any! Ain't he handsome though?

Blue Skies and Summers Farm

2010-10-04T19:29:00.001-04:00

We found ourselves enjoying perfect weather this weekend at Summers Farm in Maryland to help celebrate the birthdays of two special boys, Champe and Caden. After days and days of rain being outside under the blue sky was glorious.

Most of these photos are of Cassandra because Zander was pretty much off on his own or with other families enjoying the corn maze and various other attractions. He is six and a quarter after all. And for the record, the girl chooses her own hats. Sure, I acquire them, but she puts them on.

Big tires and sand...

Take a close look -- it's corn, NOT sand...

Little girl, big chair...

With Brad...

Zander and the elder birthday boy, Champe...

"Beep Beep!" OR "More Seltzer Please"

2010-09-27T06:42:00.001-04:00

Cassandra is in the midst of a fascinating (to me at least) developmental phase of language and I've been meaning to document it for some time.

My car is not a car, but instead it is "Mommy's beep beep!" My phone is not a phone, but rather it's "Mommy's 'Hi.'" An airplane is not a plane but instead it's an "Up! Up!"

Zander remains to be "Zzzzzz." In the morning after she wakes up she asks, "Zzzzzz sleeping?" When she sees his shoes she says, "Zzzzzzz's shoes!" She has been referring to her brother like this for months now. Sometimes I even catch myself saying something such as, "Let's go pick up Zzzzzz."

Interestingly -- and very much a 2nd child thing -- Cassandra can perfectly ask for seltzer. (As anyone who spends time with us knows, our family drinks a ton of seltzer water.) Recently we've been letting Zander join in on the fizzy fun and every now and then Cassandra too. The results are shown in the video below...

Same building, different floor

2010-09-22T07:00:00.002-04:00

My office moved last week (same building, different floor) and over the weekend I went in to unpack some of the many crates I had filled. Turned out you can accumulate a lot of ~~crap~~ stuff you don't need when you work in the same place for over ten years.

Brad stopped by with the children and to help me arrange things in my new space. While this picture isn't the best quality, it gives you an idea of just how much can be packed into one of the crates. (And as you can see the offending tooth finally came out.)

1st Grade Self-Portrait

2010-09-19T19:51:00.001-04:00

He's the one in the middle. ;)

Fire Drills and Lockdowns

2010-09-16T20:30:00.005-04:00

Fire drills have always freaked Zander out. Of course we didn't realize this until last year at the start of kindergarten after he experienced his first real drill. For weeks afterwards, we endured question after question about what *we* would do in a fire.

Truth be told, they were all good questions, like so many of the other ones that come out of this boy. But, they aren't necessarily questions that adults (me) are willing to entertain in their psyches for long periods of time. Think along the lines of "What happens if we don't hear the the alarm?" Regardless, last year as a result of Zander's good questions, we went out and got a ladder so we could at least escape from the 2nd floor if needed.

Well, today was another fire drill at school. At bedtime he told me again how he doesn't like them. He said the alarm almost "broke off my ears." What follows is a list of *some* of the questions he asked.

Do we have a ladder? [I was proud to say, "Yes! We do have a ladder!"}
What if I don't hear the alarm and you have to carry me down the stairs and there are flames on them?
What if we can't call 911? I wish it were shorter than three numbers!
How will they know where our house is?
Can fire get through doors? What about wooden doors?

As the questioning went on (and on), my instinct told me this was a losing battle. I finally told him to think happy thoughts about building ships with legos (a recent obsession) and about his friend's upcoming birthday party. As I write this, I am considering e-mailing his teacher to see if we can get a heads-up about when the "lockdown drill" will be occuring this year. I am so not ready for those questions.

1st Grade Country Bumpkin

2010-09-09T20:53:00.008-04:00

Zander started first grade this week. I'd post pictures from the big day but I don't have any since our camera broke some weeks ago. Here's one taken this morning with my handy phone:

Not sure if you can tell from this photo or not, but he has a crooked front tooth. The looser it gets the more crooked it appears. Someone recently told me how this same thing happened to her son right before an important family event. The term she used to refer to how her son looked at the time was "country bumpkin."

A Summer of Swimming

2010-08-19T16:28:00.007-04:00

Just catching up on some posts. Sorry I've been away from the blog for awhile and posting has been light.

These are some swimming highlights from this summer. It's been a transitional few months for Zander who now happily jumps off diving boards and swims in the deep end. Cassandra continues to be fearless and the joy she appears to get from swimming (and water in general) seems limitless. Brad has been wanting to write a post about the children and swimming as he has taken the lead on everything from their swim lessons to schlepping everything to the pool, but life has gotten in the way as it so often does.

But, isn't she cute? Looks clearly like a girl to me in these photos, but often people comment on how cute *he* is or they try to find a gender neutral way of referring to Cass. I can tell they're just not sure. I don't care though. Or at least I don't *think* I care.

Growing Up

2010-08-04T13:39:00.002-04:00

One of my college roommates had twins the other day and it's worthy of commemorating here. Sure I know lots of other people who have had babies and even a few who had multiples. But something about my college roommate having twins is shocking to my psyche.

See despite children of my own, a job, a mortgage -- little things like that -- more often than not I still feel like a big kid. Actually it's more like I feel as if I am playing grown up kind of like it was in college.

I am thrilled for her of course. And oh so glad that it's not me who will be up at all hours for the next year. Welcome Bailey and Rowan!

Cassandra at Discovery Woods

2010-07-20T21:01:00.016-04:00

My sweet baby. Only she's not a baby anymore. She's practically a little girl.

Last week Cassandra started full-time at Discovery Woods, the same preschool Zander attended (mentioned a number of times on this blog). She is in the toddler program. While it's nowhere near as convenient for us since she used to be at the daycare onsite at Brad's office, we are thrilled that she is getting this experience.

She comes home every day having gone through at least one change of clothes -- often two or three -- from either painting, playing with or in sand or water, etc. There was a time when this might have bothered me. Now, I expect it and even hope that she gets dirty enough and has enough to fun to warrant a change of clothing.

Here she is on a walk with our godson Caden, who also attends Discovery Woods:

(If you look closely in the video clip above you can see Zander in the brown striped shorts, who is at summer camp at Discovery Woods, digging a trench. They are at different campuses for most of the day though.)

Earthquake in the Early Morning

2010-07-16T19:54:00.008-04:00

I spoke with my mom recently and she told me she was hoping for a new blog post. Yeah, me too mom. ;)

* * * * * * *

Truth is, there just aren't enough hours in the day anymore. Often, I compose posts in my head and never quite get to finishing them on screen. Life's little details keep getting in the way. I used to like details. I was on top of them. I could juggle them with my eyes closed. Now they pile up and I do my best to take care of at least the important ones. An example -- every day at the office I am excited when I get my "inbox" down to less than 500 messages. Sub-500 makes me happy. It's so wrong.

* * * * * *

There was an earthquake here today. Really. Brad and I woke up and couldn't figure out what was happening. I thought it felt like an earthquake would. The whole house was shaking. It sounded like an earthquake. I heard the pots on the pot rack bang. But, there aren't earthquakes in Northern Virginia, I thought to myself.

* * * * * * *

But, oh yes there are. Checked twitter and lo and behold...an earthquake! Throughout the day images of Christopher Reeve as Superman making the earth go backwards to save Margot Kidder as Lois Lane from the earthquake caused by Lex Luther's bomb danced in my head.

I told Zander when he woke up later and did my best to sound all excited. He didn't buy it at first. I watched the terror take over his face. His knowledge of earthquakes comes solely from Earthquake in the Early Morning (Magic Tree House #24), which tells the story of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Spoiler: Jack and Annie narrowly escape with their lives.

I thought things seemed okay. At dinner he asked a clarifying questions about if anyone was standing on the earthquake when the crack opened up in the ground. I had some more explaining to do. Can someone please explain it to me in a non-scary way so I can then impart that to my child? 'Cause it wasn't a big deal on the Richter scale, but the friggin' ground *was* shaking. I don't know how Californians do it. (That means you cousin Lisa!)

Joy is...

2010-06-28T09:00:00.000-04:00

...a wagon full of melting ice, of course.

Pirate Feet...Aargh!

2010-06-24T19:50:00.000-04:00

Zander actually said, "Look dad...I have pirate feet," and made a pirate face to go with the dirty feet. This photo was taken after about five days without a bath. KIDDING! It was taken during a night of camping. Brad and Zander camping, that is. Here's a close-up in case you couldn't see the dirt:

Getting Dressed

2010-06-21T20:34:00.012-04:00

Never have I seen a child who wants to put her own clothes on more than this little girl. Oh, how she tries and tries. She has actually mastered getting her crocs on and off, but she'll still working on the rest of it.

It's just about the cutest thing.

Taking things literally

2010-06-21T15:23:00.005-04:00

I have always been fascinated by -- and had fun with -- language development and children. And now Cassandra is at that age where every day she learns a new word (clock! moon! broken!) and funny misunderstandings regularly occur. Here's one from the other day...

When Zander asks for more of something before finishing what he already has, for years I have said, "Sure! Fill your tummy with what's on your plate and you can have more of [insert food item here]." So, when Cassandra was indicating that she wanted more water, I told her the same thing -- to fill her tummy with what was in her cup and I'd give her more. She looked at me oddly and then took her sippy cup and tipped it toward her belly button.

Kindergarten Extravaganza!

2010-06-13T09:32:00.004-04:00

Zander's school had their big song and dance "Kindergarten Extravaganza" last week. There was a lot of hype leadinp up to it, both from the school and from the Z man. Thanks to some babysitting by Grandma Paula, Brad and I were able to go sans Cassandra so we could actually pay attention to the show.

Zander did just fine as you will in first few clips below, although he was tired and coming down with a cold.

This song is called "The Alphabet Boogie." It's hard to tell but the children had some fancy footwork going on:

Zander refers to this next number as Rockamotion. What I like about the clip is that, if you look carefully, you can see Zander winking at me. See, his teacher told him that actors and actresses don't wave in the middle of their perfomance. So when he noticed me, he winked instead. He had done this earlier in the performance too, in response to me waving at him. (Look, who knew? It was almost instict.) Anyway...

And finally, here a few outtakes where we caught him yawning and/or feeling out his pockets or playing with his "junk" as Brad called it. He did this throughout much of the performance. I was trying to guess all the thing he might have had in that pocket (Star Wars lego people? rocks?), but Brad says that little boys just like to play with their penises and that is what he was doing. At one point when I saw the thumb go in the mouth (Zander still sucks his thumb), I gasped and said something to Brad along the lines of, "Aaaaaaand there's the thumb!" Brad asked me which I would prefer him doing -- sucking his thumb or playing with his "junk." I had no answer.

Where's Cassandra?

2010-06-01T11:49:00.007-04:00

The game is a lot like "Where's Waldo," only much easier. Also, the 'hidee' in this case never gets tired of the game.

Here's another version. Just put a pillow covering your face. Doesn't matter if the rest of you can be seen as long as you can't see the person saying in a high pitched voice, "Where's Cassandra? Has anyone seen Cassandra?"

It pretty darn adorable.

So much to blog about...so little time.

2010-05-27T18:47:00.000-04:00

Sigh. So much to blog about, so little time. We're in this stage of life where I feel like it will be forever before I can actually, ever relax again. But that's a post for another day.

Where was I? Right -- so much to blog about. Like for example, Zander and his old friend Elizabeth reuniting for their umpteenth Milkshake concert:

Here they are in 2007 at their first Milkshake concert together:

Or, I could do a post about Cassandra's first experience with ketchup and how now we can't even say the word "ketchup" much less put the bottle on the table without an endless amount of moaning and pointing until we squirt some for her to try to pick up with her fingers. We keep saying (and showing), "Ketchup is for dipping Cassandra," not to wear.

Or, I could talk about how we were spoiled by professional family photos by Jessica of Portrait Playtime and instead we now get these awkward, standard school photos:

(Photos that arrive -- mind you -- smashed in a backpack and surrounded by sticks, random drawings, and leftover lunch.)

Or I could post about how Brad's 'best man' and his wife came to visit from the big apple for a few short, special days. (He's a gallery owner and she teaches violin and plays on Broadway -- doesn't get much more New York City than that.) Their daughter is exactly one month older than Cassandra and they're the kind of people who, even though we rarely see them, feel like family. And look -- naked babies trying to hug each other:

Yeah, there's lots to blog about. Just not enough time! Life is full and that's a good thing. Just keep reminding me.

Sword fighting and Sack Races

2010-05-21T18:56:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Zander and Brad took one of our semi-annual trips to Claude Moore Colonial Farm's Market Fair (mentioned previously here and here) while I was home with a napping Cassandra. This might sound like I got the raw end of the deal, but I was napping too.

Anyway, this trip Brad caught some photos that really give a flavor of the event.

The sword fighting demonstration (Note: that is Zander sitting in the front row with the red baseball cap):

Bobbing for apples:

On an old-fashioned see-saw:

Some random geese:

A short video of a quick sack race, which oddly, Zander won:

And finally, we could no longer avoid letting Zander using his own money to by a pop gun. It looks like this one. He pretty much hasn't put it down since. Call us crazy, but it's the first of this type of play weapon that we have had in the house (other than the occasional water gun, which we naively tried to refer to as a water "shooters").

Dichotomy

2010-05-19T20:15:00.006-04:00

Zander is in such an interesting place right now. He turns six in less than a month. I just answered a barrage of questions about war -- about who are our allies and who are our "enemies." Believe me, these are tough questions to answer in a way that won't cause nightmares in a child who got nightmares from The Little Mermaid. (That Ursula woman *was* scary!)

After I answer or deflect the questions, he runs to his room to get something to read before bed and brings back a Sesame Street book called, "Watch out for Banana Peels." From war to Elmo and back.

Tangentially related....slavery! In the past three months or so he has learned about slavery in the context of Abraham Lincoln (at kindergarten), Passover (from sunday school at synagogue), and then recently from the book Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria (written by a colleague of Brad's). Two separate times last weekend he wanted to play some sort of "slave" thing with other children. Luckily, it was easy to explain to the other parents. Not so easy to explain to Zander. He asks good questions though and seems to grasp the injustice of it. Then, before I know it, he's back to watching the Backyardigans while sucking his thumb. A dichotomy I tell you.

All of the war and slavery talk reminds me of an Ellis Paul song called Nine Months to Fix this World, which he wrote when his wife was newly pregnant. (If you're interested you can listen to part of it here. Choose #13.) How I wish we didn't have to explain these things to our children...ever!

This couldn't have been worth my time.

2010-05-13T20:16:00.002-04:00

(And yes, I am aware that my handwriting is terrible.)

"My mother laughs when..."

2010-05-10T21:14:00.003-04:00

I am curmudgeon about certain 'holidays' (Valentine's Day for example), mostly thinking that they are greeting card holidays.

But, this mother's day rocked. I asked for a few things -- to sleep "in" and to have the inside of my car cleaned. And I got both. Sort of. (I got up to nurse Cass around 6:15am then went back to bed. Zander came in to give me a hug at 7:01am, but I went back to sleep after that. Finally, everyone came in for family teeth brushing at around 8:12pm (long story), but still -- I was in bed!) Brad went to drop Zander off for an activity and he came back with a clean car AND a latte. Life was good.

Later on, I was presented with a multitude of homemade treasures. One page of a book that Zander made for me at school made me feel especially "seen" (to use some therapy jargon).

Allow me to translate. It says, "My mother laughs when...she talks to the computer." The illustration shows me sitting in a chair facing a computer. I'm saying "HA HA" and the computer is saying "You've got male [sic]." Not sure what this says about my parenting. You'll just have to trust me that the other pages had lots of stuff about how much I love him, yada yada.

My head hurts just thinking about it

2010-05-03T20:15:00.006-04:00

As most parents know by now, there was a big recall of children's Tylenol and Motrin products a few days ago. Not sure what this says about us as parents, but here is a photo of the products that we had in the house that are part of the recall:

Honestly, it has something to do with surviving an overseas trip with a sick Zander when he was about nine months old. We ran out of medicine. He was miserable. I was miserable. We made everyone else on the trip miserable. Now I stock the house with anything and everything we (or anyone else) might ever need. We keep a spare in each diaper bag (yes, we have spare diaper bags too).

Okay, so I know what this says about us me... I'm neurotic. And now I'm out eight bottles of infant pain reliever.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2010-04-28T10:49:00.005-04:00

I had high hopes for today's post. I was going to video tape the children (the eldest really) singing a rousing version of "Happy Birthday" to my father, who is turning 70 today. When I realized that wasn't going to materialize, I was then going to print out a "Happy Birthday" sign, somehow affix it to both children and get some good footage of that.

Alas, as you can see, neither of those things happened. And in an effort to not "let the best be the enemy of the good" (my go-to excuse for procrastinating and my life's struggle with fruitless attempts at perfection), I am instead just posting this...

Happy, happy birthday Dad (or Mickey as I often call you). You are one of a kind. I don't always (rarely in fact) know how to say it or show it, but I love you. Few things bring me more joy than seeing you play with your grandchildren (assuming, of course, you are watching what you say and *not* telling them scary stories)! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Running Man

2010-04-19T01:25:00.001-04:00

Lately, for reasons we're not entirely sure, a certain almost-six-year-old boy has had *a lot* of extra energy right before bedtime. On the night the video you are about to see was taken, we suggested he run off some of his energy and this is what we got...

Here it is in real time...

Let's Dish

2010-04-16T13:57:00.001-04:00

If it weren't for Let's Dish, we'd be eating the same thing week after week. The icing on the cake (heh heh) is that Zander has started accompanying Brad there and helping out. This almost always translates into him trying and eating more foods (although he is not really a picky eater in the first place).

Slow down baby

2010-04-12T15:40:00.011-04:00

I'm done having children. Honestly, I don't think that I (or my marriage) could survive a third post-partum roller coaster. For some women, that part is easy. For me, not so much.

Given the above statement, why am I starting to look longingly at pregnant women, newborns, and other babies? Actually, it's probably because of the above statement that I look so adoringly. Either way, as I watch Cassandra become more and more of her own person and less like a baby, some part of meet wants to scream, "Slow down! Stay my baby for just a while longer...please!"

We are finally, FINALLY falling into a reliable sleep pattern. (I kvetched about our sleep challenges here, there, and everywhere.) The sun is coming out again and things have been looking up. I feel a bit like a long fog is lifting. The last thing I would want to do is throw another baby into the mix. But look how my baby is growing. So fast!

Going down slides by herself...

Climbing up stairs and saying something very important at the same time (no one knows exactly what she is saying, but no matter)...

Signing her version of "more" (notice the Costco-size jar of pretzels in the upper right)...

Bossy's No Book Tour

2010-04-10T10:29:00.001-04:00

I was out at a pool hall/lounge the night before last. I know -- this should not be big news. But, it's been years since I've been out at a bar without the children. (Not that I usually bring the children to bars -- I usually don't go to them!) This was the kind of place where -- ten or fifteen years ago -- I might have been considered a regular. Maybe even would have gotten to know the bartender. ;) Nowadays, however, there just isn't the same kind of time for bar hopping and playing pool that there used to be. But, boy did it feel good to be out at night(!) sans children and to be out at a place other than the grocery store or some other emergency errand.)

Anyway, the reason for my big night out (actually the parking garage closed at 9:00pm so it wasn't THAT big of a night), was to meet up with Bossy of i am bossy fame. Her nobooktour was coming through the area. She is just as amazing in person as she is on her blog and so are the members of her council who were there (Vuboq, Diahn, ShallowGal, my old friend here, and many more). A few of my all-time favorite Bossy posts are here and here if you're wondering what the fuss is about.)

I didn't bring a camera, but you can see some photos of the event on i am bossy and on Diahn's blog, including a good one of yours truly and Bossy (thanks Diahn)!

An Egg Hunt in Pajamas

2010-04-06T20:35:00.002-04:00

We were away this past weekend with some friends who celebrate Easter. They invited us to participate in their Easter egg hunt. It's no wonder people enjoy this custom...what fun!

(As you'll see in the photos below, we're all about pajamas on vacation. Heck who am I kidding, we're all about pajamas on regular weekend days too. That is, we let the children stay in them all day and sometimes go right back to bed in that same set the next night! This explains both Cassandra's outfit and Zander's pants.)

The photo below doesn't quite do this climbing feat justice, but yes, there was an egg hidden in the hollow of this tree and it was successfully retrieved:

Washington Nationals 2010 Home Opener

2010-04-05T21:18:00.002-04:00

Aren't by boys handsome? ;)

I feel the same way about the parsley dipped in salt water...

2010-03-29T22:29:00.005-04:00

...Happy Passover anyway! And, yes that *is* a matzoh-themed bib. Also, Zander rocked the four questions -- in both English and Hebrew (transliteration).

A lesson in "you get what you pay for"

2010-03-24T07:48:00.001-04:00

I used to frequent Target's dollar spot for filling goody bags and acquiring an arsenal of random travel toys. And that is how I came across this "Dinosaurs Fact Book." Should have realized something was amiss given the "s" in the title. But, it wasn't until Zander and I were reading it that I realized a few things either got lost in translation or they skimped on hiring a proofreader/editor.

Fun with Hats

2010-03-14T21:17:00.012-04:00

Not sure which part of the dress up bin is my favorite. I mean, sure the children love it and inevitably each play date has someone in a silly hat or costume. And Brad can attest that I love acquiring stock for the dress up area. But, putting hats on a baby, now *that's* a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Like Brother, Like Sister OR Cassandra's First Puddle

2010-03-09T08:12:00.003-05:00

At the risk of being reprimanded for any number of parenting deficiencies, I post the video below.

Cassandra is at such a fun stage right now. Watch how she experiments. "What will happen if I step in this water?" "How does it taste?" etc. Not shown, but experienced: "What happens when I sit in the puddle?!"

See big brother puddle jumping here.

An oldie, but goodie

2010-03-08T12:57:00.006-05:00

Cassandra is at the stage where she likes to see videos of other babies, especially other babies laughing. So, early in the morning when I'm checking my e-mail, she toddles over and says, "Upa! Upa! Upa!" It's reeeeeeally hard to look at that sweet face and not to lift her up onto my lap. So I end up putting "baby videos" and "laughing babies" into YouTube to find new content.

That's how I stumbled across "Charlie bit me." Now, I've seen this video many times before. Unbeknownst to me, it's actually the most popular YouTube video EVER (to date). But, having watched it a few times recently, at random times of the day, I find myself thinking, "Charlie bit me!" Not sure if it's the accent or what, but these kids are pretty darn cute. (Sorry about the stupid advertisements in the embedded version below.)

Winter Olympics 2010

2010-03-02T08:14:00.000-05:00

I, for one, am sad to see the Olympics end.

We unintentionally created a routine of sorts around watching the Olympics with Zander this year and it was pretty special. Both children would take a quick bath together after dinner. Then, we would put Cassandra down for the night and head downstairs to watch. (Thank heavens for the DVR, so we could fast forward through the advertisements.)

Zander was fascinated by the games. In typical Zander fashion, he could tell you about many of the athletes and their medal counts. He could identify the uniforms and flags of the various countries. Yesterday he built pretend a bobsled out of wooden blocks. He pretends to luge and race short track at random times. This is usually entertaining when it's not in the middle of dinner.

Looking forward to Summer 2012!

Colorado Vacation 2010, Part V (Family)

2010-02-22T09:42:00.002-05:00

It's what it is all about really. We had so much (but never enough) family time on this trip. It was time for my parents to get to know Cassandra who is developing into her own little person. And time for Z to continue his growing relationship with his older cousins and my brother and his wife, Erin. (I must say Erin, mother to two boys ages 8 and 10, seems to have a surplus of patience, but that is another post entirely. But, I digress.)

The cousins slept in the same room (which they have done for two previous ski trips as well). But this time there were bunk beds! In addition to the things I have already posted about, during the time that we were in Colorado, together they:

played card games, pool, Wii;
celebrated Ben's 8th birthday complete with laser tag;
went skiing, snow-tubing, and ice-skating (as posted here);
relaxed in the hot tub, etc. etc.

It was a great trip. I feel ridiculously blessed. Some additional photos below.

My dad hanging out with Cassandra while she colors:

My mom showing Cass the view from their condo in Boulder:

Cousins Ben and Zander, post hot tub, PJ-ed, and ready for bed:

A nice photo of Brad and Zander after snow-tubing:

P.S. Part VI and VII tomorrow. KIDDING!

A Look Back

2010-02-15T21:40:00.003-05:00

We interrupt this titillating vacation coverage for a look back in time. See the photos below of a much younger Jill and Brad after heli-skiing in Whistler. Yes, the very same Whistler, BC, where much of the 2010 Winter Olympics is taking place. These photos are from at least ten years ago.

The helicopter:

Our guide explaining how the avalanche transponders that we had to wear worked:

Skiing the powder (before the days of helmets):

Colorado Vacation 2010, Parts III and IV (Snow Tubing and Ice Skating)

2010-02-15T21:30:00.016-05:00

I know already...enough about the vacation! Just one (or two) more and then I'll stop, I promise.

******

Brad, Zander, and my brother's family headed out snow-tubing on Keystone mountain...

Later on in the week, Zander, Grandma Susan, cousin Ben, and Aunt Erin went ice skating at Keystone Lake, which "boasts the largest Zamboni-maintained outdoor skating rink in North America." They gave the children funky "walker"-type things that really helped them ease into the skating...

While I'm posting these pics, I'd like to take this time to publicly thank my brother (aka Uncle Adam) for teacher Zander: "Give me five...up high...into space...IN YOUR FACE!" Nice one Adam. Thanks. Are we even now?

Colordo Vacation 2010, Part II (The Skiing)

2010-02-12T14:58:00.008-05:00

Skiing. It was great. I got in more runs than I had anticipated (considering we have a 13-month-old who needed supervision). As a result, Brad and I didn't actually have a chance to ski with each other, but we both got in enough skiing to be sore. And as mentioned here, I rocked the recreational ski racing. (Note: If we ever ski together, don't misconstrue this to mean that I am always fast. I am fast for 30 seconds or so and then...I rest.)

Z took a few lessons and did great. One day when we went to pick him up, he was crying and the ski instructor said, "He is so hard on himself! He did great," to which Zander chimed in: "No, I didn't!" (This being hard on himself is a recurring theme these days. We hear it regularly from teachers and caregivers.) Regardless, some pics:

And here is Cassandra, eating some snow:

Colorado Vacation 2010, Part I

2010-02-10T11:50:00.011-05:00

So, here we are. Home! For awhile there, I wasn't sure when we would make it. Our original flight was cancelled due to "Snowmageddon" and then we barely made it into BWI airport before it closed for "Snoverkill." Our house was still standing and some neighbors snow-blowed (is that a word?) our driveway for us. (Otherwise, we really couldn't have gotten into our house without hours and hours of shoveling.)

Our offices are closed. Suitcases are half unpacked and we're all adjusting to the time difference.

It's been a long few weeks, what with the sickness that made it way through the family before vacation that put the trip itself in jeopardy to the glorious trip itself that made up for the pre-travel stress to weather that has just closed Fairfax County Schools for the rest of the week.

Below are some pictures of the house we stayed it for part of the trip. It was actually not the one we originally had reservations for, as there was a misunderstanding about transportation to and from the ski slopes from that house. Personally, I was relieved the first house didn't work out as it had two sets of open-air stairs. (Think of a million little places for a baby to stick her legs, arms, head, etc.)

The house:

The outside apre-ski hot tub:

Some of the decor:

One of the 'towel-animals' created by housekeeping daily:

NASTAR (not to be confused with NASCAR)

2010-02-04T22:37:00.005-05:00

Aaaah, skiing.

It's been hard to quiet my mind of worry about one thing or another lately. But I was able to do so on the slopes today and it was phenomenal. More specifically, I am obsessed with recreational NASTAR ski racing. Basically, you race against the clock and yourself. Not sure why I love it so much, but my guess is that it has something to do with the fact that while I'm on the course, I don't (can't?) think of anything other than getting around the next gate as quickly as possible. That and the fact that I'm fast. In all honesty, they hand out the gold medals rather generously, but I'm still quite proud of my three.

Colorado

2010-01-31T22:43:00.005-05:00

Here we are on 'vacation' in Colorado. Imagine the word 'vacation' in air quotes since personally, I prefer that my children don't wake up at 5:00am on vacation. Here's hoping everyone adjusts to the time change before we have to go back to the East Coast.

We survived the plane flight unscathed and though I know a few folks who have had bad experiences flying Southwest Airlines, we were quite pleased with how helpful the flight staff was and how understanding our surrounding passengers turned out to be. (Think of a five-year-old forgetting NOT to kick the seat in front of a him and of a toddler confined to a seat who is used to being in motion from the time she wakes up in the morning to when she goes to sleep at night.)

Worried, but moving forward

2010-01-26T21:27:00.003-05:00

So it turns out it is a whole lot easier (for me) to blog when things are going great. Look at how cute my children are! Hear all those funny things the are saying?! Hooray! Turns out it's not so easy when things aren't going so great.

******

The Eldest Child
Something is up with Zander and we're not sure what it is. I won't go into all the details here. I'm not even sure I should be posting any of this publicly. But, our formerly almost always happy child, whose moods were typical of any five-year-old boy, is having bouts of extreme sadness and sometimes intense power struggles that dissolve into irrational tantrum-like behavior that we haven't seen since he was three (if even then).

We kept hoping it would pass -- and it would -- for a weekend if we were lucky, and then only for a day. Even as I type this, I hope it has passed. Please, please, let this be some kind of strange, quick phase. Nothing has been more painful for me/us then seeing and hearing about the 'episodes' Z is having. (Sorry to be dramatic, but I am worried sick.) But, after visits and/or calls with the pediatrician, the guidance counselor, his teachers, etc. I don't think it will magically disappear.

So, we move forward, hoping this is a blip on the radar screen of Zander's childhood and our parenting journey. I'll post more when there is more to know.

The Younger Child
Cass has some combination of a stomach virus (which was going around her daycare center) and a really bad cold. The cold seems to have settled in her bronchial tubes so the doctor had us get an x-ray of her lungs to be sure they were clear. (They were.) She has been prescribed medication whose delivery method is the oh-so-fun nebulizer. Meanwhile, we're trying to keep her hydrated. She keeps throwing up (including at the x-ray place, in the car, in her high chair, on me, on Brad, etc.). Yes, we've tried only clear liquids, only breast milk, only applesauce, only sushi -- we've tried it all (except for the sushi). Here's a photo (taken with my phone) of her with the mask from the nebulizer:

The Husband
Like a comedy of errors, Brad has now come down with the stomach virus. But, his version comes with a fever and chills. And let me tell you, Brad is usually healthy as a horse. Even when he is not healthy, he rarely complains. (I, on the other hand, am usually drama queen extraordinaire. Think "Oooooooh, my pinky toe hurts! Someone call the doctor. Think I need to go to the e.r.? Let's keep talking about my pinky toe ad nauseum.")

******

So, here we are. I am confident that we will get better. (This is uncharacteristic, as I am usually quite the "glass-half-empty" kind of gal.) I'm just hoping that we get better before a long-scheduled, long-awaited trip to Colorado on Friday.

The 'Three Penny' Incident

2010-01-18T20:16:00.001-05:00

I went to pick up Zander from the aftercare program at his school last Friday and he excitedly showed me some coins that he did NOT have when he went to school. I asked where he got them and he wouldn't tell me. He kept saying that he would have to give them back if he told me and kept asking why he "had" to tell me. He was pretty upset about all of it. This went on for a few minutes and my mind was going crazy with ideas, but I tried to stay calm.

Finally after a lot of coaxing, he told me that he had seen an older boy eat part of another boy’s gingerbread house and that the older boy said that he would pay Z if he didn't tell the after-care teachers about it. At this point, I was relieved that Zander told me what had happened and that the truth wasn't something more serious. So, home we went. I figured we had the weekend to sort through it.

There are so many things wrong with this, we weren't sure where to start. Talk with the aftercare program teachers (or was that over-reacting)? Explain to Zander how he should never take money from anyone for anything (other than family and friends under numerous circumstances and other exceptions)? Try to explain bribery and collusion to our impressionable 5.5 year old?

However, we keep joking about how he was paid only three cents -- yup you got that right -- a whopping three cents to sell his soul. I'm kidding! Kidding!

One post a week, does not a blogger make!

2010-01-13T09:34:00.009-05:00

I realize this. But, we've been busy here. I/we are still amazed by the logistics of running a household with two children. I also realize that this might seem laughable to many -- those with three or more children, single parents, etc. etc. We are blessed in so many ways and I hate that I whine and kvetch all the time.

* * * * *

Yesterday, Cassandra had ear tubes installed. Okay, not installed -- more like inserted. The surgery went smoothly and her recovering was quick. Here's hoping the tubes stay in for years, allow for fewer ear infections, and then fall out uneventfully on their own (unlike her brother's tubes, one of which got stuck.)

Here's a photo of Cass in the waiting room of the surgical center admiring the fish tank:

Below is one of her in the hospital gown before the surgery. ("Babies" and "hospital gown" shouldn't ever have to be used in the same sentence. So I didn't.)

Just for fun, this one is of both children the night before Cass's surgery:

Siblings

2010-01-09T15:24:00.006-05:00

My brother was visiting from snowy Colorado for some work-related meetings this week. The photo above is of my sister and he when we all went to lunch yesterday. I had planned to take the bulk of the day off to be with them, but those plans were thwarted by the delayed opening of Fairfax County Schools due to a dusting of snow. (I know, I know. I'm sure they make the decisions for the safety of the children and the staff and I appreciate that those decisions are not easy to make. I'm just grumpy about it today.)

Anyway, it is a rare occurrence (if ever?) when the three of us are together sans our parents and children and it was pretty darn cool.

Inter-species mingling

2010-01-06T12:55:00.001-05:00

I've been super-busy at work as of late (working on launching a redesigned website if you must know). In my absence, I offer you some cute photos of inter-species snorgling.

As some readers (hi all five of you!) know, I'm partial to anything dachshund, per our beloved wiener dog Samson who died a few years ago. In addition, I've a penchant for things infant or baby related right now because of a certain one-year old. So, I deemed the photos below worthy of posting. They came via e-mail along with a sob story about how the mother pig couldn't care for the piglet for some unknown reason, so the mother dachshund took in the newborn. (I usually run to snopes to check out the validity of these things -- perennial skeptic that I am -- but I have not checked this one out.)

Midnight Madness

2010-01-01T21:49:00.008-05:00

I'm not entirely sure what it says about me/us that both of our children were up for New Year's when the clock stuck midnight. Does it mean we're permissive? Lazy? Open-minded? All of the above?

Try as I might, I can't seem to recall any New Year's eves before high school. And then the ones when I was in college, grad school, and a for a few years after that are just, um, a blur.

Anyway, this was Zander's second one (at which he was awake, that is). In our defense, Cassandra had been asleep, but didn't stay that way. See photo above of her surrounded by six cute little boys, ages three weeks to six years.

Happy New Year and happy birthday to my wonderful mother-in-law (aka Grandma Paula)!

Our little...toddler?

2009-12-30T20:50:00.007-05:00

Seems just yesterday that I posted about Cassandra staring to crawl, but now she is toddling about like a drunken sailor. (An adorable, soft, sweet-smelling drunken sailor.) Crawling is still her main mode of locomotion, but not for too much longer. Sigh. They grow up so fast.

Hanging up the flanges

2009-12-28T13:58:00.012-05:00

I have been counting the months down until Cass would be one year old and I could retire my Medela pump-in-style (photo above). (At one year old she is old enough to have cow's milk.) Seriously. I remember starting to count down when she was about five months. I have used this pump for two children, ensuring that they both had breast milk through at least the first year of their lives. Brad's math estimates a total of 17 gallons for Cassandra alone. I am proud of this (which says a lot as I don't say that often when it comes to myself.) There is no judgement here if you chose to do something different or if you were not able to nurse and/or pump. I was lucky in that I have a private office where I could close the door, strap on my hands-free pumping band, and pump away.

When I stop pumping, I will find a whole lot of time. No more having to prep and wash flanges and bottles. No more scheduling meetings around pumping schedules or sneaking away to the bathroom at an off-site meeting to find a private place to pump.

But, now that the time is here to hang up the flanges, I have mixed feelings. Believe me, pumping is no fun. But, my ambivalence has something to do with my baby getting older and physically needing me less and less. About being done nursing forever. Granted, we're not done nursing yet and I hope to leave that totally up to Cass, but stopping pumping is a lot closer to stopping nursing than it is to having a newborn who needs you and only you for her physical nourishment.

I realize this is a 'family' blog of sorts and all this talk of breasts and nursing might make some of my five readers uncomfortable. (Hi Dad!) But, I've honestly become a bit of a zealot over the years about how nursing is one of the most natural (and best) things we can do for our children and it drives me nuts that just talking about it taboo.

And just for fun -- the photo below. It doesn't look a thing like me. I have eighteen different bags that I take to work, one of which is the pump. The others include my lunch, my briefcase, my purse, etc. etc. Also I'm not blond and usually not that happy-looking either....

A visit to the ENT

2009-12-24T11:12:00.006-05:00

We took Cassandra to the ENT to see if she is candidate for ear tubes. (With about seven separate infections in the last six months...she qualifies.) Unbeknownst to us, she actually had an infection at the time of the visit, so we left with prescription in hand.

Zander had the tubes put in when he was 11 months old. (I worried about the surgery for the removal of a stuck tube here, here, and posted photos after the procedure here.)

I'm much less stressed about all of this the 2nd time around, but of course that ~~could~~ will change. Anyway, ain't she cute? She just loved spinning in the big chair.

Funny or disturbing (or both)?

2009-12-24T09:00:00.001-05:00

It's Alive!

2009-12-21T19:39:00.001-05:00

Here's the scene: It's after dinner and I'm hurriedly cleaning up before going upstairs to nurse Cassandra when the doorbell rings. It was a strange time for a visitor (for us at least). Zander even said, "Who could that be?" So, we went to answer the door.

When I opened it I said, "Oh, it's just a package." I could see the UPS delivery truck pulling out from the bottom of the driveway. Clearly Zander didn't see the truck though because he said, "But HOW did it ring the bell?"

The 'Blizzard' of December 2009

2009-12-19T15:43:00.011-05:00

So, we're currently in the middle of a blizzard here. And while I understand we are using the term 'blizzard' because there is a possibility of up to two feet of snow, somehow I always pictured high winds and struggling to walk as part of a blizzard. But, what do I know...I spend the majority of my formative years in ~~humid~~ sunny South Florida.

Granted, I might *not* be saying this tomorrow on day two of being cooped up in the house, but so far it's been pretty darn cool. There's something totally awesome (like really like I mean it) about alleviating the pressure to go anywhere and DO anything. Instead we've had a wondefully leisurely day enjoying each other, playing games, sledding, napping, and so forth.

Here's a picture of the deck when the snow was apparently about 1/3 of the way done:

Some sledding. Cass was a champ -- she loved it. Zander got cold fairly quickly.

Post snow red faces:

Hanukkah 2009 or Meet "Red Fire"

2009-12-17T19:15:00.001-05:00

Meet "Red Fire," Zander's big Hanukkah present this year:

Its name comes from a decal of the same.

And although we wrapped up a few of Z's old toys for Cassandra, mostly she loved the wrapping paper itself. Children are so easy at her age when it comes to presents. Truly, she doesn't need toys.

Ghost Town at Sundown

2009-12-16T19:55:00.009-05:00

This is the first chapter book that Zander read by himself, cover to cover. (He's listened to a few of the Magic Tree House series on CD before and regularly checks out the books during trips to the school library, but this was the first one he completed on his own.)

Wondering whether he was really comprehending it, I would casually ask him questions about the story. He told me all about a piano that played by itself, a cowboy named Slim, and a song named "Red River Valley." I was amazed for sure. He was so proud of himself for finishing it though -- came running up to me when I picked him up from after-school care to tell me had read "all ten chapters!"

I feel somewhat strange posting this here, as believe it or not, we I try not to brag on the children too much. But, I wanted to commemorate this milestone.

Fastest Year of My Life

2009-12-14T12:57:00.001-05:00

My sweet baby turned a year old on Friday. I can't believe it. Everyone always said it would go fast, and it has. Fastest year of my life.

I was all set to update -- for the record -- how her sleep has improved (since I complained about it so much here). Alas, the last few nights have been pretty bad on that front though. She took a few wobbly steps yesterday and often developmental milestones can disrupt sleep. So we're hoping that is part of this recent wake-up every few hours phenomenon. In addition, she's working on some new chompers and continues to struggle with the endless runny nose -> ear infection cycle. Poor thing has so much snot. We've got an appointment with the ENT to decide if ear tubes are in her future.

In other news, this phase of baby-dom is pretty darn cute. Ask her to dance and she lifts her arms, waves them back and forth, and shakes her body side to side. Ask her to say Zander and she distinctly says, "Zzzzzzzzzzzz." Ask her to put her Taggies blanket in the crib and she drops it right in.

Ask her to say "Mama" and she still distinctly says "Dada."