Month: January 2015

A snow day snippet found Theo dressing up like Elsa for a time (he had the dress, I had the braid), and Ruby trying out Mr. Moose for the first time.

Yesterday Ruby took a step. A few different times she took one step. She is mighty proud to stand on her own, without hold onto anything. I haven’t been able to capture a photo of this, yet, but she is so proud and adorable when she does it. Then she took a step yesterday as she cruised from the stool to the couch. Then from the stool to me several times thereafter. We were so proud and she was giggling and landing in my arms with a hug. Isn’t it exciting?

We had a small party to celebrate Ruby’s first birthday on Saturday. I baked special “ruby red” glitter cupcakes for my gal, and we had a nice time hanging out with a few friends, cousins Will and Sam and Aunt Cori.

I wish we had a better quality video, but how sweet is she? I watched this video just now and had a glimpse of myself watching this again when Ruby is 20 years old. Please freeze time and keep this sweet girl a baby. We are lucky to have these memories to preserve.

I will post more updates after her 12 month well visit next week. Until then, Happy Birthday, Ruby! We love you!!

Many of our conversations these days sound a little bit like this…

Me: What do you want for dinner tonight?

Theo: Something that starts with the letter “M”.

Or, perhaps…

Me: What did you have for snack at co-op school today?

Theo: Something that starts with the letter “P”.

Me: A series of guesses including, pretzels? popcorn? Finally settling on pears.

I’m loving this cute new way of making conversation. Theo is so fascinated with spelling these days it’s just another step on his path to reading! He is also recognizing words on paper now, too. It’s very clever.

And he has developed a fear of bees! If you start talking about something coming up in, say, April, he will shout out “I don’t like the spring!”. If you ask him why, he will tell you, “bees!”. I’m not sure how or why this developed, but hopefully it’s not too serious. We’ve talked about bees, and what they do. He likes to pretend there’s a bee and he sits very still, so as not to get stung. He asks many questions about whether I’ve been stung before, what it feels like, and what happens after you’ve been stung. We’ll see how this pans out come warmer weather.

Love these kiddos.

We had a pretty great holiday season this year. Jay had an unexpected three weeks off in December, so although it wasn’t great for us financially, it was some much needed family time for the four of us. Having Daddy around gave us the ability to jump right into Christmas preparations and fun times in the city. We also were able to light the menorah each night with him, and visit the Grand Army Plaza menorah lighting one night for their festivities (hot latkes, toys for the kids and crazy keyboard klezmer music!). I love attending at least one night. It always ends up being absolutely frigid outside when we go. It was beautiful, though, too.

Theo lighting the candles for us, and Ruby watching intently. He can say the prayer now, for the most part! It’s adorable.

Christmas Eve found us following our usual traditions of baking cookies for Santa, setting them out with carrots for the reindeer and watching a Christmas special or two. This year Theo was able to write the letter to Santa with our spelling help. He chose to write, “Dear Santa, I love you. Love, Theo.”

He was so very excited for Santa this year. “When’s he gonna be here?” and the common, “I’m going to stay up all night and wait for him!” I have to admit it’s pretty fun and exciting for me since I never celebrated Christmas growing up. It’s cool getting to experience it through their eyes.

Christmas morning consisted of lots of gift opening and playing with new toys. And trying on new snow suits and socks. I made waffles and we stayed cozy.

It was Ruby’s first, but she was none the wiser. She enjoyed the sparkly tree, playing with ornaments and trying to eat wrapping paper. Christmas was actually a pretty mild day (I think it was in the 50’s!), so later in the afternoon we walked to the park and Theo had some playtime at the playground and we visited the lake. We made our way back at sunset, hopped in the car and feasted on Thai food in Park Slope. It was really mellow, and really nice. The kids were super well behaved at dinner and how nice that we didn’t have to cook or clean!

About this photo…

And so begins 2015…

This month our little girl turns one. Soon she will be walking and learning new words at a quick pace. This year our family of four will take a big trip out west for Andreas and Amara’s wedding. Later this year Theo will turn five and begin kindergarten, a huge milestone. I plan to continue becoming a better person, a better friend, a better sister, daughter, wife and a better mother. Mostly, I hope this year brings each of us happiness and health like many years before it.

Happy New Year to our family and friends! We love you and thank you for your support!