Shamrock Jews Adventure Story

Feeding himself

2012-01-09T22:46:00.000-05:00

Ari at the end of a 5-oz bottle of milk he fed entirely to himself.

Quality sleep

2012-01-05T00:31:00.002-05:00

Tovina really wants to cuddle with Ari. I gave in and let them fall sleep next to each other. 30 minutes later I find the setup you see in this picture. If you can't quite make it out then let me explain it to you: Ari has fallen asleep on his stomach and Tovina has turned herself 90 degrees so that her head is on Ari's well padded tush.
Another thing that may not be clearly visible is that they are both sleeping very soundly 'cause they apparently think this is comfortable.

Happy new years!

2012-01-01T17:03:00.002-05:00

Ari's first new year's celebration. He may just have been the most stylishly dressed male in attendance.

Reading the torah

2011-12-19T22:41:00.001-05:00

On the way home from synagogue Tovina read to us from her personal Torah.
You can see her in action here.

Mazel tots and other synagogue events

2011-12-12T21:38:00.000-05:00

I just discovered that the Sunday event we have been attending at our synagogue has pictures. Wanna see more? Check out this.

Swaddled no more

2011-12-10T23:23:00.001-05:00

I laid Ari down on his bed while I was getting his actual bed ready for him. He noticed his stuffed animal a foot out so away, scootched himself over to it, started sucking on it, and promptly fell asleep.
I think I could get use to this bed time routine.

Cousins playing together

2011-12-09T12:03:00.000-05:00

sort of

Mommy can't count

2011-12-08T13:55:00.000-05:00

Being an engineer I thought I had some mad crazy good math skills (which are still left reeling in the dust by actuaries, but that's a different story) so I was a little surprised yesterday to learn that I can't count to 2.

Cause that's how many teeth Ari now has while I thought we were still at 1.

Plague house

2011-12-07T05:46:00.001-05:00

I'm a little surprised that the government hasn't shown up to impose a quarantine already. Here you can see plague vector 1 passed out on the couch. See that bucket next to her? She's been using it a lot. Way more than I thought someone her size could use such a thing.

We are making sure Tovina is staying hydrated and she is enjoying the extra TV time when she is not sleeping.

I'm just looking forward to her eventually, someday, if we're lucky, getting better.

Ari and the tooth

2011-12-06T05:00:00.002-05:00

Ari has been gnawing on things quite a bit for the last 2 weeks. There has also been an impressive amount of drool.
Though, as you might have noticed, he is a baby and a certain amount of drool and gnawing are to be expected.
Then we noticed that he was getting kind of fussy and difficult. Not difficult compared to many other babies, but for Ari Patrick he was being down right ornery. Of course he also has a really impressive cold, so maybe that is affecting him....

Today we felt his tooth. Bottom, front, left incisor. And at only 5 months. I just checked and T's started coming in at 7 months.
We're planning on starting him on steak dinners next week.

December?

2011-12-05T09:04:00.000-05:00

How on earth did we get to December already?
Quick update:
We are all doing well. Ari Patrick is now able to roll from his back to front and front to back though rarely one right after the other. He is also great at jamming things into his mouth. Oh, and drooling - very, very good at drooling.
Tovina is still the outgoing joy she has always been. There are a few more twirls and discussions around bed time but otherwise happy and friendly.

Food Coma

2011-11-28T05:00:00.001-05:00

In honor of Thanksgiving, here are some shots of food coma hitting the family.

Going to the park

2011-11-26T23:53:00.000-05:00

Zaida is in town which means that Tovina gets to go to the park. It seemed cold out so I made sure Tovina was wearing her jacket, gloves, and hat. Tovina choice the scarf and mask herself. The scarf I understood. The mask confused me some but apparently it was a critical part of a well dressed outing.

Taking in a little culture

2011-11-23T22:54:00.001-05:00

Since the entire house has been given over to Thanksgiving day preparation we had to find something else to do for dinner. Can you guess what kind of restaurant we went to?

Ferris wheel

2011-11-23T05:00:00.003-05:00

When choosing a ride at the pumpkin fair last month Tovina wanted the one that would go up the highest.
Good kid!

We then decided to get some photos. As you can see, she started with some very Calvinesque expressions.

This was the view from the top.

Talking Ari

2011-11-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

He's found his voice!

Lost Cat, Found Cat, Stupid Cat

2011-11-21T20:23:00.000-05:00

By Thursday evening I thought we might be missing something. Friday morning I was pretty sure when I noticed that only Roxanne (the female cat in our pair) came running for food. Friday afternoon Michael confirmed that Cyrano (our male cat) was definitely not in the house, not anywhere. Saturday I called the animal shelters, kennels, and other such agencies.Then I planned a route, printed flyers, and printed pictures.

LOST CAT

Cream color with dark brown nose, ears, feet, and tail

Blue eyes

Large (18 lb)

Long-haired Male

Very cuddly

As I went out on the back porch to get the duct tape, I noticed something whitish dashing under the deck. This despite the fact that Michael had been out on the porch for the last hour moving leaves and we'd both spent time calling for him. We rallied cat food, a flashlight, and Roxanne and attempted to coax Cyrano from under the porch. It took more effort (see: crumpling and pouring of cat food) than we anticipated but he eventually came out and we took him back inside, apparently the no worse for wear.

Also completely unrepentant regarding our worry and general tenseness of the last few days. Apparently we were not very careful about how we were rreferring to this dear household animal because Tovina has learned a new phrase.
"Stupid cat."

Self Portrait?

2011-11-19T23:07:00.000-05:00

As you can tell if you look closely, Ari Patrick took this picture of himself and his big sister.

Trying ballet

2011-11-15T23:17:00.001-05:00

Tovina strokes a pose

Rolling over

2011-11-06T22:50:00.001-05:00

Ari Patrick made his grand front-to-back roll over debut today. I was right there with him both the first and second time, which is why we have all of these great before and after shots. I also have about 20 minutes of video which takes place entirely *between* these two events without capturing either one.
He is a very sneaky child.

Lunch call

2011-11-04T10:54:00.001-04:00

How Ari Patrick lets me know he's hungry when I am working from home.

Lovely walk picture

2011-10-26T22:16:00.001-04:00

This was intended to attach to the previous post

Going for a walk

2011-10-25T15:38:00.001-04:00

A beautiful fall day with 2 children big enough to sit up in a stroller

Big Sister update

2011-10-18T23:17:00.000-04:00

Tovina is doing pretty well with Ari Patrick. She generally doesn't mind him unless he starts crying during her much coveted TV time. And she very much enjoys the positive attention she gets when holding him with other people around. Tonight when getting ready for bed she told me that after her story she wanted to spend some time 'focusing on Ari'.

The other side of this is that she also asks us to 'focus on me' or, if she is feeling particularly neglected, 'I'd like you to pay attention to me now'.

We appreciate that she can so clearly tell us what she needs.

Pictures from this week

2011-10-13T23:38:00.001-04:00

Here is Ari at his doctor appointment and Tovina with Kayla from tonight's Sukkot dinner

More pics from August

2011-10-12T23:37:00.000-04:00

I still have lots of left over photos from visits this summer, so I decided to share a few more. One stop was with Chip and Sarah and Quinn and Will. Quinn had a few features on the blog back when we lived in China. This makes sense as that is where we met this family. But now, just to shake things up, we spent time together here in the states.

This involved a lot of baby holding sometimes while doing other things

and sometimes as the sole activity.

Dad spent some time holding Ari Patrick too (of course)

Even the kids got in on the deal

Thought they also had a grand time while not holding the baby (which is very logical given his expression in the above photo.)

Quinn himself managed to resist most of my attempts at photographing him but I was able to capture him when he was otherwise distracted by crafts!

3 month check up

2011-10-11T22:04:00.000-04:00

Ari saw the doctor today. He

is still at 80%+ for weight
didn't cry when he got his shot
has started to giggle
loves standing

and best of all...

slept 8 hours straight last night!

Ben, Joann, and Aiden

2011-10-05T21:37:00.000-04:00

We had some friends in from the east coast on Sunday. Given the momentous nature of such an event photos were in order. At first I thought it would just be the boys but then we were reminded that someone else needed to be in the scene.

Then we switched phtotographers and she took the shots rthat were important to her.

Who was this mysterious person?...

Visit with Sheila and Kim

2011-10-02T00:14:00.000-04:00

Some more pictures from August - visiting with Kim and Sheila.
Here we are checking out Wolf's Neck State Park.

Then did some wave watching, which other people might refer to as whale watching.

Tovina liked how much the boat felt like a roller coaster.

Here is some of Ari's favorite quality time with our hosts.

Found a hand

2011-09-29T05:00:00.001-04:00

Ari has started looking askance at his hands... or maybe he is just shocked that they seem to follow him around. Last night he made another fascinating discovery with respect to those random wavy things - they taste good!

T's 4th birthday (repost)

2011-09-28T21:02:00.000-04:00

Tovina had the good fortune to celebrate her birthday 3 times last month.

Once was a party with friends that she shared with her best friend Maddy

(The two girls helped decorate the cake)

Once was with family.

And the final one was at home on her actual birthday. As she requested, we had sushi.

First day back to work

2011-09-27T05:23:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I started back to work.
Everyone survived without me of course although Michael was looking a little ragged when I got home.

Ari Patrick drank all the milk that was defrosted for him so he is still on his 95% growth track.

Tovina didn't like the idea of me leaving for work but in the end just asked why she had not seen me all day.

I was a little tired myself which I think had something to do with my 9pm bed time.

Work agreed to let me go part time for a while and today I'll be working from home. I may nap later :)

Luckily for me, when I am at work they have a special room all ready for me.

Ari's new wig

2011-09-26T05:00:00.002-04:00

We had dinner with some friends before Selichot service last night. Among the crowd was the regional Sisterhood president, Rhonda. She was quite taken with Ari and showed us what he might look like with long red hair some day.

Sleep - Just a fluke

2011-09-25T20:14:00.000-04:00

It turned out that I was prematurely excited about a single data point that did not in fact turn into a trend. He is back to his regular 3-4 hour sleeping at night. Its okay, but I will admit that it does not generate the joy within me that Thursday night did.
Here's hoping for tomorrow!

Sleep! Not just a theory anymore

2011-09-23T11:25:00.000-04:00

Last night Ari Patrick surprised me. He slept 6.5 hours in one stretch! And then, just because he loves me, he slept another 4.5! This was on top of the 3 hour long naps he took during the day.

What does a sleeping Ari look like? Thanks to the wonder of modern cameras and their inexpensive, easily erased photos, Here are some shots thanks to Tovina.

Play dates and discrepancies in size

2011-09-21T07:40:00.013-04:00

Ari had a great play date last week with Daria. She was born 1 week after Ari Patrick. We were excited to get these 2 together for Ari's first play date.

The first thing we noticed was the... slight... size difference between them. Ari is generally around the 75-95% in weight and height. Daria is, shall we say, somewhat on the other end of things.

Despite how it looks, they both had quite the acceptable evening with minimal crying.

Though Ari was a bad influence at times.

While its focus is poor, I had to include this pout cause it was so darn cute. (It's not easy when one's mummy laughs at you rather than helping you.)

Butterfies = Praying Manits?

2011-09-20T05:00:00.001-04:00

We took T out to tag some monarch butterflies which involves catching the unsuspecting butterflies in a butterfly net and then holding them by their wings while you figure out what sex they are and then put a sticker on one of their wings and them let them go to continue their migration south. After watching this process I realized theses are pretty hardy things as butterflies go. Tovina did not catch any butterflies herself; though she throughly enjoyed watching others catch and tags them. She also enjoyed swinging the net she was issued at any object that was silly enough to hop, fly, or in some other way make itself a target.

At the other end of the spectrum Michael caught this fellow who then stuck with us for the next 20 minutes.

http://www.theprayingmantis.org/

Cape Cod and the very first sleep over

2011-09-18T05:17:00.001-04:00

Tovina has been asking for a sleep over for months now. Maybe even for a year. I keep putting her off, but since we were all staying the same house anyway, Tovina got her wish in August.
Here are the two girls affected by this decision getting a story

And here the girls demonstrate that they clearly had no idea what a sleepover is suppose to entail because they both went right to sleep!

Cape Cod and the beach (can you say freezing?)

2011-09-17T05:15:00.001-04:00

Our family spend some time this summer traveling.
While up in Cape Cod we spent some time at the beach.
This Daddy graciously dug a big hole for our girls to play in.

This Auntie graciously played in the water so our girls could jump in the waves.

Me and Michael? We stayed dry! That water was cccccold!

Stella and Tovina really enjoyed the big ol' hole in the ground

Can you see T's hat doing a great job of keeping the sun off the sand?
The girls apparently did not notice the water temperature. Since neither of them turned blue, I guess they were okay.

And here are some videos of the girls desperately trying to save their hole from the waves. Well, maybe more enthusiastic than desperate.

Running on the beach

2 month collage!

2011-09-16T06:04:00.001-04:00

It took me a while to get them edited, but these pics were taken when he was 8 weeks old. This puts them right around the same time as these pics.

Smiles!

2011-09-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

2nd tumbling class

2011-09-11T15:28:00.000-04:00

Tovina has started a gym class. So far it involves stretching, somersaults, and ambitious attempts at cartwheels. Tovina is in the pink at the far left.

We've even tried practicing some of this at home. Seeing Michael doing a bridge may have been the highlight of my morning.

Sensory Sundays

2011-09-09T15:33:00.001-04:00

One of the local Jewish groups hosts a get together for baby Jews. We've attended one such get together so far.
The picture of Ari and a littler girl? She is almost a month older but Ari has about 3 pounds on her.

Learning and growing

2011-08-30T22:38:00.002-04:00

While Tovina wanted to stop the swing, Ari Patrick seems to want to get it moving.

What a strong little guy.

Home again, home again

2011-08-29T22:46:00.000-04:00

We spent almost the last month traveling but we are now home again and trying to get settled in. There are lots of photos to download and stories to tell but for now I just have these two for you fro our last stop before driving back to Ohio.

Ari Patrick and his male role models

2011-07-25T00:38:00.000-04:00

Ari Patrick has some good role models to follow after.
There is Grandpop

and Zaida

We are also letting Ari's uncle hold him. This is not to say we are committing one way or another regarding Dan's role model status, it is just that he is really good at playing the 'favorite uncle' card.*

*Just for the record, that full title is Favorite and Only Uncle.

Content Baby

2011-07-21T06:03:00.000-04:00

How do we know when Ari Patrick is content? He makes his happy baby sounds of course. In fact, he is so happy we've got 2 videos to share

or here

Big Sister

2011-07-20T07:49:00.000-04:00

There have been some question about how Tovina is taking all of this. I am very happy to report that, when not oblivious to her new brother, T is kind of excited by the whole thing. She especially likes holding Ari Patrick on the special pillow (see: Boppy). Tovina even wanted to take the pillow and Ari with her to PA. This would be the same trip that mom and dad were not coming on. I convinced her that maybe Ari Patrick would be best off staying with me.

First Bath

2011-07-19T06:51:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Tovina took off for parts unknown (which are otherwise known as Pennsylvania) with Baba and Zaida. Their trip will last 10 days.

Left to ourselves we decided to do something wild and crazy - bathe the baby!

At first Ari Patrick was a little concerned about this suggestion..

But we have learned many things in the four years since our first child went through this process and actually managed a pretty calm and pleasant experience... until we tried taking him out of the water. Luckily there are no pictures and therefore no photographic evidence of that part of the procedure. Instead I present portrait of relaxed baby in tub.

Introducing Ari Patrick

2011-07-07T00:27:00.000-04:00

At 5:27 am on July 6th (practically the only day in July that we don't have another family member's birthday) Ari Patrick joined our family.

He weighed in at 8 lb 14 oz (a pound and a half bigger than his sister even though he was a week earlier) and came out with round little legs and arms.

Pretty darn exciting.

Blue ice cream

2011-06-23T21:08:00.002-04:00

Last month we were on a long car trip home. To give us a boost we stopped for some ice cream. Daddy agreed with Tovina that she should have bright blue ice cream... in the car... in a cone...

Luckily a bib and dish were found in the vehicle.

I was impressed with how well T kept the mess contained. Then, after all the damage was already done, I handed her a mirror and damp paper towel and she actually cleaned herself up. Wow, almost 4 years olds can do anything!

Though not visible in this particular picture, T's tongue stayed a lovely blue shade for quite some time.

Getting Closer

2011-06-22T21:51:00.003-04:00

Today we had our home birth run through.

(In case you hadn't heard, apparently I'm pregnant and will give birth in the next month.)

The run through just made sure we had all the stuff we need and that we had time to ask questions and talk through different scenarios.

Its pretty exciting. Or maybe it is just that I am pretty excited. Michael too. So is Tovina for that matter though she is mostly excited about the idea of a baby, not so interested in the birth itself. I feel confident in saying this because her biggest thrill today was showing one of the midwives the bamboo plant that she was watering.

Speaking of her interest in the baby, when I come home from work Tovina gives me a hug and kiss and then my belly a hug and kiss. Might just be my favorite moment of the day. Tonight when I was giving Tovina her final cuddle before sleep, she asked me to move a little closer so she could cuddle me and the ShamrockJew baby at the same time.

Updates

2011-01-29T23:00:00.003-05:00

Its been a while since I've posted an update. A few new things.
Got a new car since the old one was hit by deer.
Tovina is taking her first steps towards the fine art of snowball making.
and we are expecting a new family member this July.

So many candies to try... so little time

2010-11-15T21:35:00.002-05:00

We've been slowly parsing Tovina's candy out to her. It mostly based on finishing dinner - she eats a good dinner and can have a piece of candy. She's not hungry enough to eat dinner, then no candy. On average it seems to come out to 1 piece every 3 days. Not that T minds. She really enjoys just playing with the candy, organizing it, sorting it, pretending to paint with it, making towers, talking about it. I almost think the candy aspect is just icing (if you'll excuse the expression.)

Not to say icing is not appreciated. In fact, she just tried Nerds. Her reaction?
Tovina: Daddy, what are these called?
Michael: Nerds
Tovina: I love Nerds.

The child takes after my own heart.

Last day at the park?

2010-11-08T21:42:00.000-05:00

Today was gorgeous so Michael had everything ready and jumped in the car with T when I got home from work. We had the privilege of spending maybe an hour at the park before the sun went down. Tovina stayed in a swing for all but about 14 minutes of that time - that child sure does love her swing!
She even made, another, new friend.
Going to miss the park this winter.

Protect those ears

2010-11-07T21:58:00.000-05:00

Its getting to be that time of year when ears get cold. So we decided it was also that time of year to buy something to keep them warm. There were many choices. Some Tovina liked better then others.

Of the 4 we tried only 2 lasted long enough on her head to get a photo.
We went with the striped flower option.

Bambi - sort of

2010-11-03T07:36:00.000-04:00

We've got us a whole mess of deer that come through our yard. Yesterday afternoon there were 3 groups of them. Just outside the master bathroom were 2 does and a baby buck whose antlers were just nubs. I called Tovina over to see him.
'Bambi' she said. Well, not exactly. She actually said Bamkee. We watched the movie that Disney calls Bambi together the other day. I've asked her a few times on this one and she is quite sure that Bamkee is her name.
'Sweetie, Bambi is a boy.'
'No Mommy. Bamkee is a girl.'

I have so much to learn.

No blog - researching votes

2010-11-01T23:32:00.000-04:00

Nothing cool to say today, spend the night researching candidates.
Good news: ballot is ready and the polls open at 6:30am so I'll only be an hour late getting to work!
Bad new: reading campaign information makes me feel vaguely ill.

Tovina asked what this was all about. We told her that we were preparing to vote.
Vote?
Choose who gets to be our 'line leader' (a very prestigious position at school, heavy with responsibility.)
She wanted to know if she could vote too. Yay! Good little citizen!
Now we just need to keep that enthusiasm up for the next 15 years till she is actually old enough to cast a ballot herself.

Halloween

2010-10-31T22:14:00.000-04:00

We had trick-or-treating on Sunday in our county. Here are the usual suspects.

It was hard to get Tovina to really stand still for photos. She was, shall we say, a little teensy tiney bit excited. Yes, this is a mid-air shot. One of many actually.

There was a flower for the butterfly to land on but that was not used until the butterfly was cold and tired and just curling up on my lap at the end of the evening (sans wings or flower for that matter.)

Remember summer?

2010-10-29T06:59:00.000-04:00

Winter is pretty close to being here. We've had a fire going to warm the house for a while now. I'm back to wearing fuzzy socks around the house and sweaters and jackets at work. Even more startling, Tovina is actually sleeping under the covers. Its times like this that remind me of summer.
This summer we joined the nature center that is not too far from our house, Rowe Woods. Lots of great walks there.
And lots of ways to get around, both by backpack and with just good ol' muscles.

Halloween costume - take one

2010-10-26T21:57:00.001-04:00

Tovina had a costume party at preschool today so we decided it was a good time to test out her costume before Sunday (that's Halloween in case you didn't know.)

I learned many things while working on Tovina's costume:
1) Fabric is harder to work with then cardboard. I think knowing how to sew may have helped but I am not convinced.
2) I really like working on Halloween costumes. Really like. Spent-all-day-thinking-about-it-and-couldn't-wait-to-get-home-to-work-on-it like.
3) Tovina likes making costumes too and can even work a glue gun (as long as I am also holding on.)

So what did we make? Hah! We're not telling! But we will let you see some photos and make your own guess.
(Luckily for us, Tovina and I already think that Tovina's costume rocks so we are not about to have our confidence swayed by anyone who might have absolutely no idea whatsoever what it is suppose to be. Confidence is a wonderful thing however misplaced that confidence might be.)

First thing to do before donning the rest of the costume was to get the head gear ready. (Michael went far and beyond my expectations!)

We still have a few days to change things up so if you have any suggestions then please please pass them on! Tovina already found the shiny beads that I forgot and wants to glue them on - right now Mommy!

Ninjas

2010-10-25T21:51:00.000-04:00

I asked Tovina, Brendan, and Emma to do ninja poses for me. (No I don't remember at all how this came up.)
Brendan thought about an appropriately spectacular response.
Emma tried to help Brendan out.
Tovina leap into action - I didn't even know she knew what a ninja was!

I decided to try again.
Emma and Brenda were ready with their accurate and terrifying poses ready.
Tovina was.. interested in watching Emma and Brendan.

Charlie's Angels this crew is not.

Swings and ponies

2010-10-24T22:30:00.000-04:00

I realize that normally swings and ponies aren't associated with each other, but stick with me here.

A couple of weeks ago we visited Carriage House Farms for their Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association farm tour series. It was a great afternoon and as an added bonus while we were there Michael found the biggest swing set I have ever seen!
How big?
Well here is Michael and Tovina getting ready to take off

And here is the rest of the swing. The down side? We didn't spend the 20 minutes that we estimated it would take to reach an adequate swing height. But the possibilities boggle the mind!

While we were at the the farm we saw some horses. This prompted Tovina to ask, "Can I ride the horse? Can I ride that horse? Mommy, when can I ride a horse? Why can't I ride a horse? Which horse...." and so on. I had no idea Tovina liked horses this much/ Lacking a better answer I told her someday I would find a horse for her to ride for a while. And that, I thought, was that.

Then came today's birthday party for one of Tovina's cousins. And this party, being pretty darn awesome, had ponies! 2 to be precise and Tovina tried both of them. The brown one is Elvis and the black and white is Oreo.

For some live actions shots:

Halloween face painting

2010-10-18T23:13:00.000-04:00

Everyone wanted to show their Halloween spirit
Emma is showing you a candy corn flower.
Brendan has a green and red snake.
And Tovina rounded out the group with a glittery spider (which Tovina called 'plain'. Maybe because it didn't have a smiley face? This was after we explained, 4-5 times, that there were no butterflies to be had)

On a side note, Emma's flower reminds me of fractals for some reason. It could just be that I learned today that Benoit Mandelbrot passed away so I have fractals on the mind.

These images from http://www.fantastic-fractals.com/Fractal-Flowers.html

Pumpkin pictures

2010-10-17T22:59:00.000-04:00

For the last 3 years we have gone to Shaw's farm during October to get us in the Halloween spirit.

It seems to work.
What struck me this year is that we somehow started a family tradition when I wasn't looking.

2008-2010

Bright Lights, Big City

2010-10-12T23:00:00.002-04:00

Tovina was impressed with Calgary especially the bright city lights at night - and by night I mean 5:00 am Mountain time when she was waking up. Admittedly this was right around 7am Eastern time which is when she normally wakes up... but still, the principle of the thing was rough.

She would wake up, make her way through the darkened hotel room to the floor length windows, duck behind the opaque curtains, and then... just... stare.. at the street lights.

'Mommy, the sun is up.'
'Sweetie those are lights down where people can walk. (Not that anyone was moving around outside of the hotel at 5am.) Its still sleepy time.'
'No. See. The sky is bright.'
'That's a reflection of the light down here. We're in a city. That brown color? That is what the sky looks like here at night.'
She was not convinced but she did think it was fascinating.

I think now that we are home and she is once again stuck in the middle of a forest she might be a little disappointed.

More fruit

2010-09-13T21:43:00.000-04:00

We also have 2 pear trees. This year one of them decided to produce pears. Lots and lots of pears. I picked one the other day because I thought it was ready.

T checked it out for us.

It was not quite ripe yet, (very hard) though still tasty. We are expecting to try again soon.

Apples and Honey

2010-09-12T21:00:00.000-04:00

Shana Tova! A Happy and Sweet New year to everyone. One of the ways we celebrate the Jewish New Year is by eating apples dipped in honey. This year, as an extra special treat we had honey from lavender flowers from Carriage House Farms (I was surprised by how clearly the light lavender flavor came through) and an apple from our very own apple tree!

This tree already existed when we moved in but we had not seen fruit on it our first two years here. This year we got one whole apple! We have anxiously watched is grow for the last couple of months. It finally turned from light green to solid red and came off with a single twist. We tasted it the same day and it was... DELICIOUS! Still have no idea what kind of apple it might be but we are pretty sure it is under the 'yummy' category.
I think this bodes well for our new year.

Baking

2010-08-17T22:37:00.000-04:00

Today Tovina and I made zucchini muffins. And when I say 'we' I really do mean WE. Admittedly 'we' took over an hour to mix everything together rather than the 20 minutes it may have taken on my own, but other than that, I'd say it was flawless.

Tovina measured every ingredient other than the vanilla, the first cup of flour and the first teaspoon of baking powder. Even with the exceptions she still poured the vanilla and measured the 2nd cup of flour and the 2nd teaspoon of baking powder. I had no idea she was capable of leveling out a teaspoon of anything much less keeping is all in the container it started in while measuring.
T even cracked the eggs herself. (I did fish out one teeny tiny piece of shell, but I often have to do that for myself so this does not seem very important.)

My job?
I turned on the oven, read the recipe, handed her the ingredients, oversaw measurement verification, did some final mixing (its heavy mommy), and transferred the batter to the muffin tin. Though even then Tovina told me which spot to put the next spoonful of batter.

When I told T, "I'm so proud of you. I didn't know you could do all of that."
Tovina said to me, "I can do lots of things. I’m 3.’

I'm thinking that I might be able to have her bake her own cake for her 4th birthday.

Great day

2010-08-12T21:21:00.000-04:00

Today was just a great day.
I finally made some progress with a group at work with whom I have not been able to make progress for the last 8 months. Felt good!
Was able to solve the problem of my knee high stockings falling down by using a glue stick. Easy, fun, painless, and made me giggle all day as I thought about it.
Michael spend a fair chunk of the day cleaning and house and it looks great!
This smiling creature greeted me when I got home.
We had crunchy yummy food for tonight and we all had a nice dinner together.

And tomorrow is looking equally promising as well as being Shabbat!

New shoes and new tricks

2010-08-11T22:09:00.000-04:00

My little girl sure is growing up. Last weekend she discovered heels.

She then discovered what goes along with heels - falling down and feeling twinges in one's ankles. That was when she decided that she didn't need to wear heels any more.

And speaking of learning things quickly, one of her new tricks at night after we read stories and I am getting ready to give her a kiss goodnight before leaving her room is saying, "Don't go, I need you Mommy."
Its nice to be needed, but man-oh-man is that a low blow. Sweet too. Very tricky child.

Petting zoo at the zoo

2010-08-10T22:40:00.000-04:00

Baba and Zaida took T to the zoo. The first stop was the petting zoo within the larger zoo. This is yet another first in T's book of many adventures.
T was up for trying it all out, but only if she never EVER had to let go of Baba's hand.

Why is it important to never let go of Baba? Because you never know when the wild creatures might swarm!!

Or at least when the crazy domesticated animals might decide to become a little more persistent when asking for food. As long as Baba has your hand she'll save you.

and Go Carts too!

2010-08-09T21:01:00.000-04:00

What game of putt putt is complete without a chaser of go carts? We had the track to ourself and those of us at the side divided up our cheering efforts between the 3 active teams.

T's thoughts?
Rockin cool!!!
As the red light went on and they had to bring the cars in, Tovina asked Mari, "Why are we slowing down? More!"

Putt putt

2010-08-08T22:06:00.000-04:00

Tovina had her first miniature golf experience this weekend. Aunt Mari tried to explain the finer points of technique.

It did not exactly take.

Croquet anyone? Or maybe a horsey ride.

Though we did learn that Tovina does in fact understand the point of the game.

In the pic above she just replaced her ball from 3 feet in front of the starting location to... well you can see where she is setting it up. Sometimes she just dropped the ball in the hole but usually she liked to hit it in the last 3 inches, raise her arms and yell, 'I WON!'

Car Seat Dancing

2010-07-27T21:51:00.000-04:00

Tovina was given a CD by one of her Toronto cousins this past spring. The first time we listened to it Michael and I were thrilled. Tovina? ... somewhat less so.
But this weekend it came on again on our way to a hike through the woods.
Tovina's reaction?... Loved it!

Thank you Zohar!

or you can see a different clip here.

Weeee

2010-07-19T21:34:00.000-04:00

Another Chuck-E-Cheese pic

High Style

2010-07-18T22:14:00.000-04:00

T has taken a fancy to wearing 2 different shoes. Given how much she wants the rest of her clothes to match, this baffles me.
If you were very astute you might also notice that the purple shoe is buckled on the inside of her foot rather than the outside as intended.

Pear picking

2010-07-15T22:18:00.000-04:00

It turns out that we have 2 pear trees in our yard. Last year one of them grew some pears. By some, I mean CRAZY AMOUNTS. We did a little research and learned that we had to prune back the number of pears on the tree taking off 1 or 2 of every 3 or the weight of the pears would tear the branches off.

How did such a tree ever survive?

We did okay at ridding ourselves of the offending fruit but we never did get to receive the fruit of our labors because the pears we left behind mysteriously disappeared a few weeks later. We suspect squirrels, birds, and raccoons but the cops demand proof - darn it!

This year we haven't seen much if any fruit on the first tree but the other tree is producing like mad. It almost seemed to be a pear per inch. Luckily Michael remembered that we need to make some un-natural selection happen and so we did!

T was very excited about all the pear-shaped-apples we knocked down for her to play with.

Just lying around the house

2010-07-14T23:46:00.000-04:00

Its kind of funny what you can find in the back of a closet. The other week I found an old Chinese silk shirt and pants outfit that I had bought for T in China when she was just a few months old. It was sort of big then. (You can see T in just the shirt of the outfit with the sleeves all rolled up here.) Now, it is almost too small. But when Tovina saw it hanging up in the closet, she just had to wear it. Then we went over to the cousins' house and she found a white play dress that matched it shocking well and combined the two.
Here is her creation. (There may have been some older cousin assistance.)

The crown (which is actually a necklace) and beads were graciously lent for this photo shoot by Aunt Elissa.

Roller Coaster

2010-07-13T20:38:00.000-04:00

Tovina tried her first roller coaster this past weekend...
... sort of
As you may have guessed this was actually another ride at Chuck-E-Cheese. I think T would have stayed on it the whole time. She rode it 9?10? 13? times in a row with ever changing partners until it was clear that some other kids wanted to get on.
Seamus (sitting next to T) also enjoyed the rides though he was slightly less demonstrative.

Taking the new car for a test drive

2010-07-11T22:48:00.000-04:00

Today we had our first family experience at Chuck-E-Cheese. For T and myself this was the first time we had ever been there. Michael had been there once before, but as it was about 20 years ago I figure it has been long enough to count like his first time.
Tovina's 2 favorite rides were both vehicularly related. Today I present you with....
the Car!

Tovina was an excellent driver

You can see her carefully navigating her way home here

Clowns in Toronto

2010-07-07T22:02:00.000-04:00

Backing up a little (to before the cool new camera, which Tovina called Daddy's pretty camera today) I bring you photos of Toronto's Festival of Arts and Creativity, Luminato. These photos were from one night in the Distillery District between performances. See the clowns? They are the ones who led us to the building. We all got big red squishy noses out of the deal.

New Camera

2010-07-06T23:02:00.000-04:00

Michael got a new camera today. Tovina was somehow convinced to do a little bit of posing.

Here are some bulbs we found in the ground. We're not sure what they are so we replanted them in a pot and Tovina is going to try to water them every day.

Found a flower

Clearly posing is hard for T.

Llamas and zoos

2010-06-29T23:21:00.001-04:00

While in Toronto we stopped at a neighborhood zoo and found (da da da duuuummmmm) a Llama!
Tovina was thrilled and tried to do the llama song. This song (taught to us by another cousin back in Cincinnati - thanks Molly!) involves one's hands trying to assume a llama like shape. Tovina is trying to show you below. We were impressed she recognized any resemblance between the actual llama in front of us and the song about llamas.

If you are having trouble understanding what I am talking about then you can check out some of the youtube videos though they don't really do the whole thing justice. You can also hear the obnoxious but bizarrely compelling llama song that may have kicked this whole hand dance thing here.

Cousins in Toronto

2010-06-28T21:00:00.000-04:00

Had such a good time in Toronto and spent some great time with some new (to us) cousins.
T liked meeting them too.

Navigating Home

2010-06-22T22:29:00.000-04:00

We had a great time in Toronto (what a fantastic city!) and made it home safely around 2am last night. We weren't sure we knew the path at first but luckily Tovina was on the GPS and steered us in.

Good times

2010-06-14T22:23:00.000-04:00

This was the happy family heading home after all that excitement at the museum.
You can hardly tell we were there for 4 hours. Michael wanted to see the Cincinnati area and Tovina wanted to see the dinosaurs and we all wanted to play in the water area.

This was also to get us ready for some of the Toronto museums as we are heading up there in a few days to visit with family.

Experiments

2010-06-13T23:32:00.000-04:00

We were back at one of Tovina's favorite exhibits at the local children's museum the other week. For the first time she figured out how to control some of the water spouts.

She was doing so well this kid tried to get in on the action. Tried and failed that is. T will not be pushed aside!

This is when she really had the whole process down pat

A new twist on getting lost in the woods

2010-06-10T22:58:00.000-04:00

The fairy birthday party took us into a fantastic park in cincinnati. Today we will share the gigantic child eating tree.

Oh no! where did they go?!

Tovina was willing to look for her cousins at other entrances too. (Or is that exits?)

Fairy birthday party

2010-06-09T21:01:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we attended a fairy birthday party. Tovina decided she had to wear a special pink dress for the first time just for the occasion.
I decided I needed to get into the act to.

The end is nigh

2010-06-08T22:10:00.000-04:00

I knew it would happen some day. I just didn't expect it so soon. That's right, Tovina told her first knock knock joke this weekend.

Well, to be perfectly accurate, Tovina tried to tell her first knock knock joke this weekend. But I'm pretty sure punch lines will be following shortly.

Fun in the sun

2010-06-07T21:32:00.000-04:00

We did many a thing this weekend. Sunday included time at a beach volleyball place that had been turned into a child's playground for a couple of hours.
After having a rather unfortunate waterslide-spin-around-and-land-face-down-in-very-chilly-water event, we eventually made it over to the dry area where T had a dolphin painted on her face and then a temporary Ariel the mermaid tattoo sponged onto her thigh. What shocked me about the whole thing is that Tovina was willing to help wash the dolphin off before going to bed.

Dancing queen

2010-06-03T22:35:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago Tovina honored me with her rendition of the tushie shuffle.

A short taste

A longer dance with more lyrics

Is that comfortable?

2010-06-03T12:57:00.000-04:00

Tovina has taken to sleeping on the floor. I don't mean her mattress which lays on the floor, apparently that was just not low enough for her standards, she wants to sleep on the ground itself. A carpet is tolerable though it took 2 days to convince her that a blanket underneath her didn't invalidate whatever it is she is trying to accomplish.

We have no idea what is going on.

She has been doing this for almost a month now. We stayed over with cousins the other day and Tovina was all excited because she was allowed to share a bed with Sabrina who is about the same age.... but the next morning she was lying face down on the floor again. It turns out that another adult replaced Tovina in the bed twice during the night but T kept re-replacing herself out of the bed. And we're pretty sure - though we don't have any eye witness accounts - that she is not falling out of bed but rather making a conscious choice. (Would that be unconscious since she is mostly sleeping?)

I guess those triple level bunk beds Tovina's Daddy has been dreaming of are farther off than we first suspected.

Agatha

2010-05-31T22:36:00.000-04:00

Remember a couple weeks ago when we had pictures from a weekend at the cabin? Not only did we come home with big smiles, we also came home with a baby black rat snake.
Michael has named her Agatha. She is probably a month old, less that 2 feet long, fascinating to watch for toddlers and cats alike, and really quite sweet.

She is also eating well and taking very naturally to being handled.

New Passport

2010-05-26T21:41:00.000-04:00

We are heading to Canada in a couple of weeks and Tovina needed a new passport before we went. Her last passport has stamps from China, Turkey, Thailand, US, and Canada. What a busy little 2 year old she was. I was sad when I thought we might lose it but lucky for me they just put a big 'ol hole through the center and gave it back.

It was frustrating that her passport expired so quickly but this next one is good for 5 years so I have big hopes for its exotic stamp collection capacity. Getting a minor a new passport is not quite as easy as it is for an adult since both parents need to go with said minor to the appropriate authority with the appropriate paperwork. Given that I am at work for most of the appropriate authority's business hours this is no mean feat. Luckily there are some notary publics at work that helped me out at my end of things.

I'm sure that Michael has big hopes for its longevity as well since he was responsible for what is probably the toughest part of getting a passport ... The Passport Photo!

There are a lot of photo requirements which pretty much made all of the lovely shots above unacceptable though I was really hoping for the one in the middle. The store that printed the shots out for us tried to take a better picture in the hopes of something a little more like the description of what the photo is suppose to look like. In the end though they just went with this one that Michael took.

At least we've got the pigtails in there!

I do have to give some kudos to the travel.state.gov as they fell at the 4 week end of their 4-6 week turn around on-line promise. Even (especially?) after seeing some of the behind the clear Plexiglas window workings of State I find this very very impressive.

Breakfast

2010-05-25T22:47:00.001-04:00

Most days T has porridge for breakfast. By porridge we mean old fashioned oatmeal cooked in milk. These days she also gets raisins. Its an exciting meal.

See, this is what porridge looks like. (This is also what T's hair looks like if it is not in pigtails. Still love that forehead comb-over.)

And this is how you blow on it when its too hot.

And this is what T looks like if you interrupt her breakfast.

Formal attire for the brushing of the teeth

2010-05-24T22:50:00.000-04:00

Tovina decided she needed to be properly adorned for the brushing of the teeth this evening.

(The hat was also to help with the monsters though whether it was suppose to keep her safe or make her their leader was not quite clear.)

More on Mother's Day Weekend

2010-05-20T22:16:00.000-04:00

About a week before Mother's Day Michael surprised me by getting me a bunch of plants for around the house and planting them! He left out a few so we could check if there was enough sun for them where we were hoping to put them. By the actual Mother's day we determined that there was so Michael put them in the ground too. It was very nice.

I also got a compost bin! weeee!

They come and they go

2010-05-17T22:33:00.001-04:00

This past weekend we had a Mozzy.

A very serious Mozzy

Well, maybe not that serious.

She was very popular with everyone. (Though Gus Gus the ATV may not have been quite as good at showing its emotions.)
.