One Down...

See the big tree: CHECK!


and cross off Skate at Rockefeller center, the rink is WAY smaller than they make it seem in the movies. :( Not at all romantic as you schlep around the ice bumping into strangers

Here's Lassie...

One time my family went on vacation, we saw Lassie. My mom wanted a picture, they said "get ready for a photo opportunity" Then Lassie stood on a rock and posed for about a minuet for a photo-op. My mom has a great picture of Lassie's butt as she left the stage.
I have similar pictures of Cirque de Sole. It was my Christmas present from my mother-in-law. I went with her and my two sisters-in-law. It was amazing! There were people who balanced on things all stacked on top of each other:
People who hula-hooped with several hulahoops and could do a standing split while spinning the hulahoop on her foot:

There were men with sticks that acted as tightropes and people walked on them a did flips on them:

And some girls who flew from the ceiling doing amazing things with their bodies:
Overall it was AMAZING! and at the end they shot snowflakes into the audience twice, so much fun. I guess I'll just always have the memories while the pictures are not what I will remember.

Where Did You Get That Pig?

Claire got a pig (it roars) from cousin Megan, whom she has never met. But loves a lot since she sent her this great pig!
So I'm sitting in the kitchen and Jimmy says from the dinning room "Where did Claire get this pig". I say "What Pig?" And she waltzes into the kitchen with it. All proud of herself. She loves it. And thank you Megan.
The other gifts that have been sent to our house are safely tucked away till actual Christmas... Hopefully they make it till then. :)
Merry Christmas!

Its a Marshmallow World

It snowed here. We made a snowman. Claire got too cold at the end to get her picture taken with the snowman all finished up. But she helped grandpa build it. Christmas in 4 more sleeps!

Things to do when you live in New York:
-Go to the Bronx Zoo

-Go to the top of the Empire State building (don't wait in line)
-go to a farm to acquaint yourself with animals other than pigeons and squirrels

-Escape to somewhere exotic in the summer
-visit the beach on Long Island

-Go to a Mets game
-eat the pizza


Things still on our list:
-meet someone famous, or at least recognize them on the street and act too cool to care
-eat cheesecake from that place in Brooklyn
-Italian ices from somewhere famous
-Go to the statue of liberty and discuss how long it's been since you were allowed up in the torch
-Skate at Rockafeller Center
-See the BIG tree

Don't Stab Yourself with a Fork

Claire is getting better, almost proficient with a spoon and fork, she prefers to use them at most meals and refuses to eat apple sauce off a spoon I am holding. however with this new skill comes great responsibility; don't stab yourself. She just hasn't figured out that when the thing on your fork falls off and lands in your lap, you do not stab at it with your fork to try to pick it up. We'll get there.

Here to stay is the new bird

How time flies and babies grow! Christmas time already and time to decorate and get in the spirit. I've been in the spirit for several months now and am thrilled that I can finally play my christmas music loudly and dance around without feeling strange for doing it in shorts and a t-shirt. Claire is also getting into the spirit:

I can't believe that last year she fit INTO the stockings, stuffed them full but could fit in them. We tried this year, no such luck. Well I'm off to get some apple cider and maybe talk my husband into a christmas tree! :)

We Have a Fish

Actually we have two whole fish tanks, one saltwater and one freshwater. They are loved by all of us, including Claire who likes to watch the fish swim around. She also tries to catch our poor little clown fish every chance she gets. All of our saltwater fish are neat, some of them eat sand and some are just pretty to look at. but in the freshwater tank; we have this fish... It came to us because it swims upside-down, neat huh? We thought so, but what we didn't know is that he'd hide all the time so you can't even enjoy his odd nature. Then he got even stranger... he lost his fins, I am not lying. Then he started to look kinda sicky, now we call him the leper fish. I tried to take a picture but I'm not good at the underwater shots. :( It's amazing that he's still alive, and Jimmy asks if we should kill him or if he's in pain several times a week... I figure he seems happy enough to squirm around upside-down with no fins, let's see how long he'll live. I like him, he's the strangest fish we'll prolly ever own.

Black Bean Brownies

So I made these brownies today. I made them with black beans. Weird I know, but someone told me how to do it and it intrigued me. You just take a brownie mix and a 15 oz can of black beans and you mix them together (you puree the beans first). And voila! Brownies. As I was mixing them I kept thinking how I was wasting a perfectly good brownie mix and I almost stopped myself but I made them and they looked delicious. And tasted good, not fabulous, but I'm not sure they would have if I put eggs and such in them instead so... I did add some caramel and chocolate chips, you can't go wrong there. I'm thinking they would have been a wonderful thing to make if you are a college student, or have the pantry of one; since all the ingredients are shelf stable and you don't have to try to buy just two eggs to make a batch of brownies. They are also healthier more fiberious. (you know what I mean, my computer doesn't, it wants me to change fiberious to fiberglass) (silly steve). So that was my adventure today, I'm making pre-made lasagna for dinner.(I did make it, just not today)

Back to the Doctor

So here it is folks, baby number 2!

(7 weeks 3 days)

This was taken at my Dr's appointment that went on for-ev-er. Mostly my fault. I went in and they told me "we need to take some blood" "ok" I said. Then the nurse proceeded to take out at least 6-8 viles. "Gotta fill all of those?" I asked. She confirmed it and in an attempt to make small-talk with the lady I said "Wow that's a lot of blood" "Are you OK?" was her immediate response. Mind you she hasn't even touched me yet, and is on the other side of the room. She says "the last girl that said that passed out on me" I assured her that I was fine and she started taking blood, one vile, two..., I'm starting to feel a bit light headed, I debate telling her, I mean she was really jumpy, so I keep it to myself. It's getting worse, so I tell her "I'm just telling you, i'm feeling a bit lightheaded, nothing big, just letting you know" she says "Oh" and continues to take the blood. five viles..., I'm about to pass out and I notice that my hand looks a little pale. "I think I need to lie down for a second." So she lays me down and the next thing I know, there are three people all around me, "She looks pale" they are saying. poor girl, I was the second one to go down on her today. She was pretty upset. Someone else finished drawing the blood.
It made me miss my mommy.

Looking for Some Mom Wisdom

Does anyone know if the buds that grow out of potatoes are poisonous?

What Could This Be?

Babies are like Mcgiver, they know how to make the biggest messes possible with what is given them... like a cup, a fork and some raviolis become a huge mess of floating cheese that spills out onto the floor where you step in it. :(
Cans of soda = time bombs. Yes a can of soda dropped from the height of an infant CAN and most likely WILL explode all over EVERYTHING!
So from this we should all learn to look outside the box, explore our inner child and as Tim Gunn would say; "make it work". No problem is too large or too complex.

Utensils

Claire is working on her motor skills and table manners.. we are progressing rather well by our estimations. Poking things with forks is our new favorite lunchtime pasttime and oatmeal is our spoons morning friend. Check out our progress.

We even lift our pinky like a lady :)

Things Outside my House

So a couple of months ago Con Ed came and made a mess of noise outside my house. Then yesterday I saw these bright orange signs out in front of our house. I thought the worst but was pleasantly surprised to find that they were going to be filming a movie there! How exciting, we can watch it and be like "There is our house". Depending on what type of movie it is... There is no information about the title "Every Day" yet seeing as it doesn't come out till 2009. Although it is raining this morning so perhaps Helen Hunt will not be ringing my bell to ask to use my 'powder room' like I had a dream about last night.
But Helen, if you need to powder your nose, I cleaned the bathroom this morning. :)


Wait they are here and the stars are right outside my window:

Boxes Revisited

As Promised

We went to the Queens County farm and museum yesterday... soo much fun! lots of little animals that Claire could look at and some she could touch! We saw some neat things too, like little horns on little calfs and sheep being sheared. Claire liked the ducks best probably.

Although the pig that was at least 10x her size (no exaggeration)may have come a close second.

This Feeling Inside

Isn't it funny how sometimes you think you know something or someone and then you take a closer look at yourself and realize that you don't know anything about anything that you thought you knew. Every time I look at my daughter it amazes me that she spends so little time out of my sight and yet I barely know her, she is constantly evolving into a little girl. One who doesn't like water to drink and who knows when I cut her apple juice with it; One who loves to sit and stare at the fishtank until I get bored of sitting and holding her on my lap so that she can; One that eats like crazy before noon but like a bird after that; One who can light up a room with her smile and darken it just as quickly with a scream. I guess that's what mothering is all about, getting to know someone new every minuet of every day.
ps. We made it to the zoo. :)

for ami

This is Not a Krumpkey

it is a packing peanut!

Mama's takin' us to the zoo tomorrow.

We tried to go to the Bronx Zoo today. It didn't work. They closed the parking lots cause they were full.. gotta love Jewish holidays. This is about as close to the zoo as we got.

Instead we went to the botanical gardens in the Bronx. They are beautiful! Claire had fun.

Happy Birthday to Claire

Claire had a great birthday! (everything will be underlined because my genius daughter is the queen of hot keys that mommy doesn't know)
She ate cake and opened presents. She enjoyed both a lot.
The cake maybe more. Judge for yourself.











She also got a baby and marvels at the size of it's tiny finger.. full circle huh?

My Contribution

So I was 'challenged' to see what I could come up with to top my sister in annoying after she posted the video for choreography. (I did not spell it right the first time) :) Here goes:

Go in Your House...

Every woman needs a good pair of sunglasses that will tell the whole world to just 'go in your house and leave me alone'.
Claire has a cold and is VERY booger-y for some reason this is tied to wearing sun glasses. Before this, she never would leave them on.... I guess sometimes you just wanna hide.

A Jump on Fashion

Claire insists on wearing this shirt this way, I fix it, she re-fixes it. I put her down to nap and she gets up looking like this... How funny.

In Case you Didn't Beleive Me

By The Way

BTW, babies in hoodies and jeans and ponytails are sooo cute!

Miss Brenda posted about shoes and I have to say that I heard something rustling in my dining room and then I saw Claire come around the corner with these bags stuck to her feet and the napkins clutched in her arms and I just busted up laughing! It's the rustling that I can't take... It's good to laugh.

This Hammoky Thing

Friend or Stranger?

Old friends resurfacing is strange. Especially when the relationship is awkward to begin with and then add a few odd years of distance and you have a strange situation. But sometimes those people have an odd way of bringing clarity to your circumstances. They may not know the back story, or any of the current one, but somehow they know exactly what to say to help you get those tears out that you've been holding in and move past whatever is to make you smile. I don't know what it is but friends truly are forever, like once you've bonded that's it for life. You may go separate ways, choose opposing paths or just drift to different sides of the same road but someday your journeys will cross again, at the best time or the worst time and you'll fall right into step, synced up perfectly by the Master who built your path.

Love of Her Life

Sadly the newest love of our life lives in a mason jar and loses his powers to amaze once he leaves it.... She is a strange old bird.

Suba?

Cancun

So, I was holding out for the video from our scuba trip but I don't believe it will be happening anytime soon since our final cut program is sick on Steve, Jimmy will have to edit it at work (although he spends a lot of time there, it's a lot of work and very little time for fun editing). All that to say that I'll be posting stills from our vacation... but not all of them as some of them need Jimmy's attention also.

On our trip to Cancun we did some exciting things, these included parasailing (which my computer says is not a word), scuba diving at the reef, more Spanish speaking than I've done since Scott, and a lot of marveling at the wonders God created. (the water is SO blue).

Scuba diving was a ton of fun I was nervous before we went down, after I had some mechanical malfunctions during the practice session in the pool. But it was so fun! I was close enough to the fish to touch them (against the rules) and I saw a ton of coral that I wanted for our tank at home... Jimmy also enjoyed himself although he got bit by a 'fire coral' which is a type of jelly fish, too bad we didn't know that till we got back to the hotel, (someone could have peed on it)(instead we used vinegar).
Parasailing was also fun, it was kinda freaky too cause we got into this hammock seat thing and they don't strap you in.. like at all, you are just hundreds of feet above the bright blue water, it was awesome in all meanings of the word. (there are pictures but they are some of the ones that Jimmy has to help me with).
Overall it was not quite paradise like they advertise it to be but very close, I enjoyed the time with my family and my in-laws a lot.

Claire Fix

Just in case you thought we left her in Mexico, or you miss her.

Construction Fiesta

So the one thing in Mexico that I got super excited about.. strangely was the construction flags, instead of tape, or a concrete barrier they have fiesta flags! it was so fun to see and it made me miss my littlest sister.. so ami these are for you. Love ya

Muffler Men Mystery

So I'm in the 'States' again. Happy to have arrived back safely, we had fun and I promise pictures and even a video of underwater life soon.

One of the first things that I did when I arrived home was to check out the blogs, to see what happened that I missed. This included new chairs, haircuts and the gazing ball in Wyoming... It also included the discovery of a very intriguing mystery. My mom went to a rodeo. (not a mystery) She saw a cowboy and well read her blog. So I needed to see the one in Kittaining to verify that she was indeed telling the truth (I'm not sure why cause my mom isn't really the lying type, especially I've never known her to lie about cowboys) So I googled 'cowboy Kittaining' and low and behold I found him... however I also read a blurb on the page I found him on that said there was one identical to him in cowtown NJ, this lead to more googling and I found the history of the muffler men. You should read this if you were in any way interested in 20 foot fiberglass cowboys from California.
And just food for thought, what causes you to bid on a 20ft fiberglass cowboy? Maybe this is what miss Brenda needs for her yard. No one would notice the lack of vegetation. it's like one step up from a gazing ball. :) But what would he hold?

Claire Kisses

As Promised the kisses de Claire be prepared, this is def one of the cutest things she has done, it's right up there with 'deedle-deedle' (of which there is no photographic proof. :( so enjoy and remember that it's polite to blow a kiss back.

sorry it's crooked, someday I will master this.

Sisters

This is a sentimental post about sisters. I've been thinking a lot about sisters lately; mine, the ones I hope Claire has, sister-in-laws. Just sisters in general. And I've come to the conclusion that I would like Claire to have a sister. Because looking back at my childhood, I don't really remember all the stuff I did with my friends (who I don't even talk to anymore). I remember what I did with my sisters, plays on the deck, sliding down the slide in the rain, you know all that stuff. I guess sisters are like best friends who you are stuck with for life. With a 'normal' friend you can say something wrong or mean in the moment and then you aren't friends anymore. Sisters are free to tell you whatever you need to hear even when you don't wanna hear it like; that your hair looks stupid or mom won't let you out of the house like that, or he's no good for you. and even if you get mad and want to ditch them, everyone else in the family (namely mom and dad) will keep them around, so you might as well forgive them and move forward. I'm really thankful for my sisters... really, really thankful. Thanks Mom and Dad for giving me the best friends a girl could ask for.