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.