Welcome Aaron!

With tremendous gratitude and joy, we announce the birth of our son, Aaron Yeshaya, born on 12/16/09 at 1:29 PM at 5 lbs 15 oz, 19 inches.

We found out on December 15th (Amira's 8th Birthday!) that the C-section would be the following day. For the last 3 months of the pregnancy, we had known that I would be delivered early, due to some pregnancy complications, but we did not know until last minute exactly when that would be! Thankfully, my mother had come in that Sunday to take care of Amira and Yaakov and the results of the lung maturity amnio that I had on 12/14/09 (large needle in stomach, not a pleasant experience to say the least) came back as mature.

The C-section itself went very smoothly, thank G-d. My OB is just so wonderful, and the anesthesiologist was great, which made a huge difference. I decided not to have any duramorph (pain medicine) in my spinal, since it made me itch horribly when I had Yaakov, and I thought that would be a good decision, but it turns out that the resulting pain really is much worse than any itch that I would have had....so my recovery wasn't that great or fast this time around. On the positive side, thanks to one of the many complications this pregnancy, I did not actually gain any weight at all, and walked out of the hospital weighing less then I started the pregnancy, and was in my regular clothes by his Bris! With both other kids, I was still in maternity when they were 3 months old!

NJ Hospitals have a new policy as of two months ago that children under 18 are not allowed to visit at all, which was really hard. I am so glad that we were able to schedule the section for the day after Amira's birthday, first because that way, they each have their own day, and second, because I really would have felt awful not seeing her at all on her birthday. As it was, Yaakov cried on the phone to me every day that I was gone, wanting me to come back. When I was finally able to tell him that I would be coming home the next day, and that we would be able to cuddle and hug, he started crying again and I asked him, well, what do you want? And he said "I just want to hold my baby!"

The homecoming itself was perfect. That Sunday there was a huge blizzard, which dumped up to 24 inches of snow in the Tri-State area, but somehow, we only got about 6 inches! My ever awesome and incredibly helpful mother came to the hospital with Yehuda to get us, and my kids played at our neighbors in the snow! The big kids were in love with him right away. Yaakov ran up to us, put his hands over his eyes, and then threw them off and yelled "Peek a Boo!" We all cracked up!

The Bris was beautiful and we were so grateful and thrilled at how many family members and friends were able to come.

Now, we are adjusting to life as a family of five, thank G-d! The big kids are super helpful and wonderful with Aaron! Yaakov talks to him in this very high pitched voice all the time, which is hilarious, and always wants to give him toys to hold and doesn't quite get that Aaron doesn't yet have any control over his body! Last night, Yaakov asked me how old he would be when Aaron turned 4, and I said 8, and he grinned and threw his hands up in the air and said gleefully "And then we will be the SAME age and we will be BROTHERS!!" Just precious. I was panicking one evening because he was crying and I had to go to the bathroom and didn't want to leave him in his bassinet screaming, and remembered that Amira could hold him, and she did, very happily!

And one last note, thanks to Saba, Yaakov is very interested in the Mars and Lunar Rovers and last night was doing "this little piggy" on Aaron's tiny toes and changed the last line to "And this little piggy went to Mars on the Lunar Rover!" Ha!

Eight!

My little newborn daughter is eight years old today! That just boggles my mind completely. The past eight years have flown by, way too quickly, really. But I look at her, and I am so very proud of my big girl. She really is, Ka"H, a pleasure and a joy and I am beyond grateful every single day that she is ours. Instead of a big birthday party this year, she chose instead to invite her three best friends for a small party (and considering my 9 months pregnant state, that was a very, very appreciated decision). So on Sunday morning I took the four girls to a jewelry beading place nearby and it was just wonderful. They all had a great time, they were beautifully behaved and a lot of fun! They each made a bracelet or a necklace and I made a necklace for Amira, which she was also thrilled with!

She had her eight year well visit last week and has grown 3 inches in the past year and is now exactly 48 inches tall! Which means that she has grown 29 inches since she was born. That's just amazing. She wanted to know how many more inches she has to grow to be my height (16, for the record!). Savta is here visiting us (read: helping me) and came along yesterday to pick out glasses for Amira, who failed her vision test in school and can't see the board anymore... Not a big surprise considering her parents and her love of reading! She was very specific in what she liked and didn't like and chose a pair that she was thrilled with, and I was happy with. She looks so grown up in them, though, which just feels weird for me. But then again, the whole concept of having a child who is eight years old and in second grade is completely weird for me as well. I wonder if it ever doesn't feel weird to watch your children grow up. I just wish it wasn't flying by so quickly. I am really, really enjoying this stage of life very completely.

I asked Amira last night what she wanted for her birthday dinner and she said either Sushi or Pizza. So we are having a birthday dinner of Sushi with Savta! What a wonderful treat.

One small Yaakov note: I had to take him to the Pediatrician yesterday since he was up all night the night before crying that his ear hurt. He does in fact have an ear infection, so I am glad we caught that! While we were waiting for the doctor, he was telling me that Savta took him and Amira to the playground and that he had fallen in some water and had to change his pants when he got home. I asked him which pants he was wearing before and he scrunched up his face and said: "Um, they are the ones that are, I think, champagne colored?" I knew right away which ones he was talking about but am so curious where he learned that color! Too funny!

Anyhow, back to my sweet, delicious, and beyond precious birthday girl. It is my hope and prayer that she continue to be the good, sweet, loving, kind, smart, beautiful, fun, independent, warm, helpful, responsible, fun loving, book loving, friend and family loving and all around wonderful person that she is now. Yehuda and I are truly blessed that she is ours, and please G-d we look forward to watching her grow and learn and develop and continue of the beautiful path she is on in good health and happiness, Ad Meah V'Esrim.

Hatching

One night last week as I was putting Yaakov to bed, he leaned over and gently poked my belly and asked "When is this going to crack open already so the baby can hatch out of there?"

Ha! The baby was lucky that I didn't crack open right there from laughing so hard!



Anyhow, as Carpool Grandpa has pointed out, conferences came and went with nary a note from yours truly. But before we get to that, I would like to wish a huge Mazal Tov to our precious, handsome, sweet, brilliant and all around super wonderful nephew Jesse on the occasion of his Bar Mitzvah this coming Shabbos! I can't believe that a) he really is that old already and b) we are missing it, but we will be celebrating this momentous occasion along with him and his family from over here! And my super awesome sister in law already sent us the slide show/dvd of all the family pictures that they will play at the Bar Mitzvah, so we will get to enjoy that on Sunday along with them!



So, conferences. Pretty much what I was expecting, actually! Amira's teachers generally all have the same comments in November, that she is so reserved and quiet and they wish she would participate more, but that she is starting to open up more in class. And this year is the same! Her English teacher is a little worried that she is too much of a perfectionist (I wonder where she gets that from?) and was actually surprised to find me outgoing. I told her that I may be outgoing, but I am definitely a perfectionist! Besides for the quietness, though, they both are thrilled with how she is doing, the quality of her work, and how bright she is, thank G-d. Her English teacher loves her writing and her creativity and was surprised when I told her that Amira says her favorite subject is math! When I asked Amira before the conference if there was anything she wanted me to talk to her teachers about, the only thing she mentioned was that she was having trouble seeing the board, particularly in Hebrew, which means that glasses are coming now, rather than later. I don't know why that makes me sad, but it does. We are picking up her prescription today and going to pick out frames on Friday, hopefully. Between that and the missing teeth, she really is starting to look like a big kid! We had her 8 year well visit this week, and she is now exactly 48 inches tall! She is following the exact growth curve that she has been on since she is born- 25% for height and 3rd for weight, so at least she is consistent!
More on the Birthday Girl next week, G-d willing!

As for Yaakov's conferences, they were great! His teacher is really lovely and really enjoys him. She mentioned many times how impressive she finds his "sophisticated vocabulary" and how much he has grown and developed already in the past couple months! She did say that his cutting/scissor skills need work, as does his letter writing skills, but he is young, and young for his class, and for a kid who didn't even recognize any of his letters in the summer to now easily know them all, and be able to write them, is pretty wonderful. I have no doubts that he will catch up! She also said that he is definitely a fidgety little guy, but that he always, always knows exactly what is going on and can answer every single question. This past Friday night at the Shabbos table, we asked him all his Parsha questions, and he answered them all easily and happily. Then we asked Amira her questions, and any time she even hesitated for a second to think about the answer, he quickly chimed in with the (correct!) answer! Yehuda and I were both happily surprised and amused, and Amira was...not so amused or thrilled really. Heh. Thankfully, she was able to go on and answer all the questions from the 3rd and 4th grade list and then even the 5th and 6th grade list, and that made her feel better!

It's November?

Thanksgiving is next week! I have always loved Thanksgiving. I love the holiday feeling and big family meal, without it being an actual Yontif. And while I am incredibly thankful and excited for all the changes that will be happening around here soon, (really, really soon!) I am also really looking forward to enjoying a long weekend with Yehuda and the kids home and hopefully a sibling or two of mine, and their families.


It's been a while since I've updated anything here. In fact, I missed my own one year "blog-aversary," because I have been so busy checking things off my ever expanding (hello nesting!) to do list. So, happy one year of blogging for me and reading for you!

We are still pondering and debating (every day we, I mean I, switch back and forth) what we are going to do about the house- sell or add on. Yaakov wants the new baby to move in with him and Amira, and was very disappointed when I explained that babies need to eat a lot at night, and cry a lot of the time, and that for now, bunking in with the 2 of them probably wasn't the greatest idea, although considering that both he and Amira still frequently end up in our beds anyway, I guess we don't really need more bedrooms, just more room to store clothing!


In more Yaakov news, he is loving school and learning so much. He has his last soccer game this Sunday and momentously, last week his team actually won 5-1 and he didn't run away from the ball when it came at him- he actually kicked it! He really has changed so much in the past couple of months. His absolute favorite thing to do, even more than building Star Wars Legos, is to sit and listen to a book. And he finally learned all his letters and numbers and was extraordinarily proud of himself a couple of nights ago when he read his first word on his own: C3PO. He read me the letters and almost jumped off the bed and said "Mommy, I just READ that! It says C3PO! That's a WORD" He then went on to read "R2D2" and was equally thrilled with that!

Last night we were reading "Make Way for Ducklings," and he asked me if the book was fantasy or reality. I asked him what he thought and he said, it could be reality, but it could also be fantasy since ducks don't really have names and talk. Wow.

He also has a great memory. Once we've read a book twice, he can recite it along with us the next time and will correct us if we miss a word. He loves learning Parsha at school and really gets excited over the stories. Last week there was a huge, gorgeous rainbow in the sky when I picked them up from school and he looked up and told me, "Mommy, that rainbow is just like in Parshas Noach. G-d put it in the sky to remind us that he will never again flood the whole world like he did then." I was absolutely floored and truly thrilled. Now only if he could remember to bring home his jacket every day and actually keep his Kippah on his head, or not lose 10 clips every day...

He finally learned to write his name and just yesterday brought home a picture that he drew in school and I could actually tell what it was:

Pardon the wrinkled paper- he just stuffed it in his backpack, but this was very exciting for me- his first picture! In his words:

"It's a big girl who is 6 years old (hence the purple shoes?) a tree, a house, and some rain and lightening." Love it.

His parent teacher conferences are this Monday and I am very curious to see what his teacher has to say, although last time I saw her (when at school for the PTA project I took on, not having any clue that it would require me to put in a crazy amount of hours of work....) she told me that he has "a very sophisticated vocabulary."

Amira is also loving school and really thriving, thank G-d. She is easily conjugating verbs in Hebrew now, which is really cool to hear, and has already had many tests both in Hebrew and English class. I love testing her on her spelling words- she seems to spell very easily, and visualizes the word as she spells it out. It's very cool. It really boggles my mind that she is so grown up already. In another couple of weeks she will be 8. EIGHT. Her parent teacher conferences aren't until the first week of December, and I am really looking forward to those as well. She comes home every day bubbling over with everything she learned, and what games they played in gym and who played tag with her at recess, and how many points she has accrued towards the teacher's stationary reward (I love this- instead of using junk as a reward, her Hebrew teacher collects their points and they can use them to choose a piece of pretty stationary to use to send someone a letter- brilliant.) and is really super responsible with her home work- to the point that she came into my room in tears last week, 20 minutes after I had put her to bed, because she remembered that she hadn't completed something in school since she had been in the bathroom, and it took me 10 minutes to calm her down and tell her that we could write a note to her teacher asking if she could complete it the next day.

I am working on getting her to get dressed and make her bed every morning before she starts reading, so that I don't come in to her room and have to rush her around at 7 to get ready, when she has already been up and reading for an hour, especially since once she starts reading, it is close to impossible to pull her out....

So, those are some updates from here. Hopefully more to come in the next few weeks before our newest bundle of joy arrives! Meanwhile, happy Thanksgiving to all!

Amira ate eggplant

Anyone who knows Amira will know that this is very, very big news. When we were at my parents for Rosh Hashana, Amira surprised us all by asking to try Savta's Tofu spread, surprised us further by loving it, and asking for it on Succos, too! And she really has become much a more adventurous eater in the past year. I always ask her if she wants to try whatever we are eating, she generally says no thank you, and continues to happily eat the regular, beige, bland food that she gravitates towards (besides her love of raw, never cooked, vegetables) but recently, she has started trying new things, and liking them! So on Shabbos when she asked to try some eggplant caponata (another Savta recipe) I was shocked and thrilled and said of course, and she loved it! Eggplant! And she knew it was eggplant! Super awesome.

Yaakov was very excited to (in his words) "have a special guest from school over for Shabbos." This guest was Curious George. Yaakov's wonderful Pre-K Morah sends home Curious George each night with a different child from the class, and in Curious George's bag is a notebook for the parents to write about what their child did with Curious George. Yaakov just loved it! Curious George set the Shabbos table with Yaakov, answered Parsha Questions with Yaakov, sang with us, ate chicken soup and matza balls with us (did not try the eggplant, though. Maybe next time) and slept right next to Yaakov's bed in Amira's American Doll bed (neurotic mom that I am, the thought of Curious George sleeping in Yaakov's bed didn't thrill me, and luckily Amira was generous and Yaakov satisfied with this solution!) and it was just so cute to see how excited Yaakov was to have this special guest. He was very sad to bring him back to school this morning, but happy that Curious George would get to go home with another friend tonight!
Yehuda's exam (9!) is G-d willing this Thursday, so this week is crunch time. Please G-d this will be his last exam ever, and he will pass with flying colors!

Bored Games

While Amira has always readily given me every detail of her day at school (which I love, since I still feel weird about the fact that my kids spend so much of their day not with me, and I like to know what they are learning and who they are playing with and all that), Yaakov is generally less forthcoming. He will answer questions, as long as they are specific, about what happened that day, but he is generally not one to volunteer the information. I always love the end of week newsletters that his teachers send home (and the teacher this year sends home a super detailed newsletter every Friday, which is fantastic) because I can sit and read through it with him and he will tell me all about what he learned.
Anyhow, today I asked him who he played with on the playground during recess (this has become the big question of the year so far because he and his best friend in the whole world since they were born are, for the first time, not together and they are always thrilled to at least be able to play together during recess) and he very happily told me that his best friend was there and I asked him if they played together and he answered:

"well, yessss, but he wanted to play a board game and I didn't."
I must have had a questioning look on my face (wondering what kind of board games a four year old would bring to the playground) because he then said (looking at me as if he couldn't understand how clueless I could possibly be) "well, he played a game that made me bored." Hence, a bored game. And he had no idea whatsoever why Amira and I laughed so hard!

Hello Again!

As my father in law reminded me, it's been a while since I updated! We've been busy with a whirlwind of Yontif/Holidays for the past month and especially since this year we decided to spend Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and the first days of Succos with my parents in MA, which meant a lot of driving back and forth, we have not really been around here very much. Happily, the holidays were all lovely, everyone enjoyed and thank G-d stayed healthy and the kids go back to school tomorrow!
I can't believe it's been a full year since my adorable little (now 3 year old) nephew was burned by scalding tea last Succos. What a year it has been for him and my sister and brother in law. We all held our breath a little bit all through Succos, that's for sure.
At the end of Neilah on Yom Kippur, one of the women sitting behind us in Shul commented that she loved the little mischievous spark in Yaakov's eyes (as well as the lovely dancing show he put on for the Shul on the Bimah during Marei Kohen, after which my awesome uncle aptly nicknamed Yaakov "the Kavana Buster," which my mother wants to make into some sort of bumper sticker!) and my mother replied that yes, Yaakov definitely has that sparkle in his eyes, but his cousin's whole body is that kind of sparkle! And that is definitely true, and I think one of the reasons he made it through such a horrible ordeal so beautifully, thank G-d. He really is cute as can be, and since he and Yaakov are only 10 months apart, it is really nice to see how close they are and what great friends they have become.
My two favorite little nephew moments of Succos:
When he and Yaakov were working it out after arguing and Yaakov said to him "Right, you are always mean to me" and he replied cheerfully "Yup!" and Yaakov then said "Right, you are also sometimes nice to me" and he replied, equally as cheerfully, "Yup!" An honest man. I like it.
And my personal favorite was when I sat down to eat a grapefruit (my one and only craving this pregnancy!) and he and Yaakov wanted to "share" (read: eat all of) with me and I told them that they could sit next to me, but couldn't sit on my lap, and I knew Yaakov would understand why, so I asked my nephew if he knew why I didn't have any room on my lap for both of them, and he looked at me blankly, so I prompted him "Do you remember what in my tummy?" and he looked at me like I had completely lost it and said "A grapefruit?" HA! Loll! More like a super sized watermelon at this point!
We had a mostly fun Chol HaMoed. We went to a Succos Carnival, which the kids loved, and as we did last year, we went to the Big Apple Circus! (Circus on Succos, get it?) This year we went to a one ring show, and we loved it even more than the 3 ring show last year! It was mostly awesome acrobatics, with some hilarious clown stuff and only 2 animal acts (a horse act and some dogs, and they announced that the dogs were all rescues, so yay for that!) and best of all we had seats 3 rows from the ring! I decided to let Amira read Harry Potter, even though I had previously told her that I thought it was too scary, but I thought I would let her read the first book and decide for herself. After a slow start (I think she was nervous to read it since I had told her "no" so many times!) she loved it so much that she plowed through the first, second, third, and forth books in the past week and is midway through the fifth! She read over 700 pages in a day and a half! Not surprisingly, today we had a follow up eye doctor visit for her (at her last exam, her eyesight had gone from 20-20 to 2-40 in a year, so the doctor recommended seeing her again in 6 months to see if it got any worse) and her eyesight in her right eye went from 20-40 at last visit, to 20-70. Since the other eye is still 20-40, and using both together she is still holding at 20-40, and she isn't thank G-d complaining of headaches or having any trouble in school, we are waiting on the glasses and going back in January to check again. The doctor wanted us to make that appointment today and asked if we had anything going on in January that we would need to work around and I replied no, and then realized that in January I will G-d willing have a newborn (!!!!!) so I would want to schedule the appointment for a time when I wouldn't have to bring the baby (!!!!!) out, so I told them I would call them tomorrow to set that up since the thought of planning that now just overwhelmed me totally.
Yehuda is studying away for exam 9, which will be October 29th, G-d willing, and if he does pass, again, G-d willing, that will be it! So in the meantime, I am pondering without his input (and trying not to freak out about) about what do do about our house (do we do a small addition and buy ourselves a couple more years in this house? Do we move somewhere in the neighborhood? Is there a way to sell our house and buy a new house without completely losing my mind? Why are houses around here so insanely unaffordable?) and trying to stay well rested despite getting up a million times to go to the bathroom at night...
So, any thoughts on moving or staying or, well, anything, please let me know!
Hopefully it won't be such a long time until my next update!

Happy New Year!

We are very happily off to my parents in MA for Rosh Hashana tomorrow and I am rushing around packing everything we need up, but I want to take a moment to wish all of you a happy, healthy, sweet, successful, laughter-filled, and joyous new year.

Shana Tovah U'Metukah (Have a good and sweet new year) and Ksiva V'Chasima Tovah (May you be written and sealed for good this year) to all of our family and friends. I adore all of you and am truly grateful to have all of you in my life.

A Guest Post!

My lovely Mother in Law sent me the following this morning, wondering if it might be blog fodder, and I knew right away that it was going to be my first guest post:

The Well-read Yaakov in LA

When you were all in LA, Yehuda came over with Yaakov, ostensibly to go through his various boxes of “stuff.” Four-year old Yaakov was getting hungry and Great Grandma Evelyn offered to make him some lunch – scrambled eggs, I think.
Yaakov sat down but refused to eat unless he had something to read, “I want a magazine.” Despite the fact that Yaakov cannot read yet, Grandma didn't know what to do or give him, so he pointed to something that must have looked like a comic book in our well-cluttered breakfast room. Grandma gave it to him and he contentedly ate his lunch. When she told me about this, and his insistence on having something to read, I asked him what she gave him. Attached is the “magazine” in question. At least he instinctively found something meaningful!

If you can't tell, it's a calendar cover for the Young Israel of Century City! The title reads:

"YICC's Amazing Adventures: Fighting for ethics, morals, and a better, greener world"

Pre-K!

This will be a short one since I am slightly weepy after pouring my heart out in my previous post, but Yaakov started Pre-K today! (This also somewhat accounts for my emotional state today- I really cannot believe my little newborn Yaakov is already in Pre-K.) He had a full day, just like Amira, and thank G-d really did beautifully!! He loves his Morahs, found a new friend to search for bugs on the playground with, got a Nachas note for behaving very well during rest time, and was generally very thrilled with being a "big kid!" He is very happy to not be in nursery anymore, since "nursery kids are just babies, but I'm very big. Almost as big as Amira, so really big."

Patience

I am not a particularly patient person.
That is most probably an understatement. Just as saying: Shira is enthusiastic, anxious and prone to hyperbole is also probably an understatement. So it is with great surprise, confusion and a small amount of pleasure that I find myself, for the first time in my life, feeling...patient.
I am now 6 months pregnant. In another 3 months plus, we will G-d willing have a new addition in our family. And while I am excited and thrilled, pretty much beyond words, I am in no rush for these next 3 months to fly by as the past 6 months (and really, the past 9 years) have flown. And it is such an unusual state for me that I find myself pondering it often, trying to figure out why and how that it has come to be. Maybe it's age? Maybe it's because this baby was so fought for, for so long, and is so desperately wanted that I am just enjoying every moment of the anticipation and build up of excitement. Maybe it's nerves? Or maybe it's a combination of all three.
With Amira and Yaakov, I was in a rush. I wanted to know what gender they were even before the 20 week Sonogram. I wanted them to be born as soon as was possible so that I could meet them and hold them and get to know them. Amira thwarted that by arriving 2 full weeks late, while Yaakov acquiesced, and since he was 2 weeks early, I was actually pregnant a full month longer with Amira than with Yaakov! This time, despite the ongoing nausea, despite the fact that I already cannot breathe, despite the exhaustion and everything else that is bothersome about pregnancy, I am happy. I am grateful to be pregnant. I am enjoying the constant gymnastics in my "water tank." I look down at my growing middle and I love how it looks. I actually smile when I see myself in the mirror.
I can never remember how many weeks I am currently, while with Amira and Yaakov I could tell you how many minutes I had to go.
I know that going from two kids to three is going to be an adjustment. I realize that we are starting the baby stage again, just as things have started to get easier. I know that adding a baby into the mix is going to mean less of my time for Amira and Yaakov and less time together for Yehuda and me, less space in our home and more stress. I know that I will worry and agonize and stress over these things when the baby comes, G-d willing, in good time, but for now, I am patient. I am enjoying every minute I spend with my big kids. I am trying to relish and remember and fully experience every day of this pregnancy. I don't want the next couple months to fly by. And I don't want my children's childhood to fly by, either. I am grateful and blessed and happy to be here, where I am, right this minute. And I am not thinking about anything beyond that, because where I am is the best place I could possibly be.

Legoland!!!

No, this does not refer to our house, although sometimes, especially after Yaakov has a playdate here, it does feel like the house is covered in Lego's...
Yaakov has been talking about going to Legoland ever since his best friend went there last January. We were all really excited to go, and it really did live up to our expectations!
It's smaller than Disneyland, so easily doable in one day, although we did miss two whole sections completely! Yaakov's favorite parts were the car that he got to drive by himself, and anything involving Star Wars. Amira loved all the roller coasters the best (the fact that my reserved little Amira loves roller coasters still baffles me)! Yehuda's brother and sister and our nephew also joined us, and it really was a fantastic day! Pictures are worth 1000 words, as they say, so instead of boring you all to pieces with my endless prose, I give you:

A Family Picture!
Yaakov Drives...not so successfully. Hopefully he will improve those skills before he turns 16.

Las Vegas made out of Lego's!

A Chinatown parade

The Obama Inauguration, composed entirely of Lego's, detailed down to Aretha Franklin's hat!

Yaakov on a kind of boring horse ride.

A Large Bionicle

The Log Flume ride (they waited 45 minutes for a 2 minute ride)

New York City Sky Line

The Eiffel Tower!

Sydney Opera House

Cuties!

The Highlight of Yaakov's Day!

Miniland really was amazing. We couldn't get over the incredible detail of everything, from the White House to Las Vegas to LegoWood (Hollywood- Amira thought that was hysterical!) to the New York City skyline. They used over 20 million legos to build it!

We will definitely be making a return trip to Legoland in the future!

Second Grade!

Well, we made it through the day! Amira had her very first day of second grade! In our school, starting in second grade, the class placements (there are three classes of girls) are not given out before school starts, so the kids just show up the first day of school and are somehow sent to the correct classroom. And technically, the parents aren't supposed to find out which teachers their children have, or which other children are in the class, until the child gets home from school. However, since I have the patience of a...I don't know, something with very little patience I guess, I begged my friend who teaches in the school to text me when she knew where our daughters were. So at 8:23 this morning, (and school opens at 8:20!) I found out which teachers Amira has for the year and which girls are in her class! I am excited about the teachers, from what I know about them, they are an excellent match for Amira. And a lot of the girls from last year are in her class again, which is wonderful as well! Some new additions too, a few of which I am a bit anxious about, but will keep an eye out and plan to give the teachers a heads up as well.

Anyhow, we took the typical first day of school picture before her carpool picked her up, but for some reason she just ended up looking worried in every picture, which is no reflection on her actual emotion state, rather the fact that the sun was shining and she found it hard to smile...

Yaakov has his Pre-K orientation tomorrow and officially starts on Thursday! We are very excited about it, although he is very, very sad that his best friend is not in his class this year.
His new Morah sent an apple for him to color and bring into the orientation tomorrow, so while Amira did her homework this afternoon, he worked very hard at coloring (and yay- he colors in the lines now!) his picture, and we had the following conversation:

Yaakov: Mommy, is this my homework?

Me: Yes, I guess it is!

Yaakov: (thinks for a moment as he colors, then says wistfully) I wish I was still a kid.

Me: (can't breathe, laughing too hard)

Back to School Shopping

Before we left for LA, I was mentally patting myself on the back for being SO prepared for the kids to go back to school. I had already bought everything on Amira's very specific school supply list, bought new backpacks and lunchboxes and put aside everything that I knew Yaakov would need, in his labeled shoe box. So imagine my surprise when I realized yesterday that I had forgotten something kind of important that they might actually need for school: clothing. In my first trimester misery, I had completely skipped the traditional "go through the kids closets at the end of spring and write down what they will need for the following year" process, and while Amira is the same size she was last year, and thankfully doesn't need much, Yaakov's pants and shirts from last year most definitely do not fit (unless you particularly like manpri's and 3/4 sleeves on boys, which I most assuredly do not.). So, thankfully it is still nice and hot, and he is still allowed to wear shorts to school, so we will be fine for a couple of weeks, but we still need to do some major shopping.

In that spirit, Amira, Yaakov and I headed out (Yehuda is studying- exam 9 is coming up, ack 9X) to Monsey, since Bergen County still has blue laws and nothing is open on Sunday. We figured we could at least get Yaakov and Amira some Yontif shoes and clothes.

Along the way, we saw a parking lot filled with really, really old cars. Like, circa 1900 cars. We stopped to look at them and as we drove away, Amira asked me if those were the kind of cars from when I was a kid! I laughed and told her, "no, those cars are from even before Saba Raba and Great Grandma Evelyn were born!" and she said "wow. So what kind of car did you have when you were a little kid?" And I replied "A station wagon" to which she replied incredulously, "a wagon like the kind that a horse pulls?" It was a good 10 minutes before I could stop laughing long enough to catch my breath. No, I am NOT that old.

Along the lines of funny Amira-isms, on Friday night while we were reading on the sofa (Amira: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, #3 of the The Chronicles of Narnia, me: The Doomsday Key, James Rollins, thumbs up) Amira suddenly said to me "Mommy, I want to give the baby a hug," and she reached over and squeezed the front of my stomach. I laughed as she did it, and she looked at me and said "what, I'm squeezing the water tank." Loll!!!!

Anyhow, we accomplished a good amount in our Monsey Shopping, but have still more to do tomorrow. Thankfully the stores will all be open tomorrow, so I will again shlepp the kids to the stores while Yehuda studies.

Amira starts school Tuesday morning, and since she is going into second grade (ack 2X!) this year, we don't find out who her teachers are and which girls are in her class until she gets home from school on Tuesday! Needless to say, I am very anxious and excited to find out all that information. Yaakov's Pre-K (!!!) placement came yesterday and while he is very disappointed that his best friend is not in his class this year, he is very excited for his new Morah, and we are very excited too!

The summer really flew by, though, which is something I am not so thrilled about, surprisingly. I am relishing this stage in our life right now. And while I am beyond excited and thrilled to bring a new baby into our family, I am also not in any rush to get to December. Not so much because I am nervous about this new baby (although, as long as we are being honest, I must admit that I am. It's been a while since we did the whole baby thing, and trying to juggle the newborn stage with the school carpool and homework and soccer and ballet is going to certainly be a challenge. A challenge that I will be ready for, G-d willing, and one that I am beyond grateful to be going into, but a challenge nonetheless.) but because I really love the ages and stages that my kids are in right this minute, and I don't like how fast time is going and how quickly they are growing up.
Yehuda and I just realized tonight that this Rosh HaShana will G-d willing be our 10th together, and our 10th spent in Sharon, at my parents house. What an incredible milestone that is, thank G-d. But these last 9 years together (we got engaged 9 years ago tomorrow!) have flown by so quickly. Maybe it's because I am getting older, but I wish things would slow down just a little, and I am making an effort to live as much in the moment as I can.
So, my kids are getting out of the shower now and coming downstairs for a game of Zingo Bingo, which I plan to enjoy every minute of.

(Legoland post still to come!)

Vacation LA 2009

One interesting and previously unknown (to me) benefit to traveling while pregnant is that jet lag doesn't seem to apply at all. I think it is just because I am so incredibly tired all-the-time, that the 3 hours time difference here or there doesn't really make a difference!

That said, my kids are definitely jet lagged, and while I am certainly enjoying them waking up at 9:30 AM, I am not so much enjoying having to wrestle them to bed at 11 PM.

I am, however, very glad to have this week off between vacation and school to get them back into some semblance of a schedule, as well as detox them from a heavenly week and a half of grandparent/great grandparent/aunt/uncle/cousin spoiling, too much sugar, lots of fun, swimming, beach trips, constant entertainment, Wii games, and little sleep! And surprisingly, they don't seem to mind having things low key at home.

It really was a fantastic vacation, though, on all accounts. We loved every minute of it! Yehuda's sister and brother in law's house really is kid paradise!
On our first day in LA, we took a family trip to the Grove to search out the ever elusive Men's size 16-17 Crocs. Yes, that is the largest size they make and yes, they are spectacularly huge and ugly. The mission was successful, and the salesman even remembered Yehuda's mom calling to see if he carried them, since he said that was the first time he had ever had a request or sold a pair in that size!

We spent the rest of the day happily swimming.

We had a lovely Shabbos with Yehuda's whole family and, of course, Saba Raba! We even managed the 1 1/2 mile walk each way to Beth Jacob to make sure that we saw Great-Grandma Evelyn, since she would not be walking to lunch, and where I sat behind the same women that I remember sitting behind 15 years ago when I used to sit with my Bubby, A"H. I was so happy to find out that they remembered me easily and still missed my Bubby, as we do, and they were so thrilled to meet my own children.

Sunday was the big Isenberg Family Beach day at the always perfect Will Rogers Beach in Malibu! We loaded up multiple cars with kids (all our LA nieces and nephews!), toys, umbrellas, food, sunscreen, and of course, more food. Cousins Ethan and Nili joined us (they enjoyed riding in Saba Raba's Mustang Convertible!) as well as my beloved friends from LA and their kids. It really was the perfect beach day- we even saw a school of dolphins and some pelicans fishing! The big excitement of the day was (for me at least!) watching Yehuda bogey board. And of course, I took pictures, because honestly, I don't think anyone would believe me otherwise!

Monday we (and by that I really mean I) spent the morning recovering from beach day, and then we took a nice small hike around Franklin Canyon. Amira and Yaakov had gone from being petrified of the family dog (Renzo) and new kitty (Lucky) on the first night of our arrival, to shlepping around the poor kitty like a baby doll and riding Renzo! I had to explain to Yaakov at the end of the trip that dogs and cats will be remaining in LA...we enjoyed the local wildlife as well as walking the dogs, and capped off the outing with a trip to Nagilla Pizza, which is happily exactly the same yummy place as it always has been!

Tuesday was LEGOLAND day, and that deserves it's own post, so it's own post it will get!

Wednesday, we went to Zuma beach with our lovely friends, and the day was perfectly gorgeous, and the waves were amazingly enormous! We capped off Wednesday with dinner at Fish Grill (no sawdust on the floor anymore!) with Saba Raba and Uncle Howard, and then a lovely walk on the Third Street Promenade!

Thursday we went to the Skirball Museum with Grandma and Grandpa and despite the blistering heat, had a lovely time, and went back to Auntie Daphne's and Uncle Jonathan's for more swimming, before a lovely dinner out with the whole family!

Friday we hit the American Girl store/museum with Amira, our friends, and Saba Raba (!!) and did more swimming! And Shabbos was again absolutely lovely and made us wish we could spend every Shabbos with family.

Well, longest post in blog history for sure, but one more important item to note before signing off. The absolute funniest conversation of the entire trip took place as we walked from The Grove to Uncle Chaim's apartment that first Friday.

Brian (cousin, age 8): Yaakov, why do you love me so much?
Yaakov: Because I am 4!

Brain nodded sagely as the rest of us collapsed in laughter.

I'll be back with the ever exciting LEGOLAND post.