Sunny Days
This was one of those weekends that you wish would never end. Spring finally showed its sunny face with 70+ temperatures and clear skies all weekend. We spent every possible moment we could out doors. We have spent a lot of time and money fixing up our back yard to make it a place where we would feel good about spending entire weekends and the perfect weather combined with family visiting from overseas and friends stopping by made all that effort well worth it. It’s pretty much our perfect backyard. Having my husbands parents here from Israel for a visit is a welcome luxury. Since they live so far away they love to spend as much one on one time with the girls as possible and since they are early risers that means I get to sleep in a little! And my husband and I get to go on dates. It’s almost like being on vacation. And to add to the fun Uncle Ben, my husbands brother came in for a few days from the west coast to see all of us.
It was a weekend of firsts for the girls they played in a sandbox for the first time, wore shorts and sandals for the first time this season. Sadly, the adorable little Saltwater sandals that I just ordered for the girls are quite a bit too large. This baby shoe sizing thing is kind of a mystery. They are currently wearing size four, so I got them size five to last through the summer, and the reviews said they run small. Who knows? It seems as though kids shoes are too big until they are too small. Just keep trying, kids have to have shoes. After a great day at home on Saturday, Sunday we ventured out for a fun day on the town. We visited a new park where the girls loved the sandbox, had a lovey brunch at a new restaurant and spent the afternoon with friends and family at their home by the river.
It was another great day.
Hurry next weekend, come quickly.
The first sleepover!
My sister offered a while ago to keep the girls for a night so my husband an I could have a date and a full nights sleep for sure. We took her up in the offer last night. They were happy when we left and to top off the evening my brother in law wrote about it for the blog! Thanks Sammy!
You can read the post here.
This past week we made the decision to get rid of the pacifiers, to make sure that no one, not myself, my husband or the girls nanny gave in and returned a pacifier to one of the girls in to the trash they went.
I made the decision that now was the right time because the girls were getting more and more attached to it by the day and at our fifteen month doctors appointment they recommended that now was a good time to be done with it.
I felt good about the decision because I had their support and to be honest I hate seeing kids walking around with a pacifier in their mouths. And on top of that I have half a dozen speech therapists who are part of my life, who, while I know would never tell me how to raise my kids, have told me many times that if a kid is sucking on a pacifier then the kid is not talking.
Up until the girls were about 9 months we gave them the pacifier to sleep or if they we’re extra fussy, which really wasn’t often. But after 9 months things changed and the started wanting it more often during the day and crying when they couldn’t find it at night. I could see it becoming an issue but I wasn’t ready to go through what giving it up meant.
The morning we decided to say goodbye I had Talia an Jordan each throw their pacifier into the garbage when they woke up. Talia didn’t skip a beat, and Jordan cried for half a second and that was that. I forgot to tell Yael, the nanny, about this event so there was a little hiccup in the plan and another round of throwing away pacifiers after their morning nap that day, but that was the last.
That night the girls cried for longer than usual, about thirty minutes. It was really hard to listen to, it’s hard when they cry for five minutes, thirty makes me want to pull my hair out. But they finally went to sleep. The morning was also a little tough, normally they would find a pacifier in their crib and fall back asleep, but at 5 am they woke up crying so I gave them milk, they drank it and fell back asleep.
I know, giving babies milk in bed is not recommended. But this brings me back to my favorite parenting advice, Do What Works For You.
The next couple of nights were similar but the crying was shorter each night and same with the mornings. Now a week later, the girls go to sleep without much of a fuss at all, wake up around 7 am almost smiling and don’t ask for it during the day. Or if they do I can’t understand what they are saying anyway.
A few times they have seen other kids with a pacifier while we are out an about and they look at it with a shocked expression, I’m sure they are thinking, “hey, where’d he get that?!”
A few more weeks they will forget they ever had it and I never have to take another picture that is ruined by a funny piece of plastic.
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We went to the Big Apple Circus this past weekend! Its a quiant little one ring circus held under a pitched tent wih only 16 rows of seating around. you can smell the animals from every seat in the house.
Yes, I know, it was a little risky taking two (actually three, our friends also came with their little one) toddlers to an afternoon showing of the circus but I just had one if my crazy mom moments and knew the girls would love it. And they did.
They were so captivated by everything they were seeing. When they would see an animal that they recognized they would point an should a sound that I assume is how they say horse or cow or dog. They were so proud of themselves for recognizing these animals.
The animals were defiantly our little crowds favorite part, but the high flying acrobats were enjoyed by all as well.
The girls got to run around a little during intermission and had almost as much fun touching the lights in the entrance hall (don’t worry they weren’t hot) as they did watching the performers .
We did end up leaving a little early, maybe just 10 minutes before the end. But we all had such a good time. Seeing the looks on the girls faces was with the price of he ticket ten times over.
It was the first of many annual trips to the circus. It was a really great one.
Mawh
I think I kiss my kids obsessively. I’m always kissing them, on their head and soft curly hair, on their squishy cheeks on their feet and a lot on their yummy arms in the morning, every time I pick one up or one sits in my lap or after a diaper change or after I clean their hands from food after eating. I kiss them constantly. I forgot, I kiss their bellies too. I’d say I kiss them too much but I’m pretty sure there is a law that says you can never kiss your kids too much.
The best part of kissing them so much…they now kiss us back.
Talia and Jordan now kiss each other too.
Smooch.
And just in time for Valentines Day.
First trip to the Zoo!
We went to the zoo! It was so much fun. We debated for a long time when would be the perfect time to go to the zoo for the first time. During the summer and fall the girls were still a bit young for the trip to the far side of town to be worth it (we live about 30 minutes from the Atlanta Zoo) and they weren’t too mobile and putting too many things in their mouths. But with the crazy winter weather we have been having a warm winter day, we decided, was the perfect opportunity.
The girls loved it. The zoo is a really great one as far as zoos go.
The first thing you see as you enter the gate are the flamingos.
I found myself repeating to words to Bill Martin and Eric Carle’s “Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear” “I hear a flamingo fluting in my ear” such a great book.
The girls would have been happy to stand and stare at the flamingos all day but the busy bee in me knew there was a zoo full of animals to see.
When you take your little one to the zoo for the first time and they want to stare at an animal for an hour, I recommend you let them, enjoy your coffee and realize it will probably be the last time they stand still at the zoo.
We didn’t try to see every animal that lives in the zoo, we chose a few to check out for this first trip.
We saw the elephants and the panda bear. The girls were completely silent at first, I imagine they were in shock, trying to figure out how the animals from the books were moving around in front of them. Once the shock wore off they would squeal and shout in excitement every time they saw a new animal. I wish I could understand what they were saying.
We visited the petting zoo where the girls used the brushes provided to brush the animals. They were brushing like pros in no time. I was a little worried that the girls would get trampled by a startled goat but I quickly realized they are as docile as animals get.
Again the girls wanted to move in with the goats. When it was time to move on Talia caused quite a scene, toddlers.
Next we went to visit Po the toddler panda, he is about two years old. Did you know that it is Chinese tradition to only name a panda after its 100th day of life. He is really cute.
Lastly we went to the playground. There is a little school bus jungle gym just for toddlers. The girls had such a good time climbing up and down the steps and driving the bus. They hardly noticed the three story slide right next to them for the bigger kids.
Even though its a trek to get there we will be visiting the zoo as much as possible in the spring. We had so much fun!
Birthday Party Pics!
We celebrated the girls 1st birthday with a big party at our home yesterday with lot of family and friends. I worked really hard to create a beautiful scene for the party and my husband worked really hard to creat a beautiful and tasty food spread.  Everything was great and I am really happy with how it turned out. The girls had a great time and our new deck proved to be the ultimate party place, save for a few black and yellow striped friends that we could have done without it was a great afternoon.
Happy Birthday Jordan and Talia
Baby girls, today kinda snuck up on me. Sure I knew it was coming but all of the sudden here it is. You are one, one year old today. My little wiggly babies are now little waddling girls. I never wanted to be the parent that called their not so much babies any more baby, so I will try from now on to call you my girls even though you will always be my babies (at least until you stopping waking up at night and crying until I hold you.) I was a pretty independat and adventurous kid and I hope you two grow up to adventurous and fearless. You are already amazing us with your climbing ability, now you just need to learn what goes up must come down, hopefully feet first.
I have had so much fun taking care of you for the past year, your abba and I may not have been perfect at it sometimes, but I hope you two didn’t mind. I hope you had a fun first year. I tried to show you as many new things as possible in this short year. And while we have decades of fun ahead of us this first year was important to me and I loved every minute of it.
You went from being wrinkly little helpless people to opinionated, smart, funny and friendly little toddlers. At a year old you can walk fairly well, as in across the room before you fall down, you each have six teeth, four on top and two on bottom, you both have lots of curls. Every now and then you repeat a word perfectly, you give me your spoon when I ask for it, you know how to balance on one foot when getting undressed for your bath, which you love so much. You love animals, pictures of them, stuffed ones, even the real ones. You love music and you dance to the rhythm in the cutest little way, you love playing outside.
Jordan you are a mommas girl and Talia you are quite obsessed with your Abba. I’m not sure how or why that happened but all the parents of twins said that it would. It’s ok, we love you each with all our hearts.
It was the most amazing thing to watch you change before our eyes this past year, I miss the little babies that we brought home but I love the little girls who crawl to be in my lap more than I could imagine possible. I can’t wait to see what this next year brings for each of you, for your freindship, for our family.
Happy first birthday girls, mommy and Abba love you and we are proud of you every day.
Always learning something new
We are lucky enough to have a nanny who loves them and takes amazing care of them while we are at work. She is always creating fun activities for the girls and showing them new things. The other day she brought the girls special markers! Special magic markers for one year olds.
And they colored their very first pictures! These are pictures of Sukkahs, a hut Jewish people build in their yards to celebrate the fall harvest! The holiday started last night and goes for eight days. Happy Sukkah!
Early Birthday Party!
We went to North Carolina this past weekend to spend the Jewish New Year with my family. It’s always fun to go to my parents house and hangout for a few days. We also got to see lots of extended family and friends. Since it will be a while before we are with so many cousins at once my mom wanted to throw a little early birthday party for the girls. So we had party hats, plates and bran muffins with whip cream and chocolate sprinkles. The girls mastered the cake smash the first time. I’m so proud of them. They also seam to really like bran muffin an they really liked the whip cream. They licked it all off the top before starting on the muffin.
