Some Perspective

How did I neglect to post this photo of Roan and Ilan?  It's from September, on Roan's first day of school.  It's one of my favorite photos from this season.

For context, here's a photo of the two of them I took last week, during the Thanksgiving holiday, in San Antonio.  Their cousin Julia is in the background, crowning Ilan with a flower crown.

Looking at these photos, taken only 10 weeks apart, I can see it, how it's true what the old people say, that your childrens' childhood passes by in a blink of an eye, how quickly they move towards independence, to becoming surly teenagers. But day-to-day, when you are constantly feeding and wiping and dressing and washing and your home is a place in constant need of picking up, sorting, and cleaning, always cleaning, it doesn't seem like the time is flying.  It seems like this babyhood / toddlerhood / childhood thing will never ever end.  So thank you, digital photography, for giving me some perspective tonight.  Thank you for helping me appreciate my children.  They truly are amazing.

Birthday Party

Dear  Roan,

This year we had your birthday party in a venue that was not our apartment.  Every year your Daddy and I argue over what to do for your party - I am cheap and want to have it at home, but a house full of kids and their parents (and the resulting clean up) stresses your Dad out.  This year I let him win.

We had your party at the Audubon Center in Prospect Park.  There were bird puppets to be made and there were insects and magnifying glasses, bird puzzles, bird mobiles, a tee-pee looking thing, animals that you can climb on and see the world through their eyes.  You weren't interested in any of this.  I had made you a train cake for your birthday and you needed to stare at it.

Then we went on a nature walk.

Everyone was "starving" after the nature walk, so we had pizza and pasta and bananas for lunch, and then you blew out the candles and we ate the train cake.  Everyone got to chose which part of the cake they wanted to eat.  You chose the funnel. The hopper car full of jelly beans was the most popular. The adults said they didn't want any but ended up eating all the Oreo cookies / wheels.

Your birthday party was strangely calm.  There were 7 other kids, and we asked everyone to leave their siblings at home.  Nobody cried, nobody fought, there was very little screaming.  And coming home to a clean house was pretty extraordinary.  Somehow it didn't feel like a birthday party to me, because the usual crowding and chaos that I've come associate with children's birthday parties was missing.  It was very civilized.  A perfect party for my 4-year-old introvert.

Nor'easter

4 Years

Dear Roan,

You are four years old.  "Whaaaat?!"  That's how I feel, and that's what you say when I tell you something crazy or unbelievable, like we are putting sprinkles in our pancakes, or the small intestine is full of millions of tiny villi that slurp up energy from our food, or that Toys-R-Us is still under water from the storm (all conversations we had on the morning of your birthday).

You have so many questions.  I try my best to answer you, but you are starting to ask questions that I don't know how to answer, or I have to check the internet in my downtime and get back to you later.  Having a 4-year-old is realizing: I don't know as much about how things work as I thought I did.

E-mail is something I am just unqualified to explain (and you are unsatisfied with my explanations).  We've been talking a lot about storms, and helping people in shelters and people without power.  It's hard to explain a power outage when you're not sure how electricity works in the first place.

Your birthday was Sunday and Daddy took you shopping.  He spoiled you - you came back from your outing (which, like most Daddy outings, involved a hot chocolate from Southside) with a lot of gifts.  We had Mac n' Cheese for lunch at your request.  Then you played with some of your new toys while Lani took a nap.

In the afternoon we rode our bikes to your swim lesson at Beth Elohim.  On the way there we stopped at Pink Berry for frozen yoghurt.  You were so excited to tell your teacher all about your birthday.  "Today is my birthday for reals!" you said, "we made pancakes for breakfast with sprinkles!"

"Pancakes with seagulls?" she asked.

Sometimes I forget that not everyone can understand you.

We rode our bikes home on 8th Avenue through piles of leaves.  We stopped at Judah's house to meet their new cat, which they rescued from a shelter post Sandy.  You ate vegan chicken nuggets and then ate a second dinner at home, steak and mashed potatoes.  Then you got raspberry and blueberry ice-cream.  And so did Lani Lou.

I tucked you in with four blankets, and then your birthday was over.  But the celebrations are not over yet.

Happy 4 years, Roan Michael.

10 Months

Dear Ilan,

Your personality is starting to shine through.  The word for you this month is: excitable.  You are excited about everything!

When I put you down for sleep I lay you on your back in your crib and you smile up at me and pump your legs up and down, in this manic sort of excited way, fast fast fast, your heels make a swishing noise on the sheets and your whole body slides up and down.  You are so excited about going to sleep!

At mealtime, especially on Friday nights when we have challah and juice, you are so excited to eat that you can barely contain yourself.  Your whole body quivers and you wave your arms and try to lunge out of your chair to get to the food.  Sometimes we have ice cream for dessert and I share with you.  You smile and bounce and moose and make this gurgling noise of happiness in the back of your throat.  Your baby anticipation is so sweet and infectious.

At bath time, or anytime when anyone is in the shower or bath, you charge into the bathroom and pull yourself up on the tub and moose until we let you in.  And when we do, you reward us with the biggest grin and hit us repeatedly with your arm slaps of happiness. You love taking baths with Roan, even though he constantly splashes you and squirts water in your face.

There are two things you like to say: mum mum mum mum, and bah bah bah bah.  Mum is both me and Jay. Bah is bottle and food.  You are always excited to see us and always excited to see your bottle.

You play a game at bedtime that we call The Game.  We try to read you books and you try to crawl off the bed.  We grab your legs and pull you back and you laugh and laugh.  Repeat.  If we don't grab your legs quickly enough you stop and look back at us, waiting.

Roan has taught you how to growl.  The two of you growl at each other constantly.  And you growl at Jay and me, when you are happy, when you are angry, when you are hungry.  Or, when you just feel like growling.  You have also started to wave and play peek-a-boo.

Some photos from Month 10:

You have  only been on the swings a few times.  You like them.

You love pushing cars around the floor, you and Roan follow each other around the house with various cars and trucks.

You have a walker that you are just getting the hang of.  You push it until it crashes into something, then you  growl until somebody comes and turns you around so you can push it back.

Happy 10 months, Lani Lou.

Sandy

I've had so many e-mails, texts, and phone calls in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and just wanted to say that we are all okay.  We live at one of the highest points in Brooklyn (something I really hated while I was pregnant and had to walk up the hill everyday, but something I'm really appreciating now) so we were not directly impacted by the storm.  We have a lot of trees down, but none of them fell on our car or our building, or even on any of the bars, restaurants, and stores that we frequent.  Our gym, a converted armory, is now being used as a shelter for evacuees with special medical needs (mostly elderly and disabled) from lower lying neighborhoods  We are not avid gym-goers, so haven't really noticed the unavailability of our elliptical machines.

We cannot leave the neighborhood, because public transportation is extremely limited, and what's running is overcrowded and slow.  Traffic is horrendous, many streets are closed because of trees and debris - we aren't driving, and car services are all booked.  We are working remotely when we can, hanging out with the kids, taking walks around the neighborhood to see all the stuff that the downed trees smashed.  Public schools are closed (many are being used as shelters) but Chai Tots opened yesterday on a scaled back schedule, so Ro and I rode our bikes there this morning.  It was nice to have a break from him.

Last night we celebrated Halloween with friends and went trick or treating.  Finally, Roan is getting the hang of this Halloween thing.  Last year, when people offered him candy, he said, "no thanks, I already have some."   This year he accepted it, and would run to me and exclaim, "Mommy, everyone wants to give me candy!"  like he can't believe his good luck.

Here are some photos I took outside our building, before we went to the Halloween party.

Here are our next door neighbors' jack-o-lanterns, which we saw shining brightly as we trudged up our hill, heavy with candy: