A Family "Picnic"

Last Friday, Olin's school held a family picnic to celebrate the start of the new school year.  Actually, they use the term "picnic" loosely because the school didn't provide anything for the gathering, but rather asked that each family bring their own food and entertainment.  So perhaps I should say that the school coordinated a picnic for the families.

Anyway, because our family's social representative, Josh, couldn't join us, I figured that Olin and I would make a 15 minute appearance and then head home.  So rather than pack a proper picnic, I stopped at the health food store downstairs on my way to the school and picked up a coconut water and oatmeal cookies for Olin and an iced tea and Kind bar for me.  Well, as soon as I left the store, I remembered the school's strict "no nuts" policy - the main ingredient in my Kind bar, so I frantically ate it on my five block walk to the school for fear that Olin would be asked to leave the school if I were to bring a nut even remotely close to one of the children. 

Also, the school interestingly scheduled the picnic for 4pm although school ends at 3:30pm and the picnic site was a 2 minute walk away.  It's not easy to occupy a toddler for a half hour on the residential streets of NYC, so we walked very slow to the picnic, but still arrived at 3:40pm, which meant my plan to stay for 15 minutes would have us departing before the picnic even began so already my plan was doomed.

So there we are, Olin with his little cookies and drink and me with just my drink while the other parents start to unpack loads of cut up fruit and vegetables, platters of cheese and crackers, hummus, baked goods...  one mom even brought wine.  Luckily for me, Olin didn't seem to mind.   In fact, he was not remotely interested in food.  If it appears from the pictures that all he did was run around, it's because he did.  While all the other children sat nicely with their parents on their picnic blankets, Olin made laps around the park - with me in tow or with one of his teachers, he really didn't care - he just had to be in motion at all times. 

The picnic actually ended up to be a good time - it was nice to have conversations with the other parents rather than just our usual exchange of 'hello's' at drop-off and pick-up.  We had such a nice time that we ended up staying nearly an hour and a half and only left when Olin started to melt down (I later learned that he did not nap at all during the day).  The melt down surprised us all... it surprised his teachers because up to this point they had never seen him cry, which surprised me that he hadn't cried once yet in his class because he sure doesn't have a problem shedding tears at home, in stores, in restaurants, in the car or pretty much anywhere!

Hopefully next year, Josh will be able to join us because we very much missed his presence and now that I know the drill, I vow that the Burgher family will have the BEST picnic spread next year!

P.S. That large grate that Olin is sitting on in the picture above is actually over underground train tracks.  When the train goes by, the children go crazy with excitement - it's very cute!

Shower Love

On most nights, Olin approaches his bath with indifference at best so imagine our surprise when he lost his mind with delight when we put him in the shower over the weekend with the hope of unclogging his little nose.  We have continued the showers throughout the week as this cold keeps hanging on and I swear, he would stay in there for hours if we let him.  Perhaps his response to the shower is solely due to the sinus relief the steam provides or maybe he really is more of a shower guy.  I kind of hope it's the former because I am starting to worry that we created a little shower monster and we may never get him in the bathtub again!

Over The Weekend

The cold that Olin had last week that we thought was gone came back with a vengeance Friday afternoon so we tried to stay close to home and take it easy for the little one.

On Saturday, we did leave the apartment for a little while to meet our friends George and Bill in their beautiful neighborhood of Battery Park City for brunch at North End Grill and a visit to the neighborhood block party.  Battery Park City is so serene and seems so much cleaner than our Upper West Side neighborhood, every time we spend time down there, I decide that we must move there!  Unfortunately, little one was just not feeling well and even a visit from Elmo at the block party didn't lift his spirits so we cut the afternoon short and headed home.

On Sunday morning, little mister had a low grade fever so we skipped church and cancelled the trip to the Central Park Zoo we had planned with some friends.  We left the house only to go to Whole Foods and take our autumnal stroll in the park on Sunday to get little mister some fresh air. 

At this rate, I think it is going to be a very long school year!

Hope everyone had a happy and healthy weekend!

Welcome Fall...

we are so glad that you are here.  We took Olin to the Crab Apple Grove in Riverside Park to enjoy fall's beautiful arrival into NYC today... gorgeous. 

Look Who's Talking

When I picked Olin up from school today, his teachers were so excited to tell me that he said his first (kind of) sentence in class.  True to our little one's love of books, he apparently went up to one of his teachers, book in hand, and said "read this!"  I have been shamelessly trying to get him to say it for me ever since without any luck. 

They also said that he is constantly coming up to them during the day, babbling in his gibberish as he does and then he laughs hysterically at himself.  Josh and I always joke with Olin that he is the funniest person that he knows.  Can't wait for him to really start talking so that we can all know what is so funny! 

Have a great weekend everyone!

On our way to his classroom this morning...

Our Little Student

Although he's only been in school for a handful of days, Olin has already started learning!  We have noticed the most changes around meal times.  He now gets his own plate out of a drawer that we have designated "Olin's drawer" that houses all of his plates, bowls and cups.  He is also better at feeding himsellf and clears his dishes from the table all by himself.  The only trouble is that when he clears his dirty dishes, he insists on putting them back into his drawer rather than in the sink so we have to keep regular tabs on the contents of that drawer!

His learnings aren't just about eating though.  Yesterday, on our evening walk, he clapped wildly for a lady that threw away some paper in a trash can on the street - definitely something they must do in class.  And although he was already a great dancer, he has picked up some new dance moves in class too.  They really are like little sponges at this age.

This morning as we were walking into the school, we ran into his classmate, Theo and Theo's mommy.   When Theo saw Olin, he said in the sweetest little voice "Good Morning, Olin".  Oh my goodness, he has little friends that know his name!

What's In that Big Bag, Olin?

Look!  It's a potty.  Many of the little ones in Olin's class are potty training, including a little boy named Theo, with whom Olin has apparently become enthralled.  Anyway, I don't know if it is because of this or purely coincidence, but little mister took his diaper off on Sunday and went potty on the floor.  Sooooo, we decided that perhaps it's time to at least think  about the potty training process.  On Monday, Josh had the morning off, so we took a walk to the baby store and got the necessary goods.

The new potty has become Olin's favorite seat in the house (fully clothed), but he gets on it like he is mounting a horse rather than sitting on a chair so we have a lot of work to do.

And I promise not to bore you with the harrowing tales of potty training over the coming weeks (months?!)

P.S.  Olin woke up seeming near fully recovered from his cold and I think some of his recovery can be attributed to the new drink we concocted yesterday that we are now calling his Get Well Juice, which is organic orange juice, diluted with coconut water for the electrolytes, with a dropper full of his multivitamin.  I highly recommend it to other mommies!

A Stormy Day AND a Sick Day

Little mister has a bit of a cold so we had a lazy day at home and even stayed in our jammies until after lunch.  We did venture out once to stock up on orange juice and go to the doctor, because I am just that crazy that I take him to the doctor at the slightest hint of sniffles, but that was as exciting as it got. 

Poor little guy is so stuffed up, but still so sweet and happy.  And I would be lying if I said that I don't love how much he needs his Mommy when he is sick - we did a lot of snuggling and read a lot of books today (well, mostly just one book "My First Day at Nursery School" about a hundred times!) 

Here are some pictures from this morning of little one working on his puzzles.

And Grandma Peg, look how good he has gotten at his puzzles ...

Over The Weekend

It's still technically the weekend for Olin because the school is closed for Rosh Hashanah today and tomorrow, but Josh is back at work so it feels like the weekend is over!

The weather was gorgeous so we walked a ton this weekend!  On Saturday we met Bridget, baby Hollan, Bridget's sister Kelly and Kelly's daughter Sophie, who were in town from Denver, for brunch at Isabella's and then walked across Central Park to our old neighborhood, the Upper East Side. 

While in the old neighborhood, we had coffee at our favorite sidewalk table at Corrado Bread and Pastry, did a little shopping and then treated ourselves to a pain au chocolat at Maison Kayser (incredible and we felt instantly transported to Paris as soon as we walked into this place - we will definitely be back!)  On our way back home, we popped into the Met to wander through the European paintings, inspired by our newly discovered patisserie.

On Saturday night, we had one of the very nice ladies from our church's nursery babysit the little one while he slept and Josh and I went downtown to my friend Lisa's beautiful 30th birthday party.  At the party, we even had bit of a Sak's reunion with four of us from Saks there.  After the party, we strolled through Greenwich Village serenaded by a gentlemen playing the cello on a street corner (beautiful), walked by our infamous tiny apartment on Charles street and had a nightcap at Vin Sur Vingt wine bar.  We had so much fun and as much as we adore our little one, it's always nice to have a little date night!

On Sunday, we went to church and just recovered from Saturday's fun.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!