Sick Again!

Happy Monday everyone!  It's not such a happy Monday in the Burgher house because we have yet another illness and Olin is home from school again. 

This morning, his teacher called me to let me know that little mister had a few blisters on his hands and that we needed to take him to the doctor to see if it is contagious.  Well, as luck would have it, it is contagious.  He now has something called hand and foot virus which causes these little blisters on his hands and feet (of course). Our doctor said he must have got it from one of the children at school because it is going around and completely not a big deal.  Like a cold virus, there is no treatment for it and it goes away on its own after a few days. 

I think the doctor sensed my absolute desperation and frustration when I pleaded with him to tell me what we are doing wrong to which he responded again that this is totally normal for a child's first year in school.  This is our third trip to the doctor's office in the past 3 weeks - we are going to spend Olin's college fund on copays!  The good news is that while there, the doctor checked his ears and said that they look perfect and we can stop his antibiotics.

When we returned home, I called the school to report the latest and asked his teacher if he is the sickest child she has ever had in her class.  She laughed and said absolutely not and with this virus, Olin can return to school after 24 hours which means I get to hang out with my little buddy tomorrow too. 

Please keep your fingers crossed that we have no new illnesses (and thus no more trips to the doctor) at least for a few weeks... we need a break!

Sleeping Beauty

While with the doctor yesterday, I took the opportunity to ask her about how we should "dress" the little one for bed now that he is almost two.  Up until now, we were given strict instructions that no blankets should be in his crib so he slept in a sleep sack or in the most recent warmer months, in just his pajamas,  However, now that it's cooling down again (it's been really chilly in NYC the past few days), sleeping in just his pajamas isn't warm enough and the sleep sack is getting a little small. 

Well, we got the go ahead from the doctor to let him sleep with blankets and while I know this may seem incredibly inconsequential, it felt like a big deal around here last night.  When we tucked that blanket around Olin, he got so excited like he knew that sleeping with a blanket is something that big boys do.  It was very cute and Josh and I only checked on him about a dozen times to make sure that he wasn't in any danger of suffocating himself! 

Oh, and that Cookie Monster in the photos below was a gift from Grandpa Greg and Grandma Peg last week, and let me tell you everything is about "Cookie" around here these days... I have lost count of how many times that we have sung "C is for Cookie" and yesterday when I had to wash Cookie Monster, after a tragic fall out of the stroller that resulted in him getting stuck in the stroller wheels and drug for a few feet along the dirty NYC sidewalks, a mini meltdown ensued.  He really does love that guy and I am not sure what we have done all this time without him!

A Sick Day

It feels like old times around here (aka before school) because little mister is under the weather today and staying home with Mommy after already having a vacation day on Monday for the holiday.  We went to see his doctor this morning and learned that the poor little guy has his first ear infection (it's in his right ear).  The doctor said that it is most likely due to this cold he hasn't been able to shake for the past three weeks.  Or perhaps more likely, it's been one cold on top of another because he starts to get better and then a few days later he gets stuffed up again.  She also said that we should get used to it and that it's not uncommon for little ones to get up to 10 colds in their first year of school!

My friend, Luney, suggested that we feed Olin pineapple because it's supposed to help with the congestion so we have been eating a lot of pineapple in the Burgher house.  So much so that Josh even invented "Aloha Oatmeal" this morning.. I don't know that I would recommend it to everyone, but Olin sure seemed to like it.

Anyway, we have antibiotics and he has the all clear to go back to school tomorrow.  Until then, I will enjoy having our little one around the house today.  And fingers crossed that we can finally get over this illness... we have a big birthday coming up in exactly 19 days!

A Rainy Afternoon at the Museum

Here are some pictures of our Sunday at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  We love that place so much and it seems that little mister is developing a love for it too. 

A few years ago when we lived just down the block from the Met, we were so lucky because our well-connected friend George would get us invitations to all of the museum openings.  These openings were always beautiful events that we would get dressed up for and enjoy music, food, and a sneak peak of the art with a crowd that we do not normally hang out with!  It really is an extraordinary place and one of our favorite places in the city.

Anyway, on Sunday we wanted to see the Regarding Warhol exhibit and while Olin wasn't overly excited by much of it, the last room of the exhibit was decorated with neon green wallpaper with florescent pink cow heads all over it.  If that wasn't enough to capture the little one's attention (he really loves farm animals these days), there were a few dozen giant silver balloons being blown around the room so that patrons could interact with them.  Well, when we got into that room, Olin's face lit up and he got so excited every time one of those balloons floated past him and he was able to touch it.  I think he could have spent an hour hitting those floating balloons back up to the ceiling.  Unfortunately, because it was a special exhibit we were not allowed to take pictures, but it definitely was the highlight of our visit on Sunday!

Over The Weekend

After driving in circles for 20 minutes looking for a parking spot, we abandoned our initial plans of shopping at Columbus Circle on Saturday and drove over to the east side where we had lunch at Hummus Kitchen and then dessert at our new favorite Maison Kayser (we just can't help ourselves). 

The weather was beautiful Saturday, but turned cold and rainy Sunday, so we escaped the elements and went to the Met after church to see the new Andy Warhol exhibit (I'll try to post some pictures from our museum outing later this week - little mister was very cute there taking in all of the art) and then enjoyed lunch at Le Pain Quotidien.  After lunch we warmed up at a Starbuck's on Madison Avenue that happened to be packed with not just several Buddhist monks, but also several Scandinavian tourists so Olin was completely occupied by people watching which meant that Josh and I were able to enjoy our coffee in peace!

Olin has the day off for Columbus Day (big surprise!) so it's still the weekend for two of us over here!  Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

A Little Video

One of Olin's favorite activities currently is spending time in his closet with all of his things.  He sits in there and pulls books off their shelves and talks to himself.  Thought you all might enjoy this little video of Chatty Cathy doing just that. 

Oh, and please don't judge the messy closet - even with as much as we move (and thus purge) we still have way too much stuff for this tiny apartment!

Over The Weekend

We had another lovely weekend in the city - we are really enjoying the beautiful autumn weather.  On Saturday, nostalgic for our trip to Stockholm a few years ago, we decided to have Swedish Day which entailed a visit to the Swedish Church (Svenska Kyrkan) in midtown for their famous homemade cinnamon rolls (or kanelbulle, in Swedish) and coffee.  The rolls are made by the church's cleaning lady and are served in the church's beautiful two-story reading room.  Our rolls were served by a very sweet Swedish lady who comes from the area of Sweden that neighbors my family's Småland region.  She even taught us a few Swedish words, which is the only reason why I knew the Swedish word for cinnamon rolls above - geez, that language is tough!  We also found a book of Swedish phrases for Olin and bought some packaged Swedish cookies, that we later noticed were from IKEA, but delicious nonetheless. 

While we were in the neighborhood, we took a stroll through Saks and Olin loved the music in the store.  He had some great dance moves going from his stroller and was really entertaining the other shoppers.

We ended Swedish Day with the most delicious Swedish meatballs at the always wonderful Smorgas Chef in the West Village.  Olin was so funny at dinner - he had Josh's phone and kept smiling and showing the phone to everyone around us - the hostess, our server, the other patrons - like he was showing them something very interesting.  We think that he was mimicing Josh and I when we show each other our phones. 

On Sunday, Olin fell asleep in the car on the way home from church, muffin in hand, so we kept driving all the way to New Jersey to do a little shopping at Target.  In New Jersey, we had a, dare I say, blissful lunch at Panera before we went shopping.  I think it was perhaps little mister's best performance yet in a restaurant... Josh was even able to have a second cup of coffee for goodness sake!  I don't want to jinx anything, but maybe we are turning a corner on restaurant performance!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and Happy October (it's birthday month around here)!