"Cute From Day One"

Josh uses a printed copy of this photo of Olin's first bath as a bookmark...

and last night, while we were reading in bed, he looked over at me and in complete seriousness said "You know what the title of this picture should be?... 'Cute From Day One'".  I don't know why this struck me as funny, but it made me laugh and I can't say that he isn't right.  Perhaps, only parents see the true beauty in their newborn babies, but to me, this face is heaven and I could look at it for hours and just felt the need to post it today.  So, thanks for indulging my little trip down memory lane. 

Also, Josh has been in DC the last couple of days and we sure did miss him around here and are so glad that he is back!

Hope everyone is having a nice Wednesday!

Parent-Teacher Conferences

It's hard to believe that at age 2, it is already time for parent teacher conferences, but yesterday we had our first!  Luckily for us, little one's teachers had nothing but lovely things to say about him.  They talked about how gentle and kind he is with the other children, that he is often a quiet observer in the classroom (an undervalued trait in my opinion!), and that he is always laughing and smiling.

They also had a video of Olin in the classroom doing "work" as they call it.  In the video, little mister was wearing a smock - backwards and upside down - that he had put on himself, and was tasked with moving water out of one bowl into another with a sponge and/or by pouring.  It was really cute to see him so focused for so long and then to see him put his "work" and smock away when he was finished. 

We really can't believe how much he has already learned in the past two months.  And as always, we are so incredibly proud of this little guy.

In a cab, on our way to church on Sunday (he said"cheese", without prompt, when I took this picture - another first for our big boy)...

His Very First Party

I am nearly a month late in posting this (yikes!), but here are some photos from Millie's birthday party on Long Island last month.  It was little mister's first children's party and it seems very appropriate that it was for his dear friend Millie.  And for his first party, Jen and Ross certainly set the bar high - there was a bouncy castle, a face painter (who painted Elmo on his forearm!), coloring, lots of fun toys... Olin loved every minute of it!  Thanks again Fox family for inviting us!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  The sun is shining in NYC today, I think it's going to be a good one here too!

A Pretty Great Day

Both Josh and Olin were supposed to have yesterday, Election Day, off, but because Olin's school was closed for all of  last week, the school decided to hold class after all.  Which meant that Josh and I had the day to ourselves! 

We began the day at our local polling site after we dropped Olin off at school hoping that the lines had died down from the early morning rush with no such luck.  However, after standing in that very long line for about 15 minutes (in the freezing cold), one of the volunteers came outside and announced three districts that could bypass the line and come directly in to vote.  And wouldn't you know it, one of the three districts was ours!  So what would have been no less than a 2 hour ordeal, took us only about 20 minutes. 

With all this new found time, we hopped on the subway and made our way to the West Village where we had the most relaxing lunch at the always lovely Cafe Cluny and then found the sunniest table at Cafe Angelique for dessert and coffee.  We capped off our afternoon with a hand in hand stroll down Bleeker Street shopping at all those little stores that are not always welcoming when you appear with a toddler and a stroller in their teeny tiny, serene shops. 

Although we love our little one so much, it's nice to have a little mommy and daddy time once in a while.  Thanks Joshua, I had a wonderful time!

                                    Josh wanted me to post this picture because we found it so funny - one of the stores put a slice of lemon in the doggy water dish outside their door. Ah, the Village.

And because a post would not be complete without mention and pictures of Olin...  We had arranged with Olin's teachers to arrive back at the school 30 minutes before the end of the day yesterday with muffins for a belated birthday celebration which included birthday songs and the passing around of some of Olin's baby photos. We had intended to celebrate his birthday at school last Monday, but Sandy had other plans for us.  It worked out better this way anyway because it mean that Josh could be there as well and I think Olin loved having both mommy and daddy in school with him. 

And in other Olin news, they have been learning about the President in school and for the past few days, every time he sees the President on TV he points and says "Obama".  He doesn't say words  like "cat" or "red", but he knows "Obama".

Over The Weekend

We were all suffering from a major case of cabin fever after spending much of last week indoors at home so on Saturday we walked and walked and walked and walked - ten miles in total!  We walked across Central Park to the East Side and then down Madison Avenue where we window shopped for miles. 

So here is our bad parenting confession of the day, after about an hour of walking, on the corner of Madison and 57th (one of the busiest in the city) Olin all of a sudden fell face first out of his stroller!  We are not entirely sure what happened, but think that in our excitement to get out of the house we forgot to buckle him in.  Fortunately, he is a tough little guy and after he had a little cry, we dusted him off and he then went back into his stroller... securely buckled.  We are still amazed that he didn't fall out sooner - yikes!

After that heart racing event we continued on our way to Cartier (my favorite store on 5th Avenue - not necessarily for the merchandise but for the building itself - it really is spectacular).  Everyone's heard of Breakfast at Tiffany's, well, on Saturday, Olin had Snack time at Cartier, as we waited for what seemed like an hour for Josh's watch to be repaired.  Luckily they have a really pretty waiting area with lush upholstered chairs and sofas, bottled water and candy!  And then because we were in the neighborhood, we went back to our favorite Swedish church for their delicious cinnamon rolls and incredible coffee to fuel our walk home. 

Later Saturday night, after a little rest at home, we walked another 2 miles round trip for Chinese food. By the way, I love the picture of Josh looking over the menu at dinner below - he takes his food so seriously!

After church on Sunday, we went to Le Pain Quotidien for brunch and then to the Met to see the latest exhibits.  While at the Met, Olin entertained several of the patrons by pretending to talk on Josh's phone with enthusiastic "hi's" and "bye's".  He always has us laughing. 

And the highlight of the day was that on our way home from the museum, we spotted Ralph Lauren with his wife Ricky taking a walk in Central Park!  Josh was even wearing a Ralph Lauren jacket that got a once over from Ralph! 

Sunday night, Josh being the great husband that he is, indulged my craving for Chinese food a second night in a row and we ordered Chinese takeout for dinner - I feel exhausted from all the walking and MSG this weekend! 

And while we weren't really affected by Sandy, our building did not receive its heating oil last week so it was pretty cold in our apartment over the weekend which meant we really had to get cozy with lots of blankets.  However, I think Olin (like his mommy) secretly loved it!

A Birthday Celebration

Last Saturday, we were joined by most of Olin's friends from school as well as our good friends Millie and Andrew to celebrate his 2nd birthday.  It was 10 little ones in all with their parents and so much fun.  Here are some photos from the festivities....

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Halloween

When your bedtime is 7pm it's difficult to do too much for Halloween.  Plus, many of the city's planned Halloween festivities have been postponed or were cancelled due to Sandy.  But we dressed up Olin in his costume anyway and let him trick or treat at our house. 

I tried to get better photos of him, but once we gave him that chocolate covered marshmallow pumpkin, it was over - his full attention was devoted to his candy.  I did manage to get a few though. 

Oh, and if you can't tell, this year little one dressed up as Mitt Romney.  Just a disclaimer, this costume choice is not an endorsement of any kind, he just wanted to be relevant in his costume choice, he has great politician hair, and he naturally looks more like one candidate than the other.

Hope everyone had a nice, nay, spooky Halloween!