Snow Angel

In my mind, NYC is perhaps one of the best places to live during a big snow storm.  You don't need to drive anywhere, everything is shoveled and plowed nearly instantly, and all you could want or need is most likely only a few blocks away, so you get to enjoy the beauty of the snow while having minimal adverse affects to your daily life. 

Plus, our snowstorm this weekend was perfectly timed with the snow ending in the wee hours of Saturday morning and the resurgence of the sun on both Saturday and Sunday.  This gave us the perfect opportunity to let Olin play in the snow for the very first time.  So we bundled him up and headed to Central Park for his winter introduction.  Our actual time in the snow didn't last very long because little one's mittens kept falling off, which yielded them wet and entirely ineffective.  But, he seemed to enjoy his time in it and now keeps calling out "snow!" every time we see a snow bank on the street or snow piled on a parked car.

Preparing for the big outing... perhaps daddy's boots are still a little bit too big.

Snow!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Charge It!

Olin's latest obsession is wallets, or more specifically, the credit cards in wallets.  Earlier this week, immediately upon entering the apartment after school, Olin took my purse, dug out my wallet, sat down and then proceeded to take out and put back in all of the cards in it.  We just sat in the doorway of the apartment (still in our coats!) and played with my wallet for nearly 20 minutes.  He would get so excited when he pulled out an ID card with my photo on it and would exclaim "mommy!" 

And last Friday at Chipotle, Olin dug out a flash card from the bottom of his stroller and pretended that it was a credit card.  He even insisted that he pay for our burritos with his "card".  Luckily, the lady at Chipotle was a good sport and scanned his card and then handed him the receipt - he loved it. 

Maybe he has been shopping with mommy one too many times!  In any event, I have decided that we must get him a wallet of his own - I think it may be particularly useful while eating out - so if anyone has any of those unused loyalty cards collecting dust or cluttering up your junk drawer, send them our way, I know just what to do with them!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  And to our dear friends in Boston, stay warm, we will be thinking of you as we too are cozied up in our apartment.  If only we were closer... sounds like it is going to be a great weekend in our part of the country to stay in and play cards!

P.S.  Dad, I saw 3 robin's in Central Park on Wednesday... that might be a new record.  It was odd to see them running in the brown grass among the leafless trees!  And the sight of them made me even more desperate for spring... is it really only February 8th?!

Music Hour

Sorry that I've been a little quiet over here the past few days - I have been under the weather and I have to say, being sick while pregnant is probably one of my least favorite things!  I may spend the rest of this cold and flu season with a bottle of Purell strapped to my body!  Or perhaps I can fashion it into a necklace or other accessory of some sort and start a new trend!

In more pertinent news, little mister has exceeded expectations with his potty training so far this week.  And yesterday, I was lucky enough to spend nearly an hour with him and his class as part of the latest round of parent visits to the classroom.  While I was there, every few minutes, Olin would stop what he was doing, smile at me, then give me a hug and say "ah, mommy".  At one point, he went over to his little cubby area where I had hung my coat with his and just stood there and smelled my coat and smiled.  How sweet is that?  I wish I could go to his class every week - it's so fun to see how much he and his classmates have learned over the past few months.

After school, Olin and I joined his favorite classmate, Maxine, and her daddy at our neighborhood children's book store for their weekly music hour.  I wish I could say that the pictures below are indicative of the entire show, but the below lasted maybe 7 minutes.   The rest of the time Olin wandered around the store examining the merchandise.  He was the only child (among many) that did not sit and watch this nice man play his guitar.  Why is that?  His teachers tell me that while at school, he sits very nicely for circle time or any other group activity.  However, when I am with him in these situations, he can't sit still.  You all have had the best tips for me so far, so if anyone has any suggestions on how to get this guy to sit and pay attention at events like this, please let me know!

New Month, New 'Do

Olin and I celebrated the 1st of February with a trip to the barber shop on Friday after school.  He went to a big boy barber shop and everything.  There was no Elmo playing in the background, no fun car shaped chair to sit in, no bubbles midway through the cut to regain his composure, just a regular chair with mommy's lap to sit on, a nice Israeli man and the promise of an apple-almond tart afterward.  And would you believe that he sat still the entire time and even giggled as the falling hair tickled his nose?  And the best part for me was instead of paying $40+ at the kiddie salon, this haircut cost us $15.  Looks like little mister has a new hair place.  Happy Monday everyone!

Past Weekends

I am a little behind on posting pictures from our past weekend adventures - too many other fun happenings, I guess.  So before I get even further behind, here are a few from our weekend with Grandpa Greg and Grandma Peg.

Because they have seen practically everything there is to see in NYC at this point, we spent a lot of time relaxing at home and being entertained by Olin... little mister was in heaven!

We did leave the house a few times, here is one of our outings... dinner at BLT Fish Shack.

And Josh and I got to have a proper date night at the incredible Table d'Hote.  This place literally has less than 10 tables in it, but the food was amazing.  Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for babysitting!

One confession, the pictures of Josh and I above are not from Table d'Hote, but from Cafe Sabarsky, an Austrian restaurant at which we had originally made our reservation.  Well, when we arrived at Cafe Sabarsky, it was adorable, but more like an Austrian cafe than a legitimate date night restaurant.  True to our impulsive nature, we politely excused ourselves (after taking a few photos), walked up Madison Avenue and begged for the last table of the evening at Table d'Hote.  Hey, when you go on date nights so infrequently, you have got to make them count!

P.S.  Did you know that Grand Central turns 100 today?  Olin's classroom is so excited that they are throwing a birthday party for it today as part of their ongoing lesson on NYC landmarks!  Is it odd that sometimes I wish I could go to school with him?

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

We Got The Call Today

From Olin's teacher, that is, to let us know that he has "passed the test" and that she wants to officially start his potty training at school next Monday.  I didn't realize it until this morning, but this is apparently a very big deal for these little guys.  This so-called test is a series of things that indicate to his teachers that he is ready and this morning he passed the final part.  When ready, each child gets a potty training "buddy" of the same gender, but because none of the other boys in the class are ready yet (just the girls are potty training right now), Olin will have a potty training "mentor", which is his friend Theo, who is the only boy in class already trained.  Theo is one of the older ones (almost 3) so I am sure that he will be a great mentor for our little one.  Isn't that just the cutest thing ever? 

Olin's teacher said that she is very surprised that he is ready so early (for a boy) - I am not sure if that is something to be proud of or not, but given the late age in which he started walking and talking, we'll take it!

Anyway, we have to begin the process at home this weekend (get ready Josh!) and I have specific instructions from his teachers on what to do.  And in the coming weeks, he will need 6 pairs of extra underpants, 6 pairs of extra pants, several pairs of extra socks and an extra pair of shoes at school at all times!  Wish us luck - I see a lot of laundry in our future.  Thank goodness we held out for an apartment with a washer and dryer in the unit! 

And for everyone's benefit (including Olin's), I don't have any cute pictures of little mister to go along with this post!

Happy Thursday everyone!

At Home With Pink Eye

I am not going to lie, yesterday was not the best day.  Olin had to stay home from school due to the pink eye and I have come down with a cold myself.  A strange cold in fact... I have an incredibly sore throat and every time I swallow I get this blinding pain in my right ear.  I was sure that it was strep throat or an ear infection or both and that I wouldn't be able to treat it with antibiotics because of the baby.  And then I did what I always tell myself not to do... I checked my symptoms on WebMD.  The first result of my search... esophageal cancer.  Well, that kicked my hypochondria into overdrive as WebMD searches usually do - what is wrong with that site?  Why must cancer or something equally terrifying always pop up first in their potential diagnoses?  Luckily, I went to the doctor this morning and he confirmed that it is in fact just a cold and prescribed me two different nasal sprays to hopefully relieve this awful pain in my ear.

Anyway, trying to entertain a 2 year old without leaving the house (for fear of spreading our pink eye and cold germs to an already very sick city) and not feeling so hot myself proved to be a challenge.  And as luck would have it, Olin didn't nap well and was only interested in doing things he wasn't supposed to be doing (namely, putting CD's in and out of my laptop, unwinding the toilet paper in the bathroom and repeatedly flushing the toilet).  He had a melt down each time I told him "no" or when I suggested something else like playing with his toys, working on puzzles, or reading books.  The minutes passed like hours and as the day went on, my fear of having two of these little guys around the house put me in an all out panic.

But then, the events of the day were nearly completely erased from memory when at 5pm, Olin ran over to me and gave me a tight squeeze around my legs and when I bent down to give him a hug and rub his back, he so carefully said in his sweet little voice "I love you, mommy" and then gave me a big kiss on the lips.  Now how can it get better than that?  That little guy seems to make my day every day no matter what.

And the highlight of Olin's day... hot chocolate in a "daddy" mug.  Okay, not really hot chocolate, half whole milk and half chocolate almond milk.  Lucky for me, he doesn't know the difference...