birthday party, and passover

Sorry, no more details on FL and NYC. Both were good. 'Nuff said.
Omi and Opa visited this past weekend, and we had Sam's birthday party. 3 friends from preschool (plus one friend's older brother) and 3 friends from kindergarten (3 other invitees didn't make it, sadly), a few organized games, cupcake decorating, and controlled chaos for two hours.

Limbo excerpt (pictures severely edited because I'm not sure which kids' parents are ok with me putting them online):



We're hosting a seder w/J's lab tomorrow night, but tonight it was just me and Sam. We had matzo brei, carrots (w/ranch dressing, in Sam's case, and as carrot salad, courtesy of Omi, in mine), and concord grape juice. And had a serious discussion about slavery, in which Sam concluded that sometimes he's a slave because I and Stephanie tell him what to do (we then discussed how being a kid entails a lot of being told what to do, and how that's different from slavery). Happy Passover to all who celebrate.

pics from FL and NYC

Frida swinging at Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton:





Sam having a sundae after dinner on Grandpa's birthday (the expression was supposed to convey how amazingly good the sundae was-- he kept enjoining us to try a bite, because it was THAT GOOD):



Sam having gelato in Delray:



Birthday night, in the hotel in Newark after a long day out (Central Park, Museum of Natural History, ramen and gyoza for dinner), wearing his birthday t-shirt. It was bought from a friend who designed it based on Sam's monster drawings. She'll have a website up soon, if you want to order from her!)



He licked all of the frosting off of the cupcake and then carefully replaced it in the box. I found it there some time later... this weirdly naked cupcake with just a little nibble of cake missing. So yeah, lots of chocolatey, creamy, sweet goodness for Sam over the past week.

I bought Frida a shirt from Bianca too. Here's a typical Frida expression:




... and another, blowing raspberries. She will do this over and over again when she's in a certain mood:




(more text to follow in the next few days...)

the power of dizzy

We're in FL visiting Grandma and Grandpa. Today, at a huge and lovely playground/park, we bought a token for Sam to ride the merry-go-round. We discussed the possibility of Frida riding too, but Sam thought she wouldn't like it. "Why not?" I asked. "She'll get dizzy," Sam said. "Hm, you could be right," I said. Sam: "Did you forget about the power of dizzy?"

Forgot the cord to transfer pics from the camera, so pics will be up later. (Maybe a while later: we're back Wednesday then taking the train to NYC Friday for Sam's bday, and not back until Sunday night. Staying in Newark-- both bec. it's cheaper, and because it's on the NJT line for J. to go to a conference in Princeton.)

Hope everyone is ok after the crazy weather in the Northeast. We've spoken a few times with our amazing upstairs neighbor/condo-mate Paula, who's been bailing/pumping out our basement the past couple of days.

old quote

Found scribbled on a bit of placemat in my old backpack (meaning it's from pre-Frida days, but probably not long pre-Frida):

Sam at a restaurant, water cup in hand, straw in mouth, wordlessly proferring his hands to be wiped: "I just like to sit and be quiet and drink and not say anything."

sweater from Aunt Liz!

Aunt Liz bought this sweater in Peru before Beanie was born:



Finally caught the full smile on camera!

Ice Cream Dance, and Beanie Eating

A few weeks ago, when Sam was asking about dessert, J. suggested they do a special dance for ice cream. J. demonstrated, with the corresponding Ice Cream Song. Sam gamely went along with it, but he was pretty skeptical when J. opened the freezer... until he spied the ice cream that definitely hadn't been there the previous night. As he was having some ice cream, Sam opined that we needed to try again (replication, you see). And so he's tried many times, and it works often, but not always. Remember the superstitious pigeon? Sam now suggests the Ice Cream Dance at every opportunity. At his parent-teacher conference last week, his teachers informed us that Sam was teaching it to a friend (and, laughing, told us that as she watched the demonstration she could just imagine J. doing the dance). So, we don't do Santa Claus in our house, but we have the Ice Cream Dance:




Those noises in the background of Sam's singing? J. making zoopy noises to get Bean more excited about her oatmeal and peas:



She didn't need any encouragement tonight-- combo of chicken, rice cereal, and applesauce. Mm, mm, good. We have recently added regular doses of fruit to her diet to, you know, keep things moving.

Also: Beanie is convinced that naps are for weenies. Stephanie (our nanny) was reading her The Napping House the other day (while I was working at home for a couple of hours in between appointments) and you could just see Frida listening to the list of sleeping people and animals and thinking, SUCKAZZZZ.


In other news, we were very glad to hear that our Chilean relatives are all safe after the massive earthquake there. But the country is in pretty bad shape-- better infrastructure than Haiti, thank goodness, but a lot of devastation nonetheless.

Here's a bonus video to end, from Valentine's Day: