TV vs Camera

If you've known me long you are likely aware that I have a small TV addiction issue. This means that if a TV is on and in my eyesight, I pretty much have to watch it. Its not a choice, I just have to. I have worried about this condition for quiet some time and lived without a TV for years in an attempt to fight it, but some recent studies conducted here in my very own living room have shown me that rather than an addiction what I have is an adult-case of childhood, 'I must watch that!'

This appears to afflict children from infants on up. I have witnessed children with this disease at many households. Usually it is difficult to treat but the other day I found what seems to be a reliable temporary cure
"Smile for the camera!"


Well.... it worked on one of them.

Angle face baby doll

Tovina was taught an ultimate evil this weekend. I present you with:
Angle-face baby doll

There is no stopping her now.

sushi and wasabi

Aunt Noreen took us out for sushi tonight. mmmmmm very yummy.
T was part of the adventure and had a variety of raw fish which she liked, pickled ginger which she liked more, and soy sauce which she LOVED. We had to tell her multiple times that the dish of soy sauce was not for drinking. Given that she was allowed to drink her miso soup from the bowl the distinction was somewhat lost on her.

There were a few tricky moments but the hardest was when she saw the wasabi and thought it was guacamole. See yesterday we spent 13 minutes convincing her that she'd like guacamole. We had to convince her because the day before that she'd accidentally tried wasabi and, well, let's just say she was not impressed with the result. But her instincts are apparently right on because right after she realized it was wasabi on the tongue  T grabbed right for her Daddy's beer to wash it down. (Daddy had a pretty good grip though so the poor kid just had to suffer.)

I just remembered that tonight was T's 4th wasabi experience.
1st was in gulf shores
2nd in a Japanese restaurant we went enjoyed to celebrate my interview with my current employer
3rd was 2 days ago
4th was tonight.

Matzah for lunch

Catching up with photos and found this one from a few weeks ago.
One of my strong childhood memories of Passover centered around matzah and peanut butter sandwiches. While it is hard to imagine a drier, more difficult to swallow meal, it was always fun - especially as the entire thing crumbled and splattered cracker bits, sticky peanut butter, and staining grape jelly everywhere. It helps explain when the shirt is missing from this photo.


I imagine she'll like it even more once she learns about jelly.

Ah... sweet sleep

T is back to sleeping in her own bed all night long. Its so nice, so quiet, so restful, so... strange. It has been so long since she slept on her own at night that I sometimes wake up confused if she is not there.

I'm pretty sure I'll adust though.

But given the opportunity, Tovina is happy to share sleep space with whomever is available. Yup - she's willing to give as much as a whole eigth of the bed if you are really deserving. Very generous.
Here she is with Zaida from a few weeks ago. She really likes him so I think he may have been allowed to keep some of his own pillow and horde some space between him and the actual bed edge. Lucky Zaida

2 munchkins

These 2 are only a 3 months apart and are playing less parallel-ly and more interactively (perpendicularly?) by the day.

Family time

This past week we've been a little too distracted spending some really high quality time with cousins to blog. Tovina had been thrilled that she is seeing her cousins EVERY DAY especially since Sabrina is so very generous when it comes to sharing her food.

Here are T and Brendan enjoying a contemplative moment by the pond. 

I know Pat would enjoy seeing all the children together.

Passover Sedar (part 2)

Tovina picked up on the whole afikomen/dessert/hide in a napkin thing much quicker then we thought she would.


She even went and got her Passover book to explain to us that Zaida is suppose to hide the afikomen in a napkin so she could go find it. I think there was some additional coaching from Aunt Mari on this one but I was still impressed she managed to connect the story and the event. Maybe next year she can help us figure out what comes next in sedar.

Passover Sedar (part 1)

We hosted 2 sedars this year and having now gotten through it, I really do think it is the way to go. After getting all prepared for the first night, it was just a matter of resetting the table and cooking up some more meat and a throwing in some more matzah balls. No problem!

My parents and sister were here for the first night along with some friends from down the street who celebrated their first ever sedar with us - very brave!

Tovina's rendition of Mah Nishtona (with some help from Aunt Mari). We had been trying to teach her for a few days but every time we started Tovina would say, 'I sing my song! January, February, March and April. May, June...' Then, just in the nick of time, she started repeating it back to us. It was quite exciting.

Skyline Chili

With all the family in town we had to make a Skyline Chili run (there is some family history regarding oyster crackers.)
The 3 littlest ones had to sit together of course
while Paul looked on sternly to make sure they behaved

'cause clearly the local adults weren't paying attention.
The popsicles were red, white, and - you guessed it - blue.

So much family - so much fun

This is part of the reason there have been so few posts recently.
We've had a little bit of family in town....


now we just need a little bit of sleep to go along with them.

Passover - just couldn't wait

Tovina was so excited the night before Passover, we found her like this.

She had gotten out of bed, chosen this book out of the stack next to her bed, opened her door, suddenly overwhelmed by the need to sleep, and passed out in the doorway.