Found a hand

Ari has started looking askance at his hands... or maybe he is just shocked that they seem to follow him around. Last night he made another fascinating discovery with respect to those random wavy things - they taste good!

T's 4th birthday (repost)

Tovina had the good fortune to celebrate her birthday 3 times last month.

Once was a party with friends that she shared with her best friend Maddy

(The two girls helped decorate the cake)

Once was with family.

And the final one was at home on her actual birthday. As she requested, we had sushi.

First day back to work

Yesterday I started back to work.
Everyone survived without me of course although Michael was looking a little ragged when I got home.

Ari Patrick drank all the milk that was defrosted for him so he is still on his 95% growth track.

Tovina didn't like the idea of me leaving for work but in the end just asked why she had not seen me all day.

I was a little tired myself which I think had something to do with my 9pm bed time.

Work agreed to let me go part time for a while and today I'll be working from home. I may nap later :)

Luckily for me, when I am at work they have a special room all ready for me.

Ari's new wig

We had dinner with some friends before Selichot service last night. Among the crowd was the regional Sisterhood president, Rhonda. She was quite taken with Ari and showed us what he might look like with long red hair some day.

Sleep - Just a fluke

It turned out that I was prematurely excited about a single data point that did not in fact turn into a trend. He is back to his regular 3-4 hour sleeping at night. Its okay, but I will admit that it does not generate the joy within me that Thursday night did.
Here's hoping for tomorrow!

Sleep! Not just a theory anymore

Last night Ari Patrick surprised me. He slept 6.5 hours in one stretch! And then, just because he loves me, he slept another 4.5! This was on top of the 3 hour long naps he took during the day.

What does a sleeping Ari look like? Thanks to the wonder of modern cameras and their inexpensive, easily erased photos, Here are some shots thanks to Tovina.

Play dates and discrepancies in size

Ari had a great play date last week with Daria. She was born 1 week after Ari Patrick. We were excited to get these 2 together for Ari's first play date.

The first thing we noticed was the... slight... size difference between them. Ari is generally around the 75-95% in weight and height. Daria is, shall we say, somewhat on the other end of things.

Despite how it looks, they both had quite the acceptable evening with minimal crying.

Though Ari was a bad influence at times.

While its focus is poor, I had to include this pout cause it was so darn cute. (It's not easy when one's mummy laughs at you rather than helping you.)

Butterfies = Praying Manits?

We took T out to tag some monarch butterflies which involves catching the unsuspecting butterflies in a butterfly net and then holding them by their wings while you figure out what sex they are and then put a sticker on one of their wings and them let them go to continue their migration south. After watching this process I realized theses are pretty hardy things as butterflies go. Tovina did not catch any butterflies herself; though she throughly enjoyed watching others catch and tags them. She also enjoyed swinging the net she was issued at any object that was silly enough to hop, fly, or in some other way make itself a target.

At the other end of the spectrum Michael caught this fellow who then stuck with us for the next 20 minutes.

http://www.theprayingmantis.org/

Cape Cod and the very first sleep over

Tovina has been asking for a sleep over for months now. Maybe even for a year. I keep putting her off, but since we were all staying the same house anyway, Tovina got her wish in August.
Here are the two girls affected by this decision getting a story

And here the girls demonstrate that they clearly had no idea what a sleepover is suppose to entail because they both went right to sleep!

Cape Cod and the beach (can you say freezing?)

Our family spend some time this summer traveling.
While up in Cape Cod we spent some time at the beach.
This Daddy graciously dug a big hole for our girls to play in.

This Auntie graciously played in the water so our girls could jump in the waves.

Me and Michael? We stayed dry! That water was cccccold!

Stella and Tovina really enjoyed the big ol' hole in the ground

Can you see T's hat doing a great job of keeping the sun off the sand?
The girls apparently did not notice the water temperature. Since neither of them turned blue, I guess they were okay.

And here are some videos of the girls desperately trying to save their hole from the waves. Well, maybe more enthusiastic than desperate.

Running on the beach

2 month collage!

It took me a while to get them edited, but these pics were taken when he was 8 weeks old. This puts them right around the same time as these pics.

Smiles!

2nd tumbling class

Tovina has started a gym class. So far it involves stretching, somersaults, and ambitious attempts at cartwheels. Tovina is in the pink at the far left.

We've even tried practicing some of this at home. Seeing Michael doing a bridge may have been the highlight of my morning.

Sensory Sundays

One of the local Jewish groups hosts a get together for baby Jews. We've attended one such get together so far.
The picture of Ari and a littler girl? She is almost a month older but Ari has about 3 pounds on her.