Fashion-Forward Froggy Feet

Avery seems like such a big boy! He is definitely adjusting to our new suburban life well. He LOVES his new childcare! We love it too -- it's in a lovely big house with a big backyard and it's like "school" with lessons and some structured time but lots of time for playing and cuddling. They speak a lot of Spanish there, so when Avery starts talking he might say things like "More leche please!" There are more children there than at his old daycare, and it's almost all boys. He is the baby again (although there will be an even younger baby there starting next month), but he's one of the gang. One morning I brought him in a bit late, and Belen's husband was there teaching a lesson. All the kids were sitting on the floor looking at the flashcards with pictures and words and shouting out the words "Frog!" "Truck!" "Train!" Lenny looked over at me and said that soon Avery would be shouting out the words too. Avery sat right with the other kids and "participated" as well. Today when I picked him up, Belen pointed out that his size 24-months pants were too short for him. She said "It's time to get him some 3 Ts!" and I told her that we did have some 2T stuff at home but it was all summer things! (And speaking of summer clothes, we can't wait to dress our boy up in cute little rompers and shorts -- so cute!).

He says "Mamama" and "Bababa" and likes to read a book about Elmo called "So Big!" that we have memorized ("Baby Elmo drinks from a cup/ Baby Elmo takes a bite/ Baby Elmo stands up tall/ Baby Elmo holds on tight!") etc. On the last page we find out that Elmo is "So Big" in response to the question "How big is Baby Elmo?" and there is a surprise -- Elmo pops up and is indeed "So Big!" We've read this so many times that Avery now anticipates the "surprise" at the end and gets excited to see Big Elmo. It's very cute.

Avery is moving away from jarred baby food and on to regular food quickly! He eats yogurt, fruit, cheese, cooked veggies and meat, and he tried scrambled eggs for the first time recently. Tonight for dinner he ate homemade quinoa with organic Cuban Black Beans -- he LOVED them and said "Mmmmm!" after taking a bite. He has his 9-month old check up tomorrow, so the pediatrician will let us know more about what he should and can be eating now. Belen feeds all the kids who are 1 or older meals and snacks and she is very serious about good nutrition and feeding them all whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, etc. She said that Avery wants to eat with the big kids and she has started giving him bites of the big kids' foods, and he loves everything (no big surprise there), so the 1 year old rule might not apply to Avery. The kids' favorite meal is black beans with brown rice, so I think Avery will fit in well with that given his enthusiasm over his dinner tonight!

How cute are these frog slippers?!?! The pictures of him in the stroller are from a recent walk in our new neighborhood. Avery was VERY excited about a real estate sign, or rather, the fun yellow balloons that were bouncing around in the wind!

Somebunny Adorable

From Easter Sunday:
Avery is in his new bedroom wearing sunglasses and a hat (for about 30 seconds before he took them off). We tried to figure out a pastel-Spring outfit but with a recent move and most of Avery's clothes needing to be washed, this is the best we could come up with. Carolyn said it looks a little like a Catholic school boy's outfit, which is not inappropriate given the holiday. We'll have to make more of an effort next year.






We went to Kim and Jess' place to celebrate. Here are the three babies: Olivia (wearing a beautiful Easter dress), Jason, and Avery (absolutely covered in drool -- he must be getting more teeth soon). It is so cute to see them together!


It was so late by the time we left that we decided to change Avery into his pajamas before heading home. He danced around (with help) in his diaper before changing into his jammies. He crashed in his carseat on the way home, and didn't even wake up when we brought him inside and put him in his crib.

Movin' on Up . . . to Bronxville

As of Thursday, we are officially moved into our new apartment in Bronxville. Carolyn will start her new job next Wednesday. We have only had a couple of days to unpack and get settled, so of course we still have a lot of unpacking, organizing, and decorating to do (putting up curtains, pictures, etc.). This is also the first unfurnished apartment we have lived in, so we need to buy some furniture: a dining room set, some dressers, some side tables. . . we did buy a very large wall piece/ entertainment center for our living room. We got it off of Craig's list from a very nice man who lives not far from us. It holds a lot of things, including our new, very fancy (for us) cable box that has DVR and "on demand" and other things that we don't know exactly how they work yet. I do know that I was able to record a tv show, watch it later yesterday night, and fast forward through the commercials. It's the future today!
It will definitely take some getting used to living in the 'burbs. Today I took Avery for a walk in his stroller to a nearby shopping center to hit up Starbucks and the CVS pharmacy. There are lots of sidewalks here, but I didn't see a lot of other pedestrians. However, it's walkable. And there are some parks nearby, plus the Bronx botanical garden, AND the Bronx zoo! The train station is a short walk away. And that train gets to Manhattan in something like 20 minutes. We'll figure everything out soon. In the meantime, here are some pictures of our new place. It is at once cluttered with boxes and unpacking debris, and empty due to our lack of furniture:

We decided to paint Avery's room green. It is bigger than his old bedroom, with more space to play:

This is the master bedroom. We have 2 closets, 1 each! This is a big improvement over our Manhattan apartment where our entire apartment contained 2 very small closets total. We also have a tiny bathroom, and a patio. The view of the highway is not exactly beautiful, but we are looking forward to having an outdoor space for BBQs and such:




Our yellow kitchen is definitely bigger than our old one. It's hard to tell, but there is enough space for some additional cabinets and/or a small table and chairs.


Standing inside the kitchen looking out: to the right is our 2nd (also very small) bathroom. Straight ahead is our foyer/office. Beyond that (where there are stacks of boxes) will be our dining room, as soon as we get a dining room table and chairs! Then around the corner to the right is our living room:

An Evening Out

We went out to the Cheesecake Factory in White Plains with James and Andrew. We had a bit of a wait (normal at the Cheesecake Factory), so by the time we sat down, it was long past Avery's normal dinnertime and he was VERY hungry! Besides the sweet potatoes and brown rice with peas we had brought for him, he gobbled up a little macaroni and cheese, some spinach dip, and some rice and beans. He tried to eat the table. He also drank water from a cup . . . and eventually knocked the cup over so water went everywhere (but mostly in Mama's lap). He keeps saying "Mama" and "Mom" (at least that's what it sounds like to us, and since we refer to ourselves as Mama (REbecca) and Mom (Carolyn), we like to think that is what he is saying: "Mamamamamamamamama!"



tying to eat the table:

fun on the floor

Avery was enjoying our new living room this afternoon . . . I know that we are biased, but we just think he keeps getting cuter and cuter. A true story: yesterday we went to the Super Stop and Shop grocery store, and I was holding Avery as we were waiting to check out. Avery started "flirting" with another customer in the next line -- he was smiling and making eye contact with an elderly man in a wheelchair. The man started jingling some keys he was wearing around his neck, and Avery found this hilarious and started giggling and laughing. The old man laughed too, and told me: "I was feeling very depressed today, until I saw that baby's face. Now I feel great." This is the power of a baby's smile.

cousin love

goodbye party

Carolyn's boss and colleagues had a little party tonight to officially say goodbye and wish her well. Although Carolyn was the guest of honor, Avery was the center of attention for much of the evening. Everyone said he looks like a football player! He smiled and played with everyone, and he also enjoyed some finger foods including some cheddar cheese and berries. We're starting to give him more finger foods and "big boy" foods -- the other night at a restaurant, we even ordered him mac and cheese off the kids menu!

so exhausted!

Not a lot of picture-taking lately, mainly because we can't find the battery charger for our nice camera so until we find/replace it, we only have our older camera that tends to take very blurry photos. But also, we are getting ready to move to the 'burbs next week, so we are trying to pack/organize/get rid of stuff before our move next Thursday, and that is keeping us pretty busy. Carolyn is really excited about her new job, and we are gearing up for this transition.

Avery and Carolyn were apart from each other for the first time as Carolyn went to her Big Student Affairs conference in Boston for 4 days. She had a fantastic time (besides being apart from her son!) and got to catch up with former colleagues and mentors (and show off plenty of pictures of Avery). Avery and I missed Carolyn very much, but my sister, Aunt Sarah, came to visit and help out which was nice. Here she is feeding Avery homemade baby dinner (chicken with potatoes, peas, and carrots):


Here are some funny faces Avery made in his stroller. We call this first look "lizard tongue":



Yesterday, Avery was so exhausted from his busy day at childcare that he came home and fell asleep on the living room floor! He woke up for a while but then went to bed early . . . which is probably why he has pretty much been up since 3am, and which is why I am updating our blog at 6:30am. Our schedule definitely got off over the weekend, so hopefully we can get back on track!

Busy Bee in Brooklyn

It was one of those really hectic weekends . . . the kind when you have so much planned that even though it's mostly fun plans, you end the weekend feeling ready for a weekend!

We spent Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn. We visited our friends Kim and Katia, and we got to meet their beautiful 6-week old daughter, Samantha (whom Rachel Ray, yes, Rachel Ray, has nicknamed "Sammy"):

Carolyn, Avery, Sammy, Kim:

Notice how the drool has formed a heart shape on Avery's overalls (hey, he's growing 4 teeth at once on the top, it's hard not to leak like a faucet!):


Hanging out on a Park Slope street full of beautiful brownstones. We are loving Avery's old man hat:







James joined us for dinner a pastrami and cheesecake-full meal at Junior's. Avery enjoyed some applesauce and a little matzoball soup: