Catching Up Yet Again...

Ok 4 weeks of updates, no dilly dally...

The SMIDU (Stuff Maayan is doing update):

She's stringing together more and more phrases. One funny one recently came one morning. After talking to herself in her crib for a little while, Maayan started insisting, "Come Mommy, Now!" some other recent linguistic gems include, "sit down now" (sensing a theme?), and "come Abba eat". I'm not remembering any more of the new ones right now, but you'll just have to visit or call to hear some of them. Maayan is taking appointments now, and spots are filling fast, so don't delay!

She's also making progress in her potty training, I'll spare you the details, but let's just say she's made a real splash.
Maayan has grown enough and now learned how to open the front door. Time to start keeping it locked to avoid any runaway attempts.

Now for what we've been doing updates...

6/17 - Father's Day - We planned to go out to Breakfast, and ran into Maayan's boyfriend with his family, but the wait was MUCH too long, so we called my parents and went there for breakfast instead! As a bonus, cousins Shai and Noam were there, and we even got to see their parents a little later when they came to pick them up.


6/24 - Now that we're members of the Wildlife Conservation Society (aka the Zoo & aquarium company), trips to the Bronx Zoo are no big deal, so we headed up North to see the animals. The sea lions at the entrance were almost enough to keep Maayan busy the whole day, but we continued on to the Monkey house and the children's zoo anyway.








After the zoo we went to PC Richard (NY area electronics store) which is the only store we could find that carries a small, front-opening freezer. Once we bought it, there was a slight problem....it wouldn't fit in the car. So, we went home, dropped off Maayan and Lanie, took out the car seat and then I went back to the store and put the freezer in the back seat. While I was bringing the freezer home, Lanie & Maayan went to the playground, where Maayan played in the water. I joined them shortly after they got there. She plays there all the time, but this was the first time Lanie and I have played there with her. She's very entertaining. On Monday the freezer blew a fuse, and we realized that, stupidly, most of our apartment is one fuse! We haven't been using the dedicated outlet for our living room air conditioner because the outlet was 220 volts, and our AC is only 110v. So, we asked the super to change the outlet, which allowed us to move the AC to it, and plug in the freezer in without further complication.


7/1 - Nafi, Lisa and their family were at Nafi's families house in Mohegan Lake, NY for shabbat, so we drove up there on Sunday to see them and play with the kids. Everyone had fun playing in the kiddie pool (especially Nafi), even though it wasn't that hot out (Thank you Lisa for bringing the hot water from the sink). Michal and Maayan played very nicely together, and everyone had fun on the swing-set, the slide, and the neighbors' trampoline! I think Lisa has already ordered one for her lift.










Once Lisa, Nafi and family had to get ready for a family Bar Mitzvah, Lanie, Maayan & I headed to the city to have dinner with Ari's friends from high school, Dr. Shaun Steigman(in from Boston for the weekend) and Sara Zausmer, esq.

Maayan sat nicely in the high chair for almost an hour and a half! She loved the food (thank you Nargilah), and only got antsy when a baby came and we wouldn't let her go play with her. After we left the restaurant, Lanie spotted a 7-11 across the street, on the Upper East Side (go figure)! Lanie and I got slurpees, and Maayan had her first taste. She liked Lanie's but mine was a little too sour for her.

7/4 – Yipee, Independence (from work) Day! We didn't have any grand plans, but Maayan really likes flowers, so we decided to go to the NY Botanical Gardens. We were afraid that all major attractions would be mobbed, but figured that the gardens were big enough, that it wouldn't feel crowded. Apparently no one else gets out of the house in the morning on July 4th, so there weren't many people there. We were even able to find a spot on the street right outside the entrance, so we didn't have to pay for parking. When we went to buy tickets, they told us that Wednesday is the free day! Maayan's favorite part of the gardens might have been the park benches, but we also saw some pretty flowers and Wed. is apparently also the day of the weekly farmer's market. There were only 4 stands, but we bought some really cheap, fresh produce and Maayan ate half of the pint of blueberries before we even left the area. As we were passing by the main entrance, it started to rain which was perfect timing. We got back in the car and headed home.

That afternoon my parents came over, played with Maayan and we had an all-Amercian hamburger dinner.








7/8 – When we got up this morning, we had no idea what to do. It was supposed to be a bazillion degrees out, so outdoor activities (read; zoo, gardens, playground) were out of the question. I thought we'd give the NY Hall of science a try. It's right next to Shea Stadium (where the NY Mets play) and I saw on their website that they had a play area specifically for 0-6 year olds. Once there we figured out that membership had its privileges, so we signed up for 2 years! This membership is also honored at a bunch of other museums, including a few in Chicago, so we hope to make good use of it.

Maayan had a blast playing in the 'pre-school place' where there were groceries, a fake checkout area with a conveyor belt and even a working (as a calculator) register. She kept putting groceries on the belt, turning the wheel to make the belt go and then picking up the groceries off the ground (video evidence below). It was a funny cycle There was a squirrel puppet show, but Maayan wasn't interested. In the second room there were trains, blocks, a doll house and some other things that all-in-all kept Maayan entertained for close to 2 hours! We stopped to have some lunch in the café, and then, since it was getting late for nap time, headed to the car. Right outside (we felt bad for them) there was another farmer's market, and we saw one of the same guys we saw last week at the Gardens! I think he's following us around. We didn't buy anything this time, and I think the apples were actually baked.







From the museum we headed to the Cross County Mall where Lanie bought new glasses, and we went grocery shopping.
And finally tonight, the 3 of us had dinner together for the 3rd Sunday in a row. It is fun having dinner as a family.

I think that about covers it. I'm sure I forgot some things, but that's what I get for waiting so long between posts.

Have a great week (or more) !!!