Passover and Easter Adventures

What a week!

Yarden celebrated her first and second Passover seder, followed closely by her first and second Easter egg hunt, then followed up by a visit from Cousin Jackson, Uncle Yosh and Auntie Feesh.

Could this week get any better?

Well yes! Because Grammy comes to town tomorrow.
Our heads are going to explode with joy!

Plus, my mind is already racing with all the exciting possibilities for Yarden's first birthday party.
It'll be held the Sunday over Memorial day weekend - but I get ahead of myself.

Here are some great photos from the last week.

OK - these first two aren't from the last 7 days, but the holiday prep started early
with a Hagaddah making session at the Synagogue.
Bubby was there too.

All that prep meant that Yarden was all ready to lead the services at Margie and David's seder. This happy photo with daddy was early in the evening - before her total meltdown (not pictured).
The brisket was AMAZING and the service was really lovely - as always.
Thanks M&D.Also before the meltdown, Yarden spent a lot of time delicious time
snuggling with Aunt Shelley on the couch.

Thursday night we had our friends Lisa & Andy and baby James over
for the much anticipated first annual "Baby Seder!"
The seder featured plush seder plates, a bag of plague props,
a picture book of the Moses story, four questions puppets and a lot of singing.
(Thanks to my folks for shipping the Jewish toy bonanza - faster than Amazon)

I'm very excited to turn this into a yearly tradition and expand in numbers and learning.
Hopefully this is something that Yarden and James will look forward to the way I still look forward to the seders. After the baby seder, it was time to go outsde for the grown up seder. I made my own Hagaddah for everyone and I have to say, I'm really proud. If knew how to link a PDF here , I would.

This is an awesome photo of James!
We tried putting the kids in a play area while we did the service, but they staged a riot.
On Saturday, my friend Jacqui (who REALLY knows how to throw a party) put together an Easter Egg hunt at her house. I brought eggs in my pocket so Yarden wouldn't have to compete, but I didn't have to worry.
She was a natural!

James guarding the tube. That's Jacqui introducing the kid's band Egg.


Check out that form at the keyboard!
Jacqui has good toys.
Sunday we went to Helga and Chris' and played with Sofie.
Sofie taught Yarden that it's ok to climb onto furniture.
Yarden, if you ever read this, it's not.
Yarden and the Eike/Wilson clan's newest dog, Bobby.
Yarden hearts dogs.
After that, we were off to the Soifer residence.
In looking at the pictures from Sunday night, I realize that I only took pictures of the kids!

Sorry - they are the cutest.Pure photo op. Or future blackmail material.

The cutest thing Jackson does in the bath is try to pour a cup of water over his head.
He misses a full 4 out of 5 times, and when he's successful - he looks shocked.

Or maybe the cutest thing is this...

If somehow this isn't enough for you, you must be a grandparent.
All the photos are up HERE

My Little Cheerio Monkey

Yarden is now crawling like a champ!
She follows us, or Oso, from room to room and pulls herself up onto various surfaces.
And NOTHING motivates her like cheerios.

Adventure Baby

This was a Sunday of firsts. Yarden went swimming in pasta and flying through the air.

First, playgroup.
The event this week was my special request.
I'd seen photos on Betsy's website and thought "what could be more fun - for a baby or parent - than swimming around in a pool of warm oily pasta". But alas - only babies fit in the inflatable baby pools.

For the parents, Seamus and I put together a spread of wine, cheese and leftover quite delicious bread from Hell's Kitchen. Not as good as swimming in pasta - but tastier.

Class started as usual.

This photo breaks my heart because Yarden is watching me prepare the pasta
while all the other kids are with their moms.

Then we got out the pool.
Kids intuitively know that pools = fun.

Each family brought 2 quarts of warm pasta.

Intrigued - the babies moved in for a closer look as Betsy tossed the oil into the pasta.

Yarden climbed in and acted nonplussed.

Some babies got overwhelmed and escaped to momma's arms.
Others fully immersed.

By the end - Yarden determined (correctly) that she was sitting in a pile of food.
She took full advantage.

Two More Adorable Photos From Sunday

Big Brother / Little Sister

Adorable Max.

And here's a couple of shots from the park.

I took Yarden on the baby swings.

At first she was NOT happy.
This is the face of a MISERABLE (& toothy) baby!

But we tried again, and I'm really glad we did.

My girl is fearless!
That's Sofie in the swing next to her.

Playing With Others

Yarden and her best friend - Mirror Baby

Every Sunday at noon, Seamus, Yarden & I host an Outside The Box class at our house.

It's an amazing educational play program started by a former breakdancer turned doula/innovative children's educator. Every other week is a "Sensory" class, so Yarden's dug for treasures in sand, crawled around in a lentil filled baby pool, swam in "wiggly worms", played baby soccer, climbed a mountain of cell phones and remotes and done full body fingerpainting. There's a few dozen Sunday adventures that that I never would never have imagined.

And yes, of course there are photos - http://aliyahandseamus.smugmug.com/Children
Here are a few if you don't feel like browsing...

Yarden and the spider.

Yarden as baby scientist.
Glamorous in her blue scarf.
Gnawing on her riches.
Climbing a drum.

So we spend our Sundays with James, Max, Finley, Ricardo, Oliver, Milo, Gabriel, Isaac and the rest of the gang. I love seeing Yarden get excited as the playmat gets expanded with foam tiles, the safety gate comes down, and the vacuum comes out, She knows that something fun is afoot and then she crawls around greeting everyone as the house fills with kids.

She's actually rolled and crawled for the first time in classes, so the synapses are definitely on fire.

And if she does hold onto her first friends, I'll have photos of the first time she sat on James, had a slap fight with Oliver, or had her head bitten by Isaac.
Yarden and Ricardo are buddies from swimclass, so they are friends on land and water.

Yarden and Oliver's first slapfight.

Yarden & Oliver's 2nd slapfight.

Yarden, Elise, and James playing baby soccer.

The kids are great - of course - and so are the moms!

One of the best things about being a mom (other than the obvious)...is that you meet other awesome women with very similar lives. I think I've got this on my mind because we are about to open the doors to Hell's Kitchen and two of my OTB friends will be dining with us tonight. Betsy - our teacher - is celebrating her birthday, and Abby and her husband will be going out for their first date since Gabriel was born.

In honor of the OTB gang, here are some photos of this week's class...

Yarden clapping along to "Wheels on the Bus". She's in GLEE.
This week she wouldn't do any of the other movements,
but once the clapping between verses started, she was all over it.
Tired from all that clapping, Yarden passed out for about 45 minutes.

And then woke up groggy with the play mat imprinted in her face.
After everyone left, she was fully alert & ready to play!

UPDATE:
Betsy celebrated her birthday at Hell's Kitchen, and her entire party went home hungry. :(
But they had fun, she looked great in her green dress and had a TV moment that just might make the cut.

I'm hoping that Abby and her husband enjoyed their filets.

Daddy Finally Caves

I'll pretend it's the first time I've ever given in to her demands. (It's amazing what someone who weighs 20 pounds can accomplish by crying.)

Yarden has been eating Cheerios for a while now. As part of the routine in the morning and when we get home at night, she will allow me to leave the room if she is in the high chair with a large pile of them. This week Aliyah got her a snack cup - one of those cups with a lid that allows people to reach in and pull out food, but won't dump it all out if you turn it upside down.

She tried knocking on it politely.
She tried biting the top off.
She tried dropping it from a great height.
Eventually she figured it out. It didn't get a picture of that, but I can tell you that she played it very cool. I applauded for her. She looked at me as if she had always know how to get them out but just wanted to see if there was a better way.

For a while now her favorite changing table toy has not been the Dragon Friend (the stuffed animal with a pacifier for a mouth that is no longer manufactured so we paid some undisclosed sum on ebay for one). It has been the half empty box of tissues. So I picked up an extra at the grocery store today.
I assume tissue boxes are like magic to babies: the tissues just keep coming!

Once she realized I wasn't going to stop her she went into a cottony-soft paper binge.
It turns out tissues can do other things than come out of the never-ending box.
This 2009 vintage has a very light bouquet, but finishes with a strong almost medicinal aftertaste.
In the end, it's whatever makes her happy.
Maybe she let me wipe her nose once in a while now.