Friendship Garden

Don had the opportunity to do a lot of exploring around the local area near home and discovered some great places. One of these is Friendship Garden. It is an amazing playground just a short drive from our house in the town next to ours. It had two huge playsets, one for older kids that Mzee enjoys, and one that is perfect for Milan. Both playsets have entrances without stairs, so I believe they are truly handicapped accessible. Milan has a great time walking up the ramp around the climber and then going down the slide by herself. As soon as she gets off the slide she will announce "Again!" and go back to the ramp to do it again. Mzee's absolute favorite part of this playground is that they have a sandbox!! He spends the majority of his time there digging in the sand whenever we go. There is also an ice cream truck that is usually parked on the street outside the playground.

The playground was fun!
Mzee using one of our old cell phones, he looked so natural in this picture, like he's had a cell phone forever. I think he was calling Grandma and Grandpa!

Mother's Day at the Beach

Today was Mother's Day! I had a great day. We took the kids to the beach for the first time today and the really enjoyed it. Milan had a great time getting the sand all over herself, and Mzee enjoyed digging with his shovel in the sand. We really just winged it today. We went to the beach late morning, without too many "beachy" things. We then decided to go out to lunch, even though the kids were full of sand. We went to our favorite diner in the area. It was a bit busy due to Mother's Day, but the food was good and it was a wonderful day!!

Milan and Daddy on the shore

Mzee and his beloved shovel

Don and the kids scoping out the perfect spot on the beach

Sand is fun!!

The sand is "dirty"

My family on the shore...I love this picture!

Vehicle Fair

One of the preschools in town held a Vehicle Fair today as a fundraiser. They had the fire trucks, police cars, big dump trucks, garbage trucks and a few kiddie rides. We went to a similar event back in Nebraska called "Touch a Truck" last summer that Mzee LOVED! When we saw the ad in the paper for this, we knew it would be a great morning activity.

Mzee in the police car. The police officer let him talk into the radio so he could hear his voice over the loudspeaker outside the car. Of course, he thought this was pretty cool, as he said, "Call for backup!"

Milan sitting in the airplane ride, she did not stay in it, she fussed and we just took her out before the ride started for fear that she would start screaming once the ride started moving.

Mzee had a great time riding on the airplane and rode more than once.

Doesn't he look like a natural?

Don and Milan riding on the tram

A Bike Ride to the Playground

When we moved in to our house, our landlords left behind a ride on car that we used for Milan. It had a nice long push handle and we used it quite a few times to push Milan around the neighborhood or just in the driveway. We had a nice mild winter so used it quite a bit. Once the weather turned nice, the car disappeared from the backyard...the landlords came to get it to use for their son who is about one. They walk to the playground using it. So after it was gone, we didn't really mention it, but Milan of course noticed it was missing and would point out the window to the spot where it used to be parked and say "car, car." A week or so ago, I saw this tricycle on sale at Target and knew it would be the replacement for the car. It's a Radio Flyer with a removable push handle, so it should last us a long time. Milan loves it. She can just reach the pedals and holds on to the handle bars very well while we push her. It has this adorable (if somewhat hokey) little bell that she is learning how to use. On this day we ventured out to walk to the playground. It is about a five block walk, though they are long blocks. And there is one very big downhill portion so we have to help Mzee so he doesn't roll out of control there.

Mzee and Milan riding to the playground

Milan looking out the top of the climber at the playset.

Mzee loves to ride his bike in this cement area at the playground. He can go very fast. One night he met two boys with roller skates who were much older than him (8 or 9) and he organized races with the boys to see who was faster. Mzee definitely likes to "organize". He loves to think up activities to have people do.

Another cute story about that is that one day I was cleaning the house. I was in the process of vacuuming the entire main floor when I turned and saw that all the cushions were off the couch in the family room. I stopped the vacuum and asked Mzee to put the cushions back on. His response was, "But Mom, you need to vacuum the couch under the cushions!" He did have a point, the couch could use a good vacuum. As I was vacuuming under the cushions, I realized what a good manager my son is already. It will be interesting to see where he is in 20 years!

Blueberry Girl

We have a tradition at our house. Every weekend I make a big double batch of Grandma's waffles and making enough to last all week. The kids love them!! They remind them of Grandma. On this particular weekend I decided to go all out and make blueberry waffles. As you can see, Milan LOVED them. I couldn't resist taking a picture of this blueberry face. We encourage Milan's love of fruit as she typically refuses every vegetable ever placed on her plate, but she absolutely loves all fruit! She will eat mixed berries like they are going out of style and will say, "More berries pease!" One other think you'll notice is that Milan is sporting quite a crazy 'fro. Every weekday morning I have use extreme precision to time Milan's breakfast so that I can fix her hair the minute she starts eating. She will only let me fix her hair with minimal fuss while she is distracted during breakfast. However, when the weekend rolls around, I often take a day off and don't do her hair during breakfast. If I'm making waffles, I cannot do both at the same time, so forfeit fixing her hair. I enjoy the break, but it causes problems if we decide to go out later in the day. There is no easier way to do her hair than while she is eating so if I try to do it any other time it typically turns into a major production, but she always looks adorable when I am finished no matter how dramatic the process is!

Love those Blueberries!

UN Staff Day

Today was UN Staff Day, a day which is held to honor and recognize those who work at the UN and also those who have lost their lives in peacekeeping efforts. There were many activities throughout the day. My favorite part of the day was that the gardens were opened on this day. It was my first chance to walk through the gardens. The cherry trees were in full bloom and it was absolutely beautiful. The gardens will be closed for an ongoing basis during the renovation of the UN Secretariat building. So this was one of the last chances we will have to see them until the construction and renovation is complete. The grounds will be preserved and restored as part of the construction. While some of the trees have to be removed, they will be moved and replanted, so that no trees are lost as part of the renovations.

Enjoying the gardens

Our New Routine

Don is now working at Cornell University's Weill-Cornell Medical College as a Project Manager in their IT department doing work very similar to the work he did at Creighton. He is finding the work very challenging and is enjoying it.

His new job caused us to get into a bit of a new routine, as we now coordinate getting all four of us to daycare and the train, without a car. The parking situation near the train in our town is very overcrowded and there is something like a four year wait list to get a permit to park at the train station. So, we either take the bus and/or walk a lot. Most mornings we try to have Don and Mzee ride the bus and I will push Milan in the stroller. It is just about a mile to the daycare/train station, so this is a nice walk. By pushing Milan in the stroller, I then have the stroller there so I can push both kids home at the end of the day as I usually leave work earlier than Don. I get plenty of extra walking in this way, and given the price of gas, this works out just fine. However, on really crazy days (usually Mondays), Don will drop the kids and I off with the car, and drive back home and take the bus to the train. It is nice to have this fallback plan when we need it.

The kids are doing well. Milan is now consistently using two word phrases and some three word phrases. "No, Mommy!" is one of her favorites. She and her brother are playing together a lot now, and also trying to boss each other around from time to time. Milan gets very excited about a lot of things. She had to go to the doctor last week for an ear recheck (they were fine) and now often says, "Dr. Khan, ears" I guess it really made an impression on her.

Mzee is doing great. He's spent a great deal of time studying colors and rainbows at school.

Tonight when reading a new space book we have, he asked me, "Mommy, are you driving?" When I said no he asked, "Then how is the earth rotating around the sun?"

Enjoying the Weather and The Pope

Well, it's been a slow couple of weeks around here, until yesterday. Getting over colds, strep throat (Mzee) and ear infection (Milan). The weather has been WONDERFUL here this week, so we have been spending a lot of time outside. Last night we went to the playground after our Friday night dinner at the local pizza shoppe. We took Mzee's bike as there is a huge paved area for bike riding, skating, etc. Social butterfly that he is, he befriended 8 and 10 year old brothers who were trying out their new roller skates. I thought roller skates were out of style, replaced by roller blades! Looks like, as usual, everything old is new again. In any case, the three boys had a great time. Mzee actually seemed to be the "coordinator" and got them started racing across the playground. They did this for quite some time and had a blast.

Milan is finally feeling better, she had a rough couple of weeks with her ear infection, a horrible cold and teething. She is on antibiotics for the ear infection. The week before last she only went to daycare one day out of five as just when we thought her cold was getting better, she spiked a fever and had the ear infection! Milan on antibiotics is not a fun thing!! She despises any type of medication and has found several different ways to spit her medicine back at us. I think we've wasted more than we've actually gotten in to her stomach!

This morning while Mzee was helping me shake out some rugs outside, I mentioned that it was a beautiful day, to which he responded, "Yeah, it must be 106 degrees!" For the record, it was probably about 65 or 7o at the time!

Today Mzee had his last basketball game. He did great. It was so interesting to watch their game as it mainly consisted of a kid getting the ball, running (travelling) with it, to the other end of the court and shooting. There was virtually no dribbling or passing. Once someone scored, it would reverse and go the other way. At this age, they all want to shoot...then again does that really change as kids get older? Mzee did finally pass the ball to a teammate who scored. So, we explained to him the concept of an assist and how that was a really great thing! After the game they all got trophies. Mzee is in love with his trophy and has carried it around since he got it today!

Don and Mzee, practicing dribbling

A great shot!

Mzee shooting during the game

The TROPHY!

Check out that face!

The weather was so nice we spent the afternoon at the zoo after basketball. It was VERY crowded today, now that the weather is nice. However, we saw some great things that we weren't able to see the last time we were there. The highlights were the giraffes, the gorillas and flamingos. And of course we rode the bug carousel again. Of course this time, Miss Milan decided she didn't like it once the ride started. I thought I had gotten her back to a happy place, only with a smile for one time around and then it was screaming the rest of the ride. Mzee was very excited to ride on a Praying Mantis, but Milan did not like riding on the Bumble Bee. Mzee said she was crying because it stinged her!

Mzee posing at the zoo sporting his new haircut and Daddy's sunglasses

Nine pictures of us on the carousel and not one with both kids looking in the general direction of the camera...such is life in pictures with more than one child!

Daddy, I'm tired...

Milan now likes to count with us and will sing the ABC's from time to time. When counting she only hits about 3 out of 10 numbers when counting to 10 with you, but gets very excited. If we sing the ABCs there are certain letters she likes more than others and says them really loud, ignoring the rest of the alphabet.

I'm sure many of you are wondering if I was able to see the Pope this week while he was in New York. He gave an address specifically to UN staff. There were only 1700 tickets given out for the event. The day of the ticket distribution people started lining up 2 hours in advance. When I saw this as I was arriving at work that day, I decided I didn't have time to wait in line. I also knew that many REALLY wanted to see him so wanted as many to have a chance to see him as possible. About 15 minutes after the tickets were to be handed out I went down to the cafeteria for some water and saw the line moving quite quickly. I decided to see how long the line really was, so followed it only to find that it stretched the full length of my building, through the tunnel that connects our building to the next building and then all the way through that building. By the time I was at the end of the line, I decided I was already there, so I might as well wait. It only took about 20 minutes to get to the front of the line and I received a ticket.
Yesterday was the quite a day at the UN. Security was extremely tight. I went to work earlier than usual to be sure I could get through security quickly to get to work as I had some things I needed to finish and knew I would be taking time out for the address. Thankfully, I got through security quickly. My office looks right down on the circle drive in front of the UN, so I was able to see the enormous motorcade arrive. I could see many of the bishops and cardinals walking up to the building from their cars. I went down to wait in line about an hour before the address was to start. We had to wait in a very long line to go through airport type security before making our way to the General Assembly Hall. Luckily a friend of mine got in line quite a bit earlier than me and she saved me a seat in the hall. We were quite far back, but on the first raised level so we had a great view. Unfortunately, it was far enough back that I wasn't able to get great pictures.

Introduction of Pope Benedict XVI by UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon

Pope Benedict XVI

The Pope's address was directed to us as UN Staff Members, so it was encouraging. It really was somewhat surreal to be there. Being in the GA Hall has that affect on me regardless, as this is where I took the written exam at the initial stages of being accepted to work at the UN. So, being in the GA Hall and having the Pope speak so highly of our roles as UN Staff Members was really meaningful!

Mzee LOVES the Bus!

Well, today we tried something new. Milan is still sick and needed to stay home. Rather than take her out of the house so Don could drive Mzee and I to school and the train, I decided to take Mzee on the bus. There is a bus that stops three blocks from the house and drops us off across the street from Mzee's school. Mzee was VERY excited when I told him the plan this morning. We headed out with our bus fare in our pockets. We weren't even through 2 of the 3 blocks when Mzee asked if we were almost there. He did great though, and we were at the bus stop in plenty of time. His excitement was building as the bus pulled up to the curb and opened the doors. We climbed in and the first thing he noticed was one of his classmates with his Mom sitting on the bus. Before I could even drop my quarters in, Mzee was in a seat next to his classmate's Mom settled in for the ride.
It was cute to watch the boys on the ride as his friend was quick to educate Mzee on how things work on the bus, which stop he gets on at, which stop we get off at to go to school and various other bus rider tidbits of information. When we got into his classroom Mzee immediately announced to his teachers that "I rode the bus to school today!"
Tonight, I also took him home on the bus. This meant he got to play on the playground for an extra 15 minutes after school as the bus doesn't run that frequently, so we need to kill some time waiting. We rode the bus again with the same friend who rode the bus in the morning, as he takes the same bus home at night.
About half way from the bus stop to our house, we could see Don and Milan on the sidewalk, walking out to meet us. Mzee was very excited, ran up to Milan and gave her a big hug.

Milan seems to be doing better today, but still has a nagging cough and an awful runny nose. She has a nice big goose egg on her forehead as she tripped over the rug today and feel and hit her forehead on the floor. It looks really awful...poor girl. She has been going through a clumsy phase lately it seems. We are hopeful that she'll be well enough for school by tomorrow.

Kids Say....

Yesterday, as I was washing my new travel coffee mug (yes, I've taken up coffee drinking since we moved) and removing the tags, Mzee walked in the kitchen and in a very matter of fact tone demanded "How many bucks was that?" When I told him he replied, "Oh, that was cheap." I said, "oh, you think so?" to which he responded, "Well, actually, it might be expensive." I could hardly contain myself!

Milan had a rough night last night. She started a horrible sounding cough early in the day, but very infrequent. Her nose was a faucet all day. By bedtime, I knew we were dealing with croup. We put her to bed with the humidifier going and hoped for the best. However, she really started coughing a lot. We did the usual steam in the bathroom, but we ran out of hot water before we really got the bathroom steamed up enough. This was partly my fault since I didn't have the shower going, just running water in the tub. In any case, by 10:30 we decided we should call the pediatrician before it got really late and she ended up worse. She decided since this was the first night and it usually gets worse nights two and three that she would take an aggressive approach, so I got introduced to the nearest 24 hour pharmacy. Not how I wanted to spend my Sunday evening....nothing ordinary happens at midnight on a Sunday at a 24 hour pharmacy...needless to say it was an interesting trip. The medicine tastes horrible, but once she took it she fell asleep and slept until 9 a.m. this morning! I stayed home with her this morning and she was generally in good spirits if just a bit needy. Don had an interview this morning, so I went to work when he got back home.

Milan's new favorite thing is pretending to feed us something she's cooked. She holds her hand out to us and says "num num", to which we are to pretend to eat what she's made and say "yum, yum, yum, delicioso." We all do this, even Mzee, and she thinks it is great fun. At first she would do it with a toy plate or dish in her hand, but now she'll just reach out into the air and hand something to us. Tonight she even bent down to pick something from the floor to feed Mzee...hmmmm?

Back in the Swing of Things

Well, we've been back from our trip for almost two weeks already and things have been busy as usual. To bring you up to speed, I'll first say that our trip to Iowa was WONDERFUL!! Thanks Mom and Dad for the hospitality! It was nice to see so many people even though it was such a short trip! Check out pictures of the trip in the photo album on the left.

The flight there went better than I hoped considering our flight left NY at 6:00 a.m.! It worked out great. The kids were wide awake at 4:00 a.m. when we woke them to get in the car. Mzee was even dancing to a DVD in the car on the way to the airport! We managed to grab breakfast in the airport, so eating that on the plane kept the kids busy after Milan screamed the entire time we walked down the aisle because she didn't want to be carried. We had a very tight layover, which was just the right amount of time. By the end of the second flight, Milan was tired as she could not sleep on my lap, so she screamed the last 20 minutes of that flight and was very happy when we got off the plane! Both kids were very excited to see Grandma and Aunt Katie at the airport. Milan showed off her walking skills and took Grandma for a walk in the airport while we waited for our luggage and prepared for the drive to her house. We weren't at the airport too long when Milan asked for Grandpa, who was at work at the time.
We got to my Mom's house by lunch time, fed the kids and they took nice long naps after the early morning. That night my Mom hosted the Baha'i Naw Ruz (New Year) party at her house, which included a variety show. This is an annual tradition that has gone on since I was a kid, so it was fun to experience it again. Mzee and Grandma even performed in the variety show...Mzee told two of his knock knock jokes...he was a bit shy, but did a good job. After that there was a great meal of turkey and lots of pot luck dishes that were wonderful. There were lots of kids and Mzee and Milan got to play with their cousins. Milan was a bit shy, mostly I think because she was tired.

Friday we spent the day around the house. I spent some time sorting out some of our stuff that is in storage in my dad's shed. The kids played as my aunt, her husband and grandsons were staying at my parents too. The boys are 4 and 6 and play very well with Mzee.

On Saturday morning a group of us went into the small town I'm from to the town Easter Egg Hunt. The boys had a great time. Milan wasn't too sure about the whole idea. She picked up one egg and was more interested in people watching after that. It was VERY cold, and she doesn't like the cold, so that likely had something to do with it. After the egg hunt we took some time to go visit my grandma and had a wonderful time seeing her. She had a new bear that sings which the kids loved and Milan was very loving giving her Great Grandma several hugs, which was very sweet. Great Grandma has several toys and Mzee knew right where the legos were and found them and played and visited with her.
Saturday and Sunday my Mom organized an open house at her house so family and friends could drop by to see us and my aunt who was visiting from California. So, we were able to see a lot of people and enjoy the great company and a LOT of good food!

Sunday was Easter and my Mom's birthday. We managed to have two egg hunts at my parents that day, a big Easter dinner and then an open house in the afternoon. Lots more people to see and catch up with and tons more great food...are you starting to see a theme?

The kids had a wonderful time playing with all of their cousins! Milan LOVED going up and down Grandma and Grandpa's stairs and is quite proficient at it now. Grandma's house has nice soft carpet while our house is all wood floors. She did take one fall down about five stairs that really scared her....and me! But otherwise, no major catastrophes.

Mzee got to play with his cousins so much and had a great time. By the third day, they put on a "movie" for us. His older cousins are huge dinosaur enthusiasts, so the created a Jurassic Park style scene where one of the boys was in a ride in pick up truck, up on two wheels and a "dinosaur" came and tipped the truck over onto its top. They got very formal about it, creating invitations to the "movie." Check out the video here to see the action packed thriller!

One of the highlights of the trip for Mzee was that Grandpa had rock delivered for the driveway while we were there. This meant four big red dump trucks came and dumped red (i.e. Mars) rocks on the driveway. By Sunday, a couple of the Mars rocks had made their way inside the house. Another highlight for him was Sunday night when Grandpa set up his tent in the basement so that Mzee could camp. He thought this was really great!!

It was a very action packed but short trip and we were sad to see it end. Monday was a FULL day of travel back home. We had to drive to Omaha and then take two flights with a four hour layover in between. Milan was her usual unruly self on the first flight as we had to share two seats again between the three of us. The layover was actually nice since the airport had a great play area where the kids got to play. The flight to NY was a FULL flight and we had to sit right next to a woman with the three of us in two seats. I could see the fear in her eyes when we got to our seats. Thankfully Mzee got settled quickly and Milan was very good. We had a brief snack and before we even left the gate I looked over to see Mzee SOUND ASLEEP...the value of the play area in the airport just went up! I think he just completely crashed after the non-stop activity of the trip. Milan was quite restless for about five minutes after that and while we were still on the runway, she finally gave in and crashed. The lady next to us had no idea how lucky she really was!!! Milan woke up with about an hour left in the flight but I managed to keep her entertained and fairly quiet. Mzee did not wake up until we were descending and immediately got upset because he realized he did not get a drink from the flight attendant. However, the excitement of seeing Daddy overshadowed this eventually. We landed in NY about 7:20 but didn't get home till almost 9 p.m. The NY airport we use is not known for speedy baggage handling so it takes forever to get our bags. The kids were VERY excited to see Daddy when we got back home and had lots to tell him about the trip!!

Since we've been back we've gotten into our usual routine. Mzee came down with strep throat last week and was very sick for about 36 hours. He really just slept the entire time until we took him to the pediatrician for the strep test. He started antibiotics in the evening and by the next morning was himself again! And, so far it looks like Milan is not going to get it, so that is good.

Milan had her 18 month check up last week the day before Mzee had to go to the doctor. We've been blessed that the kids have been healthy since we arrived in NY and these were our first trips to the doctor. The doctors office is a small office, the doctor seems very nice, and it is a real small town feel, which we like. Milan checked out healthy and off the charts for her size as was to be expected. The doctor commented that Milan has "made her own growth chart" and that she has a huge head. However, she's following a normal growth curve, so no concerns...we just have big kids.

We had a parent teacher conference with Mzee's teacher this week and got a good report. He is still very much into outer space. While we were in Iowa Don went to the Natural History museum to replace the lost space shuttle and also picked up some "Astronaut Ice Cream" This was a big hit with Mzee. And, Don's cousin Carol found the lost space shuttle outside at her house and mailed it to us, so now we have two space shuttles and lots of accessories. This week Grandma sent Mzee a Space book, so he is learning about planets other than Mars now and learning about Sally Ride and how astronauts deal with weightlessness in outer space.

Milan's new favorite thing to do is play "Ring around the Rosie". I started this with her in Iowa at my Mom's and she loved it instantly. She now will say "rwosie" when she wants to play it. After we all fall down, she'll instantly shout "hand, hand" as she wants to hold my hand and do it again. She still doesn't like it when I fix her hair but I've discovered that if I sing the "This is the way we wash our clothes" song making up words about combing her hair she'll let me do it without a fight. This also worked last night when she was resisting having her nails cut. I'm not sure how long this tactic will last, but I'll keep it up until she tires of it. She loves to say hi to all the parents on the way out of the daycare at night. She is also really into her babies now. She has three little babies and always seems to have one of them.

Tonight we had our usual Friday night dinner at Pelham pizza where we are officially regulars.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

.....and Happy Birthday Grandpa! Today is my Dad's birthday (yes, we are a wee bit Irish!). Mzee had a good time talking to grandpa tonight. He told him about all the eggs he collected at the Easter Egg Hunt in our town this weekend. Mzee is very excited because the kids and I will be traveling back to my parents for a long weekend this weekend! It will be a very exciting weekend as my Mom's birthday falls on Easter this year, and Thursday is the Baha'i New Year! My Mom has no less than three events planned at her house in the four days we will be there so we'll be able to catch up with lots of friends and family!! We are all very excited about the trip. I'll feel much better when we are actually at my parents house. Milan can go either way on the flight, and I did not buy her a seat since she doesn't HAVE to have one. Hopefully Mzee can keep her entertained, they are really good at getting each other to giggle lately! I've got a long list of entertaining things to carry on the plane for entertainment, so we should be good. We do have a VERY early flight, so hope all goes well....wish us luck!

As for other news, we had a very busy weekend. Saturday morning we went to the town Easter Egg Hunt and Mzee got a few eggs and also had his picture taken with the Easter Bunny after a little encouraging. Milan would not go near the bunny so we didn't even try. It was a bit chilly, but the kids had fun.

Milan enjoyed dumping out the eggs and using the basket as a hat.

From there, it was home for a quick lunch and then Mzee and Don were off to basketball pictures before basketball. The photographer commented to Don, "I wish all kids were as good at having their pictures taken!" When Don told me this, I replied, "Me too" as we know all too well, that Milan is the exact opposite when it comes to formal pictures!
After basketball, we loaded up the car and headed to Pennsylvania. Don's cousin's little girl turned three on Saturday and they had a great party for her. They had a bouncy castle in the backyard and there were lots of kids, lots of Kenyan food, and lots of fun! The kids had a great time! Milan spent most of the night going up and down the stairs. Going down the stairs on her own is a new skill she's learned since being at her new daycare. However, she requires supervision, so Don and I split our time watching her and socializing.

Milan loved Jen's Dora chair!

Mzee Loved the CAKE!

There was one casualty in the night...Mzee lost his beloved space shuttle. Don and I both subconsciously at some point in the night realized he had it and that we should take it and put it with our things...cardinal rule of toys, don't take them somewhere unless you are sure you can live without them coming back home. Of course, in the hustle and bustle of the party, neither of us acted on these thoughts, and at the end of the night the space shuttle was nowhere to be found. Mzee is handling it pretty well, but he has already planned to take it on the airplane with him this week. So, we may need to track a new one down on short order.
Mzee and I had a marathon shopping trip yesterday, getting a couple of things we needed that were on sale, and buying groceries and other general errands. Mzee asked, "Mom, is this a mission?" (i.e. Mission to Mars) I said yes, and so we were on a mission to complete all of our errands, and we did and even got home in time to make dinner. Not bad considering we left in the late afternoon!

Today Mzee's class made Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick's day. Tonight we made a tent out of chairs and an old sheet and it has been a big hit for both kids! The idea for the tent started yesterday when on a cartoon Mzee was watching they moved their tent indoors because it rained. This reminded me of the tents I used to build as a kid with my cousin Audrey and my Aunt Judi, so I told him we could make our own tent. Of course, we didn't have time right then and after nap we had to go shopping so we were to do it after dinner. However, being bath night, we both forgot. This morning when Mzee came down for breakfast, his first words to me, after flashing his gorgeous smile, were "But, Mommy, when are we going to make that tent!" So, tonight we did and he was having a blast! Milan loved it as well and they played in it for quite some time.

Playing in the Tent!

Basketball, Braids and a Caterpillar

Last weekend was a busy one! Mzee started "basketball clinic" and was very excited. Of course he got a new t-shirt and learned to dribble, pass and shoot. Well, he already knew how to shoot...though he needs a lot of practice in the dribbling department. It's so interesting to watch him try to dribble. It is such a learned hand eye coordination, so we are practicing with him quite a bit.
Also last weekend, Milan got braids for the first time! A friend of mine, Clyde, came over to braid her hair for me. This is as a result of me asking every non-caucasian mom I know for tips on how to better care for Milan's hair. I can honestly say I was not prepared for the work her hair is going to be. Thankfully, Clyde gave me some great tips, great product suggestions ( I can't believe I'm already using product on my baby!) and she can braid well, i.e. fast. Neither of us were sure if it would even be possible to braid her hair as she is pretty determined when she does or doesn't want something. Milan was busy playing while Clyde followed her aroudn putting braids in quickly. I wish Milan was so accepting of me working on her hair! Here's a picture of her with her new braids....unfortunately, her hair texture isn't conducive to long wearing braids, so they were out by Tuesday and she's back to pigtails for the time being.

Milan with her new braids!

Grandpa and Grandma sent Milan a package over a week ago, and we finally got it on Saturday. Unpacking it was interesting as it just kept going as I took it out of the box. It is a six foot long, multi-colored caterpillar! It is adorable and Milan immediately laid down on it like it was a cozy body pillow! Mzee loves it too of course, and they have had a blast playing with it! I've never seen anything like it, it is so cute! Grandpa sure knows how to pick gifts!

Milan and her new caterpillar!

We love our new caterpillar, Grandpa!

This week Mzee has had a very busy week. Yesterday he and his class went to our favorite pizzeria and they got to make pizza with the owner! He was so excited about it and told me he got to help put on the sauce and the cheese! Today they walked back to the pizzeria to deliver a thank you note. Yesterday was a beautiful day, so Don picked Mzee up early from daycare and took him to the playground to ride his bike. The playground was very busy with the after school crowd and Mzee made some new friends and even let a couple of "big boys" ride his bike.

Last night when we were eating dinner, Mzee started a phrase with, "Mom, let me tell you something..." Such a grown-up thing to say, I thought.

Milan is loving school and says "bye bye Daddy" and "bye bye Mommy" as soon as we put her down in her classroom! She really loves it there. When we ask her who she played with today though, she still says "Cole", one of the boys from her daycare in Omaha. She has also now added "Ian", a boy from the part time daycare she was at most recently. She does know the names of all four kids in her current class too.

I Got Him!

Milan said her first full sentence today..."I got him!" She and Mzee were having a blast playing a make shift game of tag and she went after Mzee then came back to Don and said, "I got him." Don and I were quite surprised by this as she doesn't say too many two word phrases yet, but it was adorable, especially given the context!

She is settling in beautifully to her new daycare, as her teachers report. The last three days there have been no tears when we've left in the morning. The teacher usually has an activity for her to do when we get there and today she went right up to the table and pulled out her chair to sit down and wait for the teacher to bring her something.

Don has had several interviews over the last week or so, so send positive thoughts our way that he'll get an offer soon!

Mzee is having a great week! His class took a walk to the big town playground today and played for a while as it was a nice day. After all that exercise he told the teacher he was hungry, ate like a champ and then didn't even take a nap.

The bombing in New York did not affect us, so we are thankful that it wasn't any worse than it was.

One humorous item I've been forgetting to post is about Milan. She is very attached to Grandpa and without him here, she sometimes will see a man with a beard and say "grandpa." Well, when Fidel Castro stepped down, Don was watching tv and she noticed Fidel's picture on the TV and pointed and said "grandpa!"

Another Long Update

Well, here it is again, another long break between updates. Things have been going well, just busy! Note the new photo albums on the left, if you want to view more of our pictures. Now for the update, we'll start a couple weeks back.

President's Day weekend, my friends and former co-workers Rose and Julie and Rose's daughter Kendra had planned a trip to NYC to see the sights and The Little Mermaid on Broadway. They had a very full schedule, but we managed to meet up for dinner on Saturday night of that weekend. I took Mzee with me and we rode the train into the city and took two subways to get near Times Square and the restaurant where we met Rose, Julie and Kendra. The subway stop was right across the street from the restaurant, so we didn't have to walk too far. Although, funny story, we got off the Metro-North train at Grand Central and were taking an escalator to the subway and Mzee and I were talking about how we would have to take the subway and he said, "good, because my legs are tired." We hadn't even begun to walk, so that made me laugh. He did great as a walker that night.
We met up at MARS 2112 a Mars themed restaurant that a co-worker of mine suggested is a fun place for kids. Kendra had just completed studying space in school and Mzee wants to be an astronaut when he grows up, so it seemed perfect for the kids. In order to enter the restaurant you need to take a space ship to get to Mars, of course! This was one of those motion simulated rides many of you may have been on before. I knew it would be dark inside and was concerned that Mzee might get scared inside, so was doing my best to explain it to him while we waited in the line. In talking with Julie, Rose and Kendra, Mzee informed them that "he was going to Mars because he is going to be an ASTRONAUT when he gets big!" Needless today, I didn't need to worry about him. When we got into the ride, it of course got dark, but then the screen lit up and the commander started talking. As the ride got more exciting Mzee started to yell, "Yahoo!!" And then, the words Mzee LOVED to here. The commander announced, "You have all become astronauts today!" This made his night! The ride took us to Mars and when we got out we were on the red planet. We had quite a wait for our table, so we spent some time in the arcade. Mzee is still happy to play on arcade games without adding any money, so this was fine. When we finally got seated, the Martians came by our table to say hello. Kendra even danced with one of them. Mzee was excited to meet the Martians and shook their hands. Here's a picture of Mzee with Captain Orion:
All in all, the kids had a great time and it was wonderful to visit with Julie and Rose too. After dinner, we took a walk a couple blocks to M&M World at Times Square. By this time it was VERY late for Mzee, so he and I made our way back to the train station for the train ride home. Many on the train slept on the ride as it was late, but not Mzee. He was so excited from his adventure he was a little chatterbox!

We enjoyed the long weekend and on Monday it was a very nice day so we ventured to the Bronx Zoo. We live in a great location and it's just a short drive to the zoo. Mzee was very excited and when I asked him what the one thing was that he wanted to see at the zoo that day he said elephants. When we consulted the zoo map, we didn't see any elephant exhibit. "What kind of zoo doesn't have elephants?" I said to Don. There are four zoos and an aquarium in the NYC area all under one membership, so we decided that they must not have all animals at every zoo. We went through the bird building and then were heading for the tigers when the rain started. Don suggested we go into the tiger exhibit area, and it was a great suggestion because there was a covered shelter where we could see the tigers. As soon as we got there, it started to downpour. We stayed there until the rain stopped, which wasn't too long and then we made our way through to the other things we needed to do, register for our membership and then ride the Bug Carousel. I managed to get both kids on the carousel where instead of horses, they are all different kinds of bugs. Milan loved it, it was her first carousel ride! We then saw a few more things including polar bears. We didn't see the entire zoo, but got the feeling that the Omaha zoo is still much nicer. Of course, it was winter, so I'm sure it is much better in the summer. And the kids always have a great time, so I'm sure we'll get our money's worth from our membership.

Watching the fish in the aquarium at the Bronx Zoo

On Friday the 22nd, we got our first big snowstorm of the year! Mzee was SO excited and was out shoveling before school. It was ironic as the schools are all closed the week of President's Day for Winter Break, so there were no snow days. Mzee's daycare was open but Don picked him up early so he could play in the snow. All told, I think we got around six inches...not much by Midwest standards this year, we've been blessed here with a VERY mild winter! Even so, Milan has become very attached to her coat, hat and mi-mi's (mittens). She often asks for her coat and wants to go outside. She also now always asks for her had an mi-mi's once she has her coat on.

Milan getting bundled up for the big storm.

Out in the snow!!

The following weekend, Mzee and Don went to an open house for an organization that does kids sports. They have soccer, baseball and basketball for kids starting at 3 years old. It is a great program where the parent works with the kids on skill building. Mzee is signed up for basketball and is very excited about it! He already can kick a soccer ball well, and has his dad to teach him the basics. And, he can already hit a baseball, often even when we pitch it to him, so Don thought basketball would be a good choice. Mzee LOVES to "shoot hoops" so is very excited about basketball, which starts this coming weekend.

Last week we had some excitement! Don flew back to Omaha and became a U.S. citizen! He didn't know when he left that he would be able to participate in a citizenship ceremony the same day as his final interview, but they had an opening so it seemed logical to go ahead with it. I was a little sad that the kids and I couldn't be there for the ceremony, but it would have been impractical to postpone the ceremony.

While Don was gone I took one day off to stay home with Milan as she did not have full time daycare yet last week. I thought that would be a great day to get her 18 month pictures taken. It just so happened that it was about the coldest day of the year and I really would have rather just stayed home where it was warm. We got to JCPenney before the store opened. It is a free standing store in the Bronx, and I noticed something odd when I arrived, I could not see the doors as they are protected by those metal garage door type doors when the store closes. I guess exposed glass just invites criminals. These garage door type doors are common on the shops in parts of the city, but I found it odd on a JCPenney in a shopping center. Once we got in the store, Milan wanted to walk around the store on her own. I managed to distract her and with a lot of coercing the photographer got a few good smiles. Then she suggested I change her to her other outfit and it was all downhill after that. Once I changed her outfit she insisted on walking and launched in to one of her most recent developments, a full-blown tantrum, when I told her no. She and I are still learning how to deal with these tantrums. She doesn't have as much drama when Don is around, so I'm working on how to handle these episodes. Ignoring her, doesn't seem to help, so I have to get more creative in providing distractions. Hopefully these tantrums are a short-lived phase!

This week Milan started full time at the same daycare as Mzee. Two days in and she is transitioning beautifully! She was engrossed in playing play-doh with the teacher this morning when we dropped her off and she didn't even cry. She is playing great with the kids and the teachers report that she is a great sleeper and eater, which we already knew, but it's good to know she's comfortable at her daycare. Mzee thinks it is great to have his little sister at the same daycare, even though they are not in the same class. He said the day she started, "if I hear my sister cry, I'll go tell her it's OK." I was asking Milan about her day today and saying some of the kids names and she already can say some of their names. She is in a very small class with just four other kids and two teachers, so she gets a great deal of one on one time with the teachers! She is learning lots of new things in this class and can already drink from a regular cup wonderfully. She is doing great using utensils to eat as well. Her vocabulary is really expanding and she is putting two words together now. Her day somewhat revolves around meals as as soon as we get her up in the morning to get dressed she is telling us "eat, eat." And as soon as we get home at night she heads to her booster seat - she transitioned from the high chair a month or so ago and LOVES her booster seat. She says "seat, seat" and will sit at the table in her seat and wait for us to fix her dinner. We visit with her about her day while she is there, and she's usually very patient until she sees something on a plate, then she starts getting antsy.

Mzee is in an astronaut phase, fueled I'm sure by the Mars 2112 visit. He also got a new Backyardigans DVD where they take a trip to Mars. So our house is a space station, and he is an astronaut and I'm usually Mission control. He is doing well at school and usually has a lot to report about his day. This past weekend we spent a couple hours at the playground and Mzee got a large splinter that we could not remove, so he and Don made their first visit to urgent care here. The doctor there isn't certain he removed the splinter, so we are watching it closely.

Mzee's class took a walk to the pet store last week and purchased a pet frog for their class. They've named the frog Max, and Mzee's teacher told us that Mzee was curious about the things between the frogs toes, so they had a discussion about webbed feet.

Today was a fun commute, a building collapsed near the train tracks, so train service was suspended for nearly two hours and just started up at 5:00 in time for the evening rush. However, then all trains were jam packed and moving very slowly. I managed to get on a train about a half hour later than usual, but then it went pretty slowly and we were on the wrong track, so the train bypassed the first two stops, which included our town. They said we could get off at the first actual stop and a train would be waiting to take us back. Don was already waiting at the train station so he drove over to the next town to pick me up. It was a good thing, because there was no train in sight for the return and the train station was chaos with people trying to take taxis and carpool back to the other two towns that were skipped. After listening to the news, my delay was nothing compared to some, so it could have been a lot worse. Mass transit is generally great, and a day like this makes me realize how great it is as these types of issues are very few and far between.

Well, I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting from the past few weeks, but I think I'm mostly caught up. Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! First a bit of catch up, as it's been some time since I posted. We've managed to stay quite busy recently. A couple of weekends ago we ventured to Pennsylvania to visit Don's cousin and her family. They live about two hours from here. On the way there we took a brief detour to an outlet store to get Miss Milan her first pair of big girl tennis shoes. Now that she is walking she needed some outdoor shoes. Given that she has XW feet like her brother, the Stride Rite brand loyalty continues. Thankfully there are many Stride Rite outlets in the area so we are paying less than half of what we paid in Omaha for the kids' shoes.
The kids had a great time playing with their cousins. Mzee, Modi and Jenna get along great and Milan had a good time too. Jenna loves to eat lemons, and so Mzee wanted to try too. He actually liked it, as seen in the picture below. It was great to get together with family, the food was great and a good time was had by all. I'm sure there will be many more trips to PA in our future!

The next day was Super Bowl Sunday and as the weather was good, we went to our neighborhood playground, which is really a wonderful place! Milan had to get used to her new tennis shoes. It was as if she was learning to walk all over again. The kids had a great time. The picture below is of this great "airplane" the kids can ride on. It moves back and forth along a beam while Mom or Dad turns a big crank to make it "fly". This was a big hit and gave Mom a work line. The playground also has a zip line type thing the kids can hang on and slide from one platform to another. Mzee was begging to try it and when I finally lifted him up he let go in no more than two seconds. When I asked him why he let go, he responded in his matter-of-fact way, "Well, Mom, I'm just not that strong."

trying out my new shoes

After the playground that day we headed home for the Super Bowl. We had our own little Super Bowl party. Of course, Mzee and Don were rooting for the New York Giants, "the home team." They were both very happy when the Giants one. Mzee has a new "Giants Superbowl Champions" t-shirt that he was very proud to wear to school!

This past weekend Mzee and I were busy in the kitchen. He helps me make Grandma's Waffles every Sunday morning and this weekend we also made valentine sugar cookies. He loves to help me in the kitchen and Milan is starting to enjoy it too. She sat at the table with a bowl and some measuring spoons having a great time while we rolled out the cookies. We thought it would be fun to give her a little flour to mix. Milan thought it would be fun to eat the flour though. Whoops! We all had a great time baking the cookies!

Mzee loves putting on this hat and his Diego backpack and going on adventures around the house!

This week we've been busy with Valentine's Day preparations. Mzee and I worked hard to make out Valentine's for a few friends and family and his class at school. He also took cookies for each of his class mates. Tonight he brought home quite a variety of valentines and candy. His class made cupcakes at school today and had a great time on Valentine's Day. Mzee also got a great package from Grandpa in the mail today. A new side dump semi truck, just like the trailers Grandpa's company makes. Mzee was so excited to get a package and loves his new semi truck. He called Grandpa and Grandma tonight to tell them Happy Valentine's Day and thank Grandpa for sending the semi.

Mzee has told us several times recently that, "My teacher thinks I'm too much." I can only imagine the types of things he says at school that cause his teacher to say this. He is always coming up with something interesting to say. I had a brief conversation with his teacher this morning and she said he has really adjusted well to his class. He participates in their "meetings" each morning and ALWAYS has something to contribute during them.

Milan is learning new words all the time, she now likes to say "Knock Knock". Mzee is really into knock knock jokes lately and Milan has picked up on this so often says knock knock to start a joke. Milan has also become quite possessive, so we are working on sharing. She brought her first craft project home from daycare this week, a heart craft that was adorable!

I've been in orientation all week at work and participated in a great Collaborative Negotiation training class the last two days. It was a great class and I really learned a lot! Other than that we are all well here, I hope you are all well where you are!

A Quick Update

This week Milan started back to daycare two days a week. We were a bit worried about her transition, but she has done very well. She's been out of daycare for nearly two months and is very attached to Don. However, the daycare provider said she only cried off and on for the first 20 minutes or so the first day and then was fine the rest of the day. When Don picked her up she was "reading" a book by herself!
The daycare provider said she is doing great, eats well (which we knew), but she seems quite concerned that she won't eat vegetables. Milan has always been a good eater but specific about what she will eat. So, we'll see.
Milan has been starting to use her own spoon and Don and I realized that she will eat things on the spoon that she won't eat by using her fingers, so this could be the solution for the vegetable issue for the time being. At least until the novelty of the spoon wears off.
Mzee had a great week at at school. He got a great report from his lead teacher today. He got to watch a movie about healthy fruits and vegetables today and they also talked about the groundhog! Last night he was talking about his "new best friend" - one of the boys in his class.
Don has been busy this week working through all the paperwork, scheduling of inspections of the cars, etc. required to insure and license our cars here. It's definitely not an easy process, and will take us some time to get everything sorted. New York seems to require a LOT of documentation with respect to licensing a car and securing insurance. The good news is that it seems licensing a car is much cheaper here than in Nebraska!
Happy Groundhog's Day!