Happy Halloween!

We went trick-or-treating in the hood. Check out our little puppy and Buzz Lightyear!

The Solar System and Sleeping through the Night!

Well, at school last month, Ezra was studying the solar system. They made big paper mache planets, and learned about all of the planets, including dwarf planet pluto. Then, we've been listening to a lot of They Might Be Giant's "Here Comes Science" album, and Ez became obsessed with the planets song, so much so that he memorized all the planets in the solar system, including the names of some asteroids (like Ceres and Eris) and the general location of the asteroid belt between the inner and outer planets. Then we went to the library and he picked out some books on the solar system. Now he can name at least 4 moons of Jupiter, he knows about the Kuiper belt, that Eris is actually bigger than Pluto, and that Pluto used to be considered a planet, but not anymore. Noah and I have learned a ton, and maybe Arlo's taken in a thing or two! It's so much fun learning about all of these topics that you don't really think about much as an adult.
Arlo has just been doing great too -- he is so into using his hands right now, he stares at them all the time and can really grab things. He's not crawling, but if you put him down in a spot, he can squirm a foot or two in any given direction, and he's basically rolling from back to front now too (or at least 3/4 of the way there). Last night, he made it all the way until 6:45 am without waking to eat! Yay -- go Arlo! You are an amazing sleeper. Now, please teach your big brother about how great sleep is:) We are still wrestling with dealing w/ Ezra's night wakings, which got bad during our East Coast trip in August when he also transitioned to a toddler bed. Sigh. Well, on a positive note, I think Noah and I have finally adjusted to not sleeping w/ kids, and we're much more functional with the sleep deprivation!

Amazing Fall

It has just been so wonderful being on maternity leave with my two beautiful, sweet boys. We have been having so many fun adventures, and I can't believe how the weeks are flying by. Today, we went to Little Farm with our neighbors, and we talked to the farmer for a while, and we even brought home some eggs. Ezra ate his first duck egg and thought it was delicious! Ezra has gotten very brave when feeding the cows celery. And Arlo is starting to become very interested in the animals, especially the cows and goats. Today it occurred to me where the expression goatee comes from, and I feel quite foolish for not realizing that one before!

We also have been going to the Cal Acad of Science many Mondays, also with our neighbors. We love walking up the rainforest pathway with the butterflies all around us, and we also love exploring the aquarium! We've also been enjoying some time at home, especially in the backyard with the beautiful weather. Arlo and I have also been taking Ezra to his Ha Ha This Away class on Thursdays, where he does yoga, swings on the trapeze, and pretends to be different animals and creatures. He especially likes talking to Fred the Frog, and Arlo loves watching the big kids run around.

We've been having a blast, and life is good. I don't know how I'm going to deal with being away from these boys so many hours a week when I go back to work! Just got to try to savor the moment!

Ezra turns 3!

Well, his birthday isn't really for another week, but we celebrated today! What perfect weather -- a bunch of Ezra's friends joined us in Tassajara park, and we played at the playground, played some t-ball, opened up a pinata, ate some Lightning McQueen/Mater cake, painted some wooden cars, and had lots of fun. Ezra felt very loved, and Arlo enjoyed watching the whole celebration too. Here are some pictures! Ezra, we love you -- we can't believe it's been 3 whole years!

Ez sez

When Ezra first started talking, I imagined multiple future posts under the title "Ez sez"... and never wrote them. Well, here are three recent stories that fall into that category.

1.) Overheard at our house last week while we were discussing the baseball playoffs:
"Hey Daddy! Hey Daddy! Guess what?"
"What?"
"The Red Sox blew it."
"Yeah they did, Ezra. What about the Phillies?"
"The Phillies did not blow it, Daddy."

2.) When we went to a birthday party two weekends ago at a jumpy/bouncy house spot in Oakland called Pump It Up, there was a 6 year-old kid who seemed to want to play dodge ball with me. He kept throwing the balls at me, even when I was trying to ignore him and play with Ezra. When I took Ezra down one of the jumpy-slides, this kid was waiting for us at the bottom and pegged me in the face with a ball. Ezra jumped up, got right up in front of this kid (who was probably at least a foot taller than him), and screamed, "DON'T DO THAT! YOU COULD HURT HIM! DON'T DO THAT, I SAID!"

So protective. I think he's going to be a great big brother to Arlo...

3.) The other night we were playing with some of his race cars. One of the Lightning McQueen cars has a decal on the back-left side of the car to indicate where the fuel door is. Ezra picked up this car, pointed to the fuel door, and said, "Look, Daddy, it's Lightning's gas hole."

Family Helman

Well, we just arrived back home with mixed feelings. So nice to be back at our home and excited to see our friends here, but also very sad to miss our family. Here are a few final pics from Boston -- big family Helman shot in Brookline and a few at the pool with Grammy and Papa!

Lobstah!

Perfect New England evening -- lobster dinner, screened-in porch. Mmmmm.

Chilling at the playground

We made a few trips to the local playground with Sonia, Kate, Grandma and Grandpa -- here are a few pics!

De Cordova

Well, hurricane Irene brought beautiful weather to the Boston area -- since she hit on Sunday we've had three straight days of beautiful sun with temperatures in the 70s. Took advantage of the weather to spend Tuesday in De Cordova sculpture park where we ran around looking at the art and had a lovely picnic on a blanket. Our favorites were the big red man and the wind chime sculpture. Ezra also loved the weeping beech tree, as did the rest of the kids in the park who seemed to all be crowded inside its beautiful branches!

Take me out to the ball game

Ezra's rendition of Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Ezra Helman -- vocals and guitar.

Cape Cod!

Well, hurricane Irene is supposed to hit tomorrow, but luckily we made it to the Cape and back in time to spend some quality time on the beach with Aunt Alison, and Anthony and Virginia (Uncle Matt made it out to hang out Wednesday night too -- yay!). It was windy on the beach, but we enjoyed a couple of lovely short beach days splashing in the water and looking for crabs and minnows. We also played some badminton (Ezra's first attempt) and while the back-and-forth action over the net was a a bit of a challenge, we had a blast (I forgot how much I love that game!). Ezra was in heaven with all the Cars I&II matchbox cars. The 3 kids had a slumber party in the kids' room, and luckily, I think Ezra only woke his cousins up once or twice (his night wakings on our trip have gotten steadily worse and worse -- hopefully he'll be back to sleeping through the night when we get home, but right now Arlo at 2.5 months wakes up far less frequently than his older bro). It was so cute watching them all sleep in the same room and listening to them talk through the door.

Nights out:)

While writing this blog, I realized it is really a multipurpose tool -- both used to keep friends and family updated about what we are doing and what the kiddos are up to. But it's also a tool I use to fight my ever-failing memory to help remind us what the heck we did in month X or year Y. But I also plan to print it out some day or just have it so Ezra and Arlo can remember their childhood. For these latter purposes, and maybe mostly for the middle one, that I wanted to document that Noah and I do once in a while have nights out sans children. Above, we had an amazing night out with Noah's closest high school friends to celebrate his friend Andrew's birthday -- we rode in style (le limo!) to the liberty hotel and Scampo to dine, and Veronica really pulled off a fabulous surprise. We had such a wonderful fun night out with friends! Noah and I also had a lovely date night walking around our fair university, where we lived on the same campus for 3 overlapping years without yet knowing one another! We then went to Oleana and stuffed our faces with delicious middle eastern fare. Mmmmmm. This reminds me that we also had a fun night out with my old co-clerks in Philly while we were there, and also caught a movie.

Make Way for Ducklings

We had a fun day exploring the ducklings' favorite places in the Public Garden with our friend Sarah and her boys. We went on the swan boats, found the "Make Way for Ducklings" sculpture and played on it, splashed in the frog pond, and rode the carousel. We also got pizza on Charles Street. The weather was perfect! Arlo came along too, of course, but he slept very nicely in his stroller -- hence, his photographic absence:)

Boston!

Me and my little Bean. Still sporting the Phillies gear in Red Sox Nation. Ezra is very confused now when he sings "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" as Noah's RSN friends were very disappointing when Ezra rooted for the Phillies. We are trying to figure out how to teach him to sing that song with a two-team family! Perhaps "home team" is the simplest thing, but then that would technically make him an A's fan. Hmmmm.

Sweet brothers! In one hand, Ez clutches little bro Arlo -- in the other, none other than Finn McMissile.

Ezra at the local playground where he was playing with his buddy Sonia.

Nana Estelle holding Arlo.

It's been a busy week! We got to Boston mid-month, and have been very busy seeing lots of friends and family. We've been having lots of fun, but are a bit tired (I think poor Ezra has a bit of a hard time adjusting to sleeping in different places and his sleep has gotten a bit messed up from the lack of routine). We got to see Nana Estelle who came up from Florida with Marcia and Uncle Gary. It was a full, fun, crazy house in F'ham with Uncle Eli staying with us at Grandma and Grandpa's too. We also have been spending fun quality time in Brookline with Grammy and Big and Little Papa, and we got to see Aunt Edna and Shirley too! Everyone has loved meeting little Arlo and seeing Ezra. Ezra has also gotten to play with his cousins and some of his East Coast friends. More posts with more details to follow!

Slugger in training pants

We've been hard at work playing t-ball and learning about base running in Bobby's back yard. Check out Ez's hand-eye coordination!

Bros

Washington D.C., It's Paradise to me...

Well, I can't say that I recommend DC as a day-trip from Philly in a summer storm with a 3-year old and a 2-month old, but despite the insanity, we were so glad to see family and friends there and get a special tour of the West Wing. First stop, to see Courtland and Caryn and the kids in Georgetown. Ezra had a lot of fun with his cousins, and was very grateful that they let him play with their cars. We got pizza in Georgetown and got to meet baby Andrew too. Next stop, White House. Sameer gave us a great tour of the west wing. Ezra thought that Sameer was Barack Obama, which was pretty hysterical. He kept saying "Yes, Barack Obama" and "OK, Barack Obama." When we explained that Sameer was not Mr. President, but worked for the President, Ezra settled for calling him Sameer Barack Obama. It was pretty great to actually see the oval office, and even though Ezra and Arlo were pretty wiped from the drive and trip, we managed OK.
[Interestingly, a few days before this, when we were hanging out with my oldest friend Shanna and her two girls and two dogs, Ezra attempted to re-name the dogs (real names Bentley and Jane) and named them Barack Obama, and Mike (his go-to name of late). After naming the dogs, he tried to strike a "deal" with Mike, telling him that he could go swimming if he ate his dinner. Hmmm.]
After the White House, we went to the Bhalotras for pizza and a swim. Ezra and Amiya had a great time in the pool with their dads. We wish we could have stayed longer, but we were zonked and wanted to get home by midnight. Whirlwind day!

Phillies!

We took the boys to their first-ever major league baseball game, with John, Ben, and Bobby. We had a blast and even made it through the seventh inning stretch. Only disappointment -- the Phillies playing (Hamels had "dead arm" and the Phanatic was also off his game, in my opinion, as he did not dance as much as usual). But it was so great to see both boys enjoy being in the ballpark and watching baseball! Ezra especially loved singing take me out to the ballgame, so I'm glad we made it to the stretch! Check out how finely decked out we all are!

A few random photos from Bobby's house

Here are a few random pics from Bobby's house. Above, Ez in my favorite hat.


Ezra and Arlo chillin' - of course, Ezra loves climbing into all of Arlo's chairs and playing with his toys!


Me and Arlo snuggling up.

We went to Wall Park with the boys. Noah and I foolishly spun on the tire swing with Ezra and we both felt nauseated for hours! Here is one I got of Noah and Ezra.

A family shot!

Philadelphia Museum of Art

I love the Philadelphia Art Museum. Bobby had bought Ezra the "A is for Art Museum" book which became one of his favorites. He really wanted to see "D is for Dancer" (a Degas sculpture) and some of his other favorites ("M is for Music" -- a Picasso you can see above, and "F is for Fish" a Paul Klee above). Of course, now I will always know these paintings/sculptures by those names, and I can't remember their real names. We did a little scavenger hunt for some of his favorites from the book, and saw X marks the spot (Sol LeWitt), the Sunflowers (Van Gogh), and the Bridge (Monet). It was such a beautiful day, and let's face it, a toddler only has limited time in an art museum, so we had fun walking around the Waterworks and the river afterwards. Ezra especially enjoyed running and rolling down the grassy hill while Arlo and mom went for a stroller walk by the boathouses, and Bobby and John spent a half hour walking around the parking garage trying to find their car:)

Smile-fest 2011

Arlo turns two months tomorrow! While I can't believe how fast the time has gone, I also already can't remember what life was like without him. Sweet little Arlo Benjamin. He has been smiling up a storm this last week. Here are a few great ones I got this morning, during a major smile-fest (and one from last week)! Another little tidbit of Arlo news -- he slept last night from 9 to 4! Woohoo -- of course Ezra was up, I think from a bad dream, from 3-4 am, so we actually didn't get the best night of sleep last night, but we're so proud of Arlo (and grateful!) for being such a snooze-master.