And Here's Our Saturday Night!

My sweet husband Cody and I had the privilege of babysitting our little friend Eliot tonight, while his parents, Bryan and Ashley, celebrate their wedding anniversary with a night on the town. We were very happy to have him, as you can tell by Cody's enthusiastic face...I'm the official babysitter, he's just the assistant! But I'm very glad to have him! Morgan was very excited to have another friend to play with and invited Eliot to join him in his little house.
Eliot was happy to join him and scooted right in.
They both got quite a kick out of each other and giggled most of the evening.
Time to go. Places to see, toys to throw around the room. Life is very busy for two little boys.
Here are two little videos of our evening's antics. The first one is Morgan riding his big stuffed Lion named Lambert...thanks Auntie Mesha. The next one is Eliot dancing in front of the air conditioner, which of course Morgan found intensely hilarious. As I was washing the dishes I heard both boys just giggling their heads off and couldn't resist trying to capture it on film. Enjoy!

My Thursday Night

Let me start this post by saying how surprising it is to me...any my sister Jill, how much I watch my friend's children and how much I enjoy doing it! It is surprising because I never really enjoyed babysitting growing up nor did I think I would be a natural mother-type person. But I really do love having these little people around and so does Morgan, which makes life much sweeter for me. Yesterday afternoon we played at the park with Bella and Kiasa before Kiasa left to do a science party (for more info see her science party blog) then I brought them home in my handy-dandy Phil & Ted where they both took great naps and played wonderfully till Kiasa came to get Bella. Sadly I did not take any pictures but the two of them are adorable together. Kiasa, in turn, watched Morgan for me this morning bright and early so I could go to the temple at 8am. It was hectic getting there but so worth it. I really have to make more time in my life to go there since it is so close!

Tonight we were lucky enough to have our old pal Chase over to play. The boys ran around getting into mischief for a few hours before both boys ate some dinner, took a bath together, read some stories and went to bed. Before bath time I decided to let the boys run around sans clothes for awhile. They both greatly enjoyed it, as you can see. They also both love that they are big boys now who can crawl up on our high couches and play.Could they both be any more blond and pale?!
It's hard to get a good shot of two rowdy boys on the run.
Morgan loves having friends over and got the biggest smile when I told him Chase was coming off the elevator to play with him.
Here's a little video for those of you who enjoy hearing baby boys laughing and don't have anything better to do with a minute of your life.

We really do miss having you around Chase. You are more than welcome to come hang out anytime!

Things I'm Grateful for Today...

1. My family. Life may not be perfect but it sure is a lot sweeter with these two guys with me. I love the two men in my life and am so grateful for the joy they bring to me.

2. My strollers. I get teased a lot for my slight stroller obsession...yes, yes I know one little boy doesn't need 5 strollers and I am seriously working on getting rid of 2 of them...hee hee. Anywhoo, I was vindicated last week in my need to have a double stroller with only 1 child when I ended up taking care of a 3 year old named Sebastian pretty much all week, while his mom took care of cleaning up their flooded apartment. It would have been murder if we had been stuck inside all day everyday during a week of such beautiful weather.

However, we were just fine with my trusty Phil & Ted double stroller (the second child is sitting down below the front one). Sebastian loved that he could climb in and out of his seat by himself and we got compliments and stares everywhere we went.

My Maclaren Techno XT is also a favorite baby purchase of mine and every time I have to carry Morgan up and down the subway or travel or just walking around the City I am very grateful for this wonderfully lightweight and easy to maneuver stroller!3. My husband! This time I'm grateful for Cody's personality specifically. Cody is the person I love to hang out with the most. Everything is more fun if he is around and I love his enthusiasm for the little things in life...like finding a warthog mosaic on a subway wall. Cody is my absolute favorite!

4. My new found desire to make new things. I have discovered some Mediterranean cookbooks I bought for Cody when we were first married and have been having a lot of fun lately experimenting with them. Yesterday I made homemade Pita Bread and it turned out great. At least Cody won't stop eating it. I also just got a bread maker and I can't wait to try it out. Real food here we come!
5. A son who is obsessed with fruit! This little guys will eat almost anything and a lot of it but nothing compares to the amount of fruit, especially berries, this guy can consume. He's never really had candy but he acts like blackberries are the most exciting thing since homemade pita bread!
I love those cheeks and that crazy hair!

6. Great friends and this wonderful city. Saturday afternoon our friends Ashley & Eliot and Minde, Tyler & Chase invited us to join them on an excursion to hear some of the outdoor live music that was being performed near Lincoln Center. We made it in time to hear some of the New York Philharmonic and the boys loved hearing the music. Such a fun Saturday afternoon!

Check out those crazy moves! Afterwards, we went for a walk through the park and let the boys run around. Morgan has become completely distracted by all bodies of water- puddles, lakes, fountains, everything! He'll just stand there and make the sign for water over and over. All the little ones also love to push their toy strollers. They are all too cute!


7. Great friends. After our Saturday outing, Ashley, Minde and I left all the boys at home and went out for a mommy night out. We walked over to a restaurant near Columbia called the Heights. They have seating on the rooftop. It was a beautiful night, great food and fun conversation. A perfect night out!

8. A rolling laundry basket and 4 washer/dryer combos in my building, which no one else was using. I just finished 7 loads of laundry in the time it would have taken me to do 2. Luckily, no one else wanted to do laundry on a Monday morning. Go figure!

The Newest Family Member

Yesterday in the wee hours of the morning, my sister Jill gave birth to another beautiful little baby girl, who shall continue to remain nameless since they haven't decided on one yet. She came into the world quite quickly at 1:45 a.m. and even beat the doctor to the hospital (it's kind of spooky how similar our birth stories were, I guess we like to have speedy babies and do all of the work at home by ourselves in a state of pain and confusion!). Jill is a trooper! Everyone is doing fine and resting up. For some adorable pictures and the full story see my sister Jill's blog. We are very excited to see this new little niece and cousin in a few weeks when we head to Florida. Congrats to the Terry's and we love you all very much!

Update: Our newest niece has a name, Alice Mae. I love the name and think it fits in perfectly with Jill and Kevin's classic old lady names theme: Jane and Alice. Very sweet.

An Ode to My Daddy!

Since yesterday was Father's Day, I thought I would take this moment to once again tell everyone how great my Daddy is and how happy I am that he is my Daddy. On Saturday morning my Daddy and I went on a Hawk Walk in the Inwood Hill Park. It was very early and quite muggy but we had tons of fun walking around looking for birds and enjoying each others company.Oh yeah, Mommy came to and took most of the pictures. Narnia anyone?
Just what every path in the woods needs, a sewer drain.My Daddy, aka the coolest, was the first one in our group to spot a Red-tailed Hawk. It was a fledgling that had ventured out of the nest and landed in a tree with lots of mean little birds. They all kept pecking at him, trying to get him out of their tree but the poor thing wouldn't leave. Finally, he flew away to another tree but most of the other birds followed him. I guess he's still learning how to be a bird of prey.This is how excited I was to sit and watch the hawk for a very, very, very long time. Man my Daddy likes birds!We also saw some interesting historical sites. This rock represents the spot where the Dutch traded beads to the Native Americans for the island of Manhattan. Of course, the Native Americans had no concept of land ownership and thought they were just exchanging pleasantries and being polite. They learned otherwise when the Dutch showed up the next year, chased them off their land and built a wall on Wall Street to keep them out. Not very polite if you ask me. My Daddy always tells me to share and play nice, too bad the Dutch didn't have a great Daddy like mine.Here are some rock caves that acted like a Holiday Inn for traveling Native Americans. Now they act as a Holiday Inn for some crazy homeless people. One guys says he's been living here for 30+ years. The government has mostly filled in the caves to deter the crazies but the tons of broken glass everywhere says they're not listening. Daddy helping me up to the caves and our tour guide.
My super Daddy giving me a super ride!
I loved going on the Hawk Walk with my Daddy...and Mommy, and can't wait to go on more adventures with him in the future.

On Father's Day my Mommy made my Daddy a special Father's Day Feast and let me play with Daddy while she cooked. Too bad I didn't get a good nap after church and was kind of grumpy...sorry Daddy.

Note from Mommy: In case anyone is wondering why there is a bowl of water next to my plate, that is ice water for my left hand which got slightly burned during the making of the feast. She made homemade Spanish Bread, Apple Cider Pork Loin Chops and a Spring Vegetable Mix. I enjoyed the veggies, bread and potatoes but the pork was a little saucy for me.
Chocolate Mousse Cake, the perfect end to a perfect meal.

The other day I had on some cute overall shorts and Mommy thought she'd capture the cuteness for Daddy.

Also on Friday, Mommy decided in honor of Daddy to let me listen to the new Weezer Red Album so that I could learn to appreciate Daddy's favorite music like I appreciate Mommy's. Here's a little video of me dancing and flopping about the couch to the new tunes. Notice my cool new flip-flops too.

I know this was a long one but I just wanted to let my Daddy know how much I love him and enjoy spending time with him. Happy Belated Father's Day!

It Ain't Easy Being Green

Recently a lot of ladies in our ward have jumped on the green -lifestyle-bandwagon. We are making some small steps in the right direction in our home but have a long way to go. I am greatly inspired by my friends here in Harlem and look forward to helping my family become stronger, healthier and more environmentally friendly.

After reading In Defense of Food for our book club, a few ladies decided to work on the garden in our Church's green space. Since I am not a gardener and do not have a green thumb, I decided to leave the actual gardening to the experts and just tag along for fun and help with children supervision.

Here I am helping. Kiasa getting ready to water the garden with the help of Morgan. Bella's busy trying to push the little stroller through some mighty tall grass for an 19 month old.
Ashley hard at work planting seeds while Eliot rakes the dirt.
Bella with fresh strawberry juice running down her cute sun dress.
Eliot getting ready to squirt someone with the hose.
Morgan and Eliot excited by nature.
Many of our friends shop at farmers markets, buy local and try to make as much from scratch as they can. I think these are all fabulous ways to help strengthen your family from the inside out while teaching them the importance of taking care of our bodies and communities. I look forward to continuing to make the small changes in our lives as well. I'll update you when things begin to grow.

Bronx Zoo

Morgan and I just got back from a trip to the Bronx Zoo with our great friends Ashley & Eliot, Kiasa & Bella and Minde & Chase. We were only there for a couple hours because that's about all the kids could handle with nap time coming up and all the mom's could handle of the heat. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it has been for the past few days and there was a lot of shade.

Here we are taking the 2 train to the zoo. This is Ashley, Kiasa, Bella and Eliot.

Hanging out in the stroller on the subway, eating a book, playing footsie...a great day.
We miraculously showed up 15 min. early so we hung out with all the school groups waiting to get in at 10 am.
The first and main place we went was the Congo exhibit to see the gorillas. Here we are with another monkey. This is a great example of how hot and red we were and how Morgan was much more interested in the water bottle than the animals. He actually enjoyed watching them but got a little upset he couldn't touch them.
Sweet Bella watching the gorillas.
Here's what Bella was looking at. We got there really early and hardly anyone else was there so we got great long, close view of them.Once again, very hot and sweaty but excited to see the animals. Sorry it's a bit blurry, should have turned off the flash.We let the kids run about the zoo until it got a little too crazy. After another monkey house we decided to take a snack break and capture all the little friends sitting on a bench. Poor Bella always the odd girl out. Eliot's shirt says "Miso Cute"...so true.We had a great time and really enjoyed spending our Wednesday morning at the zoo with friends. I'm very grateful for this wonderful city and for adventurous friends who help me take advantage of it. Thanks guys.