glenrockschwartz

Last Saturday, Eric and I drove to Hoboken with the kids to have an adult dinner at Julie's house once the babes were asleep in her bedroom. We had a great time - food and company, as always, were excellent - and I don't have too much to write other than: A] I'll even admit that it's nice to start getting our lives back now that Avery is a little bit bigger and, B] Just look at this photo! Am I so lucky to be so much in love with this handsome man! Also, as a side note, on Monday night following this dinner, for the first time Alex totally threw up in his bed and all over himself. Thank goodness, this didn't happen several nights earlier when he was asleep in Julie's bed! I would have been mortified.

Hi Avery, Yesterday you turned eight months old. We keep waiting for you to crawl and to grow teeth, but you are taking your time and enjoying life just the way you are. That's not to say that there have been no big advancements in the past month - you are now queen of the two to three hour morning nap and you have truly started sleeping through the night by our standards which means from about 8 p.m. until after 7 a.m. Also, in the past few days you have started to imitate more and this includes clapping your tiny hands when I prompt you to do so. You are so proud of yourself and I am so proud of you that you would think we had just found the cure for a horrible disease. Imitation also includes sounds and Alex has found some pretty annoying shrieks that he knows you can copy and the two of you laugh and laugh while I just choose to leave the room smiling, but on the verge of a headache. Food and faces are also a newer part of who you are and how you communicate. Continuing wit

...this is certainly not meant to be a guilt trip in anyway, but I was just thinking about how great the kids are (have you sensed yet that there is a theme to this blog) and thinking about how my mom would really love to be here to see 'her babies' instead of being in Florida for so long. Here are three pictures from the past week, each worth at least the proverbial thousand words: 1. Avery snoozing away during morning nap time. At night now, she sleeps on her belly, but during naps she prefers her side. Even better, because she is sleeping on her tummy at night, she is now sleeping until after 7 every morning. Eric thinks I'm the only crazy person that is sad about this because now I don't get to spend as much time with her. 2. Eric and the kids goofing around - uh, I mean cuddling - under a new sofa blanket. This image should be likened to those Russian matrushka (sp?) dolls, with the tiniest one inside the medium one inside the largest one. Or in other words, A

Tonight is the first night of Hannukah. Alex is almost 5 and this is probably the first year where he was really excited in advance for the holiday to arrive. I must say, I find the sheer gluttony of the holiday a little bit sickening. I promise you that when Alex opened 2 gifts from Auntie Dawn and 1 giant gift from all 4 grandparents and 1 gift from Grammy's friend Arlynne and some of Avery's gifts, it was probably no different than an addict getting his fix. And Judah Macabee was nowhere in sight. BUT....I would not deny the little kid his joy. And we had a lovely dinner with family (Grandma and PopPop, you were missed). And Alex and Auntie Dawn had a fun time building with the pirate Legos (and Alex kept referring to the tiny pirates as dudes). And Grandpa Howie read a story to Avery before bed (and Grammy to Alex). If I only could have minimized the gifts, it would have been the perfect start to the holiday!

...as typed by his mommy. I like alligators that don't bite a lot. Those ones are baby alligators. And I like my baby sister Avery. I'll tell you something. Next there was dragons, because I like dragons. But I just like baby ones. They spit up fire, they don't breathe fire, they breathe boogers. Their bodies are different than grown up dragons. I like my teacher Morah Eileen because she does good things that I like. I also like my friends Alexa and Rachel because I just love friends at school and everywhere because they're my friends. I even love my friends that I haven't meeted yet because I just say hi and then they are my friends and I love to have more playdates. From Alex I just love you mom.

I just want to make sure that I have the "Avery dance" recorded somewhere for posterity. Who's cuter than her!