Tuesday, December 30, 2008

No nap


Instead of napping today, our son stood in his crib and cried for two solid hours. Ferberizing this one is not going to be easy. The other kids did not cry as long and as hard without passing out. Lets hope he cries less tomorrow.

No nap

Instead of sleeping our son stood in his crib and cried for two hours.
I don't know if I'm strong enough to Ferberize this one. The other
kids never cried that long or that hard without passing out.

Monday, December 29, 2008

What's for dinner?

Apparently Sydney and Lior are cooking dinner tonight. We are having macaroni, want to join us?

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Yupp

Yesterday he was eating whole strawberries and today he's driving.
What's next? Dating?

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Self feeding

Akiva has discovered the art of self feeding. While he is willing to open his mouth wide for a spoonful of mush, he is more than eager to stuff fistfulls of food in his mouth. Tonight the object of his desire was fresh strawberries which we picked on Friday. Now that he has two new top teeth he thinks he is a big kid and needs to keep up. He is doing a great job keeping up! I don't know if we are going to be able to afford to feed him in a couple of years.

Yummy

After a busy day feeding animals, we fed our animals. Somehow our animals are much messier!

For the birds

Sydney is fearless. She fed goats. She fed giraffes. She fed birds.
Then the bird fed on her! Another great day.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

The real sleeping beauty

Akiva!

Just like daddy

They like waisting money just like daddy does!

Paint shop

What can I say? Priceless!!!

Barn storming

How lucky am I? I get to ride the roller coaster with Cinderella!

Friday, December 19, 2008

We need you

"We need you Handy Manny the phone is broken and the computer is
broken. Can you and the Tools come fix it?". "Come right now!!"

Thursday, December 18, 2008

All about the characters

Today was just fantastic. It all seems like a blur. We started with
story time with Belle, went on a few rides and a monorail ride to
EPCOT. We hit the character jackpot and had pictures taken with
Mickey, Pluto, Donald, Goofy and Minnie! Then we went for dinner with
the princesses! I took over two hundred pictures today. I am willing
to bet that the Disney photographers took at least fifty more. Perhaps
pre-ordering the photo CD at a discount would have been the smart
thing to do. Maybe next time.

It sleeps

This is what having way too much excitement getting your picture taken
with ALL of your friends looks like.

Too much fun

He finally gave up. Now we only have three to go.

Story time with belle

The girls were very excited to sit and read a story with Belle. When
she came out Sydney stood up and started to walk away from us. When I
asked her where she was going she replied "I want to go to Belle".

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

This place is AWSOME!

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom at about six. Just in time to eat
dinner, watch the parade and the fireworks. No time for rides and it
did not even matter! The parade was all they needed. The ice cream we
had while we were waiting for the parade did not hurt either.
After dinner I took Lior to the bathroom and she was full of questions
"mom, did Grandpa give you money for ice cream?". "Yes Lior he did.".
"Did he give you a lot of money?". " Enough for ice cream.". "Is of a
lot a lot so we can eat a lot of ice cream?"
So we ate ice cream while we waited for the parade. As soon as the
lights dimmed and the music started those ice cream pops started to
droop. They quickly handed their ice cream off and watch with wild eye
wonder as the parade rolled by. Jordan could barely contain herself
when she saw Mickey. She was waving like a wild woman. You can only
imagine her excitement and ours when Goofy pointed at her, waved and
blew a kiss. She spent the entire parade calling to all her friends
and waving.
Sydney and Lior liked the parade but because there was a bad guy they
did not love it. There were times where I thought Sydney might loose
it but she held it together. You can only imagine how excited she was
when Cinderella came by. She could not believe her good fortune! Matt
and I could barely contain ourselves when we saw her face light up. I
actually had a tear in my eye!
Of course I have no pictures to post because the camera on the phone
is not good for night time photography. I'll add photos at a later date.
On the bus on the way back to the hotel Sydney and I were talking
about the day and all the things she had seen. When we were done she
turned to me and said "This place is awesome mom".
Sent from my iPhone

On the road

We are off!!! The kids are very excited, they can't wait to see the
princesses and Minnie Mouse, of course.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Life is going to be very different!

I finally learned how to blog from my i-phone! Watch out I will be posting like a mad woman! But not tonight because I am going to start packing for our trip to Disney World!!!

It's all over

Akiva has discovered ice cream. He likes it he really likes it! We had to pin his arm down to keep him from grabbing the cone and throwing it all over the place.
Akiva thinks the perks of being the fourth child are amazing!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Have I mentioned

Half of our family is sick. Matt, Jordan, and Akiva are sick. Lior has a runny nose and I am trying to stay away from all the "boogers", it is not easy. I tried to get Matt to sleep upstairs with the baby last night to breath in all the soothing vapors. He came back at two in the morning, I think he is doing his best to infect me. Everyone needs to start feeling better soon because when Jordan is sick she is a total misery. She just wants to be held and does not want to share the lap with the big kids. Thank goodness she will share with the baby because he wants to be held all the time too. Can you feel my pain???
Lets hope the forecast has less snot in my future.

I have been thinking

I have been thinking and thinking and thinking. When I have not been thinking I have been stressing. I have been doing a lot of stressing. It seems that as soon as I paid for our vacation to Disney World I realized we were broke. That very day Matt found out he needed over two thousand dollars in dental work (another reason why I refuse to go to the dentist). We made the decision to go anyway because what the hell, the kids are only young once and the economy can not be bad forever!
So we are going away on what could be the last vacation we take for a VERY long time. While I have been in a funk over my realization an interesting thing happened, I was offered a position teaching at the girls school. A part time position which would enable Sydney and Lior to attend school more often but left me at a loss as what to do with Akiva and Jordan. That made me think more and stress more but it led to some important decisions. The first and most important decision I made is that I do not want to go back to work. I want to spend as much time with the kids as I can. I always say that I want to spend time with the kids now because they like me now and want to spend time with me. I know there will be a time when this is not the case. I also know that I have to go back to work to some degree. I think that I might be able to see some clients privately to make the extra money we need to make ends meet. The beauty of this plan is that I can do it while the big girls are at school. Hopefully my mom will be able to watch the two little guys while I am working but I am working on a back up plan if she can not.
The second major decision I have made is to pull the girls out of school next year. We just can not afford it. It breaks my heart because they love it but Jordan also needs to start going to school next year and three tuition's cost about the same as an entry level Honda Civic. This decision has been the hardest. I feel bad because Jordan will not get the same opportunities Sydney and Lior did. She will not have the same early Jewish experiences and education, that is the hardest thing for me to deal with. Maybe by the time Akiva is ready we will be able to afford it. I am looking into some early childhood programs that are less expensive and have found a few that will fit the budget. Jordan and I will be trying some out as soon as I order her birth certificate.
I have made some other decisions of late but these decisions are the ones that have been weighing heaviest on my mind. I hope I have made the right decisions for the kids and for me. One thing I know for sure, I need a vacation.

Swinging

We took the kids to the park the day after Thanksgiving (Can you believe that it has taken me so long to post the pictures?). There were not enough swings for everyone so I decided that my kids could share. Lior shared with Jordan and Akiva. Jordan shared with Akiva, Sydney and Lior. Sydney shared with Akiva and enjoyed pushing Jordan and Akiva! It is a good thing they are small and fun was had by all!

Good hairdays

It does not happen often but when it does I can not resist their cute little faces. I love how the girls look with their up but they will not let me do it often and they do not leave it in for long. But when they do leave it in they just look so cute! Lior has been leaving it in the pony tail longer but when she takes out the holder she destroys it. Sydney keeps taking the holder out and asks every five minutes for it to be put back in and after the fiftieth time I loose my patience. I can not even get Jordan to leave it in long enough to take a picture but she also likes to play the "put it back in game".

Akiva at eight months (almost)

It is completely blowing my mind. Akiva will be eight months in the matter of days. How can he be doing even more wonderful things? He held a bottle on his own the very first time I gave him one and likes sliding down the slide with his more than eager sisters. Everyone wanted to hold him going down the slide, they take turns. Now they like going down in a line. It is amazing he did not even cry when he landed in the grass. I am going to have very tough kids because of my need to take photos of every little thing!
Akiva is pretty much refusing to take food from the spoon preferring to shovel in as much food as humanly possible on his own. He has eaten macaroni and cheese, canned pears, rice, cream cheese sandwiches (without the cranberries!), boiled carrots, matzoh balls, hummus sandwiches, and of course our favorite Cheerios! He has decided that even though grass looks good it is not a great snack! He has also started drinking from a sippy cup, by himself! I went and got him one with handles so he can maneuver it better but he knows he wants to drink out of that cup! I am going to skip the bottle all together and just put him right on a sippy cup.
Akiva decided that he liked standing in his crib so he decided to do it himself. Matt needs to lower the crib in our bedroom because he is no longer safe. He has started to pull himself up on toys around the house. As you can imagine when he pulls himself up on a doll stroller the results are not what he expects.
Akiva loves clapping hands and will even do it on command, most of the time. His favorite pastime seems to be playing with his sisters or watching them play. He laughs and laughs when they talk to him or tickle him. I am sure that because of their interest in him, he will be up and chasing them around in no time.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Where are the posts?

I have been such a slacker. I actually have not been a slacker, I am far to busy to be a slacker, I do have four children after all. I have not been sleeping. I have not been sleeping during the day or at night so my mind has not been on blogging, it has been on trying to sleep. When I am not sleeping I am doing laundry. We generate a lot of laundry. I have been cooking for parties and Thanksgiving and I have been working with the kids everyday for an hour. We are doing a craft, a small circle time activity highlighting a linguistic concept and reading books on a specific topic. The kids love it and are asking me what we are going to do the next day. I love doing it with them but it has left me no extra time.
I need some more hours in the day. Anyone care to add a few so I can blog every day, wash, fold and put the clothes away, cook dinner, sit and nurse the baby, clean, read to my kids anytime they want, play games, exercise, and spend time with my husband. Is that so much to ask for?

Our boy

Our boy is getting very big very quickly. Just the other day I found him laying on the floor trying to drink one of the girls sippy cups. This prompted me to give him a water bottle, just to see what he would do. He picked up that bottle and held it, like he has been drinking a bottle his entire life. I should have reminded him that he has never had one before so I could have pretended that he needed my help!
I put him in the crib in our room on Thanksgiving and decided to see if he would stand, he could. He drooped to the side a little bit but he stood there and thought he was so funny. Both Matt and I were snapping pictures of our big boy. I know it is just a matter of time before he is standing without any help.
Do you know what else he is doing? Refusing to eat off the spoon.He has that "I can do it myself" attitude and does not want food that he has not shoved into his mouth himself. I manage to get a spoon full or two in as he is cramming in Cheerios. I need to start making more finger food for him because right now he is eating way too many bananas. He is just growing up so fast!

A visit with the pilgrims

On Wednesday we went to the girls school to celebrate with the Pilgrims. We spent an hour on the playground playing like Pilgrims. We strung beads to make necklaces, played with unpopped popcorn and corn meal, washed clothes and hung them up on the line to dry, served up some cranberries and ate. It was a spectacular day and a really nice way to celebrate Thanksgiving. The kids had fun (even Jordan got in on the action) and so did we!

It is that time again


It is strawberry picking time again and the girls could not be happier. The remembered everything they did last year. They ran outside and wanted to wash their hands, grabbed their scissors and their baskets and were off to find really red strawberries. Jordan was really trying to use those scissors. I think if they were sharper she would have had more success.
Sydney did not want or need any help!
They had a great time picking those berries and Lior quickly discovered that pulling the strawberries off was far more efficient!
Akiva says "Wait until next year when you have to chase me around!"

Playground shenanigans

Last weekend we stuck close to home and outside because the weather was fantastic. A trip to the playground proved once again that our children are fearless. They climbed everything they could with ease and confidence.Yes that is Jordan in the pink stripes! She is simply amazing and really skilled.Can you see Sydney climbing up the ladder in the back? She really wanted to do those monkey bars all by herself.

They went up and down the slide with complete joy.
Even Akiva got to try out the slide and liked it!All Lior needs is a bar to hang from.

My new hobby

I guess my new hobby is not so new, I have been doing it for years. Mow I am just talking about it because I am getting good at it. What can it be? I am obsessed with coupons and sales. I am not a shopper who buys anything full price. I buy things on sale and I try not to buy things we do not need. Now that money is tighter than it has been I have trying to save money on food and household supplies.
Most people look at our tower of Cheerios and think "these people are nuts and have a lifetime supply of Cheerios". I look at that tower and my heart beats a little faster because I paid two dollars a box for them. That is right, you heard me, two dollars a box. By combining coupons and buying a lot of cereal I saved almost twenty dollars on the cereal that I would prefer my family eat. When we were walking around the store with our cart full of cereal we got several strange looks. Matt found himself explaining "we go through a lot of cereal" to everyone who looked at him funny. Normally I only buy diapers in this volume but I could not pass it up. Just today I saved us over sixty dollars in coupons alone.
On a typical food shopping trip I save at least twenty five percent by using coupons and taking advantage of the buy one get one free deals. I stock up on everyday items like canned tomatoes, pasta sauce, pasta, and bread when they are buy one get one free. I also plan our weekly meals based on what is on sale. I have decided to reduce the amount of meat in our daily diets and focus more on fresh fruit and vegetables. Since we have decided to keep kosher, we are not buying organic meat and I want to make sure the kids are not ingesting meat or chicken with hormones. We are eating chicken about once a week, which is saving us a lot of money on the grocery bill.
So my new hobby has me clipping coupons and using them and my kids eating healthier. I love my new hobby!