Adorable

He is just adorable. He is adorable awake. He is adorable asleep.
He's even adorable when he's cranky and tired. He is just adorable.

Youth

We went to Lion Country Safari yesterday and ate lunch in front of this water slide. Doesn't it look like fun? We watched a few kids go down this slide and it just looked like so much fun. When lunch was over, Matt decided that he was going to do it. It was great, the kids were watching and laughing. Matt thought it was a blast. I did not get the picture I wanted so I made him do it again. He really caught some air the second time around! It still looked like fun at this point too! Until Matt got off and was limping and holding his shoulder. Apparently if you are about thirty six inches tall it is not a big deal to go down the slide more than once. If you are closer to thirty six years than you are to thirty six inches high going down the slide a second time is a really bad idea.The poor guy has been limping ever since. It sucks getting old!

"It" factor

At the start of the winter session at the gym I asked the owner if Jordan would be able to join the girls in their class during the summer, six months before she should be able to. I think he thought I was nuts and gave me a song and dance about pushing her and her not being age appropriate for the class. Last week I signed the kids up for the summer session at the gym and brought it up again. He turned to me and said in the summer won't she be three months away from being three? I reminded him that she would be two and a half next month. He shook his head and said "I think she will be fine". He wants me to be more hands off, which I am since I have Akiva hanging off my chest to get her ready to be in a class without her mom.
She sits, runs and gallops through the entire warm up on the "big red mat" without prompting from me.
She participates in skills that blow my mind.Somehow she was supposed to go from sitting on the bar to this
and then wound up like this?

I may have missed a step but she thought it was great fun, even when she bumped her head (and he almost dropped her).
Apparently Jordan has the "it factor", at least that is what the instructor told me. She has great skill. Maybe it comes from her willingness to try new things, like walk across the beam backwards.
Or do a straddle roll from sitting, which she is close to mastering. I always knew Jordan was spectacular, its nice to hear that someone else thinks she is too.

Exploritorium

Last weekend we took the kids to a free science exploritorium (yes, it's a real word!) at a local park. The kids had a great time pressing buttons and making stuff work.



















Lior was in all her glory! Matt says she is destructive. I say she is curious and likes to see how things work. We both may be right. She was pushing buttons with all her might. The level of concentration was amazing. It matched the intensity level of her father who was pushing the buttons right along with her.


I think her favorite part was the "here to there" exhibit which explained how the tube we use at the drive-thru bank worked.
All the kids finally understood how it worked after they put their ball in on one side and it wound up on the other side of the room and back again.
They were thrilled to see and feel the air that was being forced through the tube.
Sydney also loved every minute of it. She has such a zest and intensity to everything she does, much different than Lior. Sydney's excitement level is all consuming, she tries things with all few reservations and her excitement level is written all over her face. She is also curious about how things work but does not seem to have the destructive streak that Lior has. In this picture she is launching a rocket which shoots across the room. She watched us launch that rocket and saw how we were watching the pressure gauge to the side of the button. With no explanation Sydney walked over and launched that rocket over and over again, much to Akiva's delight!
Who could have watched it launch over and over again!

It's a photo

So on Wednesday after Sydney had her concussion I really wanted to blog about it but I could not. I could not get out of bed to turn on the computer to set up a post. I needed to remain vertical, so I looked through some old pictures of our little Sydney on the phone and found this one.

and used it to "hold the spot".
This picture is one of my favorites of Sydney when she was an infant. She was perfect! I took this picture the first time Matt held her. I took one look at her and one look at him and said "Oh no!" Matt had a little freak out, thinking something was wrong with the baby I reassured him that there was nothing wrong but that she had "broken him". From that moment on he would never be the same, she had wrapped herself around his heart and he has never been the same.
It is funny, this picture generated a lot of interest... and no we are not expecting another baby (even though my nutty husband wants another one!).

She's a risk taker

Today my baby Sydney was goofing off in Akiva's room and fell. She fell hard, Matt said he just saw her fall backwards off the bed and land flat on her back. I heard the thud, a very loud thud but I did not hear much else, it was eerily quiet upstairs and after the thud I heard, I expected a lot of noise. I heard Matt say "breathe Sydney, breathe!" and I heard nothing from Sydney. By the time I got upstairs Matt was blowing in her face and shaking her and still nothing. She was good and winded. I was about to run next door to get our neighbor when Matt layed her down on the floor and she started passing some air. She never cried, we did.
She ate some breakfast and went and layed in my bed. I just thought she wanted to stay home from school so we made her get dressed and go. We warned her teacher, who must have thought we were being a little over protective, to look for any weird behavior or vomiting. I was working at the school so I was going to check on her every once and awhile so we felt comfortable leaving her. I was just finishing up with my first client when her teacher came in to tell me that Sydney threw-up. I called Matt, who was on his way to work and he turned around and came home. We changed her clothes and Matt threw her into the car; straight to urgent care. I went back to work.
Matt said she was very brave at the doctors office because lets face it who likes to go there? She threw-up a few more times at the office which got them seen right away. They diagnosed her with a mild concussion at that point and sent her to an imaging center for a CAT scan. It was a good thing they sent her with a container to throw up into because she needed it. She threw up again at the imaging center, which once again got them pushed to the head of the line. The CAT scan was clear and by the time the process was over Sydney felt better.
When I got to the imaging center Sydney was excited to tell me all about her trip through the big camera so that the doctor could look at her head. Matt said she was excellent and he was able to stay in the room with her and hold her hand. He even sang her a song (the poor technician!). When I asked her what song he sang, expecting a song she sings all the time she said he sang her "I Want to Hold Your Hand". Isn't that cute?
Needless to say Sydney is fine. She had to remain calm for the rest of the day, which was not easy for me. I had her lay down and let Jordan examine her, which worked for a little bit. Our Sydney is certainly a spit fire. A risk taker. I do not think she will be jumping on Akiva's bed for some time. She told me that she does not want to go for a ride in that camera again.

We are in costumes now!!

I do not know how it happened but our peaceful afternoon of painting turned into body painting. They are polka dotted monsters, covered from head to toe. Good times!!

Yummm

Look at my big boy!! He's already holding his own ice cream cone in
addition to a fork and a spoon. He gets everything into his mouth!
I don't know what's better ice cream or Akiva eating it.

Space shuttle

We watched the space shuttle take off tonight from the comfort of our front yard. Living in Florida has it's perks. The girls really saw it tonight, which made the experience more exciting.

Parade

We met Matt's brother and sister-in-law yesterday afternoon at the St. Patties day parade. I think the kids had fun meeting their new cousin Ireland.
She is really cute, Sydney was enthralled with her. She is so good with babies, she just stood there and talked to her. Of course, we tried to get a picture of all the girls together but Lior would not stand still to get her picture taken.
Ireland was kind enough to share her shamrock headband with Jordan.

Sydney loved the headband and hamming it up for the camera.
Akiva got to show off his new trick.
And Matt got to show off his ability to hold four squirming children at the same time.

Spider girls

Lior has a mind of her own. On a good day she will let me brush her hair. On a really good day whe will allow me to put a pony tail in her hair. Yesterday she decided that she wanted to be "spider girl" and she has five ponies in her hair.
Today Spider girl turned into a girl with Princess ponies and fairy dust after a trip to the new princess store. I think she looks a lot older than three and a half in this picture.

Once Sydney saw Lior's spider "do" yesterday she decided that she needed one also.
She had a ton of fun playing in the mirror and modeling with her spider girl hair. Today after a trip to the new princess store, she was miraculously transformed into a princess covered in fairy dust!She was so excited about the haircut she insisted on going first. She is becoming so grown up!
Jordan needs to be different and only wanted three ponies in her hair. Because I am no hairdresser her ponies were crooked and standing up straight. She looked adorable. When it was her turn for the princess haircut, she raced up to the chair and climbed up like it was an everyday event.
She loved her new look and the fairy dust was simply icing on the cake.

Akiva month ten in review

I seem to start all of my posts about Akiva the same way, "It is hard to believe..." but Akiva is growing and changing so quickly it seems like he is taking huge leaps everyday. In this past month he has sprouted another tooth bringing his grand total up to six. His teeth are still sharp as ever and he bites everything and everyone in his path. I think he is working on a few more because his finger is in his mouth constantly. When his fingers are not in his mouth we have to give him food quickly or he screams. He is still screaming those high pitched shrieks when he needs food. We are trying to teach him the sign for "more" but he has created his own sign which looks like he is revving a motorcycle when he wants more. Jordan is really trying to teach him to sign, which is funny because she is the only child who did not sign. She will stop eating when he starts screaming and show him the sign and say "more" very slowly and clearly to him.


Akiva started to walk last Saturday and he has not looked back. I think he prefers to be up on his feet rather than down on all fours. He stands up in the middle of the room and takes three to five steps without falling. He is so proud of himself, his face is beaming! The girls cheer and scream (think high pitched) "Akiva is walking, look at him!!" I think the screaming actually makes him realize he is walking and he falls down. Right now he will see one of the dogs and start babbling, stand up and charge toward it. I know that it will be a matter of minutes before his careful steps are replaced by running and bruised knees. My baby did not stay a baby long enough!


I wonder what steps he will be taking in the next month.

Tuesday's

I love Tuesday's. I think Tuesday's are my favorite day of the week, everyone is home and we have no plans. Today was no exception. We all slept in today and cuddled in bed until Sydney forced us out of bed! I can not tell you how excited the girls were when they found out that it was a "mommy day" and they did not have to go to school. They decided that they wanted to go outside to paint. I think Akiva had the best time. He was covered from head to toe.
Lior had a great time today and actually painted something! It is a picture of Disney World complete with Cinderella's castle and fireworks. She is very creative!
The girls made an amazing discovery today, they tried painting with a flower.
Jordan was the first to try it and as soon as she put the paint on the paper she said "It looks like fireworks!" it really does. She is just so smart. Lior was the next to try and wound up writing her name. Sydney decided that she would incorporate her flower into her painting, brilliant!
The fun did not end there! We decided to wash the water table out and it turned into something completely different. Lior was having the best time playing with the hose. She sprayed everyone and everything she could. At one one point she even promised me that I could walk by and she would not spray me and that wise guy soaked me! She really had a great time. Akiva did also when he woke up from his nap. He even got a sponge bath from his sisters. Jordan also got a sponge bath. For some reason Sydney had a blast cleaning everything today. I wish she would clean our house as well as she cleaned the toys today.

Purim princesses

We have been celebrating Purim for what seems like weeks but in reality has only been two days. We had a Purim parade at school yesterday where our little monkeys dressed as animals. Lior made it to school in her costume but ripped it off the second we got there. Jordan, our little monkey, dressed as a monkey! She could not have picked a better costume. Sydney decided to be a dog but refused to put on the hood so she was an earless dog but cute none the less!
Last night they were princesses, beautiful princesses, unfortunately I could not get a picture of the four of them together. Lior decided that she did not want to pose with the other princesses. It must be nice to be three!You can not tell by looking at her but I spent time doing her hair, just the way she wanted and even put make up on her but she was not happy about having to share her charriot with the other princesses. Even Mickey Mouse was disappointed to be blocked by such a beautiful princess.

These princesses did not mind sharing the spot light with Mickey Mouse. They were more than happy to walk to shul to hear the Megillah reading and scream when they heard Haman's name.
We went to another Purim party today. Sydney shocked me and went as the Little Mermaid and Jordan went as Minnie Mouse but I did not take a single picture!
The kids had a great time this Purim and so did we!