The Giant Lump
After our banner day yesterday, we were settling in to go to sleep. I went to give Ari a kiss good night and he yelled: "Don't kiss me!"This was especially strange, as Ari loves kisses and hugs from me. "Why don't you want me to kiss you?" I asked. "I hurt." He replied in a soft whimper. All of a sudden I noticed that the right side of his neck was twice the size that it normally is. "Oh my G-d!" I exclaimed. I reached out to touch it and he screamed: "Don't touch it! It hurts!" "Is that why you were crying when we were walking home?" I asked. "Yeah..." he said softly. I don't know what came over me, but I started bawling. I felt awful. I completely misjudged the situation. He was being defiant, for sure, but there was a reason behind his behavior. He was in pain and I didn't realize it. "I'm so sorry," I managed to say between sobs. He cried too. We held each other. "It's going to be okay." I said. I called the pediatrician's office. It was after hours, so I spoke to the doctor on call. She said it was [...]
The Winner of The Mazel Tov Giveaway From Little One Books is…
The winner of The Mazel Tov Giveaway from Little One Books is... Renee Adams from Me Myself and Mommy. Samara and I would like to say: Yay for Renee! Renee, what do you have to say?
Knock It Off!
Today I feel like the worst mom. Ari, Samara and I went to the playground this morning. Ari wanted to take his scooter with him. I told him that was fine by me, but he had to promise that he would ride it or walk with it all the way to the playground and all the way home. He agreed enthusiastically. When it came time to go home, he did not want to leave the playground, which wasn't much of a surprise. "Ari, we have to go home, when we get home, we're going to see Chesca." Chesca is Ari's cousin, and it was true, she is coming over later today. We started walking home, and that's when the trouble started. He paused in the middle of the street and stood there unmoving. "Ari you need to walk or ride your scooter." "No." He whined "Ari, I'm not in the mood for this right now. We need to go home and you need to walk." "NO!" He yelled and started crying. I tried to reason with him: "Ari, I can't carry you because I'm carrying Samara. So you need to walk." At this point Samara started crying, and I knew [...]
Liz At The Library
Last week my dad helped me lead Story Time while the librarian is on vacation for three weeks. This week, my mom helped me read and sing to 0-4 year olds. She is a former ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher for elementary school children, and also has a public relations background. Essentially she's great with kids and an extrovert! It figures that she's a Leo. Liz, my mom, is pictured above with the list of songs and stories we did for Story Time. She inspires me to be organized. Ari was busy reading while we were getting ourselves ready for our 10:30am performance. My friend Leah drove down to Brooklyn from upstate NY with her step-daughter Kinneret, age 2, to join in on the Story Time fun. She also took all the pictures of us reading, singing and being silly. I was in a rush this morning, and therefore hastily selected my books. My mom's two books were a hit. They were: Eric Carle's "From Head to Toe" This is a great book. It goes through a list of animals and things they can do with their bodies. For example "I am a giraffe, I can bend my [...]
The Mazel Tov Giveaway From Little One Books: Win a $15 Gift Certificate!
Mazel Tov, in Hebrew, means congratulations. As many of you know, I recently had a baby girl named Samara.After Samara was born, I've received many "Mazel Tovs." In honor of my new baby girl, I'm co-hosting a $15 gift certificate giveaway with Little One Books. Little One Books sent me two baby books to review. After all, I have a target audience here to test them out on. The first one is called "I Went Walking." Samara seemed to like it.I Went Walking is a great book for babies. It's simple, but introduces a variety of animal words and colors, including a green duck, a red horse, a black cat and a yellow dog. The book's words are rhythmic and catches one's attention with it's rhyming couplets. The second book I received was Sandra Boynton's The Going to Bed Book.I read this to Samara when she was sleepy. This book features silly looking cartoon animals getting ready for bed. They're doing all the routines associated with bedtime, like putting on their pajamas, taking a bath, and brushing their teeth. However, there is a page in the book that is questionable:The animals are exercising before they go to bed, which is [...]
Poop on The Floor – A Good Omen
This morning I woke up to Ari shaking me vigorously."Mommy!" He said "I went poop!""Okay..." I said in a very sleep deprived state. I wasn't sure what the urgent state of affairs was. Then I rolled over in bed saw saw that he had removed his diaper and pooped on the floor. I have to say that this was not the way I would have chosen to wake up. I hazily tried to collect my thoughts."Uh...that's okay. But next time, tell me before you have to poop so you can go to the potty." I countered back."No." He said in a matter of fact way. With that he ran down the hall naked from the waist down. When I finally caught him, I gave him a bath, diapered him and went on with my day.When we came back from grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, we had lunch, and then, according to the schedule, it was quiet time. When I announced that it was quiet time, he announced back at me:"I have to pee! I wanna go on the potty."I presumed this was just an attempt to avoid napping, but I acquiesced and put him on the toilet. I gave him [...]
Tumbling Class At Power Play
The other day, a friend of mine who I met at the library, Barbara, introduced me to a great indoor play space. It's called Power Play and it's located on 3rd Avenue and 8th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We met up at Power Play for a play date and Ari loved the indoor play space. It was equipped with many plastic vehicles to drive, a giant slide that lead to a sandbox, a big wooden playhouse and lots and lots of toys. The play space costs $10 for a 2 hour play session. Barbara had a Play Pass, which she was kind enough to let us use. Ari loved the indoor play space. He spent the majority of his time there playing in the sandbox. When we were getting ready to leave, the receptionist told us that Power Play offered gymnastic/tumbling classes for kids. If I was interested, she said, I could sign up for a free trial class. I asked Ari if he wanted to take a tumbling class. He said "Yes!" So I said "Yes!" My friend Cordy texted me yesterday asking what I was up to on Thursday. I said "Taking Ari to a tumbling class. [...]
Distractions Needed While Nursing
I don't know how anyone successfully nurses two kids, especially if the older kid is a 2 year old boy. Whenever I try to feed Samara, Ari is literally climbing on my back. Today he got the brilliant idea to lick my arm while I tried to feed the baby."Stop it!" I said "I don't like that." Of course this response made him do it more. In the end my left arm was covered in drool.He also likes to engage in potentially dangerous or aggravating activities while I have the baby on my boob so that it is difficult for me to stop him. He'll climb on top of the couch, attempt to pull down the window blinds, rip up important papers that are sitting on the coffee table and much much more. It's anxiety provoking.If we're home, the only thing that seems to work is to turn the TV on. He is transfixed by it, and therefore stops climbing on me temporarily. But I don't want to over use the TV because a) it's bad for his brain, and b) he'll become immune to it and it will not work as a method of distraction.A few moms have suggested [...]
When In Doubt, Call in Reinforcements
When I mentioned that I was going to lead Story Time at the library to my parents, my dad was excited. For those of you who don't know him, he comes from a theatrical background and loves kids."Can I help?" He asked."Of course!" I automatically replied.When we got to the library I got some shocking news. It turns out that the librarian is not going away for ten days, but rather three weeks. Consequently, I'll be covering two more weeks of Story Time.My dad and I led Story Time together and it was loads of fun. Thank you to everyone who made such great book suggestions for the 0-4 age group. We ended up going with "Click Clack Moo", one of my favorites: "The Monster At The End of This Book" "Knuffle Bunny" And a couple of other Mo Willems books that I can't remember the names of right now.I'm so glad my dad was there to help me.As for songs we did:Old McDonaldIf You're Happy And You Know ItThe Color Song- See previous post for lyricsOpen Shut ThemBelow are some pictures from the day. The faces of children involved have been disguised so that they may remain anonymous. One [...]
The Giant Frog, By Ari
Here is a story that Ari told me at breakfast today:ARI: Once upon a time there was a boy named "Mommy."Mommy met a giant frog.The frog say "Hello."Mommy say "Hello."Mommy was scared.1-2-3-4-5.5-4-3-2-1.I all done with peanut butter toast.I love that I am a boy.
Trader Joe’s, Will You Marry Me?
Groceries are extraordinarily expensive. I try to buy mostly organic, so they end up being even more expensive. My mom has been telling me (for over a year) to try Trader Joe's. I kept meaning to go over there, I really did, but I was addicted to ordering my groceries online, with Fresh Direct. It was so convenient, but also pretty pricey.Yesterday, I had a playdate, and I made Mac and Cheese for the kids' lunch. My friend saw the box and commented:"You know, Trader Joe's Mac and Cheese is like 99 cents."My jaw hit the floor. It was then that I knew I needed to get over there immediately.I'd heard enough tales of Trader Joe's cheapness. I was ready to embark there with the two young ones.Today, I left the house, and decided that I would take a taxi over there. I figured, I would be saving so much money once I got there, that the taxi fare wouldn't be too bad, plus I had two kids with me. Ari was pleased.The cab ride to Trader Joe's cost us $9.00. When we got there, I was completely overwhelmed. There were so many aisles and everything was so cheap! Ari [...]
This Would Only Happen To Me
Ari and I went to the library for story time yesterday. As soon as we entered the children's room, I made eye contact with the children's librarian, and I knew something was wrong. "I have to sit at the desk, can you do story time today?" She pleaded with me. "Uh...okay..." I said. I was barely caffeinated and certainly not prepared with material for 0-4 year olds, but I didn't want to let the group down. I quickly scanned the library shelves for age appropriate material and went through my mental rolodex for songs to perform. I had a rough start. The books I picked were way too long for the group. By the third page of a book where the protagonist draws all over her bedroom wall with crayons, two toddler girls were screaming at the top of their lungs and bludgeoning each other with giant lady bug shaped pillows. Ari was sitting at the front of the room with me pointing out all the colors in the story very loudly. The songs were a bigger hit than the story. I did the color song. It goes like this: "Red, red is the color I see. If you're wearing [...]
I’m Not Ready
I was supposed to substitute teach two days next week. I prepared myself for it mentally and physically. I pumped enough milk for both days in advance and froze it. But as it came closer to return to work date, I started to panic. I wasn't ready. It was the same panic I experienced when I tried to return to work when Ari was three months old. I looked at Samara and she looked so little to me. I don't feel ready to leave her for an entire day. I just couldn't do it. I contacted the school and told them that I wasn't ready. I'm not ready, and I'm okay with that.
Wrong Number!
Warning: The following has nothing to do with motherhood. I've been receiving peculiar text messages from varying sources and needed to document them before my brain atrophied. There's something about my cell phone number that attracts random people that I've never met. I've determined, through the messages I've been receiving, that my phone number once belonged to a woman named Zenovia. This woman has led a very interesting life. It started out innocently enough on New Years Day. I got a text message that said: "Happy New Year Beautiful, to you and your family." I didn't recognize the number, so I ignored it, thinking it was either a wrong number, or someone I'd lost touch with. But my curiosity got the best of me. Here's how the text exchange went: "Thanks! Who is this?" "Now I'm offended Zena. You don't remember me?" "No, who is this?" "Just a year ago you were licking my chest down in the park." I knew it was time to call this gentleman and set him straight. Poor guy. Here's how the phone conversation went: "Hi, this is Sarah, you've been texting Zena. You have the wrong number." A pregnant pause. "Oh." Another pregnant pause. [...]
How Does He Do It?
I've been trying to get Samara to take a nap all day. I've been rocking her, patting to her, letting her cry a little, giving her the pacifier, you get the idea. Finally, Wil says to me "I'll take her."I gladly hand over the baby and go do the dishes. 15 minutes later, I return to the living room and find this:I'm sure when he wakes up he's going to brag about how awesome he is. I want to know how he does it. It's not fair! It comes so easily to him. I'm her mother, I should know what to do!I've asked him what is secret is, but he insists that he doesn't have one."I just try everything babe." He says.I try everything too, but nothing works.Well, at least she's asleep. I should really be sleeping too.