Streets REALLY Made For Walking!

The streets of NYC, of course! I <heart> New York in a major way. Maybe it would be different if we lived there full-time–surely it would be, if only because we probably couldn’t afford to live in an apartment large enough for all of us to not be on top of each other all the time! But, assuming that we could somehow magically afford a 3 (preferably 4) bedroom apartment in a building with an elevator (because climbing stairs carrying kids and groceries has got to be a circle in mommy-hell) in a location with a good public school and near a park (the last part actually seems pretty doable, just judging from our jaunts this weekend)…well, I think that it would be great fun. NYC reminds me a lot of two of my favorite places–Paris and Istanbul. Having a bakery around the corner. Access to fresh fruits and vegetables without having to trek to a supermarket. Many independent shops and restaurants providing variety and quality. Ample people-watching opportunities. CUPCAKE SHOPS. Whole shops devoted to cupcakes. And buttercream frosting. Need I say more??

Enjoying our delicious desserts!

*I say quality because I believe that having a variety of small, independent shops and restaurants provides the consumer with higher quality and better value. This is how: a small restaurant in a city like the ones mentioned above has to provide quality and value; if it doesn’t, patrons have a multitude of other places to patronize, and there are many other restaurateurs waiting to take over the location if you fail. With lower population density in the suburbs, there are fewer owners–or landlords–wanting to take a chance on small businesses. Thus, chains–restaurants, stores, supermarkets–abound.

 

Happy Halloween!

Some pumpkin magic, courtesy of Aunt Tee.

Ready for the neighbourhood Halloween Party! In case you can’t tell, we’re dressed up as a ballerina and spiderman.

 

Megalodon

Can you imagine yourself, swimming peacefully in the beautiful blue ocean, and seeing something with a mouth this big come swimming up next to you? Kind of makes Jaws look like a bath toy. It might kind of look like this:

Doesn’t that just give you the heebie-jeebies, just a little bit? Luckily, Turtle and Bug were much more fascinated than scared, and the whole exhibit was really interesting for the whole family, and very doable in one morning. I even wrote a review!  

 

Ready to Ride!

The kids are very, very excited about their new safety gear. Much like teeth-brushing, something that I thought we’d have to cajole them into turns out to be a big hit. And aren’t they adorable?

Baby Bug needs some help with her kneepad here…

 

Swimming

Did I mention that we love to swim? We really, really love to swim. We first got Turtle in the pool at about 5 weeks old, and he’s never looked back. We’ve graduated from wearing swimsuits with built-in foam vests plus water wings and are now onto these wonderful life vests. We have a blue-grey one with a shark face for Turtle and an adorable orange fish one (“a pufferfish!”) for Baby Bug, and they adore them. The best part is that they are approved safety flotation devices, so although it’s not like we toss the kids in the lake and then go off to make sandwiches, it is a comfort to know that these vests would be pretty safe should anything happen.

Most of the time I’m pretty anal about making sure that they are always wearing their swim shirts and hats when we’re outside–it’s just so much easier than trying to keep sunscreen on them!–but this past weekend we went swimming later in the day, and decided that a little nude swimming wouldn’t do any harm…for the BABIES, folks, just the babies. As you can see, I’m properly kitted out in my oh-so-flattering skirted tankini.

 

Dressing Up

Here are our little babes-in-togas! Are they the most darling little babies ever, dressed up in gramma’s old scarves and little hats. Er, wait. Yes, upon closer look I can confirm: Baby Bug is indeed wearing a pair of underpants on her head. Out of respect for the owner of the headgear, I will not divulge names. But, yes, they are clean underpants. What kind of family do you think we are?!

 

Fast Turtle Turns Three!

My little baby is growing up! Here he is with daddy…

And here’s his super-special birthday cake!

He specifically requested “a mommy and baby killer whale, a mommy and baby octopus, and a mommy and baby hammerhead” birthday cake, and we did our best to oblige. And by “we,” I of course mean the lovely lady who makes custom cakes!

We spent several days prior to the party cleaning the whole house, for the first big event we were hosting since completing construction. It was a much-needed cleaning and organization! The party was tons of fun for the birthday boy–and hopefully all the guests, too, and we all were exhausted by the end of the day.

 

All the pretty fishes…

Sunday we visited the Baltimore Aquarium. It was a great trip–the kids loved pretty much every second of it. We saw the dolphin show, zillions of fish (“Ish! Ish!” Baby Bug says), and even a few sharks.

Here’s daddy and baby bug, posing for the camera.

Here’s our big boy, in front of one of the fish tanks. He was too interested in the fish to want to waste time smiling, so this was as well as we could get him to pose!

We also saw the “4D” film they were playing. Not so much a hit with the kids; every time we got sprayed with water, baby bug started crying again. About halfway through, Kerem turned to me and said, “Mommy, I don’t want to watch this anymore” in a very serious, small little voice. Unfortunately we were right in the middle of a very crowded row, so there was really nothing we could do except wait out the last few minutes.

They recovered pretty quickly and were running around and having fun for the rest of the day.

*Edited to re-link photos.

 

A budding artist

Lately Fast Turtle has gotten very into using our cameras. He’s always loved being allowed to play with them, but now he’s very aware of the picture-taking process, and has turned out some, frankly, rather artistic photos. And also a lot of mommy’s rear end. But, skipping those, here’s one of his most recent ones:

What I love about his photographs is that they are all on his level, so I’m getting to see our house really from his 2 foot high perspective; he often will select one toy sitting on the table and do a nice close-up shot. Like above, a close look at a Statue of Liberty snow globe that Aunt Tee gave gramma for Christmas.

Of course, he also will agree to sometimes be the subject of our photos, here with Baby Bug:

As our pediatrician says, tongue-in-cheek, every time we come in for a visit: “It’s really too bad that there isn’t a family resemblance!”

I particularly like Baby Bug’s flying nun hairstyle (a little hard to see in the pictures) that she has been sporting lately.

 

So big, so big…

Baby Bug loves to stand on her little stool–which was mine, once upon a time–and watch the trees, sky, the occasional plane or helicopter. She has so many new words now: car, tree, milk, cup, spoon…to the untrained ear they just might all sound a little bit the same. A little bit all like “nooo!” Imagine that. She is very clear with “no!” and “mama!” and now “baba!” (daddy). Lately she has taken to calling Kerem “mama” too (along with grandma, the TV, her doll, sometimes daddy…oh, and her actual mama) and he is very quick to respond, “No, I’m Ke-REM! Not mama.”

Of course, Kerem wanted a stool too, the better to be able to draw and peek over the top of the easel.

And they love having a snack inside the cupboard! I think we’re going to have to create a few little hiding places for them in the new playroom, since they loved having empty cupboards to climb into so much during construction. Right now they’re still riding high on the glee of actually being able to run around. Before, it only took about 5 steps to cross the living room, and another 2 to reach the farthest you could go in the bedroom. Now they run from the kitchen around through the new family room, or from the playroom down the hall to our bedroom, giggling all the way.