Birthday Stragglers

We like to have several birthday parties for the kids... it stretches out the fun! We have something on the actual birthday, an event out of the house, something small with just immediate family, and something with various grandparents whenever they are able to make it.
We also have something special on the Shabbos after the birthday because we are all home and together and it's the perfect opportunity for CAKE.

So here are some straggling photos of Gedalya's fourth birthday...

Here he is with my mother in the park. Isn't it the sweetest photo?


I also promised Gedalya a "Happy Birthday" chocolate for his cake, but since it was so close to Pesach, bakeries weren't selling much in the way of extras.
So we got his chocolate after Pesach. (Which made his birthday extend for close to a month!)


Yummy nummy!


Good birthday boy, shared with his brother.

The Real 20 Month Old Adel

Shamefully, Adel's 20 month post didn't have any 20 month photos. Although I'm not doing any monthly posts after one year, if I do make a post, I really should put recent photos, right?

Here they are!

Lovey Dovey Fuzzy Wuzzy Nature Happenings

I went on a mini nature walk last night. Probably "micro" would be a better adjective.
My goal: to obtain leaves that the butterflies would lay their eggs on. Our cute, furry little caterpillars formed their chrysalides and have emerged this past Thursday and Friday. It is an awesome and mind boggling experience. The whole transformation goes so against my mortal understanding of how physics should work.

I only went down the block because I knew the plants we needed were to be found here. And since I'm all immersed in this nature stuff right now, I might as well share the nature photos that have accumulated in my photo files over the months. :)

We have been planning to release the butterflies within a few days of their hatching. Since the last butterfly emerged on Friday night, today was the most reasonable day to release them all. They stay in the place of release for a few hours, so we needed to find a remote area where they wouldn't be bothered.

One time, several years ago, we were at a playground when a class of preschool girls arrived with their teachers. They had several butterflies with them and released them on the grassy playing field. The poor creatures were disoriented and had nowhere to hide. Right in the pamphlet that is sent out with the caterpillars it says that they will stay in the spot you let them go for several hours before trying to find a hideout. So the responsible thing would be to let them go in a place where nobody walks. Here's a photo from that day, three years ago, of Zusha pointing out the butterfly:

(The poor things, with no shelter or shade...)

We planned to bring the beauties to Prospect Park where there is plenty of greenery and all the remote spots we could ever want. I even penned it into the summer planner I got. But we weren't able to do it in the end. Several factors prevented us from going but the decision was finalized by a phone call from a friend that a close friend of ours is here from Eretz Yisroel and today is her only chance to get together with us. So of course, we grabbed the chance.

We ended up releasing the butterflies locally. I will post about that soon. :)
But now, back to my nature walk. I read up about the butterflies' mating and egg-laying habits, and discovered that they lay eggs only on plants that the caterpillars like to eat. Smart insects. After googling "hollyhock," "thistle" and a few others, I was pleased to find that the two former grow on my block. Hey, if we get butterfly eggs, we'll save $18 on a new caterpillar kit.

I went out after midnight to collect the leaves. The breeze was heavenly. The sweet floral scent that it carried was even more so. I don't remember the last time the city air smelled so wonderful.

(nest)

On that walk last night I discovered the residence of the chipper insomniac bird. Probably a wayward toddler, he alone sings his incessant song all. night. long. I thought we had it bad, until I passed the house in whose front-yard tree this bird resides. You'd need ear plugs to sleep. And I was only across the street. Imagine having your window parallel to a creature that produces a sound not at all unlike a car alarm- you know, the ones that change every few seconds... eeeooo eeeooo eeeooo, bzzzz bzzzz bzzzz, ooo aaa ooo aaa... well, you get the idea. :)
Not only does it resemble a car alarm in its song of choice, but also in volume. I really should go out one night with a camera and get a video.

(Really, really big anthill)

So I collected the leaves and headed home. Through the maze of water bugs. They rule the roost at nights. I seriously could not walk in a straight line. I was amused by the contrast of the divine floral scent and the... water bugs.

Anyway, the butterflies (or bapipibees as Zusha and Gedalya like to call them in remembrance of their toddler word) attacked the leaves right away, but unfortunately they didn't lay any eggs. I guess I'll have to buy more before summer is finished!

We happened to have missed all five of the cocoons being built, and then, despite our best efforts, we also missed all five butterflies emerging. But this time lapse video I found kind of makes up for that.

Uuuuuuuup

Adi is quite into her "uuuuuuuup" -s. She takes them very seriously.



The speech therapist is really (really) into the word up.



And since Adel likes to imitate, there was a time she was up-up-up-uping all day long.



Even at inappropriate times. The way Adel works is that when she is challenged, she will revert to an action she knows well. At one point, when she was expected to raise her arms and say "up," she'd revert to clapping, which she knew how to do well. Eventually, the "up" became the default action she would revert to.
"Want me to do something difficult? Well, wouldn't you rather see how well I can do uuuuuup?"



So all her other therapists started to discourage "up." Soon enough Adel dropped it altogether.



And now she finally found the golden medium, and says "up" at mostly appropriate times.

ZOMGit'salmostFALLbacktoSCHOOL!!!

GAP tells me it's almost fall.

Take a closer look:


O rly?

And Children's Place is standing behind them, solemnly nodding as they put out their new arrival of UNIFORMS.

And backpacks, binders, pencil cases...

On the first day of summer vacation, we strolled by Children's Place and popped in to have a look around. And the place was teeming with back to school paraphernalia! How is that even legal?

I guess it is good that they put out seasonal items months in advance, because by the time they will be actually needed, you'll be able to get them all on clearance. But, I dunno. It just weirds me out that they put up uniforms and backpacks for next fall before school was even out!

Maybe they will have their holiday things out before Yomim Noraim. The whole Boro Park will buy them out. That'll teach them a lesson when they won't have anything left to sell for the winter holidays.

Why Adel is the Cutest Baby in the World, According to Zusha

Zusha: Adel is the cutest baby in the world. Do you know why?

Me: Why?
Zusha: Because all other girls walk just regular, but Adel walks with her legs hiiiigh up, like this:

Zusha: That's why she's cute and special.

F. Uni

Some people are better off writing out their full names, or abbreviating both their first and their last.

*G. Igle*

Noooo Socks

Alternately titled:

20 Months!

So yes, my baby has entered her twenties. In a way it's more significant than 18 months because you hear 18, you think "1 1/2 year old." But when you hear 20, your mind jumps up to "2 year old." Or maybe not you, but it's true for me.

So what's Adel up to these days? She's having a whole hullabaloo with therapy... we are having one replaced, another one came back from maternity leave... so we are splitting the sessions between her and the replacement therapist two to one. Plus the standard summer schedule changes.

In the meantime, I've been teaching Adel all about socks. I ask, "Adi, do you have... soooocks??" and her fingers jump down to her feet to pinch her socks. Now that it's summer and she doesn't always wear socks, I didn't just abandon the lesson. After I ask her if she has socks and she tries to find them, I say, "Noooo socks!"

When dressing her, I put one sock on and leave one off and then show her "socks" and "no socks."
Soon enough Adi began repeating, "Ak-h." Do I even need to translate? And if she's not wearing them, she says, "Nueee." She's not always on target. She could say "nue" when she's wearing the socks or "ak-h" when she is not. One time she even said, "Nue ak-h!" No socks! I guess it's a sentence, although she is just repeating. But for Adel, repeating is not "just!"

We're not sure (and by we, I mean I and the therapists) if Adel really understands the words "no" and "socks" and all the other words she was taught. It seems to us that she is just being conditioned to respond a certain way. When she hears the word "socks" she knows to pinch the sock and attempt to repeat the word, but does she really know that this object has a name, and that name is "sock," or did she merely learn: hear word = do action?
When I ask where her mouth is, she does an Indian call. Because that's what she was taught. Does she understand that the organ making the sound of the Indian call is called a mouth or does she know: hear word = do action?

Whatever the case may be, Adel is showing great signs of progress. Even if she does just point to body parts because she knows she has to, as opposed to knowing that they have titles, it's still a great start.

I've mentioned before that she is eating more and more solids. That's awesome! She's still not chewing, but she is choking less and less. I am now breaking the baby grain puff snacks into two pieces as opposed to four!

These photos of Adi aren't from 20 months... more like 18. But they were too cute not to post.
At that time it was still unusual and novel to see her standing happily. She'd usually scream when we stood her up- she couldn't get down herself (even now, it's difficult for her to transition down from standing.)
But this time she stayed up so happily in this beautiful setting, allowing me to snap a whole stream of lovely photos. This one was my favorite!

Yea!

School



is



out!

Sledding, Part Two

On a 90 degree day like today, I think a reminisce about a snowy day would be in order!

One day in February we went sledding from a hill in Prospect Park. This time, we found a nice, juicy hill. The kids were somewhat disappointed on the previous trip because their grandparents told them they'd be going down BIG hills... but we didn't find any. They had fun anyway, but this time, they had the real deal.

It's hard to tell from these photos, but the hill was as high as a two-story building, and the distance from the top to the foot was about the length of a large city block. Imagine installing a slide outside of your second floor window and having it stretch for one long block. That was that hill.

Looking up from the bottom. Zusha is in the lower left corner, bringing up the sled:

I know it doesn't look big at all, but I was standing where the sleds come to a stop when I was taking this photo.

And here is the view from the top down. The three people are Zusha, (bringing up the sled) my mother-in-law, and Gedalya sliding down.

There is very little that can compare to zipping over the packed, icy ground at breakneck speed on a device that has no brakes or controls!

Whiiiiz down...


Climb back up.


Down.


Up.


Down.


Up.


Down.


Up.



Down.


Up.

Down...

and down...

and doooown!

Whew! Time for a quiet, relaxing activity- snowman building!