Adi Wearing

One fine summery day we were outside, enjoying ourselves. Boys were running, Adi was hanging out in her pouch, life was good.


Zusha thought that it's not really fair that I get to hold Adel all the time while he only gets supervised sessions while sitting down. So he asked me if he can carry her in the sling. I figured- why not? Let the kid have a turn. I don't want to be a sling hog.

Unfortunately, I only had the Hotslings pouch with me, and it's not adjustable. Zusha was basically holding Adi in his arms while the sling hung limp on his shoulder.

So the next day... we gave it another run with the Maya Wrap!

And it worked so much better. Of course, the tail reached the ground, but that's no matter when we have two pleased kidlets.

Adel thought it was so funny. She actually giggled!

Scientific Outline of My Thoughts

• Shavuos was great! Gedalya ate the eiruv on the first day, but otherwise it was nice.
• Zusha's tooth is barely holding on. I told him it can fall out when he's home, in cheider, or outside with me. I warned him that there might be a little blood. He looked at me in terror. I comforted him by saying that it won't hurt, and will be just a little blood from the tooth and not from a booboo. That night, he ran out of bed in a panic, "I have blood!" (He didn't and I sent him back to bed.) Then later, "My tooth fell out!!" (It didn't and I sent him back to bed.)
• It won't get warmer than 80 degrees for at least two weeks. That's great, because I will be able to use all the long sleeved shirts for the kids that we don't normally have much of a chance to use because of the sudden weather change that usually takes place.
• I've been trying to teach Adel to wave when I say "Hi" for about a week. Yesterday she actually opened and closed her fingers slowly during a "Hi" session. She still needs to concentrate very hard to do it, but pretty soon she should be waving!
• Cheider is almost over, and I'm really excited for the summer!
• I'm giving up on headbands for Adibaby. They all leave a mark on her poor little kepele.
• I put Gedalya in underwear and let him figure things out on his own. He is fully trained when he's not wearing anything and fully untrained when he wears something on his tushie. The first few days there were only misses. Then we had some hits, but still mostly misses. Now he's doing it right most of the time.
• At the park I heard one woman say to another about her baby, "He's so big and round. He looks just like you!" That didn't sound exactly right.
• Gedalya just "got" bike pedaling. He is riding around the center wall of our house nonstop. Zusha parroted him and kinda got it as well. The last time we went out with the bike was September and neither of the boys were able to ride it. I foresee lots of bike days this summer. The only issue is how to get to the park with the bike and two kids, one baby and a stroller. They aren't so good on it as to be able to ride to the park. Maybe on Sundays Hillel can watch Adel and I'll go with the boys, the bike and no stroller.
• Today on the way home I had Adel in the wrap, and the boys were stacked up in the stroller. A frum man, in his fifties or so, looked at Adel, then at the stroller and said, "Oh, my, there are several more in there!"
  

Her Favorite Ride

Just riding along...

In her Maya Wrap...

This kid was born to be worn... she LOVES it!

Sunny Day, 2 of 3

Little boys...



Swingy little girl...


She loves the swing...



...especially when her brothers join in the fun! Brothers make everything better.


Adel loves hats that come with tasty accessories.


Gedalya, running on train tracks. Those are REAL train tracks! As real as it gets, that is. These are train track shadows, and Gedalya ran up and down, loving every second of it.


Adel's first time in a hip carry. Little hippie girl! She loves her slings, that one!

(Photo by Zusha this time.)

Last Week...

Last week I had a cleaning lady come on Wednesday- the second to last time before Pesach. While she and I cleaned, Gedalya occupied himself with a book.


(No, I didn't pose him. This is the kid's natural cuteness. )

And Adel occupied herself with her fingers.


Then Gedalya gave Adel crawling lessons.


"Adel! Do like this!"


"Gedalya! Do like THIS!"


The next day, Thursday, was gorgeous park weather:



Zusha drew a hopscotch board, and I was astounded by the perfect handwriting in these numbers!


On Friday I left the boys home with Hillel, stuffed Adel into my "pocket" ( ) and went out to do Shabbos shopping.


Home again!
Somebody missed his Baby MeiBooBoo.


I bought Adi a little toy and we were playing with it together. I was making it fly in all directions, and she followed with her eyes. Then I put it down in front of her, hoping she'd reach for it. Adel waited a few seconds, made a very insulted face, and gave a "Waah!"
I made the toy fly again, brought it to rest, and the same pouty lip and "Waah!" appeared. Little Adi was showing her displeasure in the toy because it stopped flying.

Maya Wrap

When I was pregnant with Gedalya, I was really not looking forward to dragging two children up and down the steps in our old apartment building. We lived on the fourth floor!
Zusha wasn't able to walk up without holding on yet, and the hallway stairs were so dirty that I couldn't possibly let him touch them, or the railings. (I wasn't being neurotic. By dirty, I mean bodily fluids, including blood, and roaches that died on the stairs and stayed there until they decayed and disintegrated. Ahem. Back to happier things.)

So I needed a way to carry the new baby upstairs while holding on to Zusha's hand. I didn't want anything too complicated (I was only going to use it to bring the baby up and down) or flashy (no one in BP wore their babies, and I felt a bit self conscious.) So I got a black Hotslings pouch.
I really liked it! It was convenient, and really worked nicely to calm Gedalya when he was hungry and needed to wait five minutes before we got home.

Then, when Adel was born, I wanted more options, since I didn't feel funny being the only baby wearer in BP anymore. So I got another Hotslings pouch (in olive green) and my mother in law bought me a Maya Wrap.
I tried out the wrap in the beginning, when Adel was a newborn, but it does have a learning curve, and I haven't mastered it yet. And since Adel cried in it that one time, I decided to give it a try sometime later again.

Well, I pulled it out again recently, and WOW! I think I'm in love. It is so comfortable. The adjustable rings are awesome. I love the custom fit. Adel seems to love it as well.
And as I mentioned before, the long and wide material is a great nursing cover.


Happy squished little baby girl!

Mama and Baby

Sleepy Adi...


So cuddly!


Yummy, fuzzy...


Soft and warm baby!


*** All photography in this post is copyrighted by GEDALYA, the not-even-three-year-old!***
Is that cool, or what?

I Need Summer. Now.

Wow. Today was such a tease. It was almost 60 degrees F! We took advantage of it to the last drop. But it made me long for summer. I'm not used to having a winter baby.

It was so warm that I went out without a coat. I took along Gedalya's and Adel's coats, stuck Adelbaby in my kangaroo pocket, and off we went to pick up the Zusil. Gedalya rode in the carriage and took photos of me and Adel. :)


Adelbaby even fell asleep in the sling, and looked so comfy and rosy. :) I loved seeing her sleeping face so close as I walked.

We picked up Zusha and went to the bakery to get some things to eat in the park. On our way, a punky-looking teen on his way from public school noticed Adel peeking over my shoulder from her carrier and said, "What a cute baby girl. Hi cutie!" Haha

Then we settled by a table in the park and had a snack.





By then Adel was getting tired again, and hungry, too. So I nursed her to sleep while the boys drew with chalk. Zusha, my little artist, drew a hopscotch board!

We played and enjoyed the long-awaited sunny reprieve from one of the coldest winters I remember. Then we went home. On the way I played with Zusha- I spelled a word to him in Yiddish and he had to figure it out. He was pretty good at it, and got most of them right! When we arrived home, we played with clay. We haven't done that in a while, so it was a real treat for the boys.
The day was just so perfect!

Guess Who Joined Toddler RIF at the Library?

Yesterday we went to the library for Toddler RIF. Zusha and Gedalya each got a book, and Adel got a book AND a certificate! LOL. She also got a bib. :)

Here she is hanging out in her sling at the library.


The big boys playing: