Driving the Car

At the supermarket, they have shopping carts that have cars attached to them. It is a fun little way to keep your little one occupied while food shopping. The child has fun "driving a car" while you do the necessary tedious shopping for the week. All little kids love the car cart. Joshua is no exception.


When we got to the supermarket, I went to put Joshua in the "regular" shopping cart. Josh resisted and I couldn't figure out why. What kids does not like a little ride in a shopping cart? (The kid who has experienced the ultimate driving machine, that's who. The "car" shopping cart). Joshua carried on that he wanted to go in a "car" and wouldn't get in a regular shopping cart. I was a little annoyed that he was being a pain, but I didn't know what I was in for in the next 10 minutes. (If it were up to me, I wouldn't put him in that car as it is such a pain to maneuver through the store). As we approach the entrance, there is one car shopping cart left. A woman entered about 20 seconds ahead of me and put her son in the last car cart. I tried to explain to Joshua that there weren't any left, and we would have to use a regular cart. Joshua said "no". I knew that I only needed a couple of items, and I thought I could manage if I held his hand and he walked next to me. (Unfortunately, Joshua is a "runner". So, I can't really just have him next to me and ask him to stay by my side. Sigh). I grab Joshua''s hand to go down the first aisle, and Joshua goes into a full-blown temper tantrum. (You know the kind - lying in the middle of the floor screaming and crying. Fun times). I really didn't need the items bad enough, right? So, I walk out of the store with him.


When I get to the car, I attempt to put Joshua in his car seat. Another tantrum brews and he is flailing his arms and legs and doesn't want to go in the car seat. Now, he wants to go food shopping and wants to go in the regular cart. Hey, at least I can get my food shopping done - although it is now 20 minutes later. So, I put Joshua in the regular shopping cart and we proceed back in the grcery store. As we approach the entrance, I spot a car cart. "Please don't see it, please don't see it". I am saying to myself. Yet, Joshua, of course, spots it and is now wanting to go in the car cart. Ok Ok, I gave in! Of course, my 10 minute trip took 45 minutes, but that is what happens when you have a toddler in tow for errands.

I Want to Hug Her

I didn't know what to expect when Samantha was born as to how Joshua would act. I assumed he would be jealous of her. So far, so good at 6 months. I don't see any real jealousy issues. I have tried really hard to not say, "Sorry Joshua, you can't do X because I have to do Y for Sami". I don't know if it has worked, but Joshua is really good with Samantha. He is always asking to hug her (or just doing) and kissing her and asking to hold her. It is really cute.

Time for Solids

Getting ready for the big event. Anticipation for what is coming.

Trying to decide whether Sami likes it.

Yes. Another bite, please.

6 Months has come, and it is now time to start Samantha on solids. Today was the big day. Of course, "solids" is a word to be used very loosely. (No pun intended, well - maybe). Solids is basically specially formulated rice cereal mixed with so much breast milk that you are practically feeding her liquid via spoon. Of course, it tastes different, and this is Samantha's introduction to food. Each day, you make it a little thicker. For the first 2 weeks, Samantha will only get the rice cereal. After that, she will start to be introduced to new foods.

Samantha did well with her first feeding. She didn't spit it out too bad, and she seemed to like it. I look forward to introducing her to all kinds of new foods - like pizza!

My Little Shoplifter

On Thursday, Joshua, Samantha and I went to a local Mommy and Me event in Rockville. It was at an outdoor shopping center. The different stores in the shopping center participate and have little activities or giveaways for the kiddies. (In the end, it was pretty lame and I am not going to go back to that event).

One of the stores is Hallmark. They were giving balloons to the kids right outside of the store. Of course, I grabbed a balloon for Joshua as he loves balloons. I also needed to buy some cards, so I went inside the store. I bought the cards I needed and walked out. As we are walking down the shopping center, I noticed that Joshua was holding a tealight candle. Ut oh. I didn't buy that for him. I grabbed the candle, walked back to the store and walked up to the woman standing at the outside handing out balloons. I handed her the candle, said I was "sorry" and walked away. It definitely could have been worse. Yet, I can't imagine a store wanting to press charges against a 2 year old.

This is not the first time and certainly not the last time I will be apologizing for my son's wrongdoing.

Samantha's Photo Shoot

A local photographer in the area was looking for a baby model. So, I volunteered Samantha. I thought she was actually looking for baby models for future projects. However, she was just looking for baby models for her own projects. (Honestly, I think it was just a ploy to gain more business). The pictures came out amazing. I wish she wasn't so expensive and then I would buy some. Here are just a sample. I wish that I had rights to these pictures and then I could send them to a baby talent agency. Unfortunately, I don't have rights to the pictures and can't do anything with them. Oh well.

2 1/2 Years Old

Joshua at 2 1/2. Well, this is the only picture I have that is halfway decent from his 2 1/2 year birthday. If you look at our pictures, 90% of them are of Samantha. Joshua refuses to sit still for a picture.

Joshua is gaining some independance and telling us what he wants. Plus, he is telling us that he wants to do it as opposed to us doing it for him. That is great that he is starting to do things by himself, but of course, it takes much longer to complete the task.

We are still seeing the temper tantrums with the terrible twos. They aren't super frequent which is nice, but they are there. Luckily, we aren't seeing any temper tantrums pertaining to his 5 month old sister. Joshua (at this point) seems to really love Samantha. He hasn't shown any real signs of jealousy and he is always hugging her and kissing her, and asking to hold her.

Sleep Through the Night Already!

A full night sleep. That is all I want. 8pm - 6am. Is that too much to ask for? By this time, Joshua was sleeping through the night. In fact, he had been sleeping through the night for several months by now. Samantha won't sleep through the night. No matter what, she is always waking up around 2am. She is hungry, so there is nothing I can do about it. I tried to just rock her. Nope. I tried to change her diaper. Nope. I even tried a few times to wake her up before I went to bed to feed her hoping that would last through the night. Nope. Samantha is starting solids soon, so hopefully that will help.

5 Months

Easter Egg Hunt

I am going to expose Joshua and Samantha to a lot of things for them to learn about different cultures. However, being Jewish, I am not going to stand in line at the mall so that Joshua and Samantha can sit on Santa or the Easter Bunny's lap.

In my community, they have a lot of different events throughout the year. One Sunday close to Easter time, they had a comedy show geared towards 2 - 6 year olds and then an Easter Egg Hunt afterwards. Me and my Jewish friend went to the show with our two year olds and then went outside for the Easter Egg Hunt. (We weren't going to participate, but then we thought, "why not?) All the other kids had beautiful Easter baskets in all different shapes and sizes. (There was even one for a little boy that was shaped as a football. Wow. People do get creative). What did Joshua and his little friend Camille have? Nothing! The two Jews came to the Easer Egg Hunt with nothing. Some people who didn't have the lavish baskets brought bags. Nope, didn't even have a shopping bag for Josh.

The Easter Egg hunt starts and Josh walks over to an egg and picks it up. 1 egg. All the other kids are picking up tons of eggs and putting them in their basket, and Joshua grabs one egg, stares at it, and opens it. Yay, a hershey kiss for Mommy! The funny thing about it is when I get the Monthly King Farm Chronicle (our monthly neighborhood newspaper) a few weeks later. There on page 12 along with the article about the event is a picture of Joshua holding his one egg.

Our Little Drummer Boy

Samantha 4 Months

Our little princess is 4 months old. She is such a happy baby and smiles all the time. All you have to do is smile at Samantha and say "hello", and she will smile back. Strangers in the mall love it as Samantha gives anyone and everyone that big gummy smile. Samantha is also a ham in front of the camera. She loves to smile for the camera too. She is still very chatty and loves to have a conversation with you. Samantha loves to hang out on her play mat and is now grbbing at the objects. If you put her on her stomach, she is not protesting all the time for tummy time like she used to, and she will sometimes roll over from her stomach to her back.

Haircut #2

I was hoping that after Josh's freakout with his first haircut that he would relax for haircut #2. No such luck. Keith wants to take Joshua to his barber for a father/son bonding time. (Right now, we take Joshua to a kiddie haircut place that plays cartoons while you get your haircut). Due to Josh's haircut freakout, I think Keith is going to have to wait a bit longer.

Snowpocalypse 2010

I lived in Boston for 9 years, and there were many cold and snowy winters. I do remember one year that it snowed a lot and the weatherman measured the season's inches of snow against the height of a Boston Celics player. Sure, we got blizzards in Boston. Sure, we got 2 feet of snow while I was there. Yet, nothing compares to Snowpocalypse 2010 in the Washington, DC area.

On Saturday February 6th, we got about 26 inches of snow. On Tuesday February 9th, we got about another 15 inches of snow. It is the most snow that the DC area has gotten in over 100 years. That is over 40 inches of snow. Since the weather stayed cold in between the 2 storms, none of it melted. The weather was so bad, that the federal government was closed for 4 days straight from February 8th - February 11th. Due to the storm and the metro not being able to get rid of the snow fast enough, our metro station was closed and Keith had to work from home when they finally opened work back up on Friday February 12th. The first storm actually started Friday morning February 5th, and he worked from home that day too. Today, Monday February 15th is President's Day. So, Keith pretty much got a week and a half off from work. I am sure that won't happen again without taking vacation days. What an experience!

Valentine's Day

My two favorite little Valentines.

First Night in the Crib

Samantha is 3 1/2 months, and it is time for her to move to the crib. For the past couple of nights, she has done better with sleeping, so I think we are starting to get somewhere. The bassinet is getting smaller for Samantha, and it will be nice to have my freedom back in the bedroom. Moving Samantha to the crib is bittersweet. As I mentioned, it will be nice to have a little freedom back. However, I am going to miss my newborn.

Pouty Lip

No one likes when their child is upset or cries. Except me!!! (OK, maybe not.). However, look how cute my daughter is with a pouty lip. It is so precious. I just had to get it on camera.

Samantha 3 Months

What a bundle of personality we have here. Samantha is all smiles all the time. She likes to laugh and is a real chatterbox. Samantha is a real happy baby. Keith says that she is needy, but I call it being social. She likes to be held, and she likes to be around people. When you leave her alone, she complains.

I'm sure a lot of parents compare their children. For the most part, it is not a good or bad. It is just different. The comparisons start as early as the pregnancy. I felt these symptoms with this one and these symptoms with that one. It then moves into the birth and then how the child is as a newborn, an infant, a toddler. You get the picture. This is where the needy, um I mean social baby comes in. Joshua was very easy. (It is not that Samantha is not easy). With Joshua, we would put him down, and he would be ok just hanging out in his pack n play or swing or bouncy seat. If he got a little fussy, he would get a pacifier, and then would be nice and calm. With Samantha, she won't take a pacifier. So, if she gets a little fussy, we have to hold her. She will fall asleep while nursing and then when we move her to put her down to sleep, she instantly wakes up and wants to be held. On the flip side, when you look at her, she looks at you back and instantly smiles. It is the most beautiful smile and she lights up. Joshua didn't smile as much and it was nearly impossible to get him to smile for the camera. Actually, at age 2, he still hardly smiles at the camera.

It has been 3 months, and Samantha is still not sleeping through the night. Hopefully, soon. We still have her in the bassinet and I like having her there in the room with us. While she is still in the bassinet, I feel that she is still a newborn. Once Samantha goes into her new room, I feel that we are letting the newborn go and an infant is emerging. These first 3 months really gone by fast.

Backward Pajamas

Joshua is in the heart of the 2s. What does that mean? That means he is defying his parents in any way possible. (Gosh, sounds like the teenage years). No, actually at this age he is not being defiant. He is just trying to be independent and trying new things. Getting dressed on his own is a new skill he is learning and another way for him to be independent. It is winter, so for pajamas he wears one piece feety pajamas that zip. One night when we looked in the monitor, we noticed that he took his pajams off. We went into his bedroom and put his pajamas back on. 10 minutes later, we noticed that his pajamas were off again. One last time up to the bedroom. Next thing I see, he takes his diaper off too. That could have ended up much worse than it did. "Diaper Off" we can hear him shouting through the monitor. This time, we decide to get smart. We put his pajamas on backwards and zip it up the back so that he could not take off his pajamas again. Problem solved!

No - Yes - No

Ah, the fun 2s. The age where defiance is learned. A taste for the teenage years. Yes, the lovely age of 2. I do know why they call them the terrible 2s. Josh's new phase is "No - Yes - No". You can input any other two words in there too "butter - cream cheese - butter" "syrup - ketchup - syrup". I think you get the message. I give Josh choices. If I ask him if he wants X, the answer is going to be "no". So, I try not to ask him yes or no questions. As he is getting older, I want him to also be able to start to think for himself and learn independence. Therefore, if he is going to have a bagel, I ask him, "Do you want butter on your bagel or cream cheese?" Unfortunately, at first, he had me running around like a chicken with my head cut off. He would tell me he wants cream cheese, so I bring out the cream cheese. Once the cream cheese is out, he would tell me he wants butter. So, I would put the cream cheese away and give him the butter. Once the butter was out, he would tell me once again that he wanted cream cheese. Ugh. So, now I show him both choices and have him pick. It doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't change his mind anymore, but at least I am not really running around ragged.

Our Little Chatterbox

New Year's Eve

Last year for New Year's Eve, my friend, Kellie, had a bunch of families over for the night. It was like one big family sleep over. It was a lot of fun. (OK, maybe it wasn't like going to a club when I was in my 20s, but times change. What else are we supposed to do with 2 little ones?) We did have fun when the kiddies went to bed, and we hung out drinking wine to the wee hours of the night. This year, Kellie was hosting the party again. It was going to be a bit trickier this year as we now have 2 children, so that is twice as much stuff. Add the fact that one is a newborn and not sleeping through the night, and it does get a bit trickier. However, Kellie is a good friend of mine, and I liked those NYE plans better than the alternative. Unfortunately, it is a 3 hour drive, it is winter, and the weather didn't cooperate. So, we didn't make it to Pennsylvania. Damn Mother Nature!


The alternate plans were not too exciting. Yet as I mentioned before, when you have a 2 year old and a newborn, you really can't expect a "night to remember". After we ate dinner, we went over to Keith's parent's house where his aunt and uncle were staying as well as cousin and her baby. We put Joshua into his pjs, and Josh and his cousin, Dustin, played together. Well, as much as "together" can be for their age. What was really amazing was that Joshua stayed up until midnight, and he watched the ball drop. You would think by 10pm we would have a miserable, cranky 2 year old on our hands. Nope. Joshua was loving it. He was an absolute angel. It could have been 2pm in the afternoon for the way he was acting. I was really surprised. By staying up so late I was hoping that he would possibly sleep in a little bit. Not really. He was up at 8am. Joshua was also his usual self, so having him stay up late this one night didn't really affect him. I guess we were lucky. Some other kids are on very strict schedules and there is no way they would have acted like that. Lucky me, I guess.



Happy 2010! Wishing all of my readers a happy and healthy new year.

DC Trip

Last week, Keith's aunt and uncle and cousin came to DC for a visit. Keith's cousin also has a one year old, so it was nice for Joshua to see his cousin and have a play mate. They wanted to go downtown to DC to see a museum. We asked Keith's cousin, Rachel, which museum she wanted to go to, and her response was "Smithsonian". Keith and I thought that was funny, but maybe you have to be a Washingtonian to get the joke. (There are over 15 Smithsonian museums. There isn't just 1 museum called the Smithsonian. Air and Space Museum, Museum of Natural History, Museum of American History are just 3 to name a few. Rachel is a twenty-something and a school teacher, so you would think she would know better. Maybe not, and I am just being a little shit. So be it).


We decided since we have toddlers with us that we would try to go to a museum that the kids would enjoy. (I guess that means we crossed off all of the exclusively art museums). We narrowed it down to the two logical choices, Air and Space and Natural History. In the end, we chose the Air and Space as we thought the kids would like all the airplanes. Reflecting back on it, the Natural History would have probably been better. Yet, if you read the rest of the blog entry, it didn't really matter which museum we chose, and the boring-to-all-kids art museums would have been just fine too.


We left Rockville at 10:45am. That was definitely a very late start. However, I guess trying to get 5 adults and a toddler out of the house took a pretty long time. Keith's Uncle Joel and his crew followed me downown in their huge rental SUV. The 45 minue drive took about an hour. No, there was actually no traffic. It was just that Keith's uncle drove as slow as molasses. We had to drive on the highway, and I think we barely hit the 55 mph speed limit. If Keith was driving, he would have been so frustrated.


When we drove into downtown, it was pretty crowded. It was winter break week after all, so all the kids across the country are off of school. Where are they going to go on a trip? The nation's capitol , of course. When we finally pulled into a garage, we got stopped at the entrance by a security guard. We were in DC, and it was just a couple of days after the terroist attempt that failed on a plane to Detroit. When I got stopped, they asked me to open the hood of my car and the trunk. I am not really sure what they are looking for in there. For some reason, I had trouble opening the hood of my car. In the 2 years that I have owned the car, I don't think I personally ever had to open it. So, I am standing there in 20 degree weather (it was freezing that day) trying to open the hood. I have opened car hoods plenty of times, so I am not sure why I couldn't get it to open. The security guard said that she could not touch my car. So, I am standing there like an idiot. Keith's uncle is behind us and doesn't really know what is going on and doesn't get out of the car. Finally, I managed to get it open. In my trunk, I had a shovel. (It was less than 2 weeks after we got 2 feet of snow, so Keith put it in there just in case we needed it). The security guard didn't seem to care about the shovel, or me, and let me go into the garage. I was wondering if the security guard was going to question the shovel.


Trying to find parking in the garage was a nightmare. It was so dark in there that you could barely see. The number of available spots in the garage was minimal and trying to find those open spots was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Plus, the garage was not well built. You would drive down one row and instead of going through, it would lead to a dead end. Then, you would have to put your car in reverse to get out of that row and try again. The row was too narrow to turn around. If there was a car that came behind you, forget it. Well, a car did come behind us. We motioned to the car to back up as there were no spots down that row. I saw the car back up, and I thought that the car had left. I was wrong. The car did back up but only a short distance and then just sat there - in my blind spot. I am a high up SUV, and she is a low to the ground, black BMW 3-series. No, I did not see her when I HIT HER. How could I see her? She is black and little and shouldn't have been there in the first place. I thought she moved. Luckily, I wasn't going very fast. I was going in reverse at maybe 2 mph. We both got out of the car, and of course I am freaking out. (I had my mother-in-law and 2 little children in the car). The woman was nice about it. She recognized that there was no damage, no one was hurt either. (It was pretty dark in the garage, but from what I could see, there was no damage). The woman took my phone number down just in case but said that everything was probably fine. (Luckily, she never called).


After the woman pulled away, I was a little shaken up. I was frustrated and worried that she might be a bitch and call. I also invented some back pain from the pseudo-accident. So, when I finally found a spot and got out of the car, Keith's aunt and uncle probably didn't get the warm and fuzzy "happy to see you after 5 years" hug.



When we got to street level, it was already after 12pm. The day is half way gone and we haven't seen anything yet. It is also now time to feed the baby. So, we sent Keith's relatives to go ahead into the museum, and I stayed in the lobby with the 2 kiddies and my mother-in-law and nursed Samantha. By the time we finished with Samantha and entered the museum, it was 1pm. Now, Joshua really needs to eat as his lunch time is usually closer to 12pm too. So, we headed straight to the very crowded food court at the museum and bought Joshua the $10 McDonalds happy meal. (Remember, when you have a captive audience, you can charge whatever you want. No $1 menu items here). When we were almost finished with lunch, Keith's relatives came over and joined us to eat as well. As they were finishing up (it is a little after 2pm at this point) they start discussing going to another museum. Um, I haven't even seen this museum yet! It is 20 degrees outside as this is the coldest day of the winter so far, and the other museum that would be good for the little ones is about 5 blocks away. No thank you. I am staying right here.



Keith's relatives decided to venture out to the other museum, and I decided to stay at the Air and Space Museum with Josh, Samantha, and my mother in law. We started walking down the main hall to look at the exhibits, and just as we are getting started, Joshua falls asleep in the stroller. With the double stroller and an extra crowded museum, it was a little hard to maneuver. So, we didn't really get to see much of the museum. I couldn't take advantage of Joshua sleeping to look at some of the exhibits I may have found interesting.



By 3:30pm, Keith met us at the museum and then his aunt and uncle returned as well. His cousins decided to stay downtown and explore a little more. Since they are from Texas and never really in DC, they wanted to take advantage of the one day they had to see the sites. Keith drove us home, and that ride back was luckily uneventful. What a day!