Shabbat Shalom - Post-Thanksgiving

Owen was very happy to explore the Dinosaur museum with these two and walk across the street to pick up our challah for Shabbat!

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home. The boys and I woke up and watched the Thanksgiving Parade with Nana and Papa.

This was my fourth time cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and I'm happy to report that I'm getting quite proficient at it! I don't touch the turkey - but thankfully Jeremy or Nana have taken care of that, but the rest is falling together quite nicely. Now if I could just conquer Passover seder - OY!

I made my first (and second!) pie. A sea salt caramel apple pie with flaky crust from scratch and I had enough left over crust for a creamy pumpkin pie. This is something that has been on my bucket list for several years so I'm happy to have learned - and they were good! WIN!

Owen made a Thanksgiving craft the day before

And in the morning Owen was running around and falling to the ground while Gillen giggled hysterically. It was so adorable and reminded me of all the things I'm thankful for this year (more on this here at Kveller), my family is at the top of my list.

Gillen: 12 weeks old

and still a complete and total joy, for all of us. 

And this was a good day

Me: baby Gil is sleeping we'll let him sleep a little longer.

Owen: then I will just go to the library by myself.

Owen (while dumping milk out of his cup all over the table): Mama, are you impressed with my good behavior?

Then I went to the bathroom for two minutes and came back to find this...

And today was a good day for Mr. Owen, can you imagine what a bad day looks like ;) 

He woke up and wanted to see robots

So after breakfast, he saw robots.

And the view of Pittsburgh from inside the Carnegie Science Center is breathtaking

When what I'm doing feels right

Sometimes in the midst of staying at home raising two boys I lose sight of how important my job is. Tuesday just feels like trash day and not "I did something right" day. Sometimes I feel sad that we don't have much money and that we live in a small apartment with no yard for the boys to run free, we drive small paid-off cars and cook most meals at home.  

But then I have days like today, because on this particular Tuesday we met up with friends at the Children's Museum. Pittsburgh's Children's museum has been rated one of the best in the country for several years now. And this place, like the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Science Center, is familiar to Owen. He goes almost weekly and knows his way around instantly. Owen goes to these wonderful museums several times a week -- A WEEK! He takes classes, explores, paints, learns and grows.

They opened a new exibit in a large open space. This large inflatable rainbow tunnel is staffed at the entrance. Children wait in line and are allowed to run through to the other side. When we arrived there was a short line of kids. Keeping toddlers in a line is quite the job and several mothers were helping to teach the kids how to take turns. Owen was fearful at first and waited in line several times only to turn around and stand back beside me. My friend Erin walked to the end of the tunnel so that O could run to her.

And he did.

And then he waited in line to run through again and again. As lunch time approached kids trickled out and soon only Owen and Emmet were left. The attendant told them they could go in and bounce since it was just them.

They bounced and jumped and giggled for a half hour until they were tired.

The attendant told me that on the weekends the line wraps around the room and out the door all to run through this exhibit once. My kid bounced in a national exibit for a half hour because I've chosen to make small sacrfices and live on less to be home with him.

He isn't missing out, he's getting more. More of me and of this. As least for my heart and my children, it all feels right.

My friend, Erin had a baby a month after I did. She was one of the first people I met when I moved here and even though Emmet is almost a year older than Owen, they are great buds. We had a blast being pregnant together and now our boys Gillen and Teddy are going to grow up friends just like their big brothers. Erin sat at the other end of the tunnel cheering the boys through while nursing Teddy, I thought it was a beautiful picture.

Actually, the whole thing was just a beautiful day.

The Family who VOTES together!

Owen: Who is that man, Mama? 

Me: that's Obama. He's our president. 

Owen: MY president? 

Me: Yes. Everyone's. 

Owen: Have we been to his house?

 Look familiar?

Trick-or-Treat: Rescheduled

Due to the hurricane, Halloween was reschedule from Wednesday to Saturday. It worked out really well because the rain had stopped, Jeremy had the day off and while it was still chilly, Saturday made for a much better day to trick-or-treat.

This was the first year that Owen really understood what was going on. We practiced saying Trick-or-Treat and Thank-You and off we went with Gillen in the carrier.

We live in a Jewish community that doesn't celebrate Halloween so the main drag of businesses opens their doors for little beggars and hand out candy. This is the perfect situation for parents with little kids because there is no walking up to doors. Just up and down the street. We live two blocks away so we put on our costumes and walked up to the main street.

We got TONS of compliments on our family costume and lots of the store owners were dressed up. Owen was so excited to go to each place his little hand was wriggling out of Jeremy's hand before we even got to the door.

(I took these pictures with my phone so they are a little blurry but you get the idea)

Incredible Banking

 Robin Hood

 Ran into our friend Sam who was also a superhero!

Clifford the big red dog (who apparently works at a mattress store now?)

 Such a happy boy!

After Owen's treat bag was full we stopped and picked up Chinese take out. 

Superhero families need to eat!

When we got home we ate our dinner and then helped Owen sort and count his candy. We let him choose a few pieces. The first piece he chose was a weird chocolate coin wrapped in foil which he tried to eat with the paper on. Two houses down they were giving out FULL candy bars and instead of picking a Butterfinger or Snickers -- Owen picked a bag of peanut M&Ms. Jeremy and I both looked at him dumbfounded. Granted, the M&Ms were the only candy that was recognizable to him since he's never eaten a candy bar. And yes, we live down the street from a dunkin donuts and they handed out a small bag full of doughnut holes. It was awesome.

Jeremy and I ate most of Owen's candy after he went to bed. And other than Owen asking for a piece of candy the next morning he'd all but forgotten about it by Monday ;)

Gillen 2 Month Doctor Visit and Challah Shabbat

 13 lbs (58th percentile)

 22.8 inches (26th percentile)

As soon as we walked into the exam room Owen said, "I pick that I will go first and baby Gillen will go second." Little did he know, this appointment was only for Gillen and no matter how many times I told him, he insisted on getting all of the attention (thankfully, Gillen doesn't know or care yet).

I let a med student come in first and she clearly didn't have children because I think she was horrified at Owen's behavior. He was throwing a fit and screaming and telling her his leg was injured and he needed a doctor to fix it (ahem. smart kid.) (also? WHERE DID HE LEARN THESE SHENANIGANS!?) For the record there was NOTHING wrong with his leg.

When our pediatrician came in he demanded her attention. She obviously knows a thing or two about two year olds who are having a hard time adjusting to a new brother so she looked in Owen's ears, made him a puppet with a tongue depressor and let him tell her all about baby Gil.

So, in short, the appointment was once again about Owen. Gillen is perfect. He had his first shots and I was a brave Mama and held him through all three of them (Daddy was stuck at work). He's sleeping, eating and growing. Looks like he might be short and stalky - my gene pool working some magic on this boy.

Of Note: Before the appointment I had a discussion with Owen that Gil had to get some "owies" I didn't want him to get upset seeing the needles or hearing Gil scream. So when Owen started getting hysterical when the guy came in with the shots I thought he was upset for his brother.

Nope.

He stood on a stool right next to us and sobbed "But I WANT AN OWIE TOOOOOOOO!"

And there you have it folks, the extent to which a toddler will go to pull attention away from his baby brother. He wants a shot.

He didn't get one. But he did get to choose a sucker. You know, for being such a good patient ;)

After we got home poor Gil did LOTS of sleeping which allowed time for Owen and I to prep a Challah. My first time making challah - or any rising bread for that matter - and while I did forget to separate the dough into two loaves and made ONE GIANT CHALLAH - it was really good.

I also made chicken and dumplings for the first time. Owen was sitting in his booster seat coloring while I cut the dumplings and he says, "Mama, watching you make dumplings is BORING."

I about died.

Shabbat Shalom!

Halloween 2012: Our Family is INCREDIBLE!

Jeremy bought this Mr. Incredible costume in 2008 when he rotated at Children's Hospital as a medical student. He later found a toddler costume on clearance and we've held onto it until we had a kiddo that would fit in it. This was the year and while Owen has never seen a movie, let alone the Incredibles, we told him we were all "superheros" and he was thrilled. I used my highly untrained sewing skills to make a costume for Gillen and one for myself - they weren't perfect but I think we looked pretty cute. We all had several layers of sweatpants on so we kept warm.

Someone commented that they can't wait to see what we are next year. I think I set the bar too high for family costumes. I wish we all wore trash bags, that way there would be lots of room for improvement.

Happy Halloween!

Owen and Gillen's Halloween Party

Because of the hurricane, which thankfully proved to be inconsequential for us, Halloween was postponed. When you are counting down the days until Trick-or-Treat with your toddler, this presents quite the problem. Owen wanted to wear his "superhero" costume so badly so I decided to host playgroup at our apartment for an impromptu Halloween party.

The great thing was that many of the preschools were also cancelled that day so some of our friends who are usually at preschool on Tuesday morning were able to come to our party - nine friends in all made for a great party.

I cut out some pumpkins/ghosts and set out some eye ball stickers and makers for them to decorate. Then we tapped them onto tongue depressors (having a doctor husband does come in handy sometimes!) and used them as puppets.

I grabbed some light up bracelets out of the Target dollar bin last time I was there and Halloween stuff was on clearance a week early at JoAnn for 75% off so I bought a ton of sprinkles and some mini candy necklace kits (fine motor skills and a treat!)

The night before I baked some cupcakes so with a little Mama help on the icing the kids went to town decorating. Here is Owen's masterpiece (which he proceeded to eat only the top off of and then ask for more icing which he wiped all over his costume. AWESOME.)

I made some yummy pumpkin bread and vegetable soup for the Mamas and also whipped up a batch of Candy Corn popcorn last weekend. -- because no matter how many times I tell myself not to cook with candy... I always do it. And this stuff was SO GOOD!

We tried to take a group picture at the end of the party when all of the kids were ready for nap and hyped up on sugar. It went like this...

and then this...

and baby Gil was there too - he dressed up like a surgeon ate his fists for lunch ;)

Overall the party was a huge success. Owen was so happy to have his friends over and share his toys and all of the Mamas were happy not to disappoint a cute little bunch of kiddos on Halloween.