Our Latest Obsession

Lyla has become obsessed with playing games on the computer. We found an awesome site called KneeBouncers that has very simple games that are perfect for her. All she has to do is push any key on the keyboard (or in her case, slam the entire keyboard as hard as she can) and she gets a response. There are simple, bold images, fun sounds, lots of repetition and cute characters. But honestly, seeing this little pipsqueak sit at the computer laughing her head off is just hysterical. The problem is that we now have one more person competing for laptop time. 3 internet addicts and 1 laptop equals trouble. I think it's time to hit the Apple store :)

We particularly like Wake Up Sammy!, a sleeping monkey that wakes up when you hit any key, and the shapes game, which repeats the name of the shape about five times before moving on to the next one.





Back to this picture for a second -- check out the comb over :)


The Knee Bouncers gang

Run As One

A couple of weekends ago, I ran the TGL Run as One in Central Park.  TGL is the lung cancer charity that sponsored me for the NYC Marathon and they host a great race in Central Park every year.  I haven't ran in a race since before I was pregnant the first time so I was really excited for this one just to get back out there and especially because it is for such a great cause.  Lyla and Mark came to watch and we were running a little late that morning but thought we would make it in time for the start.  We were on the subway when someone hit the emergency break and the train came to a screeching halt.  Lyla was thrilled...  The train was filled with "big kids" and she thought it was a play date.  I was less than thrilled.  We had to evacuate the train 30 minutes later and, as Mark reminded me about 10 times, I was not going to make it to the start on time.  I got to the starting line about 20 minutes after the start.  I crossed the timing mats as they were dismantling them, but it didn't matter.  It was a beautiful day and the park was filled with runners.



After the race, there was a cute little festival for kids and lots of lung cancer awareness booths.  We wrote a little note to my Aunt Dee Dee on the memory boards and I shed a couple of tears thinking of her and seeing all the other runners who lost a loved one to lung cancer.





After the race, we went to breakfast at Neil's, a little coffee shop on the Upper East Side near Dr. Russell's office.  We had eaten there plenty of times when I was pregnant, but it was Lyla's first time there "in person".



A great day for a great cause.  We miss you Dee Dee.

Dinner Conversation

Swim Lessons

Lyla started swim class a couple of weeks ago at Claremont Prep.  Mark takes her in her little wetsuit on Saturday mornings.  She really likes the water and is generally unfazed by being splashed or dunked.

Playing around


Freestyle


Backstroke


Taking a break


Teacher's pet :)


Synchronized swimming


Mark said that in a 30 minute class, she has a 27 minute attention span. Those last few minutes, her lips turn purple and she is one slippery fish.

Mom, are we done yet?

Coloring

I recently started to introduce Lyla to coloring. We tape paper on the counter and give her the baby crayons with the wide grip. She seemed to really have fun playing with the crayons and was kind of getting the hang of scribbling on the paper. She looked so happy sitting there with her crayons and paper, keeping herself occupied. I turned away for a moment and was thinking that she is getting to be such a big girl. And then I turned around to see her eating her crayons. Maybe not such a big girl.

Easter 2010

We went to Dina's house early Easter morning to open Easter baskets and hunt for Easter eggs. Lyla had a bad cold in her eye and wasn't feeling great, but I nonetheless forced her into her Easter dress for mommy's sake :) She was a good sport about it, especially when I was able to distract her with Oakley.



Poor squinty eyes.


She loved opening her Easter basket.




Chrissy was our Easter bunny.


Mark and Chrissy.


Me and my bunny ears.


Bunny sisters.


Grandma and Lyla


It was supposed to be a beautiful day, but it started out chilly and damp. The grass was soaking wet so we had to move the hunt inside. Lyla was bummed about it.


Lyla found one egg in the Easter egg hunt.


After that, she was content to sit and examine said egg.


Nicolas search high and low for those darn eggs.


And in the end, filled up a whole race car full of eggs.


Our spoils.


After the Easter egg hunt, we decorated eggs.




Just kidding...those are vintage Polish eggs from Rich's mom. Ours were more of the Paas variety.




It was an eventful morning and when it was all over everyone was either asleep or sufficiently exhausted so as to shun the camera.










Except of course for Nicolas, who sat and watched Star Wars as Rich took a nap and persisted to ask his Daddy if "shoe-baca" was ok and wave his "lifesaver" around the room.


It did turn out to be a beautiful day and we enjoyed the sunshine on a wonderful Easter Sunday.

Easter Crafting

My sis stocked up on fun Easter crafts to do the Saturday before Easter.  We had egg decorations, magnets, bunny making kits, and all kinds of foam thingamajiggys in Easter shapes.  It was supposed to be a beautiful day but was actually kind of yucky out so it was a perfect day for crafting.  The problem was that none of our kiddos were as interested in crafting as we were.  Nicolas sat at the table for a few minutes, but other than that, they were just interested in causing trouble.

Nic working hard on his foam bunny rabbits.


My chickies. Nic ruined them approximately 2 minutes later.


This is what I meant by "causing trouble." Nic climbing on Lyla's high chair with Chrissy precariously crawling underneath said high chair. All while Dina and I were into our crafts. I think it was at this point that we realized we are in for trouble this summer on the beach. Last summer it was two angels and one li'l devil. We now have three very mobile, very crazy kids. But who are we kidding, we love it :)


Our big craft of the day was creating bunny portraits using the kids' hands as bunny ears.


Dina had some trouble getting Chrissy's hand prints...they were coming out like paw prints...


We ended up decorating the bunnies all by ourselves. But they came out really cute.




Lucky for us Dylan came over a little bit later and was totally into crafting with us. She made bunny portraits, bunny magnets and bunny cupcakes. She is such a sweetie. She told us she wants to be a model/fire fighter when she grows up and showed us her model walk to the tune of "All The Single Ladies."