Happy Holidays!

Well lookey here....

I have been feeling extraordinary guilty about not posting on this blog for so long.  It has kept me up at night.  Should I just delete it?  Should I change the name?  Should I try to catch up on the last four months (no way...)?  And then in a burst of energy this morning, I said "Yes!  I am going to update the blog!"  I go to blogger and find out it has been deleted.  Tears ensue.  I google like crazy, post on message boards, cry to Mark.  Then I log out of google, log back in and lo and behold, there she is.  Crazy interwebs.  It's a lesson to me that I should post regularly.  So what should I post about?  Here it goes...new house, back to work, hurricane, snow storm, lots of furniture purchases, Jack growing too fast, Lyla loves school, overgrown Christmas tree, strep throat, double ear infection, bronchitis, double ear infection, no sleep, no sleep, no sleep, the end.  I'm sure you have a pretty good picture now. 

I learned my lesson and will make a better effort to post regularly.  On a more serious note, this blog is important to me.  I love looking back and seeing how lucky we are to have an amazing family and a wonderful life.  When I think about the recent tragedies in Connecticut and the awful nanny tragedy on the Upper West Side earlier this year, it makes me want to go back to this blog and soak in every moment documented here.  It has been a tough few months here.  But there have also been so many reasons to smile.  Here are a few of them:

My sweet little blog, I will see you soon.  Here is a little holiday gift:

Just Jack

I can't believe Jack is already three weeks old. It feels like it is flying by and dragging on at the same time. More updates about what we've been up to will come, but in the meantime, a few pics of my sweet boy.

We Will Miss You, Oakley

Jack's First Few Days

Since Jack has been born he has been busy meeting family and friends. The day after he was born Dina, Nicolas and Chrissy came to meet him. They were so sweet and gentle and obsessed with all of his little features. Jack may have to get used to a crazy crew of cousins, but they adore him already. Aunt Dina got to feed him his first bottle. We took him home on Wednesday, a beautiful and hot day in the City. We were greeted at home with a beautiful sign and a little girl happy to have her mama home and anxious to get her hands on her little brother. That day we spent a lot of time snuggling and a lot of time staring. It also seemed as if Lyla had changed into such a big girl overnight. Everything about her was immediately bigger and more mature. And so far, she is coping with all the changes at home like a champ (much better than me). We've also spent a lot of time playing defense so she doesn't smother him or poke his eye out. The other day I saw her sitting next to him in her rocking chair. I went over to see them and her foot was resting ever so gently on his head...
My recovery has been much easier this time around, so we've been able to go out and about with relative ease and I'm feeling mostly good.  Our mornings are when it really hits us that we are now a family of four.  Lyla gets into our bed around 7 am and Mark and I look at each other in disbelief with two kids in the bed.  We learn something new each day and I try to remind myself that the craziness of this period will not last forever.

Waiting for Baby Jack

The weekend before Baby Jack arrived was the second heat wave of the summer (two heat waves in one pregnancy = so not awesome), with temps above 100. We spent it mostly indoors with a few quick trips to the park when cabin fever set in. We exhausted our toy supply, made lots of trips to the dollar store for cheap crafts and even squeezed in a mother/daughter mani/pedi. On Sunday morning -- our last day as a family of three -- we went to Leo's for fresh bagels and had breakfast by Pier 15. It was a tough day for me -- excited for Baby Jack's arrival but nervous about its effect on Lyla and even some sadness as to how a new baby would change my relationship with Lyla.