Last Saturday(21st) and Sunday(22nd) the three of us took a trip to visit Natalie, John, David and Sarah in New York City. Alex was so excited and couldn’t wait to go as she remembered having a lot of fun when Natalie and David came to visit a couple of months ago. When Alex gets excited she is actually a bit of a pest because she says the same thing over and over and over - “we go now”, “we go now”, “we go see Natalie and David now”. Alex was great on the train ride and enjoyed looking out of the window. We got to their house about 12:45, hung out for a little while and then Alex and David took naps. Alex didn’t want to take a nap - she wanted to play with David’s toys - but she was so tired that she fell right asleep. After the nap John and Marc took David and Alex to the huge Toys R Us in Times Square and then to the playground. Apparently Alex was scared of the life-size dinosaur and of a man in a girafe costume. Natalie and I had a great time just hanging out and talking. The baby is so good that you barely notice she is there - she just eats and sleeps. She does get bad tummy aches from gas so that is the only time that she cries. Nat and I also went out for a walk and to a cafe. After we headed home to make dinner.

We had a wonderful dinner, the kids played, took baths and then went to bed. Alex and David slept in the same room together! It was a bit of a struggle to get them to sleep but then they were fine. I knew, however, that if Alex woke up she would be upset because she wouldn’t know where she was. And she did - she woke up crying in the middle of the night so she slept with us for the rest of the night. I didn’t sleep very good because my new allergy medicine is causing me to wake up all night long (I’m only taking it in the morning now) and the kids woke up really early and were ready to go and start playing. Alex was so just so excited - the kids played, Nat made yummy blueberry muffins and the Dads took Alex and David out again for the morning. They went to the playground and then were going to the Natural History museum but again Alex got scared of something and didn’t want to go so they went to a huge playground at Central Park instead. Nat and I went out for coffee, talked and went for a walk with the baby. It was so nice to spend so much time with Natalie and for both of us to have a break from the 2 and 3 year olds And now Alex knows John really well and likes him - she didn’t know him that well before.

Alex only had a short nap because we wanted to catch the 2:15 train so we woke her up to go. She was great on the train ride home - she rested on the first train and played I Spy with Marc on the second. I only took pictures of the baby so hopefully Natalie and John will send me some of the ones that they took. Overall we had a great weekend and I got to spend a lot of time with Natalie.

Soon we will be on our next big trip to Vermont!

Happy Birthday to David Asta!!! We love you and are sorry that we couldn’t come to your party.

Last Friday, the 8th, I went to New York for the day to visit Natalie and baby Sarah. I couldn’t believe how tiny and cute Sarah was. John spent most of the day with David so Natalie and I had a chance to talk and hang out with the newborn. It was great to see them. I think all of us are going up for a visit in the middle of May. There are picture on April 2005 .

Natalie and David came to visit last Thursday the 20th and stayed overnight. Fortunately, they came and left before the gas and heat problem started and the snowstorm (I’ll write about that in another entry). We had a great time and Alex and David have so much fun playing together - I have some pictures and a video that I will hopefully upload later (It’s still too cold in the living room to use the computer for very long). Natalie is due in 2 months and looks great (she’s having a girl). It’s always hard to believe that she will get even bigger. So, she wanted to come visit before she got too big - we will go see her when the baby comes (maybe sooner if we can work it out).

Alex and David really like playing together but they are wild and make such a mess. They were so excited to play together that they couldn’t sit still to eat and didn’t want to go to bed - especially Alex. Marc gave them a bath together and they had a lot of fun playing in the tub. I’m anxious for when they are a little older and can play with less supervision so Natalie can have conversations that are less interrupted.

We went to New York City for David’s first birthday party on Saturday April 24th. It was a lot of traveling in one day but it was worth it to be there for David’s first birthday. We had a really good time and Alex had a lot of fun even though she was overtired because she didn’t nap all day. Well, for some reason the subway in NYC always puts her to sleep so she did have two 20 minute catnaps. Alex had a great time playing with David and all of the kids there. She ate a lot of yummy food, loved playing with David’s toys and got to go on wagon rides with other kids. I thought she might be a little shy and overwhelmed but her shyness phase seems to be passing. When she sees other kids at the park or on the street she says - hi, hi, hi.

I think David had a great time at his party too although he did decide to fall asleep at the end of it. Alex was tired on the train ride home but did pretty good. She got really upset, however, when we changed trains in Trenton - I think she thought she was done traveling and she did not want to get on another train. Fortunately the last leg of the trip is quick.

I should have pictures from the party soon.

Happy 1st Birthday to David - I can’t believe he is a year old already!!! We went to his birthday party on Saturday. I’ll try to write about it later on - I’m in a rush right now.

Natalie, John and David came to visit from New York on Friday and Saturday. When they first got here Alex was acting really shy but within no time she was hovering around Natalie and started becoming fascinated with David. She loves playing with her baby dolls - feeding them, putting them to sleep, and giving them juice. So when Alex realized that David was a real live baby all she wanted to do was play with him. She took his juice cup and tried to give him juice, handed him his toys and just wanted to follow him everywhere.

On Friday night when it was time for Alex to have her bath and go to bed she got really upset because she wanted to keep playing with David. She finally settled down because she was exhausted. But then she got to play with David all morning. She was so excited that she barely touched the pancakes that Marc made for everyone and she LOVES pancakes.

Late morning Natalie and I went down to the cafe for an hour and left the husbands home with kids. It was so nice to spend time with her - it seems like forever since we’ve done that.

When it was time for them to leave on Saturday afternoon Alex was still napping. I left with them because I needed to do a couple of errands over by UPenn. Marc said that when Alex got up she kept saying baby, baby, baby and Marc had to keep telling her that the baby had to go home but that he would visit again.

I’m so glad they came to visit and hope that we will get to see them again soon. Oh, and David is 9 months old today!!!

Last weekend Marc, Alex and I went to New York City to visit Natalie, David, and John. We had a really good time and it was great to see Natalie and the baby. Alex had trouble going to sleep for her first nap but after that she went to bed and took her nap the second day without any problems (she was probably really worn out). In the afternoon on the first day we took the kids to Riverside park down the street. Alex had a lot of fun playing with Marc although there were a lot of kids there and a couple of them were a little rough. A little girl not much older than Alex pushed Alex down and of course the parent didn’t apologize. So now Alex has been mugged in New York. After the park we went out to dinner and had a good time and ate a lot of food. Both of the kids were really good. David hung out in his stroller and Alex sat in a booster seat between me and Marc. The restaurant didn’t have high chairs so we decided to give the booster seat a try. Alex loved it!! She thought she was such a big deal eating a the table with everyone else with her little plate in front of her. She had rice, fries, veggie burger and vegetable dumplings. After dinner we went back to the apartment gave the kids there baths, put them to bed, talked for a little while and then all went to bed too.

On Saturday we didn’t do too much. Late morning we took the kids to the park again. Alex had a lot of fun going down this big twisty slide with me. She got so dirty, however, that Marc gave her a bath when we got back from the park. We were going to give her lunch after the bath but she passed out so we let her sleep for a while, then woke her up to have lunch before we headed home.

We had a good time and it was nice to see everyone. Natalie is going to try to come here in September.

Here are some more photos of our trip to New York City Memorial Day weekend.

Last weekend the three of us went to visit Natalie, John and baby David in New York City. I was really excited to go so Marc and I could see the baby and so Natalie could see Alex (she hadn’t seen her in three months) but at the same time I was a little afraid because I didn’t know how Alex would deal with staying over at a different house and with a disruption to her routine. But I worried for no reason because Alex was perfectly wonderful and now Natalie says that I have an “angel baby”. We also had a wonderful time.

We left early Sunday morning to catch the train because we wanted to get to their house around noon. Alex was SO good on the train and even slept part of the way there. We arrived a little late, however, because we had some trouble with the subway but nothing too difficult.

David has already grown so much and I just him three weeks earlier. It is amazing how small newborns are and how fast they grow.

Natalie had some guests in the afternoon - Alex didn’t even know these people but was still so charming. We sat quietly on the floor playing with some toys and beamed when anyone talked to her. I couldn’t believe how good she was and I was so proud of her.

That night we ordered pizza and Alex tried it for the first time. She loved the cheese and surprisingly she really liked the mushrooms too. She had her bath and went to bed without any problems even though she was in a new house and a different bed. She did wake up once during the night, which she doesn’t do anymore but I think it is because I got up and I woke her up (we were sleeping in the same room).

The next day was David’s one month birthday and Natalie made a cake!!! Alex had a tiny piece and loved it!!! She practically liked every crumb off of the plate. Luisa and Marianna, two of Natalie’s friends from Brazil, were also visiting and Alex really liked them, especially Luisa.

We had a great trip and I feel a lot more confident about our trip to Vermont in a couple of weeks. We will probably go back to New York some time in July.

Here are some pictures that John took with his digital camera and that I “stole” from his online album

Alex, David and Luisa

Marc and David

Alex, David and Kim playing on the bed

Yum!!! Cake!!!