Happy Birthday Natalie. We hope that you have a great day.

Happy Birthday Aunt Natalie - we wish that we could be with you today.

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!

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 .

First photo of Sarah.

Natalie had the baby last night at 9pm!!! I had a message last night and missed the call so I don’t know all of the details yet - I can’t wait to see them.

Ok - I got more details… the baby’s name is Sarah Ellis Asta, she was born March 16th at 9pm and weighed 6 lbs 7 ounces ( a little peanut). I just spoke to Natalie briefly and am going to talk to her again in a little while.

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 are thinking of you in sunny California and hope you are having a great visit.

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.