Bye bye mole

Last Wed Liam had to have the mole on his right cheek removed.  It was a sad decision, we had grown so used to his cute little mole and it seemed to make him look even more mischievous than usual :o)  But, after 2 doctors informed us that it would thicken and grow hair, we decided we'd get rid of it young, instead of him having to go through both surgery and possible embarrassment at age 13.  As with everything when your kids are little, the whole procedure was far more traumatic for me than for him.  I held him on the table in the OR as they put him under anesthesia and then sobbed until they called me back to the recovery room.  Liam was not pleased when we were in the hospital - he pulled off every cord they tried to tie onto him - and pretty much glared at anyone who tried talking to him.  He fell sound asleep on the way home in the taxi and as he awoke in our apartment he looked around, then immediately began clapping his hands as if to say "I'm home!"  From that moment on he was totally fine!  It was amazing.  Here are some pictures of my pre-op champ!

Advent

Hi everyone!  I've been completely MIA and have had no time to write!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday in FL with my family.  Both boys managed to be sick at different times throughout the week but we still had a good time in the sun with family and friends :o)

Just wanted to post this great Advent calender that I found on pinterest (my new favorite website!)  Theo loves it and everyday we talk about the "countdown to Jesus's birthday."  I made up different activities to do each day and he we talk about them while he puts the "ornament" on the tree.  So fun!

Felt advent calendar

Hurricane Sandy and Halloween

The funny thing about kids is that natural disasters are always very exciting.  They don't worry about danger and inconvenience and loss of personal property - they just find it exciting that mommy and daddy are home more than usual and there are lots of baked goods (had to use up the eggs and milk in case we lost power!)  Thankfully for us, the upper west side felt very little of the damage from the storm and we've managed to get back to normal - except for the lack of subway.  A lot of the city is still without power and the subway may take several days to be running again so the city definitely needs continued prayer and practical assistance.  Above is Theo preparing for the storm.

However, the storm did not stop Halloween on the UWS.  After 2 days of being stuck indoors, the Discovery club on 100th and West End opened this morning for a Halloween party.  We were so excited to get out!  It was so much fun - art projects, open gym, a juggler and snacks for kids and adults.  It was insanely crowded b/c it was the only thing going on and all schools were closed, but still a lot of fun.

Art project

Liam really wanted to climb the step and was a little mad he had to do art :o)

Theo loves art!

Finally - gym time!

Theo loved it too

Apple and pumpkin picking on the farm!

Friday afternoon I told Theo that we were going to go to a farm on Saturday.  He looked at me and said, "a farm with cows, and chickens, and pigs!"  Unfortunately for Theo, Outhouse Orchards (about 45 minutes north of NYC) did not have any farm animals, but it did have wonderful apples for picking and lots of pumpkins to choose from.  We headed out of town Saturday morning and after a few wrong turns, managed to make it to the orchard before anyone had a melt down.  The great (and sometimes annoying) thing about NYC is you have to do something.  You can't just sit at home and play in your backyard - you have to leave your apartment and go somewhere, otherwise you'd go crazy.  And we have recently learned that one of the most popular things to do in the fall is apple picking.  And I can see why.  There are dozens of orchards within an hour from Manhattan, you buy a large bag and then head to the orchard and pick until it is full.  So far, we have made pork tenderloin with apples, apple pie, apple sauce and apple fritters - and we still have over half the bag left!  Theo enjoyed watching Shane pick the apples with the large "picker" we were given, but otherwise his favorite part was the pumpkins.  We bought 2 (1 large and 1 small) and have them on top of our entertainment center at home.  Over the past few days he occasionally has pulled a chair over and just sat and stared at the pumpkins :o)  I can't wait to carve them!

love, Sarah

Only in NYC!

Only in NYC can you be walking through midtown and see this:

A horse, surrounded by sky scrapers!  Theo thought it was the greatest thing every and spent the next several minutes looking for more horses.  He was then distracted by the 20 tour busses that we passed and moved onto the colors and letters on every bus.

However, other than the excitement of a horse in NYC, I do not recommend getting your car towed!  It was a very long, tedious and expensive endeavor and we hope to avoid midtown for awhile now :o)

love, Sarah

School commute!

So, my oldest son, Theo, started preschool this year (judge if you want but when you have a 2 year old, a 1 year old and one on the way, 2x/week preschool is an amazing thing!)  Our plan is for my husband to take him on his way to work, which has been great, but today Shane had to go into work early so Liam and I packed Theo up (he's only there 3 hours!) and took him to school.  Theo rides his bike so it takes about 20 minutes to get him there.  I have to say, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the walk.  There were literally hundreds of other children out on their way to school.  They were being dropped off by nannies, dads, moms, school buses, taxi's, cars, bikes and buses.  We saw kids dressed in uniforms and kids in their own outfits, clearly picked out by themselves (Theo was wearing his favorite bus t-shirt).  Every size, shape and color of backpack was on display - Theo refuses to wear his, he makes Shane and I wear it, but he loves to bring it!  On the whole it was a very fun morning outing and reminded me of the amazing diversity you can see in NYC.

 Off to school with daddy

Super cool backpack

Theo and mommy before school

 Theo playing at school by himself and with one of his teachers (below)

love, Sarah

It's a...

Girl!  We are very excited to announce that we will have a baby girl joining our family this February.  The boys worked today on organizing - they threw away their trucks and kept only the pink balls :o)

love, Sarah

A tough day

I am sitting in Dean and Deluca, enjoying a stress free, caffeine free mocha. One of the best things about living in a city, as a mom, is that when you have literally only 15 min of a break you can actually go to a coffee shop and relax!
Today was a tough day. I had to wake Liam early from his morning nap to make it to Theo's school and pick him up, which made Liam cranky. Then we had his 1yo doctor appt where he had 4 shots and Theo had 1 shot- which made hem both cranky. Then we had to move our car to double park then wait for the street sweeper then back to the correct side of the street so we we don't get a ticket- and that made me cranky! So there we were, 3 very cranky people people on NYC.
For those of you who think having young kids in NYC means you have to be a type A, super-mom, I am here to straighten you out! NYC offers an amazing amount of stimulation, community and opportunity, 3 reasons I love it. It also guarantees that your good days will be better than good and your bad days worse than bad! Being constantly surrounded and bombarded by people, traffic, the "world," gives you the chance to have amazon interactions and learn things you could never learn elsewhere but it also guarantees that your bad moments will be seen and that you cannot hide who you really are from anyone! As a mom, I find this so refreshing. I leave my apartment each day knowing I will fail at something and someone will witness my defeat. It helps me remember that my identity cannot be grounded in my appearance, my children or my ability to keep my life in order. It forces me to see who I really am, and only then do I have any hope of changing :)

Love, Sarah

Michigan!

Hi everyone,

Sorry I have been delinquent about writing - we've had a busy few weeks.  2 weeks ago Saturday we flew to Michigan to visit my family.  The boys had a wonderful time playing in the huge house, backyard and their own private sand box and Shane and I enjoyed full time, FREE, babysitting!!  It was a very fun and relaxing week.  We ended it with Liam's first birthday which we celebrated with a party complete with a pony that the kids could ride!  Liam totally loved the pony and rode several times.  Theo thought he was going to love the pony, rode one time and then refused to get near it again!
About mid-way through the week we made the very random decision to bring our car back to NYC.  The timing isn't great, but it never really is with these things, so we piled in the pathfinder and drove 15 hours (extra stops for the boys!) back to NYC.  We've been street parking - which so far is amazing - but I'm waiting for the summer to end and this to become a much more challenging proposition.  I have high hopes that the construction across the street from us my someday end, which would give our street a few more spots, but I'm pretty sure it never will :o)  That said, we have enjoyed using the car to drive to church, far away errands in the city and hopefully we can start visiting our long lost friends in Brooklyn and NJ! :o)
On the flip side, we were driving to church Sunday and I wore my big platform heels because I didn't plan on walking (now that we are snazzy with a car!) and managed to fall on my face and sprain my foot.  I've been on crutches for 3 days now and am just finally able to walk around with only a minor limp!  That's what I get for trying to bring the 'burbs to the city! :o)

 Yesterdog - an old timey restaurant in Grand Rapids that has amazing hot dogs!

 An old car show outside of a diner in Grand Rapids

Theo and Grammy visited the local fire department

Hope everyone is doing well and I'll try to write sooner next time!

Sarah

How to beat the heat - for cheap!

August in NYC is brutal and window units just don't quite cut it for a full day of crazy heat and humidity.  Here are our 5 favorite ways to beat the heat.
1- Pool in Central Park - the pool is at 110th on the north end of Central Park.  It's huge, clean, FREE and so much fun for the boys.  We can only go on the weekends when daddy is available b/c I can't handle 2 non-swimmers on my own, but we love heading up there Saturday morning.
2- Parks.  For some reason, as soon as you step in the park it feels 10 degrees cooler.  I guess it's a combination of the trees, the shade and the lack of concrete but it feels amazing.  And if you walk down to the water in Riverside park there is usually a nice breeze that feels amazing.
3 - Ice cream from roadside stands.  Not free but remarkably cheap!  Theo loves chocolate, I love coconut.  What Liam doesn't know won't hurt him and he's the only one who still eats a good dinner :o)
4 - Whole Foods.  We love to shop the store, (Theo pushes a cart and takes up about 10 feet of space) then pick up dinner in the prepared food section and eat in the cafeteria.  There are high chairs, bathrooms, AC and the best is that mom doesn't have to clean up all the food that falls on the floor!
5- Find nice friends with homes outside of the city :o)  We were lucky enough to do this last weekend and we took the train to visit some friends who have a home an hour outside of the city.  The kids were in heaven in the big playroom and going to the pool at their club.  Shane and I loved the space and the delicious meals prepared for us!

 Riverside park by the water

 Chocolate ice cream!

 Liam got the rest of my cone :o)

 Ice cream sandwiches on the Highline

Soccer in Central Park

Next week we head to Michigan to really beat the heat and enjoy playing in the back yard, waterskiing and hanging out with grammy and poppy!

love, Sarah

Why I love online shopping

So, not much going on this week. Theo had croup on Monday (his 3rd time) and Liam picked it up on Wed.  Poor boys!  We have been laying low and taking lots of medicine.  Between the coughing and not sleeping I definitely don't have time to remember how much formula or diapers I have left (actually, I almost always manage to run out of both but this week I'll blame it on their sickness!)  So, I would like to give a shameless plug to my all time favorite baby friendly website - diapers.com  It is amazing.  You can order ANYTHING and it will arrive (for free assuming you spend $39 which is pretty easy when buying diapers!) the next day.  It is incredible.  I once placed an order at 8am and it arrived at 8pm that same evening!  They save my life pretty much once a month.

Also, funny story that has nothing to do with online shopping - last week we were going to meet a friend at a playground in the park.  I wasn't sure where it was and managed to get royally lost.  Theo was walking and had basically walked for almost an hour, Liam was cranky, it was nearly dinner time and I finally checked my phone and realized that the friend had actually canceled our playdate several hours earlier, I just hadn't noticed!  So, we were all hot and in a bad mood.  But, the great thing about NYC parks - every few blocks there is an ice cream stand!  We had a delicious pre-dinner of ice cream before heading home.  Here are a few pictures to show the boys enjoyment :o)

Have a great week!

love, Sarah

Trains!

In the spirit of modern blogging I want to comment on a book I haven't yet read :o)  Apparently, Tina Fey has recently written a new book and in it, she mentions that women in NYC are having a lot of babies to show how much money they have.  No offence to Tina but I would just like to clarify that this is not always the case.  This blog is meant to show that many many women in NYC are having lots of kids despite the fact that we cannot afford them!
To demonstrate this fact, I want to discuss one of my favorite NYC staples - public transportation.  As anyone with a 2 year old boy knows, the best way to get them out of the house is to promise them a ride on a train.  And I get to do that daily!
This past Thursday, Theo, Liam and I headed down to Penn station to take a train to Baltimore to visit my mom and sister.  Shane and my dad headed down Friday night to meet us.  Shane came to Penn station to help us get on the train and then left for work.  The boys were great; Liam slept for most of the trip and Theo settled in his seat with his snack (Puffs) to watch Dora for 2 hours :o)

When we arrived in Baltimore (BWI) I had Liam in the umbrella stroller, a backpack diaper bag, a rolling suitcase, and Theo walking.  A kind man took my suitcase off the train for me and we were set.  We had about 250 feet to go to get to our car and Theo suddenly refused to walk another step.  So, I'm holding him, trying to convince him that it is impossible for me to move forward with him in my arms and all our stuff, when a woman, being pushed in a wheelchair by airport security suddenly says, "Honey, that boy is not going to walk for you!"  She then convinced me to put my stroller in front of her wheelchair so she could push it, while the security man pushed her!  We must have looked ridiculous but it was amazing and we made it to the rental car. :o)
The rest of the weekend was a wonderful time relaxing with family, swimming in the pool, swimming in the pool some more!  The only way to get Theo out of the pool was to bribe him with a chocolate milk shake (I am a great mother!)  Both boys were spoiled rotten by their grandparents and Aunt Stefi and they loved every second of it!

 Celebrating my mom's birthday

 Theo loved the pool - especially sitting on the steps :o)

Liam loved the pool - but he especially loved playing with his brother!

See you all next week!  Love, Sarah

Surprise!

Thanks for checking out my new blog!  I'm hoping to be a bit better about blogging now that we are truly settled into NYC.  Plus, we are excited to announce the addition of a 5th member of our family coming this Feb!  So, as the title suggests, I'm hoping to blog about what it is like being pregnant with 2 little ones, and then having 3 under the age of 3 in NYC.  Most people seem to believe that NYC is a terrible place to have a young family so my goal is to find all the wonderful and fun things about having kids in the big city - and tell you all about them :o)

Here is a picture of our expected arrival!

Love, Sarah