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