Our Little Panda

For Elie's first Halloween we didn't end up doing anything Halloweenish except for carving a pumpkin and dressing Elie up as a panda bear. We went to Tot Shabbat in the morning followed by a birthday party in the late afternoon. We had a great time and Elie did look super cute! It was 80 degrees outside for Halloween so the costume didn't last long. Today it's in the 50s... perfect panda weather! Oh well... here are some pictures to enjoy.

Two Years.

Adam and I had a wonderful anniversary celebration complete with dress up and a dinner out! By dress up, I mean I put on my wedding dress and Adam put on his wedding tie and coat. Amazingly everything still fit - probably more amazing for me than for Adam. It was a lot of fun to remember our wedding day and the things that we wore... it really helped bring back all the memories of the day.

The weekend after our anniversary, we went out for dinner for the first time in over a year. We can't even remember the last time we had dinner out just the two of us. A girl just a few houses down the street from us came over after Elie went to sleep and she listened to the monitor (easiest job ever!) while Adam and I escaped and had a wonderful time out. We even got créme brûlée for dessert!

Adam and I all dressed up and no where to go!

Me wearing Adam's tie

Getting silly with the veil

Elie playing

My new Moby wrap - a wonderful gift from Anne & Bob!

Adam enjoying our fall walk

Aunt Lara & baby Vivi came to Chapel Hill

After much anticipation Lara and Vivienne finally made their trip to visit. We had such a great time - the babies napped and I had lots of time to spend with Lara. It was so nice to have company for a few days. The babies loved each other - the both grinned each time one of them would come into a room. They played well together and seemed to have a lot of fun. We had a fun trip to the park, but mainly enjoyed staying close to home and letting the babies play. We very much look forward to many more visits in the future.

Elie and cousin Vivi play together

Pajama play

Vivi's first ride in a swing!

Aunts and nieces

Aunt Lara with Elie

Elie and her very cool walker

Fall Activites

I have been working on this post and meaning to do others, but we've been busy... and Elie got a cold and has given it to me. She is feeling a bit better today, but I am a few days behind her so it's been no fun at all in our house.

Fall is in full swing here these days - beautiful weather and colors! Recently we took a trip to a local farm and had a lot of fun. We went in a corn pit, fed some goats some corn that we picked ourselves, went through a corn maze, picked cotton, went on a hayride, and picked pumpkins to take home. We all had a wonderful time and were fully exhausted when we got home. Here are some pictures from the day:

Corn pit

Hello there!

Mommy & Elie on the hay ride

Team Singer!!

Elie with friend Carabella (13 months)

Pumpkin patch

We got pumpkins!

Some Recent Pictures

Playtime with Daddy

Hi there!

Life in a white basket

Cute socks! (from Aunt Pam)

Yoga baby

Happy 5770! Happy Autumn!

Here is a quick video of Eliora walking around the table and going for my computer - she will do anything to get to the computer. Sorry it's so dark, but I wanted to post something showing her cruising ability. She is crawling on hands and knees now as well as pulling up and cruising on anything nearby. We've had to baby proof a bit more and rethink some other things in the house. I've just come to accept that this will be an ongoing process for a while as she becomes more and more mobile.

Rosh Hashanah services were quite different this year since we also have Eliora to look after. We didn't stay for quite as long as previous years, but we had a very nice celebration nonetheless.

It's amazing that fall is here, it's 5770, our nephew Skyler is 8!!!, Adam and I have almost been married for 2 years, and Eliora will be 1 in two months! So much to celebrate! So much to look forward to!

And recently...

So, two weeks back from the beach now and we've been rather busy. Adam has been really busy at work and I have been busy with the baby and playgroups. Elie has been busy as well. She cut her first tooth on my birthday and then the second one followed just a few days ago. Teeth make for a cranky baby (just a little), but it's fun to see the changes in her and how she adapts to these strange things growing in her mouth. Once they're fully in I'll snap a picture to post. She's busy moving about crawling and climbing up on things and doing all things baby. We have a new playgroup on Wednesday mornings and I hosted the first meeting this past week. It was a bit crowded with about 8 mother - baby pairs. But, it was nice to meet new people and hopefully this will continue to be a good playgroup. Adam and I are off for a lunch date today while Gale and Peter come over for a little bit. Adam is also taking Labor day off tomorrow so it will be a nice 3 day weekend. We are hoping to make it to Raleigh to see a Chocolate exhibit at a museum. Should be fun!

Outer Banks 2009 (228 photos), by Helene Singer

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Beach Etc.

We had a fantastic vacation at the beach. Elie did really well in the car for the 4 hour drive (which turned out to be a bit longer since we had to stop more for Elie). We went to lighthouses, the Wright Brothers Memorial, the aquarium, and Jockey's Ridge park where you can walk on the dunes -that was exhausting carrying the baby and walking in loose sand! Luckily Aunt Rachel was there and she happily carried Elie out of the park.

We had plenty of time to relax on the beach and in the house, cook meals, go out to eat, do a bit of shopping, and celebrate my birthday! Rachel and Adam were very sneaky with Birthday plans - Rachel decorated the house after Adam and I went to bed, Adam and Rachel baked a cake while I had some time to myself at the beach. I got wonderful presents and phone calls from family. It was a fantastic celebration of the last year of my twenties!

Since the beach, Elie has been sleeping better and getting more and more adventurous. She is oh so close of crawling for real, but still prefers the commando crawl after a few attempts at crawling with her belly off the floor. She is pulling up to standing and starting to cruise on furniture, opening drawers in the kitchen, finding power cords (our outlets are already covered), talking, and getting into pretty much everything! Tomorrow we have her 9 month well child check-up... no shots at this one! But, we will find out how much she has grown and make sure all her little systems are doing well.

I am working on sorting out pictures from the vacation (about 400!) and then I plan on uploading them to a snapfish album so I can just send out a link for people to enjoy them. I hope to get that done early in the week. I have a new playgroup this week as well so I am looking forward to meeting yet another group of moms. I am hoping that this group will stick around. Maybe my old Tuesday playgroup will pick back up once the weather cools down.

Adam is almost done with his first "on call" week at work. It hasn't been too bad, but he's gotten lots of pages and a few in the middle of the night, which is quite startling. At least he only has to do it once every 6 weeks.

We are certainly enjoying being back home and knowing that we aren't traveling again until November for Thanksgiving. But we are looking forward to my sister Lara and her little one (5 months now) Vivienne coming for a long weekend in October. I am hoping for great weather and lots of walks and outside time to exhaust the girls so we can relax together at night. Lots to look forward to and more updates to come!

Videos

July 2009

We've been pretty busy lately. We had a trip to Florida at the end of June for our niece's Baptism. Lots of fun! We've been home keeping busy with the baby, the house and getting rest. We had fun on Adam's birthday playing in Elie's new baby pool... and getting eaten up by mosquitos. Anne & Bob came for a visit and I made my first challah ever with them - was very messy with lots of laughs! Someday I will attempt again. Now we are getting ready to go on a week long vacation to the outer banks! Aunt Rachel is coming with us to make it even more fun... and give us an extra pair of hands with the baby so Adam and I can do things like go swimming at the same time. And in the past week, Elie has learned to crawl "commando" style, sit up by herself from laying down on the floor, and wave! It was quite a week of learning and we are looking forward to watching her learn to do even more! Here are some fun photos from the month...

Watching daddy open his birthday presents

Very cool baby pool and lots of mosquitos (not pictured)

mmmm.... food!

starting to crawl

first time in a real swing

A new syllable... and a new roof!

The past few days have been rather stressful as we had our roof replaced. It was quite loud and Elie didn't really care for all the banging, and neither did I. Yesterday we spent the day at Aunt Gale's house and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Today I ran some errands after Elie managed to nap during the banging and when I came home they were done! Here is a before and after:

Before

After - much lighter!

And, just in time for father's day this Sunday, Elie has learned to say da-da... and da-do-de-da. Of course this isn't directed at Adam, and she says it to everything - happy or upset. It's really cute to see her so excited about acquiring language - of course she doesn't know that's what she is doing. Here is a video to enjoy of her talking to her toys and deciding what to play with next! She does love her exersaucer!

Swim baby!

We had our first swim class today and Elie LOVED it!! She loved me swirling her around in the water and all the different activities/exercises we did in the pool. And, because she is almost 7 months old, she loved sucking the pool water on her hands. She was so calm and happy to just be there and enjoy the water - I can't wait for Thursday's class!

Enjoying playtime in the crib

This past weekend I decided it was time to paint our hallway bathroom. So, we went to get the paint and started the project on Saturday afternoon and finished up on Sunday. It looks really great! Adam and I are both so happy with the results and think the bathroom looks 10X better!

So, here is a picture of what it looked like before (sort of) - I took this right after we bought the house last year.

Before

And, After!

So pretty! As Elie gets a bit older I want to get a fish/beach theme going in the bathroom. There's a lot more painting I want to do in the house, but that will all have to wait. This is a good start though.

We are excited for this weekend coming up - we are going on a date on Saturday while Aunt Gale and Uncle Peter watch Elie for a few hours in the afternoon. And then on Sunday we will celebrate Adam's first Father's Day and do fatherly type things all day - I have no idea what that means, but it sounds fun!

Sorry for the delay

So, we've had a busy few weeks here... We had a visit from my parents (Nan & Pere to Elie) two weeks ago followed by throwing a baby shower and a going away party this past weekend for our good friends Isaac and Rayna. It's been a lot of fun, but now we are looking forward to just hanging out for the next two weekends - and Adam's first Father's Day! I hope to make it as special as he made Mother's Day for me.

Elie and I start swim classes next week - I am really excited to get in the pool with her since she loves the water so much. Also taking the class with us is a friend from my playgroup and her 9 month old daughter... it will be nice to have familiar faces there!

At the end of this month we are very excited to be traveling down to Florida to visit with my sister, brother-in-law, and meet our new niece Vivienne (4 months younger than Elie). We will be attending her baptism - a first for the three of us! I will also be spending two nights with my sister after the baptism to hang out with the babies and have some fun - Adam will be returning to NC for work. It will be my first time taking care of Elie alone at night - I just hope she sleeps well!

Elie with Nan

Since Elie is now 6 months old, we've introduced her to solids - yay! It's so much fun to watch her and to watch Adam feed her! She's still getting used to food, but her expressions are priceless (so are Adam's as he feeds her!). So far she's had sweet potato and banana. Hopefully this weekend we'll try something else as she continues to get used to textures and flavors going down - yum yum!

So, we're excited for a fun summer of family visits, swimming, and vacations! We also have Adam's parents coming to visit in July, and we are going to the beach for a week in August with Aunt Rachel! Hopefully I will be getting back in the habit of updating this blog - it's pretty fun to look back at even for us. :-)

Giggles and New Friends

We have been busy lately with our play dates, keeping up with the house, and trying to find new activities to keep us busy.

My Tuesday play date has been going well and is now meeting in the afternoon which is more difficult for us due to napping, but we still get to see everyone for about an hour.

Adam has been busy tearing out poison ivy and other invasive plants from our backyard on the weekends. Hopefully he will conquer the poison ivy and then we can get a play gym for Elie in the backyard. Luckily we have some years before she will be ready for a jungle gym.

Today I tried out a story time at the library with one of the other moms from my play group. It was a lot of fun, but I think it will be even better for us once Elie gets a little bit bigger. Most of the babies were running around and we're not even crawling yet - although Elie does seem to be getting closer and closer each day.

We also met another mom in our neighborhood who has a little boy two months older than Elie. She is home every other week with her son and so we are planning on getting together for some walks.

Now I am looking into some active classes I can take (such as Salsa Babies!) for either this summer or the coming fall. I have been itching to get out and meet some new friends, both for myself and Elie as you can probably tell. And, to make it easier one of the moms from my play group, Candice, and I have been meeting for walks and she was at the library today and we want to sign up for one of these classes together. Oh the joys of being a stay-at-home mom! I feel so lucky! Oh and I had a terrific first mother's day thanks to Adam (and Elie)!

Here is a video of some of the fun Elie and I have during the day... She just loves it when Adam and I kiss her and pretend to eat her up! So much fun!

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

-William Carlos Williams

The Pits!

One more thought on teething... appears I've had this thought for a long time! I had to scan in this old photo of myself -- only if I still had the onesie! Although I was quite a bit older in this photo than Eliora is now. Too funny!

Tooth Puns... for Great Grandma Lila

So it seems that Eliora is teething. She’s drooling a lot more than she used to and is rather cranky. I think she really wants to get the tooth, but she can’t yet handle the tooth. I guess we’ll just keep at it until she gets the tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth. I dared her not to get teeth, so I guess it’s up to her: tooth or dare. She hasn’t been crying too much, but she has been a little whinier and more talkative than before... I guess the tooth hurts. Here's some fun pictures of Elie being happy despite the tooth.

Thank goodness it's Friday and Adam is coming home soon!

Another week & 5 months old today!

Well, Elie is now 5 months old and is doing great! We are keeping our warmer weather these days and are excited for a weekend in the 80s! We've done a lot of house work these past few weeks getting ready for a fun summer and family visits.

We upgraded our sleeper sofa to have a nice foam mattress and board underneath so our family room should now make a great guest room. We had the gas company come out and get our gas fireplace working - I know it's April, but it will be great to have it working for next winter! And, better late than never! He also took a look at our gas grill that is built into our porch and told me what a great grill it is, but that pretty much all the insides had to be replaced. I don't think the grill had been given a second thought in about 7 years, thanks to the previous owners. So, ordered those parts and we have to clean it out this weekend, but then after installing all the new shiny parts we should be set for a yummy summer of grilling!

We also just got numerous estimates on replacing our roof and decided on a company recommended to us by our neighbor. This weekend we are going to go out and look at a few places so we can decide on the color of shingle we want for the next 25 or so years. Then that work should begin in the near future and hopefully only take a few days, especially since I will have to spend my time elsewhere for the comfort of me and Elie.

Our neighbor also went into our yard and spent 4 hours pulling out poison ivy and other unnecessary overgrowth. Adam is now having to spend some time each weekend maintaining and continuing his work as the weather warms and things continue to grow. It looks a lot better and hopefully soon we will have a poison ivy child friendly yard! Adam also got a wheelbarrow to help out with the work and it was a lot of fun to get into the trunk of a corolla - I'm sure people were laughing at us in the parking lot, but we got it home! So, we have a lot going on, but it's all coming along very nicely and we are excited for the summer and beyond in our wonderful home!

Now here are some pictures of that kid of ours!

Playtime!

Crazy hair at dinner time

Tree Hugger for Earth Day!

New wheels! (I've tightened those straps!)