Growing

Ok...Yoni and Mike are out grocery shopping and I just put Sylvie down for a nap. I'll ignore the piles of clean laundry that needs folding, the journals that need reading, and the playroom that needs cleaning, and instead, I'll update the blog!
We are having so much fun now that it's warmer outside. We love going to garage sales and are finding great buys. The graduating docs are finishing their residencies and are moving on, so we are always running into someone we know when we visit their houses on our garage sale paths.
The kids are enjoying the weather, and we're spending almost all of our days outside now. Sylvie has taken to her little car, which she can only push backwards with her legs (click here for the pics) and has started walking with Yoni's old walker. It's fun to see her do all the stuff that Yoni used to do. She's catching on to sign language a bit more and waves when we say "Hi" or "Bye", signs us when she's "all done", and lets us know when she's ready to sleep.
Yoni has become such a love. Before he goes down to sleep, he says "I need my hug! I need my kiss!" and after we hug and kiss him, he lies right down and waits to be covered...so cute. And this morning, I told him that I love him and he said "We're a happy family, Momma." And I assured him that we are.

Here is a video of Sylvie discovering Yoni's old basketball set. Sorry the video is way too long...she just kept going and going. While Sylvie is 11 mo old in this video, here is Jonathan's video when he was 13 mo old.


Here is a video of Sylvie signing for "sleep".


Here are two cute videos of Sylvie using the walker for the first time this morning. I couldn't decide which video to use, so I loaded them both up. Here's Yoni using his walker also at 11 months. I would like to sentimentally note that that was my very first video upload...boy have my videos become longer!

What makes me happy

If someone were to ask me what really makes me happy in life, fills up my heart completely, and offers me total peace...hands down it would be watching my kids play with each other. They were both playing Hide-and-Seek, I guess with me, so this was their reaction when I found them (had to stop and grab the camera first). It's not hard to find them with all the giggling that goes on.

And last night, Mike and I were quietly reading on the couch, and we suddenly noticed that we were quietly reading on the couch, so we looked at each other to realize that the kids have been occupying themselves by playing together right behind us. I grabbed the camera to take a video, but as soon as they realized they are being recorded, the playing stopped. By the way, as you can see in this video, one of Sylvie's favorite pastimes is tearing up our medical journals, of which she has a couple of pieces with her behind the couch. The way I see it, it's less reading for me :)

On the go!

Now that the weather is nice, we have been out and about almost non-stop. While it's very tiring, it's also loads of fun! Today, we started out the day by going to garage sales- my first time, though I think I'm addicted already. At our very first house, we managed to find a picnic table and slide for the kids, 2 little lawn chairs with umbrellas for them, and a blow up swimming pool with a slide...and the grand total came to like $20! Gotta love it. Then we headed to a town-wide garage sale nearby which was fun to walk through.
We also bought a kite and joined another family (I think we got there too late, so everyone had already left) in kite flying, which was so much fun...though more for Mike and I than for Jonathan. He loved it in the beginning, but I think got stressed out when the kite went too high and started pulling on him.
At Dartmouth, they had a Native American Festival which we went to in the evening and enjoyed watching the costumes and dancing, and browsing their beautiful art, clothing, and jewelry. And, of course, we ended the day as we do most days now by enjoying some ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. All in all a great time...though I think I'll be going to bed soon as tomorrow brings another full day...this time of Mother's Day shopping!!!
Here are all of today's pics.
And here are a couple of videos from today's festival.

Tragedy

Tragedy has struck us here, at the Beckerman Estate. I so lovingly and patiently planted a whole bunch (approx 25) of tulip bulbs of all sorts of magnificent colors last fall and have been anxiously awaiting their bloom. A few weeks ago, their little heads popped out from among the leaves, which we cleaned off of them promptly. Every day, I would go and check on their progress, whisper them sweet words of encouragement, giving them inspiration to bloom. And what did I discover a few days ago during one of my routine evening visitations? Alas...they were no longer! All of the beautiful stems were cut, some with the heads strewn about, some with the whole bulb gone.

We will never know the culprit of such a brutal and senseless crime, but we do have one piece of good news to share which does bring some solace and comfort back into our lives. A survivor has at last emerged from a different area of the yard...a lovely and delicate tulip that has blossomed so beautifully that we visit every day.

Museum

Unfortunately, the nice weather that we had did not last very long and it's been cold and rainy here almost every day. So...what to do with the kids? We've been at the science museum so many times now that I've lost count. What is different is that Sylvie is so mobile and fearless, that I just let her loose when we get there and she crawls and climbs everywhere without even looking back! A little scary, but completely suits her 'firecracker' personality. Today, for the first time, she climbed up the stairs in our house to go upstairs...she's getting so big. It's definitely time for a gate.
She waves now every time we say "bye-bye" or "hi" and she does it with both hands when she's really enthusiastic. Now that she's more mobile and quick, Yoni has started to play with her much more actively. They chase each other and follow each other wherever we go.
Mike is now pretty much studying continuously from when he wakes up to bedtime (and even in bed) so I'm trying to get creative with activities for the kids, but the weather has not been very cooperative. My parents are coming in 3 weeks, so that will hopefully bring them some distraction...can't wait!
Here are all the pics (mostly from the museum), and here's a video of the kids from the museum. Had to cut the filming short as Sylvie just keeps going when she gets to the top!