Ilana Our Princess

For Thanksgiving I dressed Ilana up as girly as I could get. So pretty. She had a big month 7 - two teeth came in, she learned to crawl and loves her new independence. No more crying when someone leaves the room, just follow them! Her first Thanksgiving at the Booses and Channukah with Safta visiting were so fun. Can you believe she is a few days shy of 8 months. Gah, growing up so fast.

Star Wars Halloween

This year we nerded out and all dressed up like the Star Wars family. Lev was excited to be Luke so that he could obtain a light saber. I was jazzed to dress the kids up as Luke and Leia Skywalker. Laura made the amazing costumes by hand, as she does every year upon request. How lucky are those kids to have a grandma that sews? Anyway, then Alec decided he just has to be Darth Vader. And that left princess Amidala for me. The group costume came out pretty good I think and we had a blast trick or treating with our friends in Santa Monica.

Lev and Peyton

Its true love. The pair were separated for almost a month while Peyton visited her family in Florida. They reunited at the Farmer's market yesterday and have reconnected. These two are ridiculously cute.

3 and 1/2 and 1/2 year old

Ilana will be 6 months tomorrow and the last 4 weeks have been huge for her. She is 25" long and 14 lbs 8 oz and she has been sitting for 3 weeks now as well as starting on solids. Bananas and avocados are AOK, rice cereal and apple sauce have been rejected so far. She communicates quite effectively with squeals and grunts that we always know what she needs. She is always easy, so much so that we forget she needs to nap or eat sometimes bcs she never cries for it.

She gets along famously with her big brother. They really adore each other which is all I could have asked for.Only Lev can make her smile with his silly antics and when she is sleeping he asks me to wake her bcs he misses her. He shares his toys with her fairly well.

 And I forgot to note that Lev has been successfully potty trained since July. He was more than ready but we weren't until all our visitors had departed. We picked a free weekend where we had no social engagements, July 20-22, and just went for it. A naked weekend where there were no diapers and no back tracking. After 2 days, he was peeing and pooing like ia pro and we haven't looked back. No accidents, no pull ups, just big kid underwear from here on out. He has a new confidence and swagger now too. Its awesome.

Lovely Ilana

Posting about our gorgeous and sweet baby girl is long overdue. She is 5 and 1/2 months old already and sitting all by herself. She is nice and pleasant to be around - always smiling, quiet, giving, and accommodating. And she is beautiful to look at - more so every day. I'll fill in the gaps of her birth to the present in posts to come soon, but for now, take a look at our beauty and appreciate her loveliness. I am crazy about this girl.

Lev's Third Birthday Party

We had to fit in a birthday party with our favorite peeps at the Tot Lot in Playa Vista for Lev before the baby came. The party was on 4/15/2012 and the baby is scheduled for 4/18/2012.  Nico and Nora, Riley and Sophia, Indie and Bea, and little Uma came out to celebrate.

Party prep.

That bubble machine was a huge hit. Lev was literally jumping off the floor in excitement.

Drink and fruit break after the bubbles.

 Nora is ready to be a big sister.

 Cupcakes for all.

And lots of new toys to play with after the party. Yay.

The Baby Is Almost Here

S pretty soon (1 week!) we will have a new addition to the family, and blog. Baby Girl is on her way. Here are the belly shots.

24 weeks

28 weeks

32 weeks

36 weeks

37 weeks

39 weeks - last belly shot of the bunch. No more after this point people.

And here is what she looks like..

Crazy, right?

Passover/Easter 2012

We had a very busy holiday.

It started with a Seder for all the Two Families at Temple Akiba on Monday. The kids sang a few songs for us , but Lev gets self conscious and zones out to his happy place or stares at his fingers when the spotlight is on.

That Friday we drove down to San Diego to have Pesach with Shany, Alon, Ella, Maya, and Sara and Shelly, Joe, Michaela, and Liam who were visiting from NY for the week. There were 9 kids under 10 at the Seder which made for a boisterous family gathering. Rivka sent over half of the meal with Shelly which was hysterical and well appreciated too. The food and the company was so yummy.

The following night were lucky enough to be invited to Pam and Frank;s for a second Seder. It was very chill and relaxed. And with the Petriglianos cooking, you can safely assume the food was out of this world.

 Randi lead the Seder

Nico, Lev, and Zoey did great on their own - watching TV and making music.

 Graydon and Mia wished they could be part of the action but were happy to observe for now.

Let's not forget Easter Sunday. Although we didn't do much, we had to make a mini egg hunt for Lev outside.He's just too good an egg seeker for us to deprive him of the joy of finding those camouflaged eggs and then the thrill of discovering what's inside.