I've spent the past week "at home." This has been a week at home for me between jobs. I start anew on Monday. It's been an amazing time for self-growth and self-reflection. Awesome and I feel lucky and privileged to have been given the opportunity.
I've spent the mornings with my kids. Making them breakfast. Sitting with them. Things I don't get a chance to do most days. And with the busyness of work, I don't get a chance to appreciate it when I do get the chance, because I'm frankly just tired. I hope my new opportunity will allow me to change that. Fingers crossed.
I adore my children. Truly truly truly. They are great kids. I try hard to raise them well each day. To make them loving, but strong. To make them smart, but still sensitive. To give them good vision, and a good perspective on what the world is like. To let them have fun like crazy, but also know that life isn't just fun and games. I am doing the best I know how, and I feel in my bones that I'm doing it right. I hope I'm right.
Today is Friday, which is shabbat. The kids had great swimming lessons (I'm so proud!), then they got bathed and I threw some dinner together. Right before dessert we remembered that it was Friday, Shabbat! How could we forget?? Maya and I looked at eachother, exasperated. Cute. We grabbed two candles, and Maya said the prayers, she is awesome, and we talked. About what we are grateful for. About what an incredible family we have. How lucky we are to have all that we have. How we always have to think about who we are and where we come from. Just like the Jewish people that escaped Egypt from King Pharaoh. Maya talked about how he didn't treat the Jewish people very nice and he got the bad plagues. She totally knows and connects with the story. Then she mentioned each person in our family... how special they all are. We all said "Shabbat Shalom" and "Amen" -- little Ethan too. He is such a natural at things in life.
Maya and Ethan. They are my biggest sources of joy and pride and I love them, literally, to the moon and back.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Birthday Girl!
Maya's birthday yesterday was wonderful! She woke up all cheerful, I held her close and sang her happy birthday. I gave her a little hello kitty dressed up as a devil as a little birthday morning treat, and also because she had slept so well the night before (5 stickers on her reward chart!). She loved the warmth and attention. She got to have a special breakfast - whatever she wanted. She chose a waffle. Or as she said, "vaffle." Love my eastern-european kid.
I only stayed at work for a few hours, but left to go bring little mini-muffins to Maya's school. She didn't know I was coming. It was such a treat to walk into her class and see her with her birthday crown on!
She was so excited. She helped me pass out muffins to all of her friends. Then we put a candle in hers and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and "Yom Huledet Sameach." Ahhh, love Valley Beth Shalom.
Afterwards I read one of Maya's favorite stories to the whole class. We read "Teddy is Polite", and when the kids saw that the characters were teddy bears, they couldn't stop talking about their own Teddy Bears. Such discussion! Such excitement!
It was really a sweet, sweet day. In the evening we all (Maya, Ethan, Daddy and I) had dinner out on our new porch swing, and Maya got another fruit tart with a candle. We sang and had the best little time. Later on Uncle Brad, Aunt Shelley, and Alana and Jeremy came over to wish her a happy birthday and brought her some new clothes. She was so happy! This girl loves clothes.
She got so many phone calls, messages, hugs and love. Seriously, what a lucky 3 year old! Next weekend she has the most amazing birthday party planned. I hope she is loving this as much as I am.
At night before she went to bed, she said, "You are the best mommy ever." Totally unprompted! Tears started to well up in my eyes. She then went on to say "Mommy, you are my best friend." I mean, come on! Who put her up to saying that??
I love my girl. She is the bees knees. I feel like the luckiest mama in the world that she's mine.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Maya, 3 years old
I feel so full of emotion the night before your 3rd birthday. 3 years - wow! I think of you when you were just a little thing and I think to who you are now, and it is an incredible testament to this thing called life what a beautiful little soul you are and how much you have brought, and how much you have to bring, to this world.
This is an incredible age, because you really start to understand the world around you. You understand that some things work in your favor, and sometimes things don't. You start to learn that everything has consequences, both positive and negative. This is an amazing thing to experience as your mommy! There is so much I want to show you and teach you.
Lately you are asking about everything. You want a watch. You want earrings. You sing songs all the time. You are learning words in Hebrew at school - echad, shtaim, shalosh... yeladim. You love shabbat and making challah at school. You love lighting the candles on shabbat, and sometimes you even ask us to light the candles on the other nights. You love to laugh and be silly, and you have a lot of emotion.
You absolutely love school and your friends. You talk about them all the time! You love seeing friends at My Gym and at dance class. You've become such an incredible swimmer. Full on swimming before your 3rd birthday! I never would have thought.
You love Ethan, even if you sometimes feel confused by your feelings. You make sure he understands what is yours is yours and you don't like it when he takes your things, but you also rush to give him something else to play with. If we're out and about and he's not with us, you express how much you miss him.
Being your mommy is the most incredible experience of my life. It's full of so many emotions - joy, excitement, passion, concern, but the strongest emotion of all, the one that I feel vibrating in my bones, is love. You are my baby and I absolutely adore you. From here today, until forever.
Love,
Mommy
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Savoring and capturing each moment
Things have been so fun and enjoyable with the kids. Our lives have been so full and fun. Last weekend Mark was out of town for work. I had all these "grand plans" for Thursday -- take Ethan to his audition at the agency, work-out, do some work, and then on Friday I was going to focus on me. Do some shopping (I am in desperate need of a few new threads), check out sunglasses, bras, etc. Well I woke up on Thursday morning - Mark had already left - and when I saw Amelia I knew immediately something was wrong. She said she was sick.
Fuckshitahhhshit. By brain started to race and I knew what this meant. "Go home" I told her. Poor thing, she was sick. You can't care for children when you're sick. So I got Maya and Ethan ready and drove to Maya's school. We came home and I put Ethan down for a nap. He slept for a grand total of 30 minutes and then we got ready and went to Osbrink - the agency that Dana coordinated. Ethan did great! They all held him and he smiled for everyone. Such a charmer. Of course the moment we got in the car he whined the whole ride home. But they want to sign him! Too funny. I have to go get him a work permit and take some shots. Too fun.
On Friday we took Maya to school, and then Ethan and I went to visit Jen in Santa Monica. It was a beautiful day! Then we came home, just hung out, opened the doors and windows, and then Ethan took a beautiful long nap. I ended up having to wake him up in order to go get Maya. She had her first dance class on Friday and I really wanted to check it out. We didn't make it. Oh well. This Friday!
On Saturday Kristy arrived and it was so good to have her. Seriously, phew. Spending 48 hours alone with my kids was so wonderful. I never am alone with them. And it was so nice also getting some alone time with Ethan. I had so much of that with Maya when she was a baby, but I never got that with Ethan. He is such a sweet adorable thing. Maya is also growing so beautifully. She is so sweet and lovable. She is speaking so much now, and so well. I had a "parent-teacher conference" with Miss Liz and Miss Arosha at her school and they spoke so highly of her. They said how nice and mellow she is, that she's a bit shy but is expressing herself more and more, and that she's so "girly" -- really likes to play with the dolls. As if we don't already know that! But it was nice to hear how well behaved she is.
On Saturday Maya and I went to a playdate at Stephanie and Vaughn's house. They live in a beautiful neighborhood in Woodland Hills off Topanga Canyon Blvd. Really nice! Their house was also beautiful. I loved that they had a separate playroom (a former den) for Vaughn. It made me even more aware of what a toy-mess our living room had become. So we got back from that playdate and I was motivated to rearrange! Thank goodness for Kristy; she totally put it together and it looks so great!
It was just oh, so nice. I love the time that I have with my kids. It feels so right, so healthy, to be with them. I love that I have my work during the week and then I have my kids on the weekend. These are just good, happy days.
Fuckshitahhhshit. By brain started to race and I knew what this meant. "Go home" I told her. Poor thing, she was sick. You can't care for children when you're sick. So I got Maya and Ethan ready and drove to Maya's school. We came home and I put Ethan down for a nap. He slept for a grand total of 30 minutes and then we got ready and went to Osbrink - the agency that Dana coordinated. Ethan did great! They all held him and he smiled for everyone. Such a charmer. Of course the moment we got in the car he whined the whole ride home. But they want to sign him! Too funny. I have to go get him a work permit and take some shots. Too fun.
On Friday we took Maya to school, and then Ethan and I went to visit Jen in Santa Monica. It was a beautiful day! Then we came home, just hung out, opened the doors and windows, and then Ethan took a beautiful long nap. I ended up having to wake him up in order to go get Maya. She had her first dance class on Friday and I really wanted to check it out. We didn't make it. Oh well. This Friday!
On Saturday Kristy arrived and it was so good to have her. Seriously, phew. Spending 48 hours alone with my kids was so wonderful. I never am alone with them. And it was so nice also getting some alone time with Ethan. I had so much of that with Maya when she was a baby, but I never got that with Ethan. He is such a sweet adorable thing. Maya is also growing so beautifully. She is so sweet and lovable. She is speaking so much now, and so well. I had a "parent-teacher conference" with Miss Liz and Miss Arosha at her school and they spoke so highly of her. They said how nice and mellow she is, that she's a bit shy but is expressing herself more and more, and that she's so "girly" -- really likes to play with the dolls. As if we don't already know that! But it was nice to hear how well behaved she is.
On Saturday Maya and I went to a playdate at Stephanie and Vaughn's house. They live in a beautiful neighborhood in Woodland Hills off Topanga Canyon Blvd. Really nice! Their house was also beautiful. I loved that they had a separate playroom (a former den) for Vaughn. It made me even more aware of what a toy-mess our living room had become. So we got back from that playdate and I was motivated to rearrange! Thank goodness for Kristy; she totally put it together and it looks so great!
It was just oh, so nice. I love the time that I have with my kids. It feels so right, so healthy, to be with them. I love that I have my work during the week and then I have my kids on the weekend. These are just good, happy days.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Growing, growing...
It's such an amazing thing to watch my kids grow. Every time I witness major change it makes my jaw drop to the floor and I feel like the luckiest person in the world. It is definitely one of those "my cup runneth over" moments.
Today I got home from work before Amelia got back with the kiddos. I was in the kitchen when I heard the door open, and Maya's feet come pitter-pattering inside. She talked about a sweater she wanted from school (Maya's thing of late is stealing other kids jackets! sigh) and then she immediately wanted a snack. I know she gets a snack after nap at school so I am not really sure she is hungry, but when she keeps repeating, "snack, snacktime", I figure I should offer her something. I don't want it to be junk though. If she's hungry, she should eat something nutritious.
I offered her a banana or a rice cracker. She began to whine almost immediately. She wanted "crackers" -- just some wheat-thin type of cracker. Maya gets in routines with her snack. If I start giving her a snack that I call "special snack" that is what she'll request for a few weeks. Well I gave her these wheat-thin type crackers last week and now that's all she wants. I didn't want her having those.
So she LOST it. I think this was the first full-on temper tantrum I've seen her have. She fell to the floor, flailing around like a maniac, crying. I didn't react -- in fact I thought it was kind of funny -- she was being SO dramatic over some stupid crackers. I gave her a few minutes to have her show, and then I picked her up and took her outside for some fresh air. We talked about the moon (that wasn't "up" yet), the helicopters in the sky, the water in the lawn, etc. She relaxed.
We came back in and she took her banana. I put some raisins in the banana to give it a face and she thought it was the most hysterical thing ever.
Fast forward to dinner. She was sitting and eating and all of a sudden said "Santa Claus." Hmmm? I figured they were talking about Santa Claus at school. I have no problem with this but all of a sudden felt all protective about being Jewish - were they talking about Hannukah? I asked her if they were talking about Santa at school - and she didn't respond. Then she said "Poor Santa Claus." I asked why Santa Claus was poor. She responded with "Santa Claus cry. Maya cry." And that was the end of that conversation.
Maya went to take a bath with Amelia and I hung with little Ethan. He is just so precious. He seems so small to me. I know he isn't, but maybe after carrying Maya he is just this little being. I could just eat him up he is so sweet.
A little bit later I put Ethan to bed and then Maya and I were hanging out. All of a sudden she pulled down her pants and pulled off her diaper. I asked her if the diaper was wet. She responded with a quasi-"yes", so I told her we would go and put a new one on. I pulled her pajama pants back up and she was marveling at how it felt to have pants on without a big diaper in the way!
On our way into her room we passed by her bathroom. She went in. I was trying to yank her out before she peed in her pants, but she straight out went and sat on her potty! This was amazing, as she's never really too interested in sitting on it when we suggest it. She only sat on it for a moment and then she got up and went over to the big potty. Wow! I helped her up, and within a moment -- trickle trickle trickle! She peed in the potty!
I got so excited and that made her so excited. We got up and I gave her some toilet paper to wipe herself, then we threw it in the toilet, flushed it, and said, "bye bye pee pee." She loved it so much that she said she had more pee pee, so I helped her on the potty again and we got a few more trickles. Repeat about 3 more times. I am so damn proud and excited. She totally did this on her own, and did GREAT! Go Maya!
So she is growing so much, talking so much, and is so much of her own person. I love love love it! I am so blessed to be a mama to these two.
Today I got home from work before Amelia got back with the kiddos. I was in the kitchen when I heard the door open, and Maya's feet come pitter-pattering inside. She talked about a sweater she wanted from school (Maya's thing of late is stealing other kids jackets! sigh) and then she immediately wanted a snack. I know she gets a snack after nap at school so I am not really sure she is hungry, but when she keeps repeating, "snack, snacktime", I figure I should offer her something. I don't want it to be junk though. If she's hungry, she should eat something nutritious.
I offered her a banana or a rice cracker. She began to whine almost immediately. She wanted "crackers" -- just some wheat-thin type of cracker. Maya gets in routines with her snack. If I start giving her a snack that I call "special snack" that is what she'll request for a few weeks. Well I gave her these wheat-thin type crackers last week and now that's all she wants. I didn't want her having those.
So she LOST it. I think this was the first full-on temper tantrum I've seen her have. She fell to the floor, flailing around like a maniac, crying. I didn't react -- in fact I thought it was kind of funny -- she was being SO dramatic over some stupid crackers. I gave her a few minutes to have her show, and then I picked her up and took her outside for some fresh air. We talked about the moon (that wasn't "up" yet), the helicopters in the sky, the water in the lawn, etc. She relaxed.
We came back in and she took her banana. I put some raisins in the banana to give it a face and she thought it was the most hysterical thing ever.
Fast forward to dinner. She was sitting and eating and all of a sudden said "Santa Claus." Hmmm? I figured they were talking about Santa Claus at school. I have no problem with this but all of a sudden felt all protective about being Jewish - were they talking about Hannukah? I asked her if they were talking about Santa at school - and she didn't respond. Then she said "Poor Santa Claus." I asked why Santa Claus was poor. She responded with "Santa Claus cry. Maya cry." And that was the end of that conversation.
Maya went to take a bath with Amelia and I hung with little Ethan. He is just so precious. He seems so small to me. I know he isn't, but maybe after carrying Maya he is just this little being. I could just eat him up he is so sweet.
A little bit later I put Ethan to bed and then Maya and I were hanging out. All of a sudden she pulled down her pants and pulled off her diaper. I asked her if the diaper was wet. She responded with a quasi-"yes", so I told her we would go and put a new one on. I pulled her pajama pants back up and she was marveling at how it felt to have pants on without a big diaper in the way!
On our way into her room we passed by her bathroom. She went in. I was trying to yank her out before she peed in her pants, but she straight out went and sat on her potty! This was amazing, as she's never really too interested in sitting on it when we suggest it. She only sat on it for a moment and then she got up and went over to the big potty. Wow! I helped her up, and within a moment -- trickle trickle trickle! She peed in the potty!
I got so excited and that made her so excited. We got up and I gave her some toilet paper to wipe herself, then we threw it in the toilet, flushed it, and said, "bye bye pee pee." She loved it so much that she said she had more pee pee, so I helped her on the potty again and we got a few more trickles. Repeat about 3 more times. I am so damn proud and excited. She totally did this on her own, and did GREAT! Go Maya!
So she is growing so much, talking so much, and is so much of her own person. I love love love it! I am so blessed to be a mama to these two.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Funny Stories
My dear little Maya...
Yesterday I got home from work and Maya was already back from school. She looked so cute!! In pink pants and the most adorable Pink jacket. I told her how cute she looked and gave her a big hug. She said, "Mama buy this" -- pointing to her jacket. I certainly didn't buy it for her and didn't really recognize it, but assumed it was something my mom may have bought her.
A few minutes later our nanny Amelia asked me if that was our jacket. I said that I really didn't know that jacket, and she said that when she went to pick Maya up from school, Maya pointed to that jacket and said, "Mommy buy this jacket" -- so she assumed it was ours and took it home.
Nope! My kid straight out made up a story about that jacket because she liked it! OMG.
I talked to DH and told him that Maya took home someone else's jacket. He said, "Is it pink with embroidery on it?" I told him it was, and he said, "She's been eyeballing that since yesterday!" Mark takes Maya to school each morning.
I felt SO bad for whomever's mom it was that Maya took the jacket from. We promptly returned it this morning, and I went online to Carter's and ordered Maya a few new pink jackets. She is in such a pink phase right now, it is all she wants to wear.
Le sigh!
In other news, Ethan is 4 months old as of yesterday! Such a sweet little guy. And he is so darn cute, I just want to eat him up!
I am blessed. I love my beautiful babies.
Yesterday I got home from work and Maya was already back from school. She looked so cute!! In pink pants and the most adorable Pink jacket. I told her how cute she looked and gave her a big hug. She said, "Mama buy this" -- pointing to her jacket. I certainly didn't buy it for her and didn't really recognize it, but assumed it was something my mom may have bought her.
A few minutes later our nanny Amelia asked me if that was our jacket. I said that I really didn't know that jacket, and she said that when she went to pick Maya up from school, Maya pointed to that jacket and said, "Mommy buy this jacket" -- so she assumed it was ours and took it home.
Nope! My kid straight out made up a story about that jacket because she liked it! OMG.
I talked to DH and told him that Maya took home someone else's jacket. He said, "Is it pink with embroidery on it?" I told him it was, and he said, "She's been eyeballing that since yesterday!" Mark takes Maya to school each morning.
I felt SO bad for whomever's mom it was that Maya took the jacket from. We promptly returned it this morning, and I went online to Carter's and ordered Maya a few new pink jackets. She is in such a pink phase right now, it is all she wants to wear.
Le sigh!
In other news, Ethan is 4 months old as of yesterday! Such a sweet little guy. And he is so darn cute, I just want to eat him up!
I am blessed. I love my beautiful babies.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Sigh. The emotions continue
I'm feeling so overly emotional today. Intensely grateful, and so over-the-top in love with my kiddos. Maybe it's the fact that Maya is turning two on Monday and that she's moving to the two-year old class at school. Maybe it's that she is growing up and I just love watching her learn new things and understand the world better. Maybe it's that I'm going back to work on Tuesday. Whatever it is, I look at my kids and my jaw just drops to the floor. I never could have anticipated having these kinds of feelings before; they're just so unique to this experience. It's kind of life falling in love or getting married. Amazing. Joyful, wonderful, over-the-top. I feel so lucky.
Since I go back to work on Tuesday, I went to go pick up Maya from school today. On Fridays she has "Gymnastics on a bus", which is to-die-for-cute.
I just park in the parking lot and hope she doesn't spot me. Last week she did, but today I hid beneath the radar.
As they walked back to their respective classrooms, each kid held onto a circle-rope, which keeps them in line. School is SO good for these kids; I am so happy Maya goes.
I picked Maya up from Miss Shannon's room, and Shannon told me that Monday is Maya's official first day in the 2-year old room. Sigh! So exciting and sad/scary at the same time. In Miss Shannon's room there were only about 5 kids max. In the 2 year old room there are WAY more. We don't get reports on what they did every day. That makes me so sad! I love Maya's reports. I can't send her with a hot lunch as everything has to be kept outside at room temp. Maya is also going to get less attention. I know this is normal and she'll be fine but I can't help but be worried for my baby girl. Miss Shannon is so sweet and I'm sad we won't be with her anymore.
On the way home Maya and I went to yogurt-land for some quality mama-baby time. Maya LOVES yogurt-land... it is too cute. "More yogurt, more yogurt" over and over.
So what can I say? I have two beautiful, amazing kiddos. Ethan is just starting out, but to imagine that in two years he will be where Maya is today is just incredible. I can't wait to watch his little soul grow too.
Since I go back to work on Tuesday, I went to go pick up Maya from school today. On Fridays she has "Gymnastics on a bus", which is to-die-for-cute.
I just park in the parking lot and hope she doesn't spot me. Last week she did, but today I hid beneath the radar.
As they walked back to their respective classrooms, each kid held onto a circle-rope, which keeps them in line. School is SO good for these kids; I am so happy Maya goes.
I picked Maya up from Miss Shannon's room, and Shannon told me that Monday is Maya's official first day in the 2-year old room. Sigh! So exciting and sad/scary at the same time. In Miss Shannon's room there were only about 5 kids max. In the 2 year old room there are WAY more. We don't get reports on what they did every day. That makes me so sad! I love Maya's reports. I can't send her with a hot lunch as everything has to be kept outside at room temp. Maya is also going to get less attention. I know this is normal and she'll be fine but I can't help but be worried for my baby girl. Miss Shannon is so sweet and I'm sad we won't be with her anymore.
On the way home Maya and I went to yogurt-land for some quality mama-baby time. Maya LOVES yogurt-land... it is too cute. "More yogurt, more yogurt" over and over.
So what can I say? I have two beautiful, amazing kiddos. Ethan is just starting out, but to imagine that in two years he will be where Maya is today is just incredible. I can't wait to watch his little soul grow too.
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