Weekend Fun

Friday, Mommy took Clara and Emma to lunch at Panera and to open gym. It was lots of fun. In the afternoon, Mommy took the ladies to Caroline's house for Friday playgroup.

Mommy and Daddy were a bit tired on Saturday after a night where Emma had a tough time sleeping. She woke up at 5 ish and wasn't interested in going back to sleep either. Oh well. For lunch, the ladies enjoyed eggs and potatoes at El Dorado in Tarrytown. They both took a car nap as Daddy drove the family to the city to the Maclaren store in SoHo to get the stroller fixed- the strap broke again and Mommy was determined to get the straps upgraded. While it got fixed, Clara and Emma played in the play room at the store- Clara pushed the doll strollers- including a twin one- and Emma sat at little table in a little chair and played with a crayon. Then, Mommy and Daddy were given single strollers to take Clara and Emma for a walk. Mommy couldn't get over how light it was to push only one baby and how strange it was too. Daddy stopped at Emack and Bolio's and got strawberry ice cream- which Clara and Emma also enjoyed. In the evening, Mommy headed back to the city to play with Jen and Lisa while Daddy stayed home with Clara and Emma.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Mommy has kept Clara and Emma quite busy the past few days.

On Tuesday, Clara and Emma met friends Caroline and Eli and Rachel and Sonya for breakfast before gym class. At gym class, Clara made herself comfortable in the middle of the circle (she seems to like it there, as she did it in music too). She loved the silver mattress type thing that there was to crawl on and kept going back and forth. Emma loved the slide and kept asking to go up. Clara and Emma both loved the balloons! It is a great class because it has structure but you can also do what you want- which is great for Clara and Emma and their friends.

Clara loves playing with the puzzle stools in her room. She always has enjoyed them, but she goes over every single day and takes out the pieces and tries to put them back in - and looks to you for approval.

After gym, Clara and Emma slept in the car and woke up at the mall. Mommy took them to lunch at City Limits. After lunch and shopping, Clara and Emma headed home for their afternoon nap, which mostly consisted of them screaming. In the afternoon, Mommy took the ladies out for a walk and to the store.

Today, Clara woke up early again and screamed with joy for at least a half hour. Mommy and Daddy thought it was cute, even though it woke them up! The ladies didn't enjoy the morning diaper change- even though Mommy is pretty fast. Clara and Emma are officially being changed on the floor since Daddy rearranged the room. Sometimes Mommy does it on the changing pad and sometimes, just on the floor. Emma seems to like climbing on the pad and sitting there. Emma didn't want to be in her highchair and started squirming and screaming. Mommy took her out and she dined on Daddy's lap- including eating her yogurt- which ended up all over Daddy, the floor and of course, Emma. Mommy finds the toddler behaviors frustrating, yet amusing- all at the same time.

Mommy took Clara and Emma to the gym. After, Clara and Emma took a nap in the car and Mommy drove around. For lunch, Mommy took the ladies to Tarrytown and Horsefeathers, where Rachel and Sonya joined for salads (for the adults) and grilled cheese (for the little ones). It was a beautiful day and everyone enjoyed being outside. Emma noticed the scarecrows that were put up for decorations. Mommy thought she was going to cry, but she kept smiling and pointing at them. After a walk around town and a stop in Coffee Labs, Clara and Emma headed home for a nap. Mommy took the ladies out for a walk in the afternoon and to the swings. Clara took a little nap in the stroller, and Mommy decided not to wake her, so Emma got to enjoy the swings herself. Tonight, Emma and Clara enjoyed their dinner and milk. Mommy changed them into their pj's and brought them upstairs. Clara and Emma finished their milk and played. They are enjoying their flower puppets and when Mommy tried to encourage them to drink more by pretending to give the puppets milk, Clara and Emma proceeded to copy Mommy and offer their milk to the puppets. It was very cute. Emma has been drinking more milk, still not enough, but at least she is drinking!

Crafts Fair At Lyndhurst and Park Playdate

On Saturday, the gang headed to Lyndhurst Castle- a short 5 minute drive to attend the crafts fair. Once Mommy and Daddy arrived, they realized they had been many years before when they came to visit Stef and Shon in Tarrytown (Mommy thinks it was pre-kids). It was lots of fun. Clara and Emma enjoyed lunch and music and visiting all the stands. Clara and Emma enjoyed bathtime. Emma refused to get her diaper put on her and peed on the floor of her bedroom. While Mommy and Daddy found humor in it, Emma had to go back in the bath and there was a nice mess to clean up.

On Sunday, Clara and Emma returned to the fair to enjoy some more music and walk around. It was such a nice day. The gang even bumped into someone- Elissa Kuber- a nice suprise. In the afternoon, Clara and Emma went with Mommy and Daddy to Home Depot.

Today, Mommy took the ladies to the gym and went spinning. Clara and Emma enjoyed showing Mommy how they can take their bibs off and wear them as hats- this is their new thing... After lunch, Mommy took them to the bookstore to get some books on parenting toddlers. Clara and Emma have both been very challenging when it comes to changing diapers and putting on clothes. Emma also is not very interested in being in the highchair and squirms around before screaming and crying. Clara expresses her frustration sometimes when being put in the stroller or carseat and tightens up and doesn't want to be strapped in.

In the afternoon, Mommy, Clara and Emma met up with Marci and Matt and Rachel and Sonya in the park. Clara enjoyed walking around and crawling some and eating a little dirt along the way. Mommy still can't get over Clara walking around. She still falls sometimes, but gets right back up. Emma also enjoyed crawling around and playing with the leaves. There was no doubt that it was going to be a bath night!

Tonight, Daddy came home early and played with Clara and Emma a bit before bathtime. Mommy and Daddy thought it was funny when Clara tried to help Emma take off her shirt. Emma enjoyed bathtime quite a bit as she picked up her beakers- one in each hand and watched the water pour out. She gets very excited! Mommy gave them their straw cups and Daddy read some stories before the ladies headed off to sleep.

Happy First Birthday Anabelle!

This morning was a rough one at the Gornstein house. Emma started fussing about at 5 am. Mommy and Daddy aren't sure why. Both ladies decided to make sure everyone knew they were up at about 6:30. Breakfast was early and nothing seemed to make Emmalicious happy. Mommy didn't really know what to do with her. During playtime, Emma kept crawling over to Mommy and putting her head down and when Mommy left the room, she came back to find Emma lying down. Mommy put them down early, but they both fussed around and didn't sleep very long. Mommy played some more with Clara and Emma and fed them early. Emma has been trying to get out of her highchair for days and today, took her straps off- yes, she unsnapped one and removed herself and was standing up to turn around when Mommy had enough and took her out. Mommy put the ladies down for a npa at 11:50 or so and the slept until 1:15 ish.

Mommy loaded the ladies up and took them for a drive and headed to Anabelle's first birthday party. It was lots of fun. Clara and Emma got to try the "walkulator" and Clara loved riding on Adrian's shoulders (Anabelle's Daddy). Clara and Emma liked the pinata and loved the food that came out even more. They both tried a grape- a whole one, by accident and Mommy promptly took it out! It was so much fun!! Both ladies enjoyed vegetable dumplings, enough puffs to feed all toddlers worldwide (Emma says puff now) and some cheese, and oh yes, cake. Mommy decided that their snacking constituted a meal and brought them home, changed them, gave them milk and said goodnight! What a day.

Diaperless House (Not!) and Happy 3rd Anniversary Mommy and Daddy

Wednesday, Mommy took Clara and Emma to Starbucks near Great Play to meet Sharon. Mommy worked with Sharon at her first job out of grad school at the Temple. Sharon lives in Scarsdale and it was lots of fun to see her.

Before dinner, Mommy prepared for bath time by undressing Clara and Emma and leaving them in their diapers. However, when Mommy came back from putting Clara in her highchair, Emma had taken off her diaper and was waving it in the air. After explaining to her several times that the Gornstein household is not a diaperless household, Mommy finally got the diaper back on.

Last night was the second evening of no bottle. Mommy gave the ladies their straw cups with dinner and let them finish it upstairs after the bath.

Yesterday, Clara and Emma joined Mommy at the gym and seemed to enjoy themselves once again. It was a much better experience this time. When Mommy got home to put them down for their nap, the blackout shade broke--so of course, the ladies didn't have a great nap. They weren't very interested in lunch either. Mommy took them to run some errands and then brought them home for a nap, which again, while they were tired, had a tough time taking because of the light in the room. Clara and Emma tore apart the play area- they turned their toys over and sat on them and starting taking apart the letters. Mommy took them for a nice walk in the village and a stop at the grocery store- which was great because there were lots of older grandma types stopping to chat with Clara and Emma. Cousin Lani was even at the store! Daddy came home a bit early to help with dinner and to install the shade. Clara saw her boppy pillow on the floor and crawled to it and sat down, expecting milk. It is funny that she had really nailed down that habit. After story time, Mommy and Daddy said good night and enjoyed chinese food and strawberry shortcake for their 3rd anniversary.

Fun at Great Play and a Bottle Free Day!

Mommy tried to keep it exciting yesterday and started the day by taking a long walk on the OCA to Irvington. After their nap and lunch, the Gornstein girls hit the supermarket and after their afternoon nap and a new food, rice pudding, visited Trader Joe's. The ladies seemed to like the rice pudding, but didn't eat too much of it. Emma couldn't get enough of Brown Bear Brown Bear and made Mommy read it again and again. As the ladies were eating dinner, Daddy came home early so Mommy could head out.

This morning, Mommy woke up early to get ready for the day and as part of her routine, went outside to get the paper. When Mommy opened the door, she saw the coolest thing- about 5 deer running down the middle of the street with a bus slowly following them. Clara and Emma had a new food this morning, almond butter. Yummy! Clara and Emma enjoyed Great Play this morning. The doctor said that it was okay to take them out and for them to be around other kids. Mommy was brave and let both Clara and Emma go down the slide themselves- they loved it and wanted to do it over and over and over again. Emma loved the activity where she could bang the pots and pans. Both ladies loved riding the little catepillars and then going down the "hill." Tonight, Mommy decided to try something different. Mommy gave Clara and Emma bigger straw cups without handles with their milk right after dinner. Mommy changed them downstairs and let them play and drink their milk. Even Emma drank some! Then, Mommy read some books- today's favorites included "That's Not My Dolly," and "Brown Bear," and took Clara and Emma up for bed. And, they went right to sleep. So goes the first night without a bottle.

Ferry Fiesta and Roseola....

Well, it is official. Mommy and Daddy know what has been ailing Clara. She has roseola. It is characterized by a high fever (over 103) and few other symptoms, but sometimes swollen eyes (which she had yesterday) and once the fever breaks, a rash, which appeared on her tummy and back today.

On Thursday, Clara and Emma enjoyed showing off some new skills. Clara seemed to figure out how to click her tongue and Emma enjoyed blowing raspberries. Clara also enjoys walking, turning in circles and then putting her hands down on the floor and looking through her legs and then walking with her hands on the floor. Mommy got some short videos of the ladies in action.

Friday, since Clara still had a high fever, Daddy stayed home to help and accompanied Mommy to the doctor's office once again with Clara. She was a very good girl when she got tested for a UTI and got blood drawn out of her finger. Mommy also wanted to share this pic from Friday night featuring many of Mommy's new friends. It was lots of fun to go out w/o the munchkins!

Yesterday, Grandma and Grandpa Gornstein came to visit and went with Mommy, Daddy, Clara and Emma to Ferry Fiesta- a street fair in the village. It was lots of fun! Clara and Emma's favorite parts were getting to eat watermelon and jamming to the Dead cover band. Mommy enjoyed bumping into mommy friends that she was out with the night before! Clara and Emma saw their friends Matthew, new friend Jack, and Kayleigh. Grandma and Grandpa watched Clara and Emma while Mommy and Daddy went out to celebrate their anniversary (9/18). Mommy was wearing bracelets (from Pookie) and Clara and Emma both enjoyed trying them on... Mommy already knows she will be sharing jewelry with these little ladies in the years to come. Mommy and Daddy went to Blue Hill at Stone Barns for dinner. It turned out to be a tasting menu- but it took 3 hours! There was too much time in between courses. The beginning of the meal was good, but it deteriorated as the night went on. Overall, it was nice to be out and enjoy a long meal together.

Today, as stated earlier, Clara had a rash, therfore confirming the Roseola. Daddy took the ladies on a walk and Mommy went spinning - she loves the 8 am classes! After a nap, Clara and Emma enjoyed lunch and took a walk with Mommy and Daddy to the waterfront in Dobbs where there was a small flea market. After an afternoon nap, the ladies took a short car ride and then came home for one of their favorite meals- perogies! Clara is still not interested in food, but Emma is making up for her lack of appetite! Daddy made the ladies laugh quite a bit with a "spit and shine" routine.

The Gornstein gang is also grateful that Uncle Adam, Aunt Christina and Lucas and Great Uncle Jon, Julie and Dani are all okay in Houston after Ike. While they don't have electricity, they are making the best of it. Thanks for all the calls and emails to check in on them!