Moving Day #1

Today is the first day of our move! The boxes are (mostly) packed and we are moving the essentials in a U-Haul tonight... sounds fun! Don't you wish you were here to help?!

I hope little guy sleeps well in our new place tonight. Here is a pic of him snoozing. Notice he has unzipped his sleep sack... Priceless. 

Good Morning!

Every morning little man wakes up happy. He usually is in his crib talking to himself and playing. When he sees me he gets excited and bounces around in his crib. He loves to flip on/off the light switch. Here is a video so you can see what I mean. Apologies for the dark, low quality video, taken on my iPhone.

Packing Up

I can't believe we are packing again! It feels like we just got here...

At least we have an adorable little helper :)

Weekend Updates

Last weekend we went up to CT to check out a few houses. We looked at a few places but realized we were going to need a lot more time if we wanted to buy a home.

Since the hubby starts his new job so soon, we figured it would be best to rent a house while we continue to look. We drove up on Saturday, finalized everything and stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch. It was great place for lunch because we took little man over to the toy section while they got our table ready. Surrounded by toys, he managed to find a broom (not for sale) and swept the floor. He loves brooms!

Mission accomplished! We found a house to rent and move in at the end of this week. It is a single-family, 3 bedroom house that has recently been renovated, new kitchen, bathroom, everything! I will post more pics once we get moved in since I'm sure you're excited to see! But for now... it's time to pack!!!

Big News!

Well guys, we have exciting news! The hubby was promoted at work and we are moving from Jersey to Connecticut THIS WEEK!  ...stay tuned for more details!

Our Lil Linebacker

Well, it has been confirmed. Our little dude is giant.

Today he went to the pediatrician for a shot (not fun) and got some height/weight measurements.

So, at 17 months he is 28 lbs, 11 oz which puts him at 90th percentile. He is 33" tall, 80 percentile.

The Dr. said he looks great and not to be worried about how large he is. "He is just a big boy!"

I snapped this picture after he stopped crying. (It was before the shot, the nurse just touched him with cold hands.) Literally two tears from the shot. He was so tough and acted like nothing happened. I think it's one of those things that's harder on me than him... Or at least I hope!

NEW Statement Necklace

This weekend I picked up a new statement necklace at Charming Charlie's (the forever 21 of accessory stores). I like this one much more the one I originally posted about here. I think the white gives more of a contrast with the polka dot.

I also paired it with a light green Michael Stars turtle neck. I really like the white and gold with the pastels of the shirt.

At $10, I think the white necklace was a good buy! I see myself wearing it a lot this spring and summer. I'm already wishing I would've gotten one in every color!

Children's Museum of Manhattan

A few weeks ago (before Christmas) we went to the Children's Museum of Manhattan and it was awesome!!  It is a children's museum on the Upper West Side for toddlers that focuses on play learning. It had so many cool things!  There are 5 floors and we really only explored 2 of them! The different floors are designed for different age groups with the overall focus for kiddos ages 2-6. Little guy was a little We were too busy playing for me to capture a lot of pictures, but here are a few:

Walking up 83rd St.

We really bundled little guy up, it was a pretty chilly morning! This was his first trip into NYC!

Here is a photo from their "Eat Sleep Play: Building Health Every Day" exhibit.  It's really extravagant!

source

This is the "Lite-Brite" wall.  It had solid cylinders of blue, yellow, green, red plastic pieces that you stuck through the foam holes.  Behind the foam holes there was a light which illuminated the translucent cylinders. The cylinders were just the right size for his hands. 

Little man loved this Sand Table. It was U-shaped and huge. At the back wall (not pictured) were a series of funnels and levers for pouring the sand into and watching it travel down.

There are signs posted all over that detail which skills they are learning.  This sign was for the Sand Table.  So cool!

Skill Sign

This was a peek-a-boo game that little man loved.  You couldn't see through the glass until you both placed your hand on the round circle.  As soon as you did the glass became clear and you could see your dad on the other side!  There were a bunch of different activities that used this type of sensor technology.  For example, one of them blew pom poms in the air when you put your hand over it.

Afterward we went across the street to Cafe Lalo for lunch. The food was nice and the atmosphere was very cozy.  This cafe was in the movie You've Got Mail. We had a really nice time exploring the city and thought the Upper West Side was really family friendly.

Self-Portrait

I love finding little surprises from little man.  Sometimes it's a crayon in your shoe, or the remote control in a kitchen drawer. This time, it was on my mom's iPad.  Little man took a self-portrait while we were home in Ohio.  Pretty cute!

Statement Necklace

I paired this statement necklace (from Forever 21) with a polka dotted shirt. I thought it looked cute ... Until my husband gave me a questionable look said I look "Western." Western, really? Hmmm. Well, that wasn't the look I was going for, but now that you mention it... I guess i can see it?

What do you guys think? Fashion forward or fashion fail?

Loving It Lately

Our latest obsession - bath markers!!! Every night for a half an hour we color all over the bath tub. Even during the day we sneak into the bathroom and try to find the markers! We are obsessed!

We color on the tub, tub walls and even our selves!  (The photos below were taken over the course of a few nights)

Yes, that is blue marker on his face.

We love them so much we actually had to buy a second package and throw out our old, dead ones! Luckily they are only $5.

Drum Roll Please!

Today I got out some pots, plastic bowls and wooden spoons for some sensory learning with sound!

Little man seemed to really like it! Eventually he began trying the pots and bowls on as hats ... I don't know where he gets it!

He really enjoyed "stirring" with the spoon so I gave him some caps to use. Genius! The caps made a lot of noise as he filled them up, emptied them out, etc.

This sensory activity was really quick to put together and I think would appeal to babies both younger and older than little man (he is approx 17 months now).

Egg Casserole Muffins

Yesterday I made egg casserole in a jumbo muffin tin. It was yummy, especially because the edges were nice and crisp. I used bread I had made earlier in the week and I think it made it that much better!

The East Village

Today we drove into NYC and spent our day in the East Village. It was really neat and one of my favorite parts of the city so far. The East Village is in Manhattan, just north of the Lower East Side. It has an artistic vibe.  It has vintage book stores, poet cafes and artwork on every corner. It was really fun to walk around because there was so much to see.

One of the streets we were walking on had a mural painted for an advertisement for the NYC Ballet. 

We decided to take little man in our Ergo carrier instead of using the stroller.  It worked out SO WELL.  This might be the only way we carry him around NYC from now on.  He loved looking around and being at eye level with everyone. He was snuggled up against his dad on the walk and when we reached the restaurant he was all sweaty! It was also about 50 degrees today which made for a nice stroll.

Here is a photo of a cafe we passed.  The inside looked really cool.  The artwork on the side of the building is both paint and mosaic tiles. This is just one of many, there were a lot of places like this. So much to see!

We spent most of our time on St. Marks Place (8th Street) which had so many cool restaurants and cafes, I wish we could have tried them all! There were also a lot of street vendors selling trinkety items. I'm such a sucker for this type of shopping and if I would have had cash in my purse, I would've been there all day!

This photo was taken through a chain-link fence. It is a school yard where there was a movie being filmed.  No idea what movie but it was neat to see.  It looked pretty low-key like maybe something by NYU students? A lot of NYU students live in the East Village.  We saw them everywhere, some of them wearing crazy outfits!  I love seeing people sporting all types of fashion. I couldn't stop checking out girls' boots and bags!!

Here is one of the "mosaic lamp posts" that the East Village is famous for.

We had lunch at Hummus Place. It was SO GOOD.    It is an Israeli restaurant featuring, you guessed it, hummus! They've received some great NYC press (see here) and we were not disappointed!  

 In honor of my husband's late grandma, we ordered grape leave rolls.  She used to make them and they are his FAVORITE. ...and much to our surprise, these were some of the best we've had (second to hers, of course).  They were served warm and stuffed with rice (Grandma J's also had beef), flavored with lemon (just like Gma J's) but were served over a mint yogurt (this part was new). I liked the mint yogurt sauce, but the big guy would've liked it on the side.  We also tried Shakshuka Halumi and loved it.  It was (I think) spaghetti sauce with large pieces of red and green peppers, cooked tomatoes, huge pieces of goat cheese and eggs over-easy.  We used pita bread to scoop up every last drop!  (I plan to attempt recreating this recipe at home.)

We also ordered hummus and it too was spectacular.  The hummus was as smooth as butter. I've never seen it so smooth.  It was topped with chickpeas and the green sauce in the center was lemony (maybe lemon juice and parsley?). It was a great blend of flavors and served with piping hot, home-made pitas. The pita bread also melted in your mouth. I think I will be dreaming of this hummus for weeks (possibly years)!

Little man sipping on some water

 We passed a macaroon shop and I had to stop!  

They had a huge variety of flavors. I settled on a lemon one and a salted caramel with chocolate filling. They were really rich and fluffy.

Here is another example of art on every corner.   It is a combo of graffiti and Japanese artwork (I think??).

Lastly, we stopped at Milk Bar. I got a compost cookie.  It has pretzels, oatmeal, choc chips, butterscotch chips, nuts... a bunch of stuff. The hubs thought it was quite tasty, but I didn't realize it also had coffee ground in it.  I do not like coffee, at all. Or coffee flavored anything, ever. So, I ordered the wrong thing. I should have splurged and got the "crack pie" but I was trying to practice self-control and not order everything in the entire bakery. Lesson learned.

Here is one last photo as we were waiting to pick up our car from the parking garage.  Such a sweet little face.  He was the best baby today.  He was happy and friendly, waving at strangers and chatting up a storm.  He was an angel at the restaurant and slept in the car on the short trip there and back. He is so laid-back and cheery.  I think it was partly due to the fact that he was on his dad's back instead of stuck in the stroller.

We have really been trying to take advantage of our proximity to the city and have had a lot of fun exploring. Each neighborhood has it's own identity and so much culture. Where should we go next??