August Days

August is the slow, lazy part of summer. Where the novelty of wearing shorts and no jacket has worn off and you admit that the best way to deal with the heat is to give in and slow down. It also seems go so fast.

Bumming around the neighborhood. With early-walker-pace walks.

Playground trips were basically every day life.

Downtime and napping is a must on late summer days...

What is summer without treats! Frozen yogurt, cupcakes, chicken tikka masala...

As the summer went on our early walker was getting stronger by the day.  He loved getting to just go for a walk through the park or down the neighborhood streets, made him feel like such a big kid.

Trips to the museum were great for those extra hot afternoons.

And of course mischief was made...

For my birthday we went to brunch at Grammercy Terrace. Yum. And pretty.

After the birthday brunch we made our way to Washington Square Park. Because you have to wade in a fountain before summer ends...

And it was a perfect spot for practicing stairs.

A backyard bbq in Jersey. (hehehehe)

And the growing baby bump... People out and about recognized that I was pregnant (subway seats were offered, people asked when I was due, etc) but at work they must have just thought I was eating to many burritos (or gossiped behind my back). The picture with me and Jaime is from the day we found out the gender of our little baby.

It was a good month. Lots of quality family time and what more can you ask for.

July Days - Summer Fun

July was hot summer days and nights in the city.

It was waffles at the diner on Sunday morning, simple picnics in the park and swiping corn on the cob off your mom's plate.

It was crowds (and holy hotness) in the commute and little chubby hands holding on the pole.

One year old doctor's appointments.

Running through the sprinklers and practicing walking at the playground.

And playtime at home.

A growing belly.

Chilling in the neighborhood and laughing together as a family.

So basically, good stuff.

Daycare Days

After getting back from our Midwest Tour Jaime started daycare.  We were all a little thrown off by this transition.

I missed my extra hour of one on one time with James.  Dan had to figure out how to juggle the drop off and work through the crying that would happen.  James was most likely thinking what the hell is going on and why am I getting left here.

It was a rough transition.  He went from sleeping and eating great and being all around super easy to waking up multiple times a night, having a rough time at the end of the day from not napping and residual emotions about the change, not eating anything a second time, and getting sick.  It was seriously rough and on a daily basis I was ready to pull him out and find a nanny.

After labor day they transitioned him to the early toddler room (which wasn't available for the summer months) and things immediately changed for the better.  He was totally happy and excited to go and everything was right in his world again.  Apparently the baby room was just his version of hell.

He would bring me his shoes to put on and grab his lunch bag and walk out the door with Dad just as happy as could be in the mornings.  He brought home artwork and made buddies. 

He still kept getting sick constantly. I still missed my one on one morning time with him. But it was fun to see him so excited about going.  I think that this kid will love pre-school.

Govenor's Island, Fete Paradisio & Massive Amounts of Bicycling

On our fifth wedding anniversary we decided to celebrate with a family adventure going to Governor's Island and that night go out for dinner.

We left the apartment bright and early on our bicycles.  It was nearly 8 miles to the ferry along the Hudson River.  We had blue skies and not too hot weather so it was a great day for a ride.  Jaime was a trooper. It helps that he had so much to look along the way - the city scenes change quite a bit over that many miles.

The ferry across to the island was a lot of fun for the little man.  And Dan and I were ready for a little rest.

Then it was time for a light lunch before exploring.  The big thing for the summer was Fete Paradisio, a Parisian festival with vintage 19th century carousels and carnival rides.  It was pretty neat.  Jaime was having a great time walking around and checking it out.  There was a pipe organ thing that had dancing puppets - Jaime was laughing and dancing on Dan's shoulders.

Another 'exhibit' was this tree house thing. Jaime had lots of fun checking it out and watching all the big kids running around.

Then it was time to ride all the way back home.  Poor little dude was ready to nap! By the time were back in our apartment all three of us were totally done! But then it was time to get cleaned up for our dinner date.

It was a super fun anniversary.

Bicycling Baby

We got a bicycle seat for the baby! What fun!

For our first trip, we walked our bikes and baby down to the cycle shop on Columbus (this was a five block walk) to get him a helmet.  We then headed into Central Park to do the loop for our first trip. Those hills are quite the workout! Good thing packed goldfish crackers as we stopped half way to give Jaime a break on his first trip.  It was a success.

We did return that helmet to get him a nutcase one which we felt would be more comfortable bc of the shape.

So much fun ahead of us with this.