I don’t remember why they were supposed to be quiet, but they’re cute anyway.

Saturday morning we had a plan! We headed to the American Museum of Natural History. After a long trip on the subway, in which one train didn’t run on the weekends (yet didn’t say that anywhere) and then the train that did run, ran express past our stop only, we did make it. After the trip, we stopped for a smoothie and falafel from the trucks that are ubiquitous everywhere. Good snack for us vegetarians. We got into the museum gratis courtesy of Jordi’s job, and headed right for the dinosaurs.

Ewan loved the exhibit, lots of room to run around and move and touch things. He’d had plenty of being trapped and strapped in places the previous day. The girls were fairly impressed, but mostly loved to play with any touch screen exhibit around the place. We spent time with the dinosaurs and then some other prehistoric animals, lunch and then some apes getting closer to humans and the planets. Celia very astutely noticed ‘they almost look like people!’ at the Neanderthals and other not quite homo-sapiens.

After the museum, we promised the girls a treat and found that one Magnolia bakery was not too far away. We headed down, Ewan asleep while carried, Celia passing out in the stroller on the way there. We picked up some cupcakes and cookies and went towards Central Park to nosh down on it all.

She was super tickled to get one with this little pink rose. They were delicious, light and fluffy, and sweet. It gave me a good idea of how I was supposed to make my cakes look and taste from their cookbook! While we were in central park we found a playground to let the kids work off some steam and relax away from cars and sidewalks. We went to the adventure playground.  Ewan’s favorite thing was to find every bit of trash and pick it up and play with it. In the museum too, he found every program and map.

While we were playing it rained on us a bit, but it passed pretty quickly. While we were sitting there our friend Larry got in touch and came to meet us there. He remembered playing at this same playground as a kid too! Electronic devices predicted that it would rain again, and soon, for a while so we decided to head across the park to the zoo where there would be a bit of coverage and protection from the rain. On our way it was raining. One stop we made per Josie’s request was at the statue of a dog named Balto. This dog delivered medicine to some very sick people in Alaska, and she had read a book about it just the previous week. So they were tickled to see the statue, even if we only hung out for a few seconds in the rain to take a picture. Oddly some other women were taking their picture with the dog too. I’m not sure I see the attraction, for the adults.

About the time we finally got across the park and to the zoo, it stopped raining. We watched the sea lions, the penguins, some ducks (and some pigeons pretending to be ducks as seen below). We hiked up to the Red panda and Josie regaled Larry with the entire story of Frozen, because he admitted he hadn’t seen the movie.

After the zoo, we headed back toward Koreatown with Uber to a restaurant literally a few businesses up from our place, that unfortunately had no high chair. We scrambled for someplace else and came up with yet another nearby restaurant that produced some yummy bi bim bop and tofu soup for us all before we went back to our hotel, let the kids get some nice sensory bath time and went to bed, late again for them, early for us. Oh and before dinner, while we waited for the table we went to the top of our hotel to stare up at the empire state building for a few moments. The top is a bar though, so the kids weren’t really supposed to be there.

Each of these days Celia kept saying ‘oh I see the statue of liberty!’ when she saw an advertisement or statue for a tourist shop. So we felt like maybe we should give her a clue of what it really was. We knew we weren’t going to really go take the ship and go see it while they’re so young. We’ll bring them back when they’re older and they’d actually understand it and learn something from it. In the morning though we had plans to meet up with my cousin Will who we haven’t seen in a while. We met with him and his wife Sarah for some brunch. After yet more issues with high chairs (here’s the one table that fits your big group, yes we have a high chair, but no that high chair doesn’t fit at that bar height table as we figured out at seating) we had a very yummy and fun brunch together.

After brunch we headed south to the very tip of Manhatten to get a glimpse of the statue of liberty. Again the kids loved the wide open space to run around in, the gorgeous sunshine and could sort of see the statue. Josie and Celia even unprompted came together for a hug.

After some good run around time, we headed back north to Chinatown on the subway for some treats. The girls had some super cute cakes and we tried a sponge cake too. We also looked around for some dumplings before heading further uptown to Penn station for our ride home. The train was delayed, but we picked up snacks, tooled around a little before catching our train back home. We got in late, but it worked out with more eating, a bit more sleeping, and lots of bathroom trips again.

What’s always fun is watching the girls play out what we did on our trip when we got home. The girls had fun playing train and lugging around bags pretending to travel in the city, complete with requiring lots of hand holding and stroller holding!

At the end of May we took a family trip down to NYC, just for fun. Because traveling with three small children to one of the biggest cities in the world is fun right? Right. Well, we thought it would be. We used to regularly visit NYC and we took Josie a few times but Celia had never been (except in utero) and certainly not Ewan. So off we went. We decided to take the train, because Jordi and I are not fans of driving long distances, nor are our kids. The train lets us all move around more, eat, drink, pee whenever and I think even though we don’t spring for the express train we still get there faster than driving would be because we’d have to stop, probably more than once.

Above is us before we got on the bus, to take the subway to get to the train. Doesn’t Josie look thrilled. But we got out the door on time, with one carry-on suitcase, one hiking backpack and one regular backpack to carry all our stuff. We packed strategically and didn’t even need the extra clothes. I’d love to say the girls sat and behaved peacefully like the picture below.

But it was more like this one and then descending into more wiggles and trouble sitting still. Ewan was in the stroller wanting to get out and walk around on the subway. We already learned our lesson with that one and his request for walking on a moving subway was denied. Sitting down is not his favorite.

We made it to south station, bought all kinds of food for lunch, snacks and dessert and waited for them to call our train. We board our train, make it through the four hours of mostly staying in our seats with many many trips to the bathroom and a few walks. Ewan eventually takes a very late nap. We get to Penn station, find our way out of that maze with luggage, and walk over to our hotel and check in. Then we head south to the nearest green space we can find for the kids to run off some energy, Madison square park. Notice we’re all still wearing the same clothes! yay! no vomiting!

This would be the picture right before the vomiting. Turns out many hours on a train plus a very well oiled tire swing will do Josie in.

I stop her from the swing, and get Celia and the other kid off, and then Josie stands up and pukes on the tire. I get Josie out and try to start cleaning up. Celia has the biggest freak out I’ve ever seen her have in her entire life. So I have one kid sitting on the ground, puking again a bit, and another girl screaming ‘NO NO NO I DONT WANT TO GO HOME. SHES NOT ALLOWED TO BE SICK.’ or something to that effect. Ewan see’s Celia upset and decides that the fit has hit the shan, and starts crying too. I’m trying to keep other kids from climbing onto the puked on swing. Some other mom is offering Josie a half drunk water bottle, which I’m not so comfortable with and get Josie her own water. Celia is still screaming from across the park. I manage to clean up the puke, the swing, and shuffle Josie off to the side with the other screaming crying kids with Jordi and proceed to comfort them sequentially. Yeah, so, good times there. Eventually everyone calms down.

I had previously been trying to get a dinner recommendation from people at the park, but it seems no one actually lives in the city. Everyone I asked said they didn’t. Eventually one person said ‘go to Eatily‘, so we did. We found the pasta/pizza part of the store and put our name in and even though Celia and Josie were just barely hanging on for being slightly acceptable in public, we resolved to push through, because we had no idea what else to do. Once we finally got seated and the food, they perked up. Pasta and pizza make everyone’s day better, especially covered in copious amounts of butter and cheese. We headed home for the night and tried to get as much sleep as we could, late for the kids, but early for us grown ups!

And joy

Oh how I keep falling behind on here, lots to keep us busy elsewhere! Earlier this month Josie decided that instead of a party, she wanted us to go to the Cape Codder Resort again with my parents for the weekend. She had the whole thing planned out, at least for the swimming and eating part of the weekend. She took us to Olive Garden on Friday night, Dunkies, Friendly’s and a local burrito place on Saturday and then IHOP and Not Your Average Joes on Sunday. And in most all of these places she told them it was her birthday trip and so we got lots of fun bonuses of singing and cake and ice cream. It was the first time my parents had ever been to the hotel and they enjoyed getting to see what we do every year! Since it was May and not February we got to spend some real time in the outdoor pool enjoying the lack of chlorine and some real sunshine. It felt nice and warm and not insanely freezing or snowing on our heads while in the pool. Josie and Celia have really been taking to swimming more lately as they’ve been taking lessons at the Y. Ewan mostly got put in the pool right when he was ready for naps, so I was often bringing him back to the room to snooze after a short time.

We had a good weekend and it was great to have the adult favored ratio of adults to kids. I even got to go shopping for a new bathing suit. On the way home we stopped at a beach to enjoy for a short time before some heavy rains came in. Ewan enjoyed his first time in sand since last summer. Lots of pictures!

Life sure has been busy and Ewan has been growing and changing quickly late. His biggest news is learning to walk last week. On Sunday he could take a few steps. By Tuesday he could do the whole room. Now he likes to challenge himself by walking around carrying something. Often something heavy. He likes to carry shoes and water bottles and books.

He spends most of his time now wandering around on his new awesome legs, picking things up and chewing on them. He loves to watch his big sisters do things and tries to do them himself as well. If they get loud, he gets loud. It’s a loud house. He can also wave hi and bye now, and even says hi and bye (somewhat understandably). His best word, and first, is ‘mama’. That’s what he hears all day long as the girls call for me, so no big surprise there! This morning Celia called for me and Ewan echoed her right away with another ‘mama’!

He’s got himself solidly down to one nap unless we have an odd schedule and take a longer car ride a bit too early or late in the day. He’ll sleep generally an hour and a half, and then overnight from 8pm to 7am. He’s eating a few foods, mostly out of me being too lazy to provide quite the variety. His favorites are definitely beans and O cereal.

Ewan loves to be outside, where again he wanders around holding things in his hands and trying to eat them. He had a good dirt mustache going this morning from all the things I had to pull out of his mouth. He also likes the sand table and how it feels on his hands. He does not like baths or his car seat. Although he did mostly like the pool if I was holding him in it. He also doesn’t like getting his diaper changed much either. Until yesterday though he had a strange misunderstanding about his physical capabilities. Perhaps he thought he was a turtle, but he had previously assumed that if he was on his back, he couldn’t roll over. Yet given his ability to crawl and everything else, he certainly had the muscle strength. Now he’s figured it out unfortunately and diaper changes have begun to be a wrestling match. We’ve been fighting a fungal infection on him for a long time which has been unpleasant for all. The doc says that they just come and go, but he’s not getting rid of it for more than a few days and I’m pretty unhappy about it.

All in all he’s a pretty happy guy, so long as he can wander around and play with everything. He does have more opinions lately and is very feisty when something is taken away from him. His squeals of displeasure are not unlike a pig. He has also inherited the family trait of sticking his tongue out slightly when concentrating.

He has 8 teeth holding strong, but the molars look like they’re starting to bother him. He is 29 inches tall (two inches taller than the girls at this age!) and about 19 lbs.

Happy 6 years around the sun to my lovely Josie! She designed her own cake, I implemented it mostly, but she helped with the baking of the chocolate cake part. There is a ton left, anyone need some cake?

She also planned the whole day, starting with the food. We had blueberry chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, then we had gymnastics class. Then off to Friendly’s for lunch with my parents including a design your own ice cream sundae. From there we went out to the Stone zoo and met up with Josie’s friend Bronwyn. Home again for a short time to play with the birthday gifts she opened in the morning before going to Comellas for dinner with Jordi and my parents. Then home for cake, more presents and bed. She forgot to ask for the ice cream with the cake at dessert tonight, but I don’t think anyone went away less than stuffed. Then she’s also got us booked for this upcoming weekend, but I’ll update on that later.

In front of the bunk beds, with the interval timer

Almost two weeks ago our Celia turned three and a half! And she’s very proud of it. She will tell you now that she’s three and a half, a big change from when she was three and wouldn’t tell anyone how old she was. That half is clearly very important!

Celia is a bundle of energy, always running up ahead, walking on the stone walls, bouncing on the balls and off the couch and the walls. Her gymnastics teacher says she has the stride of a runner, and she sure does like to do it! She loves to run, ride her bike, swing, and jump off of very high things. Not only does her body go non-stop, so does her mind and mouth. She’s got lots to tell us and lots of opinions on how she wants things to be. She’s getting better about controlling her impulses with Josie and using her words, but Ewan doesn’t listen so well and so she has a tougher time remembering to use her words on him.

She adores Josie and spends most of her day playing with her. Celia loves to play pretend, mostly ‘baby’ where she is the baby, Josie is the mommy and I (Jen) am the ‘pama’. She also greatly enjoys playing games and flipping through books. Her favorite game right now is the cupcake game, but games tend to go in and out of favor very quickly. She also likes to play hoot owl hoot, high ho cherry oh, and go fish.

Celia will eat a variety of food, but often favors mostly fruits and vegetables which can be difficult at times to get her to eat enough to maintain her high energy lifestyle. She’ll walk away from a meal only to be hungry a very short time later which doesn’t really work for anyone. I never thought I’d be holding the fruits and vegetables hostage until she eats something more calorific!

Academically, if you want to call it that, she’s made big progress in the last few months. She recognizes all the letters, knows the sounds for many of them, counts to 60, is starting to do some addition with very small numbers. She loves to do science experiments with us and listen to many stories, Maisy books are her favorite right now. She’s got a few memorized. When we go to the library she’ll go pick out all the ones that they have and bring them to me to read and try to negotiate bringing them home. She likes to be big like Josie and work on school work, Josie likes to lead her in the instruction of how to do each one. Celia can write her own name now, although her C’s end up sideways and look like U’s and the letters aren’t always quite in order, but they’re usually close.

Being the middle child is a tough business for Celia right now as she struggles to figure out how we all fit together and how to get what she needs. We work hard to give her one on one time every day as possible. She still tells me that she wants Ewan to go away. She had her visit to preschool this month to meet her teachers for next year. I’ll be very interested to see how she enjoys some time away from all of us together and branches out on her own a little. She relishes all one on one attention right now. Spring has brought a lot of fun activities for her as well though, she loves to be part of a gang at the park and she also enjoys digging in the sand and dirt around town.

One activity we do now is at an open gymnasium we visit for a few hours of free play. Celia swings on ropes, and jumps off of high things into a foam pit and jumps on the trampoline. She tries flips on the bars as well. She has no fear, I have lots of fear for her 🙂

• Size/weight: 4T’s, 34lbs
• Favorite foods: cheese, tomatoes, blueberries
• Favorite toy: whatever Ewan is trying to play with
• Favorite book: Maisy series
• Favorite activity: digging and getting dirty
• Sleeping: bedtime ~7:45; gets up about 6:30
• New skill: counting, using her words when she’s upset
• Teeth: holding steady with all 20
• Literacy: reading us books that she’s memorized, letter sounds like t, s, b and d