First Summer in Philly

This summer is turning out to be a lot of fun.  Asher loves summer camp and with the arrival of visitors almost every week it has kept us busy and feeling loved. We have enjoyed our meet ups with friends and family and our outings with one another. 




Some highlights include:




1) Orli is now an official crawling machine.  The other day, she crawled right up to Asher's door to say good morning. She was on an army crawl mission and no one was going to stop her. It was the cutest sight.

Although this is not a picture of Orli crawling it makes me laugh every time. This is her big grin where she crinkles her face. It is so darn cute. 

She loves to play with her brother's toys. Asher doesn't like it. 

2) Our Uncle and Aunt came to visit from Seattle.  We loved checking out new places to eat and we were so happy to be able to spend several uninterrupted days with them.

3) My good friend Rachel came to visit. It was so nice to finally meet her son, Theo and to get to know a cute little town called Kennett Square.

4) My cousins also came to visit, Asher loved playing with Pam and Marvin and Marilyn. He loved discussing the differences between the Rochester Zoo and Philly Zoo with them.

5) Swimming! Asher swims twice a day at camp and Orli loves to splash around in the pool.  It so much fun taking the two out.


6) Berry Picking-one of my favorite things to do with Asher is berry picking. He loves running around the fields and I love not being afraid he is going to run in the road. Win-Win for everyone.

7) Babbling girl-Orli loves to babble and also mirrors what I am doing all of the time. This is different from Asher and is such a new thing for Jed and I.  We are amazed every time she does it. If the dog barks and Asher squeals seconds later a squeal is heard from Orli, It makes us laugh every time.


8) Baby Carrier- I love taking Orli out in the Baby Bjorn and dread the day that she officially outgrows it. I carry her everywhere in this fun contraption. This is also different from Asher. We never used the thing when he was younger.  I know she only has weeks left in it, but it feels so good to have her nestled so close to me and when she sees me get it out she flaps her arms in delight.


9) Bath time- I have seen so many pictures of children with their siblings taking a bath. I always wondered what the big deal was and then my own children started doing it and out came the camera and we snapped away. It is about the cutest thing ever! It also gets the job done in half the time.

10) Philadelphia-It is fun being in a new town and although we don't know many people yet, we have one another. Finding new places to eat, places to visit, and new adventures to experience make it fun and interesting all the time. Philadelphia is turning out to be one of my favorite places and I am so happy we moved here. An added bonus is that they don't have mosquitoes and it not as humid as DC.

Our Perfect 10

WaHOO!!! Orli turned 10 months today and she is so close to the 1 year marker.  Our perfect 10 is such a character. She now gets excited every time she see's the dog leash because she thinks she is going for a walk.  She flaps her hands and shrieks with delight. She also starts crying if she catches a glimpse of her stroller. She wants to get in and loves going for walks. She's a lot of FUN!

Standing with Daddy

Love her and those ruffles to bits!

Standing

Happiest Babies on the Block

Little Orli and Asher are growing up...

Our house can be hectic at times, but we can't think of anything better than this. 

Orli is a wiggle worm, but not crawling yet.  She does sit in place very well and whimper when she wants something. Luckily, her brother will retrieve anything she wants and if he isn't available Mommy and Daddy step in because we can't resist those baby blues. In the meantime, Orli is fine staying put. Although, in the last week she has begun to pull herself up and is eager to look inside her toy basket or her drawer full of clothes.  I practice my patience with the drawer because she takes out all the clothes that I attempt to fold.

On another note, Asher wrapped up his last day of preschool at Har Zion for the school year. He will go there again next year.  He made some nice new friends (phew!). We were so worried about how he would adjust to being in a new place, but he did great. He started Summer Camp last week and loves it.  During the transition to Summer Camp, we felt it was time to potty train. We are happy to report that Asher is potty trained and that week of work has paid off.  He wears a pull up at night and nap, but the other day, we woke up in the middle of the night to Asher yelling that he needed to pee.  We jumped out of bed to help him and were so proud that he didn't pee in his pull up.  Good job, Asher!

Asher always wants to be in arms reach of Orli. He hugs her, babbles with her to get her to talk, tries to show her how to crawl. In return, she giggles at everything he does and thinks he is the cat's meow. Asher is such a great friend to Orli and we are enjoying watching their relationship blossom.


 

Asher always wants to cuddle Orli and hops in her crib right before she goes to sleep.

Orli is eating solids and is very verbal during this time. She does not want me taking her bowl.

Happy girl now that she knows I won't take it from her.

love her eyes

trying to move

pulling herself up

A carriage ride around the City with the Chapman Kumar Family! We are so glad they visited us!

Pushing Nana on the Merry go Round

Happiest Baby on the Block. She is an expert at finding tags on any item. 

9 Spectacular Months and in the 90-90-90 range!

Orli's Stats:
Weight 21.6 lbs-90th percentile Height 29 inches-90th percentile and Head Circumference 18 inches-90th percentile

Our little Orli girl is 9 months old. This means that she has lived outside longer than inside.   For someone reason this small fact makes me a little weepy. She's growing up and is such a joy.


Her new talents include:
Saying/Babbling: Mama is the new one, but she doesn't know what she is saying yet. She did this right after she turned 8 months.
Teeth: She has two upper front teeth that have poked through for a total of 4 beautiful little pearls.
Activity: She is a wiggle worm and dances every time she hears songs. She can also move on her back.
Food: She enjoys baby food, but not vegetables. This is very different from her brother. Luckily, I have started to mix them with fruit and managed to fool her.
Socialization: Orli is very social and loves people and interacting with them. She is very aware of her surroundings which always catches me a little off guard. One day, I noticed she stuck her tongue to the side. I realized that she was copying me. I kept doing it and she started to giggle and mimic my behavior. It is adorable.  Also, we went to our new pediatrician for the first time.  Orli recognized that we were in a doctor's office immediately and started to cry. The doctor was surprised because she hadn't even started the check-up and she was already in a panic. We just love our girl.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Move over Seattle, in the last two weeks The Silversmiths have experienced rain like never before.  It is hard rain that lasts up to 24 hours and creates floods and road closures.  This is not good when the roads are already bad in this area.  The reason I loath the rain today more than any day is that I had to take my children to Urgent Care and I forgot to bring a jacket. Asher woke up at 3 am last night screaming and the screaming woke Orli up. The entire Silversmith clan was up at 3am and all of us were fairly miserable.  Asher proceeded to tell me that an elephant or maybe 10 hyenas were in his ears, he wasn't quite sure.  We needed to get those hyenas and/or elephants out and so in the morning I packed up my kiddos in the car and headed to the nearest Urgent Care.  Asher has a double ear infection (poor guy). However, when he found out, he jumped for joy.  The doctor laughed out loud while Asher exclaimed, "I have a BIG elephant in my ear and it's not hiding!" So, in the rain we trudged on to the pharmacy. Orli in her stroller and Asher holding my hand. What a hassle and I was wearing a white shirt--truly a mess of a day. Now, my two children are sleeping at the same time that is something to celebrate.


Here are some pictures taken last week.  They make me laugh and I need that after today.

Asher got a gorilla costume from his Bubbie last week, he loves it.

When Asher dresses in his costume, Orli gives the best belly laughs I have ever heard. 

My little gorilla

Orli is 8 Months!

Yahoo! Orli is 8 months old.  Her new talents include: Waving at everyone, babbling up a storm, eating bananas (from a jar), sleeping through the night, and sitting up solidly.  Orli also thinks her brother is very silly and laughs at everything he does. In return, Asher performs for her all the time.
One of my favorite pastimes is dressing her up. We have a growing collection of headbands and bows for her. I know that one day soon she will rip them out of her hair, so I have to get in all my pictures while I can.  She also wore her first tutu last week--these are BIG milestones, friends!

Tutu!

Always happy, more bows!

I love Orli's expression. Asher wanted to do tummy time with her. 

Playing together

 Until I was a Mom, I never dreaded 4 o'clock...You have to be strong to survive it now.

Philadelphia

The Silversmiths have officially arrived in the City of Brotherly Love.  We are enjoying getting to know this part of the East Coast.  There are a lot of things we like (friendliness and less stressful) and some things that make us miss DC (cleanliness and no potholes), I guess that is just part of the deal when moving.

We were so grateful to have help during the first week. Bubbie and Nana sure helped us get settled and we are able to get to know our new town.  Asher has enjoyed our membership to the Philadelphia Zoo, the oldest zoo in the United States. He managed to take both Bubbie and Nana to the zoo. In all,  we went 5 times in 2 weeks.  The zoo is only minutes from our house which is a great thing when your toddler can't get enough of animals and carousels and pony rides and train rides, oh my! It is definitely Asher's paradise.  We also went to another zoo about 25 minutes away that Jed and I liked better because it was smaller, had a farm where you feed the animals, and several capybara.  Needless to say, we are discovering the area.

Asher also started school which is connected to our synagogue.  It is huge and much different from his former school.  They have an indoor pool and all! Asher will be going to Summer camp at the same place. The first week of school he was asked to bring in something that represented Israel.  He brought in an Oryx, of course. The teacher didn't know Asher very well at this point and she didn't know how to pronounce Oryx.  She assumed that I had bought it on-line just for share. I told her that Asher already had this one at home. I am not sure she believed me, but I know Asher will show his knowledge and love of animals very soon.  On my way out of the school, Asher kept saying, "I brought an Arabian Oryx to school!" He was very happy with himself.

Finally, Asher has been making up new names for our family.  Last week, I was Tucklevania. Asher was Leo, Orli was Bee, Roswell was Peacock, and Jed was Crispy. He would only call us by these names.  Today, he decided we needed new names. I burst out laughing when he revealed them to us.
Asher is grasshopper, Orli is snail, I am Ladybug, and Jed is still Crispy. Poor Daddy.

Asher loves the pony rides! 

Asher peeped his head through and became some kind of tamarin.

Trains with Bubbie

I am including this picture because I realized that Asher wore this same sleep sack at the same age and I wanted to do a comparison photo. Orli is almost 8 months and Asher was 8 months old.