Our Little Lady Bug Turns 1

Orli turned 1 September 6th and we had fun celebrating this milestone. It has been one amazing year and she has truly brought us so much joy. Orli is always happy, a wonderful eater, babbles constantly, signs 4 words, and says, da-da-which means bottle in Orli speak. She crawls and cruises with the best of them. Orli loves her brother and thinks he is so funny. She loves to take baths and squeals with delight when Daddy walks in the door at the end of the day. Our little lady is a breath of fresh air and pure delight.

Getting ready for our celebration

Nana is so funny!

It's Bubbe time.

Family!

It was a ladybug brunch theme. 

Daddy's girl

20 Days without School or Camp (End of August)

There is a special time in the school calendar between Summer camp and the beginning of the school year for Mom's everywhere. I am now an official member of this club and know how difficult it can be to manage two young children during this time. I have been navigating this time since last week and I have about a week left until Asher starts school and my normal routine resumes. Last week was rough trying to figure out how to keep Asher entertained in the house long enough for Orli's morning nap. To top it off, they both had colds. This week, I have finally hit my stride and am feeling more confident in taking care of both of their needs.  Luckily, Orli is so agreeable that it makes things manageable. The other little sanity saver has been a blog I found when we first moved here.  It is written by a mom that shares all the fun things to do around the City with young children. These two things, coupled with a son that still naps has kept me afloat.

When you have a lot of one-on-one time with your children, little things like bangs in their face start to bug you. This was the case for me. I cut her bangs last week, on my own.  I did feel a little guilty for doing it before she turned one but my little girl needs to see.

This is one of Orli's new talents. She carries foam letters in her mouth, so she can chew and crawl at the same time. Our baby girl is efficient. 

What do you do when you are confined in the house? Dress up and dream about riding a train with your Bubbe- of course. 

When you are tired of playing dress-up by yourself, dress-up your sister. She loves it!

Standing is also a fun activity in Orli land. Unfortunately, she is not pretend cooking, but Asher doesn't know that yet and tries his best to interact with her. Yesterday, he said, "Orli put the chocolate and pickle with cheese on the stove, like this!" Orli just grunted back and that was good enough for Asher to continue.

We did a lot of art projects in the past several days.  This is one of our favorites.

With all that playtime in the house, we are bound to find some trouble.

Cords are not the best activity

Even if she does look cute!

Time to do things out of the house.

Thankful that Target is open at 8am. We are also thankful for these cool new shopping carts. 

One good thing about being in the park early is that you get it all to yourself. On the flip side there are a lot of bugs.

Thankful for my babysitter who comes once a week to watch Orli. Last week, it meant that I got to go on a date with my son to the aquarium and a Children's garden in Camden (yes, I said it) New Jersey.  The garden was magical and we became members on the spot. In fact, we are headed back there tomorrow.  We also went to the zoo on the weekend, while Daddy watched Orli.

First camel ride

Asher loves warthogs.

We rode 3 different carousels last week. At this rate, we are on track to ride every carousel on the East Coast.

This week, I have ventured out with both children to different activities further away from home. I have given up the ideal napping situation for Orli and instead let her take her nap in the car on the way to our morning activity. This way, my son gets his energy out and this makes for a better day for everyone.

We have gone to the Please Touch museum, Elmwood zoo, and a moon bounce place in New Jersey.   We even went out to lunch today and Orli had her first taste of garlic knots--she loved them and the pizza was the best I have ever tasted.

Asher inhaled his pizza and his slice was bigger than his head.

I can't end this post without sharing this little nugget.  This morning, before going to the bounce house Asher was playing with the magnets while I was doing the morning dishes. I turned around and he was working on spelling his name, Bravo, Asher! 

Holding on to each day before the BIG ONE!

Orli is officially 11 months and has a ton of personality. We are trying to savor her last month as an infant by giving her lots of cuddles. Our helpful little girl must have heard our call because she is lovingly giving us more time together by only taking one nap a day! Even when I place her in the crib in the afternoon and say a little prayer for a little down time, she magically pops up to the sit position and shouts, "Here I am, come and get me," in baby speak.  Oh well, at least she is the cutest thing on Earth. 

Swing time fun.

She is growing up and weighs a healthy 22 pounds. I promised her that after she turns 1, I won't post her weight. Orli is learning to sign and can sign "more". She babbles constantly and loves interacting with people-- I think this is why she is also Starbucks favorite customer. The other day, I didn't have her with me and the baristas asked where my little "marsupial" was hanging out.Yes, she is always in my Baby Bjorn.

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