Aye Calypso

When the sun is shining the possiblities are endless. Sailing on one of those days, on my favorite home lake, with friends and kids and a holga - what could be better? Sailing makes me think of John Denver and Jimmy Buffet. Hum this tune while looking at these photos from last spring.

Aye Calypso

the places you've been to,

the things that you've shown us,

the stories you tell

Aye Calypso,

I sing to your spirit,

the men who have served you so long and so well

Hi dee ay-ee ooo

doo-dle ohoo do do

do do do doo-dle

ay yeedoo-dle ay ee

Peps

I just recently developed the last of the real film from my cameras. This is a girls night out photo of Peps friends. Pretty.

Leon is 3 Months

...seems like a long 3 months but I know that this is a huge hump because he is already starting to show signs of a pattern in his daily routine. I have a huge crush on him. He is the man I have been looking for all of my life! Jewish Mother issues aside, I feel very close to him and will try not to give him too many issues ;) We go on errands together and we look in the mirror and smile and we stare into each other's eyes and make funny noises. We sleep together and wake up smiling. He also cries alot and when Joey comes home I can't wait to hand him off for a while so I can do stuff.....like this!?!?

Happiness

and the lion lay down with the lamb...

Whatchu takin bout mommy!

Gummer

Old man in a chair - Love the Bumbo seat!

Love

bainbridge ferry

Sylvie, Molly and Leo's hat on the windy ferry to bainbridge last week.

I am really starting to look like my Father.

We went to visit our friends the Breens who live on the Northwest's version of Wisteria Lane on Bainbridge. It was the first time in a long time that I was able to hold Leo the entire day with nothing else to do but enjoy friends and let him rest in my arms. Jen made great food and, with Kimberly, the three of us sat around most of the day holding our baby boys. The kids had a great time tearing out every toy in the house and Grace changed her outfit every 5 minutes....of course they all ended up nude and in the bath at about 5 (very Breen) Spring Break in Daytona?Stunning Grace The Novices - Van and Leo

Ending in a great dinner at a beautiful table...and somehow the wiggles guitar was pawned off to us . Sylvie LOVES it - OY!

Elevenses

It's 11:16 pm and everyone in the house is sleeping except me. I know I totally should be getting in bed because I will have to wake up twice to feed my baby at at least two oh dark thirtys and then have to arise and shine with my Sylvie at 8:30ish all ready to help her have a great day. This is THE only second I have had to myself all day. I need to blog it out and, since Heidi is the only one who really checks my blog - This is for you Heid.

It was REALLY beautiful today in Seattle. I say it that way because when it is sunny you really feel like this is a great city sandwiched btw two majestic snowcapped mountain ranges and surrounded by two bold and beautiful bodies of water. It feels alot bigger than the soggy dark neighborhood that you see out your window when you look outside on most days. You feel more connected to the other neighborhoods when you can actually see them.

In fact, buds are popping and brave daffodils are actually blooming on the sunniest knolls. There is one patch right as I exit I-90 on Mercer Island when I pick up Sylvie from school. The grass could not be ANY greener since it is enhanced by the prolific amounts of moss on account of the sogginess of the last month. All the wonderfulness that peaks out on sunny days is a result of the yucky days (snow on mountains, fresh water in the lake and sound and green mossiness) you just have to put up with it.

Those soggy days have been making people give up on Seattle since I can remember. I have lost friends and family in search of greener pastures. But there aren't greener pastures out there, just browner ones with sunburns and airconditioning. ew There are pretty white one though, right Heidi?!

Today I had a cleaning crew clean my house which I had been letting get dirty for a month in anticipation of this day. It took them 4 hours for two people to clean the house (that means 8 hours for one person). I was so thrilled but I had to avoid coming home so I drove around extra and went to the drive through Starbucks in Sodo (iced tall peppermint mocha light on the mocha no whip tastes just like a peppermint patty - jen called that one). Then they still weren't done so I walked to the store with two kids in the SUV stroller and I gave Sylvie some cheetos which turned her cold hands and lips orange and embarrassed me because it was so obviously toxic and cheap. Then they still weren't done so I went to the library where Sylvie threw a book and then made an insta friend which, when her mother forced her to leave crying and screaming, prompted Sylvie to say "where did my friend go?" - we had been there 3 minutes. When I turned the corner and their car was gone I was so excited to unload the groceries that had been sitting in my car for 4 hours but instead I went around touching all the clean surfaces. HOWEVER, they didn't mop the kitched floor. I saw the girl spraying a large swiffer type thing with 409ish stuff but I thought there was no way that was all they were going to do with the floor. It was though. BUMMER. The whole point was to clean that bitch of a floor. I even asked if they were going to mop and they said yes. Mopping means water and cleaner and bucket right?

Baby crying, minute OVER.

2 months

Leon is becoming a darling little boy. It is amazing how much a baby changes in two months - from a tiny little outline of a person, to a chubby expressive baby. I am trying to savor everyday knowing that the hours spent with him sleeping on my chest are some of the best hours of my life.

This is the very first photo of Leon smiling!

Here we go, Yo!

What dat dere?

Kiddie Cheese

OK, This is cheesy but Kiddie Kandids is the only place that will take a photo like this with no appointment. I wasn't counting on getting a photo of Leon because he is so small and I figured there was no way they could get a good photo of him. We really just went there to get photos of the girls (check out the matching Burberry dresses!!) but then the photographer said that they have "physician approved poses" and within seconds she had configured a set up that acutally got him to look into the camera. Here he is at 5 weeks old.

Sylvie and Leon

Sylvie and Gracie

Sammy P. - Jolly Baby Giant

Samuel P. (Linda and Kevin's son) is at that stage of baby that is so great, chubby and rare! He is all smiles and drools and he tosses his huge body around without control. He is a big love lug and here is his body as abstract art....

Drooly

Left Knee
Jumbo Prawn Fingers
"Just Back"

Here is Samuel Pirch - 6 months and 26 pounds-

trying to eat my 2 month, 8 pound Leon.

You look like a Baby,

I'm gonna eat you

GET IN MY BELLY !

"

Brother and Sister

Here is Leon waking up his sister Sylvie from her nap!

Leon Davis Hasson

There is a new person in our house. Not just someone new but a new someone. It has taken over EVERYTHING in our lives. From the small; creating a new file in ‘my pictures’ by the name of LEON DAVIS, to the medium; new stuff all over the house – a Boppy, Moses basket, nipple ointment, to the big; a new amazing teamwork dynamic with Joey.

Big Sister

I can’t believe how much I love Sylvie. Granted, a Sylvan Learning Center commercial can bring me to tears but I have been so overwhelmed with emotion for my first born girl - I am really surprised. I gaze at the black and while photo strips of her on the fridge and start crying, those photos have been there for two years. I help her change in to her pajamas and teary-eyed, tell her how much I love her. I see a new look on her face as she discovers that feelings are complicated. The first few days in the hospital were really hard – I missed her terribly. As she was getting shuffled between grandparents and friends, I started to feel like her world had turned and I wanted her home with us. Once we did get home, I couldn’t really be with her because I was barely able to walk and was feeding all the time. Now that I have recovered, I can tickle her and read to her and tell her how much she means to me. I am SO thrilled that she is the only girl in the family. She will always be my favorite girl.


The Bris

Of course the day before thanksgiving is busy for everyone. Not the best day to have a Bris but then again, one week before, we knew it was coming. However, meeting with the Rabbi the night before, he thought that the baby looked a little yellow. We went directly to the doctor and waited for an hour because we had to get squished in at the end of a busy day. The idea of calling off the bris was feeling pretty good for me, not so much for my mom and Joey’s mom who had done all of the planning and cooking. The doctor thought he looked fine so we called off the calling off.
We showed up at the same time as guests and seeing my Aunt and Uncle who had driven two hours to get there at 9AM brought me to tears. I did manage to say hi to some people and give hugs but I felt really strange leaving the baby in the car seat on the table like a new piece of sculpture for all to admire. I took the baby upstairs as the Rabbi started to chant and spent a few minutes deep breathing. It worked, and I was not crying as I carried Leon down the stairs, past family and friends and into the arms of his grandparents. They passed him around and handed him off to the Rabbi. I grabbed my Grandmother’s (Leon’s Great grandmother) hand and squeezed it tight for the next 20 minutes which seemed like three days and 15 hours.
Joey was so strong. He looked like a real dad with a son, all dressed up in a suit and talit and smiling from ear to ear. He kneeled down and helped the rabbi and his father hold the baby. He was right there when the rabbi did the same thing that was done to him, his father and all of the men in his family for the last 5000 years. An amazing moment in time on the continuum of our families.
It was great to see the pride and joy in the faces of my father and Joey’s father. Holding the baby during the Bris, Eddie was a critical part of the procedure getting a close up view of what happens. My father held the baby during the naming prayers and beamed the whole time. At the end of the ceremony, we all gathered around the baby arm in arm as the Rabbi wished the best wishes on our family and this new little boy. Then we all ate, including Leon who was a little distressed at that point. He has survived nicely and I look forward to never having to do that again. Big thanks to my mother and Marguerite who are classy and can throw a really nice Bris!

Baby time

Nursing is hard work. It feels constant and it slows life WAY down. At the same time it is such a unique phase of life that I can’t help savoring it even though my breasts are angry and screaming in pain some of the time.
The rest of baby time is amazing. Sitting around with a little person on your shoulder breathing in your ear, watching the total lack of bodily control as he swipes himself in the face, seeing him in the arms of his big sister – all of it is love, love, love. I am constantly worried about him catching a cold so I make everyone wash their hands and we are running out of anti-bacterial soap. At three in the morning I am sitting in bed nursing and staring off into space wondering about where he will go to college or whether or not we will have to buy him a gameboy. I want to go outside but I don’t because it is cold and raining and why would I take a warm little pocket person into that kind of environment?

Family

Today I wrote a thank you card to a friend and signed all of our names – Love, Molly, Joey, Sylvie and Leon. “We have a big family now”, I said to Joey. I feel complete and warm and like we take up more room on the planet. I am also apprehensive about the future and what the world will be like for my kids.

My dad kissed me on Thanksgiving and then he came back in for three more kisses. This is how my dad has treated me my whole life and I am so glad for it. After 35 years of thinking he was just a really affectionate person I now I know EXACTLY why he does that. I can’t even look at my kids without wanting more and more kisses – and more and more and more and more and more….

Minnie Mac

There is this song on Tot Shabbat that Sylvie LOVES. It starts out slowly ...minne mac, minnie mac, minnie minnie minnie mac...and has some hand-jive movements that go with it. It gets faster and faster until she is in a full on dance frenzy! I was able to get some shots of her 'dancing': mainly twisting her head as fast as possble while jumping. This is a big part of her current personality - dancing and singing as much as possible. In the car and in her bed and during dinner and just walking around. I know there is a new baby in the house but I have a whole new love for my Sylvie and this is so HER right now. You wish you were two again.

Anticipation

This should make everyone feel great about their body! I am always amazed at what a woman's body has to do to grow an alien but there is evidence out there that it works ;)

With only one week left we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of our second child. Sylvie has been read to, sang to and schooled in big sisterdom by everyone from Dora to her friend Clio. We feel like she is going to be really happy to meet this baby who has disabled her mother and re-introduced the baby car seat to the car (currently Ernie is hitching a free ride in the seat)

Not to worry, we are currently warehousing a stack of new toys to ease the transition.

Love Molly

CHEESE

CHEESE!











Need I say more?

Just in Time

Here is a photo, taken by our good friend Cambria, of Sylvie and Mommy with the belly. We are very excited to welcome a new family member next week and can't wait to see what and who they are!!!!

I just talked to a mother, who has a child in Sylvie's class, who said that her 2-year old daughter did not talk to her for two weeks after she brought home her son a few months ago. YIKES. I wonder how Sylvie will react and I hope that we have prepared her as much as we can. She has seen her friends become big sisters so I hope that will help.

She is not the first little girl to get a sibling so I know she will do great. She seems pretty flexible in general.

Mew

Cookie Monster

Sylvie's Granmother made this sweater for her and the first thing I thought was "Cookie Monster!" so I made a hat and some googly eyes and this was her 2nd Halloween Outfit. IT was a big hit and everyone recognized it right away! Plus it was "NiYaM WaYM" which, in Sylvie speak is "Nice and Warm"

And This one

2 years old

Here is Sylvie's official
"IAMTWOANDGORGEOUS"
photo.

Two!

Sylvie's party was really cute. Kim and Tim brought a slew of pink and green baloons, Joey and I decorated the back with pink crepe paper streamers and shots of Sylvie's two year old photo shoot.







Noni made an ADORABLE cake with marshmallow bunnies and Sylvie spelled out in m&ms. Everyone LOVED the cake!















Sylvie loved her new trike and the new Doll that she promptly placed in the trunk of the new trike ;)
(see doll peeking out of trunk at left)













Overall it was a very good day! I can't beleive that our girl is two.

Lawrence Welk

Last night was a very special mommy moment for me.

Most every night that I put Sylvie to bed I sing two songs to her. One is the goodnight song from Donnie and Marie:


May Tomorrow
Be a perfect day
May you find love and laughter along the way
May God keep you
In his tender care
'Til he brings us together again
GOOD NIGHT EVERYBODY!

It has been etched in my brain since I was 7 and was a favorite at many a slumber party. Sylvie likes this one but the second one is her favorite....

The second one is the goodnight theme from Lawrence Welk:

Good night
Sleep tight
and pleasant dreams, to you
Here's a wish
and a prayer
Let every dream come true
AND NOW 'til we meet again
Adios, Au Revoir, Avederzein
GOOD NIGHT!

Last night Sylvie totally sang this one with me for the first time. It was so sweet with her little two year-old head on my shoulder and her little voice in my ear. She really started in on the AND NOW part and she totally said Adios (maybe because of Dora). It was a tender moment.

Obviously, I was raised around a TV and I know I watched alot of Lawrence Welk at my grandmother's house. The results are that I can sing along with most any standard and I totally know how to fake a smile while swaying back and forth ala sweeney sisters. Now Sylvie will share in a small part of that with me. Mew