Sunday we went to Target to get necessaries, and as a little fun treat we decided to eat lunch out. IHOP however, was very full, so we headed next door to Wendy's. Elias had a ball and ate so much! I think he's actually a teenager.
Later, after his nap, we decided to stay in. He was having a ball playing in his room. He asked for all his toys and the room was a wreck but it was so much fun!
Elias has started imagining things - he's experimenting with playing and pretend, and I couldn't be happier. He's growing up so quickly, but with this kind of growing up I am less sad about the end of his babyhood and more excited about the growth of his childhood.
The other day, I was sweeping, and as usual these days, he insisted that Daddy do it. Daddy, of course, did not want to do it, so after some disagreement, the broom lay unused on the floor. After a little while, though, Elias picked it up and started "sweeping" with it, dancing along to the Sesame Street music playing on the tv.
Later, he put on Clayton's shoes and attempted to walk.
During the holdidays, Untermeyer puts up lights and plays music. Last night was the final night of the show, and there was even a tent with people handing out Swiss Miss cocoa. Our hands were too busy with the kids to try some, but hopefully next year we'll be back! It was extremely cold (compared to recent temperatures), but Elias didn't notice it at all. He played and played and kept asking forlornly for the water, which had been drained from the fountain.
Elias woke up early today - sooo early. Poor fella needed some time outside. Despite the cold, which has just finally made its way into our part of the world, we went up to Tarrytown, where Elias could run along the river path and point out water to his heart's content.
On the way home, he actually fell asleep! As Clayton took his coat off inside, he fell asleep in his chair. Poor little tired guy.
Victoria took Elias to the library on Thursday, and on the way out, he wanted to read her license plate. He likes to point out letters and numbers, and asks what they are. Sometimes he knows a few numbers or letters, which is really exciting!
And here he is at the library - it was pretty empty, so he had a lot of room to himself.
You can see him playing with the iPad; the library has them set up for kids. Very cool idea.
On the way out, Elias got to chat with Victoria's boyfriend, who works at the library. It's a neat way for him to recognize people, and learn to greet people.
Yesterday, Victoria had Elias and took him to the Play Place. When she returned and had to leave, Elias cried to see her go, saying her name. Well, to be honest, he said "ahria," but it was very cute.
Elias has started getting excited to hold Harper Anne. When I ask if he wants to hold her, he runs to his chair and sits down, waiting for her to be placed next to him. He then allows himself to be kissed by her.
I think perhaps he is practicing with Heart Baby.
Over here in the Glover household, we've had some days off. Clayton is on his paternity leave (which of course isn't really "off," since he's helping to care for a new baby), and Elias has Winter Break. So what have we been up to?
Lots of hanging out at parks, enjoying the still remarkably warm weather. Elias has spent three days at a Holiday Camp at the Nurtury, and a few hours with Victoria. Reunited with his friend Victoria the most amazing babysitter, he had a great time, listened to her better than he does to us, and visited his beloved Play Place.
Elias is also getting to enjoy his little sister better. He's learning to kiss, which for the most part seems to mean being kissed on the forehead. So when he "kisses" Harper Anne, he goes in for her to "kiss" him on his forehead.
He has also taken up my Heart Baby. When Naveed turned three, our pediatrician brought along a little gift for me, I think to keep me from feeling left out. It was a little baby doll whose heart could beat and be taken out. This was a beautiful and loving gift because it made me feel special and like other kids all at the same time (I had a unique heart, but something that it seemed to me people recognized, if they thought hearts were important enough to put in baby dolls!). Mom sent us Heart Baby and amazingly, the heart still beat after all these years! Elias now loves it as his own baby that he hugs and cuddles.
Recently, we've been having him "hold" Harper Anne in the chair with him, since he seems to like to hold Heart Baby. He seems to be....ok with this. He does, however, like to shake her hand and pat her head and pet her. He especially likes to give her her pacifier.
Elias still doesn't understand much in advance (things like "tomorrow" or even "in an hour"), so he wasn't really looking forward to Christmas. We were, however! We packed his stocking full of chocolate, puppy chow, and play doh, and set his presents around the tree.
After some delicious pancakes, care of Aunt Lyn, we called Elias over to open presents. He didn't understand the concept of opening the gift wrap, but was delighted by the gifts once he saw them.
Later that day, we drove to Tibbets Brook Park and walked along a path. Elias played on the playground - scaring me as he ran on plastic still slippery from the previous night's rain. And then we all took a long, luxurious walk around the lake.
And finally, a wonderful Christmas Dinner of Beef Brisket, Cornbread, coconut creamed spinach, and garlic parmesan potatoes. Elias wouldn't try the beef brisket on Christmas, but he did eat it later that week, and seemed to enjoy it. However, he LOOOOVEED the cornbread. And for dessert, Carrot Cake (made with Olive Oil...ssshh, don't tell Clayton)!
On December 23rd, the Nurtury held their yearly Holiday Show. They had hired a company in Westchester to come and teach the children different holiday songs. All the children received an outfit for the day, and parents provided the shoes. Of course, we didn't have any fancy shoes for Elias (what events had we been to?), so we had to rush out to get some new ones. In typical preppy fashion, Elias received a pair of blue and brown Sperry boat shoes that, in typical toddler fashion, he immediately objected to. These were not his shoes! He had shoes, and they were not these! No new shoes would be making their way onto his precious feet! However, it is sometimes the case that God lets parents win in the battles between toddlers and their parents, and so it was in this minor skirmish. I think perhaps Elias merely let us win.
Elias is not so sure about this...
We collected our toddler and made our way across the street to the Country Club for the event. It was raining and very dark out, and Elias was quite confused. But once inside, he realized he could run back and forth between the lamps, telling us over and over that each lamp was "on!", which activity kept him quite satisfied.
And then it was holiday show time! In a beautiful mirrored room, with catered drinks and desserts (really, this show for little kids was beyond anything I had seen for high schoolers! New Yorkers really go all out.), the teachers marched their little chargers up to the stage, three by three. Infants sat in teachers' laps, toddlers in chairs, and primary school kids stood behind, ready to belt (and in the case of one adorable little desi/South Asian boy, to scream a-tonally) the lyrics to songs like Jingle Bells and God Bless America.
And here are some videos for your amusement. We ran out of storage space about 1/5 of the way into the show, so many of Elias's antics were not caught on our tape, but if you can see how adorable he is in the below pictures, you can imagine how it went as the night continued.
The only dark cloud in this otherwise sunny evening was when Elias saw us in the crowd for the first time. We had thought to hide, so that he wouldn't want to come to us, and he had been so brave up there in front of all those strangers. But in a moment, he suddenly turned and looked right at us, and dissolved into tears, poor fellow. He wanted so badly to come down to us, but his teacher Ms. Cami calmed him down and eventually he continued bravely on. Now, however, he could look to us, and copy us as we did the movements for the songs, which he attempted to mimic. It was a glorious day.
With young kids, we do a lot in a day - Elias wakes up sometime around six, and we have many hours to fill before his nap. Today, we filled them with something new for Elias, a long walk in Eastchester and Tuckahoe, and a visit to TGIFridays.
Mom and Dad got us this wonderful, Montessori-approved Learning Tower for Elias. Over the next several years, it will allow Elias and Harper Anne to cook, play, and engage with us on our level, in the kitchen and elsewhere. Today, Elias was able to wash his hands in our house, on his own, for the first time.
We left for a walk along the Bronx River Path, but Elias didn't want to walk that way. So instead he led us around a lovely residential neighborhood in Tuckahoe. He seemed to know where he was going, despite never having been on that walk before, because we ended up at one of his favorite parks - Parkway Oval!
We kept walking down the Bronx River Path, despite Elias protests when we crossed the river. He wanted to run back and forth over the bridge, of course.
For lunch today, we satisfied a week-long craving for TGIFriday's appetizers. Elias was amazingly well behaved the whole time, pointing out stars in the decor, eating grilled cheese and tortilla chips, drawing, trying to name the letters he saw on the walls.
Harper Anne slept the whole time (whew!). She was still bundled up and cozy when we got home, so we didn't want to disturb her.
I had a hankering to visit a cute little town, walk along streets lined with small, quaint shops, and drink a warm cup of something. But what to do with the kids - bring them along of course! We went up to Tarrytown, located on the Hudson, home to Washington Irving elementary school, and chock full of gorgeous little shops. Unfortunately by the time we got up there, we had very little time to walk around before sunset. However, Elias had the opportunity to run around a new place, and we got some great sunset pictures. Our feeling that this was a beautiful spot for pictures was validated when we saw two (2!!!) couples taking their wedding photos nearby. It's December, people!!
Here we have Elias and Clayton against the Tappan Zee bridge and the Hudson River.
Today is Halloween! We've been looking forward to this for quite some time, and it's finally here! Last year, Elias was a little monkey, and we planned to visit our friends at their various apartments in Chicago. It stormed, one of the worst and craziest weather patterns we had experienced - screaming winds and waves crashing over lake shore drive. It wasn't a perfect Halloween, but it was certainly memorable!
This Halloween, we thought we could make it a really great experience - beautiful weather, fun activities, and finally a neighborhood for trick or treating! This year, Elias is going as an astronaut.
In the morning, we went to the Bronx Zoo for "Boo at the Zoo" - Elias wore his costume, we wandered around looking at various animals, and we interacted with dressed up zoo personnel. Elias loved the opportunity to walk around a new place. He saw a red panda, lions playing, giraffes and ostriches, baboons, gazelles, and bears!
Our little astronaut
Astronaut Elias on the moon
Coming back from his first house trick or treating!
We went to three houses before Elias was done. Here's his Halloween haul:
(I'll admit, I love going to this park so I can say we're going to "the dam park"....)
The nurtury hosted an international day last Friday - the kids dressed up in outfits from their families' cultures and we parents made food. The nurtury had a parade and activities and songs. Elias wore shalwar kameez and loved being around his new friends.
More beautiful pictures of our times at Untermeyer
Just a few lovely photos of playtime!
Mom and Dad gave us a new trundle bed for Eid - we are so grateful. Elias loves his trundle bed, and he's adapted so well. We weren't sure how quickly he would be able to learn to sleep on it, so we waited until he had some time napping on a cot at the Nurtury. But from the first day, he was able to get onto his trundle and stay on for sleep. He sometimes likes to get up and walk around when we put him down for his nap, but he stays safe (we make sure to watch him on the monitor) and he returns often to his trundle. He sleeps on Moe as a pillow and kicks off his blankets - hopefully he'll get used to pulling them back up when he's older! He's a real big kid now!
Meg came to visit us in September - it was such a joy. We love Meg, who has been one of the best aunties Elias could have. We had so much fun playing at the park!
Elias's first day of school at the Nurtury! He takes off his shoes every morning before he begins. He doesn't know what's ahead of him - school and friends and learning and growing! It's a big first day :).
First, we went to Untermeyer Park - a gorgeous set of gardens donated to the city of Yonkers. It's been slowly going to ruin, as the city can't quite afford to keep it up, but that only seems to heighten its charms. We've been there several times since Labor Day, and Elias loves it. We've even seen some wedding pictures there.
Later, we went to Parkway Oval park in Tuckahoe, where Clayton pulled out the helicopters Wayne gave us one year. We played with flying them around the park, and actually got quite successful after a while. Elias, however, was not a fan. At first, he would cry whenever he heard their sound. Whenever the helicopters landed, he would rush over and pick them up to give to Clayton. It almost seemed as though he was upset they were leaving Clayton, and wanted to return them to him. Eventually, Elias got used to the helicopters - hopefully by next year he'll enjoy flying them himself (haha, perhaps still too young!).
