Sylvia is 4!

So, this happened. And now, 4 years later, I have this funny, quirky, chatty, clever, kind, stubborn, occasionally devious little person living in my house, bossing me around.

I was nervous about Sylvia's fourth birthday coming so soon after the move -- before she really knew anybody locally with whom we could celebrate. Fortunately, we were away at a conference for several days before her birthday with many friendly faces, and we all got together to throw her a little party in a hotel lobby -- complete with decorations, cookies, and presents. It was a pretty decent affair considering that we had to 'plan' it with absolutely no idea what kind of space we'd be able to find, and it took place less than 24 hours after our plane landed.

Sylvia had fun.

And she had a good week. During the conference she got to hang out with her Gramma & Papa, who flew out to help with the kids. And then we hung around for a few extra days for down time with friends. (This post is about a birthday, so I won't say too much about the trip, but it was surreal having so much time without Mom'ing during the conference. The grandparents were amazing, and the kids really made us proud. And in our down days with friends, we actually got to hang out and play games at night when the kids were asleep, which was also a nice break from our normal lives!)

Sylvia's birthday was only 2 days after we got back home from our trip. She had one day of school in between, and the school told me that they didn't want me to bring treats for the kids, but they encouraged me to bring a 'craft'. Like a sucker, I took them up on it and ended up preparing a craft for most of the day and then spent over an hour in the school helping with the craft and then getting dragged around to read books and watch kids do whatever they do. But in the middle of it all, all Sylvia's classmates sung happy birthday to her, and she dug her little face into her little hands and beamed.

We decided that all of the above should be enough to satisfy the need for group celebrations, and we planned to have a family outing on the actual birthday. Sylvia woke up and came downstairs to find a pile of presents, and she was so content to play with them that she didn't want to go on any of the outings we suggested. We did make some cupcakes that we shared with some neighbors. And on the promise of noodles and ice cream, we got her out of the house for dinner, where she was again sung to with her face in her hands. All and all, I think it was a good birthday.

"How old are you?"
(Both girls actually did answer correctly; don't hold my shoddy camerawork against Sylvia!)

How many PhDs does it take to assemble a swingset?

Day -16
Max drives 40 minutes to the nearest Costco with a play set in stock. He loads it into the car with help, drives, it back, and we move the 5 boxes + slide into our garage.

We try to contact a handyman to help us set it up.

 

Day 0
After multiple attempts to pay other people to do the heavy lifting for &/or with us, we give in and decide to give it a try. We start where any reasonable person would: we watch the DVD. The instructions say that 2 adults can assemble it in 2 days.

Day 1
Sylvia agrees that she really wants her play set to be set up, and she will patiently allow Mommy & Daddy to build it.... "But, can you get me something to eat... And some toys... I'm bored... Is it done yet?" And so Mommy spends most of her time trying to get the kids set up with something that can distract them.

By the end of the day (with very little help from Mommy), Steps 1-5 (of 36) are completed.
 

 

Picnic table (above) was Step 1

 Ladder & rock climbing wall (above) were Step 2
Putting up the walls of the clubhouse (above & below) were Steps 3-5

 

Day 2 
While Hannah and I lay about the house, moping hoarsely, and Sylvia runs back and forth between trying to engage me and asking Max if she can play in her play set yet, Max completes Steps 6-17.

More of clubhouse is assembled.


The second level gets a floor

And structural stability is added for the swingset

Because the next steps are assembling / lifting / connecting the roof and swingset, which are allegedly 3-person jobs, we call it a day. But Sylvia at least does have a clubhouse (with a door!) to play in.

Day 3

While I am laying around on the couch, Max completes Steps 18-22: adding more boards to the clubhouse walls, adding a toy steering wheel & telescope, and assembling the roof supports. The next steps require at least 2 people, so I finally rally.

We assemble the roof and decide that we can get it up with a little help from our ladder, instead of a 3rd person (as recommended). Unfortunately, this means we also didn't have anyone to photograph the absurdity of us maneuvering the roof.  You'll have to trust me that we did get it up there, and it was absurd.

  

We make it through Part 1 of Step 28 before we decide that the rest will be much easier if we wait until the next day, when Sylvia will be at school.

Day 4
During Hannah's morning nap, we wrap up Steps 28-32. Again, we prove that our ladder is a decent substitute for a third human person.

 

By the time Hannah wakes up, we have mis-assembled, un-assembled, and re-assembled the swingset posts, attached the swings, and driven stakes into the ground for stability.

Hannah slows down the process a bit for Steps 33-36 (which includes attaching the slide, finally attaching the ladder & rock wall that we built in Step 2, and screwing a little plaque onto the side (see below)

But we did finish!

 

Sylvia will be very happy when she gets home from school today.

pictures from Hannah's birthday

Hannah is one!

Hannah got to celebrate her birthday morning with friends! Flying back
from a trip today, so more later...

Hannah is 11 months old

Maria is 3!

So much love and so many memories in such a small amount of time together.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Maria

Hannah is 10 months old!

The biggest change this month is Hannah's 2 front teeth, which I noticed had just barely broken the gums about 3 weeks ago and are now pretty much completely out and being put to good use. Hannah LOVES to eat. Nothing makes her more angry than food that is not in her mouth.

Now that she's been crawling for a while, she's perfecting the art of zeroing in one the one thing that she really shouldn't bang on or put in her mouth and going for it with gusto. It's uncanny. She should get a job as a babyproof tester. She'd put herself through college.

She's still uncannily sweet and well-behaved most of the day. But look out when she does get mad!

It was another busy month, starting with Max's house-hunting trip.

A few days after he got back, we headed to San Diego to celebrate Hannah's first Passover, and the girls got some quality time with their cousins.

 

And the following week we celebrated Easter in Los Angeles. Here's Hannah, trying to eat a plastic egg.

Oh, and that trip Max took to Boston when Hannah turned 9 months... yeah... we're buying a house. A month from today, we'll be visiting our family in SoCal after having vacated our current apartment and before  closing on the new house. *whew*