Moving Up

Recently, Asher moved to a new room at day care. The new room is for 2-3 year olds. He's now in the "big kids" section of the infant day care. Next year he moves to pre-school, where Simi is.

Asher loves his new room. They have all sorts of cool work, like puzzles and building blocks. They even have stuff that it's ok for him to break, like pulling the kernels off dried corn cobs. He can even use toddler-tweezers to pick up the kernels and put them in a bowl. Then, he can count them. He's in heaven.

The daughter of a friend of ours is also in that room. Asher has met and played with her before, but now that they're spending entire days together, they've really bonded. Asher comes home constantly talking about Brianna. He loves her.

Every night, Asher asks about the teachers in his old room. The other day, I picked him up early so that he can visit his old room. But we got to the door and he refused to go in. Perhaps he thought he'd never be able to go back to his new room. That night, he talked about his old teachers again. What a kid.

The Destroyer

Asher has a very special talent; he destroys everything he gets his hands on. He even manages to destroy things that are seemingly unbreakable. For example, you know those kitchen magnets - the kind you get for free from some company and place them on your refrigerator? He peals the paper off the magnet part.

Today was the first day the Polar Express DVD was released. We bought the gift pack because it had a snow globe and Brio train engine.

Within an hour after purchasing the set, Asher threw the snow globe down the stairs. The plastic globe cracked and the glittery snow and liquid within it came to a rest on the carpeted stairs.

Will he destroy things forever?

A Word of Advice

Normally these posts are about the kids. This post is a bit of advice for the pregnant women reading this blog who need to get dressed up for a fancy affair: find a nice pantsuit.

In other words: avoid the need to wear pantyhose at all costs.

Seriously, why in the world do they even sell maternity hose when they know full well that it's darn near impossible for a woman to actually get it up on her legs when there's a great big belly in the way? And there isn't even a warning label on the packaging, something like: "Warning: attempting to wear this product is hazardous to your health and emotional well-being."

Now, if logic had entered my mind at all before I bought the hose, I would have realized that for someone who hasn't even seen the tips of her toes in months, bending down to get pantyhose rolled up the legs would be an impossible task.

Pantyhose aside, Simi and I (if you hadn't realized by now, this is Liz speaking) had a wonderful time in New York and at Nicole's Bat Mitzvah. Nicole did a great job with the service and she looked like the beautiful princess she is at the reception. Inside and out, this girl is truly beautiful.

Simi had an absolutely wonderful time with Nicole and her friends. He didn't want to leave.

Nicole's Bat Mitzvah

This past weekend Simi and Liz went up to NY for cousin Nicole's Bat Mitzvah. Nicole is, undoubtedly, Simi's favorite person in the world, and he got to spend a lot of time with her and her friends. Simi couldn't get enough of dancing with Nicole and her friends.

Click on each photo for a larger image.

Asher's Throne

We bought a vibrating toddler seat for the boys to sit in once Baby Sister arrives; Simi used to enjoy sitting in the baby bouncy seat when Asher was a baby even though he was too big for it, so we figured this would be better. Asher already loves to turn on the vibrations and plop himself down on his throne to watch TV, and we think it looks pretty funny.

Simi getting dressed up

Here's a picture of Simi trying out some new dressy clothes for his trip up to New York for his cousin Nicole's Bat Mitzvah. I caught him in a nice "cool" pose here that I like a lot :-)

Number 3

With all our energy going into Simi's surgery, in addition to focusing on our full-time jobs, running the household, and raising Asher (not necessarily in that order), we haven't had much time to focus on the arrival of Baby Sister. Someone recently reminded me that her arrival is imminent in about 9 weeks. HOLY CANNOLI, that's soon! She needs a name!

Terrible Twos

It looks like the "terrible twos" have overtaken our sweet, easy-going, happy, young Asher. He routinely has break-downs; he knows he really wants something, but he's not all that certain what that something is. Admittedly, it's really hard not to laugh at him when he gets himself into a fit. Although we try hard not to overtly laugh at him; it's really hard to resist.

For example, back in Boston, early one morning when he was in a sleepy daze, he got into a frenzy, clung to the apartment wall and announced, "my wall!". Both Raj and I were rolling on the floor with laughter at that one. Now, he's begun to wail, "I need (name of parent who is not there)! I need (name of something not readily available)!" Luckily, Asher gets distracted easily and forgets all about what he needs or made him mad.

The "terrible twos" hit Simi around age 12 months and lasted until he was about 3 years old. He would routinely fling himself on the ground right in front of us and pound the floor with his fists. Now THAT routine was difficult not to laugh at. Raj and I would simply step over Simi and pay him absolutely no attention. Simi would get up, fling himself in front of us again and pound his fists. Way too funny!

Words From Our Two-Year Old

Last night, while trying to divert Asher's attention away from Simi's new car to a different car, I asked Asher if he wanted to play with the dump truck. I then proceeded to vroom the truck around in order to entice him.

Asher corrected me. "It's a cement-mixer, Mommy."

He was right, of course.

!

I have a confession: every time I see Simi's scar, I want to cry. I get this lump in my belly and this big rock in my throat and think that it was Raj's and my decision to hack up our child. We marred his beautiful body and gave him a permanent scar - a great big bang ! - on his chest.

When I'm with him, I act non-chalant about it; I don't want him to be self-conscious about it or think there's anything wrong with having it. I do everything I can not to draw attention to it. But it pains me to see my baby all carved up.

I knew I'd feel this way. I thought about it a lot before the surgery. I even had photos taken of him in a bathtub setting (with Asher) so we can have a permanent memory of his perfect chest. And rationally, I know we didn't have a choice - that scarring his beautiful body was the only way we can fix his heart. And fixing his heart was more important that having an unblemished chest. But there it is - right on his chest - the perfect exclamation mark. !

Well, I guess if you're gonna get a scar permanently placed on the middle of your chest, then it should be a good one - like a ! A very appropriate symbol for it's purpose. Yep!

So why does it upset me so much?

Asher Who?

While Simi's gotten a lot happier, Asher's gotten a lot grumpier. Now, in addition to the night antics, he is giving his day care teachers a hard time too. He cries when we drop him off in the morning and is very tired and cranky by lunchtime. Deep sigh. Is he needing more attention? Or has he spent so much time with us that he doesn't want to leave our sides?

Last night, after both boys said they wanted to sleep in each other's bed, we moved Asher's bed into Simi's room. They both loved that idea. Strangely, they both fell asleep quickly and quietly (I feared a night of raucous playing). I hoped that being with Simi would keep Asher in his own bed - but that's not how it turned out. At around midnight, Asher came crying that he wanted to be with us in the big bed. Deep deep sigh.

This, too, shall pass.