5 months old!

Our sweet AlteLu is 5 months old!  She is as delicious as ever.  Smiling, chatting, thinking about crawling--she has a truly bright light in her little soul.  We spent this past weekend with Aunt Addie, Uncle Craig, and our newest addition, Mr. Isaac.  He is a little lover as well.  HBB is sweet with the littles and we are overflowing with cuteness.  Something special is when Alte goes to bed early, we have dinner just the 3 of us after she is asleep.  This is such nice time with our boy.  He seems so grown up, with so much to say and contribute.  Ideas, opinions, stories, a true delight.

Brothers gotta match

 Bathtime:

Hard at work

Back to work

Well, I've done it, returned to work, completed my "maternity leave," although I'm not sure why they call it "maternity leave" in this country.  In Europe, Canada, and many other countries mothers and fathers are given time to be with their new child, without financial stress or worry about losing a job.  I just took almost 5 months unpaid from my work, and this is viewed by many as a long leave.  At the same time, others are judging me for having gone back to work at all---don't I want to be with my baby, they ask?!?  All in all, I am working on staying positive and reminding myself that 15 hours/week is an ideal amount of time to work.  I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue my career but still be with my children the majority of the time.  Additionally, we have an amazing nanny who is the support that we need in order to make our life work.  I feel sad to leave sweet AlteLu in the mornings, but I know she is in good hands.

Speaking of AlteLu, how crazy that she is almost 5 months old already!  She is smiley and sweet, and definitely eager to be on the move.  Jacob thinks that she might crawl before she can sit up on her own!  She is endlessly chit-chatty and she and Hershel are best friends.  They love talking to each other, reading books, and shnuggling.

Hersh is also doing very well, ready at any moment to engage anyone around in a game of his own design--the rules of which get increasingly complex as the game continues--or break into an impromptu song or story about the various objects in his field of vision.  Like any three-year-old, he's working on impulse control, with mixed success.  Recently, he's started blaming poor decisions on his "addendix" (not totally sure what that is, but pretty sure it's inspired by the Madeleine book).  To whit, the following two conversations:

Scene I
Jacob: "Hersh, why did you knock on Alte's door when she's trying to sleep?"
Hersh: "I don't know.  I know I shouldn't do it, but my addendix just told me to do it."
Jacob: "Well, maybe before you listen to your addendix, you should think it about what the right thing to do is."
Hersh: "Yeah, but sometimes, my addendix just tells me."

Scene II
Jacob: "Sometimes the most fun things are things that are hard at first, but then you keep trying, and it gets better and better."
Hersh: "Yeah, but my addendix says that if you can't do something the first time, then you should never try it ever again."
Jacob: "Your addendix gives terrible advice."

 

4 month check-up

Today we had AlteLu's 4 month check-up.  She weighs 15.4lbs and is doing great!  Hersh is hilarious and has been very into playing hide and seek,  He is still gaining certain necessary skills--being quiet while hiding, doing a thorough job of searching for the hider, etc.  It is amazing!

Snowy Day

Today was extremely cold and very beautiful.  About 2 inches of snow fell last night leaving everything white and glistening in the sunshine.

Bringing in the New Year

We enjoyed the end of our trip to The Rock and celebrated Jacob's 33rd birthday.  We flew home on NYE and went out to a place we had never been to here in Silver Spring.  It was a lovely evening, just the four of us.  We then all went to bed early and slept very well.  It's always nice to sleep in your own bed after being away.  AlteLu has been sleeping in her crib (not in the bathroom) since we came home, and I must admit, it is nice to have our bathroom back.  There is snow falling, but we are hopeful that Hersh will have school tomorrow.  I am also preparing to return to work next week.  Time is moving so quickly!

One thing to note about AlteLu is how chatty she is--the girl is constantly chitchatting.  I wonder if it is a prelude into how talkative she will be later in life.  If she is anything life her Ima, she will be very chatty:)

A Hershism:  Tonight he and I were taking our vitamins and he said, "Ima, adult vitamins are such boring colors, not like kid vitamins, yours is beige."