The Farm

While after two three-day chags and yom kippur, Labor Day seems like a lifetime ago. But then I looked at the calendar and see it was only, um, three weeks ago and felt a little less bad posting this now.  Over Labor Day weekend we decided we'd had enough of spending every Sunday, every night, every everything doing stuff for the house, going to home depot, and it was time to make up for the summer we lost peeling wallpaper and painting. That sounds very sad. It's okay. Before new job/house buying we had a trip to Disney and a week at Bethany beach, so I guess we'll just call the summer very fun front loaded. Anyway, we decided over Labor Day weekend we were going to get out and do fun kid friendly things that don't involve trying to occupy them to play in a bathtub, or taking turns painting and kid watching.

Off we went to the farm! On my months commuting from Silver Spring to the office in Downtown Baltimore I'd pass a sign for Clark Elioak farm every day. I wondered what it was and google came to the rescue. Interestingly enough, Ami passed the same sign on the reverse commute recently, noticed it,and never once wondered more. Well, it's a farm/petting zoo/semi amusement park. It's great for kids max age 4, so perfect for Eitan, he loved it. I think next summer he'll hopefully still love it because by then Levs will be old enough to not just blob around over there.

Swinging

Hooray for swings!

Bored by swings! And a shoe short (the shoe has since been lost and found again. And again)

Redskins Season Opener

So the Redskins season isn't off to a good start, but at least the kids are cute in the gear.

While the daddys were off at FedEx field for the season opener a couple weeks ago, the mommys got the kiddos together for our own (much lamer) party. And got in on the adventure of trying to photograph 3 under 3. Wow, so not easy!

Take 1: All in their gear, Liv's eyes are closed, Lev's checking her out.

Take 2: Levav decides he wants the hat

Take 3: Hat's back, but Olivia doesn't like it, we employ Eitan to restrain Levs. 

Take 4:  Lev can't stop moving so is a giant blur. Olivia is sick of posing. Moms give up.

And the tailgate, of course! Olivia gets back at Levs for the hat stealing and does a little noodle stealing.

Once the game started, Olivia (and mom) were long gone for bedtime, but the boys got to watch the first few seconds.

The Living Room!

We're calling the living room DONE! It feels so good to check off this one.

Here's a peek into the room from the perspective of coming into the front door.

Here's a similar angle shot from before:

Other then just the furniture swaps, we removed the curtains to be able to see the view of the backyard, the awful awful textured wallpaper and painted the room Benjamin Moore's greyhound. Ami actually painted the whole room while I was in Miami for 29 hours, and I came home (on my birthday) greeted by a newly painted space. It really was a shock! And awesome!

This space is what we call the "piano nook". The previous owners had a big grand piano over there, and even though it's gone, it's memory lives on. Also, this picture was taken before I painted the dining room side of the room in the same color, so pretend the quarter inch of dining room wall to the right is greyhound too.

The mirror was from my mom's house right in the entry way and the chairs are our old patio seats from the DC condo. It all works in this corner with the dark wood bookshelves.

Here's the Piano nook before:

And a shot from the sliding doors facing "in":

 And a shot from the dining room:

This is another before, taken from the piano nook. As you can see the set up of the furniture is totally different. We wanted to keep as much flow as possible from the dining room to living room AND not block the view of the beautiful backyard or cut off access to the fireplace. It's trickier than you might think! 

                       

My dad and Nachama bought us the living room pieces as a housewarming present. So in this room at least, no craigslist, no thrift stores, just real "grown up" furniture. The big round cushy ottoman is on wheels which is great for company, and for boys that like to go for rides on it. And the table in the corner on the right, that's the table that Ami brought home for me from Israel on the trip he went on right before we got engaged. He had it planted into my apartment with the ring box open sitting on it. The table will forever be known as "the engagement table". It's a beautiful piece that you can't really see the detail in, but come visit, and you'll get a closer look. 

PS. More details on updates to the entry hall and dining room to come! Oh, and we're working on a mini-update on the hall bathroom also.

Rosh Hashana Break Dancing

I feel like every year there are more Rosh Hashana viral videos. Yes? Yes.

This year this one in particular has caught a lot of attention, so much so that Eitan's preschool teachers even screened it for them last week (on the ONE day of school he had between Labor day and Erev Rosh Hashana).




On Labor day morning, aka Erev Erev Rosh Hashana I was alone at home with both boys, and in came YouTube to save the day. Eitan loved this video. He got excited every time the Shofar came out and also loved watching the breakdancers.

And imitating them:


MVI 7194 from mimi rozmaryn on Vimeo.

Oh yeah, and yes, our kids are always in some form of undress or another...

And here's the original of the video, you can pick which you prefer:

Learning to Stand

This is happening! This sweet, tiny little guy is starting to stand on his own, and showing us signs that he might be walking soon...

He first gets up on his knees, then into a squat, and then liiiiifffts his body up into a standing position. I think his record is about 30 seconds. It's hilarious. And adorable.

At this afternoon at the park we were enticing him with a stick. 

Shana Tova!

Yes, this IS the best we can do without professional assistance. 

Take 1: 

Not looking, cranky teething baby, Eyes closes mommy, looking while holding a block of ramen noodles, and squinty eyed daddy.

Take 2:

Laughing mommy, happy self portraiting daddy, confused Eitan peeking in and rear facing Levav hidden.

And a video of the madness of giggles happening at dinnertime, because, after two terrible attempts at family photos, why not?

No matter what, best wishes for a happy, healthy and sweet 5774!

Eitan's First Day of School!

Last Tuesday Eitan had his first day at his new school, Gan Keshet. He did great and totally ran off to play the minute I dropped him off. The school is for three and four year olds, 8 in each class and it's so great. Each day each kid has a job (this week Eitan was the hermit crab feeder, the morning announcement assistant, I don't know about Friday...), they have davening and tzedakah and dress up, coloring, numbers and letters stations. Basically it's straight from here to Harvard people. 

Anyways, here's the big guy. 

And if you want to invest in some tissues, see how little this fella was on his first day last year: http://rozmarynramblings.blogspot.com/2012/10/first-day-of-pre-school.html