L'Shanah Tovah

I've been taking pictures of Meadow to send out as e-mail holiday greetings for a while - for all sorts of holidays. Last year we had Katie to add to the pictures. It's amusing to try to take a series of pictures with a dog and baby, and then adding an apple that is enticing to both of them made it more amusing. By the end of our 5-minute photo shoot, Katie was saying "apple, apple, apple" and trying to take it away from Meadow. And Meadow had started eating the apple. FYI - This pic is a different one than the one I sent out.

The cousins visit Oma

Here's Katie sitting with her cousin Andrew. We last saw him when he was 3 months old and Katie was 2 weeks old. Now they are about the same height. They were very cute together and Andrew got very interested in Katie's stacking cups (one of our staple car/visit Oma toys) so we gave them to him. I wonder if this is a gender difference - Katie was much more talkative and Andrew was much more wiggly.

Both Peter and I have first cousins who had baby boys the same weekend. We haven't spent time with either Andrew or Avrum Chaim, but it would be fun if Katie got to know them in the future. There is a wide range of experiences within her own family and this is something I hope she appreciates when she's older.

At least Meadow will play...

My parents and Aunt Rachel came over for dinner on Friday. I cooked fish - shock of shocks - and it was delicious. Katie was happy and active and showed off all her shoes. Shoes is her new favorite word. Everything is shoes. She wakes up in the morning, "Mommy. Mommy. Shoes?" It's pretty funny.

Katie is a sweetheart, but for some reason she's not too fond of my dad. Now my dad is a big mush, a big teddy bear, and I know it bothers him greatly that Katie is afraid of him. It certainly bothers me. But she'll learn, in time what a wonderful person her Grandpa/Dipa is. In the meantime, he gets occasional hugs from Katie and lots of attention from Meadow.

Katie had her first taste of a family favorite. My dad brought black and white cookies from Butterflake. We love these cookies, both me and Peter and now Katie. Peter has always loved them, they are a favorite of his dad's and I think he let on how much he liked me in college when he invited me over to share one his mom had sent from Dallas (I liked the NJ version better). Here's a picture of Katie with a black and white all over her face. And Katie had just gotten out of the crib in the picture (she didn't want to go to sleep), so her hair is all over the place.

Visiting Oma

Every Friday, Katie and I go to New Jersey to visit my grandmother. I really think Oma looks forward to these visits and Katie is starting to love them too. The past few times we've pulled into the parking lot, Katie says "Ah-mi" - her version of Oma, which coincidentally was her cousin Pete's baby version of Oma too.

In case you don't know the full story of how my very vibrant grandmother ended up in a nursing home, here's the short version. Last November she fell while walking outside on a beautiful and warm autumn day at her senior living facility. She was in the ICU for a while and suffered from a traumatic brain injury. Months of rehab only did so much and we were quite concerned. We'd go visit, but there was little conversation with her and little interaction. It was really distressing until about March when the Oma we knew started to reemerge. I remember thinking one visit around then, Oma, it's so good to see you, I've missed you - even though I had seen her every week.

So Oma is now in a nursing home, but so much more herself and we love seeing that (as opinionated as she sometimes may be). She really loves seeing me and Katie and I'm so happy each time that she's been around to watch Katie grow. Oma and I have had some interesting discussions and she's seen pictures of our adventures. Last Friday was really a turning point for Katie with Oma. It was the first time that she specifically asked for Oma to hold her. She kept reaching her arms up at Oma and I would put her in Oma's lap. I loved it. So did Oma.

Debbie came with her kids on Friday too. Here's a picture of Oma's great-grandchildren (well all but Andrew who lives in Vermont and she's met only once) out on the patio. Pete, as you can tell, is being a 10-year-old and looks less than thrilled to be there.

Happy Birthday Kevin

Here is Katie and her friend Erika at their friend Kevin's birthday party. It's a funny story how they both ended up there. I met Kevin's mom Jill, literally, on the street and we hit it off and when we had our first playdate, we realized that we had a friend in common, our friend Kelli and her daughter Erika. So here they both are. Katie and Erika are 3 days apart and Katie's now about a head taller (both babes are on either end of the growth chart). I love this dress. Ania bought it for her for her birthday. She looked so cute.

The highlight for me of Kevin's birthday party was the fact that Peter showed up. Jill chose a more working-parent friendly time and Peter was able to get there. When he walked in the door, Katie said "Daddy" and ran to him. Because almost all of the mommy socializing takes place when Peter's not around, it was so nice that he got to join in for the evening. 

Dr. Daddy saves the day

Here's Katie with her Grandma Dima and Grandpa Dipa on the lawn in Ogunquit. The place has the great lawn to sit out on and watch the water. At least it was sunny on Monday. We took her to the beach before we left. I can't say that she was as thrilled with the beach as she was on Friday, but it was still fun.

Here's a pic. The shirt Katie's wearing I bought in Hawaii for Robin when I was pregnant with Katie.


The ride home was fine. Katie is very into saying "Mommy" and "Daddy" - incessantly, bordering on obsessively. The entire ride home (when she wasn't sleeping) was "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. Daddy. Daddy. Mommy. Daddy. Mommy. Daddy." To tell you the truth, it's not much different when we're out of the car.

Monday night, I was getting ready to give her a bath and she fell into the empty bathtub. I didn't see it happen and I thought that she was crying because she couldn't get out of the tub. So I gave her a bath and she was still crying - she screams in baths not at home so maybe it was a carryover from our travels or she was cranky from the long drive. But she wasn't moving her arm much. After I got Katie into her pajamas, I noticed that she tried to suck her left thumb, but she couldn't move her arm high enough. She was still crying and obviously in pain and I knew she had hurt her arm.

I called our neighbor who's a radiologist and has twins Katie's age. She said elbow fractures are common at this age and we should go to the ER. So I called our pediatrician, and it's our pediatrician on call and because there's no visible bruising or broken skin, she thinks Katie's symptoms are more like a "nursemaid's elbow" than a fracture. This is a dislocated elbow that most often occurs when a toddler falls holding onto something (like an adults hand) or someone pulls them up a step or curb by the arm. It doesn't usually happen from falling. It's common and easy to fix.

Katie is quite obviously in pain - she's crying hysterically or snuggling me tight and sucking her right thumb. Dr. Sanford says we can go to the ER or we can try to fix it ourselves, in case it is nursemaid's elbow. If it's not, then we'll have to go to the ER anyway. Having been to the ER with the barrette incident, I really don't want to do that, but the idea of pushing on my screaming daughter's arm that might be broken and causing her more pain was very scary. So Dr. Daddy comes to save the day. My brave husband takes over. The dr. instructs him to twist and turn and move Katie's arm and he feels a pop. About 30 seconds later, Katie starts running her fingers over her favorite stuffed puppy. I knew she was fine. Five minutes later, she's up and running around and chatting away. It was like night and day and so instantaneous.

Peter made me call him Dr. the rest of the night...

The rain in Maine...

The weather wasn't so great in Maine after Friday. It was cool on Saturday and very rainy on Sunday. So instead of the beach, we did a tour of the lobster shacks of southern Maine. Luckily they serve grilled cheese too (yes for Katie, not for me). I made progress in my seafood tastes, I actually ordered my own fried clams! We also did some shopping, Maine has lots of outlets. Shopping is not Peter's favorite thing. You might even say it's his least favorite activity. But being the good guy he is, we made some stops in Kittery and a pilgrimage to LL Bean in Freeport. Here's Katie at LL Bean. Okay, so most people probably wouldn't get as excited as I did going there, but I've always loved the store. It's open 24-hours a day, every day of the year. If you look at the outside of the store, there aren't even locks on the doors. And when you call them, you get a live person with a real Downeast accent.

Katie seemed to take after Peter on this shopping adventure, she wasn't too happy. But here she is happily eating her Cheerios. She wasn't so happy at the lobster shack either, except for the Maine blueberry pie.

My parents babysat Sunday night so we had a dinner out to ourselves, which was a nice change from wrangling a toddler during dinner.

Beach Baby, Beach Baby

As if we didn't do enough traveling this month already, Peter and Katie and I headed to Maine for Labor Day weekend. We made these reservations last year before we knew about the weddings and Peter decided that he hadn't had his New England fix for the summer (i.e. lobster!) and I was happy to go. My family has been going to the same little place in Ogunquit since before I was even born. It was so nice to bring Katie there. The place is in a perfect location, right next to town and right on the water, just a short stroll to the beach. We had a little cottage to ourselves that overlooked the water. The view was amazing and we love watching the tide go in and out.

Here are pictures of Katie on the beach. She loved it! We went to the beach on Friday, it was sunny and warm, but not hot. Katie was quick to play in the water and start digging in the sand. She kept asking for more "wah-er" for her bucket which she then immediately poured out. There were small shallow tidal pools she played in and she wasn't afraid to get wet in the cool water.

Here's Katie and Peter playing in the sand.

Our Beach Baby...

What a beautiful family!

Isn't this a great picture?

We're all dressed up for the wedding. Katie didn't get to go to the wedding, but she did dress up and pose for pictures. The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun. The food was fantastic too. Cousins Liza and Julie, Aunt Sarah and Aunt Lesley were on the dance floor all night. Missy and Chad looked so happy and we were so glad to be there. We all had such a great time.

Chicago!

After our wonderful trip to Colorado, we went to Chicago. Katie slept the entire time on the plane, something she hadn't done since her first trip to Dallas in June '05. We actually had to wake her up when it was time to get off the plane. It was Peter's cousin Missy's wedding. It was so nice of our cousins to choose consecutive weekends so that we could make a whole vacation out the trips.

Here's Katie with her Grandpa Papa when we were out to lunch on Saturday. We had an unveiling for Peter's grandfather who died this time last year. While Katie was running around the cementary, I kept thinking how different it is a year later. She was a tiny little baby the last time she was here, all of 4 months old. So much happens in a year and how life goes on. Now she was happily walking around, playing among the gravestones. Cousin Linda, the bride's mother, insists this is a family tradition and her son did the same thing when they would go visit the family. It's a beautiful old cemetary and we actually took pictures. Here is Katie with cousin Liza on the family bench. You can see the family names - Oppenheimer and Mayer. I really like this picture and it's nice that Katie is an Oppenheimer.

And here's the whole family on the bench, minus Sarah Oppenheimer who is taking the picture. Cousins Liza and Julie and Uncle John are in this picture.


Here's Katie and her Grandma Nana at breakfast Saturday morning.

Visiting the cousins!

After our great time in Rocky Mountain, we went to Fort Collins, which is about an hour from the park and an hour north of Denver. Our cousins just moved there. They have a beautiful house and it was such a treat to see them again. Here is Katie playing with Ariel in the backyard. Ariel is a year older than Katie and they played really well together. The cutest was that Katie became an interactive baby doll for Ari, she kept feeding Katie her sippy cup and she finished all her milk (something Katie rarely does on her own!). Rachel and Bernie are fun people. I got to see their son Matan's new school and we went to the public pool. Now this pool was not like any other community pool I've ever been to. There were 2 huge waterslides, a river run with floats, and water sprinklers everywhere in the pool. It was a lot fun.

Rachel with Katie and Ariel

Peter and Katie at the pool with Ariel and our cousins also visiting, Linda and Lisa.

Rocky Mountain National Park

After our time in Aspen, we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was beautiful and we had a really nice time. We had some great hikes in the park . Here we are, Katie comfy in her backpack again.

What was funny about this hike is that you really saw the difference in elevation. We only went up about 750 feet, but once we got up to the top of the 4 lakes we went to, it was cold and rainy.


Sunny at the first lake - called Bear Lake, of course!

Cool and rainy at a middle lake.

We stayed in a condo in the town of Estes Park. The condo was great and had both a grill and washer/dryer. These were both vital! Being away for 10 days, laundry was a necessity and a grill is one of those things we love and miss living in a high-rise. Peter was the official grill master.

The condo had a little grassy area in back that Katie played on and then there was a river. Here we are playing by the river.