Spiderman!

This was an exciting and short week for us. Aidan had playschool, as normal, on Monday and Tuesday. But on Tuesday afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa Ruane (newly a.k.a. "Gemma and Geppa"!) and cousin Miya came over, and Aidan started his "summer vacation"! Grandma and Grandpa brought Miya back with them from California after cousin Sienna's 1st birthday party, and she is hanging out with us in the Catskills for a week and a half while Alex goes on a work trip to Brazil.



On Wednesday, Aidan, Miya, Grandpa, Daddy and I all went down to see Aidan's first broadway play: SPIDER-MAN! Grandma - who had already seen it - babysat Kiana at home while we went. It was AMAZING! At a couple of points, Spiderman flew through the air and landed just about five feet away from us, on a stage next to our balcony seats! Watching his aerial tricks, especially when fighting with the Green Goblin - while both of them were suspended from wires while souring around the theater -was incredible!! Aidan did incredibly well - he was able to watch the whole thing, despite the bright lights, loud sound, and 2 1/2 hour duration. He ended up sitting on Daddy's lap for part of the time, but he made it! Miya - who saw Wicked as her first Broadway show - liked it too. :)



Thursday morning we said goodbye to Daddy (who was leaving for Brazil that night), and me, Aidan and Kiana drove up with Grandpa to the Catskills. I've told Aidan that it is his "summer vacation" - a break from school, up in the mountains, with Grandma, Grandpa and a dear cousin. We're coming back to the city next Saturday, and Daddy returns Sunday. Then, we'll actually have a few months off before Daddy's next big travel trip! Thank goodness. It's good to get away, but everything is better when he is around!


Here are a couple of photos from Alex while he was in Rio on his way to Campinas. It looks AMAZING!

Heat Wave

Kiana has been talking up a storm for the last couple of weeks. In addition to "Mama" and "dis" (this), she now clearly has other words that she is using. Last Monday, she asked for "ma" ("more") raisins, and has been using "ma" (as "more") a lot since then. She regularly asks for "up up up up" (to be picked up). And when she rides her rocking-moose or Gyffy riding giraffe, she chants "bup bup bup" (mimicking my "BUMP-ity BUMP-ity bump bump bump!" riding song!). She is becoming increasingly adamant with her "neh neh neh neh!" (no no no no!). Perhaps most amazingly, however, has been two gestures: she is clearly responding to questions with nodding ("yes") and sometimes shaking her head ("no")! It's incredible to be able to ask her something (Do you want to go to bed? Do you want more food? Should we find Daddy?) and have her respond clearly with a nod!!

She has also gotten *really* into reading books. She adores reading Good Dog, Carl and other animal books (Busy Horsies, Busy Piggies, Pet Them Gently) and lift-the-flap books (Where is Baby's Belly Button?, Daddy and Me, Grandma and Me). Aidan has been reading to or talking to her about some of her favorites, and I'm not sure who loves that more - Kiana or me!!


While dropping off or picking up Aidan at daycare the last couple of weeks, Alex and I have both heard Aidan playing a very creative game with his friends! They get together, and ask each other who wants to be the "Mommy Batman", who wants to be the "Daddy Batman" and who wants to be the "Baby Batman" - it's amazing! For a long time, Aidan's friend Olivia has been really into playing "baby", and has tried to direct the other kids to be the Mommy/Daddy/Baby in the game. At the same time, the boys and Kira have been really into superheros recently, and haven't always wanted to play that game. So, in recent weeks, it seems that they have amalgamated the two: thus, the "Mommy Batman/ Daddy Batman/ Baby Batman" game. I've never heard of anything like it before, and am very impressed with their creativity and ability to play a game that everyone wants to play!

On Saturday while we were at a friend's house with a white grand piano, Aidan surprised us by performing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"! He has learned this at school, but this was the first time that he showed off his skills for a whole song, and it was amazing! He plays beautifully: he uses different fingers (not just one), and caresses the notes, rather than plinking them out uniformly - it's beautiful! He also still comes up with his own music, which is sounding more and more beautiful itself! On Sunday, he tried to play again at our house but got really frustrated because our C "wasn't right". We couldn't figure it out for a while until Daddy realized that Aidan could tell that our keyboard's callibration made the notes sound different from the piano at school: He told Aidan that Aidan must have a better ear than we do, because he could tell where middle C was suppossed to be, whereas we were content to just have the notes all be different from each other. Fortunately, he was able to recalibrate the keyboard until Aidan was content with middle C being the right deepness! (Aidan's pitch seems to be exceptional!)


This week has been something of a survival game, as we have been going through a ridiculous heat wave. We had a couple of days in a row with temperatures over 100 and heat indexes of about 110, and the rest of the time in the 90s with high humidity. It's been intense! Aidan skinned his knee badly on Thursday and hasn't wanted to go to the pool because water hurts, so that has limited our options. We've mostly been trying to find interesting places that have air conditioning! Hopefully this won't continue for much longer.


Saturday we had brunch at our friends Karah/Jonathan/Oscar/Leo's house, which was fun. Then we went to Aidan's friend Olivia's 4th birthday party at Castle Village party room. Between the two of them, Aidan had pastries and cupcakes in just a couple of hours, and loved it!


Sunday, we let Daddy sleep in, let Mommy and Kiana have a nap, and then we all went to the Museum of Natural History. The AC there was *fantastic*, and the kids loved seeing the exhibits, too! Kiana loved the T-Rex, the archeopteryx, and the elephants; Aidan loved the T-Rex (his favorite) and the blue whale in the ocean room; we all liked the gem collection, too.

Zoo / Cars II

Daddy was away in Italy (north of Milan) for work until Thursday this week, and Grandma Ruane stayed with us from after Aidan's birthday party on Saturday until Wednesday to help with backup. She was a huge help, and dramatically improved everyone's quality of life while she was here! We went to the pool (Aidan showed off his water tricks), the Bronx Zoo (we haven't done this in ages!), and the pool again. She cooked and cleaned and played with the kids, and even mailed packages for us at the post office! By the time she left, our house had had its clutter significantly reduced, was much cleaner, and was full of much happier people than otherwise would have been the case.


We had an amazing adventure at the Zoo on Monday! We all went on the monorail (Aidan's favorite), which was pretty hum-drum (interesting, but not thrilling) the last time we went on it. However, this time, Kiana all of a sudden *noticed* the animals! I was sitting with her in the front seat (while Aidan sat with Grandma in the back seat), and she looked out, and then saw.... DEER! & She got SO excited about them! She jumped up and down and danced and pointed to the deer, and then to me (did I NOTICE these amazing things?) and back again, and danced some more! And then the monorail started moving past it, and she got very worried! She signed "where?" (Where are the deer?) and "more!" (MORE deer!). I promised her that there would be more animals soon, we just had to keep looking, and she nodded emphatically (YES! more!). She kept this up for almost *every single animal* that we saw on the monorail! (Elephants!!!! MORE elephants!!! WHERE are the elephants? More?? HIPPOS!!! MORE hippos!! Where are the hippos? More??) It was a really incredible experience!! Grandma and I were in awe. :)


Daddy came back from Italy on Thursday, and everyone was happy to see him. His next trip is two weeks from when he got back (going to Brazil), so things are feeling hectic for everyone. I have gotten almost nothing work-related done recently, and have a hard time dealing with that. I have to keep reminding myself that I *have* signed up Kiana for daycare, and that starting this week I also will have her being in combinations of babysitting/nap scheduling and Aidan in afternoon daycare time that will hopefully give me Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday 8/9-3:30PM days to work on developing my professional portfolio for jobs that are opening up. (Laurie will be babysitting mornings (9-11ish), our neighbor Cherie will be babysitting afternoons (1:30-3:30ish), and she should nap in between.) But at the moment, I just feel frustrated.


Despite this, we had a lot of good family time with Daddy this weekend: Saturday morning he took the kids down to the Central Park Zoo and Heckscher Playground in Central Park while I went to yoga (for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks!). That was awesome! That afternoon Laurie babysat Kiana while Daddy and I took Aidan out to see "Cars II" in movie theater! (Thanks, Uncle Gabe & Aunt Karen for the birthday present! It was Aidan's second movie theater experience in his life time - only after seeing Aunt Lauren's Rescue 3D movie in Washington DC.) That night we had dinner with our friends Christa/Mark/Johnny/Olliver (take-out from Dinosaur Barbeque - YUM!)


Sunday we all went to the pool together: Aidan had a blast showing off his tricks (he is now starting to do real doggy paddling!!!), and Kiana showed how she could dunk her face in the water and laugh about it! When we got home, we had very energetic Skype dates with both sides of the family (Grandma and Grandpa Ruane and all of the California Ruanes who are in California for cousin Elsey's first birthday party; and Nana and Pop-pop (Grandma and Grandpa Ross) and Uncle Jon-Michael in Hawaii). Aidan showed off his acrobatic skills with Daddy, and everyone was in a good mood.

Happy 4th Birthday, Aidan!

Aidan turned FOUR years old on Thursday! We cannot believe it!! He has been counting down to his birthday since Christmas (months, weeks, days), and was just gloriously happy that the day finally came!


We celebrated with family presents on his actual birthday, and had a party with friends and family on Saturday. For his birthday breakfast, Aidan was elated to eat his (specially requested) "rainbow cheerios" (Fruit Loops!) and watermelon (I passed on the Fruit Loops -- not something we usually have in our house!). At school, he shared chocolate rugelach pastries (he opted against cupcakes) after lunch. And after school, he got to play with his huge new Thomas train set with Daddy, who came home from work early and played with him while Kiana took a late nap. He had a chill, but wonderful (and SWEET) day!


On Saturday morning, we had a party for Aidan in the park. Grandma and Grandpa Ruane drove down for the party, and we all went over to Fort Tryon Park's sledding lawn (Billings Lawn) to celebrate. We had quiche (broccoli, and broccoli and ham), croissants, bagels, Maui Sun & Blue chips, cherries, strawberries, red and green grapes, watermelon, juice, and - of course! - cake and cupcakes. Aidan requested a chocolate Batman cake and cupcakes, so I made Devils Food (Batman on the cake, his insignia on the cupcakes) - and everyone demolished them! I think Olivia (Aidan's Olivia, as Aidan always says!) ate 3 cupcakes as well as licking the frosting off of two more! The kids painted wooden airplanes, flew gliders, blew bubbles, kicked balls around, wrestled Tyler's dad, and generally had a great time. It was great to celebrate with so many friends (Rowan, Olivia, Tyler, Virginia, Cira, Eme, Gage, Kira, Jasper)!



Here are some other highlights from the week:


AIDAN:
- Last week Aidan was telling Daddy about a conversation he had with his friends about Batman. He said that they were arguing about whether Batman has powers or not, although all of them agreed that he could fly. Daddy told Aidan that he didn't think Batman had powers, but he definitely had the best toys.
Aidan: "Batman hangs out in his cave and shoots at people who walk by!:
Daddy: "He doesn't shoot at people!"
Aidan: "No, no, no!!! He shoots TOYS at the kids who walk by!"
- At the pool this Sunday with Grandma, Aidan started turning into a complete fish! I took him to the big kid pool, and he was diving to me from the stairs AND moving his arms and legs in early swimming motions!!! Afterwards, I would lift him up from the water and he would laugh uproariously - SOOOOOOOOOO elated and proud of himself! I am beyond elated that he is having so much fun and doing so well in the water!!! It's a part of me that I would be miserable if I couldn't share, and every time we go and he loves it more, it just makes me SO happy!


KIANA:
- I signed up Kiana for daycare on Friday! It's a BIG deal. She will be starting at a daycare a block from our house in late August - SO exciting! It's a daycare which several kids we know (Eme, Bruno, Sky) went to or still go to, it has great reviews, and one of Kiana's friends (David) will also be starting there in September. So, these are all good things! I am trying to really get set up so that I can seriously have time to track down a job, and this is a crucial element of that process. For the next couple months until then, I'm also trying to schedule more/different babysitting (Cherie, our wonderful neighbor across the hall has offered to fill in babysitting as well, which is fantastic since Laurie is extremely popular and has limited availability!). My ideas are good, but we'll see how they translate: Friday we tried pushing Kiana into one nap a day, and the day went great but she then proceeded to be awake and in the mood to party from 12:30 until 4:30AM (AUGH! Of course, at 12:30am I had just finished cooking cakes and quiches and was ready to go to bed for the first time, and then at 7:30AM, everyone was up for the day and ready to get ready for Aidan's party!) Transitions are always hard, but the opportunities at least are exciting.



- Kiana is HILARIOUS. She cracks herself up regularly, and is quite a character! I love it! On Friday night at abou 1AM, when I hadn't quite realized that I'd missed the evite for the party in my living from from 12:30-4:30 and was still trying to get Kiana back to sleep, I was walking around the house with her in the Ergo. She tried to go back to sleep for a while, then gave up, looked up at me quizzically, and then stuck her tongue out at me! And then she did it again, and laughed! I couldn't help but laugh, too, even at 1AM: she was funny, and she knew it!!!
- In hopefully related (to the midnight partying) news, Kiana has cut through the corners of TWO teeth (bottom right, and top left, both outside of the middle two) in the last two weeks!


- At the pool on Sunday, Kiana was walking around in the kiddie (1-1 1/2 foot) pool, when she decided that she wanted to get her face wet: she then proceeded to dunk her head (including the top of her pink flamingos hat) into the water, chuckle hilariously at it, and then repeat the performance for at least 5 minutes! Grandma and I clapped and clapped and clapped, and laughed with her - it was amazing!
- After we left the pool, we had dinner at the snack shop: I ordered cheese burgers for me, Aidan and Grandma, and a hot dog for Kiana. She at her whole hotdog, but then very clearly asked for a slice of pizza! The boy across the table was eating one, and she gazed fixedly at it, gestured to it, said "eh! eh! eh!" and made the food sign. Unfortunately, the snack shop had run out of pizza, so she had to settle for hot dog bun, grapes, and an oreo cookie ice cream. But it was pretty amazing to hear her ask for pizza for the first time at age 13 months!!!
- In the car rides to and from the pools, Kiana now also tells us to sing her favorite song, "Head, shoulders, knees and toes": we'll start singing, and then she'll tap her head. When we sing it, she grins and claps and then taps her head again for more!


FAMILY:
- Daddy flew to Italy Saturday night for a work trip. He'll be gone until Thursday. We miss him already! Happily, however, Grandma Ruane is staying with us until Wednesday to help with backup. I am SO grateful!