Totally Terrific Thomas!!!

So today was a big day!  Our little family pilgrimaged up I95North and we met Grandma in Baltimore at the B&O Railroad Museum because Thomas was in town!  Yes, Thomas the Steam Engine. 

Thomas' Day Out for Jonah is basically the equivalent of a Madonna concert for me...  I love Madonna and Jonah loves Thomas.  It is a big deal! 

We have been to the B&O Railroad Museum before and Jonah and Vera love it, even when Thomas is not there.  Basically,Thomas' Day Out takes over the museum, which means that they bring in an actual Thomas train and hook it up to another train and you can actually ride Thomas.  They play all the Thomas songs and a conductor comes around to take your tickets and it is about a 20 minute ride.  At the end you get a certificate and you get to take a picture with Thomas.  My children were so happy riding on Thomas, looking out the window and singing to the Thomas songs... it was truly amazing.  And it wasn't just my kids... all the kids were in ecstasy. 

The rest of the "event" is basically the museum with pictures of Thomas everywhere and of course a Thomas gift shop (mama and grandma had fun in there).  Jonah didn't even want to go in the museum today.  All he wanted to do was watch the model mechanical trains outside.  They added a few Thomas ones and he was completely addicted-he would not leave those trains.  One other thing is Sir Topham Hat makes a cameo appearance and you can take your picture with him, but Jonah would not go meet him.  Vera on the other hand did and giggled with him for a few minutes.

All in all, a completely successful morning with Thomas.  The kids were off the hook happy.  We got to see Grandma and Thomas.  There was no traffic to or from Baltimore and the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home.  Good job Thomas' Day Out!  Two thumbs up from the Brambles!

Go go Thomas!!  Thomas is #1!

All aboard!

best train ride ever!!

Seriously!  The best rain ride ever!

Hello Mr. Conductor!

They don't want to take pictures- they just want to look out the window!

Listen Mom, just leave me here by these model trains-I am good!

They are nice, but let's take a look around!

not leaving!

I got to snuggle with my hat guy!

Vera and the Deisels!

Jonah and the Steamys!

Good bye Thomas!  I love you!

Bye Bye Grandma, I love you too!

Until next time!  Go go Thomas!  Thomas is #1!

Getting Ready to Garden Party - #1

Vera's Garden Birthday Party & Baby Naming is this weekend.  We have a lot to do.  We need outdoor furniture.  So I went out and bought some.  I packed it all in our car.  I brought it all back home and tried to put it together. 

My faithful assistants, Jonah & Vera, tried to help me accomplish my task... but alas-

one mommy can not put heavy outdoor furniture together by herself even with the help of her two assistants (who are a combined weight of less than 45 pounds...)

Turns out you need two moms to get the job done.  I've told many a person who would listen, many times - two moms are almost always better than one - at least in our family that holds true! 

Jonah & Vera gave us big thumbs up!

Onto the next project...

Easy enough, but you need someone to hold it, while the other screws... 

they were ready to use their screwdrivers... mommy thought better of it...

Even after a full day at work, Mama was able to roll up her sleeves and help Mommy get it done!  Whoop Whoop for us!

Flyovers & First Steps!

Big day today!  To start, let's just say I was feeling guilty... I received 2 calls before 10:00am asking if I was taking the kids to see the space shuttle flyover down town on the Mall... the callers were shocked when I said no?  Really they asked,  you always do adventures like that...

Jeez, did they have to schedule the flyover for playgroup day??  So because I was feeling guilty, I quickly got the kids ready and hatched a wacky "kaleidoscopey" plan to drive the kids as close as possible to the Mall, open the sun roof, see the flyover and get to play group with time to spare... We got in the car and turned on the news to track the flyover.  (The thing is I knew about the flyover the night before. I had researched it and thought about it.  But I really wanted to go to playgroup, for selfish reasons-I get to have sporadic adult interaction at playgroup... could I really be that selfish and then feel guilty... I guess so) 

So it was 9:55am and we were heading south on Connecticut Ave towards the Mall.  I explained to Jonah that we were going to get to see a spaceship.  He was completely not interested as he was obsessed with going to playgroup to play with Batman (one of his playgroup buddies) and he of course was Spiderman.  He screamed at me, "No mommy!!!  I want to play with Batman and his toys and I will behave!!!"  We had been talking all morning about sharing and behaving at playgroup.  Then on the news they reported seeing the shuttle.  Well, there was not way I was going to make it down there... and Jonah didn't want to go.  Oh well.  But wait, then they reported it was doing some loops to give everyone more chances to see it and about 1 minute later, there we were on Connecticut Ave, stopped at a red light, with the sun roof open and a huge noise erupts and Jonah starts yelling, "mommy, there it is the plane with the spaceship!!"  Yep, a gift from the "guilty mommy goddess" I am sure, but we all saw it clear as day right through our sun roof!  Kick it up for kaleidoscopey ideas! 

We arrived at playgroup and had a great time.  Our host and playmates were great!  Batman and Spiderman created lots of super hero chaos and their younger sisters were happy to watch and hang out.  To top it all off, Batman had tons of small planes and a space shuttle - Jonah quickly scooped them up and repeatedly reenacted the flyover.

In other great news, Vera has been slowly but surely standing on her own and fumbling into her first steps.  Today, this afternoon, she really started to get it and I am officially announcing that she is stumbling and walking!  One small step for Vera, but a huge step for our family.  When the two of them are running around, I have this strong feeling that our lives are going to change a bit. 

Moreover, it makes me pause, she isn't a baby any more!  Time goes by so fast-just another reminder that I need to take our chaotic lives, kaleidoscope them up into beautiful moments and try to remember them, because soon these "innocent kid" days will be gone! 

This blog is helping me to do just that.  So thank you for reading our little story and giving me a spot to put it all down. (Despite the fact that, I am often completely exhausted, spell lots of words wrong, definitely have typos, no matter how many times I read it over, and like tonight, write the post while nursing a severe headache!)

Jonah's reenactment!

this is our space shuttle pictute - eat your heart out facebook friends with your fancy photos..

Vera's first steps!  face of concentration

getting it down and happy about it!

Showing off with Shopping Carts!

So we started today off with an early morning trip to the our local grocery store in preparation for a morning play date with some friends we have not seen forever!  By local, I mean we can walk three blocks and there is a Safeway.  Not a fancy Safeway, but to me (as a stay-at-home mom) being able to walk to the grocery store is simply AWESOME!  I know, things/priorities have changed.  We've been to this Safeway a few times but I still don't have the "this is my store" feeling yet-it will come.  As soon as we walked in, Jonah spotted the "small" shopping carts!  He grabbed one and announced, "Mom! it is my size, exactly! Jonah sized!"  Vera and I agreed.  It turned out great, as I had to push Vera in the double stroller, so all the food went into Jonah's cart.  Complete success.  Funny how the little things often make life so much easier and better!

We got home and our play date was super fun!  And I was amused by how much the kids: Jonah, Vera, our play date (she was the same age as Jonah) loved pushing around our play shopping cart (which now often has a baby doll in it) and making stuff in the kitchen.  They are so funny, these toddlers with minds of their own.  All afternoon I kept thinking I want to play that Bare Naked Ladies song, "Shopping" (lyrics and song here) for the kids one day while they are playing in the kitchen.  I think they would love it.  I remember seeing BNL in concert years ago and during this song they had like 5 huge shopping carts racing around the stage... Jonah & Vera would have lost it!

Well you know that it's going to be alright...
When we go shopping...
It's always lalalalala...

Jonah was very happy and serious about his shopping responsibilities this morning.

Finally, Vera gets the shopping cart this afternoon, she always has to wait her turn!

Home Improvement & Habitats!

What a sunny sunny fantastic day today was in Washington DC.  I think it went up to 80 degrees today.  It was another awesome foursome day for our family.  We didn't have much planned but wanted to check out the Georgetown Flea Market to look for some new furniture.  We have this new house, but not much furniture. 

There is a special place in my heart for the Georgetown Flea Market-we have history.  When I bought the old place (the Dupont condo) in 2002 by myself, I also did not have any furniture.  I ditched my crappy college and law school furniture and started fresh.  Moved into the place with about 100 boxes of stuff and had two beds delivered the same day from 1-800-MATTRESS.  I had spent all my money on buying the place, so my parents actually bought me this fabulous King size "princess and the pea" bed and they also bought another Queen bed for the guest room (for them to sleep on-that is now Jonah's bed!) 

After a few months, I finally bought my first piece of furniture at the Georgetown Flea Market.  It was an old fashioned dark wood bar.  I still have it and we love it!!!  Then right before Jonah was born, we figured we should buy a piece of furniture for his room.  We were very superstitious in the "we are Jewish - don't buy anything for the baby until it is born way" so we literally hadn't bought anything.  Jocelyn and I had gone to the big box baby stores and HATED everything there and figured let's try the Flea Market.  Bingo!  At the first booth we found the perfect dresser that could be used as a changing table too - bought it on the spot and love it.  Now it is in Vera's room as her changing table and dresser.  So, this morning we headed back-to see what we would find.

Jonah and Vera were excited to go on an adventure.  I spotted a potential purchase within 2 minutes.  Jonah spotted a train he wanted after 30 seconds.  Jocelyn saw some things but wasn't "eager" for anything.  I found a bench/cabinety thing that I thought would be perfect in the kitchen as a bench for the table.  It needed a little work but I liked it.  We looked at it, I made and offer they countered, but it was still too high.  We took a walk around and on the way out, I offered my price again and they said deal!  Whoop Whoop!

While we were walking though, Jonah found a classic Lionel train priced over $200... he then had a complete meltdown when I told him we were not buying it for him because it was not a toy and it was too much money.  I mean he performed an academy award winning temper tantrum, with coughing & spitting, hand waving, & blood curdling screaming... Oh joy!  He just kept screaming train, train, toy, toy, I want the toy train... then finally passed out in the car when we were 2 minutes from home...

Anyway, on the way home (despite the aforementioned tempre tantrum) I had a brilliant "kaleidoscoping chaos" idea!  Jonah, Vera and I would paint our new bench together outside this afternoon (forget all that laundry I had to do this would be way more fun!).  We stopped at the local paint store (yes we have a local paint store - see here) and picked up brushes and mixer sticks and returned home with both kids sleeping the in the car.  When the kids got up we ate lunch and everything was ready to paint!  I grabbed a can of the white paint the painters just used on our house.  READY SET GO!

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the flowers blooming in our little backyard (OK there were also plenty of flies and some bees...)  I had the piece of furniture on the grass on plastic and explained to Jonah we were going to do some good old fashioned home improvement.  He was into it.  I also repeatedly instructed him no eating this paint!!!  So we started and within 3 minutes paint was everywhere- bench, the grass, us... but he seemed to like it.  He painted the entire back side of the bench and then he was done.  Maybe because it was white paint... or maybe because there is too many other things to do in the backyard and he didn't like my micro managing him with the paint brush and the paint (or my hawk eyes on him preventing him from eating the paint).. but he got up and was like, "Mom, I am dirty and want to play with my balls..."

Mama washed him off and they played but then I gave Jocelyn this little dollar store bug investigation kit I had for Jonah.  Well, GOOD BYE paint and HELLO bugs!!!!  He was super excited.  He played for at least an hour totally engaged and entranced by the potential of putting little ants and slugs into his little kit and analyzing them.  Mama and Jonah discussed habitats and how bugs live in dirt and what they eat... etc.  And he let me finish my painting/home improvement project! I might mention that Vera was as happy as could be the whole time. Singing and laughing the whole time in her jumperoo and playing with all the toys!  She loved watching Jonah and I paint and even more loved watching Jonah play with the bugs!  He would bring them to her and tell her all about them... it was quite hilarious really.

A day of home improvement and habitats... a happy one at that.  Even with the crazy temper tantrum from hell at the flea market...

Home Improvement Project-Here I come!

painting with mommy!

I just love sticking this huge brush into the whole bucket of paint when mommy turns her head!  Whoop Whoop!

forget about painting mommy!  Mama gave me a bug thing!!!

I am getting my sun therapy and loving it!

happy family!

learning about bug habitats!  this is better that Sesame Street!

totally into it - I got a slug!

checking out the magnifying glass!

habitats beat home improvements any day!

Post Passover with Pete's aPizza Plus the Penguins... Priceless

Finally!  Amen!  Hallelujah!  Time to bite a slice, sip a brew and lick a scoop!  Good bye Passover, hello taste buds!  This year I was really the only in my household who held strict to the Passover restrictions and I was wanting my annual ceremonial Post-Passover Pizza Party!  And well my kids, you say party and then say, "yeeaaaahhh" and then ask when, where, what should they wear and if there will be cupcakes?

So in honor of tonight being the end of the first Passover in our new house, we decided we were going to order in from the recommended pizza place of choice in our new 'hood and have some fun!   But first we had to live the day. 

The day was pretty fun.  It was the first day that it was just the four of us, together, hanging out and doing a lot of nothing and not much of something... but I think we needed it.  The kids seemed delighted to just hang out inside and outside with both mommy and mama.  There was one outing to a store which was uneventful except for the fact Jonah decided to nap on the way home in the car.  The kid never naps???  So then when it was time for our pizza party- guess what?  Yep.  Jonah slept through it. 

That's ok, Vera thoroughly enjoyed it (every bite).  We thought overall that Pete's New Haven Style aPizza was ok to good.   I am kind of a pizza snob, and I liked the crust, but didn't love sauce.  It definitely was not my favorite New York Style pizza but then again it didn't claim to be.  This was New Haven style pizza-I don't really know what that is.   I did really like my salad and the pasta dish.  The pasta dish was baked with pasta, cheese and spinach and Vera gobbled that up too-yum!  I guess we would order again, but I think I may like the actual pizza from Flippin' Pizza and Homemade Pizza better - but the jury is still out.

Finally we woke Jonah up to eat dinner.  The guy was a little cranky but he negotiated a viewing of "Happy Feet Two" for him and Vera and then all was right with the world... the kid should go to the Middle East - he'd solve that problem in no time.

I must say, I give the move TWO THUMBS UP!  And I must admit, I did get choked up at the end (there were some tears-mine).  Jonah and Vera loved it (it was Jonah's second time seeing it) and even Mama liked it.  I have a feeling we may be buying the DVD and more viewings are in our future.  The baby penguins are super super cute, the story is unpredictable, it has a moral that teaches we can all change the world & it is ok to be different, and if I understood the storyline correctly - there are gay krill (Matt Damon and Brad Pitt) with a relationship arc in it?!?!  Talk about a progressive children's animated movie.  Like I said, I loved it.

don't even think about taking away my pizza!