susim

pickup artist

nadned nadned

pesach 2009

bat echat!

happy birthday yelei! it's your first birthday! you just started to take your first steps yesterday, and you're already getting so big. i have a really bad memory, sweetheart, but i can remember holding you, very new, in front of our family and friends. we held you and we read to you what i hope for you.

i still hope for you only happiness. i hope for you, of course, so many things, but i hope, most of all, that you are happy. i think about it, now, are you happy? i am not so good sometimes with little little kids. i feel like, even more, maybe i have spent a little bit less time with you, too. i'm sorry. i know more and more i have been trying to make sure i'm explaing to aviyah and explaining to you how important you are and how much i love you.

i know it is not important to you now, but sometimes it is hard with more kids. i used to think that i wanted 9 kids. i wanted to have a baseball team i said because there are so many different personalities on a baseball team and you all could be so different. now, though, i think it's a lot harder than that. what position would you be, though?

you're so much different than aviyah. you are your very own little lady. you are independent and peaceful and you also jack all the other kids of their toys when you see them. you even take toys from aviyah and she's so much bigger, but it's like she doesn't know what to do. i am so happy that you are so independent, and i really hope that you like that. i worry, sometimes, that maybe it's because we aren't able to give you exactly as much time as we gave aviyah when she was little.

i don't want to say that we don't spend a lot of time with you. we do. and i don't want to say that we don't love you with everything and forever. we do! we also are always thinking about how to make sure you are getting enough, to make sure that you are getting your full life, and to be honest, i think sometimes we gave aviyah a little bit too much attention. it's so funny , though, too, maybe you are just different. it's so hard to figure those things out. are you different because you are different? are you different because we are different?

webbie

muzikali

yalei is really into standing up, now. (i mean, like standing up holding onto things.) she pulled herself up onto the musical table and up and down and up and down. she's not yet cruising on her own, but if we hold her hands she's on the move! (she's 10 months and 6 days. i don't know the milestones and stuff, but i think she's in her range. i don't think she's ahead or behind.)

she's very different than aviyah, i think, so far. aviyah was always kind of pretty willful and pretty attached. yalei is a more easy going, and she can already play alone pretty well. i definitely don't think that she is raised in the exact same way. in some ways, i'm pretty sure it's better, but i know that all of the attention that we gave aviyah all the time also had a lot of positives, too. it's funny, though, because sometimes aviyah will get down or something and she'll come sit on our lap and suck on her finger and yalei is off playing in the corner and it's like they've flipped ages.

sometimes, we also worry and try to make sure that she gets all of the same reading time and playing time that we gave to aviyah. it is harder, though, for sure. i mean, sometimes you're very tired or she's very calm and also i feel like sometimes we were over-present for aviyah. i mean, i think she's doing really well (aviyah), but i wish we had made sure to give her more alone time, too.

yalei likes clapping very much. she likes standing on my lap. she likes choosing which fingers to hold onto. she likes eating big people food. (she's very over baby food.) also, she likes to jack other little kids of their toys. (aviyah, i think, has never stolen a toy in her life. i love that, too, but i have a special place in my heart for feistiness.)

smiley gonzales

aviyah's sleeping!

carnivale!

chanukat florida 2008

what yalei saying?

yalei is sitting up really well now. on wednesday nights, i watch aviyah and yalei together. (mommy is at big people school on wednesdays, and i have big people school on monday and tuesday.) the past wednesday, yalei fell down a couple of times. aviyah takes a lot of attention so sometimes you jump away for a minute and bonk! but now, already in one week, she is sitting up and not falling down at all.

the clapper

yalei is starting to be a real person!

she is very grabby now, and she is starting to wave and to clap her hands. i think this stage is so crazy because they are starting to really be there, you know? it's like the baby really isn't anything for a while, but then they start to do things and you realize, that's right! this is what happens!

little star

בא כוכב כוכב קטן
אל תבכה אנחנו קאן
בשמיים מנצנצ
יהלום קטן נוצץ
בא כוכב כוכב קטן
אל תבכה אנחנו קאן

come star little star
don't cry, we are here
in the sky (you) shine
a tiny sparkling diamond
come star little star
don't cry, we are here

more pictures

new pictures part 1