heyMamas

A twist on salsa dancing

Remember the other day when I posted the picture of my girls jumping into the pool and I said I loved that they could play for hours with nothing but a pool?  Well it turns out they don't even need the pool.....

Loving

Loving the feel of my girls reaching up to find my hand and then slipping theirs in mine or in this case, their Daddy's.  

 

Fireworks on the water

Lily's best friend's Mom who happens to be a goodfriend of mine is also an NYPD police officer.  On the fourth of July we headed into the city for dinner and took our girls to see the fireworks.  Because my friend is an officer we were able to sit with the NYPD families in a special area. 

As we made our way through all the police barricades we kept thinking, Wow!, this isn't bad and then we would move even closer.  At one point we settled on the sidewalk across the street from the pier.  We claimed our spot and got ready to wait the two hours for the show to begin. 

My friend went to check things out and when she came back she told us this wasn't the NYPD seating and we then moved EVEN closer.  We made our way across the street and settled on a grassy area where the girls ran and ran and ran until we honestly thought we would have to carry them the seven avenues (not short blocks, but looong avenues) back to where we parked.

Anyway this is what it looked like and the girls thought it was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen...... 

This boat was docked at the pier and we thought it looked like a pirates boat....

And the clouds after the sun had set...

And the girls deliberating about maybe it would be a good time to stop running around so much...

This was a boat that went up and down the river blowing water out of it...at the time it seemed a very natural part of the landscape although now looking at this picture, it seems a little weird. 

The NYPD helicopters doing a fly over...

And then here's Belle, just being Belle wearing a ponytail in the front on her head instead of the back, just being Belle...

Bearack

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY U.S.A

It feels a tad bit unpatriotic to share this photo with you on this of all days, but my compassion to help and spread the word about a disturbing trend that is affecting our wildlife in this our United States out weighs the unpatriotic feelings of mine. 

Anything I can do to bring attention to a cause just feels right.

Animals formerly self-sufficient are now showing signs of belonging to the Democratic party.  They have apparently learned to just sit and wait for the government to step in and provide for their care and sustenance.

This photo is of a Democrat black bear in Montana named "Bearack."

 

Flexing muscles

I wish the delivery of the following post was not just a link and more like a pretty packaged youtube video where you can see part of the picture in the post, but it's not and despite its meager appearance, this is so worth a look.

I must preface this video by saying it will be WAY more meaningful to those of you that live on Long Island, Staten Island or anywhere in between or for those of you that have been lucky enough to come into close contact with any individuals of the above mentioned areas. 

And I am pleased to announce that in a few short weeks my family and I, will also be proud Long Islanders just like the folks in this video.  BOOYAH!

 

http://boston.barstoolsports.com/random-thoughts/long-island-wants-to-secede-claims-they-could-kick-the-shit-out-of-ireland-staten-island-and-canada/

Loving

Loving that my girls can play for four hours straight in a pool and never get bored, not even for a single minute. 

 

Camp started today and you girls had the greatest day ever.  I wish you both nothing but happiness, fun and sun for the next forty days.

Skyline

I took this picture from the Throgs Neck Bridge as we were coming home from Connecticut this past weekend.  You can see the New York City skyline far off in the distance and I thought it would make a great photo op, but it was raining and super foggy so I didn't even think the picture would come out.  Not to mention the giant black suspension cables that hold up the bridge and when you are traveling at sixty miles per hour, it is practically impossible to get a shot without them in it. 

I clicked the camera a few times fully expecting each shot to have a portion of the black cable in it and I couldn't believe it when I saw the photo below.  The clouds look so beautiful they almost look fake and not a cable in sight.

 

Our weekends

We have come to realize that as working parents in the busiest city in the world, the only real way to get away and spend quality time with our girls is to literally get away, to go and stay in a hotel.  No laundry, no dishes, no food shopping, no catching up on chores that I haven't had a chance to get to during the week.  Just us, laying around and spending time together.

These weekends began last summer out on Long Island.  We would stay at a Hyatt right smack in the middle of the island and even though we were only a mere five minutes from the expressway, we felt like we were in a totally remote and foreign spot.  We never went anywhere near the expressway and only did things that were local and believe me, there wasn't much of anything local but that is exactly what we loved about it.  We felt so far away from home and all the craziness of the city. 

After our first stay as we headed home, only then did we realize how close to the expressway we actually were and how easily we could have been at any number of restaurants during our stay, instead of taking the thirty minute jaunts we had to take until we finally learned more about what eating establishments (central to us having fun is being well fed) were around the hotel.

The Long Island Hyatt is virtually a one-stop shop.  It has an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, a playground, a tennis court, a basketball court, a volley ball court and a small playground for the kids.  It is also situated on an 18 hole golf course and has a spa. 

Last year I booked every weekend in the summer and would just cancel when we were not able to go.  We would joke and call it our summer house.  It would take us all of forty-five minutes to get there door to door.  My children are now ruined for future long car rides, as they think every fun destination is only forty-five minutes away.   And would you even believe, ten minutes into any car ride they take now, they ask, "are we there yet?"

This year however, I have not been able to get a room in our Long Island hotel for ANY weekend the entire summer and I started making reservations back in February!   So instead I found another Hyatt forty-five minutes from the city in Greenwich, CT.  And what this Hyatt lacks in outdoor activities (it does have the one essential though, a nice pool) it makes up for in beauty and charm.  

(I am hoping that you can tell that the quality of my pictures have vastly improved from my previous post last week.  The settings were all messed up on my camera and I think I finally figured that out and then figured out how to fix it, mostly by just pressing lots of buttons.) 

This is the outside of the hotel and underneath and inside those arches, is the lobby.  The  lobby felt like an outdoor garden.  There was a huge skylight that covered the entire lobby (pictured below), so it was covered but still gave you the feeling of being outside. 

This was part of the restaurant in the middle of the lobby.

In addition to the restaurant there was a huge garden running through the lobby. I took these photos around 9:00pm so there wasn't much light, but I think their beauty still comes though. 

These little statues below filled the garden.

There were tons of rooms and banquet halls everywhere and throughout the lobby there were all of these giant floral arrangements.

I will still try to get my Long Island hotel by hoping for cancellations, but this hotel is totally my backup.

 

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to our one and only.  We love you.

 

Lily's Card

Belle's card

Stepping up

Today was Lily's graduation from kindergarten. 

Why is it that the days have a tendency to drag while the years just speed by? 

It was actually the most entertaining Step Up ceremony I have ever been to, which I will have you know has totaled four and three of them were Lily's (Belle did nursery, pre-k and kindergarten in different schools that clearly did not know the power of a carefully coordinated Step Up ceremony).  They Step Up every year from nursery to kindergarten but then make you wait all the way until eighth grade to strut your stuff again and by then the kids aren't nearly as cute.

The few times that I was lucky enough to pick my head up from the camera, (damn that stupid camera, you HAVE to videotape everything because then you will have it forever, but forget being in the moment, videotaping does not equal being in the moment) I was so impressed with the kids. 

We are talking about thirty-one five and six year olds leading the entire ceremony with each one taking turns going to the mic and saying a few sentences in between some seriously awesome songs (dude seems appropriate after that last part of the sentence).  Each song had a corresponding hand gesture that matched the lyrics.  I mean like choreography people, real just arms only choreography with thirty-one kids on a small stage.  Now that was impressive.

The pictures below are from an area of the school that I find extremely enchanting.  The little girl is part of a fence that opens into a courtyard and keeps the children in the play area, and the alternate side of the fence is a little boy.  I just adore it.  On the courtyard side of the fence my girls have a brick with their names and classes on it that was laid two years ago. 

 

 

You can't see the little boy side of it obviously because the gate is open and I have girls so I don't think much about boys anyway.

 

Congratulations my little graduate.  I wish you nothing but the best in first grade. 

The eighties

If you are approaching almost, almost, but not quite there ancient as I am (which should put you around late thirties, early forties) than chances are you remember this video and when you see it, it will strangely and uncomfortably transport you back to the eighties. 

 

Santa

I tried everything not to answer the question but it kept on barreling toward me like a runaway freight train. 

"Mommy, is Santa real?"

It was as if it was in slow motion and it kept coming out of her mouth with that crazy weird voice they do on television when you are falling or something,  "M o m m y,   i s   S a n t a   r e a l?" 

"What do you mean?" I would answer back.

"I mean is Santa real?  I keep asking you, tell me.  And please tell me the truth."  

"Why all of a sudden are you asking me this?" 

"Because someone at school asked me if I still believed in Santa Claus?" 

"And what did you say?"

"I said yes.  But does he really exist?"

"Yes, baby of course he exists."

"No seriously Mom, please tell me the truth.  I am asking you for the truth."

While this conversation is unfolding I am feeling both bummed out that this time has finally come, but also excited for Belle that this turning point in her life is happening and we are right here IN THIS moment talking about it.

She kept firing off questions and I kept trying to deflect them.

I said things like, "well, sometimes Mommy and Daddy might help Santa with some of the presents, but he still gives you most of them."

She started laughing. "Mommy tell me the truth, is Santa real?"

I said, "if the kids at school are bothering you about it, then just blow them off and say no, I don't believe in Santa." 

A few minutes passed without her asking me about Santa and I thought she had finally received an answer that she deemed satisfactory, when sure enough she asked again.

"Mom please just tell me the truth."

This time I knew this was it.  I had tried everything else and this wasn't getting away from me, so I kind of shrugged my shoulders and just said, "no, no baby he isn't real."

She said, "he's not?" at which point she started laughing HYSTERICALLY.

Laughing hysterically like she was going mad, absolutely mad.  Laughing so hard and her eyes were opening really wide.  She was in complete hysterics. 

I could just see her little mind running through all the years of hearing Santa's sleigh bells outside (which was usually Grandma), or leaving out cookies and milk for Santa, or finding marshmallows on the front steps the next morning and being told they were dropped by Santa as he was leaving our house.

Today when I went to work I felt so weird about having told her that Santa wasn't real.  In that moment the night before, I knew it was the right thing to do considering she asked me like ten times to tell her the truth. 

I googled it and got reassurance that this is about the time when kids start getting suspicious of Santa.  I learned that kids were fine when they found out that Santa wasn't real and were more upset with their parents for leading them to believe in Santa for so long. 

I am so glad that Belle talked to me about this and asked me so many questions. And I was even more glad that I was able to answer her questions and I hope I showed her that she can come to me for answers and truthfulness in the future.    

Ten

Dear Sadie:

It's Drew, and I know I never post here but I wanted to take this time to say Happy Anniversary.  It has been ten years filled with laughter, love, good times, some tough times but mostly friendship since I exchanged vows with you. 

You are above all else, my friend.  My friend who is there for me unconditionally, who supports me and who loves me even when I don't love myself (rarely, but sometimes). 

You are smart, sexy, beautiful and more than I ever dreamed that my wife would be.  You are a mother, a role model and an ever present source of love and comfort for our family and me.  I look forward to sharing the next ten years with you.

Thank you for being unwavering in your love and my most staunch supporter.  I value you and love you more evey day. 

Basically you rock my world. 

Love Always,

Drew

 

**If I do indeed want to see the next ten years of marriage I will have to admit that I wrote this letter but I KNOW it is exactly what Drew would say.  I just know it, I mean we have been married for ten years already.  Aren't you reading each others minds by then and finishing each others sentences.  Right?

Naughty

Last night Lily was in her room doing something that was keeping her really busy, cutting, stapling, taping, and more cutting.  When she came out of the room she seemed so pleased with her work and shouted out "Look Mommy, look what I made you."

It was a piece of paper with a few things taped to it and I took it from her an said, "Wow, Lily this is so.....wow sweetie, where did you get this?"

To which she replied, "in your room."

 

And another....

And another....oh yeah, my kid has now been complete taken advantage of and corrupted by a seemingly innocent Valentine's Day card that I gave Drew back in 2007.

This is what the card actually looked like before she cut out all of the coupons attached inside of it.   

 

Once the girls caught a glimpse of the shock on my face and caught on to the inappropriateness of it all, Belle had a field day...a FIELD day and was running around the house saying, "grab my butt, rub my butt, grab my butt, rub it, yeah baby." 

And then she disappeared into her room and came out with a coupon attached to a piece of paper that said, "good for one long hug complete with butt grabbing privileges."  Obviously I am having trouble today posting my photos and this freaking one won't even turn right side up.

 

 

**The quality of the pictures in this post are total crap and I apologize.  I did not have proper lighting at all when I was taking the pictures and I had some time constraints.  And forget trying to even edit crappy pictures, just resulted in more crap. 

Chocolate donuts and soda

Loving that tonight we figured out that while I was pregnant with Belle, each and every night I ate one large Entenmann's chocolate donut and they are now her favorite treat, and with Lily I ate not even a one, and she she hates them although I don't think she's ever met a powdered donut she didn't like.

Loving that when I was pregnant with Belle, I drank regular soda occasionally and she now sneaks soda every chance she gets whereas I didn't have one drop of soda with Lily and she never asks for it...EVER.