Sawyer has a face!

Sawyer was getting pretty shaggy so I took him for a haircut yesterday afternoon. It turns out he's got a splendid face hiding under those curls and now we can see it. 

After his haircut the barber gave him a lollipop. Then on the walk home he asked to ride the ride outside the supermarket. And then magical alchemy happened - without arranging it, he revealed his inner tough guy. I didn't even realize it until I got home and looked at the photos, but there it is in black and white. 

I LOVE this photo! 

Babymoon in Chicago (w/o kids)!!

We just returned from a wonderful long weekend in the Windy City. We ate a lot of great food, walked around a lot, went to the movies, took a Chicago architecture boat tour and watched a lot of The Great British Baking Show. And we slept - A LOT!! But we missed the kids and are glad to be home and looking forward to seeing them when they wake us up at 6 am yelling, "what did you bring us?". 

Thanks to Grandma India for tending to the children so we could have a special weekend.  It's going to be a long while before we get to do this again.

Photos of what the kids got up to in our absence to come. 

Boy, do I love my travel wife!!!

Poor Judgment Papa!

It's been a long week of difficult bedtimes with mommy working late, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and take the kids out for a walk to the diner tonight for a treat. 

It turns out that one of the specialties at the 7th Ave Donut Shop is donut sundaes: two cake donuts (one chocolate and one old fashioned) dipped in syrup and pressed to a crisp in the waffle iron then smothered into enormous scoops of chocolate and vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and hot chocolate all topped with candy sprinkles.  So, yeah, we got one of those.

 Wise beyond his years, I think Sawyer's expression shows the awe and fear he felt on first sight - just as I did.  He got over it quickly. Sadie, on the other hand, was fearless.

 We only managed to eat about half of it. But that was more than enough.

When the check came, it was for an astonishing $6.35. I would have happily paid more if they had brought us less.

Anyway, all's well that ends well. I don't think will know 'til morning how this one ends.

Sadie at the Food Festival

I don't know much about this food festival Sadie attended with her friend Natalia except that they ate pizza, got their faces painted and looked really happy. 

So exciting that Sadie is old enough to go off with other people and come home happy and intact. 

Saturday was busy!

Victoria had to go in to work on Saturday morning - a deadline is fast approaching for the film she's working on - so I had the kids and they came to walk the dog with me. They scooted while I walked. We went up to Prospect Park and over to the farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza. 

It called to mind all those times during my childhood when we went places (parks, sculpture gardens, outdoorsy areas, fields behind schools, etc.) and ran around and played while we waited for my folks to say we were done with whatever we were there for. It turns out we we're just there to keep us kids occupied until the next thing to keep us occupied until... bedtime. 

In our case on Saturday the next thing was Sadie joining her friend Natalia and family for a food festival in Queens. 

Once we dropped Sadie off, Sawyer and I went to Whole Foods for lunch. Pizza is all it takes to make that kid happy. Then one of us took a nap. 

So, apparently, this is a big part of parenting - keeping kids occupied and safe as best you can until the next thing. 

Climb a Mountain

Sawyer has been saying he wants to climb a mountain for a couple weeks now. So yesterday we all drove up to Cold Spring, NY to look for adventure.  

We ate lunch in the quaint little downtown and then walked down to the Hudson, which is beautiful! We bumped into one of Sadie's classmates (and his family) playing on a pier, and the kids ran around like crazy until someone (Sadie) got a skinned knee. 

Then we boarded a little bus that looked like a trolly car and it took us to the trail heads.

We chose a short hike up the mountain to the ruins of some rich old NY baron's estate.

Sawyer got to climb his mountain and we all had a nice day.

Sadie's Book!

Today was 'family day' for Sadie's first grade class (i.e., half hour family visit at the start of the day).

We got to see this book Sadie made. Pretty special! 

Beautiful Weekend

We had a couple glorious fallish days this weekend, which was also when Sadie started up Yachad again. It is nice for her to see all her old school chums again.
On our way to CBE we met up with papa fresh off his co-op shift, and the light was lovely. Heaven forbid the children smile at the same time. It was a regular Park Slope Saturday!

Who wants ice cream?

Our kids like their frozen dairy treats - ice cream and froyo. And there has been a lot of it lately.

Last Thursday I was in charge of bedtime, so in lieu of lots of stories, after bath time I took the kids for froyo in their pjs. They share so well. 

Then on Saturday while Sawyer napped I took Sadie to the park where she found a huge leaf. On the way home we passed the Mr. Softee truck and got a cone. She walked the rest of the way home (10 blocks) quiet and happy. 

And yesterday, Sunday, after taking both kids for a big multi-family playdate in the park, we stopped again for real ice cream. Afterwards, as we were putting on our bike helmets, Sawyer said of Ample Hills Ice Creamery, "this place is GREAT! I really like this place." The kid knows what's what.