3.5

Little Love is 3.5 today! Unbelievable. Here are a few pics taken today of my 3.5 year old:

Playing around
"Reading" a book to us (his new favorite thing to do)
Mommy & Adam

Of course he refused to look up... except for the last photo where he gave a huge smile! Yay!

More to come on my big boy later this week...

Wordless Wednesday -- reading in striped pajamas

Adam continues to enjoy "reading" to us. He'll look at a picture and create a story for each page. He's pretty creative with his tales! He has also memorized some parts of books so of course he'll "read: those lines, too. Here are some pics taken on my phone (apologies for the quality!) of him reading "Danny and the Din.osaur":




Every morning Adam crawls into bed to snuggle with us... and usually falls back asleep for another hour or so. Here's a picture of him snuggling up to Daddy:

my little shark

Our neighborhood pools are open for one more week - yay! We decided to take full advantage of this during the 87 degree weather today. The baby pool was pretty empty and after Adam got over the "water being too cold!" he finally went in and started swimming (and splashing) like a shark. Or a whale, as seen below:

Rosh Hashanah 5771

We had a lovely Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) dinner at Marty's house last Wednesday. It was especially fun since Marty's kids also joined the festivities including Marty's grandson, Mo (Adam's "twin"). For the most part, the boys played really nicely together. Mo seems to look up to Adam -- after all, he is 10.5 months older ;)-- and would run around going "A-dom, A-dom"... so sweet.

Before dinner, the boys had fun playing soccer outside(so did Daddy!):







The dinner was delicious (my mom is THE BEST cook!) and the boys enjoyed drinking their grape juice "wine":






The next day, we went to services at the synagogue I grew up in. Mom had arranged babysitting for Adam but I wasn't happy with the program: lots of kids in a small room with just a few toys. I picked him up after 30 minutes to join us for the Rab.bi's speech which, incredibly, he sat quietly through on my lap. Unfortunately, I was coming down with a terrible stomach flu that day so I just felt awful the entire day. Adam also acted like a little terror right after lunch at Mom's house. So, overall, not the finest way to start the New Year but at least we were all together!





As you can see, the temple has a new playground that Adam had to try out! To our bloggers who celebrate, we are wishing you L'shanah Tovah - a Happy & Healthy New Year! =)

1st week of school

1st week of school -- PRESCHOOL!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Farewell, sweet summer days

Ahh... the last week of summer has come & gone. We made the most of it and hit Clej.montri Playground... a huge park which Adam enjoyed... but made MOMMY (aka ME) very nervous b/c it's impossible to keep track of your kids there... or take decent pics... but I tried (in vain)...





Look at my BIG BOY!!!

We also went to the new water playground in Leesburg, which was really nice. They had a cute area for little ones, complete with 2 water slides. Adam was terrified to go down them, though, even though he *really* wanted to. He was worried he would "hit his head" at the bottom... he was so upset and torn about what to do. He used to be scared of regular slides, too, and now goes down them like a pro. He swam around for a while and then we took a "frozen ice" break. Afterwards, Daddy & Adam went in an innertube. However, it wasn't that comfortable and Adam wanted OUT pretty quickly! Steven enjoyed his ride, though. =)










We certainly will miss you, sweet summer days!!!

Big Day Ahead...

We have finished up our last week of summer, at least according to the "school calendar" year. Tomorrow is the 1st day of preschool (officially) for Adam!

I am quite nervous about Adam transitioning to the 3-year-old class and he is, too. The past week he has been talking about "Ms. Nalika's" class A LOT. At first he was excited about going to "Room 5" with the big kids. Recently, though, he has talked about being scared and has told us numerous times that he doesn't want to go to "Room 5". He wants to stay in "Room 1" because "he wants to be with all the friends". It really is quite sad. The only kids he'll know in his new class are Rushan and Nila (and 2 other kids that I don't know). His "best friend" Jackie will not be in his class =(. Also, since the school is Mont.essori he'll now be in a multi-age class with kids age 3 & 4 and he'll be in Ms. Nalika's class for 2 years... until Kindergarten!!!

He visited Ms. Nalika's class three times last week... the first time Ms. Lizeth (his "old" teacher - sigh) said he was literally shaking he was so nervous. However, Ms. Nalika said he was happy once he got in there. She's VERY serious about the kids learning... I had to buy Adam a folder and composition book for "weekly homework"! The cool thing is that Adam read 2 words himelf today without prompting -- hot and cat. So hopefully he's prepared enough!!! I REALLY wish I could go with him tomorrow but since it's the 1st day of school at my work, I need to be there. Hugh sigh. Hopefully Steven will remember to take pictures of my big boy! I just hope that the day will go well for my Little Love. He was in Ms. Lizeth's class for a full year and really enjoyed it (the majority of the time)... change is HARD (admittedly, probably harder for ME than for him... at least I hope so)!

Here are some pics from Friday when Adam said good-bye to Ms. Lizeth and her mom (teacher assistant), Ms. Racquel. Sorry that they are sideways! I was able to take the first pic before Adam saw me... he's sitting next to Ms. Sauzy (another assistant) here:

Last day in Room 1
Giving Ms. Lizeth her present & a farewell hug
Farewell hugs to Ms. Racquel
One last hug for Ms. Lizeth (she is so wonderful!)
I'm ready for ROOM 5!!!

Happy Birthday, Cousin Jake!

Dear Jake,

Happy Birthday to my "oldest" cousin! Wow, you are 10 -- Double Digits! =)

Hope to see you again very soon. I miss you!

Love,

ADAM

Wordless Wednesday -- "Grandma's Swim & Racquet Club"

Two things that Adam loves to do when he visits Grandma is to play tennis with her -- she bought him a little racquet and they use a balloon -- and go swimming in the neighborhood pool (the same pool I swam in as a kid). Here are some pics taken last month from Grandma's kitchen (the most appropriate place to play tennis, of course) and her neighborhood pool:









he's swimming by himself in the BABY POOL here...