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We were looking at old blog posts from when Max was Julie’s current age and realized three things: 1) 4 to 6 months was/is a rough time for both kids, with reflux, colds, some nursing issues etc. (though all of these have been much milder with Julie with no surgeries, specialists, below-zero-percentile weight drama, not to mention Siberian weather and funerals that we had to deal with during Max’s babyhood) 2) Julie likes a lot of the same things as her brother did, such as the singing frog on the bouncy chair. Julie likes to pull it over and over and over again.    
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What we call our laser light show. Like Max, Julie looks up in eager anticipation whenever we put her in the swing. 
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This crazy dog is always a hit. 
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Both kids love the adorable sweaters Bubbe makes for them (who we were very happy to have in town this weekend bringing more hand-knit cuteness!). Julie can’t complain about hand-me-downs when they’re this adorable.     
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Julie is as interested in the book “Brown Bear” as her brother. 
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Though Brown Bear is a little different since Max started reading it.
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On her five-month birthday we gave Julie her first real food, avocado. Like her brother, she swallowed it but didn’t seem too excited. |
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We hope she ends up being as hearty and adventurous eater as he has become despite his initial lack of enthusiasm. |
Despite the battered books, Julie seems to enjoy being a little sis. She likes watching her brother play and is very patient as we follow him around he apartment (and all over the city including 20 blocks to preschool and back two times a day most days). She is a friendly party animal who loves being out on the town and looking around with her big alert eyes. She’s into grabbing everything; her feet, other people’s hair and noses, the clothes of strangers on the subway. The other day she swatted a glass of water out of my hand. At bathtime she turns into a kicking, laughing maniac trying to propel herself out of the tub. We can’t wait to take her swimming soon.    
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As you can see, she is very expressive and super active. Trying to escape from the bouncy chair.
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A giggle machine. |
Category: Toys
Max’s Third Birthday
On his last day of being two, Max saw monkeys, polar bears and sea lions at the Central Park Zoo.     
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Then a classical musical concert at Lincoln Center, a nap, shoe shopping and a much-needed haircut (during which he was very patient since he got to watch Dora).   
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On his birthday, Max woke up to a trail of letters spelling ‘Happy Birthday Max’ leading to presents and balloons. 
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We didn’t have any family in town, so we decided to celebrate with just the four of us by eating Max’s favorite foods all day long. As the plate says, Max is special in many ways, especially in his non-typical -toddler cravings. Breakfast was nova, bagels & cream cheese. Max ate everything on this plate and asked for more (though on his second serving he started eating just the nova).   
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Opening the many presents from our generous families took a long time because Max wanted to try on or play with everything. A cool shirt from Bubbe and Poppy and a new word puzzle from Julie that he quickly mastered .   
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Aunts Ashly and Courtney gave him a combo of two of his favorite things – puzzles and Dora. 
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Lunch – he loves popping out the edamame (aka ‘peas’) and can’t get enough salmon roe (aka ‘fish eggs’).  
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After his nap we headed down to the Village. Julie liked being on Daddy’s chest, 
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Hazelnut & stracciatella (his pick) gelato in Washington Square Park. 
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Listening to and applauding some folk music and wearing Mommy’s shades (which were soon broken).  
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Dinner at Murray’s Cheese Bar started with olives, followed by artichokes and a platter of prosciutto, bresaola, and goat, cow and buffalo cheeses. Max ate most of the prosciutto himself.   
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The waitress brought Max a birthday ‘dessert’ – fancy french cheese with a candle and candied cherries. 
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We got cupcakes (chocolate chip cookie dough and other yummy flavors) to go from Brittney’s new favorite bakery and went home to blow out candles. 
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Max was very happy (though Julie was a little upset she can’t have any cupcakes yet).
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When I asked Max what he was going to wish for, he said ‘toys.’ Looks like he got his wish – he got lots of cools stuff to play with, including a Cat In The Hat Board game from Sophie, Breanne & Maya, a rocket and books about outer space from Sam & Anna, and ‘Goodnight Moon’ with a recording of Papa’s voice that is now requested before every nap and bedtime. 
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January
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January is always a little rough in NYC with all the cold weather. Fortunately Max likes playing indoors. Lately he likes puzzles, toys cars and trains, and the laundry obsession continues. We had to get him a new laundry hamper since he broke his old one with all the pulling it around the apartment and putting laundry in and out. A new favorite game is putting the new hamper on its side, crawling in, then having mom throw clothes at him. He likes to do this over, and over and over again.
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To minimize our outings into the freezing cold, we get lots of stuff delivered – diapers, clothes, groceries and more. Whenever we get a packages, Max gets very excited and asks for keys to open them. After some enthusiastic unpacking, the fun with boxes begins.   
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Of course we still go out a lot for outings and classes such as his Broadway Babies class, where Max does some creative guitar and drum playing. 
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And a trip to Grand Central Station to see the holiday display of ‘choo-choos’ which Max liked pointing at and following around. 
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Max talks about taxis a lot – in his crib, in the pool, when he’s trying to hail when one from his stroller when we’re out walking in the cold – so he was excited to find some in the miniature display of NYC. 
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Also his monthly haircut – Max’s curly hair gets crazy pretty quickly. He has never fussed during a haircut; he is excited to sit in the airplane seat and watch TV while being styled, plus get a balloon after.    
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And we still make it to the park every so often, all bundled up.
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The upside of winter – we finally got some snow and went out for late afternoon sledding. 
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After a too-brief reunion (and some silly peek-a-boo at brunch) with Bubbe, here for a quick weekend, we decided to book a trip to see her in sunny Florida on February 1st – 6th. We’re leaving our gloves and hats at home.   
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| Max has been busy this month with preschool interviews/playdates and is getting tubes in his ears this Wednesday to help drain some persistent fluid that may be causing mild hearing loss, so we are ready for a beach vacation. |
| Click here for more photos |
Happy Holidays!
We had a very joyous, relaxing holiday season here in New York. Lucky Max gets to celebrate two December holidays. Max liked putting strands of decorations on our Christmas tree and taking apart the ball ornaments. 
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The first night of Hanukkah we had some friends and Aunt Ashly over for dinner. Ashly was a lot of help making the potato pancakes, a very messy but yummy affair.  
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Trying to blow out the candles.
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Every evening Max is so happy and watchful as Mark lights the menorah and sings. |
One night we let Max help hold the candles.
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We got to visit Santa at Mark’s office. Max had no problem sitting on this bearded stranger’s lap. 
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Max had fun playing Starfall on Daddy’s computer and admiring the Christmas tree in the lobby – a little bigger and fancier than the one in our apartment. 
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On Christmas Eve we made cookies for Santa. It’s a good thing Max decided to take his clothes off – he figured out how to turn on the mixer, and put it a little too high after we added the flour.
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Christmas morning Max had his new favorite food, nova (smoked salmon) for breakfast. The day before Mark had braved the cold to get us bagels, cream cheese, and more for the weekend, forgetting that Brittney couldn’t eat smoked fish while pregnant. He was worried he got too much nova, but our foodie toddler ate about half a pound over the next three days. |
Then we opened presents around the Christmas tree. 
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Max enjoyed taking things out of his stocking (and putting them back in).  
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| Max opened all the presents for himself, Mark, Brittney, Ashly and a few for her dog Edie. The process took over 2 hours because Max had to meticulously rip and crumple every piece of wrapping paper and hand it to ‘Dada.’ |
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And of course he also had to play with each present that he (slowly) opened. |
He especially enjoyed a shape-sorting dump truck from Uncle Alan, Aunt Karen and cousins Sam and Anna. 
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He also liked an awesome train set from Aunt Becky, Uncle Elion and cousins Ryan & Spencer, a book about the Boogie Monster and an alphabet animal puzzle from Aunt Courtney, Uncle Byron, cousin Sidon and Aunt Ashly, who played with him patiently throughout the present-opening marathon. 
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This kid got a lot of presents! 
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We video skyped with Nonna and Papa in the morning while Max opened the art table and wheelbarrow from them. Max had a lot of fun playing with the wheelbarrow later in the day when we finally got him out of his pajamas. 
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He’s also been opening a present each night of Hanukkah from Bubbe and Poppy. He really likes this farm puzzle and has gotten very good at putting the pieces together (and dumping them back out). 
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We’ve enjoyed sharing our favorite parts of our favorite holidays with our enthusiastic son. The best part of the three day weekend may have been all the family time we spent together. Max loves wrestling (or doing anything) with his dad.
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| Click here for more photos |
Summer In The City
| We stayed safe in the hurricane this weekend. All the forced family time indoors was lots of fun for Max, and productive for his parents – we started on our NYC preschool applications (some of which include toddler personal statements of sorts) and organized some post-Maine photos. A few highlights from our fun summer: |
We’ve headed to the High Line a few times, most recently for a butterfly release into the beautiful elevated park. Max liked watching the butterflies, but he really liked playing with the buckles on his stroller, a current obsession. Reuniting with his stroller always brings squeals of delight.
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Readers of Kid On The Town know that NYC is full of free outdoor concert series in the summer, and we think we hit every one. In Union Square Max liked shaking his free eggs from H&M so much he got drooly with excitement.
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Then he tried to break into the sound booth.
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At Central Park’s Sandbox Music program, Max played the cymbals for the first time.
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We went swimming (indoors, as we are not in Irvine) a lot. Max sometimes seems to enjoy getting ready and showering in the locker room more than the actual swimming. (Brittney is kind of into this alligator shirt – we swear we wash it in between wears).
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Once again Max helped Brittney teach movement at Youth Onstage, a non-profit theater academy for inner city teens. He was very proud of his students at graduation, intensely applauding when he wasn’t busy putting stickers on his dad’s face (or playing with the buckles on his stroller).
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One Saturday, we took a family trip to the Central Park Zoo, where Max took a break from playing with his stroller straps to watch some loud seals.
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All these photo-ops meant Max needed yet another haircut. He loves the salon and never fusses during his cuts.   
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Ringing the bell in the fire truck chair and watching TV were fun, but the most exciting part of the haircut – reuniting with his stroller.
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We visited the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum once again. We avoided the five-hour line during the last week by going to the early morning Members’ viewing, which was still crowded enough that Max had lots of fun tapping people on the shoulder and smiling at them. Sadly, home versions of the Kate Moss hologram Max loved so much were not on sale, and we decided the Exhibit calendar wasn’t quite right for his room.
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Outside the Met Max walked along benches and made friends with the bears statue. Max likes walking up platforms to statues, waving at them, then walking back down, over and over and over again. 
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At Lincoln Center’s Out-Of-Doors Festival, just two blocks away from us, we saw Balkan, Ethiopian, Appalachian, Chinese, Motown and other global performers. Max got so excited by some Honduran drumming that he started taking his clothes off.  
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Max took a music class in the park with his favorite teacher Kevin, who convinced Max to get over his fear of guitars and play a little.   
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As you can see, we are out and about a lot, but Max also loves playing with the same toys over and over again at home. He has mastered this matching puzzle.
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