July brought us back-to-back visits from two of our favorite relatives. Max was sick and miserable when Aunt Ashly first got here (we are very grateful for the pre-school on-demand channel we discovered), but by Friday his fever broke and he was ready to play. We went to the Museum of Modern Art to see some Pixar cartoon shorts. Max enjoyed them, but he got very inpatient when the screen was blank in between the shorts. The highlight of the museum was riding the escalator with Aunt Ashly, though we did get him to look at some colorful German Expressionist paintings.
|
We played in the MoMA Material lab which has some cool blocks and fun books (though Max was just as interested in figuring out how to put his shoes on, a new obsession for him).
|
He had fun sitting on Ashly’s lap during the bus ride home, which was much more pleasant than the one to the museum, when his stroller got put up on a shelf and Max thought he was losing it forever and wouldn’t stop crying. He’s very attached to his stroller lately, especially the buckles and straps which he loves to examine.
|
Ashly babysat Max while Brittney was teaching at a theater academy on Friday morning and when Mark and Brittney went to the ballet Saturday night. They had lots of fun playing with all of Max’s toys and emptying the dishwasher together.
|
On Sunday, after Ashly left, we discovered an awesome drum circle in the park. Max like dancing to the beats.
 
|
Bubbe arriving Monday, bearing, as usual, some amazing books with lots of flaps and textures. Bubbe and Max enjoyed snuggling and reading on the couch.
|
Max likes to wave to animals in books. The lucky ones get kisses.
|
Bubbe braved the heat to take Max walking around the library, the Apple store and the playground.
 
|
Wednesday night we went out to a very long, slow French dinner. Max was extremely patient, entertaining himself by eating bread and playing peek-a-boo with his shirt. He tried and seemed to like Mark’s escargot.
 
|
Dining on the sidewalk was nice until rain started pouring down on us. We took our food to go and waited for the storm to stop so we could take photos by the fountain at Lincoln Center, where Bubbe was going for her first time to see The Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Max was amused when the fountain got us a little wet again. Max was so happy the whole time Bubbe was here, basking in her love (and sampling her gelato).
|
|
Max may be slow in the walking and talking department (though he is starting so say a lot more – he now says, or approximates more, dog, please, this, that, duck, da-da, all done, up, out, eye, arm, an occasional ma-ma and we even got a ‘cat’ the other day), but he is an excellent matcher. He can sort legos by color, match all 50 pieces of a puzzle that has colors, patterns, and textures and corresponding pictures (i.e. ‘red and ‘strawberry’ and ‘checked’ and scarf,”) and all the animals in the puzzle farm book Bubbe got him..
|
|
Video of Max matching with Bubbe
|
|
Lately he’s even been matching letters.
|
|
Video of our letter-loving tot
|
We were sad to see Bubbe go, but we had a fun weekend with just the three of us. Saturday night we danced to a big band on the last night of Midsummer Night Swing.
|
|
This weekend we are taking a break from fun but too-hot NYC for a few days in Bar Harbor Maine. We’ll probably take a few photos while we’re there…
|
|
Click here for more photos
|
