A Few More Things

This past week I celebrated my 41st birthday!  Last year when I turned 40 people would ask me, "What did you do for the BIG 4 0?"  Well, Ronen was only a few weeks old so I didn't really celebrate in a big way!  This year, however, I took the day off - which I never do - and spent the day with family for the most part. It was a cold and rainy day.   Sara brought home take out pho for lunch, and then I drove into Minneapolis to Brit's Pub to watch Liverpool vs Villareal in the UEFA Europa League Semi-finals.  We lost.  Then I sat in rush hour traffic in the rain, and listened to a few podcasts.  When I got home, I grilled out in the rain.  I even was gifted a 6 pack of assorted beers by my mother-in-law.  It wasn't the most jam-packed, wildly celebrated day but it was the perfect mix of family time, and me time.

House-hunting continues with very little success so far.  We've seen a few houses that would need much more attention (repairs/money) than we are able to provide.  We have been here in Minnesota for 10 months now; hard to believe.  We are fortunate enough to have a fully furnished  garden apartment to temporarily reside in and a 'landlady' who is more than willing to let us take our time in finding a house.  This means we don't need to rush into anything like I did with the car.  The car is running fine now, by the way.

Ronen is walking all over the place.  She stands.  She wobbles.  She walks.  She falls down.  Repeat.  She'll still drop to her knees and haul ass in a lightning quick crawl if she has somewhere she wants to be but the walking is pretty constant nowadays.  Another layer of baby-roofing needs to be administered.

Evie Sue has started a few extracurricular activities this past month including swim lessons and a drama class.  She's done the drama class thing before back in Maryland at a theatre Sara used to work for and Evie Sue loved it.  She also seems to have inherited her mother's penchant for the drama, and loves to perform little songs, and scenes from time to time.  Swim lessons are at a local community center that has an indoor pool/waterpark.  Evie loves getting in the water and I hope she'll become even more comfortable as she learns to float, and swim.  The class has some parent involvement during the 1st few weeks so I've been splashing around and blowing bubbles with her during the sessions.  Eventually, I'll get phased out and she'll be more independent with her instructor.
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Recently, Sara and I had the pleasure of attending one of Evie Sue's parent teacher conferences.  It was odd being on the other side of the desk.  I've been the student, and I've even been the teacher in the past but this was my 1st conference as a parent.  I was extremely proud.  The teacher showed us some of Evie Sue's 'classwork', talked about her exemplary vocabulary, her social skills and basically reaffirmed our belief in how cool our kid is. There was even a point where we mentioned possibly enrolling her in a different preschool program next year and concern for how the change might affect our young student.  The teacher smiled, and said Evie would thrive in whatever setting we put her in.  Proud.

365 Days of Ronen

How has a year gone by already?  On April 3rd we celebrated Ronen's 1st birthday.  My baby girl, my 2nd born, is a one year old!  Time keeps rolling on.  She is at a fun age.  She smiles, laughs and babbles to herself.  She into all kinds of trouble as she crawls from room to room trying to explore here ever-expanding world.  She hugs her stuffed animals, organizes her toys as best she can, and gets pissed off if you take something she wants... might need some anger management classes later in life.  She still doesn't sleep through the night but that this point that's old hat.

We had a small (kinda) gathering, for the birthday celebration, here in our apartment with many of Sara's family and some friends.  Sara made banana cupcakes for everyone, and Ronen housed her birthday cupcake.  She also was gifted many fun toys, and clothes.  It was a fun day with family and interesting to see how Ronen dealt with all of the attention even if she didn't fully understand what we were all celebrating.  She was smiley, and chipper.  She was crawling all over the place, waving at people, and even standing up on her own several times.  She still needs help to actually walk but that will happen before we know it.

Before Ronen was born I was nervous, not about being a father again but about having child number 2.  How could I possibly love a second child as much as I love my 1st daughter?  How would I be able to share the love between my children?  Turns out I needn't have worried.  (Shocker!)  Ronen is as wonderful, awesome and challenging as her big sister and in her own unique ways, and I love her, of course!


I meant to post this in the days following the birthday celebration but here we are, over 2 weeks later, and I'm just getting around to posting.  Since the party Ronen stands up all the time has taken  numerous steps and once even walked across the room when she thought I wasn't looking.  She's a little wobbly on her feet but she's getting the walking thing down.  Now, if only she'd sleep a little more soundly at night.