New experiences in January

January has been a big month for Livia. Now that we are well into Livia's second year, I figured that we were done with most of the "firsts". But this month has proved me wrong. We began the month with Livia's first time in daycare. She actually has adjusted much better than we expected. After a few days, she was happy to hang out with her 2 teachers and 10 other 1-year-olds. She stays busy eating, playing outside, doing art projects, and running around the classroom looking at everything. She sits at a little table in a miniature chair. It is such a strange sight to see 10 one-year-0lds sitting calmly at their tables. The art projects are a new thing for her as well, as we had not starting doing this. In daycare she draws with crayons, makes things out of construction paper with glue, and even does finger painting with pudding. I am posting some of her creations here.

Livia is clearly a minimalist

If you look real hard, there are some faint crayon marks in the bottom center

I think she may have had some help with this one

At home, Livia has started building some creations as well. Here she stacked these 4 blocks by herself. She has also started playing with her Melissa & Doug stacking blocks (thanks Aunt Michelle, Uncle Robert, and Cousins Gabriella and Alexey!)

Last week, when Grandma Marilyn and Grandpa David were visiting, we went to our favorite museum. We decided to venture beyond the baby/toddler play area. First we hit the "big kid" play area, where Livia checked out some balls.

Then we went out into the regular part of the museum. Livia decided to walk into the reptile section.

The best part of the reptile section was a tree in the middle of the room. Livia sat down and played with the wood chips forever. She didn't want to leave them. As I have said before, it is always hard to know what will be exciting to a one-year-old.

There are some things that never change. Livia still loves to grab Cassidy's two favorite toys, the "blue thinger" and the "green thinger."

Cassidy has responded by modeling Livia's favorite hat

Right after Livia's first experience without heat in the middle of the winter, she also got to see her first real snowfall. We got about 4-5 inches, which is a huge amount for NC. The schools closed for at least two days. We all stayed home together the first day and got to watch the inauguration. After Livia woke up from her nap, we had a family romp in the backyard.

Livia bundled up really well in Gabriella's old snowsuit. If you look closely, you can see the strap of her Uggs on her right foot (thanks Grandma Mari and Grandpa Howie!). They kept her feet warm.

Me and my girls in the snow

Livia was not sure what to think of the snow

Cassidy has experienced a fair amount of snow in her almost 49 years of doggie life, and she LOVES it. As soon as we went outside, she started to run. Livia LOVES watching Cassidy run, so a good time was had by all.

Cassidy also loves to put her snout in the snow

Finally, we decided to put Livia down in the snow. She was pretty indifferent to the experience.

Winter in New Jersey: Part II

Sorry for the delay, but we now have photos from the second half of our New Jersey trip. A couple of days after Christmas, we headed over to Marilyn and Howie's house for part 2 of our vacation. We kept very busy, with lots of visitors and outings. We have posted some of the highlights below.

Enjoying one of many meals with Grandma Mari and Grandpa Howie


Shortly after we arrived, the Ruschmans came down to see us. Livia spent a fun day playing with cousins DJ and Andrew, and seeing Aunt Lori and Uncle Darren. Great Aunt Elyse also made the LONG trek from NYC (even longer than usual due to bad traffic and bad directions... sorry!) and we all enjoyed seeing her as well.

Livia and DJ
Livia is wearing a necklace of baltic amber, which is supposed to be a natural pain reliever for teething (we are willing to try anything to combat Livia's teething fussiness, especially after a few tough weeks getting the first molars)


Checking out one of Grandma Mari's new toys with DJ and Andrew


A typical scene from the afternoon



Dan and Lori

Dan and Elyse

Livia loved taking bites from Elyse's apple

The next day we headed out to the Jersey shore. First we went to the aquarium. Livia liked the fish, seals, and sharks, but her favorite thing was wandering around upstairs and doing laps around the benches in the empty "education room". It is hard to predict what will be exciting to a one-year-old.

Look at this seal

Daddy was a seal too

Livia and Grandma Mari waiting for the seals to eat

After the aquarium, we had some lunch and then took a walk on the boardwalk. It was Livia's second time seeing the ocean, but it had been almost a year since her last glimpse. She may be more impressed during the summer when she can play in the sand.

After the beach, we made an unsuccessful venture to an outlet mall (somehow we were 1 minute away but couldn't find them), so we decided to go home for a nap. Unfortunately, Livia did not fall asleep-- she refused to nap until we were in the car on the way to dinner at a nice restaurant. What you don't see is our efforts to entertain a cranky Livia post-nap in the restaurant, which involved lots of grapes and yogurt melts.

The next day we had a fun morning visit from the Feldman Five: Merideth, Scott, Logan, Grant, and Skylar.

Here we have the Feldman/Rosenberg Eight

Logan, Dan, and Skylar

Dan and Merideth

After they left, we had a nap, then we headed to a different set of outlets that we were actually able to locate. They had a stride rite store, and we bought Livia's first pair of sneakers. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten a photo of them yet, but they are pink and pretty cute.

The following day we had a visit from Dan's high school friend Allison, and her kids Eli and Sara. I had a couple of photos on here of Allison and Dan, but I somehow managed to accidentally delete them in the process of posting-- ugh, sorry! You can see a little of her below.

Sara and Livia played intensely side by side.

Eli kept looking for Livia's brother, who we assured him does not exist.

We had a surprise snowstorm the afternoon of New Year's Eve, while we were en route to Wegmans to pick up some sushi. Luckily we made it home safely. We celebrated by having an early sushi dinner at home, complete with plum wine and edamame. Then we all went to bed before midnight. We figured we needed our rest to drive back the next morning.

Christmas 2008

After our exuberant Hannukah celebration at home, we headed up to NJ to spend Christmas with Nona and Papa. As usual, Ron and Teri spent several days creating an amazing meal for the family. Highlights of the week for us (depending on who you ask) included delicious food, quality time with family, relaxation, great movies, walking nonstop in a loop downstairs, opening the cabinets 500 times to peer at the pots and pans, tasting homemade whipped cream for the first time, and following the people and dogs around at Camp Bow Wow.



Livia wore this beautiful dress that was a birthday present from Aunt Elyse. We put her hair up in pigtails for the first time, and she seemed so much older to us.


Livia loves to drink water from her sippy cup


Livia met Aunt Allie for the first time, while clutching her favorite stuffed animal, "Mr. Polar Bear." We can't wait for Livia to name her own toys since clearly her mother is not very creative.

Livia did very well with Nona and Papa, and even with the big crowd on Christmas Day. She held out her hand for each person to kiss.

Teri displays one of her gifts

The festive meal

Mommy and Livia

Chris, Allie, Pat, and Steve enjoying some lemoncello

Sara and Sharyn

We stayed with Nona and Papa for another few days, long enough for Livia to walk about 10 miles around the house. She practiced so much that she became visibly faster and steadier. One afternoon, we attached a pedometer to her and she clocked 2 miles between her afternoon nap and dinnertime. Other highlights included a visit to a mall, where Livia allowed Papa to hold her for 10-15 minutes without protesting at all (a true holiday miracle), several great meals, and a visit to Teri's cousins' house, where Livia walked around holding a toy bus and playing with the FAO Schwartz floor piano for about 3 hours. We read lots of books, which Livia loves, as well.

Livia even had her first 3-second carousel ride while we were out

After a few days, this was the scene by 9 am. Livia was officially exhausted, but our trip had only begun...

Stay tuned for the second half of our NJ vacation, including New Years' Eve!