First Family Hike

Saturday was a tough day. In an attempt to keep the blues away, we got out of the house and hit the trails in Sycamore Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Micah led most of the way (staying well hydrated with his camel bak)
First family portrait


Towards Pt. Mugu...

mind-numbingly dull infant video only a (grand)mother could love

mind-numbingly dull infant video only a (grand)mother could love, originally uploaded by amyalexis.

Warning: only for the truly obsessed....

9 pounder

Levi had is two week weigh-in yesterday: 9 lbs! After losing 5 oz on his birth weight (8 lbs 2 oz) our little champion nurser put on 1 lb 3 oz in two weeks!

But he is still our little peanut:

ignorance is bliss: substance-dependence edition

"What are you making?"

"Mama's tea."

"Why Mama needs to have tea?"

"Because she's addicted to it."

"No--coffee is what people are addicted**."

**This response hearkened back to a brief conversation with pop-pop three weeks earlier when Micah asked why he was drinking coffee.

ignorance is bliss: consumerism edition

Almost everything that Micah knows about child-oriented consumerist junk he learned from 3 and four year olds...

...which is why he points to the SpongeBob SquarePants balloons at the supermarket checkout counter and says, "Hey, Chuck-E-Cheese balloons!" and upon receiving a present delivered in a Transformers bag he breaks out singing, "Da na na na-- Batman!"

two week sugar high: officially over

Man...this June birthday thing is brutal on the waist line. Micah has been living on one big sugar high that has seen him through napless days. After two weeks of chocolate gooey cake, vanilla cupcakes, a quad sampler from Royal bakery, chocolate brownie cookies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip banana bread and ice cream cake we are officially putting a moratorium on sweets. I (Amy) will be the hardest to wean from the sugar high. I have developed quite the sweet tooth and coupled with the nursing mother's attitude of, "I can eat it all!" have indulged frequently and heavily.

The end date came yesterday with the closure of Micah's little 3rd birthday gathering in our backyard.

There was ketchup (check-up) with hotdogs:

Busy getting dizzy in the hammock swing:

Story time with children's author, and friend, Jody Fickes Shapiro:

Bubbles!!!


And of course ice cream cake (But Micah liked the cheap plastic dinosaurs on top best):


P.S. The one exception to the no sweets rule will be the fresh fruit variety: strawberry season is in full swing and our peach tree is bulging with ripening fruit--add a bit of (full fat heavy whipping) cream and, "Mmmmmmmmm."

first bath

Rub-a-dub-dub in the bathroom sink...



Levi's little froggy body...
And the octopus towel from Micah's infancy is resurrected to see another day (In InStyle Magazine fashion, who wore it best?):

6 am birthday party

t-rex, originally uploaded by amyalexis.

Micah awoke early and promptly began opening his birthday presents. Here are some highlights. Thanks to Joey, Josh and Lisa for the T-rex...a huge hit. To GG for the money that Micah asked, "I can use this to buy something at the Farmer's Market?" (music to a foodie mother's ears) and to Grandma and Grandpa for the camelbak and mezuzah.

Micah quenches his thirst in front of our house before setting out for school where he was king for a day (he came home wearing a paper crown) and gained cupcake points for being that kid whose mom baked cupcakes (yes, 1 week postpartum) for the class.

Big three year-olds can walk to school:

hiccups

hiccups, originally uploaded by amyalexis.

Levi would regularly have the hiccups in uteroevery evening about 9 pm. The same appears to be true ex utero.

1 week old

One week old and chunking up already. How many chins do you think he'll have by week 2?

Don't go!

After three and a half blissful days of helping hands, Annie is leaving us. Nooooooooo! At least we have the extra sleep, clean laundry, quiche and lasagnas in the freezer, and new books to remember her visit by.


Brothers at breakfast al fresco....

Tatted up

In honor of Micah's impending third birthday, we allowed him his first tattoo--then we said what the hell, may as well go full-on.

(It is just so hard to keep track of two children--one of them is just bound to get into something when you're not paying attention.)

Update: School was not amused this morning as Micah made a bee-line to his friends to show them his tattoos. I guess Maria Montessori had something against body art???

milk coma

Levi Report: he is sleeping a lot more now that he is getting a proper meal, though not necessarily between the hours of 1am and 4:30 am...

"milk in the batter!"

"we bake cakes and nothings the matter!"

Annie arrived to help out for a few days and she and Micah made me the famed Grossman Chocolate Gooey Birthday Cake...

more baby levi

1+3+5=9

If Micah ever complains about being last during "birthday week", we can tell him that his birthday is as big as all the other birthdays combined.

brothers

introducing

Levi Eddy Grossman:

Levi-- because we like the name and were in part inspired by the surpising appearance of the Jewish name Levy in Pop-pop Phil's family tree.

Eddy-- partially derived from Edwards, which is the maiden name of Nanny Gorgeous (Gwen), and Edward, which was the middle name of Great Grandpa Ira Scott (Zack's maternal grandfather). We sought a naturalistic counterpart to "Forest", Micah's middle name. An eddy is a current circling in the opposite direction of the main current. In rivers and streams they are typically calm spots, a nice place to rest.

Cutting the cord (Micah helped):
Relaxing while the midwives clean up:
Knackered:
Requisite "grumpy old man" shot:
Requisite yawn:

a few hours later

Peacable kingdom.

Next (18 years): the maelstrom

And: more details, eventually including name.

a few minutes later

Public health quiz: what comes after the baby and before the placenta?

8:22am

BOY!!!!
details pending...

report

Future visitors-- consider yourself lucky. Amy's water broke on the guest-house bed with only minimal spillage.

almost there

Micah woke up around 6 this morning to find Mommy and Daddy awake in the living room and 3 midwives tip-toeing about. He's been very good for the last 1.5 hours, watching quietly, occasionally helping, having stories read--though he doesn't want to stick around for the really big contractions.

Gotta go--- don't want to miss anything!

today

Stay tuned...