March-April 2003

Family activities in March

Escaping the cold and snow, we visited Judy's grandmothers and other relatives in Jacksonville, FL, as well as best friend Eve from high school, and her husband, parents, and quadruplets (!) in Thomasville, GA.

This was quite a trip.  Noel flew down with us, stayed for a day or so, then flew out to Colorado to go skiing for three days, then came back in enough time to go to the beach for one day and fly back with us to snow-covered New York.  I went through my usual weather weirdness, of packing for myself and the girls when it was 12°F outside, then arriving in Jacksonville in 79°F and what felt like 95% humidity.  After the heat of the first day, it was drizzly and chilly the rest of the week, but we were so busy appreciating the green grass, trees, and flowers, instead of just piles of snow everywhere, that we didn't even care that it wasn't very warm.  We got to visit with a lot of relatives and some old friends.  

 
Swinging with Daddy in the rain before he left for skiing, welcoming him back with sunny weather and a fantastic day together at the beach.  While we were on the beach, we cell-called our friend Eric Foxhall at home in NY, just to see how things were going, as we were leaving for NY the next day.  He told us that they had just had 4 more inches of snow and that his wife (Ridvan) was outside shoveling out the car.  So we were extra-appreciative of the 80-something degree day.

 
We were fortunate to be able to pay a couple of visits to Judy's Grandma Cele (97 years old!), and reintroduce her to the little girls, as well as hang out a bit with Eliot, one of Judy's favorite cousins, and his lovely wife, Joyce (unfortunately, not pictured).  We were thrilled to be able to spend a nice bunch of time with Gail,  Judy's other "favorite" cousin, and the one to whom she is probably closest.  We were also lucky enough to meet at a regular family gathering, and so got to spend a little time with a lot of cousins and great-aunts, as well as Grandma "Doll."

   
Judy and Dalia posing with Ilana Manassee, one of Judy's first Hebrew teachers (how does she still look the same after 30+years???), and our friend, Robin Morris, who was and is still a Hebrew school teacher (she also looks exactly the same! ). Both are also folk dance buddies, and accompanied Judy and sister Deb when they attended Blue Star Dance camps while still in their teens.

 
Stephanie, Emily, Olivia, and Stephen (in that order), posing for me outside Eve's house in Georgia.  Stephen took the next picture of Eve and me and the girls, and Sophie and Dalia posed with Eve's parents, who live next door to her. Eve homeschools her children, and she even let me teach them a beginning sign-language class while she played with my girls.  Her children are so gorgeous, so well-behaved, so enthusiastic, and they were so sweet with Sophie and Dalia.  Sophie talks about them all the time now!

After Purim festivities (in costume); girls posing for a picture at home; out and about, enjoying the spring sunshine on the snow.

Family activities in April

   
Noel went to Israel for his nephew Zion's wedding to his lovely new bride, Rivka, just before Passover.  For Passover Seder, we welcomed Aaron and Jana and their girls, as well as our friends Andy and Lisa, and our friend Sylvia.  A good time (we hope) was had by all.  Later that month, we trekked together to Alfred, NY, to visit Noel's Aunt Theda, his cousin Paul, Paul's wife Susan, and their Golden Retriever, Siena.  

Dalia--March and April words and phrases....

"I can do it all myself!"  (clear as a bell--yes, that's a 6-word phrase! at 21 months of age)
"I love you so much!"
"Good idea, Mommy!" (or whoever)
"Come on, Mommy" (or whoever)
getting gradually better at correctly identifying colors and counting objects.
also getting gradually more independent, more inclined to resist being put in her carseat, or run away, laughing, when we tell her to come.

It's amazing that at this exact age (nearly 22 months), we actually let Sophie be a flower girl in our friends Trixie and Ocsi's wedding. I still can't believe we/she did it.  She was so little! See April 2001 for pics.

Sophie

"big buddy", "big guy"
"I winned!"  This is a personal favorite of mine (this is still Judy writing)!  I love how kids acquire the rules of their language and then generate their own utterances, as opposed to only imitating what they hear.  Back to Chomsky vs Skinner, I'm a Chomsky fan (only linguistically, not politically, of course!).  Though, of course, kids do imitate a lot--we need to be very careful  what we say in their earshot.  When we have sensitive things to discuss, we usually revert to Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian, or ASL!  Thank goodness we are able to really "read" each other in so many languages!

Sophie still loves to make up songs and stories, and she is constantly regaling us with her new ideas for same.  On the flip side, she challenges us from morning to night.  Nothing unusual for her age, but still very demanding and exhausting.  However, we have many friends who are ill, or who are in the process of adopting children or going through fertility intervention to have them, or whose children have delays or other problems, and whenever I talk to them or think about them, I just remind myself of how blessed and grateful we are, for each other and our wonderful relationship, for our good health, for our normal (even "above average" :-)) and healthy children, for our great home, etc., etc., and then somehow our challenges with Sophie become miniscule by comparison and easier to bear.