NYC

We went to New York City this weekend for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. It was fabulous and the whole trip was so fun. We stayed with Ty and SJ and we got to play with adorable Caroline. The picture below is Ryan in front of the Guggenheim. We went inside, too. We ate delicious korean barbeque tacos, laduree macarons, goat milk ice cream, pasta, and the best thai food ever (at Pure Thai. Go there!).  We went to all the fancy furniture shops in Soho and tribeca. We visited with dear old friends and family. We peered inside the Chrysler building and Grand Central Station. We saw Matt Dillon driving around on friday night and I did not mind looking like a fool as I craned my neck to see if there were more famous people inside his SUV.

Highlight of the trip for Ryan: Kicking a rat onto the empty tracks of the subway on our way out of the city. Nothing morbid about it, I guess for Ryan it just seemed authentically New York.

ps, this post is from back in May! I just noticed that there was an error when I tried to publish it back then!

First Day of School

The first day went surprisingly smooth. I will attribute it to the father's blessings they received the night before school started. Asher decided to ask for a little something exta, you know, as long as he had heaven on the line, and he called out "Make me big!" during his blessing. Later he told me he was asking to be bigger than me, or Ryan, or even Uncle Ryan. Yes, he is looking for a miracle.

Ava fell asleep by 9pm, which was a huge and unexpected blessing. She woke up happy the next day and she walked Asher to his classroom before heading to her class. In the afternoon she was happy to report that she knew almost eveyone in her class, her new teacher was really nice, and she saw Asher and her BFF lauren at lunchtime. Lauren's table is close to her table at lunch and they have recess at the same time.

Asher, always cheerful, left happy and came home happy. The first thing he said was "I made a couple friends, mom." "oh, what are their names?" I asked. "Don't know." he cheerfully replied.  I wish I could be a fly on the wall in his classroom.  He played princess tag and also power ranger tag during recess. He was impressed with the kid with a ninja shirt. Today he told me that the girl who sits across from him at lunch is fun. "she likes to play like me and Ava do while we are eating, and pretend like our food is fighting in our mouths!" 

Betty's reaction has been the biggest surprise. She is so sad every morning! Also, exhausted because she refuses to go to sleep at night and now has to wake up to take the kids to school at 7:20. On the first day I told her we would do something special and go on a date, just her and me, but she just sobbed that she wanted Ava and Asher to come.

When Asher hopped off the bus in the afternoon, Betty exclaimed "I missed you, Asher!" and gave him a big, adorable hug. She loves her bother so much. On sunday at church I had Betty on my lap and Asher hit his head on the back of the pew with a loud thud. He tried to make his way to me, but before he could get to me, Betty had wrapped him in the biggest hug her little arms could muster. And her comfort was enough.  He did not need to come to me anymore. A friend who was sitting behind us seemed to appreciate the scene as much as I did, and later she told me what I couldn't see from my angle: the most sincere look of sympathy on Betty's face.

Hairs

Haircuts to dentist appointments, Betty wants to do everything her big brother and sister do. This week I humored her and let her get a big-girl haircut at the "salon". Great Clips gets the "quotation mark" treatment because of the hack job Ava came away with. Betty's hair, however, looked the same (as planned). She looked super cute and so small sitting on that tall chair with her tiny head poking out of an abundance of capery, holding back a smile.

I got my haircut, too. At a salon.