piano

Here's my mom and nate at the piano, my mom site-reading and singing a few classic children's songs with nate fascinated and then distracted by his own need to bang those keys himself. My parents bought him a little high end toy piano for his birthday. My grandmother played piano. My mom is a wonderful classical piano player. I play. No pressure whatsoever Nate...

Happy First!!!

Nate turned one this weekend and we had a really fun and loving family brunch/birthday party. The whole family came, including Brook and Avi and the girls from Washington. Nate was thrilled for most of it-playing and dancing with his cousins, but by the time we got to the cake (which I made), and everyone started singing, he got a little overwhelmed (see pic) and wound up going down for a nap before the end of the party. So we opened his presents without him--he got a great mini piano from the Moshans and a drum from the Liebmans--which will he choose?

Note in the picture with Sadie that he's standing--sort of. There's still no crawling even though Jackie comes to our house every week to torture him into learning but he seems to be more interested in standing (assisted) and making his own way around by crawling, scooting and lunging. The doctor is not concerned and says he'll get there eventually--even though he seems to be a little tummy-time-deficient. Jackie, his physical therapist, says he's mostly lazy and stubborn....Nate hates her too.

It's been a great year and Nate is growing into a great little boy--happy, playful, sweet. He loves music and playing with his toys. He smiles at strangers and offers them bites of his cookie. He has 7 teeth and drools on everything and everyone. He sleeps like a champ and eat fairly well, still mostly yogurt. There are moments when he loses it but he's quick to recover. We're looking forward to this next year and all its milestones and just to spending more time with this awesome kid.

Fire Island

Nate had a fantastic summer--we've been away almost every weekend -- either at Loves Folly, Huntington, the Hamptons or Fire Island--where we shared a hosue with Aimee, Marc and Ari for a week. Nate played in the sand, felt the ocean lap his feet and saw a sunset. It was a beautiful week, though challenging in many ways (we got a babysitter for part of it so we could have a break.) Between the six of us, however, Nate was the best behaved and probably had the most joyous time. He especially loved the ferry ride!