Special Fridays

I am enjoying my kids so much these days. I'm not sure if it is their age or their interests...or if I'm settling into parenthood in a new way. Whatever it is, it's fun! Part of the fun is their independence and their ability to initiate and maintain play without intervention from me. So I get to observe and reflect on my kids rather than constantly entertain. Now they can actually enjoy one activity for 2 hours. TWO HOURS. This afternoon they spent 2 hours drawing pictures and taping them all over our apartment. I was busy cooking and barely spoke to them the whole time. What a change from the past 4 years of feeding and changing diapers and breaking up fights and rarely freeing myself from the floor of toys just to go to the bathroom. Now I'm experiencing the fruit of having twins as they play together and really enjoy each other (most of the time).

We have inaugurated "Special Fridays" this month. I surprise the kids with some fun activity in celebration of a good week at school (or simply a completed week in Adaline's case, who is still struggling to understand that she is not in charge of her class). I give clues along the way as they try to guess the activity. Today they had 2 surprises: #1 Uncle Marshall, who surprised them on the train platform and #2 the Natural History Museum. Adaline sketched most of the time and Arthur asked "why" most of the time. They experience the world so differently. I love my little artist and scientist!

Sledding!

Today was a fun, fun day sledding with friends. The highlight was the "train" that we formed with all 8 of us on 3 sleds. It took a few trials, but we finally made it all of the way down the hill without turning over. I wish we had it on video--everyone around us must have thought we were crazy. I'm proud to say that the adults had just as much fun as the kids.



And it wasn't too cold. 14 degrees gives you up to 1 hour of sledding, but 34 degrees allows for many hours in the snow. (Except Mom's feet were pre-frostbitten and the kids bath turned cold once their freezing bodies entered the warm water.) But it was totally worth it!

Brrr, it's cold outside

Winter is here and it takes creativity to prevent hibernation in our household. We spent Jamison's last day off at the NY Aquarium by Coney Island. You get to alternate between warm tanks inside and cold viewings outside. We also had authentic Russian food in Brighton Beach, a neighborhood that has the appearance of being transported directly into Russia (all Russian language signs and all Russian-speaking people). Arthur loves a Russian dumpling and Adaline appreciates the Ukrainian sausage. Today we had a fun (but short) sledding day in the snow. We could only stand the low temps for an hour. Tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 14 degrees. Yikes!
This sea lion gave our kids nice juicy kisses that were not caught on camera. The parents declined the sea lion saliva.
Huge walrus.
Adaline was terrified of the sharks. She begged to see them, but did not appreciate Mom trying to throw her towards them in the tank. I've never seen her so scared!