August was one of those rare months where we started it out on vacation and ended it on vacation. What a treat! The beginning marked the last few days we were in San Francisco, saying goodbye to "our San Anselmo house" and aiming for us to go back next year. We wouldn't have to say goodbye for long to Uncle Reggie however because he was on his way out to Philly for 10 days, just in time for his birthday. Two times to see him is such a treat.
Then we were back in Philly, doing our annual celebration of Auntie Ebonie's birthday, getting ready for the end of one school and the start of the new one she would begin in September and attend through 8th grade. There were handbooks to read! Timed arrivals and dismissals to get acclimated to! New online tools to register for!
But not too much time was spent on that pre-Kindergarten planning because we were off to our annual pre-Labor Day weekend beach trip to Cape May. S's confidence near water was certainly higher and her ability to play by herself with the sand was greater - all good growing signs that we were excited to see...and be able to thoroughly enjoy from our lazy places on the chairs!
And as a closing thought - mark my words, this girl will either love tennis, or hate it. In September we start her lessons again and she equivocates dramatically between "when is it going to start again???" and "oh nooooo, i don't want to do tennis". During the Olympics, I told her about Serena and showed her one match, which was equally dramatic between "Go Serena!" and "oh this is NOT fair. She is going to lose....(after missing one ball)". That's our girl - dramatic.
I am just way too excited today. I'm finally caught up on this blog, and this post about last month means a ton to me.
Last month we went to San Francisco for S's first time, to celebrate our anniversary, spend some real quality time with Uncle Reggie (Erwin's brother) and just relax together as a family with friends before baby #2 gets here. It was such a magical trip. We stayed at a lovely AirBnB house in San Anselmo, CA (which is in Marin). It had 4 bedrooms - which really means Sanaa had 3 bedrooms and we had one. The house owners who were away in England had such a warm, welcoming home - even leaving us treats to welcome us. The garden had 4 levels to it, in that very California way. And that was just the house.
S bonded with her Uncle Reggie - finding him to be her path to trashy food that Mom (and even Dad!) would not let her eat, her Legos building partner, her guitar friend, her silly face making buddy, and perhaps most importantly for little girls: the other pillar to the strength of her father. Seeing the 3 of them walking around, playing, etc. was just so heartwarming to me.
I got some much needed time with Wendy/Ben and family, with all of us going to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, chased by bees, "losing" Atticus for a few minutes, and watching S follow Tallulah around everywhere, and Miss T indulging her as she has in the past. It was followed by lunch at a lovely restaurant , letting the dads take care of the kids while Wendy and I looked out on the grass from the porch of the restaurant on a beautiful day in Marin.
Families need trips like this, not particularly scheduled, with lots of friends and family, and in warm, homey places.
But wait! That's not all. This was a month where Erwin and I got to get away for the weekend by ourselves and when S found out her favorite big cousin CC was coming to stay with her, she had this to say, or dance as the case may be. It's just so cute to be that excited about seeing someone.
July 4th meant a block party on our block, and her first time to play out in front since no cars were allowed. A very interesting dynamic manifested as she brought out her toys to the other kids on the block for the first time. The girls were the first to come over, play and then leave. The boys came over later, and stuck around for a lot longer. As Erwin said "so if I sleep in on a holiday, I come out to my daughter serenading a bunch of boys???". See below.
And finally, here are some parting philosophical thoughts by S.
June was a terrific month. We passed all the tests on the new baby girl we're expecting in December, and had the opportunity to take S to The Cheesecake Factory for the first time to tell her the big news. (The Cheesecake Factory has a special, yet caloric, place in me and Erwin's relationship as we often used to go there before/after the airport when I would visit him in Orlando.) Here's a video where she reacts.
June was also big because she flipped her fears on their head and came to love tennis, and I documented it for posterity. (And so I could just play it for her whenever she tried to complain again.) See such a video after a great lesson.
Erwin and I had the opportunity to do not just one but two special dates. A day trip to NYC and a night out for my good friend Andrea's wedding anniversary party. TWO DATES! Yay :)
May was about two ends of the extremes. She really seemed to come into her own body with feeling very free with silly faces on camera. See the first video above, and in what seems like half the pictures from the month.
And then, on the other hand, she started tennis lessons which was like getting her to climb Mount Everest in terms of her fears and concerns about it - while still being very adept at the drills (see second video above). Week after week, we had 40 min pep talks before, pep talks during, etc but by golly, by the end of it, what I've heard this whole summer is "when is tennis going to start again"? Mind over matter, child - mind over matter.
April was the start of the warmer months. We had fun at the Penn Relays and with spending more time outside generally after the cold and snowy winter. But some days were still cold, so we danced inside...see below (click here to see video)
(By the way, this is the first post being co-created with Miss S!)
We went to our first Jewish naming ceremony, after which Sanaa spent the next few weeks swearing she was Jewish. And why not...so many of the best people in our lives are Jewish. We had the first opportunity to participate in a Montessori birthday naming ceremony at Montessori - wherein Miss S was shy so we did all the talking :) Here are a few pics.
In March, our girl turned 4! What did I learn? You don't have the child stay up way too late the night BEFORE her birthday and then expect her to be anything but a bear the day of her birthday. I was pretty done with her, the nieces and nephews, the whole lot of them by the end of the day! But she had a good time with all her big cousins spending the night, making a big breakfast, and then going to the Please Touch Museum. They mean so much to her.
These two girls' mothers are good, good friends. Hopefully they too enjoy each other for life. (click here to see video)
February was marked with Valentine's Day celebrations, cold days inside, and preparations for a 4th birthday, which involved a big girl bed, designing her new room with a full chalkboard wall. Of course now she says there is nothing for her to do in there - mostly during Quiet Time though. Here are some pics.
January was our first full month in our new home. It was also marked by some amazing snowstorms, food coloring science experiments, and doing outside stuff inside the house (like riding tricycles in our living room...hmm...)
In our house, we have three things we don't say: We don't say "I can't". We don't say "I don't know". And we don't say "I'll try". Our good friends asked S to tell her friend/their daughter these things, so she made the following videos. (Click here to see them on the website.)
(Funny note - 6 months later, their daughter came over and told me on her own about things she doesn't say...it was really neat to see one child's positive influence on the other.)
In this month, we went to Akhila Atta's engagement party in Nashville. This girl's favorite cousin-aunt is Akhila and she couldn't get enough of wanting to be her special niece. She stole the show, in my humble opinion :) Click here to see pictures from the month.
September was crazy - we finished up managing major renovations on our condo WHILE we were away at the beach in Cape May, NJ - thanks Erwin for managing us so well through that!!
Ammamma visited us and we had lots of times of cooking and eating together. Trying to keep pace with a 3.5 year old's picky palate was not my most favorite time though :)
Full of family festivities! Uncle Reggie came to town and met his niece for the first time. Auntie Evelan got married. All of that means lots of Daddy + daughter dancing. And, Doddamma came to fly through Philadelphia on all too brief a visit, which frankly meant a lot of silly time :)
It's a joke that I talked about procrastination in the last post, and now I am working feverishly to get caught up before a year passes by. (Hearing from my mother today that I haven't sent any pics in a while also helps.)
Coincidentally, S is having her first ukulele lesson this coming Friday. Last year, for her 3rd birthday, she got the ukulele - and as I prepped this post, I found these videos from May. Some refinement would be helpful to her performance :)
Last May, we had a celebrity outing. A classmate of S was enamored with her, and thus his parents were as well. Turns out this boy is the great-great-great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, and his father and grandfather are accomplished public people in their own right. We had the fanciful experience of going to their home on a couple of occasions.
She also, for the first time, put into practice something I had been trying to teach her for a couple of years: to have a conversation with herself when things are not going properly in terms of her choices. I remember the moment clear as day: she had been tantrum-ish as we got into the car on the way to school. I suggested she have a conversation with herself to figure out why that happened, and to not speak to me until she reached some insight. I had no idea what would happen, since every time before, I got "but Mooooommmmmy". This time, I could see her look out the window, and verbally ask herself why she made those choices, and how making those choices is not good, and that she can do better. I was SO proud of my 3 year old :)
We also had fun celebrating Erwin's birthday TWICE - once with just the 3 of us, and then once with his birthday twin who is Sanaa's oldest friend, and the one and only person whom Erwin has approved her marrying (already). We also had a wonderful family picnic in the park for Memorial Day. I just love her dress but of course she wouldn't wear it again after that day because the "straps were not good".
