What the...

Ok, so I just looked at my friend's blog who also lives in our building, and is in our ward as well... you all have to click on the link to see how unfair life is. Sure, her kitchenette may be small, but it is BRAND NEW!!! WHAT??!! How did that happen, when my cupboards are like a hundred years old? Sigh. There are also some really cool pictures of our neighborhood and morningside park. Check it out!

Hopefully you don't mind Heather, that I just sent a bunch of people to look at your apartment... it's so cute though (even if I am insanely jealous of your kitchenette)!

Out to eat

The other night we went out to dinner as a little family, to this yummy little Italian place a couple blocks from us. While I was waiting for Nate to meet us, I walked down the side street and thought it was very picturesque and New York-y...

We had a nice time, although I don't think we will be doing that again for a little while. At least not until Sayer sits better in a restaurant high chair. Asher had fun watching himself eat in the mirror across from our table, so that kept him entertained. The owner of the place was so nice. You can tell that she gets to know every one that comes in. We ordered take out from there a while ago, and she totally remembered Nate from when he picked it up, and knew who I was just from the conversation they had had. I thought that was cool.

Look at those big round eyes! Isn't he a doll?!!

Asher was such a big boy. We didn't even put him in a high chair, and he stayed in his seat the whole time... well, until the very end when it was almost bedtime. Not bad at all!!

It is definitely the beginning of Fall here, and I am LOVING it! The air is very crisp and cool, and the trees are beautiful. They say that they have a real Fall here, not just a week or two like in UT. Winter doesn't really start until December, so I am very excited about that. Fall is my favorite season, and now I will actually be able to enjoy it!

My little BOY

I was looking through some of our recent pictures, and I can't believe how old Asher is looking. He looks like a little boy, definitely not a baby. I still find myself thinking about how crazy it is that I have 2 little boys... they are mine... and Asher is 2... it's weird, you know??

Sitting on the balcony eating yogurt

Putting the pig to sleep with his binky and blanky on a bed of diapers

This is how he spends much of his time playing with cars and trains

The other day we went to the Museum of Natural History with a couple of girls in my building and their kids. This is the little boy that lives right under us. He is such a cutie!

Big sittin' boy...

Sayer has been growing and changing and developing so much and so fast... too fast! I have found that with the second child, you are not as concerned about milestones. I am always forgetting what he should be doing at what age. A few weeks ago I saw a baby a few days younger than Sayer sitting up like a pro, and I thought, "Oh, I guess I should start working with Sayer on helping him sit on his own". Terrible, I know. But we worked on it, and now he too is a pro. Well, I don't usually let him sit there by himself, because he still falls sometimes, and hitting the hardwood floor, would not feel nice. He is a strong little guy though. He is also up on all fours, rocking back and forth, which is the cutest thing ever. It's so weird to me that he is already doing these things. It still feels like he is my little newborn, which he's not, and hasn't been for a long time, but it feels like it happened overnight.

Here are some more precious pictures of our little guy...

Swings!

My boys love the swings!

Asher and his stro-wo-wo-wo-wo

After one visit to a park here in the city, it became apparent that we were going to have to get Asher his own baby doll stroller (or as he calls it, stro-wo-wo-wo-wo) as he would find some other kid's and take off with it. Most people don't care, but I just thought it best to avoid 2 year old power struggles over one more thing. Well, he loves his stroller, and it is usually the first thing he asks for when I get him out of the stroller. This is what he usually does with his stroller...

He hauls it up onto to the play equipment and strolls around up there. There was this one dad who was up there with his kid, and saw Asher with the stroller up there, and started freaking out. Not mad, he was worried about Asher being up there with a stroller, and followed him with his arms hovered around him, like Asher was going to fall off or something. All the while, this dad is frantically looking around for this child's parent. I thought it was pretty funny myself... I think parents here are WAY too over protective. Some of them follow their kids around everywhere they go. I think kids need to experience life... falls and all, not from play equipment mind you, but you know what I mean. And Asher wasn't going to fall, he is very capable and coordinated. He looked exactly the way he did in these pictures when that guy was freaking out. People always freak out when he goes on the stairs too... geez people, I know how to take care of my child, thank you very much!! Ok, so I really don't mind. I would rather have someone mention something to me, even if I am totally aware, because I'm sure there will be a time when I am not aware, and he really will be in danger or something.

Sorry for my little tangent... moral of the story, Asher loves his stroller, and I think he looks so cute pushing it around every where.

This is on a walk in Central Park, we let Asher out of the stroller, so he could push his stroller like mommy. He was SO happy, he felt like such a big kid. And lets face it, he does look adorable!!

Views from our humble abode...

I thought since I am not yet posting pictures of our apartment (although I am getting closer), I would at least show you some of the views from our place. We live on the 7th floor of an 8 floor building and we really enjoy being so high up. The lower apartments are actually super dark, and from what I've seen, in even worse shape than ours, if that's even possible, so I guess we did luck out in some ways. Like the balcony, for example, we had no idea that we would have one, and we have loved it so far. It took some training to make sure that Asher wouldn't try to climb the railings, but he is very balcony-savvy now, and knows to either sit on his bum, or not to touch the railings. But I of course am either out there with him, or watch him like a hawk when he is out there... I don't even want to THINK about that little guy going overboard!!!

Ok, so here is the view from our balcony to the right:

To the left:

To the right (higher view):

To the left (higher view):

Straight ahead (the worst view of all... the back of the Teacher's College, so not exciting):

The is a view of Morningside Park, looking from the southern most end, straight in. It is a very long, skinny park, I think it is only one block wide, but 13 or 14 blocks long:

We live on a nice little one way street, so it is relatively quiet and not very busy at all.  Every time I go downtown, I am so grateful that I live in the upper west side, it is so much cleaner and quieter and prettier.  I don't think I could handle 3 years of living downtown!

Rockin' Ward

This picture has nothing to do with the post, but I wanted to include it anyway!

Ok, so I am admittedly very behind on my posts. Nate keeps complaining that I haven't done a post in "SO LONG!" So there will be a few posts in the next little while showing what we've been up to... which isn't a ton, but I do have some cute pictures. 

I would just like to start of the slew of posts by saying that we have the most awesome ward! We have been so fortunate to be in such great wards since we have been married. We were sad to leave our last one in Provo, but it's not so bad when you move from one great ward to another one. There are several reasons that we feel our ward is awesome thus far...

Reason #1: There is a great group of moms who are all so fun and different and interesting and welcoming. Isn't it amazing how you can meet a group of gals and just sit there and talk like you've known each other for years? I feel like I will be really close friends with many of them. 

Reason #2: One of the first weeks we were here, our Bishop and his wife had all the new members over to their apartment for a waffle party. They were very yummy. I am all for having breakfast for dinner, which in my case, is pretty much having dessert for dinner! ;)

Reason #3: Our ward has some super talented people in it. (apparently, people on the west side are more artistic than those on the east...) Our organist is A-MA-ZING. Seriously, every hymn we sing sounds like it's being played for the tabernacle choir. (I think the guy does it for a profession or something like that) Then to make things even better, there is this opera singer chick who leads the music, who goes all out, so our opening, closing and rest hymns, are just awesome. It is a little funny because it's so... what's the word... exuberant, but to be honest, it makes the spirit so much stronger, and actually makes me want to sing the hymns, which I usually don't.

Reason #4: Every single person I have talked to (and that's a lot, because everyone introduces themselves and tries to get to know new people) has been SO unbelievably welcoming. I feel like I am surrounded by some of the warmest and loving people I have ever met. 

So yeah, we are loving our ward... well, at least I am! I think Nate really likes it too though. There is also another cool thing about our bishop and his wife, but Nate doesn't think I should post it on the blog, so if you really want to know, ask me some time... it's cool!

Gypsy

Last night, Nate sent me out on the town by myself, which was much needed and much appreciated. I took advantage of the student discount we get, and went and saw Gypsy, starring Patti LuPone who, by the way, is A-MA-ZING! The show is about a very over-zealous backstage mom, who is obsessed with pushing her daughters to stardom. It was a great, entertaining show, although I thought the script had some plot holes in it, as in the second act, the main character goes from a sweet, moral, innocent girl, to a stripper, and it's never really clear why she does that, except that she likes it. So that was kind of weird, a little Grease-ish if you will, you know, good turns bad. But the music and singing was incredible, I would definitely recommend it if you don't mind that the very end is a little risque. Oh, but I have to say, the absolute BEST part, is when these 3 old and washed up Burlesque chicks, sing about their acts wearing fishnets, and essentially lingerie. And they were really these women in their 60s or 70s, just struttin' their stuff. It was, HILARIOUS!! So, while I definitely don't think my dad would enjoy it... I thought it was quite entertaining!

So while that was the best part of the show, the best part of the night, was when I came out of the theater onto 44th Street, and there was Daniel Radcliffe making his grand exit from his play Equus, which just happened to be across the street.  Ok, so I technically only saw his back, but it was definitely him, wearing what looked like a black leather jacket and a hat.  There were tons of people, and it was very crazy, so it was hard to tell for sure.  He got into a plain black SUV with dark tinted windows, and just drove away.  Well, his driver did anyway.  I was surprised by how short he is, Daniel, not his driver.  I know it's silly, but I thought it was pretty cool.  I texted the news to my sister Jillian right away, and was very disappointed when she failed to write back to share in my excitement.  Come on Jill, I really expected more from you!;)

Asher pants

This is even more overdue than Sayer, but Asher is now 2. I feel horrible because we never celebrated his birthday in any way. The week of his birthday Nate was really busy with gigs, so we had decided that we would celebrate it the next week by doing the Heber Creeper, or going to Kangaroo Zoo or something like that, but we were never able to get it together and do it. We didn't get him any gifts, because we knew we were moving, and what ever we bought him, we would have to ship, so we decided to wait. So, now here we are, a month and a half later, and we still haven't celebrated it. So sad! But, we are ordering him a train table and set with the money he got from my mom and grandma, so maybe we will celebrate with a cake too, when we get it. I know he doesn't know the difference, but it still makes me a little sad. Oh well.

Asher is still just as busy as ever. I am amazed every day at his progress in talking and especially with his progress in coordination. Jumping (preferably off furniture) is definitely his favorite, although he seems to be enjoying trying to stand on his head, as well as something that looks like an arabesque. And to think, after all that, he has still never attempted to climb out of his crib (thank heaven)! He is very imaginative (I think he takes after his mother in that department). He loves to play with his toys and make them talk. The other day, he put some blocks together in a line on the floor and was pretending that it was a train. He was making it go through tunnels and under chairs, it was so cute, and very creative. He loves cars and trains, and will lay down on the floor and drive them around for a long time. I was doing my hair in the bathroom the other day, and he brought his cars in, and lined them all up by the tub, and started talking to them, saying "icky poo-poo", "no no", "don't touch". I guess that's what I sound like!

He loves his little brother, and thinks it's hilarious when he makes him laugh. He will do whatever makes him laugh over and over again. When Sayer is crying and I can't get to him right away, he will very skillfully put his binky in his mouth, it is very sweet. He really is such a sweet little guy. He loves to snuggle, or curl up on the floor with his binky and blanky, which he of course still loves so much. He's like Linus! 

Asher has been doing pretty well adjusting to the move. He did go through a monstrous week or so, and then he got sick. I think he was definitely a little stressed, or whatever toddlers experience when they are uprooted from their homes and friends, and put somewhere completely unknown. He has also started hitting again, which I thought he had kind of grown out of, but I guess not. Well actually, I guess I am not in nursery with him, so maybe he has been hitting more than I know. Either way, I am hoping to help him stop, so if anyone has any advice for me, I am all ears.

Asher also loves to go bye-bye, which is what he's telling me right now. He loves being in the stroller and watching everyone and everything going on around him. And he of course loves all the parks around here, especially the sandboxes. We bought him his own pail and shovel and baby stroller, as he kept using the other kids' at the park, which no one really cares, but it's good for him to have his own stuff. Asher loves his daddy, and pretends to talk on the phone and says "I call daddy". Right now he is saying "I wanna go see daddy", as we are meeting Nate at the subway station in a few. Ok, so I better go, Asher didn't have a good nap, and is pretty distraught that we are not going "bye-bye" yet. I'll post pictures of his birthday celebration when we have one! ;)

**Thanks to Allie, again, for taking such great family pictures for us. It was bedtime when we took them, so Asher was very tired, and wasn't really smiling much, but he still looks pretty handsome, if I do say so myself! I will post some more a little later. 

Sayer-bayer

This is long overdue, but better late than never! Sayer is now almost 6 and a half months old. He is such a little sweetheart, and is always making us smile. These days he enjoys: trying different kinds of baby food, practicing sitting up on his own, grabbing his toys and putting them in his mouth, sucking on his thumb, sleeping... a lot (I don't know if his little body is messed up from the move, but if I try to put him down for a nap at 4:00 pm, he won't wake up, he will just keep sleeping through the night, usually waking up around 6:00 am-ish. But thankfully, he will go back to sleep after he eats. He also has a hard time being awake for more than an hour and a half. You would think this would be nice, but it makes putting him on a sleeping schedule very difficult. On another random side note, pretty much every morning between 4-6 am, he wakes up with a poopy diaper, which is very annoying. His little body must be way out of wack).

Anyway... where was I? Oh yes, he also loves his big brother. Asher will hardly do anything at all and Sayer will just crack up, it is so cute and he has the most adorable laugh. He loves to watch Asher and always smiles at him, which is a big improvement over Sayer being terrified anytime Asher would come near him (I think he had good reason though! ;) 

He loves bath time and just splashes away. He is still quite bald, which makes his huge round eyes look even bigger.  He loves to talk and has been saying "da-da, da-da" a lot.  He is a doll, and I love him.

The kitchenETTE

Ok, so I am cheating. I told you I wasn't going to show you any pictures of our apartment until I had it looking better. But, Nate says that I only have until Sunday to talk about how much I hate my kitchen. Oh, I'm sorry... kitchenETTE!!! Yeah, he doesn't want to hear me complain about it anymore, to him or to anyone else, but I told him I needed to, I don't know why, maybe I want people to feel sorry for me?? Couldn't tell ya. So he gave me until Sunday, and then... no more. (At least not when he can hear it... hehe ;)

So, here is a picture of my kitchenETTE:

In this one, you can see the door jams, so you know that it is only as wide as a door frame

As you can see, there was approximately zero exaggeration when I told you that it was the size of a closet.  Oh, and in case you were thinking that part of it was cut off by the camera... it wasn't... this is all of it!!!  By the way, I can't really fit in that little space between the baby stove and the counter.  It is barely big enough to allow the cupboards to open all the way.  How am I supposed to create master pieces in that? It's hard enough to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in there, let a lone a pork roast and mashed potatoes and salad... or a scrumptious cake made from scratch with mint dark chocolate ganache with a chocolate mousse with strawberries in it???!!?!? I don't know if I can do it, to be honest with you. Last night, some friends from the ward had us over for dessert, and I was honestly coveting her tiny kitchen. Just the fact that her fridge was IN the kitchen, seemed like a luxury. Sigh...

Sympathies will be welcomed in the comments section.

Stuff...

Just a cute picture, because I felt like there needed to be a picture at the beginning... you know, for aesthetic purposes!

On Saturday, we had our first experience with the rain in the city. We headed out for the park, with clouds in the sky, it definitely looked like rain. So we packed our new handy-dandy rain cover, and didn't even think about umbrellas (not that we had any to bring if we had thought of it). So we go to the park, all is well, and then it starts sprinkling. In Utah, this would be no big deal. It would most likely not get much worse, and if it did, it would stop pretty quickly. Well... all of the sudden, it started to POUR. Not thin little drops, but huge thick rain drops, and lots of them, coming down fast. We may as well have been taking a shower... seriously! Well, we decided to start walking home as we were already wet, then it just got worse, so we stopped under an awning for a little bit. When it still didn't get any better, we just decided to keep going. We were already drenched by this point (the kids were dry by the way. that is, once I figured out how to fit the rain cover on the stroller. I had one of those "oh, you lift up on the buckle" moments. You know, where something was painfully obvious, but I could not for the life of me figure it out... but then I did!) Anyway... we finally got on the subway, and made it home. I thought it was pretty fun myself, but Nate was a little peeved that his electronic gadgets were going to get wet. They were for the most part fine though. So yeah, we need to get some umbrellas I'd say, seeing as how we can't just hop in the car when it's raining!

Ok, so for all of you who have been asking me how I like my stroller... I l-o-v-e, LOVE it!! It is everything I hoped it would be and more. I had actually originally ordered the Dash, which is the model in between the Sport and the Vibe, as it just came out and they were having a promotion where it was only $30 more than the Sport, and it had padded seats, and some other features I enjoyed. Well, I ordered it, and then got an email, saying that there may or may not be something wrong with the frame, so the company asked all distributers to halt sales. So they told me that I could either wait (for who knows how long) or get the Sport for a discount. Um, I went for the discount. I ended up getting the stroller, the double seat, and the rain cover (which is normally $60) for $490. This is a great deal, considering that the stroller with the doubles seat is retailing for $509 right now. Sa-weet!! Then, to top things off, I got it in ONE day. I guess it does pay to live on the east coast, where a lot of these companies are based. By the way, I ordered it from PishPoshbaby, which has great deals, as well as fabulous customer service, and almost no shipping costs... gotta love that. 

So yeah, anyway... I love it, and it has made having 2 kids in the city, so much easier. The whole bjorn-every-day thing, was getting a little old. I would of course, recommend the stroller to everyone and their dog. It was definitely worth every penny!!

Check this out...

Do you see how skinny that closet is? It's small, trust me. But I can fit both my maclaren and phil & ted in there, plus more. That's how nice and tight the stroller folds up. 

Here are some more random pictures:

Nate, on his first day of school!

Asher, playing in some of the fountains at one of the parks

Sportin' his swim diaper over his pj's. He insisted on putting it on. Such a silly kid!  By the way, Asher is more attached to Mr. Bee-dee, then he ever has been.  I'm sure it's the move, and then he was sick, so that didn't help.  The funny thing is, we cut the tip to try and wean him off of it, but I have been worried about his teeth because of the way he sucks on it with it cut, so I bought him a new one, but he now prefers it cut.  Awesome!

This is how Asher kept himself entertained while we waited for our baggage, and then tried to figure out where to go from there, at the airport. Probably a good 20 minutes!

Here is Sayer, waiting patiently. I know, he's adorable, right?!