Dancing with Aaron

Cecilia will do anything if her cousins are doing it. In this case, it was line dancing, which was super cute. And a little impressive...

A Smile

Phillip is starting to smile every once in a while, mostly when I make disgusting silly baby noises and coo at him. Here's a rare video of one. You have to watch until the end to see it. :)

Wingaersheek Beach in June

This was one of the first beach days of the summer for us - we went to an old faithful, Wingaersheek Beach, about 45 minutes north of Boston. As usual, Cecilia had a blast there.

The first half of the trip was spent finding hermit crabs and building them a home. Then Cecilia climbed some huge rocks with Daddy. Then she chased us around with a water gun. Here is a composite video:



Yay for the beach!

Cecilia with Rachel and Isabel in NYC

From Rachel Wagman:

Memorial Day Weekend in Philly

This is from a while ago, but in May, we had a reunion with my old medical school friends over Memorial Day weekend in Philadelphia. We stayed with Annemarie, who was amazing. With a 3.5 year old and a 6 month old, she cooked dinner for all of us, ranging from 8-14 people, for 3 nights!

Here are some highlights of the trip.

Meeting Sidney Swami for the first time:

Going to the Please Touch museum with Tony, Siu, and their two children, Allison and Andrew:



By the end of the weekend, Allison and Cecilia were playing really well together:



And the finale of the weekend, which was a big Memorial Day barbecue. Here's a pic of all the kids together, minus Sidney, who can't sit up yet:

The full set of pictures can be found here.

Game Day

Of all the things my children have to be thankful for, I think the most important is that they were born fans of the New York football Giants.

Walks with Dad

I took Herc out on Saturday for his first time apart from Mommy. We had an exciting excursion to Rite Aid and Whole Foods! It's amazing to think that he had spent more than four weeks alive and had never been more than a room away from his mom, I guess that's why the child-mother relationship is so special.

He did great and seems to really like rolling around in the stroller and having a different view of things.I took him to Dana Park for a bit on Sunday and am looking forward to lots more adventures.

A Video Only a Grandparent Could Love

A Really Good Girl...

As I think is very typical, it is very difficult for us to get Cecilia to tell us anything about what she did in school that day. We wind up guessing and asking her all kinds of leading questions to try and get something out of her. One thing I have been doing is asking her if anyone was naughty that day or got a time out, which for whatever reason she is happy to tell me. So the other day I am going through some of the kids in her class and asking if they were naughty or not, and I mentioned if this girl Saskia.

She shook her head and said, "No, she's a really good girl. Like me!".

Regressing? Who you callin' regressing?

Overall Cecilia has been really amazing adapting to life with her little brother, but there have definitely been some hiccups. Without getting into specifics I think this picture captures it pretty well.

Kayaking on the Charles

She wouldn't turn around for the picture, so I had to settle for this one. I enjoyed it but I think she got bored really quickly - feeding the ducks is way more fun!

Preschool

Cecilia had her first week of preschool and is doing great, really just as we expected. Something incredibly cute happened today which I wanted to put on paper...I came to pick her up at 2:15 after nap time, and when I was heading into her classroom she was walking out. She was all sleepy-eyed and was carrying her pillow and blanket, and I thought that when she saw me she was going to be really excited and want to run over and give me a hug. I squatted down in anticipation...and she walked right past me. As she passed by she said "the teacher said I had to put my blanket in my cubby!" Mission accomplished, she came for her hug.

She really likes to please her "teachers" or other authority figures like doctors and dentists, which I certainly suppose is a good thing.

Boston Commons

Cecilia and I had a great morning on the Boston Commons last week; a short ride into the city on the red line, on to the carousel, followed up by the Frog Pond and topped off with a cherry ice.

One thing I especially want to remember about this day, was when we both had our Italian ices and Cecilia was sitting on my lap on a bench as we ate together. The weather was perfect and everyone was smiling at us as they walked past - I really felt like the luckiest guy on earth.

Everything ended predictably.

Little Brother

Welcome to the world, Phillip Jang Lubetsky. Born August 21, 2012 shortly after 2 pm. Seven pounds, three ounces and 20 inches long. The picture above was taken about one minute out of the womb - here he is with the proud big sister.