How I Met Your Father...

I am(was) a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother. Its very neat to see a show that chronicles how ones' paths could cross. More often than not, I am sure this happens to many of us.

And this girls.... is how I met your Father. <ba baba ba baba baba)

Girls weekend 2008 in Vegas with one of my good girlfriends Susan (over at Real Life Travels). Instead of conquering Vegas as we had planned to, it conquered us, and I was headed home. I had not showered in 24 hours. On that flight home girls, I met your father in all my hungover glory. If you meet a man when you are at your worst, you know he is really interested. We had alot in common and chatted the whole flight. He never got my phone number, but invited me to go flying with him. After an awkward goodbye, I called my sister and said " I just met my future husband and will never see him again". Thank goodness for technology and social media. Six hours later as I was searching for him on Facebook, I received a message. " I know I never got your phone number, and you dont have to say yes, but I would like to take you flying. Here is my phone number" I replied back saying " I dont call boys and gave him my phone number". 15 minutes later my phone rang.


And so came our first date...

Dont let the smile fool you, I was scared!

And many more after that. In 2009 we were engaged.

Rainiest, ugliest, but best day. The man had a plan and stuck
to it, even in the rain!

In 2010 we were married

And in 2011 and 2013 we brought our two beautiful girls into this world. 

Julia's Baptism- Ela 3 years Julia 3 months

On Friday, we celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary. Dare I say the old cliche that time really does fly by? We have been through so much together and accomplished so much for our family and careers.

As much as he drives me nuts, I love him that much  more. ( I am sure I drive him equally, if not more nuts)

 I get frustrated when he pushes me hard to accomplish my goals,

 but I know he does it because he believes in me. When I want to give up, he wont let me. 

Even though I hate to admit it, he does make me laugh; even the times when I don't want to.

 No one will deny that he is full of passion. The same passion that sometimes drives me crazy is what landed him his dream job.
 

He is also equally passionate about having fun and traveling; the thing I love best about him.

 He is such a dreamer...

 He is a wonderful father to our girls. I swear it was meant for him to have two little girls because they already have him wrapped around his finger. He is gentle and sweet with them and they get lots of love from him.

We have never been the couple that says "I love you" all the time, but rather show me that you love me people. I highly suggest all couples read the 5 Love Languages. Looking back at the pictures today I would say our love has grown in many ways; figuratively and literally.

Julia- 5 months

Another Month older means the harder it gets to take the milestone pictures!

First project at school. 

 Whats New this Month?

* Close to 14 pounds. Girl LOVES her food!

* She is a lean mean rolling machine. 

* She smiles and belly laughs at everyone she sees.

* She grabs; Her favorite thing is mommy's hair

* She is trying to get a tooth in the worst way. She has little raw spots all over her fingers.

*She plays with sister; slightly obsessed with her actually

*Loves sitting in the walker to stare at the world.

*First Time being sick...bound to happen

RSV= Old Lady Cough

* It looks like her eyes are going to stay BLUE!

I could stare at them all day. This is quite the surprise 

considering they were black when she was born.

*First Easter - Mommy loves having little girls if you could not tell.

*And probably the best little quality is that she is the ultimate cuddler!

*First feeding by BIG sister

And one just for fun. A good caption would be set to a Juvinelle Song..."Back that Thang up"

Girl loves to stand!!

The Little Things In Life..

Its the little things in life that get you through the big things.
 I wish as adults we could take lessons from our kids; The little things are the ones that matter.

We were taking a family walk the other day and I asked Ela what she wanted for dinner. She replied "Hold on Mommy I am listening to the birds sing". I kept walking. A few minutes later, I did hear the birds. I thought to myself, unless Ela mentioned the birds I would have kept walking not even noticing the birds were chirping.

Tomasz has been working the overnights. Flying the last flight of the night out and the first flight back in the morning. He is home all day but gone three nights a week. This works out great for our family. On Tuesday I woke up to Ela in my bed. I don't remember hearing her come in, but she sure did make herself cozy on her  Tata's side of the bed. In the morning I asked her why she came in Mommy's bed. She replied. "Because your my Mommy, I love you, and I missed you when I was sleeping".

Yes it is just the little things.... Oh and these sweet baby laughs. The joy that fills my heart seeing my two girls playing is more than just a little thing!

4 Months-Julia

Jules is 4 months....a Quarter of a year. Already?!

Weight: 13 pounds

Height: 24 inches

I don't know the percentiles off hand, but by the looks of this chunky girl's rolls,

 I think she is doing just fine.

New Milestones:

* Complete full on Belly Laughs

*Blowing Raspberries- All Day Long

*Responds to her name

*Sitting up assisted

*Stands and bears weight on her legs

*Trying to cut a tooth

*Sleeping in a crib bed

*Tries to put paci in her mouth by herself

*"Talks" to you. Coos and Gagas

*Rolled over once- 

As I was telling the doctor that has not rolled,

 she almost rolled off the table.

The biggest Milestone is that Julia started Daycare:

This is after her first day...Pure Exhausted.

Dont you love the baby fat?

She lets me dress her like a doll!

Turning to see what big sister is doing

Little Sister.

Julia is such a joy and so happy. The girls are now obsessed with each other. It was a rocky start, but I see a great friendship forming. Julia follows Ela around with her eyes and  will spin her head to see what she is doing. Ela wants to kiss and hug Julia, play with her, and even occasionally try to pick her up. She also tells me that she prefers to call her "Jules" ,so I should too. 

A wish for my girls...

I am a BIG sister. We are 6.5 years apart. In the looks department we are complete opposite; myself brunette with brown eyes favoring my father, and her blonde hair with blue eyes favoring my mother. Ironically though, hear us talk or hear us laugh and we are just alike. When we were younger, we did not have much in common; when I was in middle school she was just starting Kindergarten. When I went to college, she was in middle school. And then one day it happened. She became my best friend. Not only did she become the person that knew me best, but we shared all of our secrets. She was the made of honor in my wedding, my child's godmother, and the person we both go to when we need a real honest reality check. Sure we have had our fights, but that is just because we are too much alike. 

This is my wish for my girls. I can only hope they love each other, and grow to be best friends. 

Having a sister is one of the best gifts a girl can get!

Finding the Room

Before I became a Mom of two, one of my worst fears was will I be able to love Julia as much as Ela. I love Ela SO much, so how could I possibly love another with the same passion?Along came Julia and instantly, my heart expanded how I never thought it would. Problem Solved. Its funny how all through I pregnancy, my type A went into overdrive and I planned it all out(or thought). The only problem is that I never realized how much would happen that I could not prepare for. How was I going to be able to share my love evenly? Did it even need to be 50/50 all time time?

At the beginning I tried my best to divide my time, not my love, for my two girls. It was very hard as Julia was a newborn and naturally needed more of Mommy. While Tomasz was around alot, and helped a ton, there are just some things that only a Mom can do. I heard/saw some of Ela's cries for attention, some much more entertaining than other. Let's just say she is REAL creative. Finally, once Julia started sleeping through the night and was not fussing all the time, I was able to devote time for Ela. I made her feel important, took her to get our nails done and have our breakfast. All was starting to get back to our normal life, ....that was until recently. Ela really started changing and I had no clue why. I could chalk most of it up to age. Who were we kidding? Being a "Threenager" gives the Terrible Two's a run for their money. Throw a new baby to the mix, and its a cocktail for a disaster(which requires Mom to have one too).. I  tried everything in the meantime; Positive Reinforcement, Punishment, Time out, revoking privileges. Nothing would work. I then got creative.

When we got engaged, Tomasz and I were gifted "The 5 Love Languages" by my Dad and Stepmom.  In all honesty,(sorry dad) I did not read it until we got back from our honeymoon. I was between jobs and finally had some time on my hands. This book had a huge impact on my life. Of course it better helped me understand my marriage, but it also applied to every relationship in my life.   If I had to guess, I would have thought Ela's love language would have been Words of Affirmation. I knew there was a Children's Edition and there could not have been a better time to read it. I started reading the book and really surprised myself.

I will not say that this book solved all of our challenges, nor will it in the future, but it gave me the ammunition I needed. Everything I thought I was doing right, was almost counterproductive for my little Ela whose love language is Quality Time. It started hitting home;the quantity of time did not mean anything to her if she was not getting the one on one attention she craved. The book disclaims, that it is hard to tell a young child's love language, however Ela was really good at giving me a clue. After having the Ipad privileges revoked for 3 days, when returning home I asked her if she wanted to play with the Ipad or have a picnic on the floor with me. She picked me, even over the Ipad! Duh Mom!

Lesson learned. The obvious isn't always the solution. 

New York City Bucket List

Living in NYC is something that I never imagined I would do. I grew up on Long Island and my family moved to Georgia in 1994, ironically the same year that Tomasz's family moved from New York to Georgia as well. To  make a long story short, we met on a plane, realized we did not live far from each other and started dating in 2008. In 2010 we got married, and decided to move back to New York. This was mostly for Tomasz's career as there are three airports within 30 miles of each other. Moving also really launched my career, as there were many new opportunities. Flash forward to June of 2010 and we were moving to Manhattan. When planning to move to New York we figured we would live on Long Island. I was unemployed and got a job within the first week I was seeking, in NYC. Yes a real high rise building! So off we packed our little truck and Ozzy and we moved. We lived in Manhattan for about 7 months before I could not take it anymore... We did have an AMAZING apartment, however it was not very kid friendly.

View from the Roof

Our living room

One day when we were out exploring, we walked the Brooklyn Bridge and Tomasz said he wanted to move to Brooklyn. Yeah Right I said. When I thought about Brooklyn, I thought of a not nice area and a JayZ music video. Boy was I wrong. I fell in love with Brooklyn Heights. If you watch Sex and the City and you hear Miranda refer to Brooklyn, this is where. So when Ela was 4 months old we made the move. It is the best of the suburbs in the city. There are strollers everywhere! In case you thought the same as I, here are some pictures. (Or you can follow me on Instagram where we are always on the GO)

Our Building

Ela in a NYC sunset

The promenade, a series of parks on the water.

One of the many streets of  beautiful Brownstones

Our favorite park on the water with a famous carousel

So now we are getting the itch to move again.Besides being in a small apartment, the girls are getting bigger and we want to get them settled into the school district we are going to end up in Long Island or Westchester. So with the horizons of moving in the future, I started thinking about things I want to do before we leave.

Tour the Brooklyn Brewery

Take a Riverboat Dinner Cruise around Manhattan

 Run a 5K- Now that I have committed to being  runner, I need to put it to the test.

 Ill start with a 5K. One with views of the city of course.

5/10/2014 Mother's Day Run

Visit the NYC Public Library- Weird Right?

See a Broadway show- In the 4 years since we have been here I have not seen a show!

 I was so close to seeing The Sound of Music on Broadway(from the reviews glad I missed it)

When we save for $250 a ticket Ill check this one off the list.

Continue to avoid Street Meat! Just Kidding, But really!

I heard its the best, but NO WAY!

I never dreamed that I would live in NYC and have had so much fun. Brooklyn Heights has been one of the best areas to have young children. Lots of children friendly things to do, parks every other block, stroller friendly neighborhood. Not to mention all of the great restaurants, shopping and things to do.  I look forward to moving and settling down in a house with a backyard, but I sure will miss city living!