Elmo, Big Bird, I Coming!

On Friday Sarah and I went out and enjoyed an evening without the children. We started with a lovely dinner on a cozy couch at the Iron Bridge Wine Company. After sampling a number of tasty red wines, enjoying the cuisine, and finishing it off with a nice dessert, we did what any sophisticated 30-something couple would do for a nightcap. Yep, we saw Hangover Part II. As was the first movie, it was funny but over the top and not meant for the easily offended crowd.

So let's see, what does a couple who enjoys both sophisticated dinners and raunchy movies do for the weekend. By the title of the blog you might have guessed it has something to do with Sesame Street. But why settle for watching the characters on TV when you can get wet and wild with them at a Sesame street themed water park just outside of Philadelphia. Technically the park is closer to Trenton, NJ, which is nice because we were forced to drive through Delaware, Penn., and NJ doubling Tyler's state count to 6 (see counter on the right for details of his state visits). Anyway, we prepped Claire for what she was about to see and as we drew closer she could barely contain her excitement. And then, after a fairly easy 2.5 hour drive, we arrived in the parking lot. Its hard to imagine a toddler who doesn't get excited about everything, but its equally hard to imagine it possible for a toddler to be as excited as Claire was when we arrived. After all, the only idols that her young mind has ever had (besides her parents of course) were a few shorts jumps away. So, as we were getting Tyler out of the car along with all the other parents in the parking lot, Claire, no longer able to contain herself, let out a tremendous "Elmo, Big Bird, I coming!" roar that echoed off the surronding minivans. Parents laughed and children cried (they were already crying for various other reasons, but it makes the sentence sound better.

Lucky for Claire, she didn't have to wait any longer and we began walking toward the park. As a funny aside as we were leaving the parking lot and about to go into the park, another delirously excited parent decided she couldn't wait in line to pay and park her car and drove into the parking lot through the exit. You know, the exits with the big signs that say "Danger, Severe Tire Damage. Do not Enter". What's very interesting about this, is none of us had ever seen this happen before and I assumed that the car would basically be disabled on the spot and require a tow. But in actuality, the woman was able to back her car back over the spikes (the correct way this time) and drive away. Her tires didn't look deflated, but there was a definite loud boom when her car initially crossed the spikes.

As I usually do with my blog posts, I've strayed from the point.... After entering the park, the next 7 and a half hours were a full on action packed blur filled with watery playgyms, cookie monster towers, bouncy mats, tidal pools, lazy rivers, intertubes, carnival games, giant rope structures, water slides, hot air balloon rides carousels, food, and of course all of the loveable characters from Sesame Street. Claire enjoyed all of this, but her favorite part was meeting all the characters. She never warmed up to the 9 foot tall Big Bird, but she gave hugs and kisses to everyone else. Amazingly she was keeping a mental list of who she'd seen and after seeing Big Bird, Elmo, Oscar, Grover, Bert, Ernie, Zoe, and the Count, she was very adamant about seeing Cookie Monster and Abby. It was at this point that we found out that Cookie and Abby were not coming out again for photos and this almost broke Claire's little heart. However, we were saved by perhaps the best part of the day, the Sesame Street parade.
It didn't start until 9pm which is long past Claire's and every other toddler in the park's bedtime. However, none of them were crying, none were fussing, they were all sitting patiently cross-legged along the streets of a replicated Sesame Street lined with authentic looking Sesame Street buildings. At precisely 9pm, the street quickly became filled with lights, giant floats, music, singing and dancing animals and humans and seeing it was worth every penny of the $58 a person admission. Every single character, including Cookie and Abby came out on a float and even Tyler could hardly contain his excitement. His eyes widened and he laughed hysterically as we all enjoyed the wonderful parade. Claire tried desperately to get Cookie's attention, but the sounds of the parade easily drowned out a little girls "Hi Cookie!" calls.

Ah what a day. And you know the best part... the tickets are good for two days and we can use them anytime between now and October. But don't tell Claire, as we want it to be a surprise!

Cousins at the Pool

Alex and Claire:
















Tyler and Helen:

New blog title

Can you guess what we do ALOT of these days? Yes, the ever popular "time out" is our chosen method of discipline and it has become something of a daily ritual, like hand washing or picking up toys. Thankfully Claire despises "time outs" and they are rather effective for us, despite the frequent need of them. Hopefully we will survive these toddler years and get to the happy ending of our story sooner than later.

Whew, can you tell today was one of our "rough" days? : )

Getting the job done

Claire is using her potty regularly for her number ones these days, which makes us ecstatic. Here she is holding her first completed potty chart (she gets a sticker for each deed, and a hershey kiss when she completes a row):

Alas, her number twos must be seriously comfortable for her in her diapers, because she isn't making ANY attempts to deposit them in the potty. Wish us luck with that.

Do you love pictures?

We do.

Here are some duper super ones:

In other news from the Sivitz household:

Claire:

-- Recently announced her favorite letters are "K" and "E"

-- Has gone pee pee on the potty 22 times in the last 9 days!

-- Has gone poo poo on the potty 0 times in the last 9 days

-- Now correctly identifies 50% of people by their gender

Tyler:

-- Has figured out that his fist fits in his mouth.

-- Enjoys jumping in his jumperoo.

-- Still has never eaten anything but milk.

Mommy + Daddy:

-- Enjoy spending time with the children

-- Also enjoy when the children go to bed

Richmond

We went to Richmond. It was like 4 weeks ago but we just now got around to posting about it. Why did we go there you ask? Was it just to go to Virginia so Tyler would reach his 3rd state (He's previously been to Maryland and California)? Nope. Was it so we could drive on a crowded interstate on a holiday weekend? Nope. It was because Claire and Tyler's Second Cousin once removed was getting married. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Super Tyler!

We need to get this kid some red and blue spandex, and a cape. 12 weeks old and strong, like bull.

Toddler conversation

Somebody pinch me, I'm dreaming! Both kids are sleeping at this moment. Guess what I'm doing instead of napping (the most logical thing to do)? Watching videos of the kids! Yup, I have a problem.

Pic of the week

Hmm, I guess our little ones DO look pretty similar after all. (I initially thought Tyler looked quite different from Claire as a baby.) It's as if they're related or something!

We flew to California last week for a get-away while it was raining buckets in Maryland. Unfortunately, I came down with a sinus infection, lost my hearing for 3 days, and stayed cooped up in the hotel with the kids for part of our stay. We still got to meet up with some friends which was nice, but boy was I happy to come home! Our apologies to all the folks in the bay area that we did not have time to see. Hopefully we'll make it out there again soon, and without the sickness.

One of the highlights of our flight home (besides Claire's amazing tantrums): we got completely chewed out by a flight attendant for changing Tyler's wet diaper on the seats in our row. There weren't any changing stations in the restrooms, so we figured it would be ok to do this since we were dealing with just a wet diaper versus a poopy one, plus Tyler is a particularly fidgety infant. Apparently this was a BIG no no. The flight attendant was concerned that our baby might pee on other passengers. She said we should balance him on our lap in the bathroom and change him. So. Now you all know!

Who says I don't have help at home?

Me: "Hey Claire, do you want to feed Tyler his bottle?"
Claire: "Ok ok! I do it Mommy! No Mommy, Claire do it!"

and this is Claire feeding her brother...

How lucky are we to have such an enthusiastic big sister for our infant son? Good times.

New additions

First there was the new fridge. Then there was the new baby. Now, there is a new....drumroll...gas grill! We don't mean for this to detract from any of the baby excitement, but you gotta admit it is pretty exciting!

That's right, our deck isn't even finished yet (staining is 60% completed) but we're jumping the gun and going ahead and outfitting it. Does anybody want to come visit and do the staining for us? We'll bbq some meat for you...

Get your Tyler fix here

ah goo ah goo

Hanging out with the kids...my goal is to get a decent video of Tyler cooing. He's been "talking" up a storm lately but whenever I pull out the video camera he gets shy. I'm glad at least that his sister is willing to put on a show for the camera, otherwise these would be awfully boring clips.

Tyler at week 6

Here's a few quick shots of the past week. Tyler is still a happy, bubbly baby and we probably have Claire to thank for that as she is endlessly working to entertain him. She's been playing the harmonica and dancing circles around him! Never a quiet moment in the Sivitz household anymore.

In other news, Tyler is now the size of Claire's puppy doll, whom she has aptly named "doggy".

5 weeks old: Mr. Smiley

With each passing week Tyler is getting more and more social. He is rewarding us with smiles all day long! Claire didn't smile consistently until she was two months old, and this makes me wonder if perhaps she wasn't happy with our performance as first-time parents. Or perhaps Tyler has more to smile about since he has a VERY entertaining big sister on hand. Either way, I am pleased that I'm able to catch these early smiles on camera.

"Shhhhh animals in there!"

The first exhibit we saw at the Baltimore zoo yesterday were the snowy owls. The sign outside their habitat read "Shhhh! We are sensitive to loud noise." After conveying this message to Claire, she took it to heart and for the remainder of the day she reminded me and Grandma Karen that animals need quiet. In fact, she vigorously shushed me when I attempted to speak to her in the chimpanzee house. This was all very funny, coming from such a loud-spoken toddler!

3 weeks old

We're getting into a groove here in the Sivitz household, and it feels like Tyler has been with us alot longer than just 3 weeks. I've lost track of how many times I've been "baptized" by Tyler during diaper changes, and I swear he has a special way of cooing when he sees me. This kid is an amazing listener. His expression is one of rapt attention and he spoils us with smiles all the time! We can't wait to see what he has in store for us with each passing week. Alas we still don't have a decent family photo yet, but you can print out some of the following photos and then cut and paste them together to make your own version.