Two weekends ago both my sisters came to town to celebrate Maura's birthday. We had tons of fun eating, laughing, and playing board games. Safia especially enjoyed herself, being spoiled by both her aunties at the same time! Happy Birthday Aunt Maura! Thanks for visiting Auntie Ray Ray and Auntie Maures, some back soon!
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| Playing Cards with Auntie Ray |
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| Aunite Ray snuggles |
Aunite Maura snuggles
Playing with Aunite Maura
You'd think that we'd easily be able to get a picture of all four of us together . . . not as easy as it looks!
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Finally a nice one!
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| Reading with Iris |
Last week, I had a conference in New York, so Rube, Safia, and I all went for a mini (working) vacation. I had to work all day Friday so Rube and Safia and my mom adventured in the city. They went to the MOMA (The Museum of Modern Art). I am told that Safia preferred sculptures to other art forms, and when she really liked a piece she would talk to it (or talk about it, not sure which one) for a long while. On Saturday, we meet up with my Aunts, Uncles and Cousins at the Natural History Museum, where once again Safia was enthralled by all the exhibits. She especially liked the animals that she could walk up to and look at herself! It was so great to get to spend some good quality time with family and friends while we were in New York. Saturday night, Rube and I left Safia with my mom for the night and went out to dinner with my friend Amanda and my cousin Zach. We didn't stay out too late, we were in bed by 11:30, but we didn't set an alarm (why would we, Safia always wakes us up) but the next morning at 9:10 we were shocked that we had slept in so long . . . we didn't get to enjoy the bliss too long because I had to get to the conference and Rube had to meet friends for brunch on his way to the airport, but I had forgotten how rested you feel when you get nine hours of uninterrupted sleep! I think Safia is going to have to visit her grandparents more!
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| Dinner with Leo |
Rube and my mom left Sunday, but Safia and I stayed in New York/New Jersey until Wednesday. For the first half of the trip we stayed with my friend Amanda, for the second half of the trip we stayed with family friends. We had a great time hanging out, catching up, and playing with their amazing kids. On Tuesday Safia got to spend the morning with her Great Aunt Kathy and Uncle Richard while I worked, and then we headed to New Jersey to spend the night with Great Fish (my Aunt Trisha) and her family. It was a whirlwind trip, but lots of fun, and once again Safia proved herself to be a great traveller.
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| Playing with the big kids (Iris and Leo) |
Safia is getting more and more mobile. She has a cart of blocks she loves to push around. She actually likes to push around anything that she can, chairs seem to come in a close second to her cart. She is talking up a storm. Her intonation, inflections, and facial expressions indicate to us that she definitely is having a conversation, with who, we're not sure, and we have no idea what she's saying, but she sure does love to talk. She is finding other ways to communicate with us. She's mastered the baby sign for all done, she shakes her head "no" when she doesn't want something, and she claps when she's excited, which is often. When she claps she hits the palm of her left hand onto the back of her right hand, which is exceedingly cute. She still loves to eat, although she is getting more opinionated about what she wants to eat. She's started eating off our plates more, which has lead to such discoveries as she loves blue cheese. We still haven't found anything she doesn't like, hopefully this will continue!
