Happy Summer Vacation to Me!

Big City Mom is taking her first ever blog-cation and will be back in the fall. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my summer and take a break from blogging - and by enjoy I mean completing a inter-state move with three small kids and visiting my ailing father in the hospital. Anyway, I'll miss my usual blogifications but will look forward to posting again when things are a little more settled down.
In the meantime, read Edamames in the Pod. It's pretty much everything I'd want my blog to be, and more.
And have a happy summer!

We're Moving to the Garden State!

That's right, Big City Mom and her family are headed to New Jersey. Just when you thought we couldn't get any less Big City then living in Westchester, we really up our un-City-ness by moving to Jersey. (In terms of miles from Manhattan, the new house is about the same as our current one).

For those of you unaccustomed to finding out major Big City Mom news via Blog, my apologizes.

For those of you used to it, my apologizes just the same.

End of the School Year Melancholy

The end of the school year always makes me sad in a schmaltzy, sentimental way. Which is hilarious, since I tend to hate everything about my role in the kids schooling. I hate the driving back-n-forth in the ridiculous traffic and pick-up lines. I hate the whole being-on-a-schedule and must-be-on-time thing. I hate making lunch day in and day out. And most of all, I hate having to nag Molly to do her homework.

But with a mere few days left, it's as if I'm someone else. It's as if I loved everything about school. I can't believe tomorrow is my last Friday Volunteer day in Kelly's class! I can't believe Molly will never, ever bring home another first grade art project! And what I really can't believe is that this fall I will have a Kindergartner and a Second-grader.

I know this is hardly an original thought, but it is so true, they really do grow-up so fast.

Baby Aaron eats his first solid food.

That's right, at dinner tonight (technically, this afternoon - we dine early) Aaron ate his first solid food. I'd been meaning to give him something he could pick-up with his own little hands for a few weeks now, but hadn't gotten around to going to the store and getting him anything suitable for baby's first meal yet.

But today - finally - I had time to go to the local health food store and get him some nice low-salt Oatios for his first meal. Followed by gluten-free, sodium-free mini bears. Mmmm.

Eat-up baby, it only gets better from here.

I have a new blog.

It's called Random Handprints, and it's at http://randomhandprints.blogspot.com. I'll still be posting pictures of the kids and random stories here at BCM, but most of the blogging will now be at the new, non-geographical-specific Random Handprints address. Hope to see you there!

Big Day for the Kaby

Kelly gets her first library card!

It is also makes a nifty eye patch:
Or, if the mood strikes,

An equally adorable ear patch:

Happy Lag B'omer! Happy Birthday Jewish Mysticism!

For those of you who are not familiar with this (very fun) Jewish holiday, it was yesterday. Lag B'omer commemorates the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, and is also known as the birthday of Jewish mysticism.


To celebrate, we went to a really great party hosted by the local Chabad chapter here in Larchmont. We jumped in the bouncy castle, ate yummy barbecue, sang songs, shot bows n' arrows (a Lag B'omer tradition, who knew?) and flew kites.

The best part, besides seeing lots of friends and hearing updates about many of our beloved morahs at the Chabad Early Learning Center, was watching Molly stick to the giant velcro wall:

For those who are interested in learning more about the holiday, here is info from the Chabad.org website:

Lag B'omer is the thirty-third day of the Omer, a minor festival falling between Passover and Shavuot, commemorating the end of a plague which killed thousands of Rabbi Akiva’s students; also the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the Zohar.

If you don't know what the The Omer Count is, click here and all will be revealed.