Skirball

This last Thursday, after seeing many commercials on PBS for the Noah's Arc exhibit, we decided to visit the Skirball to see what it was all about. And we had a blast! Skirball is located only 2 miles north of the Getty, it is a Jewish cultural center that has a few art and history exhibits, as well as the Noah's Arc exhibit. The big animals are made from various recycled materials, and are very creative and cool. The best thing about this exhibit is that you can touch anything you can reach! The parking there is free, and Thursday is a free admission day! You do however have to go online and reserve the tickets beforehand, and you get to spend 2 hours inside from your reserved time.Andre loved the zebras, you can spin their torso parts and they make the clicking sound
The bathtub polar bearAndre sitting on the camel
They had a bunch of stuffed toys and puppets kids could just take and play with

There was also a scaled Noah's arc with the pairs of the miniature animals which kids could also take and arrange any way they wanted
By pushing on the lever, you could make the leaves blow up in the tubeAndre is hand pumping the water into the tank simulating the great flood
In one of the rooms they had a climbing structure which wrapped around the the perimeter of the room. I had to go up there with Andre, as it was a bit steep for him to come down on his own.A tight squeeze
This kid would not eat real broccoli, but I guess the fake one looks pretty appetizing.
There were a bunch of make pretend fruits and vegetables that you could gather up into the baskets and cook them over the fire.

They also do awesome story and music time. There is also a crafts room where kids can make their collages. It is pretty much guaranteed your kids will have a ton of fun.

Anyway, the conclusion is - if you are around - make sure you visit the exhibit! Andre loved the whole 2 hours and didn't want to leave. I think we'll have to make it a regular trip.

A bunch of random pictures

This is a post to keep our family updated with the new pictures of the kiddos.

So I think these are the only pictures other than the hospital ones of Harper and I. The truth is - I try to dodge out of the most pictures, since I am fat, but I am working on it, and hopefully soon I can appear on more photos :)
Andre loves to watch videos of himself. He can sit there for hours watching the same 4 minute video over and over. The other day he was watching one of him throwing the ball at Jeff when he was only 13 months old. He tried to mimic himself on the video and he was dying laughing, it was pretty entertaining to watch

Here is a cute picture of Andre putting on Jeff's hat

Jeff and Harper before church

Harper with his Grandma

I have no idea how I would survive without my Mom being here. Harper is a great baby, but sadly to say he is not much of a sleeper. He wakes up at night every 2 hours on the dot to eat (which takes him about 30 minutes) and usually doesn't go right back to sleep, so I get only about 1 hour of sleep in between the feedings, then at about 3 a.m. he decides that he doesn't want to go back to sleep, so I have to stay up with him for about 2 hours. So as you can tell it's been pretty rough. My Mom is so nice to take care of both kids in the morning so I can at least get another hour or two of uninterrupted sleep. I am already starting to worry and stress out about her leaving, hopefully we can train Harper to sleep by then - fingers crossed...

Puzzle

This is one of Andre's favorite things to do - put together the puzzle, my parents brought him from Ukraine. Not to be braggy or anything, but I think it's pretty amazing that a kid who is not even 2 yet, can put together a pretty complex 12-piece puzzle without any help.

Harper is 1 month old!

I cannot believe how fast the time flew by - Harper is already 1 month old. It seems that only yesterday I was at the hospital with him. I feel so blessed to have two such wonderful boys.Harper is starting to smile
I figured I should post some pictures with Andre:
One of Andre's favorite things to do is to play with his miniature animals, he knows almost all their names and the sounds they make
Does it seem like Andre is missing his mobile a bit too much?
Andre is teaching Harper to wave 'hello' (I am surprised Harper's hand didn't turn blue, Andre's got a deadly grip :)

Fun at the beach

Though Andre loves water, he's not that fond of the ocean, he doesn't like the waves all that much. So Andre could enjoy the water at the beach my parents bought him a kiddie pool.My Dad had to make at least 50 trips with Andre's little buckets to fill about 1/3 of the pool (note to self - take a bigger bucket next time)
Andre trying out the pool


He loved to have water poured on him
What a happy little guy Later he decided that he didn't want to sit inside the pool, but rather play outside. The favorite was filling the pool up with sand.

My artistic son

Despite all our efforts of hiding the crayons and having Andre use them under our supervision, this is what we found on the walls after Andre's nap last week.

I can't stop myself from taking pictures

There are a few reasons behind this: 1. I love my new camera - to make a long story short - Jeff decided to let Andre play with our old camera - you can figure out the rest :) 2. I feel like I should take as many pictures of Harper as I did of Andre - trying to be fair; 3. I think my boys are pretty cute.Every now and then Andre likes to come and sit/lay really close to Harper, upon which he exclaims "Mom - picture!"
Jeff and I are almost 100% sure Harper will have blue eyes - what happened to more dominant features? how do I get these blond, light-eyed kids?

At Harper's 3 week appointment Harper weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz (that's 12 oz on top of his birth weight) and measured at 21.5 in (grew a whole inch in 3 weeks!) - at this rate we will have a giant :).
Harper is great at holding up his head, he has been since birth (Jeff calls him Mr. Neckstong)
I think he's had enough of tummy time

Andre holding Harper and giving him loves, what a great big brother he is (except for when he doesn't want to hold Harper any longer, then we have to be ready to catch, as he says "All done!" and shoves Harper off of his lap :)

My cute boys

Andre was really excited about taking pictures with Harper

What a cute smile, unfortunately Harper was sneezing at the time

Andre holding Harper
'Loving' Harper a little too much?

Music Makers

Ever since we moved to LA, Andre and I have been going to the MusicMakers - a Mommy & Me music class for toddlers. Andre really enjoys the signing, marching, dancing - all of it. Unfortunately we finished up until the end of the summer, as a lot of people attending are moving or going away.


Andre sharing his instruments with me

Cute little Harper on our walkAs I had to walk to the class (which is very good for my pospartum fat body :) I thought I would take a picture of the pretty flowers.