Aaron's Story, as dictated to Ben tonight

Once upon a time, there was a little girl in the forest and she was looking for some ripe apples to give to her mommy. Then the big bad wolf approached the little girl. Then the little girl wanted to be sneaky and the little girl brought her dog with her when she was going to pick the apples, and then she asked the dog to throw rocks at the wolf, so the dog threw rocks at the wolf, and then the little girl threw a hatchet at the wolf's neck. And then the dog and the little girl lived happily ever after, with no disturbances when the mommy sent the little girl to pick the apples.

Chapter 2:

Then the big knight and the big hunter came and they were like, "oh, we should save that little girl from the big bad wolf." Then they saw a pack of wolves and they saw a pack of mountain lions, and then they tried to fight the wolves and the mountain lions, but the mountain lions were too ferocious. But then the other wolf that wasn't in the pack ate the girl in one gulp and then hunter with his little knife cut open the wolf's belly without poking the little girl. And then the pack of wolves and the mountain lions lived happily ever after with the hunter, and the knight, and the little girl, and the mommy, and the grandma.

Chapter 3:

The knight and the hunter and the pack of bears and mountain lions started to feel a kinda large shake underneath them. And then the trees started to sway and the houses started to spin and then what they decided to do is to go into the little girl's house and go underneath because they decided there was an earthquake and a tornado. Even the pack of wolves and the pack of bears and the pack of the mountain lions followed them with the little girl, and the hunter, and the knight. And then the bird started to get twirled up in the tornado. And after it was about to be sucked up into the tornado, it was too bright and the earthquake and the tornado got took away by the sun.Then they saw the news on the girl's TV down in the basement that the earthquake and tornado had gone away, and they said, "oh, let's go play football." So they went out to play football and they saw butterflies, and they saw birds, and they saw trees, and they had so much fun playing that they didn't notice a big crocodile was about to eat them. And then the pack of the bear and the lions and the wolves were not playing, and they said, "roar, try to get him." And then the crocodile swam away because it was scared and it started to rain. And they had a nice bath when they got home, and they went to sleep, and the next morning, even the pack of lions and bears and wolves did the same thing and they went out to play. And the pack of wolves and the packs of lions and the packs of bears took turns jumping over the river. And then they lived happily ever after.

The end.

Favorite Pastimes

Aaron's latest craze is playing chess. His first words in the morning when he comes into our room around 6:3o are, "Can we play chess?" He started watching the guys on the street play chess, then the main guy told Aaron that in the springtime he would sit down with him and teach him some moves. Aaron was excited, so as soon as we got home we took out the chess board and taught him how all the pieces move. He's been an addict ever since. Sometimes he likes to set the pieces up weird (he gets annoyed with all the pawns in the way-- I can't really blame him) but generally he plays by the rules. Actually, the one rule we can't seem to get him to follow is the idea of "check mate." He just wants to dive in and kill that king. And he'll do it as soon as he gets a chance, without announcing "check" first. He can be pretty tricky with that, especially since you're not expecting it.

Elliot's latest craze is "playing puzzles." He has a favorite jigsaw puzzle, Max and the wild things, that we have been doing two or three times a day. He can now put the wild things' faces and Max's whole body together by himself. He gets so excited, practically hyperventilating with giddiness, pointing out each part and saying, "Made it self! Made it a Max, made it a big yellow eyes, made it a sharp teeth."

Hot Chocolate for Sale

Aaron had the idea last week to set up a hot chocolate stand outside of our apartment. I kind of agreed that it would be a good idea "someday." Next thing I know, I overhear the following conversation:

Aaron: Elliot, do you like gum?
Elliot: Yeah.
Aaron: Well, the problem is that you don't have any money to buy gum. So if you want to have for gum, you have to get it.
Elliot: Oh.

I looked in and saw Aaron putting on Elliot's socks and shoes. So we made some hot chocolate and went out and sold it. Aaron put some of the dollars into Elliot's pocket, saying, "I told Elliot he could have some of the money." It was a success, so we did it again this week as well, this time with cookies. They've made over $20, which is theoretically going towards fishing supplies for our trip to North Carolina this summer.

Our friends Mara and Ava came and bought the last cup

Today's stand-- this time with optional Valentine sprinkles in your hot chocolate

Elliotism

Elliot's phrase for this week is "Because why?" He says it after most of our statements, especially when we have already provided a "because." It's like using the word "because" reminds him to ask, "Because why?" We're generally happy to provide explanations for our words and actions, but after the fourth or fifth "Because why?" it gets a little old.

Being Pregnant

I have to admit that I am very lucky when it comes to pregnancy and the general discomfort level involved. I don't find that pregnancy greatly compromises my everyday life. This is probably why I continue to think it's so funny to watch people treat me differently when they find out I am pregnant (or, in my case at this point in time, neglect to not ignore the basketball in my shirt). In fact, it usually takes me a minute to realize that they are reacting to the fact that I am pregnant. People ask me, "How are you feeling?" and I automatically think, "Was I sick the last time I saw this person?"

When I go to lift a small box, or a pile of books, or anything really, everyone around me jumps up and practically pushes me over in an attempt to save me from... well, from myself I guess. As far I have read and heard, there is no evidence that lifting can cause miscarriage (or anything more than a potential back injury, which is always an issue), so I just have to laugh. Right after I told one of my student's mom's that I was pregnant, she told her daughter to carry my cup of tea up the stairs for her. I couldn't figure out why she would suggest this at first (Have I tripped before? Is she afraid I'll spill on her nice carpet?) but then I realized she was just trying to help a pregnant lady out. Nice gesture, but certainly not necessary. What's funny to me, too, about the lifting issue is that nobody bats an eye when I lift one of my 40-pound kids up from the ground. Who would dare tell a mom not to lift her own child? But a cup of tea on the other hand...

Last week when I was at the gym, walking from the locker room to the elevator to go down to the pool, a coach saw me and said, "Be careful on the floor down there." I naively replied, "Oh, was there a spill or something?" He said something like, "No, just, you know, sometimes it's kind of slippery... be careful not to fall." I smiled and said thanks, I'll be careful. I guess he just wanted to make sure I was aware of the fact that I am over eight months pregnant, and pregnant ladies tend to have shotty balance, and our stomachs are so large that we can't see our feet. And pool rooms sometimes have water on the ground. In case I wasn't aware.

Working from Home

Ben has been working from home quite a bit lately. We've been experimenting with methods and trying to find the most effective one.

Some are less effective than others

Twinners!

(Well, if you ignore the size, age, hair, and the fact that one of these people is almost nine months pregnant... we're pretty close to looking exactly the same.)

NYC School Bus

Aaron has been taking the bus to and from school lately. He loved it at first; now he tolerates it. The bus picks up and drops off a few blocks from our house, right on Broadway. His is the last stop in the morning and the first in the afternoon. We call it the taxi bus.

Getting off the bus one afternoon

A Picture Taken by Elliot

Aunt Bonis!

Mom-Aaron "Date"

I ended up being gone a lot last week in the afternoons, which means that I only get to see Aaron in the mornings. We decided to have a "little date" all Thursday afternoon to spend some time together. I let him decide what we would do for the date. We started off with a trip to the bookstore where we browsed around a bit. Then we went down to the Natural History Museum. It turns out there's an ice skating rink on the roof of the museum, so we went there before going into the museum. I'm sure we were quite a sight-- a very pregnant lady and a five-year-old, stomping/sliding very slowly across the "ice" (which was actually just plastic with some kind of chemical on the top of it that makes it seem like ice). Aaron got pretty good at skating, but especially loved falling. We finished off our date with dinner at a Mexican restaurant, where we shared an order of chicken and steak fajitas. The waitress was very impressed with Aaron's eating skills, as he gobbled down chips and salsa and the fajitas. We finished the night off with an ice cream cone. We both had a great time.

The rink is called the "Polar Rink"