The Newest Member of our Family

Welcome to the newest member of the Barkoudah family!

We decided to sell Abe's car when he moved up here to Boston for several reasons.  Since Boston has such good public transportation, we've relied on this heavily.  However, since the arrival of Izzy we've found being a only one car family can be troublesome.  It hasn't been that big of an issue this past year given my work schedule.  This year is a whole other story.  So we decided it was time to have a 2nd car.  Hondas have always been good to us so we decided to be a loyal customer.  We decided to get a CR-V due to the snow issues up here.  Abe was pretty excited that it wasn't a minivan….. yet!  And since we have street parking in a city where people don't care if they ding or scratch your car, we decided to buy a used car.  We were lucky to find this one this past weekend.  It's a 2009 and only has ~15,000 miles on it.  And thanks to Abe's negotiating skills, it came at a good price as well.  You may ask, what's going to happen to our other car…. with a tear & sniffle, she is being handed over to Abe.  The CR-V is for Izzy and mommy :-)

Adventures at the Barkoudah House

Our lives have been significantly busier since Izzy was introduced.  However, now that Uncle Wael is here, there is a never ending list of things or adventures available to us.  Here is what we've been up to recently.

Here we have a demonstration of brotherly love.  A good tennis match Wii style between the two Barkoudah boys.  It was fun to watch their dynamic.

It has been the 90s up here in Boston for the past few weeks.  This year we decided to be pro-active and install our 2 window air conditioners earlier.  They do a pretty good job keeping our place comfortable.  That is unless Clay sits and blocks all the cool air!

Live with Izzy is always entertaining.  When left to her own entertainment, she decided to investigate her clothing drawers.  She absolutely loves her grocery cart so much that the wheels started to fall off.

To get a break from the heat, we took Izzy to one of the many "cooling centers" here in Boston.  They are free and manned by life guards.  It is a truly nice thing that the city of Boston provides.

See how well I can walk with help!  I spent the whole time in the water walking.  Crawling if for babies!

On the way back from the cooling center, one of the more popular children's stores was having a sidewalk sale.  So we stopped and found this kitchen set.  Uncle Wael and I put this together while Izzy took a nap.  When she awoke, she enjoyed playing with Uncle Wael, making him some good food!

Uncle Wael is here!

Uncle Wael came to visit us this past Wednesday while taking time to study for the USMLE Step 3 (the 3rd portion of the US Medical Licensing Exam).  Since arriving, Izzy has enjoyed his presence.  He is so good with her always taking time to play on the floor.  She's even reached for him before daddy!  This weekend, we headed out to the NE Aquarium but stopped on the way in Quincy Market.  Since its summer, they recently installed a carousel.  This was Izzy's 1st ride.  She got excited when the horse would go up & down and wasn't the least bit scared.

Like any good tourist spot, Quincy market has all sorts of thing to do beside eat and shop.  We saw some street dance performers and those people who look like statues.  We also saw this woman who was making ballon shapes.  So we asked for a pink dog.  Izzy loved it.  I was amazed that it did not pop the whole time even though she was biting it.  It's still "alive" and in our living room ready for another day.

Boston Children's Museum

The Boston Children's Museum has always been something I've heard about but never have gone.  Why should I… there was never a reason.  However, now with Izzy we finally decided to go.  With a 3 day weekend our living room can get pretty dull for her.  And since it was going to be 95 degree we thought it best to go someplace cooler despite our pitiful window air conditioners.  It was such a wonderful experience that we are now card carrying members planning on getting our use especially in the winter months this year.  This would also be a place I would recommend to anyone visiting Boston with children.

The museum is set up with many different sections.  There is one in particular that is dedicated to those 3 years and younger.  Here, there is also a section just for crawlers.  Izzy & I spent most of our time here as it was padded everywhere and so fun to fall down without hurting oneself.  On the left is a pit they can fall into filled with water… kinda like a water bed.  Not her favorite but funny to see her try to navigate out of it.  One the right was a saucer that spun around.  She would always scamper to this and then turn around to make sure I was watching.

In the main room, there were several divided areas.  This one was the house section.  Izzy loves opening & shutting things so I thought it might be a hit.  And sure enough it was.

You may think that toy train sets are only for boys.  And you would be right today as only little boys were playing with it.  However, that didn't stop Izzy from taking up a spot.  Luckily most of the boys gave her parts of trains to play with and stayed out of her way as she cruised around the set-up.

Izzy spent some time here cruising back-n-forth between these two dolls.  I try to imagine that she has some script that she was playing with them.  When the words come it will be fun to see what's in that brain of hers.

We had to wait our turn for this one as many of the kids wanted to drive the car.  You could turn the wheel and a song would play that was very catchy.  Looks like she likes sporty red cars… hint, hint daddy!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July America!  Last year, Abe, Teta, Izzy (only a few weeks old) and myself made the journey down to the Charles River to watch (I should say listen b/c with the crowd we couldn't see a thing) the Boston Pops & Neil Diamond followed by the fireworks.  Never again will I drag a stroller down with me into something that large.  So this year I decided to do something during the day.  Because we live in the heart of where this all started, there are never ending choices of things to do.  Of the 2 major holidays that Abe has to work, today was one of them.  So we let him sleep as he works overnight and Izzy & I headed to the Old Sturbridge Village.  This is a village set in New England between 1780-1840.  It was much larger than I imagined even after looking at it on-line.  We spent ~3hrs there and never left the common area.  I guess that means we'll be heading back along with Abe to enjoy the rest.  I hear the rebels will be camping out there in ~1 month :-) 

These are just a few of the pics that I was able to capture of the Old Sturbridge Village.  On the left is the back of one of their barns with plenty of animals for Izzy to point & squeal at including sheep, turkeys and Kevin the rooster.  One day all those "what does a ____ say" will be coming out of her mouth.  But not today.  On the right were these 2 boys who had some rowdy cows but fun to watch.

At the end of the commons was the Town Meetinghouse.  Here they erected a large Declaration of Independence complete with the original signers.  We were able to sign this as well.  So now there is a "Izzy Barkoudah" on this document.

Throughout the day they had events going; some that occur on a daily basis and some special to the 4th of July.  This one was a demonstration of a shadow puppet show.  I know, sounds a bit boring but it was super funny.  The gentleman had a way with the crowd.

Izzy enjoying the puppet show with mommy.

We decided to take a break and sat to have some snack on the commons.  We bought some fresh chocolate chip cookies which Izzy ate almost all of.  I guess she inherited the Bures sweet tooth.  However, she did eat all her peas that I packed which is still a huge favorite of hers.

At some point the town villagers gathered for a march around the commons accompanied by traditional revolutionary flute & drum music (played by the men in red).

One of the drummers stopped to pose with Izzy & I.

Rereading of the Declaration of Independence.  It was somewhat moving as he had so much emotion in reading it (partially because he's playing someone who lived back then) and the random cheers the crowd gave.  It is great to be in New England for these type of things.

Firing of the guns after the Declaration of Independence was read.  There were 3 shots in total.  You can imagine how long this took as they had to reload after each shot.  Izzy wasn't even phased by the first 2 but then broke out in crying at the 3rd.  Nothing a bit of chocolate chip cookie couldn't fix!

What would the 4th of July be without ice cream!  After returning home, we grabbed Abe and headed down to one of our favorties… JP Licks.  We live a total of 1.5 blocks away from this place which wasn't the best when I was pregnant.  I loved how they were putting on red, white & blue sprinkles.  What a nice way to end the day :-)  I may even stay up to watch the Boston Pops on TV.  Hope everyone else has a great 4th!

Fishies!

Since the new Blogger is now allowing videos to be uploaded again, I thought I'd share the video of Izzy and the fishes when we were in Montreal.  Thanks to Oma, she now makes this sound when we see fish or talk of fish.  Enjoy!

As usual, you have to go to our blog itself to view the video.  It works.  I tested it out myself :-)