Sarina’s World

This week was rough since I had a stomach virus. Every time I pick up Sarina she says to me “Where are we going today momma, who are we going to see?” So it’s been hard just to bring her home. Although she didn’t mind watching Max and Ruby! On Sunday after I felt better we went to the Bronx Zoo. Sarina was terrified of the rhinoceros and she didn’t want to get too close even though she was on Bryan’s shoulders. Then after we left the rhino area Sarina said that she wants to be an animal doctor even though she is afraid of rhinos. It’s so funny that Sarina wants to be an animal doctor because she is terrified of dogs. Even the little dogs that wear funny sweaters and are harmless. She veers away from them and starts to scream in pet stores. We went to the pet store to give her tdedaka to the cats that were up for adoption and she was screaming because of all the dogs waiting to get groomed! She isn’t afraid of lizards, mice, or cats, but dogs, yes. Sarina loved the zoo. She went on the bug carousel and didn’t want anyone to hold onto her! She also likes to stand on the subway and not have me hold her either. We went to as many exhibits as we could-some of them were closed because of the cold weather. Sarina seemed to like the monkeys and the turtles.

Sarina still asks us all the time if we are happy and tells us that she likes our voice. Sarina was so happy when Bryan slept in her room the week that I was sick. She would ask Bryan-Daddy, are you gonna sleep on the lower bed tonight? I took Sarina to ice cream one warm day last week and we went to Dunkin Donuts. She said, momma, if they run out of ice cream we’ll get donuts. And if they run out of donuts we’ll get egg sandwiches.” She is too funny. When Bryan takes her to school sometimes they stop at Dunkin Donuts and Sarina gets an egg wrap. She loves eggs. She used to eat everything but lately has been picky for some reason.

Last week Sarina had a playdate with someone from her school whose name is Chaya. Sarina calls her the Little Chaya since her teacher is named Morah Chaya. Sarina had a blast. She didn’t want to leave when I came to pick her up. She was eating apples and running around and asking me if people could come to our place even though it’s two subways aaway. I invited Laura over the following night-she lives across the street. Sarina was so happy to have someone over and wanted to show Laura all of her dress up clothes. But Sarina wanted me to hide the red dress that Bryan got for her since “Daddy got this for me and it’s special.”

We did the same thing this New Year’s as we did last New Year’s-eat Chinese food! But this year we actually went out to a restaurant. We were in Rhode Island for the weekend. We went to Chinese, walked along the beach and went out for brunch too. Sarina was so happy to walk along the beach and collect shells. We got there right when some people were doing the polar bear plunge and running into the water! Sarina loves going to RI. She asked if maybe nana and poppy could take our house and we could take theirs! I am sure that they would love that one, haha.

After the weekend I took Sarina to the Central Park zoo. She liked seeing the penguins. She is still afraid of feeding the petting zoo animals and drops the food on the floor. I ask her-how do you want to go, bus, train, taxi or car. And she always says bus-she is a city girl! We also started swimming. This time I don’t get in the water, it’s fantastic. Sarina gets right in and I have to watch from outside the pool area. She looks for me the whole time and blows me kisses. It’s the best. But she chats with the kids sitting next to her at the pool area and she goes in with the instructor, she is getting a lot better.
Sarina was anxious to go back to school. She loves it there. She still loves karate and is learning her letters too. She is getting so much better at recognizing letters and numbers. She even knows some Hebrew letters. I picked her up the other day and she said “I made a baby mosie.” She was talking about Baby Moses in the basket. Apparently they called it Moshe, or Moishe. She likes when they have a shabbat party bec she has pizza and she makes challah. She also enjoys playing with the babies there (the dolls) and taking them shopping or taking good care of them if they are sick. She is gentle and thoughtful with them just like she is with her paticos and other stuffed animals at home. She likes to take the paticos in the stroller and will buckle them in and ride them around the apartment. Then she will put cream on her dolls and attend to them. Sarina will “sometimes” be friendly to zeke, especially if she is trying to impress me. Otherwise she still gets jealous and says “give me a hug” if I come home and hug Zeke.

Sarina’s Chanuka started off with a party thrown by her school. We went to the City Hall restaurant and downstairs, were about 6 tables with activities. Sarina got a glitter tattoo, made a tshirt, and saw a puppet show! We lit the menora later on that night at home. Sarina made her own menora, her own dreidel, an apron (i guess to help me make latkes) and some other stuff. She had a card of herself holding a shield where she wrote the word the maccabees. She can write letters now! It’s amazing. Anyway Sarina was running around with her friends. They were so excited to see Sarina. She has so many friends at school. My mom came to the party too and brought Sarina all sorts of Hello Kitty clothes. Sarina sings so many Chanuka songs, some that I know and some that I have never heard of! She enjoys singing and pretty much sings every day on the subway. She makes up songs about everything, usually about her momma and daddy. The people on the subway always smile when she sings and they tell me that it makes them happy to hear her sing.

Speaking of Hello Kitty, Sarina insists on at least one item of her daily clothing be a hello kitty something. She also insists on pink, but if it’s a hello kitty item, then it doesn’t matter what color it is. I really don’t know where this came from!

Sarina had a good time at Nana and Poppy’s for Christmas. We lit the menora and Sarina and Avery ran around together. We played the game don’t tip the waiter-Sarina was really good at balancing stuff! Sarina was following around Uncle David and said to him “I am going to follow you around.” She was going to get in the car with him and run an errand-and she hadn’t even seen him in a year!

Sarina slept in the same bed as me and was so elated that we slept in a “high bed.” She liked watching tv with Poppy on the couch and jumping all over him. She also liked getting eggs for breakfast with crunchy toast (and butter).

We have been busy with Sarina on the weekends lately. We took her to see a kids opera at the Amore Opera company-Hansel and Gretel. She was entranced and didn’t want it to end! I thought that she would be frustrated since even I couldn’t understand half of the words (it was all singing), but she loved it. She walked around the city with her unicorn hat. Of course it’s pink-everything is pink or hello kitty (or both) these days. Sarina has meltdowns in the mornings when it’s time to get dressed and I tell her that she can’t wear the same pink pants that she wants to wear, etc. I took her to the store to buy her two new pairs of pants and told her to pick them out. Meanwhile we went to put one on the other day and she refused! They are not comfortable, she says.

Sarina is so funny, just the way that she expresses herself. Like she says “that’s ok” if I tell her not to do something and she does it anything and says that’s ok or just a little bit or one more. Like she knows best. And then the other morning I went to wake her up and she said “no, i want to stay sleeping.” And then I said you can rest at school during nap time, and then she replied that she was going to rest now instead!

Sarina loves taking the subway with me in the mornings. She always asks me, momma are you happy? And I will say yes, or yes, but I am still irritated at the subway. She said to me this morning that I am beautiful when I smile and that she likes when I smile because she knows that I am happy. She always wants to make sure that I am happy. She also likes to watch tv with Bryan because that means that he is home. She says I want to be a good listener because then Daddy will be happy and I can watch Tv with him and he will be home. She asked me if I was a good swimmer when I was her age. She is obviously concerned because I keep telling her how she has to learn how to swim. We are signing up for more classes after the new year.

Sarina always asks me about a nativity scene on the way to work and now every time we pass by she says that’s baby jesus.
Speaking of babies, we were at a play gym and Sarina said to me that she was going to let the baby go first (who was on the trampoline). She is so thoughtful! Her teachers told me that she plays with all of the other kids in the class and that they encouraged the parents to call me for play dates since Sarina is always so happy and sweet., They told me that if she is playing with a toy and she sees that another child wants to play with it she will hurry up so that the child doesn’t have to wait. She also does not form cliques and invites all the kids to play with her. They love having her in the class.

Sarina went in the closet and told me to wait for her and she would come out and start a show. Then she emerged and started singing her own songs, made up of chanuka songs, and talking about everything from pink lipstick to people in her class. She loves to sing, and will sometimes sing on the subway too and everyone looks and smiles and says things like ” at least someone is happy.”

I went to Sarina’s school for her Thanksgiving party. I read the kids a story. Sarina was so happy that I was there and kept saying “mam”, looking at me, holding my hand and smiling the whole time. She had a turkey sandwich and the class baked pumpkin pies. They were so well behaved–sat there and got dismissed one by one to throw out their trash. I was so impressed.

We had a very busy Thanksgiving. I took Sarina to the Queens Zoo on Thanksgiving day and we stayed home for dinner. She helped me cook a pumpkin pie. Sarina still loves to help me cook and will pull up a chair. Then we went to Pat and Ken’s. Sarina enjoyed playing outside with Avery. The two of them played nicely together and didn’t ignore Quinn too much! Then we went to see my parents. Sarina had a blast with Sophie. She kept saying how she liked playing with Sophie because Sophie was being so nice to her. Sophie would give Sarina the crayons that Sarina wanted and if Sarina wanted to wear a certain costume that Sophie had, Sophie would give Sarina the costume and be “the bigger person.” It was so sweet. They played on the driveway and made up names for eachother. Seneca was Sarina’s made up name. Sarina was drawing and pretending and the two of them were so funny together. The three cousins ate lunch together in the kitchen while the adults were in the dining room. Sarina loved the turkey-she likes grown up food! She is still a big “foodie” and will eat tofu, sushi and salmon teriyaki.

We went to Maine for the long Veteran’s Day weekend. We flew 45 minutes to Portland. Sarina loved the small plane, Bryan and I didn’t! Anyway we landed in Portland and walked around. We went to a coffee shop and Sarina was so happy, and was friendly to the customers. We try to teach her not to talk to strangers but so many people are always talking to her and asking her questions, especially on the subway. Some people, like at the bank, even offer her lollipops and other stuff. It’s hard to say don’t talk to anyone you don’t know and then we respond to people.
So Bryan took Sarina to an Etruscan restaurant while I rested and then we all went shopping together and went to eat. We sat on couches while we ate a delicious dinner and Sarina was so happy to be with us. She was a good girl and just wanted to be at the grown up restaurant. She slept in the cot and it took a lot of begging, since she would prefer to sleep in a double bed with me, practically on top of me, so that I don’t even sleep. Sarina is small but she manages to take up the whole bed!

We took a ferry to Chebequae Island the next morning. We can’t remember if Sarina had been on a ferry lately. When she was 4 months old we took her to Block Island but we couldn’t remember another boat. She wanted to go outside even though it was cold and look around. The islands were gorgeous, pine trees and rocky, sandy beaches. We landed and Jimmy and Aunt Rosanne picked us up. We went back to their house where Sarina was in heaven-she could walk out to the beach, she had toys to play with and food to eat! ANd then Julie came to visit at night and played with Sarina. Rosanne got Sarina some coloring sheets that were Lion King-Sarina LOVES that movie. She has literally watched it at least ten times and would watch it again. She also got to watch some movies there and read books. We walked around the beach, collected sea glass and just relaxed. We got pampered there! Sarina had a good time and was sad when we had to take the ferry back to get to the airport. She said she likes Maine!

Sarina has an opinion on everything. And even if you think she isn’t listening, she is, and will respond to something when you least expect it. LIke if I say to Rosanne that Sarina likes to sleep in the same bed with me when we go away, Sarina would pipe in and say “MOmma you gonna sleep with me tonight?”

Sarina made cookies and emailed me them afterwards. She also is getting better with her r’s but still sometimes will not pronounce them all the way like wata. Sarina asks me questions all the time and will copy some noises and words and its hilarious. SHe knows that she is being funny and she really has a good sense of humor and seems to understand jokes. She really enjoyed a puppet show at a recent birthday party and she is social but also has to make sure that I am watching her. Except if it’s a big kid and she is in her home for example, and she will say “go momma.”

We had a crazy busy Halloween this year! First we went to back to Magic Beans for a party. Sarina drew on a beautiful mural and got her picture taken with me. We also caught up with some old friends-she still talks about Juliette even though they don’t go to school together anymore. Then on Saturday, there was a freak snowstorm! We went to see the Berenstain Bears musical. Sarina looks kind of bored in the pictures but she really liked it. She said that she liked how the brother and sister slept in bunk beds and she understood that brother was sick and couldn’t go to soccer practice. It was a real musical! Bryan took Sarina to a Halloween themed music class and then in the afternoon we went to a party in park slope. It was cold but that didn’t stop sarina from having fun. She ate veggie sticks (not the actual vegetables, but the chip kind) and played with Petra. She was running away from baby Zane, who was dressed up like a dinosaur. She was so happy. Then on Monday, I took Sarina trick or treating around the neighborhood with some friends. It was wild! The area where we went had so many decorated houses and so many kids. We had to wait in line sometimes with 15 kids to get candy. There were so many kids and Sarina was running after her friends. It was dark though and hard to see her so we left early. She had the best time and has been eating one candy a night after dinner.

Sarina is hilarious-she just says the funniest things and has such a good sense of humor. Like if she is standing on something and I say Sarina be careful you don’t fall, she says “I wouldn’t momma. I wouldn’t fall.” Not like OK i will get down. She asks me so many questions and always wants to know what we are “doing next and who we will see today.” She likes to know what we are doing for the day and who will be taking her where. Like is momma or daddy taking me? She was so happy when I told her that the weekend was coming and I said you will see just mommy and daddy all weekend and no school. And then she said “yay, no babysitters!” She was fine though, when we had dinner plans the other night and had to get a bbsitter. We just plied her with lion king. She is sort of obsessed with that movie for some reason and can watch it 15 times without being bored!

Sarina picks out her clothes and if she doesn’t like something she says that it’s not beautiful or it doesn’t make her look like a princess. She does know that it doesn’t matter what she wears, that she is always beautiful. But that doesn’t stop her from only wanting to wear pink and put on her “lipstick” (chapstick). She calls herself a big girl and lately has been telling us how she and zeke will go on adventures without mommy or daddy around. I wonder if she thinks that zeke is her brother? Anyway she has lots of zeke tales.

Sarina went to my parents’ place the Tuesday before Rosh Hashana because she was off of school on Wednesday. She had a blast. When I called she got on the phone and was telling me how my mom bought her new shoes because the ones I got her were too small. She went to IHOP and rode a bike with training wheels on the driveway. She ran around the house and helped with Maxwell the turtle. She slept in the king size bed with my mom. She really had a lot of fun. On Wed night Sophie and Alex came and all of them played and had dinner. We got there late Wed night. When we woke up on Thurs, all Sarina wanted to do was play with Sophie. She didn’t even want to eat breakfast (which is unusual for her). As soon as Sophie said she would eat a muffin, then Sarina wanted some! We got dressed and went to synagogue. Sarina heard the shofar and then we went to the kids service. We did tashlich in the afternoon by spice bush swamp. Sarina knows more than me already-she told me how the bunnies throw away their mistakes and she also made jello with swedish fish inside. She had a picture frame with Rosh Hashana stuff, a shofar that she made with construction paper, a new years card and a honey dish. The school sends me so many detailed things and pictures, it’s great. She also sang songs about hashem and about rosh hashana and honey. She was singing a song yesterday about showing respect. She loves to sing and hum.

Anyway so we all had fun on Rosh Hashana. The kids all took a bath together, watched tv together on the couch and ran around. Sarina got a fever though, so she wasn’t feeling well one night. Then the fever continued til Saturday. She was fine Sunday and I took her to music class. She doesn’t do much in the class but then when we leave she says “that was fun, can we go back?” By not doing much I mean she doesn’t sing along and when the instruments come out she doesn’t run to get them like the other kids. But she ran to dance with the scarves and she liked playing peek a boo with a baby in the class.

Sarina likes to take care of me. She rubbed lotion on my feet yesterday and when she saw I had a “boo-boo” she ran to get cream for it and insisted on a band-aid. She herself has a high pain tolerance. She fell while in West Hartford and was bleeding from her lips and was fine a few minutes later. She also threw up at school, I had to go and get her. But when we got home she wanted to rest on the couch and eat crackers. And then no more resting, just eating crackers! Bryan’s friend came by and she was showing off for him and showing him her room-she would lead him by the hand to show him her toys and fancy dance outfits. Then when I came in the room she would push me away and say momma you go. She always does this when she is with adults or older kids. She is too funny. But then she will be very clingy other times. Like when Bryan takes her to school sometimes she gets upset and wants momma. But then when I pick her up she asks me why daddy didn’t pick her up and she wants daddy. She will insist on accompanying Bryan to change the laundry. She still loves relaxing with him, playing the instruments with him, dancing, drawing pictures, strawberry shortcakes movies, dancing clothes, making ice pops, trying to be nice to zeke, unless of course I am giving him too much attention.

Yes, this is a challah that Sarina made. She made so many things at school. she was even blowing the shofar (tea pot, pretend) and ate apples and honey.

We took Sarina to visit with an elderly person and drop off a Rosh Hashana package. Sarina was very warm with Malka and understood that the attention was supposed to be on Malka and not on her. She did very well-she got lots of cookies of course but she was not afraid of Malka. Sarina also got to practice her scooter on the upper west side.

Sarina started school last week! Her first day was only for 20 minutes so I took the day off and we went to the west side highway-they built all sorts of new sprinklers and parks there. First of all, Sarina went right to her new “morahs” and started an art project. They were impressed by how Sarina was so adaptable. Then Sarina and I had a great time together playing at the new parks and eating lunch outside. We walked to Chelsea and I showed Sarina where I used to live! Of course it has bars on the windows but I guess Sarina is used to that at this point. We took a cab home so that Sarina wouldn’t miss her nap but she didn’t nap anyway. The rest of the week Sarina did really well at school. The subway rides into school were kind of rough, especially because Sarina always wanted to sit down and there were usually no seats. But after they were over I forgot about them after a half hour. She loves her new school. She got the first mitzvah on the tree about helping Malka. She learned about bees and honey and has new friends. She even got a goodie bag because one of the little boys had a birthday during school. When I picked her up the teachers told me that she did really well. I actually ran into Sarina on the way to the gym and her teachers looked annoyed that I would distract her too much (it was just a coincidence), but she just gave me a hug and then went back to her friends.

I took Sarina for fashions nite out at Saks fifth Ave. We went a couple of years ago and met the designer Elie Tahari. This year we went and met Tilda Swinton. She asked Sarina about her outfit and hello kitty and all of the press were taking pictures of Sarina. It was exciting!

Last week Sarina had two new bbsitters. I took the day off on Monday because I couldn’t find someone to watch Sarina. We went to the YMCA and swam together and then got a big girl lunch. Sarina is doing really well in the pool. She is so funny-she likes to spider the wall and blow bubbles. Then her favorite part is taking a shower! She likes to have the hot water running on her. The rest of the week Sarina had bbsitters. She was so polite, and hugged them at the end of the day and said “thank you for playing with me.” One of the bbsitters said that Sarina understands Spanish fluently. I hope that she can keep it up! I don’t know how though, but hopefully we can get her in a spanish playgroup or something.

I had to take Sarina to the doctor since she got an infection on her knee from scratching a bug bite. She was screaming when the doctor tried to look at her knee but then afterward told Bryan that she was good at the doctor. She likes to put cream on my scratches and band-aids too. It’s so funny because we go to the library and I let Sarina pick out her own books and she always picks out the “this is my profession” books. She likes to read about the doctors and then asks us “what happened to them?” and then she also likes to read about the dancers and the restaurant owners.

When I was home for the day we made popsicles with fruit and a little bit of greek yogurt. I got a teddy bear mold and sticks. Sarina loved it.

Speaking of dancing, Sarina loves to tell me that she is going to get dressed beautiful like a princess and then she goes and puts on a pink tutu with her gold shoes. She and Bryan like to dance together. Sarina is very expressive and can dance to any type of music!
Bryan watched Sarina on Friday morning. She always behaves very well for him and listens to what he says. Then we went to RI for the weekend. Sarina had a blast with Avery. She even played with Quinn too! Their favorite game was playing in the closet in Pat’s room. Sarina also liked reading the princess books and running races on the porch. We went to the beach and I took Sarina to the bike path so that she could practice her scooter. She was apprehensive at first but then got used to it. She likes when you set a goal like-let’s see you scoot to the big tree or car, etc. When we came back she told Bryan that she was scootering! We went to Middlebury and she wanted to show off on her scooter for Pat. She is still afraid to go down any sort of hill and then jumps off instead of braking, but she is getting better. I am hoping that she will be able to ride her scooter to the subway station instead of taking the stroller or walking 30 feet and then me carrying her.