saida turns one!

it's hard to believe my sweet beast is one but she surely is. when i think about how much she's changed since i first met her 7 months ago - it's staggering. she was so serious and quiet - sizing us up, figuring out how in the world she ended up in new york from ethiopia. and now she is so, just, so much of everything. as her personality forms she's becoming so particular and hilarious and i absolutely cannot wait for her to start talking because i think she is really going to have some ideas to tell us how we can do things better around here. our friend said once she thinks saida will have her mba by the time she's like 17 and be ordering people around, and i can totally see it. especially now that when you give her anything to play with she pretends it's a phone. i'm pretty sure "dadadadada yeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeey HUUUUH" is baby talk for "why isn't that report on my desk i asked for it 15 minutes ago?!?!?!"


here was our first picture of her. we think she's about 2 months. we knew as soon as we saw this picture that she was going to be a pistol.

continuing with what's becoming tradition we had a casual breakfast at tom's. the girls are only mildly obsessed with pancakes and are so enthralled with the elaborate decorations that i can even bring them there by myself - it helps that everyone there is so nice and loves them so much.

in the morning the weather was kinda crummy so we opted for the brooklyn museum before a nice walk. the girls found it thrilling. they fell asleep for about 30 minutes which ended up being the only nap they took all day. when you're one you can boycott a real nap!
unfortunately we had to go to the pediatrician for their one year check ups after the museum. it took me months to get the back to back appointments and there was no other time to do it when ben would be able to help me get them there. so here is our big girl after she had to get her shots.

normally such a ham, she was sort of mortified to have everyone singing to her and looking at her. she looks like she's about to burst into tears as we encourage her to eat her ice-cream and cookie, poor thing. she was exhausted but when you're one you can stay up past your bedtime!

when you're one, you get to eat ice-cream with your hands!

her big present was.... A NEW PUPPY! isn't she so cute?!?!?! here she is helping saida open her presents.
just kidding, not even we are that crazy. that's silvia's puppy.

playing with her new blocks!

the girls playing with all their friends from the neighborhood.

a lily from ben
for those of you wondering, no benny anytime soon. only one centimeter dilated, the good doctor thinks another few weeks probably. another 2 weeks with this freaking belly!