Grossman family west

We’ll write more soon but we wanted to send out a quick note: please welcome…

Please welcome...

—Our Family of Four

Those of you with good memories may remember that we took an “8 months pregnant” photoshoot with Holly before Avi was born (you can see that slideshow here). Inspired by that, and again with help from now-Auntie Debbie, we tried to take a set of family pictures days before the arrival of the fourth member of our family. Unfortunately, Avi cooperated better when he was still inside (during the original photoshoot) than when he was outside. We still managed to capture a few good ones for you to enjoy, now in the Photo Gallery.

We're ready for you, Baby Brother!

Changes are well under way for Baby Brother and so our Big Man is growing up quickly in preparation to become The Big Brother. His baby nursery has undergone a major overhaul, culminating yesterday in a momentous transition out of his crib and into a big boy bed. Avi’s thought? “No problem, I could get used to this…” He slept soundly the entire night!

Some photos of Avi’s New Room are now in the Photo Gallery!

Yah, baby, I could get used to this...

Avi is still a couple of weeks short of his second Birthday but with a pregnant mommy, we decided to plan his party a little bit early. So two weeks ago, Avi invited some of his best pals to The Little Gym in Marin. We had a blast chasing bubbles, singing songs, bouncing on the gym equipment, and, of course, eating cake (Avi’s least-favorite food, as you can see below). It was such a wild event that we have BOTH a photo album AND some video clips for you. You can find them both in the Photo Gallery. Enjoy!

I want to turn two EVERY WEEKEND! Yum!

Avi is a fan of the shower, though never because he is eager to get clean. Instead, the Big Man really enjoys some of the toys he has in there. Recently, Avi has been entertaining himself in the shower and bath by sorting his letters and numbers, unprompted, into categories based on physical attributes on the shower door. After a few weeks of him “playing” this game every time he got in the tub, Mom started really paying attention and realized he’s doing some pretty high level organizing here. Reverting back to her teacher days, she decided to document a sample of his work. Not only does he put like letters/colors together — all the purple D’s in the same category — but he also sorted the 4’s together with the A’s given their triangular shaped tops and orange coloring. Another clever move; turning the green E on its side so it more closely resembled the green W’s. He also flips 6’s and 9’s so they will match accordingly in their category, and has been known to put 5’s and S’s together in the same category, fully knowing the actual difference of each.

Mommy proudly noted that this is actually a California state standard for Kindergarten students (Avi is not yet 2), which, to quote the Standard, says that students should be able to “Compare and sort common objects by one physical attribute (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, weight).” Meanwhile, Dad noted that this is the kind of thinking that cryptographers do when trying to break codes. At the very least, we can agree that it probably doesn’t bode well for our future attempts to speak past our son using ig-Pay atin-Lay…

Next up, advanced Cryptography

We were very very lucky this holiday season to have ALL of our grandparents come to visit: Gigi and Grandpa drove up from San Diego for a few days and Mimi and Zayda flew in from Boston (lucky for them–they missed a big blizzard while they were here!)

We saw lots of Christmas lights, ate delicious meals, and spent a lot of time just hanging out. We had a lot of fun and hope to see everyone again soon! We’ve posted 20 pictures in a new album in the photo gallery!

Mimi and Zayda visit SF for the Holidays!

Well, the Big Man has been busy with a rash of new number and letter puzzles and toys that Mr. Amazon brought him for Hanukah. Never one to turn down a challenge (unless that challenge is turning off the iPad), he set about working with Mommy to learn his A-B-C’s. They have made quite a bit of progress and we are some proud parents, so we popped a surprise quiz on Avi this morning. Despite Dad’s best efforts to confuse Avi by challenging him with a few backwards letters, and Mom terrifying everyone in the room with her references to “Drill and Kill”, the Big Man was unfazed and did pretty well… Check out the new Alphabet video in the Gallery!

Avi Learns the Alphabet at 22 months

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy weekend. Can you guess which feet belong to which GFW-er (click on the photo for a larger version)?

Lazy Saturday

Having just returned from a wonderful trip to New York and Boston, we were really feeling the love from our East Coast family. As we got ready for Hanukah to start, we also felt some serious love from our West Coast family, too: hours before the first night of Hanukah, EIGHT gifts arrived from Cousin Carson, Aunt Liz, and Uncle Mark from Seattle!! Wooweee!!

Of course, we’re only opening gifts one night at a time (those are the rules!) but Hanukah got off to a great start and we really felt the love of family even though there aren’t many of us here in San Francisco. Aunt Debbie called, then pulled out the Menorah that Aunt Rachel, Uncle Brian, and the Koplow family had given us in years past, then we sang the Hanukah blessings with Mimi and Zayda on speakerphone, and finally we opened a gift from Cousin Carson!

We just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for all of the love from across the country. We hope you are having a wonderful Hanukah and just wanted to let you know that we appreciate and miss you!

Cousin Carson’s gift on the first night was a yellow Kazoo (which matches one that Cousin Carson has)!! Avi, of course, loved it and, since we couldn’t get him to put it down, we took a video of him playing the kazoo. Thanks again, Cousin Carson, Aunt Liz, and Uncle Mark!

After Uncle Dave and Aunt Data got married in New York, we headed to Boston for Thanksgiving week, and what a great week it was! We saw the Patriots win twice in five days, visited with Nanny, hung out with cousin Henry, celebrated Uncle Dave and Aunt Dara’s wedding again at Aunt Dara’s school, and stuffed our faces with lots of delicious food made by Aunt Liz’s family. Could you imagine a better week?

We created a new slideshow for Thanksgiving week in Boston, posted in the photo gallery. Enjoy!

Nanny can't wait for the meal and instead noshes on some turkey in the kitchen...