Birthday Bash Bonanza

While your turning eight months is impressive, for most of us, it's NOT our birthday. We are so lucky to have other family and friends with whom to mark impressive milestones this weekend. Linnea celebrated turning one and BoPa turned a few more than one!


Miss Jenn's friend, Brett, provided lots of entertainment at Linnea's party - including playing the guitar while lying down...I'd never seen that trick before.


And I'd never seen so many bubbles.


You may want to close your mouth there, Daria. They don't taste very yummy.


Speaking of yummy, we celebrated BoPa from breakfast until bedtime, including a delicious ice cream cake. (Don't worry, that was at bedtime, not breakfast.) Just a few more months before I can enjoy one that's not made of rice cereal and chickpeas.


It was fun that Aunt Abi and Melissa could join us from San Francisco to celebrate. It will be Abi's birthday before you know it!

2-4-6-8 Whose Birthday Can We Celebrate??

I know, I know...


Thanks for a really fun eight months, Little Sister!

Sisterhood Centapost

This is our 100th post since I arrived. We thought we should acknowledge the more than 2,500 of you who have kept their eyes (and bookmarks) on us since May. We're having fun and we hope you are too.

This is also an appropriate time for a new profile pic and description, so we'll be retiring this one:

"We're two sisters who love our mommy and daddy! Little sister, Daria, writes in BOLD in the hopes of being heard over her witty big sister, Liana (whose earlier writing can be found at lianayael.blogspot.com)."

Going To (See) The Birds

Today we walked (against the suggestion of our hotel concierge) to the local zoo, Ardastra Gardens, where we enjoyed the company of some interesting wildlife. No, daddy. She doesn't mean you and mommy!


The birds were the highlight! First, there was the peacock (which you were too scared to approach, but daddy didn't give me a choice).


Then the Lory parrots, to whom we (by which I mean mommy and daddy, since we're too little) got to feed apples. Hey, save some for me!


Mommy sure knows how to get a-head!


And finally, the "National Bird of the Bahamas," the flamingo, who are trained to march on command. Their drill sergeant has been doing this here for fifty years!


They marched awfully close.


What, daddy? That wasn't close enough?


What a wild day!

Yes Sir, That's My Baby, Nassau, Don't Mean Maybe

Since this was your first real vacation, Baby Daria, why don't you tell everyone what you liked best? I promise to stay (mostly) quiet.

SWIMMING
I loved being in the water with Dada (whose name I've mastered)...


...and with mommy and Liana, who have much more challenging pronunciations, and can't take me quite as far into the deep end.


SUNNING
While I needed to be slathered in SPF 50, these striped chaise loungers were very comfortable.


Fortunately each of us had her own spot to sunbathe.


Sharing a seat was also fun...


...with you and mommy. Is this what they mean by doing laps at the pool?


WALKING
While I'm not quite ready to saunter across the street, I thought this sign was really informative (click to enlarge). I wonder what would happen if NYC tried to enforce such a system.


Watch out, motorboats!


RELAXATION
On vacation, some mornings it's fun to just sleep in (until 6!) and read the paper in bed.


And then there was eating...(and feeding you!)


But by far the highlight was having time as mommy, daddy, and sisters.


So where are we going next?

Bahama Mama, Papa, and Sistas

It's been months since I got my passport and today mommy and daddy finally took me somewhere that I could put it to good use: Newark Airport. We boarded a 737 and I got a window seat with mommy.


Yeah, a lot of good that did, since you were asleep before we took off. I was told flights go by a lot faster when one naps. That's true, but I find that donuts with frosting and sprinkles also pass the time.


Just a few hours later, we arrived in paradise (thanks to the plane you can kind of see out the window behind us).


Our vacation started off right with some ice cream. Speak for yourself - all I got was a plastic spoon.


Thanks for taking this fun photo of mommy, daddy, and me, though.


My pleasure. Then daddy and I put our toes in the sand...


...and walked under a waterfall.


Mommy was very brave and went swimming with me (despite the cool temperatures).


Yes, while your lips turned blue I stayed snug with daddy.


Tonight I played my first transparent piano. Just because we could see through it didn't make you sound any better.


You also cut your first lamb chops without assistance. Yes, that large thing in my hand is a steak knife.


This pretty much sums up our first day away...

Read-y or Not, Here I Come

While I can't actually read yet, the good news is that you don't know the difference. Your stories are about as good as mommy and daddy's, so I see no real problem.


That's true. I'm also about as good as they are at describing the pictures and pointing out your brilliance, don't you think?

Quadruple Dating

This weekend we had not one, but TWO quadruple dates. Isn't that like an octuple date? No, but nice try with the numbers, little sis.

In any case, it is fun that mommy and daddy know so many charming and eligible bachelors. Yes, though daddy said something about not being able to be alone with any of them until we're 21. I'm sure he meant until you're 21, by which time I'll be 19. What's the rush anyway?

Our first date was on Friday, when we met Benjamin and Ethan (and their parents) for dinner. Benjamin has almost as good taste in beverages as he does in romantic outings. We ordered a pair of chocolate milks, which we clinked of course. Then we held hands on our walk to the potty.


Then on Saturday Sorin and Rian joined us for Shabbat Gym and dinner. It was more of a play-date. We broke the ice by playing "Don't Break the Ice"...


...then put on a happy face by putting one on Mrs. Potato Head.


Since we couldn't get enough men into our weekend, we went to the Train Show at the Botanical Garden and dinner on Arthur Avenue with Ari and his parents. He was a gentleman and ordered us a pair of Shirley Temples (with extra cherries since they've become my favorite fruit these days).


We'll have to fight over him since he's such a cutie pie and a Yankee fan to boot!


I don't know...you didn't seem so interested in each other as you checked your e-mail at the bar. Yeah, we were just texting instead of having everyone eavesdrop.

Pip, Pip (Squeak), Cheerio

Tonight I enjoyed my very first Cheerio. I was about the same age when I had my first one.


They were a lot harder to get into my mouth than I expected...


Maybe you should just settle for the bowl!

I'm So Glad We Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a great new advertising campaign ("It's Time We Met") and so we took them up on it (again) this weekend with "Uncle" Josh and Rachel. Rachel teaches history so she was a wonderful tour guide, especially in the new Greek and Roman exhibit where I particularly enjoyed throwing pennies into the fountains.


I loved throwing money into the water in the Egyptian wing as well.


What's with giving away all of this money? You know that even the admission fee is only a suggested donation, right?

Happy New Decade

On New Decade's Eve it was nice to have dinner with BoMa, BoPa, Aunt Abi, and Melissa. Aunt Abi's lap was an especially fun place to sit.


As has become our tradition, we welcomed the new year (and the new decade) with a jammie brunch. So many friends and family members helped us celebrate this year with the farm theme.


Not everyone took the E-I-E-1-0 theme to heart, but most people remembered their pajamas.


The food was yummy, even if mommy was skeptical about the rave reviews her cooking received.


Linnea was pretty in pink piggy pj's, and I was gorgeous in a giraffe get-up, but no one quite matched you, little sister...


...thanks. And Happy Moo Year!!


After a night and a day of celebration, I was so exhausted I mistakenly fell asleep on "Uncle" Josh thinking he was daddy. Oops...must have been that charming-and-tall-guy-with-glasses thing.