Lexi eating the fixin's for some S'mores.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today we went downtown to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade on 5th Avenue. What a wonderful display of Irish Pride!

Here we are at the St. Patrick's Day Parade: Lexi & Kendra, Desmond & Heather, and Jonathan & Emma.

Here is a group of high school boys who play the bagpipes.

The Bronx Zoo

Today we went to the Bronx Zoo with our friends Jonathan (JD) and his mom, Emma. We saw lots of beautiful animals! This is Mom & Lexi with the giraffes.

Here are JD & Lexi sitting on a stone bench on their way to see the gorilla exhibit. When we got there, Lexi starting "beating" her chest like the gorillas do. What a smarty pants!

Jonathan's mom bought a calzone for lunch. She cut it up and put some pieces on the table for Jonathan to have for lunch, but of course Lexi had to try some, too. It soon became a game to see who could pick up the pieces & eat them the fastest. Lexi is a little dominant at games like that as she always has to have one piece in her mouth and 1 in each hand in order to eat. It's almost physically impossible for her to chew if she is not holding more food in both hands!

Lexi & JD

Reading With Grandpa

Grandpa Portlock was in New York on business and took some time to read with Alexis.

A Day At IKEA

Today we went to Ikea (a furniture store in New Jersey) with our favorite friends Jonathan Addams and his mom, Emma. This store is great because it is BIG and there are lots of fun things for kids to play with. Very child friendly. We played in the kitchen, on the slides and in the balls. Then we had lunch and went home. It was a fun day!

Lexi in the kitchen

Lexi in the kitchen

Jonathan & Lexi taking turns on the slide

Lexi & Jonathan in the balls

Jonathan on the slide

Lexi's Grandparents Cope lived in Africa for 2 years. When they came home, they brought a doll made by the people there complete with an authentic African outfit. Lexi loves the braids & beads in the doll's hair and carries her all over the apartment. Grandma Cope also made this cute and colorful hat. Lexi loves to wear hats, scarves and gloves while inside as well.

All Clean!

Alexis in her bathrobe

Subway Adventures

Today we went downtown to play at the Toys R Us in Times Square. On the way home, we met up with Grandma Susan who had been to a job interview in the area and rode the subway home with her. When we first boarded the train, we sat next to a man with a guitar. After a stop or 2, he pulled out his guitar for Lexi to see and proceeded to serenade her. He wrote a song on the spot with lyrics along the lines of "I'm just a baby in my stroller eating my pretzals & grapes" etc. Then he broke into a version of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" altering the lyrics to something like "Pretty baby, sitting in your stroller..." As if that weren't enough attention for all the afternoon commuters, a roaming artist sat down across the car from us and began sketching a picture of me & Lexi. He asked what stop we were going to so he could have it done in time. In the past, I have seen people do this and hope for a tip from whoever they are drawing. I was a bit hesitant to "pay" for a sketch that was unsolicited and didn't even look like us, but figured at least he is trying to "work" for his money instead of just asking for it, so I gave him $2. Some days I love the subway, and some days it just can't get me home fast enough.

Subway Sketch

Snow Day!

This is the view from our living room window- so pretty with all the fresh snow! Although quite a bit of snow accumulated overnight, the NYC Dept. of Education didn't cancel school and Matt had to go to work after all. Bummer!