In Memoriam

Isaac's and Caitlin's great-grandmother - Mom-Mom - passed away on Friday afternoon.  This has been a rough year, and while the loss of each of my grandparents has been tough, I'm particularly struggling to write this blog because Mom-Mom's death was so unexpected.  In fact, I have texts and emails from her on the day she collapsed.  But she wouldn't have wanted it any other way- spending her last moments on a walk while visiting her family.  Charlotte Harris was one of the most amazing women I have ever known, and her spirit, optimism and strength so inspired me, that I named Caitlin for her.  In the Jewish religion, it is customary to name children after relatives who have already passed away, but it was important for me to honor Mom-Mom while she was still alive - and she was tickled at the idea.  I am blessed to have countless memories of my grandparents from when I was younger, because they all made us feel important and loved and took pains to travel to Florida to see us and to spoil us when we went to visit them.  In fact, one of my favorite memories of Mom-Mom was waking up to find her making cookies (she made the most AMAZING cookies) and getting to eat the batter for breakfast and drink pretend coffee with her.  When I moved to DC for college, she and my grandfather made a point of inviting me and my friends for the Jewish holidays, and traveled to DC to take me for lunch on my birthday every year.  They made it to every important occasion, and she was always the first to cheer me on or send encouraging emails when I embarked upon a new challenge.  I will miss that a lot.  She understood that we all had busy lives, and was grateful for any time we could give - phone calls, emails, quick visits.  In fact, since I moved to Colorado, I spoke to mom-mom once or twice a week on my commute to work, and she was always excited to hear what was going on in my life and to tell me about hers.  And let me tell you - she lived an amazingly active life! She regularly went to the opera, museums, to listen to speakers, and was always reading a new book or learning about something new.  While she was plagued by COPD (an after-effect from the TB she contracted volunteering at an orphanage), she still lived alone and regularly walked from her apartment in downtown Philly to Whole Foods or to meet friends for meals.  She was impressively adept at all things technological - cherishing opportunities to FaceTime, instantly commenting on blogs, and keeping up with all things political (the Democrats and Pro-Choice activists will miss her when it comes time to galvanize the base!!).  Overall, she was just an all-around great lady who made sure that we all knew how much she loved us, and her joie de vivre reminds us to live each day as if it is a blessing.  The morning she died - she told my dad "my cup runneth over" - we should all be so lucky.
Below are some pictures of Mom-Mom with the kids over the past few years...

One of Isaac's first road trips - to visit Mom-Mom and Poppy in Philly

Mom-Mom met us in NY for some Schrutt-Anderson-Harris chaos at the kids' museum and delish NY pizza

One of her many visits - Mom-Mom came to spend Father's Day in DC in 2010

Mom-Mom came to DC to meet her namesake just days after Caitlin was born.  Wilson had a special affection for Mom-Mom (she always brought a treat for him!)

Mom-Mom made it to every birthday party we had while still on the east coast!

Mom-Mom made the trip to Colorado in December and we were all thrilled to get to spend the holidays and a lot of quality time with her.

We were so lucky to get in a quick visit with Mom-Mom at the Philly airport on our way back from Florida last month

First day of school

We had a very eventful week -- Isaac started kindergarten and Caitlin started pre-school!!

What first day would be complete without new shoes and a first day of school outfit? Isaac chose Spiderman and Caitlin chose Princesses - both of which light up when they walk.  Thanks, Grandma!

At the last minute, we decided to register Isaac at the Monarch School - our neighborhood public school - in lieu of continuing at the Montessori school. We loved his old school (and are sending Caitlin there), but given the cost and the great ratings at the (free) neighborhood school, we opted to put our tax dollars to work.  It is K-8 with a high school right next door - and you can see it from our house.  It seems HUGE in comparison, but it would be nice for him to make friends starting from kindergarten and continue on with them for awhile - assuming we don't move out of the neighborhood.  I hope we made the right decision... stay tuned.

No butterflies, Isaac was anxious to check out his new school and couldn't understand what the fuss was about

Public school is a whole different ball game - we had a two page list of classroom supplies to buy!

We got to the school and Isaac ran off to test out his new playground without looking back

We waited until Mrs. Adams blew the whistle and watched the kids line  up to go in... I cried, Isaac was unaffected ;)

Caitlin could not have been more excited to start pre-school. We are starting slow though - she will go Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, and we have her signed up for dance and art on the non-school days.  The day before school started, she had a private meeting with her teacher - Jean - who showed her the classroom and her cubbie, and introduced her to the different work stations.  She cried when it was time to go home and was even more excited for her first day! The whole way to school, Caitlin reminded me that I promised to stay until she was comfortable, but once we walked into the school and Jean showed us to the classroom, Caitlin ran off to play without even saying goodbye.  Definitely better than the alternative, but would a "bye, Mom" have been so difficult?? ;)

Caitlin getting her introduction to the classroom

First day of school (the lunchbox was empty, but she begged to bring it anyway)

Look - my "cuvvy" says my name on it!

After Jean walked us to the playground, Caitlin ran off to play and didn't look back.  

Vacation!!

After the kids birthdays, we took off for a week-long family vacation to Mexico.  Bill found a great house with a pool that was right on the beach in an island community off LaPaz (on the Baja).  It had plenty of bedrooms, so we asked Mayensi and Cesi to join us.

Of all the seat configurations, I would have never guessed it would be Bill in the middle between the kids, but they did all right for the first part of the flight

  

After the first half, the girls entertained the kids on the rest of the flight

We flew into Cabo and had some lunch by the water before the 2-hour drive to LaPaz.  After the drive, we got into the ferry, which is the only way on and off the island where the house is.

We finally arrived at the house, and everyone was in the pool within minutes and the ocean within minutes after that - enjoying the last of the sunlight.

The caretaker of the house cooked us a delicious Mexican feast for dinner, and everyone went to sleep happy!  We spent the first couple of days rotating between the pool and the beach - we would start the morning going on a scavenger hunt for shells, then we would play in the sand and look for crabs and swim in the ocean.  The ocean was as calm as bath water, so the kids could play and swim in it by themselves.  As it got hotter, we would make our way back to the pool for awhile (both kids begging Bill to throw them across the pool), eat lunch and then the kids would take long naps, the girls would watch the monitor, and Bill and I got to relax and read by the beach or go running (we really did go running three times!).

"weekend" pancakes - almost every morning!

After naps, the kids would wake up and we would start the whole thing over again.  By 4, the blender came out and we switched off between making batches of grown-up drinks and non-alcoholic kids drinks.  Isaac insisted on trying some of both, and established he likes coladas better than margaritas.

Family pool "cheers" 

At the end of the day, we ate dinner under the stars, played games, did puzzles, and sat through every episode of the teenage mutant ninja turtles season 1 on Netflix (guess who chose that?!).

After a few days, we decided to check out the town of LaPaz, so we piled onto the golf cart for the drive back to the ferry.  It didn't go very fast, but it was still a bit nerve-wracking when Bill let Isaac drive! Thankfully there were no other cars on the road (in fact, we never really ran into any other people on the Island, even when we went running a few miles in either direction!). LaPaz had a cute little strip of restaurants on the main drag - definitely not a culinary destination, but we had some great great fresh fish (Isaac fell in love with cevice!)

The kids loved the modes of transportation as much as the beach!

The ferry came every half hour - the kids were in heaven

On Isaac's birthday, we chartered a boat for the day to explore the area, do some snorkeling and swim with the sea lions. The kids liked the idea of snorkeling better than the actual activity - but in their defense, the snorkels were too big, and their masks didn't cover their noses.  But they loved jumping off the boat into the ocean and had a blast on the boat. It was Cesi and Mayensi's first time as well, and they loved it too.  The captain was great with the kids, he let Isaac drive the boat and taught them all about the wildlife around them, and then made us all an amazing picnic lunch of cevice, with a mango, avocado, and papaya salad that was delicious on this tiny island we had all to ourselves.

Caitlin didn't even flinch when the captain put a live starfish on her leg

We took a swim while we were waiting for lunch to be ready

enjoying our feast on the beach

Not one to miss a nap, Caitlin found her comfy spot on Cesi and took a snooze

Bill, Cesi, Mayensi and Isaac snorkeling about 10 feet from the sea lions (on the rocks).  The kids thought their barking was funny, and squealed every time one jumped off the rocks and swam under us.

On the boat ride back, the captain picked up the speed and purposefully hit lots of bumps which sent us all flying in the air.  The first one caught me by surprise and I screamed and grabbed Isaac and the side of the boat. The kids thought it was hilarious and  we all screamed and laughed hysterically at the bumps the whole way back.

The rest of the days, we enjoyed the house, the ocean, and the pool and ventured into town a few more times.  Isaac got better at driving the golf cart, Caitlin got her nails and hair done by Cesi and Mayensi, we taught the kids (and Cesi and Mayensi) how to play marco polo, how to build monster sand castles and bury each other in the sand, and just generally had a fantastic week hanging out.  Here are some more pictures from the week:

Overall, a fantastic week! Gotta love vacation...