Welcome 2013

So here I am, sitting in the Parents' Office at Noa's school - working remotely thanks to the NYC School Bus Strike, but more on that in a bit - I'm going to try to do with in order.

I wanted to share a couple of videos before I get into all that -

First, this great video of Noa pushing the grocery cart home from the fabulous new Fairway Market that just opened around the corner. We've been trying to take Noa on walks that involve stuff that Mommy and Daddy have to do - which any regular kid would have to put up with - but just walking that far with Noa is a trial - much less trying to walk through a store and - yikes! - waiting in line. But genius Daddy had a great idea, which was to bring a rolly cart with us so Noa could try pushing it (and we could carry groceries home, because once you have Noa with you your hands are totally full!). Noa enjoys pushing her wheelchair or stroller sometimes, and she loved pushing the grocery cart - so it was a great discovery!!

It was great because it truly saved Ben and I coming home sore and/or in pain from having our arms pulled on constantly. I will admit that trying to shop was a bit difficult - it really took both of us: one of us to work with Noa so that the other could actually look at the shelves - she's not steady enough to stand on her own and can really throw herself around dramatically when she's impatient. We didn't want to cause a gigantic clean-up in aisle 1, 2, 3, etc...! And of course, trying to get through a NYC Fairway is plenty challenging without a blind child pushing a rolling cart.

The only challenge was the check out. Noa didn't like standing still while the groceries were getting scanned - though we were lucky to get a good cashier who kept telling her what a good job she was doing. And once we had some bags she could help us put into the cart, she was much better. 

I suspect Noa will be making more trips to the market with us now. That was a great success for everyone!

The other video is actually from Christmas - a composition Noa played at Grammy and Grampy's but it's like many she is working on now at home. It was at my folks that I realized that one of the reasons Noa wasn't playing as much was because we set her piano up at the stander. So now we set it up so she can sit and play at home again which she much prefers.

The video is a bit long, if you cut to the end there's a nice finish. If you watch for a bit you can see that she's making sounds verbally - her way of singing - but also just some sound effects that are fun. It's fun little clip.