"Yamas" and other firsts

Oh, my, I feel a little sad when I look at the date of my last posting. How is it that two weeks have passed already?! I never even finished talking about Taran's firsts. And I definitely want to, because it's the perfect way to finally get a picture of Joe on here.


So....On April 6th, all three of us flew out to Philadelphia for Taran's first Passover. I think this is the first passover that I've been with all of my family since my Grandmother died when I was eleven. My Aunt Bobbi (or "The Bobbi" as Taran calls her) hosted at her tiny apartment in Center Philly and my Mom, sisters, their partners, my cousin and his wife were all there as well as my Aunt's very close friend, Hilary.


Taran was really excited about the yarmulke ("Yama") - and the whole seder dinner for that manner - for about two minutes, but luckily my camera has a quick shutter speed so I managed to get this photo just in time before the moment was gone.

Within five minutes of this photo, he wanted down. He promptly strolled over to the cat's water dish and dumped it all over himself requiring an outfit change (the t-shirt theme seemed appropriate)....

.... but once he had a distraction, dinner was a little more smooth...

...and in the end, a good time was had by all...

Seriously, we had a great time, if not a bit fleeting. It means a lot to me that Taran gets a chance to know my family and vice versa and it's exciting to hear him call them by name, even if it gets a big garbled ("Pauly", "Jenjy"...).


While we were in Philly, we also had a chance to take Taran on his first carousel ride. I thought he would be absolutely to the moon, but honestly, I think he was a bit overwhelmed.

He had a better time wearing The Bobbi's slippers while climbing the cat ramp,  

Learning how to say new and interesting things from Aunt "Jenjy",

"I'm a Mookie!"

Exploring the many uses of a cat tunnel with Aunt Anna,

and getting snuggles from Grammy Pauly.

For my part, I was happy to soak up my family. I live almost 8 hours away now and, with a toddler, it might as well be 8 days for how difficult it is to travel. I loved being with everyone, I loved seeing my husband and son enjoy being with them too, I loved watching my cousin Jimmy and his new wife Jamie guide us bad Jews and non-Jews through the seder dinner.

I'm grateful to my Aunt Bobbi for bringing us all together. We talked about making this an annual tradition and I hope that we do. Thank you The Bobbi for an amazing weekend! We were all so happy to soak up your love.