Helena Isabela & Misha Dov

Helena had a great time at her first-ever gymnastic’s lesson. For about 90% of it she was following instruction and doing “the courses” her teachers showed them. The teachers said that was pretty good for her first time.

Helena enjoyed one of her first sleep overs at family friends the Degeorge’s. Besides spending a little too long singing to herself out loud when she was supposed to be going to bed, she did a great job and seemed to enjoy the experience quite a bit (especially trying to find the cat Toby before hand).

 

The tradition in the Kessel family seems for kids to learn how to sing Twinkle Twinkle around 2 years old. Helena has also been working on Frère Jacques et La Formi M’a Piqué la main. Dad apologies for playing the keys too loud in these recordings

 

 

Abel singing Twinkle Twinkle at 2 years and 2 months

And Havi at the exact same time with her advanced singing skills (for the last minute or so of that video)

(still need to) drag a comb across my head

Former teaching colleague Ethan with his kids joined Helena for a just-out-of-school summer road trip to Locust Grove, GA to see the famous animal sanctuary Noah’s Ark. The kids loved seeing all of the animals.

Helena took advantage of the in-town tumbler’s bus set up at this past week-end’s Virginia Highlands festival

Helena is now speaking in three languages regularly. This can result in some interesting sentences such as:

“I lubit araugnée” – I love spiders

“Beaucoup machina” a lot of cars!

“Adrugaya chanson” another song

Tons of “I want/need” French or Russian thing such as velo (bike), moloko (milk), sloanik (little elephant -her blanky), bonbon (candy), miode (honey), quelque chose (something). The latter along with cacuhète (peanut), supermarché, meh doma (we’re home), muha oohadi (fly go away), first shoes on, what’s that, right there, après ____ (for what the next thing is), are some of her favorite words and expressions.

She can also finally pronounce popcorn (not comcorn) and more importantly her name Helena (not haina) too.

Helena loves growing up next to the Atlanta zoo. Every time she passes the zoo she say’s “animaux zoo” (sounds like animo zo) in French. Her backyard is literally a (the) zoo. Here she enjoyed some sort of exotic bird courting her

Helena doesn’t go anywhere without her “sloanik” elephant blanket from cousin Matt

The parrot has awakened!

Atl has become hot Atl. Trying to cool off but unfortunately a dog pooped in the fountain at the Piedmont park splash pad. Instead, the family visited the dog festival, stayed cool at in-town gymnastics, and went to the Concrete Jungle annual fruit ramble later in the day as things cooled off. Another weekend gone by.

Saturday Helena’s street had a fun block party.

Helena is not as interested in the “fight” but she enjoyed (and learned a new word very quickly) the water balloons.

Helena loves grapefruit it turns out. Aka “pamplemousse,” one of pop’s favorite words in French: https://youtu.be/fEKG3Kf8WPw

Helena is adding “s” to everything for some reason. She appears to love basketball.

Helena likes to drive to the Pizzeria too

Helena has hit some big mile stones recently including but not limited to putting on and taking off her own clothes (with some help sometimes), being almost full potty trained (no #2 accidents and very few #1), catching a ball from a few feet away, and doing somersaults. Trampolines are her favorite and she likes to bounce on our neighbor friends’ one whenever she can.

With friend Lola in Piedmont Park last weekend

one of Helena’s favorite books

Helena sees a lot of little ones her age even outside of daycare. Here’s a few photos from last weekend at Catch Air, Passover at the house, and a visit to friend Vivek in the suburb

Was spent at the zoo and the aquarium with family on a perfect Sunday.

Helena’s been having a hard time falling asleep in her new toddler bed and it shows. After day care around 6 tends to be the hardest hour. She’s at least been getting up less in the middle of the night coming to her parents and saying “my cuddle.” Finally got her to bed before 9 tonight.

Still too young to ask any questions but Helena is getting there!

Jennie M flew in for a work trip and met Helena. Everybody had a great local restaurant night out

looking coolHelena loves blowing the whispy dandelion flowers

Two of Helena’s favorite pass times at age two now are jumping on trampolines (beds or really jumping on anything will also do in a pinch) and getting her hair put into bands. She frequently asks any adult around her: “hair?” At least some of us understand her

Helena has not been thrilled with her parents and their hiking quests. At best she’s tolerated it but it seems to be the holder as nature and the outdoors usually bring a smile. Here’s the family at Black Rock mountain in Clayton from a weekend ago

Whether it’s putting on her shoes, reading a story, going potty, or playing, Helena loves to do things with her parents and when she can do something successfully on her own she now say’s, “I did it!”

She also is a milk drinking machine

More photos to come from this weekend’s big celebration but here’s a few fun ones from the park where the girls were hangin

Helena loves the moon! So much so that she got upset when she couldn’t have or take the recent super moon

from climax hill on bike, a favorite pass time for Helena (with papa of course)

Helena has been hanging out with her slightly older buddy Sam and making new friends at daycare with her new class. She’s making great strides with potty training too hanging out with the older kids in her class

Avery Sam’s couch and popsicles

She is much happier, to finish that previous post.

Helena loved visiting the Glenwood Park fountain today. In one minute she said the following vocab: bubbie (for fountain), plane (which flew overhead), lune (moon), doggy (of course as one walked by), swing (she is obsessed now) and “high,” and snack.

Helena say’s this when it is cold as it has been lately. But now things are warming up and

Helena celebrated with her friend Flora who just turned two on Saturday. On Sunday Helena checked out a robot pizza place as a possibility for her upcoming birthday. She was a fan of the robots.

Helena is very lucky to have grandparents that can visit her in Atlanta from the Northeast so often. She always loves when they visit.

Helena now spends long periods of time experimenting with socks, underwear, pants, and shirts. She’s not quite there but she’s getting close!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyl8VQnYrvc

Helena went to in-town gymnastics where they have a big foam ball pit that she was obsessed with for most of the time. Here’s a quick look at it- she didn’t make the big jump on her own as she always proceeds with caution

Helena is obsessed now with jumping. Not sure how long this jumping phase will last but Barnes and Noble story time seemed like as good a place as any to do it

Just another day of what Helena does most days- can you spot her here ?

Helena was imitating Nelson from the Simpsons for some time but didn’t perform quite as well here. This video is now a few weeks old as mom and dad forgot to post it

Helena continues to do her part after making a total mess throwing everything everywhere

Helena went to her friend Hazel and Genevieve’s house down the road in Grant Park. Everybody had a good time and older sister Genevieve declared Helena one of The now “three” sisters

 

Helena got a heavy dose of screen time Sunday and while she didn’t make it the whole game, she found some ways to entertain herself while mom and dad enjoyed the hang out. Go Pats!

Helena enjoys her Grant Park neighborhood including weekend trips to the zoo and farmer’s market. She thought it was pretty funny hiding under farmer Will’s tablecloth in front of his booth

A little late from last weekend but still worth a post

Just one of many of Helena’s indoor activities with the cold weather for the family’s NYC weekend visit

Helena heads to NYC to see her grandparents and visit the uncles and co

Helena has some bigger and older friends now that she is in her new class. It can be a bit intimidating with their advanced language and fine motor skills but she’s trying to “hang” in there right with them. Sunday a few of the families did a brunch and hangout for the kids

Helena visited her first farm last weekend near Athens GA. It was a little cold but she loved all the dogs on the farm and can now moo like a cow

Helena is fascinated by cats as she only lives with a dog and is trying to understand the difference between them. The cats she might might not like Helena quite as much as she likes them. Here is she during a new playdate friend chasing one:

Helena is less and less into her stroller these days instead preferring to stroll, at least for a few blocks.

One of Helena’s new favorite games

Helena has moved up a class at daycare. She went from being the youngest to now being the oldest pupil. Voilà her new class

Helenas’ obsession of the moment: https://youtu.be/HbZCbD-0ZwY

Helena and daycare/new neighbor pal Flora took off with Sherlock and parents to Sweetwater Creek this past Saturday. Flora walked for almost 40 minutes and Helena helped look for Sherlock when he ran away for a bit chasing a deer deep into the woods. It was a beautiful Atlanta winter day.

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Playing with papa

Helena has taken to singing in the backseat of the car and is working on her ABC’s. This is a pre-cursor to her singing career:

https://soundcloud.com/user-47064830/2450-paces-ferry-rd-se

It was fun while it last but back to the cold weather (although ATL is actually not that cold, around 60, so Helena isn’t too unhappy).

Sugar Sand park in Boca

 

Interesting to see how Helena has grown since one year ago when the family last visited

The other big difference now is that Helena can actually interact with the animals and the smile on her face shows how she loved it (especially feeding the goats).

Uncle Adam and family are also visiting family and getting to spend quality time with Helena

Helena was originally obsessed with this game when she first arrived to Florida

…also escalators are scary

A little urban hiking is just what the doctor ordered. Who needs playgrounds when you have fallen logs

 

Helena rides the choo choo train at the zoo and the merry-go-round most weekends as she’s earned enough points (visits) from her membership for free rides! It is a unique bonus of living next to a major metropolitan zoo. She’s also a big fan of all types of animals!

Grandma and Grandpa were on their way to their new (likely) annual pilgrimage to Florida and they stopped in Atlanta for a few days. Dad did not do a good job of taking photos to capture the visit.

Potty training continues with many ups and downs but some progress

Helena struggling some but progressing

https://youtu.be/GD7Vo-ztMB8

Just like her parents

What’d you do today?

https://youtu.be/OCYZsl80UyQ

This video doesn’t do it justice but Helena is now jumping. Not a whole lot, but she can do it, especially on her parents bed (her favorite). This was taken from the new coffee and tumbling Sunday morning at our newly discovered in-town gymnastics studio.

Helena likes her new little chair

Grandma and grandpa Solomon left last night. Helena was sad to see them go

https://youtu.be/MR3VZ2m_doM

The weather has finally gotten chilly here in ATL. Lower 40’s still beats Vermont but Helena isn’t phased 

Wallet exploration

This year the family spent Thanksgiving in a few different places. First there was Urban Explorer’s day care Thanksgiving (pictured here). Then dad went off to Vermont (see below) to join the Kessel’s while mom stayed behind to work and grandma and grandpa helped care for Helena.

It’s a pretty regular occurence in the household. Helena knows she is not supposed to go up there but can’t resist. 

and a little bit of frolf for dad

https://youtu.be/R2wFIWIFnSA

Helena went to the dentist for her first time today. She didn’t exactly love it but she got through it. The dentist say’s her teeth are a year in a half. in advance and will likely be the first kindergartner to lose her teeth. Most of the time she was crying so the photo opp was missed. She’s also started playing with momma and papa’s friends’ kids!

Helena loves her bike helmet

Helena loves to get jiggy wid it

With the zoo now being a regular weekly visit, Helena is growing up with a unique opportunity to see and learn about animals. It is a 8 minute walk or 4 minute bike ride to the zoo and the family has gone enough times that Helena gets unlimited free train and carousel rides in the zoo which is pretty fun. On this weekends’ visit we had some unusually active lions.

And visit from Boston and soon-to-be-married friend Michelle

Helena met Sam at the park yesterday. Normally Helena has been a little shy or uninterested around other kids but she loved being chased by Sam. She also helped mom and did pick up those digits for some potential new mom and dad friends

Helena only had 2-3 candies but that’s more than she’s ever really had. She did not want to go to bed:

https://youtu.be/QrjK_wlxSvQ

Helena had her first “trick or treat” experience and has quite the sweet tooth. She also hung out with her meerkat friends for a bit too.

It’s time for jean jackets

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The weather has finally cooled, chilled even, in Atlanta. Last week was porch fest in Oakhurst, a trip to the zoo and first time train ride (Helena loved it), and the normal Sunday Grant Park farmer’s market visit

https://youtu.be/_2d7vVgkesI

https://youtu.be/B1JvcJ35WWw

https://youtu.be/FGG5hUce3WE

https://youtu.be/FxXpr0WkFvA

On Saturday mom fought cancer while Helena touched it

As the weather finally cools here, let’s take a look back at the last week or two when GA saw 90’s 60’s, rain, sun, and many points in between

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Helena visited her grandparents while mom and dad went to a friend’s wedding in Hudson. It was a nice quick moment for them to reconnect and enjoy a break from the summer humidity in Atlanta.

wagon ride with friendflux performance and neighborhood bike shop

https://youtu.be/zESxqfxrPbo

Daycare is taking the kids outside as the weather gets nicer and nicer in Georgia