Mayers Birth Announcement

before I was pregnant with Mayer i saw a birth announcement that i fell in love with

i had no clue where it came from but i knew i needed it...when the time came

once mayer arrived i kept looking at different sites for announcements but they were so restricting and left me feeling empty.

i kept mentally going back to the announcement i had seen and pinned on pinterest

i decided to ask my sweet neighbor miguel who is graphic designer to recreate my vision using the photo i had taken of mayer in the womb his softa made him.

this is the original photo...

my only input was the actual information, the photo and that i wanted to tie the womb colors into the wording on the announcement.

it turned out so much better than i had ever imagined.

love love love it!

Brothers

One random day we got silly.and sweet..

because that's what we do. love love love.

asher is an extremely proud big brother

so excited to be so close, but he was scared he was going to squish him

he watches his brother's every move and is extremely attentive and sensitive to his needs

he loves to kiss him on his forehead or head

pat him on the head or stroke his cheek gently 

and love on him, just the right amount

and by the looks of things, mayer is a-ok with it all

you can tell he already looks up to asher

and asher adores the attention and affection from his brother...

but even more so from the camera...

could he not be any more silly?

asher is very proud of his little brother.

he introduces him to everyone, tells anyone that will listen that his baby brother came out of his mommys tummy. everyone must know this upon greeting asher....

common things that he also blurts out (just like i used to do)

"do you have a question for me?"

"im getting bigger"

"my birthday is coming up in june"

for the record asher says these three things consecutively, back to back upon greeting most strangers... and he says them really fast. so unless you know he is saying them you are sitting there thinking uhhh, what? its humorous. he goes through this list with us (philip, bella, mayer and myself) almost nightly before bed and just recently added "i love you" before the three lines. kids are so funny.

asher also introduced his "baby, aka. lovey" to mayer. mayer has his very own baby (same color, just a bear head vs the hippo head). asher makes sure that mayer is holding or snuggled up to his little "baby" at all times. he will trek the entire house looking for mayer's "baby" to make sure he has it. 

mayer at 2 weeks old

check out the dimples in his cheeks!

his nose definitely is from his grandma sara (softa), eye shape is possibly his daddy as well as his clef chin....maybe blue eyes like momma??? and the lips are still to be determined. mayer is definitely a great mix or our family and we love that he is so different than asher!

this isnt the best photo but the boys facial expressions were priceless...

i cant even imagine what either of them are thinking...

love my two boys!!

The Real Deal - Brit Milah

due to the availability of a Mohel or lack-there-of, we had to do the actual circumcision and ceremony separate from the ceremony and naming. Dr. James (who happens to also be my OBGYN), is a certified reform mohel. his father actually started the reform mohel movement and he also happened to perform Asher's brit milah 3 years ago. not only did he do a fabulous job, but his bed side manner was so amazing i decided to switch to him as my obgyn....and frankly have never regretted that decision. he is fabulous. i would actually probably tell you he is the very best doctor i have ever seen. but this post isnt about him or how wonderful he is....the bottom line is, if we werent going to be able to do the naming and circumcision at once i was going to wait for dr. james to get home from the mountains later that day so that i could be sure i was comfortable with who was performing this procedure on my son.

only immediate family was present at our home at the time dr. james arrived.

6 pm and we were ready.

i actually watched this time around and found it particularly interesting. 

every mohel does it differently however dr. james performed the procedure just like a surgical procedure. 

you can see we were all gathering to observe the mitzvah...by the look on my face i can tell i was whincing...but watching...

he strapped mayers legs to this pillow that he brings with him and he gave him a local anesthetic to numb it so that he wouldnt feel much other than tugging. we also gave him several fingers dipped in wine to calm him and relax him (this is traditional in the jewish ceremony)

for extra love and support everyone held his hands/head to let him know we were there for him

all done!

dr. james, the rockstar mohel

after the ceremony and procedure were complete, asher said the hamotzi over the challah, asher was playing with his cousin brittan during the actual circumcision as we didn't want to traumatize him!

gave mayer a good job kiss  

the whole gang at the bris

i even jazzed up the table so that it didnt feel so sterile

dr. james' special bag that he brings with him to all brit milah's

and what jewish celebration or ceremony is without food....

we all joined together and had a festive meal as we celebrated mayer

 philip and i both agreed that we much prefered seperateing the two parts (naming and circumcision) vs doing it all at once with everyone present. b'sheret... it was meant to be.

Mayer's Brit Milah

mayer's naming and brit milah (Bris) 

The brit milah (Hebrew: בְּרִית מִילָה‎ Hebrew pronunciation: [ˌbʀit miˈlä], Ashkenazi pronunciation, bris milôh, "covenant of circumcision"; Yiddish pronunciation, bris) is a Jewish religious circumcision ceremony performed on 8-day-old male infants by a mohel. The brit milah is followed by a celebratory meal (seudat mitzvah).

it took place on July 29th, a sunday morning. 10 am. we sent out an email invitation through punchbowl since there was not enough time to formally invite people. jered mond from izzy's catered the event and several family members (softa, aunt janet, cousin brittan) helped set up the day before. beautiful white and yellow flowers in clear glass vases with a teal ribbon were placed on each table. it could not have been a more perfect celebration

we arrived about 45 minutes before everyone else arrived so that we could make sure mayer was fed, everything was set up and we could take some photos. we definitely had no shortage of photos that day. a good friend of our family, andrew bernstein, took many of the photos for me throughout the celebration. it was wonderful knowing my camera was in his hands and he would capture all of the memories i would want to cherish. 

daddy and asher ready for the party

asher hamming it up before everyone arrived with his nana and poppy

great uncle jay, great aunt estelle and nana

harris teeter did a great job with the cake, thanks nana!

everyone wanted to see the tiny baby (tahli and lila are taking a peek)

our sweet family of four!

cantor bernard chatting it up with mayer man

those sweet long fingers...just like his momma

we had a full room... over 100 people attended mayer's bris and naming

 laura checking out the little man

the table with all of the sentimental items for the ceremony.

the kiddush cup is a michael aram cup given to mayer by the Kenmore's (aunt/uncle/cousin), the Agam wedding talis and kippah, philip's bar mitzvah tallis and bag, a special dress worn by Philip and Asher at their brit milah ceremonies and a new blessing blanket from softa

little mayer davi

love that sweet face and button nose

asher's girlfriends from school 

my big sweet boy

gigi with her two youngest daughters

we were so honored and thrilled so many people came in for Mayer's naming/bris.

janice and diane came up from atlanta and grandma flew in from montgomery, alabama

I decided that I wanted to put together a welcome table so I used a bunch of frames we had around the house and/or nursery and printed out photos from the first week including hospital photos and some posed. softa also gave us a plate that we had everyone sign who attended and then cooked it in the oven to seal the writing. love this idea and its a memory we will always cherish

Renee and Sherman. 

sherm will grow up with Mayer as they are only 8 weeks apart.

is that hair not insane for an 8 week old???

Dinh and Tran (she does my nails and softa's nails....we adore her) and she is like family to us.

we were so thrilled that they were able to come. she said that the ceremony reminded her a lot of what they do at her church

nana and poppy with their big girl

relaxing on softa before the ceremony

 tying the kippah on, just like we did with asher

showing off his kippah

wrapping him up in the tallis

showing off my new pride and joy all wrapped up in philip's tallis

getting ready for the service led by our assistant cantor mary thomas.

we are good friends with mary and her family and prior to delivering mayer i had asked her if she would be so very kind to lead the service. at the time we had planned to do the naming and circumcision at the actual event, but once we realized we couldnt get a mohel to come at the time we needed we had to change plans and we REALLY needed mary. technically if a mohel performs the service/ceremony you dont need a rabbi/cantor or clergy member. we of course knew we would have both in some way shape or form. mary exceeded any and all of our expectations. she was amazing at the pulpit and i was thrilled that we had the opportunity to have her lead our ceremony. i could not have selected a better person to do it. it was so very personal and well thought out. she was eloquent and well spoken and she impressed many! we decided to just do the naming and ceremony in front of the community and friends and we scheduled the actual circumcision later that afternoon when the mohel we wanted (dr. James) was available. (he came to our house.... another separate post)

 parents participating in the blessings

 asher throwing back some wine after we said the kiddush (which he knows by heart and participated fully) he also blew us away throughout the service with wonderful behavior. when we were reading responsively he was attempting to repeat the words with us. to say it was precious was an understatement. my eyes filled up with tears of pride and joy as he embraced judaism all on his very own.

family blessing under our Agam wedding tallis

our dear friend Rabbi Noam stepped up to say a few words, crack a few jokes (about us) and to say the blessing over the challah. the ceremony would not have been complete without his participation. we adore him and his family... (that's your shout out Tamar!)

 Dr. Matt (aka. the boys pediatrician) caught in the act of snagging some food after the service. we were so thankful he was able to come.... and he also did a little diaper rash tushy inspection for us in the kitchen before everyone got there because Mayer' had a horrible diaper rash that we had to treat with special sulfadine cream...

what Jewish gathering wouldn't be complete without bagels, cream cheese, lox...

we also served a french toast casserole, tuna salad, fixings for the bagels and a fruit salad....

 Dessert Spread

chocolate and vanilla Cake pops made by yours truly to match the colors!

i definitely made these my 40th week of pregnancy while I was anxiously awaiting Mayer's arrival. it kept my mind off my aches and pains and focused on the prize!

homemade chocolate mandel bread

homemade merigune's

AJ and Frida getting some food from the spread!

Desserts!

poppy and his 2nd grandson...forming his baseball team one kid at a time

great Aunt Janet who came from Nashville with Papu

Dinh with mayer and mommy

Courtney and Josh with Emily's boyfriend (they just had a baby girl!)

Mayer with his Great Aunt JanJan and Diane and Great Grandma Gigi

Asher with his teacher from last year, Ms. Elise

 Great Aunt Estelle and her Grand babies

Our happy family all together!

what a wonderful blessing this celebration was to our entire family. we were so thankful to have our closest family, friends and jewish community present with us for this very special event. cantor mary put together an amazing service with so many personal anecdotes and stories...that made it so very memorable for us. we are forever grateful.