28 Months (a day late)

Alex and Ari are officially 2 1/3 now, and even though we're trying not to count by months any longer, it's hard not to think about each milestone on the 29th of each month.

We've had a busy week so far, trying to take advantage of the "summer" events before they wrap up at the end of this month. This week is the last week for our beloved outdoor concerts, so we made sure to make it on Monday and will be there again tomorrow for the last concert of the season. We've already made plans to get together with our new (and old) "concert friends" in August, and beyond, but it's a little sad to know that the series is ending because that also signals the end of the summer. Monday's concert featured a mariachi band, which was interesting for the adults but didn't seem to hold the attention of the little ones as well as Flumpa the Science Frog. So Alex and Ari requested to leave early for a return visit to the train museum and "big train." Alex was very determined to touch the train.

Tuesday we had a playdate with school friends Abbie and Adam. Ari and Alex were beyond excited to see them and were talking about it for days before in eager anticipation. It was so nice to see all four kids playing so nicely together- they're really a close group of sweet children. And Kira even had a pal of her own, Adam's baby brother Micah. Mommy was happy to catch up with Abbie and Adam's mommies, too, who have become her own dear friends, but at the same time was a little sad knowing that Alex and Ari will be at a different school in the fall. We're certain we will all stay close, though, and plan to have playdates on days the kids don't have school in the fall. Today we visited Miri and Opa and ran some errands and otherwise had a much-needed relaxing day. We're all excited for Kira's big 9-month birthday and check-up later this week...stay tuned for details!

Planes, Trains and....Frogs?

The last few days can be summed up in three words: planes, trains and frogs (although not necessarily in that order)!

Thursday the outdoor concerts we all enjoyed a show by Flumpa, the "famous tree frog" along with our regular concert-going friends as well as a couple of special additions this time, neighborhood friend Ryan and gym class friend Kaylin (who's mommy is expecting twins this winter!) Ryan and his mommy told us about a neat train museum right near the concerts (really it's just one room, but plenty to keep little ones captivated) so seeing how much Alex loves trains, we decided to stop by the museum on the way out of the concert. Friends Rina, Celia and Eliana and Izzy and Sammy joined Alex, Ari, Kira and Ryan to check out the miniature electric train and climb in the old caboose. Alex was very upset when we didn't get to see the "real train" go by (it runs right next to the museum and the concert venue) and wasn't very happy when Mommy made everyone go back to the car, but it was getting very late and past nap time so Mommy promised Alex he can watch for the trains next time we go to the concerts.

Can you see Flumpa the tree frog on stage?

Ryan, Ari and Alex at the train museum

Friday we had a very special playgroup with Mommy's friends from her old Resolve support group and all of their children. It was very heartwarming to see how far the group had come, from struggling with infertility to teeming with small children running around and hanging out in strollers. The bigger kids played on the playground before we all took a ride around the park on-- you guessed it-- a train. Kira was happy to catch up with pal Victoria, who we hadn't seen since both she and Kira were very little: Saturday we enjoyed a lazy morning and in the afternoon decided to take a drive to a park where we could watch airplanes land at the airport. Alex and Ari were very excited about it at first, until the very loud noise of the airplanes passing overhead made them a tad bit nervous. At least we had a chance to get some neat pictures before we headed to quieter ground:
Despite the sunny skies in the pictures, after we got home, typical summer evening thunderstorms rolled in just in time for bedtime. Alex and Ari asked to go to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed so we indulged them...Ari eventually moved to her own bed, but Alex fell asleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed and he looked so cute and comfy that we didn't move him until it was time for Daddy to go to sleep (Mommy fell asleep next to Alex and Daddy needed some room!):Kira has also been a busy girl the past few days- she's getting her top two front teeth, working on crawling, and has learned she is "SO BIG!"

Water Babies

We spent a lot of time in pools this past weekend, and Ari, Alex and Kira are proving to be quite the little fish!

On Saturday afternoon we joined our friends the Arking family, along with a bunch of their friends, at a pool party. Alex and Ari were especially excited to see their friend Adam and meet lots of other 2-year olds. They jumped right into the big pool and enjoyed playing with a big inflatable shark. Kira, meanwhile, had her own special baby pool where she and friend Ella hung out. Kira loved the water and would have stayed in it for hours if we let her!

Sunday we revisited the pool, this time at Nana and Poppy's marina (or "Poppy Jack's boat" to Alex and Ari). Again, Ari and Alex jumped right in and "swam" with the help of "noodles" and Mommy and Daddy's help. Kira rode in the special baby float (that Ari "borrowed" for a quick ride) and sat on the step splashing around.

To kick off the "work week," we met up with Rina, Celia and their baby sister Eliana, along with Izzy and Sammy, for our Monday outdoor concert. Today we made plans to go to a park with friends Andrew and Mitchell, but it started to pour just as we pulled into the park (figures) so we went to the mall instead where the kids played in the play area and then had a snack.

Tonight Miri and Opa came over for a visit before dinner time, and Alex was in a very silly mood:

While Daddy is Away...

Daddy was out of town for the first part of this week, so we stayed busy with lots of friends, fun and sun.

Tuesday morning we took a trip to "Miri's work" to visit a friend of hers who is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon so that he could have a look at Ari's hips and walking. Ari was a late walker who, as some may recall, needed a little physical therapy to get her walking comfortably, and while for the most part she's taken off like a rocket ship since then (walking, running, jumping, climbing, even hopping now), Miri was still a little concerned about her "wobbly walk" so she pulled some strings for us and got us in for a visit with her friend. The good news is that the doctor gave Ari the "all clear" and explained that she just has some more "intoning" than normal and, as a result, may appear knock-kneed for another 12-18 months, but that it's entirely fine and she will outgrow it eventually.

All three kids were excellent during the long wait in the waiting room; the woman next to us even mentioned how well-behaved they were, especially given the long wait and the confined circumstances. Ari and Alex kept busy looking at the pictures on Miri's PDA and trying on Miri's hat:
Everyone enjoyed seeing where Miri worked, meeting all of her friends and playing with the toys in her office.

Tuesday afternoon we headed back to our neighborhood pool for some more swimming time. Alex and Ari are quite the little fish now, preferring the big pool to the baby pool!

Wednesday we went back to the weekly free kids movies for a special treat for Alex and Ari, Curious George. Alex and Ari LOVE their Curious George books and watching the video of the song from the movie on the computer, so they were really excited to see "Monkey George" on the big screen. They made it through about 50 minutes of the movie before they decided it was time to go home. At night, Daddy came home from his business trip in time for baths so the kids were very excited to see him before bed time.

Thursday we got back to our outdoor concerts after missing Monday because of the damp weather. We were all happy to catch up with our friends and enjoy the sunny weather.

Friday we took a trip to feed the ducks and do some shopping, and in the evening we had a nice Shabbat dinner at Miri and Opa's house.

Mommy was slacking with the camera this week but did catch a few pictures of Ari and Alex being especially sweet to each other (their new thing is to hug each other and direct Mommy to "take picture!")

Summer Fun

This weekend was filled with lots of summertime fun!

Saturday morning we took a family trip to the pool with friends Andrew and Justin and their mommy, and we ran into lots of the neighborhood gang. Alex and Ari were little fish, playing first in the baby pool but then (inspired by big friend Justin) asking to to go the big pool where both of them "swam" and Alex learned to jump in off the side of the pool (inspired by Andrew). Kira was happy to sit on the sidelines and watch, and even dipped her feet in the pool a bit.

After a nice long nap, Mommy took Alex and Ari out shopping for some toys to buy with the money their great grandmother GG sent them this week. They were both really into having their own money-- Alex put it in his pocket and Ari put hers in her purse and we were off to find something within their budget. Luckily both picked out something perfectly appropriate-- Alex got a toy tractor/front-loader and Ari got an electric bubble blower. They also picked out a "baby" toy for Kira. They even gave their money to the cashier and carried their toys out in their own bags.

After the shopping expedition, we headed out to friend Sammy's big first birthday. It was a luau theme, perfect for a hot summer day. Alex and Ari were happy to see their friend Joe (Sammy's big brother) and Kira was excited to have a friend her own size. Mommy enjoyed catching up with lots of old work friends (Joe and Sammy's mom works at the firm mommy used to work at) and we all had lots of yummy food.

On Sunday morning Daddy took the kids to Miri and Opa's for an early lunch while mommy went for a run and to a triathlon workshop. In the afternoon we had our monthly neighborhood get-together where we caught up with our friends and met some new neighbors and their teenaged daughters. Ari took to the new neighbors in particular, spending half the evening doing puzzles with them and friend Justin while Alex played with Justin's trains and trucks.

This morning it was just clearing up from some strong storms last night so we decided to forego our regular outdoor morning concert and instead took an outing to the mall where we returned a shirt that was too small on Alex and Mommy bought all three kids a few extra summer clothes. After shopping we stopped for an early lunch, and Mommy, Alex and Ari ate pizza and smoothies while Kira had her bottle. It was a very nice outing and we all had a good time.

Merry Go Round (Take 2!)

Today we went back to the park we visited a little over a year ago with Aunt Lori, and again Aunt Lori joined us, only this time Kira was with us instead of inside Mommy's tummy! We rode the merry-go-round, had a snack at the picnic tables and played on the playground. All three kids had a great time and were very tired when we got home!

Adam!

We had a pleasant surprise today at the outdoor concert (today was a very neat percussion band that included parrots!!) when towards the end of the concert, someone started playing with Ari's balloon and it turned out to be none other than schoolmate Adam!! Mommy was totally confused because she didn't see Adam's mommy (and baby brother) and had NO idea where Adam came from, but then Adam's mommy followed him over and explained that he saw Ari and Alex from afar and came over by himself to surprise us. We were all so excited to see them and catch up with them a bit and hope to get together with them again soon.

Alex and AdamAri, Kira, Adam and "another Ari" (Alex's name for our new friend Ari)Before the show, a train was passing by and all three kids were very excited to stop and see it.

July Already?

It's amazing how fast the weeks fly by during the summer when there's a lot of fun stuff to do. We can hardly believe we're already into July!

This week started with our standard outdoor concert and picnic with our friends. We've got quite the large, regular group of friends who we all enjoy seeing twice a week at these concerts. Some are from our multiples group but others are new friends we have made at the concert throughout the summer. Here's a bunch of us gathered at the concert on Monday, which was a "girl band" made up of several 11-16 year olds.
Tuesday we decided to try something new and go to one of the free movies offered by local theaters especially for kids. We saw the Arctic Tale Movie, which is a National Geographic documentary about arctic wildlife (specifically, polar bears and otters) narrated by none other than Queen Latifah. Alex and Ari, who love watching Animal Planet before bed, were fascinated to learn about the bears and otters and especially enjoyed the part of the movie that showed all of the otters digesting their meals together as a large group, complete with sound effects. They got restless after about 40 minutes, so we left early, but it was a good new activity and we're planning to go back next week with friends to see Curious George, one of Alex and Ari's favorite characters.

Tuesday night Mommy had a "Girls Night Out" of sorts at a Potty Training Workshop at a neighbor's house. Although Mommy is quite circumspect of any "how to" books or workshops, she figured it might give her some guidelines and ideas about the process (plus it was a good chance to spend some time with friends for an evening!) While Alex and Ari will occasionally go on the potty and know we have a big party and eat chocolate if they do go on the potty, they aren't doing it regularly and Mommy hasn't been sure if she should start undertaking the process in an organized fashion at some point soon. According to the woman leading the session (a social worker), children (especially boys) aren't really ready for potty training until closer to three years, so it looks like we might wait a little bit before really pursuing it. We figure we'll see what happens and if Alex and Ari haven't done it on their own before then, we can make a conscious effort to get them trained this winter.

Today we hosted our neighborhood playgroup at the tot lot across the street. Alex was very happy that Tommy brought his trucks and Tommy was very gracious about sharing. It was interesting to see how the boys all flocked to the trucks and the girls (namely Ari and Darby) were content to play on the swings. They did play with the trucks later, but it was definitely the boys who were most excited about driving, digging and dumping. Kira enjoyed having Ari push her in the swing (she seems to love the swing as much as her big brother and sister, which might be a problem seeing that there are only two toddler swings on our playground!) and was glad Macie was there to keep her company.

Ari pushes Kira in the swing

Alex, Tommy and Mitchell load up the dump truck

Darby and Ari "fly" on the swings

Tomorrow's Thursday already...our week is flying by!

Poppy's Boat

While we've gone to Poppy's boat several times this summer already, we had yet to actually venture out on a cruise (usually we just hang out on the boat, go to the pool at the marina, play in the playroom in the clubhouse, etc.) We weren't quite sure what Alex and Ari would think about going out on the boat, so we were pleasantly surprised when they had an absolute ball going out for a ride on Saturday afternoon. They thought they were very cool in their life jackets. Alex liked lifting both hands up to show he was riding with "no hands" and Ari liked waving to the passing boaters.After we returned from our cruise, Nana and Poppy took us all out to a pizza dinner where Alex and Ari demolished half of Nana's pizza while Kira happily sat in her high chair and ate her own dinner of cereal and fruit.
After our visit to the boat, Mommy took Alex and Ari back to Nana and Poppy's house (while Nana and Poppy stayed on the boat) for a "dry run" sleeping over at their house in preparation for Mommy and Daddy's vacation next month, when Ari and Alex will stay at Nana and Poppy's house. We are happy to report they did great sleeping in "big kid" beds at their house and they seem ready and excited to do it again for real next month.

This afternoon, we wrapped up a really nice long weekend with a dinner playdate at friends Sammy and Izzy's house. Our other twin friends Oscar and Henry were there, too, with their new baby sister Ruby (another twins plus one family!) The kids all played so nicely, allowing the adults to chat and enjoy a sushi dinner. Kira was a champ, skipping her afternoon nap to hang out with the big kids and have her own dinner.

Now it's back to the "work week"!

Fabulous Fourth

We had a busy and fun Fourth of July today! This morning we went to Miri and Opa's street for their annual Fourth of July bike parade. While it was Kira's first, it was Alex and Ari's third annual parade and it was really amazing for Mommy and Daddy to think about how much has changed from year to year. The first year, Alex and Ari rode in a borrowed double stroller and slept or cried most of the time. Last year, they rode in our Radio Flyer wagon. And this year, they "drove" their own tricycles as Kira rode in the Baby Bjorn.

2006

2007 (notice Ari's shirt in this picture and Kira's in later pictures...and remember Ari was 15 months old in this picture and Kira is 8 months old now)

2008

After naps, we headed out to Aunt Lori and Uncle Sam's apartment for their city's Fourth of July celebration, which included a miniature train, moon bounce and lots of free food. Daddy fed Alex and Ari hot dogs, lemonade, cupcakes AND sno-cones...Mommy was pretty sure that their appetites for dinner just went down the drain. We got to see "cousin" (by marriage) Jack and Ozzie too. It was a really nice celebration and we had a great time with Aunt Lori and Uncle Sam.

A family picture at the celebration

Aunt Lori helps Alex eat his cupcake
Daddy feeds Ari her cupcake
Aunt Lori and Daddy take Ari and Alex on the train...
...while Kira relaxes in the stroller with a cold beverage (notice the shirt! Look familiar?)
Aunt Lori and Uncle Sam with Ari and Alex

Kira catches a ride with Mommy
Jack and Ari try to get some shade
Ari loves a good moonbounce (until the big kids come in and scare her away)

After our visit with Aunt Lori and Uncle Sam, we headed home to get ready to have our friends the Foxes over for Shabbat dinner. All day, Alex and Ari were looking forward to seeing their friend from school, Matan, and his big brother Doron. They had a blast eating dinner at their little table with Matan and then playing with Matan and Doron after dinner while Mommy and Daddy enjoyed catching up with their parents.

So it was a great day jam-packed with fun, friends and food on the Fourth...not a bad start to our long weekend!