Birthdays and a New Year

Yesterday Alex and Ari officially turned 2 1/2 years old! To celebrate, we went to a big park in another neighborhood with friends Andrew and Mitchell, where we ran into "another Ari," Alex and Ari's friend from our summer concert series.

Also celebrating a birthday this week was Aunt Lori. Happy Birthday, Aunt Lori!

Today was the first day of Rosh Hashanah, so we went to services at our new synagogue for the first time. Since Nana is with GG in Florida this week, Poppy joined us at our services. Ari, Alex and Daddy went to the tot services while Mommy, Kira and Poppy went to the main services until the tot services were over, when Mommy took the kids home and Poppy and Daddy stayed for the remainder of the regular services. After a quick nap, we all went to Miri and Opa's house for Rosh Hashana lunch and the annual family photos.

Another Week (and Weekend) Flies By

Why does it seem like the weeks are flying by so quickly? We guess time flies when you're having fun, but it's really been a whirlwind!

This week started out with Kira's first physical therapy appointment to help her crawl. She is going to be having two appointments a month where the physical therapist will teach Mommy some exercises to do with Kira to help her crawl. Kira is definitely getting around these days, but she does it by scooting on her tushie and most therapists want to see infants crawl, as crawling develops important skills. So we'll be working on helping her learn to crawl on her tummy or all fours rather than scooting on her tush!

Tuesday we hosted our neighborhood playgroup at the tot lot across the street, and Ari and Alex's "old" school friend, Matan, joined us. The boys had fun playing with the dump trucks and Ari and Kira swung together on the swing. Kira also tried out the "big kid" playground equipment, exploring the tunnel and climbing equipment.

Wednesday while Ari and Alex were at school, Kira and Mommy joined their Wednesday playgroup which is all babies around Kira's age. Kira was fascinated with all of the other babies and just happy to have a playgroup of her own, instead of being the baby sister at an older playgroup.

Thursday was another playgroup, this time for our Parents of Multiples club at one of our favorite local playgrounds. We were joined by twins of all ages, from Kira's age through Alex and Ari's age, so it was a lot of fun for everyone even though the weather had turned fall-like and we were all a little chilly!

Friday Mommy and Kira went to music class while Alex and Ari were in school. Later in the afternoon, Daddy took over parenting duties while Mommy left to set up for the semi-annual Parents of Multiples consignment sale. Daddy took the kids to Miri and Opa's for Shabbat dinner where they enjoyed their traditional Shabbat fare (booty, cheese, fruit, etc.)

Mommy returned to the sale bright and early Saturday morning and worked until the evening, so Daddy kept the kids busy all day. He also had a soccer game to coach, though, so Poppy came over for a few hours. Ari, Alex and Kira spent the day playing with the new toys Mommy had bought them at the sale (LOTS of trucks for Alex, jigsaw puzzles for Ari, and a Sesame Street pop-up toy for Kira) and marching around the house in their new rain boots (Mommy found fireman rain boots for Alex, which will be perfect for rainy winter days and also for Alex's self-professed Halloween costume, a fireman!)

This morning Miri and Opa came over to watch the kids while Mommy and Daddy ran a 10K together, the first race they've run together in over 2 years! In the afternoon, Daddy coached a soccer clinic for kids while Ari, Alex and Kira napped. Finally, we capped off a busy weekend with our monthly dinner with our group of neighborhood friends.

Weekend Report (plus Friday)

While Alex and Ari were in school on Friday, Kira had her first music class. This was exciting because it is the first class she is taking on her own (with Mommy, of course) instead of tagging along with Ari and Alex. She loved the music, playing with the instruments and the other kids. Here she is playing with the colorful scarves that the teacher handed out during one song:Friday afternoon Mommy left the kids in the very capable hands of Daddy to leave for her first Olympic Distance triathlon. Meanwhile, Daddy took Ari, Alex and Kira to Miri and Opa's for dinner and for a belated birthday celebration for both Daddy and Cousin Jonathan. While the weather was beautiful at home, Mommy arrived at the beach for her triathlon only to be greeted with wind gusts in excess of 25 mph, cloudy skies, and cold temperatures. There was also a coastal flood warning in effect and rip currents in the water, leading to talk of cancelling the swim portion of the race if conditions weren't better by morning. Mommy had mixed feelings about this: while the swim is her weakest leg of the triathlon, and she was nervous about her first ocean/wetsuit swim, she still wanted to do the whole triathlon if the water conditions improved.

Unfortunately, conditions had not improved by morning so the race director cancelled the swim and replaced it with an equal distance (1500m) beach run. Since Mommy's strength is running, this was obviously in her favor and the result was that she finished 7th woman overall and won a nice glass trophy for first in her age group. Of course, a few hours after the race and while Mommy was driving home, the sun came out and the weather improved dramatically!

Back at home, Daddy took Ari, Alex and Kira a local park with Miri, Opa, Uncle Jason, and Cousins Jonathan and Naomi to ride the train which now only runs on the weekends (which we figured out a few weeks ago when we went to the same park with friends and Alex was very disappointed to find out the train was not working!)

This morning, while Daddy coached a soccer game, Mommy took the kids to visit her good friend, Trip, who works for the Cleveland Browns and was in town for this weekend's game. Ari and Alex loved the fountain in the hotel's lobby and Alex discovered a fun game of running around so that Trip would chase and catch him. Mommy was taking a picture of the kids and trip when a nice man offered to take a picture of all of us. After taking the picture he commented on what a nice Christmas card picture it would make :)

It was so great to catch up with Trip and when we left, Ari and Alex kept asking for "more Trip." Hopefully we'll get to see him again when he's back in town for the Redskins game in October!

Weekly School Report

From Alex and Ari's teacher, a weekly report and pictures:


Monday

Our Open Play started off with some lovely interaction, which is impressive, given that parallel play at this age is still typical. They really played very nicely together, with nary a grab or a shove. Almost all of the children participated in helping to decorate our room for Autumn by building pretty leaf collages. If you haven't seen them yet, please stop in for a minute at drop-off (or pick-up) and admire their arrangements. We enjoyed a quick snack of pretzels and water, and then we sat down on the "lily pads" for Circle Time. The children really seemed to like hearing the story, "Biscuit Goes to School," by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, which tells a simple story of a puppy who doesn't want to miss out on the fun of school. Next, the children "helped" me tell the story of "The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything," by Linda Williams. They had fun going "wiggle, wiggle" and "shake, shake" on cue.
We wrapped up just in time for the children to meet one of our favorite visitors, Miss Judy! Miss Judy, our itinerant music instructor, will visit us most Mondays throughout the school year. Miss Judy was impressed with how well behaved our class was, especially for a first visit. After we let Miss Judy move on to the next classroom, we enjoyed our first school lunch. As they munched, the children listened to me read "The Giving Tree," Shel Silverstein, and we talked about how apples will be important in our celebration of an upcoming holiday, Rosh Hashanah. After we cleared the table, we all got outside for some fresh air. Before we knew it, our first full day was done!


Wednesday

We got off to another good start at Open Play. The children thoroughly explored the toy shelf and played beautifully. Nearly everyone made it over to the art table, where we got messy with paint and began our Rosh Hashanah cards (not that you are to know anything about that yet!). At snack time, we had a very special occasion to celebrate: our first birthday! Reid turned the big "Oh! Three!" at the very beginning of the year, but we decided to postpone our celebration of this momentous first until we had begun our full schedule. Reid's mommy brought in Entenmann's Pop 'Ems, and we all sang "Happy Birthday!" in Hebrew and English. We also served the school-scheduled snack of celery and carrots, which to my delight got more attention than I might have expected with the sweet stuff on the table.

We grabbed a few available minutes for a quick playground session and then returned inside for Circle Time. We talked about the upcoming holiday and read the relevant pages from "Celebrate! A Book of Jewish Holidays" by Judith Gross. We sang "Itsy, Bitsy Spider," and the boys and girls did their best to imitate my hand play. Then, to get them moving a little bit, we sang an "Elmo version" of "If You're Happy and You Know It..." by Sarah Albee. The children giggled through the various emotions presented in the book and had lots of fun being very silly. They also helped me read "Where the Wild Things Are," by Maurice Sendak. It was quite terrifying to be "shown their terrible claws," I assure you! I've never been surrounded by cuter monsters.

Next, we had a very special treat: a shadow puppet show! The children in the four-year-old program, with the help of a wonderful visiting puppet master, put on a wonderful shadow puppet show about Rosh Hashanah. Our little group was spellbound.
Upon our return downstairs, we enjoyed our lunch completely and then made it outside to stretch our legs. Day two was done! Friday

Open play was varied and relaxed. We started our next Shabbat project, which is to decorate our kippot. A little more than half of the children worked on them; we'll get the other half done next week, and then we'll wear them during our Shabbat blessings every Friday. Instead of our visit to Morah Goldie's classroom for Shabbat Sing, we went upstairs to the APR for an all-school Shabbat Sing, led by our very own Morah Pam. The children gamely participated in the play-acting that went along with each song. When we returned downstairs, the songs continued with an element of silliness thrown in. We repeated the "Elmo version" of "If You're Happy and You Know It...." This time, we had the camera out; you'll see in the pictures that the children love the acting and dancing we do as we read/sing the book. For a little more movement, we went outside to the "grassy side" of the building and played "Stop! Go!" which can best be described as a ultra-simple version of "Red Light, Green Light." Next, we returned to our room, grabbed all the hats we could find, and read "Old Hat, New Hat" by Jan and Stan Berenstain. We also grabbed our rubber ball and played a variation of our ball-rolling game, in which the children had to figure out where I was going to roll the ball based on my description ("I'm going to roll the ball to someone wearing a blue, pointy hat!").

With perfect timing, our Shabbat family rolled in just as we finished our hat game. With the help of Laylie's mommy and grandfather, we blessed our candles, grape juice, and challah, and enjoyed our "Shabbat dinner" (a.k.a. lunch). Over our festive meal, our Shabbat family read the children an amusing story about a bear in Brooklyn on Shabbat. We topped off a nice day and a great week with some playground time.

Outdoor Fun

We've been enjoying an "Indian Summer" with lots of warm days, trying to fit in as much time outdoors as possible before colder weather arrives!

Tuesday we had back-to-back playdates at outdoor playgrounds. First we had our neighborhood playgroup at the tot lot across the street from us, and then we headed off to a larger playground for a playdate with lots of our twin friends, including Ari and Alex's buddies Sammy and Izzy. Mommy was getting worn out just watching all of the kids run after each other on the (very spread out) playground. We practically had to drag everyone away after noontime, knowing that hunger and sleepiness was sure to set in very soon after such an active morning.

Twins playing peek-a-boo (and Alex enjoying being the only boy!)

Sammy, Ari and Izzy make a break for it
Izzy, Sammy and Alex take a little break
Kira can't wait until she's running around with the big kids
Izzy, Sammy and Ari plotting their next move
Sammy and Alex tandem slide

Today we took a trip to the library to get out some more books, and as always, Alex honed in on the truck/train/boat/tractor books without any help from Mommy. He picked out a book with "100 Cars, Train, Boats and Planes!" while Ari, who tends to gravitate towards books about animals, picked out "Run, Mouse, Run" and "Spot's First Walk." Kira just likes to chew on the books at this point, so we figured it would be best if she didn't check any out of the library on this visit!

After the library, we ran some errands and visited the lake that has the "little fountain" that Alex and Ari love. They threw in a few coins and, even though Mommy asked them not to, insisted on "just touching the fountain a little bit." On the way back to the car, Alex asked if we could go to a restaurant for lunch. Since it was nearing noontime, Mommy decided to stop and get a quick lunch for the kids at Corner Bakery, where we ran into school friend Jessica and her mommy! So we ended up eating with them, enjoying their company as Ari and Alex ate their turkey sandwich, chips and fruit.

Tomorrow Kira and Mommy start Kira's first music class while Ari and Alex are in school. Mommy is really looking forward to Kira having her own activity instead of having to tag along to all of Ari and Alex's activities!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday to Daddy! We celebrated lots of birthdays this weekend, including school pal Abbie and Cousin Jonathan. Seems like September is a busy month for birthdays (including Poppy's and Autn Lori's too!)

Aside from birthday celebrations, we had dinner on Saturday night with a few members from the 2005 Maccabiah Triathlon team (which Mommy co-chaired) who were preparing for the Nation's Triathlon. Mommy fueled up herself for Sunday's Parks Half Marathon, which she finished in 1:32:59, good enough for third place in her age group (and a gift certificate to a local running store!) Here's a picture of the teammates (plus Kira, a future triathlete maybe?) and one from the race taken by a photographer on the course.

The half marathon started off a marathon of a day, with two birthday parties (Abbie's and Cousin Jonathan's), as well as the nursery school Back to School picnic AND a neighborhood block party. Needless to say, we were all very releived when the day was done.

Celebrating Jonathan's birthday- Ari and Alex are fixated on the cake!!

"Who, me? No, I didn't eat any chocolate birthday cake..."

Week Two of School

This week Ari and Alex continued their gradual transition into preschool, going without Mommy for progressively longer periods each day. As expected, Ari was more than happy to go to school on her own, but Alex was a bit more hesitant. He cried for about ten minutes the first day, two minutes the second day, and by the third day he had stopped crying by the time Mommy and Kira got out the classroom door. Mommy has had a chance to spy on their class from an upstairs room with a bird's eye view of the playground, watching Alex and Ari play with their friends, the toy trucks outside and running up and down the big hill next to the playground (Ari's particularly good at getting up the very steep hill!)

Ari and Alex's teacher, Morah Pat, sends out weekly summaries of the class activities, along with pictures. Here are some highlights of this week's activities along with lots of great pictures:

Monday- According to Morah Pat, "the class started the day in both session with Choice Play and Art Time. To our amazement, in both groups, every eye in the room was dry and busily engage in all types of play in 15 minutes. All of the children participated in decorating their communication folders (you can judge their level of enthusiasm by the amount of paint applied!), and most gave the play dough a try. Next, we said our blessings and enjoyed a snack of Cheerios, raisins and water. With the sun shining, the children then got to enjoy the playground. We ended the day with Circle Time and "The Kissing Hand," by Audrey Penn."

Wednesday- On Wednesday, Morah Pat was sick so the kids had their first substitute, who they really loved. They read "Baby Faces," by DK Publishing. They also participated in a hand painting project that resulted in a new valance for the classroom window. Since class ended early, the parents in the class decided to continue the fun at the playground, so Ari and Alex got to spend some extra time with their friends.

Friday- Morah Pat wrote, "I was nothing short of astounded by how quickly everyone settled into class this morning. We all enjoyed a lively session of play dough, puzzles, and lots of toys! After some effort at clean up, we then went on our visit to the classroom of our friends, the "Busy Bees" for a "Shabbat Sing" followed by outdoor play time. We returned inside for Circle Time, and read "My First Shabbat Board Book" by DK Publishing, "Let's Celebrate Shabbat," by Madeline Wikler, and "Soft Shapes: My Shabbat" by David Brooks. Afterwards, we said the blessings and enjoyed our snack of juice and challah. Rabbi Jacob came to visit with the children for a few minutes and sang "Bim Bom" with them. Shortly after his departure, it was time for backpacks and line-up. Another week was done!"

So despite the fact that Alex has some tears for a few moments when Mommy leaves, judging from the teachers' reports and the pictures, he's more than happy once he settles into class. He particularly loves the toy trucks in the class and quickly found the fire truck, tractors and crane. Ari loves doing art work, especially painting and coloring. She also loves the play doh and working on puzzles. It's so much fun to see them developing their own interests and personalities, and becoming so independent.

On days when Ari and Alex aren't in school, we've been busy fitting in other fun activities. On Thursday we met up with Ari and Alex's friend from their old school, Matan, and his mommy at a large park nearby. This is the park with a train, and Alex was especially excited to ride it but unfortunately Mommy forgot that it is after Labor Day and the train only runs on the weekends! We still had a lot of fun, though, climbing, swinging and playing with Matan and his mommy. Mommy was especially happy that there were three swings on this playground so no fighting over who got to use the swing...although Mommy has finally figured out how to get all three kids on our tot lot's two swings by putting Kira and Ari back-to-back!

While Alex and Ari are in school, Mommy has had a chance to spend some one-on-one time with Kira. This week we just ran errands and went for a run in the jogging stroller, but next week Kira's music class starts so we're looking forward to something that is just for Kira!

Speaking of Kira, this week she had some notable milestones. Most importantly, Kira has now mastered eating finger foods! Prior to this week, she was spitting out anything solid- Cheerios, puffs, chunks of veggies or pasta in her baby food. This week she finally got the hang of chewing and we can't stop her! She loves eating everything and ate pasta, peas, corn, bananas and even a bit of ground beef this week in addition to Cheerios and puffs. Mommy is so excited that she's finally making progress on this front. Kira is also starting to stand a little more when helped by Mommy and something to lean on. She was evaluated this week by our local Early Intervention program, which will allow her to get some physical therapy for her gross motor skills (since she still isn't mobile and is not yet pulling herself up to standing position) and even though she's a bit behind in the gross motor skills (30th percentile), she is excelling in other areas like fine motor skills, language and social development.

We capped off our week with an early birthday dinner for Daddy on Friday night, and then this morning while Daddy was coaching soccer, Mommy took all three kids to the Tot Shabbat service at our synagogue (also Ari and Alex's school). Alex was just glad that Mommy wasn't leaving today, and we all had a very nice time singing Shabbat songs, visiting with friends and eating challah and cookies. After services we stopped by Nana and Poppy's house for a quick lunch before it was back home for nap time.

Another week down and lots of fun to look forward to!

Back to School

It was a big week in the Reichmann household as Ari and Alex headed back to school and began their 3-morning a week "2's" program.

First, before school started, we had a playdate and reunion with one of Alex and Ari's "old school" friends, Matan. Every time Mommy has mentioned school to them, Ari and Alex ask about Matan, Abbie and Adam, so it's a little bittersweet that we're moving to a new school this year and it was nice for Alex and Ari to know that even though they're in a new school, they'll still stay friends with their old school pals.

Wednesday was the big first day of school, although our school has a transition period where Mommy (and Kira!) goes with Alex and Ari to the first two classes before they start going on their own an hour, hour and a half, or two hours at a time. So Wednesday was a quick 30-minute class with 1/3 of their new classmates and today was a 45-minute session with another 1/3 of the class. Ari and Alex were excited to meet their new teachers, Morah Pat (who we ran into while shopping on Thursday and got to eat lunch with, along with her own son!) and Morah Kseniya, and to see some familiar faces among their classmates. Alex immediately found the fire trucks and tractors in the classroom, and Ari made a beeline for the markers and stamp pads. They were particularly excited about bringing backpacks to school and to wearing their special "Shabbat shirts" today. Alex was a pro at the Shabbat blessings and Ari thought eating challah in class was pretty cool. Kira even got into the class by participating in circle time. Ari and Alex's class is called the "Leaping Frogs" class and Morah Pat calls the younger siblings the "tadpoles."

Tonight we had a special treat: dinner with Alex and Ari's Great Aunts Joyce and Rose. We decided to take the Metro, in part because Alex loves it so much, and he was very excited to ride the train again. He even remembered how to get to the station and once we got there entertained the evening commuters by gleefully yelling "Yay, the Metro!!" Kira was the most excited, though, bouncing up and down in her seat and laughing her head off throughout the ride! She also had fun during dinner time, browsing the martini list and drinking her own beverage of choice- water- from her straw sippy cup, a new feat for her this week. Alex thought the cars, planes and trains in the restaurant were really neat. All three kids appreciated the books that Joyce and Rose brought them and we all enjoyed catching up over dinner.