Almost June!

Again almost the whole month has gotten away from us without an update...so here is the whirlwind tour of the past few weeks:

Daddy finished up the last of his travel for this month and started a new work schedule. Instead of his old "flex" schedule where he left the house at 5:30 a.m. and got home around 3:30 p.m., he's now leaving bit before 7:00 and getting home around 5:30. This usually gives him time to visit with the kids in the morning and still enough time to play before bed time when he gets home at night. We're all still adapting to the new schedule- the kids are not used to seeing Daddy when they wake up in the morning and Mommy's not quite used to getting in her training/workouts in the very early mornings! We're getting used to it quickly, though.

In the past few weeks, we went to some of the Mommy and Me events that start up at local shopping centers in the summers, including one with our friends Danielle and Vanessa and their mommy Lauren. Ari and Alex's nursery school had a nursery school Shabbat service and pizza dinner that we all enjoyed, and Ari and Alex celebrated friend Jessica's birthday at her house with all of their school friends. Here's a picture of Alex checking out the fire truck that was at one of the Mommy and Me events. The look on his face when he saw it pulling up was priceless!

We had a nice dinner at the Zuckerman's house where Ari and pal Shara giggled and played together while Alex, Kira and Shara's little sister Kailey played with all the fun toys so that the grown-ups could all enjoy dinner and conversation. After dinner, we dropped the kids off at Miri and Opa's house where they spent the night so that Mommy and Daddy could go to the Junior Maccabi Games as Co-Chairs of our delegation at the crack of dawn on Sunday. Ari, Alex and Kira enjoyed lots of attention from Miri and Opa and then Nana and Poppy Jack as Mommy and Daddy fulfilled their duties as Co-Chairs. We got a glowing report when we came back so we hope that the grandparents will want to have the kids as overnight guests again!

Monday Mommy and Kira hosted Kira's Monday playgroup and had a nice time with Kira's friends and their mommies. The rest of the week was spent enjoying the (finally) warm weather, which included trips to the "duck lake" and to Cabin John where Miri and Opa met up with us to play on the playground (and where Ari and Alex bravely went down the really, really big slides!)

Today Mommy, Ari and Alex celebrated friend Addie's first birthday with her while Daddy stayed with Kira while she napped at home and then Mommy and the kids joined friends Sammy and Izzy and their parents at their pool while Daddy ran some errands. It was a great day but very tiring as Ari and Alex didn't nap because of the timing of the birthday party...combined with hours of fun in the sun at the pool, the kids were all more than ready for bed tonight and Alex even went to bed half hour early on his own volition! Alex was already showing signs of getting tired at the pool when he wanted to take a nap on the lounge chair!

Over the past few weeks, we've noticed that Kira is starting to play with Ari and Alex (and get into trouble with them!) more and more- it's so neat to watch the three of them start to interact on a more level playing field. Kira has also started to show a very strong, stubborn independent streak, wanting to do everything herself and everything her big sister and brother do (including sit on the potty to "pee-pee" and sit on the "big girl" swings by herself!)

We're looking forward to the rest of a relaxing long weekend and can't believe June is almost here already!

Mother's Day 2009

We celebrated Mother's Day a day early this year with dinner out with Nana and Poppy and Aunt Lori and Uncle Sam. We got some great pictures with Daddy's fancy new camera:

It was a great celebration to what otherwise was a difficult week fraught with sickness. True to our track record, as soon as Dr. Miri went out of the country, Alex, Ari and Kira came down with a nasty virus. Alex recovered quickly but Ari ended up with a bad ear infection (her first, luckily) and Kira ended up on a nebulizer after the doctor checked her out and heard some wheezing in her chest. Luckily everyone recovered pretty quickly after a little treatment and TLC, but we have again banned Miri from ever leaving the country again!

Now with everyone back in good health, we're looking forward to some warmer weather and the start of what we hope is a sickness-free summer season!

Kira, Version 1.5

Happy 18 month birthday to Kira! How did our baby get to be such a big girl?

Kira had her 18 month appointment today and weighed in at 22 pounds, 8 ounces (25th percentile) and 34 inches long (97th percentile). Doctor Mindy was impressed with her language development and her other abilities, such as dressing herself and singing. Alex came along with us for the appointment, as he woke up this morning with a slight fever and cough...and despite the current mania surrounding swine flu, was diagnosed with a simple cold (imagine that!)

At 18 months, Kira is finally walking like a pro. She hardly ever scoots on her tush any more and instead loves to toddle around after her big brother and sister. She WORSHIPS Alex- he's the first person she asks for when she wakes up and the one she wants to say good night to before she goes to bed. Kira loves to sing- she can sing a pretty good version of the ABC's and also "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She has a huge vocabulary- too many words to count- and identifies cars, trucks, dogs, ducks, balls, books and lots of other objects. She loves to draw and always wants to do whatever art projects Alex and Ari are doing, including stamps, markers, paints, play doh, etc.

Kira is a great eater and eats just about everything, unlike her more picky big brother and sister. Her favorite foods are pretzels, cheese, yogurt and ice cream. She is very hard-headed though and wants to do everything (include feeding herself messy foods like cereal and yogurt) by herself. She won't even let Mommy help with brushing her teeth- she insists on doing it herself.

Kira is also a total ham and great actress. She makes happy faces, mad faces and surprised faces to entertain her audience. She's very clingy to Mommy right now but can be happy with Poppy Jack or Opa...a grandpa's girl! She loves to give hugs and kisses and adores puppy dogs.

This week we also had a special visit from Aunt Candy and Cousin Jordan. Arielle in particular took to Jordan and keeps telling Mommy, "I love Jordan!" She is also constantly calling to him to show him things: "Jordan, look!" All three kids have loved having their great aunt and cousin around and are going to miss them a lot when they leave.

We can't believe it is May already but we're looking forward to warmer weather and a fun month ahead!