While Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sali were here, Mikaela and Jonathan discovered the magic that happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar – Jonathan calls it a “blocano”.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We had the largest Thanksgiving Feast yet at Grandma Marcia and Zaydie Larry’s house – I believe the final count was 28. We were served by the biggest turkey yet too – a full 30 pounds of Thanksgiving bird. It was great that so many out-of-town-based relatives were able to join us – Grandma Sali and Grandpa Steve from Montana, Corey, Monique and Annie from Chicago, Steph from Springfield, and Jeff and Brandi from Houston. Both the food and the company were great!

Now, if the Jayhawks can just pull off a victory over the Tiggers this afternoon . . .

Jonathan and Mikaela got to break in their Halloween costumes a week early at “Boo at the Zoo” at the Kansas City Zoo. After a rainy week, the skies cleared up on Saturday morning and though the day started out kind of cold, the sunshine warmed us up and made for a really pleasant day at the zoo. The cool weather even encouraged some of the animals that are normally pretty sedentary when it’s hotter to move around, like the lions and tigers. We spent a good four hours walking around the zoo, checking out animals and collecting candy and prizes. We had hoped to check out the new baby orangutang, and we kind of did, but the baby was napping with its mama, and they were curled up together in a tight ball. If you looked carefully at the mama orang’s arms, you could just barely see the baby’s tiny little ear sticking out.

Sorry for being slow at posting the wrap-up of the Minnesota Trip – getting back just in time for Mikaela to start first grade had me a bit distracted. HIghlights of the last few days of vacation included a return trip to the House of Bounce (this time, Jonathan got to come too – last time, he was napping), a fun evening at Thursdays on First – a summer-long outdoor event in downtown Rochester, Shabbat dinner at the Mouse House, more fun in the parks, and back-to-school haircuts (Mikaela’s included getting her nails done, too).

At Thursdays on First, Jonathan made a new buddy from France. Miriam got a cute picture of the two of them – I just need to figure out how to get it out of her phone. They met while patiently (well, as patiently as two-year-olds can) waiting for the music to start while the band was setting up. Meanwhile, the noise was a bit much for Mikaela, so she retreated to the Barnes & Noble with Grandma Mouse to enjoy some quality time with books.

It rained on us pretty much the entire way home, but the rain didn’t give us any trouble. For some reason, the spedometer in the Santa Fe decided to stop working while I was driving – the reading would drop to zero while we were crusing along at highway speeds. Luckily, we figured out the function of Miriam’s GPS that would display current speed, and managed to get home without acquiring a speeding ticket. Of course as soon as we got home and Miriam resumed driving the car, the spedometer started working again just fine.

We set out for Rochester, MN on Sunday, beginning the more relaxed leg of our vacation trip. Not that it hasn’t been fun – it’s been great. But the pace has been much more relaxed. We’ve spent much of our time hanging out at the “Mouse House” with Steve and Sali and Gabe and Eli. The kids have enjoyed the pool here at the Ramada Inn a couple of times already. Jonathan sticks to the kiddie pool side, while Mikaela and I have been playing a running series of water basketball games. She’s won six straight (with modified rules – we play to 10; her baskets count two points, mine count one; I’m not allowed to raise my arms up on defense or to rebound) and has declared herself the CHAMPION!

Mikaela got to go fishing with Paca Steve – she caught three fish (and had a fourth, but it flipped away as it was being removed from the hook), which she proudly brought home to show us before returning them to the lake. She also got to show off how she learned to hit a softball at Sports Camp this summer. And today she went to a Pump It Up-type place called House of Bounce, which had slides so big even Mikaela didn’t meet the minimum height requirement for one of them.

Jonathan has jammed on guitar and harmonica with Uncle Gabe, enjoyed playing at the parks, and playing with Paca Steve, Grandma Mouse, Uncle Gabe and Uncle Eli. Lately, his favorite video has been Sesame Street’s Peter and the Wolf. We discovered tonight just how much Jonathan has fallen in love with classical music. Looking for something on TV to keep him occupied with Mikaela took her bath, I found a Mostly Mozart performance on PBS. Jonathan was absolutely mesmerized. He listened and watched raptly, identifying instruments that he recognized from Peter and the Wolf, and at one point even correcting Miriam that an instrument was a basson, not on oboe. Guess I’ll need to talk to Dana about symphony tickets when we get home!

Today there was a special music program at Mikaela’s school. They don’t usually do “performances” with just one class. But Mikaela’s kindergarten class is a particularly enthusiastic music bunch, so we got a sort of mixture of an end-of-the-year/Mother’s Day concert. Here’s the finale:

The whole concert is available for download here. It’s about 15 minutes long – too long for YouTube streaming. After the concert, Miriam, Grandma Mouse, Grandma Marcia and I (along with the rest of the parents and guests) were invited back to Mikaela’s classroom.

continue reading "Cottonwood Point Mother’s Day"

Grandma Mouse has been helping out here since Miriam’s hand surgery. But she has an appointment in Rochester that prevented her from staying for Mikaela’s birthday. So we had an UNbirthday dinner for Mikaela on Friday night. It was great – Miriam got to practice making a Belle birthday cake, Sali got to celebrate Mikaela’s birthday with her, and Mikaela got to open some birthday presents a week early

At the end of August, Miriam, Mikaela and Jonathan got a chance to meet up with Grandma Mouse and Paca Steve for a few days in Rochester, Minnesota. The kids also got to spend some quality time with Uncle Gabe.

They played at the “SuperPark” (there’s a great picture in the gallery of Mikaela on the zipline there) and visited the geese at Silver Lake. Mikaela enjoyed a new air-pump-powered rocket. Jonathan got to practice his crawling, and they all just had a generally fun (if too brief) vacation there.

Sorry I’ve been so remiss about text updates to the blog lately. I have added lots of pictures – check out the January album in the Photo Gallery. There’s not a lot of big news to report. Jonathan is doing great. He’s still on the “small” end of the growth chart, but he’s healthy and putting on weight as expected. He’s started to try and mimick us when we make faces at him – he sticks his tongue out when Miriam blows raspberries at him (though he doesn’t quite get the “blow” part yet) and will purse his lips like an exaggerated kiss for me.

Mikaela is also doing well. She’s been disappointed by all of the Monday holidays lately, as that means she misses both swimming and dance class at school – her two favorite things. She works really hard at being a good big sister to Jonathan. The other day she insisted on helping to change his diaper.  She got frustrated when his squirming legs made getting the diaper on more difficult than it is to put a diaper on her baby dolls. She said, “Hey, baby, quit movin’ around like that!” She also likes to help give Jonathan his bath – she’s an expert at rubbing the shampoo in his hair without getting any in the baby’s eyes.

It seems Miriam and I are perpetually tired, but that’s to be expected at this point. Miriam is starting to s-l-o-w-l-y transition back to work.  She’s taking care of a few things that can be handled by phone and Email. But it will still be a while before she’s back in the office. I enjoyed getting to spend extra time with the kids, thanks to all of the Federal holidays at the end of December/beginning of January (including the Presidential funeral day). I’m getting back into the regular swing at work myself, though luckily it doesn’t look like I’ve got any travel coming up soon.

In extended family news, things have been pretty busy over the past month or so. Corey & Mo went on their cruise – I hear they had a great time, and I’m sure they’ll have pictures to share soon. Matt, Sarah, and Samantha moved into their new place in Raymore. Larry had surgery that ended up being more complicated than expected, but he’s home and recovering well. Ben & Shirley moved to the Atriums and sold their house – I helped them with the mezuzah hanging at their very nice new apartment. Steve & Sali will be moving soon as well – the destination depends on where Steve’s new job takes them. Gabe continues to travel around the country performing, and Eli is awaiting news on research funding for a graduate school project.

Miriam and Mikaela are in Salt Lake City visiting Steve and Sali. Yesterday, Mikaela had a story to tell Mommy & Grandma Mouse:

Once upon a time there was a little girl and she wanted to ask her mommy to see if she could go to the rainforest. Her mommy said to go on the frog path. And then she said, Yes, I will go on the frog path. She went on the red frog path. Then she heard something there. There was something right behind her. A BEAR! A red monster! She ran and ran and she got to her mommy who said, “How was your first day?” She said “It was awful.” She told her mother about the red monster bear. And then they went walking through the water through the rainforest. They walked and walked and walked and walked and walked until they got home to their family and saw a pretty bird on the tree and they had a special day. The end.