Vacation, so far

The kids have been sweet and, when naughty, have managed to provide comic relief. Saul quit thanking me, but has started saying "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" in a sing-songy voice reminiscent of teenage girls greeting each other (wait, do I still do that?). Yasha walks, really walks, and falls so clumsily you just want to sweep him into your arms every time. But he doesn't cry too much. Ezra and Naomi and I visited the fahncy bike store, purchased flashy new helmets (for them), removed training wheels, and readied their bikes for summer riding. Ezra amazed me by teaching himself to ride after a couple of days' practice on our tiny deck (without help from parents). He especially amazed himself. I'm glad he's a fairly brave kid, a squawking chicken about minor pains, but not afraid of physical challenges. We're eager to take him and Naomi out to the park, but a sudden heat wave descended upon us, and we're waiting it out. Now that Ezra is self-sufficient, I can focus on teaching Naomi (and channeling my dad, who taught me). I was wondering how it was all going to work out...

Did I mention that we got Hannah a small trike, which she calls (you guessed it) a "dike"? Ezra, practicing, not-so-politely said, "Hah-nnie, get out of my way!" and she brilliantly retorted: "It's my way!" 

Ezra discovered Beethoven. He really has been davening every day (to my great shock) and using his special Ashrei tape. The adjacent tape deck contained Beethoven's (glorious) Violin Concerto, which he secretely turned on, and I entered to the room to find Ezra leaping and prancing, and goading the girls on to do the same... not always in time to the music, but with obvious relish. This after many years of plugging his ears and wailing, "Noooooo, noooooooo classical music! I hate (Ezzie, we don't say 'hate'!) classical music! Turn it off! I can't stand it!" Never give up on your children.

Naomi has always seemed to appreciate classical music, asks for it in the car--a bold act of rebellion against Ezra (used to be), or, I'd like to think, independence. I think she tolerates the other things (silly "indie" music that mom sometimes needs, and "Oldies" - Ezra's generic term for all rock music) with some discomfort, though she likes children's music. Anyhow, we were listening to Mozart on the kitchen radio, and she asked me to notice how fast she was coloring. "When I listen to beautiful music, it makes me color really, really fast." And she was making her interesting patterns and designs with squares and triangles. Maybe she really is one of those people whose mind translates sounds into colors and shapes. 

Hannah, wailing just outside the twins' door (a big no-no!) and getting scolded by Mommy: "Mommy, I'm sorry!" Then, with wide, pleading eyes: "Dan I be happy?" She does this often, takes the rebuke, and asks... well, she put it so vividly--it's deeper and richer than a rational, adult analysis, which I will promptly cut short. And every time she says it she gets kissed to pieces. 

"Big" Danny (favorite teenaged babysitter) wandered around downtown Mercer Island with the two ruffians on Friday and got them some water guns. All Shabbos, Hannah chased me and said, "Mom, you have to dose your eyes. I'm doe-ing to shoot yuuu!" With her "water-dun."

P.S. Friday was our 8-year anniversary! We celebrated by not grumbling at each other all Shabbos long! And today we're going on a "journey" (i.e. we have no idea yet where we're going, but it's going to be fun) without kids and without thinking about how much it's costing in gas. In D's opinion (and mine, I guess), if it isn't a long drive, it doesn't really feel like an adventure.

The Shabbos Shuffle... starring YASHA!!!

Yasha can walk, too!!!!! We caught him. Daddy pointed and said, "Look, Yasha's walking," and it was true. He was quietly shuffling along the kitchen floor, pants too long, but that didn't stop him this time. He did it once more later in the day (i.e. took more steps than I could easily count, then flopped). The kids always, always, always--really, always--do new things on Shabbos. Hooray! No photo yet, of course... I just hope Yasha will repeat his performance soon. 

Funny kid-sayings:

Ez (Friday afternoon): Mom, I sent Kiki an American page. Mom, ask her if she got my American page! (Numeric page, you silly boy.)

Naomi (just now, coming upstairs hours after tucking-in time, to find grownups eating sandwich cookies, package tantalizingly open, Nome scooped onto Daddy's lap): Why did you just put that in front of me to make me want it!

And how, how could I forget about Saul? Saul says Mama, and babbles strange strings of syllables not mirrored in any human language, incredibly cute and charming and hilarious syllables..... but that is not all! As of yesterday (Shabbat again) he says, "Dee doe" or "Dee day" when you give him something. He is very purposeful about it. I couldn't believe it, thought he was much too young for this kind of thing, so we made him to say "Thank you," and he said "Dee dow" on demand over and over again, with a little grin. He means it. Saulchik!!! 

Daddy, measure me

School's out! So we can ruin our eyes at the computer. Ez, looking at iPhoto slideshow of all of us a few years ago: Mom, can we make Naomi's hair be curly again? She was so cute! Oh, my gosh, Naomi, you were so cute! (Me: Ezzie, you were cute, too.) But not as cute as Naomi was at that age! (I appreciated the complexity of this point, not to mention the humility he's apparently capable of.) I was cute when I was really little.

Ezra has been doing his rather lengthy kindergarten davening curriculum for two days (as of today--well, I'm impressed anyhow!) which means the house is filled with his sweet singing voice--and it is sweet, must have gotten some genes we're unaware of. We brazenly called Morah Esther, put her on speakerphone, and had her do Ashrei with Ezzie, as well as promise to make a tape of same... what fun. Ez, at one point, describing class, almost wistfully: When we do Mah Tovu it seems like we've got music playing, 'cause we have a really good tune, and when the whole class does it, we sound really mellow. (Not the adjective I was expecting... but funny... and touching.) 

Hagigat Siddur party

My little baby Ezra is getting big. Last week, my little baby kinder-gartner starred in his first school play, as the very special letter "Yud." Now, if you are thinking kabbalistically, as you should be, you know that this is indeed a very, very important letter. Anyhow, their dear teacher knows just how to do things, with her perfect little program, her clever play, and the elaborate siddur-receiving ceremony. That last upload is an exceptionally beautiful (I think) Naomi-design, overlaid upon Ezra's "lines," which he delivered in an adorable, casual-yet-awkward sort of way. All the children were wearing paper crowns and paper vests each with its own beautiful golden letter. I laughed and cried quite ridiculously, but despite being as doting a mom as any, forgot my camera. One of the superior mommies snapped photos of Ezra (letter "Yud") and Natalie (letter "Hay") as they did their bit (must remind her to send them), and of all the children belting out their lovely songs--and they did Oifn Pripitchik !! After it was all over, they partook of a chocolate-cherry Albertson's cake, upon which Morah Esther had written each of their Hebrew names in icing. And, in a variation on a Talmudic theme, each child ate his own enornmous slab of name-cake.

Happy Father's Day!

Enlarge card to see all significant and telling details.

GQ Baby

This is the sort of thing Naomi likes to do to the babies in her spare time... and on especially long, boring days, their fairy god-sister transforms them into princesses. I might just have to prove it one day...

Recent kid-speak

I always try not to laugh, so their little thoughts will keep coming out uncensored. But it can be hard.

Ezra (lying on his back): I have a fever... but for a minute I thought I felt the germ being ate-en. It was a little tickly, right here (points to stomach). 

Upon our being asked at the drive-through coffee hut, "Are you enjoying the sunshine?": It's boy-a-ling my eyeballs out!

Passing a gym: Can I do workouts, just not the weights (this last bit after mom told him no weights for growing boys)? 'Cause I really wanna do workouts. 'Cause I wanna get strong...'cause I like challenges. 

Listening to radio: Mom, commercials are actually good, 'cause some of them will save lives. (Mom asks how.) 'Cause some of them are about health! So we actually shouldn't skip them.... And some.... help you with money... like, if you're poor.

Naomi's turn: Mom, when I shake myself, my self doesn't make a water sound. See? (jumps up and down) 

Me: Why would it?

Naomi: Because it has blood! 

After being complimented on her drawing: Mommy... am I a kid aw-tist?

Hannah (babbling and being ignored by computer-mommy, shows her fine communication skills): Mommy, dan you dalk doo me? 

Progress report

All of a sudden, Ezra can read! He up and read a huge 100-plus-page Dick and Jane book. Banina had given it to him quite a long time ago, and it sat and sat on the green junk shelf. Thankfully I had no idea (till I just googled it) that those books are frowned upon as old-school and horrible in every way. Ridiculous! It jump-started his reading, and now he is challenging himself - no other way to look at it; the kid is obviously working his brain to bits - to read more and more. And would you know, this summer Half-Price Books is paying kids $3 a week to read 15 minutes a day for five days, and there are at least 8 weeks to the program. There is a chart, and 6-year-olds love charts, where he logs his reading time. Yippeee!  

Saulchik: Saulchik is really, truly walking, with sturdy out-turned legs and extreme glee! 

Yasha: When he finds himself out of footy pj's, he makes a valiant effort to stumble a few feet, but continues to be more interested in banging and biting and climbing inside pitch-black closets and making the doors rumble on their hinges, and then come off (Saul likes this game too, but Yasha initiated it). He always looks like he has something up his sleeve. He is exploring the world with deep, quiet, intense concentration, not playing to any crowd or even to any doting mama - this is new for a Klinghoffer. He's doing his investigations, and he will take his time and not make any hasty pronouncements. (Please don't ask me how I know all this...) And meanwhile, he always has time for a kiss, and tilts his silky soft cheek up for one.

 

And little Hannah. Thanks to mama's encouragement, she loves to read the hypnotic, sleep-inducing Little Quiet Book (mentioned earlier) - a.k.a. The Little Diet Book. I love her variations on the text.

"Diet is the cyber on his web!" for "Quiet is a spider," and many delectable others (though I dread the day the book falls apart, because the new edition commits sacrilege, leaving half of it out just to make it more chewable...the nerve.)

I need to photograph all the yum yums as they deserve, but my digital camera was mummified in bubble wrap, boxed up and sent back to the factory to get its no-good blurry lens repaired, and will be sailing home soon so I can take some crisp photos. I am all itchy to get it back. The photos here were taken by my no-good Point-and-Shoot, called out of retirement... but its defects don't infuriate me because it never promised to be a good camera.