Eleven (and a half) months

I'm well behind, lots of reasons (three kids and a full-time job).

Some random thoughts on Matthew and Renee being 11 months old:

- they both crawl. Renee was first. Matthew started at a Shabbat dinner at my parents a few weeks ago and never stopped!
- Matthew climbed up the stairs today
- Matthew loves music, dances all the time. He really likes pivoting in one spot.
- Renee claps and waves
- Renee says "Mama" (at me, at my mom and when ever she doesn't like her circumstances). She says "up" when she wants to be picked up. And, at daycare she says "no" when they put her in her crib for naps.
- Renee cruises and walks holding someone's hands
- they love, love Cheerios, especially Matthew, and are starting to feed themselves (i.e. make a mess of the kitchen and themselves)
- both love putting things in and out of containers
- Matthew loves looking at light fixtures; Renee likes turning lights on and off
- they are not so keen on their exersaucers, but love their activity table

Our typical weekdays:
- wake up, nurse, get dressed, play without adults while adults get ready, go to day care
- pick up from day care, get home, nurse, play, eat dinner, play, bedtime
- wake up 1-2 per night (per baby), or more if sick (as an aside, of the 6 ears in our house under the age of 4, 4 are currently infected!)

Our weekends are a blur of fun and non-stop "things to do" (like laundry which we do daily, cleaning the kitchen, diapering and dressing, grocery shopping). The fun is mostly time we spend together, both the 5 of us and the 5 of us plus Abbeywood (my parents, sister, nephew) with whom we have dinner every Friday and Sunday. The three kids are at an age where they are a lot of fun.

Samuel continues to be hilarious and perpetually happy. He has really embraced the Judaic and Zionist aspect of his school, although when asked "are you Jewish?" he says "no" and then says "I'm Samuel". He loves reading from an illustrated children's Bible. In the section on the 10 Commandments, he denies the existence of the 5th commandment, honour your mother and father, and has instead replaced it with "you won't break your bicycle". Everytime he sees blue and white, he breaks out in song "kahol velaban" (blue and white and my colours, blue and white are the colours of my flag). He has taken to saying that he'd "like to be a baby again in Washigton DC" - we think all the changes of the last year have caught up with him now that M&R are older, mobile and starting to invade his physical and social space. I hope he continues to take change in stride when school ends in 2 weeks and he starts attending M&R's daycare for the summer.






Matthew and the Stairs:
Daddy and Babies:
One night Eduardo came for dinner, they outnumbered us 2:1 - good thing they can play together:
The activity table:

Mother's Day (x3)

10 Months

Not sure how it happened so fast, but Matthew and Renee are 10 months!

Dear Renee (or Reneenena as I call you),

You love to crawl, always on the move exploring your surroundings. You are little Miss Independent, you can entertain yourself by yourself for long periods of time. I feel quite guilty sometimes because I think I spend more time with your bothers, but I think they need the interaction with me and you genuinely seem to be happy on your own. We did have a mommy daughter day this month though when we went to Sick Kids to test your bladder and kidneys. You hated the tests because you had to lie still, and you sensed that you were in a different place as soon as we walked into the hospital - you hung on to me, you fingers clenching my clothes. You got a clean bill of health, and after lunch with Daddy we got to spend the afternoon together - what a treat! You love watching little girls, boys don't seem to interest you as much, but if there's a 6 or 10 year old girl around you can't keep your eyes off her. You're close to your first word and you imitate language and song. The other day you babbled the tune to happy birthday (one of Samuel's current favourites). You've also said "MMMMM, MMMMMmaaaaaaa" deliberately both towards Matthew and me. And when Samuel said something about yellow you responses "elo".


Dear Matthew (aka Matthew Matthew Man, sung to the tune of Macho Man),

You did not have a good 10th month which dealt you a series illnesses. You started with an ear infection in your right ear that ruptured your ear drum, then strep, then an ear infection in your left ear, and then salmonella. During these 10 days you also got three new teeth. You were a real trooper though, a bit fussy for a few days, but for the most part we hardly noticed you were sick (except for the green puss leaking out of your ear and the diarrhea) . Now that you are better you are back to your happy self. You're not crawling yet, but you do move around, usually backwards and sometimes end up wedged under a couch or bed.


Watching your interactions is fascinating - Renee, when Matthew was sick and fussier than usual you would try to calm him down by talking to him and stroking him. Unfourtunately, your touch often had the opposite effect.


Now, a bit about your older brother. Here he is on Yom Haatzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) and at "his museum" (the Royal Ontario Museum) exploring for dinosaur bones.

Before and After Pictures

Making chocolate matza (before)

Eating chocolate matza (after)
With sweaters - handmade by Phyllis Greenberg (before)
No sweaters (after)

Passover 2009

Samuel was the star of the show at both our Seders. Not only did he sing MaNishtana (which he calls "HaLayla"), but he continued to sing and turned it into a medley including Dayenu and what he calls "levanika" but most people would know as "Kol HaOlam Kulo". He sang beautifully, siting up tall with full composure, he clearly knew he was signing by himself in front of a large group (14+) including strangers but wasn't shy or self-conscious or silly as many kids are. The main theme of the Seder is to "tell your child on that day", well my child blew me away, made me so proud and left me speechless.

Nine Months In, Nine Months Out

April 1st marked Matthew and Renee's 9 month birthday - they have lived in the outside world longer than their time in-utero.

Today, April 4, marked two big milestones for each of them - Renee crawled for the first time and Matthew pulled himself up. Renee is independent as ever, she sits and observes her surroundings, and you can tell her brain never takes a break. She moves by turning and shuffling her body around. Her hands are always busy with purposeful handling of whatever object is within her reach. Matthew is a total mama's boy, he watches all my comings and goings and his moods reflect whether I am in the room. He's big and round.

I hope to be able to write more soon, but truth be told I am exhausted. Between their discovery of object permanence, movement, illness and the never ending teething process Matthew and Renee are waking up 2-3 times per night, meaning I'm up 4-6 times. Samuel has been waking up too so make that 5-7 times. I am exhausted.

Wordless Wednesday

8 months

ago, almost to the minute (if I finish this in one sitting), Matthew and Renee were born.

Dear Matthew and Renee,

Your eighth month has been filled with new experiences and milestones.

Matthew - let's start with today and go backwards. You were able to sustain your own weight after Daddy stood you up on the outside of your soon-to-be-cleaned excersaucer. You held on with your hands and stood for a few minutes. Earlier today you almost pulled yourself up using the crib railing, but instead your legs slid between the side rails of the crib. Yesterday while sitting on the ground you dove forward to get a block and then wiggled backwards quite deliberately. Renee - you almost pulled yourself into a seated position from lying down on your back tonight. You clap frequently and can sometimes feed yourself with a spoon. You talk all the time, and it's not babbling it's deliberate single syllable sounds and you respond to people when they talk back to you.

Other firsts included visits to the after hours clinic for both of you - Renee you only had a cold, but Matthew you got pink eye and an ear infection. You also went to High Tea at the Windsor Arms Hotel to celebrate your great grandmother's 89th birthday. You've been at daycare a full month and have adjusted really well - everyone loves you.

You've started taking toys from each other on a regular basis, and usually the one who had the toy taken away starts to cry. It's pretty even though - there isn't one consistent taker.


You could watch Samuel for hours and laugh with him when he dances. Before you know it you'll be joining him in his dance!

XO

Mami



PS - sorry we have almost no pictures for the month - we "lost" the camera in the basket of bibs on the table.

Canada Winter

We had a little reprieve from winter weather recently, with temperature above freezing and snow banks going away. But alas, "Canada Winter", as Samuel called it today, is back. Yesterday he looked out the window and said "Nuves (clouds) take the snow back. I don't want snow on my minivan". If only wishing made it so!

Tales from Daycare

We've had a couple eventful weeks with Matthew and Renee starting daycare and my starting a new job.

Daycare is going well, and not to brag but I think my kids are favourites and the teachers have fallen in love. And who wouldn't? The kids and teachers are all smiles at drop off and pick up and when I've been able to visit at lunch.

But, we've already had a few "issues". Renee was sent home one day after 3 runny diapers which is standard practice. I had an important meeting, so Marc took the day off to be with Renee who, of course, was perfectly healthy all day. The big first here was that Matthew and Renee spent a day apart for the first time ever. Both seemed to do well.

We also had our first incident report. One child at the daycare, we'll call her "Renee", was so excited with the rattle in her hand that she got carried away and hit Matthew in the eye. Matthew received treatment of an ice pack and lots of TLC (direct quote from the incident report), but he still had a little red welt above his eye. At this age, we think it was accidental, but I'm sure it's only a sign of things to come.

Samuel is terrific. He's started getting mad at Marc and me for indignities like bedtime, nap time, clean-up, not throwing blocks etc. His favourite response to us when we ask him to do something he doesn't want to do is to firmly say "Daddy/Mommy, you're not my friend". Thankfully, he's fickle and we tend to get back into the friendship book pretty quickly. He loves pretending that we're on planes, trains and boats. Today he made a tower of blocks, together with Plop Plop and Ding Dong, that was taller than him.

The kids have reached an age where we can all sit down together and play, and it's lovely.

As for me, I'm enjoying being back at work, but still trying to figure out how all the parts of my life will fit together. It's only been two weeks though so I'm sure it will come together, and fall apart again, soon.

7 Months!

Dear Matthew and Renee,

You are 7 months old! And Renee you celebrated by tasting your first chocolate (that's what happens when you turn your back on a generous and three year old with a chocolate popsicle and a seven month old who puts everything in her mouth!)

Renee, sitting has changed your world. You can sit forever (OK, about 45 minutes) as long as you have a few objects to handle. You have fantastic fine motor skills and have even started to clap. You are a determined and independent little girl. At mealtime, you insist on holing your own spoon and let out irate cries if you don't get your way. When you stayed with Daddy on Saturday, you insisted on trying to hold your bottle yourself and showed great distaste for Daddy's hand when it had the nerve of trying to help you hold the bottle, despite the fact you you couldn't hold on to the bottle by yourself. You remain constantly active and observant of everything around you. You've started smiling more frequently and for longer periods. You love stroking my face and grabbing my glasses. You hate taking medicine, not sure if it's the taste or indignation that someone else is putting something in your mouth and that I don't let you handle the bottle and spoon/syringe.

Matthew, you continue to be your happy, smiley self. You love looking out the window and at plants. You also love being held at a higher altitude, e.g. standing vs, sitting, or sitting on a counter or dresser (with an adult right there, of course). You have your first tooth. You've discovered that you can get to an object that's out of reach while you're seated by tipping forward and pushing your legs behind you. You love, love, love eating. You can't get enough food be it from a spoon or from me. You dive for my breast all the time and have given me hickeys on my arms, face, chest, etc.

You reached another very significant miles stone today by starting day care full-time. You both got rave reviews from your care givers, and seemed quite happy when I dropped you off, visited you at lunch and picked you up.

The interaction between you continues to fascinate me - you talk to each other and laugh together all the time. The other night I was giving you raspberries and you found it equally hilarious to receive the raspberry and to watch your sibling get one.

I love having both of you together! it really is great fun to have twins.

XOXO

Mami

Bath Time
(another great way to see their different personalities)

Renee can't stop moving - she started the bath facing sideways!

And Matthew just sits back and chills

Post bath with Tocayo and Regi

Observation

Dear Samuel,

Last Thursday, you (and your school) invited your Daddy and me to come observe you work in your classroom. What a treat it was!

You began by showing us how you work with tracing a trapezoid with different colour pencils and them you moved on the a triangle. You carefully arranged your paper and materials. You showed us how we should trace two lines of the triangle and took notice when Daddy traced all three lines. While you were working one of the other boys in your class showed you his bandaid covered finger and you appropriately responded with empathy, telling him "it's ok". One of the older girls in your class approached your table while you were tracing and pointed out that you were not using the tile under your tracing correctly, you simply smiled at her and kept doing what you were doing before. I was so proud!

You then moved onto the Practical Life section of your classroom and started working on grinding coffee beans with a mortar and pestle (a skill we hope to put to use on the weekends!). You started by grinding one bean at a time, showing great care. After a few beans though, you poured all the beans into the mortar and tried to grind them all. The same girl who corrected your work earlier told you that you were only supposed to grind three beans, since you're three years old, but you kept going anyway with a little smirk telling us that you knew you were doing something you shouldn't have been going but you kept right on going.

We spent about an hour with you and you impressed me so much. you show such dedication and concentration on the task at hand, you work diligently, carefully and creatively showing empathy and marching to the beat of your own drummer.

You also had a big first this weekend, attending your first concert (aside from the jazz concerts at the sculpture garden). Tocayo and Regi invited you and Eduardo to Strike, Rattle and Roll at Roy Thompson Hall. The percussion focused concert for children was right up your alley and you loved it, until you fell asleep on my lap at the end (it was during your nap time after all). You tapped your hands, pretended to play the clarinet, looked for the "marimbas" and cymbals, and danced to the music. Your excitement was palpable, and once again you made me so proud.

You talk non-stop. Tonight as a delay tactic for bed time you asked Daddy a myriad of questions - "where does orange juice come from?", "what's the sun?", "where does light come from", etc. You want to go to Vancouver, Floria and California, and the beach. My favourite recent conversation with you started with love and ended with trains and planes:
Samuel: Mom, I love you.
Me: Samuel, yo te adoro (I adore you). Sabes to que es "adore" (do you know what adore means)
Samuel: Yes Mom, a door you open, you close it, the train has a door, the plane has a door. Let's go on th train, and the taxi and the airplane.

Samuel, I adoor (or adore) you!

XO

Mami

Its been a while since I posted an entry, and I'll lay blame with Renee who'd rather not sleep between 9 pm and midnight, Matthew who has been sick and teething, myself for having lots of job interviews and the reality of life. So here are my favourite anecdotes from recent weeks.
___________

As Jews, we formally remember our loved ones who died by lighting a candle and saying a prayer on the anniversary of their death - it's called a Yartzeit. My mom's parents, Renee and Dick died in 1982 and 1990, but 4 days apart in the Hebrew calendar so their Yartzeits come very close together. This year, at my nephew's request we light both candles on the same night. We all had dinner at my parent's, lights the candles and stood together while my mom said Kaddish for them. We ended the night with a rendition of a children's song and dance that we used to do with Dick and Renee as kids - A La Rueda de San Miguel. My mom holding Renee (who is named after her mom of course), my Dad holding Matthew and all of us singing and dancing in a circle in the front hall way. It was the perfect way of honoring their memory and making them come alive for the new generation. Cuqui, Mateo, Ricardo y familia - lo menciono especialmente para ustedes - que bella manera de celebrar a Dick y Renee, no?)
___________

Samuel choses his clothes in the morning and on Tursday, Inaguration Day, he chose his "Future President of the United States" t-shirt. How he knew that Tuesday was the day to honour his American citizenship, I don't know. Despite the freezing weather, he wore it all day. I'll post a picture when I have a minute.
___________

Matthew has a tooth. My dad was the first to spot it, or more accurately, feel it. He also has a sore throat and hoarse voice. Poor guy. He's still super smiley and happy though.

___________

Renee's had her first illness requiring antibiotics. She got a fever of 104 last Saturday so my mom and I made the trip to the ER while Marc stayed with the boys. After ruling out all the usual suspects (strep, ear infection, etc) the doctor thought she might have a urinary track infection. It's a good thing my mom came with me because they needed to insert a catheter to get a urine sample, and had to do it twice. The first time didn't work, then she wet herself, then they did a second catheter and got a few drops of urine, enough to test. Poor girl. She hates her antibiotic too.
__________

As for me, I have a job. I start Feb 2. It's a good job with a good company, and it's 5 minutes from home. We'll be introducing Matthew and Renee to daycare, which is 2 minutes from my office, on Monday. Here's hoping for a smooth transition.

Dinner Time

Now that Matthew and Renee are eating solid food we've been having dinner together as a family. It's not exactly a relaxed experience, but it is a lot of fun. Tonight we introduced avocado. Renee insists on taking the spoon and trying to put it into her mouth - by the look of it she liked avocado. Matthew was a bit more tentative and let us feed him.

Those three lines of avocado make her look like a Klingon

(where the spoons end up - we used 5 with Renee, 1 with Matthew;
also note the avocado on the table and chair)

Samuel loved his cucumber and tomatoes, as well as his quesadilla and guacamole. He is still talking about our trip on the train (subway) this weekend and he'd like to go again but with "my Matthew and my Renee". He also told us he doesn't want to go to school anymore and instead he'd like to take the train to go to the office with Marc (I think it's just a post-holiday adjustment).

At bedtime, I went into Samuel's room to say goodnight, and he greeted at me with a very serious and almost angry look and said "where are my Matthew and my Renee?", so I went to get them to have a proper goodnight between everyone. Samuel kissed both his younger siblings, saying "he's my friend I love Matthew"and "he's my friend I love Renee". Matthew and Renee love the attention from their older brother - Samuel is a sure way to get them to laugh.