Kid 2 is 1

Robin is officially one year old! She had a busy birthday:

Birthday buckeyes with Miri, Daddy, and Pardes (picture courtesy of Rachel).Playing at the National Building Museum.

Running. First ice cream.

Robin's new birthday toy. We anticipate hours of fun and a bruised forehead.

D.C. trouper

Every now and again, it's fun to just spend time with one of the girls. This morning, it was Daddy-Miriam time, and they went down to the Mall (capital "M") to visit the Natural History Museum. It was blustery and cold, but Miri was a trouper in her puffy yellow jacket and Nats hat. Daddy doesn't like to admit it, but she's a darn cute one too.

Descending the Stairway...

...to Daddy. Yes, Robin has learned to go down stairs backwards. Go Robin! Check it out.

Little Kids in the Big Apple

We had a jam packed couple of days in New York City. Daddy was at a conference, Mommy taught a class, and the girls partied in the city. Highlights...

On the train to visit Mimi and Popeye (Chris' aunt and uncle), bagel from Grand Central Station in hand. How NYC can you get?Popeye and the "green, shiny" New Orleans necklace.Robin with Mimi in the car. We had a great visit even though it was short! Robin ponders the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum -- Miri's passed out in front of her. Too much excitement. At dinner with Aunt Laura.

A tired Robin at FAO Schwartz. She loved the books and stuffed animals, while Miri loved the Lego people and the remote control cars.

Pizza for breakfast in the hotel while reading her new book--a Hanukkah present from Grandma Jean and PopPop Hanging with Tyler and Ethan Suwankosai in Brooklyn. They are two precocious boys!

Miri's Chair

We built Miri a birthday chair to go along with her pre-school table. She insisted on painting it brown (her favorite color, but a bit too grown-up for a chair!), so we splashed some sunshine on the seat. A big thank you to the Quigleys for leading us to a great web site that has all kinds of do-it-yourself plans.

Rock & Roll All Night...

Oh, the wonders of the singing birthday card...KISS never looked so good!

Birthday Girl

Miriam's third birthday was last weekend. We feel like in some ways it is her first real birthday since this was the first year she has realized what a birthday entails: that's right folks cake, ice cream, balloons and some party hats. Oh, and don't forget the presents. We had a great group of family join us: Nana, Aunt Vida, Cousin Pearce, Gogy (Aunt Vida's mom and the photographer), Aunt Debbie and Cousins Ilana, Gabe and Tamara. Miriam Skyped with Grandma Jean and PopPop earlier in the day.
Miri and Cousin Pearce chow down on birthday pizza. Also on the menu, tofu and broccoli (Miriam's request), pumpkin dip, fruit and chocolate cake with pink frosting and chocolate ice cream.
Cousin Tamara checks out the birthday balloons with Robin and Miriam. Great idea Aunt Debbie! Miriam is still playing with them.
Miriam is serious about playing with some of her birthday loot. She has been enjoying all of her new presents. As a special treat, Daddy made Miriam her very own chair (pictures to come) painted brown as per her request.
Family picture. Yes, Miri looks awful. Every picture we tried with her on that day looked awful. But, her parents look great. That counts for something, right?

Miri's Post

Mommy let Miri pick her favorite recent pictures to post. Here they are with her commentary.

"At the farmer's market" with Cousin Pearce. "That's fun."

"We're doing hugs. Me and Daddy."

"I love that picture. Miriam and Robin. We're taking a bath. "

Candy Overload

We just got back from trick or treating through the neighborhood. Mark this down as fastest blog post ever! Cousin Pearce joined us in a great Max (from Where the Wild Things Are) costume made by the super creative Aunt Vida. Grandma was also in attendance as was Cocoa, both in costume.

Miri and Pearce with Cocoa — notice how Cocoa matches Miri!

The kids swarm a door. Robin, turn around, the candy is behind you! Miri, what are you doing? Eating candy?! How did you get that wrapper off?? Hmm...maybe we should get that bag out of your hands before you gorge yourself.

Daddy and Robin.Zombie Clown alert! Robin enjoyed taking the candy out of the baskets and chewing on it while it was in the wrapper. Oh, and walking like a Zombie.

Determination: Pumpkin Miri is tired, but ready to push on if it means more candy.

Highlights:

Pumpkin Time

We love October here in Silver Spring. No fall would be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch (which we actually did when we were in MA visiting the cousins).

Miri finding the perfect pumpkin.

Robin picking her pumpkin.The family in the pumpkin patch.

Miri and the neighborhood kids after our community pumpkin carving. It was amazing tha thtey all stood for this picture!

Have fork, will travel

Robin suddenly figured out how to walk the other day. For weeks, she'd been puttering along with 3-4 Frankenstein steps at a time before planting her face in the ground. Now she's confident enough to march around with dangerous objects in her hand...

Massachusetts Here We Come

We just came back from a great weekend with the Myers clan in Massachusetts. Daddy said to only post three pictures, but Mommy thinks we have too many cute ones to limit ourselves. Here is our trip in pictures... (seven isn't horrible!)

In PJ's ready to get on the plane. We left the house early so the girls hadn't gotten dressed yet.John and Robin post-bath. Check out John doing his John Travolta impression.Miri riding on Matthew's hockey bag after his hockey game. Daddy and Miri watched him (and Uncle Mike coach) while Mommy and Robin represented at Damon's flag football game.Pumpkin patch and apple picking. What could be more New England? Miri loved picking apples, running up hills of dirt with her cousins, picking out her pumpkin, seeing the animals and eating apple cider doughnuts.Breakfast together. Robin missed this one...she is still sleeping.The family in our finest after attending John Robert's baptism.
He was named for his two grandfathers.
Mommy and Daddy out at dinner for their sixth anniversary. For their present, Grandma Margery watched the kids while we got away to a hotel for the night. Yeah!

Miri-isms

Kids say the darnedest things. Miri has had some doozies lately. Here are a couple.

We are reading a book in which a kid becomes a vegetarian.
Mommy: A vegetarian is a person who doesn't eat meat.
Miri: Why, Mommy? (A favorite question)
Mommy: They don't believe in eating animals. We're vegetarians too.
Miri: (thoughtful pause) We only eat animal crackers.

Background: Miri has been reading a pirate book lately and also not wanting to take her nap.

Miri (up from her nap and crying): Mommy, I don't want to go to bed. I need to brush my teeth.
Mommy: You are going to bed.
Miri (sobbing): But I don't want my teeth to be green. I don't want to be a pirate, Mommy. I need to brush my teeth.
Mommy: (Allows Miri to brush her teeth...how do you argue with that?)

Here she is, with her Bi Bim Bop book and some bi bim bop that we made together. Yummy!

Holidays and Grandma Jean

We have slow at our blog posting lately, but we are back! We had a great visit with Grandma Jean last week. She was here over Sukkot and did some key babysitting of the girls and helped to decorate the sukkah that Daddy built in the backyard. Big enough for three people and a bike to fit into! Lots of rain in the past week, but we did manage to make it to the sukkah for several meals.
The family headed to Simchat Torah services earlier this week, lots of singing dancing and opportunities for cute pictures. While others were dancing around with the Torahs, Miri was quietly reading her books in the corner. Now why won't she do that during the quiet parts of services?
Robin was more interested in eating the Torah than anything else, but she did like looking at all the people.

Climbing

Robin is nine months old today (pics to come) and just starting to walk. Three steps is her record so far. Sometimes she'll do all three steps with the same foot, so she winds up going in a circle! While she is still a little wobbly on her two feet, she is an awesome climber. Here she is climbing up the Very Tall Silver Slide at a park near our house.

Preschool

Miri started preschool today. It wasn't such a big transition since it was at her friend, Theo's house. Why? Well, after playing a crazy application and waitlist game, we got tired of doing an admissions dance for preschool. So, we started our own with some other parents in the area. Miri had a great time with Miss Asiatu. She "painted" and "drawed." They went to the park for their outside playtime. She had crackers and grapes for snack. Miri was very sorry to leave and can't wait to go back tomorrow!Ready to go in the car. Only problem, no shoes! Only other problem...we're not driving. We're walking. She is ready to go.

She is super excited about school. Her backpack has two water bottles in case one gets empty and she is still "really thirsty."Ready to go! Milko, Danny, Theo and Miri.

Summer Socks

Miri loves "Daddy games" -- games where Daddy gets to sit around and make the girls do all kinds of tiring/painful things. A new favorite is "Summer socks," which is how Miri pronounces "somersaults." Check it out:

Robin Happy? Robin Happy Now?

Yes, Miri, Robin is happy to be eight months old. The title is a homage to the fact that whenever Miri does something to get mommy or daddy angry, she will ask every 30 seconds....Daddy happy now? Daddy happy now? until daddy is again happy. But, enough about Miri. This is about Robin who, whenever she is really happy will bounce and move her hands up and down...but what am I doing explaining it? Here she demonstrates during her quest to eat cheerios off the floor.

Camping

We took to the woods this past weekend for another try at camping. (You may recall last time Miri didn't make it through the night). We went with Miri's best friend (this week), Theo and his parents Beth and Steve. We had some great camp food (mac n' cheese with tuna, veggie dogs and corn) and of course made smores. The kids all slept (!) and we woke up ready to play the next morning. We walked to a nearby playground which was soaked from the recent rainstorm. The kids had a great time and we can't wait to do it again.

Enjoying the outdoors

Around the campfire

Ready, set...

Go! Miri's already wet rear end caused her to fly down the slide and off the end.
She landed face first