Reid's Odyssey of the Mind

Reid participated in Odyssey of the Mind this weekend:

Sania's long-delayed Christmas Concert

Sania's Delayed Christmas Concert from Rizkerson on Vimeo.

Sania's Christmas concert was supposed to happen on December 21, 2009. The great snow of 2009 (not to be confused with the greater snow of 2010) forced the rescheduling of the concert.

Christmas Pics

Hey folks,

Christmas just keeps rolling along here at Rizkerson Industries limited. K pulled off the coup de grace of the decade with a no-sweat mega feast fit for a king's family here on Christmas, and the kids got a huge gift bounty despite our continued internal promises to not shower them with a million things. Such is the way of all things. There are pictures with captions behind this one below, so click and enjoy.

From Christmas 2009

Pictures from Fall

From Oct-Nov09

Two month backlog of photography. I know, unforgivable. Lots of fun upgrading the software in the old picture-box-machine from the basement lately, gearing up for the holidays, I guess. Enjoy the photos.

Fishing on Baba's Birthday

My dad arranged a fishing trip for a bunch of us to celebrate his birthday. We ended up having a beautiful day on the Chesapeake and the kids did great. We've got fresh photos up, just click the image below.

From Boating for Baba

First Day of School, a Retrospective

It's probably worth putting these two shots together:


Reid and Owen, first day of kindergarten, September 2008.


Reid and Owen, first day of first grade, September 2009.

First Day of School

Yes, yes, we took the summer off from the tedium of blogging (and also, sleeping) to get some other stuff attended to, for sure, but we're back, and that's a promise.

And do you know why we chose this auspicious moment to return to the blogging universe? For the children, surely. What? Also, for the Bacon Explosion?



Of course, the bacon explosion wasn't the reason we came back. It was for the children. For they are so cute!

And today was the first day of school. Reid, amazingly, has gone from this:

to this:


All in 6 years. Amazing, no?

But let's talk micro. Let's talk summer: Reid spent the summer at a great outdoor camp, hanging with upperclassmen and getting freaked out by PG-13 movies on rainy days (this is still a good camp experience, overall). Sania played good cop at her regular Montessori school, and then put in a week at the same fun camp as Reid. This gave their mom and me a glimpse of the heaven-like configuration that awaits us once we have all our children in one place. It was the best week of child care since Sania was born.

TEETH! Reid has lost two. They both overstayed their welcome, by almost any measure. They were hanging by thin wobbly bits of gum, and then, for both teeth, Reid sat down to dinner at a friend's house, and out they came. This happened for both teeth, maybe three weeks apart. Also, in less exciting dentistry news, Reid has his first set of adult molars back there, and the dentist has encased them in something that will protect them from his reckless eating habits.

Each child has developed a series of strange, adult-ish habits which wondrously mark the progress of their childhood and symbolize the age of their parents like rings on a tree trunk. Reid can cock an eyebrow like me, but instead of looking sinister or inquisitive, he looks mildly interested, or, depending on what he says, like he is trying to feign interest while eating something he wishes you didn't notice.

Sania, as is the case with most people who can't raise one eyebrow, looks hysterical trying.

She is actually the source of more hilarity in our lives, mainly because she is always trying to get away with stuff, tell us something that is patently false as if it were true, predict the outcome of mealtime conversations, and answer every question.

The question answering is good, because Reid is in a phase where he says likes to say, "Guess who is (doing whatever)?" And Sania will immediately begin guessing, with exactly no information, by recycling chunks of words heard in the last 30-60 seconds. This goes like this:

Mom: Sania, please sit down and eat your chicken or you won't have any dessert.
Reid: Guess who was driving the bus today?
Sania: Mr. Chicken.
R: No.
S: Mr. Dessert?
R: No.
S: Mr Sit Down.
R: I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to Mommy now.

She also hilariously betrays a lack of math skills when negotiating about foods she would like to eat or would not like to eat. We bargain with her, imploring her to eat three pieces of chicken (all meat is still "chicken") when she counteroffers, brusquely, "No, I eat five." Then, moving pieces around on her plate, senselessly, she demands, "Is this five, mommy? Is this? FIVE?"

Good times.

So first day of school report? Every did fine. Sania hollered in the car, Reid went through a dazzling range of emotional responses before finally, gleefully, embracing first grade. He had a good time, he said. He'll be running the place in no time.

Here's a walk down memory lane, Summer 2009. Click the photo to see a whole pile of 'em:

From Summer2009

Sania wishes America a Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to America from Rizkerson on Vimeo.

Sania School Visit

I was so proud of Sania today, visiting her in the classroom for the first time. Well, not the first time. As we were easing her integration into Montessori, I tried all sorts of things to get her to transition from the hallway to the classroom. Without screaming bloody murder, that is. I would go with her into the classroom, sit with her while she wrote me or her mother some nonsensical note, have her show me one thing before I left. Anything to get her to go smoothly.

Of course the secret turned out to be not have either of her parents drop her off at school. Counterintuitive, yes, but it worked.

So I didn't know what to expect when I went to Sania's classroom today. She's only two months after her third birthday, and she has been here for six months. Reid started at this Montessori two months after his third birthday.

Sania was amazing. She was self-assured in the classroom, confident walking around getting the work from different places and going through the paces carefully, like a good Montessori student. She has learned well in this environment. Reid took to Montessori well, and we see he is less interested in kindergarten than he was in Montessori. Sania seems to have even more intensely taken on the lessons of Montessori. She's careful and diligent about her work. When we met with her teacher a few months back -- Sania was still having freak-outs at drop-off at this point -- Ms. Casey tried to convince us that despite the morning episodes, Sania is a good student and concentrates on her work the way a four-year-old might.

So I swelled with pride as Sania did the work in the classroom. Tracing and recognizing letters, carefully making a little gesture -- every time -- with her fingers before following the shape of letter tiles with her fingers, building puzzles and cleaning up after herself without being prompted. Really something. (And something completely different from home.)

Reid wasn't like this on days I visited his Montessori classroom. My presence there was a distraction, somehow, and he easily lost the focus on the thing he was supposed to show me he was excellent at doing. He seemed to misinterpret the purpose of the day, somehow and wanted to show me how he did something instead of just letting me watch him do something. He was never as confident in the classroom as I saw Sania be today. They're two different kids, with different strengths and emphases. Reid is simply the most tender, nicest human being I've ever met. He's kind to people, and does the things that we wish we would do without thinking about it. K told the story of one of Reid's friends from his funny little drama class who lives with a disability. I remember the kid from their final play; he uses a walker to self-propel and gets into a wheelchair at times, too. Reid and K saw him at the pool, and Reid, without prompting (K didn't know that Reid knew the kid), went over and said hi, and asked if the kid had a good time in the pool, just regular stuff. And K says that the kids mom, well, you can imagine, she lives her life thinking about the way kids are treating her son -- she has to and no one blames her for it. And here's Reid, doing the thing that I wish I was a good enough person to do. Just because of the sweet soul he is.

Sania may not be like Reid in that way. She's more no-nonsense, and has a picture of what she wants to see happen more fully articulated in her head that I think Reid does, about pretty much anything. They are two unique, amazing little people who live in our house. They are about as distinct as two siblings can be. Today's school visit reminded me of that.

***

After the classroom visits, we had the trike-a-thon, which was eh. Even Sania thought it was silly, and all the kids were smashing into each other with more than the average abandon. There were kids who insisted -- for the entire half-hour -- to grind it out counter-clockwise, recklessly hooking passing tricycles with their two-wheeler training wheels and taking them down to tears and fresh trepidation about biking. I wore a hat this time, after two years of sweltering trike-a-thons with Reid, who usually faded before they were finished as well. Sania retired to the playground, still on the kick from the classroom of doing whatever she would normally do and demanding I see it. Their playground is lame, though, and Sania put it through its paces and then seemed ready to go back to class, have a snack, get on with things. That's my girl.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Jim

Friday was Grandpa Jim's birthday. Despite reminders from all corners, I managed to forget to have the kids call him. They are sentimental and considerate, however, and when they heard we forgot, they suggested they make cards for him. I thought it was a great idea, and we taped the results. Happy Birthday, Grandpa Jim:

Happy Birthday Grandpa Jim! (1 of 2) from Rizkerson on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Jim (2 of 2) from Rizkerson on Vimeo.

Reid's first t-ball game

Okay, so no video of explosions, but we do have video of Reid's first t-ball game which is pretty impressive. Check it out:

Reid hits a single at his first t-ball game. from Rizkerson on Vimeo.

What a busy few months...

Oh hey everybody. Sorry about that uncomfortable silence. We just had a busy February. And March. But we're back. And I did the Twitter thing, which is all the rage, right?



But let's see, Reid went to the White House for the first time. That was thanks to our friends in the Grannis family, who flowed him a ticket to the Obama's first White House Easter Egg Roll. (See stone-faced shot above.)

Reid joined a soccer team, scored some goals, got some sweet gear to go with it.

Sania has finally stopped screaming and crying non-stop through the first hour of the day (most days).

Sania actually really enjoys school now. Her teacher swears she's the smartest thing on two legs, just miles beyond the other not-even-three-year-olds in her class. Still, there was a lot of screaming and crying for a while there. We were sincerely thinking about drastic action. Thank goodness that's over. I hope.

From March and April

Click that soccer photo for lots more fun pictures.

Sania's Third Birthday

Whoop! How did that happen? Sania's 3?

From Sania's Third Birthday

Check out the photos from the party. And I've got a bunch more photos coming up soon.

Preschool Postcards

This week, finally, Sania has begun to settle into her new school. My fingers remain crossed, but I believe we may have turned a corner. Sania has been a total disaster at drop off all but one day since starting this new school on 1/5. That is, on the days she's been there.

In the 5 weeks, she has attended school sporadically at best, besieged by illness, holidays and all-manner of disruptions. I think today marks her first five-day week at school.

So the drop-offs are agonizing affairs, up to now, with wailing, bawling, high-pitched screeching, nose-running tirades, coat-gripping, air-gasping and general mayhem. Leading up to the actual drop-off, every obstacle is posed from fatigue and nausea to starvation, illness and the possibility it may rain.

We kept on powering through (we went through same with Reid) but it didn't seem to get better. We knew it was supposed to get better, and helpful people would helpfully note it would get better, but it wasn't getting better.

So we decided to change the game. The typical approach is to make it seem like a normal, natural separation, which will pave the way for it becoming a normal, natural separation. That wasn't working. So this week, I decided against my own better judgment to ease into the drop-off, engaging Sania in a little show and tell in the classroom, to get her comfortable in there. Of course, she's comfortable there all day, even on her worst drop-off days, according to all involved. She does fine, they say, and she surely is fine after a few minutes. I've lingered on the side of the one-way glass long enough to determine she would be fine.

So it's not, actually, to get her comfortable in the classroom, but rather just to get her engaged with that stuff and disengaged with her previously-established viewpoint that she should not be here. Therefore, I have her show me some work, I find some stuff in her cubbie that I think is wonderful and I ask her to autograph it for me (she has no idea what this means) and she dutifully writes a lower-case "l" (the only letter she knows how to write) and says, "it's an el," to which I respond "for Sania LEIGH." Then I slowly ease out of the room after telling her I love her, as she puts her pen away, and I let her know I have to take these valuable pieces of now-authenticated with her signature art to my office and hang them on my wall.

And that's how she stopped crying.

Pre-Inaugural Ball Pix

The rarely-seen non-kid photo session, from last night's Huffington Post pre-inaugural ball at the Newseum. Click for a couple more photos:

From The Huffington Post Pre-Inaugural Ball