Everyone Has Fun in Music Class

Since Andrew was 5 months old and since Noah was born, they have been attending a music class called “Musical Children.” It is based on “The Music Class”. Robin and the boys have attended weekly with the Pollock family (Nathan, Lauren and Theresa) and the Patel family (Annika, Lena and Brigitte). Carol Cesena (Teacher Carol) is the teacher.

Teacher Carol is a lovely lady with a true passion for little kids and music. The kids love her. The kids also love the opportunity to bang sticks together and make music. For our kids and many others, through the class and the omnipresent CDs, the kids come to love music.

Little ones can go to Musical Children from birth to age 4. So last August (2006) was the end of Andrew’s time with Teacher Carol. Since she had been such a regular part of Andrew’s life, we felt compelled to give her a gift to commemorate this special occasion. One weekend day, Robin and I took Andrew to a local ceramic café and made Teacher Carol a pretty plate (yellow – her favorite color – we had to have Andrew resist his urge to paint it green) with a handprint of Andrew’s and a couple of painted kids with Musical Children painted right on the rim of the plate.

On Andrew’s last day, we presented the plate to Teacher Carol. She loved it so much, she cried. It was a very special moment.


Thankfully Noah still has another year and a half of Musical Children. Of course, we will continue to have the 10 CDs on rotation in the car; because “everyone has fun in music class.”

Photography Class Paying Off?

About 5 months ago (March/April 2007), I took a photography class to help me decode my Canon EOS 20D digital SLR camera. I think I now know the first 4 letters of the 20 digit code. Those are the visible letters. Cameras are complex instruments and you need time to work with them and figure out how to use them. Time, what's that? Despite my lack of time (or any discernable talent), I have had some success with the camera.

Over the weekend of June 22 to June 24, 2007, we traveled up to Los Angeles as we often do. On this trip, we got the chance to spend time with Robin's brother and sister-in-law, Howard and Stacy Rosenbaum. We also got to see Robin’s Dad (Sam), my sister (Karin), and Robin's Grandma (Yetta). A family weekend of sorts. We had several nice meals, a day at the La Brea Tar Pits and a nice evening on the Santa Monica Pier. Since Howard and Stacy live on the east coast, we do not get to see them everyday. So it was a special treat to get to spend some time with them.

At dinner the first night, we took a few photos. I am pretty sure Andrew was behind the camera when we took a picture of Uncle Howard and Aunt Stacy. Not bad kid...

After dinner the second night, I got a chance to take a few photos of Robin and Andrew on the Pier. There was a bubble machine blowing an endless stream of bubbles up to the Pier and Andrew was laughing and enjoying himself, which in turn put Robin in a wonderful mood. I caught it in a series of pictures. If you look very carefully, you might see a bubble floating in the air in the background. A beautiful setting for some fun photos!














So, is the photography class paying off? I hope so!

Noah's First Day of Preschool

He's Off and Raring to Go

If sending Andrew to Kindergarten was not enough, on September 6, 2007, Noah started Preschool at Congregation Beth Am. Why don’t you just throw the thrusters on warp speed already!

Noah had a great morning at home, enjoyed breakfast, played a little inside and outside; he was all ready to go.

Practicing Some ABCs Before School

I See the Bees (see, we told you he was practicing his A, Bees, Cs)

Yipee, It's Time to go to School

We arrived at the school right on time. It turns out that Noah is in the very same classroom Andrew was in for his first year (Pink Tzipor (Bird)). The teachers are different, but most everything else is the same! Noah has 11 kids in his class with 2 teachers (Maya and Michal). He has two really good friends in his class – Gabriel and Sammi. We know he will make more as the year progresses.

I'm in Pink Tzipor, Just Like Boo

After a few minutes, Noah’s good friend Gabriel Starling arrived. Noah was happy to see Gabriel and gave him a big hug. Gabriel was obviously very very happy to see Noah as well!

My Buddy Gabriel was Very Happy to See Me

Having learned our lesson, everyone got a super chance to give Noah a big hug before saying goodbye. Noah did great on his first day of preschool. He ran into the classroom so excited to be there, he engaged with the activities and teachers with ease. At pickup the teachers said he had a wonderful day. Hopefully he'll have a great year!

Please Stop Taking Pictures Daddy - I am Done Smiling

Andrew Goes to Kindergarten

On August 27, 2007, Andrew started Kindergarten. While time has been moving along at a good clip, I think the Captain just put this thing into warp speed and took away any control over the throttle. There is no slowing it down now!

Andrew did great going to his first day of Kindergarten. His parents on the other hand did not do so well (but not for the obvious reasons that it was his first day). It honestly could not have gone much worse for us.

His school is a brand new school in the Del Mar Union School District called Ocean Air School. It is pretty cool. If you go to the “Picture Galleries” link on the left hand side of the page, you can get a look at the construction, including aerial views of the school.

So, it is Monday morning, first day of Kindergarten, the whole family is walking to school, a little later than we want it to be. I've got cameras falling off my shoulders, I'm pushing Noah. Robin is trying her best to get Andrew moving forward. Andrew did run for part of the way and I did get a few good pictures of that . . .

Andrew Excited and Running off to Kindergarten (on our walk (uphill in the snow both ways) to the school)

Eventually, we make it up the hill, with a few less photos than we’d like, but we make it, with maybe 5 minutes to spare.

We take a few more photos outside of the front of Andrew’s classroom.

Andrew on His First Day

Andrew and Mommy

Andrew and His Classroom (Room 303)

We're waiting out front of the door where we went in on Friday at orientation. Teacher Meg is milling about, but not saying hi or anything. A couple of the parents are waiting out front with us. Then we see Annika, Brigitte and Lena Patel and say hi to them. We get a photo of the kids together, which is very cute.

Andrew and Annika on Their First Day

Annika's teachers come out (she's in the room right next to Andrew – Room 302) the front door and greet the class, tell parents to put backpacks along the wall and then take a picture of the whole class. Annika says goodbye to Brigitte and Andrew tries to get in there to make her feel a little better.

Annika Sad (and Crying) - Getting a Good Hug From Brigitte

Annika Hugging Brigitte and Andrew Hugging Annika

We're still waiting.

It turns out all the kids in our class were lining up around the corner by the playground, but who knew. So Robin goes over to check it out. She determines, unbeknownst to us, that Andrew's class is lining up there, so she calls to me to get him over there - for good reason, they are about to take the class picture. But I'm putting Andrew's backpack on, because he's supposed to have it on. Robin loudly calls (not unkindly mind you) a couple of times. I hear her, but I'm busy working on Andrew and it is fairly well known that I can't do more than one thing at a time. Finally I get frustrated and yell back (not so kindly) that I'll be there in a minute. This did not sit all that well with Robin and she said some not so nice words back to me (thankfully, I can read lips). Not a great start.

Maybe 30 seconds after Robin called out, I make it around the corner with Andrew. The class picture is already taken. But I don't know this and I try to line Andrew up. After I get him lined up, all the kids start to make their way into the classroom. At this point, Robin is off back by the front door. The kids are going to enter the class through the side door. Andrew is like 3rd in line to go into the classroom. Teacher Meg starts to push Andrew in the room. She is standing by the door and continues to move the kids in one by one and keep the parents at bay. At the same time, Robin is trying to tell me that she has not been able to hug her baby before his first day of Kindergarten. I can't really pull Andrew back (doesn't feel right, Teacher Meg is moving him forward, etc.) and so he gets escorted into the classroom. Next thing we know, Teacher Meg pushes the other 15 kids into the room. Once all the kids are in, Teacher Meg shuts the door and that's it. Robin did not get to hug her baby goodbye on his first day of Kindergarten.

And of course, I could have made a difference. I could have pulled Andrew out of line to allow us both to say goodbye, but under the insane circumstances, I did not. So now Robin is upset and crying and I feel awful. But not because her baby is off to Kindergarten, but because she did not get to say goodbye and wish him well on the start of a big year.

Teacher Meg was a little gruff on the first day for all of our taste. But we’ve since had a good visit with her at back to school night. So hopefully everything will work out just fine.

At pickup, Andrew was relieved to see Robin. He said he had fun, but he was "ready to go home" when he saw Robin from the playground 10 minutes before school was over. He was trying to open up the gate and find a way to get out.

So the first day of Kindergarten could have gone a lot better for us. But, Andrew seemed to suffer no ill effects. I think when Noah starts Kindergarten we’ll arrive really early and be sure that we know exactly where he is supposed to line up so that all of us can give him a big hug. Lesson learned – the hard way.