Fun concert with friends Saturday night

Melissa, Tani and I went to the Afro-Semitic Experience concert at Temple Sholom in Broomhall yesterday with our friend Georgia and her daughters Emma and Colette. Emma and Colette, who are 12 and 10 respectively, were great with our almost five year old Tani. They had brought drawing pads and the three of them drew pictures and laughed while waiting for the concert to start. Once it began Melissa was moved to get up and dance and Tani went with her. At first they danced in the back, but eventually made their way to the front and danced with a few others who were inspired to rise and dance with joy. They eventually came back to where the rest of us were sitting and got Georgia to come up as well. I have some video of this which I'll post once I figure out how to convert my iphone video. It was a really fun evening with good friends!

A glimpse of a 4-5 year old boys' ballet class

I've published earlier that the Philadelphia Dance Theatre offers a boys ballet class at reduced prices in the hopes that some boys will stick around when they're older to participate in performances with the girls. So they teach them the skills while the boys are having fun doing their thing. A couple of weeks ago I was able to go see Tani in class. I wanted to post a video from my iphone but it won't upload to the blog. I suspect the iPhone HD video is not in a compatible format. I'll try to figure this out later.

Grandpa Morris teaches Tani how to do a push-up

Melissa posted this video to Facebook but I thought I'd share this with my Mom also. It's very cute. Hopefully I'll start doing push-ups myself to build strength. Actually Tani's ballet teacher tried to get the boys to stay in a push-up pose for a period of time - the one who stayed in the pose the longest "won". That motivated Tani but he learned quickly it was much easier to stick his tush in the air rather than maintain the push-up pose which disqualified him sort of. I didn't take video of this however.

Friday after Thanksgiving in Washington DC

This picture is from this morning when Tani selected jazz music for the house. I also posted it to Facebook, but since my Mom doesn't have FB and I like the picture I thought I'd post it here too. Around 2:30 this afternoon after Susan finished practicing her D'var Torah we split into groups: Tani and Morris went to the Botanical Gardens to see the trains, Susan and I went to pick up her glasses prescription and go to Whole Foods near GWU, and Melissa stayed home to rest. When Susan and I got back, Susan began preparing dinner and Melissa and I took a walk around the neighborhood. We walked along the waterfront to the Titanic Memorial statue and then back around to the Arena Stage, where we could see through the big plate glass windows a reception going on and the dinner that was set up in the next room for the attendees. As we rounded the corner to the Kleins apartment building the bus stopped next to the entrance, but we didn't pay any attention. Then a minute later we hear "Mommy"! Tani and Morris had gotten off the bus at the same time we arrived home. "How was your afternoon"? we asked. Tani exclaimed "we took three trains and one bus - that's four rides"! He also liked the trains. :)

From ECP to home

Here are some snippets from our conversation on the way home from preschool today.

• Tani: Someone turned the refrigerator up to high and when I went to have snack my water was frozen!
• Tani: I got no time outs today! Can't remember if I got any yesterday but I for sure didn't get any today.
• Me: "Brrrr. I'm cold! Should have worn my coat". Tani: "Sometimes we make bad choices."

Dance!

Tani and his friend Koby are taking a ballet class for boys at the Philadelphia Dance Theatre. Koby is a natural dancer. Tani is learning the basics and having fun. He's great at stretching, but jumping - he's working on it...

It's been a while...

It's been a year and a half since I've posted anything here and so much has happened. I can take Tani to the High Point Cafe and we can actually sit and talk. He walks much faster now and doesn't seem to mind taking the stairs up to our apartment - he had to for a month because our apartment elevator was out but climbing stairs doesn't seem so herculean to him anymore. He loves running through the Morris Arboretum on a beautiful Fall day, especially if his friend Aidan is with him. Grandma Diane and Grandpa Arthur came to visit a little over a week ago. Mom brought Tani the latest Shel Silverstein book Everything On It, a book of silly poems that Tani loved!! She read to him a lot, which is one of his favorite activities. Dad played the board game Race to the Roof with Tani. While they were playing, I was in the other room and heard Tani let out a terrible scream. When I asked what happened, I found out that Tani had drawn a card that sent him back to the Start of the game. Dad let him roll the dice a few times until he got another card that sent him back close to the Finish line. The other day I was walking with Tani and he asked me what the word "Omniverse" meant - this word is used in the They Might Be Giants song "There's Only One Everything". He's starting to ask me words I can't easily explain - yikes, he's not even five yet. I got a new iPhone and downloaded a meditation timer app called "Equanimity". It lets you set a timer and chimes a bell - when the time is up it chimes three bells. As the time passes, a white circle begins to fill in black until the time is up. Tani really likes this app - he can set the timer for a minute or two and actually watch time pass in a way he understands. What a bonus! I think he likes this app even better than "Angry Birds" (he remembered playing this with his cousin Max and asked me to install it).