Well, I see it's a while since I've posted to this page. We've spent several weekends in Virginia with Rebecca and Josh and the girls. Josh's congregation is lovely. We have gotten to know quite a few of the members. They have been very warm and welcoming to us.
But of course you're probably more interested in the Twins :) . We got to spend New Year's weekend with them. They are more fun than a barrel of monkeys. They love the playground, and they love lighting the Shabbos candles. They wiggle their toes to get you to play "This little piggie" with them.
They have lots of words, including "moo", "quack", "shoes", "door", "brush", "side" (for outside), "abba", and "ima". And also all 6 grandparents ("bubbie", "zaydie", "stu", "wawa" (for Wendy), "saba", and "savta", or some approximations thereof). And of course "this?" to hear the name of something.
My favorite language story: Barbara brought them a miniature baking kit, with small bowls and spoons. Vered picked up the little pastry brush, and said "this?", so Barbara said "That's a brush". At which point Vered took the pastry brush and started brushing her hair.
Our weekend is thoroughly documented with pictures, which are available here
Last weekend was the twins first birthday! We got to visit them at Josh's new congregation, Olam Tikva, in Fairfax, Virginia.
Vered is now walking, and Lena is not far behind. They are making new and complex sounds: Lena says "oo" for "hello" when you show her a telephone, and Vered says approximations to "quack" and "uh-oh". Here are some pictures.
And here is the web page for our trip to Japan, with links to many, many pictures.
We had a fabulous time last weekend with Josh's graduation from Rabbinical school and Memorial Day Weekend. Here are some pictures.
Thursday was Josh's graduation. They had a ceremony for the rabbinical students in the morning, when they each got a tallis. It was very moving. Then lunch. Then afternoon graduation for all of JTS (also includes Master's students and undergrads). Then dinner in a restaurant, for 20 or so.
Friday morning, Barbara and I took an early train back to Boston. Josh & Rebecca & the girls drove up in parallel, and Josh & Georgia took the bus up later in the day. Had dinner at our house for the Arnolds and the Durschlags in honor of Josh's graduation. A mere 15 people.
For Memorial Day weekend we had me & Barbara, Josh and Georgia, and Josh & Rebecca & the girls (who drove down after Shabbos). If you weren't counting, that makes 8 people, counting the twins, in our 3-bedroom Cape house.
We played golf in the rain. On Sunday afternoon, the rain let up and we took the girls to the beach for the first time. They loved it! That's where most of the pictures were taken.
We had a full house for Passover. Rebecca and Josh B. and the girls, and Josh W. and his girlfriend Georgia, and Josh B's sister Sarah were all staying over.
We had 16 for the first Seder and 9 for the second, plus 12 for Shabbat lunch, and that doesn't count the 7 of us for those occasions when there weren't any other guests!
The best moment was during the second seder, when we put Jen on the speaker phone and she sang B'chol Dor va-Dor for us all the way from Japan!
A great time was had by all. I've posted a few pictures.
They love the camera: if I point the camera at them, they immediately turn and grin at it. Consequently I couldn't bring myself to edit the pictures too much. The pictures are now at DotPhoto. Eventually I will put up a more edited collection here, but DotPhoto has a nice automated upload facility, so that's the quickest way of getting them online. And they also make prints faster and better than I can.
We saw the babies the weekend after New Year's. They are 6 months old! They give big smiles and make all kinds of neat noises. They definitely let you know what they like: Vered liked to sit on my lap and lean back until her head was upside down, and then do a flip. As soon as I put her back on my lap, she leaned back for more. Lena likes to arch her back and just look at the world upside down. When I turned my head upside down to match her, she laughed hysterically. If you sing even the first notes of their favorite songs, they stop what they are doing and take notice.
They've started eating baby cereal in their high chairs. That is pretty hilarious to watch.
pictures (Please note: these images are optimized for fast downloading over the web. If you want a higher-quality version of any of these, please drop me a note and I'll be happy to send it to you.)
We saw the babies over Thanksgiving. They grow by leaps and bounds. Lena has a great belly laugh, and Vered has begun to scoot herself across the floor.
Here are some pictures!
We got to see the babies last weekend. They are now incredibly social. They look at you when you come into the room and give huge smiles! They love to be sung to and to play patty-cake. When you sing to them they make great sounds by way of singing along. They can now turn over easily from back to front, though the reverse is still a little difficult for them.
They now weigh almost 13 pounds each and are right around 50% in both height and weight. They sleep through the night, mostly, though they had their DPT shots last week and were pretty cranky (or so we heard).
Here are some pictures!
Just back from New York for Sukkot weekend. The babies are more responsive and more social every time we see them. They smile back at you, coo, stick out their tongues, and generally flirt with everyone who tries to interact with them.
Here are the latest pictures!
Happy New Year to all!
I've rearranged this page so that, like every good blog, it is now arranged in reverse chronological order, so the newest entries are at the top.
At last report, Lena now weighs 10 pounds, 15 ounces, and Vered weighs 10 points, 6 ounces, putting them around the 45th percentile of all infants, not just twins. Hooves!!
Here are some new pictures from the weekend of August 23-25, 2002.
Baby A is Lena Mayan Ben-Gideon. Lena after Josh's mother's mother; Mayan after my stepmother Miriam (Mayan, sometimes spelled May'an, means "fountain", and it is a name associated with the Biblical Miriam and the well that followed her in the desert).
Baby B is Vered Shulamit Ben-Gideon. Vered is after Barbara's mother Rose (Vered means Rose in Hebrew); Shulamit after Josh's mother's father Simon.
The Naming, Thursday, July 11th.
I am extremely pleased to announce that my daughter Rebecca Wand Ben-Gideon gave birth to two girls at 11:08 and 11:12 last night. The babies weighed 6 lb 3 oz and 5 lb 14 oz.
Their names will be announced at a naming ceremony at our home next Thursday morning. For the time being, we are referring to them by their medical names, Baby A and Baby B.
Mother and babies are doing fine. (Father, too).
The grandparents are too excited to even speak straight, let along put up a coherent web page.
Our hospital pictures, Thursday, July 4
Josh and Rebecca's hospital pictures