#pottytrainingunlocked

- "Throwing away of the diapers" ceremony

- Selling the changing table on Craigslist

- Dry all day and all night

- It was a very long three days, but he is good.  

"Shabbat star"

Wearing the hat Ari made

Ari taking part in the Shabbat story/play.  Note his red kippah that he had traded me

Me singing a song, while Ari switches the hat over to Jonathan and gives me back my kippah

Leading the candle-blessing in his classroom

Interfaith advertising

This past Sunday I gave the homily (20 minute sermon) at St. Martin Episcopal Church.  It was a lovely experience, and they were very gracious.  

Here's some fun proof.  The marquee scrolled, so it's in two parts:

I had no idea it was there until a TBO congregant told me about it a few days before.  She had been driving by and saw it. What a great promotion for them. Everyone going to the freeway sees what their church is up to.

7 year olds. Sigh.

Jonathan asked our eldest child, "Did anything funny happen at camp today?"

"Yes!" he responded eagerly.  "We made fart sounds." 

Nicole and Joe live in FL!!!

Woohoo!!

They're on one coast of Florida and we're on the other.  We attempted to meet in the middle.

(There is no "middle."  The middle of South Florida is Everglades.  At some points "River of Grass."  At others more typical swamp. Marsh. Bayou. Pick a synonym.)

The road that crosses the mid-point is called Alligator Alley.

Pic of GPS saying "Alligator," as I missed the picture of the road sign

Other names were just as amusing.

"Snake Road"

We met a Children's Museum, and it was awesome.  Kinda crazy to realize that we had never met their daughter, nor they our two youngest children. The last time we saw each other was when Jonathan and I were in NY for a conference, and Xander was 10 months old.

After the museum, we went  for dinner to eat yummy food and wish Nicole a happy belated birthday.  I encouraged Xander and Ari to lead us in HaMotzi, the prayer before eating, and while they were busy shaking their heads no, two year-old Zara took up the call and started singing instead.  Love the #rabbiskids.

Joe reading about Star Wars to two of my three (Ari was coloring next to Nicole and Jonathan)

Zara and Connor making hummingbird noises with me.

Then home.

Asleep with Doobie, the second-generation lovey that I received when I was three months old.

You just have to laugh

Our internet wasn't working.

Jonathan was racking his brain trying to figure out why.

He tested everything in the house.

Nothing happened.

He finally gave in and called the internet company to come check it out.



The verdict?

Our neighbor ran over the above-ground cable cord with a lawnmower.

We're now arranging to have the cable buried.

House update, week something-something

1) We have window shades in the boys' room and in our room.   Yay for no longer waking up at 530am when it gets light.

2) The pool is completely grounded and bonded.  I don't know what that means exactly, but suffice it to say, the people who did our screen brought all the electrical stuff with the pool up to code.

3) Jonathan took an old outdated alarm system out of the garage.  It's amazing how many cables came with it.  The wall looks so much cleaner now.

4) He also removed the escutcheons in the kitchen and painted them white, to match the ceiling (they used to be brown).  The best part of this is that he told me what he did and I'd never heard of the word "escutcheon" before.  Then I looked it up:

es·cutch·eon

iˈskəCHən/

noun

1. 1.

   a shield or emblem bearing a coat of arms.
2. 2.

   a flat piece of metal for protection and often ornamentation, around a keyhole, door handle, or light switch.

Of course Jonathan knew the word and I didn't.  He knows way more than I do about both military issues, and building construction.   

5) Kippah wall!!!

Plus light-switch plating in progress.

The power of consonants

We were in the car and saw the Autobot symbol on a car ahead of us.  The symbol, according to the Transformer mythology, means that the car is really a robot from the planet Cybertron.

Connor wanted to know when we could eat them.  He said we were saying "Autobot" wrong.

We were confused. 

Then he clarified: "Pool and Otter Pop, pool and Otter Pop!"  Meaning, swimming and a frozen treat (made without high fructose corn syrup, Mom), which we had previously discussed as being our afternoon plans.

We all cracked up and tried to explain the difference.

For the record:

Autobot

Otter Pop

Ari-ism

The kids were watching a movie.  The music swelled.  I called in from the other room, "Is it over yet?"

"Yes," said Xander.

"No," said Ari.  "They're still doing the letters."

I walked in.

It was the credits. :)

PreK Prom with Ari

A special evening dance for the PreK graduate and his or her family alone, no siblings.

Beginning the evening right, with the hamotzi over the tater tot (no bread to be found)

With fun glow-in-the dark accessories

Family slow dance

Between the style, the smile, and the gift of gab, he'll either be a rocker or a politician, I'm convinced.

And a seamless segue into camp!

Duck crossing... in the grocery store parking lot

He spent a good long while watching the wildlife. :)

End of school certificates

To Xander, Certificate of Recognition for outstanding achievement in "Excellent Thinker."

To Xander, Citizenship Certificate in recognition of exemplary behavior and valuable services rendered to Second Grade

Certifying that Ari has completed Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten

From X's last day of school

A girl, Madeline, signed his shirt with her name and a heart.  He didn't want to wash it lest it come out, so I took a picture.  Then he asked for the phone and wrote on it with the editing pen feature. :)

Gollum, I am not

I was in a fast casual restaurant and there was a riddle posted near the order counter:

WIN A FREE DRINK!

"What is greater than God, more evil than the devil, the poor have it, the rich need it, and if you eat it, you'll die?"

I thought and thought and didn't know the answer.  But I bet I knew someone who did.  I asked the guy behind the counter if I could make a phone call a la Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  Sure, he said.

I didn't even finish asking the question before he gave me the answer.

"Nothing."

All hail Antonio, who earned me a free Coke!

Beach

We went!  I stood in the Atlantic.  (I've lived here almost a year. I know. It's sad.)

It's SOOOO different from the Pacific.  More like the Mediterranean, I'd say.  The water is completely warm, the sand is white and soft, and instead of getting crazy deep crazy fast in the continental shelf drop, the sand just goes and goes. You can walk for what feels like miles.  It was gross and muggy at our house, but the beach had a soft breeze and was awesome.

I know why people vacation here now.

And you'll ask about the kids:  Connor was in shock, it was all new to him. He was beyond excited to see boats in the water for the first time, and loved the sensory exploration of the sand. The others boys wave-jumped and built structures and dug holes.

A very good, very fun day.

House update

- Entire house is finally painted.

- All decorations are on walls except for one or two which need to be altered (e.g. need new ribbon on kippah wall)

- Medicine cabinet in master bath installed

- Impact door between house and garage installed

- Fan removed from ceiling of boys' room, replaced with light.  Dining room chandelier installed.  Bedroom fan installed, kitchen chandelier removed, light installed.

- New rug purchased for living room

- Video doorbell installed.  We can see who's at the door from our phones.

- Living room collectible shelving in place.

- Screen 90% installed in backyard.  This also involved replacing one of the patio posts that was rotted.  The new post is a few millimeters different in all directions from the old one, so we're in the process of measuring and getting reapproved so can finish the last wall.

- Wooden planks installed in attic to serve as storage for extra tile, etc. New attic ladder.

- Fix A/C horrible noise: we replaced the filter and turns out the workers hadn't screwed something in tight enough, so it was rattling.

Still working on:

- Jonathan is currently cutting wood to size to serve as extra closet shelving in his office. Hopefully that'll be done next week then he can finish moving in.

- Vinyl covers the table and half the chairs. (Still working on the other half). It's already helping with spills.

- Rust stains on outside of house 75% off. Scrubbing sucks. (UPDATE as of Monday: DONE!  Plus putting mold-be-gone stuff in the courtyard)

- About half the light switches are new, some dimmers, some voice activated.  Other half in process.

- Window dressings should come next week.

Keeping it all straight

Thursday morning was confusing.

It was everybody's last day of school.

Xander didn't need a lunch because it was early release, so he would be picked up early.  He dressed normally in his school uniform.  He didn't need a backpack, because he cleaned out his desk the day before.

Ari didn't need a lunch either, because he had a pizza party.  He needed to dress in his special graduation t-shirt and did need his backpack.  His pickup was at normal time.

Connor needed a lunch and snack.  He had water play, so needed to be dressed in a regular diaper but with swim trunks and swim shirt and water shoes.  In a separate bag, we put a swim diaper, regular shoes and socks, shorts and t-shirt.  He still needed his backpack with his folder. Pickup was at normal time.

We needed to bring the Starbucks cards for the crossing guards at Xander's school, and the gift card for the woman whose driveway we've been parking in.

It seems so simple when I write it above.  But man... that was a lot of things to carry out to the car and to check off the mental list.  And in the end, Connor refused to wear his water shoes, so we put him in Crocs and packed the water shoes alongside the regular shoes.  But because we had to switch bags to accommodate the extra stuff... we forgot his lunch and had to go back for it.

Arg!

Giving kisses at Connor's end of year party

Our PreK graduate

Moment of truth

With bestie Elijah

Proud parents

12th anniversary

We hired a sitter with the intention of going to a fancy dinner and a movie at a theater in Boca Raton where they give you pillows and a blanket and the seats fully recline, and waiters bring food to your seat.

We bought tickets, had a lovely dinner.

And then, waiting for the movie to begin, before the previews, we both nearly fell asleep.

We looked at each other, laughed, agreed that our newlywed selves would be ashamed of us.... and then got a refund for our tickets and drove home. We were asleep by 11.

Handy husbands

I love that I can come home and Jonathan will have wires hanging from a wall... and then he fixes them and they work better.  

I've been married to him for almost 12 years and I'm still not over it.

We had just gotten home, you can see that Xander still had his backpack on from school.  He immediately joined Jonathan to learn what he was doing.  Which was, apparently, hooking up the kitchen and living room lights to a voice-activated switch.  Jonathan definitely earned his geek cred today.

Xander lost a tooth!

The left front bottom one.  The first one in our home from natural causes.

And he still believes in the tooth fairy. :)