Kid pride

1) The mom of one of Xander's friends told me that someone had mentioned her (7 year old) son was wearing nail polish, and was teasing him.  "Xander was a good friend," she said to both of us, "standing up for him and saying, 'I like nail polish too!'"

2) Ari comes up with the most imaginative stories ever.  About bad guys and good guys, about giant cats and little people, about buses that fly.  I love asking him, "How was your day?" because the answer I get is as likely to be about his actual day as about an idea he had that he wants to share.

3) Connor pooped in the potty today.  And at bedtime, while cuddling, he stroked my hair and said, "Happy Connor.  Happy Mama."

It's the little things in life that make me happy. :)

Thanksgiving weekend

Well, this certainly was the busiest Thanksgiving I've had in a long while!  Or maybe ever.

Wednesday:

Afternoon: The cantor at temple resigned.  

Evening: Took part in an interfaith Pre-Thanksgiving Unity service at a local church, with 10 other faith groups; temples, mosques, churches of different denominations, even a Bahai group.

Thursday:

Early morning: We cleaned our house.  It desperately needed it.  

Late morning: I took the kids to a local park to meet up with Jamie, a friend who I met at a now-defunct CAJE (Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education) Conference back in 2002.  We're both married now and have families.  Crazy world.

And guess who I saw while there, in the middle of a park in Florida?  My rabbinic colleague and past Cincinnati roommate Maura and her family, who was visiting family in FL!!  Talk about random.

Afternoon/evening: We were invited to a congregant's for Thanksgiving dinner, which was lovely.  Their eldest daughter turned 21 the day before Thanksgiving, and Connor turned two on Saturday, so we brought a cake for dessert.

Blowing out the birthday candles.

Friday:

Early morning: More house-cleaning for me  Grocery shopping for Jonathan.  

Late morning/afternoon: Connor's birthday party!

There are about a hundred pictures to download from the phone.  Yeah. Haven't gotten to that yet.  We were originally going to say, "no gifts," but then stopped ourselves, because we realized we wanted the older boys to respect his birthday and know that gifts aren't just for them.  And what a lesson it's been!  Hard to learn, but well worth it.  Connor has new trucks and cars and trains and dinosaurs and balls, and is in love with them all.

Evening:

Services with volunteer singers.  2nd Thanksgiving dinner at a congregant's.  I was so full I rolled home.  The babysitter took the boys bike-riding, and they had a fabulous time without us.

Saturday:

Morning: Officiated at a Bat Mitzvah with a guest cantor.  

Afternoon: Went to a 7 year old birthday party at a park.  

Evening: Officiated at a wedding.  Jonathan came with.  The ceremony was good but it was so windy my hair kept blowing in my face, and the papers were blowing away!  Arg.  The party was crazy awesome; the bride is Peruvian, and they brought in full-on Carnivale dancers, complete with costumes and a man in stilts and masks and hats for everyone on the dance floor.  We didn't even get served the main course til 10pm!  Which we were very surprised by, until we googled "Latin weddings" on the way home and what do you know, they traditionally last all night long and you don't start eating til 10 or 11.  The things you learn.

On the way home from the wedding our car started making odd noises and jerking a lot.  It was not fun.

Sunday:

Morning/afternoon: The mechanic confirmed that we needed to replace 6 spark plugs and 2 injector coils.  $700 later, our van runs smoothly.  We had been planning a playdate but couldn't fit all 3 kids in the Leaf, so the friend picked up Jonathan from the mechanic's, then came home, took Xander and I in her car, and then they dropped us back off again so we could get the car.  Quite a day.

We were supposed to see someone else in the evening, but instead we collapsed.

Next year Thanksgiving weekend, we've decided, we're staying in!!

(Edited to add: I have no idea why this post won't center and right-justify properly.  I think there's a bug in the system.  Sorry.)

Connor and Elmo

Mom sent over an Elmo doll for Connor's birthday.

We gave it to him early.

Forget Corwolf.  Elmo is a true lovey in every sense of the word.

Elmo has to sit next to Connor at the table to eat with him.

He has to be with him at bedtime.

He has to come in the carseat, and every day we have to explain anew that Elmo can't come to school.  But he sits in the carseat all afternoon so Connor can hug him the moment he gets back in the car.

Elmo comes with us EVERYWHERE.  It's utterly adorable.  

(Except when Connor came into our bed at 5:30am and we heard, "Come sing the ABC's with Elmo!"  Elmo almost lost his batteries that day.)

Connor, Elmo, tired Mommy

Ari the Shabbat star at preschool

  

Lighting the Shabbat candles in his classroom

Covering our eyes while saying the blessing

 Holding up the wine cup for Kiddush

During the main service.  Only 2 out of 3 because Xander's at a different school.

A partial Loving portrait

Younger kids at school

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TBO Sisterhood Fashion Show

It was quite an experience!  Held at a fancy hotel with 250 attendees, two rooms worth of shopping merchandise, a fancy sit-down lunch, a DJ, a professional former model showing the 10 models how to walk the runway... it was quite awesome.

Getting my hair done pre-show.  Each model got her hair and make-up done gratis, the salons donated their time.

 Going over presentation cues before it all began.

With an honoree.

Giving the d'var Torah ("words of Torah," or a little speech relating the event to Judaism) before lunch.

After singing the haMotzi, blessing over the challah. 

My first outfit.  At the boutique I told the dressers that I wanted to go outside my box.  This one was rabbi rocker chick.

I LOVE this outfit, it was a fabulous futuristic suit!  I would have bought it but it was waaaay out of my price range.

This one got the most whoops - a skin-tight blue dress that showed more cleavage than I ever usually wear by far. Out of my box indeed!

I learned a new word today

It's becoming the "season."

Not the season of fall.

Not the holiday season.

Not the season when debutantes come out in their ballgowns.

Not the TV season for new shows.

But the season when the snowbirds come to Florida.  I.e. all the people from New York and colder states up north who move to Florida for the winter.  It apparently explains the slight increase in traffic, more people at the malls, and pushier drivers.  Who knew?!

Evened-out Ari

Every day makes a difference in Ari's behavior.

He is so thoughtful, and helpful, and kind sometimes now.

Other times, not so much.  His impulsivity is hard to reign in.

But at parent-teacher conferences he got such a lovely report!  He's at "exceeds expectations" for his class' standards academically in all areas, and it's not even halfway through the school year. Academically they told us how very bright he is, that he has excellent fine motor skills and is very social.  But that he has trouble focusing in large groups and he's very stubborn.  If he wants or doesn't want to do something, that's it. It's a fight.

It was a fabulous conversation.  And cemented everything we already knew. :)

Potty training

It's going to be upon us very soon.

Connor points to his diaper, says "Melmo" very clearly (for Elmo, who is pictured front and center on the diapers), and then tries to take it off.  He's peed on his little frog potty multiple times!

The first time, Xander led us in Shehecheyanu.  Now it's old hat!

He won't tell anyone but me that he needs to go, though, which is a slight problem.  We put him in underwear in school, and 10 changes later, at NOON, they called me.

We're still working on it. :)

Xander's math joke

"What's zero plus one, Mommy?"

"Uh, one."

"And zero plus two?"

"Two."

"Right!  And now what's one plus one?"

"Two."

"Nope!  It's eleven!  One PLUS one!"

(hysterical laughter)

T-Rex Cafe

The awesome T-Rex Cafe in Orlando.  This is where Jonathan wrote:

Michal is at her conference so I'm with the boys alone at Disney World.

I was making a reservation in front of one of their restaurants and he asked, "How many in your party?" 

Me: "Four." 

Him: "How many children in your party?" 

Me: "Three." 

He looks at me. Then he looks at the boys. 

Him: "You're brave." 

Except he said it in the "you're crazy" kind of voice.

Xander posing in front of the frozen dinosaur

Boys on vacation

Posing at the LEGO store.  Muscle men!

Two out of three making funny faces.

Food court yumminess.

Our friend Danyul with our boy and his and Rachael's babeleh, who's 18 months.  Our kiddos got along quite nicely!

Family in Orlando

Our family stayed with 5 other families in a big house near Disney.  And Jonathan rocked it, going to amusement parks every day with the kids without me.  I went to Magic Kingdom with them once, but the other days I was up with kiddos at 6am to see them, left for the conference by 9am, and a couple times was home for dinner, a couple times at midnight or later.  A fun time was had by all!

Connor the morning after the first day of Biennial. Our three boys shared a room with another boy, and Ari and Xander were oldest so got the top bunks.  How exciting!

Benihana's hat boy at Saturday night dinner.

My four loves.

The house crew at Benihana's.  Jonathan says that the youngest ate more than his brothers combined.

Breakfast on the very last morning.  What were to do with the ice cream and cake?  No one could take it home, so we were forced to eat it all, obviously.  

URJ Biennial

I went to the Union of Reform Judaism's Biennial for the first time last week, and it was utterly AMAZING. Learning. Inspiration. Music. Old friends. New friends. Dreaming of and shaping the future.

Myself with my friend and colleague Mara

Sitting in the second row listening to Vice President Joe Biden!

With URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs and friend and URJ Vice-Chair Jay 

With congregants holding our temple Torah, used in Shabbat morning services with 5,000 people.

Yes, we own two cats

This is Yentl.  Osher's more cuddly, so he gets more pictures.