Bits of news

On 3/20/09, Ezra and Naomi's class was combined (no $ to pay their sweet Morah Heather) and so they are with Morah Esther all day now. 3/22--I deactivated my facebook account. What a relief. I had been using it to escape certain tedious aspects of my existence, even to the point of ignoring things like meal prep (such as it is) and bedtime rituals. Bad Mommy--but now good! Also on same day (lucky number 22!), the TV and DVD player got disconnected and are now hibernating in the garage. 3/23-- twins went to the allergist: Saul has no allergies, and Yasha has only egg and peanut. No dairy allergies! Now we have to ease them in with part-lactose-free milk, part regular. Have so far only tried cheese-no problems so far. But eczema mystery not solved... 3/29--Ezra went to Morah Esther's house to have his reading level evaluated. In reading, he's "entering 4th grade." Don't put much stock in that stuff, but sounds good to me. Since the TV went away, he's read (this in one night) the 3rd Wimpy Kid book (dumb, but still a book), the first Lloyd Alexander book (Book of Three) and a book about Wishbone the Dog (Rip van Winkle one). And he just keeps reading and reading and reading, now that there's no TV. I view this activity as sacrosanct and never come in to turn off his light...though I think he stays up past 10pm every night! Even if I were to turn it off, he would just curl up with a book on the bathroom rug, as he does on Shabbos......

Saulie Shema-lie!

And another coup for Saul! Tonight he sang the entire first line of the Shema! And, on a more mundane note, he asked me, when I returned with a diaper-changed Yashie to the kitchen, "Yashie, diapohchange? Yah?" Yah, indeed!

Unbalanced praises

Unbalanced because they are dedicated solely to Saul. Oh, what a clever and silly Saul he is! Yes, he and Yasha are naughty, yes, they occasionally break wine glasses, but look what else they do (mostly Saulie) with those glasses. Look how carefully he inserts a vitamin bottle into each one and replaces it in the cupboard...and he is trying to figure out how to open that Zicam! When I catch him on the counter, see how he beams at me, though he knows he is being naughty.

He has been so, so playful lately, so talkative and exuberant. He has been doubling up his words, hilariously, and making a song out of them, where he emphasizes the second word, i.e. with bottle and avocado and cereal: "Bah-doo, BAH-doo! Cadoh-CAH-doh! Ya-yohs, YA-yohs!" He speaks quickly, loudly and emphatically, with his sweet sing-song voice. (Yasha still sort of squawks haltingly, or says a word slowly and without much vigor, but with intelligent, sparkling eyes.) When Yasha climbs on the table for a dance, Saul turns disciplinarian: "No!! Okkkkayyy??? (answers himself) Okay. Yashie, NO! Doppitt!" (Stop it.) Often, he gives Hannah a piece of his mind as well. Even if she is not guilty of any crimes (she usually isn't), Saul orders-sings at her: "Hannah, NO! Hannah, NO! Hannah, NO!" and he is quite authoritative. (He is actually more authoritative, while remaining friendly, than I manage to be. I can't walk this line at all.) I should see in him a future bossy brat/bully, but I can't--he's too funny. 

He has an eye for beauty. When I open the blinds and he sees our flowering apple tree, he says, "Ohhhhhh, flou-wer!" When we have a vase of flowers somewhere, he can't keep his eyes or, alas, hands off them. And once--I couldn't believe he noticed this--when a vase of tulips cast delicate tulip-shaped shadows on the dining room wall, he ran to the wall and gently patted the shadow-tulips, repeating "flou-wer" in awed tones. Sweet Saul. I also get the "Mommy-MAH-mee!" song, by the way, but Daddy just gets the rat-tat-tat "Da-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee..." with no beginning or end. And of course, by now both boys (esp. Saul) are expert at saying "Thank you!"--Saul sings the "classic" thank-you tune (low note, high note)--and Saul never misses an opportunity to say, "Bless you!" to my many allergic sneezes. Oh, well, his brother is starting to cry--it's feeding time!

Hannah-chka

I keep coming across several messy little scraps of paper on which are transcribed verbatim Hannah's random/funny speeches from the month of February. Up on the blog they go, and hard copies into the garbage.

While coloring on the kitchen floor one morning, she tells me: "Hashem loves Yasha and Saulie and Hannah, and we love Yasha and Saulie and Hannah. (Pause.) And wabbis (rabbis) love me...and they're in shul. (Thinks.) And they're in choedge of me." This from a girl who doesn't really ever go to shul, or have the experience of rabbis being in charge of her.

Another morning in the kitchen, playing with Yasha's (hers too, once upon a time) pink blanket on her head: "It's not dark! It's pink inside heeoh. It's pink inside the dark." Grabs a remote control: "I wanna talk to my phone." Then, re. same: "I wanna sleep with this." And she does, eventually, tucking it between her mattress and the mesh walls of her pack-n-play. But first: "I wanna put it under here (pink blanky)--with my seeds." This re. two pumpkin seeds she asked to taste, rejected, but, oddly, kept around to play with. (Echoes of Princess and the Pea? I've since told the girls this story many times--not my favorite--but now, alas, they keep requesting it.) And this game, these little collections keep her busy awhile.

Another day, after Hannah, the twins, and I drop off Ezra and Naomi at school one morning, she was moved to share her back-seat musings with me (I scribbled madly, trying not to laugh): "I like cars so much. And I like all of the people that are biking on their bikes and that are walking. I like them so much. And I even (sic) like the deedees. And I like Hashem." (And Mommy likes you.) She also says, so confidently, when we are listening to the radio and a certain talk show host (and friend) comes on, "He loves me."

And one from Noma. She takes my long pre-Shabbos shopping list one Friday and writes her name on the very bottom, saying, "Mom, you have to buy me." Really? And here I thought she was free.