Baby B is here!

Baby B was born on October 30th at 11:06pm. Both Hubby and Doctor were relieved she made her debut BEFORE Halloween, apparently we were on a schedule?? Neither one of them wanted her born on Halloween, I on the other hand thought it might have been kinda cool, but in retrospect am glad she came sooner, rather than later.

She is a sleepy little bean, who has inherited her Aba's eyes, and her Bampa's nose (sorry, Bampa but I am secretly hoping that it gets a bit smaller!), has the tiniest little mouth and a pointy chin. She shares B's baby cheeks and her skin is the smoothest thing you have ever felt. After her bath she was returned to me with a little bow in her hair, it was the cutest thing ,till it promptly fell off as I was contemplating out loud to Hubby how they got it to stick, I speculated it must have been with spit (which Hubby thought was extremely funny). Oh, well.

Baby B is a wonderful addition to our family.

So will she be a Halloween baby?

So we are off to the hospital to have the baby, what is your bet, will she be here today or tomorrow?

sledding

sleds and snow

So we have had snow twice this year and Halloween is not even here yet ( our usual start of snow season). The first snow was rather uneventful, but the second one really dumped a lot! Everything was fine, until I came home to for everyone off for lunch, and I tried to park the car. Well so much snow had piled up, that I was unable to get the car in the garage, and unable to back out of the driveway. I proceeded to dig the van out and who should pull up but Aba, home for lunch , right behind me, and proceeded to get his car stuck in the snow as well! Well, it was now 10 minutes till B needed to be picked up and both of our cars were stuck and stuck good! So after 15 more minutes of shoveling, Aba pushing the car, and attempting to put on the chains he had sworn fit the Lexus (they were chains form our old Mercedes) that didn't fit, we finally got he car free and I got to take a controlled skid for 3 blocks to return to the main road!

But the day did improve later once Aba returned home for the day we went Sledding! the kids had great fun, making snow angels, throwing and eating snowballs, and sledding down the hills in tandem and on their own. Aba also had great fun sledding down the hills, to the point where he could have been considered "hogging" the sleds. I guess we will need to get a few more!

UGH!

Darn it! I had a great blog all written out and then blogger went off for "scheduled maintenance" and lost it! AAARGGGGHHHHH!

I will try to rewrite it again tomorrow, but it just won't be the same.

Oooh a new arrival!

She is here! No, not the baby we have all been awaiting, but our Auntie LaLa! Don't tell her this, but the kids are all going to jump on her bed in the morning to wake her up! They have been waiting for her to get here for days, asking me hourly when she sill be here. I am sure that we will have a lot of fun, and have lots to share in the days and weeks to come!

Times sure have changed

As I was driving home from taking N to Hebrew school, I spied a McDonald's, and it brought back to mind what my father and I did every week after services when I was young. We would go to McDonald's; along with half or more of the congregation. Now days it would be preposterous to even imagine eating fast food that often, much less eating french fries AND a milkshake!

I can just picture the look on everyone's faces if we were to continue this practice today. It is no longer acceptable to eat fast food, much less to feed it to our children, yet many memories that my generation and those older than ours reflect back upon involve fast food, rich treats, and eating dinner in front of the TV.

The sock monster and his cousins came for a visit.

Ever notice how when you have a pair of something, one just goes missing? Socks, gloves, shoes, matching tops and bottoms, and you don't really think much of it? It is kinda expected after all. I get a pile of socks with no mates, that I hopelessly hold onto, waiting for the missing pair to show up, till the pile gets so big it takes a whole grocery bag to throw them out, only to find the missing sock 2 weeks later ( after 6 months of searching??) well, that is too be expected, the sock monster seems to have fun playing this game with us.

And now that the cold has set in, the mitten monster has come out to play as well, finding only left hands or rights, and no way to make a pair is frustrating! It is also frustrating when a child starts out with a pair of gloves and returns inside, or home from school with only one. But this too is to be expected.

A new cousin has emerged however, one that no one would suspect. and this is the footy PJ monster. Really it is an unexpected one as there is not a pair to lose half of, rather, you lose the whole thing! With as many children and hand-me-downs as we have, we expect to buy for the largest sized child we have, for things that can be shared pretty much across gender and such like socks, some t shirts, and footie pj's. But alas the Footie PJ monster has stolen all of the footie pj sizes we could possibly use. we have no 5's, no 4's, one 3, and one 2! How can that be possible! We have always dressed our little ones in footies through out the winter months, even when we lived in CA!

So last week I went off the target and bought 2 size 5's so my oldest can rotate them ( which means I must wash everyday- but that seems to happen anyways with a household our size, when the children soil their clothes several times a day still). and 2 size 4's as my little princess has surpassed her 3 year old status on the growth charts and is officially the size of a 4 year old, meaning new pants, new tights, new dresses ( unless we want her but exposed) and larger footie pj's, and of course she got girly colors so either our little bruiser will be sleeping in pink and red in a few years, or we will be replacing them for him as well. So after this outing I thought we were good to go, that is until Hubby noticed bruisers footies were a little tight ( and of course he ad the biggest supply with like 10 sets!) . Hmm, well time to check the hand me down boxes again, and what do I discover? Out of 2 HUGE Rubbermaid boxes of 24months / 2t clothes, their is 1 measly footed pj! AAARGHGH! It just makes me want to scream. So I guess tomorrow I will be off to target yet again for more footie pjs. I

I bet the footie pj monster is having a great big laugh and rolling on the floor at this one, and he will probably roll even harder when come next May he starts randomly giving them back!

N's PEP conference

So yesterday was a "free" day meaning no school for N as it was a conference day. However, this conference a PEP conference is much different from those we all remember. his was not a review of the child's work, but a conference in order to put a plan in place, a personal education plan, for the rest of the year. Basically what happens is the parent and teacher go over where the child is and what the child needs to focus on next, and then the teacher and child go over it as well.

So for our little kindergartner we went over story problems (what we remember as word problems), writing numbers properly starting at the top, lower case letters starting at the top, beginning reading, which consists of rhyming, word association (see a picture of a radio, and the word radio written out), sounding words out phonetically, and 15 core words that need to memorized. We also went over early writing, where the student learns to spell, and putting things away when they are done playing with them, as well as currency.

So out of all of this our little man needs to focus on learning currency ( the difference between a nickle, Pennie, quarter, etc. and how many pennies make a nickle, how many nickles make a quarter, etc), putting things away when done with them ( apparently this is something the WHOLE class has as a goal), and confidence when writing ( we seem to have a case of the 'I Cant's' on our hands) so for him anything he writes is good even if it is "gfhunx" and once his confidence is up, we will focus on getting the correct letter of each word right (ie: ball could be btld) and then on the whole word correctly).

So now that we have our home goals in-line with the school goals we can work together to help our student do the best he can do.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo

SO our newest Netflick has arrived and I am sure you can already guess what it is! That is right! Cinderella! Well, as I watched it last night with the kiddos and as Aba is watching it this morning with them (yes again) we both noticed something about one of the characters.

One character in particular seems to remind both of us of a dear family member. Can you guess who? I am sure you can with a few clues.
1. She likes to make up words, when she can't find just the one she is looking for.
2. She is always cheerful and has a smile on her face.
3. At times she can be a bit disorganized
4. She wears her hair short and light.
5. And every time you see her, you just want to pick her up and hug her.

Can you guess now? Yes you are right! The Fairy Godmother and Grandma with the fishes bear an uncanny resemblance to each other.

Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-booPut 'em together and what have you gotbibbidi-bobbidi-booSalagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-booIt'll do magic believe it or notbibbidi-bobbidi-booSalagadoola means mechicka boolerooBut the thingmabob that does the job isbibbidi-bobbidi-booSalagadoola menchicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-booPut 'em together and what have you gotbibbidi-bobbidi bibbidi-bobbidi bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

These made me laugh!

I don't know if the pregnancy hormones are getting to me or what, but I thought I would share in case anyone else needed a little pick me up.

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Evolution of Dance

I belive i can fly

TORN

Soup in the Sukkah

Well, Aba twisted my arm last night and had me go to the Jewish Women's circle, well actually he didn't really twist my arm, instead he told the Rabbi's wife that I would LOVE to go, and would definitely be there, and then told me I was going. and do you know what? I actually had FUN!

I have no idea why I was resisting so hard. I was picturing a bunch of old women sitting around, speaking Hebrew and debating the scholars ( like the men do it Torah study), but it was nothing like that! 12 of us, mainly SAHM's or former SAHM's enjoyed 4 wonderful soups, one recipe that will definitely be added to my cookbook log, and talked about Sukkot a little bit, but also about cake decorating, and played Jewish scattagories. It was a lot of fun, so much fin it was 11 o'clock before we finally wrapped it up (sorry to all of our husbands who were at home watching the kids).

I can't wait for next months meeting, I will definitely be a regular attender.

UPDATE: the soup recipe
Kosher and Parve
Creamy Potato Soup

4 large potatoes, diced
1 large onion, diced
4 cups water
1/3 cup oil
1/4 cup parsley, minced
2 TBSP. Kosher salt
1/2 TSP pepper

Put everything in a 4 quart pot, cook uncovered on moderate heat for 30 - 40 minutes or until potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally. Using a stick blender, blend until smooth ( can also be done in a conventional blender.

** My bowl was topped with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, and homemade croutons**

where fo the pregnant women go to walk the baby out?

Well apparently yesterday it was the corn maze! 8 acres of corn cut into a spiders web of a maze! We went with some friends who have kids similar in ages to ours and one who was in Hubbies class last year. It was tons of fun eating corn on the cob, kettle corn, and wandering aimlessly through first the kiddie maze and then the big maze. We wandered aimlessly through finding many emergency exits, but not the real one for quite a while, till we finally asked for help and found out we were next to the 7 and it was pretty much a strait shot out! The kids enjoyed it and all let out a shout of joy when we finally made it out. The other mom and I chatted through the course, the kids played hide and freak ( scare) the parents every 100 feet or so, we were letting them lead the way, and the dads drank "forbidden" beer ( no alcohol allowed on the grounds).

waiting...and waiting... and waiting

Some times I feel like this baby is never going to come! The waiting is killing me, as I am the most impatient person on the planet. 37 weeks today. yet only 1 cm dilated and nothing more than Braxton HIcks. I know, I know, the longer the baby stays inside the better, she can grow, mature, and be healthier when she finally emerges, but come on! Last week they said she was 7 lbs. how much more does she really need to grow? I am supposed to walk to help speed things along, but I am tired, and it hurts to walk, and it hurts to sit. Pretty much everything hurts and aches and my body is ready for her to come out now. Oh, well, maybe this is Hashem's way of teaching me patience.

A day of atonement

On today Yom Kippur I feel the need to ask for forgiveness.

I would like to ask my husband to forgive me for not understanding his desire to put religion above all else, even if that means we can not go apple picking, or to the fair. I would like him to know that I support him in all he does even if I do not see the reasons behind it. I would also like to ask him to forgive me for all the times I have nagged him, not taken care of my household duties, or slacked off in general when I could have done more for the family.

I would like to ask my children to forgive me when I tell them to hold on, or to wait a minute when I am doing something they feel is not as important as what they have to say. I would also like to ask them to forgive me for punishing them when they misbehave, when I am at the end of my rope and need 5 minutes to regroup, but take it out on them instead. And I apologize for yelling when I could walk away and calm down when they have made the mess of the century by sprinkling baby powder over the walls, or dumping out every toy in the house of the floor.

I would also like to apologize to anyone else I may have wronged, or made feel bad or inferior in any way.

I need to learn patience and tolerance of others feelings and mistakes. I also need to learn that the small things in life are what make us who we are, and I can choose how I react to them, if I will over react and lash out, or if I will stop and think first.

Gemar Chatima Tovah