Notes to self

1) Never, EVER give children prune juice unless it's an emergency.  Even when you're out of grape juice and you need juice to put in the kiddush cup.  Even when you think the amount they will actually drink is negligible.  Apparently prune juice does its job no matter how much you consume, even if it's barely enough for a ritual.

2) All one's parental guilt can be alleviated with a stray sentence.  Another parent told me today that when the religious school teacher asked, "When do you feel safe?" Xander answered, "When my mommy tells me she loves me and I tell her I love her before I'm going to bed."  Squeeee!

3) Be more careful on explaining the thank you/you're welcome thing.  Ari is now convinced that you say "you're welcome" when you receive something because whenever we first gave him an item, or did something for him, we said, "Thank you, Ari," trying to prompt him to say it too.  It backfired, because since he knows that "you're welcome" is the response to "thank you," now he says that first!

4) These articles are really, sadly true: "For the Love of All That's Holy, You Don't Lose Your Identity When You Become a Parent, You Lose Your Minutes," and "How to Stop Mommy From Sleeping Through the Night" (thankfully, this article is now less relevant!).  I was talking with my sister at 7pm the other night, and she was all dressed up to go out, saying she was meeting someone in half an hour.  I almost couldn't compute it.  Going out of the house after dinner?   But... it's dark!  It's practically bedtime!  And then I remembered... in my 20s I used to regularly meet people for dinner at 8pm.  Now dinner's at 5:30 or 6 and by the time 8pm rolls around, I'm already in my PJs.  It doesn't even occur to me to make plans after 5pm anymore.  The evening's just gone.

5) And closely related to the above... Naps have pros and cons.  Pros: You get a break in the middle of the day.  Cons: Kids go to sleep later.  Today, for a variety of reasons, Ari only got a 20 minute nap, and Xander had none at all.  It was an exhausting afternoon.  On the other hand... Ari fell asleep at 7:24, and Xander was in bed at 7:52.  I almost don't know what to do with myself.  But whatever it is, I do know that it will involve Haagen Dazs. :)