Xander wants a sand boa for his 5th birthday.
It's not a fluke; it's come up a couple times now.
Yes, Savta, a sand boa is a snake.
Xander wants a snake, in a terrarium, for his birthday.
Jonathan is beside himself with glee.
I told Xander it was a good thing he told me now, in April, because it will take me until October to get used to the idea.
If we DO get a snake (no promises), I told him, Mommy will never, ever, have anything to do with it. Xander and Daddy will take care of it. I will never feed it, nor change its cage. Nor smile at it, nor take it out on my arm and pet it.
(((Watch me three years from now posting pictures of a snake on my head)))
INDEPENDENT CHILDREN ARE BAAAAAAD. Why oh why do we teach them to think for themselves?!?!
Friday, April 26, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
2 fun links and an absolutely amazing piece of Jewish art
What happens when you try to wring out a washcloth in space? Click here to see the video. I was honestly surprised!
American Girls was one of my favorite series of books as a girl, because they were so history-based and took on monumental social issues of the day. I was so saddened to read this article and to hear that the franchise has changed for the worse!
And lastly, this is incredible. "Marranos" is the term for Jews in Spain and Portugal who hid their Jewish identity during the Inquisition (and where my dad traced our name from, as well). The item below is not an original piece of art, but recreated from that time period. It's seemingly an innocuous teapot, but in reality contains everything a Jewish family would need to practice the religion and observe the holidays. I'm copying the photos of the original link here in full because it's stunning. It makes me proud to be part of such an industrious people... but also sad that such items were necessary throughout history. No matter what emotions it brings up though - it's just a downright brilliant design!
American Girls was one of my favorite series of books as a girl, because they were so history-based and took on monumental social issues of the day. I was so saddened to read this article and to hear that the franchise has changed for the worse!
And lastly, this is incredible. "Marranos" is the term for Jews in Spain and Portugal who hid their Jewish identity during the Inquisition (and where my dad traced our name from, as well). The item below is not an original piece of art, but recreated from that time period. It's seemingly an innocuous teapot, but in reality contains everything a Jewish family would need to practice the religion and observe the holidays. I'm copying the photos of the original link here in full because it's stunning. It makes me proud to be part of such an industrious people... but also sad that such items were necessary throughout history. No matter what emotions it brings up though - it's just a downright brilliant design!
The complete teapot
Remove the top…
It's a hidden dreidel
Remove the next layer
A perfume/spice holder [for Havdallah, the close of Shabbat]
Opened
The Hebrew word on the bottom says בשמים (basmim), “spices or perfumes”
The next layer is…
The eternal flame.
The Front View - The inscription reads, “The light of God is man’s soul.”
But there’s another secret:
A complete megilla (the scroll containing the biblical narrative of the Book of Esther, traditionally read in synagogues to celebrate the festival of Purim.)
The main body is designed to hold an etrog, the yellow citron or Citrus medica used by Jews on the week-long holiday of Sukkot.
The words say “pri etz hadar” (the fruit of the majestic tree), a biblical reference to the etrog.
Inside
Candlesticks for Shabbos
Closeup of candlesticks
Remove the flowered tray, and under the candlesticks is…
A Seder plate for Pesach.
Complete
But there’s one more thing.
A menorah for Hanukkah.
With the shammash (“servant”), the 9th light of the menorah used to light the other 8 candles.
Reassembled
Monday, April 22, 2013
A week's worth of kid quotes
1) Xander drops something and says, very appropriately, "Godda----!" I raise my eyebrows (cringing inwardly, knowing where he gets it), and start a conversation about how that's a grown-up word, and that when he's a grown-up he can make the decision to use that word or not, but for now, he needs to use kid words. I also added as an afterthought that Mommy and Daddy will try not to use that word anymore.
"Yeah!" he says indignantly. "You're teaching me to do it!"
2) Ari and Jonathan like to play fetch. Literally, Jonathan throws a bouncy ball down the hallway, and Ari runs after it, squealing. At one point the ball fell in the laundry pile, about to be taken to the washer. "Where's the ball, Ari?" Jonathan asks.
"Peek-a-boo towel!" he replies.
3) I've been sick lately and Jonathan's been taking over the majority of the childcare duties. The kids have been acting out a bit, we theorize partly because they're not getting as much attention from me. To try and alleviate the issue, Jonathan took X out of school early to spend some quality time together. They went and saw The Croods. This was only Xander's second movie ever, so it was quite an experience. The next day, X's teacher gushes over Jonathan, saying it was a fantastic decision to go to the movie, that Xander has been so happy all day, that at circle time he got up and told everyone about his movie experience, and that he seemed to be so much calmer and centered. X's reaction when I asked him about it? "Mommy, there was POPCORN!!!!!!"
4) At Subway for dinner the other night, Ari took apart his sandwich and ate all the innards. Xander took apart his sandwich and ate only the bread. Looking at the sad little mangled mess in front of them, and knowing how we hate waste, Xander comments helpfully, "You can put my and Ari's sandwich together, and have a whole new one!"
5) The kids got up at 6:30am yesterday, so we sent them to go play in the living room while we slept in a little longer. A half hour later X comes running in to our bedroom, complaining that Ari's being too bossy. We start to laugh. The toddler who's learning to speak is being too bossy? But lo and behold, when I go to read them a story a little later, Ari says, "No, my book!" and gives me a new one to read. When Xander is making swish noises in Ari's direction, Ari says, "Stop it, Xander!" and waves his hands menacingly. When I go to put shoes on Ari, he refuses to lift his feet, saying "no, dis shoe!" and presenting me with a slipper. He was just having a bad morning, the afternoon was fine. But wow, we gave X more credence. Bossy, indeed!
6) Xander and I were talking about what he can be when he grows up. He can be a firefighter, an astronaut and go up in space, a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, a veterinarian which is an animal doctor, a pilot ("On JetRed?" "Honey, there is no JetRed, just JetBlue"), an engineer and figure out how things work like Sabba, a dancer, an actor and go up on stage all day, a rabbi...
"No, I can't be a rabbi! That's silly!"
"Why can't you be a rabbi?"
"Only girls can be rabbis!"
7) X is very much into numbers lately, and the bigger the number, the more fun it is to say. So Jonathan got a list online of the names of all the largest numbers and their powers of 10. He then gave him a "lesson" on it, just like X has in school. X was fascinated by the progression of billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, all the way up to duotrigintillion (10 to the 99th power), and googol, 10 to the 100th power. He was extremely disappointed, however, that there is no real "zillion."
8) This isn't a kid quote, but something stunning that I just have to share with you. I was recently rewatching some favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, thinking how much I still loved them. And then I saw something scary... the date. ST:TNG went off the air in 1994. Next year, that will be twenty years. How can one of my favorite shows have ENDED almost 20 YEARS AGO??? I feel really old.....
"Yeah!" he says indignantly. "You're teaching me to do it!"
2) Ari and Jonathan like to play fetch. Literally, Jonathan throws a bouncy ball down the hallway, and Ari runs after it, squealing. At one point the ball fell in the laundry pile, about to be taken to the washer. "Where's the ball, Ari?" Jonathan asks.
"Peek-a-boo towel!" he replies.
3) I've been sick lately and Jonathan's been taking over the majority of the childcare duties. The kids have been acting out a bit, we theorize partly because they're not getting as much attention from me. To try and alleviate the issue, Jonathan took X out of school early to spend some quality time together. They went and saw The Croods. This was only Xander's second movie ever, so it was quite an experience. The next day, X's teacher gushes over Jonathan, saying it was a fantastic decision to go to the movie, that Xander has been so happy all day, that at circle time he got up and told everyone about his movie experience, and that he seemed to be so much calmer and centered. X's reaction when I asked him about it? "Mommy, there was POPCORN!!!!!!"
4) At Subway for dinner the other night, Ari took apart his sandwich and ate all the innards. Xander took apart his sandwich and ate only the bread. Looking at the sad little mangled mess in front of them, and knowing how we hate waste, Xander comments helpfully, "You can put my and Ari's sandwich together, and have a whole new one!"
5) The kids got up at 6:30am yesterday, so we sent them to go play in the living room while we slept in a little longer. A half hour later X comes running in to our bedroom, complaining that Ari's being too bossy. We start to laugh. The toddler who's learning to speak is being too bossy? But lo and behold, when I go to read them a story a little later, Ari says, "No, my book!" and gives me a new one to read. When Xander is making swish noises in Ari's direction, Ari says, "Stop it, Xander!" and waves his hands menacingly. When I go to put shoes on Ari, he refuses to lift his feet, saying "no, dis shoe!" and presenting me with a slipper. He was just having a bad morning, the afternoon was fine. But wow, we gave X more credence. Bossy, indeed!
6) Xander and I were talking about what he can be when he grows up. He can be a firefighter, an astronaut and go up in space, a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, a veterinarian which is an animal doctor, a pilot ("On JetRed?" "Honey, there is no JetRed, just JetBlue"), an engineer and figure out how things work like Sabba, a dancer, an actor and go up on stage all day, a rabbi...
"No, I can't be a rabbi! That's silly!"
"Why can't you be a rabbi?"
"Only girls can be rabbis!"
7) X is very much into numbers lately, and the bigger the number, the more fun it is to say. So Jonathan got a list online of the names of all the largest numbers and their powers of 10. He then gave him a "lesson" on it, just like X has in school. X was fascinated by the progression of billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, all the way up to duotrigintillion (10 to the 99th power), and googol, 10 to the 100th power. He was extremely disappointed, however, that there is no real "zillion."
8) This isn't a kid quote, but something stunning that I just have to share with you. I was recently rewatching some favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, thinking how much I still loved them. And then I saw something scary... the date. ST:TNG went off the air in 1994. Next year, that will be twenty years. How can one of my favorite shows have ENDED almost 20 YEARS AGO??? I feel really old.....
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Ari fest at school
Every week the kids' schools sends us an electronic newsletter. Xander has his picture in it occasionally, as there are about 30 kids in his class. Ari's class only has 10, meaning he has a greater likelihood of being in the shot. Plus, the photographer loves him. Behold the Ari fest of the last two newsletters!
Our book-loving boy.
Eating yummy snack.
Holding deep discussions during circle time.
Cooking! (Or science experiment... not really sure.)
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Singing in the rain
The kids were playing in the yard when all of a sudden it started to downpour. That was my and Jonathan's cue to hightail it into the house. Not so much for our children, who spent a glorious 20 minutes outside getting soaked to the gills. When they were done we just had them strip their clothes and go straight to the bathtub!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Pesach query
I find that I get a lot of random Jewish questions over Facebook, of all places, mostly from people I haven't seen in years but who know that I'm a rabbi. So I figure I'd share the most recent one, purely in case anyone else was interested. It's from a college acquaintance.
Q:
"I just read on Wikipedia that Jewish scholars concede that Exodus probably never happened, not even as the basic history without the supernatural elements. Would say this is true of rabbis as you know them?"
A:
"Hi X,
I think it's a toss-up among Reform rabbis, and a definite no among Conservative and Orthodox. I personally would agree - I think the structure of Exodus was created by authors looking to build tribal identity among a disparate people. By forming a common source story it helped unite them. The interesting part though is when you get into defining holiness - for many if not most Reform Jews I'd say, the historical truth of the Bible doesn't matter as much as the symbolic truth. So we/I can admit it never happened, but that doesn't take away from how the text has contributed to the identity formation of the Jewish people down the centuries."
Q:
"I just read on Wikipedia that Jewish scholars concede that Exodus probably never happened, not even as the basic history without the supernatural elements. Would say this is true of rabbis as you know them?"
A:
"Hi X,
I think it's a toss-up among Reform rabbis, and a definite no among Conservative and Orthodox. I personally would agree - I think the structure of Exodus was created by authors looking to build tribal identity among a disparate people. By forming a common source story it helped unite them. The interesting part though is when you get into defining holiness - for many if not most Reform Jews I'd say, the historical truth of the Bible doesn't matter as much as the symbolic truth. So we/I can admit it never happened, but that doesn't take away from how the text has contributed to the identity formation of the Jewish people down the centuries."
Monday, April 8, 2013
At long last... seder
We had a small, intimate crowd of six adults and four kids. Seder was picnic-style on the floor. Here mom tells the story of the exodus from Egypt.
Enthralled in the retelling.
Ari truly getting into the spirit of things: reclining on his cat bed pillow and eating carrot hors d'oeuvres!
Me explaining.... something.
Jonathan helps Xander make his matzah pizza dinner.
The next day, a happy Bubby and her grandkids.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Our newest toy addition
Jonathan and I thought long and hard over what to get Ari for his birthday. We wanted something that he could play with alongside his brother, that wouldn't inspire jealousy, that would be different than anything we already owned, and that wouldn't make noise. And we found it! Behold the SANDBOX.
Xander jumps right in while Ari is a little wary.
The moment that Ari decides to go for it.
Helping each other build.
Close-up of their creation. Construction vehicles ahoy!
Adding just a pinch more sand.
So that you can truly appreciate the scale of their endeavor. :)
Friday, April 5, 2013
Ari turned 2! And we celebrated like mad.
Party prep: decorating the play structure while Jonathan cleans in the background.
Showing off his final creation.
Rousing game of duck-duck goose.
I think the adults ran more than the kids!
Enjoying the kiddos.
Smiles.
Joys of the ball tunnel.
Cars cake for our Cars-obsessed boy!
I made this picture my new Facebook profile. The best response was from my friend Krista from Home Birth Circle: "On behalf of all your Cincinnati friends shivering under our March snowstorm, I glare at you in your sunny backyard party. ;) "
Driving the day away.
Giving away balloons at the very end.
Auntie Lois brought her new puppy Abby, the sweetest little dog ever. Here she and Simcha explore each other and say hi.
After everybody left and the kids woke up from nap, Jonathan and I gave Ari his present. Here I am standing outside, waiting to open the door for the big reveal. Xander is inside, with his image reflected on the glass door. He's so excited to go out he's jumping up and down. What is this wondrous gift? You shall have to WAIT until tomorrow's blog post!
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