Really unflattering picture, but look at my earrings....

I wanted to show everyone that I've been wearing the awesome jewelry from my grandmother.  She gave me the matroyshka doll earrings when I was a kid, and the pin a few years ago when I was last in Israel.  Both are actually from Russia, I can't remember if they were passed down from our family, or from family friends.  But either way, I've gotten such comments on them whenever I wear them, they're so much fun!

Why are Jews successful economically? Why do we sleep 8 hours a night? And how do you play "Adon Olam" to the "Cups song"? Ah, the questions of the age.

I followed an NPR link and it led me to a explanation of a premise that is now explained in a book, The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492.  It looks fascinating.  The  article itself is well worth a read, explaining the authors' premise:

"Modern explanations of why the Jews became a population of craftsmen, traders, shopkeepers, bankers, scholars, and physicians have relied on supposed economic or legal restrictions. But these do not pass the test of the historical evidence...  

The key message of "The Chosen Few" is that the literacy of the Jewish people, coupled with a set of contract-enforcement institutions developed during the five centuries after the destruction of the Second Temple, gave the Jews a comparative advantage in occupations such as crafts, trade, and moneylending -- occupations that benefited from literacy, contract-enforcement mechanisms, and networking and provided high earnings."

Apparently the article got so much feedback that there was then a follow-up article, where the authors answered the most popular questions, critiques, and comments to their premise.  Again, completely intriguing.

As I read these articles at some ungodly hour when I couldn't sleep, I thought this piece was worthy of note.  It's from a site called "slumberwise.com," so I can't account for its accuracy, but if it's true, it makes me rethink our sleeping patterns entirely.  Entitled, "Your Ancestors Didn't Sleep Like You," it describes how people used to sleep in two segments over a 12-hour period of time, how this is more natural to our circadian rhythms, and that this way of sleeping went out of style at the advent of electric light.  Who knew?

And lastly, just for fun, you know the ubiquitous Anna Kendrick "Cups" song?  I saw a great version of it on my FB feed, where a vocal band did a cover to Adon Olam, a liturgical prayer that is often reworked into different tunes.  Click on this link to enjoy an entirely new contemporary version of Adon Olam!

Ari's other life at school

It's easy to know what Xander does in school every day, because he tells us about it.  Not so much with Ari; the two year-old communication isn't always the best, so we've asked his teachers to write down what he does in the day, so we can talk to him about it.  Most of the time the descriptions are rather short, but this day his teacher must have felt inspired.  I especially liked the last three.

This came in the school's weekly newsletter, and I wrote back to the teachers asking what it was from.  Ari an actor and Xander watching him from the left-hand side, and I heard nothing about it from my kids?  The answer: "This was a musical duo that [a student's mom] asked to come in as part of his birthday celebration.  Ari was chosen to go up and hold the elephant mask as part of the song/story that was being told. How cute is he??"

Yay for women's empowerment!

Has anyone heard of the DoubleClicks?  This video is called "Nothing to Prove," all about finding equality in geek-dom.

Bedtime stories are so funny!

Ari pointing out something important.

 Xander cracking up.

That Sammy the Spider... too hilarious.

Best. Smoothie. Ever.

I've been trying to make myself smoothies in the morning.

Today I took out the blender, plugged it in.  Added ice.  A banana.  Frozen strawberries.  Milk.  

And then I tried to add the yogurt.

I couldn't find the yogurt.

Turns out we were completely out of yogurt.

So what did I do?  What any pregnant woman would do.

I added vanilla ice cream instead.

Oh my god can I begin to tell you the awesomeness of this breakfast?!

Dessert in summertime

All-natural fruit popsicles... YUM!

Funderland!

One of Xander's classmates had the best birthday party I can ever imagine: his parents rented out Funderland, a kiddie amusement park, from 5pm-8pm.  They bought 100 tickets for all his friends.  And hired a face-painting artist.  And then brought in a caterer to serve dinner.  (I can't even imagine the money this must have cost.)  But behold, the glory!

A little disappointed that I couldn't go with them on the teacups.

Twirling and swirling.

The log ride.

Wheee!

It's so funny, this picture looks so negative, but they absolutely LOVED this train.  Ari wanted to go again and again.  He's such an independent kid, he jumped right into the caboose all by himself.

Utterly thrilled with the plane (think Dumbo at Disneyland).  Behind Ari is one of his classmates, who insisted on riding in the same plane.  We had to convince Xander to go alone, he had wanted company, too.

Xander having a ball.

How to become a tiger: face-painting extraordinaire.

He was so patient throughout.

The finishing touches.

Driving just like Mommy and Daddy.

They had such fun, laughing and giggling the whole way.

Tired but content tiger on the way home.

Making up for it

So apparently the kids pow-wow'd and decided to be super-nice today to make up for yesterday.  They came into our bed at 7:30am showering us with kisses and telling us all about... everything.

Since next weekend kicks off my lack-of-free-Sundays for the rest of the school year (I have teacher orientation, then High Holidays, and then we all have religious school), we decided to do something fun today.  We took the kids out of school for a family day, and played in the morning until the big event...

We all went to the matinee showing of Planes!  Ari did really well considering it was his first movie; he sat completely still and enthralled for the first hour, and only got wiggly for the last part. The movie was a big hit with both boys, the small popcorn we all shared was fantastic, and they were overjoyed to run around the big lobby afterwards and look at all the posters and the video games.

Now they're napping, I'm about to nap myself, and the plan is to ride bikes to the park when they get up.  A good day!

My kids barely survived today

They drove me absolutely frickin' nuts.  Whining, complaining, always wanting attention.

Was it a full moon?

Bedtime came early.

That is all.

Very funny 7-minute clip

Click here to see a clip from the stand-up of Jim Gaffigan - it's on his having four kids, all home births.  Hilarious!

Mazal tov!

To Nicole and Joe on the birth of their beautiful daughter Zara.  She was born at the exact same time I was, 11:17am!  I know we're going to get along like gangbusters already. :)

Errands, family, entertainment, and work. AKA my life in bullet points.

1) I HATE going food shopping.  I hate going food shopping with children even more.  Today I earned my first-ever "I hate you!" from Xander: I wouldn't let him drag his feet standing on the cart, I wouldn't let him use the men's bathroom by himself and insisted on going with him to the women's, I wouldn't let him put candy in the cart, I wouldn't let him run off by himself in the parking lot...  I'm the worst mommy ever, apparently.

2) I was highly amused by our Netflix "recently watched" list when I pulled it up today.  Ah, the variety in our family's tastes.  See if you can guess what was for who.

Nikita
Dumbo
The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories
Secrets of the Viking Sword
Tinker Bell and the Mysterious Winter Woods
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales
Spiderman and Friends
National Geographic: The Battle for Midway

Dinosaur Train
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Doctor Who

3) Simcha has happily settled in at my mom's and doesn't seem to miss us.  Which is good I guess.  And we talked to our landlord and the head of the Homeowner's Association again, and thankfully, the neighbor hasn't complained since Simcha left.  Which leads us to suspect that he was the culprit of everything.... which also means Osher and Yentl can stay, hooray!  Osher has become quite the cuddler in Simcha's absence - Jonathan calls him our "retired ninja cat" who has given up his ninja skills for love and pets.

4) I read two really interesting books in my sick haze: Hikikomori and the Rental Sister by Jeff Backhaus, and Dog on It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn.  I love that Jonathan always has books on hand to gift me.  I highly recommend both books, but they're very different.  The first is about an American man who hides away in his room for years as a reaction to a horrible trauma, and how his wife, in desperation, turns to a Japanese shopgirl familiar with the hikikomori phenomenon to try and help him.  Can their subsequent affair bring him back to his wife, and in turn, to a social life?  Who's using who, and can they all help each other heal their wounds?  It's a fascinating psychological tale, and the insight into all three characters is amazing.  I do warn you, though, it's kind of haunting, you'll be thinking about it long after you turn the last page.

The second book was a fun rollicking mystery tale: Chet is the dog of the private eye Bernie, and Bernie is hired to find a missing girl.  The mystery itself is interesting, and the plot tight, but the great part about the book is that it's told in first-person, from Chet's point of view.  And the discrepancies between what he thinks is important to relate about his day versus what Bernie thinks is important is hilarious.  I laughed out loud often, and I'm not even a dog person.  If you like dogs and/or mysteries, definitely check it out.  Dog on It is the first of a series, and I'm planning on reading the next ones for sure.

5) And lastly - I'm a little bit in shock at how the summer is so quickly coming to an end.  We're deep into planning the High Holy Days at work, religious school starts in a month, and Xander starts kindergarten in two weeks.  Life is going by so fast!

Still sick

At least if I had to take off work, though, this was a good week to do it - my calendar is already clear from having expected to be at camp.  Since I can't take any meds really, I'm drinking my own weight in garlic-lemon-honey tea.  It's surprisingly not bad, and I think it is working.

To amuse myself in my foggy-headed state, I'm scouting out what it would take to custom-order myself an early Hanukkah present, a shirt with this wording:

Look up each phrase individually if you must - it's all my geek worlds united at once!

Aaaand... we're back early

Camp Newman is awesome, and amazing, and a ton of fun.

It is also very hot. And very hilly.  And very crowded.

I have learned that it is hard to be pregnant at camp, especially when fighting a cold.

So... we came home early.  I regret leaving, but I have to admit that being at home while six months pregnant with a bad head cold is infinitely preferable to being sick and pregnant in a camp cabin.

Perhaps the funniest comment on camp was when I asked Ari if he wanted to play outside with me, instead of coloring inside, which is what we had been doing.

"No," he said.  "It too hot me."

Next year, however - I won't be pregnant, hopefully won't be sick, we'll be more prepared with kid toys and snacks, and WATCH OUT CAMP, HERE WE'LL COME.

(Although I do have to say, my favorite part of camp: being with 900-odd people at Shabbat services and having Xander come up to me during the service, eyes wide, and say, "They're singing the bedtime Sh'ma!!!"  He knows that all Jews say it, but it was the first time he'd heard our "family" melody sung en masse.  It was quite special. :))

Offline for two weeks

If you're looking for us, check no further than Camp Newman, where I'm serving as rabbinic faculty for two weeks and Jonathan and the kids are coming along to have fun.  We'll see you in mid-August when we get internet again!

Jonathan's birthday

My lovely husband turned 43 on Tuesday!  I switched my day off so I could be home, and it was a great day, full of good food and friends.

Jonathan mapped out the itinerary, I was amused:

Me take the kids to school while he sleeps in
Go see the movie Wolverine
Have lunch at an Indian buffet
Come home and nap
Pick up kids
Go to dinner at fun pizza place
Come home, have cake and open presents
Put kids to bed
Have game night with friends

It went pretty much as planned.  Except that we had gotten tickets to Wolverine in 3-D, and would you believe, apparently 3-D makes me really nauseous, so I had to leave the movie in the very beginning and get my money back.  Robin and Jonathan stayed to watch the whole thing, and J's promised to watch it again with me in 2-D.

We went to Pizza Rock for dinner, a trendy restaurant in downtown that has (wait for it) the cab of a truck permanently attached to one wall.  The horn still works, and the ambiance was spectacular.  The kids were in love.  I was in love (forget the truck, I'm 6 months pregnant) with my meal, a Greek pizza with mozzarella, feta, kalamata olives, artichokes, chicken, and basil.  The place's claim to fame is the different ovens, a gas oven, a brick oven, etc, so that you can get all different types of pizza.  Jonathan got a "New Yorker" from the wood-fired oven, and was in heaven.

Reading a book to the boys waiting for the food to come.

Reading #2.

Then cake and ice cream happened at home:

Chocolate decadence, basically

Xander and Ari "helping" to blow out the candles

J and his sons opened presents, the kids went to sleep an hour later than usual but very happy, and then the adults discussed playing the game Munchkin... and vetoed it because everybody was tired.  So Jonathan took a raincheck and we all went to our respective beds to fall asleep.

As Xander would say, it was a fantastically fantastic day!