Week in pictures

A week off is a good thing for Xander.  First stop, zoo!

Ms. Lionness chowing down

 Leopard licking its lips.

 Zebra behinds.

 Emu.

 Very tall creatures, these giraffes.

 Pelican not eating it's caretaker's arm.

 Riding the train.

The next morning, the kids and I played rocketship before I went to work.

 Cardboard is the best toy.  If you look closely you can see that Xander and I are making launching sounds.  Ari waved his cardboard around valiantly.

 More rocketship-ing.

 Coming in for a landing!

What a great game!

(Alternatives to these games are: hiding from the monsters, building a pillow fort, hide and go seek under the train table, playing "catch the _____," "run as fast as you can," etc.  Xander's very creative!)

Yogurt for breakfast a few days later.  This scenario prompted Xander to say, "Ari's having Messy Art Day!" [his favorite day at school]

But lest you think it's all great... I spent the hours of 2:30am-6:30am rocking a crying Ari last night.  Ah, night weaning.  It's so hard to go to sleep in a new way.  Wish me luck for tonight!

Train Museum

The past few days Ari's class at school has been open, but Xander's preschool has been closed for teacher trainings, cleanings, etc.  So Jonathan and Xander have been having some father-son bonding time.  I'm just posting these pictures, since I was at work when they went to the museum.  But thank you to Elisa from the Archives for the membership, they are DEFINITELY taking advantage!

One of the first 1950's model sets.

Running back and forth in the refrigerator train - in the hole cut in the back you can see where the ice was kept.

"Building" the railroad.

 Xander the engineer.

Working the buttons to make things light up and trains move.

Jonathan took the photo right as Thomas emerged from the mountain - top right.

 Watching the trains go from inside the table... very innovative.

In the sleeper train.

You can just barely see his head in the bottom left.  Gives you a size perspective, huh? 

About to put on a show. 

Showing off his red snowcone lips.

A carriage, Daddy, a carriage!!!

Craning his neck to see the horse.

Later that evening.

And then the next day?  Dinner with Clarissa's family at a local Mexican restaurant.  The boys had a  grand reunion with 4 year old John, and the food was excellent!  I love living in the same state as family. 

The need for cookies is past

Morning: Jonathan made me chai and baked blueberry scones.  SCONES, people.  

Afternoon:  The preschool summer school is closed for a week while the teachers get ready for the school year to begin.  So Xander, Jonathan, and Odelia went to the zoo.  And because it's close to temple, they came to visit me at lunch.  Yay unexpected kid visits! 

Evening: I gave a presentation at a Board meeting and it went well.  Recapping what's gone on for everyone else, it made me realize... it's been a really busy month.

Post-kid bedtime: I wrote my first sermon in ages and had tons of fun doing it.

12:30am: getting ready for bed.  But maybe I'll just check people.com first. :)

Oy va voy, what a day

1) Drop off kids.
2) Drive to San Rafael, two hours away with traffic.
3) Meet with special accountant who knows clergy tax laws like the back of his hand.
4) Leave accountant's office still somewhat perplexed by tax laws.
5) Thank goodness husband understands.
6) Drive two hours back.
7) Pick up kids.
8) Dinner outside; melt.
9) Go in bathroom to brush Xander's teeth and find out entire room is flooded.
10) Spend 30 minutes with husband fixing toilet and mopping floor.
11) Put children to bed.
12) Cookie.
13) More cookie.
14) Just one more cookie.
15) Last cookie... I swear.

Words and more words

First, I just finished reading I Am Forbidden, by Anouk Markovitz.  It's about the Satmar Chasidic community - one of the strictest of the Ultra-Orthodox sects - and covers four generations, from pre-Holocaust to the present day.  It was a good book, but unsettling.  It's hard to believe that people can be indoctrinated in such a severe fashion... and the religion is technically my own.  I think I was looking for a more Hollywood ending that just never came.

On a lighter note, I saw this on Facebook and thought it was cute:

Amen to that.

Ari at school

From Ari's teacher:

"We took a buggy ride to the preschool art show today and within 5 minutes the whole buggy fell asleep. The visiting moms and dads of Summer Camp students gathered around and jokingly asked us what we spiked their bottles with. Hey! Spotting squirrels, and building block towers is grueling work."

Jenn is so descriptive in her daily notes, I love it.  (Xander gets notes too, but not like this).

Day in the City

Jonathan's birthday was Monday, so to celebrate we went to San Francisco!

First on the agenda was lunch at House of Nanking, his favorite Chinese in the world.


                                                    

            Ari and I ordering off the menu.

 Leaving the restaurant.  The weird shirt I'm wearing is the baby carrier, folded down.

 For Ari, the best part about SF was WALKING!!

 Spontaneous hug.

 Loving life.

 Seeing the sights.

The rest of the day was Pier 39, aka Fisherman's Wharf!

 Streetcar on the way.

Sea lions at the wharf.

Ari comfy in the wrap, watching the sea lions.

We took no pictures of the rest of our time there, since we were corralling two very excited children.  But aside from the sea lions, the highlights were:

- riding the trolley

- eating hot dogs and waffle cones

- seeing bigger kids go on a bungee trampoline

- watching a juggling show by street performers

- listening to saxophone and trumpet players

- riding the carousel

- walking all around the wharf, looking at boats and chasing the seagulls

- oohing and aaahing at Alcatraz

- playing on the small playground adjacent to the wharf 

Then we resumed our sightseeing.

 Lombard Street, the curviest street in the world.

 View driving down Lombard Street.

 On the way to the Golden Gate bridge.

 Awe-inspiring.

 It's biiiiiig.

 He fell asleep halfway across the Golden Gate.

Richmond-San Rafael bridge going home (the Bay Bridge which we took on the way over would have been way too much traffic.)

Just for fun - you can see that we did a big circle!  From the Bay bridge to the City to the Golden Gate back to Richmond and northeast to Sacramento, it was a very full day.



(And shout-out to Amanda and Michelle from the Archives - hiiii!)