I love my husband's sense of humor

Connor toddles around, and I notice a whiff of stinkiness.

Jonathan gets to him first.

"Come here, you," he says to the baby.

He carries him to the changing table.

"Why do you wear diapers anyway?  They're so stupid.  I mean really, what self-respecting object would create an entire career out of being pooped on?"

Technical difficulties

Ari is sitting on his toy car, driving.

He stops, presses pretend buttons, goes "beep beep beep," then frowns at it, puzzled.  "Mommy, my GPS is broken," he says.

"Oh," I say.  "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to Climbaroo."

"Do you need directions?" I ask.

"No, I want the GPS."  (Jabs at it again).  "It's not working!"

"Try rebooting," I say.

"Okay," he replies, and he happily zooms off.

Extra Yom Kippur family picture

Having crazy fun... with homework

The kids' Montessori school doesn't give homework every day.  What they do give is projects.

Xander's project this month was "Halloween Heroes."  He had to pick a hero, someone who had died in the past, and answer a bunch of questions on him or her: "Tell us about their early years.  What made this person a hero?  Tell me six interesting facts about your hero."  Etc.  The kids give their oral report tomorrow, when they also dress up like their heroes for the Halloween parade at school.

Xander wanted to do his report on Abraham Lincoln.  Don't ask my why, I have no idea.  But I amused myself, I was totally in my element.  We watched a YouTube video on Abraham Lincoln.  Looked up old Abe on the online encyclopedia.  I had a ball helping Xander spell "Civil War" and explaining the concept of slavery.  I honestly enjoyed the conversation, making sure all the ideas were his own and I was only facilitating the report, not writing it.  For the first time in a long time, I felt totally confident as a parent.

The early childhood years are lovely and messy and sticky and adorable and I love my children.  But I was a philosophy major for a reason; it takes work for me to constantly play with them on their level.

But this?  The beginnings of elementary school?  Holding rational conversations, helping my son learn to research, talking about life and history and seeing him blossom into his own little person?

This is my element.

This is what I always dreamed of when I thought about having kids.

I feel like I've arrived.

(Plus, Jonathan and I made a pretty awesome stovepipe hat out of a paper plate and construction paper!)

Extra benefits of the Nissan Leaf

Jonathan called our local electricity provider and because of our electric car, they're lowering our rates to minimal levels.  What we pay now with the car will be almost equal to what we paid without it.

Which means that powering this car will be entirely free.

And even better... I never have to go to a gas station again!

Shout-out to Rachelle

Hi, Rachelle!  (waves)

I found out last week that she is a blog reader par excellence, as dedicated as my own family. Which is very impressive, as she has a granddaughter of her own to fawn over!

Rachelle, so glad you're here. :)

The latest passion

Our eldest loves to crochet.

In school, he's allowed to do "handwork" while the teacher reads them a story after lunch.  He began crocheting, and loved it so much he asked us to get some yarn.  We did so, and he made beautiful necklaces for everyone.

He was working on this yarn when our friend William came over, and lo and behold, William had extra crochet materials that he wasn't using!  He presented it as a gift to our boy, who almost fell over in glee.

Here he is on his work mat (borrowed from the Montessori system; brothers can't cross one's mat when one is working) showing off his "Hanukkah color" necklace.  His great-grandmothers would be proud.