Construction, friendship, and 3 year old discussions

For the past five months or so, Jonathan and I have been passing a construction site when we take Xander to and from school.  They're building a McDonald's with an indoor play structure, and Xander has been amazed at watching the progress of the building from literally a dirt pile teeming with excavators to a "new Old McDonald's," as he calls it.  Its grand opening was yesterday, so of course we went for dinner.

I love my husband because if it was just me, I would have ordered food, watched Xander play, and gone home.  But not Jonathan.  He struck up a conversation with a stranger in a suit who turned out to be the owner, who then sat and joined us for 20 minutes, even giving Xander free ice cream.  This guy is the ultimate American success story: he started off at 16 years old working the cash register at his local Golden Arches, and now fifty years later is a vice-president and owns 10 franchises, including every single McDonald's in Cincinnati.  Apparently his father-in-law, to his dying day, made fun of him and asked him if he was still flipping burgers for a living.

After the owner left to talk to some other suits, Jonathan approached another couple in the play area with kids around the same age as ours.  We ended up chatting for over an hour!  The people are awesome, and we exchanged cell phone info at the end.  My favorite part was when their daughter asked Xander to come play on the big slide with her, and he said, "No, I'm going with Mommy.  [motions me over to introduce me to her] This is my parent, Mommy!"

Xander was full of deep thoughts on the way home, but was so excited he was easily derailed by whatever he saw out the window.  To wit: "Mommy, I have to tell you something!  Some babies have teeth and some don't.  [pause]  Lookit, a cement mixer!"

What else what else... oh yes, do you recall at one point I had written on this blog that when I was a kid, I was tired of long-winded explanations?  I had asked my mom to tell me something, but just "please don't explain it!" [I remember the exact quote because it was often repeated in stories later on in life.]  Well, it's definitely coming back to me now:  At dinner tonight I was talking normally with Xander about his day.  Or so I thought.  I asked him about the most interesting part of his day (gymnastics in the muscle room, the gross motor area), which gymnastics he liked best (somersaults), what art he did (painting), and who he played with (Lior, who has a big monster at home but chose not bring him to school).  I was just about to ask about  Lior's monster when Xander looks up at me from his chair, quesedilla slice in hand, sighed, and said exasperatedly like a teenager, "Mommy, no more questions.  I'm eating."  Jonathan about bust a gut laughing.

Oh yes, and last funny tidbit of the evening: I'm doing research on congregations to prepare for my upcoming interviews.  I'm also trying to arrange funding so that I can attend this awesome conference in Philadelphia in May, on the history of the Jewish book.  My mind is apparently all one track, however, because I just noticed that instead of bookmarking the conference page "Lehmann workshop," I labeled it "Lehmann worship."

And now off to our New Year's party at Tim's.  The plan is to be home by nine, put the kids to bed, then watch a movie!

Another article that makes me think

Jewish Day Care is Missing Link: Young Parents Would Find Community at Creche

So, so true.  I have no idea how to change this on an institutional scale, but the person who does gets my vote as URJ president.

Have to share

I'll write a real post later, but in the meantime, read this article.  From The Huffington Post, on gender discrimination found in the most unexpected ways:  The Penis Mom.  I have no idea who this woman is, but I think I love her.  As Jonathan said when he read it, "This is an awesome article.  And I'm so the husband."

Hanukkah, the end

First, pictures as promised of the presents Xander made Jonathan and myself:

The menorah he created for Jonathan.  It was a three-day project, which is huge for his age.  We painted one side, let it dry, painted the other side the next day, and then put it together the third day.

Second side.  This one had lots of red and black because those are Jonathan's favorite colors.

Sand art he made as a surprise for me.  Blue is my favorite color.  Pink is his.  Voila!

Presents from school:  a homemade menorah and the star card that came with it.

Back of the card.

And Jonathan, for the last night of Hanukkah, gave me the BEST PRESENT EVER.  Maybe only my grandmother will appreciate it, but I literally did a happy dance when I opened up the wrapping:

My favorite book in the world, analyzed to a tee.  As the Amazon review says, 

"Now Leonard Marcus, a nationally acclaimed writer on children's literature, has created a richly annotated edition of this perennial favorite. Marcus's expansive annotations include interviews with the author and illustrator, illuminating excerpts from Juster's notes and drafts, cultural and literary commentary, and Marcus's own insights on the book. The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth also includes an introduction that shares the fascinating background on the book's publication—Juster and Feiffer met as young neighbors in Brooklyn, New York, and thus began a fortuitious collaboration on a project that would become an instant classic—as well as its enduring place in the world of children's literature."

Yippee!  Oh, and thanks to mom for the gift of clothes... Rachael and I went on a shopping spree yesterday and I'm all outfitted for winter.  It can officially snow now, I'm prepared.

Back to placement preparation...

1st night of Hanukkah... and other pictures

Excitedly wearing Daddy's shoes

                                     

Chilling with a book.

Crawling in my office.

Almost there...

And... STANDING!

So proud of himself afterward.

The next night, the first thing we did was light the electric menorah in the window.

Spinning dreidels.

They light up!

Helping Ari open his gift.

They actually worked really well together.

This baby wears his heart on his sleeve.

Jackets from Mom.

All jazzed about Buzz, Woody, and the DINOSAUR!

Ari's a bit overwhelmed by wrapping paper.

I'm laughing at Xander's sounds of unabashed glee.

The excavator known as "Potter."

Getting down deep.

Examining the treads.

A very happy kidlet.

And, sadly, that's all the Hanukkah pictures.  We haven't felt very inspired the rest of the week.  (I imagine that's an easy part about Christmas, judging from all my friends' Facebook photos - you just get out the camera once and you're done with it!)  Other major present hits for Xander have been a laser star show for his ceiling, a construction puzzle from Bubby, and remote control bumper cars.  Personally I'm loving my books and a movie, Ari adores his shape sorter, and Jonathan went gaga for a collection of lion documentaries (from my mother, not me.  Because she gives better gifts than I do.  Sigh).  We also thought it was important for Xander to make us gifts, to know that it doesn't just go one way, so Jonathan and I both worked with him separately to create something for the other. I'll take pictures of those later.

Just one night left to go!  Thank goodness, because I'm reaching my latke limit...

The perfect Hanukkah present: a true escape

Books!  Jonathan got me so many books!  I took a break last night and today from thesis/placement prep and read Inheritance by Christopher Paolini, the last book in the Eragon series.  It was so much better than the last one, I can't tell you.  But reading it so soon after A Dance with Dragons, the fourth book in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, really highlighted how youthful the former series is compared to the latter.  Both have battle scenes in them, but the Eragon books are made for kids; no sex, no politics, no love, just black and white protagonists and villains. (The series also strongly resemble Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, but then lots of reviewers have pointed that out. That said, they're still fun to read.)  Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, however, is complicated, nuanced, and completely gray... which makes the characters fascinating and their actions that much more appealing.

The authors of both series, however, DO make up completely different worlds, which I admire.  It is in their honor that I post this map.

Westeros, the setting of A Song of Ice and Fire, made it in, of course.  Noticeably missing, however, is Alagaesia, the setting of the Inheritance Cycle. And then also Cittagazze, the main city in the His Dark Materials series (of which The Golden Compass was the first), but that's neither here nor there.  I love that a corner island is "Where the Wild Things Are" and that they have Sodor, where Thomas the Train lives, and then Florin, of The Princess Bride fame, at the bottom.  I guess Hogwarts didn't make it because it's technically still in the real world of Scotland.

All hail escapes.  Whether books or video games, somehow it's all equally immersive.

Edited to add:  Thanks to Lynn K., I just added The Dictionary of Imaginary Places to my Amazon wishlist.  What a fun-looking book!

Hanukkah party from last weekend

Our agenda was simple: survive Hanukkah with five 3-year old boys.  

First, pre-party, there was baking.  Jonathan whipped up a platter of Russian tea cake cookies (also known as snowdrops).  As everyone arrived, they were served sufganyot with strawberry jelly.  I told them the Hanukkah story as they were finishing.

 After hand-washing, we "practiced" that it was the eighth night of Hanukkah by lighting the candles.  (The silver circular thing is the train tracks to the Hogwarts Express.  After the boys saw it in the beginning it got moved so as to avoid breakage.)

Our little pyros.

Singing the blessings.

Mesmerized by fire.

I asked everyone to sit on the floor in preparation of dreidel, and Jonathan went back into the kitchen (all the pictures from here on out were taken by Amanda, Brian's mom.)  Xander spontaneously showed everyone his electric menorah which plays the tune to Maoz Tzur.  Thank goodness I pulled out all my songsheets from last year, because no one (including me) knew all the words, in Hebrew or English.

A quiet moment.

Handing out gelt in anticipation of dreidel.

Ari needed gelt too.

This is a very serious game.

Spinning requires intense focus.

Their captive audience.

Explaining why he needed more gelt, no doubt.

Someone must have got gimel, take all!

Eden's a fan.

Brian and Andrew love chocolate, too.

Yasha has the menorah!

Everyone took turns holding the chanukiyah until it became a fight, when all of a sudden it became Ari's turn.  Ari then put it in another room.  What a smart baby!

Cracking themselves up.

After dreidel came storytime.

Listening from Yael's lap.

I love reading books to kids this age.  They get so into it.

Listening intently.  The tale of the Maccabees is suspenseful! 

Moving into the kitchen for latkes with applesauce and sour cream.

We had prepared sugar cookies for decorating, but the kids' attention span had run low, so I figured the planned content part of the afternoon was over.  Commence playtime!  AKA running around in circles with musical instruments.  They wanted to form a band, and that they did.  Oy our house was loud.

Don't let the picture fool you.  They barely paused once.

Completing the running circle.

Playing flute in the ball tent.

Different angle of the band.

Right about to climb through the tunnel.

The kids played, the adults talked, and three hours after everyone arrived, we had the place back to ourselves.  Xander cried because he didn't want his friends to leave while Jonathan and I plopped on the couch, exhausted.  The house was an utter WRECK.  But everyone had a really good time, and that's what counts.