Holiday singing

You might have seen one or both of these, but oh well....

Quick update

1) Mom just left to go home. I'm sad. :(

2) We went to northern Indiana for my cousin's wedding this weekend. It was a 5 hr drive there and back. Xander was a doll, but I hate the turn and burn. The wedding went great though, everyone was really happy with what I contributed. And it's always good to see family.

3) Today Xander has been really into hitting things. It's driving me nuts.
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4) I just saw the remake of The Karate Kid, and was impressed with Jaden Smith. Any movie recs from people? We're all about Netflix.

5) We gave the cats catnip for a treat and an hour later they were all meowing for more food. I think we gave our cats the munchies!

Snow day!

Six inches of snow in Cincinnati means that it's a snow day for the local schools, my mom's flight in was cancelled and since rescheduled, and Xander and Jonathan are outside sledding. Before they left though Xander wanted to "teach Torah," which involved putting on lots of kippot.

At this point he has three on.

Very focused Jewish driver.

Dressing up for the wild outdoors. Yentl thinks the door is a popsicle; she's literally licking it.

Once they got outside, it was a little overwhelming. No pictures of the sledding itself - Jonathan couldn't take them and I wasn't fool enough to venture outside of my cozy haven!

He's got it down pat

Last night at dinnertime, Xander had just finished helping me set the table (he puts out his own plate, fork, and cup) when we sat down in our seats. Jonathan was behind the kitchen counter, taking an extra minute before bringing out the food. The boy glanced over at him by the stove and asked "Daddy?" I said, "Daddy will be here in a moment, he's just finishing."

He then looked straight at me and says, "Daddy cooking. Mommy teach Torah!" And then he nodded happily to himself, knowing that he had accurately figured out our household roles.

Best Jewish law decision ever

I've been trying to post the original letter/law decision for 15 minutes now, but it's a PDF so I can't figure out how to do it.

In lieu of the actual attachment, here's an article that explains what it is, and gives a transcript of the letter. If you don't want to read the whole thing, just scroll halfway down the page to part in gray. And if you can find the original letter, go read it - the guy even put funny footnotes to all the Hebrew terms.

Huffington Post: Balancing Jewish Birth Celebrations So They Include Baby Girls

Miriam Merraro, 1911-2010

This was taken the last time I saw my grandmother, in Israel at Pesach

My grandmother Miriam was 99 when she passed away yesterday. Her life story was one for the books - she dropped out of 4th grade to go tend sheep in her Romanian shtetl. She lived in Bucharest as an adult and came to Israel in 1950, when my dad was two. Moving from Sfat to Yaffa, she made do with her Yiddish and Romanian, never fully learning Hebrew. Whether for good or for bad, I never once had a conversation with her that wasn't translated; I always wished I knew her better.

What I remember most is how happy she was whenever myself and my siblings would come over to her house. My father was the apple of her eye, and in her mind, we didn't fall far from the tree. Her joy at seeing my wedding album was unparalleled. She grinned like mad while reading a book to Xander. And she always, always kissed me on both cheeks whenever I walked in the room. She was a good woman, and she will be missed.

I see dead people

So I just got an email from my brother requesting that we stop using the flash so much when we take pictures, because our complexions are looking unrealistically white and pasty.

Sniff. We don't use the flash when we take pictures! It IS real.

But it's 17 degrees out right now with snow covering the ground, and we haven't seen the sun in weeks. That's gotta give us some excuse, right? My Israeli olive-skinned side is having some serious issues right now....

Yay on three counts

1) Yesterday we went to the Children's Museum, and Xander had an absolute blast. Climbing, jumping, running, throwing balls, pushing things, playing with water... oh to be two.

Yes, I sound like an idiot. And he's saying "one more."

Here he is passed out in the car on the way home. Thank you mom for the annual pass!

2) When I was at my pulpit this weekend, Jonathan reorganized the garage!! This was a very big deal, consisting of sorting and putting away every non-child safe thing on shelves. So all lawn accoutrements are now safely out of Xander's range, meaning that we can now leave the garage door open so he can choose between his outside toys without us having to watch him like a hawk. As a bonus, it also means there's space to easily park the car inside, so we don't have to spend 10 minutes scraping ice off windows before we get in the car every morning.

3) My son is built like his father was at his age: tall and lanky. I love them both, but it is very difficult to find pants that fit that body shape, since 2T pants are too big in the waist and fall off, but 18 months pants are way too short in the legs. The solution? My stepmother. She sent me lots of Israeli clothes. I have no idea what size they are in American terms, but thank goodness for a people with small waists and long legs, since those are the only pants that fit him perfectly.

Now, off to go write a long boring philosophy paper on "Autonomy and Toleration." I'll be comparing the liberalist attitudes of Rawls to similar attitudes in.... yeah, you don't really care, do you? Neither do I. That's my problem. But it's due next week, so I should really get started...

Cracked me up

I already refuse to shop at Wal-Mart because of how they treat their employees. Now I'm thinking they need some better PR people, too. As the Facebook caption had said:

"Dear Wal-Mart,

You're barking up the wrong tree.

Love,

The Jews"

Turkey Day and Hanukkah all at once!

Thanksgiving was November 25th, and tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. I hate it when they're that close together. It did, however, provide a great opportunity for my mom and Lynn celebrate Hanukkah early with us a few days early. The following pictures are of the long weekend, and are pretty much self-explanatory.

Wearing hats of Xander's choice: a gift bag for me, a makeup bag for him.





Hat close-up.

Cuddling on the couch.

Me in the car.

Taking a break from an early morning art project.

The wooden menorah was my first menorah at the age of two. It's actually made for crayons.

Menorahs in the modern age: putting in the shamash.

Very excited to have a hopping dreidel: twist the peg and the thing waddles on over to you.

Lynn gave Xander a ride-on toy that he loves. Simcha immediately claimed the box.

What a perfect place for a wrestling match!