Cute story

The other night we were all sitting around the kitchen table, enjoying a lovely dessert of cut up fruit.  Xander was eating strawberries and was loving them.  When he had finished every last strawberry morsel on his plate, he picked up the plate and started to lick it.

"Xander, honey, it's not considered polite to lick your plate," my mom said.

His face fell in disappointment. "Lots of strawberry juice!" he exclaimed.

"I know, it's delicious.  But dogs lick their plates, not people."

He looked at her seriously, then broke out into a big smile, picked up his plate again, and held it up in front of his face.

"But I want it.  I'm a dog!  Woof woof!"  And then he licked away.

We were too busy laughing to chastise him further. :)

Sick sick and more sick... so pics!

I am very, very talented.  I somehow managed to contract a sinus infection.  And pinkeye in both eyes.  At once.  I do NOT recommend it.  I think my body's going into shock - no mainstream meds for about a year, then two antibiotics at once.  Oy-ness.

That said, I'm not really leaving the house right now.   But that's good for you, because here are some pics.

Xander, Abby and Ella creating masterpieces

Mom and her grandsons

Cuddling

Here are a few from kid seder.  We had finger puppets and books and songs and they jumped around like frogs:

Listening to the Pesach story

Eating charoset.  The two dads are the ones fetching things :)

Clapping for dayenu

Seder dinner = matzah Passover pizza

Random things

1) My mom:  "I'm cooking! That's my job."

Xander: "MY job is to eat!"

2) Finished watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix.  Now onto Upstairs, Downstairs before we send the DVDs to my grandmother.  (Surprise, Savta!  Something to look forward to.)

3) Absolutely loved the book Helen of Troy.  It was like historical fiction, but around mythology.  Though the author did so much research on ancient Greece, I feel like I learned a ton about that time period.  I also adored Harry Potter Film Wizardry.  Yay for fun books while nursing!

4) Mazel tov to Rachel and Ami on the birth of Max.  So many babies.

5) Last but not least, A MULTITUDE of pictures to upload.  They'll come slowly.  Don't hold your breath.

A Christmas video... at Easter and Pesach time

I hope people find this funny, not offensive!  I thought it was quite clever.

It won't let me embed it, so click to see a Digital Christmas.  

Just blabbing

Ari is a chatterbox.  He grunts, squeals, makes chittery sounds, and basically is always letting us know how he feels.  I feel like we can hold conversations, albeit a bit one-sided.  He rolls over to his left side quite well, and holds up his head with effort.  Not to mention, he's starting to sleep!  I have to say, I'm really enjoying this newborn phase.  Admittedly, I don't have post-partum depression this time, so it's an entirely new experience.

Xander is still vacillating.  He loves him, he loves him not.  He loves life, he hates life.  Poor two year old.  It must be so hard to be him, to be on this constant roller coaster!  He's adjusting as best he can.  We're trying to be understanding and give him space, but also let him know there ARE boundaries for things.  His most exciting moment recently was buying "big boy underwear" with Bubby, with pictures of Thomas the Train characters on them.  They seem to be a good incentive for continued potty training.

My mom came with me on Tuesday for second night seder at my pulpit, thank goodness. There were about 40 people there, it went very well overall.  It was hard to get back into working mode, however.  I felt so torn between seder and the baby, and even just standing so long took its toll.  I did enjoy seeing everyone and "getting back into the swing of things" though... which is good as I have another pulpit visit next weekend.  It's only two days, otherwise I couldn't have done it... people take 6 weeks to three months off for a reason!  Tonight we're having one family over for a "kid Passover" (i.e. read a story and make matzah pizza), and after that, I'm officially doing nothing.

Last but not least, my sister is here visiting, hooray!  She'll be here til the end of the week on her spring break.  I love having family over.

Two weeks' worth of pictures, in no particular order

Ari meeting Courtney and Jeffrey for the first time

 Xander and Liam eating the Playstation remotes.  They look like ice cream cones!

 The boys helped my mom make egg salad while the parents schmoozed

 Cuddles

Playing harmonica in his clubhouse

 Conked out on Lauren

 Moving the trains off the tracks to make his own

 Building a magnetic tower

 "Meow!" says kitty cat Xander

 Napping

 Yawn!

Taking big brother to school

Reading "Super Why!"

A short series of cute facial expressions:

Craigslist ad that tickled my fancy... in honor of HUC placement

Looking for Rabbi Versed in DARK TALMUDIC ARTS to create GOLEM.

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Date: 2010-01-30, 6:19PM EST

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WANTED:

One Rabbi versed in the Dark Talmudic Arts to create one Golem for household of three. Golem will perform rudimentary household chores such as dishes & sweeping, basic Math Tutoring for our daughter in 3rd grade and basic household security. Golem must be obedient and fairly unobtrusive on our every-day lives.

We will supply all materials needed (clay, twigs, calfskin parchment, etc) needed to create the Golem. All you need to do is use your magical ancient Rabbinic skills to animate said Golem!

Please note! We are looking for a Rabbi to create a Golem: an anthropomorphic being created from inanimate matter from Jewish folk-lore, NOT Gollum: a former Hobbit turned into monster and looking for "precious". This is important! We have no interest in living with Gollum. We want a Golem. Please respond, serious inquiry only.

• Location: Astoria, NY
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
• Compensation: no pay

PostingID: 1578516400

Tale of a morning

2:30am - Ari falls asleep.  Go to bed.
4:30am - Ari cries, diaper change.
6:30am - Xander comes into our room to cuddle.  Ari miraculously still sleeping.
7:00am - Xander panics because he's inadvertently forgotten Blue Bunny in his bedroom.  He goes back to retrieve him.  Wakes Ari, nurses back to sleep.
7:15am - Xander gets bored, leaves with Jonathan to go play.
7:30am - Mom comes downstairs.  I hear laughter.  I thank every deity of every religion that I don't have to get out of bed.
8:00am - Nurse.
8:45am - Mom and Jonathan take Xander to school, then go to Costco.  I hear them leave, then go back to sleep.
9:30am - Ari starts to fuss.
9:35am to 11:15am - Blur of trying to comfort crying baby in pain.  Gassy baby = 3 diaper changes, each one requiring a new onesie.
11:30am - Phone call from friend.  In midst of conversation she expresses envy for me being able to sleep in all morning.

!!!!!!

OMG

Passover is next week.

How did that happen?!

Forgotten and remembered

I had completely forgotten that...

1) newborn facial expressions are adorable.

2) newborns squeak.

3) newborns nurse ALL THE TIME.

4) it is insanely difficult to function on sleep that's broken up into two hour increments (Ari does sleep more than Xander did.  But that's not hard to do, as Xander had colic).

5) after a long pregnancy, it's absolutely wonderful not to have to pee every 20 minutes.

I never knew that....

1) a toddler could be so torn up about a new sibling.  "Kiss Ari!"  "Hold Ari!" and then, "Ari go home!" or (in response to "Why did you hit Ari?" and a time-out) "I'm mad because Ari here."

2) a second IS so much different than a first.  It's not really new anymore. But it's still amazing.

3) two kids' laundry seems like so much more than only one.

4) it was possible to mix up their names after only two weeks.  Turns out it is.

5) time alone, which I thought was a precious commodity before, now has a price beyond rubies.

More photos

And for comparison purposes:

Ari at two days old

Xander at three days old

Naming ceremony

The naming was wonderful. We had a private bris (circumcision with ceremony) beforehand with just immediate family present, and then after that, we all segued into the sanctuary where there were about 60 people waiting. We began with controversy, actually: Jonathan delivered a speech on behalf of both of us about our regrets about circumcision (which I later heard was the talk of the 2nd year Life Cycle Liturgy class). Then we did the regular blessings.  Jonathan and I said a parents' prayer for Ari, I read a blessing on behalf of Xander (who spent most of the ceremony in Jonathan's arms, driving his Thomas the Tank Engine figure over Jonathan's face), and my mom read a Grandparent's blessing.  I spoke about the meaning of Ari's name for us, and the rabbi followed by giving a beautiful speech about how Aryeh means lion, and her hope that our lion would roar for something, for all the values of Judaism.  Then Mom sang the priestly blessing while the rabbi gave the English translation. It was very spiritual, actually, more so than I had been expecting, because I thought it would be more tainted by the circumcision beforehand.  I was very pleasantly surprised by the whole thing!

Afterwards everyone went to the lounge for a reception sponsored by my grandmother: a dairy meal of bagels, cheeses, fruits, veggies, and yogurts.


Here are a couple of pictures from the ceremony itself. My and Jonathan's speeches follow.


Rabbi Coran, myself with Ari, and Jonathan with Xanderbug on the bima at HUC.

Laughing at Xander's antics with the train.

Jonathan's speech

Thank you all for being here.  It is a great joy to have everyone with our family as we welcome our second son, Aryeh, to the Jewish community.  We can think of no place better to do such than here at HUC Cincinnati, the birthplace of Reform Judaism.  But as wonderful as it is to have a new son, and to share him here before the community that we love, we have to admit that we feel some conflict in today’s brit milah, which took place just minutes ago in a private ceremony.

We appreciate and recognize that the brit milah is an ancient tradition going back thousands of years.  It was part of Judaism from its conception and remains so today.  That said, as parents we feel a primal urge to protect our son.  It seems basic to our principles, and yet we see milah as fundamentally conflicting with this.  In debating this issue we have realized that the reasons for circumcision are religious, not rational.  Yet its practice still isn’t questioned, even by a movement that is built on the foundation of questioning the value of ritual. 

To be honest, we feel that we have failed in some way for not taking a firmer stand against Ari’s circumcision.  We lacked the courage to stand against social pressure.  We feared that our son would not be included in some way in the Jewish world if we didn’t comply; that we would be chastised for letting that happen.  Or that we would in some way hurt Michal’s opportunities as a Jewish leader.  We are angry at ourselves for not holding our ground.  And we are angry at the religion we love for robbing us of our spirituality on a day so important to us. 

Let us make this clear - we are very, very glad that our son is welcomed as part of the Jewish people.  We just wish the ritual wasn’t one of blood and pain. 

To our son Aryeh we give this blessing:

may you grow to be healthy and wise;

may you have all the best things in life;

may you live and love as bold as your name;

may you love Judaism the way we do;

may you experience the love we have for you with your own children;

and of course, may you recover both emotionally and physically from today’s ritual.

Thanks to all of you here for your love and support, and for truly hearing what we have to say.

Michal's speech

 

This little boy has a name imbued with love. His first name, Aryeh, starts with A, or alef, the same letter as my step-grandfather, Avraham, who passed away last April. Avraham became my grandmother’s partner when I was in middle school, and for seventeen years was a grandfather in my heart. He loved me and Jonathan like his own grandkids, and Xander was the light of his life. This was a man who was passionate and fiercely loyal to the people and country he loved – he barely spoke English but would patiently teach me Hebrew vocabulary until I understood what he was trying to say. He would laugh when I would talk softly, often reminding me to shout because he was deaf in one ear, having lost his hearing due to a grenade blast in the Israeli War of Independence. Nothing ever seemed to bother Avraham, for he would shrug off the little things and focus on what was important. Aryeh means “lion of God,” and if our little lion is blessed with even a portion of Avraham’s kind, gentle, accepting, loving, and generous nature, we will consider ourselves very, very lucky.

Ari’s middle name, Merraro, is my maiden name. My father was born in Romania, and the family had been there for generations – but the name always sounded Spanish. The mystery was solved about ten years ago, when a Christian man from Spain contacted my dad and showed him a book from the time of the Inquisition – it listed our family name, spelled the exact same way we spell it today, next to the date 1488. We realized that we were the typical Diaspora story, fleeing from Spain and traveling progressively east until we ended up in Russia. Ari and Xander both have Merraro as their middle name so that they will always be connected to their history. They will never stand alone, but know that they are links in a very long chain of both Jewish and family tradition.

The joys of salad spinners

The good thing about having cute kids is that we take lots of pictures. The bad thing about having cute kids is that we take lots of pictures! We have like five different batches waiting to be downloaded and sorted, not to mention the ones from the naming ceremony yesterday. So my goal is to put up a batch every couple days or so. Know that I'll always be behind... and Savta, the naming ceremony details won't come for a while!

So first: The temple I grew up in in California sent out an announcement to all its members the other day: isn't this nice?!

Second: Mom and Xander had a lot of fun with the salad spinner a few days ago. They put toys in and watched them spin. Then Xander pressed the button and Mom pressed him, and they made sound effects. He was in heaven.