Is seeing believing?

This is cool! (warning: the very last drawing includes an immodestly dressed woman)

I sent Sari over to Penina (you remember my adorable neighbor, don't you?) for an eyeglasses screwdriver. I needed them to fix Sari's beloved sunglasses so she was highly motivated to get the said item, you see. The rest of the story was related to me by Penina.

Sari: Do you have little, tiny screws for my glasses?

Penina: I'm sorry, honey, we don't have that size screw.

Sari: Do you mind if I check myself?

Can I use the phone, please?

This is getting ridiculous. First it was Ada. Now Mordechai is hogging the phone. Go ahead. Eavesdrop.

"Hello? Is this Yaakov? Okay. You're coming to my house for the concert tomorrow, right?
(I'm thinking, what concert?!)
Okay, get your mommy on the phone and I'll get my mommy."
(The mommies take their turn. We agree to work out the details later.)

(After dinner)
"So, what's the story? Are you coming? ...You want to bring your brother, Ari? Hold on a sec. (confers with me) Okay, but only if you come after four. ... Four o'clock. You remember when we learned about time? Like that...
This is how it's gonna work. You're gonna watch and I'm gonna call a few people up who could do a few magic tricks. A show is like a hundred people right? You can't have just one person. ... Yeah but it's in my house so I'm in charge of my house. You're in charge of your house. ... (I don't pay attention for a few minutes as I get to my blog posting page. I return to the program just in time for:) You hear me? What did I say? ... You wanna bring your sister also? Wait. (Confers with me). Okay, put her on....Baila, you could choose an instrument but not the drums cuz Ari's playing that... You'll do the piano? Fine.
(Me: Can I talk to his mom?)
Can you get your mom to my phone? ... Oh.
(to me: she's resting.)
Okay I'm gonna go get ready for the show. I'm gonna work on the design. ...Stickers? Okay, you get the stickers for the show.
...Okay ...okay. Bye."

Okay, gotta go help hime spell the word "welcome" for his sign.

Picking up the whispers

MCAryeh, of A Whispering Soul, is one of my latest blog crushes. He's reviewing some of his favorite bloggers. I feel like there's so much quality stuff out there to read, too little time. If you have a moment, do some reading for me, k?

Little lady

Ada has a new trick. She takes a bottle of lotion, turns it upside-down, and taps it against her open palm as if to get some of the lotion out. She then rubs her hands to smooth the "lotion" into her skin. They pick up everything, don't they?

Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with my good friend, Malkie Rivkin, who lives down in New Orleans. The victims of Hurrican Katrina have been nearly forgotten by most people as time has worn on and new issues have taken their place in our minds. Sadly, their difficulties are far from over. Malkie returned from Houston a while ago but her house is not yet in livable condition. Half of her belongings (what is left of the originals and things she had to buy due to damage) remains in Houston because there simply is nowhere to put them. She has been living with her in-laws since returning to New Orleans. (Interesting note: Dovid checked out an episode of Family Feud during his stint at the hospital last week. One question was how many days takes to get sick of your in-laws when they come to visit. Number one answer? Survey says: 1!) The destruction all around is unimaginable. She related how students that came to volunteer kept repeating that they never imagined how bad it really was. Most people are living out in trailers on their front lawns. Need a plumber or electrician to do repairs in your home? Expect a wait of several months. Stores shut down early in the evening due to a shortage of personnel. The day school, Torah Academy, of which Malkie is the principal, decided to open its doors to service the children of families that had returned to the city. Only half of the student body is present and tuition is not being paid for the most part. Expenses are overwhelming as there were many repairs that had to be made. Cleaning the premises, retiling, and painting were basics that had to be done in order to make the building usable. They're working with barebone materials. I was saddened to hear that when Malkie called Jewish publishing houses to order books and asked for a discount in light of the school's unique situation, they were offered "a dollar off the regular price". The thought of repaying the debts the school is incurring is staggering. As I listened to her and heard the weariness behind her cheerful front, I didn't know what to say. It is true, isn't it? They've been forgotten. The same way Gush Katif evacuees have been forgotten, even as some of them are still living out of suitcases in hotels, awaiting keys to trailers in trailer parks that are to replace their beautiful homes of yore that were reduced to rubble. Heartbreaking. Truly.

Timekeeper

I had told Mordechai that I should be home at 5:15 one afternoon a few weeks ago. It was 5:18 as I hurried into our apartment building's yard. A few steps from the door, I heard my cell phone ring. I answered it to hear - who else? - Mordechai on the other end of the line (or should I say airwaves?).

Me: Hi, sweetie. Guess what. I'm right at the door to the building!

Mordechai: You are?

Me: Yeah!

Mordechai: Oh. 'Cuz, you're running a little late, you know?

It's time you knew

I joined my very first group blog a little while ago. It's a wonderful get-together of people who love their kids and love talking about them and think their kids are the cutest, smartest, wittiest kids in the world. Which is so funny, because obviously they're wrong. My kids take that prize. Obviously. Anyhoo, check it out and see if you like it.

Feeling the love

Thanks to all for your kind words and well wishes. To update you: Ada is off her IV since about noon. She's been drinking Pedialyte in small amounts and has been keeping it down (yay!). Our doc is going to let us know in the morning if we can get out before Shabbat. I sure hope so. Dovid took over this afternoon so I could be home for the big guys after school. They just went to bed. When they fall asleep, I'll head back to the hospital to relieve Dovid for the night. It's not great there at night (other babies crying, uncomfortable chair to sleep in, too much light, too much heat) but it's not terrible (free jello, free ice chips, a few lost pounds maybe?). Thanks again to you all!

Not fun

Whew. How shall I begin? I'm writing this from a computer in Schneider Children's Hospital at LIJ. I've been here since 11:00 last night. Ada had been running a fever and vomiting for the past two days. On Wednesday, her fever was spiking at 104 degrees. She wasn't even keeping down fluids given to her 1 teaspoon per hour by medicine dropper! She was so lethargic. She just lay there. Not even the phone tempted her to play. Every once in a while she gave a weak kvetch but none of her happy mono-babble. So I brought her into the ER on the advice of my pediatrician. The experience was a lot better than I expected. I waited just about five minutes to be seen by a triage nurse. Then another 10 minutes to be admitted into the ER. They catheterized her to obtain a urine sample. They couldn't even get out a drop! She was crying like nuts with no tears. I was glad to hear her being so forceful, though. She fought like an animal when they tried to insert the needle to get blood and start the intravenous fluid. She was so furious! We managed it with two nurses and myself. After that, she started crying just at the sight of a person heading in her direction or anywhere in her vicinity. So sad. At 3AM, they took her to the pediatric wing of the hospital. They said her bicarbonate count was really low (13 instead of the normal 24) which signaled dehydration. So we were in for the night. Ugh. It's 10:45 Thursday morning and she's getting really antsy about being here. Who can blame her! I think we'll be let out as soon as she can keep down food. Hope that's sooner rather than later!

Sunny day

As part of a unit on the bracha of Hamotzi, Mordechai "illustrated" a book authored by his teacher called "The Story of Wheat". It goes through the wheat's "life cycle" from seed to bread. (I've written only two sentences and already have three sets of quotation marks. Something's not right about that...) Somewhere along the line, Mordechai was getting confused, thinking that sesame seeds should fit somewhere in the story. I explained to him that, actually, sesame is a totally separate species of plant. "So where does sesame come from?" he wondered allowed. "Oh, I know! Sesame comes from Grover!"
"From Grover?" I queried.
"Yeah," he answered. "From Grover, and Elmo, and Ernie.... You know, from Sesame Street!"

Questions on Evolution

So 3-year-old Sari came up with the same question that many scientists puzzle over. It all came about when she was "breast-feeding" her baby doll. She asked me why her buttons (that's a term she came up with on her own when I used to feed Ada. If Ada started crying, she would run to me and tell me to feed her buttons) are small. I told her that when she's old enough to be a Mommy and feed real babies, they would grow. She turned to Dovid and asked why his buttons were small. He explained that only mommies make milk to feed their babies. And then came the question: "So why do daddies have buttons?" (skip halfway down)

News flash!

To whom this may concern (AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!)

{last Friday afternoon} B-r-r-ring!


"Hello?"

"Hi, Dovid. It's Ayelet. How's it going?"


"Good. What's up with you?"

"I just left work. I should be home in ten or fifteen minutes. How's everything at home?"

"Good. Things are pretty much set for Shabbos."

"How are the kids? Did they eat lunch?"

"Yep."

"Everyone in a good mood?"

"Yeah, Ayelet. I just gotta go. Ada wants the phone back."

What does everyone have against blondes anyway?

I hope most of you were lucky enough to have missed this blonde joke. I know I wish I had been. I did find this one that really is pretty darn funny. It's an On-Star spoof that is very well done.