spelling samples

Two samples that I discovered among my kids' writings...

Mordechai: ...this little piggy cried wii wii wii all the way home.

Sari: ftogrufer (Can't guess it? It says photographer!)

6 going on teenager...

Ada confided to me the other day the following:

I know how to make my hair in a bun. When I make my hair in a bun and I tie my sweatshirt around my waist, I look really old. Like, even 7!

The Joy of Motherhood

Ada: Do you like being a mommy?

Me: Of course! I love having you guys as my kids!

Ada: I can't wait to be a mommy...

Me: Oh?

Ada: Yeah. Then you get to boss your kids.

Ada: I wanna tell you something in secret.

I lean down.

Ada (whispering in my ear): Why do you always have to be so bossy?

The Middle East Problem

Tough love

Benjamin Franklin on "spreading the wealth" around... I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided f...

Benjamin Franklin on "spreading the wealth" around...

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

After hundreds of years of failed redistribution, the nuts on the left still don't understand these simple concepts.

(hat tip: Right Klik)

(hat tip: momlogic)

A rose is a rose....

"...not the political Islam, not the militant Islam, not the radical Islam, not the Wahabi Islam, but Islam itself. I truly believe that the West has invented this [sic] terms for the sake of being politically correct."

Ada can swim!

Finally. ;)

First day of kindergarten...

First day of school...

third- and fifth-graders

Ada lost her first tooth!

My report card

Ada: Are you a proneshiful mommy?

Me: Am I what?

Ada (a bit louder in hopes of clarification): Are you a proneshiful mommy?

Me: Pro-nesh-i-ful? I'm sorry, sweetie, I don't know what that means.

Ada: You know, like, very awesome.... Like a proneshiful lifeguard....

Me: Oh, a professional mommy!!

Ada (brightening): Yes! Are you?

Me: Well, what do you think?

Ada: I think you are.

I've arrived. :)

Outreach

The girls were discussing how to interact with the other girls in their gymnastics group. Sari decided she will be friendly to everyone. She noted that most of the kids probably aren't Jewish but that's okay. "And," she added, "If they are Jewish, I'll for sure be friends with them! I can even teach them stuff that maybe they don't know!"

Never too young for harbatzat Torah. :)

A simple solution

On our way back from a trial gymnastics session, the girls and I were talking about recreational versus competitive gymnastics. I explained that sometimes a coach might notice that a student is really good and decide to ask them to be part of the team. We went on to discuss how we were NOT going to be on any teams because that means devoting hours every day to practice and traveling for meets, not to mention wearing leotards in public.

Ada thoughtfully suggested, "Sari, maybe we should try not to be so good."

The girls perform their camp song :)

BIG news

Mordechai and I were the only ones home as Shabbat was winding down yesterday. We got into conversation about the Twin Towers and terrorism and Israel and Arabs and then - oil spills. (As in, what's worse? 9/11 or the oil spill? He's always asking comparison questions like that....)

He said to me, "You know how I know the oil spill is really BIG? They were even talking about it on espn!"

Pre-K beauty tips

A while back, Ada announced one night that she wants to take out her pony holder before she goes to sleep. I thought it might make her hair pretty messy and unruly in the morning but she insisted that "Ayelet (a classmate of hers with thin straight hair) sleeps without a pony holder and that's how her hair always looks so nice!" Who am I to argue with a five-year-old's beauty secrets?

A few days later, I'm on the phone with Ayelet's mom and I related to her the conversation Ada and I had had and she laughed. Ayelet had been telling her mom that she wants to sleep with a pony holder because "that's how Ada does it and that's why her hair comes out so nice!"

For my little friend Hadassa's 1st birthday

It came out pretty, no?

Fashion faux-pas? I think not!

me: Oh, Ada! I told you - no stripes with florals!

Ada (looking chagrined): Uch, I forgot!

(Yes, she went to school like that.)

Yom Ha'atzma'ut

Sari woke up very excited to celebrate Israel's birthday. She asked me, in all her 7-year-old innocence, "Is this the date Hashem promised Israel to Avraham?"

(p.s. A friend pointed out that Avraham was born in 1948 - the "same" year that Israel became a state. How's that for confusing her further? Hee.)

Not quite the Queen...

At the seder, when asked why I was pouring everyone's first cup of wine for them, I was ready with the answer that, on the seder night, we act like kings and queens and have our wine poured for us. Ada pipes up, "So you're not the queen. You're like the servant!"

Hmph.

It's better to be younger...

Why?

Ada: because then you live longer!

Israel makes me proud

Invisible

Lessons for Life from the Science Fair

(Forgive the length of the post, Uncle Meyer. I hope it won't deter you from reading it through....)

I finally have Mordechai's science fair project behind me. Despite the fact that we kept it clean and simple, it was still a huge pain. Mordechai was harassing me all last week to get the final details together (order the prints, get the tri-fold board, etc.). Of course, I really should be pleased that he has his project prepared well in advance of the due date as opposed to his usual method of night-before-it's-due-panic mode. It's so much easier to be annoyed and critical when they do it the wrong way than to remember to be pleased and complimentary when they do it right, just like you told them to....

As a whole, it was a fairly valuable learning experience as he worked through the process of gathering materials, clarifying the procedure, recording his results, and coming to a (somewhat valid and relevant) conclusion. He dropped a basketball from 3 different heights and recorded how far up they bounced back. He discovered that it never came back up to it's drop level. The lower the drop height, the greater the percentage of the height was achieved on the bounce back. So, dropped from 2 feet, the ball bounced back up to 87.5% of the two feet i.e. to 1 foot, 9 inches. From 6 feet, the ball bounced back up to only 66.7% of its original height i.e. to 4 feet.

As we working out the ratios together, Mordechai got excited with an idea he had: You can think of it like two people. Reuven has a "two-foot" potential. From your view-point, you see him reaching 1'9" which is not so impressive. Shimon has a "six-foot" potential. You see him reaching 4 feet. Looks like he's reaching greater heights - and he is. But in reality, Reuven perhaps deserves more credit because he's maximizing more of his potential whereas Shimon is not really putting in much effort and he could be expected to reach an even higher level. People can only see what you accomplish and what "level" you reach. Hashem knows how hard you really are working. It's not so much what you accomplish that's important but how much effort you put into your growth as a person.

Mussar haskel from my 10-year-old man. Yiddishe nachas.

Ada: Please can I? Please, please? I'll be your best kid!

Sari: Lefties are better 'cause they're more rare.

Ada: Well, righties are better because we use that hand to say sh'ma!

Love and Marriage

Mordechai: When people kiss on the lips in a movie, do they have fake lips? Or, no. Are they husband and wife? (pause) Yeah, they're probably just husband and wife.

Sari to Daddy: Why don't you call me honey like you call Mommy?

Randoms

We've had record low temperatures in Florida for the past couple of weeks. Since we live in an old house with no heating and lots of cracks and holes and stuff, it's crazy cold by us at night. So we have a couple of space heaters that we huddle around. I spent several nights sleeping on the floor of the girls' room next to their heater because I couldn't warm up in my room. It was pretty insane. Showering was not even an option. The girls have been going to school in the strangest outfits with tights mismatched to clothes mismatched to layers of sweatshirts. But, who cares? My favorite part is the quote I heard from Ada one morning as I was getting her dressed: "I'm sugaring!"

Here are some more:

Ada (sipping a hot cocoa) to me: Do you think Sari would enjoy this? I think she would enjoy this. Let's save some for her.

Me (looking in the mirror, fixing myself up before a gala dinner): Uch, I'm so fat!
Sari (admonishingly): Don't say that Mommy! You're not fat!

That coming from the same girl who says: Are you sure you're not pregnant, Mommy? Your stomach is getting bigger...

And: Why are your thighs so fat?

Ada to Mordechai: I wish this [ice cream] didn't have soy in it.
Mordechai: Why?
Ada: So you could have it!