How fun is it?!

About a week into the school year, Mordechai and I were sitting one night going through his daily schedule in school. He was telling me about his morning routine when he learns limudei kodesh with Rabbi Guttman. After recess, they learn mishnayos. He said excitedly, "Mishnayos is really good!" I said (perhaps a bit skeptically), "It is?"

He looked at me like I was off the wall and said, "Oh, yeah. Mishnayos is even more fun than recess!"

Kudos to Rabbi G.!

Memory aids

I was so impressed last night with something Ada said to me. She had made adorable bookmarks for Dovid and I to use in our machzorim on Yom Kippur. Each one had a cute poem and a picture of her.

Ada came over to me during davening needing something or other and I had to put down my machzor. That's when I realized that I had unfortunately forgotten to bring my bookmark to shul before the chag. She realized my dilemma and said, "Don't worry, Mommy. Just say the page you're up to in your head a lot of times, like this: 1-2-1, 1-2-1, 1-2-1."

I remarked what a good, practical idea that was and she said, "Yeah. I do that all the time when I need to remember something. It really works!"

Now, of course, that is a pretty obvious strategy for any grown-up to employ but, wouldn't you say that's a cool trick for a just-turned-five-year-old to figure out on her own? What do you think?

Say Yes to No!

Totally fascinating stuff. The second clip here has some background info. Check out some of the related clips on YouTube as well... (hat tip)

Kidnapped?!

This morning I woke up and went to rouse the kids. Sari - who does have a perfectly good bed, fear not! - was rolled up in her blanket on the floor. I woke her up and, as usual, the sleeping beauty grunted and rolled over. I didn't see Ada in her bed so I called out her name, assuming she was in the bathroom. No response. I checked Mordechai's room. He was already out of bed. I figured Ada woke up early (weird!) and went down to play with Mordechai. I came down and asked Mordechai if he had seen Ada. When he said no, I started to feel frantic and continued to call out Ada's name repeatedly. I ran from room to room but couldn't find her anywhere! The panic was rising in my chest. In my search, I returned to the girls' room. (Sari hadn't budged, of course.) I sat down next to her on the floor and finally noticed a little foot sticking out from under Ada's bed. I lifted up the dust ruffle and there she was - sound asleep under the bed!

I was reminded of a similar story that happened when Mordechai was just a baby, not yet crawling. He was at the stage where he would wriggle on his tummy, but could only push himself backward. One time I couldn't find him for a good few minutes until he finally made a little sound which I heard, although it was quite muffled, from where he was under a bed. I could have been searching for even longer had he not bothered to make some noise!

Goodies to go

I asked Ada to bring home some cookies or cake from a siyum she is going to tonight. (I won't be there because I'll be at Meet the Teacher night for the kidlets.) She solemnly promised to wrap some up for me to go. A few moments later, she came to me and asked seriously, "Are you allowed to take home the napkins?" Something tells me she won't grow up to be one of the ladies taking home the centerpieces from a wedding. Thank God!

Ugh!

Here's me doing my part.

Summer fun down the block ;)

Parshat Ki Taytzay

From Sari's parsha question sheet:

Question: What do you do if you have an open roof?
Real answer: You must build a fence.
Ada's answer: You call a fixer man and ask him to fix it.

Duh!

Mother knows best...or not?

So I've been driving the kidlets to school in Boca every day. We pick up another kid along the way as well. The other day, I was spacing out and accidentally drove right past our meeting spot so that I had to get off the next exit and turn around to go back to pick him up. Mordechai was thoroughly annoyed and was delivering a lecture about how I should pay more attention to what I'm doing. Besides, he continued, I went a dumb way to get back which took much longer than necessary (all true, unfortunately - not that that's a good excuse to talk to your mother like that...) blah, blah, blah. When he ran out of steam, Ada piped up from the back,

"Mom, you should always listen to Mordechai when you're driving. He's our GPS!"