Sunday, December 28, 2008

Chanukah (sniff sniff) comes to an end

First of all, I must publicly apologize to Dadz. No wonder he's been so sad and wandering around with that woebegone look on his face! Many people, apparently, are reading the blog instead of giving kappayim to Dov! Poor Dadz! I beg of you, if you see Dadz around town - which in Dadz's world, consists of "the office" and "Dunkin' Donuts" - give the man some kappayim! In other poll results - Shoshana, stop reading this blog and get started on your anecdotals! And to the poor children who have no dinner to eat - I apologize profusely.

For those of you who are curious and are not friends with Leezy "Alisa Bensky" on Facebook - our new nephew's name is Yisrael Meir. Welcome to the tribe! (For those of you who like this sort of family trivia, Donny and I now each have a "Leezy" and a "Yisrael.")

Now, onto Jonathan. Jonathan was here for a sibling Chanukah dinner (sorry you couldn't be here, Leeze!). He said that he only reads the bolded words on the blog to get the basic gist of things. So we have left a special message for Jonathan in the blog. It is encoded in a way that only Jonathan will be able to read and understand.

So Shabbat with the Kleins was excellent. Tani impressed us all with his amazing ability to 'pin a dreidel - it is quite remarkable. In fact, that is not the only thing Netanel can do. He knows his letters, numbers, shapes, and colors. Yaakov, on the other hand, wouldn't know a "Y" if it came up and banged him over the head, although if it did that, he would definitely pull its hair. But that's ok. Yaakov has many amazing qualities of his own; namely, his ability to consume large amounts of hot dogs. Also, he can say "One second," like he's fifteen instead of two. Also.....well, he's very cute, which is good because the cuteness has to make up for a LOT. Anyway, back to Shabbat....the one very eventful event on Shabbat was that my Pyrex baking dish exploded Friday night! Luckily no one was hurt. I had taken the dish off the hot plate and put it on the counter, and bam, it completely cracked and broke, with large shards of glass flying everywhere. Luckily, Uncle Elie, who is a "Man with a Plan and a Swiffer," sensed a mess was nearby and saved the day with his quick sweeping actions. Yaakov, not to be outdone, broke his glass during the meal. So if you come visit, I recommend wearing shoes.

On Sunday, both kids were home again so Lisa and I took the kids to Neot Kedumim, to get some much-needed fresh air. A fun time was had by all. The kids made candles out of beeswax, and we took a train ride all around the park, the highlight of which was the Chanukah songs they played during the ride. We also saw a large olive press and made our own "kad katans" out of clay. We were very impressed with Michali, who is now toilet-trained and had an accident-free day at the park. Did you hear that, Yaakov? The toilet! Yes, one can actually use the toilet for something other than a receptacle for large wads of toilet paper. It is not only a toy! We did recently bring up Yaakov's toilet seat from the machsan, and he loves to sit on it, and he does very politely ask if anything wants to come out, but the main attraction is the ability to shove half a roll of toilet paper in and then flush. Sigh.

Last night, we had Y&Y, Hanani, and the elusive Uncle Jonathan for dinner. A lovely time was had by all, especially Jonathan, who will subsist off the leftover chicken bits for weeks to come. Ariella and Yaakov entertained everyone, especially Hanani, by running around like crazy people. We also very much enjoyed the variety of sufganiot from Marzipan that the Blochs brought with them, and with those donuts, our sufganiya-tasting contest has come to an end. The winners: Marzipan and Oogat Anglit. Today, Yaakov went back to gan, and Ariella and I are having a quiet day at home. Ariella read some books to me, and soon we will head out the door to our favorite place - Supersol. Question: If I am constantly buying food, how come there is never anything to eat?

PS Jonathan - I hope it wasn't too taxing reading only the bolded words.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought the niv meant you WASH my back and I'll WASH yours ... something reminiscent of the JCC locker room (another trauma of my childhood).

MOMZWIFEOFDADZ said...

Well, perhaps Yaakov is following in HIS MOTHER'S footsteps since SHE was not trained until she turned THREE. (About a year after her pediatrician told me, "Don't push it, she'll do it when she's ready," followed at every checkup by ,"Um, is she showing any interest at all?" Now all of your loyal readers know way too much about you.

Unknown said...

Gila, I am stunned - in all that discussion about Yaakov's lack of using the facilities, you forgot to mention that HE DID! And we were all there to witness it on Friday afternoon. Yaakov, buddy, I'm here for ya, don't let them push you around.