Cute Quote: Who gets to learn תורה?

I held my breathe this morning as I got Yisrael ready for Cheder - with the rest of the family on vacation (except for Nissim), I was worried that he would get upset and not want to go to Cheder.  I packed him up some nice snacks, and was very gentle with him, not wanting to upset him.  As the clock got closer and closer to 7:30, I was wondering (and silently davening!)-  how I was going to convince Yisrael to go to the bus stop alone- he usually goes with Bentzi since they both catch a bus at the same time.  B"H Hashem answered my תפילות in the best possible way:

Yisrael:  Oy, its almost 7:30 already!  Where is Tatty?  We are going to be late for our buses! 
Mommy: (cautiously) Yisrael sweetie, Tatty isn't going on the bus today...he has vacation today.
Yisrael: YESH!  I'm the only one who's going learn תורה today!  I am the luckiest person in our whole family!  Quick, Mommy- give me my תיק - I have to hurry so I won't be late!

And he cheerfully ran out the door, on his way to go learn תורה!  (Not quite the standard scene depicted in  חז"ל of תינוק הבורח מבית הספר!)  Imagine my relief- and happiness- at such a sweet reaction!  May he always have such a חשק to learn תורה!  (I sure hope this scenario repeats itself for the next few days, and that I don't חס ושלום get an עין הרע for posting this!)
 
(I didn't bother mentioning that the reason Tatty didn't come back from Davening yet was because he WAS busy learning תורה at that very moment!)

Cute Quote: What makes you fat?

Bruria's been commenting a lot lately on my growing abdomen- she has yet to ask me anything directly, but she's awful suspicious....here was an adorable conversation we had one day last week, as we were walking home from Gan:

Bruria:  Mommy, your belly is SO שמן!
Mommy:  That's because I'm an *אמא שמנטוז!
Bruria:  But Mommy, you don't eat so many potato chips!
Mommy:  Potato chips, Bruria?  What does that have to do with anything?!
Bruria:  Because if you eat a lot of potato chips, it makes you get fat!  But you don't eat so many potato chips, Mommy!  I think your belly is so big because there's a baby inside!

*שמנטוז is Israeli slang for "fatso"- although I'm not sure how its really spelled!

Nissim's new glasses

Yes, I know these new glasses look a bit nerdy,

But they are very flexible and sturdy,

For a boy who breaks his glasses almost every week,

Its just worth having him look like a geek!

 

Photo taken at Nissim's מסיבת סוף שנה last week

Azriel Shraga's מסיבת סוף שנה

Actual Date: 5/22/2012

Azriel Shraga has been looking forward to his מסיבת סוף שנה for weeks - he's been complaining that the time is passing by so slowly...but B"H the big day finally arrived.

His גננות prepared quite a presentation- and since it's right before Shauvos, the theme was תורה.  They started off with a "הכנסת ספר תורה" procession- some boys carrying "candles" while holding on to a rope, some holding up a "chuppah" with others holding ספרי תורה underneath...and to lead the procession, they decorated a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe as a Sefer Torah truck!  It was adorable!

After that they had lots of songs with motions (a few too many in my opinion...some of the boys- and Mommies too- were getting kind of restless) including a song/skit about Rabbi Akiva sitting with the shepards (Azriel Shraga was one of the shepards...see below) and how he saw the water making a hole in the stone, and ended up becoming the Gadol Hador. 

It was really very cute, and Azriel Shraga was into it the whole time- watching his Morah to make sure he was doing the right hand motions...I barely got a smile out of him the whole time because he was so busy concentrating on performing!

 

(For those of you who don't know, מסיבת סוף שנה is the equivalent of a nursery graduation...but they don't always do it at the very end of the year...Azriel Shraga doesn't finish until Tisha B'Av, and yet his party was on Rosh Chodesh Sivan!)

Cute Quote: Mr. Show-Off

Nissim was walking around with his walking toy (thank you Aunt Dinah, he is really enjoying it!) - and I like to cheer him on to encourage him to keep going.  Today we had the following cute scene:

Mommy:  Kinderlach, look- Nissim is walking!  Everyone clap for Nissim!
Azriel Shraga:  Why should we clap for him?
Mommy:  Because it makes him happy when we clap, and then he'll walk even more!
(a few seconds pass by)
Naftali:  (starts to walk around in an exagerrated way) LOOK!  I'm walking!!

I guess everyone likes a little recognition every now and then!