Naftali's מסיבת סידור

Actual Date: 3/5/2014

Its funny that even though Naftali is my third son KA"H to have a מסיבת סידור, I've never attended one.  With Yisrael and Azriel Shraga, they got their siddurim in the beginning of ניסן, when all the Mommies were super busy getting ready for Pesach, and the Cheder even sent home letters saying that the mothers should feel no pressure to come.  But this year, since we had an extra אדר, Naftali's מסיבת סידור fell out right in the beginning of אדר שני- no excuse not to come, so I did!

Naftali's excitement for his upcoming מסיבת סידור was mounting by the days.  For the few weeks leading up to it, he continually asked me, "Mommy, are you going to come?" which B"H I was able to answer, "Yes". And the morning of, he was so excited he could barely contain himself!  I sent him off to Cheder, dressed in Shabbos clothes, and told him that IY"H we would see each other soon, at the...

Kosel!  Its really nice how the Cheder makes a really big deal out of it, bringing the boys to the Kosel to use their Siddur for the first time.  And it was so cute to watch the excitement on the boys' faces as they opened up their Siddurim and davened.  The night before, the Rebbe had each boy prepare a note at home, with a short בקשה that they want to daven for at the Kosel.  So after davening, each boy had a chance to walk up to the Kosel, and touch it, and daven their personal tefillah. Afterwards, they joined together in song and dance, dancing in one huge circle right in front of the Kosel.

It was interesting to watch the reactions of all the other people at the Kosel, witnessing this very precious moment.  Some frum men joined them in the singning and dancing, while tourists recorded it with their iPhones.  I think all the bystanders were touched by the scene of such young, innocent boys, with happiness radiating on their faces, as they reach such an important milestone.

May the simcha continue to radiate on Naftali's face, and IY"H he should always feel so excited and priveleged to be able to daven!

Purim 5774

Its been so hectic around here, sorry for not sharing Purim pics sooner!  I figured I'd better get to it quickly, before Adar slips through our fingers...enjoy!

We had a wonderful Purim, full of אורה, שמחה, ששון ויקר!  It was a really beautiful day, in all aspects, and everyone enjoyed themselves!

Since the day got off to an early start (with Mommy davening and hearing מגילה by a Vasikin minyan) we had plenty of time for fun, learning, and davening too!  The boys went to learn with Tatty at "Yeshivas Mordechai Hatzadik", and when they came back we went around to deliver Mishloach Manos.

Once we came back, we still had some time until our Seuda, so I offered the kids a special "מבצע" - I explained to them the power of Tefilla on Purim, and offered them 10 אגרות for every perek of תהילים that they say.  They got straight down to business, and made lots of money!

Then we went for our Seuda by the Solomon's; we all had a really nice time- the kids had fun trying on different hats and costumes, the Mommies had fun shmoozing, and the Tatties...had fun!

May the Simcha of Purim last with us all year, and may Hashem answer all our תפילות for the good!

The case of the missing baby

One night, the twins had insomnia.  After they were in their cribs for a long time, babbling and laughing, but not showing any signs of getting tired, I took them out of their cribs and "let them loose".  Yehuda Leib came to bother me by the computer while I was trying to work (he LOVES to pull the mouse away from me!) and Hillel wandered off to the living room to play with some toys.  A little while later, I saw that YL was starting to get tired, so I put him back in his crib to lay down.  I decided to check on Hillel, to see if maybe he was tired too.

Except that Hillel was nowhere to be found.  I looked in all his favorite places- behind the couch, under the table, next to the washing machine...but he wasn't in any of those places.

"Bentzi!  Where's Hillel!  I can't find him!" I panicked!  We both started looking all over for him, but our search was fruitless- we coudn't find him anywhere!

Finally, I decided to check in the kids' beds....and where do you think I found him?  Cuddled up, fast asleep next to Azriel Shraga.  I'm assuming that AS must have snuck out of bed when I wasn't looking, and snatched up Hillel (he has a special "thing" for Hillel) - either that, or Hillel must have wandered into their room and then Azriel pulled him into bed with him.  In any case, they looked so cute together, all cuddled up and sleeping so peacefully!

Aside from the similar looks of these two, they've got similar personalities also. 

And its adorable how they have a special connection to each other too!

A Freilichen Purim Katan!

On Purim Katan, Nissim came home from Gan dressed as a little chef, and presented me with a container of corn salad that he made!  He was so proud of himself!

Gushing...blood?

No! B"H its just a bottle of "petel" that got knocked off the counter straight onto Yehuda Leib! (someone--ahem--forgot to close it after they were done with it!)  But his facial expression kind of lends to that freaky look (I could probably play around with the colors in Photoshop to make it look more gory!)

Of course, everyone had a fun time licking up Yehuda Leib's "blood" and my little cutie-pie was very dissappointed when I whisked him away to wash him off in the bath!

Silly face!

One afternoon Nissim decided to put his glasses on Hillel, who started making silly faces- he was so cute!  After Hillel pulled them off, I put them on again- and he made the same adorable face again- with sparkling eyes (he's got the same "electric eyes" that Azriel Shraga has!) and a goofy smile on his face.  Time and time again, he kept doing it...but of course I wasn't able to catch it in all its cuteness on film...oh well!

Double Trouble

Hi everyone!

Ever since after our cousin, Saadya, posted on his Mommy's blog about some of the trouble he makes, we've been CHALISHING to share some our great trouble tips...only our Mommy seems to be too busy to ever blog about us (do you think maybe if we'd tone down the trouble-making a bit, she'd blog more?!)  Well, FINALLY one morning, we took a good long nap, hoping we'd give her some time to blog about us...we're so excited to be in the limelight!

Here's some of the mischief we've been up to lately...we recommend our other little cousins to try some of these things out, although it may not be as fun if you're on your own...we love each other's company- it makes trouble making even MORE exciting!

• Make a beeline for the pantry whenever Mommy forgets to close the child-lock.  This is especially fun right after she's gone shopping and put away all the groceries!  And if you work together, you can empty the shelves out at record speed!

• If Mommy DID remember to close the child-lock on the pantry, check around the other fun spots in the kitchen- she's bound to have forgotten something!  One day we had a really fun time emptying out the cabinet with all the foil pans- we made a whole concert, baking them and crinkling them- but Mommy must've not liked our taste in music, since she didn't seem too pleased!

• This one was REALLY fun.  We got our hands on the basket full of baking supplies one morning whlie Mommy was busy cooking, and we emptied it out (of course).  Then we found these really small bottles of paint (Mommy called it food coloring) and we had so much fun painting each other!  What was really funny is that when Mommy tried washing us off, there was just tons of yellow water, filling up the whole bathtub!  Eventually, though, it did go away :(

 

There's tons more that we do, but Mommy hasn't been so good about taking pictures lately, so that's all we can show you for now.  But we'll do our best to keep making more trouble, and maybe if our Mommy is better about pulling out the camera, we'll have more to share with you soon!

Love,

Lelly and Duda