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!

Happy Birthday, Nissim!

Today was Nissim's Hebrew Birthday- B"H he is two years old!  Its amazing to look back at where we were two years ago...and to see how much progress he has made.  KA"H he is an adorable little boy, full of smiles and laughs, who is learning how to make lots of trouble (he is officially in the "Terrible Two's" now- and he's making sure to live up to the title!)

I joined him in Gan today for a sweet birthday party- they played some cute music while the kids banged on tamborines, waved flags and pom-poms.  The most exciting part was when they put balloons (and then Nissim!) inside a parachute.  Afterwards we gave out ice cream to his fellow gan-mates, which they really enjoyed!

Of course we had to have another ice cream party in the afternoon with the rest of the Yunger Dynasty (shhh...don't tell them that Nissim and I got to have ice cream twice!)

May we be zoche to share many more wonderful birthdays, and continue to see  much Nachas from Nissim!

Chol Hamoed Pesach- trip to מערת המכפלה

One thing we've always wanted to do was go to מערת המכפלה- I was supposed to go in seminary but our trip was cancelled when the Intifada broke out...and I haven't made it there since.  So when we saw all the ads about special security, transportation, and activities in חברון over חול המועד, we decided to take advantage and go join the tens of thousands of other Yidden who go out to מערת המכפלה during Pesach and Sukkos.

It was a bit of a shlep going there- the buses going straight from Beitar were not leaving until late in the afternoon, and not coming back until the evening- not so conducive for little kids.  So we went to Yerushalayim (some by bus, some by car) where we took a bus from בניני האומה to חברון.  When we got there, the area was packed- Yidden of every color and stripe, all coming to daven by קברי אבות- it was such a beautiful feeling- to be part of a global community that is so varied, yet so united in our desire to connect to the רבש"ע.

After sitting down to eat and refresh ourselves after all that traveling, we waited on line to enter the מערה.  Since there were so many people there, the security was limiting the amount of people allowed inside at one time.  We had סייתא דשמיא and when the soldiers saw that we were waiting with such young children, they allowed us inside so that we wouldn't roast in the hot sun.  We davened by each of the קברים- even the children said some תהילים, and then met up again outside.

On the men's side, Bentzi was listening to a man describing how he went into the actual מערה (deep below the structure where everyone davens) as part of a secret mission about 25 years ago.  He bought a DVD from him, where he describes what he saw there, including pictures, videos, and quotes from חז"ל.  (Bentzi and I watched it at home once we got the kids in bed- and it was really interesting!)

There were many activites going on in the area around מערת המכפלה- singing, projects, donkey rides, and tours.  We decided to take a tour of the old city of חברון- where Yidden lived for hundreds of years, up until the pogroms in 1929.  The tour guide pointed out many different buildings, describing for us what life was like in חברון העתיקה.  We even walked through the Arab שוק, where he showed us where the מזוזות used to be, in the now Arab "owned" storefronts.  There were soldiers positioned all over the place (note the picture below of the soldiers on a rooftop) to make sure that we were safe.

We had a really nice, exhausting day- and while I wouldn't do it every חול המועד, we were very happy we went and hope to go again!