Changes

This was a spectacular Shabbat for our kids. Their friends Yehudah and Tiki came to spend the night while their mother was giving birth and we got to experience two 4-year-olds, two 2-year-olds and a 9-month-old for 26 hours. It wasn't as scary and terrible as I thought it would be. Of course, Lev was crazy excited and therefor hyper beyond beleif, but once I got the baths done in a round of: Chaya Bracha and Tiki, Tiki and Estie, Yehudah, Lev and dinner was served to the first group while Lev was in the bath, and Tiki and Yehudah were put to sleep in my bed while the other two fell asleep in their room, it was all a peice of cake. Since they're not my kids, their behavior was stepped up a bit, but since they've known me since Lev was 10-months-old (or all his life in Tiki's case), they still kept it lively.
In the end, their baby sister arrived in time to save them from another night away from home and my kids are pumped to bake them a cake. Lev and Estie have been watching these YouYube videos about cake decorating and we're going to give the rubber ducky cake a try.

Our family is about to experience some big changes as well. No, we're not pregnant- yet. In September we will be giving public school a second try for Lev and he'll be attending a school in this neighborhood. Private schools are expensive and Lev has a really limited supply of friends in the neighborhood because he cabs to a school by Ezra, so we're hoping that we're making the right decision by moving him somewhere new. Israeli public schools can be rough, even at this age. He ended up at private school after a mother called me to let me know she witnessed him being beeten up by 5 other kids with the teacher's knowleged of what was happening (The teacher's response? He started it). Hopefully the fact that Lev knows Hebrew now and has a better English vocabulary when it comes to letting us know what's going on at school will help us in this endeavor. We met the teacher last year and she seemed great, but of course, they've switched teachers and now we can just cross our fingers, hope for the best and know that we can always put him back in private school if need be.

Estie will also be moving schools. It was a really hard decision for us, as Bubbie has been such an important part of their lives and any change is scary. I really cannot imagine Estie thriving at another school, especially since she tried out two others before Bubbie agreed to take her at the age of 15-months, but in an effort to cut costs, she'll be moving to a Hebrew speaking gan, which is a bit less expensive and cuts a year of private school off of our educational plan for her. Maybe next year she'll be at gan with Lev!