A Few Stories

This is Dara. I hope she doesn't hate me for posting this, but she's helping me to tell some stories that I've been meaning to post forever.

Anyway, Dara's was once our babysitter and all around savior in Jerusalem. Now she's married and, obviously, pregnant in Philly as well as working for Shalom Israel Tours. My kids love and miss Dara tons. We met her when Estie was about 10 months old and she moved in May of last year, so that's a big chunk of time in their lives. Anyway, I showed this picture to Lev and he looked concerned. He asked 'Can Dara fit through doors? I don't think she can. How can she get through doors?'

There you have it, my kid is a deep thinker.

All of the kids are growing and maturing and suprising us on a daily basis. Lev has had a bunch of play dates with kids from gan- some of whom have goats that they use for their household milk. He loves the outdoorsyness of school and digging deep holes in the backyard. I have to start looking at schools for first grade, which is a but daunting, but so far I have two schools I'd like to check out. Now just to find out how one goes about visiting a school...

Estie is an interesting character. It's like the other three have the same temperament and then there's Estie. She lives in Estie world, full of Tinkerbell fairies and Disney Princesses, which is funny since we don't watch Disney movies (they're too scary for this crew). It's kind of a Nature vs. Nurture thing. She just loves Disney Princesses. Anyway, the school is really great for her. She's getting a lot of special attention- there is someone assigned to sit with her during prayers and meals so she doesn't just get up and wander off to find Lev (he prays and eats in a different room) or do whatever wandering she's interested in. They've also begun to take her to the bathroom routinely because otherwise she will ignore her body because she thinks her 'pee-pee' should listen to her and wait until she's ready to go. Her ganenet calls this power strugle 'Classic Estie.' Estie loves the kitchen at gan (both the real one where they help out and the wooden one where she sets up her own home). Her teacher agreed with me that a nice play kitchen would be a great birthday gift for Estie. She and Chaya Bracha could throw some rocking tea parties.

Chaya Bracha is super funny. She is soaking up the Hebrew and walks around spouting gibberish with lots of 'ch' sounds and thinks she's speaking Hebrew. She stopped telling me before she needed the potty and reverted to telling me after she'd done her business. After cleaning up enough poop from the ground for one year, I put her back in diapers. I am just not ready for it right now. I'm nursing a baby who never gets through a full meal before I have to put him down and attend to a different child, so now I have one less thing I have to put him down for. It will happen eventually, when we're all ready.

Michael is a cutie. He loves to lock eyes with someone and then smile. He loves his siblings, who are constantly hugging him and telling him stories. I think I'll have to set up the Pack-and-Play outside come spring so he can just chill out there because he's super into being in nature. Taking him outside calms him down immediately.

The cutest thing about the kids is their need to stick up for each other. I was upset with Estie for throwing some folded clothing on the floor and out of nowhere comes Chaya Bracha with a shirt draped over her head, shouting 'Me too! Me too! I do it!" In general, CB has Estie's back and is her biggest fan. When she wakes up from a nap, the first word out of her mouth is 'Estie?' I love seeing the bond between them.

I do have pictures to post but I hadn't had two minutes to actually write anything in a while, so I wanted to share some words.