A Night of Cry-sis

Of course, it happened on Thursday night, when any patience I might have had for Mini-Crises was most definitely used up. (Truth is, it was probably used up by Tuesday, but let's pretend I had enough to get through Wednesday.) In either case, patience, forbearance, calmness, sanity - it is all GONE by Thursday.


1. The first part of my day consisted of subbing-food shopping-subbing-cleaning. (The subbing was in English; the cleaning was in the universal language of Hate and Loathing.)


2. Then I picked up Ariella and Yaakov. When I walked into Yaakov's gan, I could not find Yaakov. I did, however, see a crying boy in a chair. Oh wait, that is MY crying boy. Apparently, they had been playing "mischak hakisaot" - i.e. musical chairs - and he did not agree that the other child had, in fact, sat down before he did. He threw a fit, and the teachers offered to do a "redo" but Yaakov stalked off, put himself in a time out, and continued his fit.

[Digression: I think musical chairs, in general, is a horrible, mean-spirited game. ("Haha! Everyone has a seat but YOU!" Is that not your worst nightmare?) They could make it a much more companionable game by just having enough chairs for everyone.]

3. After mollifying Yaakov, taking the rock out of his shoe, and putting it (the shoe) back on his foot (don't ask), we headed to the car. Time to take everyone for Swine Flu Vaccine, The Sequel! (Even more crying than the original!) Well, you know what they say - "There's nothing worse than losing at musical chairs. Except for losing at musical chairs and then having to get stuck with a needle."

4. We got to the nurses' office, Yaakov refused to budge, and I had to pick him up and be his straitjacket for 15 minutes while we waited for our turn. He cried, bawled, and shrieked. Finally, it was our turn. More shrieking, refusing to let us take off his pants for the shot (adding insult to injury, in his eyes). Finally, it was over. He got a big stick of candy from the nurse as a reward. Ariella, by the way, was fabulous. Calmly watched the needle go in, accepted her candy, and not a tear to be shed. However, as we will soon see, she makes up for it.

5. We got ice cream, of course, as our reward. (Always a good chaser for candy.) No crisis there!

6. Upon arriving home, I presented each kid with a new puzzle. Yaakov cried. He didn't like his puzzle.

7. Ariella had homework to finish. She made a mistake and had to erase. She cried.

8. Ariella: "If you give 'may' to Smadar [the person in charge of tzaharon], you can get pictures of me." Huh? I didn't understand, Ariella didn't understand and was mad at me for not understanding. She cried.

9. After finishing her puzzle (brand-new, as you recall), there was a piece missing. Cry.

10. Open up tik, notice that leotard is missing since dance class today. Cry. Blame Mommy. Cry some more.

11. Yaakov comes wandering out of his room to complain about....something. I'm sure someone cried.

12. Everyone finally goes to sleep. YAY!!!!!

So, when I woke up this morning (or rather, woken up by Yaakov, who came to use our bathroom and then snuggle in bed with me), I was not only thinking TGIF, but also TGTIO (Thank God Thursday is Over.)

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A pre-Shabbat thought on prayer. Courtesy of Ariella, of course.

[Kitah aleph is prepping for the mesibat siddur. As part of their homework, they needed to write about going to the kotel and how they felt. I will write it in Hebrew, followed by a translation, for those of you that are not yet graduates of Ulpan Level Daled.]

הייתי בכותל לבר מצוה

הרגשתי שזה היה ארוך לי

גם הרגשתי שהכותל היה גבוה

[When I was at the Kotel for a Bar Mitzvah, I felt it was very long for me. I also felt the Kotel was very tall.]