Fillings: An Update. Then, Roses on Stage!

I'm sure you are on the edge of your seat, wondering whatever happened with Yaakov and his teeth. To make a long story short, MaccabiDent cheerfully agreed to give me a copy of Yaakov's x-rays, free of charge. The plan was to take them to another dentist for a Second Opinion).

Well, you know what they say. Man plans, MaccabiDent loses your file. That's right. They proceeded to not give me the x-rays (despite repeated phone calls on my part and assurances it would be taken care of soon on theirs), plus they lost his tik (file) in the process. Yay! So I never got the Second Opinion, and when we went back for appointment #3, they didn't have his tik OR his x-rays. Whatever. Yaakov is now a dental pro. He knows the drill. Get on the chair ("Should I sit with you, Yaakov?" "No, I'm a big boy."), fall asleep, wake up, get a toy, eat an artik.

Come to think of it, it's not a bad deal at all. Maybe Yaakov is the one responsible for "losing" the tik. After all, fewer appointments = fewer artikim. He's no dummy.
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Last night, at our shul's Yom Hazikaron/Yom Haatzmaut tekes, I am proud to announce that the entire Rose family was well-represented. Ariella and Yaakov participated in the performance which took place after minchah/before maariv. First, there was the Yom HaZikaron performance, which was a (paper) flower-laying ceremony in honor of soldiers who were killed during all the various wars. Ariella and other kitah aleph kids read a line about each war, and then a gan child (Yaakov included), placed two flowers as a memorial.

Then, during the Yom Haatzmaut portion of the evening, the gan/kitah aleph kids did a little performance to the song of "Eretz Yisrael Sheli." They each held up a sign at the appropriate time and did a fabulous job. You might be wondering how they pulled off this flower-laying-line-reading-sign-holding performance despite only two practices. This is because, dear readers, these children are professionals. Those of you that saw Yaakov's smooth dance moves at his Chanukah mesibah and gan birthday party will not be at all surprised that he was able to pull off this choreographically complex feat. And Ariella, well, she loves to read. (While learning Chumash together on Shabbat: "Daddy, can't we just read it? Why do we have to talk about it?")

Anyway, the first practice, on Sunday, was inside the relatively cool shul, but Monday's practice was held on the actual field where the ceremony would take place later. Of course, the difference between the "migrash" at 4:00 and at 7:00 is about 30 hijillion degrees. So we baked for 40 minutes during the practice. Because the show must go on!

Donny later commented that it sure seemed like a lot of practice for holding up a sign. Sigh. Fathers. Do they not realize the amount of coordination these things take? During the flower ceremony, the little kids not only had to wait till the big kid finished reading, but had to take turns laying the flowers in order of how they were standing. This involved no small amount of the moms in charge whispering "Not yet!" and frantically pulling a kid back or pushing them forward. And, during the song, each kid had to hold up a picture when, and only when, their part was sung. ("Now! Up!" we motioned to them, wildly waving our arms. Okay, so sometimes the tree went up when they were singing about the bridge, plus the tree was three times the size of the little girl holding it and kept bopping her in the head. And Yaakov held up his music note but couldn't quite get the hang of waving it around. So maybe we needed a third practice. But still. Professionals, I tell you.)

Now you're probably wondering - "Excuse me, aliyahbyaccident, but didn't you say the WHOLE Rose family participated? Um, so far I've only heard about songs and flowers. Did you and Donny also have a picture to hold up?"

No, the Rose adults are not capable of that level of choreography. We were part of the candle-lighting (and when I say "candle," here I am referring to one of 12 paint cans with a lighter-fluid-filled rag stuffed in it) ceremony. Each candle represented a group from the shul - well, the rabbi gets his own, and then there's representatives from the vaad of this and that. So Donny and I represented the olim. We had a part to say, which was NOT vowel-ized, but luckily we got it early enough so we were able to look it over and ask a Real Israeli how to pronounce one of the words. Yes, the irony was not lost on us. Anyway, we went up, Donny did a fine job reading - not as fine as Ariella, but what can you expect? - and then I took the "Lost"-like torchy thing and lit the rag! Awesome!

We had looked around for other olim (there are about 2 other regular families) to share in this proud (or embarrassing) moment. But none were to be found. Thanks, onetiredema and family, for ditching us!

Today the fun continues with some sort of fun which will at some point involve a BBQ. Chag sameach!