We're Back!

I apologize for the dearth of posts recently. Donny's crazy in-laws were here, and you know how high-maintenance they are.

JUST KIDDING! I mean, Donny's crazy in-laws were here, but we loved having them and they really aren't high-maintenance at all. Just give Momz an Internet connection and Dadz a bed and they are very happy.

(A warning though - if you give a Dadz an internet connection, you'll have to give him a mouse, and if you give him a mouse, he'll need a pad to slide it on, and if you give him a pad to slide it on, it'll remind him of a coaster, so he'll need his cup of coffee, and when he drinks his coffee, he'll want something to go with it, like a rugelach, so he'll go out to the bakery, and when he goes out to the bakery, he'll suddenly remember that it's time for shul again, so he'll try to walk to shul, and when he walks to shul he wanders in circles for hours and gets very lost, then, because of all the wandering, he's tired. So he'll need a bed. Which is why it's easier to just start with the bed.)

Anyway, we got an extra week post-Pesach with Momz and Dadz aka Bubby and Zaidy which was super fun, especially the parts where we ate out. And especially the part where they stayed home with Yaakov and Nadav during Crazy Tuesday Chug Day so I was able to run out and get Ariella all by myself.

Also, I am happy to report that Nadav became best buds with Bubby and Zaidy and enjoyed many games of Tissue Shredding and Traffic Staring. He was sad to see them go.

In other news, things have been busy around here.

Ariella the Torah Scholar

We celebrated Ariella's siyum on Thursday night after Pesach. Ariella, as a proud member of the Coalition of Independent Brainiacs, decided to read through all the chumash (the first Five Books.) She would just sit there and read.

She finished a while ago but wanted to wait for Bubby and Zaidy's arrival to make her siyum. So we had a lovely siyum, complete with a Mishkan cake (since that was her favorite part. Mishkan, not cake.) And here I will give a shout-out to my talented cake-decorating friend, Chanina, who is also a fellow former Baltimorean, and if anyone needs cakes in the shape of a mishkan or anything else, sacrilegious or not, give her a call.

Interesting note: There was an amazing thunder and lightning storm last Thursday night. Do you think it's related to the fact that it coincided with us biting into the ohel moed?

Ariella Gets a Crash Course in the Holocaust

We were driving to Bet Shemesh (something about route 38 brings out the philosophical side in Ariella) on Yom Hashoah, and she started asking me lots of questions about it. We discussed:

Countries affected/not affected by the Shoah
Who started it
Difference between labor camps and extermination camps
How the Jews were killed
How they got to the concentration camps
Chasidei umot ha'olam (righteous gentiles - she learned about that in school)
Anne Frankel (aka Anne Frank)
How does a bullet kill someone
The ghettos
If Jews got food in the concentration camps
Which side won
How one side wins a war

For thirty minutes straight. And then thirty minutes on the way back. It was intense.

Yaakov piped up at one point:

"Mommy, I saw TWO cement twucks! And they waw mixing!" You can always count on Yaakov to keep it real.

Yaakov Turns Five - AGAIN!

Preparations continue for Yaakov's massive invite-all-the-gan birthday party, which is tonight, God willing. Of course, if God should will that the two hours between five and seven just disappear, I would be okay with that.