Saturday, April 19, 2008

Passover

So tonight's the first night of Passover. Pesach in Hebrew. We (me, the kids, my parents, my sister, my brother and my Uncle!) are going over to J's parents house for the Seder. Big deal, huh? I tell people and their eyes open wider... "You are all going? To his parents' house?" I work with a rebbetzin - her husband is the rabbi at one of the big synagogues down on the Lower East Side... and when I told her what I was doing the first night I could see her practically planning the wedding... (Well, you know, my first husband not being Jewish and all... - though yes, he did convert.. but...) so this is oh so... meaningful to her..

Did I mention that Passover is the holiday where one is allowed to ramble? Especially in blogs. Yep. It's true. There's the line: "And thou blog writer - on this day you are allowed to ramble.. to go off on tangents... whatever." (And yes. They said "whatever". They learned it from their kids!) (So glad I don't have many Jewish readers...)

ANYHOW.

You know, last year was the first time I met J's parent. And my kids. And my parents have already met his parents & all the families have pretty much met.

But still. Our first Seder all together. Should be interesting. You know, of course, that I will report back.

But ARGH!! I have Such. Bad. PMS. Like the kind where you look for things to get upset about? Like the kind where everything is going along perfectly well and you're like "look! Look at that teeny tiny spot over there! Who did that! Somebody's gonna pay! We are all going to stand here and look at that spot and figure out who did it and who is gonna PAY for doing it! All of us! Because my goal is to make everybody as miserable as I am!!"

Ugh.

But it's still gonna be a good day/night? Right?

Tomorrow night the Seder's at my parent's house. J will be coming. His girls will be with their mom and her family. I luck out at not having a Jewish X (yes, he converted.. but...)

There will be photos. There will be videos. (New Flip camera, you know...)

Now I'm gonna go stick my head under a pillow for a little while.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

peeps for passover - a set on Flickr

peeps for passover - a set on Flickr
So, I brought Max to the child psychologist yesterday. The psych told me to tell Max that he would be meeting with a "nice man" who "likes to talk and play games" and that I "met the man and he is very nice."

So, that is what I told him.

After he came out & we were walking home Max turned to me and said: "How come you didn't tell me you were bringing me to a psychologist?"

Huh?!

He then went on to say: "A psychologist is somebody you talk to when you have that nervous feeling in your stomach - or have something on your mind. I don't have that nervous feeling in my stomach! Why didn't you tell me?"

I looked at him and said "well Max, most children do not know what a psychologist IS - so I guess I underestimated you. I"m sorry. I should have told you. So, what do you think? Did you like it?"

He shrugs. "Yeah. I liked it. I'll go back."

My kids. I will never underestimate them again!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

So here's the thing...

This morning I was waiting with my kids for their bus. They are, like every other morning, all involved in the all important Pokemon Trading. All of them.

So I hear Nathan say: "I'm going to trade this fake Pokemon to Raphael. He won't know. I'll trick him."

And.

I didn't know what to do.

I often feel like I "mother" my boys too much. The other day at Max's Little League game it was all I could do to stop myself from yelling across the field: "Tuck that string into your pants!" And forget about trying to fix Nathan's little league shirt, which hangs down almost to his knees... I'm very conscious that I'm a woman raising two boys. (Ok - there's a father involved, but most of their time is with me.)

So I'm about to say something like: "that's not very nice" but I stop. This is the "code" of the playground. It's kid stuff. You have to let them work out all this stuff on their own.

But then I (mentally) counter myself: "but what about morality? Aren't you supposed to teach them that?" Then I go on to say to myself: "They learn that in the playground, too. It's all part of it. You teach them the big stuff... but the little stuff has to sort itself out." Then, as if I haven't had enough I go on to tell myself: 'Yes, but if they don't want you to hear it - then they shouldn't say this stuff right near you." And I remind myself of how when I was a chaperon on a flight for North American exchange students going to Brazil. There were a LOT of exchange students on our flight - from the US and from Brazil. The one BIG rule for the kids I was chaperoning was no drinking... but all the Brazilians were. And these "kids" were going to be on their own, in a country with no drinking age.... SO - what do I do. I put my head phones on & went to sleep. BUT, at one point I turned around & two kids were behind me. Drinking beers. I told them to put it away. I said: "listen, if you're going to drink, have the good sense NOT to do it right near the chaperon." I mean, come on.

(Ramble much?)

SO. Where was I. Stuck in my early morning morality morass.

I didn't say anything.. but I'm not really sure it was the right thing to do. As we were walking back from Hebrew School this evening Nathan mentioned it again & I jumped right on it. This is the three of us walking together. This is not the same. So I did the ole' "don't do to people what you wouldn't like done to you" spiel & they nodded & were like "ok mom.. whatever..." and that was that.

But still.

Happy Birthday~

Sunday, April 13, 2008