Friday roundup

1. After several nights of almost-hourly night terrors ending with a shrieking Iyyar in my bed, kicking me, Iyyar more or less slept through the night last night. He did start a few times with the slow, monotonous wailing that has, to date, portended hysteria to come, but the full-blown howling, screaming, flailing attack never materialized--he settled himself back down without my having to do anything. This, clearly, is a Very Very Big improvement.

2. Pre-tonsillectomy, and the week or so following, Iyyar's nighttime breathing was so loud you could hear him in every room of the apartment. Now, you have to bend way over and put your ear right by his mouth even to hear him breathe. It's disconcerting, but definitely an improvement. The other thing that appears to have stopped, along with the snoring, is the drooling: yesterday I realized that his shirt, which is usually soaked in front and requires changing at least once midday, was bone dry. Wow.

3. Last night I went to Wal-Mart, which I think I've done now twice in my life. I'm hoping that the third time will be the last. I HATE Wal-Mart. When I was a kid and would go shopping with my mother, she used to say I got shopping-itis; after twenty minutes in A & S, I'd start complaining that my head hurt, I was tired, and I wanted to go home. Now, I do most of my shopping either in small local stores (food) or online (almost everything else). The main exceptions to this are Target shops, which I do once or twice a month. Target doesn't bother me; other than the rampant consumerism, I like going there, because I know where everything is, I can stock up on everything quickly, and then I won't run out of garbage bags for a while. But Wal-Mart, holy cow, it was like being 14 again. I literally got tunnel vision, it was hard to see anything clearly, and I starting feeling a sense of impending doom. I had to wait for my friend Yehudis to finish shopping before I could leave, since I'd gone with her; otherwise, I probably would'be abandoned my shopping and run for it.

4. Avtalyon has been so hilarious lately there must surely be something specific to mention here. Oh yes. Remember this song? Avtalyon loves it. Every time I play it, which is often since Jasmin decided to be a total enabler and send me the CD, he stops whatever he is doing, his eyes get really big, and he dances.

5. One of Iyyar's playgroup-mates is a boy named Moishy who likes to sing the Hashavas Aveida song, the first line of which is "Hashavas aveida, what does it mean?" I don't know what any of the other lines are, other than a mention of "return it right away," because Iyyar hasn't picked those up yet. Moishy has a toy guitar and he likes to play the guitar and belt out Hashavas Aveida at top volume. Iyyar does not have a guitar, but belts out the song at volume regularly. "Ha SHAAAVAS AH! VEI! DAH! What! DOES IT MEAN...!" He does this not quite all the time, but almost. Today, on the way to playgroup, he started singing it. And I couldn't resisit. "Iyyar, what does Hashavas Aveida mean?"

Pause.

"I don't know."

6. The amount of candy Barak gets at school is incredible. He gets candy for Shabbos party, he gets candy to make projects with (!) and every time there is a birthday he comes home with a pekel full of junk. He even got two (TWO!!) huge bags of shaloch manos from the school. Now, Barak is four and a half and he really doesn't react well to sugar. But oh, does he love it. So I did what any sensible mother would do in this situation: I bribed him. I sent him to Target with Ada, and let him pick out a small box of pirate Lego. Then I made a sticker chart, with 16 spaces on it, and every time he handed over a piece of candy he got at school, I put a star in one of the spaces. When he filled up the chart, I told him, he could have the Lego.

It took two weeks and one day to fill fifteen of them. (To be fair, Purim was in there. But still. Fifteen pieces of candy from school in two weeks and a day!) He handed everything he got over, not only willingly but enthusiastically. He's got one space left, and he'll probably fill it via the school's Shabbos party. If he doesn't, I told him he could earn a last star by doing an extra Shabbos job (usually, picking up toys/books/whatever). He'll be pretty happy tonight. His behavior has been noticeably better after school. And I already have two more little boxes of Lego stashed in the closet. I thought about whether this was a really good idea as an ongoing thing, and I decided yes, it was; the boxes of Lego are the $5-6 ones (the first one was more, but he doesn't know that) and would I pay $6 to prevent Barak from eating half a pound of sugar and artificial color? Yes, yes I would.

The next chart might have more spaces on it though.

7. Iyyar's tummy seems to be doing much better, after something of a setback following surgery. I've got him off dairy completely and taking probiotics and acidophilus, which can't hurt. Now that he's not having dairy, I've been doing a lot more fleishig cooking: one of the few meals that everyone will eat happily without complaining is chicken soup with matzo balls, so I do that midweek at least once a week. And it never fails to amuse me that neither Barak nor Iyyar ever distinguishes between meatballs and matzo balls: they are as likely to ask for matzo balls with spaghetti as they are to ask for chicken soup and meatballs.

8. Avtalyon has developed a taste for cucumbers. He loves them and will shove every available cucumber into his mouth before touching anything else. I find this very amusing: personally, I think eating cucumbers is like eating crunchy water. Harmless, but unappealing.

9. Barak also likes cucumbers. His standard favorite Shabbos lunch is cucumber and bologna sandwiches. No need for bread. He puts bologna between two slices of cucumber, nibbles off the excess bologna, and then has himself a sandwich. He'll make several that way before eating them all.

10. Avtalyon wants so much to be one of the big boys. When Iyyar and Barak are on the floor playing, he's always skulking around, poking his nose in, trying to get in on the action. Sometimes Iyyar and Barak are tolerant of this. Sometimes not.

And finally, a picture of said big boys, courtesy of Ada:


And one of the little boy, who is getting bigger daily.