Still here

Just busy.

Pesach came and went, and it was good, and then the boys had their birthdays, and then I had mine, and soon Mr. Bigfoot will have his. We're still figuring out next year, in terms of work, the kids' schools, and so on. We're planning to stay in the same apartment, and are buying some furniture off the people who are leaving to make things a little more homey. I also bought Avtalyon a toddler bed and Marika a crib, to replace the mattress on the floor and pack and play that they'd been sleeping in, respectively. Avtalyon was delighted with his new acquisition; Marika, not so much.

Lots has been going on but I've just been too busy and too tired to sit down and tell you about it. Marika's thing these days is singing "dayeinu" (dai dai dee dee!) and "avadim hayyinu" (ah ba dee-eee!) at the least provocation. Avtalyon has gotten really verbal and really entertaining; he'll inform me very solemnly, with those huge dark eyes of his, that dinosaurs "eat their friends. That's not very nice." He still loves band-aids. He still calls cucumber "hinkumbers," but that might be because we all now do it too. He loves matzo balls and goes berserk at the slightest sign that they might be in the offing; like, the soup pot goes on the hotplate and he is immediately circling me for matzo balls even though it will obviously be hours before any are available.

Iyyar goes back and forth between being sweet and charming and the cause for my fingernails being ground into stubs. Today I was putting some things into the trunk of a neighbor's car--they have a kid at the same gan and while they don't have room in the car to drive us home, they don't mind if I put my shopping in the back. I looked up and suddenly realized that Iyyar was unlocking the brake on Marika's stroller. Which she was in. On the top of a huge, huge Jerusalem hill. I dropped everything, dived on him and screamed, right as the stroller began to roll. What was he thinking? He wasn't. Was Barak like this at this age? I don't remember but I really don't think so. It makes me nervous. I know he wouldn't really hurt her on purpose, but there's this oblivious side to him that's kind of alarming sometimes. He seems happier about school, although he still complains that nobody plays with him; separate interviews with all three ganenot gave an absolute rebuttal. He plays nicely, he has friends; the only problem is that he jumps around and gets silly when he's supposed to be paying attention in circle time. OK, fine. He just turned five; this is not so unreasonable. He still wants to sleep in his heavy polarfleece pajamas even though it is now really warm at night; he wakes up sweaty with his payes stuck to his face. I think those pajames might have to go into hibernation pretty soon.

Barak, after months and months of talking about planting things, finally got his wishes fulfilled in the form of two window boxes which now contain a basil plant, a bunch of tiny tomato plants, and one brave bean plant that just showed up yesterday and is already two inches tall. There are also pepper seeds in there, but those haven't come up yet. They're in an intensely sunny window and we water them faithfully, copiously and enthusiastically; we'll see what will be.

I took a week of vacation, just to recover from the general exhaustion of the last few months. It hasn't really helped. I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to and I still didn't sleep much; too much on my mind and I can't relax. The kids were on edge this week and I had a hard time with that; maybe it's the change in weather. Maybe it's me.

Anyway, off to knit. No better relaxation than that! The apartment is actually quite clean and surprisingly well organized, a product of my vacation time; I haven't done anything for Shabbos, but it starts so late now that's not a problem.