My Kids’ Family

No time to really write today. The megillah reading last night was a lot of fun. Probably close to 75 kids (plus adults)! Very noisy but a great time. Today I am cooking for guests coming for lunch tomorrow, so I will just post photos of the kids in their costumes. Sorry no song of the day. Maybe I will make it up somehow next week.

I did not get to make the rest of the Hamentashen on Tuesday night like I had hoped. So last night I made another 5 dozen. I had also planned on helping Avi finish his costume, but that did not happen either. arrrggggh! Nothing went right.

The pack meeting was ok but then when we got home it was right to bath and bed for the kids. Avi then did not fall asleep, despite his having his melatonin. He kept calling down to me and I think he finally drifted off around 10 pm. We were going to make rice crispy treats to add to the Mishloach Manot, but that never happened either.

What a night!

Tonight is the Megillah (Book of Esther) reading at my synagogue. Hopefully mkm will be able to finish up Avi’s costume with him late, and find Noam’s Mickey Mouse costume! I am sure it will all come together, but it will probably all be last minute. Shayna is going to be a Disney Princess. At least we know where her costume is!

Thank God I am off on Friday (although I am giving some of my time to the Rutgers Hillel so I can begin to install their new file server). The kids come home just after noon from school tomorrow and then we have guests for lunch on Shabbat (saturday afternoon)!

When do we get a vacation?

My daughter Shayna is 2 1/2 years old, but because I work in NYC, I don’t get as much time to be with her (or with any of my kids) except on the weekends. Yesterday, both boys had birthday parties to go to, and mykidsmom was busy at our Synagogue packing baskets for Purim. So Shayna and I did some errands. We hit Home Depot and Target. I had about an hour to kill for lunch before we had to pick up one of the boys, so I took her to Lox, Stock and Deli, our local kosher deli.

Shayna, was the perfect lady. She sat opposite me at the table, and she used her utensils to eat, and her napkin to wipe her mouth. She ate more than half of my pastrami sandwich, but I will forgive her for that. During the meal, she kept saying “So abba…” and I would say “what?” It seems she knows that she should talk with me, but does not yet know how to do that totally. It was so cute, and I will remember our date for a very long time.

I did not have a camera with me, but here is a recent photo of her.

Yesterday, my middle son Noam had a fever.  Noam is a very special boy and unfortunately due to the cosmic luck of the draw, he was born in between our other two children.  He is a typical middle child.  So much attention is given to Avi dues to his ADHD and to Shayna as she is the baby and is still in diapers etc.  But Noam in the middle sometimes just get gypped.

So yesterday, I got the chance to spend a few quality moments with Noam on my lap comforting him.  And let me tell you.  Those 10 minutes, make everything worth it.

I have spent a lot of time talking about Avi here, mostly due to the ADHD, but mykidsmom and I have two wonderful other children as well. Noam is 5 1/2 and Shayna is 2 1/2. They are two of the happiest children you can imagine. One thing they both seem to love is High School Musical. Now I understand that these movies were intended for a slightly older audience, but my kids know pretty much every word to every song of both movies. They can dance the dances and they know some of the dialog as well.

Wow!

If they just put in half as much attention at school imagine what they could do!

Not that I have a problem with High School Musical. I have seen the movies and enjoyed them. The first film is a Disney version of Grease. Take Grease, then remove the sex and language and you basically have High School Musical. And the second is just as cute. We are waiting for the release in theaters of the third movie next year.

So here is a photo of my younger two kids dancing on the couch to HSM.

With apologies to Dr. Laura (for my blog name) and to God (for the title of this post), I start down the path of blogging. I suppose I just figured that I have some things to say and that maybe someone will listen. We’ll see. In the meantime, I will introduce myself a bit, and over time, I hope people get to know me and my family.

First off, my blog name. I thought long and hard about this (well, ok, maybe only 15 minutes, but it was hard thinking). Ultimately, this will be a blog about my family and my life, and the center of those things is clearly my children. Now, I apologize again to Dr. Laura (who I find offensive, btw) but what better way to describe my life then in terms of my kids’ family.

Mykidsmom (mkm) and I were married on September 10, 1995. We had some difficulties having children at first (including one miscarriage) and we went to a fertility specialist. After a few months of Clomid we did two cycles of my injecting mkm with fertility drugs, and presto, mkm was pregnant. On December 10, 2000, Avi Benjamin was born. Avi was a fun baby (although he did not sleep through the night until he was about 5) and we quickly learned how to become three instead of two. About a year later, mkm tells me one night “if I didn’t know better, I’d say I was pregnant.” Assuming we would need fertility drugs again, we never worried about this. Well, one pregnancy test later, and presto, mkm was pregnant again. On July 26, 2002 Noam Micha was born. Noam was a happy baby and luckily for us, slept through the night MUCH earlier than Avi. Finally on September 9, 2005, Shayna Rina was born as a wonderful 10th anniversary present. Shayna is the happiest child you will ever see.

So that is my family. Seems nice! As I blog along you will learn why I put up that subtitle.