June 2008 Photos

At the bay...



Brothers :)


This ant was climbing up a wall carrying what looked like a newly-hatched dead bee.


Zusha blowing bubbles with the help of a fan. He had so much fun with this!


Gedalya consistently puts his sunglasses on up-side-down. Here Zusha is fixing them for him! :D

Shmutzy Gedalya and Heavy Machinery

Before yesterday- we bought two small bottles of colored bubbles. It seemed like a good idea at the time. We got one blue and one yellow. When we tried it out, it was really a lot of fun! Not only were they colorful, but they were also a little reinforced to make them harder to pop. So they were all landing nicely on the grass and staying there!
When we finished playing, we tried to wash our hands, but it wasn't really coming off. We washed with water, rubbed and scrubbed with baby wipes... and eventually our hands were mostly bubble-free. Wish I could say the same for our permanently ruined clothes! Not surprisingly, Zusha kept almost 100% clean, and none of his clothes got ruined. I got a few small spots on my shirt, but they aren't so visible. But Gedalya... hahaha... his clothes went straight into the garbage!

Then yesterday, on our way home from the park, we saw a HUGE, very interesting machine. From all the signs and warning stickers all over it seems like it's for uprooting the asphalt. The kids had a blast looking at all the buttons, levers, accessories...

The Many Birthday Parties of Zusha

Zusha's party in cheider yesterday was awesome. I dressed him in a white shirt and sent along a camera and pekelech. The pekelech were supposed to be just one bag of nosh with something smaller attached to it.
I wanted to get Alef Bais cookies, but all the stores were out of them just that week. So I got flat pretzel crisps and chocolate coins.
Instead of attaching with tape, I thought of a cute idea: I punched a hole in the upper part of the pretzel bag, where it's sealed. (The hole didn't open the bag, it stayed on the sealed part.) Then I rolled the paper tag of the chocolate coins pouch, stuck it through the hole and straightened it out.

The Rebbi got some pictures of Zusha giving out the pekelech, and we both had fun looking through them together. Zusha told me the names of the boys in the pictures.

Sitting with his bag of pekelech, waiting to begin the party!

After cheider that day we met with my mother for more party! She brought along presents and we found ourselves a nice spot in the park to open them and celebrate. The main gift was a laptop! It's a children's laptop that has word and math games, piano mode, songs and other fun activities. Zusha was in love! It even has a mouse that has working buttons. My mother also gave them 2 books, some clothes, and a flashlight.

After that we went for ice cream! It was a really great celebration.

Happy Birthday, Big Boy Zusha!

Today was Zusha's birthday. This was the first year he understood and was really excited!
As soon as Shabbos started, I gave him one of his presents, a board game. His other present is a toy playground that is compatible with some animal figurines that he has. They are based on magnets and we also have a car and a small dollhouse for them.
The whole Shabbos he kept referring to himself as "Birthday Yingel."

He wore his crown that he has from his Alef Bais siyum and was so happy and proud!
I told him that he will have a party tomorrow in cheider, and he couldn't stop talking about it. :) He kept repeating how he will give pekelech to the boys.

He was responding with a shy smile to all the attention he got.

Tomorrow is his party in cheider, and the Rebbe said he'll take pictures if I bring a camera. Yeah!!

Are You My Baby?

On June 16th my friend Batsheva came to visit from Cleveland with her baby. She was in Boro Park and spent the afternoon with us.

As soon as Zusha saw the baby, he was all over her. He wanted to hold her, commented on her blue eyes (gray, really, but blue enough for Zusha) and insisted on bringing her to his room to show her all the toys. Both boys were bringing toy after toy to the baby (Chevy).

When I carried Chevy through my bedroom once, Zusha got all excited because he thought that I will be putting her to sleep there.
When Batsheva was leaving, we all went outside to see her off. Zusha got a little apprehensive that she was taking the baby with her. I didn't understand really why, until we were going back upstairs and Zusha asked, "It's Mama's friend's baby? Not our baby?"
Poor Zusha thought that this was his promised baby!

I gently explained to him that no, it's not ours. Our baby will come on Sukkos and will be much smaller than this one.

But Zusha had one request, "Will our baby also have a purple shirt?"

A few days later he told me he wants our baby to be a girl. With earrings. :)

Poor Little Gedalya

Poor Gedalya got his little thumb slammed in a door on Friday.
He knows to keep his hands out of the hinge part. This time he was leaning on the doorpost with his right hand and pulling the door shut with his left. I saw that his thumb was a centimeter into the dangerous area and screamed out to him.

He only barely touched his finger it seemed, but it got really bad. The whole thumb was swollen and purple, he was bleeding a bit, but only from the superficial broken skin.

We washed it in cold water immediately and then I tried to nurse him as he cried and cried. About 1/2 hour later he fell asleep.

But he's definitely a righty- LOL! He kept using his right hand for everything the next day and kept hurting his thumb over and over. I tried to redirect him to use his left, but he'd give it one awkward attempt and switch back to his right.
I thought it was so funny, because Zusha is ambidextrous like me and hasn't yet shown a preference to either side.

I'm going to have to take him to the doctor. People who have had this type of thing happen have told me that the doctor drilled a hole in the nail to let the blood out- to minimize the pressure. I hope it won't come to that...

What Zusha Remembers

Zusha remembers many little details and events that I have all but forgotten. Many things he is reminded of because of all the pictures I take. He loves to look at them!
But other times he really has surprised me.

Recently I took the kids to a park that is a little far from us. It's nothing special, but they love it because we go there rarely. On our way, Zusha started telling me, "Last time we went to that park, I played with another baby with water balloons and the baby laughed."

I was speechless! OK, so it wasn't "last time" but last summer, but he remembered it- and I don't have any pictures of that event!

Another time we were sitting in the kitchen. He looked up at the light and told me, "A long time ago, when Zusha was a small baby, this lamp broke. Mama turned it on for a very long time and didn't turn it off, and it finished. So Mama went to buy a new lamp and then Tatte put it in."
Whoa. That happened last December- 1 1/2 ago. Zusha was only 2 1/2 at the time!

And last week, out of nowhere, Zusha reminded me about how a man came to our house to fix it a long time ago. How how made the floors and the doors and all. That was right when we moved into this apartment, almost 2 years ago. Zusha was the age that Gedalya is now.

Zusha loves operating ATM machines. I tell him what to press, and he does everything. We switched banks about a year and a half ago. In the old one, you put the card to the slot and the machine sucked it in. It came out at the end of the transaction. In the new one, you stick the card in and pull it out. Recently Zusha said, "When we went to another bank a long time ago, we put in the card and didn't take it out. At the end the card came out by itself." I couldn't believe it, I barely remember that myself!

It's amazing how much he really remembers...

A Fun, Fun Flood

The sprinklers in the park being new and all, the system hasn't been totally perfected yet. There are two levels to this park. One half is uphill and one downhill. The sprinklers are on the higher part. I guess the drain system malfunctioned yesterday, because a huge area of the lower part of the park flooded!

The kids loved their "ocean!" Look at the huge area that is flooded.

Another Photo Shoot :)

Still experimenting with my camera and how the functions work. I've discovered that zooming all the way in blurs the background, so I'm having fun with that now! :) While Zusha was in cheider, I went with Gedalya to a nice, quiet dead end street with lots of greenery. I stationed him at the middle of the short block and stood at the beginning of it myself. Then at full zoom, I got some of these great shots.