Our Summer, Weeks 3-4

Week 3: July 13-18

Sunday:
We decided to try out a new park! It's a little far from us (Ft. Hamilton and 53rd), so we have never been there before. The walk was pretty long, but it was well worth it! It's a small, simple park, but very well designed for little kids. The sprinklers are unusual- the water sprays in jets, all aimed towards one spot. And when the streams of water collide, it creates a yummy mist that spreads over the entire park.

They also have many picnic tables, nicely situated in the SHADE (something one of our local parks is missing- shade.)


Yum!


All that misty water created a nice, long rainbow near the ground. The kids we so intrigued and loved to try to run into it! :)

Monday:
There were fire trucks on our block, so the boys spent a nice long time looking at them and admiring. :D

Tuesday:
We brought along a fun toy to the park- it's a disk launcher! I wound the disk for the boys and they ran to the middle of the field to release it and watch it soar!

1...2...3... get ready!

Where did it go?


Funny Bunny Brothers :)

Thursday:
We went on our 2nd trip- the bay again! Only this time, my mother came along, and we added one extra activity, which you will read about (and see!) in an upcoming post. :)

Friday:
Another calm park day. Zusha drew train tracks and stations, and drove his train all around, making appropriate stops, and everything. LOL.

Week 4: July 20-25

Sunday:
Last year we discovered "Kids' Gym," an indoor playground in the basement of a shul that is full of fun equipment for kids. Bikes, riding toys, balancing toys, houses and tool sheds that kids can play inside, a moon-walk, a ball pit, slides, tunnels... It's a kids' dream! Unfortunately, we only discovered it on the last day it was open last year. But this year, we started going from almost the beginning! (Pictures in an upcoming post. We'll count this as a trip, even though there is no traveling involved. But it's a very "trip-like" activity! LOL)

Monday:
A caterpillar dropped out of a tree and right onto us one day in the park. We decided to play a little with our friend before sending him back home. :)

Crawling on Zusha's chest...


...and up his collar!


Gedalya was thrilled, and didn't try to squish it like he tried with the snail we found a couple of months ago. LOL


Okay, little guy! Time for you to go home!


Gedalya waves bye-bye.

Wednesday:
We bought a fun water toy that we never really got to use. You pour water into the top, and there are two fans/gears that rotate. The ideal place to use it is the Ave F park because the water falls in streams there, unlike a wide-spread fountain. But every time we went and took the toy along, the sprinklers were off. And whenever we forgot to take it, they were on! So finally we co-ordinated, and the sprinklers were on on the day we brought it along.

Thursday:
This day "naturally" turned into "Nature Day." We didn't plan it, but that's how it happened! At first, we were eating sandwiches and threw some bread to the birds. One of our guests was a little sparrow family. :) A mother with a few babies. The kids were in total awe, watching the mother sparrow picking up crumbs and feeding them to her babies. They loved how the babies flapped their wings and chirped to get their mother's attention.

In cheider, Zusha learned about how wheat is grown. He was very into it, and I continued the lesson beyond wheat, to include all plants. I explained to him that a seed from any plant, when put into the ground, will grow another plant like the one it came from. But sometimes Zusha can't find a seed, so a leaf will suffice. ;)
Once when we were at the park, Zusha pulled a leaf off a tree and "planted" it. So this time when he was playing on the grass, he noticed a tree in the general vicinity of where he planted the leaf! :D He was so excited that this is HIS tree that HE planted!
So he decided to continue the cycle, and planted some leaves from this "new" tree. :)

Showing me where he is planting the leaf.

Friday:
It has been raining the entire week, and much to my surprise, and the boys' delight, a large flood formed on the grassy area of the park! At first they were a little wary, until Gedalya tested it out... and then they both bravely marched right in with their water shoes!

Kiddie Updates

So far Gedalya had been great with peeing in the potty- as long as he is wearing nothing on his bottom. It's the other thing that we've been having a problem with. He'd just go anywhere anytime.

We keep him without underwear at home so he can sense the need to go better. So just now- he zoooomed to the potty and made something more substantial. I am so so excited! And so was he! He looked bewildered at having actually done it.
(At his age, Zusha was trained for 2 weeks)
He's getting 2 Mitzva stickers for that!

Gedalya also dumped a bag of craft feathers onto the bedroom floor. He spent the last 2 hours bringing them to me individually in his garbage truck. Almost done...

A couple of days ago Gedalya was playing with a toy phone. He was pressing random buttons and saying random numbers. He pressed 5 and announced 7!; pressed 4 and announced 1!; pressed 2 and announced... hanger! (The number 2 looks like a clothes hanger! LOL)

One morning Gedalya woke up and demanded, "Chalk cookies! I want chalk cookies!"
Whaaa...?
"Please, Mama, give me chalk cookies."

I had no idea what he was talking about. Then he just dragged a chair to the counter, climbed up, and pulled out....


Anyone care to guess??
(Scroll to the bottom of the post for the answer...)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zusha told me recently that now he's big like this, and when he will be big like Mama, he will go buy food for shabbos all by himself. I'm kinda looking forward.

He also wanted to know how big the new baby will be. I showed him one of his stuffed animals and told him this size. Oh, was he cuddling that berele for the rest of the day! I can only imagine what he was dreaming.

He also asked me, "When I will be 17 years old, will you make me a crown for my birthday?" I told him that when he'll be 17, if he still wants one, he should ask me then.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And the answer to the riddle:


Chalk cookies




are




Marshmallows!

Hahahahaa...

Our First Summer Trip

Tuesday, July 8, 2008
We discovered that the Hanukov Van (local mini-bus) goes straight to the bay! We packed some drinks and snacks... the kids were so excited! We had to wait for it for over an hour because we didn't know the schedule, but the boys were really good sports about it. :)

We arrived and our first stop was Toys R' Us. We got some excavators for the kids to play with by the ocean, and of course... nothing beats ELMO rides!!

Playing on nice soft grass, enjoying the ocean breeze...

On our way home. The little bus was the most fun part for them! :D When I asked them at the end of the day to tell me what we did today, Zusha right away said, "We went on a kleine city bus!!"

Turns Out You CAN Have Fun in the City... Weeks 1 and 2

We are having so much fun this summer! People act shocked when I tell them I'm not sending Zusha to day camp. Is there a fine art of parenting that has been forgotten? Kids don't need structured day camp to have fun.
And here is the proof:

Zusha's cheider ended on Wednesday, July 25th. And our weeks have been filled with summer fun even since!

Week 1: June 29-July 4

Sunday:
We painted ceramic butterflies and did crafts with glue and various pom-poms, glitter, popsicle sticks and other bits and pieces.

Zusha had this idea to make a duck, and he did everything all by himself!

Tuesday:
We had a midwife appointment (where the kids were thrilled to hear the heartbeat for the first time) and then headed over to a park on Fort Hamilton which we rarely go to because it's far.

(Gedalya washing and eating an apricot)

Wednesday:
My mother and I took the kids to the ocean in celebration of Zusha's birthday! Pictures in a previous post. :)

Week 2: July 6-11

Sunday & Monday:
These were park days. On Monday we took the scooter along to the park and the kids had the time of their lives riding it. (And of course, they fought over it a little ;))

Tuesday:
We went on our first trip! We packed up snacks and stuff and took the Hanukov bus to the bay! Pictures and full details in an upcoming post. :)

Thursday:
We met up with an Imamother.com member (chaylizi) who was here with her 2 girls from Detroit! The kids played together in the park and had a lot of fun. Then we went to pizza together.

Friday:
Another calm park day...

Three Tiny Poozils

The kids ask a lot of questions about the baby. Zusha wanted to know if the baby stands when we are walking outside, if it laughs when I do, and if it can talk. He wants to know how big it is.

I'm about 26 weeks now, and I told the kids that the baby can hear them. They sang to the baby. :) I let them feel the baby's kicks, but they were too slight, so I don't think the boys really felt them.
I patted my stomach a little to get the baby moving and said, "Baby, come on, wake up and play with the boys." They got so excited and started doing the same, hitting and pushing my stomach and saying baby, come out and play!
Then Gedalya got the idea that maybe the baby will actually come OUT and play and not just "wake up" the way I meant it. So he said, "Baby will come out? I wanna see! I wanna see!" When I told him it's not really coming OUT to play yet, he shrugged his shoulders, pointed to my stomach and said, "Yeah, nishta kein lechele." (There's no hole.)

At about 24 weeks, my midwife was here for a visit and checked the heartbeat with a doppler. She asked the boys if they want to hear the baby, and of course they did. I didn't get a chance to explain that the baby wasn't saying those sounds, that it was the heartbeat and the liquid sounds. So when they heard it, they were thrilled beyond belief! They went around telling each other that day, "The baby said, 'Wchoo wchoo wchooooo!'" They retold this story to anyone who would listen!

Gedalya is constantly hugging and kissing the baby (my stomach :D)

Some Gems from the Kids

*One day after all the parties were over Zusha asked me if it's still his birthday. I said that no, it's finished, and all the parties are finished. The next day Zusha was getting ready for bed and took a pull-up. We have pull-ups in 2 different sizes for the kids at night. Gedalya has 2T and Zusha, 4T. I showed him how to check to make sure he's taking his size.
So he brought a size 4T pull-up and asked, "Does this say 4 years old?"
Me: Yes.
Zusha: So I can't wear it.
Me: Why??
Zusha: Because you said my birthday already finished and now I'm not 4 years old anymore.
Me: Ohhhh, Zusha, you're still 4 years old! Your birthday came and made you 4 years old. Then your birthday ended, but you still stayed 4 years old!

*When we were at the ocean, there was a small playground with a sprinkler nearby. The sprinkler was in the form of a palm tree. Although the kids usually love to go in sprinklers, they were tired from playing, a bit cold from the water, and already wearing robes. So they didn't want to go.
One night after our ocean trip, Gedalya woke up and started saying, "Boym, vasser..." (Tree, water.) "Vasser... boym, Gedalya hut fargessen tzu gein to vasser vos gist fun boym!" (Gedalya forgot to go to the water which pours from the tree!)
I told him we'll go next time. :)

*The same night Gedalya was opening and closing his hands. He opened them and said, "Hentelech open like shpili gesheft (toy store) is open outside." A little while later he made little fists and said, "Hentelech close like shpili gesheft is closed outside."

*This happened when Gedalya was just about 2. We were home and he asked me for water. I thought he meant to drink, and he knew where the water bottle was, so I told him to take it. But he meant the spray bottle, so he pointed to it (it was high up) and said, "Gedalya is little, but Mama is big. Soon Gedalya will be big and will take the bottle. But now Gedalya is little and can't. But Mama is big, so Mama can give it to Gedalya. :)

*A similar situation happened when Gedalya wanted to wash his hands in the bathroom and asked me to open the door. Zusha was sitting in the hallway right next to the bathroom, so I called out to him to open the bathroom for Gedalya. But Zusha was busy playing with something and didn't want to get up. When Gedalya heard that I asked Zusha to do it, he said, "But Mama can do it, Mama is already big."

*Gedalya doesn't know what a pacifier is. Zusha remembers, but Gedalya doesn't because he stopped using one at 5 months old. We were in the park recently with another mother and her 2 kids. The little girl is 16 months, and at one point she took a pacifier. Gedalya just stared and said, "Now baby can't talk, mouth is closed!"

*We passed by a large dog in the street. Gedalya said hi to it repeatedly, but it never answered. So Gedalya said, "Huntala kent nisht reden, er iz tzu groys." (The dog can't speak, he's too big.) I guess he needed a reason to explain why the dog didn't answer hi, and this one sounded pretty logical. ;)

Birthday Party #54356

Usually we go take the kids to an indoor amusement park for their birthdays. And they usually love it. But when we went on Gedalya's birthday, they didn't seem too much into it. They loved the train ride, and the tube slide, and the pizza (which we could get better quality and cheaper anywhere else.) I didn't want them going in the big ball pit after I read that these places never clean them and kids lose their diapers in there or leak... ewww.
I let them go in the smaller, toddler ball pit, and they did have fun there, but there weren't so many balls in it. The previous parties we had there, they had more toys, like bikes and other riding toys.

So this time we decided it's not worth it. Instead we will go the ocean!
We had to push it off somewhat because Zusha was still in school, but we told him about it and he was so excited! He'd be going to the ocean on a TRAIN!!

So we went last week, July 2nd. I made him a crown, which he was waiting anxiously for.
The kids loved the train ride. They were glued to the windows and commented on everything they saw. (Station!! Trees! Another train! Another station!)

We finally arrived and went right down to the water. Changed the kids into bathing suits and led them into the water- just a bit. When the waves came, they were laughing hysterically from joy! My mother took Zusha deeper in and he really swam. He was on cloud 9!
Gedalya didn't want to go as deep as Zusha, and he protested when I tried to make him swim. So he stayed by the edge, enjoying the waves licking at his feet.

Then we played in the sand with all the sand toys we brought along. The kids got a little chilly after the water, so we dressed them in their robes and proceeded to the little jungle gym further out in the sand. There was also a sprinkler in the form of a palm tree there, but the kids had enough of water and decided not to go in.

After that, we got the kids dressed, ate a little, and then the rides at Astroland caught the kids' attention. :) So I bought some tickets and the kids went on some rides. Zusha chose a carousel with horses pulling wagons, another one with fire trucks, and the last one was a helicopter that rode in a circle, rising high and going back down as it flew.

Finally we went on the train again (which is one of the main fun points of the trip for the kids!)
When we came home, Zusha fell asleep on the floor!

Whew, I just got so tired just remembering this fun, fun day!