Rafi & Sam's Blog

I Feel The Earth Move

Actual conversation from tonight while getting Rafi ready for bed

Rafi: Mommy, I can feel the earth turning.

Me: (pause) Really? How does it feel?

Rafi: It feels really, really good. 

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Rafi, as mentioned many times before, has several identical Huntley bears.  He also has a lot of stuffed animals. He's taken, lately, to laying his blankets out on the floor, and putting all the animals to bed. He told me tonight that he has to put all the Huntleys to bed first, because "they snore softly, so they have to go to sleep before everyone else." 

Apparently the Huntleys like to be sung to as they fall asleep. 

Then we said goodnight to all the other animals.

And to two little boys in stripey PJs. 

Sam and his Sleep

Long time readers will remember that we intentionally got a "lovie" for Rafi.  It is a beanie baby bear named Huntley.  We figured it was better to get him attached to something that was small and even if you had to pay an arm and leg you could get a replacement bear.  Worked like a charm.  He has 6 or 7 version of the same bear and sometimes he switches or sleeps with more than one.  Sam on the otherhand resisted all efforts to get him attached to a specific item.  We tried a similar beanie baby - chocolate the moose.  Alas, he has now decided that he can't fall asleep without a book.  He seems to hvae his favorite but there is no one book that he needs.  It is however odd to see him curled up with a board book for a pillow.  Sometimes, he needs more than one. 

Sam's sleep also seems to be getting interupted of late. From a child that we never really sleep trained, it is unusual.  His new routine is that he wants to go into the living room and put his head down on your shoulder - he is getting up an hour or two or three after he goes down and also early in the AM.  After 3 minutes or so in the living room, he says "Book" which means to take him back to his crib.  At some point, we need to get him to stay asleep in his crib.

- BRN

Our Meatatarian

Sam is a meatatarian.  He loves meat and will have nothing to do with fruits and vegetables.  When we were at my parents house for the 1st seder, Sam must have eaten a 1/4 pound of corned beef.  I started giving him a two pieces to try to tide him over until the seder.  He was having none of it.  I get getting "Mo MEET", "MO MEET".  Last night, I committed the cardinal sin of not having snacks in the car (because of Passover I cleaned all the snacks out).   Sam was very cranky and very hungry.  When I suggested that I could feed him a hot dog for dinner, he kept saying "HAAH DAW".  He kept repeating it when I got in the house, at one point basically pleading with me, "HAAH DAW".  He ate two hot dogs, some passover pasta, several pieces of watermelon (the only fruit he will eat) and a cup of applesauce. 

- BRN

And the school we're going to next year is...

...the JCC. Also known as, the day care Rafi is currently in. For all the craziness of applying the past few months, the logistics of the situation made a lot more sense this way. We learned a lot about the schools we applied to, some of which we'll be applying to again next year, and we learned a lot about ourselves and what we like in schools. We think this process will be somewhat easier (mentally) next year because of all we learned this year.

So that's why we haven't been posting a lot. Between school decisions and Passover, it's been a little nuts in our house.

A few short anecdotes:

Rafi wakes up early every day and climbs in bed with me. He's allowed to wake me up at 7am (although he sometimes can't wait that long). Last Week, he woke me up with this exchange:

"Mommy, I had a really good dream. I was a firefighter and so was Noah!"
"Really, did you put out a fire?"
"NO, the other firemen did. I drove the truck and turned on the water supply connection. That's what Grandpa does when he drives the truck."
"Where was the fire, Rafi?"
"It was in South West Carolina. Let's go watch This Old House."

That's my boy. 

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While we were madly cleaning for Passover and Rafi was "helping." He wants to use "the chemicals" (aka Windex) and LOVES to use a sponge and a bucket. Brian has gotten exceedingly good at working on something else while Rafi sponges down the front of the fridge for an hour. I have gotten exceedingly good at dodging large puddles of water on the kitchen floor.

We hosted second seder and one morning before seder, Rafi looked in the fridge and said "That's a lotta kugel!"

I'm a little nervous about how the boys will do on Passover food this year - these kids live on Mac and Cheese, bagels, and cereal... but so far so good. 

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Sam is still obsessed with books and doggies, and especially books about doggies. He takes a book into the car with him every day on the way to school, and gets very upset if I don't let him bring a book. So we're building up a collection of books in the car and he's very happy to see them when he gets into his seat. "Elmo! Doggie! Ah-mose! [animals] Lala![Moo, Baa, La La La]" Then he ends up dropping each one in turn durign the ride. "Book! Uh-oh! Book! Uh-oh!" Everything is an exclamation with this kid.

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Rafi in the car the other day: "Daddy, did you know that, in general, polar bears aren't very nice?"