Well, the presentation at Rachel's preschool this morning went much better than I'd anticipated. For one thing, the pastor wasn't there; just the teachers and A LOT of kids. I brought in freshly baked sufganiyot (which I'd spent until 2 a.m. making, and they turned out pretty well except I didn't pinch the edges of the dough together so most of the jelly fell into the oil, and, really, they're best eaten hot), the construction-paper menorah I'd made that looked kind of like a cross but had the transliteration of the Chanukah prayer on it, our actual menorah that Mom and Dad gave us years ago, and a bunch of dreidels and chocolate gelt for the kids.
I introduced myself as "Mrs. DeSilver," -- first time I've EVER done that -- and told the kids the very basic story of Hanukkah, then read from a book about one family celebrating the holiday -- inviting cousins over, having Grandma light the menorah, putting change into the tzedakah box, etc. Then I sang the Hanukkah song that we sing in Yiddish, ended with "Hip hip hooray for the MACCABEES!" and then it was time to leave.
Teacher Tracy told Drew that this was much better than other ones had gone, and Teacher Erin said she'd always wanted to have a parent come into her class and talk about Hanukkah and she was so glad I'd come. I also found out that one of Rachel's little friends, Tassanee, is Jewish too! (At least, her parents have a menorah). On the way out, Rhonda the recpetionist told us that the sufganiyot she'd tasted reminded her of a pastry her Polish grandmother had made but she could never find a recipe for it anywhere. I'm determined to locate one for her!
I had a wonderfully warm fuzzy feeling on the drive to work. Yes, I wonder if we're doing the right thing raising Rachel so far from the center of all that is Jewish in this country (i.e., New York), but so far she seems to have a very strong Jewish identity -- she's eager to learn the prayers and is open to the happier aspects of being Jewish rather than the suffering. And if I'm called on to be a cultural ambassador more often than I would back East, then fine. There are a bunch of little kids who heard Yiddish spoken for the first time in their lives today. Who knows what that could lead to??
And Rachel loved having me there. She bragged about it to the librarian who came in to tell the kids stories after I left.
***
Unfortunately Rachel woke up really early today. When I came home she told me, "Go away. Please go. I'm serious and I'm tired." She perked up soon enough, though, when I made latkes. "Um, yummy!" she said. I still remember when we knew she was ready for real food -- it was in December, when her little hand shot out to try some sour cream after I had made latkes for Hanukkah!
***
Drew was reading a book called "Ella visits Israel," to Rachel before bed tonight. When they got to the page about the Wailing Wall, and how people write messages on slips of paper and insert them into the cracks, Rachel said, "Yeah, and I would write, 'Happy Hanukkah, everybody!' on mine!"
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Mommy and Rachel Day!
Today Drew had to get up really early to leave for a weekend shift in Seattle (the only thing that makes this marginally OK is he's getting about $300 in overtime pay) so Rachel and I arranged a playdate at Portland PDX with Doug, Linda, Jack and Andrew. Rachel and I got there around 11:15, around the same time as the Grayburns.
Rachel barely gave a glance back at me as she raced off to the play area, so I got to have a nice long talk with Linda and Doug. It was almost like having a grownup coffee date, except for the shrieking kids in the background. Once Rachel figured out where we were sitting, she came over once in a while to visit, then raced off again. A couple of times she asked me to come in the play structure with her, and we had a great time sliding down the incredibly steep and fast slides. I now know better than to put her on my lap and slide down together -- something about our body weights made us go extra fast, and I ended up tumbling on top of her. She laughed, but I got scared and suggested we go down together, but on separate slides.
About 1:15, most of the kids cleared out and it suddenly seemed quieter. Rachel ate a good lunch of hot dog, apples and caramel sauce, and lemonade, and toward the end of the day she begged for a cupcake. I shook my head no, she turned up her big blue eyes at me and pouted, and Linda thought she was adorable. Luckily she listened to me when I insisted she finish her hot dog -- and then she ended up wanting graham crackers instead of the cupcake! Linda wondered how I'd gotten her to change her mind; Rachel often whines for dessert and sweets and ends up leaving half of them on the plate. I think she's like me; she really just wants the taste of something sweet rather than the whole thing.
We stopped by the library on the way home to pick up a book for me to read to Rachel's class when I become HanukkahMom on Tuesday, but EVERYTHING was checked out. Either there are a lot of curious Christians in this city or the library just doesn't stock enough Judaica. I finally put one book on hold at the central library downtown, but I'm unsure of whether to get it; it's about Hanukkah in Poland, and what I really want is a preschool explanation of the holiday. Sigh.
After I put Rachel down for a nap, I spent 90 MINUTES trying to make a decent-looking menorah for Rachel's class. I made it out of blue construction paper, pasted it on a black hardboard, and am including yellow cardboard flames so the kids can "light" the menorah every night while saying the prayer I pasted on the front of the whole thing. After all the time I spent, I can only say that only one of the Lednicer sisters got the art talent in the family, and it wasn't me. I envy Valerie; she'll have the cool art mom who does awesome room projects; Rachel gets the mom whom, um, writes.
Tonight when I put her to sleep, Rachel started telling me a whole story of how she is a horse princess. She's white with a pink collar, and Daddy is a gray horse with a blue collar, and I'm a brown horse with a brown collar, and she lives in a big field, and she wears a rainbow dress and a flower dress, and she is the Horse Princess of the Flowers. She told me she'd wake me up tomorrow morning, and I told her no, please, let me wake YOU up, and she said we'd wake each other up, and hopefully I'd have enough time to get to Horse Work on time. And this paragraph doesn't sound nearly as cute as Rachel does when she tells it to me in the dark, snuggled up against me in her afghan.
Cute Rachel-isms today:
"Even when I'm a grown woman, would you and Daddy carry me around when I'm scared?" she asked in the car on the way home. I assure her we would.
***
"We need a bigger house," she said, also on the way home from Playdate PDX.
"Why do we need a bigger house, sweetie?" I asked.
"So we can have more kids," she said.
"You mean more kids in the house, or so Mommy can have more babies?" I asked.
"So Mommy can have more babies," she answered.
I sighed, and she asked me why I was sighing.
"I'd love that, too," Rachel," I said.
***
Speaking of Playdate PDX, Andrew is quite a bit older than Rachel and I've always assumed they don't interact much. He goes to real school, she goes to preschool; she's a girl, he's a boy.
So imagine my surprise that as soon as I buckled her into her carseat after we left Playdate PDX, she started singing: "Jingle bells, jingle bells/Robin laid an egg/Batmobile lost a wheel/and Joker got away."
"Where did you LEARN that?" I gasped.
"Andrew taught it to me," she said.
And here I thought she and the boys never talked...
Rachel barely gave a glance back at me as she raced off to the play area, so I got to have a nice long talk with Linda and Doug. It was almost like having a grownup coffee date, except for the shrieking kids in the background. Once Rachel figured out where we were sitting, she came over once in a while to visit, then raced off again. A couple of times she asked me to come in the play structure with her, and we had a great time sliding down the incredibly steep and fast slides. I now know better than to put her on my lap and slide down together -- something about our body weights made us go extra fast, and I ended up tumbling on top of her. She laughed, but I got scared and suggested we go down together, but on separate slides.
About 1:15, most of the kids cleared out and it suddenly seemed quieter. Rachel ate a good lunch of hot dog, apples and caramel sauce, and lemonade, and toward the end of the day she begged for a cupcake. I shook my head no, she turned up her big blue eyes at me and pouted, and Linda thought she was adorable. Luckily she listened to me when I insisted she finish her hot dog -- and then she ended up wanting graham crackers instead of the cupcake! Linda wondered how I'd gotten her to change her mind; Rachel often whines for dessert and sweets and ends up leaving half of them on the plate. I think she's like me; she really just wants the taste of something sweet rather than the whole thing.
We stopped by the library on the way home to pick up a book for me to read to Rachel's class when I become HanukkahMom on Tuesday, but EVERYTHING was checked out. Either there are a lot of curious Christians in this city or the library just doesn't stock enough Judaica. I finally put one book on hold at the central library downtown, but I'm unsure of whether to get it; it's about Hanukkah in Poland, and what I really want is a preschool explanation of the holiday. Sigh.
After I put Rachel down for a nap, I spent 90 MINUTES trying to make a decent-looking menorah for Rachel's class. I made it out of blue construction paper, pasted it on a black hardboard, and am including yellow cardboard flames so the kids can "light" the menorah every night while saying the prayer I pasted on the front of the whole thing. After all the time I spent, I can only say that only one of the Lednicer sisters got the art talent in the family, and it wasn't me. I envy Valerie; she'll have the cool art mom who does awesome room projects; Rachel gets the mom whom, um, writes.
Tonight when I put her to sleep, Rachel started telling me a whole story of how she is a horse princess. She's white with a pink collar, and Daddy is a gray horse with a blue collar, and I'm a brown horse with a brown collar, and she lives in a big field, and she wears a rainbow dress and a flower dress, and she is the Horse Princess of the Flowers. She told me she'd wake me up tomorrow morning, and I told her no, please, let me wake YOU up, and she said we'd wake each other up, and hopefully I'd have enough time to get to Horse Work on time. And this paragraph doesn't sound nearly as cute as Rachel does when she tells it to me in the dark, snuggled up against me in her afghan.
Cute Rachel-isms today:
"Even when I'm a grown woman, would you and Daddy carry me around when I'm scared?" she asked in the car on the way home. I assure her we would.
***
"We need a bigger house," she said, also on the way home from Playdate PDX.
"Why do we need a bigger house, sweetie?" I asked.
"So we can have more kids," she said.
"You mean more kids in the house, or so Mommy can have more babies?" I asked.
"So Mommy can have more babies," she answered.
I sighed, and she asked me why I was sighing.
"I'd love that, too," Rachel," I said.
***
Speaking of Playdate PDX, Andrew is quite a bit older than Rachel and I've always assumed they don't interact much. He goes to real school, she goes to preschool; she's a girl, he's a boy.
So imagine my surprise that as soon as I buckled her into her carseat after we left Playdate PDX, she started singing: "Jingle bells, jingle bells/Robin laid an egg/Batmobile lost a wheel/and Joker got away."
"Where did you LEARN that?" I gasped.
"Andrew taught it to me," she said.
And here I thought she and the boys never talked...
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Peacock Lane
I've had a bad last two days at work -- interpersonal conflict with a colleague -- and so I was determined to do something fun tonight with Rachel.
We ended up visiting Peacock Lane, a street of tricked-out houses for the holidays. Every house on the block has unbelievable Christmas decorations; there's a booth with free hot chocolate and apple cider; and crowds of people walk up and down the sidewalk to admire the decorations.It was one of two nights in December when it was pedestrian-only; the street was closed to traffic and onlookers clumped up in front of houses, madly taking pictures and oohing and aaha-ing.
It was a hassle to find parking and walk in the damp air without a stroller, but it was worth it as soon as we arrived. "Ohhhh!" Rachel said, her whole face aglow. "MOMMY!!!!"
Her eyes remained lit up the entire time, right up until she decided she was hungry and I raced us home for a quick Shabbat dinner. Rachel insisted that I color some pages from her coloring book that I started last night and didn't manage to finish today. I promised I'd finish them after breakfast -- just about the time that I'll need to bake cookies (or maybe a cake) for our friend Deni's Christmas party tomorrow night.
We ended up visiting Peacock Lane, a street of tricked-out houses for the holidays. Every house on the block has unbelievable Christmas decorations; there's a booth with free hot chocolate and apple cider; and crowds of people walk up and down the sidewalk to admire the decorations.It was one of two nights in December when it was pedestrian-only; the street was closed to traffic and onlookers clumped up in front of houses, madly taking pictures and oohing and aaha-ing.
It was a hassle to find parking and walk in the damp air without a stroller, but it was worth it as soon as we arrived. "Ohhhh!" Rachel said, her whole face aglow. "MOMMY!!!!"
Her eyes remained lit up the entire time, right up until she decided she was hungry and I raced us home for a quick Shabbat dinner. Rachel insisted that I color some pages from her coloring book that I started last night and didn't manage to finish today. I promised I'd finish them after breakfast -- just about the time that I'll need to bake cookies (or maybe a cake) for our friend Deni's Christmas party tomorrow night.
Hanukkah Mom's debut edges closer...
I am officially on the preschool schedule for next week: "Special visit from Rachel DeSilver's mom to learn about Hanukkah!" Last night Rachel and I went to the Dollar Tree store -- everything is $1; I can't believe I've never been there before -- and we picked up a bunch of crafts for the menorah I plan to make this weekend in preparation for the visit to Rachel's class on Tuesday. Apparently the kids will also be making a classroom menorah, eating Hanukkah treats, learning about Hanukkah and working on "Hanukkah coloring sheets" that week.
I can only guess what the plans will be for Diwali. Or Eid-el-Fitr.
Special note to Mom and Dad: Rachel can sing the Hanukkah song! IN YIDDISH. I swear, you can understand every part of the song she sings. Drew was extremely impressed and hoped you would feel equally so that his 3 1/2-year-old daughter can already speak some Yiddish. He thinks that's way cool. So do I.
***
Speaking of languages, on the way to school this morning Rachel asked me to speak some Spanish and French. Then she asked me how to say "I love you" in both languages. That says a lot about the kind of kid she is -- sweet and thoughtful. As I was getting ready to leave the bedroom this morning, she knelt down and slid my slippers onto my feet and pulled down the leg of my pajamas, which had slid upward almost to my knee. Really, it's like having a little chambermaid in my house.
***
"I like waking you up in the morning," Rachel said as we were driving home. "I like to warn you that morning is here." (Later I told her to please, please let Mommy and Daddy sleep late tomorrow).
I can only guess what the plans will be for Diwali. Or Eid-el-Fitr.
Special note to Mom and Dad: Rachel can sing the Hanukkah song! IN YIDDISH. I swear, you can understand every part of the song she sings. Drew was extremely impressed and hoped you would feel equally so that his 3 1/2-year-old daughter can already speak some Yiddish. He thinks that's way cool. So do I.
***
Speaking of languages, on the way to school this morning Rachel asked me to speak some Spanish and French. Then she asked me how to say "I love you" in both languages. That says a lot about the kind of kid she is -- sweet and thoughtful. As I was getting ready to leave the bedroom this morning, she knelt down and slid my slippers onto my feet and pulled down the leg of my pajamas, which had slid upward almost to my knee. Really, it's like having a little chambermaid in my house.
***
"I like waking you up in the morning," Rachel said as we were driving home. "I like to warn you that morning is here." (Later I told her to please, please let Mommy and Daddy sleep late tomorrow).
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Rachel loves the rain
It has been raining for the past 24 hours after a two-week reprieve:
"I like the rain," Rachel said. "It helps all the plants to grow."
Later she said: "I have a wonderful surprise, ok? It's a watering can, and I can rummage around the house when it's dry and water the plants, OK?"
I made up a story today, at her request, about Christmas lights. It was about a family with twin girls (also at Rachel's insistence) named Anna and Sarah who had lots of Christmas lights every year, along with every other house in town, but then all the daddies started losing their jobs, and the mommies did, too, and soon none of the houses except Anna's and Sarah's had lights...
"And if I had jobs I would give out lots of jobs to all the daddies," Rachel interrupted.
The story ended with Anna and Sarah and their parents deciding to give some of their lights to every house in town -- but to do it during the day, when the daddies were looking for jobs and the mommies are taking the kids to activities, so no one knew what Anna and Sarah had done until the night, when the lights came on...
"...and then I'd wave a magic wand and all the houses would disappear!" Rachel concluded.
"I like the rain," Rachel said. "It helps all the plants to grow."
Later she said: "I have a wonderful surprise, ok? It's a watering can, and I can rummage around the house when it's dry and water the plants, OK?"
I made up a story today, at her request, about Christmas lights. It was about a family with twin girls (also at Rachel's insistence) named Anna and Sarah who had lots of Christmas lights every year, along with every other house in town, but then all the daddies started losing their jobs, and the mommies did, too, and soon none of the houses except Anna's and Sarah's had lights...
"And if I had jobs I would give out lots of jobs to all the daddies," Rachel interrupted.
The story ended with Anna and Sarah and their parents deciding to give some of their lights to every house in town -- but to do it during the day, when the daddies were looking for jobs and the mommies are taking the kids to activities, so no one knew what Anna and Sarah had done until the night, when the lights came on...
"...and then I'd wave a magic wand and all the houses would disappear!" Rachel concluded.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Too close for comfort
Tonight Rachel asked Drew, "Daddy, how old are you?" (I've told her the real number several times but she doesn't appear to remember).
"A million," Drew answered nonchalantly.
"Nooo," Rachel said sweetly. I chimed in that NO ONE can be a million years old!
"How old do you think I am?" Drew asked.
"51!" she exclaimed.
I laughed so hard I pounded the table. Drew joined in.
"The thing is, it's too close!!" Drew yelped. "It's too close for comfort!"
(The real answer, for those of you counting at home, is...46).
"A million," Drew answered nonchalantly.
"Nooo," Rachel said sweetly. I chimed in that NO ONE can be a million years old!
"How old do you think I am?" Drew asked.
"51!" she exclaimed.
I laughed so hard I pounded the table. Drew joined in.
"The thing is, it's too close!!" Drew yelped. "It's too close for comfort!"
(The real answer, for those of you counting at home, is...46).
ROAR!!!
Rachel's latest way of having fun is pretending she's a lion or tiger and scaring Drew and me. Most of the time, it's true, she enlists my help in scaring Drew when he's downstairs showering or returning from running errands. Then Rachel and I will whisper that it's a good idea to try to frighten Daddy, so she'll say, "I've got a great idea! Let's roar him!"
We were cuddling in the glider last night while Drew was finishing up a high-profile story in the latest of his "Bankers Behaving Badly" beat stories. She whispered to me, "When Daddy comes upstairs, let's roar him."
"Are we tigers or lions?" I asked.
"Lions," she decided.
The great thing is, whenever we both roar at Drew, he really does appear startled. There's nothing like a low Mommy roar accompanied by the tiny roar of a 3 1/2 year old trying to look fierce that is enough to make you collapse with laughter.
We were cuddling in the glider last night while Drew was finishing up a high-profile story in the latest of his "Bankers Behaving Badly" beat stories. She whispered to me, "When Daddy comes upstairs, let's roar him."
"Are we tigers or lions?" I asked.
"Lions," she decided.
The great thing is, whenever we both roar at Drew, he really does appear startled. There's nothing like a low Mommy roar accompanied by the tiny roar of a 3 1/2 year old trying to look fierce that is enough to make you collapse with laughter.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)