And then there were THREE

It seems like it was not too long ago when Kelev joined our family. And now when I look outside, what do I see? Achat, shtayim, shalosh...yi, er, san...uno, dos, tres...un deux, trois...- no matter what language I count in, I see THREE dogs!

We're dog-sitting for an extended period of time. PHD's cousin's wife has been very ill and in the hospital so we're taking care of their dogs until she is well enough again to have the dogs around. I love Milo (the big brown dog), LO loves Macaroon (the little black dog), and Kelev loves the company, so it seems that we don't mind however long they will need to be around. It certainly does make life interesting here though.

Please daven for Avia bat Sarah.

A gift for Abba

On the afternoon just before the first candle of Chanukah, I walked into LO's classroom to pick her up from school. She was so excited that she could barely contain herself... "Ima, I got a present for Abba!" She ran over to the corner and she presented me with a large Ziploc bag. Inside of the bag was a very large avocado. I asked her where she got it and she explained that she had bought it in the Panther Store with her Panther dollars.

Panther dollars are a reward for the kids when they do something good like help a teacher, behave nicely, help a classmate with their homework, etc. They are given out just about every day and the kids are allowed to take the dollars they have earned to the Panther Store (which is basically full of nothing but little junky toys like you might see in a birthday party goody bag). You can tell when the kids have gone to the store because each one of them is playing with their new little toy. Imagine my surprise that LO chose to get something for PHD rather than to bring home another useless toy. It certainly was one of the most heartfelt gifts ever. Geez, does this kid make me proud.

LO's first concert

A friend from Hebrew school brought LO to a Rick Recht concert motzei Shabbos. LO was starstruck. The friend's mother bought a CD for LO at the concert. I'm not sure I am going to survive another day of this...



I liked it much better when LO wanted to listen to this guy all day...

LO raises her hand

We had a meeting at our shul last night put together by our "Destination Israel" committee. Their job is to promote the upcoming synagogue trip to Israel and to also increase Israel awareness. One of the speakers was the Rabbi from our local JCC who is preparing to make aliyah. He started his speech by asking, "What makes a Jewish home Jewish?" A dead silence occurred at that moment in the room of approximately 60 people. So he asked the question again. Then he said, "Um, I see a hand way in the back but can't see who's hand it is." I turned around to see who it was. Who's hand do you think was raised? Yep, I turned around and saw LO's hand raised high in the air but since she was sitting on the floor all you could see was her little hand. Then we heard her say, "A mezuzzah!" The Rabbi replied, "Great answer. " Then he looked around and said, "Anyone else? Come on - if that little girl can come up with an answer so can all of you." Slowly people started to raise their hands and answer. And I was kvelling that my little one managed to motivate the group.

The Rabbi went on to give a very good talk about Israel and gave many reasons why we need to go to Israel. One point he made was similar to what Psychotoddler mentioned in this post. He talked about how American Jews are losing the war of attrition. He explained that in the US where Jews are a minority and we are so often surrounded by things like Christmas and the Easter Bunny, it's too easy for our kids to stray from their roots. He talked about how important it was for us to teach our children to love being Jewish. And I looked at LO and thought in my head, "Baruch HaShem, we are on the right path."

LO goes to the Chabad

LO goes to her Dad's house every other weekend. He lives in West Palm Beach which is about 100 miles north of where we live . It's hard on LO for many reasons like she can't play with her friends here, she can't go to services at our Shul, she misses Sunday school, etc. My hope was that as she got older we would find a Shul for her that she could go to when she is up there or perhaps we could find somewhere that she could go to Sunday school on the Sundays that she is there. I searched the internet and found out that there is a Chabad within walking distance of her Dad's house! I mentioned this to her a while back but didn't really act on it.

Before leaving for her Dad's this week she asked me if I had a siddur that she could take with her. When I asked her why, she told me that she misses not having Shabbat and that if she had a siddur she could have Shabbat with her stuffed animals in her room there. (Yes - this made my heart melt.) I reminded her about the Chabad and told her that one day I was sure she could go over there and share Shabbat with them.

About an hour before Shabbat I got a phone call from her. She called to say Shabbat Shalom and then she told me that she met the Rabbi and his wife. When I asked her how, she explained that she was walking her Dad's dog and she remembered that I told her about the Chabad. So she looked at all the houses until she found one with a mezuzah. She walked up and rang the doorbell. The Rebbetzin answered the door and here is what LO said,

"Hello. My name is LO. I'm Jewish. My Hebrew name is Shoshana Leah and I am 9 years old."

I wish that I could have seen the Rebbetzin's face as she was looking down at a little Chinese girl saying this to her.

I had a chance to speak with the Rebbetzin. She adores LO and now it looks like I don't have to worry about where LO will spend Shabbat anymore!

Picture time

It's that time of year again - time for the obligatory Chanukah picture that I will send out to friends and family. LO is not always willing to be the subject of my photography and if it were up to her, I think this is the picture everyone would be getting this year...

Girl Scout Cookie MOM

I just had a momentary lapse of reasoning and I VOLUNTEERED to be the "Cookie Mom" for LO's Girl Scout Troop. What this apparently means is that I am going to be in charge of collecting all of the money and then going to pick up all of the cookies for the troop. Last year LO's troop sold over 1000 boxes of cookies? Where the heck am I going to put 1000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies?

I'm trying to look at the bright side of things...at least they're kosher.

(Trepp - is sending Girl Scout cookies and Splenda to you as bad as eating french fries with Diet Coke?)

The foot washer

LO came upstairs this morning to talk to PHD (who being retired, was still asleep in bed!) I noticed that her nails needed to be cut and so I told her to come into the bathroom with me. I guess I have never realized that she has never been in the bathroom upstairs. She came in the bathroom and exclaimed, "Wow! You have a foot washer in here!" I was like, "Huh?" And then I realized that she was looking at the bidet.

(I don't know why I am never ready for these moments. And is it bad that this bathroom post made me think of Jack?)

So I replied, "That's not a foot washer - that's where you shave your legs." I could hear PHD laughing as he overheard the conversation. And I can already picture it now...one day she'll be married and her husband will find her shaving her legs in the bidet. Lovely.

My green kid

So at first glance you might think LO looks like the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz". But if you asked her, she would tell you that she is Elphaba, the green witch from the Broadway show, "Wicked". And then she'd sing you a few songs from the show.

Oh boy....just what have I created?

Giving in to the iPhone

I did it. I couldn't handle resisting it anymore. I bought the iPhone. I actually can't believe I made it this long without buying it. Of course, I did wait until I could utilize someone's Apple employee discount. ;)

PHD will think I'm crazy for having spent so much money for a phone. That's when I'm just going to blame it all on Robert Avrech. (I'm kidding....sort of.)

Shabbat Shalom.

LO talks and talks and talks and...

I ran into LO's teacher for the first time yesterday. He was on leave for the first month of school and has only been back a short while. When I walked into the office he turned and said to me, "Your daughter is so bright and is such a good girl". I was a little surprised since the substitute that was in the class while he was on leave had some problems with LO because apparently LO thought it was necessary to talk ALL THE TIME. I explained this and he said, "Oh, no she always just sits at her desk and is so quiet." He went on, "But today I must have opened the flood gates because I got her to talk and she was so excited."

I got a little nervous about what she might have babbled on about but then he explained that somehow they got on the subject of Israel and he said that all of a sudden LO perked up. Her teacher is not Jewish but he is a Zionist, so the two of them talking about Israel must have been quite a conversation. He showed LO where Israel is on a globe. And she saw Egypt and took that as an opportunity to tell him about the story of Moses and how he led the Jewish people out of Egypt. Then she told him about the Red Sea. And apparently she went on and one and on.

Nice to know that my Hebrew School dollars are being well spent.

And now...the news

Just found out that LO is going to be the school news anchor. She'll be broadcast over all of the televisions in her school in the morning telling of school news, lunch menus, and the weather. She originally wasn't planning on trying out, but one of her friends was trying out and talked her into trying out as well. It came as quite a surprise when she found out that she was selected.

I can already hear her now..."The weather today will be HOT, humid, and we're all going to schvitz. Today's lunch is ham and cheese sandwiches and that's NOT KOSHER".

Lily's Bat Mitzvah Project

I was reading something on the Families with Children from China website the other day and I ran across a posting asking the families for help with a Bat Mitzvah project. I was not only thrilled to come across another Jewish child who was adopted from China but excited that LO would be able to help this girl with her project.

The girl's name is Lily and she is looking to collect stories from other Jewish Chinese girls for her project. I e-mailed Lily's mother and she asked me to help get the word out about Lily's project. I know that there are several of you who have mentioned to me that there are adopted Chinese girls at your shuls and it would really be a mitzvah if you could spread the word to those families.

LO is already working on her essay for Lily's project and I promise to share it here as soon as she finishes it.

Here is the link for more information...Lily's Bat Mitzvah Project.

The Birds and the Bees

Remember earlier this month when I had one of those unexpected parenting moments? Well, this must be the time for those moments because yet again, LO managed to catch me off guard.

Apparently one of the little girls in her class has already begun experiencing that time of the month. It started while she was at school and her mother had obviously talked with her about it because she felt the need to explain it to all the other little girls in the class. She gave some gory details to LO which were not totally accurate and managed to totally gross LO out. Another little girl in the class decided to chime in with this wise information..."When you get the period and you are older, if you hang out too much with boys it means you are pregnant." Talk about needing to do some damage control.

I was so totally NOT READY for this conversation. We're talking about a child who makes me giggle when she tells me, "When I grow up I'm going to go to China and get a baby just like you got me." She used to think that China is where all babies come from and that's where everyone goes to get a baby (I guess it never dawned on her that not all children are Chinese). Then she met someone who was visibly pregnant. I explained that there was a baby inside the woman and then LO was afraid of the woman because she couldn't understand why the lady ate a baby!

Oy, can't I just continue being content with just making sure that she knows she cannot ever date or marry someone who is not Jewish. Isn't that enough? There should be some parenting book that tells you when you need to do this stuff and how to do it. I am still not sure if what and how I explained this all to her was the right way to do it. I guess I did the best I could do...but now I am sort of guarded...what the heck will she come up with next?

On another note...it's raining AGAIN. A lot of the roads are flooded. A lot of the traffic lights aren't working. Next time for Sukkot we might take Jack's advice and build an ark. Actually at this rate, we may need that ark sooner than next Sukkot.

What's the buzzing sound?

So, it finally stopped raining and we have been able to have several meals in our sukkah. We even slept in it on Shabbat. I know it's a mitzvah to sleep in the sukkah, but let's just say I don't think that mosquito season is over here in Florida. Oy do mosqito bites itch!

Here's wishing that all of you are enjoying a lovely (and mosquito free) chag.

It is STILL raining

Day FOUR. It is still raining. I looked out the window at our unfinished sukkah this morning and it looked so sad without LO's little decorations adorning it. I hear there's a chance the weather will clear up for a bit later today. We are very hopeful.

LO, PHD, and I wish you all a Chag Sameach.

update: I just saw this...it is not looking good.

It's sukkah time...

and apparently that means it is time to rain non-stop in South Florida (great for our draught conditions, bad for our sukkah building conditions!) Our new catch-phrase should be, "If you build it, it will rain". B"H this year the rain didn't come complete with a hurricane on the way (keinahorra...poo, poo, poo).

We had fun STUFFING my car full of palm branches for our s'chach and putting up the frame in the rain. Kelev even jumped into the action at some point...I have to say, there is nothing quite like a wet dog in your sukkah.

We are now on our third straight day of rain...if only it would stop for a bit so we could finish.

(If you are looking for some ideas for sukkah decorations, be sure not to miss Juggling Frogs' post here. She is AMAZING. I have to say if I could go back to being a kid, I'd want to be one of hers!)

Rosh Hashanah is not only ONE day

Last Thursday LO hands me her interim report from school. I looked at the grades and there were no surprises there. But then I noticed that she had an unexcused absence on it. Certainly she hadn't been absent without me knowing, so I sent a note to the teacher asking for an explanation of when exactly LO got this unexcused absence.

On Friday I went to pick LO up early from school so that we could prepare for dinner followed by Kol Nidre. I ran into her teacher and she explained that LO had received an unexcused absence because she was absent on Friday, September 14th. Apparently it didn't matter that I had sent a note in with LO to explain her absence due to the second day of Rosh Hashanah. The teacher went on to explain that she had discussed it with the secretary in the front office and that Rosh Hashanah is only observed for ONE day. (I should probably point out that neither of them are Jewish, so it is probably safe to assume that neither of them are qualified to make this statement.) I hate to admit it but as those words came out of her mouth, I was so angry that my blood started to boil. But I kept my cool as I explained that the holiday was indeed observed on both days. She told me that I needed to take it up with the front office. I took LO by the hand and stormed up to the front office. Turns out that the secretary was at lunch. But...the assistant principal was there so I decided to address it with her. This time I was told that it is a Miami-Dade County school policy that Rosh Hashanah is only observed for one day. (I can't begin to explain how much angrier that statement made me.) I decided that I better drop it at this point before I blew up so I told her that I thought she might want to re-check that policy and I left.

On the way home I could picture it in my head..."the Orieyentas take on the Miami-Dade School Board in a quest for the right to observe Rosh Hashanah for TWO days." And then I started to worry. What will happen with Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah? Will a whole load of unexcused absences ruin her almost perfect grades? And how come this wasn't an issue last year? And oy, why didn't I send her to Jewish Day School this year?

I got home and really needed to focus on getting dinner ready and getting into the Yom Kippur frame of mind and decided that there was not much more I could do about this until after the weekend. Thankfully, motzei Shabbos/Yom Tov when we checked the answering machine there was a message from the school secretary admitting that she was incorrect saying that there was only ONE day of Rosh Hashanah and that there are indeed TWO days of Rosh Hashanah. LO's unexcused absence has been changed to excused. Hopefully we won't have this problem for the upcoming chags. Oh the joys of sending your child to a secular/public school.

ed. note: I thought I should point out that in making the choice to send LO to a secular school, I certainly realize things like this are bound to happen sometimes. I'm relatively ok with that. What I was truly mad about was being told by TWO gentiles that Rosh Hashanah is only one day.

Is it time to eat yet?

LO really LOVES to eat. You'd never guess it if you saw her because she is and always has been smaller than all the kids her age. Needless to say, a day of fasting should seem like the end of the world to her. We obviously don't require her to fast but she does try to make an effort to at least skip a meal and possibly a snack. The funny thing is that she will ask a million times and then a million more times, "Is it time to eat yet?" Then I'll tell her to go ahead and eat. Of course, then she'll decide not to eat. I think she just likes to keep asking me over and over again, "Is it time to eat yet?" Or maybe she just likes the bagels, lox, herring, whitefish, etc. that we serve at our break fast. Whatever it is, here we are ready to hear, "Is it time to eat yet?"

Little Orieyenta, PHD, and I wish you all a meaningful and easy fast. G'mar Chatima Tova.

LO's Newest Friend

Guess what we just got?

Direct from the Miami-Dade Animal Services, please meet the newest member of our household, Kelev. (For those of you who don't know, it's the Hebrew word for dog. And yes, it was LO's idea to name him this.)

LO had been asking for a dog for a long time and PHD and I finally decided it was time. We definitely wanted to rescue one from the pound rather than get one from a puppy mill or a breeder and so we set on a search to find a dog.

We wanted it to be a surprise so PHD went and picked Kelev up today while LO was at school. LO had no idea that we were planning this. When she came home she actually didn't notice the dog right away but as soon as she did she was jumping up and down with joy. She's so excited that we are lucky we were able to get her to go to bed tonight. B'ezrat Hashem this is just the start of a very wonderful friendship.