Where's the Hametz

Last night we hid bags of chocolate cookies as our hametz. We then ceremoniously burnt it this morning, declaring all leaven left in the house null and void, as the dust of the earth. Except of course the pita that is sitting in the fridge for Shabbat.

Eden helped me hide the cookies - she's very furtive. Of course they were all hidden in her room. Some had good hiding places. Others, less so.

Happy Pesach!

Five Years

It is two days until our fifth wedding anniversary. I can't really put it into words; it's really something else.

Pesach is coming

So I've made a decision. I will not go crazy about Pesach this year.
Actually I say that every year, and every year I go less and less crazy.
See I was supposed to start cleaning tonight. Seeing as I only have one Friday to clean, its all got to be done during the week. But I woke up this morning with a sore throat that just got worse during the day.
Seeing as we've had rampant tonsilitis in the family this month, I decided to take tomorrow morning off and go to the dr. Just for some antibiotics, just in case.
But I did not check off the things I should have tonight, which leads me to the realization that we really dont have chametz in the bedrooms.
One bedroom (the mamad, or the "extra room". The room thats waiting for someone to fill it.) is being closed off for Pesach. We will dump all the things we really don't need in it.
Eden hardly spends time in her room, except to sleep. Hence the toys around the rest of the house. And she never eats there - she barely eats at all, never mind in her room. And our room? I suppose I'll check through our clothes pockets for crumbs and candy wrappers, but we really don't eat there much.
Its really the office (one room), and the living room/dining room/kitchen. Which really doesnt make any sense to do before next shabbat anyway.

So our house will not gleam for Pesach. Thats ok, it never really gleams. But I'll be glowing - since I'll have slept that week :)

The sticker plan and terrible threes

So our sticker chart backfired. I mean, really, this is not working very well. Although Eden is eating vegies (very very reluctantly), she doesn't seem to be very motivated by the sticker chart, nor by the supposed present at the end of the week.

Sunday night we made a sticker chart together. It had a box on it for every day of the month, and a picture of Eden, as well as pictures of hot dogs, and peas, and macaroni and cheese, and eggs and toast, etc. Eden colored next to me as we both colored the sticker chart.

That evening, Eden had a great dinner of fishticks and peas, we had a formal sticker chart hanging ceremony, and Eden got a sticker. Yay Eden!

Monday evening, Eden had a great dinner of grilled cheese and peas (ok she likes peas), and she got a sticker again. When we went to go put the sticker up, she looked at the chart and burst into tears. I finally deciphered through her tears that she was saying, "Where's MY sticker chart?" I said, "Eden, what's this?" and she returned, "No, thats MOMMY's sticker chart! Where's Eden's sticker chart?"

So we made a new sticker chart. I told her I would draw the boxes, but she wanted to do it herself. Ok. After one circular box, she decided she didn't need boxes on her chart. I told her that all charts have boxes, but I guess she figured that didn't mean that hers had to.

Later, talking to Ben, we realized that Eden is more like me than we realize - thats just something I would say. Who says a sticker chart has to have boxes? Just because everyone else's has boxes on it? My sticker chart will NOT have boxes!

Anyway, tonight Eden had some pita and lettuce - I know real appealing, but she didn't want the chili I served with it - and she got a sticker. We went to hang it on the new sticker chart (the one SHE drew, with the one circular box), and again she said, "Where's my sticker chart?". So thats where she lost me and when she threatened to blow a fit, I decided to convince her that her shirt was a better place for her sticker.

So oh well for the sticker chart.

And I used to say that she was never as tiring and cranky and impossible as she was her first four months of life. I can now change that to she was never so impossible as she was her first four months of life, until she turned three.