Yom Haatzmaut

Eden did not get to see the fireworks. She was all hyped up for them, but then somehow forgot about it right before it was her regular bed time. She was tired and went to bed so easily, that we just COULDN'T make her stay up later. It would have been excruciating.
So when they started about 1.5 hours later, we rushed downstairs, sure that she would have woken up scared. Not a chance, nor was she going to wake up. No dice, and Ben missed the first few trying. The next morning, we decided not to mention it and kind of skimmed the topic. Oh well, maybe next year.
Yesterday we spent the morning in Park Canada, 10 min from Modiin on one side, and one of the two local forests and hiking spots (the other being the Ben Shemen forest, 10 min from Modiin on the other side). Wasn't very crowded, and only a little bit of garbage. Best of all, there were trees! Not really to sit in the shade (although we did), but to climb! Eden climbed trees for the first time, and I think it was a great ego booster, since she insisted on wearing her fake crocs that morning, which don't have much traction, and wern't serving her so well on the rocks she was climbing.
Then we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's for a bbq, where Eden ate more than ever, and I discovered the wonders of excercise balls. Pictures sometime soon.

Eden's been singing Independence Day songs for weeks now, getting the reishes in "Eretz Yisrael Sheli Yafa veGam Porachat" (My Israel is beautiful and blooming) right every time! She's so obsessed with Yom Haatzmaut that everything her gannenet told her about Holocaust Rememberance Day and Memorial Day went out the window - she doesn't remember a thing. Also, she thinks that the upcoming Lag B'omer is also a party for the medina - mangal and medurah getting mixed up also.

Happy 61, Medinat Yisrael. We are so glad to be here. Baby too - kicking strongly to the tune of Hatikvah.

Brag Post Plus

I know its hard to listen to parents go on and on about how wonderful their kids are. Well oh well, that's what you get on a mom-blog.

I was just about to write a post on how big of help Eden was today when she came upstairs and started whining and complaining, touching everything in the room that I did not want her to touch, and generally being pretty annoying. Sometimes I feel guilty about having such little patience for those types of things. But after feeling guilty for too too long, I've decided that no mom is perfect, and if this is what she complains about in 20 years, then so be it.

Nonetheless I'll give credit when due, and today, Eden:

• Helped me vacuum by pushing it around behind me so that I wouldn't have to pull it
• Helped me wash mirrors and toilets
• Fetched random things for me, like new garbage bags, the stool, the window cleaner, and brought the stool back to the kitchen, and laundry to the hamper, and even put the garbage bag in the pail
• Washed the steps (she does this most Fridays, with very wet wipes. We're lucky if there isn't enough water on the floor underneath them afterward to wash the rest of the floor too...)
• Made her bed this morning! Totally without either of us prompting her to!

Really, what a big girl and what a big helper.

On another note, she's going through an odd clingy phase. I'm late leaving for work more often than not recently because she's up when I leave and crying that she wants me to stay with her. One day this week, I actually gave her a necklace of mine to wear so that she would have a bit of me all day with her. That seemed to do the trick, although Ben wasn't too pleased. He thought the other kids might get jealous and make fun of her. Indeed, when I went to pick her up, it was hidden, tucked into her shirt, because she said the other kids might call her "chutzpanit" (lit. "rude", but something along the lines of making fun of her, I guess...)

And on another note completely (this is the "plus"), I've been looking for a hanging fruit basket for AGES! I want to screw them into the ceiling above the divider between our dining room and kitchen because we always lose track of the fruit and vegies in our fridge and they end up going bad. It's very weird, nobody has them. Seriously, what a funny thing to not be able to find - they are under $15 in the US.

Hear, Hear

The Idle Parent: Don't take your kids to amusement parks or museums.

Although we are planning one day in Disney when we go back to the US in Nov....

I also seem to find it mind-numbingly impossible to sit on the floor and cut up little bits of paper with Eden, or draw endless butterflies with ears.

And you know? She's refreshingly resourceful and independent.

Bees in my Tummy

This morning, Ben went off to work as usual. Eden went off to gan - in Kaiser, another neighborhood that has a branch of her gan. Its not really gan today, since gan is closed, but the afternoon program is open so that parents can go back to work.
Eden was worried that none of her friends were going to be there, and that she would have no one to play with. Good for her for expressing it, although this is maybe the 3rd or 4th time in her life that she's been nervous about going to gan. I asked her if she had butterflies in her tummy, and she said no, bees. - ? - . She even tried to do what Winnie the Pooh does, and blow them out, but it didn't work. In the end, her friends were there and her afternoon teacher was there, and she was OK, although hesitant in a new place. You know, even though I'm sure that she will be fine, I'm nervous for her too - I think just because she's nervous. I'm really feeling what she's feeling.

I have a funny day today also. I have a mandatory vacation day, which is great, since its a day on my own, without Eden. I can completely transfer back to chametz, catch up on laundry and housework, and still have time to relax. But I feel funny, with no one to speak to and nothing really fun to do. (Switching over a kitchen and doing laundry is NOT fun. Going shopping for things that I really don't need would be fun, but it would also involve spending money. How do people spend time by themselves for extending days at a time without spending more money?!) I find myself speaking out loud... to nobody. I suppose its a good thing I have a blog.

So I'm putting off switching over. For example, I'm going to go out and buy some good storage containers to keep the Pesach things in, since our Pesach organization isn't that great. And while I'm there, I may as well do the weeks grocery shopping, which requires me to look up recipes and make menu lists before I leave. Ah and also, I have to start to take lunch to work. I can do some research about that before I leave. How do you plan dinners as well as lunches? And also get some laundry in. At this rate, I'll be lucky if the Pesach things are all put away by the end of the day......

Edit - 1:39 PM. Pesach things are all put away (did not buy the containers in the end, they are too expensive and we really don't need them), but its such a drag to take the chametz things out again and reorganize. I think I'll make a chicken pot pie with left over soup and a coffee cake instead.

And some more thoughts on the lines of the above: My goal during maternity leave is not to spend more money than I would have if I was driving to work every day. I can see myself either going to get very fat by baking things like above coffee cake, or spend a lot of money going out for breakfast with friends who are also on maternity leave. Or spend a lot of money going out by myself with the baby, and spending the money on gas that I was supposed to be saving by not going to work. And all at once. So, it would be nice to even come out ahead, but I think planning on at least breaking even is more realistic.

Emotional Growth Spurts

I don't know, maybe spending a day at home with your kid makes you more aware of how grown up they are. Or maybe, they really did take a recent jump in EI. I'll never know.
In any case. A list of the adorable and interesting things Eden's done recently, particularly today, since I spent the day with her. This is what being a mom is about, being able to blab (related to blog?) about it.

• Yesterday I had told her about how we were going to clean the fridge and the cabinets today, and then go grocery shopping for Pesach. Eden was really excited about it, and couldn't wait to dig in. This morning, when I started to clean the fridge, I said - Ok, Eden, let's go! And Eden said, No, Mommy, you gonna clean the fridge. I'm making the list. A manager after my own heart.
• On Friday, Eden made a Waldorf salad with Ben's mom, and had a bunch of apples and nuts. Friday afternoon, she came down with a throat infection and threw up in the car - all those apples and nuts. Today, as we were driving in the car, I suppose Eden felt a little sick again, and she said, Mommy, my apples are coming up. It took a minute for us to understand what she meant - she hadn't had any apples today - her first euphemism! We are all going to use it from now on. A few months ago, I had apples coming constantly...lots of apples coming up.
• We went out to dinner tonight at the new sushi place in Modiin Center. There are some kiddy rides there for 2 shekels. Eden wanted to go on one of the rides, but saw that we were busy. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, and say that she didn't want to bother us. Because all of a sudden, I find her rooting around in my purse! When I asked her what she was looking for, she said, I'm looking for kesef (money). Do you have any kesef for the rides? She would have just taken it! I'm sure it was innocent, but I think a talk about money and stealing is coming up soon....
  

I was REALLY impressed with her in the grocery store. True, we didn't get much of our list because she lost the stamina. But listen to this.

• Grocery story #1 We went to get toothbrushes and they were all out of kids toothbrushes except for a bratz toothbrush. And this is the first time I had to say no because I felt something that she wanted was inappropriate. But I'm not brushing my kids teeth with an effigy of a slut that my kid thinks is pretty. Sorry. So we went back and forth a few times, and then Eden said, Ok Mommy so what I'm gonna get that you like instead. And we picked up a fun looking toothpaste. And then later on in checkout, I noticed that the toothpaste wasn't kosher for pesach and I told Eden and she was pretty worried about what we were going to get instead of her toothbrush. And I said, we will have to go to another store to get something else. And she said, OK, and that was it. (!!).
  
• Grocery story #2: Eden picked up a package of crunchy MSG and said that she wanted to snack on it in the store - OK, no problem. Then she saw the chocolate puddings and said, But Mommy why we never get those yogurts? Those yogurts are so very very yummy! So I said she could get a puddding, but she couldn't eat it until she got home, whereas the snack bag she could have now. Still she chose the yogurt, and watched over it in the cart for the rest of the day. She watched it at the checkout counter. Often reminded me, saying, Mommy right you said as soon as we get home I can have my yogurt? Right you said? Right I said, and she was so patient, and so good, that I decided to sit down at the snack area and let her eat it there.

And the tip top this-is-my-great-kid-story....

• We wrote up the grocery list all day, as we went along. I kept thinking of some more things to get, specifically for Eden - a new toothbrush (oh well...) and toothpaste, a new cup for her bed, popsicles or ice cream, a snack for the trip. And as I added more things to the list, she said, Mommy! We gonna buy so many things for me today! You're such a good mommy, you buy me so many things! I'll ignore the materialism in that sentence and just take what I can get.
  

Throat Infections May Prevent PPCD

The good news is that I most decidedly do not have PPCD (Pre-Pesach Cleaning Disorder) this year. Perhaps due to the pregnancy, or a throat infection, or Eden's throat infection, or nutty work schedule, my recent pre-disposition to laziness, or a combination of all of these.
I have never done this little for Pesach.
Actually, I have never done this little for so long a period in general.
We aren't making seder, and haven't even been asked to bring anything, except our beautiful daughter who will hopefully grace us with a decent Mah Nishtana, or at least part of it (time is running out, and she still doesn't know it! Does that make me a terribleJewish mom?). We gave the house a good clean a few weeks ago when my parents were here. The apartment is small, and what you see is mostly what you get. I'm not rifling through the pockets in my non-preg jeans to find chametz in there, nor am I looking through old clothes of Eden's - they are all packed away. Any chametz sitting in any of other place that I haven't looked at in a year (since last Pesach cleaning!) is either inedible or will be declared ownerless and as dust in the wind.
We still have the kitchen left to do. But even that - I am emptying out 2 tall floor to ceiling cabinets, and everything, including dishes and food, can go in there. Counters, sinks, stoves, fridge, are all bleachable. Oven, microwave - nuke it with poisonous cleaner and turn it on high. Kill it and its not chametz, and more than that I don't care.
Everything else is being shut up, sold, and not cleaned. I'm not buying much more than I would for a regular week - even less, since I love Matzah and jelly so much. I haven't cooked much in the past 5 months, and I don't expect to start now.
If I had thought about it, I would have tried to buy less chametz, starting even before Purim. I resolve to try to do so next year - that would make me feel less guilty about doing so little. I do so hate to throw good food in the garbage, and we have orzo, barley, kusemet, french fries....
People will try to tell you that there is a spiritual side to Pesach cleaning. That getting rid of the chametz in your house also enables you to get rid of the chametz in your soul. I suppose this is true, but is it maybe easier to look for the chametz in your soul when you aren't worn out and sick of cleaning your house? This is just a theoretical question, I do not commit to spending hours soul searching this month. I'll just try the usual - let's be a nicer, better, more caring and understanding person this month than I was last month. Maybe I'll even count Omer and get through the whole thing.
Don't think that I don't feel guilty for this. We aren't driving ourselves up the wall cleaning. We aren't planning a seder until 3 AM. We live in Israel and can buy everything we need the morning of the holiday at the local grocery store - especially since we eat Kitniot! We didn't spend a ridiculous amount of money on new clothes, cleaning services, and are not planning on buying kosher for pesach, kitniot free, gebrochts free MacNCheese. We are both working over chol hamoed, saving our vacation days. We just aren't stressing.
So what do we do? Sit back, enjoy the spring holiday, enjoy the seder discussion, the prayers, and time with family. Hopefully we'll take a little day trip with Eden (anyone want to join?). Being happy, content, mellow (sounds like my MIL's description of retirement. I suppose I could be happy retiring, for a week or so.) Sit still and try to feel my baby kick.
I do feel the need to justify and defend myself. Generations of Pesach nuttiness is too ground into me. How many generations will it take to introduce calm and serenity into Judaism?