Time to play the tooth fairy

Tikvah lost her first tooth about 2 months ago. However, she decided she wanted to keep this tooth rather than to leave it to the tooth fairy. I never got her full reasoning, but no sense in forcing her to do something she doesn't want to.

Then out of the blue, two days ago, she told me she changed her mind, and wanted to give it to the tooth fairy. I told her I'd have to email the fairy and let her know that Tikvah wanted to trade in her tooth. Meanwhile, I snuck out to the store, and got some glitter. I learned a trick from my "blog-father", David Bogner over at Treppenwitz (see Long in the Tooth), about leaving a glitter trail. I was able to find some at the dollar store. That night I left her $2 under her pillow, and a glitter trail. The next morning I had to remind her to check under her pillow. She was amazed. Then I showed her the gliltter "fairy dust" trail. She and Ahava were talking about it for a while, analyzing her exact path, and how she knew to go to Tikvah's bed and not Ahava's. Tikvah carried the $2 around for most of the morning. I did tell her that it probably was $2 for the first tooth, then $1 a tooth afterwards.

Then, while at a Chabad Hanukkah party last night, what happens? She loses another tooth! I told her the tooth fairy would think she's pulling her teeth out on purpose to get more money! :-) Tikvah said it was a good thing we didn't vacuum up the fairy dust yet, since there would probably be more. Smart kid. I almost forgot to leave her the dollar, but last night I watched "The Santa Clause 2" with Tim Allen. Towards the end, the guy who helped save the day was the tooth fairy. (yes, it was a male tooth fairy in the movie). That reminded me what I needed to do!

So 2 teeth down, 18 to go, plus Ahava still has her 20...

This did cause an interesting discussion between Laya and myself. Her parents never did the tooth fairy thing, and at first she told Tikvah I was just making it up. But when I explained letting the kids experience a little bit of magic and wonder in their lives, she changed her mind and went along with it.

Feelings....

Laya's parents and her brother came down to stay with us for Rosh Hashana. Her brother had to be back at work Thursday morning, and her parents are leaving on a trip to Israel next week and needed to pack; so as soon as the Yom Tov was over, they had to leave.

We had already put Tikvah and Ahava to bed (they were yawning all through the evening), but once the door was open and Laya's brother started taking out the suitcases, Tikvah came down the stairs, soon followed by Ahava. Tikvah said "Daddy, I'm very sad that they are leaving." I reassured her that it was normal to be sad when people leave. Then she said "I almost feel like I'm going to cry!" (as she said that, her eyes got watery, and her lips started quivering. I gave her a hug, and reassured her, and pointed out that sometimes when our guests leave, mommy (Laya) does cry, so it's OK if you need to cry to let it out. Finally she said "Daddy, it hurts right here, it's hard to swallow" pointing to the lower part of her throat. Ahava, ever the echo of Tikvah, said it hurt her there too. This time Laya swooped in and said that it hurt her there too when people left and she was sad.

I then reminded Tikvah that it's nice when people visit, but at some point every does need to go home to get back to their lives. Otherwise, if we focus so much on how much it hurts when we leave, then no one will want to visit other people, because no one will want to leave. I also assured her that we would see them again.

After that, the kids felt a little better, and went off to bed without too much more of a protest. I went back downstairs. It always amazes me how well Tikvah is able to articulate her feelings. Even if she doesn't know the "adult" words, she can still describe how she's feeling, and even the physical aspects. I never thought about the tightness in the throat, but that happens to me as well. And as I told her, it's always sad when our guests leave, but better to experience that sadness than not have them at all.

They don't teach boys this kind of stuff!!

So Tikvah is now into wanting braids in her hair. Here's my first ever attempt. It actually held for most of the day, just some hair on both sides of her face came out. (of the braid, not out from all her hair! I didn't pull that tight!)


One of the older girls in the shul did a great job braiding her hair last week. Took about a half hour to do though. She actually made three separate braids, then braided those together. I don't think I have the patience for something like that.

Ahava seems to have inherited my curly hair. (drives me nuts! I think it was Rita Rudner who joked about wanting to iron her curly hair) I don't know if braids will ever be in the cards for her.

So anyone know of some good websites or other places where I can learn to do a better, neater job of a braid?

Peer Pressure

I've heard of how easily kids succumb to peer pressure, but now I'm seeing it in Tikvah already (she turns 5 soon). She used to wear pants all the time. Then she started talking about how a few of the girls in her pre-school would always have a skirt or dress on, they never wore pants. (mostly the daughters of some of the Chabad rabbis). Now I've noticed in the last month or two that she hasn't worn pants at all, except for the few occasions she was told she needed them for a particular thing we were going to where skirts weren't a good idea (a playground if I remember right). Well, I guess there are worse things to have peer pressure about, but still, I'll keep an eye on her to make sure future changes are things that she really wants to do, and not just because "the other kids are doing it."

Oy...

One down... many to go

I just got back from Tikvah's pre-school graduation. Next year starts Kindergarten. They did a great job, the kids had little caps on and everything. They had a luncheon afterwards, and I sat down with the father of one of Tikvah's best friends. He said "This is the first of many graduations." My baby isn't even 5 years old yet, (she's very happy to remind me that it's coming up this summer though!) and I'm already thinking about grade school graduation, high school graduation, college graduation, etc. *sigh* Seems like a long way away, but then again, it seems like I was holding a crying, newborn Tikvah only yesterday.

Vocabulary Review, and football too.

Ah, Superbowl Sunday. I was looking forward to the game (okay, I like the commercials, usually). During the day though, we realized that Tikvah was sick. It started with her complaining her throat hurts. Okay, that happens every now and then. But then when we were out for lunch, she didn't eat any chicken nuggets, but the biggest sign of a problem was she only ate ONE FRENCH FRY!!!! When we got home, I took her temperature. Yep, almost 103. Okay, take it easy, keep warm, no running around (she wasn't in a running around mood anyway).

About an hour before kickoff, I was finishing up some things when Tikvah said "Daddy... I feel like I have to cough." So I wisely said "Oh, it's okay to cough." BBBLLLEEEAAAAHHHHHHHH, there goes everything that was in her tummy for the past few hours. After getting some paper towels and a garbage bag, I kept reassuring her that it was okay. Then I mentioned... "By the way, that's not coughing. That's 'Throwing up.'" She asked me to repeat it a few times (that's how she makes sure she learns new words). I thought of tossing in "vomit, barf, puke, ralph, heave-ho, blowing chunks," etc., but decided that her vocabulary didn't need to grow that fast.

A light dinner later (three bites of a buttered slice of bread) and she was zonked out and ready for bed. Fortunately I Tivo'd the game, and didn't miss the commercials (or the game). Pretty lame this year. A only a few good ones, especially the one with Richard Simmons. I have to admit, my thought was the same as the driver's. :-) The dalmatian/Clydesdale one was cute too. I was very disappointed (although not surprised) in how few of the commercials were closed captioned though. :-(

And to top it off, the Giants won, meaning I have to buy the ice cream when my folks come down to visit in 2 weeks. (not that I'm a Patriots fan, but I always take the AFC, and dad always takes the NFC)

Who knows one?

There was a recent post on BeyondBT from Azreila Jaffe. (Side note, Ms. Jaffe wrote the book, "Two Jews Can Still Be a Mixed Marriage," a book Laya and I used before we got married to discuss several issues that we could see were approaching us, and I think it really got us off on the right foot in our marriage) Anyway, in her post, she discussed how she felt when she struggles to keep up, whether with the observant community, or with her children know that mom can't help them with their Hebrew homework.

The timing of the article was astonishing. Just two days before, I experienced the same thing with Tikvah. I've recently started taking Hebrew, and am working on learning the numbers. So I was sitting at the kitchen table reciting them. aH-aht, shtah-yem, shah-losh, etc. Each time I started, Tikvah would joyfully start to recite after me, but then overtake me, and reach es-air (10) before me. That includes taking time out to correct my pronunciation if I get something wrong on the way. That's when it hit me. I can take all the classes I want, study as much Hebrew as I can. Heck, I could even move to Israel and immerse myself in Hebrew (no, blogger-in-law, don't start getting excited, I'm talking theory here). But no matter what I do, Tikvah, and soon Ahava are always going to be ahead of me. I might have a slight lead now, but I've seen how fast they learn, once they start really working on Hebrew, they are going to rocket past me in no time flat. While I'm swelling with pride in my kids, I'm also starting to feel a bit of a deflated ego... Guess they'll be tutoring me soon enough!

Where (not) to put your beads...

Okay, we've got the computer back, and we're now working on making sure we have a back up of EVERYTHING, then we'll start putting it in full use. But for now I want to get this story out, since it happened two weeks ago already.

So it's Shabbos afternoon, and I got up from a nice 1 hour nap. I went down to see how Laya and the girls were doing. Tikvah (4) ran over to give me a hug, and commented, "Daddy, I have a bead stuck in my nose." I answered, "That's nice sweetie... ... ... Ummmmmm, did you just say you have a bead in your nose???" Yes, that's what she said.

"Okay, so how did that happen?" She just put it in, and now it won't come out. Huh... Okay, sit up here, and let me take a look. I don't see any bead. Are you sure it didn't fall out. No? Let's look again... I press against the side of her nostril, the back of her nose, have her breathe out of her nose hard, etc. I don't feel any beads in there. So we figured it probably fell out and she didn't notice.

Fast forward...

Havdalah is done... get the kids in their pajamas, brush their teeth, read them a story, sing a song and now into bed. I see Tikvah put her finger in her nose. Just before I can tell her to take her finger out of her nose, she says "Daddy!! I feel the bead!" Oh, I forgot all about the bead. I went and grabbed a flashlight and shined it right up her nose. And what do you know... there's some plastic in there. Oh boy. Where are the tweezers? I'm searching all over the house, then I finally find them. When I approach Tikvah, she gets wide eyed. "No, no, don't worry sweetie, this isn't gong to hurt, I'm just going to try to get the bead out." But every time I get the tweezers in her nostrils, she starts moving around and I'm afraid I'm just going to push it further in. I took a break to talk with Laya about a new strategy, and wondering how long do we try this before we give up and take her to the emergency room. (yeah, like we'd be a high priority to see a doctor???) In the meanwhile, I reminded Tikvah to breathe hard out of her nose. Suddenly she shouts out "It came out!!!" And so it did. Whew. Below is a picture of the bead and my pointer finger. I don't have a ruler handy, but I'd guess my fingernail is about a half inch long.

After this, of course the main question was "Why did you put a bead up your nose???" And in an answer that Bill Cosby made immortal, she replied "I don't know!" Every now and then, after the events, I've asked her if she has thoughts of putting anything in her nose. So far she insists that nothing else will go up there except for her finger. Oy, we still need to work on this.....

Let's Dance!

Simchat Torah at my shul (a Chabad center) is always a rocking good time! When we dance with the Torah, we dance! This year in the days leading up to Simchat Torah, Tikvah was learning about it at school, and also Laya and I mentioned it several times (especially in the context of "If you want to have fun dancing at night, you are going to have to take a nap, otherwise you'll sleep right through it).

And she and Ahava did dance, mostly from on my shoulders, but they also joined in with some of the other young girls dancing around as well. But the "Kodak" moment for me (ummm, actually, can you have a Kodak moment on a Yom Tov/Shabbos when you can't actually use a camera?) was a little later on. They laid a Torah down on a table in the women's section, and the women formed a circle around it and were dancing around. Laya was sitting down with Ahava (one of both of them were probably worn out). Tikvah butted into the circle, took two of the women's hands apart and joined right in. It was all grown women, and Tikvah, and while she wasn't quite getting all the steps right, she was really getting into it with them.

Unfortunately soon after that, Ahava saw what was going on and ran up to join in. (She's a "Me-too" child, wants to do everything her big sister does). The problem is that Ahava ran up just as the women were shifting from one foot to the other which sort of resulted in a butt shift, and one woman accidentally sent her butt right into Ahava's face just as she was running up, causing her to bounce off and crash into the floor. I started a mental countdown, "5-4-3-2-1" "WWWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" One of the other ladies scooped her up and I waved her over to me. A little TLC from daddy (and mom came up soon afterwards as well) and she was raring to go again.

The other fun thing this year was the mix of singing and dancing. Usually at our Chabad center there are a good mix of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Lubavitch Jews. This year there were also several Yemenite Jews as well. When some of the bids for certain verses got into nice high numbers, they let out a good "Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi." Plus it was interesting to hear how they sang some of the verses. That's one fun thing about Chabad, you never know what type of person will come in next and what you'll learn from them. And in the end, it all blends in and we all have a meaningful and fun experience together.

Bribery works...

Now that Tikvah is 4, the doctor wanted to do a blood screening, and since our home was built before 1978, that includes a check for lead. She was annoyed enough at the shots she got, I knew the blood draw wasn't going to be any fun. First off, there was no way Laya would do this. She has trypanophobia, an extreme and irrational fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles. So if she were with Tikvah, she'd freak out, which wouldn't help Tikvah any. So I took her. Before we left home, I snuck something into my shirt pocket. I gave Tikvah a brief explaination of what was going to happen, but didn't go into a lot of detail that would only scare her more. I filled out the paperwork and when the time came, we went into the lab. Tikvah started to get nervous and paced the room a little bit. But then she saw the Cinderella stickers. "Oh, Cinderella!" The phlebotomist gave her a couple of stickers to help calm her down. She sat on my lap, and started to whimper a little bit. I kept reassuring her, and directed her to look somewhere else, not at her arm.

Of course, the moment the needle went in, she cried and cried. They didn't take a lot of blood, but it took about 15-20 seconds to get what they needed. As soon as she finished, the phlebotomist put a band-aid on Tikvah and said she was all set. But Tikvah kept on crying. I then reached into my shirt pocket and pulled out a strawberry lollipop. "Do you want a lollipop?" As soon as she saw it, she said "yes" and stopped crying immediately. Not even a whimper afterwards! The change was so sudden, the phlebotomist laughed. So I guess a little bribery is okay... :-)

Playing with Scissors...

While I was out teaching people how to ride motorcycles yesterday, Laya got the kids some stuff to play with, draw with, or otherwise create with. One of the items they had was a pair of safety scissors. You know how kids are, you turn around for one minute, then look back... Laya saw Ahava cutting up some paper that wasn't meant for cutting up. The scissors were removed.

That night after getting home from class (long hot day... ugh) Laya and I were cleaning up the living / play room. Hmmm, what's this on the floor? Hair? Oy! It's curly, so it has to be from Ahava; Tikvah has straight hair. As we continued cleaning, we found more hair. Not a whole lot, just some strands here and there. Now we're wondering, who did the cutting, Tikvah, or Ahava?
I told Laya it could have been a lot worse. When my aunt was 2 or 3, and was supposed to be taking a nap, she decided she didn't like the curtains in the house. Snip, snip, snip... At least the hair will grow back... eventually.


Post thought: After just getting off the phone with my mother (to verify my aunt's age at the time of the crime) I found out that when she was young, she gave a haircut to the girl down the street, and vice versa. So Laya, at least the kids aren't both bald!! Now if they learn to cut their hair like I do... :-)