My Lil Pumpkins

In case you're wondering

These are the two times the name of Jesus was invoked at my daughters' Jewish nursery school.
Incident #1:
Caregiver A: "School is closed tomorrow."
Caregiver B: "Again, tomorrow? Really? There's another holiday?"
Caregiver A: "Yes, there's another holiday."
Caregiver B: "Sweet Jesus, Have Mercy! I can't believe they're having another day off!"

Incident #2:
Mother A: (Reading a sign) "There's another meeting?"
Mother B: "Yes, I just read it too, I guess there's another meeting tomorrow morning."
Mother A: "Jesus Christ! How many meetings are there going to be?"

Jesus is alive

Number of times I have heard the word Jesus at the Westchester Jewish Center (WJC): 2
Number of months Kelly has attended the WJC: 2

Number of times I heard the word Jesus at the Chabad Early Learning Center (CELC): Zero
Number of months Kelly attended CELC: 10

The numbers of times I would hear the word Jesus if Kelly went to CELC for the next 100 months: Zero

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas

You know the retailers are worried when the Christmas decorations are up before Halloween is even over. I got an email today from one of my favorite organizations, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. They are urging toy companies to only target parents and other adults this holiday season, and not children directly. They are asking for the toy companies cooperation because especially this year, new toys just may not be a possibility for a lot of families. It's so sad to think of a kid being totally unhappy on Christmas because their parents couldn't - or just didn't - get them some over-hyped piece of mass-produced plastic from China.
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is sending emails to all the toy manufacturers asking them to advertise responsibly. And I am asking you to please send an email, too. Click here.

Halloween

Halloween. I've got a scary skull ninja and an adorable scarecrow living at my house. I can't wait for the trick or treating. Last year, I gave out stickers. I don't think we got anyone over the age of 4 at our apartment house, so these were a big hit. I didn't see anything wrong with it. Mike came home from work and saw the little bowl of stickers, and said "What? We're the house giving out STICKERS? And no candy? I can't be that house."

He vowed to make things right this year. I said, if you want candy, you need to go get some. I like being the healthy and wholesome house, even if it's the healthy and wholesome, covered with toilet paper, house.

This year we're giving out Play-doh, unless the man of the house gets candy between now and Friday. What do you think? Is candy the only acceptable offering to the trick-or-treating gods?

Icons

I love these German - Chinese comparison icons.
I first saw them on my cousin Arthur's blog.
You can see them here.

It seemed like a good idea at the time

That's what Molly and Kelly would say if you asked, why did you take everything (and by everything, I mean everything) out of your rooms and put it on the stairs? Every piece of bedding and nighttime sleeping companions, clothes, books, toys, even rugs and other furnishing!

Why? Because we wanted to re-create our rooms on the stairs so we could slide down our room.
My biggest regret? No batteries in the camera to commemorate this moment.
Where is their stuff now? As this little room-switch-aroo happened right before bedtime, bed stuff went back on the beds, everything else is in shopping bags.

For those who know me, you know I just unpacked and did a pretty half-assed job of that as it is. When do you think their stuff will ever leave those bags?

I couldn't have said it better myself

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f168/ikediggety/priceless.jpg

An old email i came across from my mother

"...I got Kelly a Kenzo suede coat- I'm pretty sure she'll like it and it will go well with her evening black bag and brown dog..."

In case you're wondering, dear readers, the Kelly mentioned above, was two-years-old when this email was written.

And also in case you're wondering, the coat did in fact go quite well with both her evening bag and her dog.

Astrology in the house

Kelly is a Libra.
Molly is a Sagittarius.
Kelly is three. But, as she is a Libra, her room is spotless.
Molly is almost five. But, as she is a Sag, her room is hopeless.
Today, while they're both at school, I noticed a huge messy pile in Kelly's room. I said to myself, "huh?" And then noticed on closer inspection it was Molly's deck of Old Maid cards. Somehow, she had managed to make not only her room but also her sister's room messy!
I'll send an update later of what our little Libra has to say when she sees this when she gets home.
Leave a comment and tell me what you think Kelly's reaction will be. I'll send an update at 4 when we're home.

I'm a rotten egg!

Sometimes it's great watching the older sister try to be mean to the younger sister, and seeing it totally backfire. In the case today I don't think it's because little sis is trying reverse-psychology, but that is essentially the result since she has no idea what the big sis is going on about.

Molly repeatedly keep taunting Kelly, "If you don't hurry up, you'll be a rotten egg!" And Kelly replied, with total glee "I'm a rotten egg! I'm on a rotten egg!" Even after many, many attempts by Molly to impress upon Kelly that she in fact did not want to be a rotten egg, that being a rotten egg was bad, bad, bad.... Kelly, still, as afternoon approaches, is singing in a happy voice "I'm a rotten egg! I'm a rotten egg!"

Sorry, Molly. This is how little sisters get their reputations of being, well, little sisters.

And thank you, Kelly, on behalf of little sisters everywhere, for scoring one for us.

Life imitating blog

Molly went to her first suburban birthday party this weekend. It was surprisingly (or not surprisingly) pretty much the same as all the parties she went to in the big city. The one thing that set this party apart was that the birthday boy's mom is a really incredible baker, and made in addition to a super-scary dinosaur birthday cake, a super-scary dinosaur cookie for each of the kids to take home with them.
As we're leaving, I say to Molly "don't eat your cookie until later."
And she says (in front of everyone), "Why, do you want to take a photo of it for your blog first?"