Shabbat Ima and Thanksgiving

Im a bit behind but I'll try my best to catch up...
2 weeks ago Maayan was the shabbat Ima at school. This means that she brings the challah for the class and I got to come to the party. She was really excited when I told her the day before. Friday morning she was a lot more willing to get dressed and out of the house since she was excited about bringing the challah.


I dropped her off and went to work for a little bit since I was told the party was at 11am. When I got there, Maayan's teacher Thais told me that normally they would be starting the party then but because Maayan's other teacher, Mor who runs the shabbat party wasnt there they were going to have another one of the Israeli teachers come for the party. I waited in the hall for a little while so I wouldnt disturb the class but Maayan saw me a few times through the window and thought it was so funny that I was there. When the party started Maayan got to sit at the shabbat table with the shabbat Abba (who didnt seem nearly as excited as Maayan did) and her teacher put a little bandana on her.


Then they sang some shabbat songs, lit the candles, made kiddush and hamotzei and danced. Since it wasnt the regular teacher the kids were a little confused since she sang some different songs. It was really cute and Maayan was so happy that I was there. When anyone asked her about it after, she said "I was the shabbat Ima and Mommy came to school".

Now that shabbos starts so early they have the "kinder minyan" at shul on Friday night, its really nice b/c noise is expected, the Rabbi tells a story and the kids dance. Maayan seemed to have a good time and we still got home early for dinner so Im guessing we will continue to go throughout the winter.

I dont really remember if we did anything that shabbos. On Sunday, Noam and Shai came over for a little bit so Michael and Idana could go to parent teacher conferences for Noam at SAR. The kids had fun playing.



Tuesday night we left for Chicago for Thanksgiving. Before we left home we found out that our flight which was supposed to leave at 7:45 was scheduled for 9:20. Unfortunately, we couldnt change the pick up time for the car service and we had to leave here at 5:30! Of course, since we were there hours early everything went quickly at the airport. Maayan was really good at the airport. She was very entertained by the family sitting across from us and kept herself busy with going to the bathroom (I think we made 3 or 4 trips). Luckily the bathroom was close by but we had to walk by the food stand everytime so we did make 3 different purchases there but since she was so good we couldnt complain. We finally got on the plane and I dont even remember what time we left but it was late. Maayan didnt sleep at all! I still dont understand how she could stay up that late. The last 10 minutes of the flight she threw up which was fun! I learned from my mom and had extra pajams to change her into and she seemed to be ok after.
Both of my parents came to pick us up (from Midway--shows how much they love Maayan that they both came all the way there!) and Maayan finally fell asleep in the car around midnight. She stayed sleeping through the transition to her pack n play and slept until 8:45 on Wed.

Wednesday morning we did laundry (yes, I do bring dirty clothes with us to Chicago) and then began the "Tour d'Maayan". First we went with my dad to visit Bubby Gladys.


Maayan was so tired from her lack of sleep so we didnt stay too long since she wasnt her happy, talkative self. But we were there long enough for Bubby to show Maayan off to her friends at lunch. From there we went to Hillel Torah to visit my mom. She was happy to have Maayan to show off.


My mom got her class to sing Thanksgiving songs for Maayan and in return Maayan sang her days of the week song and one of her new favorites, "no more monkeys jumping on the bed". Then we went with my mom around the school showing off Maayan.

After we left Maayan fell asleep in the car and Ari, my dad and I picked up lunch at bagel country and ate in the car then we went to the Kohl Children's Museum where we all had a really good time. I think we were there for close to 3 hours. Everyone favorite part was the water room.







Notice that Maayan isnt even in this picture- both Ari and my dad were having a lot of fun there.

We went home from there and then Ari and I went to dinner by ourselves at Shallots Bistro. We hadnt been there before and we had a really nice dinner.

Thursday we watched the parade (and saw the beautiful weather NY was having while it was snowing in Chicago), went to Hungarian for my mom and did some cooking for shabbos. We had planned to have a playdate with Eliana Isenberg but Maayan fell asleep on the way there and we didnt have enough time before dinner.
For Thanksgiving dinner we went to the Rosenbergs. We all had a nice time and ate too much good food! We brought with us Maayan's new doctor kit that my parents gave her and Maayan had a good time "examining" Bubby.




Friday morning Ari and I set out early (not as early as planned due to an alarm clock issue) to do some Black Friday shopping. We left around 6 and went to Old Navy, Linens 'n Things, Staples and a few quick stops in Old Orchard. We then headed back home to get Maayan who was at home with Saba. We then went to Target, Fox's and DSW. We were really excited about getting lunch at Ken's and were really disappointed when we saw that they are closed on Fridays. This was probably our first trip to Chicago without Ken's! Before shabbos we quickly went to see Shaina and Brad's new house.

Shabbos was nice. After dinner we played Scrabble which I really need to improve at, it was a long game and we didnt go to sleep until 10 which is late for us on a Friday night.
Shabbos morning Ari got up with Maayan at 7:30 and let me sleep. I woke up at 10 (thanks Mom for letting me sleep!) and figured that it was time to get ready for shul. At shul we got to see Atara and her new baby, Yardana and a few other people. For lunch, Bubby came over and we had another fun visit and Shaina and Brad came but they left Ethan at home with Shaina's sister since he had a bad cold.
We missed him but at least we had seen him on Friday. After shabbos it was time to get ready to come back home. We got to the airport with plenty of time and again Maayan was pretty good but didnt fall asleep until the very end of the flight but even with all of the transfers she slept until Sunday morning!

As a result of all the flying and not so much sleep Maayan has a cold now so we didnt do much yesterday. Ari had to go to school and our day consisted of going to the grocery store. Today was a pretty normal day, as Maayan says, "Maayan go school, Abba go school, Mommy go work".

I am having trouble uploading videos now so I will try again tomorrow-- check back!
And now I am up to date--YAY!
Good night.

Pick me a winner

A couple funny stories from today:

This morning Maayan was picking her nose, a new favorite activity, and I asked her if she needed a tissue and she said, “No Mommy, Im picking my nose”.

Tonight, Ari was asking Maayan what she did in school today. She gave a few of her normal answers and then we asked what they did in circle time (this is how I usually get her to sing) and she proceeded to sing something about opening your eyes and zipping your mouth—I think it’s the song they sing when they go to sit down at circle time. The best part of this was the hand motions. I will try to get her to do it again tomorrow and video it since it doesn’t sound as cute typed out.

“Im a Big Kid Now”

We are officially potty training Maayan and shes doing really well. On Sunday she wore pull-ups for the first time and was really excited about it. After I put it on her she came running out of the bathroom to show Ari.



On Sunday, Ari had to go to school for a while and I had to buy a winter coat for Maayan and myself so Rona and Ira came to watch her. She wasn’t interested in sleeping when they were here but when Ari got home at 4:00 she sat on his lap on the couch and fell asleep.


We left her on the couch to sleep until 5:45. When we woke her she was pretty out of it for a while but then got a burst of energy and was very busy taking my oven mits out of the drawer and using them for "cooking" in her kitchen. Notice how the oven mit reaches her shoulder!


Monday when she got up she immediately asked for a pull-up (she sleeps in diapers) and was very excited to bring pull-ups to school. When I picked her up they said she had the same one on until about 5:00 which we were all impressed with. Both yesterday and today she wore the same one from the morning until she got in her pajamas at night. YAY! When she goes at school she usually gets a sticker as a reward but the sticker thing wasn’t working at home so she now gets 2 chocolate chips which are very exciting to a 2 year old. After shes done she says “how about 2 treats now?” Isnt it cute that she thinks 2 chocolate chips count as 2 treats?!


Two non-potty training stories to report:

Yesterday when we were waiting for the elevator Maayan looked at me and said “Mommy, you look pretty”. How sweet is that? When I told her she looked pretty, she said “no, Mommy looks pretty”.


The whole getting dark early thing is really confusing her. On Monday night when we were walking from the car she asked me who turned off the lights? I figured that telling her it was Hashem wouldn’t do much for her so I tried to explain as best as I could that it would now be dark when we came home. I guess she hasn’t spent much time outside at night in the fall/winter.

Days of the Week

Maayan was feeling better this morning so she went to school and I went to work. When I dropped her off everyone was very excited to see her. I was pretty busy at work and didnt get to pick her up until a few minutes before 6 and only a few kids were still there. Her teacher Thais who is usually there when I get her wasnt there and Maayan told me that "Thaisee has a booboo" and didnt come today. Since she is the one who gives me the most info on what Maayan did I had to ask Maayan a lot of questions. She wasnt telling me much so I asked her if she had circle time, our conversation went like this:

me- what do you do at circle time?
Maayan- we eat
me- really? dont you sit in a circle on the rug?
Maayan- yes
me- do you talk about what day it is?
Maayan-yes, calendar (it took me a while to figure out that she was saying calendar)
me- does someone put the day on the calendar?
Maayan- yes, Maayan
me- oh, you put the day on the calendar today?
Maayan- yes I did
me- do you sing songs?
she then started to sing a song about the days of the week.

I had no clue she knew any of the days (except for one time when I started to brush her hair and she said, "dont brush my hair, its Sunday" this made no sense but I was impressed that she knew it was Sunday)The first few times she sang the song it was a little clearer, by the time I got the camera out she was less interested in performing and more interested in watching tv.
Not much else to report. I would post pictures now but its 12:20 and Im pretty tired.Good night!