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.