3 Men and a Little Lady

With thanks and gratitude to the one above, we would like to officially announce to the blogosphere the arrival of our long awaited (an extra 2 weeks long if you MUST know)
girlie! Tziporah Chana Svei- currently known as "Tziporah Chanala" - was born on the 11th of cheshvan, the yartzeit of Mama Rochel. More details to follow about the princess and how the 3 princes are faring but suffice to say that we are definitely enjoying!

Nachas for Zaidy

Our Mommy builds our Sukkah. It isn't that our Abba CAN'T build a sukkah..........its just that it'll take a whole lot longer than if our Mommy does it. Our Abba's Abba can't figure out where his 'handy genes' went.
Here's a little nachas for our Zaidy:

Sukkos at the Svei's

Moadim L'simcha to all!
We hope that all of you in the diaspora enjoyed your first 2 days of yom tov. Now its back into the kitchen to cook for shabbos followed by just one more kitchen stint for shmini atzeres/simchas torah. We're almost there! I really do enjoy (and look forward to) yontif. Its just that my hands are perpetually cracked and stained and my wrists are starting to ache from all of that vegetable peeling.
The husband's been sleeping in the sukkah this week which I'm enjoying immensely as I don't have to clean all of the junk off of my bed before I go to sleep- I just dump it all on his bed. The 2 big boys sleep in the sukkah as well. Heh heh. Jason's REALLY enjoying being kicked in the head by Aryeh Leib all night. Slumber party for the men and R&R for the Mommy!
Yet another perk about being a mom of boys. Unfortunately for them, they are looking more and more girl-like recently as their mosquito-bite ridden faces, arms, and legs are being perpetually painted pink with calamine lotion.

Speaking of Shabbos. I took AL and YM to the grocery store to get MORE veggies as well as various other shabbos related food stuffs. Among our purchases was my favorite new drink- Ice Tea made by "Spring". I actually got 3 of them for 15 NIS which was MOST exciting. I then saved myself 18 NIS by shlepping all of our purchases home on the bus instead of paying for the delivery. Actually I only saved 13 NIS if you subtract the 5NIS for bus fare. Well, really only 3 NIS if you subtract the 10 NIS for the 2 bottles of ice tea that were run over by the bus after falling out of my stroller upon alighting from the bus. Guess we'll have water this shabbos. Water's free. (Ok, thats not really true either- but its cheaper than Ice Tea.)

Chag Sameach!

My little Scholar

I took Yitzchok Zevi to the eye doctor a few weeks ago- not because he was having difficulty in school. Thank G-d, we're doing great on that front..................and on that note, we interrupt the regularly scheduled program for a brief nachas moment. Jason called the Rebbe the other day just to introduce himself and see how YZ was doing so far. Before he got a word in edgewise, the Rebbe said, "Ah- Svei? He's one of the best kids in the class." I know. I know what you're all thinking. I thought the same thing. But, I spoke with an education expert here in Israel who told me that exaggerating a child's excellence in an effort to please parents is SO NOT done here. Basically, the rule of thumb is if you DON'T hear from the Rebbe, you can feel confidant that there aren't any real problems. Grandparents, you can feel free to kvell- and invest in the college fund. Now you can pick yourselves up off the floor- I'm joking. For real. Seriously, you ARE more than welcome to invest in the apartment fund.
Back to the eye doctor.............
I figured that since the kid is in first grade, it would be an opportune time to get his eyes checked.
The doctor asked me if YZ knew his numbers.
I answered in the affirmative.
He projected a row of numbers onto the opposite wall and asked YZ to identify them.
Nothing.
Next row- numbers a bit bigger.
Still nothing.
At this point the doctor turned to me, "Are you SURE he knows his numbers?"
Next row- numbers a little larger.
YZ: "dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot" (And he's got personality!)
Next row- (you get the picture)
YZ: "9, 5, 3, 6, 7" (Some weren't even accurate!)
In short, YZ got glasses- much to everyone's chagrin. I'm frustrated because I envision this becoming an extra expense - I dunno, say, once every 3-6 months or so. YZ is apprehensive because he's worried about being called 'mishkafofer' (that would be the Hebrew equivalent of four eyes).
Either way, thems the doctors orders so we'll all have to deal.
We picked up the glasses last night and thankfully, now that he has them, he's quite fond of them. He takes them off every 3 minutes to clean them and even asked Aryeh Leib if he recognizes him without his glasses.
Aren't kids fantastically resilient!?!

Glasses for YZ

Gmar Chatima Tova to all!

Dumb American?!

I sit here basking in my fantastically freezing living room curtosy of my newly fixed AC. This is the life.............The only thing that I lament (other than 2 weeks of endless sweating) is coming out of the whole ordeal feeling like a dumb American.
Our warranty expired a few months ago but we suspected that the problem stemmed from faulty installation. So, I convinced the company that it was in the interest of their own good name to send someone to check it out- on their dime. This was all communicated in hebrew. I was quite proud of myself. So, we waited for 2 weeks for their technician to show up only to be told that the problem was most certainly not the instalation. (Incidentally, the technician they sent was the very same person who installed the AC. Whatever.)
He was more than happy to fix the problem for a mere 350NIS. Not wanting to be taken for a chump, I told him I'd be in touch after I got a few estimates. (No one's gonna call ME a stupid American!)
I found out afterwards that 350 NIS was a very reasonable price. You live and learn.
In the meantime, We called a private (and very highly recommended) handy man to check out our ailing AC. His quote: 500 NIS.
We told him that company X (who'd sold us the AC originally) quoted us 350. (see?! I'm no DA- I can bargain like a sabra!) He laughed and said that company X is no company.

Uh oh.

Does this guy really know what he's talking about? If so, were we taken for a ride originally? Should we trust him since he's a local resident and offers us a warranty on his service or do we go with our friendly technician who could have created the problem for us in the first place?

Meanwhile Mr. Handy Man lowered his price to 450NIS...............

I feel like I'm always falling into these traps! Pay an extra 100 NIS now and save the possible 350NIS later? Jason always tells me that we are going to go broke on my 'bargains'.

I'm HOT and I just want my AC to work already! I'm so confused!

I said a silent prayer, agreed to the higher price, kicked myself a few times for being (or at least feeling like) a DA, and looked forward to a frigid living room.........

What's an extra 100 NIS in the scheme of things? (please do NOT quote me to the husband.)


On a different note, here's a picture of my boys enjoying our entertainment center.

They actually sat in front of the stereo for an hour as they listened to a story about the 10 plagues.............Who needs TV?!

I love raising kids on Torah values!

Tootaloo. I'm off to get a sweater.

3 Cheers for Global Warming

You'll please excuse me for being remiss in my blogging frequency. Its just too hot to blog. I don't think I've ever experienced a HOTTER summer in my life. And, incidentally, our AC is broken. So I have no energy to do a blessed thing (including work............) ::sheepish grin:: except sit on my couch and be hot. Someone told me recently that I shine. I pointed out that its just my sweat she's noticing.
And my 2 big boys are home- though that's going far better than could be expected. With Yisroel Meir out of the picture for the morning, the dynamic is very different and surprisingly pleasant. (no guarantees how long that's going to last.......) That's not to say that we don't LOVE YM- surely we do! Its just that he gets in his brothers' faces and then they clobber him and then I go into protective mode "HOW DARE YOU HIT MY BABY!!!!!!!"- and then we end up with 3 very sad little boys and one very frustrated Mommy. I don't even mind when the big ones fight with each other because AL can dish it out about as hard as YZ can. So, with the stakes even, its every man for himself (as long as they don't step on my piles of laundry in the process). But may G-d have mercy on you if you mess with my baby. (And, of course, YM is very very well aware of his coveted status and makes sure to cry extra loud- just for me. Won't he be in for a rude awakening when he's dethroned.........iy"h)
Nothing much else going on here- just drinking tons and plodding our way through the oppressive unbearable heat to the local supermarket since their AC is AWESOME.
Praying hard for the heat to break or our AC to unbreak.
Here are some pictures that my downstairs neighbor took of my boys. She's quite talented (and quite convenient). The photo session and ensuing pics were free since she's in the midst of creating her website and attempting to enlarge her portfolio to display on it. Unfortunately, my boys will NOT be featured on her site since they were less than cooperative (except for my baby.........he was so good) and, thus, she didn't find any pictures of them that excited her. (No indication of their overall cuteness, of course!) Either way, I got my free pics- so I'm happy (and hot).

Dealing and Dining

As the shabbos night meal grew progressively later and our fine young bochrim grew progressively maniacal, it occurred to us that perhaps something needed to be done about this highly unpleasant situation. But how to tell the boys that they are hereby uninvited from the meal- something that they looked forward to all week long?

After much deliberation, a new rule was instituted in the Svei household:
We welcome you to our Friday night meal ON CONDITION that you take a nap on Friday afternoon.

I'll be totally honest- I had zero faith that the 2 big boys would actually settle themselves down for a nap which basically translated itself into uninviting them from the meal BUT at least I didn't have to be the bad guy...............

"Boys, its such a shame! We REALLY wanted you to be able to join us.................."

It's not even a half truth, were they to nap, we really would love to have them. But, exhausted boys who were supposed to be in bed hours before? No thank you!

There was, however, one boy DID get to join us this past Friday night:

Poor tired baby! Right in the middle of eating an apple!

And to have seen his face when his brothers went shluffy and HE came to the seuda!

Shavua Tov!

Indoor Pool

Hey, who says you have to have to live in a big house to have an indoor swimming pool????

The World of a 6 Year Old

I wasn't going to blog tonight but I had a conversation with Yitzchok Zevi at bedtime that begged to be recorded for posterity................



Yitzchok Zevi: Mommy, do you know how long ago dinosaurs weren't 'ekstink'?


(We, of course, are firm believers that the world is, in fact, 5768 years old. What we do not know is how to define a "day of creation". Because each day of creation could very well have spanned millions of years according to our definition of time, it is entirely possible that dinosaurs lived and died during those first 6 'days'. For a greater understanding of this approach, see Gerald Schroeder's book "Genesis and the Big Bang")





Me: I don't know exactly, Yitzchok Zevi.





YZ: do you know around how long?





Me: Nope.





YZ: Like before Alta Bubby was alive?





Me: Way before.





YZ: Are you sure? How long before?





Me: Like even before Avraham Avinu was alive.





YZ: Can't be.





Me: Yup.





YZ: Who told you that?





Me: I must have learned it in school.





YZ: And you are sure about that?





Me: Absolutely.





YZ: Wow. That was a really long time ago................





Me: Uha. Go to bed Yitzchok Zevi.





YZ: But-





Me: Bed!





YZ: But I have more questions!





Me: Tomorrow.





YZ: But-





Me: Tomorrow!





YZ: (In angst) What if I don't remember tomorrow!?





Me: G'nite!





YZ: (blessed silence)

Only in Israel

Sometimes I forget that I live in Israel. I've been living here so long, I don't even notice the hebrew as being foreign to me. The styles, the culture, none of those things really phase me much anymore. I guess you can say I've.....................acclimated. And it only took me 7 years!
Then there are the times that the notion hits me- Wow, I really live in Israel!
Take yesterday, for instance. We were playing in the park, minding our own business, when all of a sudden a donkey waltzes though the park laden with heavy objects, lead by his arab owner.
All of the boys were quite excited.

YZ: Its a Chamor! (donkey)
AL: A Chamor! (donkey)
YM: A Chamud!!!!!! (cutie)

Close, Yisroel Meir :)

Then Yitzchok Zevi mused:
"If you don't have money for a car, it's worth it to get a donkey. Donkey's don't need gas because they're alive. They can carry all of your heavy stuff for you- like your food from the grocery store. Mommy, do you think we can get a donkey?"

Spoken like a true Sabra!!!!!

Below is a slide show of pics of YM from his gan this year. The ganenet gave each kid a CD as a souvenir. I Just had to share it with y'all.............




Shalom everybody!

Pool Party!

Today was HOT. I had lots of laundry to fold and, quite frankly, I didn't want to go anywhere. I figured we'd have a nice quiet afternoon in the house.

"Mommy, what's our plan for today?" (That was YZ)

"What do you mean PLAN?"

Aryeh Leib- "He means what fun thing are we going to do to today?"

(What am I? A one man circus?)

"We're playing at home." (Trying to sound confidant and unwavering)

Both in unison- "nooooooooooo!!!!!!!"

Recognizing that I was waging a loosing battle, I decided to concede defeat and still maintain a vestige of my pride.............and then I had a brainstorm!

"Boys, how 'bout a pool!?"

"Yeeeaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!" (The big 2)
"Yeeeaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!" (The little one- who has no idea why he's 'yeah'ing but it sounds like the right thing to do............)

So, we spent the next 25 minutes blowing up the pool (add on a few minutes for hyperventilation..........), 15 minutes filling it (with buckets- I don't have a hose- am I not a dedicated mommy????), and a half hour splashing in 6 inches of water.........a glorified bathtub.
But, hey, we had fun! And I got to fold my laundry.............

Running, Pushing, Going, Doing, ............and Blogging

A bit busy now- inundated with.............life! We had a great time with Bubby and Zaidy and miss them alot. No time for musings- must go do sponja, laundry, clean my kitchen, start cooking for shabbos, etc etc. But here are a few videos of the boys and a couple of pics (since, thats really all you want to see anyway :) ).

And the above pics reminded me of this one that I took almost exactly a year ago. .......

3 against 1

I just finished singing the "Shema", did our nightly ritual of songs, tucked everyone in, and left 3 awake boys in the room together. I type to the sound of chatter and giggles. Today was monumental- I moved Yisroel Meir from the "baby's room" to the "big boy's room". Does that make my baby a big boy now? I don't know if I'm ready for that.........

Wasn't he just like this?

I wonder what we'll call that room now that it's dubbed the "baby's room" no longer.

Oh goodness, Yitzchok Zevi is running a summer camp in there.............

"BOYS! GO TO BED!"

That'll get them to quiet down, I'm sure.

You know, I find that more often then not, I am completely ignored. It used to be manageable when it was just YZ ignoring me but when its all 3 at once................You'da thunk that my odds would'a improved. At least now I have triple the chance of someone listening to me. No, no - I'm just triply ignored.

"BOYS! PuhLEASE go to sleep!"

I hear it gets even worse when they get older. Man am I in trouble.

It's going to be a loooong evening.

Maybe they'll sleep late tomorrow...........

Ha ha. The chance that they'll do that is about as likely as the chance that one of them will actually listen to me!

Ah the joys of being a Mommy!

They are SO lucky that they're cute.

OMGIF!!! (Oh My Goodness, It's Friday!!!!!!)

I report to you on erev shabbos as one very tired Mommy with 3 very tired boys by my side. Yesterday we took a trip to J-town which was supposed to take 3 hours- start to finish. We left Beitar at 3:15 and got back at..........8:15. Just in time to catch a quick dinner and head out to view the bonfires! Im too tired to cook for shabbos so I decided to be productive in other ways. (Its just rather inconvienent that we can't eat the blog for shabbos dinner).
Here's a picture of my favorite bonfire (pre Lag B'Omer, of course)
Can you see what my creative sabra neighbors rigged at the top?

Here's a closer look...............Its "Haman Harasha" (Evil Haman) who's being "hanged" on a tree!

2 of my favorite Sabras- not yet big enough to build bonfires but certainly excited to watch them burn! (YZ already asked me when he'll be big enough to collect wood. I told him when he's 30)

Yitzchok Zevi had a great time. Aryeh Leib did too- for the first 3 minutes. The rest of the time he cried and kvetched that he wanted to go home. It was lovely.

Sionara, Haman!

A 10:30 bedtime would have been tollerable had it not been followed by a 5:15 revelie for all.................AND there was no school today!!!!
.......................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..............................

Passin the Afternoon

Yesterday me'n'my boys took a trip to the mischakiya (mischaki-wha?). Its a fantastic indoor play area that has every kind of (kosher) entertainment available (no TV, please!). There's a gymboree room, a moon-walk, an arts'n'crafts area, a make believe room, etc etc. - and all for just 5 shekels per kid! Its one of the benefits of living in a homogenous city where funds are set aside for you and your needs as apposed to just ignoring you. This is usually an activity that we save for a rainy day (literally) but since it was unbearably hot, I decided that an afternoon of fun in air-conditioning was called for. The kids had a great time! I was especially excited because until now, Yisroel Meir was quite difficult to take care of at the mischakiya. There are lots of kids there and I basically had to hold him the entire time in order to protect him! Needless to say he was NOT happy about that- and he let me know. Now that he's a bit older, I let him join in the fun! And fun he certainly had. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to entertain them today since, while my boys believe otherwise, my house is NOT a mischakiya. I may venture to the park and instigate a water fight. Or perhaps I'll just give them a bath really early and convince them that its bedtime.............

Fast Forward 3 Months.............

This entry is dedicated to my mother-in-law. She, who never pressures me to do anything at all (unless its health, safety, etc related OF COURSE) requested that I blog. So, it is in her honor that I put on my writer's hat, sift through pictures, and push off my bed time for at least the next half hour.

To all of my friends, I truly apologize for my lack of activity here- I've been busy with facebook- posting pics there, etc so............for those of you who think you are too _____ (fill in the blank- frum, old, cool, etc) for facebook, I will certainly endeavor to keep y'all posted (no pun intended) here on blogger. The honest truth is that I just have no patience for their super slow picture upload feature. I guess I'll have no choice but to do something (productive?) like my dishes or fold laundry while blogger takes its time. Ugh. Who knows- maybe they've improved it in my prolonged absence?

I take solace in knowing that fantastically (somewhat) consistent bloggers (They're much better than I am, anyway) like Miriam the Mommy and my sister were originally inspired by my blog.

A quick update on the boysies.....

Yitzchok Zevi, I've discovered, is my husband in miniature. You really have to know Jason well to appreciate just how amazingly similar they are but, for those who 'get it'......

We were about to leave for the supermarket when I turned to YZ and said, "Yitzchok Zevi, please remind me at the store that we need carrots." YZ replied, "Mommy, why don't you just make a list?"

Right after Pesach we went to a supermarket that is a distance from our house. In order to pay there with cc, you need to show ID . The only way they'll bend the rule is if it's your first time at the store and didn't know of the rule previously. As we were walking into the store, I realized that both Jason and I had no ID on us. I panicked envisioning us trekking back to our house by bus and then all the way back to the store but then relaxed when I remembered that this was, in fact, Jason's first time in the store. I told him about the rule and made sure he understood that HE would be the one paying this time. Together, Jason and Yitzchok Zevi gave me a funny look and YZ was the first to pipe up, " But Mommy, you knew about the rule and you came together with Abba."


Needless to say, Yitzchok Zevi is since always sure to remind me to take ID in anticipation of going to this store.


Yitzchok Zevi is now reading beautifully and has started learning the taamei hamikra (cantilations). He davens from his siddur and is looking forward to getting his first chumash around shavuos. He's really a little man!

Aryeh Leib will be 4 next week. He is doing fantastic in chaider. Being the little brother of YZ, he had little reason to be exceedingly verbal or take much initiative at home. To my utter astonishment, in school he is super articulate, very social, and quite the leader! His teacher tells me that he is constantly sharing great ideas with the group! At first I didn't think she was talking about my Lubi. I mean, he's squishy and has a heart of gold, but a leader? I'm doing my best now to encourage him to develop those strengths at home as well.

Aryeh Leib continues to be a junk food addict but his greatest pleasure is wearing Shabbos clothes. Much to his consternation, Shabbos only comes around about once a week. There are occasions during the week, however, that indicate an opportunity for pulling out the shabbos attire. Rosh Chodesh, class parties, birthdays............and Purim.

Yitzchok Zevi had decided to be a police man. Yisroel Meir was to be a strawberry. For Aryeh Leib I'd purchased a (rather expensive!) Kohain Gadol costume. The Kohain Gadol, however, was not to be. It still sits, unworn, in AL's closet- for AL realized that perhaps he could manipulate yet another shabbos clothes opportunity. What was I supposed to say to the kid? "No you MUST wear a costume"? Don't think I didn't try ................


"Aryeh Leib, all of the children will be dressed in costumes. Wouldn't you like to wear a costume as well?"

"Nope."

"So, AL, you are dressed up as an Abba? Should I give you an Abba hat to wear?"

"No. I'm dressed up like a boy who's wearing shabbos clothes."

Honestly, I didn't really care. My only concern was that he'd come to his class purim party, see all of his friends, and feel bad that he was costumeless.

Not Aryeh Leib!

He enjoyed observing his friends in their costumes and derived immense pleasure knowing that he was dressed in his finery.
Oh, and he has the cutest Israeli accent. Call us and I'll have him tell you about our handy man "Amir", and recite the colors of the rainbow (including "Yarok"), and recall the names of his "Chaverim". He's yummy.


And...............Yisroel Meir. Saying his name makes me tired! He's a super duper mazik- I don't think either of my other boys were quite this nutty. He has a smile that could melt you but oy vay voy if you don't make sure that he gets what he wants - now. He is so unbelievably strong willed - and I know this trait will serve him quite well in the future- but in the meantime, it can throw the calm and tranquility (which I try to encourage in my house) into a tailspin. He speaks both Hbrew and English and though only I can understand him, he is speaking in full sentences.

He's decided that he's ready to make on the potty. He pulls off his diaper, arranges his training seat, and plops himself down. This is all while I've turned my head and have no earthly idea where he's gone (or, more likely, what kind of trouble he's into.) It's a very cute scene except that I had no intention of training him right now. But that's consistently YM - it'll happen when he wants it to happen. Not before and not after.

Its a party over here!

As for me, I just started working for Aish HaTorah. Its quite exciting since, while I am very content with our lifestyle choices, I'll forever be an NCSYer. Unfortunately, they haven't yet opened an NCSY chapter in Beitar. My job is by phone and my kiruv involvement is only tangential but I still feel like I am part of the process. And that makes me happy.

And, of course, Jason continues his quest to become a talmid chacham (great Torah scholar) and I continue to be proud of him.

Cheers!

All Better

I'd like to welcome myself and Yirsoel Meir home after a four day stay in the hospital. Yisroel Meir had pneumonia (pronounced here in Israel "pnoomoania"- the p is not silent) He was quite the sick baby but, thank G-d, he's really doing fantastic now. Hats off (unless you are married woman, of course) to all of the very kind doctors who did their utmost to make our hospital experience as painless as possible. Well, it was painless for me, anyway. Poor YM got poked so many times.........I think he may be officially traumatized. How can I tell? First, throughout our entire stay, the ONLY time YM smiled was when his brothers came to visit. Yitzchok Zevi actually had something to say about this visit. At one point I wasn't sure whether or not (healthy) children were allowed in the children's ward. Yitzchok Zevi was agast, "What? You mean they won't let me fulfill the mitzvah of bikur cholim????"

Second, any time anyone came near him, YM went ballistic. The nurses did not mess with him! Im tempted to bring him back now to show them what a fun hoppity boppity kid he really is but I think it'll be some time before he'll be able to enter Sharei Tzedek without getting upset.

Thank our wonderful amazing full of chessed Ribono Shel Olam, YM is doing so much better (though Im not sure that Bubby believes us when we tell her that he's really ok now!) And to prove it, here are some pics that I took of Yisroel Meir today.

Looking forward to a happy and healthy (rest of the) winter!