Not that I'm really lazy. I just took two sick days from work int he middle of the busy season because I was too sick to think from pushing myself too hard. But are some things I need to really make myself do. Some of them are "work" related, like calling in the warranty for from broken stuff. But more importantly is to not be lazy with the kids. Too often I come home from work too tired to play with the kids. As Murphy would have it, the days that I have energy they are not in the mood to go out and play. Two things need to change: 1. When they want to play I need to push myself to do something with them, even if it's not exactly what they want, and 2. I need to force them to have fun when they are not in the mood. The few times I made them go out and play it proved to be a success. I need to remember that they are just kids and I know better.
Netanel started first grade yesterday. He is going to a new school. It is religious and more Montessori oriented. Hopefully it will be what he needs. It involves a bus ride. I have a similar ride to school when I was in first grade, and even younger. But this is new for him. So fay things are going well. B'Ezrat Hashem this will continue. We'll see how Netanel and the school develop.
Odeliya moved from a private day care with 6 kids to a public gan with 24. It is a huge jump. The first two days have been tough for her. We'll see how she adjusts. The gananot are amazing, so she should do just fine really soon, but only time will tell.
Yitzchak will also be started daycare. He will be by a neighbor with 5 other babies for 5 mornings a week. This will give Ayelet time to think, relax, work, etc. This will also make teaching Yitzchak English more challenging.
Today, Odeliya was playing. Being home sick I had an opportunity to watch her. I sent her to the bathroom to wash her hands and I quickly heard her making scared noises. I went to her and she said that something was scaring her. We "discovered" a baby lion in the toilet. Anyway, after washing her hands, Odeliya and the baby lion became friends. With a little guidance from me the Mommy lion stopped scaring Odeliya and was invited in for coffee. Everything went well until a scary monster abba lion came and ate the baby lion. Odeliya was seriously sad about this. Eventually, with no interaction from me, the baby lion proved to be alright and the monster lion was sent away. Then Odeliya told me she didn't want to play that game anymore and we did something else.
With an imagination like that Odeliya will never, ever be bored. Wow!
We've been reminding ourselves to encourage the kids' imaginations instead of simply answering their questions. It's tough. Netanel has great questions, and I want to give him an honest answer. But sometimes it's best to let him mull over the possibilities before we discuss the real answer. He is getting much better at reading, which means that he will be able to unleash his imagination on his own to a much further degree by reading more. But Netanel also tends to lock onto the first reality he is given as the ultimate truth, which means that he may actually believe everything he reads. So his reading will provide us with new challenges as well.
Okay, it's late and I need to push myself a little further to get in some more client work and do some cleaning before I go to sleep. I leave you with a promise to try to blog more and send pictures and videos of the cute little monsters.
Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova,
Yoram
