A Bobbelacious Shabbos!

We had an awesome Shabbos with Bobbe in Minneapolis this weekend! Rochel had a flight back to New York out of MSP for Sunday morning so my mom decided to make it a girls' weekend! She came in Thursday morning, where Rochel and I (along with the Benster) picked her up at the airport. We got a room at the Radison and spent tons of time in the pool! We also went out to eat, touring a bit, drove along the river at night, vegged, did a bit of shopping, and just plain had an amazing time!

Bobbe bought Benny his first train set!! He loves it! Well, he loves wrecking it, still a bit young for the tracks themselves, but he would not put down the trains!! He also LOVED the pool, as usual! I went to Target and found a great floatie contraption on clearance...of course, by the end of the weekend, he pretty much knew how to climb out of it. Good stuff! :) He was making friends with everyone in the hotel, doing his new thing where he gives lectures...gets all serious and shakes his hands around and just repeats his gibberish...so adorable!!

I brought the pack-n-play but he had a rough time sleeping, I guess he's gotten used to having his own room! So, every morning, around 6ish, he woke up like he sometimes does, but because he saw us all, he REFUSED to go back to sleep in his bed. Sleeping with him is like sleeping with a Whomping Willow (Harry Potter reference for anyone unsure). Which means no sleep for me past 6ish! And nighttime was a horror of it's own! I decided to just let him get tired enough to go to sleep, so about 11 or so each night, he would give me the 'I'm-rubbing-my-eyes-please-put-me-to-sleep' signal and off to bed he went!

For the drive back, being that it was just me and Mr. Monster, my goal was to not stop unless I absolutely needed gas, and that stop had to be, at the earliest, 30 minutes from home. I figured he would sleep until then, we were doing the airport drop-off at 5:30!! I knew that once he woke up, he probably wouldn't go back to sleep. And I was right. But, thankfully, I didn't need gas until Decorah (20 minutes away from home) and he slept the ENTIRE way!! Yay Benny!!

And now that we are back, I just finished unloading the car, Shuky blew the Shofar for us, and off to bed Benny goes for his first nap! Ahhhh, peace and quiet, come hither!

Hello Hulu, I've missed you!

Oh Glorious Internet

When they say absence makes the heart grow fonder, I'm pretty sure they had internet in mind. We finally got internet in the house and I am SUPER excited!! Obviously, I instantly uploaded pictures to my Facebook. Because, hey, I've got my priorities :)! And I was so sad to realize that without the constant uploading of pictures, I didn't take quite as many! Also, internet means video chatting again and catching up on all of our shows! Yay for HULU!!!!!

Shuky has started school already at this point. So far so good! I have decided to take a part-time job. A little over 3 hours a day, teaching some 5th grade English. Benny will be in daycare in the same building for those 3+ hours.

I think the daycare will be harder for me than for Benny, honestly. This kid has been attached to me, at the hip, for the past 13 months. He's a social butterfly, give him a few toys and another kid to take them away from :) and he's perfectly fine! How about me? Who am I going to chase after, who is going to frustrate me, who is going to make me laugh??? 5th grade girls, you have your work cut out for you!!!

We've been sending out Benny's pictures these past few days and if there is anyone out there who did not receive any and would like, please email me your address! You may be on the list already for the new batch of pictures coming in, or I may not have your info!!

Have a good Shabbos everyone!

Save the Clothing!

How do any moms save clothing from one child to the next??? Benny is a good eater and with eating comes mess. Anything within a five foot radius of his highchair is in danger of getting dirty. When appropriate, I take off his shirt for mealtime. I have all the great bibs, I do everything like I'm supposed to. And yet, I find myself washing things three, sometimes four, times to get out the food! He still spits up from time to time, so even with having his shirt off at mealtime, he gets it dirty later! I am open to any and all suggestions on how to get food and everything else out of clothing!! Help me save Benny's clothes!!!!!

Random thought: I've finally found a good health forum, called Natural Medicine Talk. Somewhere I can just browse and find what I'm looking for and see other people's comments. I am a forum lover, of course! With so many topics and branches, I figured everyone could use a site like this.

A Beautiful Uniqwah

Always tell the special people in your life how much you love them! This past weekend, a very dear friend of mine passed away and I just wanted to remind everyone to never hold back on your love for those in your life. You have no idea what tomorrow will bring!

Miriam was amazing. No simple words can describe the kind of person she was so I won't even try!

Miriam, I will love you and miss you every day! In October, Micki and I will be having a Girls Night in your honor!!!

The Clock Moves On

It has been a full year since I gave birth to our rambunctious little guy. Over a year since I started this blog. Over two years since I got married. Over three years since I decided to change my life around - dropped everything and left to Israel. Which really started everything for me!
Sitting back and looking at my life through someone else's eye. It may seem somewhat calm, regular, run-of-the-mill type stuff. From my eyes, the view is enormous!

As Time Goes By

It's been one year since I gave birth to my son. It's been over two years since I got married. It's been over three years since I decided to change my life around by dropping EVERYTHING and going to Israel.

Looking back on all that has happened these past few years, it makes you really think. Imagine if I hadn't decided I was sick of my life. I wouldn't have gone to Israel. I wouldn't have met Shuky. I wouldn't have Benny. We wouldn't have a beautiful family. I thank G-d every day that I realized enough was enough!

Benny is hilarious. I am going to tell you a few of the things he is doing now, to give you an idea of the character he's become. First of all, he is walking all over the place and I love the waddle that comes with it! He is a constant chatter-box; some understandable, most not. We have a distinctive 'Mommy', 'Tatty', 'a-da!' (which started out as dog and became all animals), 'ma-more' (I want more), and a few others. He points at everything he is playing with or passing boy and says 'dis' (this). He eats EVERYTHING and when I say everything, I mean our plates as well! He finally started sitting down to read books. And he plays so nicely on his own. He has also discovered what is inside his diaper, which makes me so happy (read this sentence with sarcasm please). As soon as we open his diaper to change it, his hands FLY down there to check it all out. Poop changes are extra special. It usually takes both me and Shuky...one of us holding his hands while the other changes him! He is obsessed with bath-time, has been since he was little actually. He will hear the bathtub start from another room and come running! He grunts and tries to climb in, he likes to check the temperature while it's filling the tub, just like he sees us do. Oh, and the cutest thing he does is brush his teeth with me every morning and night. He sits on the counter with his feet in the sink, holding his Snoopy toothbrush with his yummy toothpase and copies every move I make. I never thought I would enjoy brushing my teeth so much!!!

We took him for his one year old pictures on his birthday and they came out beautiful. I came home and pulled out his 4 week and 4 month shots to compare to now. He still has the same face but a bit chubbier and he just looks older. Obviously. But, still, it's interesting! I will try to put up some of the pictures soon. Our photographer, Brenda, was amazing; we usually get about 9 poses per sitting and this time, she was just like, "Oh, you can do as many as you'd like." Now, most of you may be thinking, 'Wow, she's so lucky!' Think back to your last photo session. Try to remember what it was like trying to decide which pictures to print without buying EVERYTHING. Nine pictures was always hard to choose from. Now, try to choose from THIRTY poses!!!!!!! I walked out with only two poses, could not decide which ones to do. And now, every day since the shoot, I've been looking over the online gallery, trying hard to decide!!! They stay up for 12 weeks so eventually, I should figure it out!

I would like to apologize for my lack of posts. We don't really have internet in the house and recently pulled the internet off my phone to cut back on expenses for a bit. I try to get on as often as possible, but obviously, not as often as I would like!

Have a good one!

Shame On Me

I can't believe so much time has gone by without a post. I hang my head in shame. Luckily, there is more to write now!

Firstly, Benny has started walking. At first, Shuky didn't think they counted as real steps but slowly, as he saw how Benny was seriously getting around, he caved and agreed that Benny has, indeed, gotten older and moved on to a new stage in life! Now, there's no stopping the little guy!

So, last you all knew, we had just moved in to our place. Benny was starting out in his own room.

Benny is still sleeping in his own room. Once in a while, he throws us for a loop and actually sleeps nicely! I have yet to get a full nights' sleep since, oh I don't know, the time of creation probably!

At this point, most of our boxes are unpacked. Those that remain have made it to Shuky's 'soon-to-be-office/guestroom/TV room'. Our other guestroom has been inaugurated, thanks to Moishy. Rochel has also graced us with a visit, but did not stay at our house. Oh, and Benny calls her 'Ra-Rooow'. He also says Mommy and Tatty very nicely, and Zaida is 'Ayda' or when he's lucky, 'Dayda'.

Another fun fact, I am slowly starting to fit back into my pre-Benny wardrobe! And I do mean slowly! But, it is all unpacked nonetheless!

We have been spending all of our Shabbosim out at either my father's house or with the Browns. This week was our first Shabbos at home, and like every other place we've lived in, our first Shabbos is always graced with guests!

I have so much more to write but no idea where to start. And a sink full of Shabbos dishes waiting for me downstairs is really not helping! Oh, and being that tonight is Benny's hebrew birthday (HOW CRAZY IS THAT!?!?!?!), I also have a birthday cake to make for a very funny little one year old who has completely changed my life and stolen my heart. Speaking of which, Benny is sitting on the floor in our room right now (no, he's still not asleep!!!) yelling into some of the parts from my breast pump, enjoying the way it changes his voice. Time for bed mister!

Good night to all!