Pesach Love

The minute I saw the view from the private balcony in our room, I completely forgot about the hellish day I had traveling alone with Benny. So began our amazing Pesach in Aruba!

Benny is even in heaven. He wakes up every morning, remembers where he is and giggles a "HI MOMMY!!!!"

Walking to the pool, there are a few huge bird cages with parrots, macaws, and the likes. They yell out their hellos and such; Benny yells back, "HOLA BIRDIES!" Being the gentleman that he is, he goes to each cage individually to say Hola to each bird! :)

Let's talk views. Standing on our balcony, we have an amazing panoramic view - to the right is the pool and, just beyond that, the gorgeous sea. To the right is the island, with some lakes and forests in between. It's unreal! Benny and I like to sit out there in our PJs in the mornings...

Well, that's all I have time to write for now. Just wanted to say hi and wish everyone a kosher and happy Pesach!

Bring on the Boxes!

Every time I get the laptop, I always come to my blog to see the last time I wrote. Then I pretend I didn't check it and move on to the next site. It's not that I don't love you, dear blog of mine. It's that so much has been going on, I don't know where to start! It's that I need a week just to get all my words in a draft, and then another week to edit it!

It's 12:42 am. Shuky fell asleep while putting Benny to sleep. I've been doing a whole lot of nothing for the past two hours. It's time to face my fears. It's time to write!

Let's start where we last left off. The last real post of substance was back in January, after Shuky's wisdom teeth were removed. I'm going to move in high speed so keep up with me!

Shuky found out that upon completion of this semester, he will more or less have completed all the credits at NICC that will be transferable toward his major. Which means it was time to decide on that transfer school a whole lot sooner than expected! After days and days of talking and debating, we narrowed it down to a few schools. Then began the phone calls.

I should backtrack a few years for a minute. Ever since the concept of college has been a thought in Shuky's mind (we are talking 'Young Shuky' here), Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa (read that Nowheresville, Iowa) has been the main contender. They created the first computer. That pretty much sealed the deal for him.

Getting back to our story, we kept saying a normal Jewish community was necessary , preferably one with a school for Little Monster. After making quite a few calls to the Rabbis in the areas of these Universities, we realized most are not surrounded by family friendly communities.

We also realized that we really needed to stay in Iowa. Out of state tuition is extortion, at the least. And the rules are beyond unbendable, apparently.

This left us with University of Iowa, in Iowa City, and Iowa State University, in Ames. After multiple weekends spent in Des Moines, the closest Jewish community - about a 35 minute drive, and a few trips out to the school itself, Shuky was in love. Iowa State it is.

Then came trying to figure out if we would live in Ames or Des Moines. Unfortunately, Des Moines does not offer a school option for Benny. Also, rental options were very slim, if any. For some reason, banks want you to actually have money to buy houses these days. Weird!

Which means -- you got it -- we're moving to Ames! We found a really cute apartment on one of our many trips out there, put down a deposit, and our lease officially begins August 1st.

Shuky is super excited and Benny has been sporting some Cyclone love, getting ready for the games we will be rooting at!!!!

By the way, did I mention we're going to ARUBA for Pesach???? :0)

Leapfrog, I Owe You!

They always say children are sponges. I have never believed it as much as I do at this very moment. We are going away for the weekend again and I was in Benny's room, packing his bag. He was running all around the house, doing his thing. He brought his LeapFrog School Bus into the room and was playing with it while I was gathering his stuff. As it was singing him the ABC's, he was singing along. He is 18 months old. He sings his ABC's. When it stopped singing, I started singing it to him, leaving letters blank for him to fill in. Which he did, of course.

Granted, as he sings along, not every letter sounds as it should or even gets sung, but the fact that I was able to stop randomly and he knew which letter came next....wow!

I LOVE LEAPFROG PRODUCTS!!!!!!!!

A Service Unto Others :)

Being a mom on an EXTREMELY tight budget (to the point of near nonexistence), I always have my eye out for a good deal. There are a billion and one daily deal sites out there and luckily, a lot of those are dedicated to moms and their uber expensive kids! I give these out on a constant basis and I decided to just put them all in one easy to find location! Here goes (not listed in any specific order):

www.kids.woot.com - updated every night at midnight EST
www.babysteals.com - updated daily at 9 am MST
www.kidsteals.com - same deal as above, sister sites!
(www.scrapbooksteals.com - another site of theirs for any crafty folk!)
www.ecobabybuys.com - updated daily at 9 am EST
www.greenbabybargains.com - updated at 12 pm EST, Monday through Fri

www.dailydeals.target.com -not only baby products but they have great stuff with great prices!! They tend to have up to five items listed daily! Updated daily at midnight PST
www.mamabargains.com - updated as soon as each product sells out!
www.totsy.com - a flash sale site...a little more upscale...

www.onekingslane.com - another flash site sale, more household items but they do have kids products sometimes (let me know if you want an invite to the site!)

This next site is not actually a deal site but they do product reviews and they are by far the best! Most products get a video review as well...It's like your own private consult!! The site is www.babygizmo.com

I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting about but for now, this is my list! Hope this helps someone out...and be warned, these sites are HIGHLY addictive!!!

And So It Goes...

Every time we get back from anywhere, even for one night, I look at the suitcases and say 'Never again!'. And yet, here I am, another Saturday night with me staring at suitcases that need unpacking. But fear not! I am ignoring them as I do so well!!! Oh, Hulu you are my hero! Without you, I would...probably get some housework done!

Shuky had his wisdom teeth removed on Thursday and we had a nice long week, between his consultation on Tuesday and the no talking on Shabbos. Anyone who knows Shuky knows this is no easy feat ;) From Thursday until Shabbos we had a dry-erase board. For shabbos, we had a very frustrated person! But he is slowly feeling better and ready to talk again!

Benny's 18 month pictures had to be postponed because he had a bad cold. I'm considering doing them tomorrow and can't decide what to do, what to put on him, what kind of poses I want! I usually have everything figured out well before-hand but I'm at a total loss right now!!

I'm hitting a brick wall in my head so I must continue my night offline!

Quick Update

Just wanted to add a few words. A quick update on life in Bennyville!

Benny is officially in his full blown, tantrumy, terrible twos! Nooooooo combined with a shrug of his shoulders is his favorite response to everything. It's lovely. Makes me so happy!

He talks a lot. Well, he has a lot of words he says and repeats EVERYTHING he hears :) He doesn't string together sentences longer than two words that much but has a couple phrases he knows and loves to use: 'I see you!' 'I lolu (love you)' 'One Two Tee (three)' etc...

He says 'heema' for shema, covers one of his eyes, and gets super excited when it's shhh time for 'baruch sheim'. He calls modeh ani 'ani' and at the end he says 'cha cha cha' (thanks to his Zaida for that trick!).

He climbs on everything and gets in to everything. Nothing is safe anymore. His newest ambition is figuring out how to open closed doors! I would love it if this one just really stumped him but odds are not in my favor!

LOVES watching movies now...we've created an Uncle Moishy (or just plain Moishy as he calls it) monster! He sits on his rocking horse in front of the TV and jumps and jams to the music. Sometimes he gets off to play with his toys while watching. Depends on his mood!

He is also showing us that he has an AMAZING (poo poo poo) memory...remembering words from songs, abcs and aleph bais. We are really able to teach him things now, that he seems to be soaking up! We have the fridge magnets that sing the ABC and each letter has a song, "B says Buh, B says Buh, every letter makes a sound and B says Buh!"...he yells the Buh part, each time. If you ask him what B says, he responds with 'buh'!

What else...he still loves school; LOVES his rolling backpack (bah-pat); terrorizes kids in stores by SCREAMING 'hello!!!' in their faces; loves coloring (toloring), especially all over himself; still loves dogs; if you read my last post, you'll know he's OBSESSED with towtrucks (towtrut); and tons more, which I will remember as soon as I click 'Publish Post'. :)

He is now sleeping on his very own twin bed! Well, at this point, it's just a mattress and box-spring on the floor, but hopefully that will change soon...

We tried potty training but that was an experience I'd rather not repeat just yet. Now we're just helping him to familiarize himself with the feeling of needing to go...and what to do! I'm hoping we can stop buying diapers soon!!!

I have this huge, plastic water bottle - holds 8 cups of water to help you drink enough each day, blah blah blah - which he loves carrying around, well teetering around, and drinking from it... hilarious site! Hope to catch it on video soon!

He is only using his pacifiers for nap time and night time and even then, only sometimes... :)

Sippy cups have also got one foot out the door!

Ok, I think that's a pretty good update for now...time for me to get ready for work!

A Long Goodbye

We spent two weeks visiting family and friends in New York. It was amazing and we totally needed this! Shuky had winter break and I got a substitute, and away we drove!
We really enjoyed seeing everyone and Benny had soooo much fun with his Bobbe and Aunty Rochel (which he now says so nicely!). Every morning, Bobbe came to get Benny for breakfast and if she didn't come on time he would be waiting at the door, calling her!
He really loved hanging out in Rochel's room, getting into everything he shouldn't!
We got to do a lot with the Laines...that was really an amazing deal. Just really added a lot to our trip!
Anyway, Sunday morning (a week ago, yesterday) we loaded up the car, said our goodbyes, and were on our way! Or so we thought.
An hour and a half into our drive, on the 280W, near Orange, NJ, we were headed up the hill and all of a sudden I felt the car kick out...the cruise control flopped down to about 40 (from 60 at least) and of course we were in the fast lane on the left. I put on my hazhards and slowly made my way to the shoulder of the highway. Mile marker 91. Exit 8A and 8B.
AAA 'put a rush' on our service order because it was about ten degrees and we had Benny! This was all about 1:30 pm-ish. I want to say we had no visitor until about 3 or so. Glad they rushed that one, would hate to see how long it would take for a regular order! Oh, and they informed me that the truck could only take two of us so we would need to arrange a cab for the last passenger. They gave me four numbers (over two phone calls). First one yelled at Shuky for daring to ask how much it might cost. Second was only for airports. Third and fourth were not willing to come to the side of the highway! Goody!
Our knight in a towtruck showed up and was beyond p-o'd that AAA hadn't sent a second car with him to help with the extra passenger...he told us to smush in and he'd take us all!
Before I continue, for anyone not aware, Benny's extreme obsession happens to be the towtruck, or towtrut as he calls it. Not sure why, or where it came from, but every car and truck is hailed as the almighty towtrut!
When he saw the truck pull up in front of us, I thought his eyes would pop out of his head! When Shuky took him in his car seat and strapped him in to the towtruck, he looked at me and said, "Mommy, TOWTRUT!!!!!!!!!!" And then began clapping and shouting "yay!" And continuing with his chorus of towtrut and button loving. The awe he had for the driver, it was adorable. Just kept looking up at him and pointing and turning to us - "towtrut!"
If the trip hadn't been his best yet, it was now!
We were towed about 4 miles away to a Firestone that happened to be open because of a sale...but by the time we got there, it was an hour until closing. They looked at the car to make their game plan but could not get parts until the morning. We cabbed it (a whole nother story...took an hour for the cabbie to get to us) to a nearby hotel and waited for the call in the morning. Which never really came. I was calling every half hour, being told 'fourty more minutes!' and lo and behold, an hour later they said the same thing! The hotel staff were super nice and when they heard our situation, they extended check-out until three.
Being Chabadniks, we decided to check out who might be nearby. Turned out Mendy Kasowitz was one of the shluchim in the area! He told us to look out our hotel window, the Shoprite we saw had an entire kosher section, deli, sushi, dairy...everything we could need, just a parking lot away!
When we were finally ready to head to the Firestone, (3 came around much faster than we'd hoped) Mendy came by to take us. The car was '45 minutes' away from being done. We finally left the shop at about 5:30.
Got back onto that same troublesome hill. And turned right back around to our good friends at Firestone! The car had the exact same reaction! When we got back to them, we realized that there had been some sort of 'miscommunication' and only one of the problems had been dealt with!!!
They put us up at the hotel for the second night and 'would have rented a car too if anything was still open'!
To make a long story short-ish, 2 days and 2 grand later, we were out by around noon on Tuesday.
We drove a while, made it to Chicago around 2 in the morning, where we collapsed at my aunt's house for some much needed sleep! We took our time getting home the next day, stopping at the outlets to walk around...
Thank god, we got home safe and sound. And I as of now, there will be no more road trips in our near future!

Oh, and needless to say, Shuky has had to reschedule his wisdoms being removed.