Aaron's birthday

[I wrote this post a week ago, then went to a busy conference with poor internet access and forgot to actually post it. sorry!]

What a fun birthday party! Dale and I are fans of keeping it simple, and our wonderful house makes it so easy to host. The guests were Aaron’s classmates Adam, Bodhi, and Spencer, and younger friend Lucy; older siblings who joined the fun were Ian, Marley, and Ravenna. Nine adult guests, including Grandma, brought the total to 20 including us. The weather was great so we spent the whole time in the backyard. How cool is that?

Dale picked up a bunch of pool noodles and I personalized them.

These were put to use in various creative ways, including whomping, cheerfully demonstrated here by Ian and Marley.

There was also your basic general mayhem.

The birthday boy was very into his new-to-you jeep (we plucked it from someone’s discard pile a few days ago) and also shared nicely.

Lucy learned this trick from Aaron:

Meanwhile, the adults lounged comfortably on the deck. Eventually there was lunch for everyone.

And finally cupcakes! My visiting colleague Renee Michelle had just taught me to pipe frosting and I had a lot of fun with that. We devised a tiered cupcake platter out of a chip-and-dip and a plate – cute, no? And then another plate because we all need more cupcakes. It was tricky lighting the candles in the breeze, but on the bright side, it made it very easy for Aaron to blow them out.

Thanks everyone for celebrating with us. We love living here, we love our house, we love our family, and we love the community we are increasingly embedded in. Happy birthday Aaron!

Passover (IV)

Passover at the Levinsons' was a blast! Jordan did a beautiful job with the Four Questions: he sang the Hebrew very nicely, and then he got out his cue card and asked his questions in English to the 31 assembled grownups. People were surprised... they were not expecting to actually have to answer the questions. And the answers aren't even in the Haggadah (which now seems crazy to me), so they had to actually know. Jordan waited for people to raise their hands (his wait time was excellent), called on volunteers, and affirmed correct answers. At one point he said "that's the same person" to himself and waited for someone else to volunteer. After the seder, he got many compliments. The whole point of the Four Questions - the whole point of the Seder, really - is for everyone to learn, recall, and discuss the Exodus, partly through material symbols of the experience. By prodding the adults to answer the questions, rather than just listen to the questions in song form, Jordan got us closer to the point.

Aaron's major contribution was to scream "DAYEINU!" in an ear-splittingly loud echo, just after everyone else said it. It was very funny.

They both behaved beautifully, enjoyed themselves thoroughly, ate matzah and charoset and drank juice, and lasted through the whole thing, even though it went until 10pm. It was a great time.

April Fool's Day

I have strict rules about April Fool's pranks (that I perpetrate).

1. No lying. No "Hey, there's a dragon in the backyard!" No telling the children that they are actually adopted, or are alien spawn.
2. Nothing too messy. The saran-wrap-on-the-toilet bowl thing is right out.
3. Nothing that puts other people to an obnoxious amount of trouble, like when you tell your husband that a Mr. Bayer called for him and give him the callback number for the zoo, and the poor people at the zoo have to answer that stupid phone call about 5000 times.

This leaves plenty of room for entertainment. This morning I dyed the milk blue. I also put scotch tape over the bathroom faucet, and cinched down the sprayer handle on the kitchen sink with a rubber band, hoping to spray Dale not once but twice. Sadly, both arrangements were technically imperfect and the water just spluttered instead of spraying. It still made him laugh, though. He had not realized what day it was.

How did I not suspect what he would be up to while I was in the shower? I tried to open my laptop and something seemed to be very wrong with the latch, but no, it was ... taped shut. Perhaps with the tape from the bathroom faucet. When putting said laptop in my bookbag I found it was already full of Harry Potter volumes. And when I went to put my boots on, they had underwear in them. Jordan especially liked that one.

We collaborated on the kids' lunches: each got a small tupperware container full of sock. (That's in addition to the food, not instead of it.)

Passover (III)

Tonight was the night of the Four Questions. It's Jordan's job to ask them (as the youngest one who can pull it off), and he's very pleased to be able to sing in Hebrew. For the English, he made himself a "cheat sheet."



Since the questions are all "why" questions, he drew the participant shrugging dramatically in each picture. Click on the image to enlarge it.

For those of you who are not Passover-savvy, here is a key.
1. On all other nights we eat either bread or matzah. Why on this night do we eat only matzah?
2. On all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables. Why on this night do we especially eat bitter herbs?
3. On all other nights we do not dip herbs even once. Why on this night do we dip them two times? (Note the number 2, and the arrows for the dipping.)
4. On all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining. Why on this night do we eat reclining? (You can tell the participant is slouching because he can barely see over the table. And he has a soft pillow on his seat.)

Jordan recognized these as "known information" questions: he knows he is not asking them to find out the answers, because he knows the answers. Thus, he has concluded, he is asking them in order to test the rest of us, "like a teacher." Here's how it went tonight:

Jordan: Everyone, please be quiet now.
[Rachel and Dale and Aaron, reclining in the playroom tent, are as still as statues.]
Jordan: Why do we only eat matzah on this night?
[Dale raises his hand.]
Jordan: Daddy?
Dale: Because when we escaped from Egypt we were in a big rush and we didn't have time for the bread to rise.
Jordan: Right!

And so on. I am fondly hoping that he repeats this performance at the big family seder on Saturday in San Francisco.

Epistemology

Jordan built a pyramid out of yellow legos. When I realized his pyramid was part of his imaginative Passover storytelling, I told him that I was pretty sure the Israelites did not build the Egyptian pyramids. (I read that somewhere.)

Jordan: No, Mommy, they did. Trust me. I know it.
Rachel: How do you know it?
Jordan: I saw a picture.
[He shows me the Passover placemat he got at religious school.]
Rachel: What if I say the picture is a mistake? How would we decide who is right?
[He looks at me blankly.]
Rachel: What if I say "No, that picture is not right, the people who drew it didn't know, and I know, and the Israelites did not build the pyramids." How could we decide who is right?
[Long pause.]
Jordan: The picture is right.
Rachel: Anytime Mommy says one thing and a picture says another thing, the picture is right?
Jordan: Yes.
Rachel: Why?
Jordan: Because they would have done a test before they drew it.

I'm not sure what he meant by a test, but I took him to be saying that printed pictures are officially sanctioned documents, and thus have been vetted in some way. Which is not unreasonable. Although it is undermined somewhat by the fact that the placemat has spelling errors on it.

In case you are interested in the content of the discussion and not only the views of knowledge implied therein: Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, says that ancient Egyptians built the pyramids, not foreign slaves:

"The scenario of whip-driven slaves received support from the biblical account of Moses and the Exodus and the first-century A.D. historian Josephus. In our era, Cecil B. de Mille's galvanizing screen images reinforced this popular misconception. The pyramid builders were not slaves but peasants conscripted on a rotating part-time basis, working under the supervision of skilled artisans and craftsmen who not only built the pyramid complexes for the kings and nobility, but also designed and constructed their own, more modest tombs."

In case you don't want to take my (or his) word for it, scholarly research is referenced on Hawass's page. (And I will add that I don't think the Bible mentions the pyramids at all, with regard to the Hebrew slaves' work - just Pithom and Ramses, the treasure cities of those pharaohs.)

Passover (II)

Tonight's festivities were too whirlwind for pictures, sadly, but very experiential. We were again in the tent, and the task of the night was to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt. When we got to the part about having to leave quickly, we talked about what that would be like -- as in, what would we pack? I had suitcases at the ready: the boys hurriedly threw toys into them and ran around the playroom with their roller bags. Jordan was quite fierce as Moses, shouting, "Let my people go!" Then he led the way through the Reed Sea, which was simulated by two blue sheets wiggled energetically by Dale and me. There they were, escaping from Egypt with their roller bags. At last we were free to have dinner.

Passover (I)

We like to spread Passover out over a few nights, to make it less onerous and more fun for all involved. It really started yesterday, with a truly grand quantity of cleaning done pretty much entirely by Dale. A truly thorough sweeping and mopping turned up an amazing quantity of chametz. Jordan was delighted to sweep some of it into a paper bag with a giant blue feather he had gotten at religious school, and according to tradition, we took the paper bag outside last night and burned it. Way cool. I hope we are not struck down by lightning for doing the bedikat chametz without actually intending to keep kosher for passover... We're just not up for that level of observance.

Tonight we assembled the seder plate, matzah, juice, and salt water, using my cake platter as a seder plate and substituting arugula from the farmer's market for parsley. (It just has to be greens, right?) Then we carefully brought these fine items upstairs, and did the first few blessings (the openers and the karpas).... in a TENT. In the playroom. (Which Dale had not only cleaned to a shine, but had also totally rearranged and reorganized. wow!) We pretended we were camping in the desert. After just a few minutes of ceremony, we went downstairs for a delicious dinner of slow-cooked farmer's market lamb, root vegetable kugel, and radishes. Delicious. The lamb was shoulder, rather than shank, which is why the bone on the seder plate is not the usual shape. Aaron tried to eat it and said it was too crunchy.

Valentine kit

Jordan has a clear and firmly-worded Valentine's Day assignment from his warm, loving, and steely-eyed kindergarten teacher: Students will bring a card for each child in the class PLUS the principal, the music coach, the three art docents, the PE teacher, the music teacher, the secretaries, the nurse, the art-movement-and-yoga teacher, the retired teacher-tutor, the assistant, the cook, and the custodians. "We will be celebrating friendship, kindness, and caring about other people," says the letter, which was sent three weeks in advance. "This is a great opportunity to practice printing names."

This is a great opportunity for Mommy to practice patience, is what it is. Originally I had felt we would go the homemade route; what can't you do with white index cards, heart stickers, and red glitter glue? Who needs that whole Valentine industry anyway? Yeah, well, when the first valentine took twenty minutes of hounding to reach completion, I had to rethink my strategy. I hadn't realized how much the lack of structure would slow things down... Jordan had to decide what to write (I'm just talking To and From here), where to write it, what kind of decorating to do, etc. And with chagrin I admit that I am not at my best while supervising kid art projects. The vigilance kills me. Now we've gone over to the mass-produced valentine card kit, with preprinted messages, To and From lines, and miniature tattoos that slip into a slot. Jordan thinks they are awesome and cranked out fifteen of them in one energized session. Woo hoo!

Holidayed

I had not really thought of this before, but Hanukkah has got one up on Christmas in the sense that it is usually first. By the time our family got to Christmas we already had holiday fatigue (and hardly took any pictures). On the other hand, Christmas definitely got the larger share of the shopping. But it's not a competition, now is it?

One of our first holiday events was a kindergarten performance at the University Bookstore, in which Mrs. Murphy and the music teacher led the kids in songs they have been working on in class. This being a public school event, there was a carefully secular selection of seasonal classics and one Hanukkah dirge. If I never hear that song again it'll be too soon. Jordan had no interest in singing any of it, but was delighted to run around the stacks with his buddy Sam.




In the eight nights of Hanukkah we had five nights of latkes, which is a new record for me. First night was at our house with family; then there was a Temple party, a preschool party, a work party of Dale's (at which my latkes got raves from the goyim), and on the last night a party at Kari and Danny's. Pictures from the last night only, but that's when the menorahs are at their best, anyway.

Much dreidl was played, and Aaron outlasted the older kids by quite a bit. He's good.


Then Christmas at last. We were pleased to have the eve at home this year, with just Grandma joining us. Dale is a fan of the Single Stunning Gift.

This year the big event was an electronic piano. He plays some, the boys are quite interested, and who knows, maybe I will be the next Tori Amos. Although I guess she started at age two, so maybe I will just have to inpsire Aaron.

Winterfest

For many years now we have been enjoying Christmas at Kari and Danny's house, hauling across the country for the occasion and living with them for a week or so. Last year, we were blissfully happy to have only a 40-minute drive to the festivities. Somewhere in the course of last year's holidays, though, we realized: We live here now. We have the luxury of spending the last couple weeks of December at home. We have the opportunity to host as well as to be guests, and to establish traditions of our own. What would we do if we were doing it our way?

This is a really interesting question in many families, I think. I heard someone say once that all families are interfaith families, because everyone comes with their own unique beliefs and traditions. My family of origin's tradition was mostly to be guests, and since I identify as Jewish, I have the potential to be pretty disinterested in Christmas. Dale, however, cherishes the festive Christmas traditions he grew up with, including a tree brought in from the woods, lots of cookie and candy and ornament making, and one or two extremely special gifts, from Santa, that were way beyond what he would hope for at any other time of year. What to do?

When in doubt, learn. Last year I learned that Santa is a fantastic mishmash of American immigrant traditions, owing parts of his identity not only Saint Nicholas (a Greek bishop from what is now Turkey), Charles Dickens, Coca-Cola, and Washington Irving (who cartooned him as a Dutch sailor, with a pipe), but also to Odin (who rode an eight-legged flying horse; if you left boots of straw by the fireplace for him, he'd replace the straw with candy). I love that! My research has helped me to decide that there are really two different holidays, the Christmas with the baby Jesus and another one that I wish I could call Winterfest but I think I would sound like a kook. I am perfectly happy to celebrate Winterfest. In fact, I am looking forward to it.

Thus, when we found ourselves with nothing to do at 5pm today, we went out and got ourselves a tree. How about that? There is a fabulous tree lot just down the street from us, like something out of the 1950s, with enthusiastic young men happy to help you pick the perfect tree. They gave ours a fresh cut, stuck it in their special tree shaker to shake off the loose needles, wrapped it in fishnet, tied it to the car for us, and gave candy canes to the kids. Here it is in the living room.


My next plan is to have a crafty and frugal December, making ornaments with the kids. Posts are promised.