Conversations with Lucy and Jelly: 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Hannukah - Oily Miracles

I just want to wish everybody a very Happy and Healthy Hannukah!! Here are some highlights from the girls' respective gan parties, plus a couple other bonus sister pictures.

Hadas and Ayelet are really excellent sisters. Hadas is very tolerant of Ayelet, and Ayelet is very demanding of Hadas, so really it all works out very well.

Sisters are very special, I should know. Consider this a shout-out to my dear sisters. I love you!

And now to the parties... Hadas was very excited for her party, practiced her songs and moves any chance she could get...

Pre-party posing...

Shine a little light on me!

Pretend I'm not even here...

The best part of the evening..

My beautiful Hadas.

Ayelet had a slightly different Hannukah party experience. Her afternoon began by not falling asleep until 1 hour before the party, on the floor of my office -- very George-like (that's for you Mum)...

Exhibit A...

This of course was followed by me waking her up to take her to the party... needless to say, she was none too thrilled and did not want to participate...

Exhibit B - The Face

Eventually, she warmed up and did a little donut dancing...

Sivivon, sov... sov... sov...

And for for the finale... the sufganiya!!

Jelly on jelly....

And as promised a couple sister pictures:

Oh, and I think Ayelet is training to be a porter for treks in the Far East!!

Enjoy this festival of lights... and I pray that the miracles, large and small, keep heading our way.

Love, Deb

Monday, December 1, 2008

Like sand through the hourglass...

Handprints

Sometimes you get discouraged

Because I am so small

And always leave my fingerprints

On furniture and walls.

But every day I'm growing -

I'll be grown someday

And all those tiny handprints

Will surely fade away.

So here's a final handprint

Just so you can recall

Exactly how my fingers looked

When I was very small.

Hadas brought this poem home from her English class (with a tracing of her hands), it brought me close to tears. Doesn't it choke you up, because it is so simple, yet so true? (And of course on top of that we had the house painted this summer and so we are very attuned to all the new fingerprints on the walls.)

When we read the poem together and I got all teary eyed, Hadas wanted to know what was wrong. I told her it makes me a little sad, since she is growing up so fast and soon she won't be a little girl anymore. So she told me not to worry, she will always be my daughter and love me. She is a very sweet girl, with a loose tooth. Another sign that she is growing up.

Ayelet is also growing up fast. Yesterday for instance, so would not let me help her in the shower, she kept closing the doors telling me to leave!! She is quite the character, and already very experienced at giving the "face". You know the one, pursed lips and a shoulder shrug.

Time goes by so quickly. I have to remember to savour these little girl moments, even as they scuff up the walls, floor and furniture and stain things and break things...

P.S. Did you notice I completely ignored the fact that I have blogged in over 6 months?

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Happy Birthday Abba!

Well hello everybody. It has been a long time and it has taken a very important person to bring me back – My Dad.

Happy Birthday (S)Abba!

We hope you are enjoying your weekend away. We love you! And Hadas says she will buy you something with her Canada money.

Here all is well. So many events have taken place since I last wrote – Purim, Pessach, and Independence Day. There must have been a million hysterical incidents with my girls over the last few months, but I can’t seem to remember any of them right now.

There is of course the time around Yom Hashoah, when Hadas insisted that the Chinese were responsible for the Holocaust. And then there was a great deal of explaining to her that when I went to Germany from work, I did not have to stay in the ghetto (although the Holiday Inn could use a little updating).

There are the Yom Haatzmaut songs – which for some reason when Hadas translates to English, she replaces Yisrael with Canada.
For example in Hebrew – Ani Israeli – li – li, V’Ze haybait sheli – li – li
And the English version: I am Canada – and this is my house. I must admit the English version does not move me quite as much as the Hebrew one.

Ayelet is quite the character too. Her comprehension is really amazing and she is becoming more verbal and deliberate in her actions. Like the way she deliberately drops individual cheerios on the floor just to see how they land. And the way she stands pounding on the bathroom door, shouting “Mum! Mum!”

My girls are growing up. I am trying to find that fine line between overprotective and negligent. Although I suppose there is quite a large grey area in there. And it’s the little things that I have to learn to let go of. Like letting Hadas have a knife at the table or run upstairs by herself to retrieve something she has forgotten in the house (OK it was something I forgot, but I still let her go by herself).

Hadas’s fifth birthday is coming up soon. I don’t know how that happened. Must plan party for 30 kindergartners. Should I go all creative and do it myself? Or hire a clown? The great debate begins.

Some pictures to tide you over until my return to normal blogging mode in 2012.

Here are my Purim princesses... Aren't they the cat's meow ;-)