Welcome to my hidden world!

Мишелка сидела за кухонным столом на стуле, на который положила 2-е подушки с дивана.  Пришли домой папа и Миша с футбола.  Миша лёг на диван и попросил папу подать ему одну подушку.  Папа вытащил одну подушку из-под Мишелки и дал Мише.  Тут началось!!!  Мишел визжала и дралась с Мишей за свою подушку "не на жизнь а на смерть."  Отвоевав подушку пошла обратно к столу.  Положила подушку на другую подушку и залезла на верх.  Сидит уже за столом и что-то бубнит, серьёзно и громко:
-Ты чё, офонаел? (ты чё, офонарел?) :) (пауза, мы с мужем переглянулись, улыбнулись, т.к. это звучало очень смешно плюс мы не поняли к кому это она обращалась, это вообще любимая фраза её братика).
-Как дикай себя ведёшь! (Как дикарь себя ведёшь) (с большим восклицанием в голосе как могут маленькие девочки лет так 2-3)
Наш папа сидел рядом с ней за кухонным столом и после второй реплики спросил её:
-А с кем это ты разговариваешь?
Она ему с обиженным выражением лица:
-С тобой папа!!!

Вот такая деловая сосиска у нас растёт :)

Teaching kids and us happiness presented by Da-vid Rosenthal.

 Naturally, we are wired to see what we don’t have or what is wrong with things instead of appreciate what we have and what works.  As parents, we must teach kids skill of shifting their attention to appreciation of reality rather than being unhappy about unrealistic future desires and things. 

 The presenter gave an example of a kid who asked parents to buy an iPod and once they bought it, the kid was not happy because now he wanted iPod Touch or something else.  It totally sounded like our story with Mishka and all of the things he wants to have and not paying attention to what he already has. 

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On Saturday, Michael asked me if we can go ice skating.  He got into the groove of skating after going to the ice center in CA.  I checked our community center’s website and learned that they have open ice and the theme of the day was Sun day.  That meant that if you dress in yellow, you get 50% off.  It sounded even better.  So, our whole family went to our community center ice skating.  Including 2 year old Michelle.  I was curious if they would have her size skates.  We found pretty close to her size she is 6 now but ice skates were 8.

 

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I celebrated Yom Kippur with our family this year.  On Friday, I was feeling guilty that my in-laws will come over and I will feed them while they supposed to fest, even though I know they are not observant but it would have been on my conscience.  So, I asked Boris to invite them earlier.  We ate and finished with the desert right at 7:20pm.  I was not feeling well but decided that I will try to fest.  Boris followed my lead and truly stuck to the fest through the whole time.  I was drinking some water with lemon once in a while because of my sore throat and fever.

It was hard not to eat when I was feeding kids.  The food smelled very good and I just wanted to finish what they didn’t finish (as usually).  I was strong enough not to eat all day. 

I have a book that describes all Jewish holidays for kids in Russian.  I read the chapter about Yom Kippur and gave it to Boris, so he would understand the meaning behind his fest.  Also, I read part of that chapter to Michael who actually was not behaving well.  I hope he has learned a lesson.

In the evening we went to Torah Academy for the final prayer with Aish Minnesota.  It was an interesting experience.  I was glad that my friends also made it there and later on Masha came with Tanya.  I finally got to meet in person Sarah and Berl Simpser the organizers of the events.  We had a long conversation with Sarah before we left. 

Michelle played in the daycare area for about 10 minutes and then I heard loud cry.  I went to the gym where woman who was supervising kids was holding her and trying to calm her down.  I called Michael and gave him her pacifier and tried to stay away from her view and see if she will calm down.  She kept crying, so I went and took her with me to the service once she was quite.  She stayed quiet for a long time but then got bored and started making loud noises with the books on the table.  So, at the end of the services I was in and out because of Michelle.  I was happy that Boris went with us; I was actually planning to go there by myself with kids only.  I guess lead by example works pretty well.

Next is Succot on Wednesday night at Masha’s succah.

I had a wonderful easy going weekend.  After feeling dull during the week, my mood positively shifted as on the way to the daycare from work on Friday, I put in my very old CD mix with Eagles’, Bryan Adams, Scorpions, Metallica, etc.  As I was listening to the songs, a lot of good memories came back and I got inspired to do things enthusiastically.

 

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On Sunday, we went to the Science museum to see that Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition.  My friend was supposed to go with her boyfriend and I talked Boris into going.  By the day we were supposed to go, her boyfriend changed his mind and Boris kept changing his mind.

So, finally we decided that we would go without men.  We suspected that if they go, they would just complain about everything.  We finally met, got in the car and started driving.  We drove for about 5 minutes when Boris called and said that he changed his mind and he wants to come with us.  So, we returned back, picked him up and went to St. Paul.

 

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On Thursday, I attended Rav Simcha Weinberg lecture titled “A Husband’s Obligations to his Wife: What a Woman Needs to Know.”  The event took place in St Louis Park at beautiful, newly remodeled home of one family.  There were a lot of women; some of them were Orthodox wearing long skirts, wigs or hats to cover their hair.  Some, very few, were not so Orthodox and wore pants.  Most, were just wearing long skirts and conservative tops.  I fit into the majority group well. 

 Rav Weinberg was very entertaining telling great stories with humor.  He raised a very good point discussing that there are many married couples who live together for a very long time, they learn to do everything for each other but they have no idea how to be married.  Rav explained that doing only obligations to one another does not constitute a marriage.

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