Determinism

No, not the philosophical definition ("...the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). The kind of Determinisim that makes Micah pick each chip out of a chocolate chip cookie, or that makes Sofia continue to reach for the shower curtain long after I've pulled it out of her reach, or that makes Sam ...uh...have a tantrum over the teensiest tiniest thing. It's really fascinating to watch it in action.

Whew, busy weekend. After a lovely evening with S & R and their kids for Shabbos dinner, we slept late on Saturday (I'm sort of on a "shul-strike" from TI, a little burnt out). I had the wildest dream, 'tho: I dreamt that Sam wanted to go to Chabad for services, so I took him with the intention of just dropping him off and finding him a ride home. I wandered around the building, and everyone was very pleasant, but I kept running into really ridiculous obstacles, like a half-door to get to the school wing but my dress kept riding up so I couldn't figure out how to maintain modesty, or making too much noise by opening a door during some moment of total silence. It was a very interesting dream, really delving into the dichotomy of the pleasantness vs. the discomfort there.

So we relaxed on Saturday morning (the boys got Sofia out of her crib, but locked her upstairs while they went down to watch a movie, so eventually she started screaming again). In the afternoon, David had said we could go look at barbeque grills, since ours is rusting away. So we went. Mind you, the night before, he'd had me enter a bid of $160 for some Farscape videos on eBay (but we didn't get it). Well, apparently he did the bills on Satruday morning, because when we got to the stores, he flipped out about the money. So no new grill; I bought a new grate for the old one (piece by piece we are rebuilding it).

David had a bad afternoon, and just disappeared onto the front porch for a few hours. It didn't help that in the morning we got some sad news from is mom: their old friend A.S. passed away. She'd been very sick for a long time, but still, it was sort of sudden. So David moped all day.

Saturday evening, D & E and the girls came over for dinner, which I grilled and we ate on the back porch. We had a nice evening, but the guys stayed separate from us for a while, deep in conversation (we of course had our own conversation, just as deep! D's a very good friend to me.) The kids all got along fairly well.

At night, after the kids were asleep, David and I watched "Brother from Another Planet". What a cool movie! I really enjoyed it.

Today was very busy. Again, the boys watched a movie in the morning, but this time they left Sofia in the crib, so I got up a bit earlier with her and we joined them for Star Wars Ep. 6. Then I made breakfast, we all got dressed, and I took Sam over to AS's birthday party. When I got home, Micah was watching a video, so I rested on his bed with a magazine. Eventually I fell asleep for a bit, until he woke me up. David and Sofia were passed out together on our bed:so I drove Micah to Z'a birthday party, and called David when it was time for him to wake up, pick up Sam, and then meet me to give me the kids and trade cars. After I dropped off Micah, I got my glasses fixed at Lenscrafters, and then set off a security alarm while looking at camcorders at Circuit City.

Then David showed up with Sam & Sofia, so I sent him off to the airport (he just landed un Detroit tonight), and we went back to pick up Micah at the Gymnastics place. Micah was the LAST person to finish eating - most of the other kids had already gone home. And he didn't even have the cake, just ice cream and chips. Sooooooo slow!

I drove the kids up to the Sudbury Valley Trustees farm where the was a faire, but we missed most of it. Then we stopped to play at the wooden playground in Wayland, and then back to Chabad for a Lag B'Omer picnic. It was really fun (although expensive - food and games all cost $), and I certainly knew a lot of people there. The kids had a blast. Micah hooked up with S, our "distant cousin" (S's uncle is married to one of David's father's cousins), and Sam hung out a bit with EJ and a bit on his own. When the Rabbi spoke, Sam listened intently (but said he didn't really understand much), and when the Rabbi led the singing of "Hinei Ma Tov", Micah let out a very loud "shevet achim" from the top of the playground climbing structure. Sofia chowed on a hot dog and french fries, and then took a walk with my friend S.

Then I raced home, got them all bathed and now they are sleeping! Hooray. I have the evening to myself. My current "projects" are putting together photos for J, making a DVD for T&M, or scrapbooking.

Tomorrow Sofia has her Cardiology check-up. It's the first time we're seeing this docter, since the woman we've been seeing since pre-natal moved to Toronto last year. Hopefully Sofia will pass with flying colors again. Then in the evening we have the MWJDS Lag B'Omer picnic - I have to get ice in the morning, then take T home afer school, then take J home after the picnic (I hope I remember all of that!).