I spent a week at the mall this morning...

Ok, not really. It just seemed like a week. It was really only 1 hour. But it was with Micah and Sam. After taking them out to eat breakfast. After dropping Sofia at playgroup.

Back up. The boys didn't have school today due to "Professional Development Day." Our school takes this task really seriously, so there are many progreams for the staff to attend...which means we end up with our kids home during weekdays every so often.

So at least I got to sleep a little later. At 5:55, I heard Sam open the gate at the top of the stairs and go down to watch TV. For once I did not hear Micah's wake-up waltz. At about 6:40, Miss Sofia came wandering into my room (last night I switched from the crib side to the toddler rail!), calling "Hi Dada". Dada's in Minnesota, she'll have to make due with me. She cuddled for a few miutes, but then wandered down to find her brothers.

I finally got up around 7:30, showered and got them moving. Sofia had breakfast at home, since she was going to playgroup, and Micah grabbed a breakfast bar on the way out the door. We dropped off Sofia, and I took the boys to this coool little diner in Framingham. Sam complained the entire way - he didn't want to go there, but Micah wanted "warm cereal" (i.e. oatmeal) and I knew they had it. Both boys got hot chocolate, but when Micah offered Sam a bite of his oatmeal and banana, a banana slice fell into his chocolate, resulting in The Great Hot Chocolate Massacre, wherein Sam had to give Micah his remaining cocoa, and then the waitress brough another but took away the un-banana'd cup instead of the contaminated cup.

It was a long (but still yummy) breakfast. The we went to the mall. Got there about 4 minutes before the stores opened, so we bounced between Build-A-Bear and The Lego store, waiting to see which opened first. Lego won (those mommies can recognize eager/impatient children!). But selecting one single Lego item is nearly impossible, especially when you are a 6 year old with a gift certificate from your birthday.

So we looked, then went to Build-a-Bear to get Micah the bear clothing I promised him at Hanukah (somehow, he got a Patriot's uniform and pink sequined sneakers for his bear!), and Sam got his very own koala. He also paid for an army outfit with his own money (oh, we'd counted out their piggy-bank contents before we left the house).

Quick stop at Stride Rite for foot measuring. Micah is an 11 1/2 extra-wide, poor kid! Takes after Mommy. Then back to Lego, where the minutes stretched...and stretched...and stretched. Ugh. It was soooooo tough for Micah to select something. Amazingly, however, Sam picked out one specific thing and stuck with it! So hopefully Micah will grow out of this, too.

Eventually we made all our planned purchases. I did take them through Talbots Kids for a moment, but they were not interested in clothing. So we raced to their school to pick up Sam's friend (whose mom is a teacher there), then raced to EI to pick up Sofia. The three boys were bouncing around the Gross Motor room, and I think they may have frightened some of the toddlers.

Eventually we made it home. The boys sat downstairs building Legos and shouting, and Sofia and I watched a Signing Times video (gosh, how unusual!). Actually, I slept for a few minutes, too.

Eventually, the yellling got to be too much. I packed them back into the car, went back to school to drop off the friend, and took my kids to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks". (I REALLY am a good mommy, huh?!). Sofia was very very tired, and sat on my lap, but did not fall asleep. She was not thrlled about being in a movie theater; it's very loud for her, but when the music played she perked up and danced! Otherwise, she vegged in my lap munching "pop-pop" (popcorn - which Sam was really upset that I got because "that's just so bad for you, Mom!" Yeah, like his whole pizza was any good for him...).

After Alvin, we came home, finished building Micah's Lego ship (it had to be Star Wars again), and I prepped for my class. E came, we started dinner, and I left for my first night of class.

Very very cool class. "The Place of Nature in the Bible". Teacher started the first Jewish Ecology program back in 1988. The really bizarre thing about the class is that, of the 5 students (including me) who were there tonight, I was the only one raised Jewish! The rest are either Jews-by-choice or working their way towards conversion or one woman didn't find out she was Jewish until her teens. The teacher said she'd actually expected at least half the class to be non-Jewish (Hebrew College has a joint program with Andover Newton Theological Seminary, so many students study in both buildings). I can't wait to delve into this (she promised we would).

I'm also the only student taking it for credit, and the only one with any Hebrew, so I will have plenty of extra work. But it's so much fun to be back in a text class! Right now we are working on Genesis Chapter 1.

So when I got home (around 9:40), I immediately jumped on the computer, looking up articles and Hebrew word roots and printing out items for next week. Now it's 11:48, and I should probably go to sleep!