Seriously, Two Full Weeks?

Ok, I'm sorry for the long silence on my blog. It's been a bit insane here for the past few weeks. So I'll try to summarize...

Vacation Day
The Monday after Thanksgiving, none of my kids had school; Professional Development Day for both schools. So we got to sleep late one more day, and then I took them all to the movies, to see "The Fabulous Mr. Fox." My opinion of the movie: it's psychotic. Really odd. But I think the boys enjoyed it (although they said it was "awkward"). Sofia hated it, so we took several walks in the hallway mid-movie, which did nothing for my sense of plot continuity.

After the movie, I took them all to the mall, where I got to see personalities in action. We stopped in to the play space so Sofia could stretch her legs. The play space at the mall is set up so there is only one exit, which means if I sit bear the front, I can see Sofia if she tries to leave. Poor Sam did not agree. He was very upset that I did not follow her throughout the space, so he took that task on himself. He was really stressed. So we left.

The boys kindly bought their sister a Build-a-Bear, although by the time we got it all done, she was completely melting down. So much for shopping with my kids.

School
I finished my paper! Teacher said he enjoyed it. Whew.


Gala
Most of last week was spent prepping for the MWJDS Winter Lights Gala. I had a ton of typing to do, for Auction bid sheets and tent cards and receipts. But I did get it all done.

The Gala was a smashing success. We raised over $40,000 in the Auction (including Live Auction stuff), and the Gala overall raised about $130,000 for the school! Yeah!


Whimsical Wednesday
In the middle of Gala prep, I had to change my "hat" on Wednesday last week to lead the Whimsical Wednesday preschool program. It went well, which was good.



Elopement
But on Friday, with last-minute prep in a frenzy, Sofia decided to stage an Elopement. I was in the school office, talking to the development director. Sofia walked through the door into the other side of the main office. I was not concerned; there are so many "usual" places she goes. I finished my 30 second conversation, and went to look for her.

And could not find her.

I searched all her usual haunts, and then the principal and some teachers and staff started helping search every room.

Nothing.

So the principal (who has a grown son with DS) and I ran out the school wing door (the kindergarten teacher said she had seen Sofia in the school hallway heading to the door). Hamenahelet (the principal) went around back, and I took off to the walking path.

I managed to get a glimpse of Miss Pink&Purple just as she rounded the corner at the bottom of the hill. All the leaves on the path had slowed her down, fortunately, although they also slowed me down. And when I finally got closer to her, she started laughing and running faster!

I finally caught her, smacked her bottom, and let her know what a Bad Girl Move that had been. The big problem with Sofia is that she gets upset being yelled at, so I'm not sure how much of the content of WHY I was mad got through.

My friend DB came running down after us, so he carried her back up the hill; she clutched him like crazy. Back in the office, I sat on the floor with my laptop on my lap, holding her hand TIGHT! She was offered a chance to go to the Shabbat program with DB; she opted to stay with angry Mama instead.

So now she wears her ID tag whenever we go anywhere. Sigh. We looked at some of the electronic tracking devices, but I'm not so impressed with any of them. Opinions?



Micah'ism
At some point in the past few weeks, on the ride to school, Sam read a joke from a book, and the punch line was "I'm gonna Kill whoever drank my cherry Kool-Aid."

I must not have been thinking clearly, because I felt compelled to explain the double-entendre about the Jonestown massacre. Which of course led to a whole lot of questions. I had to pull over and look things up for Sam, because he had soooo many different questions.

Micah, however, only had one real question:

Where did they get enough cups for all those people?

Ah, Micah. Pondering the cost-effectiveness of mass murder...



Family Fun

Anyway, after the Elopement event, we had to drive down to CT. We had Shabbos dinner with my parents, and slept over there, and on Saturday, we all drove down to NYC for a surprise party for mom's cousin's wife.

Well, it was a lovely party, she was totally surprised, the food was yummy. the magician hired to entertain the kids was great.

But...

I sat down to talk to my cousin, and was immediately overwhelmed by a tirade against organized religion.

Then my mother felt she had to defend me as "not being a fanatic" by pointing out that it was Saturday afternoon and I was still attending the party even though it was Shabbos, because I wasn't "one of them".

Several other cousins had a really really hard time with the fact that I don't eat shellfish and would not taste the steak. "Oh, the Kosher thing, huh?"

Gee Whiz, people! I get less grief from non-Jews about keeping Kosher than I do from relatives!

And to top it all off, my father my quiet, shy father, got rip-roaring drunk. Which of course pissed off my mom and my sister (and I admit, me, too). He wobbled all the way back to the car (they rode with us, fortunately!), and fell asleep shortly after we started driving.

All in all, I was a lot happier spending time with Sofia than with any grownups (oh, and David was annoyed at me that day, too, which was just the icing on the cake).


Snow
We got snow this week, only a few days after the temperature had been in the 60s. Sofia's school was canceled, but the boys still had school. It's been ver cold, in the 20s, ever since.

Flu
And now Miss Sofia has the flu. Fever started Friday morning. I was up a lot with her last night, as the temp climbed higher. Right now, she's doing ok; a little warm, but she did eat and she's more active. David took the boys to the flu clinic (I'll have to reschedule Sofia) and then to shul.

Whew! I think I'm caught up!