Photo Flashback

This photo was taken in June 2008. Elizabeth is 9+ months pregnant and Meredith and I are almost 7 months pregnant. Kent saw this picture and pointed out me and Mrs. Elizabeth and Mrs. Meredith. I told him that there was something different about us and asked him what we all had in common in this photo. His reply, "I don't know, you all have straight hair?"

Mom, can we pleeeease be Jewish????



Kent is obsessed with all things Hanukkah. I think he has been learning a little about all of the different holidays that people celebrate at school. He is very interested in why we aren't Jewish and was EXTREMELY disappointed to find that we do not have a menorah. One of his friends at school is Jewish and I think Kent is learning quite a lot from him.

It is pretty difficult trying to communicate the differences in Judaism and Christianity to a five year old. All the Santa business swirled in makes it all the more challenging. I don't think I remember even questioning any of this when I was little. Kent, however, has many questions:

"Mommy, why can't we just celebrate the lights? I want to celebrate the lights!"

"Everyone is supposed to have a menorah. Can't we just get one? I saw one at Target."

"Aren't we supposed to get presents every night?"

"Mommy, are you sure we aren't Jewish? Can you check?"

"The one thing I want most for Christmas is a dreidel. Can I please have a dreidel mommy?"

I have tried to tell him that people that are Jewish do not believe in Jesus the same way we do. They don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God. He seemed to accept that. I also mentioned that people who are Jewish are from a place named Israel. He understood that pretty well saying, "Oh, ok. We are from Georgia, not Israel." ;) I think part of the problem is that we don't really have any set Christmas traditions in our family. One of my friends at school said to get an Advent wreath and then tell Kent that instead of eight crazy nights we would celebrate four crazy weeks! All kidding aside, I feel that we do need to celebrate the season of Christ's birth as we head towards Christmas so it will be more meaningful for the boys. The hard part is that I usually have NOTHING ready for Christmas until we get out of school. That's right, many years I have not even started decorating until a few days before Christmas! I'm actually procrastinating with entering grades right now to write this.

So what sort of traditions do you celebrate with your family? How do you show the meaning of Christmas to your children?

Kent will be getting that dreidel after all. I was telling one of my friends who is Jewish about all of this and he went home and found a dreidel for Kent. He and his kids actually spun all of theirs to find one that was weighted the best for Kent (so sweet). He explained the meaning of all the Hebrew letters on the sides and how to play the game to me. I think I learned this a long time ago, but forgot. It really is a shame how little Christians know about Judaism! I didn't even bother to tell Kent that Jesus was Jewish. Talk about confusing! We'll just save that bit of info for next year! So Kent will get his dreidel after all. I plan on putting it in his stocking (pretty twisted, I know.)

Black Friday Shopping with Cohen

Mom and I went out for just a little while after Thanksgiving. We'll just say that Cohen was feeling very relaxed while I visited HomeGoods for the first time. This was probably a good thing as I don't think I would ever want to accompany an awake and mobile toddler in that store!

More than one man expressed their desire to trade places with Cohen.

Kent's Thanksgiving Play

Kent is having a great time in Kindergarten. He really likes his teachers, PE and computer class. Art is fun too, but it might just not be his very favorite class...unimaginable, I know! I'm still shaking my head. I think his very favorite subject is math and his reading is going very well too.

While Kent's scholastic progress is going relatively smoothly, we have definitely had some behavior surprises. Kent, it turns out, is quite the rule follower (not unlike his mother, by the way- I mean what are rules for if not to be followed? Hello!). He is such a rule follower that he really gets upset if someone else does not follow the rules. I mean REALLY upset. It might just be a control thing (quite unlike his mother. Definitely unlike his mother!) When Kent sees someone else not doing what the teacher says, he has no problem going right over to that individual and taking matters right into his own hands. Most of our conversations go a little like this, please note-names have been changed to protect the not so innocent.

"Kent, why did you push/pinch/yell at Stephen?"

"Well...the teacher told him to go line up and he didn't go line up."

"And you thought that it was ok to push/pinch/yell at Stephen for not lining up?"

"Well...I was just trying to make him line up!"

Pete and I were very surprised when this happened the first (and second, and third) time, because he has never acted like this at church or with his friends. And teachers' kids are supposed to be the most well behaved, right? Apparently, it wasn't as terrible as I originally thought it was and his teacher assures me that Kindergarten is all about learning those social boundaries.

One of my favorite days this year so far was seeing Kent and about 100 other Kindergartners in their Thanksgiving play. All six kindergarten classes at Kent's school got together to perform a bunch of turkey and thankfulness themed songs. We didn't get a photo of all six classes together as Kent was in the back row and we kept trying to get close up photos of him. Here is a photo of Kent with his class.

Kent was a Pilgrim Man and as you can see, the other students were Pilgrim Women, Indian Men and Women, Turkeys and Corn. All I can tell you is that it was all just too cute. One of the students read a long poem and every time she would name one of the costumes the kids would say something. When she said Pilgrim Men then all the boys dressed as that would say, "Bang Bang!" The cutest was when she would say Pilgrim Women and the little girls would put their hands on their faces like they were shocked and they would all say, "Mercy Me!" ADORABLE.

My mom came to see the play too! Cohen was mildly interested.

  

Blane from Pretty in Pink was also there!

And here he is, the CUTEST pilgrim ever!!!!

Cohen these days.

I wanted to post a little update on our youngest little guy. Cohen has really gotten big since he turned two; he is three feet tall and almost thirty pounds! With personality to spare, Cohen always keeps us laughing. My mom says he has quite the temper, (which he does), but he's just so cute- how can I get mad?
 
One of Cohen's favorite things to do is drag out ALL of our shoes out of the closet as he tries each pair on and walks in them around the house...for hours. He loves shoes, but hates socks. I cannot keep socks on the kid- he really doesn't even like footy pajamas. He says that he wants to see his toes. Maybe he thinks they will disapear? Here he is in his many jaunts around the house in our shoes.

Cohen had a great time at his little birthday party. I say little because I was so stressed that we had a family only party and it was quite little, which was just fine. Cohen loves whatever his brother loves, so this year it is all Toy Story. Cohen carries Kent's Woody doll around everywhere. I think Kent realized how much his brother likes Toy Story so he wrote Cohen's name on the bottom of one of Woody's boots and put his name on the bottom of the other boot. Woody is VERY well loved.

Cohen blew out his candles so quickly and efficiently, we all missed it and had to re-light them and have him do it again! Of course neither of my boys had any birthday cake, no matter how much I tried to convince them sugary things taste good!

Cohen is also pretty sneaky. He is always up to something. Last weekend we were cleaning out the boys closets and put all the bubbles and chalk next to the basement door to take downstairs. I should have known that leaving these things there would be a bad idea as Cohen is known for taking things and moving them around the house. You can't find your keys? Check Cohen's pelican toy in his room, it could be in there. Or, maybe in Cohen's shoe in his closet, or under his booster seat in the kitchen. He is a master hider. I was actually thinking about Cohen and his sneaky ways when I realized he had been kinda quiet for a while. Any mom knows that silence is a recipe for disaster if you have kids. Just as I was going back to his room to see what he could have gotten into, I heard the hall bathroom door close. When I tried the doorknob, it was locked. Good thing I put that little key they give you when you replace your doorknobs in a safe place. I had that door opened in no time and this is what I found...

Sneaky Cohen had taken ALL the bubbles and chalk and set it up in the bathroom and shut and LOCKED the door. I can only imagine the mess I might have found if I hadn't known exactly where that little key was!

Cohen's all time favorite accessory is his paci. He loves his paci and ONLY his paci. Of course the pacifier he likes is discontinued and cannot be found anywhere anymore. His little friend Annie gave him her pink one in this brand since she never liked it and has her own favorite brand (which is also discontinued, by the way). Of course, the pink one is his favorite. Here you can see just how much he loves his nu-nu. (He came up with that himself. It was one of his first words and when we corrected him saying paci, he replied "no, my nu-nu!"

Cohen is also growing a head full of curly hair. Well maybe not a head full, but some curls in the back. He does have much lighter hair than Kent as well. Hopefully all those curls will come back after his first haircut.

Can you resist those eyes and cheeks!?! I can't!