Dear oldest child,

Lately, while observing my beloved children, I have seen my patience-trying, not-quite-not-a toddler, "pilpeleet" and my usually more placid oldest son grow before my eyes. The oldest has gone from a spritely toddler to a full-on personality bearing little person, sometimes with a blazing temper (I have NO idea where he picked that up) to match. It is amazing to watch the transformations right before your eyes.

I guess my emotional incubator hormones must be kicking in, but lately I have taken pains to tell my son how happy I am that HaShem chose to give him to us to raise. I even started to draft a letter to him - hence the post title.

Maybe it feels like I give the little one a lot more attention since she DEMANDS it and he is more self-sufficient. For example, last night I offered to take the boy with me to run errands to the store since I always take the girl. He declined at first and then half an hour later he called me (mid-trip) wanting to go to the second store. Since I picked the grocery that most likely had all the items I needed, hoping for one-stop shopping (not necessarily the best or the cheapest or the closest store I admit) I had to disappoint the boy. Meanwhile the girl got to her cranky stage and we both lost our patience, in spite of the Dora DVD that made its way into the shopping cart at the beginning of the trip. Whining that she wanted to weigh things on the scale that I had already passed -for no reason other than to weigh it- promted me to tell her that I wanted a million dollars. A sure sign that I had lost ALL my patience with her. When I got to the car and saw the time it was clear why. Her "witching" hour had arrived and I was caught unaware! Woe is me. We got home as fast as we could after she continued her cry/whine fest because she wanted her library book in the back (with the groceries) instead of next to her - so, I flung it back there in hopes that she would calm down. Not my most proud parenting moments I assure you!

It also may have to do with the fact that the big kid will be "graduating" from the Montessori program they're in this year and will go into first grade next year. And the term Eran has been using to discuss the different programs include ragil (regular, which the school terms as Traditional) vs the Montessori program which is more "flexible" (shall we say? Eran likened it to kindergarten activities for older kids) and more along the lines of what he has been doing most recently. So there is an obvious shift in terms of schooling in that he WILL go to another school next year, weather I like it or not, and he will be considered a "real" student - as if all he has learned up till now didn't count.

So when I finally got home again last night I we were stuck with the State of the Union address on at least 5 TV channels and since it is WAY above their heads (and frankly mine at that hour) I took it as an opportunity to do a little math and spelling lesson. I knew I would be able to read all the highlights and lowlights of the speech on-line today.

I asked the kids if they knew who that man was? They answered his name (kinda) And I asked if they knew what he did? I had to tell them he was President of the United States, but they knew that is where they live. We said that the president had just finished 1 year of his time in his job as president and that is why he was giving this speech on all those TV channels (and they weren't even the favorite channels in our house, so why would we care, but I digress...)
I explained that he was elected for a 4 year job. (Gotta make sure to use terms that speak to your audience.) Then I wanted to know how many years he had left. That was a little abstract so I put my fingers up to illustrate. They got it! So then I told the kids that he may get a chance to keep the job after that for another four years (I was careful not to make this anything political - they need to understand the civics behind the office, not the politics at this point) And they were able to tell me that it could be 7 more years. Mini civics lesson OVER! And as he finished his speech and started handshaking his way out of the room, I hate myself for even thinking/realizing that he was the only black person the cameras showed in a sea of white politicians. Thankfully our local stations showed some of our Congressional leaders' responses, including Pete Olsen, Shelia Jackson Lee and Al Green.

I mentioned that I hadn't seen a book from the teachers in awhile and so that prompted me to try out his oral spelling skills. We did lap and lad and nap and hat and cap. It made me remember the lessons I used to have in my educations courses about how different people learn in different ways. He was able to do most of those words and their sounds (now that he has finally gotten over his ear infections and most recent bout of strep throat with a rash - some people call it scarlet fever) Of course that didn't translate to the page. I am not sure he could recognize all those words easily.

And of course, his fingers are severely peeling since he is (maybe) finally hitting that growth spurt he has been shoveling food down his gullet for the past 3 months in preparation for. We have recently been to 2 snake birthday parties so I said I would call him snake boy instead of monkey boy since he's peeling like a snake. And he replied with a snuggle and said I should call him "snake buddy boy" which turned out to be a real tongue twister for me for some reason. Then he proceeded to poke me full on in the eye with one of those snakeskin fingers [yuck] and it triggered a huge gagging reflex in me. I really thought I was going to lose my dinner (of a most nutritious nature - half a bag of kettle cooked potato chips) all over the living room. I called for a glass of water from my darling in the next room between choking fits and he was TOO SLOW in getting for me. By this point I was crying tears from choking and heaving and he's LUCKY I'm not a puker cause he would've gotten in straight in the face!

This post really took on a more rambling message than I meant. When I began, I meant it to showcase the gush of emotions (pregancy hormones anyone?) I am feeling regarding and around my oldest son lately and not to be a blow-by-blow of the night's events - although there are some that I am proud of and some I would rather forget. But I still WOULD like a million dollars if anyone has that lying around that they want to contribute to my sanity fund.

Enjoy the rest of the week. The weather here is supposed to get awful. Stream-of-consciousness is good (but maybe I need a bell on my nose to let people know when I am chainging the subject - DING!)