If Naomi didn't cry so much...

And here I am, complaining about the kids yelling and crying all the time, when it was crying that saved Naomi from being abducted on Shabbos.
I named this blog YELLING AND CRYING TIME as a bit of sarcasm, but now I wonder if I should rethink my attitude towards it.

Details of the man

Talking to Naomi today in the privacy of Bubbis’ bathroom, these are more details about the man who carried her at shul yesterday:(She seemed so sincere, saying that she was telling the truth)
· Wears glasses
· Has a beard
· Has grey hair
· Long hair
· Wrinkles in his forehead
· Was the nice man who handed out lollipops to all the kids during Simchahs Torah
· Wears blue pants and shirt

The Naomi incident at shul

Just as the Kiddush was ending and before the Sheva Brachahs were to begin, Jennifer and I rounded up Naomi (age 4) and Gavriel Zev (age 1 and a half) and were getting ready to head downstairs to leave. As I picked up our coats, I returned to the north third floor foyer to see David trying to lodge a chair to the outside door to keep it open.“Where is Naomi?” I asked Jennifer, looking around.“I thought she was with you?” she said seeing me carrying Gavriel Zev and thinking I was in charge of both kids. I popped my head into the upstairs room where the shul workers were setting up the tables for the Sheva Brachahs and called out “Naomi, where are you?”Jennifer popped outside to the terrace to look for her. Not seeing her, she returned to the foyer. Thinking Naomi took off down the stairs on her own, I told Jennifer to head down the North stairwell while I took to the South stairwell.
Arriving on the main floor, I looked to see if Naomi was around the front door, cloakroom or in front of the Sanctuary. I saw Jennifer down the hall near the Menora heading my way, then turn around and pick up a crying Naomi behind her.Jennifer questioned her as to why she went down the stairs herself and Naomi claimed that someone picked her up and brought her down against her will. Jennifer questioned her about who it was and leading on to nearby Dan Z., Naomi said it was him. Jennifer asked Danny about it and he said that it was not him.
Later at home alone with Naomi, I asked her what happened at shul today, trying to not lead her on with probing questions. Basically this is what she said, in her own words.A man, possibly wearing a blue suit or blue clothing, called her over to him in the North stairway by saying “Come over here.” She went to him and he picked her up and started walking down the stairs. On the way down, Naomi asked if he was bringing her to her parents. He said no.At this point, Naomi may have started to cry. The man brought her into the Ladies section of the Sanctuary, then came back out to the area around the carriages and Menora. Someone nearby, possibly seeing Naomi cry harder, told the man to “Put her down” which he did. He then proceeded to go into the single washroom, and I guess this is when Jennifer and I showed up and saw Naomi crying.
Later at Shalosh Seudah, I talked to David, remembering he was around earlier. He said he knew nothing of what happened to Naomi and was genuinely concerned about her. I am sure it wasn’t him.
Naomi said that the man was a shul person, meaning she recognized this person being around the shul.Who is it? Was this a benign, innocent event? Or was someone after my 4 year old, and was taking advantage of the commotion between a busy shul schedule that morning?
I was thinking of bringing Naomi to shul next Shabbos and seeing if she could point out said person. On Richard B.'s advice he recommend I asked the person what he was doing with Naomi, hoping that there would be a simple explaination. If the person is identified, Richard wanted me to let him know who it was.

Writing 101

Naomi wrote ABBA on a sheet of paper today. Then with a little coaching from Jennifer, she also wrote MOMMY and NAOMI between them. Quite the little speller!

Climbing the steps

Gavriel climbed up and down the steps of our indoor slide today. He must have done it twenty times.

Worst 'YM at shul' nightmare comes true

You know, I have some many hopes for YM as his is growing up. Right now he is going through that irritating early teen year thing (I was going to say awkward teenage years, but YM somehow does not apply to that category) and so at times I see some nice maturity every now and again.
Sitting at shul, I sometimes imagine the worst thing I could see him doing there, which would be running around with a ball with a passel of ten year old boys. I then imagine he knocks out a window somewhere and then I have Richard Bassett talking to me about not letting YM in the shul anymore unescorted.
Anyway, that worst nightmare didn't really come completely true, as I suggest in the title of this blog, but I was downstairs this morning davening Mussav when I saw YM run down the hallway, followed by literally a gang of nine and ten year old boys.
"WHAT???" I sputtered, "Yerachmiel!" I called after him. I could not believe it.
A minute later, when Mussav was done, I ran after him, into the Social Hall, to see him looking around for a ball to play with.
"What?" again.
Then the group leader came in and told all the kids to head back up to the play room. As it turned out, YM was supposedly helping the leader organize a game upstairs for the nine and ten year olds. But I am sure that he was in his glory, playing at the maturity level he really was at, that being analogous to this group of boys playing ball.
Anyway, he ran off upstairs with the others and I crossed my fingers that I wouldn't have to talk with Richard about a broken window later.

Naomi cuddles up at 5 AM

This morning Naomi crept into bed at five AM because she had a bad dream and wanted some comfort. I let her rest for a few minutes before I summoned up the strength to pick her up and bring her back to bed. I tucked her in and she went back to sleep.
Then Gavriel started crying at 5:30, so I figured that my night of sleeping was cut short again. Tonight I must get to bed earlier to get some rest.
(Yeah, right)

Bananas Abba, I want bananas!!!!

This morning I asked Gavriel Zev if he wanted a banana for breakfast. He bounced up and down in his highchair and then said, "Nana, nana!"
I wasn't expecting that!
It's just been so long since he has said anything other than "Abba" or "Amma!" (His version of Momma)

New Odours

Last week, J and I noticed a perfume smell coming off of YM, so J asked him if he was wearing a deoderant. He said no, which was true, because he technically was not wearing any deoderant, so therefore I'm sure he thought he was telling the truth. I smelled him a little closer and asked him if he put anything on, like a new soap. (This was my mistake, giving him something he could deny and still think he was being honest). Then he clammed up and we knew he would never volunteer the information, so we dropped the subject.
Yesterday on my way to pick up his thrown jacket on the darken stairway, I went through his pockets to check on how many chocolate bar wrappers I could find. (Two) Inside one outer pocket was a small, travel sized can of body spray called Xon or Zon. (Something like that) I took a whiff and realized what we were smelling last week.
So my question is why couldn't he just admit he was wearing that spray. Why so evasive? Embarrassment?

Useless

Last night ECH was having a crying fit with her mother and as she was racing to her room, she dropped this 13 year old girls' melodramatic bomb on her way past; " Don't get up Abba, just sit there and be useless like you always are!"

It's not an insult, it's the truth!

That's what YM said this morning to J. He says that a lot when he wants to put someone down but justifies his saying it under the guise that he has some sort of immunity when it comes to giving his honest opinion. So socially clueless.
He reminds me of a character in the movie Watchmen, I went to last night. A godlike superhero named Dr. Manhattan that could no longer relate to mere mortals and would often not realize how inappropriate his actions were becoming as he became less and less human.
For his birthday I am definitely going to get him a shirt that reads: "It's not an insult, it's the truth!" I will, I really will!

How old am I again?

I told Naomi that after Havdallah, she would now be four years old. She laughed and then asked me three times "how old am I again?"

On the Verge of Walking

Gavriel now likes to walk around by pushing stand-up toys with handles. He is also getting around by holding one hand. Any day now, he be running...

From Jfers blog, I love it!

YM refused to eat tonight and was also acting a bit crazy; though to be fair, I took away his computer time after I caught him drawing molecules for Grandpa without setting the timer. We have a rule that even when he's allowed to use the computer (for personal or school use), he's not to touch it without a timer going. I also discovered that he'd been doing his math homework in Word instead of writing down the problems and solving them on paper (takes a billion times longer and the problems all look weird).

I thought I was very nice and sympathetic, just listening and giving him a hug... but then he got all screwy at the library again and yelled and went off after I told him he couldn't use the computers there either.

Anyway, snit at the library, snit in the car on the way home... I swear, I started the evening with hugs and sympathy, but it's hard to stay sympathetic with this kid for long without strangling him...

Meanwhile, we're still wondering: why wasn't he hungry? What did he eat today?
Earlier in the year, his rosh yeshiva was paying him for helping around the shul... maybe he has money from there?
But he swore he didn't eat any lunch.
I suspect it's a technicality: he probably means he didn't literally consume (choose one or more of the following)
a) several food groups at one sitting
b) between the hours of 12-1, ie lunch hour
c) sitting down at a table
d) from a restaurant
e) lunch-type food.

If he had scrambled eggs (ie breakfast food), standing up (ie not really eating a meal in the normal way), by themselves (they're usually accompanied by toast during a meal), at 4:00 p.m. (not the usual lunch hour) in the back-alley of the shul (not a usual lunch place), he would definitely, in good conscience, and without a clue that he was lying - be able to honestly swear on his parents' grave (the early one he's driving us to) that he didn't eat lunch today.

He could be stuffed full of chocolate bars, pasta, sushi, whatever... and still swear he didn't eat lunch.Sheesh.