2 plus years later

wow time flew by since i last posted. today i am having my son's upshernish. wow my baby is 3! my oldest is 7 going on 8 and i have another baby, almost a year old. it is funny how life changes or stays the same, i am in the same place right now. but not exactly, i worked, had busing for my kids, didn't have busing, i picked up and dropped off. was in the house almost the whole week, now i'm mostly out of the house. kids changed schools. my life wasn't exactly how i planned it to be. i guess i am forging my own way in the world, its funny how you think that your life will be a certain way, buy my 10 year anniversary i would have a stable parnossah and buy a house etc.. um no. that my children's schools would be xyz. that they would start in kindergarten and go all the way up. no. i had to change one of my kids schools. my other child is a special ed school. i do see that everything is for the best.

back

we just came back from a vacation. it was really nice to leave the city. fresh air and grass was all the kids needed. they could amuse themselves for hours looking at the flora and fauna. they loved to run around in circles in the grass. they never saw so much space! we live in the ghetto, both jewish and non jewish we live in the 'hood. cramped inside and only a busy side walk outside, there isn't place to run around. in the winter when the kids are in school it is ok. but i wish we could at least use the buildings courtyard. oh well city living.

i didn't bring a lot of toys with me but the kids were occupied with;

• throw a ball down from the loft and around down the stairs and go look where it fell.
• Disney channel- no more, i had enough of it,i do not like Hannah Montana
  
• run around outside
• rip grass and throw it on the babies head
• run out the door as soon as no one is looking so we can play find the toddler
• run up and down the stairs

of course some things have to go wrong on a family trip. there was a teething baby, cranky 5 year old. and d was sick she was kind enough to throw clear liquid. but she really wasn't herself. the good thing was that we could do quiet activities and i didn't have to worry about her showing her personality. someone said such well behaved children! lol, one took a nap the other got to use the computer and one was in floppy, sick mode. she was really like a life size rag doll. i had to prop her up in the chair in the library.

the next day we were able to go hiking, she stayed with zeide and i didn't have to worry about her jumping too close to the edge. dh with m on his back and me with a 9 month old in the baby carrier and y all made it to the top of the mountain! i didn't think that i would make it up there. the baby is pretty heavy. the first time we did the hike y was 4 months old and dh had him in the baby carrier. i was not in god condition then but we made it. this time i was used to schlepping heavy things and walking. i wasn't sure that y would make it. he never did a longer hike before. he got scared in the middle of the way and had to be schlepped to the top. but he was really proud of himself when he made it. then he jumped all the way down. - we climbed the ridge of mount Mansfield. from the nose area to the chin. it was a lot of fun. but i couldn't move afterward.

m my 2 year old also did some hiking he was very good at it! it was a short hike but it was fun! we hiked down to a river. the kids got soaked, they jumped from rock to rock. they loved it.

we made it home after being in the car for 10 hours. we could have gone to Niagara! it was only supposed to be a 6 hour trip. but they closed on of the highways. so we had to go on a detour. then it was pouring buckets of rain so we couldn't go fast. but we made it home before shabbos.

now its back to regular life.

shop the shchuna

kinderific

when the store opened i thought that it would close a year later, remember the kiddi store on albany where mimulo was?

but they lasted longer than that. i wish them well.

i try to shop the shchuna but its hard to when everything is really expensive. i wish they had a boytique for girls. fyi the price on french toast shirts is cheaper than the french toast website. i needed shirts for ds. so i checked around the web and tried boytique.

bh there are people in ch who can pay for kidi couture and i'm glad that the stores on ch have the uniforms so they are guaranteed business but i wish that there was a cheaper option. that is why i shop mall stores
for me gap is on the expensive side. but its a lot cheaper than sonia rykial! or other designer brand. i'm not paying 30$ for a white shirt. i shop the childrens place monster sales! an outfit for a 1! ok it was a baby girls out fit that i found in the outlet store.

links

Orthonomics
this is talking about tuition and can a school really be able to help everyone.


www.yeshivabound.com

speaking about affording tuition. this site is to help 2 boys go to yeshiva.

tuition

this word gets me really upset. i am a religious jew. my kids need to go to a religious school. i do not need the fast track to Harvard. i do not need fancy labs or sports complexes. i need a basic education for my children. i looked at the cost of sending my children to school. wow! omg how can anyone afford this? 8,000. that is only for one child. i have more than one k'h. that is the price for pre 1 a- kindergarten- to 5th grade i think that is what it is. i saw advertisements for high school. wow my eyeballs almost popped out 18,000 that is for one child. b'h i have more than one.... how does anyone manage to pay for it? they say that will give a discount 14,000. wow thank you so much! now i can send my child to school. yeah right. the price was based on what it cost to operate the school assuming that the teachers will get really good living wage salaries. i can speak form both sides. a teacher has to be able to get paid. it isn't fair that there are teachers who aren't paid on time. this can go on for months. how will they take care of their families? what about the parents who are working really hard but are not making enough money? 8,000* 4= 32,000. that is a lot of money its not including food shelter clothing etc... 14,000 * 4 = 72,000.
the tuition committees say take out loans, put it on the credit card, sacrifice, sacrifice... what should we scrimp on? food, lights ? ok so maybe there are some people who don't really need the help but there are a lot of people that do. isn't a jewish education important? what if you cannot afford it? public school isn't an option. home school might not work. it depends on the family. what should you do. what bugs me is that there are all of these ads help send a child to school. let them have a jewish education. what about a child already in the community that can't afford to go to school?

tmi

i used to think that some things where tmi- too much information, like describing bodily functions. i didn't like the smell of urine in preschool classrooms. well this is all part of my life now. the yucky kiddie bathroom. i have no idea what they do in there. but it needs to be cleaned every 20 minutes. i am happy though that the bathroom is used! i don't have to be so involved in there business. ok so there is tushy wiping. i would rather that than change a million diapers. the worst thing is either potty training or dealing with a toddler who likes to rip off his diaper and play with the contents. i never thought that i would yell don't shmear your sisters #2! or don't play with your own! if i have to deal with random stools and wet areas i might as well be potty training.

potty training isn't for the faint hearted. pull ups didn't really work for me. they are good in the beginning. like if dd decided that she wanted to try to use the toilet when we were out of the house. i could just pull it up and down. in the house i tried to her the child go bottomless. it did the trick. and the child made some interesting tricks on the way of being potty trained. i got used to puddles and cute little piles that were easy to clean. if i have to deal with it, it might as well be easy to clean! i used to think that my child had to be ready to train. it dragged out with y he winded up training himself when he was 3 years old and 3 months. he knew where the potty was and he decided to use it. finally! i tried getting him trained by 3 lol! not fun. accident after accident. he was trained at home for #1 but not for 2. also at gan he was trained for #1. i was so used to washing underwear in the sink that i considered using cloth diapers. dh talked me out of it. well any way i decided to go back to diapers for y. so he trained himself when he got older.

with d i knew that she was ready she really wanted to use the bathroom. but i knew that she would have problems in camp, so i waited until she was home in the summer. we had potty training boot camp. it wasn't only for her. dh and i had to learn elimination communication. i never thought that i could be so in tune with a child. i learned when she needed to be taken to the bathroom. i also learned what she needed to do there. we still have to do this. you need to go go! ok i'll take you. i wish i figures out how to train her for the night. a diaper a day isn't the end of the world. i think that i will buy a toy and tell her that she will get if if she is dry for a week. it worked for y.

i never thought that i would take an interest in what was made in a diaper, or out of it. dh and i discuss the contents of it. not to be gross but i want to know if the baby is sick. or if it was a corny diaper. red velvet cake makes interesting diapers.

i did it!

i don't know why i have such a fear of taking everyone out at the same time. i did it when there was only 3 now instead of 1 kid in the stroller i have 2. i walked almost every day. i went to Manhattan- ok i had to dh needed something so i was forced to go. no not that way. i was given the push that i needed to attempt to get out of the house. no - mental push. lol! i have a mental block thinking that it will be hard or that i don't have the energy to go somewhere. but i know that i am capable of doing it. i always walk home. ok so i cheat and take a taxi when i could have walked. but then i justify it if i walked it would take 30 minutes and then everything would be over. taking a taxi only takes 5 minutes.

the kids thought that there was school today so y picked out his clothes and got dressed. d also wanted to get dressed. it made my life easier i only had 2 left to get dressed. my plan was to go get ice cream and buy a birthday present for an upershernish that we are iy'h going to go to tomorrow. y said can we to the museum? hm. let me think about that why not? i was thinking about trying it. i took the kids to the park and shopping on the avenue. why don't we try it? the kids walked really nicely over there, no complaining or kvechting.

they said there would be kosher food in the cafeteria. last time i went they did have food. i brought along some cookies and crakers. oops they didn't have anything substantial to eat. i bought them chips and a banana and pepsi. they were really happy with that.

everything started out ok. they listened to me. stay as a group no running off.... we went around the exihbits. i really should take my 2 yearold during the week. he would love it! my baby got kvechty he wanted to sleep. i had to run after d. she did not want to listen, then y started to not listen so well. i tried to stick it out but then i decided that the museum was closing soon. i might as well go home. they had to learn how to listen. they walked home. i told them that if we walked home nicely they would get a treat. nicely means holding on to the stroller, no complaining, no dawdling. they all got a treat.

we did it!