Do I look like a gay mom?

My friend (I'll call her Phyllis) and I had quite an adventure yesterday. She has two boys (ages 2 and 6 months), and we decided to take the children to a park a ways outside of Nazareth. It's been really hot lately, but yesterday... well, it wasn't cool, but it was cooler and overcast, so at least the sun wasn't out!

Well, we arrive at the park and there are just swarms of young men, grouped into teams (designated by different colored t-shirts) and doing various drills. Many of them had AK-47s strapped to their bodies, and a couple of IDF soldiers were standing guard at the entrance. Apparently we walked in on an IDF training session for young Israelis! There were other kids playing at the park, however, and the boys were practicing in a field away from the playground equipment, so Phyllis and I decided that we could still take the kids for some fun. They had a blast for about an hour, climbing on the "spiderwebs" and playing on the slide. After that, we saw all the young men (as well as a few women) running up to play area. I guess their drill time was finished so imagine, if you will, about 200 young men in this little park area designed for eight year-olds. Yeah. Phyllis and I look at each other and say, "I think it's time to pack up." My son, by this time, has noticed that some of the soldiers are wearing guns, and, like most four year-old boys, he has a fascination with these charming pieces of equipment. He starts to walk up to one of the soldiers, but I, with my cat-like mommy reflexes, sprint to the opposite end of the playground and grab my son before he inadvertently does any damage. We hurriedly pack our bags, get the kids organized, and leave the park before our children get lost in a sea of young men (BTW, neither my son nor her eldest speak a lick of Hebrew).

Since our play date was cut shorter than anticipated, we decide to go to a coffee shop for drinks. As we're getting our kids situated (4, 2, 1, and 6 mos), one of the bussers comes up and starts helping us with high chairs, cleaning off the table, etc. She turns to Phyllis and says in her broken English, "She is the mom and you are the gay mom?" Now Phyllis, who is infinitely British, smiles and says, "no, we're just friends." (I think this lady was a little embarrassed at this point) As soon as the lady walks away, Phyllis exclaims, "I know I look a little rough today with no makeup and my face all flushed, but do I look like a gay mom??!!" At which point we start giggling hysterically. You know you're not in Nazareth when someone just walks up and asks you if you're gay!

All in all, we had lots of fun, despite the whole army training thing and the chaos of that many young kids all together. I would have posted pictures, but I figured the IDF would not look kindly upon me taking pictures of their training :-)

P.S. Just to clarify, the soldiers were not practicing with the guns at the playground. That would've sent Phyllis and me running for the car before our kids' feet hit the playground!

Can I just vent for a while?

I don't know what's gotten into our son.

Usually, he's a pretty well behaved (but active) four year-old. He's thoughtful, funny and imaginative. But for the past two days something has possessed him to pull some of the dumbest stunts imaginable. My son has always been a bit of a daredevil, which is really fun when you go to places like Sea World or Six Flags and he wants to ride the roller coasters with you. Not so good when you're inside the house.

Yesterday he was in the living room watching a movie while I was cooking dinner in the kitchen. Hubby went to the living room to check on him, and I heard him shout "DAVID!!! NO!" I ran to the living room and saw him pulling our son off the window he WAS HANGING OUT OF. Now, since we are on the third story of a building, it would be quite a fall had he tipped out; I can only imagine what sort of horrible things could've happened to him if he fell. I couldn't believe he had unlocked the window and started to climb out. Apparently he had been talking to the kids outside, but going out on the balcony to talk to them would have been too safe. No, he had to hang out the window.

Now here's the clincher -- he proceeded to do this TWO MORE TIMES until bedtime, both in his room. I felt like strangling him by bedtime.

Then, this morning, while I was in the shower (with Culacha asleep in our bedroom), he started pounding on the door and talking to me, but I couldn't understand him. I told him to go to his room and wait until I was finished, and then I would help him with what he needed. Two minutes later, I hear a terrible CRASH!! Oh, dear God, what happened now???

Once I found the source of the noise (the kitchen), my jaw dropped. The WHOLE panel of the refrigerator door (where you store things like milk and eggs and jars) had fallen to the floor, including the eggs (which had smashed), a jar of caramel (shattered), and a couple boxes of juice (which spilled on the floor but didn't break, since they were cardboard). I lost my temper (which I hate). I can think of about 3 or 4 times that I've actually yelled at my son -- this makes number five I suppose. My throat is actually sore from the strain. It's like he's been sitting in his room, devising ways to infuriate me (or kill himself?), for the past two days. I love having my kids at home (most of the time), but today, I feel like I've had enough.

Not really sure what's driving him to act like this. Lack of playmates? Jealousy? Boredom? I've ruled out jealousy because both my husband and I are intentional about giving him playtime w/o his sister; if anything, I've started spending LESS time w/ my daughter since I've started weaning her.

Solutions, anyone??? I'm at a loss here.

An argument in favor of Baby TV

I get these once a week from Baby Center and thought this one was pretty funny.

Saturday at the book club

So, for the past few months (since moving to Israel), I have had a wonderful time meeting with a group of ladies (a mixture of Americans and people from the UK) for book club. We meet about once every six weeks and often read literature that I would never consider reading on my own. But with a book club, it makes it a lot more interesting. Last time was Brideshead Revisited, and English classic, and this time around we read The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan. It is a (non-fiction) story of an Arab family who lost their home in 1948 (when thousands of Palestinians fled, evacuated, or were forced from their homes) to a Bulgarian Jewish family, and their unusual friendship that develops from the Six Day War in 1967 until 2004.

Half of the women in our book club are married to Israeli Arabs, so it's very interesting to here their perspective on things. And one of them was raised in an incredibly pro-Zionist family, so she had grown up with idea that the Jews had a sort of "Right to Return" to their Promised Land ("A people without land to a land without people," as the saying goes). Now, as a woman married to an Arab man, her viewpoint on the Arab-Israeli conflict has been tempered somewhat. Needless to say, with such a hot topic in this part of the world, there was some fantastic discussion and all of us were moved by the story.



And here's two of our little ones playing after discussion. Amelia is so enamoured with him!

So, if you get a chance, I would recommend the book. I think the author does a pretty good job of writing as objectively as possible, but it's hard to come into this conflict without a prejudice toward one side or the other.

Choked up over Children's Lit

Sometimes there are certain books that we read to our kids that get me a little teary-eyed. The stories are sweet, the message is profoundly mature, or I'm just really tired because I've been up since 5 am and by the end of the day, just about anything will set the waterworks off.

So, here are three stories that my son frequently asks for, and I plow through them, desperately trying to keep the lump in my throat from constricting my voice or the tears from streaming down my cheeks. As long as he doesn't want to read all THREE at the same time, I usually do OK.
1. The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown: About a mommy and her baby bunny. The baby wants to run away from home (why? did she make him eat the greens before getting the clover blossoms?), but the mommy says, Wherever you go, I will follow you there, for you are my little bunny. Despite the little bunny's constant rebellion, the mother bunny's love remains steadfast.


2. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein: Do I even need to explain why this one makes the list? The part that gets me is at the end, when the tree has nothing left to give the boy, and she apologizes. The boy never says thank you throughout the entire book, but the tree constantly is thinking about the boy's welfare and what's best for him, never for herself.





3. I'll Love You Forever by Robert Munsch: Again, about a mother's steadfast love for her son. There was a time when I really identified with this part of the book:

The little boy grew... until he was two years old, and he ran all around the house. He pulled all the books off of the shelves. He pulled all the food out the refrigerator, and he took his mother's watch and flushed it down the toilet. Sometimes the mother would say, "THIS KID IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!"

But at night she would still sing her song: I'll love you forever/I'll like you for always/As long as I'm living my baby you'll be

What books do you read to your children that are potential tear jerkers? Are there any that you refuse to read because you can't make it through the book with dry eyes?

August already?

Ah, how the summer flies by. It's been a fun summer actually; here are some of our highlights:
1. Visitors!!! We had my mom and grandma here, as well as a couple of friends come and stay with us this summer. We all had a great time playing tourist (there are still so many places we haven't seen) and enjoying each other's company. We love visitors, so anyone who makes it this way is welcome to stay with us.
Poolside fun: Our neighbors downstairs have a small pool, and one of my good friends has a pool membership, so we did get to do a fair amount of swimming this summer. Also, we made a trip to the beach. Always a great activity.
Watching our kids grow: Sometimes you don't realize how much they mature in such a short time, especially when you see them everyday.

This month, not much planned. Next month, we have a small family vacation to the beach, followed by my husband leaving for Scotland and then we are off to the States!