Learning a Lesson

I learned a valuable lesson this past weekend.....CHECK THE VIDEO CAMERA TAPE BEFORE YOU START TAPING AGAIN!!!!! This Saturday was Alexis's dance recital (I will post pictures below) and she was a beautiful little ballerina. She loved getting her makeup put on and dressing up. We thought she might just stand there on stage watching the other girls or us in the audience, but she actually loved being on stage and ate up the performance. I would have a video to show you except that after someone videotaped that night, they rewound the tape to watch some of it. Then, the next morning was Max's birthday party, and someone began taping again without checking the tape. Needless to say, no more recital :( I cried....literally. The silver lining to this cloud is that the dance studio was selling a DVD of the entire recital for $20 so I was able to buy one of these. Not the same, but at least it's something. (FYI, neither of those "someone's" were me, but they shall remain nameless!). So the lesson here people is NEVER TAPE WITHOUT CHECKING THE SPOT! I promise that will never happen again in our house. Here are some pics of the beautiful ballerina and tapper:

A Multi-Cultural Education

Tonight we went to the Marietta Greek Festival, which, by the way, if you have never been, is a total must-go. It was so fun for adults and kids. We got a tour of the church, got to watch Greek dancing, see Greek paraphernalia, eat gyros, eat desserts (baklavah sundae rocked), and Alexis got to jump around on a bouncy. Super fun! Anyway, Ben teaches the son of the priest there so Ben went up to him and reintroduced himself to the priest as his son's teacher. Just to set the stage I will describe the man for you. The Greek Orthodox Priest was wearing a long black robe, had a bushy gray long beard, and long hair tied back in a knot. Ben and Max were talking to him while Alexis, Bubum, and I were eating on the grass. Alexis all of sudden pipes up and says, "I'm going to say hi to the Rabbi". My mom and I died laughing. I guess she is exposed to too many Orthodox (of a different kind).

Speaking of Orthodox, we got a tour of the church inside which was beautiful. It was also totally ironic how similar many of their beliefs and customs were to Judaism. I may be a total dork, but I find that stuff so interesting and how different religions overlap. For example, they refer to a specific area in the sanctuary as the Holy of Holies which only the priest is allowed to enter. This is quite similar and has the same name as the inner sanctuary at The Temple that only the high priest was allowed to enter on Yom Kippur. Another similarity was that they had a candle burning on this alter that burned for a whole year and is then relit, similar to the Nir Tamid (eternal light). They also have a ceremony on the 8th day of life for baby boys and a ceremony for a child who is 40 days old which is similar to the old Jewish custom that a 40 day old child was brought to The Temple for the first time. Additionally, the men and the women sit separately during the Greek Orthodox service. All of their holidays also begin at sundown the previous day. Anyway, there just seem to be so many similarities that I find it very thought provoking.

Second interesting thing of the day: the Greek word that we all became familiar with from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding....."OPA!". I found it completely ironic that Alexis called my dad Opa because it means grandfather in German, but today we learned the meaning of the word in Greek and it totally sums up who my dad was and what he was about. It truly brought new meaning to the word Opa for us today. According to the Greeks, "OPA" is a Greek word that may be used as an exclamation, or the announcment of a celebration; the celebration of life itself. It is another way of expressing joy and gratitude to God, life, and others, for bringing us into the state of ultimate wisdom; that all that really matters is health, family, and friends.
It is a humorous affirmation that you a€™re the best; that you a€™re where you a€™re supposed to be; and that you need to stop and celebrate. It is the Greek way of stating they have come to a level of serene exuberance able to enjoy life. They also say "OPA" and throw napkins in the air as a reminder that we are as free as the birds; that the sky is the limit so let go, fear nothing and join in the celebration. It is a way of saying don't worry; no matter what has happened you are still alive, don't be harsh on yourself, there's another minute and another day ahead of you to right what is wrong, and we are here together to make sure of this. I just thought that every time they yelled "OPA" it was in excitement and celebration and that is what my dad was all about!

Lastly (I promise I'm almost done), Alexis was totally into the dancing and here is video of it:

Techno Geek & Passout Freak

Apparently, the new generation of kids is highly technically capable even without being taught. Alexis made her first independent phone call yesterday. She wanted to call Bubum, but she was busy so I told her she couldn't call. Alexis asked for my phone just to play so I gave it to her. The next thing I know she is talking on the phone. At first, I thought she was just pretending until I could hear another voice on the other end. Sure enough, she called Bubum all by herself. I guess you could say she is a girl who knows what she wants and knows how to get it.

As for Max, well, he just passed out and is now in his crib. Clearly, his pass-outs have not improved. Although, I think yesterday was a pass-out free day. This morning, however, he decided it would be fun to crawl around and tear up a magazine I gave him for entertainment. But then he decided from one moment to the next that he was done and wanted to be picked up. And I'm such a bad mom that I didn't pick him up in the split second he was ready because, you know, I had to walk across the room to get to him, so he passed out. Lately, after his pass outs he decides he wants to take a little rest. I can imagine that holding your breath for that long is a bit winding. So he will probably sleep for an hour while I finish getting ready. I guess in a weird twisted sense, I can now get ready quicker.

Here is a new pic of my Techno Geek and Passout Freak:

Mother's Day

I realized today that I have not posted on the blog in a VERY long time. Either our lives have been really boring lately or really busy. Maybe both.

Anyway, today is my first Mother's Day with two kids. So it has made me reflect on all the changes that have taken place in our lives since my last Mother's Day only one year ago. The most beautiful change is that I have not just one adorable, special, fabulous kid....but two! Maxwell has brought such joy to us in a year full of such sorrow. While a new baby is life-altering for sure, the other change in our lives took our calm, easy, and blissful lives and threw it out the window forever. The day my dad died. This year has been a rocky one, at best. And while today I am still thankful for all that I still have, a giant piece of that once full puzzle I call life, is missing. To bring this back to Mother's Day....I have to say that I always admired my mom because, well, she was my mom. I could have come up with a list of reasons why easily; however, today, they all seem so insignificant. On this Mother's Day, I can say with complete certainty that not only do I admire my mom, but I stand in awe of her. It is only in the worst of times that you can see a person's true soul. And while many people's souls have been highly disappointing to us, my mom's has not. In fact, I revere her more today than ever before. She has withstood the ultimate test and faces a new test each day. And each day she rises again. No doubt, she has had bumps and dips, but she is living a life. I'm sure over time the quality of that life will improve, but she is living none the less. Her true soul has shown strength (in it's rawness), bravery, and power. I've always said that I wanted to be like my mom, but it has a whole new meaning now. Not that I EVER want to endure what she has endured, but to possess those same characteristics that she has dug down deep to show, would be no small feat. Mom, I love you. Happy Mother's Day.

To end on a much lighter note, I thought I'd share a little story about today where I also stood in awe of my daughter. She never ceases to amaze me especially in the things that she knows. She has been known for a while to be able to "read" signs that she is familiar with. You know, she mostly just recognizes the pattern of letters (i.e., Publix, Kroger, Old Navy, Alexis, Max, etc.). But today she totally left me standing with my mouth open. I cleaned the playroom in preparation for Mother's Day events at our house and erased her dry erase easel. I wrote on the easel "Happy Mother's Day". When I wrote it, Alexis was not even in the playroom with me. About 20 or 30 minutes later, I hear this coming from the playroom, "Mommy (in a slow whine), I want to draw, but I can't because it says Happy Mother's Day over here". WHAT? How in the freakin' world she knew that this said Happy Mother's Day I have absolutely no freakin' idea. I mean seriously....what is that Etz Chaim Preschool teaching them??????

Creepy Crawler

FINALLY.......a child of ours is crawling!!! Yesterday, Max started efficiently and effectively crawling! Hooray! Since Alexis never crawled, this is quite the exciting task. He actually played on the floor by himself crawling around while we ate dinner. He also thought it was fun to bash all the magnets on the fridge onto the floor. But we did not care AT ALL since we could actually eat dinner without him sitting on our laps. There is a God!!! Here is a pic of the newest event:

And here is some video:

Car Madness

So I feel like I have to recount my stupidity of last week. Especially since it was followed up by a great Alexis comment. Last week there were storms galore, but Sunday happened to be a very nice day. While Ben was spending his day fishing, I decided to take Alexis and Max to East Cobb Park. On the way home, Alexis wanted the sunroof opened so I opened it. We pulled back up to my mom's and I parked behind her car. In the morning, she asked me to move the car so she could go to work. Mind you, it was storming and gusting wind Monday morning. As soon as I opened the car door, I saw the flood. I forgot to CLOSE the sunroof after the park. So I put the keys in the ignition and turned it....nothing. I turned it back a few times....nothing. I tried to take the key out of the ignition.....nothing. The darn key was stuck. Now, not only could I not move my car, but I couldn't close the sunroof. I put a tarp over it, called Ben. He had to come home from work. But he couldn't do it either. We called AAA, but they said it would be $150 to take the key out. So we asked for a tow. In the meantime, Ben tries to hook up jumper cables, but nothing is happening. Finally, we get a second set of cables and Ben is able to get enough power to get the key and then jump the car. Hooray! Sunroof closed and car moved. Unfortunately, the car kept needing to be jumped so I had to get a new battery. Apparently, the water coming in had blown the fuse on the rear air conditioning so the air turned on and stayed on until the battery died. Needless to say, I won't be using my sunroof for a while. Alexis found the whole ordeal rather humorous. This leads to the next part of the story....

Driving home from dance class yesterday, Alexis sees a car on a flatbed truck. She says that the car must be broken. I said, "maybe so". She says, "They must have left their sunroof opened." I'm glad it made such an impression on her!

Passover Pastimes

We have been immersed in Passover this past week and I have been a total blog slacker. I think it's because we are staying at my mom's and she keeps us busy! Ben has had many jobs this week.....cleaning out the garage, sawing limbs off of trees, fending off squirrels in the wall, knocking down a bird's nest, moving TVs, and attempting to thwart a leak (iced with almost falling off the ladder due to my negligence). So many things have been going wrong in her house, it's just weird. Some kind of curse or something. At least, Ben got to end his Spring Break with going trout fishing up in Blue Ridge today so it was all worth it to him.

Anyway, Passover has been Passover. During one seder, Alexis decided to "read" her Hagaddah (we used some REALLY cool ones at Chabad first seder that were from Publix and had lots of pictures), and "tell" her story of Passover. It went something like this: (pointing at a guy standing half naked in the book) "That's Pharoh and he's gonna say no no no I will not let them go". (Pointing at a group of people next to the random guy) "But they are Jews and they are going to go anyway". (Pointing back at the one random guy) "And soon he's gonna get frogs in his pants". I love three year olds and their interpretations!!!!

We are back to grind this week with Ben back and work and no school still for Lex. We better find some things to do. Then Ben leaves us on Thursday for a trip to San Diego. At least, he'll escape the pollen for a few days.