Are you smarter than MY 5th grader?

Warning: Bragging Post (Ayin Hara not welcome here)


You've been warned: it's a bragging post from one proud Momma.  First off, I do have to admit that the whole story will be peppered with "Immigrant Parent" moments. And you'll be sure to spot them.


So, daughter J came home from school today eager to share her good news. She took some kind of statewide? neighborhood wide? (not really sure as to the details, I'm just an "IP") standardized test a few days ago, based mostly on math and logic questions. An official woman was there administering the test, and when J went to hand hers in, the woman told her that since she is an Olah Chadasha (bottom of the food chain new immigrant), they would not be able to "count" her test. 


I had heard none of this until today. Today the same government official? ("IP") showed up to hand back the tests. 5 girls in 5th grade in each school will go on to take a higher level test against other 5th graders nationwide. And the girl with the highest 5th grade score? None other than my immigrant daughter, thank you very much. Ha! 


I'd take a guess to say they are counting that test now...

Go figure

Just sat down today to make some serious calculations. Calculations of the likes that the last time I gave them any thought was exactly 11 years ago.

Around this time 11 years ago we were anxiously anticipating the birth of our second child. We had been blessed less than a year before with our first born son A, and didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl this time around. We would sit alone (two babies ourselves!) after A was down for the night and wonder, is this a boy or a girl? Will we have two boys who are 10 months apart and best friends, or a boy and a girl to complete our perfect little family? Then we started really thinking...well...if it is a girl, since they will be only 10 months apart, we'll have a BAT mitzva before a BAR mitzva! How weird would that be?!

Actually, pretty weird. And in ACTUALITY, very weird.

Fast forward to 2011. KA"H my "baby" boy is almost 12, and my "baby" girl is 11. (That's another trick you pick up over the years with kids that are 10  months apart. For the overlapping two months we say, "Oh! She's 11, and he's almost 12!" As we nudge him encouragingly with extra perky exclamation points in our voices. I can't tell you how much pre-teen mortification this saves. Or so we tell ourselves.)

So, we sat down to just look at the calendar. I know it's early, but we just figured it would be a safe bet to take a look, primarily because J has been asking me 3x a week what her Bat Mitzva will be, where her Bat Mitzva will be, and most importantly, who will play the music?? OH, and because when you have grandparents who are tax accountants, anything in the April/Pesach time of year needs planning equal to getting a space ship to take off.

Then we realized a small but very important detail. N, of the red infamy will have his upsherin (first hair cut) one week to the day before J's Bat Mitzva. Oh, and A's "Bo Ba'yom" is not only April 15th, but the day after Pesach.

Who says the Ws don't have more fun?? :)

A MoG, too

You know by now that I truly relish my role as a Mother of Boys in every respect; the chaos, the rowdiness, the pandemonium that comes with raising the men of the future. I can joke about it, and laugh about it, but that's only because I have a secret weapon, a key that keeps me sane through it all. And that key is my one and only daughter.

She doesn't get the spotlight too much in my blog because, she can use the bathroom (albeit for a ridiculously long amount of time in the morning) and leave it clean. She is also rarely (although not never) featured in the living room pile-ups. But mostly I don't write about her because she once said to me, "What?? Now everything I say goes in your blog?!" So I've tried to protect that pre-teen privacy which is held so dear.

But tonight her and I had a moment. She wasn't aware of the moment, but I sure was.

J was getting ready for her first friend's Bat Mitzva. I've been in bed for almost three days with a flu, but I forced myself upright for the first time in 48 hours to help her blow dry her hair ("It's too poofy! It's too straight! It's not straight enough!"). And as I sat with her for those brief few minutes during her transformation from young school girl to beautiful young lady I was struck with not only her outer beauty and grace but by her inner beauty as well.

Sometimes we get a brief glimpse into the future of what our children will look like as adults, and who they will become. And at that moment I realized that it's not so far in the "future" when our children will become the adults we hope and pray that they will be.

And if we're doing a half decent job, some of them are already most of the way there.  

Stupid

Today is Stupid. Stupid heat. Stupid dirty floors that don't stay clean. Stupid messy house. Stupid no stove or washing machine yet. Stupid. Stupid.


I try to be positive, but here is the cause of said Stupid:


Last night J and I were trying to get her to camp for a sleepover by 5:45pm. We were late (stupid #1), and in a rush to get S to the doctor, so we didn't make up how she'd get home (stupid #2). Normally I pick her up, but sometimes she likes to walk. 


Today, knowing there would be confusion on her part, I set out early to get my FIL's car to go pick her up. I went outside and called a cab (stupid #3). I stood outside in the most unreasonable weather imaginable for 10 min. then called the taxi company again.


"Hi, I just called for a cab a while ago to this address. He's not here."
"The driver said that you didn't come outside." (stupid)
"What? I've been outside the whole time!!"
"No. You didn't come outside, but it doesn't matter, I'll send another one." (stupid)
"It most certainly does matter!! I WAS outside!"
"Calm down, another one is on the way." (extra stupid)


By now it's 10 minutes until camp pick-up time. Another 5 min. goes by. I call the OTHER cab company. "Sure, he's on his way." BTW, here you do not EVER call the OTHER company once you have called the first company. On penalty of death. Just because.


Five minutes later two taxis come up the block. I hop in the first one (stupid?), which happens to be from the OTHER cab company. The driver of the cab I did not take starts flashing his lights, and beeping like crazy and acting like he is going to rear end us (stupid). As we make the turn, the angry driver of the other cab CUTS US OFF (ok, so incredibly stupid that "stupid" just isn't good enough)so we can't drive any more and gets into a shouting match with my driver. Um, seriously, I thought he was going to get out of the cab and punch me. 


I get to FIL's house, shaken, and sweating from body parts that i didn't even know I have, but otherwise intact. It is 12:02 pm when I pull up and LOADS of girls and sleeping bags and pillows and backpacks are strewn all over the place. Mine, however, is nowhere in sight. I wait 10 minutes until they all pile out of the building. I ask around. She isn't there. Panic sets in. 


I run back to the car only to find that I've been blocked in by many, mumbling mothers, mighty nice. After another 10 minutes I am back in the car and frantically scouring the street for her. Keep in mind, it's not that I fear her walking home for any reason other than the heat. It is 107 degrees today. She is wearing black (please do not ask) and carrying a HUGE bag and black sleeping bag and a pillow. By now, in my eyes she is the world's biggest sun magnet. By time I get home, I haven't seen her walking and I am almost in tears. I have called home, and at home they tell me she is not home, and she is not at school or anywhere in between. It's sweltering. There is no where for her to go!!


I go inside and there she is sitting on the couch, beet red and in tears. Poor girl!! She didn't know if I was coming, she couldn't call and so she just walked home! :( I felt awful!! I STILL DO!! :(( I hate when I fail my kids and it could totally have been avoided. 


Anyway, that's the cause for Stupid everything today.

They make me proud :)

Just have to write a quick note to say how proud of "J" I am!! 


I cannot imagine how hard it must be for ALL of my kids to move overseas, change schools and have to make a whole new set of friends, all in one summer! Especially hard I would imagine would be for J, a "going into 5th grader", my only girl. Girls are socially more aware at this age (read: eons ahead of their Neanderthal boy counterparts ;) and friendships have already been formed, some that may even be for life. 


Enter J. A shy but courageous young lady, who goes to a brand new camp, not knowing even ONE girl, with a smile on her face. She gently introduces herself and begins the slow dance of making new friends. Not once has she complained or said that she wishes she could've stayed back in the states. Her attitude is going to make all the difference, and her brave determination is something that I am in awe of. 


Love you, J!!