Ah, that reminds me of when BAW was little...

So, the S Independence Stint reminded me of my all time favorite story of BAW in the Era known in our house as BK; Before Kids. Actually, it came A LOT Before Kids.


BAW's family made Aliya from Queens when he was but a wee lad of 2 years old. We've recently counted and just figured out that this summer BAW made aliyah for the third, yes, THIRD time. Anywhoo...


BAW's father tells the story of the Ws of the time; new (read: clueless) immigrants, with no background in Hebrew language, in the late 70's before Aliyah was all the rage, and before most Israelis knew any English. It was a very different time back then. Well, every day, my FIL would dutifully put BAW (which is such a silly acronym for him in this story, since at the time he was FOUR years old) on the van that would take him to his school and every day he would wait in the same spot to greet the van and take BAW home. Until one very different day when the van pulled up, let off the other kids, and BAW was no where to be seen. My FIL asked the driver, "Wait! Where's my son?" to which the driver replied, "He wasn't at school."


Trying not to panic, my FIL ran home and called the school, who also informed him that BAW never showed up at school that day. "But I put him on the van myself this morning!" Long story short, and lots of panic later, here's what had happened.


My FIL had indeed put him on a van that morning, just not the right one. He went to a different school, sat through a whole day of class, and here's the kicker, no one even noticed an extra boy, a cute red head sitting there in class. Until the end of the day, when all the children went on their respective vans and he was left sitting alone in the classroom. Somehow they were able to get his name out of him and at the same time my FIL was trying to track him down, they made the connection, and were able to reach my FIL who came to pick him up. From a different school. At the end of the day.


Can you imagine the panic my in-laws must've endured for those agonizingly long minutes until they figured that out? Again, it's just a reminder about how different things are here.


Kinda makes my S story seem silly.

A Few Precious Moments

Blogging is not something that can be done on command. Ever.


Having a husband that works from home is 90% Awesome and 10% Not Awesome. Take for example, the fact that he can dodge out several times a day to drop off and pick up R from gan. Awesome. Or, that when we are having a homework meltdown or episode, or simply have four kids who need help at once, he can jump in when needed. Very Awesome. Or, when scary Arab looking man is at the door (plain old Sefardi water guy) I can panic and send him to answer it instead. Totally Awesome. 


But then there are the times when he is trying to work, and small people with red hair cry incessantly by his locked door to be let in and played with. Not Awesome. Or when he has a conference call and we have to tiptoe around so he can actually hear what the other parties are saying. Not Awesome. Or, my least favorite of all, when my laptop is in the shop, and somehow it is MORE IMPORTANT for him to work than for me to check FaceBook or blog at my own convenience! Not Awesome at all. Hmpff.


So, during this time of  withdrawal computer repair, I have concocted several sneaky ways of getting him off the computer for 3-5 minutes at a time. Like, "TPH! The toilet upstairs has a leak!" This usually gains me 2 minutes, enough time to update my status and quickly return his settings to normal, until of course he realizes the toilet is functioning perfectly fine. Or, "Could you PLEASE go and get some milk?? Diapers? Eggs?" is actually a pretty good one, and will give me a full half an hour to myself.  


Only those of you who have computeritis like myself know how serious this can truly be. The day starts off fine, with a perky, "I can SO do a day without the computer!" attitude. Until about lunchtime.When I start to shake and get that scary look in my eye he'll mope out of the room to give me a few minutes to fuel my addiction. 


So, during those rare times in the past week or so where he's given up his favorite toy, I have had to force myself to write, and on command! And as you can see, it is not pretty.


Shhh...here he comes.

Tiyul Report #1

BAW here, and as promised, I'm sharing our first tiyul with you.
(for the uninitiated: Tiyul = trip/ hike/ experience)
Stats:
Distance: around 1 mile
Time: 2 hrs
Location: Hills south west of RBS A
Wildlife Count: 1 jackal 1 gazelle, numerous lizards,and a shed snake skin


Took the kids for a short hike on the hill opposite our home. Walked along a dirt road that skirted what seems to be a cultivated field, crossed a dry creek bed and followed a trail up into the hills. Lots of thorns and brambles, everyone got pretty scratched up. We have been hearing the jackals howling and barking almost every night, but today we actually spotted one, we tried to be quiet and get a closer look, but it ran away as soon as he saw us (B didn't help matters much by shouting at it "Hey Jack, your name is Jack! Jack the Jackal")


Further Along the trail Ak found a shed snakeskin,which was promptly appropriated to begin our "collection of weird and gross stuff that only children value" (pre-publication note by NekudaTova: after finding said snakeskin on my kitchen floor, it has been promptly chucked into said garbage bag).


Cool find of the day: a Mishna era wine press and Mikva. The place must have been an archeological site at some point, there were still some signs of excavation, but it was mostly overgrown with weeds now. On a different trip (or when I'm feeling braver) we can go down and explore the underground water cisterns.
The trail ended rather abruptly at the edge of a different field, so we had to hack our way, jungle style, through the last few yards of heavy brush to get back on the main street.


All in all a good time was had by all. 


P.S. 'Till i figure out how to get the pics from my phone onto blogger, you can see pics on my FB page