A night apart

Monday night, for the first night in their entire lives, Matthew and Renee and I are apart. I was traveling for work and alone in a hotel. And it was hard, I missed them more than words can say, came close to tears a few times.

And what was I doing on this momentous night? Watching Sex and The City 2, missing my kids, husband and pre-kid life all at the same time.

They met me at the airport and I walked so quickly to get to them, I walked into at least 2 people!

A few weeks ago, on the second day of Rosh Hashanna, Samuel and I had a day alone together, and it was fantastic. We started by waiting for the first garbage truck to come. It was collecting yard waste, but Samuel seemed a little nervous about the truck and wanted to stay in the entrance of the house when the it came by. By the time the second garbage truck came to pick up the regular garbage and organic waste, Samuel was completely enthralled by the garbage truck. We followed it to every townhouse in the complex. We ran around corners to see if we could beat it, watched as every bin be dumped into the hopper and very piece of garbage be crushed by the crushing panel (thanks to the garbage truck books Marc bought Samuel, I can name all the parts of a garbage truck). He asked the garbage collectors about the truck and the garbage and where it went and why it smelled. He also explained to them that the smell would go away when the truck went by the sprinkler because the sprinkler would clean the truck. We went home and made lunch, spaghetti with pasta sauce with peas and a huge amount of herbs de provence. He loved it. Making it, eating it, cleaning up after it, all of it. We went to the see a movie, and later “played” video games. All was great until he fell, hit his head really hard, hard enough that there was a silence before the panicked cries and after the cries a “mommy, I want to go home now and sleep on my bed”. To keep him awake and entertained, we bought some silly bands and legos to make a dump truck, and other trucks that we could pretend were garbage trucks. He perked up and I remembered that I love legos. A Shabbat dinner topped off the day. It was amazing.

Samuel, waiting for the garbage trucks

Matthew’s best day would be last Sunday when we went on the subway. He loved every minute of it and talked about it all week “Mahew like tren” “ah love subway” ‘mammy there tren” every day all week. Until yesterday, when Marc took the boys on the subway train again. He continues to love “ha ball” (high ball), “o-side” (outside) and “dacing” (dancing). He also loves singing the Shabbat blessings, any day of the week, any time of the day. I'm sure picking me up from the airport would be amongst his top days, not because he came to see me, but because he got to pull my bag and eat pizza while pulling the bag. We had pizza at the airport and as we were cleaning up the table, Matthew grabbed the last bits of 3 slices of pizza. He pulled my bag with one hand and held on to the 3 pieces of pizza with the other hand all the way to the car, about a 10 minute walk, eating along the way. He was in heaven!

Matthew on our way back from the train

(note the sunglasses, that's how he insists on putting them on)

Pizzas and a suitcase, what more can a boy want?

Renee wasn’t so impressed with the subway train, and had a similar reaction to the train as she does to animals – shakes at the introduction, jumps in my arms and stays there hanging on for dear life. She is working on potty training and loves her “pulla” (pull-ups). She holds her own when the boys play with each other, entertaining herself independently or by watching their shenanigans. She has been sick for a few days, but seems to be getting better. She's so tired, she has bags under her eyes.