Not just the reasonable

We've been trying lately to bring back the optional.  Because life is pretty busy.  Work and school and commuting and sleeping and kid time and life maintenance (supermarket, cleaning (sort of, occasionally), cooking etc.) takes up more than all the hours available.  And not that all that isn't satisfying and nice, but we've been trying over the last year, and especially the last couple of months to bring back a little more of the optional fun stuff, having spent the last several years quasi-successfully paring it down.  So the trick is, without becoming overextended, how go beyond only just what's reasonable and realistic, to also occasionally do the not-at-all-necessary things we'd like to do.

So, when Noa was born our old friends Rachel and Lina came to stay with the big kids (and come hang out a little) while Mike and I were at the hospital.  Big treat to see them.  And then my bro Jon came out to help us with her simchat bat instead of us trying to do it ourselves or find someone local.  Again, super nice.  Later that month we had Thanksgiving with friends here, and stayed just a little bit later than we normally would have.  There were enough people there who the kids knew well enough to run around pretty independently of us, which meant Mike and I had a tiny little bit of grownup time.  We also re-joined Netflix for a trial month to watch the new Gilmore Girls run -- once a week for four weeks, doing TV instead of house or work stuff after kids' bedtime.  And over the break, we went to Atlanta for 4 days to visit old friends Kate and Rob and kiddos -- Eytan and Li'el were so excited to run around with their big kids, Oren alternated nap schedules with their youngest, and Noa slept a lot.  And to add to the mix, during the week everyone had off from school post-Atlanta, we watched a movie with Eytan and Li'el (who have seen clips of Curious George, Sesame Street, and Cinderella, but have never really seen a whole movie before -- except once when Eytan's old daycare showed one as a treat, but he found it frustrating to have to sit still for the hour an a half).  Anyway, sent as a present from Mike's brother and family, we watched Frozen, in short episodes during Oren's naps.

So, that's the theme, getting fun and friends back into life here and there, alongside kids and work and drives and sleep and family and travels.  Slowly.  Just a little at a time.  Of course I didn't end up taking any pictures of any of these things (there's one below from Atlanta that Kate took, along with a couple taken by the mom of a friend of Li'el's who came over to play last week), but I'll chalk the lack of photos up to enjoying the time we were spending where we were.

Oh and here are two videos, one of making "sparkle soup" and a funny out-take from when we were trying to make birthday videos for some folks with recent birthdays.

Winter things

It's been a month of winter things:

Thanksgiving here with friends...



"Winter Fair" at the kids' school, with marionette show as a highlight...


Chanukah party at friends' synagogue

A Chanukah day (latkes, dreidels, candles) in Oren's class:

And living room building projects continue as usual (courtesy of Eytan)

Oren continues with his strong independent streak, and has gotten really really big and grownup recently (especially since there's a relatively littler one to see him next to).  He is also talking a lot.  Each time one of our kids starts really talking it seems as though s/he is talking much more and much earlier than the previous one -- either they just have more and more verbal input around them (poor mama, in my quietness I'm an island!), or I forget from one to the next what it's like when they start making full complex sentences.  Anyway, lots of "I have to pee really badly" and "no mama get up help please open."  He's also just just recently started being interested in having books read, with preference for books that are primarily about identifying different things in the pictures (Good Night Moon is a favorite in that genre).


And sings songs.  While eating a banana.

Other than that not much news.  We've all been adjusting to having Noa here, and having a new pile of laundry when we fold.  Li'el in particular has been a big fan of baby time...

But others ask for turns too...


And they continue to enjoy the goats too.

This time around maternity leave has meant being part-time, so in this case mostly just grading from home... It's been fine, a little bit of a juggling act, but okay.  I think my favorite maternity leave was probably with Oren because I was working a little but Mike was subbing then and he was able to be home a bunch too, so it was easier to both grade and do baby time (full maternity leave with Eytan was a little too slow for me, and no maternity leave with Li'el was too busy).  That said, Noa is still a really good sleeper, so there's been more flexibility, even just by myself, than there probably was with the others. Anyway, I keep thinking that by now we've seen enough iterations of varying bits of this baby stuff (maternity leaves, hospital protocols, baby habits and patterns) to know how we want to arrange things that we're probably finally ready to start having kids (just kidding).

Noa

Noa was born November 9th, 7 lbs 14 oz, 19 inches long.

Pictures from hospital...

Pictures from home... (I think everyone's adjusting more or less okay)

Li'el is old enough this time around to be pretty into the baby thing, which probably pulls Eytan and Oren into it more too.  Even Oren, who is talking a ton these days, seems pretty happy to see Noa, although sometimes he wishes all grownup laps were available baby-free.

Pictures from simchat bat (naming shindig)... (courtesy of our visitors)

 

Some of Eytan's friends from school came over...

And... a few leftover pre-Noa pictures...


from a fall farm visit hayride thing, where we also got pumpkins (see below)...

which, unlike last year when we succeeded in getting very small ones, the kids got super excited about finding huge pumpkins...

and carving them...


and in school they made lanterns for an evening lantern walk in the park... which was both exciting and maybe a little scary to be out after dark.


Here's one more-awake picture, 'til I manage to get back and write a little more.  I guess the short version is so far, so good, all doing okay, mostly the standard little bumps and blips of all of us adjusting to new balance, but Noa is so far a pretty calm baby... so we'll see...

Another school year

So, I'd been trying to get the opportunity to work part-time (rather than full time) for a while now, and was never able to get the okay, but this year (with a new university president and a maternity leave that would in isolation span part of two semesters, making normal teaching complicated), we've got something arranged that approaches part time for this school year.  Instead of teaching three classes a semester, I'm doing one at a time (one in August, one in fall, one in spring, and one in May).  In other words, instead of taking 3 months leave when mr./ms. new baby arrives, I'm essentially prorating the workload of a 9-month contract minus 3 months and spreading it out over the course of the year.  So I've been able to go to school just 2-3 days a week and keep kids home one at a time for a little mama time before (and presumably after) throwing them a new sibling.  Not quite every week, but many weeks.  Now, if I could just get my Dean to stop expecting me to be able to come to meetings on my off-days, I'd be in business :)

The days that I go to work, Oren is in what was Li'el's classroom last year, Li'el is in what was Eytan's nursery classroom last year, and Eytan is in a kindergarten classroom.  They all seem to be settled and good. 







Oren is talking a ton, lots of new words, Li'eli is climbing and climbing, and Eytan is stacking tables and chairs (and whatever else) to make buildings. 



 

Mike's teaching is a little little bit more relaxed this year (having some stuff from last year to pull from and co-teachers who help with grading), and we've just about finished unpacking our house from the move last spring.  More visits from Safta and Saba and then Grandma this fall, and now we're trying to get stuff ready for winter.  Like goats -- here's Finn standing on Frosty's back.

And our garden -- which we planted and then abandoned all summer to the weeds.

But we did get some popcorn plants.

Which have turned into popcorn.







And the stalks have been cut and carried over to make a Sukkah roof.

Other than that, it's time to wait for new-baby-arrival (who according to Eytan should be called "fishy" if a boy and according to Li'eli "ballerina dancer" if a girl... Eytan is lobbying for a boy because he doesn't like the name "ballerina dancer" -- I suggested we could give him/her some official name but then just call him/her "fishy ballerina dancer" no matter what gender emerges, but that idea doesn't seem to have taken on yet).