Thursday, December 24, 2009

It's Christmas Eve. Each holiday season brings another round of identity-building discussions for Noah. I remember being so surprised that the topic came up so early. He wasn't quite 2 yet when he first asked about the trees in people's houses. We've been through so much in two years since then, but this year was all new territory. I think going to a Jewish preschool the past two years gave him the sense that the world was made up of some of us and some of them. His preschool was about 50/50 and his extended family is Jewish on one side and gentile on the other, so he probably saw the world the same way. What a rude awakening kindergarten has been, where he's the only Jewish kid in his class and probably grade level. He's pretty clear about his identity and asserts it with pride.... it's now March 2011, and this never got posted. I'll put it up, without finishing it, though I remember what I would have written about, the knock-down drag out battle over going to the Winter Sing concert for kinder choir and then seeing my sweet handsome challenging child standing on the bleachers with his puffy winter coat zipped all the way up when all the other kids were in nice dress clothes. If only I had known what was going on before getting so mad at him before that concert... ah, but that was 15 months ago!