A Strong Song

The MC never ceases to amaze me.  This morning was hard for me; I'm trying to hold it together for their sake and not let them see my despair.  I put on some music to empower me, my new favorite song, "The Cave" by Mumford and Sons.  I was singing along to it and then to the next one that came on, and MC said, "I like that song that was on before this one."
"I do too," I said, "It makes me feel strong.  Sometimes playing music can help me feel strong and more cheerful."
"You know what's a good song for feeling strong?" he said, "number 12 on Daddy's CD."
"Daddy's CD" is a mixed CD pair that I made for Cary a few years ago with a bunch of empowering songs, some cheesy, some less so.  Though he hasn't ever really listened to them much, the boys LOVE those CDs.  Meanwhile Cary and I and the sitters have grown very tired of listening to the same "Hot Stuff" and other songs in that genre ad nauseum. Nevertheless, I was most curious which one he was thinking of and rather incredulous that he not only knew a song that could make you feel strong, but that he knew which number it was and on which CD.  He couldn't describe it, so we went to put it on.  Soon, "Strong Enough," by Cher was blaring through the speakers.  I nearly cried.  That child is so unbelievably insightful sometimes.  Beyond what he even understands. He couldn't possibly understand the full power of those lyrics, but I just had to check on one thing.  As Cher sings, "I'm strong enough to live without you..." I said to him, "It's true A--, I'm really strong, but I'm not strong enough for that.  I could never live without you.  I will love you forever."
To which he simply responded with a hug and a kiss in return and said, "Oh, I don't know about the rest of the words, just the strong part."
God I love that kid.

Avi's jokes...

He's very into jokes. He regularly brings a joke home from Edison's daily announcements. And then sometimes he makes up his own variations, like tonight's.
Avi: "Knock knock"
Me: "Who's there?"
Avi: "Boo"
Me: "Boo who"
Avi: "Knock knock"
Me: "Who's there?"
Avi: "Boo"
Me: "Boo who"
Avi: "Knock knock"
Me: "Who's there?"
Avi: "Aren't you glad I didn't say banana?"

Track engineer

Ezra is quite good at putting train tracks together. I was impressed to see him put all tho together this morning, including using the slopped one to connect to the bridge. And after this pic was taken, incorporating a t intersection with additional track leading off in all directions. Clever boy.

Happy Mama

Is there much that makes a mom happier than seeing her boys play sweetly and appropriately together. Avi and Ezra have been stacking cup towers together for a good 15 minutes. Counting, stacking, knocking, etc. Avi's being a great big brother. "Let's do chop chop timber again."

Block towers

Ezra was surprisingly good at stacking blocks, even skinny ones on end a long time ago. I want to even say a year ago. But I was particularly impressed with his engineering skills this evening. He was stacking towers and I was counting the blocks for him. Then without any demonstration on my part he used two blocks to make the bottom level, straddling the next layer block in half of the first two, like an older more experienced mind would do. That worked well. He got six high that time instead of five. Then he happily knocked it over and started again. This time he used double blocks for the first two levels. He got seven stories high. He might just be as much of a smarty-pants as his brothers. God help us.
And his vocabulary has exploded as it's wont to do at this age. He suddenly seems to have hundreds of words. Now, to be honest, most people would only understand a handful of them, but I get it. Every day, every context finds him demonstrating new words he is wanting to try out. So fun. Now if only he doesn't become as challenging as his brothers. Wishful thinking I fear.

Where's Avi going to fall asleep next?

Another difficult bedtime. This is where we eventually found him tonight when we came down from watching a video.

Shabbat at the beach

What a great day at the beach we had this Shabbat. We left Friday evening, had a Shabbat picnic along the way at a park. Got in late to a hotel on Newport and the played all day on Saturday. Tide pools, beach time, hanging out on the docks looking at crabs and jellyfish and sea lions and boats, meals out, swimming at grandma and grandpa's resort and then havdalah before getting in the car to head home. What a jam-packed day we had. Like a three-day weekend rolled into one day. So glad we did it. We needed that family time.