Two cute thoughts from Andrew

I've had these sitting around on scraps of paper for ages, finally I'm typing them in:

1. Andrew was working on an assignment in school about recycling and coloring in a picture about "saving broken crayons" and he told me how funny it was, because he used a broken crayon to color it in!
2. "Mom, it's amazing, cheese goes well with everything!"

Andrew Can't Decide

A couple of weeks ago we were playing a game of "Who Knew" in which you are given cards with random things listed on them and you have to rank them in order from favorite to least favorite. In one game, Andrew got the following cards (I noted them down and finally have gotten around to typing this):

• Snakes
• The color red
• Bubble bath
• Ping pong

Andrew said something like "Wow, this is so hard! They're all so great I can't decide which I like best!!"

The good day continued ...

For a variety of reasons I didn't  make it upstairs to bed until 2:00 this morning, when I discovered Ali reading - she said she couldn't sleep. So I got her to turn out the light and we chatted quietly for a bit to try and calm her down. While I was telling her that she was the best little girl in the whole world, she told me I was the best mom in the world ... other than herself when she becomes a mom :-)

"A good day to be a parent" or "A good parent today"

Andrew fell and hurt his thumb yesterday afternoon while "trying out his new sneakers [trainers]." We visited the pediatrician this morning who sent us for an x-ray (good news - no fracture!)

While Andrew and I were waiting I taught him to play hangman. I gave him some good puzzles, including "Andrew," "Star Wars," and "Harry Potter."

But the ones he did for me were just lovely:

• I love you
• You are a good mom
• You are cool
• I love mom and dad

Ahhh ... 

Andrew Quote of the Day

Andrew was in Red's car, playing some game on the iPad where he's trying to get stuff done but a zombie was getting in the way...

"Go zombie go! How can I catch him with you chasing me? Seriously, zombie, you have to be more sensitive, when someone says 'go', you should go."

Alison's recent story: "Too Much Snow"

OK, I'm an overenthusiastic mom, but I think the story Alison wrote recently is surprisingly good. See what you think!

Andrew Decorates His Torah Cover

Andrew is having 1st grade consecration at Hebrew school on Sunday morning, and in preparation we had to decorate a piece of felt that they will use for a fancy cover for the 6 inch Torah Scrolls they'll give to him.

He and I finally sat down to work  on his Torah cover this afternoon. I'd bought some fabric paints so he could draw on the felt. And I hunted around all over the house until I could find some Hebrew letter stickers I'd bought ages ago so he could write his name in Hebrew. While I'm hunting through the letters trying to find all the right ones, he's oozing paint all over his cover. I bring the first three letters for his first name - Barak - and tell him that's what the letters spell. And he says, "Mommy, that goes here" and points at some yellow stripes he's painted on the top of his torah cover and then explains to me that they're lightning (we've got a CD of Hebrew songs he loves that have a song about thunder and lightning, and at some point I'd explained to him that was what his first name meant). Pretty cool, huh? But wait, there's more ...

I write the word Barak on a piece of paper so he can put the stickers on in the right order and then he sticks the letters on his Torah cover. And then he points at the letter Bet and says, "Mommy, it's missing the dot that goes in the middle." So he draws one with black paint.