Baby-ful weekend

[dorchadas]

On Saturday we went to Shabbat morning services for the children's service, which is held in a separate room. The content was a little different this time--previously, Rabbi Deena did a kiddified version of the main shaḥarit service, with child-appropriate versions of the Shema, Amidah, and so on. This time the services were led by one of the Mensch Academy staff, so there were way more songs about animals celebrating Shabbat. When Rachel asked for feedback about what sort of animals would be celebrating, she got a lot of very loud animals like dinosaurs, lions, tigers, and dragons (Oh my!) until she specifically requested something else. Laila wasn't super into the service--instead she spent most of the time wandering around, dodging in between the kids pretending to be lions and snakes, all with a smile on her face. She kept wandering off, sneaking away across the room to the window, and then trying to sneak outside the circle we were all sitting in to make it to the door. Fortunately, as a baby she is not particularly sneaky and everyone was watching out for us.

She went over and sat in another mother's lap and sashagee told me that she had tears in her eyes when she was saying she really needed baby cuddles, so I'm glad Laila is bringing joy to everyone! Now I understand the parents' dilemma--I want Laila to grow up, to see what she loves and what she hates, to watch her navigate life, but also right now, when I pick her up and she smiles and puts her arms around my neck and then tries to steal my glasses...

But time does not stop.

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
-Genesis 8:22

On Sunday, we went to Maison Marcel--sashagee's choice--to meet dinaraua for brunch. I hadn't seen her for three years, not since my Chanukah party in 2019 where "Xanuka" came in second in the poll of "how best to transliterate חנוכה (since then I've grown to prefer "Xnvkh," the better to reflect the Hebrew ), but we didn't actually do that much catching up. She's a huge fan of my Facebook Laila-related content, and I also wanted a chance for her to meet Laila, so most of the conversation was about Laila. We did talk about what we'd been up to the last three years, and dinaraua mentioned the fun of growing up in a Kazakhstan like how the ovens had no child-safe knobs so her parents would sometimes find her turning the flames off and on (and starting to fill the room with gas). She told us to invite her to everything and that she'd be happy to watch Laila to give sashagee a break, and sashagee took her up on it. She'll be over on Sunday while sashagee is sketching out some murals for Laila's room, so Laila doesn't get the bright idea to draw on the walls.

I ordered the ratatouille shakshuka, because I have to get any shakshuka at a restaurant we go to. Next to that is Laila's overnight oats:

Cheese everywhere, the way it should be.

Comments

[finch]

That sounds lovely all around! For what it's worth, I loved watching my kid delight in the world around her as a toddler but so far I've found that each new stage is my favorite, hopefully that will be true for you as Laila grows.