Dear Tony Romo, the jig is up.

Dear Tony Romo,
The jig is up. I know about the affair that you've been having with my husband and I'm writing you for it to stop. I always thought it was going to be with another woman, not a man! You see, I've been suspecting this for quite a while now (since the beginning of the month) but my suspicions have finally been confirmed. I know that you can't hear through the television...at least I thought you couldn't...but it seems that as my husband shouts at you while you are playing on TV, you seem to hear him because it is followed by cheers so loud that I'm sure the neighbors can hear, as well. Furthermore, he is part of this "fantasy" club in which he actually employs you. He wasn't planning on employing you at first, as there were other employees he picked before you, but as it happens, you are on his payroll. So, another point to mention is that an affair with your boss must be against company policy! However, you apparently are his favorite employee because every week his company beats all the others....and then he thanks you. I didn't know you could hear him through the computer, as well. You see...my husband is generally not a multi-tasker, like most men. He can barely hold the baby while watching TV. But, when you are on, he manages to hold the baby, continuously check stats on the computer, shout at the television, cook, clean, fold laundry, and super-glue broken toys all at the same time. What do you have that I don't? Not to mention that he talks about you and his club throughout the day and night. He woke me up one night saying "Should I take 2 RB's, or 2 Receivers?". To which I replied, "what?!". The only time that we have together is on the weekends, but this weekend, we've had to cram all of our plans into one Saturday so that he can be free for you on Sunday afternoon...right in the middle of the day. And don't you know, he also has to prepare to watch you before-hand...it's apparently a lot of work to run this fantasy company of his. This Sunday has officially been declared in this household as Tony Romo day. How come I never get a day? I'm begging you to end this affair as I'm afraid that if it continues any longer, my husband will become too emotionally attached to you and will forsake his family all-together.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Beckerman

Bathing Suit?

Since we are not feeling well, I made my "World Famous (my world)-Better-Than-Penicillin-Chicken Soup". I've added my vague recipe for the soup in the Recipes section. Or you can click here to access it. Funny thing is Jonathan's been walking around the house saying "Bathing Suit, Bathing Suit" around dinner time. And I say "Do you want some Chicken Soup?" To which he replies "Bathing Suit! Bathing Suit!" Took me a couple of nights to figure out that he is mixing up 'Bathing Suit' with 'Chicken Soup'. I finally figured out why he's walking around the house saying "Bathing Suit". And today, he dropped (non-accidentally) his cup of water on the floor during dinner. And I said "Jonathan, why did you do that?" To which he replied (with dad's prompting) "I'm a monkey!" So, I said "You're a monkey?" To which Jonathan quickly affirmed: "Yep!". Funny kid.

Playgroup

Here are some pictures from a recent playgroup at the library.

Two Beautiful Babies

At 3 months of age:

Technicality

I am forbidden from using Firefox in our home as Mike is logged in to all of his stuff on it. So, I do our blog on Internet Explorer, which serves me just fine. However, the blog comes out looking a little loopy on Firefox (like pics overlapping, or no slideshows). So if it bothers you...take a look at it on Explorer instead. And I also want to encourage anyone who has a good recipe that they would like to share to either post it as a comment or just email me!
My family (Mike and I) are under the weather now. We got sick over the weekend. I think Jonathan must have brought something home from daycare (he has a runny nose) and, of course, he and Sylvie are doing great and Mike and I can hardly breathe! Which brings me to a funny story (at least it was funny at the time)...Mike strained his back while mowing the lawn on Saturday (not the funny part) so on Sunday while we were eating breakfast, we were lamenting on how crappy we were feeling and Mike shouted up with open arms: "God! Why me, God?! Oh, why me?? My back and my throat?! Why meeee???!" Imagine him saying this with the tormented voice of someone who just got news of a terminal illness. At least there is no shortage of drama in this household! Now we go around the house saying "Why me, God...Why me??!" every time we blow our nose. too funny.

Fall is here!!!

My favorite season is once again upon us! There is no more beautiful place as New England in the fall. I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of pictures of all the gorgeous colors. But for now, we're still in the 70's...sunny and summery outside. These next few months will be fun and exciting: Grandma and Grandpa are coming to visit, I turn 31 (officially in my 30's!), Idan and Amy visit, Sylvie and Jonathan go Trick-or-Treating, then we're taking a trip to FL for Thanksgiving, and finally, Saba and Savta come for a visit... All in the next 3 months! But for now, time to enjoy apple-pies, pumpkin picking, and playing in the leaves.
An aside...some of you have noticed the new "recipes" collection (loosely stated) that Mike and I have created on the right side. We've started collecting recipes on our computer and figured we'd share them as we make them. We can't share most of the dishes, as I just make them up as I go, but we'll share more and more dishes as we write them down. It's a little labor intensive for me at the moment.
Click here for the pics or on the slideshow below.

Weekend with Uncle Matt

Matt drove up from NY last weekend to spend some time with us. He and Mike went to Six-Flags on Saturday and had a good time. The rest of the weekend was dedicated to the kids, video games, and of course, football!
Click here for the pics. Here's another speech by Sylvie.

The Terrible Too's!

I had no idea that when people warned us about the "terrible two's", they should have meant the "terrible too's". Yoni is actually quite well behaved (though has his moments of sitting on the floor crying when he's frustrated), but has been quite uncomfortable for the past month or so. He must be uncomfortable because everything is just "too". If I give him too much food, he says "too much!" When I wash his hands, the water is "too hot!". In the morning (we have already turned the heat on at night), it is just "too cold". When others yell they are "too loud". His car seat is "too tight", and outside it is "too bright". And on and on..."too messy, too dirty, too big, too small...." And some things are just not quite right...but "almost". Daddy "almost done", and he yells "Almost!" if the ball he threw missed it's intended receiver. It's "almost" time to eat, and "almost" time to sleep. Hopefully things will be just right for him soon!

Let the healing begin!

In hopes that Jonathan's forehead wound will begin to heal once he stops picking at it, here's how we've been putting him to bed.

5768

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! The good Jews that we are, we decided it would be a superb idea to go to services at the local Temple, which is actually the chapel at Dartmouth. So, we got both kids dressed up and got ourselves dressed up, and we went out to eat in Hanover. Dinner went great (Mike got his usual bacon burger) and we continued on to the chapel. There were surprisingly quite a few people there and Jonathan's mohel led the services. The service started ten minutes late, at 7:10pm, and we were outta there at oh...say...7:15. A whole 5 minutes we lasted. Jonathan even wore his little kipa from the Hazzan family. It was all quiet, except for the mohel, and Jonathan started "talking" in his loud voice. We'll try again next year....maybe.
In other news, Jonathan's hands are now securely in his socks, taped around the wrists. Hopefully his forehead wound will now be able to finally heal! Stay tuned...

Like Mommy or Like Daddy?

Cute Site...
Apparently Jonathan looks more like daddy (though I think more like 30%), and Sylvie looks more like mommy. I guess that's the way it should be :)

Sylvie is 3 months old!!!

Sylvie is 3 months old today! I still can't believe that a person can stay alive (and thrive!) for 3 months off of my boobs. A true miracle! How did we reward the little one? She slept for the first time last night in her own room in the crib! The night before, she slept from 11pm till 7am, so I thought it won't be so bad. But alas...she woke up every 2 hours either for a pacifier, a diaper change, a feeding, or any combination of the three. At one point, I vaguely remember trying to give her the outlet plug that was sitting on her changing table instead of her pacy. Not to mention her explosive poop that nearly catapulted her off of me during a feed which soiled her pj's and required a whole diaper-wipes bath and change in the wee hours. But, we did survive...and how did mommy get rewarded for keeping this little one alive for 3 whole months, you ask? Well...I had a dental hygienist appointment! I called and begged to reschedule as I was half zombified and had no one to watch Sylvie during my appointment. The nice receptionist promptly informed me that I will be charged for the cancellation and that she'd be happy to watch Sylvie for me. Hee hee...I could hear Sylvie crying all the way down the hall as I got my teeth cleaned. Poor lady didn't know what she was in for! Of course, Sylvie fell asleep as soon as my cleaning was over...so I figured I needed a good reward and went shopping! By the way...I was dreading the "do you floss?" question from the hygienist for which I was actually prepared to make a smart response ('funny you should ask - last night my husband made steak for dinner and I flossed some out of my teeth'), but instead, I got "Oh my god..what happened to your thumb?!". No smart response for that one!

Click here for some pictures...and here's another cute video

Patty Cake

My thumb is healing nicely. My mom-in-law called yesterday with concern, but today it is only bleeding a little...soon the bleeding will stop all together. I really got myself good. On the bright side, you don't really need your left thumb to type...doing the dishes- now that's another story. At least now Jonathan has a boo-boo companion. The scratch on his forehead that he got about a month ago from a book is slowly healing as well. He constantly picks at it, which has prolonged the healing process...but now we are both boo-boo buddies and we'll see who heals first.
Another important milestone has been reached last night. Mike completed his last Friday call. That means that the rest of his calls are on all other days but Friday. Friday's the worst because it really throws the whole weekend off. Saturday calls start at night, so at least he's around for the day. And 13 more calls to go!
Idan (dear brother of mine) has commented that the alert on the right is not so reliable...but I've found that sometimes it ends up in the spam folder...so check there. I'm flattered that someone's even signed up for it!
I had to write a post so that I could put this cute video of Jonathan singing "Patty Cake" with Sylvie's feet. Poor boy got stuck on "Bake me a cake as fast as you can!"...over and over again.

One Thousand Strong!

I only started counting in July, but we've had over 1,000 visitors since then to this website! Now, granted...I check the blog a few times a day to see if it has been updated myself, so the number is probably around only 10 viewers since July. Maybe I'll someday realize that the blog does not get miraculously updated unless I do it! And, of course, my mom and dad check the blog a couple of times a week...so probably, the more accurate count is that of one new viewer since July :)
I have also added a tool on the right that alerts the reader when a new column has been posted....so that after I update the blog, I also get an email that its been updated. hmmm....maybe I need a job!
Yesterday, while making dinner and not paying attention due to rushing, Jonathan "playing" with Sylvie, and being distracted as usual, I happened to have sliced my thumb with a knife. While my thumb was uncontrollably bleeding in the sink, I kept yelling for Jonathan to get me the phone so that I could find out if Mike was on his way or was I going to deal with this alone. So, the cutie pie kept running into the kitchen saying "oh-oh!" and then running back to the living room, and then running back to the kitchen saying "oh-oh!" and then back to the living room...but no phone came. And then in walked Mike to save the day. A lesson learned...Jonathan is good at identifying a crisis. Now my left thumb is bandaged, but thankfully, it has stopped throbbing overnight. Another lesson learned...pay attention when cutting!

Backyard Friends

This morning while Mike was getting ready for work, he saw three deer in our yard. This was the view from our kitchen window.

Tzedakah

"Tzedakah (צדקה) in Judaism, is the Hebrew term most commonly translated as "charity", though it is based on a root meaning "justice" (צדק)."
As a family, it's important to us to contribute in some way to the wellbeing of others (other than our medical profession for which we get paid). There are plenty of good charities out there (mostly medical), but here's another worthy cause which we'd like to share, in case you too were in a giving mood. It's a non-profit organization which allows you to loan $25 to a deserving entrepreneur in a developing country. Click here for their site. You get the money back when they pay it back to you and you can either withdraw it or loan it to someone else!

"More Fries!"

While we went away last weekend, we stopped at McDonald's for a quick lunch. We try to give Jonathan only the chicken and avoid the french fries...but I guess he caught on quickly, because after a few bites he stated "No more chicken. More fries!" We were floored. That's like a complete sentence almost!!!
And yesterday, Sylvie was crying in her swing and Yoni yelled to her "Sevee, no cry! Sevee, no cry!!!". Such a good brother. Here are a couple of photos that a friend took from yesterday's playgroup at the library.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great long weekend in Ogunquit, Maine courtesy of Amy and Idan. It was nice to see Max and Sarah again and to spend some quality time with Grandpa Bernie. Jonathan also enjoyed playing with Lily, the dog, and meeting Aman and Maryan. We arrived Saturday morning and spent the afternoon at the beach. On Sunday and Monday mornings, we were at the beach and Sunday afternoon, we payed a visit to the Kittery Outlets in Maine. Thankfully, both kids slept through that shopping trip! Please click here for all of the pictures.
Sylvie has become quite a talker and I grabbed the camera as she was giving a speech while sitting on me. She talked so much that she gave herself the hiccups!