Bad advice

My daughter was sick for a few days and I allowed her to fall asleep in my bed. She requested the same privilege a few days later, after she thank Gd felt better.

It was well past her bedtime and my patience was running low. So I told her I don't care where she sleeps as long as she stays in her room. I even suggested she put one of her pillows on the floor and sleep there. I heard noises from her room for some time. But I decided that it would be best if I just let her fall asleep without any further attention/distraction from me.

A couple of hours later, I was walking to my room with a cup of tea and noticed her door was wide open. And as I approached the door to close it, I almost spilled my tea on my firstborn, who lay sleeping in the doorway.

I guess as a parents I should keep in mind that kids to listen sometimes...

On Gardening

When I was around 10 years old, my friend and I started collecting house plants. We used to take leaves, shoots, stems from any new plant we saw and plant them in our respective houses. We (not just my friend, but I, too) got so good at it, that at one point we each had more than 30 plants thriving in our houses.

Fast forward to now. I have 3 plants. An African violet and some small succulent plant are in the kitchen. The strategic placement of these plants on the left of the sink unfortunately did nothing for their well being. The are alive because they are tough and by the mercy of the cleaning lady and the babysitter. (I help them out periodically which I'm sure is better than no help at all?)

My third plant is a spider. They don't come any tougher. I try to take it outdoors during the warm months so it gets lots of sun and strength. A third of its leaves usually makes it through the winter... I took it outside earlier today. Hopefully, it's on the rebound as I type.

As far as outdoor greenery... A few years in a row, I used to have luscious grass around April. Joined by colorful flowers some time mid-May. All yellow around mid-July when I would inadvertently forget to water them. Believe it or not, it only takes a couple of hot summer NY days of water deprivation and the plants go limp, often irreversibly so...

Anywho, all of the above was just an intro to the following exciting news. My front lawnette is now ready to receive flowers ( and possibly tomatoes?)! The tombstones, together with the dead flowers and dry leaves, were respectfully relocated into trash bags.

Hope to report more good news any day or sooner!

Cemetery

Most people took care of their gardens and front lawns by now.

But if you are a procrastinator, your garden may just look like a flower cemetery with unkempt tombstones sadly sitting in the dirt.

Credits: brother

I'm not from Moscow

I was standing in the check- in line in the airport with my kids in a stroller, when some grandma stood on my left with an obvious attempt to cut in. I politely told her that I have two carts full of suitcases besides the stroller but grandma didn't seem to budge. When the line moved and grandma (periodically joined by younger generation who brought in luggage) tried to wedge in, I again said that I was in line in front of her. The man behind whom I stood confirmed that.

Grandma's reaction? In an Eastern European accented voice she told me "It's ok. Since I'm not from Moscow, you can push ahead!"

Normally, I'd respond in kind. But my immediate reaction was "how does she know?"... A second too late I realized that she didn't, she was just trying to insult me. But the moment was gone. Well, that and her advanced age. So I just told her that I didn't want to miss my flight, either.

When hubby and luggage joined me, I couldn't stop laughing recalling this story. And I also wondered that people don't seem to need much to be snobs. Who knows, maybe the senior thought that Nazi Hungary was much more superior to communist Russia? Who am I to tell...

Kids Holiday clothes

I do most of my shopping online. Convenient, easy, and I can 'hold on' to something and 'put it back' on the shelves lots of times with not much effort. Plus, the ease of comparing stocks of different stores.

Gymboree.com Gap.com JanieandJack.com , and Thechildrensplace.com are not in my favorite links only because I enjoy typing the words out to complete the pleasure of my shopping experience.

I didn't really like Gap's selection this season...

Some of my choices from Gymboree (though after 3 years of devoted attention I cheated on Gymboree and didn't buy anything for my kids from there for Pesach. Possible explanation- while I was comparing/contrasting, I missed the sale):

My actual purchases from Janie and Jack (I didn't miss the sale):

The Children's Place (I somehow caved and actually bought these in the store):

[I'm still not sure about the pants but I think they are 'growing' on me].

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I also bought a few items in stores that begged me to walk into them this past week while I was out buying lunch and/or groceries.

All and all, the only thing that's more fun than buying kids' clothes is seeing these clothes on your models, still clean at the end of a day:)