Sounding the Shofar

When we were in synagogue for Rosh Hashanah (a couple weeks back), I was with Tovina in the way back corner of the sanctuary while she was playing with some toys when the shofar (ram's horn) was blown. (Blowing the shofar is one of the big events at Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.) Tovina has heard a shofar before, but since she was only 1 year old at the time, apparently she didn't remember.

Her head whipped around as she tried to figure out what that noise was and where it might be coming from. She excitedly pulled me to the center aisle so she could have a good view and then pointed and stared very intently. Her eyes got big and she had a big smile. The shofar was blown a few times, when it was time, I'd pick her up so she could see better. Such an enraptured expression! Since the shofar is suppose to be a joyous sound we considered this a BIG SUCCESS!

Tovina also started imitating a shofar noise and pretended to keep blowing it as she walked around for a bit. It seemed most appropriate.

Giddy up!

While visiting a friend's house (actually, the friend's parent's house) Tovina found an old toy horse. She quickly understood the purpose of such a toy and rode for a looonnngggg time.
Below is just a few seconds of that afternoon. Giddy up horsey! is what she is saying. There are longer videos on you tube (link to teh right of this page).

Its a bird, a plane, a... raccoon?

The other morning while Tovina and I were having breakfast, Michael noticed something in the tree outside my office window.

He grabbed the camera and got a closer look.


Our raccoons are back. Two of them this time. Not content with having a staring contest from inside the house, Michael went outside and videoed them while standing about 4 feet away. Watch the video below to see them make their escape.

Given the way these critters ran away, I guess they are also camera shy or maybe they just didn't want to be ID'd by the police.

High fashion

Tovina is developing some pretty definite opinions about her own clothing. Sometimes it is as simple as wanting certain shoes. Sometimes it has to do with certain socks and the fact that she likes them pulled up to her knees. We're hoping she grows out of this habit.

Tumbling

Tovina and I are taking a tumbling class at our community center. When my folks were in town they came to watch the chaos.
First we have stretching.
T's first somersault!
The line sometimes became too much for T. Here she is making a break for Zaida.
And here is the star posing for her fans.

Smile for the camera

Tovina is starting to react more to getting her picture taken. What do I mean by react? Well, we now have cheesy fake smiles, hiding of the face, "No picture!" commands, and a really new item..
..T taking shots of her own.
We'll let you know how Tovina's pictures come out when we get them developed.*

*For you yung'ns out there, developing refers to getting film negatives turned into printed pictures. This was once an exciting event where you were never quite sure what might show up (very similar to what you might find on the disposable cameras that are sometimes at weddings.) This unknown factor was greatly multiplied when a child was holding the camera. Of course, that was also a time when children were not really allowed to hold cameras all that often.

School pictures

Tovina had photos taken at her preschool. I had no idea preschools do that. The photos which were taken by Life Touch came out great and we are definitely buying a few for distribution to grandparents, aunts and that one poor lonely uncle.


There was also a class picture that we had the option of purchasing. Can you tell why we chose not to buy this one?

What happened to our smiling angel?

Happy birthday Michael

Sheila is closing an a house next week (NEXT WEEK?!?! - yup.) and she is going to be taking her TV with her. As of this morning the people who will still be residing in our house did not own a TV.

No TV?! how would football be watched? and Sesame Street?

Michael was sad. Tovina would be sad if she understood what is about to happen. Cara pretended to not be sad but deep down inside was a little bit. Mostly this meant that Michael was the saddest of us all.

Luckily for him he just had a birthday and made a very special birthday request.

Yup, we now own a TV of our very own. Admittedly there was talk of perhaps needing something a foot or maybe 2 feet bigger, but given all the other things we need to be doing, this will suffice for now and later (maybe for one of his 10x birthdays... which does sort of put this potential event sooner than I was expecting) this could be moved to a different room and another TV purchased.
So, after that build up, just how small is this TV?

40" inches.
As a point of reference, I think my last TV was 24" and cost me maybe $150. It also came with an attached VHS player. My TV before that was black and white and maybe as big as 18". Maybe.
Sheila's old TV can be seen lurking in the background.

Barrettes

Today Tovina and I picked out some new barrettes at the store. I was hoping they would be easier to install...er...attach than the rubber hair bands but stay in better than the clips we've tried. It turns out the barrettes worked as well as I hoped. Better actually as we discovered that T REALLY liked them and wanted them all in her hair. Given the limited amount of available hair with which to work, I was only able to attach 18. Tovina was thrilled.

To further show off her new do, Tovina agreed to perform one of her new self choreographed dances. Its called '2 steps both forward and backwards - with flourishes.'

Challahs

We made challah again this week and the braiding improvement was a thing to behold! Michael's loaf is on the right this time. So tasty!