Rosh Hashana

It's been a few days and there is so much stuff to blog about. Rosh Hashana here was great. We were invited out for the day meals and ate the night meals at home (by choice). We enjoyed the company and food at the Baks, Gelbergs and Shlockers. I got to go to shul both days. The first day I went and saw Chanina Rosenbaum so of course we had to catch up and spent most of the time talking. The truth is, it was very hard to concentrate when there were a million kids running around, mine included :) I davened at home before I got to shul and was able to hear the shofar so I was happy. The next day I was determined to have a proper shul experience. I only took Rivka with me and made my way down to shul. When I got there I realized that low and behold in my hands was a siddur not a machzor - there went that idea of having a meaningful davening. At least I was able to share a machzor with a friend (Penina).

The funniest thing happened over R"H. I was standing at the end of my driveway Wednesday night and who do I run into, the Rosenbaums. They were on their way to the Mazeri's. It turns out the Mazeri's live a few houses away from us and we had no clue. It's funny, we lived around the corner from them in Baltimore, and didn't really get to know them. But here in Modiin we are becoming acquainted. Rivka and Avital Mazeri hit it off and spent a lot of time together over R"H.

We did not get to say tashlich because in Israel it is hard to find flowing water this time of year. Many people stood atop a hill with the view of the sea in the far distance and recited tashlich. That was just too weird for us. We plan on finding a place to say it before sukkos.

On shabbos (day three) we were walking to the Shlockers for lunch we kept bumping into people we knew. Our kids even commented that we know more people in Modiin than we do in Baltimore. It kind of feels that way.

We changed the clocks motzei shabbos so the kids got to stay up until shabbos was over. It was into the bath with all of them.

Yeshaya had several poopy accidents over shabbos but thank G-d today he only had a small one this morning. He lets us know when he needs the bathroom. We are so proud of him. Although today he gave us quite a fright. David had gone to Mincha and I was preparing dinner for the kids. Yeshaya was outside but I assumed that the older kids were watching him. One of the children from next door told me that Leora was outside of our complex and I asked her to tell Leora that she needed to come back into our driveway. Leora returns a few minutes later screaming her head off that Yeshaya was lost. Turns out that Leora suggested to him that they go look for Zvi. Yeshaya liked the idea and set off on his own while Leora spaced out. We all went running in different directions, including other adults from our complex and I found him down the block walking with a nice man and his two children. It seems that Yeshaya made his way into the middle of an apartment complex and was playing around in the open area. He did not seem even slightly scared. The positive side to this was that we got to meet a kid in Leora's gan who lives across the street from us.

Happy Belated birthday Aryeh!!!