My time with Ely

This morning as I was lying in bed with Ely, putting off having to get up and start my day (and enjoying snuggling with my "baby"), we got to talking:

First she started with, "Aren't you proud of me, Imma, I didn't come to your bed in the night?"

Ely has been coming down into our room in the middle of the night, climbing into bed - on Ari's side, because she wouldn't dare come on my side! – and staying there until morning. Supposedly she keeps Ari up and he does not get a good night sleep. We told her that she had to stay in her own bed until it was light outside. So that is what she did. As soon as the sun came up, she was in our bed!

I told her that in our new house her bedroom would be right next to our room so it would be like she was IN our room. I explained that she would be in the house the longest because soon DB would be graduating high school and going to the army.

She brought it up again when Ari and DB came home from daavening (morning prayers) and we were eating breakfast together. “DB, you’re going to the army when you finish high school. And you’re going to have a gun.” He wasn’t sure how to respond.

Then as I was driving with her to the ear doctor (it seems as if the tubes that were put in before we made aliyah are still in, and now she needs to have them surgically removed. Yet another thing to keep me on the phone and distracted. Who has time to build a house?! but, I digress)

We were driving to the doctor and Ely asked me from the back seat, “Imma, when is DB going to the army?

“When he finishes school, Ely. Do you know what the army is?”

“No. What do you do in the army?”

“The army is a place where you learn to be a soldier to protect people from the bad guys.” (Simple, I know, but the best I could come up with at such short notice.)

Ely’s Hollywood response, “The bad guys always die, right? And the good guys always live.”

And my answer? “That’s what we daaven to Hashem for. Sometimes good guys die, because Hashem is ready for them to be with Him in Shamayim (heaven). But in the army, the soldiers learn how to protect us, to keep us safe.”

And that was that.

That was up there with “What does Moshiach (messiah) mean?” Which is the question she asked me last week. I waited for her father to get home to answer that one!

Quick update on the other kids:

DB went to try out another school today. His cousin, who was meeting him there, forgot that there was an assembly most of the day, so there were no classes. So, DB not only missed a day of learning in his yeshiva, but he basically learned nothing about the new school…sigh. Try again…

MB ran in the door from school and straight to the bathroom. It seems the water wasn’t working in her building today and she hadn’t used the bathroom all day. She was hoping they would cancel school for tomorrow, but it seems they fixed the water problem.

NED came home in a decent mood today and on her “I can be positive” chart, which I made for her to fill out everyday, she wrote that she had a quiz in one of her classes and she knew all the answers. That’s in Hebrew, remember! Thank G-d for the small stuff!

Ari - he is after all, one of my kids :) - took out the garbage for me today. What a guy!