What a beautiful sunny day in our garden yesterday! I just lay down on the blanket and looked at the sky...

 

 

Julian's bedroom wall motif has changed a bit - I made it a bit more grown up - although the tsachka wall is still the same!

 

 

 

Julian and I went to a firetruck party the other day, and unlike the kid next to him - the birthday boy, in fact! - Julian did not cry when I didn't go on the ride, and didn't even care if I was there at all. He went three times, and was only slightly glad I was along for the ride at the end.

Not that this boy isn't affectionate. Today he woke me up saying, "I love you, I love you, I love your face!" and he routinely does the same with Zoe, although his hugs do tend to squash her. Today we all ended up jamming in his bedroom; Zoe thinks his dancing is a riot.

 

The toilet training is not going well, so we're taking a break. I know that others of my friends have persisted, but I cannot. I just think he's not completely ready. Two of his friends are in the same boat, so I don't feel completely alone. That said, if he doesn't get trained by end Jan, supposedly he can't start kindergarten. The pressure! I'm going back to try again in a month or so; for now, I give up.

T-training

Toilet training started today. Gulp. I could've resisted it til he turned six. But enough was enough. So, underwear all the way today, and only two accidents. Not much resistance. I think he gets it. No tears, at least not from him. We'll see how I fare by Sunday. It's going to be a looooong week.

 

At creche, they have a shabbat party on Fridays, where a girl gets to be the "Ima", or mother. I'm not sure if the boys get turns in being the dad. At any rate, Julian's best friend, Ashley, was Ima at creche, and Julian enjoyed playing along in the role. The two of them are great mates; I, together with Ashley's mum, have asked that they be in the same class for kindergarten next year.

 

 

Julian smiles

 

Halloween

Traditionally, Australia doesn't celebrate Halloween, which is a shame, as it was always one of my favourite US holidays. I toyed with the idea of shlepping Julian to a bookstore about half an hour's drive away that does a little Halloween celebration, but wasn't sure he'd get it. Then, on Halloween, we were driving to the supermarket when we saw lots of trick or treaters in our area! I could see that some houses had put up orange and black balloons on their front gates to indicate that they had lollies indoors. It was too late to get Julian into a costume and go trick or treating - we finished at the supermarket at 6pm - so we instead bought lots of chocolates, came home, and put a big sign outside our front door which said "Trick or Treaters welcome."

Boy, did I get a surprise. We had about 60 plus kids tromping through our door, all dressed as ghosts, witches, pirates, princesses. (That pretty much seemed to cover it. Apparently Halloweeners aren't that original here yet.) Every time the doorbell rang, both Julian and the dog went bananas. Julian was so enamoured by the festivities that he started collecting his toy plastic food to give away to the children. An hour later, we were out of junk food and had to take the sign off our door. We weren't the only ones: some kids started showing up with icy poles in their hands, having raided the freezers of neighbours who also realised their booty had fallen short.

Next year, I promised Julian, we're going all out! Hooray! Although continuing my New York propoganda, I did tell Julian about the street parade for Halloween over there, and the fact that Halloween parties often run over several nights...