Happy Hanukkah 2012

It is that time of year again.  Time to light the candles.

But this year, a new member of the family celebrates with us. 

Little Sophia.

She weights about 6 pounds.  Full grown we are guessing she will be 10-12 pounds.

She is a cute one (a pure bred rat terrier) and she gets along with Bitsy (pit bull mix) who is 8 years old.

David loves to hold her (and even fall asleep with her).  Don't worry I take her back to her cage-bed as soon as he falls asleep.

David does take a moment to put down Sophia to light the candles and recite the blessings during the festival of lights.

Nothing like a child following the ancient Judaic rituals to bring a sense of family to us all and make this house a home.

This year instead of a million gifts (yes he does get one every night for 8 nights), we are mixing it up with mini-tabletop foosball one night, jeans the next.  Tonight he will get a copy of my book dedicated to him.  It is something he will enjoy now, he likes reading the dedication and looking at his picture on the dedication page, and hopefully treasure later in his life.  

On the inside cover I wrote: 

Happy Hanukkah David!

May you remember this gift many years down the road.

Of all the gifts you get (and don't worry the festival of lights has 8 days of gift giving), it is my hope that the gift we have given you of learning how to learn will be the most precious gift of all.

Love, Dad

Happy Hanukkah Everyone!

Portrait of a Young Man at 6 Years of Age

I just thought I would take a moment to reflect on this little man's life and how he has changed our lives.  It is what children do.

I start with his class picture of 2012.  This is the man in 1st grade, captured with classic school photography.

A blonde kid with a nice smile and a tie and a shirt just like dad's.

He is already beginning to take shape - his face, his personality, even a social consciousness, conscientiousness, self-consciousness, and self-concept.

How quickly they develop and are developed (by family and society). 

He is focused.  He practices almost every day on his violin.  Mom is there to make sure he is standing straight, holding the violin properly, and playing all the right notes.  For the most part, we are lucky and he does not even realize that he has a say in all of this.  

He thinks he wants to do it.  He is reinforced by his own hard work (and good performances).  We nudge when we have to, but he is still at the age when he wants to do a good job and please us (as well as himself).

The same is true for piano - although this is clearly where his heart is at least from a musical perspective.

That does not mean there is not time for fun including a time to teach dad. This is a break through duet. He is finally playing with me instead of racing to beat me all the time.  

(A conceptual and musical milestone to be sure.)

I would not want to forget skating (at 7 in the morning before school).

The kid, however, is still just a kid.  He drew on one of these tiles for his school, as part of a charitable contribution to the school.  (His is the biggest one - second to the top row, far left.  It is the one with an orange volcano and the sun in the top right corner of the tile.)

It is nice enough for a young man, but I can see art school not far down the horizon to refine those skills.

Don't be fooled by all this good news as a parent.  As I said, he is still just a kid. Each morning is a struggle just to get dressed and eat breakfast.  

But is this man in a rush?  No way.  

He makes believe he is still alseep and instead of dressing himself, makes me dress him (if I want to get to school on time). If that were not bad enough, he purposely struggles and makes his foot miss the sock, same for the pants leg, never mind the shirt. It is a struggle every morning and that is just to get him out of bed and ready to come downstairs for breakfast.

Breakfast is always the same.  Time is not a meaningful concept to him.  

Getting him to even get his first mouthful is an ordeal.  He is not argumentative (well not usually).  Mostly, he just lives in another world - a world where time does not exist.

Even our sitter once commented "he does seem to take a very long time to eat."

I think our most common and constant refrain in between each of his utterances (of which there are so many at every meal), is: "eat, eat, eat."  

We don't worry too much. He catches on after a few hundred requests, demands, or general utterances on our part.

I have to say, as bad as this sounds, there are some days where I don't care. I just enjoy the world he lives in where time doesn't matter and absolutely everything is interesting or fun (or both).

Even when it is time to drop him off to go to school and we are almost late - what does he do? 

You guessed it:  he takes all the time in the world.  He slowly gets out of the car (talking to us non-stop about something important at the moment).  Then he taking his time to wave and repeat back to us our salutations for the day.  

"Good-bye, have a good day," he exclaims back to us with a great big smile.  Somedays you will actually find him skipping to class from the car drop off.

He may not be an easy kid, but he is a kind kid, a smart kid, even a talented kid, but most importantly - he is a very happy kid (who has transformed our lives).