Spying on your kids can pay off

Since my last posting,  nothing too earth shattering has occurred.  So that's the good news.  And in more good news,  I got the chance to go back to Jerusalem again.  A college friend was celebrating her son's bar mitzvah at the Kotel (Western Wall).  And since I live here now,  I decided to try and go.  And here in the land of miracles   it turned out that their son has a good friend who lives here and I was able to hitch a ride both ways.  Miracle,  because I was not too excited to ride the bus and no way am I driving into the old city.  No thank you very much.   The bar mitzvah was lovely and it was great to see an old friend (except neither one of us is old). And look,  I don't want to brag and make you all jealous.  But while at the kotel,  a bird left me some good luck on my jacket and head.  The land of miracles just keeps churning them out!

Since school is a recurring theme here (for everyone but the husband)  lets talk about school.  The little guy has been in an ulpan that our town runs,  for new olim children in elementary school.  So since September he has been in a class with kids of different ages,  all new olim from several different countries.  He has kids from France,  Sweden,  South Africa,  Australia,  America and I think New Zealand.  Well,  that ulpan is about to end.  And we have to choose a new school for him.  I alluded to this in my last blog.

Anyway,  we chose a school and signed him up.  But I don't think I mentioned a key piece of information.  When we took him to visit the school he had exactly one question.  Would you like to guess what it is??  Maybe think back to my old blog posting about back to school night at my kids high schools.  That's right.  He asked about the lockers. Yep, that's the only thing  he was curious about.  He has become Israeli.

But okay,  now I need to share with you the sweetest thing that happened.  Sorry if this embarrasses my kid.  Two nights before he started his new school,  the teacher called us to welcome us and to tell us what he needs to bring to school.  Then the day before he started,  he gets a phone call from a few boys that are in his new class.  They wanted to introduce themselves and meet him.

So,  the boys come over and give my child a little present with the sweetest note.  And they invited him to play soccer.  They all head to a park until dark.  After it gets dark  they all come back to my house and play a board game.  And as I'm  listening (spying)  from afar (the kitchen which was as close as I could get without joining their game)  I discover that none of them are English speakers.  That's right!  Finally finally I got to hear my youngest child speak in Hebrew.  I've been waiting!  PS he can speak Hebrew.  Just waiting for the accent to come in.

Fast forward to the next day.  Hubby walked him to the new school and took him into the classroom. (I might have been sleeping late)  He saw his new friends and apparently seemed happy.  And while that is the best part,  I have to share with you another best part.  His classroom had a sign on the door that they made for him and for the other new oleh starting that day.  They made the welcome sign in Hebrew for everyone,  in English for my child and in French for the new French speaking student.  Thank goodness I wasn't the one taking him to school because I definitely would have cried.  So special that they took the time to do that for the boys.  I'm hoping the new school goes as well for him as I hope it will.

We finished off the weekend with dinner at another neighbor's house (still love my neighborhood), and where we learned that Krembo has its own song,   the restarting of the parliament outside on shabbat and then NJ friends coming over after shabbat for a pizza gathering.  Busy times!

All in all,  a great week.  Oh,  and have I mentioned that the sky is beautiful here basically every single day?  The hubby and I have WhatsApp wars on who sends the best sky photo each day.  Except he has an amazing view from his office  and I'm  basically hanging out of my bedroom window taking pics.  At least we aren't competitive!