Looks so much like him, ears and all. Eerie.

Compare to:

Now he wants to find out who this little boy was and if he survived.

I don’t want to engage this person in a back and forth – if I text back “who is this” then they know they have my attention. If I ignore it, the texts will keep on coming. I did look up the number on USA 411 and AnyWho and drew a blank.

What would you do? I can ignore it, it IS currently harmless….. but I don’t give out my cell number to anyone. If anything I give out my googlevoice – and these texts are to my cell # not the GV.

We went to one of the local Jewish cemeteries yesterday to look at purchasing some plots.  (We have two of them locally. This is the nicer one and has been sold out for years — a buying opportunity has come up so we figured, why not go look.)  Since my Judaism is questioned so often, I asked if I needed to give them proof of my conversion. The funeral director explained that I would have if this had been back in the 1940′s, but that now it’s not an issue. He went on to explain that they would even bury gentile spouses!  And we are not just talking about an interfaith section – just generally!  WHAT?!  Really?  Is this a strange thing that they do in Florida?  Do you think they do it in New York?  Other places?  Isn’t there some sort of prohibition against this?  I feel like a Jewish burial snob but I wonder what others would think.

Please weigh in in the comments!

But that’s a boy thing, apparently. I recently heard the following. In a local boys’ school, for the higher grades, one of the secular studies teachers happens to be female. She has told the parents of the boys that she will NOT call their sons by the first names because it would be a breach of tzniut, modesty. Calling them by their last names only apparently adds a few degrees of separation – especially with 7th and 8th graders. Even when speaking with the parents she uses the last name for the boy.

When I go to a parent teacher evening, or speak to a teacher on the phone, if they referred to my kid by his last name only I would be offended. I cannot control what happens in the classroom, but when you are talking to ME about MY kid you had better know his given name.

Is this ridiculous? Or understandable? Your thoughts please.

Prince ChatterBox has recently been working diligently on a school project. Each child was given an animal to research. They had to put together a report and build a diorama of its habitat.

Yesterday we went to the 4th grade classroom so that all the students could present their verbal reports to the class and parents.

Teacher did a smart thing – she had the boys write out their oral presentation on index cards, and stuck them to the back of the diorama – that way the kids didn’t need to hold the speech in their (shaky) hands and it could appear that they were talking to the audience.

The kids were nervous, so many of them kept their hands in their pockets, but they did well. I love that at the age of 9 my son is learning how to speak in front of other people, and present his ideas.

As he got up to speak he tripped, and his lego diorama of the dolphin’s habitat broke. A friend went up in his stead, ChatterBox got down on the floor, put the habitat back together, waited his turn and looking extremely unruffled gave his presentation.

So proud of him! Afterward he told me he was so glad it was over, but he was thrilled that he got through it.

I think I need a personal assistant or a clone. I certainly am shocked that I am doing all of this without a caffeine buzz…I miss coffee, but I am well able to function without it. I am drinking more water and juices to keep myself hydrated – and working out at the gym when I have time boosts me better than caffeine ever did.

At least I have the luxury of working at home – laundry can get done while I work – I don’t know how parents manage the whole work out of the house thing. Seems impossible to me – so hats off to those of you who do manage to juggle everything.

Those of you who work at home – what’s your biggest distraction? What’s the downside, in your opinion, of working out of the house? The biggest advantage?