Best moment of the 1st seder:

Me: *reading maggid out loud in English for 4yo’s benefit*

Me: “4yo, do you know what an idol is?”

4yo: “No.”

Me: “People would daven to a rock or a statue and things like that instead of Hashem.”

4yo: “What the heck?!”

Coming out of a 2-day yontiff remembering the news we got coming out of the previous 2-day yontiff was….oof.

But BH we had a very nice couple of days. 4yo stayed up for the entire first seder.

What are Chabat pesach customs?

Assuming that this is in reference to the post about the Facebook group and therefore specifically about food customs:

We only eat handmade shmura matzah, not machine-made matzah

We don’t eat gebrokts (matzah that has gotten wet) except on the 8th day, so nothing made with matzah meal or other ways of incorporating matzah into a recipe with other ingredients.

We don’t eat processed foods because even if it’s certified for Pesach, we want to be completely sure we know what’s in our food on Pesach. What exactly “processed” means varies from family to family. It’s pretty typical that people will rely on matzah they didn’t personally make, store-bought wine, and olive oil. But some families bake their own matzah, make their own wine, and use shmaltz rather than oil. Some will use store-bought potato starch. Some will eat certain unflavored dairy items, some only give those to little kids, and some won’t have them at all for anyone. Many people will buy processed snacks like potato chips for little kids but older kids and adults won’t eat them.

Other than romaine lettuce, which we use for maror, we only eat fruits and vegetables that can be peeled.

Whyyyyy all of a sudden this year did a bunch of people who don’t keep Chabad Pesach minhagim suddenly join the group that has for years been SPECIFICALLY for people who do? There are so freaking many cooking/Pesach groups you could join to swap your processed food and unpeeled produce recipes. 😒

When 4yo was born, he received one stuffed giraffe from my parents and a different one from my in-laws. He never really got into the latter, but became very attached to the former and named it Cuddles. Subsequently, 1.5yo became very interested in Cuddles and 4yo wasn’t ok with that, so we got another identical giraffe for 1.5yo, also named Cuddles. 1.5yo is obsessed with his Cuddles.

More recently, 1.5yo discovered the giraffe from my in-laws and now loves that one too, so yesterday I asked him to name it. Its name is now Doke. 😂

4yo’s first multi-word sentence: “I gassy!”

1.5yo’s first multi-word sentence: “Did it!”

.

Far be it from me to defend JVP, but for real, how did jumblr get from “there are people who affiliate with JVP who are not Jewish and use the name of the organization to increase the legitimacy of their opinions” to “JVP is actually just messianic Jews” and “JVP was founded by non-Jews” in the span of a few months

And so it begins…

The genders according to 4yo:

Girls

Kids/boys (2 terms for the same thing)

So stressed about 4yo's school situation for next year.

The school we originally thought he'd be going to hasn't contacted us since his interview, but I don't believe there's a real, plausible chance of their having a class for his age in the end. As far as I know, he is the only boy from his current class to have applied. It's possible 1 other might have. The rest definitely didn't. That means they'd have to recruit almost an entire class of boys who have until now never been involved with this school in order for there to be a class. I don't see that happening.

Another school we applied to told us before we even finished the application process that the class for his age is full and he will be put on a waitlist for if anything changes.

And the other school told me that the class for his age was full, but they had so much interest in it that the administration was looking into opening a 2nd class. They said he would be one of the first considered for the new class if we applied soon after that conversation, which we did. But they called me today and told me that the 2nd class unfortunately isn't going to happen after all. I did get them to make a note for if a spot opens up in the original class that he currently has no other school to go to, but the woman did not seem optimistic that a spot would open.

I am so mad at our original intended school for not opening applications until mid-March and not informing us until a week later that there's a real chance there won't even be a class. Yes, until the interview I thought it was a foregone conclusion that he would go there because it's in the same system as his preschool, but if I had known months before when all the other schools opened their applications that there was a high chance there wouldn't be a class for him to go to, I WOULD HAVE APPLIED TO BACKUPS EARLY ON even if I thought I wanted him to go to this school given the option. They basically completely screwed us over because they couldn't get their admissions process sorted out on a timeline that's normal for this area. It's a hot second before Pesach, I have so much to do, none of the schools are going to be open anyway, I've been sick in some way the vast majority of the past 7 months and I don't know why (I did finally squeeze in a CT scan between illnesses but it only ruled out some things and didn't give ultimate answers). I'm exhausted. I just want a freaking school for my child. I don't want to have to push and fight and scramble. And there would've been a much lower chance of needing to if we had known months ago to have backup options (and yes, they could have known back then that there might not be a class for his age - because there isn't one this year. This was not a surprise for them).

What we’re doing is having challah (we have rolls left over from this past Shabbos so no need to bake), but a minimal amount and will probably eat it at the back door so any crumbs go outside. It only needs to be pas yisroel if you normally keep pas yisroel. Not exactly sure what you mean by “the normal laws of challah,” but as long as it’s hamotzi you’re good.

Sooo i have questions about how to make hamotzi this Shabbos. I don’t wanna buy a challah cus of my ongoing long-fought battle against chametz. I’m reading that some people use pita on shabbos hagadol. (Cus it doesn’t make as many crumbs)

But my q is does it have to be pas yisroel & fulfill the laws of challah or is just normal kosher pita ok

If it needs to be the former i might just end up making pita but I already kashered my oven so I’m hesitant to do that. Stove isn’t kashered yet so would a stovetop flatbread thing be ok? And is that even a thing?

?????

Even though he is perfectly capable of making the sounds to say “no,” 1.5yo has somehow developed the habit of saying what sounds like ניין instead. He does not have any Yiddish speakers in his life, so this is seemingly coincidental, but nevertheless funny.

Do you have that disorder that makes one hyperflexible

Nope.

Did you somehow manage to get a rib out of place in your sleep or are you normal?

My MIL preordered a book for me for my birthday that I’m really excited about. It came out on Tuesday, so I’ve been expecting it any day now, and was surprised she hadn’t notified me of when it was supposed to arrive because she’s usually extremely anxious to make sure we receive packages from her.

Turns out she had it shipped to them instead of us and now she’s going to mail it to me next week.

It came to them yesterday. I could’ve had it yesterday.

As we’re all in frantic pre-Pesach mode, don’t forget to also consider your pre-Omer haircut.

He officially accepted B"H!

B"H KA"H my husband officially has a job offer with the company of his current rotation!!!