A Week Overdue

Last weekend, we traveled down to NY to help Grandpa Murray celebrate a big simcha--the 50th anniversary of his bar mitzvah!  For those math majors, that made Panpa a spry 63 year old "boy" reading Torah in front of everyone at temple.

Finley was (overly) excited to go to temple on Saturday morning and impressed everyone sitting around us (and even his parents) that he sat through a nearly two hour service with needing just a few snacks and a few minutes of truck play on the floor.  He particularly enjoyed going up on the bimah with Dan and I for our aliyah (bimah means elevated area in front of temple and aliyah means the blessing before and after torah portion is read).  He liked when Ellie sang and when Panpa read the Torah, but the best part was when the kids were all invited up to sit on the steps on the bimah.  Finley saw all the other kids running up and he asked if he could go.  I said yes and he asked me to come, too, but I said "No mommies, just kids" and surprisingly, that worked! He went right up and sat amongst all the other little kids.  He soon found a better spot up on the top level and proudly smiled at as from up there, making everyone sit around us remark at how adorable and happy he looked!  Soon Finley's eye caught site of an older girl (grill) sitting in a chair up on the bimah and he walked over and asked her to come sit down with him and pointed to his spot, while she politely refused--it didn't seem to deter his efforts.  He bounced around her and continued to ask her to join him on the steps, what a hound dog!

After the service, we enjoyed some snacks and treats while Finley ran around with some bigger kids up on the stage during kiddish.  Finley took a nice, long nap when we got home and then it was time for more fun when Julie, Matt, and their kids Harrison and Maggie arrived.  Julie is Dan's cousin and they live in NJ.  Finley love horsing around with Harrison and Harrison was a very good sport.

Panpa had to get in on the fun and took Finley for a ride on his knees.

 We enjoyed a delicious dinner made my GG and then sampled an array of desserts that Julie brought from a pastry shop near their house.  Finley was having some ice cream when he asked for a bite of my dessert, a little slice of carrot cake.  After a forkful and his mouth still full, he said, "Put that cake right here, mommy" while pointing at his placemat.  What a lush!

The next morning, we played around at GG and Panpa's some more before heading home.  Finley napped for a good chunk of the ride, but woke up prematurely and need some help making it home.  After some singing, snacking, and goofing around--I handed him my itouch with an episode of Caillou on it.  We plugged in the headphones and put them on him, instantly he was a teenager in the way back of a minivan :)

 He still had about 10 minutes left of the video when we got home and he wanted to finish watching, so we were able to unpack and such while Finley sat in the car.  Couldn't have timed it all better if we'd planned it!