skuuuuuul

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skuuuul

new pics

gutta neshama

here are pictures from samantha's five/six month sonogram in november. it's a baby girl! (b"h)

sicko

aviyah's a little sick. sick babies are no fun. : (

on a side note, i think political campaigns should be publicly financed. it doesn't make sense to me that the media covers the fundraising of candidates, and the candidate fundraising somehow becomes a proxy for their electibility or popularity. i wish that each candidate had a fair shake and a fair and level playing field. it just isn't fair that candidates are counted out of a democracy because they don't receive moneyed donors. our campaigns hsould be about issues, and our candidates should not in any way be beholden to campaign donors. i don't have time to do a full researched blog on it, it just doesn't make sense to me.

winter?

new camera

catscratch

aviyah was scratched really bad by a classmate the other day. it was heartbreaking. i mean, they were really deep scratches, and she knew what happened too. i was really upset. i know that it is hard to watch kids, but i really felt like what happened was a little bit too far. we learned that the students was feeling a little insecure because aviyah was the new girl in town.

it was so sad though because she got bullied. the really sad, but good part too, but really sad part is that she still so really wants to be friends with the girl. i think that's really powerful, but it's also kind of sad because i don't want her to be rolled over. i know that they're so little, but we bring so much to these situations too.

i didn't want to go overboard, but i wanted to talk with the teachers to let them know i was disappointed and upset. still, i wanted to make sure that we could use what happened to do what we needed to do better. i think the teachers need to be a little bit more on the case to a) make sure the student is getting more clear supervision and clear discipline at earlier warning signs and b) that there is more clear positive time to help her feel more comfortable.

i don't know what the right reaction is here. i tried to talk with a bunch of people to see what they thought. i also tried to think about the parents that come to visit me that i respect the most. first, they come. when the parents come to talk, it's an incredibly meaningful right from the get. it means they don't just care, but they're prepared to be involved. second, they not blind supporters, they ask concerned questions to understand and to be able to help their children better. and third, they disagree calmy and respectfully when they think something isn't going right.

i wanted the school to know that aviyah loves it there, and we love that aviyah loves it there. she's learned a lot there, and i know that they're able to give her a lot of things that we cannot not. we try our best to be really loving and we really spend time with her when we spend time with her. still, they know her age group, and they play interesting fun games with them minute and minute.

however, i also wanted them to know i was deeply disappointed with what happened. i wanted them to know i was serious, but calm, strong, but open minded, clear, but diplomatic. in the end, i wanted them to a) be genuinely upset, b) admit they made mistakes leading up to it, and c) talk about things we can do moving forward. i think it went really well overall. yesterday, they wrote to say aviyah and the girl had supervised play time together. and today, aviyah was glowing and she told me they hugged together. she was so happy about it!