Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Rebecca Sela's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, May 5th, 2012
2:56 pm	Jonah's First Standardized Tests Last night, Amitai and I attended a fundraiser for Jonah's school. While we were there, I chatted with his math teacher and got to ask a question that has been on my mind all week: What on earth could you test kindergarteners about for four (half) days? She said it really was everything - reading, math, science, social studies, and so on. Jonah has science class (learning what it means to be alive and how butterflies develop) and social studies class (learning about voting and Martin Luther King), but I'm not sure how much there is to test on... I mentioned my concern about Jonah doodling on the test. Apparently, after the test, the teachers have to go through and erase any drawings, check marks, or other stray marks from the test books. That sounds like a thankless job... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 30th, 2012
7:59 pm	Jonah's first standardized test Today, Jonah had day 1 (of 4) of Ohio state testing. I'm not sure what they can ask kindergardeners for four days, but it sounds like at least some of today was listening comprehension. Jonah's response to being asked whether it was easy or hard was "both." Our real question is whether he ended up drawing lightsaber battles on the test sheet. (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
10:02 pm	More Jonah schoolwork Jonah brought home the following writing, presumably from around Martin Luther King Day. The italics are what he filled in: I have a dream. My dream is: I want to be a Jedi. I can help my dream come true by: my Dad can help me. No word on how Amitai plans to help, outside of the Star Wars online game. (Comment on this)
6:40 pm	Homework with Jonah Part of Jonah's spelling homework is writing each word three times. Jonah is making his letters big and small, having them push and kick each other, and drawing pictures of them falling into the water onto surfboards. I can only imagine what will happen when he reaches the level of writing sentences as part of his spelling homework. (I remember amusing myself with that.) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
7:09 pm	Israeli Driving I will probably make a more substantive post about our trip to Israel, but I am going to start with some observations about Israeli driving. (Throughout all of this, I will observe that Israelis seem to be very skilled drivers - I saw no accidents during all of what I will be recounting.) In Israel, the stop lights are more complicated than ours. The order of the lights is: Green, Flashing Green, Yellow, Red, Yellow + Red. When I first noticed the Yellow + Red stage, I asked Amitai about it. He noted that it lets you know to get ready, much like drag racing, "but drag racing is safer." When we first arrived, we stopped in Netanya for lunch on the way from the airport to Afula. The streets were packed with cars, and parking was almost impossible to find. On the drive, we saw a car double-parked on the wrong side of the road while the driver talked to a person in another parked car (so another driver crossed to the other side of the road to pass it). Amitai parked in an almost-legal space along the side of the road (near a bend), and I sat in the car while he and Jonah went to get lunch. During my wait (which was not that long), I saw enough to readjust quickly to Israeli driving. Across the street, a taxi was parked on the sidewalk. After a little bit, a moped passed a car on the left using that same sidewalk. After that, a truck briefly parked with one wheel on the same sidewalk. A police car tried to drive by. When flashing the lights and beeping the siren did not work, he used a loudspeaker to scold people until he could get by. After that, the same truck returned to park diagonal to the street, with two wheels up on the sidewalk (next to the taxi that was still there). We were not driving in the Old City of Jerusalem, but it also illustrated why the drivers have to be aggressive. The streets were laid out by donkeys 3000 years ago. Now, they may be two-way, with cars possibly parked on them, and people walking along the side. Even in places where cars were not allowed, it was crowded - we walked through the markets of the Arab Quarter (where Amitai took pictures and bought Jonah a kefiyyah), with people wheeling cars and then with a crowd of people going to a from the Jaffa Gate (one of 7 exits from the walled Old City). We did drive in Nazareth (another city laid out by donkeys). At the end of our visit, Amitai and Amira stopped off at a spice shop in the shuk, leaving me and Jonah parked in another made-up space, this time parked near the intersection of three roads, each of which was a two-way road and not really two lanes wide (even before having cars parked on it). Cars flew by us with no concern except for one woman in what she called a larger car - a Hyundai. While she was slowly edging around our car, pedestrians walked between her car and ours, and a moped even sped through. (She made it.) A bit later, a pick-up truck sped by. A nun walked up to the car to suggest that I move the car if I wanted it to stay in one piece. By then, Amitai and Amira were on their way back anyway. Before they arrived, three cars approached the intersection at the same time. After a moment of chicken, one car backed up to let another go around, and then they all got by. In contrast to the roads in the cities, the highways in Israel were pretty reasonable, in case anyone is curious. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 17th, 2012
6:49 pm	Florida trip so far Yesterday, Amitai; Jonah, and I went to Animal Kingdom. Jonah's favorite thing was a triceratops ride (basically, the Dumbo ride, but in a cute triceratops); we went on that twice. Amitai's favorite was "It's tough to be a bug" (Jonah noted that it was a bit scary, but he liked it). I was impressed by the "Finding Nemo" musical/puppet show. (Those huge types of puppets also showed up in the parade, which we had good seats for.) Also, after the safari ride, Jonah has developed some concern about poachers. Today was my first day the the inaugural Stastical Practice conference. I got to attend some sessions, and I discovered that analytics people sound pretty simple across multiple companies/industries (and it is different from more academic statisticians!). I have a few interviews scheduled for tomorrow, and I have talked to many other people about working at Chase, which is the actual reason I'm here. So this should be a successful trip. Meanwhile, Amitai and Jonah went to Seaworld today. I hear that they enjoyed eating at the shark restaurant. (Right now, Amitai is on his way to pick me up, but he has the formidable task of waking Jonah first...) (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 29th, 2012
12:29 pm	another busy weekend Last night, Amitai, Jonah, and I were out late at the Temple Beth Shalom quiz night (which our team won). Today, Amitai has a bridal show, and Jonah had Hebrew School. As I drove Jonah from the synagogue to the bridal show, Jonah looked ready to doze off in the back seat. Suddenly, he piped up to say something about Pokemon and add "I love Picachu!" So much for a quick nap. Now, Jonah is repurposing some pretzels (from the lunch for vendors) to create a battale scene. (Comment on this)
Monday, January 16th, 2012
8:55 am	Jonah's First Surgery (Part 1) Today, Jonah is going to have surgery for the first time. It is routine, outpatient, and laproscopic, so not really worth worrying about (beyond the general anesthesia/"every surgery has risks" part). But it is a new experience. This morning, Jonah is not allowed to eat. But he is allowed to drink Sprite - a trade he is quite willing to make! While he recovers, I told him he might be sore, but he will get to watch videos and play on the computer and do fun things with Safta. Another trade he's willing to make. (He is actually on the computer right now, and has been for probably 3 hours - other than a sprite break. Lego.com can amuse him for a very long time.) This morning, I asked him to pick out something to bring with him for while he "sleeps" there. He picked out his stuffed torah. Rita is kvelling. (Yes, he has a stuffed torah.) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
8:44 pm	Jonah and School Today was Jonah's last day of school before winter break. (As he explained to Grammy and Aunt Karen, it wasn't his last day of school, but he knew they thought it was...) So, I figured I'd assess how kindergarten is going. As I noted to his teacher, when he started in September, he could read, but he didn't write fluently. He could write his name and wrote other words, but it was slow (and involved a lot of backward letters). One day in October, he got a card from his old preschool, and he immediately grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a thank you note without any prompting - the whole thing. (Admittedly, some of the words ended up on top of each other then.) Now, he is writing holiday notes, sometimes even remembering to put his finger between the words so there is a space. Of course, he has not lost his quirky spark to all of these academics... His holiday cards include pictures that reflect whatever he is thinking about it. One day, he was drawing himself as a ninja. Another day, he drew himself playing Wii with whoever the card was for (even if he had never met that person). Also, his teacher noted in her holiday note to us that Jonah sings in class - and gets songs stuck in her head. Jonah is also learning to love math (took long enough!). His class is working its way through addition facts (the current theme is "doubles plus one" - like 4+5 or 7+8). At the same time, his class does worksheets that are clearly previewing multiple-digit addition. (That surprised me a little... Apparently first grade math is intense!) At home, he wants to play games on my phone, and math games (the "Math Workout" app on the droid) work for him (though he still needs a little help on that one). He has a workbook we bought a while ago, about money, and he does that for fun. (I know he comes by that tendency honestly.) I'm also impressed by how much interaction Jonah has with other grades. The two of us were looking through his school newsletter this morning, and he pointed out his "Book Buddy" (a second or third grader who comes to read with him once a week), some other lower schoolers he knows, and an upper-schooler who had helped in his after school science class. (This school is even smaller than Hamden Hall, and has a similar feel. It is the kind of place where the staff has to multi-task - for example, the bus driver also teaches Latin. However, Village is more focused on arts than Hamden Hall seemed to be.) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
8:55 pm	Another developmental spurt Some time in the last few months, Jonah has developed the capacity to deceive. I'm sure this is an important skill to have (especially if he goes into politics), but it is not my favorite skill. It started with being sneaky... Around Halloween, Amitai and I discovered candy wrappers around the house. At first, each of us suspected the other. But we eventually found that Jonah was eating them when he woke up before us. So, we moved the candy to higher ground (and he has not climbed for it). Then, he would talk about "tricking" us. Once, he answered the phone, and Grammy said, "Is that the Jonah-roo?" Jonah said no, and Grammy played along. Eventually, Jonah said, "I tricked you! It's really Jonah!" (Somehow, I don't think Grammy was fooled.) Even his legos trick each other. This morning, I made the snowtrooper (a bad guy) walk over to the spaceship full of good guys. Two of the good guys put on snowtrooper helmets, and the three started to attack. But then the good guys took off their helmets and attacked the bad snowtrooper. (I admit that this part of the development is cuter.) But I was displeased this evening when I asked Jonah what he was doing in the back seat and he answered, "Nothing" when he had found some gum in a goody bag from Sunday. (I suppose this should teach my to clean my car.) He continued to say there was nothing in his mouth until I directly confronted then, and even then he lied about what it was. (The smell of bubble gum when I turned around made the truth pretty clear...) Not a good development. As a more positive development, Jonah can add two-digit numbers in his head (without carrying), when he is alert enough to actually remember what the numbers are. He is also learning about money (in part because of a workbook he found and started on for fun, in part because he has discovered the school store). (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 31st, 2011
5:49 pm	Our first parent-teacher conference and Halloween Today, we had our first parent-teacher conference. Turns out he's doing well in everything (though he is only at grade-level in gym, which shows up as a B in the online system...), enthusiastic about school, and friendly to his classmates. His math teacher noted that he sometimes spins while they're learning, but he apparently pays attention while doing so (since he answers questions accurately). For Halloween, Jonah is dressing up as a Zombie Jedi. This morning in the car, he asked me to tell him a spooky story. So I told a story about Zombie Jonah and a skeleton going to battle a vampire and a werewolf who were trying to eat trick-or-treaters. Jonah's solution was to direct the vampire and werewolf to eat "bad kids" instead (at a jail!). Then, he met a big blue monster who wanted to eat cookies (which Jonah quickly identified) and then Elmo. Jonah suggested that Elmo and the skeleton come back for dinner at his house. (A lot of the stories I tell him end this way.) "Elmo loves brains!" was totally my idea, though. Jonah disagreed and decided that Elmo should be served pasta, while Zombie Jonah and his zombie family ate brains... But Elmo tried tiny bites of brains, said Jonah. Speaking of Halloween, mornings have been foggy (other than this morning). Jonah saw two red lights in the fog on Friday morning, and decided they were monster eyes. (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
8:18 pm	Jonah and Jokes Jonah is old enough to understand the idea of jokes, but young enough that telling him jokes (and having him tell jokes) can be a very odd experience. As an example, I told him this joke: Rebecca: What is brown and sticky? Jonah: Chocolate? Rebecca: A stick. Jonah laughs hysterically. A bit later, Jonah tried his own version: Q: What is green and sticky and can shoot you with a laser beam? A: A green stick with a laser beam attached to it! Jonah laughs hysterically again. Also, he still loves his odd knock-knock joke form: Knock-knock. Who's there? [Insert a noun, or possibly a made up word] ___ who? You! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 21st, 2011
9:08 pm	Simchat Torah This evening, I picked Jonah up from school and told him we were going to synagogue. "Yay! I can see Ellie and Ari!" he said. (Ellie and Ari are six-year-old twin girls who also live in Powell and schlep all the way to Temple Beth Shalom.) We happened to arrive at the same time that Ellie and Ari (and their parents), and Jonah was so excited. The three of them spent the service dancing with musical instruments and flags, and then parading around the synagogue. (Even Rabbi Apothaker briefly joined their parade... And this was before the Parade-With-The-Torah part of the service!) Their enthusiasm definitely fit the holiday. Some other brief Jonah updates: Jonah's drawing ability has taken a gigantic leap forward - his people now (sometimes) have circles with dots in them for eyes, triangle noses, and little sticking-out hairs. He also took it upon himself to write an entire thank you note this morning. (If he is going to do that again, I think he'll need lined paper... but he is definitely writing faster now.) In math, he has apparently learned about tens and ones, and we even discussed how much "five two's" made, so he is thinking about multiplication. He is in an after-school science club, and came home with a story of mixing baking soda and vinegar (he described it as exploding, but not with fire) and a new pet caterpillar. (I am less excited about the caterpillar... I guess it will join Amitai's menagerie.) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 8th, 2011
11:19 pm	Jonah and Ima and Legos This morning, Jonah was playing with his legos. (This is quite common, as you might guess.) After I finished folding laundry, Jonah decided to build a palace for Queen Amidala. He put me to work finding yellow, red, green, and blue pieces. With the pieces I found, he built a pretty fancy palace, complete with a door (though only one wall) and a fancy place for Queen Amidala to sit (and a computer for her to look at). As I was finding pieces, I also re-assembled some battle droids (they had been "blown up" in a previous battles, and the pieces are very small). So, Jonah added six battle droids to the palace - two Jedi battle droids with light sabers, two servant battle droids, and two cook battle droids (one with the wampa's "roast beef"). After that, various Jedi visitors came to the palace, wanting help from the Jedi battle droids or just wanting visitors. By the end of playtime, all the Jedi (and some other characters) had assembled in the palace. (And all of this came from Jonah's imagination.) At this point, I decided it was time to fit in some quick spelling homework. Jonah did one page (unscrambling words), and then said he wanted to do another page - specifically the page where you fit words into boxes of the correct shapes. Halfway through that page, he was starting to lose interest, so I brought over Lego Savage Opress (a bad guy) to coax Jonah along. After Jonah finished that page, Savage started chatting with Jonah about his spelling words, specifically about the different sounds of "fin" and "fine." Jonah explained that there was a "silent e". At this point, Savage suddenly developed a great fear of silent e's, even though Jonah tried to explain that they would not hurt him. (This part came out of my imagination, though I give credit for this sort of thing to my upbringing.) This afternoon, after Yom Kippur services, Jonah and I headed to the library and picked up his first Ramona book ("Ramona and Her Mother" - I couldn't find any earlier ones). He seemed to enjoy the first chapter, though I don't think he understood some of the subtlety. (He did like the scene of Willa Jean pulling tissues out of a box.) (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 1st, 2011
8:04 pm	Still allergic to Ohio I've been sniffling, coughing, and feeling tired for the last week (and Jonah has shown some of the same symptoms). On Thursday, Jonah had his annual physical (where he got four shots and one flu mist, and confirmed that he is tall and skinny). The doctor noticed that he has allergies (dark circles under his eyes, the insideof his nose shows signs). At that point, I remembered that both of us are allergic to Ohio (or at least its plants), which explains a lot. Unfortunately, Zyrtec is not enough to get rid of my current hacking cough. Considering that I am giving a talk at OSU on Thursday, I hope to find a solution. (Otherwise, my dual messages - phase and coherency are awesome; so is working at Chase - might be less convincing.) Despite my hacking cough, I left Amitai and Jonah for a "guy day" and trekked to OSU for a mini-gaming convention. Unfortunately, my GPS did not know it was game day (and I didn't realize that tailgating begins before noon for a 3:30 game), so it routed me straight through campus. I'd never actually seen what happens before a huge football game before; it is very busy. Some day, we'll probably go so we can experience it (also, there seem to be many buckeyes for sale - I'd be looking for the chocolate and peanut butter kind). I then drove by student apartments and frat houses (another new experience, but not one I'd share with Jonah). And then, gaming! (Way more fun than football - though that might be heresy out here.) We played two games: Botswana (which seems like it would amuse Jonah, more for the little animals than the actual gaming) and We Didn't Playtest This at All (which is like Fluxx, but weirder). It has been a while since I played anything other than Fluxx (Martian Fluxx and Zombie Fluxx, usually), so it was fun to have some variety and meet some Columbus-area gaming types. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 19th, 2011
9:01 pm	Roger and Mary Beth's Wedding Highlights This past weekend, Amitai, Jonah and I drove the very long distance to Maryland (9 hours of driving time, with additional stopping time) to Roger and Mary Beth's wedding. Amitai has posted an album of pictures (only a small subset of the 3000+ pictures taken), so I'll post about some of the fun stories. On Friday night, after the rehearsal dinner, Adam hosted karaoke. Jonah sang a lot of Lady Gaga (though he didn't project enough... maybe next time). More surprisingly, both Rita and Amitai sang multiple songs (with lots of enthusiasm!). Of course, others sang, too, with varying levels of skill (Adam and one of Mary Beth's friends who is basically a pro were particularly good) and colorfulness (especially some of Abe's friends). At the ceremony, Jonah and Niko were ringbearers (and I was one of their wranglers). They were cute, with Niko forgetting to take back his pillow and Jonah collecting it for him. Most importantly, of course, Roger and Mary Beth were married (by the power vested in Rita, which was wonderful!). After the ceremony, as pictures were being taken, the guests mingled outside. As I was chatting Zena (Danny and Stefan's daughter), she looked over and Jonah and noticed that he was eating the black-eyed susan seeds that were given out as wedding favors. I confiscated the seeds, and he returned to playing on the hammock. At the reception, Jonah danced enthusiastically (just as he had danced at karaoke). Roger and Mary Beth even included the "Numa Numa Yoda" song, which led to even more dancing. (He also danced to "Dancing Queen", "YMCA", and lots more... I got to do the Electric Slide.) In all of this, Jonah got to meet many of his cousins and some more extended family. He was happy to get to know most of them and was charming (if a little bit crazy sometimes). Based on this (and the fact that I like the extended family, too), I think we should go visit the family more. (We did discover that a branch of the Rabin family - Rita's second cousins - lives in Kent, Ohio.) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 8th, 2011
10:35 pm	Kindergarten: Week Three So far in kindergarten, Jonah has taken one spelling test (he got everything right), learned some Chinese and Spanish (he can count to four and say "little star" in Chinese), and continued to love the tire swing. He has also been placed into first grade math, which makes his geeky parents kvell ("be very pleased", for those of you who don't know Yiddish). For those of you who are curious, his school uses the Saxon Math curriculum. Jonah is in the middle of a month of birthday celebrations. It started with the September birthday celebration at synagogue, continued with birthday presents from Mom, Dad, Karen and Dave (including some Star Wars legos that made him proclaim "I never felt so happy!" to Karen on the phone), and then a birthday celebration with his friend Anam. Jonah's actual birthday is on Monday (we'll do something then). Then, we'll celebrate at Roger and Mary Beth's wedding with that side of the family. Finally, there will be a birthday party with his school friends and some other local kids. I don't know what we'll do when September is over... (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 28th, 2011
5:21 pm	live-blogging Jonah "Monsterman is very tough. He can defeat the monsters even though he is littler. He throws rocks at them and gets them. He is very cool." "I like videos." (Completely out of nowhere.) "The Spy kids movie was way cool. Cooler than Star Wars." Amitai: No it was not. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
2:14 pm	Inventorying our pantry We're inventorying our pantry (which has gotten full of food, but we don't remember what it is). So, Amitai built a database for the inventory. Jonah has been carrying one thing at a time to Amitai, to enter into the computer. Just now, Jonah had two boxes of spaghetti. To amuse himself, he came up with ways to play with them (in the matter of under a minute): * War airplane (cross the two and making them fly) * Being an angel (by putting one on each side of his head... hair-tie wings, he says) * Hunter (one on the ground as a support, the other for shooting) * Clone troopers Then, I interrupted him to help write this blog entry (and to make sure the spaghetti survived so we could eat it). (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
10:10 pm	Jonah's First Week of Kindergarten Jonah has now had his first four days of kindergarten. He has not been very detailed in recounting his days (he has friends, but doesn't know their names; he learned stuff, but doesn't know what). So far, his favorite thing is the tire swing (though he learned that riding it too much makes his stomach sick). He also likes gym. Based on the worksheets he's bringing home, they are already doing real schoolwork (writing their letters, circling the first letters in words, and even drawing correct numbers of shapes in boxes). Even though it is more rigorous than daycare, he seems to be doing well. (Only one of the worksheets had a jedi drawn in the corner.) Also, their class has a blue beta fish. One of the class projects was suggesting names and then voting on one. The fish is named Yoda. (Comment on this)