Happy Blogversary, Happy Birthday to ME!

This is another backdated post, really its January 19, 2009, my birthday! I had passed my blogversary on January 15. I reached my 10,000th hit on October 27, 2008. This will be my last and final post on this blog. It’s been a year of great fun, and I thank my readers for encouraging me to continue. I thank Mindy for being there in the beginning and getting me into blogging in the first place. Lots of you first found this blog once it was halfway done, so you can always look through the archives if you want to read more.

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My Birthday

On my Jewish blog, I put a poll asking you to guess what age I’m turning. The majority said the right age. Some of you knew beforehand that I was turning 20, and some were just good guessers. A few chose 19, I’m thinking that maybe they didn’t read the whole question, and chose the age that I was at the time. It’s a cool age to celebrate, I am now 2 decades old!

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What Bloggers said about “The Babysitter”

If you wrote about me, and I didn’t include you, then please link me to it so I can include it. Thank You!

Frum Punk:

The Babysitter: Adorably awesome and always alert, Babysitter builds upon bounties of brilliance. Channeling child care with life lessons, she seldom sees anything but the best in any situation.

Mike In Midwood:

Babysitter: A blog on babysitting and handling children. Usually gets into the psychology of children or parents in different actions. And at this very moment the babysitter is on a streak of "rights".

Child Ish Behavior:

The Babysitter- She will watch your kids(if you tell her in advance), comment on lots of blogs, and tell you how to put a good spin on things.

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Key Word Analysis

I’ve had a bunch of interesting keyword searches of how people came to my blog, but I didn’t think of saving it from the website, and once it went over 500, they all got erased and now its only the keyword searches since the 500th one. But some of the main ones were “excuses for not babysitting”, “spoiled children help”, “why kids don’t like sleep”, “Connie Talbot”, “Isaac Hersh”, and “kids shower products”.

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Bloggers I have Met

Mindy, Jessica, Jacob Da Jew, Child Ish Behavior, Frum Skeptic, Moshe, Frum Punk, Bas Melach, and Sweety.

Bloggers not included in meet ups, I met individually. Mindy I had known beforehand. Jessica, I didn’t really get to meet, but I got to see her one time from the city bus window. Jacob Da Jew I met one shabbos, cause he came to a neighbors house, it was a pleasant surprise, but I was a bit shy. My mother actually remembered him from a time he sang at my neighbor’s son’s bar mitzvah. So it was a cool small world.

Meetup #1

About the famous blogger meetup that was written up about already 3 times, I will now say over my side of it. First here’s Frum Punx, Frum Skeptic’s and childish’s.

So at first I wasn’t going to go, but then I decided to go and was so happy I went. Frum Skeptic was really kind to meet me half way, and then I felt more comfortable, cause I had time to get to know her. When we got to Moshe’s house, I got to see his cute little Shlomik playing ball in the drive way with his grandmother. Then Frum Skeptic and I were brought into the house where we waited for the others to come back from shul.

I’ll skip all the extra stuff, and get right to the people stuff. So when I was walking over to Moshe’s house with FrumSkeptic, she told me that Frum Punk was going to be there too. I hadn’t known this, and it was a cool surprise. So Frum Punk comes in and asks people their names, then he turns to me and asks my name, and it took me a few minutes to realize which name he was talking about, I was unsure if I was supposed to say “The Babysitter” or my real name. But then at the end I said both, and that was solved.

Then Moshe brought out the food, and I learned about the Russian Volba from Frum Skeptic. It was interesting and kinda gross at the same time, to see her peel away the fish skin and eat the fish as if it was a snack. Although she said that usually her father does that part for her, so she wasn’t used to peeling the fish. She said that in school she would bring it for snack sometimes, and that it would smell bad, but it still tasted good. It was cool to find out about different cultures. But yet this didn’t make me loose my appetite.

Then Moshe brought out his Dafina, I tried to eat a bit of it, but it wasn’t my taste. Moshe kept insisting that I eat and wanted to know why I didn’t eat anything. I told him the food was just too interesting or too fancy for me. I really do like eating.

Then we had lots of discussions about all kinds of stuff. At one point I embarrassed myself by blurting out something without thinking. I mistakenly said one abbreviation instead of another, abbreviations that were very similar sounding, but had totally different meanings. That caused a bit of a reaction, and Moshe said he was going to write about what I said. Then later when I checked his blog, he hadn’t wrote about it and I was relieved!

Meanwhile, Moshe was very into his drinking and stuff, and he brought out all kinds of bottles for us to try. Childish had no problem trying the drinks. FrumSkeptic tried some stuff too. I can’t remember if Frum Punk had anything, but probably. So then Frum Punk said I should drink something too, and at first I said that I wouldn’t. But then I agreed to drink something, to make up for not eating anything. Or some other deal, I forgot what. So frum Skeptic, suggested some flavored thing, that looked like flavored seltzer, that had little or no alcohol in it. So I drank a little and it wasn’t bad.

Then when we were ready to leave, Moshe showed us some jokes and stuff on his fridge, and his hooka, and the hanging meet on the ceiling. Then I walked home with FrumSkeptic, and it was really fun talking with her, she told over so many interesting stories. Then later she blogged about them, and it was cool to compare, cause I already knew the stories, and she told over more of the details to me. All in all I had a great time! The time was around 5 and a half hours!

Meetup #2

Recently I had the pleasure to meet up with Bas Melach. I was on the city bus going to the designated place to meet her, when this girl on the city bus drops her pocketbook. If you’ve read my other posts, then you know that I love to pick things up, that I get an enjoyment from it. So I picked up her pocketbook and gave it to her. We were sitting across from each other.

Then she asks me my name, I tell her my name, and she asks if I go to the college that was near the stop she had gotten on from. I told her yes I do, and asked her what her name was. She told me her name and I couldn’t believe it. I asked her if she’s friends with so and so, and she said “yes, how do you know?”. So I asked her, if she’s “Sweety"? so it took her a few seconds to figure out what I meant. She was thinking to herself how in the world would I know that. So I reminded her that a while ago, we used to e-mail each other, and she had told me her name then, and I remembered. So it was cool that I got to meet an unexpected blogger.

Then when I met Bas Melach, I had a great time talking with her. We talked about college, and career plans, and bloggers that we knew before, and stuff she mentioned on her blog. Then at the end she said we need to say some “Torah”. I said “what?”, she said that in Pirkei Avos it says that when 2 people meet, the shechina comes down, so you should say some d’var torah or something. So then she took out her palm and played a shiur that she had from seminary, we listened for like 10 minutes from her head phones. Then the battery died so that ended. But it was a cool experience.

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Top Commenters

Finally, I would like to thank my top commenters for commenting on my blog. I appreciate all that you have contributed, and you have been the fuel that has kept me going. I thank all my commenters, not just the ones that made the top 10 list.

And the winners are:

Here’s an award for being the top commenter:

    

You can put this award on your blog.     

    

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Once again, I would like to thank you all for reading and commenting! I had a great time with this blog, and it really helped me at different points in my life.

At this point I would like to remind you, that if you have a link on your blog roll to my babysitter blog, and haven’t put a link you to my Jewish blog, you can do it now. Because from now on I will only be posting on The Jewish Side.

I will now be changing my blog name to “Jewish Side of Babysitter”

The End!

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Well, not the end, I have an update to make.

UPDATE: I am so extremely very happy to hear that the “Large Family” has had baby #12, on January 20, 2009. 

That makes it 10 girls and 2 boys! Oldest is 17! My precious family that I love so much, I can’t wait to be there for baby #12. Even though I stopped babysitting, I haven’t stopped going to them. I play with the kids for free, because I love them so much and get so much enjoyment from it, that no money can pay for it.

What great timing, I had a feeling it would come at this time, when I was putting up my ending post. Such a great birthday present for me! It’s like I just had a child!

Finally Here: My Blog roll - Blog Reviews!

The post you have all been waiting for! I will go through my blog roll and write a little review of each blog I have on there. My apologies in advance if I leave anyone out. I’m going to go down memory lane now. I really have so much to say, but I see that if I don’t limit what I say, then this post will never be published. I am backdating the post, because I want it to be as if it was complete year of a 100 posts. You’ll notice that toward the beginning I included more links, and the last few blogs I didn’t include any, sorry about that, I was just running out of time.

1. A Death In The Ballroom – This blog I came upon through “Off The Derech”. She had commented a lot there so I decided to checkout her blog. The post at that time was questioning being crazy. I had fun reading her posts and trying to debate with her about Judaism. She had put up a music video from the Disney movie Mulan. I had never seen it before and decided to check it out and then I found my own favorite song from that movie called Reflection.
   

2. A Frum Punk – I forgot how I found his blog already. I’ve actually read all the posts from the beginning, since this blog started after mine and I found it in it’s beginning stage. It was actually fun to keep clicking on it to see if new comments came up after mine. I really enjoyed reading his posts. I like how he uses humor in a subtle way that makes you think he’s actually serious, I call them “Onion” types of posts. My favorite posts: Negiah, “I need a Shidduch”, “Oy, you never visit your mother”

3. Bad For Shidduchim – I have to say this is the first blog I ever read, before I even started blogging. I have to thank my friend Mindy for e-mailing me about this blog. The first post I came upon at that time was about what to wear on first dates. I couldn’t tell what kind of blog it was, if it was serious, funny, or rebellious. I then went through the archives and read every single post. I even printed them out to read over shabbos. She writes excellent posts that are humorous and serious but yet on topics we can all relate to or find ourselves relating to. I had fun counting up my points of how many things I was doing wrong. I’ve actually learned a lot from this blog about shidduch stuff that I would have never known otherwise.
   

4. Bas~Melech Blogs! – I’ve come upon this blog through Bad For Shidduchim’s Blog. She is a true Bas Melach. In HS I remember they encouraged us to call ourselves Bas Melach, to help us remember how to act, like a daughter of a king. I actually remember a few songs about that. The first post of hers I came upon was about Interplanetary science, it was a truly excellent post. Perhaps even my favorite posts, they are about the differences between boys and girl’s mentalities and how to teach them correctly based on this. Later she started writing about her Camp Simcha experiences, and they were truly touching. She gave me such great advice to me, that I will always remember. At the end of it all she said, “You do what's best for you personally and then move on with confidence”. I think that is so important in life. She makes such a great teacher, her students are lucky to have her, and I’m lucky to get educated through her blog.
   

5. From The Experience of a J.A.(C.)P. – She’s one of the few bloggers that I sorta knew beforehand. Back in my myspace days, she would tell me that she had a few blogs and I might have checked them out once or twice, but I never thought much into it. So then I forgot about them. Then years later, I was reading Bas Melach’s Blog and I recognized “Tzipi Caton” so I started reading her blog. She writes amusing stories about JB, and uses humor to write about the trials she goes through because of her previously being a cancer patient. I bought her book “Miracle Ride” and it was one of those books that you can’t put down. I already knew the ending already, so it wasn’t a surprise, but the whole time I was waiting for that ending to come.
   

6. Frum College Girl – A college student with great words of wisdom. She had gone to seminary in Israel and sometimes writes about those experiences. She used to comment more on blogs in the beginning, but then seemed to have taken a break from that. She’s made quite a few interesting observations, also told in humorous ways. Some told in poems, some wrote out seriously, and some strange ones. Her posts are all so interesting, none ever boring.
   

7. Frum Meets Wolrd – Written by a few from girls about interesting stories that happen when they met up with the rest of the secular world in a college setting. They have some really excellent posts there. Some are thought provoking, and some just make you laugh.
   

8. Frum Satire – The most famous blogger that everyone seems to know, read, and talk about. Everyone loves imitating his writing style and what he writes about. He writes way too many posts for me to catch up with. I do have to admit that the ones I read were funny. Although he claims to be PG, I find a lot of times it becomes PG-13 or R. I’ve watched all of his you tube videos which are really great, a truly amazing talent to think of so much to say while ranting freestyle.
   

9. In My Humble Jewish Opinion – She writes thought provoking posts mostly about topics of shidduchim.
   

10. Insanity Now, Serenity Later – A computer programmer, spelling and grammar “nazi”, who loves beer and anime. He writes about programming stuff that barely any Jbloggers understand, that bring him the most hits from Google. He just had a baby and was kind to share videos of his new baby. He talks about the annoying, silly and foolish things that he sees. He also informs us on sales at glatt mart. He likes interesting food.

11. Israel Chronicles – A newly Married girl who moved to Israel and writes about the awesomeness of being in Israel and all the different experiences she’s had there. In addition to America V. Israel comparison posts. She also writes great “Erev Shabbos” posts, it really makes you feel elevated and causes a love for the good feeling Shabbos brings.
    

12. Jacob Da Jew – A cool blogger, you can tell from “Da” name! He likes writing about how us Jews can be better. His posts are short and easy to read.
    

13. Material Maidel – Tons of interesting posts. Also, short and easy to read. Posts of “worth a listen” songs. She’s a frum girl who’s not afraid to talk about “controversial” (tznius wise) topics. One of the few blogs that I have read every single post from the beginning and kept up with! Always entertaining. My favorite Post: Are Romance Novels Assur?
    

14. Mike In Midwood – I remember when he first started his blog, and I looked to see at the blogroll and was surprised to see that my blog was the first and only one up there. I felt truly honored. Later more blogs got linked up of course. His blog has became one of the “group”. He likes to write “frum satire” type posts. He’s got some really good humorous ones. I enjoyed the “If They had a blog” post.

15. Not Just Typical – A humorous blogger who writes in a way that the posts seem like they are facts when really they are made up funny stuff. My favorite post: Help Me- I’m Online

16. Off The Derech – I found his blog from a post Super Raizy made. Once I found the blog, I read all the posts from the beginning and commented on each one. But after a while it got a bit draining to debate so much, so I haven’t commented much. He seems like a nice guy who feels he has been wronged by the yeshiva system. But yet he is still considerate about his family and maintains the good memories of his frum time.

17. On Winds Of Change – The second blog I read. I remember being intrigued by a comment he left on Bad For Shidduchim’s post. So I decided to check his blog out. It has been one long emotional roller coaster reading his posts. He has a really caring heart, who believes girls should be treated better. He wrote some really great stories.

18. One Frum Skeptic – A really great fun and interactive blog to read. She writes about the frum foolishness that she sees. Lots of times I debated with her just for fun, but she is really smart and is strong in what she believes in. My favorite post: Jewish Kosher TV

19. Philosophy and Mixtapes – I’ve seen her comment often on Frum Skeptic’s blog, so I finally checked out her blog. I left one smart comment and was honored by her response “Babysitter - excellent point. I have nothing in my arsenal that can refute it.”. She has written about her pregnancy experience, now that she had her baby, I’m looking forward to her “Mommy posts”. She also writes about philosophy and Jewish issues.

20. Pocketful Of Sunshine – I noticed she commented often on Frum Punk’s blog, but I had never checked out her blog, because I didn’t realize it was a blog, then one day I clicked on it and really liked what I saw. So I read all the posts. She wrote about so many things that I felt I can relate to as a frum Jewish girl. Her blog reminds me a bit of Materiel Miadel’s, in that they are fun easy to read posts by a girl.

21. Roadside Rambles – I first came upon her blog through reading her comments at HaAdam B’Alomo. She always leaves great funny comments. It took me a while to realize she wasn’t being serious, and to take the comment for what it is, but once I got the hang of it, and was on the inside of the joke, it’s been really fun. I’ve been inspired by many of her posts. I’ve linked up to them already in my Jewish blog. When I need some inspiration, I come to her blog.

22. Shorty’s Adventures – I found her blog from a comment she left on a different blog, and I really liked what I saw. She writes long posts with lots of good links. I haven’t gotten to chance to read a lot of her posts. But I truly did want to. She leaves great comments which I am grateful for.

23. Sporadic Intelligence – I first noticed her commenting on End Of World’s blog. Then End of World disappeared and I continued checking out her blog and commenting. I remember reading her posts and feeling I can relate to them. I look up to her for being strong in what she believes in and following it, no matter what everyone else seems to think. She’s a teacher, and sometimes writes about her observations of her students. All her posts have a point to them, sometimes you have to concentrate on that fact in order to find it.

24. The Sabra – Kind of a partner with Rachel as a commenter on HaAdam B’Almo’s blog. She also writes great inspiring posts. She writes about all that goes on in Israel. She once gave me a link to one of her Israel posts, so I can better understand what is is about Israel that is so great.

25. HaAdam B’Almo – I noticed he commented a lot on Frum Skeptic’s blog, but I had never clicked on his blog, because he had a “long Hebrew name”. Then one time I checked his blog out and it was really interesting. He wrote about thoughts on relationships and different Halachic kind of posts.

 

Blogs that I awarded:

1. Beneath The Wings
2. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner
3. Here in HP
4. In The Pink
5. Lakewood Falling Down
6. Lion Of Zion
7. Super Raizy

Blogs that have come and gone in my time:

1. A Million Bright Lights
2. End Of the World As we Know It
3. My Personal Bubble
4. Personal Rants Complaints and Probs
5. Shidduchim and other Jewish Things
6. Sweety

Blogs I’m checking out:

1. Conversations In Klal
2. David On The Lake
3. Esther Hadassah’s Blog
4. Faded Glory
5. Frum N’ Flipping
6. Half Shared
7. Harry-er Than Them All
8. It’s UnbeLIPAble
9. The Corner Point
10. Wolfish Musings

New Blogs:

1. Baal Tshuva Slowly
2. DavenedByDeKoisel
3. In My Life
4. RP Blog
5. So I was Thinking…
6. The Secret World of Princess Yuttele 

Additional Blogs by bloggers:

1. Dargot U’ Dargot
2. Places To Go
3. Turquoise, Purple and Scarlet
4. Your Writer’s Notebook
5. Kosher Cuisine
6. My Frum Side

Blogs I plan on checking out:

1. Torat Ezra
2. I’ll Call Baila
3. Ki Yachol Nuchal
4. Life In Israel
5. Ilana- Davita
6. A Mother In Israel
7. Me-Ander
8. Modern Uberdox
9. Am I a Frum Feminist
10. Daughters In The Parsha
11. Delusions of Grandeur
12. Frum Female
13. Frum In South Florida
14. Jew In The Suburbs
15. Jewish mRNA
16. Our Shiputzim: A Work In Progress
17. Shavua Tov!
18. Tales Of An Angry Jew
19. Juggling Frogs
20. A Blog Of Something Different

I think that about covers it all!

Blog Award

A little while back I received a blog reward from ChildIshBehavior for this blog. Now I will award it to the Mommy bloggers that I enjoyed reading. As for the Jewish bloggers, I will award them on my other blog with the reward Leora gave me for the Jewish blog. So now for the winners!

1. Leora – I had seen her commenting on a bunch of blogs for a while, then one day I decided to click on her blog and I found the latest post at that time was about Gravatars, I thought it was a cool post, so I bookmarked it to come back to it later. A while later I thought about the Gravatars and that it would be cool to make one, so I went back to that post and made one. Then the latest post at that time was a colorful drawing that Leora and her daughter did together. I was so impressed with the way they worked on it together and read more of her posts, and then since then I’ve been a steady reader. I love how she spends so much time on her posts with the watercolors for her interactive Parsha posts and her beautiful pictures of flowers and skies.
   
   
2. Super Raizy – After I had first started blogging, I came upon her blog and was very impressed with her Mommy skills, and the way she talked about her children. I commented a few times that she sounds like a great mother, and she really does. I remember her first comment on my blog saying how it’s interesting to see it from a babysitter’s perspective instead of a parents perspective. I remember feeling honored when she wrote a whole post about my spoiled children post and complimented me, although I had to correct her and take away some of the credit for myself, that it wasn’t all my own information, that I had actually done research on it, and yet she still said it was great.
   
   
3. In The Pink – by Hadassah Sabo. I had seen her comment on a different blog and her last name sounded familiar. I knew someone with the same last name as her who had a blog so I clicked on it wondering if that was it. Turned out it wasn’t the same person, but I am so happy I came upon it, cause it’s an excellent Mommy blog. The first post I came upon on her blog was a picture of her with Tweety with a question, I actually thought of a good answer and it felt good to have solved the question. I love how she cares so much about her children, and treats them with such love it’s truly amazing. I am so happy she found her KoD!
   
   
4. Lion Of Zion – I know he’s not really a Mommy, but given this, I thought he wouldn’t mind it again and that it would be funny. I am truly impressed by the way he talks about Jr. He sounds like a great parent and Jr sounds like an adorable child. He writes great entertaining stories about Jr’s adventures and yet is still responsible that Jr act like a good little boy. The post about Jr’s first day of school was really touching, to see it from the father’s perspective, and the child’s.
   
   
5. Ricki’s Mom – all I can say is wow to this one! It continues to amaze me how she is able to discipline Ricki to behave, in such smart ways that actually work. It’s great to see the pride and love she has for Ricki. I came to her blog through a comment she left on Bas Melach’s post about camp Simcha. I had commented that it must be really hard on them to take care of these special children. Ricki’s Mom had suggested I take a look at her blog and see how these children are really the same. The first post I saw impressed me, it was an innovative way to get children to remember things with key rings of words or pictures on it. There were other cute innovative ideas like a little mail kind of method between mother and child. I enjoy reading her posts, the many posts she writes.
   
   
6. Mrs. Lakewood Falling Down – she doesn’t really have her own blog, while her husband does. But she left great comments on my blog that I just had to check out her husband’s blog. Just my luck when I check it out, she had actually written a post herself. I was truly impressed with the post she wrote about buying a dress for her daughter online and how the people were so caring, and how she then thanked them. It’s not very often that you see people thanking the service people with such appreciation, I was truly touched.
   
   
7. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner – I haven’t read this blog so much, but I do plan on reading more of it now. I remember the first post I had come upon I was truly impressed by, it was a picture of a nice fancy table set for Shabbos, it looked so royal looking and I thought it was great how she sets her table so nicely, it really adds a respectful aura to Shabbos. Then recently I saw a picture of her chandelier which her kids decorated with dreidels and chocolate coins, I thought that was really cute. It’s great how she decorates things to give the kids more of a feel of the specialness of the Yom Tov, so that they feel they are participating in it.
   
   

Thank You all for your wonderful blogs!

And for being the wonderful Moms/(Dads) that you are!

Memes

I figured I would combine different meme’s into one. So I searched my feed reader to find the memes that I had planned on doing and one of things I found was “Where did the word "meme" come from anyway?” and I thought that was a good question, so I decided to do a little research. I found that there’s a whole website dedicated to meme’s and it had a little information about the source of a meme. So the first Meme I will be doing is a Book Meme which I found from Margo. I’ve seen a lot of Facebook statuses doing this meme or a meme similar to it recently. The second meme is one that a lot of bloggers have already done, I wasn’t officially tagged in it, but Leora gave me the opportunity to do it.

Book Meme

Here are the rules:
Grab the nearest book. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your journal/blog along with these instructions. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. Tag five other people to do the same.

“R’ Menachem Mendel of Kotzk asks: Why did Judah worry only about Jacob’s distress? What about Benjamin’s wife and 10 children – why was Judah not worried that they, too would die because of their pain? The Kotzker explains that we learn from this verse that a child does not experience suffering for a parent to the extent that a parent suffers for a child’s pain.”

That came from “Something to Say”, by R’ Goldwasser, the book I use to look up things to say on the Parsha. Being as Tomorrow is Friday that was the closest book near me. This came from page 56 like the instructions said, and from the Fifth sentence, it’s from Parshas Vayigash. I’ve never heard this before, and it was completely new to me. After reading this I thought to myself, that it makes sense for it to be like that, cause normally parents die first, and that’s why it’s so cruel when Natzi’s threatened to kill the parents children in front of the parent’s eyes.

Sevent Facts About Me

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people (if possible) at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

1. One of the reasons I love the Large family so much is because I see them as my role models and I always wanted to have 10 kids. It became my dream, and I imagined it as such a reality that I even wrote about it in a paper for my English class in college, and my Professor commented back on it: “wow that’s a lot” (I actually checked the paper for the exact words)
2. I wear 3 necklaces every day under my shirt. I used to have them all out, but then people would comment on it, so I just keep it under, and then when I need a necklace I take one out. I wear all 3 because they are all precious to me, and have sentimental value. One is a little heart shaped silver necklace that I got from the large family when I turned 12 or 13. The other is a silver necklace with my name in Hebrew from Israel that my twin brother bought me when he went. The third necklace is a silver small Magen David that my mother bought me at a fair one time. I like how it’s used as a Jewish symbol, so I like to wear it as an identity thing. (o, and I used to also wear 3 bracelets, but then my grandmother told me to take them off for shidduch purposes)
3. I like sleeping on the floor, I think it’s more comfortable, and there’s a lot more room to roll around. Although I do sleep on a bed, but when we go places and they don’t have enough beds I like to sleep on the floor.
4. I don’t like Wednesdays. Wednesday seems to have always been my bad luck day. Everything bad happened to me on a Wednesday. Won’t go into personal details… But one involves a dog, one involves a orthodontist and one involves a van. Plus in school Wednesday’s used to have a bad schedule.
5. I love Chinese Food. When I was 12 years old and my father got honored at my old shul, the dinner was in a Chinese restaurant, it was my first time eating at the place, and they had a limited menu. One of the dishes was Sesame chicken. It was my first time eating it, and after that I was hooked, and every time we went out I would order Sesame Chicken. Before that my mother used to order for us the birds nest which was fun to eat, or meat with vegetables. Then one time when I was order with my father he said over the wrong thing and instead of getting meat with vegetables, it was beef lo mein. That was my first time having lo mein and after that I loved it and would always order it. So then it became a trade off between lo mein and Sesame Chicken.
6. I went in a helicopter for a ride. The summer of 10th grade my family went to Niagara Falls. While we were there we saw this helicopter place where you can ride around in it for 10 minutes. So my mother, my sister and I went for a ride. I got to sit next to the pilot. Before take off they snapped a picture. Then we took off and it was a great ride, we had these headphones on to block out the sound of the motor and so that the pilot could speak to us and give us a tour of what we were seeing below. When we would dive forward it was a really scary feeling. You feel as though you are going to fall through. The pilot talked to me to make sure I was okay, and I said I was okay. Then when we landed I felt all dizzy and my ears were popping. We saw the pictures they had taken, and my father bought the picture of the helicopter with me and the pilot and a punch of water fall pictures as a border surrounding the picture. We also got little certificates, that said we had rode in it.
7. I don’t like Pizza. I feel like I’m one in a million, when everyone talks about pizza and how much they love it. As a matter of fact I don’t like anything dairy, except for ice cream and chocolate and other OUD stuff where you don’t actually see any milk or cheese. Although I won’t eat Cheese curls cause it has the word Cheese in it. I won’t eat Ketchup potato chips cause it has the word ketchup in it. I used to love pizza too, back when I was two. But then after the ear doctor said I have to stop having dairy for a little bit, I was never able to go back on. My uncle tried bribing me to have a shnops cup of milk, and then he would buy me a doll house, but it didn’t work. Even now I don’t have milk and sometimes I get nightmares that I’m drinking milk.

Now, instead of tagging 5 people for the first and 7 people for the second. I will just tag 12 people who will then get to choose if they want to do either one, both or none.

Tagged: BasMelach, EsPes, FrumCollegeGirl, FrumPunx, FrumSkeptic, Jessica, MaterialMaidel, MikeInMidwood, NMF#7, Shorty, Tembow, TooYoungTooTeach.

10 Blog Post ideas in Draft

Ok, so I’m counting out how many posts I have left and I realize that I don’t have enough posts to write about all the different ideas I had wanted to write about. So I figured I would just make one big post with a little paragraph on each idea, they will obviously not be thorough, so if you have anything to add on, feel free to do so.

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Question: Is the Parents Room Just for Parents?

By my house the parents room isn’t just for parents, more often it becomes the family room where we all gather. On Shabbos mornings as soon as we wake up we go to our parents room and tell them good morning and do some talking. As a kid I remember we had fun jumping on their beds, we would jump from one bed to the next and look in the mirror while we did so. But yet the door did have a hook and eye lock, and there were times when us kids weren’t allowed in. But then if we knocked on the door, then it usually opened for us. At one house I was by I saw the parents had a combination lock on their bedroom door. I thought that was funny and a bit extreme, it seemed like they were in a whole other apartment that way.

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Sleepovers

At what age is a child old enough to go on a sleepover? and should they be left alone or attended?

I remember going on a few sleepovers. When I was 11 years old I went to a girl in my class’s house for a sleepover. I had brought a sleeping bag over, cause I liked to use it as a blanket. At home we figured out that if you put the sleeping bag on the top of the steps and go inside you can sit and slide down the steps in a bumpy fun way. So when I was by the girl’s house I decided to teach them how to do it so they could have some fun too. Thinking back at it now I would never let kids do it for fear that they would topple down and hurt themselves. So anyways, I put the sleeping bag on their steps and went in with my friend and we had fun going down. Then her little little brother wanted to have some fun too. So he asked if he can go in the sleeping bag with me and have a ride too. So I let him in and we went down a few times. Then their mother tells me that I can’t go in the sleeping bag with him. I didn’t understand why not. That was my first introduction/lesson to the rules of Yichud.

Then other times when we had sleepovers we would play truth and dare, and something secretive always came out.

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Getting Lost

At what age can you send children on errands alone?

I was 8 years old when I went with my brother to the bike shop to get our bikes fixed. I found the way there, we gave in my brother’s bike to be fixed and were then on our way home. When my brother suddenly had a brilliant idea “I remember a shortcut” he said. So I trustingly went with him on his “shortcut” route. After a while I realized we were lost. I remember land marks that I had passed that signaled my being lost. So we got to a unfamiliar place and I was afraid so I started crying. My brother tried to be all brave about it, but it must of been hard on him since I was crying. Then a African-American lady sees that I’m crying and she asks what’s wrong. I told her we were lost. So she called the cops from a pay phone at the corner. (It was the days before cell phones). Then the police comes. The police man took my brother and dumped him in the trunk of the car, this frightened me at the time, but I guess they were just trying to play around and lighten the mood a bit. Then they took him out of the trunk and we both went into the car. They drove us home, and I remember my mother sitting down with us, giving us a drink and telling us we can’t leave the house again that day. Happens to be, now I’m always by the place I got lost, because that’s where my college is.

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Fake Vs. Real

What do you think children prefer fake stuff or real stuff?

You’d be surprised but most children will be happier with the .25 ring from the machine than a real ring from the Jewelry store.

When I was younger my mother signed me up at the y to take gymnastics. I’m not sure why, but she offered me a reward if I go. I had remembered going to a girl’s house where she had a fake blow dryer and hair accessories, and I had enjoyed playing with it. So when my mother asked what I wanted as a prize, I told her a blow dryer. So what did she do? she bought me a real blow dryer! I was a bit disappointed at that, cause it wasn’t like the one my friend had. But I didn’t say anything, and pretended I was happy about it. Later on though I actually used it and was happy that I had my own real blow dryer!

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Medicine

At what age should children learn to swallow pills?

All my life I had always had liquid medicine. I didn’t like the taste of chewable ones and I never tried swallowing. So long as they had a liquid version I was fine. But then came the time when I was 16 and I got a root canal, and that really hurt, and the dentist gave me pain killers for that. The pain killers however only came in pills to swallow. I was sitting there on the dentist chair, thinking to myself, “O, no, I don’t know how to swallow!”. With my dentists persisting, I took the pill put it in my mouth and behold I was able to swallow it! I was so surprised and proud of myself that I had this look on my face, that I couldn’t believe what I had just accomplished. Although after that when I tried swallowing pills again it was much harder and didn’t go so easily, so I guess the first time was luck.

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Shirt Buttons

Ever noticed that boy and girl shirt buttons are on opposite sides?

I always wondered why that was. I guess it’s to make it easier for the mother doing laundry to tell which white shirts are boy shirts and which are girl shirts. Although most shirts obviously have different styles, so the side of the buttons shouldn’t be the deciding factor.

While I’m on the topic of clothes and different boy girl ways, I decided that tucking in a shirt by girls just doesn’t look good, and I think it’s even untznius. Although by boys I think tucked in shirts are fine and even look more put together. By girls though I like tucked out shirts better, or at least a jacket or sweater on top of the shirt.

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Exercise

One day I was outside and saw three little kids outside walking very fast. I asked them what their up to, and they said they were exercising cause they didn’t want to get fat. So they jogged around the block a couple of times. They were all into it and serious about it, I thought it was really cute. They made a schedule and a couple of times a week they would jog around the block and do exercises.

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Playing in the street

Do you think children should be allowed to play in the street?

I’m always surprised when I see young children playing in the street, whether it’s a ball game, or just running back and forth. I can’t believe the mother’s let their children play in the street like that. It scares me all the time, and whenever I see my younger siblings playing around in the street I tell them they have to go out of the street. Unless the street is closed down I think it’s unsafe. I tried explaining to the kids that they shouldn’t be playing in the street, but they say that they will be careful, and they will watch out for cars. I tried explaining that nobody gets into an accident on purpose, but they don’t understand it.

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“It’s a Piece of Junk”

I find many times when children get frustrated with a toy/object and they can’t figure out how it works, they call it a piece of junk. They put the blame on the object. Lot’s of times it’s just that they didn’t read the instructions/directions. Or they didn’t take good care of it. So instead of admitting its their fault, they call it a piece of junk hoping to get some sympathy to get a new one or not get blamed for what they had broken.

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Cute kid voices

Adon Olam

The first kid singing had a really cute voice. Before this song he sang “Halleli Elokayich Tzion” and instead of saying “L” he would say “w” so it was so cute to hear him say “Hawewi Ewokayich Tzion”. Anyways, the second boy, is a kid I used to babysit, and the first kid was his cousin. The second kid really has a great voice, not sure if you can tell from this video.

“The Wheels on the Bus” and “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”

This kid is 4 years old, she actually just turned 4. She is one interesting little kid, her voice sounds so sweet you would think she's such a well behaved kid. But she's actually very tough in her negotiations! She threatened that she won't be my friend if I be mean to her and tell her she has to go to sleep. But then the next day when I go over to her she begs me to sit next to her and for me to hold her and everything.

Embarrassing Babysitting Moments

Reflecting back at my year of Babysitting I started remembering different embarrassing moments. Even though I got embarrassed from them they still make fond memories. A few I have already posted about. About being surprised when the kids school bus driver opened the doors and offered to give me a ride with all the other little kids. About being questioned on who babysits who, in that everyone thinks I’m so young. Now I will reflect back to the top embarrassing stories that have happened.

1. I was babysitting by the Rav of my Shul’s family. They were going to a wedding, and the younger 2 kids were staying home. So after babysitting, the Rav drives me home. When he gets to my house, he presses the automatic door opening button, and the sliding door doesn’t open. I’m wondering what happened, and I tried to open the door myself, I got it open a little and was able to come out. Then I realized I was stuck to the car door and the car door had jammed. So the Rav comes out of his seat and checks to see what happened. I had been wearing a long skirt, and apparently it got stuck in the car door. I was mortified, I tried pulling my skirt free, but it was jammed. The Rav then was able to pull my skirt free. In a way it’s a good thing it was a long skirt, because it was only the extra part below the knee that had to be pulled free, so nothing showed. But yet if I hadn’t worn a long skirt then it probably would never have got stuck. So after that, every time I see an automatic sliding car door, I think about what happened, and I’m glad my car door isn’t automatic.
   




2. So I always go over to the large family on my block almost every shabbos to play with the kids. It’s the one family I truly enjoy the kids, so even though I stopped babysitting, I get to still go over there on shabbos and enjoy them. They have all ages, and for some reason a bunch of them got into their head that I need to learn how to dance for when I get married in the future, so they decided it was their job to teach me. So I had all the little kids urging me to get up off the floor from playing with the baby and to hold their hands and dance. This was in the living room, with their mother sitting on the couch watching. I tried getting out of it, but they were persistent, so I gave in and did a little dancing with them, going in circles, and then one by one with each of them. It was really embarrassing, so then I told the kids that I will just watch them dance. They said ok, and relieved I sat back to watch them dance wildly. Then their father came home for Shalosh Seudos, and was wondering what they were doing, and they said they were helping me practice to learn how to dance for my wedding. I was mortified again. After that when I came home I told my mother how I can’t wait to invite them all to my wedding, that I would have so much fun with them, and that I love them so much. My mother said that I probably won’t get to invite all of them, because it would be a late night and it wouldn’t work out for the little kids. I still hope that I would be able to invite them all, and I would truly miss them. So far no wedding coming up so I get to enjoy them!
   




3. This next one I sort of once posted about but not completely. So one of the mothers I babysat by enjoyed teasing me about how I’m a college student, but yet I don’t know so many obvious things that are standard knowledge. It happened to many times for me to remember, each time although I knew it was just for fun and wasn’t meant as an insult or anything, it was still embarrassing, especially when it was in front of other adults. Once it happened because I mixed up Sadam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. Another time it was because I didn’t know what the Gulf War was about and where the gulf was. Another time it was about why we were at war in Iraq. Then all these other history, current events and geography stuff. I just never enjoyed studying it, so I didn’t pay much attention to all these details, so I didn’t know the answers. Although sometimes for some weird reason I would purposefully make myself look foolish to see her reaction, and I would laugh about it. Whenever that happens, I feel like a little kid all over again, as if I’m testing the parent.
   




4. This last story hasn’t happened yet, but I’m imagining that I will be embarrassed if and when it happens. So last year the mother of the triplets gave me a key holder thing as a birthday present, it was really nice and I put her key and my key on it. I would use it ever day to open her door to let her kids in after I picked them up from the bus stop. Then once I finished babysitting there at the end of June, I asked the mother if I should give her the key back and she said that I should keep it in case she needs me sometime to get the kids again and to bring them in the house. So I kept the key, all was good till one day I get to my front door and reach for my keys and find they are gone! I started to worry what happened to them, I figured maybe when I was taking out my metro card they slipped out of the pocket. I retraced my steps a bit and didn’t find anything. I figured when I go to school the next day I’ll look for them. So I hadn’t completely despaired and the next day I had hope I would find the keys. I checked in the hallway and classroom I had been at that day, I checked the side walk, I walked around campus with my eyes on the floor hoping to see something shiny, I checked the city bus stop. But I didn’t find anything, so I then gave up hope in finding it. I had another copy of my house key made, but I didn’t have another key holder, so I just never used it and would always go in through the side door. I was a little bit upset that I lost my birthday present since it had sentimental value. I was afraid to call the mother to tell her that I lost her key. So I just never called her, and she doesn’t know. Since now I stopped babysitting, I can get out of the uncomfortable situation by having an excuse that I’m not babysitting anymore, but then I wonder if she would ask for her key back. Or am I supposed to just call her anyways and tell her that I lost her key? The thought of getting embarrassed by losing her key is what is stopping me from telling her.