Passover 2012

We spent the weekend in Wellesley, Massachusetts at my cousin's house.  He is married, and he and his wife have 4 children.  They generously and graciously invited us to stay the whole weekend at their house. I want to say that with their 4, my 2 barely added to the chaos... but I am not completely sure that was true!

In general, our trip went very well.  We stopped for lunch in Norwalk, Connecticut on our way up, and got to Wellesley around 3:30.  We started our seders around 5 both nights, so we didn't have time to do much more than play at our cousins' house that afternoon.  The boys loved it there, there were so many toys and so much to do!  Asher is clearly taken with older kids and will follow them around and play with them.  Benjamin is taken with cars and trucks.  He spent a very long time playing with toy dump trucks and diggers in the dirt.

Asher with the Big Kids

For the seder on Friday night there were 20 of us.  My cousin and his family, our family plus my parents and sister, my aunt and uncle, my mom's parents and Pierrette, and my mom's cousin and her family.  The boys were exhausted and refused to sit in their chairs as well as refused to eat any traditional food.  Gefilte fish- ew.  Matzo- ew.  Matzo ball- sounds good because it has the word "ball" in it, but apparently hugely disappointing.  We ended up getting them ready for bed and asleep by 7:15, at which point we could enjoy the rest of the evening.

The older end of the table

The younger end of the table

"I'll tell you what I think of your Passover 'food.'"

"More chicken, please!"

I think Asher may be having a bit of a growth spurt.  For a while he was eating very little, but ever since recovering from his stomach virus, he has eaten twice as much as before, or more.  We go to the doctor in the morning for their two year well-visit so we'll see if he is gaining weight- he was 27 pounds when he was sick 3 weeks ago.

Saturday started with brunch at my sister's, which was lovely. We went on a walk afterward, and then headed back to Wellesley in the hopes that the boys would nap.  Benjamin fell asleep in the car and went right down to nap at the house.  Asher- not so much.  Eventually I gave up.  It was really disheartening, the boys slept pretty terribly (as they often do at home), and their cousin, who is almost 4, slept 12+ hours a night and took 3-4 hour naps.  I was so jealous.  And tired.

The second seder was slightly smaller, but the boys were feeling more patient.  They still wouldn't eat any of the Passover food, but ate some other things and played with their cousins.  Here is Benjamin in his frog hat when we talked about the ten plagues:

We left after breakfast this morning, and stopped for lunch in New Canaan on our way home.  We had lunch with an old friend of mine from college, who had seen my post on Facebook on our way up.  I hadn't posted to Facebook in an eternity but decided to on our trip, and it was a good decision!  My college friend and his wife made us a lovely picnic, we went to a playground and our children played while we had lunch.  The playing helped the boys get back in the car, but their patience only lasted until we hit a big traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Now we're home. I am not sure how we will make it through Passover, since the boys' favorite foods are crackers, toast, cereal, and cookies.  Today they asked for cracker and when I handed them some matzo they cried.  Not like a toddler throwing a tantrum cry, but a very disappointed, "I can't believe you are calling that piece of crap a 'cracker'" cry.  Asher happily accepts pieces of matzo with peanut butter on them, but then proceeds to lick all the peanut butter off, leaving behind soggy matzo.  They may live off eggs, cheese, and raisins this week!