Shalosh

Today there was a birthday party in Simon's class for a little boy named Yoav. I asked Simon whose birthday it was and he said "Yoavi's birthday." Then I asked how old he is. Simon said "he is shalosh." I was very impressed by his Hebrew and asked how many is shalosh. He held up 3 fingers and said "it's three!" I don't think he knows any other numbers in Hebrew, but it's a start. I remember when the only English letter that he knew was "H" for Hiroki and he learned the others pretty quickly.
I took Eli downtown to visit JCRC--he seemed to enjoy himself although he was exhausted and a little bit overwhelmed by all the people. It was nice to see everyone even though there aren't that many people left who I know anymore. We stopped at David's office too, but Eli had really had it by then and was crying a lot so we left.
When David got home tonight, he stayed here with Eli while Simon and I went to the First Light Festival in Coolidge Corner. Every year at the beginning of the holiday season there are a bunch of performers and other activities at various stores around Brookline. Elmo was supposed to be at Magic Beans and there was also a sing-along with Vanessa, our favorite former music teacher. It took us 45 minutes to find a place to park. Simon was very patient and kept directing me to "park behind that car, Mommy" or "why can't you just park right here?" We ended up parking behind the pizza store and walking the 4 or 5 blocks which I probably should have done to begin with. Simon had a great time singing and dancing. Elana and Francesca, his friends from Yaya's house, were there too, but they were just leaving when we got there and Simon was not interested in talking to them at all, which was kind of sad. This was the first time that I have seen Francesca's mother since the awful biting incident months ago--she was perfectly nice, but I was a little bit nervous that she was going to be mean! Simon convinced me to buy him a little train on the way out. He gave it to me so that I could pay for it and he waited patiently and then said "is it ready yet?" Then when we were walking back to the car, he suddenly dropped to the sidewalk so that he could drive the train. It made for an even longer walk back to the car. Then we stopped at the supermarket on the way home where Simon got to go in the cart that has a car in front which is his favorite part of going to the supermarket. He kept saying "I'm stuck in the driveway" while he was driving, still mocking me for the time that I got stuck in the driveway trying to back out around David's car! I had to pull the cart backwards at one point and he started beeping like a truck does when it backs up.
When we got home, David had already given Eli his bath, so I put him to bed while David bathed Simon and put him to bed. I started cooking for Shabbos, but got tired of it so I'm saving most of it for tomorrow. I'm sure tomorrow I will wish I had done it tonight. Hopefully I can get it all done before Simon comes home from school.