Happy Chanukah!

We just got back from NY and I'm way too tired to go through the pictures and post the good ones, but I wanted to make sure I wrote about some of the cute and funny things that happened so I don't forget...
Simon, Eli and I flew to JFK on Friday morning and I'm happy to say that it was a pretty painless process primarily because the people at security at Logan let me go through with Eli in the Baby Bjorn. I'm not sure what that says about the quality of security at Logan, but it certainly made things a lot easier for me. Simon was great while we were waiting for the plane (although he kept saying to me "are you sure this is our gate?" and "I don't think this is our gate.") and on the plane as well. He mostly watched tv or looked out the window. Eli slept for the first 1/2 of the flight (meaning 20 minutes b/c it's a really short flight) and then cried for the second 1/2. Huvi picked us up and she brought Emme and Alli with her--the boys were very happy to see their cousins and Emme and Alli proved to be very good babysitters all weekend. The house was a little bit chaotic with all nine kids there--Mashie, Ezra and Bailey weren't supposed to be there but they drove in and surprised everyone which was so great--but the kids all had a fantastic time together. Some cuteness that happened:
1. Simon and Ezra were supposed to sleep in Ezra's room together. They were so tired that we thought they would go right to sleep. They stayed up for over 2 hours talking and laughing together and when I went in to yell at them to go to sleep, they were sitting next to each other in Ezra's bed reading books. It was the cutest thing, but I ended up taking Simon out and had him sleep with me. I thought he would sleep on the trundle bed, but he only wanted to actually sleep in bed with me. When I got up to put Eli's pacifier back in his mouth at 2:45am, I then went to sleep in the trundle bed and left Simon in the other bed. He woke up when Eli woke up again at 5 and then got in the trundle bed with me. Needless to say, I did not sleep all that well.
2. When Ezra opened one of his Chanukah presents, Simon said to him "are you going to share that with me?" Ezra responded with "of course I am, you are my best friend!"
3. Before David got there last night, Coby was marching around the house shouting "Un-cle Doo-dy Balls!" (they sometimes call David that b/c he was once eating felafel balls and Alli asked what he was eating and he told her it was doody balls). Simon started following him and also shouting "Un-cle Doo-dy Balls."
4. Eli developed a strong dislike for Mia for some reason. Everytime she came near him he would cry even though I tried telling him that he should like her because she always has candy with her. She really wanted to hold him so she said to Emme "ok, give him to me, but do it very carefully so that he doesn't see that it is me holding him and not you."
The upsherin was Saturday night and Ezra was very brave for his haircutting and he now looks exactly like a mini-version of Coby. Before his haircut, Simon kept referring to him as "she" and "her" and Ezra would say "I am not a she. I am a he." It didn't help his cause that he has the highest voice. It contrasts nicely with Bailey who talks like she has been smoking for 50 years. Annie doesn't say much because her mouth is usually to full of some kind of food.
We left Huvi's in the early afternoon and went to Mama's for her Chanukah Party. Simon was playing with Joshua and then he came over to me and said "I'm having a conversation with Batman." I told Joshua that Simon had said that and he said "I don't know why he said that because I am not Batman. I am obviously Superman." My little cousin Erika (she is 4) helped give Eli a bottle and then she asked me if I would buy her a baby, but only a girl one so that she could name it Daisy. Then she wanted to know if I would also buy her a Hello Kitty bottle that she could use to feed her baby.
Eli slept the entire way home and Simon slept for the first hour and then spent much of the rest of the way asking us if we were off the highway yet because we told him he could open his window once we got off the highway. When he wasn't doing that he was crying and yelling at us that he wanted the music louder. Finally David turned off the music and said that he should listen to the quiet. This confused Simon enough to make him actually be quiet.