Putting it Together

An awesome thing about being a mom is watching your kids put it all together - bringing things they have learned in the past, at school, from family and friends to bear on current situations. I still can't really get used to it.

Yesterday as I drove the girls home from school we passed a home that had been razed several months ago. We call it "the knock down house." I pointed out to LP that there was a truck (a bulldozer maybe?) on the lawn, meaning that the home was going to be rebuilt soon.

"Mommy, I wish our house was knocked down so that we could have a truck." When I replied that we wouldn't have a place to sleep if our home was knocked down her quick response was, "Well, mommy, then we could sleep in a sukkah."

For those of you out there wondering what a sukkah is, it is a temporary shelter, built for Sukkot, a Jewish holiday that starts this Friday and celebrates (among other things) a successful harvest. You are supposed to eat in the sukkah and sleep out underneath the stars (the roof is open on purpose so you can see the stars).

When I mentioned it to the Hoos, letting him know that his conversation with her at services on Monday made an impression, he responded, "I didn't show her the Sukkah at the synagogue. I showed it to AK." We have no idea how LP made this connection. We haven't read any books about the holiday recently and when we asked her where she came up with this she replied mysteriously, "From somewhere."

And, on Sunday night as I was getting the diaper bag ready for attending synagogue the next day, LP asked if we would eat at synagogue. When I told her that Yom Kippur is not an eating holiday, rather, it is a day when many Jewish people don't eat (okay, I said "fast" but the Hoos told me I was being confusing, so I switched words), she started rearranging the diaper bag, removing the juice boxes and snacks stowed in it.

How did I create such a smart, thoughtful, wonderful child? Awesome.