Nachas Week

Today was A's last day of school. It sounds so cliche but the year really did fly by. In the week leading up to the end of the school year, she was quite busy with school events.
Last Monday was her ballet recital. A. had been taking ballet after school all year and she got to showcase her talents.
Here is my little ballerina with the trophy she got for completing the course

Then this past Tuesday was "graduation". Because they had been learning the Hebrew Alphabet all year, the theme of the graduation was the writing of a Torah. Each child was a letter and said their part about the specific letter and then wrote that letter into a Sefer Torah. They also sang some cute songs. Needless to say, she performed very well and made us very proud.



Writing her letter "ayin" in the Torah

 Here she is holding her certificate and then celebrating with us after

In other news, Sunday night we took Mr. M's pacifier away. It was an impromptu decision, based on the fact that we had yet again lost the last pacifier in the house and couldn't find one at bedtime. This has been something I had been talking about doing for a while now, I just needed some motivation. M. surprised us by going to sleep without a fuss that night and continuing on pretty seamlessly from there. Now, 4 days later, he is still asking for it but less frequently. We also haven't had any major meltdowns or tantrums about it, which I am thankful for.

On some level, as much as the pacifier was for him, it was also a crutch for me, something to calm him down and keep him quiet when necessary. I felt the same way when I stopped nursing him at 15 months, this fear of "now what am I going to use to pacify him?" Thankfully, he still has his shmattas, otherwise known as my headscarves that he uses as his "loveys"and takes with him wherever he goes. Both he and I are not ready to give up on those quite yet!