Amira ate eggplant

Anyone who knows Amira will know that this is very, very big news. When we were at my parents for Rosh Hashana, Amira surprised us all by asking to try Savta's Tofu spread, surprised us further by loving it, and asking for it on Succos, too! And she really has become much a more adventurous eater in the past year. I always ask her if she wants to try whatever we are eating, she generally says no thank you, and continues to happily eat the regular, beige, bland food that she gravitates towards (besides her love of raw, never cooked, vegetables) but recently, she has started trying new things, and liking them! So on Shabbos when she asked to try some eggplant caponata (another Savta recipe) I was shocked and thrilled and said of course, and she loved it! Eggplant! And she knew it was eggplant! Super awesome.

Yaakov was very excited to (in his words) "have a special guest from school over for Shabbos." This guest was Curious George. Yaakov's wonderful Pre-K Morah sends home Curious George each night with a different child from the class, and in Curious George's bag is a notebook for the parents to write about what their child did with Curious George. Yaakov just loved it! Curious George set the Shabbos table with Yaakov, answered Parsha Questions with Yaakov, sang with us, ate chicken soup and matza balls with us (did not try the eggplant, though. Maybe next time) and slept right next to Yaakov's bed in Amira's American Doll bed (neurotic mom that I am, the thought of Curious George sleeping in Yaakov's bed didn't thrill me, and luckily Amira was generous and Yaakov satisfied with this solution!) and it was just so cute to see how excited Yaakov was to have this special guest. He was very sad to bring him back to school this morning, but happy that Curious George would get to go home with another friend tonight!
Yehuda's exam (9!) is G-d willing this Thursday, so this week is crunch time. Please G-d this will be his last exam ever, and he will pass with flying colors!