Life Cycle Events

What a fun weekend we just had! My cousin Caroline has her Bat Mitzvah and all my Levine family gathered in Charlotte, NC to celebrate.  It was the first time I was able to attend a family function with my whole family (Brennan, Logan and Emmett) and it was so much fun! We were fortunate enough to have Emmett’s Baby Naming during services on Friday night as well.  Since we are living in Mississippi and were unable to have a Brit Milah (a ceremonial circumcision in the Jewish religion).  We opted to have Emmett circumcised in the hospital the day after his birth and just have a baby naming sometime after.  We were fortunate that Caroline let us intrude a bit on her special weekend to celebrate Emmett during her Friday night services.   

So at temple on Friday night our family was called up to the bimah (the stage at the front of the sanctuary) and Emmett received a blessing and his Hebrew name.

    :Emmett or אמת Meaning “Truth”.

 שלמה or Shelomoh (pronounced Sh-lo-mo): the Hebrew equivalent to Stuart…meaning “peace”.

The name Shelomoh has special significance because it comes from my father’s father who passed away this past February when I was pregnant with Emmett.  During the naming the Rabbi mentioned my grandfather and asked that many of his qualities be passed on to Emmett: leadership, love of Judaism, love of his family and friends and his competitive spirit.

Emmett also received a beautiful certificate to commemorate this special occasion.

On Saturday morning we went to synagogue again as a family and the kids were pretty good.  Logan played in the nursery and Emmett took about a nap for the first hour and a half.  After that I took him out to feed him and play with Logan who was in desperate need of his mommy.  We ate lunch a synagogue and visited with family.   

 

As is tradition in our family we reconvened at the JCC (Jewish Community Center) for the North versus South basketball game.  Before playing my dad aka “Papa” and stepmom “Mimi” took us to the pool where Logan had a blast playing in the water.  Brennan spent his time warming up for the big game”.  Since we didn’t have enough cousins on each side to play) an official north versus south game (thanks Hurricane Irene) all the men that were there split up and played to 11.  We think the north won.  

The boys took a long nap at home after our eventful morning and afternoon and were NOT happy to see a babysitter arrive at our house so that Brennan and I could attend Caroline’s party.  After attempting to calm Logan down we escaped Papa and Mimi’s house and arrived at the party.  It was so much fun catching up with family, havin’ a few drinks and celebrating Caroline’s big weekend.   

Me and the Hubby

This is my cousin Caroline - could you not die for her incredibly sparkly dress?! She looked like a princess!!

Unfortunately I received a phone call around 10pm from our babysitter that my little peanut Emmett was inconsolable and I made a beeline for home.  The poor thing had cried so much he was asleep when I walked in the door but immediately awoke as I took him in my arms.  He finally realized that it was his mommy and not another stranger holding him and calmed down.  I paid the babysitter and sent her home then took both boys upstairs (yes Logan was still awake thanks to that nap he took from 4-6pm that afternoon) and had everyone asleep by 10:45pm.  It was quite the busy day and I was happy to cut myself out of my dress, put on some pajamas and go to bed with my two little men. 

Side note – I was partying so hard at the party that my fabulous dress decided to burst open while I was on the dance floor…the zipper apparently decided it didn’t want to do its job.  Luckily my mother and grandmother were in attendance at the party and hand sewed me back into the dress.  Too bad I had to leave the party about 15 minutes later…oh well…totally worth it! 

Here are the boys in the adorable hats that we made at the party!! Great favor idea Caroline!!

One of the cutest parts of the weekend was watching Logan interact with the other kids at the event.  My cousin Caroline has two boy cousins on her mom’s side who were both much older than Logan but took a liking to him.  They were so incredibly nice and inclusive and Logan started referring to them as “his boys”.  When we came home from the brunch on Sunday he looked at me and said, “I had fun with my boys!” – How cute is that?! I was so proud of how well he behaved and of the connections he was able to make with children older than him.  Everyone was talking about Logan and “his boys” all weekend!!

Celebrating family was a wonderful way to kick-off our four week vacation in Charlotte.  Logan, Emmett and I will be here for another three weeks and are so excited to do all kinds of fun kid things around Charlotte while spending time with my family.  I’ll share more as the weeks go on…