A weekend of DS
Poor little dude is now actually running a fever, has a sore throat and complains his head hurts. (FYI: We're watching, but not doing anything yet - he won't take any meds, but if the fever goes up, too bad, he's taking them).

But earlier this weekend he was  having a great time. This weekend happens to correspond with a holiday in the Jewish calendar called Shmini Atzeret - it's the last gasp of the "high holidays" and  we pray for rain and hope that God has forgiven us for all the things we haven't quite gotten right in the past year. Outside of Israel, the holiday is two days, the second of which (more famous, actually, than the actual biblical holiday) is called SImchat Torah (In Israel, the holiday is one day and one does everything on that day). Simcha means joy, because we are rejoicing the the Torah - we finish the end of the year's readings, and roll it back to the beginning of the scroll at Genesis and start again.

On Saturday, we were at the synagogue, and  unusually, DS volunteered to march around during the usual procession of taking out the Torah with the rabbi and the other little kids. The congregation keeps a stock of scrolls, which aren't really torahs, but look like them, or stuffed Torahs (I know this is weird to anyone who isn't Jewish, just go with it). It's customary as the Torah is taken out to walk around the room in which the service is held to reenact the giving of the Torah at SInai, and it is customary as the Torah passes to  kiss the scroll which contains the most valued gift God has given humans - the laws and stories by which we live our lives- to show our love and respect for God. Generally, in this community, the adults  also  set an example for the kids and  sort of humor them, by kissing the scrolls that the kids carry around too. But my little Lucy Van Pelt son, what does he do, as people come up to  respectfully touch a kiss to the "Torah" he's carrying? He yanks it away out of reach, that's what he does.
Had the room in stitches.