Today I start my blog!

I have finally succumbed to the pressure to blog, and I am very excited about it. I'm not really sure where to start, so I guess I can just give a quick summary of my day. I woke up and all three kids were playing in the crib, which was very sweet. Unfortunetly, aside from just feeling guilty about sleeping in late, I did feel a twinge of more serious guilt b/c Esti was not wearing her hearing aid, and all soundless interactions really seem like lost oppurtunities. We went through the regular morning routine - kids not getting dressed, mommy screaming, kids making a mess, mommy screaming, kids not eating breakfast, mommy screaming, kids trying to bring random violent toys to school w/ them, mommy... you get the picture.
We did carpool, and then i came home and put esti down for a nap and did a lot of cooking for Shabbos. Then we were off to OT where Esti drew on herself w/ marker in one of my favorite outfits; let's hope it was washable. Thank G-d, esti was in a good mood during OT today, even though i'm pretty sure she didnt nap at nap time. it was also a nice change of pace b/c lately she has been very lazy and hates all of the therapists that try to make her physically exert herself.
On the way to picking up the kids from school I called a woman whose name i got from Sally - my auiditory-verbal (listening) therapist. Her son had a bilateral implant a year ago, so we talked about what to expect on the surgery day and the recovery. She also told me how her son is progressing, and it "sounds" (haha) like he's doing wonderfully. he's not even two yet and he's mimmicing almost everything he hears. she was also saying how studies are showing that children w/ bilateral implants that use AVT (auiditory-verbal therapy) eventually seem to acquire better language and comprehension skills than their hearing peers, which obviously comes from their mothers' torutring them to listen and describe what they've heard constantly.
after school I took the kids to a storytime at the library that they really seemed to enjoy. We were there w/ the friedmans which made the whole exparience suprisingly relaxing. Zavey played w/ Kivi the whole time and corrupted him by showing him where the disney books are (thanks mom!) Shaya was not unbelivably loud for the first time in his life, and entertained himself in this contained popcorn kernel play thing. Esti even got in some good excersize standing at the lego table. She also tried to play w/ Tova on and off and at a certain point she hugged her and tova was smiling and it was very cute.
after coming home from the library the day went a little down hill. shaya had a friend over which was nice, except that esti and shaya comletely melted down from exhaustion. plus i had a plumber here , the kitchen looked like a war zone from the cooking i had done earilier, the phone did not stop ringing and shaya decided to watch the plumber work in the buff (for clarification sake, shaya was naked not the plumber) which was a tad bit embarrassing. finally, i got the kids to go play in the backyard, and i was able to feed esti dinner and tidy the kitchen in relative calmness. the playdate left so i fed the kids dinner which turned into "I dont like it, i said i didnt want it hot, i dont like it cold, cut it up, i said i dont want in cut up, i want peanut butter rice cake and lemonade" this eventually led to mommy having a temper tantrum of her own and screaming that this is not a restaurant and from now on we will eat what we get for dinner or we will go hungry. it freaked zavey out that i screamed and he cried, which was very painful. after everyone calmed down and there was no talking b/c e/o was mad at mommy for screaming, i made the following analogy which i thought was a good one. i said, "when u bring home a project from school would u like it if mommy said 'i dont like that, i want it to be a different color, i'm not hanging it up!'" i think that zavey got the message, which made me feel even worse that i screamed at him. then e/o started talking again and i felt so guilty looking at zavey's cute little freshly cried out eyes. then we did bath (where i forgot that esti was still wearing her hearing aid and poured water over her head w/ it on - let's hope it turns on tommorow) and bedtime. i read "little red riding hood" which was very scary but i think the kids enjoyed it; i hope they dont get nightmares. then of course i had to have my nightly power struggle w/ shaya about staying in bed, which ended badly, as it does every night. i hope that after the 1000th time of being firm and following through on what i say i will do, he will eventually get the pic and stay in bed. such is chinuch habanim. then i started cooking and talked to shosh who got me excited about starting a blog, and here i am. oh, 1 last thing, i just got off the phone w/ somebody about a shidduch. talking to other ppl always puts life one's into perspective. even though i s/t feel completely overwhelmed w/ my esti situation, talking about shidduchim makes me realize the bigger the kid the bigger the problem, and that e/o has their peckalach - so we should all be happy w/ our own.