Monday, May 26, 2008
Weights and Measurments
Today we had a family BBQ and Becky and her kids needed a ride w/ us. Between the two adults, my three kids and her two kids every seat in the car was full, but it seemed even fuller b/c each kid was in a bulky car seat and we could barely fit each car seat in the car. After, finally, getting each kid strapped into his/her seat, which was a very difficult task, Zavey said to me, "Mommy, you're not going to drive the car now, right?" I replied, "Of course I am, why not?" Zavey explained, "But the car won't go, it's too heavy w/ all the kids."
Thursday, May 22, 2008
morbid fasinations
i have a few cute stories from today:
earlier today we were driving in skokie when zavey pointed to a huge mansion-like house and said "our house is way bigger than that."
a few days ago i ordered a bunch of the pictures that we had still not developed from our trip to israel last year. they just arrived today and i started to sort through them with the kids. shaya was looking at a picture of him, zavey and esti lying in bed together. shaya pointed at esti and asked "is that esti tova?" (as in tova friedman who is about the same age now that esti was in that picture)
tonight we were sitting in the living room and climbing the furniture. shaya climbed onto the coffee table and zavey said, "bubbie would be really mad if she saw u doing that b/c that is bubba's (my maternal bubbie A"H) table." so i said, "you boys scratched up that table so much, when bubbie sees it she is going to be really angry." so Zavey responded, "well, it doesnt matter anyway b/c bubba's dead and she doesnt worry about it anymore."
the kids had set up a little drum kit in the den and put on a few concerts for me. then we moved on to destroy more rooms. at a certain point the party broke up for a couple minutes and we all went our own ways. i was in the kitchen when i heard shaya in the den banging on the drum and singing to a tune he must have made up, "chas vashalom die" over and over again. i know, my kids are sounding a bit morbid.
earlier today we were driving in skokie when zavey pointed to a huge mansion-like house and said "our house is way bigger than that."
a few days ago i ordered a bunch of the pictures that we had still not developed from our trip to israel last year. they just arrived today and i started to sort through them with the kids. shaya was looking at a picture of him, zavey and esti lying in bed together. shaya pointed at esti and asked "is that esti tova?" (as in tova friedman who is about the same age now that esti was in that picture)
tonight we were sitting in the living room and climbing the furniture. shaya climbed onto the coffee table and zavey said, "bubbie would be really mad if she saw u doing that b/c that is bubba's (my maternal bubbie A"H) table." so i said, "you boys scratched up that table so much, when bubbie sees it she is going to be really angry." so Zavey responded, "well, it doesnt matter anyway b/c bubba's dead and she doesnt worry about it anymore."
the kids had set up a little drum kit in the den and put on a few concerts for me. then we moved on to destroy more rooms. at a certain point the party broke up for a couple minutes and we all went our own ways. i was in the kitchen when i heard shaya in the den banging on the drum and singing to a tune he must have made up, "chas vashalom die" over and over again. i know, my kids are sounding a bit morbid.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Esti has metal in her head! Yeah!
Much has happened since my blog got shut down b/c I was obviously trying to spam people with it. Fortunetly, I have been cleared of my crime by the blogspot spamming squad and i'm able to once again pollute the interent w/ stories of little interest to most ppl. Big sigh of relief!
First of all, Esti got her cochlear implants yesterday, and B"H she is doing great. Looking at her and watching the way she acted today you would never know that she had had a 6 1/2 hour surgery yesterday. The only marks of her surgery are a little incision behind each ear, which is not too gross (Zavey, however, was absolutely disgusted by it and could not look at it for more than a second), and a little bit of hair that around her ear that had to be shaved. In saying the following I am revealing how truly superficial I am, but I find the shaved hair more offensive than the incision.
Enough about the implants right now; we will get back to it later. I want to go back and make up for some time that the spamming police stole. I have a cute Zavey story from Sunday. We were in the car and Esti was crying and crying. After probably five minutes of crying Zavey said, "Esti is crying because she is so scrared about having her head cut off at the hospital." Since I first told Zavey about Esti's surgery and told him that they are going to cut her head open, Zavey has not been able to get the idea out of his brain the Esti head will be cut off. Very cute, and disturbing.
On Monday I was a bit of a wreak b/c i was so nervous about the surgery. Aside from all the horrible thoughts about what can happen in surgery and anesthesia, i found myself most worried that Esti would not actually be able to have the surgery b/c she would get sick and they wouldnt put her under anesthesia. I didnt want her around other children for that reason, so my mother took her for most of the day and i was able to spend time w/ zavey and shaya which was very nice.
The morning of the surgery was pretty intense. We had to be at the hospital at 6:00 am so we (me and Esti) left at 5:30. In the car she sounded perfectly healthy - no coughing, congested breathing. We get in the elevator to go to the presurgical unit and all of the sudden she starts to cough and not a dry "i just happen to be coughing for no reason" type cough. This was a congested, phlegmy, "my lungs are gunked up w/ snot" type cough. My worries are now validated and begin to reach a fever pitch. We get into the unit and the nurse's assistant listens to her lungs and says, "she sounds sort of congested, the anesthesiologist will have to listen to her to determine if he can safely give her anesthesia." Great! I spend the next hour davening and crying. Then the coughing dies down, but yellow snot begins to drip from her nose and i just think to myself, "this is Hashem's way of telling me that today is not the right day for the surgery, not only is she coughing but her nose is runny." So then I cry and daven some more, unable to accpet that she really might not have the surgery today after all of my anxious waiting. Ten minutes before the anesthesilogist comes, her nose seems to clear up and then the anesthesiologist listens to her lungs and says, "sounds great!" and thats the end of it. Now, in retrospect I think that the coughing was Hashem's way of really getting me to daven and the runny nose was just the snot coming up so it could clear out of her chest. Everyone should now start singing miami boys choir's "Cause it's min hashamaim..."
Then we had another siata dishmaya occurence. I had this big idea to say all of sefer tehillim during the surgery. Little did i know sefer tehillim is really quite lengthy and i am really quite slow and poor at reading hebrew. I start upon my hopeful endeavor only to find that hours into the surgery I am less than 50 parakim into it (out of 150) and it doesnt look like i will have the stamina or will to finish - i realize that this makes me soud like a pretty bad mother. B"H, my parents show up and each take a bunch of parakim. Then at 2:00, I'm still 40 parakim away from finshing, and the surgical nurse calls me and says that they are closing up the second ear and that they should be done shortly. So i call Avi to tell him to hurry over and continue on at my quickest possible pass. by that time avi gets there i have ten parakim left and we split those between the two of us. as soon as we finish we make the mishabarach, and within a minute after finishing that they come to get us to see Esti. You may all begin to sing once again now.
After Esti got out of surgery she basically cried for and hour and a half. It was very painful to watch. We couldnt tell if she was crying b/c she was disoriented from the anesthesia or from actually being in pain from the surgery. The nurse added morphon to her IV a couple of times and eventually she calmed down and just lied still as long as she snuggled close to me or Avi. Here's a pic of distraught post surgery Esti.
That, so far, is the story of esti's implant. hopefully it will get more intersting and satisfying as time passes, my Hashem help us!
in unrelated news, the nordtrom half yearly sale started today and i felt the need to buy any pair of shoes that was mildly attractive and might fit any of my children over the course of the next year. Smart spending, right? later in the day we went to a new park that i hadnt taken them to since shaya was a baby and the change of pace was very nice and a good time was had by all. Of course, we had to follow that good time w/ dairy star.
one more unrelated story, i heard from shosh that zavey has convinced the entire class that mixing water and apple juice together actually makes a healthy drink, and the kids bought it! haha.
hopefully i wont be locked out of blogspot anymore and u wont have to read (and i wont have to write) long posts like this. alright, ttfn.
First of all, Esti got her cochlear implants yesterday, and B"H she is doing great. Looking at her and watching the way she acted today you would never know that she had had a 6 1/2 hour surgery yesterday. The only marks of her surgery are a little incision behind each ear, which is not too gross (Zavey, however, was absolutely disgusted by it and could not look at it for more than a second), and a little bit of hair that around her ear that had to be shaved. In saying the following I am revealing how truly superficial I am, but I find the shaved hair more offensive than the incision.
Enough about the implants right now; we will get back to it later. I want to go back and make up for some time that the spamming police stole. I have a cute Zavey story from Sunday. We were in the car and Esti was crying and crying. After probably five minutes of crying Zavey said, "Esti is crying because she is so scrared about having her head cut off at the hospital." Since I first told Zavey about Esti's surgery and told him that they are going to cut her head open, Zavey has not been able to get the idea out of his brain the Esti head will be cut off. Very cute, and disturbing.
On Monday I was a bit of a wreak b/c i was so nervous about the surgery. Aside from all the horrible thoughts about what can happen in surgery and anesthesia, i found myself most worried that Esti would not actually be able to have the surgery b/c she would get sick and they wouldnt put her under anesthesia. I didnt want her around other children for that reason, so my mother took her for most of the day and i was able to spend time w/ zavey and shaya which was very nice.
The morning of the surgery was pretty intense. We had to be at the hospital at 6:00 am so we (me and Esti) left at 5:30. In the car she sounded perfectly healthy - no coughing, congested breathing. We get in the elevator to go to the presurgical unit and all of the sudden she starts to cough and not a dry "i just happen to be coughing for no reason" type cough. This was a congested, phlegmy, "my lungs are gunked up w/ snot" type cough. My worries are now validated and begin to reach a fever pitch. We get into the unit and the nurse's assistant listens to her lungs and says, "she sounds sort of congested, the anesthesiologist will have to listen to her to determine if he can safely give her anesthesia." Great! I spend the next hour davening and crying. Then the coughing dies down, but yellow snot begins to drip from her nose and i just think to myself, "this is Hashem's way of telling me that today is not the right day for the surgery, not only is she coughing but her nose is runny." So then I cry and daven some more, unable to accpet that she really might not have the surgery today after all of my anxious waiting. Ten minutes before the anesthesilogist comes, her nose seems to clear up and then the anesthesiologist listens to her lungs and says, "sounds great!" and thats the end of it. Now, in retrospect I think that the coughing was Hashem's way of really getting me to daven and the runny nose was just the snot coming up so it could clear out of her chest. Everyone should now start singing miami boys choir's "Cause it's min hashamaim..."
Then we had another siata dishmaya occurence. I had this big idea to say all of sefer tehillim during the surgery. Little did i know sefer tehillim is really quite lengthy and i am really quite slow and poor at reading hebrew. I start upon my hopeful endeavor only to find that hours into the surgery I am less than 50 parakim into it (out of 150) and it doesnt look like i will have the stamina or will to finish - i realize that this makes me soud like a pretty bad mother. B"H, my parents show up and each take a bunch of parakim. Then at 2:00, I'm still 40 parakim away from finshing, and the surgical nurse calls me and says that they are closing up the second ear and that they should be done shortly. So i call Avi to tell him to hurry over and continue on at my quickest possible pass. by that time avi gets there i have ten parakim left and we split those between the two of us. as soon as we finish we make the mishabarach, and within a minute after finishing that they come to get us to see Esti. You may all begin to sing once again now.
After Esti got out of surgery she basically cried for and hour and a half. It was very painful to watch. We couldnt tell if she was crying b/c she was disoriented from the anesthesia or from actually being in pain from the surgery. The nurse added morphon to her IV a couple of times and eventually she calmed down and just lied still as long as she snuggled close to me or Avi. Here's a pic of distraught post surgery Esti.
Once we got up to the post surgical observation room they decided to let her eat. That made her very happy. With a half a package of caramel rice cakes in her belly she was almost back to her cute little lively self.
Once we got home she fell asleep in the car so we just pet her right into bed and she seemed fine. We were a little nervous that she would pull of the bandages b/4 morning, and we had these little restraints for her arms (also cute but disturbing) but we decided that putting them on her would probably only cause her to become more fussy and wake up and eventually pull those along w/ the bandaging off.
She only woke up once during the night - probably more b/c she had pished through her diaper than b/c she was in pain. While i changed her sheets she snuggled in bed w/ Abba for a few minutes and then went bacme in the crib w/out any protest.
She woke up in the morning feeling great and with her bandage intact. My mother was bringing the kids over b/4 school (they had slept at her house again the night b/4) b/c i really missed them already and i thought they would be interested in seeing Esti w/ the bandage around her head, so i kept it on. But just as all good (and weird looking) things must come to an end Esti pulled the bandage off b/4 they had a chance to see it.
That, so far, is the story of esti's implant. hopefully it will get more intersting and satisfying as time passes, my Hashem help us!
in unrelated news, the nordtrom half yearly sale started today and i felt the need to buy any pair of shoes that was mildly attractive and might fit any of my children over the course of the next year. Smart spending, right? later in the day we went to a new park that i hadnt taken them to since shaya was a baby and the change of pace was very nice and a good time was had by all. Of course, we had to follow that good time w/ dairy star.
one more unrelated story, i heard from shosh that zavey has convinced the entire class that mixing water and apple juice together actually makes a healthy drink, and the kids bought it! haha.
hopefully i wont be locked out of blogspot anymore and u wont have to read (and i wont have to write) long posts like this. alright, ttfn.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
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.
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.
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