Sam is fine

Sam had his "surgery" today, just a little out-patient procedure with a local anesthetic, to remove that thing on his head. He was in and out in about 20 minutes. The doc walked him out, and Sam had a huge grin on his face. Pediatric Surgeon has a VERY good manner with kids! Doc said he suspects that the thing was actually a tick! Ew. So we are waiting for the results. But in the meantime, it's gone. Sam got a few disolving stitches, and can't wash his hair until Thursday because of the surgical tape covering the stitches.

Whew.

Gotta highlight Beverly Beckham's wonderful article in the Globe yesterday.

Go Bev!

David is on his way to California, for a madcap week of audits, organized by his Japanese clients - meaning they are going to 4 cities in California, AND Denver, AND Arizona, all in 4 days. Should be VERY VERY interesting. David looked at the schedule they sent, and there is just no way this is going to go as planned. Hmmmmm.

Ok, it was a busy weekend, and somewhat emotionally jarring. Let's see, in order:

Friday night dinner was really lovely. There were a lot of people at services because of the Bat Mitzvah the next morning (I hope they were all able to get back to shul in the morning; we had a lot of snow!). I got to shul with the kids before the custodian arrived, so we were wandering around trying to find a way in. A car full of guests for the BM showed up, and while they were asking me questions, my skirt FELL OFF. Yup. Completely dropped to the ground. Good thing my slip was in decent shape, huh?

Anyway, we had about 55 people at dinner, and it was so fun. After my two meetings last week talking about how nobody comes to these any more, we realized we have 2 distinct groups - my "gang" of 5 or 6 families, with kids all the same age as my boys, who have all been together all their lives; and a new group with babies and little ones. I hadn't realized that we were acutally getting some regulars in that group, but it was clear this time. NICE!

So it was a very lovely evening, and not too late - we were home before 9pm. Funniest thing is that Sofia, having not napped all day, fell asleep before we got to shul, and stayed asleep in her carriage in the kitchen the entire time!

So I was up early on Saturday with Sofia (since she'd slept from 5pm). It snowed, so we took it easy in the morning. Then David plowed the driveway and we headed to CT. We were having a birthday party for his paternal grandmother's 97th birthday. Grandma Toby has a lot of help - a lovely woman named Shirley, and this guy, John, who had come as a nurse when Grandpa Paul was sick (before Sam was born), and stayed on after he died to help Toby. Shirley's husband joined us, too.

We stopped to pick up David's other grandma, Ruth, and baby Lilie. Laura works on Saturdays, and Grandma Ruth watches the baby. (Other days, Lilie is in daycare).

Well, when my inlaws walked in, my FIL had a fit because of the baby. You see, he will not speak to his daughter anymore, and he will not acknowledge the baby at all. It was awful. And poor confused Grandma Toby kept asking whose baby it was (Laura has brought her to visit a few times, so she knows Laura has a baby). Any time we tried to answer grandma, O just got angry and started yelling.

I feel awful for Lilie, when she's old enough to realize that her grandfather despises her just for existing. That's horrendous.

Well, the only thing I can do is love her, and Laura. And let them know it.

So dinner (at a restaurant we always go to) was a long, busy, stressful event. But at least the food was good, and Toby was very delighted by her birthday party. We dropped Ruuth and Lilie back home, made a quick stop to see Laura at work, and then came home by 10pm.

Sunday, Sam had to be back at shul for choir rehearsal, and then we all went for a quick bite to eat and then to REI for some climbing. A wasn't going to open the wall until 2pm, but Sam begged him to open early. We met our friends there, so D and I took the two little girls shopping while the dads and the big kids stayed.

I had to get Sam a nice change of clothing, and we went back to shul for the Cantor's Installation. It was a lovely event. I knew most of the guests, from my Zamir days, so it was nice to see and hear them sing. Sam had to sit with the choir up front, Micah sat with "Big Micah" (10 years old), and was reportedly a very well behaved young man, and Sofia was fairly well behaved on my lap. After the program, there was a dessert buffet.

Our friend P came for dinner at night. We put the kids to bed early, and had a nice relaxing grown-up dinner (of leftovers from Friday!).

Today was just busy. I drove Micah to school, then Sam and I stopped for some coffee before heading to the hospital. At coffee, we ran into my friend L and her daughter (who is a year ahead of Sam; she was in the choir, too), so we sat together for a while. David took Sofia to school. After the hospital, I dropped Sam back to school, came home for 20 minutes, then picked up Sofia, went to H's house to work on the yearbook. Then home again to pick up David. Sofia fell asleep in the car. The school had called several times because Sam's head hurt (and Micah's eyes were itchy), so we picked the boys up early and then drove David to the Logan Express bus.

When we got home, I just let them all watch TV and relax. Now they are asleep, and I am going back to finishing cleaning out my iCal!