Ear Infections and Ticks

By the end of 10 days with my children (and without my husband), I seem to twitch a wee bit. Just a little. Oh, and I scream a lot. Loudly.

We made it through the week. Friday after school, we played on the playground for a long time, then went to Tae Kwan Do, to watch Micah get his Yellow Belt. He did great. The testing sheet has phrases like "textbook kicks", "perfect break" and "100%".

Then we went to my friend S's house for Shabbos dinner. Very nice time, except that the boys were really getting on my nerves a bit. Micah almost had a sleepover with EJ, but chickened out at the last minute. Sofia did NOT fall asleep on the car ride home (40 minutes), even though the boys did, so she stayed up to watch Battlestar Galactica with me.

Saturday morning, E came to watch Sofia and Micah, while Sam and I went to a Bar Mitzvah from the Ashland shul. It was a really wonderful event. This kid is son to a single (lesbian) mom, and he has a lot of learning issues, but he's a very sweet child and they are a loving and friendly family. She (the mom) met a wonderful lady last year, and now their family is even more lovely.

I read Torah, and it was nice to work with A again (she's been the Student Rabbi for the past 2 years, but she's graduating and leaving soon). And it was so touching to see the love in this family, and see how hard the kid worked. It was really tough for him, he has trouble speaking, but his tutor (who we know from Sam's summer-school!) walked him through his presentation of a Mitzvah chart. I was so glad to be there.

When we got home, Sofia was asleep, and I dozed off and on all afternoon. Sofia slept about 3 hours, which I knew meant she'd be up late with me, but I really needed the nap.

Sunday morning, I dragged the kids to the Unitarian Universalist church to witness the Committment Ceremony for my friend M's daughters. I say "dragged" because Sam adamantly did NOT want to go to a church - he was very rigid about it - but I explained that it was important to M that I be there, just as it would be important for me to have her at his Bar Mitzvah. So eventually we went, and we just stood in the back doorway. The ceremony was lovely, and we heard a bit of the sermon, which was also nice, before Sofia got to be too much for me. As we were leaving, Sam said, "That was a really nice service, Mom. I liked it." Duh!

We grabbed a bit to eat, went home to watch Robin Hood (BBC America's version), and then back to M's house for the big party. All three kids had a blast, and I got to sit and talk with M and her other friends - all very wonderful, warm women. I met M when my Sofia was about 3 months old. She had a baby, also named Sophia, with DS, born 3 months after mine, and our EI office hooked us up. We clicked immediately, kindred spirits indeed. Sadly, her Sophia died suddenly at 13 months. But, indomitable spirit that she is, M and her hubby went off to build houses in New Orleans and came back preggers. Baby Isabella was born Dec. 31 - two months after they also added Miss Olivia, a little girl in need of a home, to their family. So this was a ceremony for both the baby and the toddler (O just turned 2). And big sister M was thrilled.

So I sat with M and her friends and we talked about all the ways that life is both hard and amazing - DS, sudden and unexpected tragedy, seeing the value in individual lives, learning how to appreciate things more. Really cool stuff. One woman had just taken a group of 14-year-olds to New Orleans, and was telling us their reactions, as they processed the difference between their lives and the lives in NO.

Anyway, eventually, we came home, and David finally came home too. I felt awful - somehow in the midst of all this, I'd developed a Sinus and Ear Infection! So I skipped my graduate program event (bummed, since my friend S was presenting her thesis) and went to sleep at 6:30.

Today I managed to get in to see the Nurse and got some meds. This afternoon, the kids played a long time, and then I took them to Dairy Queen. When we got home, I discovered a Tick on the back of Sofia's neck! Yikes. Fortunately, my neighbor has a dog - and therefore also has a special tick removal tool. Whew. Ick.

Tired. Need to sleep. Sofia starts going to school 4 days tomorrow - yeah!