Nothing But Joy

It was another busy day yesterday. After bringing the boys to school, Sofia and I met R for coffee for a while - Sofia brings her Dora coloring book and pencil case into Starbucks to keep busy. A brief coffee chat, then off to preschool. Then I had to race back to MWJDS to help out at the Whimsical Wednesdays pre-school progra (yes, http://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwithout my own kid!). The principal had asked me to help with the program this year; there are only 6 sessions, so it's not too much.

Then back to pick up Sofia, home for a quick lunch, and off to Temple Beth Am for their preschool Yom Tov [holiday] program. Next Monday is Tu B'Shevat, the birthday of the trees, so it's a great time to have programs about nature.

So it was interesting to experience the odd displacement I felt as we were planting parsley seeds in starter pots. This is what I'm used to at this time of year, planting seeds. But at Sofia's preschool, I was given a list of kids for Valentines Day! How odd. I much prefer Tu B'Shevat, planting new seeds and appreciating the natural world, rather than blowing money on scraps of paper to be handed out and discarded.

Sofia was a bit nervous when we first arrived at the shul, but once the Rabbi started the program, she was excited to participate. Another mom and little girl who had also been to the morning program at MWJDS were also there, and as soon as the little girl saw me, she came right over and sat on my lap! She and Sofia held hands to move to the social hall, and sat next to each other for craft and snack. VERY cute!

After the program, I was hoping Sofia would fall asleep in the car, but she didn't. We got to the boy's school an hour early, and sat in the car - I tried to nap, but eventually gave up in favor of talking to my friends (who were also arriving for pickup).

Since I was the first car in line (gotta get there early!), I got the boys and we raced off to Newton-Wellesley hospital for Micah's biannual Allergy checkup and annual "bloodletting". They took 9 vials again. The kids were well-behaved, though. Sam was a great help watching Sofia, especially during the blood draw, and Micah was a trooper. I let them have a snack in the cafe afterwards.

While we were waiting for the blood draw, a lady in a wheelchair was also waiting with us, and watching my kids in action. Sofia was very tired and crabby and getting rambunctious. She kept climbing up my chest to stand on my shoulders! The lady mentioned something about "the blessing", and said that she has a brother with DS, who lives with her. We smiled together about The Joy. It was so nice to make the connection.

Finally got home around 6:30, with Sam having a complete melt-down because he hadn't finished his homework. He was sure he was going to be "massively yelled at" in school (as his teacher pointed out to me in email this morning, "His teacher sounds like a monster!" (she's not, by the way!). I had him shower first, fed the little ones, then fed him, and finally got them all to bed.

Watched LOST (huh?), and David came home in time to watch most of it, too. Then we watched two episodes of Battlestar Galactica on the web - we hadn't realized we'd missed the first episode this season, but the second just didn't make enough sense! And we'd missed last week while in NYC. Both thought-provoking, but I can tell the end is near (show is ending soon).

This morning was a race to get everything done. Micah needed a nebulizer treatment; while he was lying in bed with me, I could hear him wheezing pretty badly. Sam needed to do his geography homework, which required him to look up things on the Internet and write them down. Not bad, except that with the dyslexia, that's just too many action items: google, find, read, read questions, find answers, write answers. So he needed a lot of help. And Sofia, of course, needed two breakfasts. And Micah was bouncing off the walls after the albuterol hit his bloodstream - gotta love steroids.

In the car, Sam was finishing the last of the homework while Micah was reading his Hebrew book at top speed and top volume. Yeah. Finally got everyone dropped off. I think I'll go take my shower and get out of my pajamas now!