Health and Wellness Update

We made it through last week without too much trauma. I had no voice most of the week, and felt horrible for several days. Finally saw my own doc, who said the laryngitis would just have to take care of itself, but gave me antibiotics for my infected ears. Whew. That helped A LOT!

Sofia showed the after-effects of the apparently VERY strong steroid they gave her in the ER. Days of bounciness! She was a wild woman. But at least she got better.

Micah continued a downward spiral until the weekend. Now he's going to miss at least three days of school this week due not only to The Cough, but also a high fever that he just can't seem to shake without meds. Poor boy is miserable, and bored.

David and I went to NYC for the weekend, leaving our children home with Laura and Lilie. Unfortunately, most of the weekend, Laura and Micah were sick, so they didn't do much of anything, but the girls had a blast. And Sam used up his yearly quota of nurturing - it's REALLY not his strong suite!

So Micah's been home for two days, continuing tomorrow. He's so tired and achy. Popping between freezing and boiling. And freezing when it's 80+ degrees out!

Sofia's MWJDS aide was also out sick yesterday, so she missed MWJDS - I wasn't going to leave Micah home all afternoon while I acted as her aide.

We had a nice time in NYC, despite the trillions of drunken green people celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Oy! We saw "Avenue Q", which was hysterical, met my friend R for Sunday brunch, and otherwise just relaxed and walked around.

Gearing up for all the b'nai mitzvah - one student has less than two weeks to go, another has 6 weeks. The other one I'm officiating at is in a month. And Sam's is 3 months from last Friday!!! I solved the table decorations dilemma that was keeping me awake last week (don't know why it was). Bought 35 plastic bins at Christmas Tree Shop and spray painted them metallic silver. Will fill with art supplies to donate somewhere.

Gorgeous weather the past couple of days. Today I also rented a truck (oh yeah, I drive a pick-em-up-truck!) and picked up all the flooring, so T can come up this weekend and put hardwood floors in place of the horrid stained pink carpet. YEAH! Also had a painter come for an estimate...but have not heard back from him... Hmmm...

Get Us Healthy Already!

What a weekend. Week. Month. Something like that.

Sam was sick for a couple of weeks. Missed a few days of school, was generally miserable and uncomfortable, with sore throat and bad cough. Viral, nothing to be done.

Sofia and I started getting sick last week.

It starts with the nose, or course. And then the throat. The cough. The nose. And for Sofia, tummy trouble, too.

Wednesday night she was up a lot.

Thursday, I stayed home and rested most of the day.

Thursday night she was up a lot more.

Friday, Sofia had to stay home. She spent the day demanding to see the Alvin & The Chipmunks ChipWrecked movie, which will not be available until March 27. Ugh.

Friday night, we had a quiet Shabbat dinner, just the four of us (David was in the UK).

Friday around midnight, she woke with a really bad croupy cough. She was having a lot of trouble breathing. I tried saline nebs, then I tried steamy shower. Nothing. Called our pediatrician, who could hear Sofia coughing over the phone. Go to the ER.

So 1:00 am, Sofia and I are in the ER. (I woke Sam to tell him we were leaving). They eventually gave her a dose of steroids, and then a cool mist treatment. We were home by 3am. They wanted to do an xray, but I 1) didn't think it was necessary, and 2) knew there couldn't possibly be enough people on duty at that hour to hold my daughter still for an xray anyway. So no xray.

So we got to sleep around 4am. Missed the bar mitzvah in the morning - I found out later I was supposed to have an honor, too. Bummed. Sofia also missed her reading group for the second month in a row. Bummed.

Sofia spent the day bouncing off the walls, she was so pumped up from the steroids. And so tired, too. She just couldn't think straight. Poor baby.

We went out around 4:30 to pick up David from the Logan Express bus. She did sleep a few minutes in the car, but woke when he got in.

Went back home, and at 7pm, Sam and I left so I could take him to the bar mitzvah party (Micah was starting to not feel well, so he stayed home). I spent a few hours with a friend who lives near the party, which was nice.

Came home around 10:45. Sofia woke a few times, and then at around 6:30 am, she had an hour of Night Terrors. I'd forgotten about them. She used to get them when she was a baby and toddler, on days when she was very over-tired. An hour of sobbing and crying, from my daughter who usually does not cry. Not fun.

She finally fell back to a sound sleep on my lap, so we stayed abed until about 11:30. David and Sam went for a quick hike. When they came home, I left to go to the Special Needs Camp Fair. Didn't find any afternoon programs. What do people do after summer school????

When I got home, David and Sam left again. They ended up driving all the way down to Newport and back! I took Micah and Sofia out for a walk and some playground time, but really, none of us had much energy. We stopped for ice cream, and then came home to rest. I rented the first Chipmunks movie for her (she still wants Chipwrecked) and took a nap.

Made dinner; David and Sam got home at 7 and David turned right around to go to a meeting for the parents in Sam's class. I felt horrible and did not want to go. Besides being exhausted, my throat felt like it was full of razor blades. Horrible.

I let the boys watch a movie, and Sofia was still having trouble settling down, so everyone was awake when David got home. He and I fell asleep before any of them!

Micah's not feeling great today, but they are all back in school. My throat feels better, but I still don't have a voice (have not had one since Friday). Sofia is a little better, still coughing and stuffy but not as bad as last week.

UGH!

Sofia's 7th Birthday party

Such fun. It was a lovely weekend, ending with a fantastic party.

Friday evening, D and her daughters at our house for dinner. Shul in the morning, "Synaplex", where we have multiple options for prayer and study. I went to Torah study first, and then got the be the Gabbai (the person who assists the Torah readers) for the school service.

David took off for England in the afternoon (boo hoo), but Laura and Lilie came up in the evening, so that was fun.

Sunday morning, it was fun watching Lilie and Sofia together. The two girls wore their tulle princess dresses, and we all went to the Purim carnival:


After the carnival, we went in to Brookline, to use my expiring-tomorrow Groupon for Rubin's, the kosher meat restaurant. However, the Groupon is not valid on Sundays. But they gave me the credit for the amount I'd paid for the Groupon. Just didn't get the deal. But had a yummy lunch.

Came home for a little while, and then off to the party. Same as usual, at My Gym where she has her gymnastics class. We got the 4:30 - 6:00 time slot. I invited all the kids in her day school class, but only the girls from the public school class. We ended up with only about a dozen kids (only two boys, and my boys were each assigned to one of them), but it was just lovely.

The best best best thing was right at the beginning of the party. The teacher, Mr. Dave (an absolute Pied Piper - see the videos below) had the kids sit in the circle, and at first they all sat near him. But the instant Sofia sat down, on the other side of the circle, all the girls RACED over to sit with her!


It meant so much. Sofia doesn't talk about individual kids at school, so we don't really know how her friends think of her. It was so nice to see them vying for a spot next to her.

The dancing was pretty wild:




And the Sofia and her friends had lots of fun activity:






Then it was time for cake (of gluten-free cupcakes!):


Yum!