Teething toddler, iPhone and more

Ok, so Sofia is teething, and that makes it really tough for her to fall asleep. And she's also coming out of her naps anyway because she's getting to be a "big girl". But tonight, after taking two short cat-naps this afternoon (one in my arms, one in the car), she just could not settle down. I let her watch some Signing Times videos, and eventually she passed out on my bed (face-down, snoring).

As she watched the video, I worked on trying to figure out all my new technology. I am starting to get used to the phone, and I LOVE the computer, but I have a few complaints:
- I've been using Entourage for years now, to handle mail, contacts, calendar and notes. Unfortunately, without a decent third-party app, I cannot synchronize Entourage to the iPhone. So I have to do a pass-through from Entourage to the Mac applications.

Unfortunately, the Mac applications are just not as robust as Entourage, especially the Address Book. I just spent several hours trying to move my contacts over. I'm just unsatisfied with the amount of information that Address Book can hold, and that can be imported. I can't move the "Children" fields, and the Group coding all gets lost. And editing Address Book is really annoying - maybe I'm just not used to it yet, but it's clunky.

So for now I've synched it, I've got a nice list in the phone. Maybe I just won't synch it anymore, and maintain both the phone and Entourage; just synch the Calendar (which is the biggie for me).

David just got home from drinks with his friend A, and apparently they talked about a bajillion different topics, because he's all oer the place in his conversation now. And I'm still typing, so I
think he's getting annoyed ;)

We spent a lovely afternoon with our friends in Sudbury. Their boys are best friends with our boys, and we get along with the parents well. It was a nice relaxing afternoon - we just sat on the porch and chatted and watched the kids.

Where did all the 2 year olds come from?!

For the past two years, I have been part of a wonderful on-line community (www.trisomy21online.com). While the kids in the group are in a variety of age-groups, we do have quite a cohort from Sofia's year. And for a long time, all the moms (and a few dads) were content to write about the little details of our sweet babies lives.

Well, they've all turned 2! And what a lively bunch of toddlers we've got! It seems like every other post now is "look what s/he got into today". It's amazing to watch an entire gang of supposedly "disabled" children explode into the exact same type of wild, self-centered, stubborn behavior as their 46-chromosomed counterparts.

La Principessa had been in a MOOD all day - er, make that all week. She is stubborn, demanding, loud, and mischievous. She's also a bit spitty today, so she's not feeling 100%. So I'm exhausted.

I made a DVD to send down to our friends in Florida, and when the kids and I watched it (for proofing purposes), every time David's picture appeared, Sofia cried out for him. It was very sweet.

I finally got up my courage to go into Barnes & Noble and talk to the manager about an author event - and the manager was out! But I got the name of the person, so I'll try another day.

I'm downloading video for J now, and will make her a DVD from her memory sticks. This is fun.

'Roid Rage

Our Developmental Specialist told me this little phrase, and it so perfectly describes my darling toddler. She's been on Pulmicort (via nebulizer) for several weeks now (only one more week to go, I hope), and boy, does it affect her personality!

This afternoon, while David and Micah were at the office, I was typing and Sam was downstairs, Sofia crawled into the boys' room and started playing with Playmobile toys Sam had left on the floor. I called for him to clean up...and instead he came upstairs, pulled her away and locked up his room.

She sat in the hallway screaming with rage. She grimaces, she cries, she pushes.

At dinner, she was done before us and I put her on the floor. She kept trying to take things off the table, and when we took them out of her reach, she started screaming and crying.

What happened to my sweet baby girl? She's a full-blown toddler now. The good news is that she is motivated to learn new words, try new things, and do things like walk, so that she can actually GET what she wants. But oh, this is such a frustrating stage!

Really doing a blog!

Ok, I can't quite believe I'm joining the blogsphere. But David is encouraging me to do so, and I figure I might as well give it a try. I love to brag about my kids, right?

Today's conversation was about what to do with the boys over the summer. I was so tremendously stressed having them home for Pesach, and I'm a bit nervous about having Micah home again next week for school vacation. I have no idea how I'll cope if they are home all summer. So I called Ashland Public School Special Ed Dept. Sam has not yet been accepted for the summer school program (Morah A. is still working on the copious amounts of paperwork required), but I just wanted to know what the camp schedule would be. They still don't know! It's mid-April already.

Well, I thought of another (albeit far more expensive) idea: send Sam back to Kaleidescope, and get a tutor to come to the JCC. Fortunately, P. was able to recommend someone - now I just have to get around to calling to see if she's available, and then see if there's still room at camp. And JT is going again, so his mom can drive every day on her way to work.

That leaves me with Micah. Micah would do very very well in a structured, FULL DAY camp program. The question is, where do I send him? Put him on a bus for 45 minutes each way (same as Sam's ride) to go to Grossman, where I know tons of kids and adults? Or stay local, hoping he'll have a better experience at someplace like Pilgrim than his brother did? Big cost differential there.

If I can get both boys into camp at least a few weeks at a time, and then fill in with some Ashland activities, Sofia and I can enjoy the pool club, and the boys can swim in the evening. And I won't be so tempted to scream...

Which brings me to my toddler. What happened to the sweet, quiet little baby girl? Now she's a screaming, demanding, opinionated 2 year old! She really lets her brothers (and me) know when she's pissed off about something. The faces she makes are hysterical, but the screaming can get on my nerves, especially at dinner time. MWT got on the phone with her this evening, since the screams were interupting our own conversation, and told her to pipe down. She made a face at the phone (and then waved "bye").

Ok, gotta study - I'm reading Torah this weekend before we go to AW's birthday party.

(Just a note, I'm going to try to only use initials for anyone other than our family, unless it is important that the full name be published.)