In Memory of Toby L.

My "great-aunt" (really my grandmother's cousin) Toby Lebenson passed away this morning, in New York City. She was in her 90s, and a really active lady right up until a few months ago. In May she was given a lifetime achievement award from the community center she started 65 years ago.

The funeral is Wednesday in the city - David and Sofia and I will go down. I'll miss her alot. She was an amazing woman.

In other news, Miss Sofia is rapidly adding to her vocabulary (both verbal and sign), and seems to have given up most naps. She's starting to get fond of staying up to watch TV with Mama and Dada, too.

We went to Sakonnett, RI this Saturday, to visit our friends at their summer home. I've been going there almost every year since college. They have a boy Sam's age and a girl just a year younger than Micah, and the house is right on the water, so the kids all had a blast together. Sofia loved the beach!

Sunday we went to the pool club, and then had dinner at T&L's new house. David was in a miserable mood all day, yelling at me and the boys, but we worked around it.

Pictures from the weddings!

I put up 2 pages of pictures from our weekend in Vermont. The first is Jenny & Joe's wedding reception on Saturday night, and then Barry & Jean's marriage on Sunday. Click the link at the right or just go to our Photo Site now!

Promoting the AMEX Member's Project for Down Sydrome Awareness

You've all seen the TV ads - well, did you know that one of the projects could get copies of "Gifts" into the hands of every OB in the United States?!

So if you are an American Express cardholder, PLEASE vote! And if you are not, please spread the word. Most of the contributing authors for "Gifts" have bought as many copies of the book as we can afford and donated them to our own Obstetricians, but there are so many out there!

Greetings from Rutland Vermont

Gosh, I just love free WiFi at hotels - it's so much better than the reception I get at home!

Last night we had a big wedding reception for my cousin J and her "new" husband - "new" because they've been together about 12 years so far, but they just got married in December (in the Bahamas). It was also the last party at the old house where my cousins grew up. This afternoon my uncle is getting remarried, and he and his new wife (also a J) will live here in town (Rutland) rather than out on the farm. So it was a bittersweet time. I took a ton of photos of the house and the area. The kids all had a blast. Micah fell in love with a little toad, which he carried around for quite some time, until finally my cousin P helped him let the froggy go free.

I may have had a wee bit more to drink than usual ;) because I got REALLY sentimental and sobbed when someone mentioned my aunt. I do miss her, but right then, I looked over at my uncle, who had his arm around his fiance, and he looked SO happy. I am just thrilled for him. He deserves to be happy again. He and Iris had been together since they were in junior high, so when she died, it was really hard on him.

So anyway, I ended up hugging his fiance and telling her how happy I am for them, and I was teary-eyed for hours.

We got back to the hotel around 11pm, and of course Miss Sofia, who had fallen asleep in the stroller by 8:30, was wide awake for a while. I stayed up with her (David has to do all the driving today, so I wanted him to sleep), and then Micah was awake (and arguing) before 7am this morning. Ugh.

Now the boys are waiting for the hotel pool to open - they and my nieces will swim for a while, and then get dressed for the wedding. Hopefully David will take them to the pool - I need a break!

Migraines and more migraines

I hate this weather! Whenever the barometer changes (i.e. January, June and July in New England), I get migraines. Every day. "Auras" (the flashing light patterns in my eyes) and headaches and dizziness and locked-up spinal column and all.

So each morning, I take my Fiorocet (which contains a barbituate - Butalbital - so it is supposed to knock me out) and I have a large mug of espresso. Then I drive my kids to Dover (10 miles away) to get Micah on the bus and Sam into MWT's car. Then Sofia and I drive back to Framingham for Early intervention or whatever meeting or appointment is on the schedule.

UGH.

I dumped Sofia in her crib and I passed out on her couch the afternoon when T left, but Sofia did NOT sleep - instead, she tossed out every stuffed animal and kept right on complaining. Now I think she's trashing her brothers' room (she's closed the door, so who knows what she's up to!). She's quite happy.

I had a great on-line Hebrew conference last night with the substitute teacher. Each week we have a 20 minute conference, and I seem to be the only person doing the evening session in my class. The teacher is in Israel for a few weeks, so although she's correcting the homework, someone else is doing the conference. I had so much fun talking to this new teacher. And I can really hold up my end of a conversation in Hebrew now! It's way-cool!

Micah liked camp MUCH better on his 2nd day. He and SK were together all day (several of the adults I know at camp either stopped as they passed our bus stop or emailed me to tell me how Micah and SK were so cute and actually finishing each others' sentences). He's also made friends with another kid at our stop, P, and they seem inseparable, too.

Sam also loves camp, and is already planning for the day when he can be a CIT (counselor-in-training). And he drew his own version of "Starry Night", which was quite lovely. (He goes to an Arts camp; Micah is at a more traditional summer camp).

David and I are going to see "Ocean's 13" tonight; we watched the director's commentary for "Ocean's 11" last night. Such a fun movie.

My friend S in Chicago called to tell me all about her mom's new boyfriend - I'm so happy for her mom, but the conversation was hysterically funny!

Oh, Miss Sofia was very specific about what she wanted for lunch today - ICE CREAM. She signed it over and over again.

An Allergy Mom Visits Camp

Micah started daycamp this morning, and yesterday was the Open House. I was so nervous! Fortunately, I know a ton of adults who work there (it's the local big Jewish daycamp), and Micah knows plenty of kids there. One of the nurses is a friend of ours from shul.

But it's not a peanut-free camp, and they don't send out a whole lot of information ahead of time, so I was really nervous about the allergies. So when we got to the Open House, first Micah and I spoke to the two nurses, then we had an excellent and thorough talk with the 4 teenage bunk counselors and the grown-up Unit Head, and a chat with the bus counselor. I'd prepared an Action Plan document for all of them, and I felt much calmer when we were done. I think he'll be just fine.

This morning, I had to get him on the bus for the first time. The Transportation Coordinator was not entirely sure of the exact location of the Dover bus stop, and the bus was about 12 minutes late. When it did arrive, I was on the phone with the camp office, talking to another mom in the parking lot, getting yelled at by someone from the Town Hall (because I parked "wrong"), and we were across the street from the bus. So I grabbed Micah and Sofia and the backpack and the phone (the other mom helped with the bag), and ended up dropping Sofia in the middle of the road! Yikes. But eventually we got the kids on the bus, and I let the camp know exactly where their bus stop really is...

So we have to go pick him up soon, and then come home to wait for Sammy (I'll be meeting M at Micah's bus stop from now on in the morning, since she passes right by!).

La Principessa has a big cut on her forehead (that's what we get for letting a 6 year old girl at shul take her for a walk), and she didn't fall asleep until after 11:30 last night, but she just took a good nap. Hopefully she'll get back on schedule soon!

A low-key week

With Sam off to my parents' house for the week, things have been delightfully calm around here. Micah wakes up early every morning and goes downstairs to watch the Disney Channel (switching to Dora and Diego later). Sofia has been sleeping late (partially because for 2 days she just did not nap!). There's no one fighting and screaming and getting upset about the unfairness of life and how he hates having a little brother. It's been VERY nice!

Which sounds awful to say - life is calmer without my eldest son in the house - but in the meantime, Sam is having a fabulous time in Connecticut, getting spoiled by Grandma (he got 2 Lego kits, 2 "guys" from Star Wars, an army-print rain poncho, and REAL Crocs (I told her to get the $9.99 pair at Target, but NO!), playing with my sister's twin girls (same age as Sam, and they all get along great), singing old songs with Pop (my dad was definitely born about 80 years too late for his musical taste), and swimming at the pool club. So hopefully when Sammy comes home on Saturday, he'll be relaxed and calmer.


My lovely toddler is a riot. Aside from not napping, she's been really really active. Yesterday, we were home for a bit in the afternoon; Micah was playing Nintendo and I was online. Sofia kept circling between my room and the bathroom, and every time she came in, she was holding or doing something different: holding a purse and saying "bye", brushing her teeth, brushing her hair, wearing my underwear (as a vest, of course). She's such a clown! Right now she's stopped to read a book, and she's been exploring toys all morning.

Yesterday David and I celebrated our 9th anniversary! We drove into Brookline, went to Fugakyo for delicious sushi, then roamed Barnes & Noble for a while. It was nice - we have such a good time when we are alone together. Wednesday night, I had Girls' Night with J & R - also a blast - and R came here for dinner on Tuesday, since her girls are away all week. The babysitter has made tons of money off of us this week; besides last night, she watched Micah for 4 hours on Wednesday while I took Sofia to playgroup and ran some errands, and she was here...uh....ok, I dont' even remember earlier in the week, but I know she was...

Yesterday I took the kids to the pool for a while. Mrs. G. had to talk Micah into putting on his bathing suit and at least TRYING the water. Fortunately, he did finally go in, and even put his whole head under for a moment, on his own. But then he was on the playground for a long time. Sofia, on the other hand, is a fish. I did put the Bubble on her this time. She complained for a moment, but got used to it fairly quickly. Later, I took it off so she could walk around, but when she wanted to get back in the water, she very clearly signed that she needed the bubble back on!

Oh! So last night, at the bookstore, I went to the Parenting section to check on "Gifts" (It took a while to find the book, it was on the bottom shelf and just spine-out, so I switched it with a face-out book!). Then I picked up "Yoga for the Special Child". The intro is just lovely, reads like another chapter in "Gifts"...right up until the daughter is 13 and gets sick and DIES! I was so upset. She'd done so well, the pictures of her were just lovely, and I was so anxious to find out how she'd done as an adult (born in the early 70's). And she died! It was so sad. (But the mom seems to have really done a tremendous amount of work with kids with special needs all along).

Sunday I have to take Micah to the open house at his camp. I'm nervous! I know he'll like it once he's there and involved, but I also know he's going to COMPLAIN all about it. Oh, and I worked out the bus logistics - I can put him on the same bus he would have taken to the pool, but in Dover at 8:40 instead of Framingham at 8:10. So that solves my problem of getting Sam into M's car at 8:10 (and if M is running late, I can meet her in Dover, which is on her way). Same timing works in reverse - pick up Micah at 4:10, plenty of time to be back home at 4:50 for Sam.

Ok, Sofia is tapping on the laptop (yesterday I found her standing on my desk chair, typing on the computer). Seems like a fine time to go. Happy weekend to all!