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!

Home, after a lovely week

It was a really fun week. Quick overview: Tuesday with Grandma Doris, stopped at a fish place on the way back for dinner. Wednesday, stayed near the apartment. David went to a coffee shop for a few hours to do some work, while the kids and I wandered the plaza. Then pool-side most of the day, and yummy Italian food in the evening. Thursday, river boat cruise in the morning, and Gulf Stream for horse race watching in the afternoon. In the evening, we had leftovers, then put Sofia to bed and let the boys watch a movie while David and I went back to Gulf Stream to walk around without kids for a little while.

Friday was back up to Grandma in the morning - David took the kids to the pool while I took Grandma on an errand. It was so nice to just be with her alone for a bit. We had to come back to the apartment in the afternoon, because David had a conference call. Our friend Kevin (husband of my friend-since-7th-grade Brenda) brought their middle son over to play - E and Micah are dear friends. I want out to pick up kosher lunch, thinking I'd be gone 15 minutes. Hadn't counted on the TRAFFIC. Took nearly an hour! We went out to dinner with Brenda and Kevin and the kids, and then walked around the Hollywood Boardwalk (which I had not known existed!) for a while. The kids had ice cream and then played on the beach. It was lovely.

The ride home was long but fine. We left the apartment around 10, stopped at the plaza for a few last minute errands, and drove. And drove. And drove. Stopped in CT to have brunch with Laura this morning, and got home by about 1:30. Yeah!

So here are the photos...

Sofia and Rachel on the playground on Sunday:






David and Mike, looking like official Dads...


Lunch - notice we put the big kids at their own table!





Saying goodbye to the Keirnan Klan:




Swimming at Grandma's pool:
(getting ready to go swimming...)












Hanging with Grandma:






Wednesday hanging out at the apartment:


Theodore and Simon - purchased Wednesday morning, came to dinner with us, and never made it home to the apartment...



On the boat ride Thursday morning:


And waiting for the horse race to start:


Friday dinner - all the kids waited patiently for their food by playing on various iPhones and iPods:


Me and Bren:


Micah and E on the board walk:


Sofia insisted on sitting on the ground for her ice cream snack:

Florida!

Whew, what a long - but very fun - weekend.

It started Friday morning. I dropped the kids at school, finished packing, and went to catch the train into Boston, where I was supposed to pick up the rental car. And at the train station, I realized that my driver's license had expired. A month ago.

Ok. Take the train to Boston, and first walk to the Boston DMV. And wait, an hour and a half. Which was fine, since I got a blinding migraine, so that was enough time for the aura to dissipate so I could see.

Chatted with nice people, made quick calls to have friends pick up kids from school, and finally got my license renewed. Then walked back across town to pick up the car. Got back home before 4pm. Whew.

David didn't get home until after 6:30, and we didn't leave until 9:15. I had planned to take the first shift, but by that late I was starting to fall asleep, so he drove. Most of the night. He takes a 5-hour energy drink and just goes.

So I slept, and at 5:30, in Virginia, he woke me up to switch places. I drove a couple of hours, then we stopped for bathroom and breakfast, then more driving, until we got to South of the Border, which is literally just south of the border from NC to SC.

We spent about an hour there, walking around, eating ice cream and trying on funny hats:




(We almost bought that one, but it was expensive and not great quality.).

However, we DID buy the fez ("Fezzes are Cool" according to Dr. Who), and the pink thing. Not the spiky neon wig:





We got to Melbourne FL before 7pm, which was way earlier than I'd expected. Other than the hour at SOB, we realy only did pit-stops. I drove about 6 hours, David did all the rest.

Showered, and then went over to see Mike & Tracy and their kids. Mike has been a friend since junior high, and I went to their wedding, but our families really knitted together when Sofia and their youngest daughter were both born with Down syndrome!

Saturday night, the older kids (daughters are 13 and 10, perfect to hang out with my boys) kind of circled each other, not really knowing what to do. But by Sunday, they melded into a Pack, collecting other neighborhood kids and roaming the area all day. It was wonderful.



Sunday, first we went to the beach for a while:



After swimming and surfing in the icy cold water, they started digging.



Then we went back to the house, since it started to rain. Like most Florida homes, they have a screened in back porch with a pool - which was also icy cold. Sofia insisted on swimming, but was shaking like a leaf and turning quite an alarming shade of purple...



It was fun to watch the "David Relaxes" progress...
Upon arrival Sunday Morning:


Not fully relaxed yet, but getting there:


Aha, now he's relaxed:



The two little girls spent most of their time indoors, fighting over dolls and movies.



We were at the house until nearly 11pm.


Monday, we had thought to do some activities, but forgot it was a holiday and everyone else would be trying to do the same activities. So mostly more hanging out. We took the kids to a large park - David and Mike took the older kids for a hike while Tracy and I watched the little girls on the playground.

It was sad to say goodby, but so much fun to see them - we can't wait for the next chance!


We got down to Hallendale, where David's grandparents' apartment is, by 7pm again. Had great Israeli food - shwarma, felafel, etc. Today, we drove up to see my grandma, and we are sitting poolside. Water is MUCH warmer!