This morning we decided we were going to go buy dining room chairs to match the table that we bought about a year ago.  Unfortunately, the place that I wanted to go to is closed for a couple of days b/c the guy that works there is sick.  He happened to pick up the phone when I called but he said they weren’t open and I should try back in a couple of  days.  I am disappointed b/c Eric is leaving on Sunday and this will push off the chairs for quite some time.  I am thinking of maybe going myself when he’s gone and picking something out that he can then approve when he gets back.  We’ll see.  I am usually very busy when he’s away.

Instead of going there we took Keren to the mall and she played there in the little toddler area that they have.  The moved it, unfortunately, away from the big windows where it was to a spot right in between the escalator and the elevator.  When one of the mothers complained she was told that they moved it b/c the sun was streaming in through the windows and it was bothering people.  So, I guess they decided to pick the most dangerous spot they could find in the mall and put it there.  Regardless of the location, Keren seemed to have a nice time.

Ben and I made challah when he came home.  After his English chug Talia, Ben, Keren and I braided it.  Talia went to English after that and finally to gymnastics (she hasn’t been there in 2 weeks) and Ben was feeling a little lonely.  We called a friend and she couldn’t come b/c she had a chug so I called Robin and Ben, Keren and I went over there to play.  I brought the challot and baked them there.  Oh, I forgot to mention that Keren ate the dough while we were braiding it.  She was so funny.  One minute she was rolling a little piece I gave her and the next minute it was gone and I noticed that she ate it! 

We got back pretty late and Ben and I quickly made macaroni and cheese casserole and then ran to pick Talia up from gymnastics.  I told her I would pick her up tonight b/c it got a little chilly and I didn’t want her to have to walk. 

That pretty much wraps up the day.  Oh, let me not forget the delicious doughnut that I ate today in honor of Rosh Chodesh Kislev!!

Let me start with Shabbat since I haven’t written in a while.

Friday Talia was home again.  It was her last day at home.  She had a ton of catching up to do with schoolwork so she was pretty busy doing work until Ben came home from school.

Friday night we are quickly and went to sleep.  I slept about 14 hours!!  It was great.

Shabbat morning the kids went to shul (Talia was feeling a lot better) and I stayed home with Keren.  We made the salads together and got the place ready for company.  Robin and her family came over (sans Freddy) for lunch.  The kids all had a great time playing together and the boys wound up staying until 5.  Eric and I had a nice relaxing hour from 4-5 where the kids were all playing outside together, including Keren, and we were inside reading.

Sat. night I went out with some friends.  It was my friend’s birthday and we had a girls night out.  It was fun but I didn’t get back until 12 and I’ve been zonked ever since!!!

Yesterday, Sunday, we decided we were going to make Ben his party.  I just wanted to get it over with and he kept asking about it.  He invited 4 friends over (only 3 came) and we watched the movie Up and decorated cupcakes, had pizza and they left.  It was great.  They really had a nice time together.  It was a 2-hour party but it really flew by.  Here are the pictures:

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After I picked Ben up from school yesterday I realized that they were celebrating the birthdays of the kids who had birthdays this past month and Ben wasn’t going to be one of them.  I straightened it out with the teacher and she gave me the number of one of the parents to call to find out what I had to bring.  Each parent is usually in charge of bringing something.  I was so nervous to call b/c I thought she was going to be pissed off that I hadn’t chipped in before then and I figured she had divvied it all out.  Fortunately, when I called she was relieved b/c she said she forgot about the eggs and the carrots.  I took my assignment and sent Ben in to school today with the stuff that he needed to bring in.  Phew!!

Last night we went out for our anniversary.  We had planned to go to this restaurant in an orange orchard, a restaurant that we had gone to 2 years ago for our anniversary that we really enjoyed.  The problem was the I was exhausted and felt like I was coming down with something.  I really didn’t want to schlep somewhere an hour away and then first start eating at 9.  So we stayed local and had a nice meal in a small cafe.  We plan to celebrate another time.  It won’t be for 3-4 weeks b/c of Eric’s travel schedule but at least we went out and had a nice time and celebrated that way!

Today I brought the kids to school and dropped Ben off with his eggs, carrots and harmonicas for his party in school.  I did some laundry and then took Keren to the park in the morning while Eric went to ulpan.  He goes to a formal ulpan and I have my Israeli friends in the park which is my informal ulpan.  We also picked up her iron drops that she has to start taking again.  Her iron is still low and we have to bring it up. 

Tonight I have tennis but it’s beginning to look like rain.  Part of me will be happy that I will get to sleep early but I really miss it when I don’t play.

SO here is why I haven’t written in a couple of days… it’s been crazy here!!!

Poor Talia has had the craziest things happen to her.  She had a girl pull her hair in school a couple of days ago and hasn’t been right since.  We’ve gone to the doctor, Eric has taken her to Terem and now he is finally on his way back tonight with her from their all day stay at the emergency room in Yerushalayim!!!  Not only that, but last night she woke up at 3 am with her bottom lip swollen to 10x it’s normal size - a result of an allergic reaction to the medicine they gave her last night at Terem for her neck pain (we think).

Thank G-d, in the end, after blood tests, x-rays and even a sonogram (which she found amusing) they have determined her neck pain to be as a result of this trauma in school and something that will hopefully go away with some Advil and warm compresses.  She is home after a long, tiring day, neck brace and all!

So, now all that’s left to do is find the kid that did this to her and….  I’ll leave the rest to the imagination b/c you never know who is going to read this and what kind of trouble I could get into.

So I was home with Keren and Ben today.  We did some cooking and baking.  We are having Robin and the kids over for Shabbat.  Freddy is in the States and her parents were just visiting and they left too.  I figured it would be nice to have them. 

Here are some pictures of Ben with his new soccer ball that my grandparents got him for his birthday as well as some pictures taken around the house.  Some of these have been taken by the kids themselves.  There are also a few at the end that are adorable of Keren enjoying her first ever ice cream cone.  She took one lick and said “yummy!”

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I am going to make this a quick one b/c I am reading a very good book and I just want to get into bed with it!!

Didn’t have the time to blog yesterday.  Not much out of the ordinary happened.  We’ll just leave it at that, I guess.

Today was Ben’s birthday.  He’s now 5 years old!!  Big boy!!  When he came home from school we made cupcakes together.  He went to English while the cupcakes cooled and when he came home Talia, Ben and I iced them and decorated them.  Then the 5 of us sang happy birthday to Ben and he opened his presents.

That was pretty much it in the way of the celebration.  I think we’ll probably take  a couple of his friends bowling for his real party.  This was just for the family.

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Talia came home today in pain.  She said someone wanted to play with her hair in school and when she told her no, the girl pulled on the bandanna that she was wearing today and it hurt her neck.  She opted out of gymnastics tonight so I know that it is serious.  I called the kid’s mother.  I was so angry.  We had a nice talk and she is going to call me tomorrow to tell me what her child said.  Meanwhile, Talia seems to be in pain and I gave her Tylenol before putting her to sleep.  She also has a hot water bottle on her neck.  The kids in Israel seem much more violent than the kids did in America.  I don’t know.  I was glad that I learned in ulpan how to say the back of the neck in Hebrew (oref), this way I was able to describe to this kid’s mother what was hurting Talia.  Hopefully she’ll wake up better.

This evening there were tryouts for flag football for women in the area.  I really wanted to go but it was at 4 and I think the games will probably also be around that time of the day.  I didn’t go in the end thinking that even if I did make the team, it would be too hard to work out going to games.  Oh well.  It was something that I would have loved to do.  I probably would have gotten hurt anyway and wouldn’t have been able to play tennis

Tonight we ate chicken pot pie, as per Ben’s request.  That’s what he chose for his birthday dinner.  Everyone was happy.

Happy Birthday BEN!!

Friday was the last day that Talia had to stay home from school.  She was feeling fine but not yet on her antibiotics for 24 hours so she stayed home again!  I finished up the cooking and took the food over to Channah’s house for Shabbat. 

I picked Ben up from school and then picked Eric up from the airport.  Talia stayed home to watch Keren, who was sleeping, while I went to get Eric.  Luckily, she stayed asleep the whole time I was gone and Talia didn’t have to take care of her at all.

Our friends came over before Shabbat and we showed them where they were sleeping, etc., and then we walked to Channah’s house for dinner. 

Friday night was nice at Channah’s house.  We didn’t come back home until 9 and the kids didn’t get to sleep until 9:30.  We sat in the living room talking for a while and it was very nice.  We were all exhausted from our week and we called it a night and all went to sleep.

Shabbat morning we sent the kids to shul and then went later to meet them at shul.  We walked to Channah’s house again and ate there.  It was very nice.  My food came out great and everyone enjoyed.

The rest of Shabbat flew by.  We went to the park in the afternoon for a little while and then back to Channah’s for havdallah.

Today Talia was back in school!!  No kids at home so Eric and I took Keren to the park in the morning and picked up a few things that we needed.   We came home and I fed Keren and put her to sleep while Eric went to the gym.

When the kids came home from school they had each had homework to do.  Taila forgot her book at school and I drove her back to get it so we could do her work.  We did a lot of homework today!!  The rest of the afternoon the kids hung out until it was party time!!

The kids both had parties to go to tonight.  We had a pretty relaxing evening with Keren while the kids were at their respective parties.  The party that Ben had had a clown!!  She sang and danced.  It was a pretty crazy party!  It was nothing like what we are planning for Ben’s party.  I am trying to avoid the party altogether.  I even offered to take him and some friends to the bowling alley instead of a party.  He’s considering it…

Back to the doctor again today with Talia.  The blood results were in this morning and everything looked good.  She looked at her throat again and said it still didn’t look so good and it might be strep.  Her eyes weren’t swollen as of this morning (thank goodness!) and her headache and fever were gone.

I dragged Ben to school, literally, this morning.  He didn’t want to go b/c Talia wasn’t going again.  Talia, Keren and I spent the morning doing some cooking and cleaning.  The cleaning man did not come today and we had to clean.  Talia was in great spirits and loves to help me clean.   She also took Keren next door to the park to play with the rocks (in lieu of sand) and get out a bit. 

I had one of the contractor’s people come today to look at why our ceiling is leaking.  He had no idea and said he has to come back with the contractor next week.  To be continued…

At around 2:30-3:00 is when all hell broke loose in the house.   Talia’s friends came over to give her her homework.  We had just had a lovely day and all of a sudden when we sit down to do homework she said her head was hurting her.  I was really mad and told her that it’s not okay to have a great day and then all of a sudden when she has to do work to claim a headache.  I totally didn’t believe her.  She was so mad at me for not believing her that she got even more upset  and started crying.  So we had to suffer through homework.  Then the little girl from next door brought over more homework that she had missed from yesterday.  I was so annoyed that she didn’t bring it over yesterday and waited until today!!  We could have done it in the morning.

Anyway, Ben came home while all this was going on and was kind of lost in the shuffle.  Meanwhile, Keren was throwing a fit b/c she’s been cooped up all day in the house for the past 2 days, actually, and she kept saying bye bye.  So we were doing homework, I was giving Ben a bite to eat b/c he comes home from swimming starving, keep Keren calm and wash the floors in the house b/c the cleaning man didn’t come.

After homework I told Talia that she could rest on the couch if she wasn’t feeling well (I still did not believe her) but that I was taking the other kids to the park b/c they needed to get out and, quite frankly, I needed to get out as well!!  She wound up following us 10 minutes later after talking to my dad on the phone.  I was so mad at her b/c I thought that if she wasn’t feeling well that she should be at home laying down.  I had given her my cell phone number and told her that I was nearby and she could call if she needed me for anything.

Ben and Keren played and had a nice time at the park and we got home to see the pizza delivery men leaving.  I ran after them yelling, pizza pizza!!! It was the first thing that came to mind.  I caught them and Ben and Keren ate dinner with me while Talia was on the couch.  At this point she was claiming a stomach ache and a headache.  I gave her Tylenol b/c I didn’t know what else to do.  I called the doctor’s office to find out if the strep results were in and the nurse, a friend of mine, told me that she would find out and call me back.

When we finished eating Ben and I made a cake for the company that we are having on Shabbat and then I bathed the kids and put them in front of the TV for their nightly dose of The Brady Bunch.  I had to run down the slippery steps 2x (Ben had just rewashed the floors just for the hell of it) during bath time thinking that it was the doctor’s office.  Both times it was someone else.   The doctor finally did call back just as the kids were settled in to watch TV to tell me that yes, indeed she does have strep!!  SO, I immediately felt like the best mother in the world that I hadn’t believed her all evening!! 

Now I had to figure out how to get the medicine!!  I called a couple of people and finally Robin told me that I wasn’t going to get a sitter b/c it’s Chodesh Irgun and everyone is out doing some kind of Benei Akivah activity.  So I ran across the street with Keren and got the prescription and then threw the kids in the car at 7:15 and took them to Modiin to the pharmacy.  Ben was thrilled to go b/c he gets to push a button there on a machine that gives you a number and it’s a real thrill.  Keren was happy to go b/c she had her paci.  Poor Talia was suffering so much and just wanted to stay home but I couldn’t leave her!   She did stay in the car while we ran in.  She was miserable.

I tucked Talia in after giving her the medicine and stayed with her for a little bit and told her that from now on I would believe her when she tells me that something is bothering her!

So, it was a really lousy afternoon/evening.  And in case you were wondering, I win the award for the lousiest mother!

What a scary day!!!

Last night Talia woke me up at 4 to tell me she had been up since 1:59.  She was trying to sneak into Eric’s bed to sleep with me.  I walked her back down and gave her some Tylenol b/c she still felt warm and put her back to sleep.  Of course on the way down she stopped to go to the bathroom and woke Ben up in the process.  He got up and did a little I’m awake dance and hugged me and was ready to go.  I told him it was still night time and to get back into bed.  I got into bed and heard him open his trissim.  It took me a while to fall back to sleep b/c I was sure that he was up for the day and was going to march into my room demanding breakfast at any time.  In the end he did go back to sleep, phew!

When I came down this morning I took one look at Talia and got worried.  Her face was very swollen.  Mostly around the eyes.  She looked like the daughter of Gabrielle and Carlos on Desperate Housewives!!!  She told me that she asked Ben if she looked funny and he said no.  I don’t know why she didn’t look in the mirror.  It occurred to me that I had noticed last night that her eyes looked puffy but it was dark and I just thought it was b/c she was tired. 

Well, there was clearly something wrong with her.  Of course the doctor here isn’t open until the afternoon and I was freaking out.  I called Robin and asked her what to do.  She told me to call Macabi and see if I could get an appointment in Kiriat Sefer with this new American woman who just moved here.  To make a long story short, I couldn’t get an appointment until the afternoon with anyone and I wound up calling the doctor across the street and asking her to see Talia.  She saw her and sent me for blood tests and told me to come back in the evening to see the pediatrician. 

We did the blood tests.  While we were there I did Keren’s iron workups as well, two birds.  Then the poor kid was on the couch the rest of the day with a headache and swollen eyes. 

My grandparents came and I did my shopping and then picked up some food for dinner.  Ben said the funniest thing in the car.  We were listening to the radio and he liked the song.  He told me I should make it really loud “like the Israelis do”.  I asked him if he thought that Israelis keep their music in the car loud and he said yes.

I took Talia back to the doctor’s office where we waited for over 40 minutes to see the doctor.  They said they tried to call me but didn’t have my number.  I made the appointment in the morning with the doctor, not with the receptionist, and she didn’t ask for my number so they didn’t have a number for me.  So we waited while Savta and Saba stayed with Keren.  The doctor examined her and told me it’s tonsillitis and possibly also mono.  So we are going to go back and see what the results of the blood work is tomorrow and then we’ll know, I guess, if it’s viral or bacterial and if she needs antibiotics.  Meanwhile, I am not giving her both Advil and Tylenol and I’ve stopped the Benadryl since it doesn’t seem to be working at all.  He told me to continue it if her face gets bigger.  He said it’s a common thing that the face blows up like this with tonsillitis.

When we got home, close to 7 o’clock, I was nervous b/c I left my grandparents with Keren and it was so late and I knew they would want to be getting home.  I couldn’t believe it, but my grandmother had finished giving Keren her dinner and she gave her a bath and got her ready for bed!!  It was amazing.  What a huge help she was tonight.  I am so happy they came today to help me!!

On top of all this, we are supposed to have company for Shabbat staying here and my cleaning man just called to say he can’t make it.  I told him he can come all day tomorrow at any time and I will pick him up and bring him here, he should just stay in touch!  He thanked me.  I then asked him if he can come on Friday and he said he could give me two hours.  So hopefully I will have somewhat of a clean house by Shabbat!!

My poor baby!!!

What a day!!

This morning I was woken up at 6:19 by Talia and Ben who came running into my room and jumped into the bed.  Apparently Ben was putting bloody snot on Talia.  He claims he wasn’t.  I believe Talia.  So she came running up to tell me and he came running in after her to deny it all.  Argh!!!  Then, after throwing them out, I couldn’t fall back asleep!!  I was so mad at them!!  I think they were up since 5-something this morning when Ben asked Talia what time it was. 

Anyway, I drove the kids to school again, on account of yet another rainy day.  I am not complaining.  I read an article that said that we need 180 storms like the ones we’ve been having in order to completely fill the Kineret.  So let it rain!

I thought Keren had fever again this morning but by the time we got home from dropping off the kids I saw that she didn’t.  So we went to hang out in the mall for a little bit.  It wound up being for a really little bit.  She wasn’t interested in playing in the little play area that they have there for the kids.  We rode the escalators and saw some little goldfish that one of the stores has in its window display and then gave up and left. 

We ran an errand on the way home.  I tried to find an umbrella for Talia since the one that she has is from when she was 2 and has completely fallen apart.  They had such garbage in the store that I couldn’t bring myself to spend 35 shekels on something that I was sure wouldn’t make it through the season.  So I added it to Eric’s list of things to bring back with him and we were on our way.

Keren decided that napping today wasn’t working for her and we hung out the rest of the afternoon reading books and watching Desperate Housewives.

Ben and Talia had English today but I only had to drive once.  I was glad not to have to leave the house during all the rain that we had this afternoon. 

This evening Ben helped me make dinner and then after I fed Keren and Ben out of nowhere Keren said “bye bye”.  I asked her if she wanted to go out and she said, “car”.  So I threw Keren and Ben into the car and we picked Talia up from gymnastics.  It was so dark and cold outside that I didn’t want her to have to walk.  When we got there she complained that she had forgotten a snack and her head was killing her and she was thirsty.  She basically complained until we got home (I sped!) and when we got home I gave her a drink and then she got into bed complaining of a headache.  I felt her and she felt warm.  I think she has what Keren and Ben have had the last couple of days.  Ben didn’t complain all that much and Keren was just completely out of it.  Talia has been complaining nonstop!  She is just like me when she is sick.   I am also a big complainer!  So at least we know where she gets it from.  Although I put the 3 of them to sleep at 7, she just marched up to my room (8:45) and she is currently in my bathroom.  I am not sure what she’s doing in there but it’s quiet.  I better go take care of her and give her a lot of TLC so she goes back to sleep.

It rained off and on most of the day today and we stayed in during the rain and went out during the periods of sunshine.  Keren and I ran 2 errands this morning and didn’t do much else.  When she woke up from her nap she woke up with a slight fever and pretty much clung to me the rest of the day.  Unfortunately, I had to do carpool in the rain and I had to schlep her out.  She didn’t seem to mind much but I felt bad for her.  Talia suggested that we leave her at home on the couch while I take the kids to carpool!!  I explained that that might not be such a great idea.

When the kids came home I did homework with Talia and studied with her for her English quiz.   We usually forget about her quiz and don’t study for it.  This time she remembered it, though, and we studied and she aced the test.  Yay Talia!!  I really felt like I taught the kids a good lesson today.  They were both there when Talia was studying and they were both there when Talia brought home her perfect test.

After English we did some English homework.  Basically, Ben comes home first and we do homework together and then when he is finished Talia comes in the door and we do homework together.  Usually it’s hard b/c Keren is all over the place and grabbing at things and needs attention.  It’s  usually doubly hard b/c Ben also needs attention and while Talia and I are doing homework he is bored.  This time, however, Keren wasn’t feeling well and was kind of out of it and just sitting in her highchair and Ben was happily coloring and practicing his letters.  It was really nice!!  When they were finished we all stayed at the table and colored some more.  

It was a relaxing rainy afternoon!

For dinner tonight the kids decided on leftover shnitzel.  It didn’t go over as well as last night but at least we finished the chicken soup from Shabbat and ate some of the broccoli kugel up.  The kids were the talking about the rain and I started singing “It’s Raining Men” to them.  They got a kick out of the song so I found it online and played it for them and we all sang along.  There was a video to the song and in it there were a bunch of men dancing around the woman who sings it (I don’t know her name) in their briefs!!!!  Talia was like, mom, why are those men in their underwear???  I explained that it wasn’t underwear that they were wearing, they were wearing bathing suits.  I told her since it was “raining men” they were in their bathing suits so they wouldn’t get wet.  Huh???  Well, she fell for it and I got out of that one.  I guess I learned my lesson that before I show them a music video I have to watch it first!

I am afraid that tonight is going to be a long night, however.  Ben is scared of the thunder and it is really thundering out there.  I had to put him to sleep in Talia’s room b/c he was so scared.  I hope he doesn’t wake me up in the middle of the night b/c he’s scared.  I am hoping that Keren makes it through the night.  I don’t know if it’s teething or something else but she definitely isn’t herself tonight.  I gave her Tylenol and put her to sleep.  She is the first of our kids who doesn’t like to take medicine.  I don’t know what that’s all about! 

Oh, and the ceiling is leaking in the living room.  It leaked in the same place last year and we never did anything about it.  So I rolled up the carpet in the corner and put down a shmata.  I’ll have to call the fix-it man and ask him to come when it stops raining.  After I finished folding the laundry tonight I stepped off my bed into a puddle.  It took me a minute but I saw that the water was coming from the window and down the wall and under my bed.  There were about 2-3 minutes of crazy hail and winds and I think the winds blew the rain in.  The window isn’t sealed well, I guess, in my bedroom where it connects to the sill.  I don’t know how to explain it but I don’t think it will happen again, I think it was just the extreme wind and rain.  Now Eric’s towel is on the floor there.  I figure he’s not here to need it anyway

I can’t even remember the last time I wrote on the blog.  I know it’s been at least a week. 

I can’t even say that all that much has happened!!  The weather is the most interesting thing that’s changed over the course of the last 2 weeks.  It’s finally started to act like it’s fall and not summer.  We got a tremendous amount of rain over the weekend and now it’s almost sweater wearing time!!

This morning I took Keren to the park and we met other mommies there and they were all commenting on the change in weather and how they can be outside now with their kids and it’s not too hot.

This afternoon I took the kids to the monkey park.  I felt bad that Eric isn’t here and that it’s a Sunday afternoon.  Neither of them have any chugim on Sundays and we usually have family time.  So I picked Talia up from school and we ran over there and got there just in the nick of time.  We would have been there with time to spare but Talia took 10 minutes getting out of school.  I couldn’t figure out where she was and then when I saw her she had tears in her eyes.  As we zoomed off I learned that she lost the new sweatshirt that she wore this morning.  The one that I gave her a speech about not losing b/c it was a nice North Face sweatshirt that I thought she would probably wear throughout the fall/winter.  She said she left it in gym class and that she only remembered at the end of the day.  She said she went back to the class but it was locked so she found the “assistant to the principal who knows how to fix everything in school” and asked him to unlock the door for her. He did and she said it wasn’t there.  So she was really upset when she came out.  I told her not to worry, that it would probably turn up.  Of course it’s totally my fault b/c I should have put her name in it but I really didn’t think she was going to lose it!!!

We had another great time at the monkey park.  Keren, unfortunatley, was a bit on the cranky side b/c she only slept for 40 minutes today.  By the time we got to the park she was pretty much a wreck.  Also, although she didn’t have fever today, she did have fever yesterday and I think she might have been a bit off.  She is getting more teeth in and she has been going to town on her fingers.

Oh, cute Keren thing:  This morning I took out a pair of sneakers that my mom had bought for Talia when she was a baby.  Talia never wore them.  They were cheap sneakers from Payless that never fit Talia right so we didn’t bother returning them.   I put them on Keren and didn’t like the way they fit her either so I took them off and figured she would wear her sandals today.  When I took them off she got really upset and insisted that I put them back on her.  I guess they weren’t too uncomfortable b/c she wore them all morning and then again all afternoon.  She loved them!!  She is too funny!!

Tonight we had shnitzel for dinner, Ben and Talia’s favorite!  Ben did a little happy dance when I told him what we were having.   He’s been really silly lately doing all these cute little dances all around the house to be silly or when he’s happy.  I am going to try to get one of them on tape so I can upload it.

Okay, so hopefully now I am back on track and I’ll keep up the blogging!