Well, I did all of my cooking for Shabbat and then I got a phone call this afternoon from my neighbors across the street, inviting us to lunch on Shabbat!!! So of course I accepted and now I have a ton of food!! I told Eric not to eat anything because when he comes home he’s going to have a ton of food to try to eat.
So my ulpan test is complete! It wasn’t so bad. . I don’t know how I did but I think I did pretty well.
My grandparents came over to babysit this afternoon while I was taking my test. We said goodbye to them because they are leaving to America on Monday.
Oh, Robin brought over my favorite cake as a birthday present since my birthday is on Shabbat. How sweet was that? I was very touched that she remembered me mentioning that it was my favorite and that she remembered that it was my brithday. She was apparently talking to Danielle a couple of weeks ago and Danielle mentioned it.
Not much else to write about. This might be my shortest blog yet!
Another crazy busy day today.
Keren was tired again this morning but I schlepped her anyway to ulpan where she was not the happiest of campers to say the least.
After ulpan I ran to the supermarket with a very unhappy Keren and did some shopping and then ran home to get Ben and Eitan from Robin’s house and bring them here to play. When I got home my cleaning man was here. We had a huge misunderstanding when he called me this morning. I thought he called to cancel and say that he would come tomorrow in the afternoon but he said today! So he was waiting for me here for Gd knows how long. I felt terrible.
So the kids played nicely together all afternoon. It was really great. And Keren took a nice long nap despite all the noise in the house with the kids and the cleaning man.
Talia and I did some homework when she came home and then before I knew it it was time to make dinner. Eitan stayed for dinner and we all ate together. It was taco night so everyone was happy.
We had to take the cleaning man to the bus at 7 so I had the kids showered and ready for bed and all washed up and then they hopped in the car and we took him and then came home and went straight into bed. Keren was even in bed by 7:45 b/c she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
I did a little studying for my test tomorrow b/c I am a huge dork and now I am going to go to sleep. No laundry to fold tonight… hooray.
Oh, somewhere in the midst of everything and just after I finished my shopping and cleaning my chicken my shabbat company cancelled!! Argh!
In short:
So far I haven’t found any more lice. So that’s a good thing. Combed the kids out twice today and myself as well, just to be on the safe side.
Keren wasn’t the easiest to deal with during ulpan today and I am glad that there is only one more day this week and then my big test of Thurs., for which my grandmother will be here and then Eric returns for next week and part of the week after. It’s already over on the 10th of Feb. or something like that. Then it’s up to me to keep up the Hebrew!
After ulpan we came home and I popped Keren into bed and some challot into the oven.
Talia came home and we did some homework before I took her to English. Ben came home shortly after and we played with some toys and hung out.
Tonight there was a bazaar held in the school here. The people who have stores and businesses in the South came up here to try to make some money since business was so slow during the war. They also had a lot for the kids to do, including face painting, arts and crafts, jumpy things for them to bounce on and some kind of show. The promoted it like crazy in school and Talia came home and said she wanted to go. I am just beyond wiped out today and I told her that if she could find someone to go with that she could go. Sure enough, after English the phone rings and it’s her friend’s mom asking me if it would be okay for her to take Talia with them. I asked if she begged and she kind of said yes!! So funny. So she came home for about 10 minutes after art and then went there and didn’t come home until 7:30! She came home on such a high. She had a blast. She wound up coming home with someone else completely. She is a riot.
Anyway, I am in bed now and just finished folding yet another load of laundry. There are some kids making noise outside my window, which is unusual for a weekday night. I guess it’s because the weather is nice and so they are hanging out outside.
Tomorrow there is ulpan and some shopping to be done. I haven’t made these kids a decent dinner since the lice fiasco. I owe them some nutrition!
Quick Ben story: He came home today and I asked him if his teachers said anything to him about his haircut. He said no at first but then he said they asked him “הסתפרתה?” I couldn’t believe that he remembered that word! Then he said that he said “כן” He is so cute! I am so impressed with his Hebrew.
So I had a LOOONNNG day and I am happy that it is coming to an end. In the end it wasn’t so horrible. I mean, it was pretty bad but it was doable. That is, if the lice is actually gone, like I am presuming it to be. Hmmmm….
Anyway, the morning started out with the kids waking up and luckily Keren staying asleep. So I fed them and combed out their hair while they screamed and cried that it hurt and complained that I was blocking the TV, etc. Then I combed my own hair out and we all washed the conditioner out of our heads that we had slept in and we got dressed, I fed Keren her breakfast, made their lunches and had them both in school by around 10 am! Not too shabby.
When I got home I put Keren back to sleep (she was cranky!) and I started doing more laundry and bagging things that I hadn’t done the night before, etc.
Luckily one of my friends from ulpan text messaged me and asked me where I was. I told her I had lice and the kids had lice and she said she would come over after and she would comb me out. She came over and proclaimed me lice free. I am going to be combing my hair though, just as a precaution, for the next couple of weeks.
I got Ben after Keren finally woke up from her all morning nap and we went to the hairdresser where I scalped my poor son!! He loves his new haircut but I think it is a little short (to say the least). One great things about hair: it grows back!! He loves the cut, which is so funny, so we are all good. Take a look:
So we came home from the haircut and then Talia came home and the kids hung out for a bit and watched some tv while I cleaned their heads out again and dealt with a crabby Keren. I put her back in for another nap and then took Ben to karate. He is wearing his karate shirt in 2 of the pictures above. He is so cute.
Talia and I did some homework while Keren slept and Ben was in Karate. Then I made dinner (rewarmed pizza, who has time to cook when they are dealing with lice?) and then Ben came home and we all ate. At 6 we took Keren to the doctor so she could look in her ears and see how her ear infection is doing. I’ve been holding a screaming Keren down 3 times a day and putting drops in her ears to try to clear the infection. Luckily, she said that the infection is doing better and seems to be clearing and that I only have to put them in 2 more days.
When we got home I showered the kids and combed out their hair again (briefly this time) and then put them to sleep right on time tonight.
Keren and I are hanging out now. After all that sleeping today she doesn’t seem too tired and it’s almost 9! I have a ton of folding to do but I guess I can leave some of it for tomorrow after ulpan while Ben is at his chug. We’ll see.
Here is a cute video that I took of Keren tonight while I was feeding her:
This is going to be a short one and I don’t know when the next time I am going to write will be because, as you’ve already read from the title, WE HAVE LICE!!!!
Eric is going to the airport in about 5 minutes and he is leaving me all alone to have a party with the lice.
Note to self: do NOT check the kids’ heads for lice as Eric is on his way out the door. Next time wait the week and then check them even if I am suspicious. After all, there is no rule here that they can’t go to school with lice in this wonderful country!
So, I will write again when I have things under control here. After the laundry has been done, the kids (and myself) are lice free and I have a minute to breathe without wanting to kill myself.
Until then…
Shabbat was definitely a lazy day here.
Friday night we ate and went to sleep at 9!! Of course I was up at 2 for a while but I eventually fell back to sleep. Ben managed to keep his diaper dry again last night and that’s 3 nights since we started his chart system and I told him that I would go buy him some sort of fantastic candy tomorrow to celebrate. Talia is in on it too and will of course be getting a fantastic candy as well.
Today Keren’s rash went away! So I only gave her one dose of the antihistamine today and that was it. I think we are all finished. She now has a rash on her face but I think it’s b/c her skin was very dry. So I am treating that with some good old Aquaphor.
Because of the medicine she’s taking she is very tired all the time. So today she went back to sleep and I sent the kids to shul and I read and then I went to sleep. Eric and the kids came home and they played until I got up and we had lunch. The kids played SO nicely the rest of the day and Eric and I were able to relax. A friend that we know from camp popped over in the afternoon (as Eric was nodding off to sleep on the couch, of course) to say hi since he was visiting from America and was on the Yishuv for Shabbat.
The kids waited until 4 so they could go zooming down the hills on their scooters and little blue car toy but after one minor spillage involving Ben, with just the tiniest amount of blood they gave up and came home.
After Shabbat the kids ate and went to sleep and I am now waiting for Avi and Avivit to come over. We are heading out to Modiin. Not sure what we are going to do yet. Jere said that she would babysit since I couldn’t get anyone. So nice of her. She just required soup, a movie and possibly bagels if we go to the bagel place here!
I’ll end this now since they should be here any minute.
Today Keren woke up, after kvetching only a few times last night but going back to sleep on her own, in a much better mood. Talia also woke up and although she complained that her ear still hurt her, she went to school happily after taking some more Advil.
Eric went to Yerushalayim today with a friend who was staying with us for the night from America and they davened שחרית at the kotel together. He said it was very nice. He didn’t come home until around 12.
Talia came home and said she answered some of the teacher’s questions today and got 2 stickers. I was so happy!! That means that not only did she understand what she learned, she was able to understand the question too and then have enough confidence in her Hebrew to raise her hand and answer the question aloud!
Ben went straight to his friend Amitai’s house from school and when Talia saw Eric return home alone, I suggested she go pick up her friend that just moved 3 houses away from us and see if she would want to come over. She did and the kids played very nicely together.
Meanwhile, on the Keren front, I took her to the doctor so she could just take a look at her. She said she is looking better and I agreed. My only problem was that I told the doctor that she was so miserable in the evening yesterday and when I bathed her she was happy again and the doctor said yes, it’s b/c she needed to be cooled off and she then told me that she had mentioned to me that I should put cool packs on her skin if she seemed unhappy!! I told her that she indeed did NOT tell me that yesterday!! She insisted that she did. I was so annoyed at her. I think I could have made Keren a lot more comfortable yesterday. Whatever.
So now the food is all cooked and Talia just came back from walking her friend home and Ben is home from his friend’s house and Keren is taking her second nap of the day (the antihystemine is knocking her out) and I am going to get everyone showered and ready for Shabbat.
Things here are a little nuts! Keren has this rash due to her antibiotics, we think, and it’s been getting worse and worse. When she woke up I was not happy with the way that she looked and I took her to the doctor right after I took the kids to school today. The doctor wasn’t working this morning (even though she was supposed to be working this morning) and the nurse looked at her and told me I had to go to the doctor right away. Then the doctor came down on her way out and she quickly took a look at her and said that she would be in in the afternoon and it could wait until then. So I made an appointment and went back in the afternoon.
When I got there she told me pretty much what I thought she was going to tell me, that she probably had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics that she was taking for a week and that she was going to give her an antihystemine. She then looked in her ears and said they were still horrible!! So I was really unhappy to hear that. I told her that I really wasn’t so interested in giving her more antibiotics after the reaction she just had. So she gave me another prescription for ear drops. So we are going to try that next. I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow and another on Sunday. Meanwhile, this evening she was in a HORRIBLE mood. I finally just got her to sleep after a ton of crying in my arms and in her crib and just being in a miserable mood overall.
Meanwhile, in addition to all this, Talia came home today complaining that her ear was killing her!! So I gave her Motrin and a hot water bottle to lay on and I told her to lay on the couch and the kids basically watched tv the entire afternoon. In fact, she was so unhappy that I had to send Rinat home (there went the Hebrew lesson) and she didn’t even go swimming during her swimming chug today, she just sat on the side. Poor Talia. I am going to give her a few days and see if we can treat it ourselves without going to the doctor. At least it’s nice and cheap here every time we have to go to the doctor and the doctor’s office is literally across the street from us!
Ben, thank goodness, is fine! He had a friend come over after school today and they played nicely. This particular boy doesn’t play so well with him for too long at a time (usually because Ben is mean to him for some reason) and so I was pleasantly surprised when they played for 2 hours together.
Nothing else is new. Been driving the new car around and it’s great. Eric was able to fit everyone in the car today for carpool without doubling anyone up or having anyone sit in the front seat. So we didn’t have to break the law today, that was good!
Anyway, that’s the story here. I really hope that tomorrow everyone is feeling better!
I had a day off today because my ulpan class is now only Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays due to the fact that the higher level class requested another day of learning and they have the same amount of people in their class as we do so they totally deserve it. Anyway, in the morning we went to Petach Tikvah and returned my grandfather’s car to him. I am sad. I liked that car. I vacuumed it out and made it look like new again on the inside (minus the cigarette burns that he did) and we returned it good as new.
As the day progressed Keren appeared to be having an allergic reaction to something, presumably something she ate. I thought it was probably the peach yogurt that she had last night for dinner and again for breakfast this morning. I wasn’t too worried about it b/c the dots all over her body didn’t seem too bad and we had an appointment anyway for a regular checkup at Tipat Chalav. Well, it turned out to be a big ordeal. The nurses at Tipat Chalav didn’t like the way it looked at all and after seeing the doctor there, she sent me to another doctor (I really don’t know the difference between her and the other doctor. She couldn’t seem to do anything for me). So after Keren’s regular checkup, all in Hebrew, just in case you were wondering (I am wondering how much might have gotten lost in translation. Let’s just say there were plenty of times that I said, רגעת אני לא מבינה to the questions that she asked) I then went to the doctor at Tipat Chalav who sent me to the next doctor next door. It seemed kind of like a clinic and that might be what it is. I asked for the doctor and said it was an emergency just like they had told me to do next door. I was sent back to a common waiting room with many different doors off of it. The door that I needed was closed and when I peeked in I saw that there was someone in with the doctor. So I sat there and waited and waited. Eric called me to see where I was because we were supposed to go out to eat with my grandparents and they were all waiting for me and I told him and he said that I had to be pushy and just walk into the room when the door opens. Oy!! So, after a couple of people went in and some rude guy asked me what time my appt. was and I pointed to someone and told him I was after her and he again asked me what time my appt. was and I had to admit that I didn’t have an appt., I decided to be proactive and the next time the door opened I was ready!! I told the woman about to go in that I was sorry, that I knew that she had an appt. but that this was an emergency and I pulled up Keren’s shirt so she could see her horrible rash (by that time it was quite horrible) and I marched myself right into the room!! YAY!
After all that, of course the doctor agreed that I could just wing it and give Keren some Benadryl. We weren’t sure how much since it’s not an israeli medication but I told him I would just figure it out. In the meantime, since we don’t know if it is in fact the peach yogurt or perhaps the medication that she’s on for her ear infection since last Thurs, we are going to just discontinue the medication for the ear and hope that with the one dose of Benadryl the rash goes away.
After all that we went to dinner with my grandparents and it was very nice.
Oh, another thing, the nurse at Tipat Chalav was worried that Keren didn’t really gain so much weight. She told me to feed her more!! I think the kid eats enough but she said I should make her sandwiches with chummus and bread or with techina and bread or avocado! She is going to be so Israeli!!! She said not to worry about the weight too much, that it could just be because she is moving around so much now. I am thinking, though, that I am going to try to feed her 3 big meals a day and maybe she will start to sleep through the night more. She did want me to give her her cereal in a bottle before bedtime and I told her (not in these words exactly) no way!! We SO don’t do that in America! I am going to try to give her her chicken meal in the middle of the day, though, and the cereal at night, which might be more filling.
That was a lot of Keren time on the blog. Let me just mention that Talia and Ben are great. Ben’s teacher asked Eric if we are speaking Hebrew in the house. Eric said no and she said she was surprised b/c his Hebrew is so great! Go BEN! Also, he got his Karate shirt this week. I’ll try to take a picture of him in it next week when he has Karate to put on the blog.
Talia has been having arguments with some of her friends, it seems. She said some of them aren’t being nice to her. Just the usual girl stuff. Then, of course, one of them called this afternoon and Eric couldn’t get her to take the phone b/c she was so upset at this girl today. Why did she call? She called to see if Talia wanted her to come over so they could play!! Talia said yes!! They played nicely together the rest of the afternoon. Girls!!!
I made the best dinner tonight! I made chicken pot pie!! Eric has been joking around with me for years about making him chicken pot pie and today I did and it was DELICIOUS! Both of the kids loved it and so did I. Eric said he did too! I think it’s going to be a recurring dish and possiblya requested dish. Yay.
Anyway, today Eric took the kids to school. Ben really wanted him to take him to school and since he didn’t have work last night because of Martin Luther King Day, he was up and able to take the kids to school. So I got a lot done at home until ulpan started (today was a late start b/c my teacher was having problems with her car) and then I went to ulpan. I wound up talking (in Hebrew) to my teacher for a long time after class and didn’t come home until almost an hour after class ended. I am really going to miss class after it is over.
The kids had their various chugim today and it was just another Tuesday here. Ben did come home and mentioned that he learned about Noach and the Teiva and the animals and the flood (which he called a בילבול instead of a מבול . That was very cute. Not sure why they are learning about that now. Maybe it has to do with the rainy season (not that we are getting much rain, unfortunately.
Took the new car out for a spin today! Tomorrow we are going to return my grandfather’s car back to him. I have to clean it out a little before giving it back.
I watched a bit of the presidential inauguration today. I can’t believe we have a new president. I hope he is good to the Jews and to Israel! I’ll just leave it at that.