Almost Purim!

Shabbat was really nice.  On Friday Ben had pretty bad allergies, it seemed.  He was sneezing and his eyes were tearing and it was the first time that he was really having a reaction like this.  By the evening his left eye was all blown up and all red.  I gave him some Benadryl just before Eric came home from shul and he didn’t even make it to the main course, he was out like a light.  I also had him put a wet washcloth on it to get the swelling down.  Anyway, we went to sleep by 9 and of course I was up at 1 in the morning for a little while.   While I was up I was thinking of his eye and it suddenly dawned on me that they were dismantling the flower arrangement from last week just before Shabbat because Talia saw these sparkly things in the flowers that she didn’t want thrown out.  Ben had his hands full of flowers and pollen and then he must have rubbed his already itchy eyes and then put that stuff right on his eye and that’s why it blew up.  So in the morning I had him wash his hands with soap and water right away just in case some of that pollen was still on his hands.  His eye is all better now.

It was about a million degrees here and we all got dressed in our summer Shabbat clothes.  We went to a friend’s house for lunch and stayed until around 3:30.  Keren was miserable b/c she only took a 30 minute nap in the morning and she wanted to go to sleep but cannot fall asleep if she isn’t in her crib.  So we ran home and put her to sleep and Eric took his nap and Talia went next door to a friend’s house while I took Ben to the park.  Talia and her friend came along to the park a little while later and then Eric and Keren joined us when they woke up.  We all spent the rest of the day at the park and walked home when Shabbat was over.  It reminded me of when we lived in Riverdale and went to the Shabbat park every Shabbat.

Saturday night there was a dance-a-thon thing here and I wanted to go but I was too lazy.  In hindsight I am sorry that I didn’t go but I really just wanted to stay home and watch a movie and make popcorn.  We watched Slumdog Millionaire and it was great!!  I knew nothing about the movie before it started so it was fun to watch it.

Yesterday, Sunday, the kids went to school and Keren slept in BIG TIME!  She didn’t wake up until 9:45.  I was so nervous that she was sick or that something was wrong that I kept checking on her as she slept.  Anyway, when she finally graced her with her presence, I fed her and we threw her in the car and went to visit my cousin Avivit and the new baby.  We brought her her gift, a Hooter Hider, and she use it and loved it!!  This is her second child but the first time that she is nursing and she is very new at it and very nervous about it and this made her feel much more comfortable.  Unfortunately, we have COMPLETELY different taste (to say the least!) and she HATES the pattern I bought for her!!  It was rated the best seller and yet she still hates it.  Oh well!  We knew that was going to happen.  In fact, she told me before I bought it that I should buy what I like the least.  But I like them all.  Oh well.

On our way home from her house Talia called us and asked us where we were.  We were like, Um, where are YOU??  She said that school got out early (of course!) and that she was at a friend’s house and we should pick her up when we got home.  She was supposed to bring home a note with all the info for this week but her friend ripped it up for some reason. So we didn’t know but she had handled it well and wasn’t upset or anything.  So we came home and got her and then went to get Ben, whose face was painted with red paint for Purim, and then we all went out for pizza and to get Eric a haircut.   At some point I got something in my eye and this morning my eye was still bothering me!  I looked at my eye in the mirror and I could see the thing that was in it!!  It was so gross.  I was able to get it out and now my eye feels much better but it’s all red.  Maybe I can dress up as a zombie tonight….

We came home and Talia went to English and we hung out for a bit and then Ben and I went to pick her up with his scooter and then we came home and picked up their bikes and I took them to the BBall courts to ride their bikes while Keren slept.

We stayed there until dinner time and met Eric walking towards us with Keren.  We fed the kids and then I went to a surprise party at Robin’s house, for Robin, and Eric stayed home and put the kids to bed.   I stayed until 8 and then switched places with Eric and came home and put Keren to sleep and cleaned up the kitchen and then Eric came home a little while later.

I have to say, Purim is dragging on and on and on here and I am really looking forward to it being OVER!!  In America it kind of comes all of a sudden and then it’s gone.  Here, I feel like we’ve been celebrating it since Rosh Chodesh Adar!  I am going to make another batch of hamentashen today with the kids while Eric rests (he’s the one fasting today, while I take advantage of the fact that I am still nursing) and then we are going to assemble our Shalach Manot.  I also hoped to get to Ikea at some point but I don’t know when that’s going to happen.