I totally held my own!

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!!!