I just ran across this site for the college sports fans and parents among us. There is both an LSU and a UT one (and an Aggie one as well) just for grandpa to get and watch with the grandkids - hint hint.
Gotta get em while they're young.
My new pediatrician's partner in practice is on the advisory board of TBE (and lends her name to lots of other boards around town - Texas Children's, Emery Weiner, to name a few) - That's how I found it
I made some updates in red that I remembered and added another picture (Edited 1/1/07)
I have been blogging on and off for a year now - and what a year it's been. Let's do the usual wrap-up and review shall we:
December - the first posts on this blog are about having my adenoids out and the happy pills for New Years. This year I have left over happy pills from giving birth and then some... Mom had also just had her surgeries.
January - Eran went to Israel to visit and it was the first time I was home with Yoni alone - now I hardly ever am alone with just Yoni, I get to contend with Yael too. I wanted Eran to take Yoni to Israel and the family wanted to see him too, but Eran was too afraid that Yoni would miss me too much (or something). Yoni started at the JCC after being at La Rochelle Academy and Yael will start there in a few days.
February - Birthdays galore! Eran's 28th and then Yoni's 2nd birthday. 
We kept it small and did it at school with the teacher they had fired in the middle of the year. Then we did Chuck-E-Cheese with Brian (for his birthday too) and the family when he came home from school. 
And when Eran came back from Israel we got pregnant.
March - Sam's B-day and Purim - Yoni wore his devil coustume from last Halloween (we didn't go out Trick or treating cause 1. it was yucky out and 2. he cried the whole time we tried to put the costume on and 3. we (Israelis/Jews) don't do Halloween)
Here's Yoni "helping" with our shalch manot
April - Yoni's first surgery - tubes in his ears (He had them put in at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital). They are BLUE and every doctor who I forget to tell that he's had them put in (several at TCH - Texas Children's Hospital) checks him and comments about their surprise. At this point the anaesthesiologist and ENT suggested he might "have a touch of pneumonia" and gave me oral antibiotics for him in addition to the ear drops, leading me and the pediatrician to think all was under control.
May - How wrong we were! Yoni got REALLY dehydrated and sick with a pretty serious case of pneumonia (according to the pulomonologists we saw - not the worst case they had seen, but pretty high up there) and was in the hospital for 8 days :( Guess we should have listened to the other doctors and had an x-ray sooner rather than later.
THE SUMMER
June - My B-day came and went. And we had the wedding season. We spent $300 each on clothing that we wore to several different affairs over the summer - Eran got a tailored suit and tie and I got several nice evening tops that I'll never be able to wear again since I was pregnant and HUGE in the boob department (even more so than usual) We did get to see the Rosenblatts and Druyans for the first time in forever and we got to meet Sarah Rochel in person and not just read about her exploits
July - Did we see fireworks at Sugarland, or was that the year before?
August - Still pregnant, still hot in Houston. Yoni is still coughing some dry coughs and ocaisionally throws up from the coughing spells.
September - 
Yoni went for his check-up at Labor Day with the pulmonologist and had an x-ray that landed us in the hospital again. Three weeks this time! Almost daily X-rays with a pregnant mother (meaning I couldn't be inside the room when they did them).
Recap: Chest tube in - scary doctor freaks us out that this may not work. CT scan to see that it really didn't work. Maybe a larger size tube will do the trick? Since we're already sedated, I'll just put in a second tube to make sure we get the job done this time. Still no success with both tubes. Guess we'll have to get that pneuomatocele out of there. Lung surgery. Operation. Such a mess of that lung tissue - we'll just take the whole right upper lobe. Three days later, we're finally home!!! Good thing kids are so resilient - wish moms were too! How could we forget the year anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina (and Rita) and 5 years since September 11 - we watched all the TV specials in the hospital on all these events. It was surreal
October - For Mom's birthday we did not-so-yummy-as-real-birthday-cake sugar-free cherry pie since we found out that Aunt Carol is diabetic. We skipped Halloween this year (partly because last year he put up such a fuss about the devil costume, but) mainly because Eran feels like it is not a Jewish holiday thing (we're American now-he'll learn) and mommy was too tired too stress about it. He probably still could wear last year's devil costume [which he did wear for Purim]
November - Yael Netanella Namer 
(insert more cute pics here-blogger won't cooperate) made her debut with her arrival on Nov 7th (Safta Yosefa's birthday too) and life as we knew it changed forever. We got to see lots of family - which was awesome! Yosefa and Avi made their first visit from Israel, and Sam and Carlye got to meet their new niece and to see their nephew. We also spent our second Thanksgiving in Lafayette with the Louisiana family. Now it's tradition!
December - Shopping, shopping and more shopping! I did a lot of shopping during November too when the in-laws were here, but this month I was a little more responsible and had to do it with all of the other holiday shoppers. I can't remember a time in my life where I went shopping almost everyday for something or other, I guess Grandma Eleanor, my favorite shopaholic, would be proud. My post-maternity wardrobe is nearly complete. I still favor skirts for work, but now I have a new pair of jeans too.
Well this is it, the end of my extended chofesh (vacation) for maternity leave and my being home with the girl all the time. I'm sad already, but really looking forward to going back to work too.
Note to my loyal readers: As you can see, I took some time a while back and made some changes to the look of the blog site. Sorry if you don't like it, but comments are always appreciated. And I've been working on this post for a week now, so please give me feedback!!!
I've been focusing some of my last posts on Jonathan. I noticed and don't think I've gone and hidden Yaeli in the closet or forgotten her somewhere in the midst of all our shopping lately.
The truth is that Ms. Squeaky Nutella just hasn't been very noteworthy as of late. She's still sleeping a lot during the day, still eating (or rather drinking), still pooping and pretty fussy at night - especially when we're trying to get Yoni to go to bed or on long car trips.
But she has started cooing and gurgling and making all kinds of especially cute faces and noises. There are some definite recognition smiles in there - I don't care if they call it gas.
And tomorrow I hope to take her to "visit" the nest at the daycare at the JCC and hope to help make that transition as smooth as possible. I'm sure she'll be fine, eventually, but it's more for me to get used to the idea that she won't be with me all the time. Remember, she's been with me constantly during the pregnancy (since last February) and I have left her for only breif spells with the relatives - and even then I was generally nearby or at least within phone call and a 15 minute ride to get to her.
And I need to find out exactly what she needs to have at the school - how many changes of clothes, bibs (ridiculous) and passifiers (she still chokes on them whenever I try to get her to take them) How many bottles, how much food they expect and a backup plan when I can't get her enough boob juice.
These people do this for a living - I expect them them to know more about it than me since I was lucky enough to be with Jonathan for the entire first year of his life (and then some).
On a slightly different note,
I never thought then name Yael would be so hard for all these Texans to pronounce or comprehend. I remember there being at least one Yael in public school when I was growing up and it never seemed hard to pronounce. But the people at work mangle her name. I get strange looks and then Yale or Yell or some variation thereon. Netanella I can understand - I made it up and it's pretty random - although for some reason I seem to recall a Spanish language soap star who either is named that or it is her character's name or it is something really similar.3
So there you are - an entire post about Yael - her posting label count is growing
New Yoni-isms
Bootiful - Beautiful as in Oh what a "bootiful" day.
"Like Abba" - refers to perching his sunglasses on top of his head. This is generally the place Abba puts his sunglasses when he is inside so as to have them handy for bright lights or for the moment we eventually step outside. Mommy uses it to refer to wearing big boy underwear - oh the joys of potty training.
Yaeli - his name for his sister, whom he adores
"Turn your face around" or "turn your face this way" - especially cute when I am trying to drive and am not paying enough attention to him
Two minutes - another synonym for not yet. Is used with everything from finishing his bath to putting on his shoes to go out.
Handy Manny - For those of you who do not regularly watch the Disney channel at 7 o'clock in the morning or thereabouts, Handy Manny is a new cartoon handyman with a box full of talking tools like "Felipe" the Phillips screwdriver, "Pat" the Hammer, and "Stretch" the measuring tape to name a few. It is one of those bi-lingual Spanglish programs where Manny and some of the other characters speak Spanish. My son is definitely a fan and likes to put a crayon behind his ear and chant "Handy Manny, Handy Manny, Handy Manny" several times in a row, at loud decibels.
Mickey House - Another one of Yoni's corruptions....He likes to watch the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He now refers to all his favorite cartoons as Mickey House. I know he recognizes the Mickey character, but I'm not so sure about the others.
So we went away for one night with 2 sicko kiddos and I felt like I had packed enough stuff for a week. Good thing I took my car so there was room for everything. The only thing we didn't have was a laptop and I felt a pang of regret when I couldn't go online to investigate some minute detail or other about my kids. I am so addicted to the Internet, it's shameful.
Aunt Carol invited mom to go with her and Brian and his friend Kelby up to a resort village in Conroe. So mom invited me and we - me and the kiddos - went ahead and joined them (although for some reason I had an inkling that I shouldn't) [Eran was supposed to stay home and fix up the house while we were gone but he ended up sick instead and even missed a day of work and the house still looks like a tornado hit even though he did manage to clean the kitchen and toilet] It was a long long day and night for me as both my kiddos were not 100% and Brian was also not feeling well. And I had been with Yoni for most of the week anyway since he wasn't up to going to school. I needed a vacation from my vacation when we were done!
Yoni was an attention monger and was impossible to placate for long periods of time. He embarrassed the crap out of me by being a bit noisy and by swinging around Bubbe's cane (into displays and people) while we were trying on clothes at the Outlet mall (Mom's whole incentive for the trip) while Yaeli, my newborn started to kvetch right about the same time, as she was hungry. Her I can't blame or hold responsible, or him for that matter - it was just too long a day for him to sit still - the drive in the car and then at the store.
The next morning all he wanted to do was "see the water" and be Brian's shadow. So we looked out the window at the water. That wasn't enough for him. Eventually I explained that we could get him to settle down by taking him to see the water (the fountains on the miniature golf course). Mom was gung-ho to take him to the mini golf, but truth be known, it was too sophisticated for him. Also, it might not be a good idea (at least it didn't seem so to me) to give a 2 year old and two15 yr olds clubs and hard golf balls. When they did finally go to the course to "see the water" that's all Yoni wanted to do. If he had shown even the slightest interest in the game the other kids on the course were playing, I might have pushed to get the equipment, but the teenagers were more interested in the OTHER water. They wanted to rent a boat and go out on the lake. I was not about to have anything to do with that.
Sometimes it pays to stop and recapture the innocence of youth.
I have been teaching Yoni while he was sick and out from school last week that we should be thankful for the beautiful days we are given. This also helps in teaching the Modeh and the Shema. We had several days in a row of gorgeous weather with sunshine but not too hot and not cold... in short perfect weather to go outside and play at the park and have a picnic - which we did. I would remark on what a beautiful day it was and Yoni would concur.
So we woke up this week to overcast skies, fog and rain, and all around gloomy weather. But my so innocent son was adorable (as he tends to be) and when we opened the door to go outside he commented on what a beautiful day it was. It just served as a reminder that everyday is beautiful especially in the eyes of a child.
So when we last visited the Namer family, we were discussing the options regarding the fact that Yoni probably needed to see the "dahktoor" and about the difficulties with Mom trying to decide (some things never change) which route to take to seek medical advice on Mr. J.
Ms. Yael made that decision so much easier.
She kept even her pooped papa from getting pooped-on (I couldn't help myself) by intermittently deciding to breathe (or rather stop breathing and choke and gasp) throughout the night. So I called her doctor at 7AM (after we survived the night and upon the urging of Eran) to see what to do about a newborn (I keep forgetting that she's still so little, to me she seems so big already) in this predicament. She sent us to the ER anyway - what fun.
Dr. B suggested that since her lapses in breathing were never more than 20 seconds and she was not turning blue, that she probably had RSV - doesn't that sound scary. She also suggested that it made more sense to send her to the ER since they could hook her up with oxygen if necessary and get blood drawn and X-rays and the like.
While I was there I had Jonathan evaluated too, just for good measure, and basically demanded they do an X-Ray to rule out pneumonia since his symptoms were that of the last time we were admitted - diminished appetite, intermittently feverish, vomitting after bouts of coughing, etc.
Of course, since I was taking Eran to work and apprehensive about the whole damn trip to the hospital with the kiddos, I didn't arrive there until 10AM and I know that because that's the time stamped on the valet sticker. (It never fails that the parking lot is full when I get there!) It also gave me time to prepare for the long haul - I had diapers and wipes and extra outfits and blankets, and muffins and cookies and juice boxes as snacks, as well as cars and crayons and blocks and a Channukah bear for toys, not to mention my thank yous for baby gifts and the list of who they go to, and a book - in the off-chance that I actually would have time to read, ha ha.
On the positive side - I did get to spend three whole days not in the hospital with Yoni.
In the end it turns out that they both have the same virus (Jonathan's sicky school friends are to blame here, but his X-Ray looks good - Yippee, no pneumonia) which means there is nothing to do about it but let it run its course. So I get to torture my infant by spraying stuff up her nose (Saline drops or mommy-milk, whichever I have on hand) and break in the new bulb aspirator thingy for Ms. Princess and then try to suck out whatever mucus is loose in there, she is most displeased and I am pretty unhappy to have to do it. Yoni is still holding steady at 25 lbs (11.5 kilo - a good healthy almost 3rd percentile for him) and Yael is a hefty 4.49 kilo (9.88 lbs - you figure it out)
We finally sent Yoni to school today - it being Friday and them doing all sorts of fun things on Shabbat and compounded with the fact that it is the first night of Channukah. So at least he'll get to be in on some of the partying for that - how much fun can that be for a bunch of 2 and 3 year olds? Will let you know if any more Yonisms come out of it.
Eran asked me the other day if Yoni would ever be able to "speak clearly". Since I (his mother, who should be able to instinctively interpret his every breath, right?) still need a translator to understand him and sometimes ask him five times to repeat the same sentence till I finally do understand it, I figured others might appreciate a small dictionary of his most common(?) cutest phrases (and please be assured that this is my way to document it for posterity and to embarrass him later). Please feel free to add your favorites too.
All the way there = "All the way over there" as in when Bubbe showed him the general direction of their house out the 12th floor Texas Children's Hospital window
TIME OUT! = pronounced forcefully and accompanied by wagging index finger at offending adult. Generally elicits irritation from said adult and prompted parents to threaten him with an actual "time-out" when he got a little too precocious and was yelling it at his visiting grandmother at every other sentence.
Not yet, Maybe later, Almost = can be used interchangeably in my genteel boy child's mild-mannered vernacular to mean "buzz off, leave me alone, I'm almost three and very headstrong and BTW- I'll do whatever it is you want me to do when, and if I'm good and ready"
Sometimes these are also accompanied by wagging index finger at offending adult.
"Abba need to go dahktoor" - wisely spouted tonight when told that Abba didn't feel very good and was probably asleep on the couch (which he was), and also a good 45 minutes before Yoni threw up all over the living room floor maybe indicating that Yoni probably needs to go to the doctor.
ShoPPing = grocery stores and the likes of Walmart. Pronouncing the P quite strongly My son's favorite outing, even supercedes the park as I found out this afternoon when we went on an outing. I was prepared to go to Walmart with the kiddies, right before the holidays, but decided I'd swing by the library and check out the parking lot to see if there were lots of mommy cars there, possibly indicating story time or other such fun library activity. As we drove by the Kroger on the way to the Walmart (by way of Randalls parking lot), my son decided HE wanted to go shopping at Kroger and put up quite a tantrum until I turned the car and made it "go backward" in the direction of the Kroger. I never did make it to Walmart and didn't need ANYTHING from Kroger. We ended up splurging on RediWip and Magic Shell and chocolate chip waffles.
Then we went to the park and I wanted to try out a "new" one someone had clued me in to. It was nice and new and clean. But it was in the opposite direction from the park we usually frequent.
BTW - My son was out of school for the past few days and home with me since he threw up at school as he got overheated in his sleep while wearing a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie and wrapped up in his nap mat which is similar to a sleeping bag with a sheet sewn on top. Granted he has been a bit feverish and coughing but nothing a few doses of Triaminic and Infant Cold drops can't control - so maybe he SHOULD see a doctor, but I'm at a loss as to who to call. Should I call Yael's dr - a different pediatrician - who I briefly told about his condition (Yes, my newborn daughter's 2 year old brother who may or may not be asthmatic recently underwent lung surgery. Do you want a new patient?)
Or his pulmonolgist - who told me to go to my pediatrician to get a flu shot for him
Or his "current" pediatrician - who I am a little less than comfortable with his care of my problematic child, not that he isn't a great doctor, he just isn't making the kind of connection we need
too tired to type with one hand and have to deal with diapering Yael and cleaning up the living room. More to come later
So this is what being on vaction feels like - and its almost over :(
I'll probably be returning to work right around the first of the year 2007 or maybe the week between Christmas and New Years.
My in-laws returnd safely to Israel without too much trauma or drama on this end. They are of course sad about leaving but promise (or is that a threat) to come back in 2 years time.
I have been back to my office twice - once before Thanksgiving to pack up my stuff for the move and once more yesterday to check out the new digs and to show off Yaeli (of course) to all the others who didn't get to "ooh and aah" over her before Thanksgiving.
I am pretty excited about my new "office" on the 57th floor of the Wells Fargo Plaza. In this picture our new building is the green glass one and the old building is the pretty triangular pink granite one in the background on the right. There's a Hebrew phrase that loosly translates to "Change your location, change your luck"
I am down the row from the majority of people in the small cube farm and in a pretty resonable cube-space with a tall plastic tree just visible just over the top of the cube wall. And I'm across from the engineers with window offices - so that I can get an outside view when I need to. My favorite engineer who prefers to use his speaker phone for most calls and peppers his conversations with colorful Texas phrases like "we got a cat by the tail on this one" is directly across from me and "the whistler" is further down the row. My immediate supervisor is in the corner office next to the VP (in the other corner office) across from the small cube farm and far enough away from me not to interfere with my independence. And my least favorite person, as well as the girl they hired to cover me while I was out, are directly across from the supervisors - keeping them on a short leash. The only problem is that all the administrative staff people I could potentially learn things from are also located far away from me.
I am not sure what my duties will be when I get back, but I hope that the office location speaks loudly and that I'll get a chance to do other things and learn more.
Today Yael went to the doctor for her checkup. Here is the pertinent info including charts to track her growth
Weight: 8 lbs 8.5 oz = 3.86970991 kilograms
Height: 21 inches = 53.34 centimeters
Head Circumference: 14.5 inches = 36.83 centimeters
Next dr's appointment is in January when she'll get her next round of immunizations
