Thursday, January 28, 2010

Dear oldest child,

Lately, while observing my beloved children, I have seen my patience-trying, not-quite-not-a toddler, "pilpeleet" and my usually more placid oldest son grow before my eyes. The oldest has gone from a spritely toddler to a full-on personality bearing little person, sometimes with a blazing temper (I have NO idea where he picked that up) to match. It is amazing to watch the transformations right before your eyes.

I guess my emotional incubator hormones must be kicking in, but lately I have taken pains to tell my son how happy I am that HaShem chose to give him to us to raise. I even started to draft a letter to him - hence the post title.

Maybe it feels like I give the little one a lot more attention since she DEMANDS it and he is more self-sufficient. For example, last night I offered to take the boy with me to run errands to the store since I always take the girl. He declined at first and then half an hour later he called me (mid-trip) wanting to go to the second store. Since I picked the grocery that most likely had all the items I needed, hoping for one-stop shopping (not necessarily the best or the cheapest or the closest store I admit) I had to disappoint the boy. Meanwhile the girl got to her cranky stage and we both lost our patience, in spite of the Dora DVD that made its way into the shopping cart at the beginning of the trip. Whining that she wanted to weigh things on the scale that I had already passed -for no reason other than to weigh it- promted me to tell her that I wanted a million dollars. A sure sign that I had lost ALL my patience with her. When I got to the car and saw the time it was clear why. Her "witching" hour had arrived and I was caught unaware! Woe is me. We got home as fast as we could after she continued her cry/whine fest because she wanted her library book in the back (with the groceries) instead of next to her - so, I flung it back there in hopes that she would calm down. Not my most proud parenting moments I assure you!

It also may have to do with the fact that the big kid will be "graduating" from the Montessori program they're in this year and will go into first grade next year. And the term Eran has been using to discuss the different programs include ragil (regular, which the school terms as Traditional) vs the Montessori program which is more "flexible" (shall we say? Eran likened it to kindergarten activities for older kids) and more along the lines of what he has been doing most recently. So there is an obvious shift in terms of schooling in that he WILL go to another school next year, weather I like it or not, and he will be considered a "real" student - as if all he has learned up till now didn't count.

So when I finally got home again last night I we were stuck with the State of the Union address on at least 5 TV channels and since it is WAY above their heads (and frankly mine at that hour) I took it as an opportunity to do a little math and spelling lesson. I knew I would be able to read all the highlights and lowlights of the speech on-line today.

I asked the kids if they knew who that man was? They answered his name (kinda) And I asked if they knew what he did? I had to tell them he was President of the United States, but they knew that is where they live. We said that the president had just finished 1 year of his time in his job as president and that is why he was giving this speech on all those TV channels (and they weren't even the favorite channels in our house, so why would we care, but I digress...)
I explained that he was elected for a 4 year job. (Gotta make sure to use terms that speak to your audience.) Then I wanted to know how many years he had left. That was a little abstract so I put my fingers up to illustrate. They got it! So then I told the kids that he may get a chance to keep the job after that for another four years (I was careful not to make this anything political - they need to understand the civics behind the office, not the politics at this point) And they were able to tell me that it could be 7 more years. Mini civics lesson OVER! And as he finished his speech and started handshaking his way out of the room, I hate myself for even thinking/realizing that he was the only black person the cameras showed in a sea of white politicians. Thankfully our local stations showed some of our Congressional leaders' responses, including Pete Olsen, Shelia Jackson Lee and Al Green.

I mentioned that I hadn't seen a book from the teachers in awhile and so that prompted me to try out his oral spelling skills. We did lap and lad and nap and hat and cap. It made me remember the lessons I used to have in my educations courses about how different people learn in different ways. He was able to do most of those words and their sounds (now that he has finally gotten over his ear infections and most recent bout of strep throat with a rash - some people call it scarlet fever) Of course that didn't translate to the page. I am not sure he could recognize all those words easily.

And of course, his fingers are severely peeling since he is (maybe) finally hitting that growth spurt he has been shoveling food down his gullet for the past 3 months in preparation for. We have recently been to 2 snake birthday parties so I said I would call him snake boy instead of monkey boy since he's peeling like a snake. And he replied with a snuggle and said I should call him "snake buddy boy" which turned out to be a real tongue twister for me for some reason. Then he proceeded to poke me full on in the eye with one of those snakeskin fingers [yuck] and it triggered a huge gagging reflex in me. I really thought I was going to lose my dinner (of a most nutritious nature - half a bag of kettle cooked potato chips) all over the living room. I called for a glass of water from my darling in the next room between choking fits and he was TOO SLOW in getting for me. By this point I was crying tears from choking and heaving and he's LUCKY I'm not a puker cause he would've gotten in straight in the face!

This post really took on a more rambling message than I meant. When I began, I meant it to showcase the gush of emotions (pregancy hormones anyone?) I am feeling regarding and around my oldest son lately and not to be a blow-by-blow of the night's events - although there are some that I am proud of and some I would rather forget. But I still WOULD like a million dollars if anyone has that lying around that they want to contribute to my sanity fund.

Enjoy the rest of the week. The weather here is supposed to get awful. Stream-of-consciousness is good (but maybe I need a bell on my nose to let people know when I am chainging the subject - DING!)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

another sigh of relief

Don'tcha hate it when you're waiting on test results and then they don't call. I'm talking about the 3 hour glucose tolerance test that I did on Monday after failing the 1 hour screening.

So you figure no news is good news, right?
So it's 3:41 and I'm waiting for the boss to leave at 4:00 when the phone rings.
Right away I see from the caller ID that it is the dr's office. Oh shit!
So I answer the phone despite my trepidation and once she verifies that it really is me she then tells me that "You passed! You passed with flying colors." I was so glad that when I hung up the phone I let out a loud Hallelujah that could be heard two floors down.

Which means that the first stupid hour long scan was not accurate (which I never did in Israel - I only did the 3 hour test or with Yael at all) Or it could be that I made sure to drink a lot of water and eat an orange every day before the 3 hour test. But in any case, I felt like a pin cushion, and the combination of no food and lots of calorieless sugar in my system made for a very yucky feeling all day long even after stuffing my face with lots of carbs and then some protein for lunch.

My favorite phlebotomist who usually is very gentle and I don't even feel the stick, was not so gentle that morning. The fasting poke also had to draw blood for my nuchal translucency test to check to see that all is progressing as it should be.

The fun part of that test was the UltraSound which I brought my mom along to see but they didn't let her back there. During that part of the test there was much movement and the babies look like babies already on the screen. One othe them wiped their brow and the other one had a hiccup and I could see their knees pressed up against the wall of the sac. And we have established a Baby A and Baby B and their positioned side by side rather than one on top of the other. And Dalia the tech who was wonderful was able to see their stomachs were full indicating swallowing already and that the heart rate was 161 for one and 165 for the other. Let the old wives tales arguing over the sex begin!

So glad I got the fun part out of the way early. Then I had to go back to the lab every hour and get more blood drawn. Usually they try to alternate arms, however my second arm was being uncooperative and the first stick hurt and didn't want to give any blood. The second one was also a dud, although it bled for a second after she removec the needle. So we went back tothe first arm and she drew from the same vein as before. And for the other 2 times as well. After the second draw I went up to the dr's office to check with the dr that all was ok and she had to rush off to deliver an emergency C-section and so was running VERY behind. I went back downstairs, had my blood drawn again and then went back to see the dr. Timing was perfect for me, at least 45 min behind for everyone else. She then sent me back to the lab with more blood tests to be done so it was good that we saw her when we did. My mom was there in the room and we cancelled out the fact that I won't have to have the BRAC screening as she has already done it and come back negative. One less blood panel for me to do! :)

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Phew! The cat is WAY outta the bag.

Phew! Glad that's over with.
The cat is WAY outta the bag.

My co-worker came into my office late this afternoon asking for the number to the HR manager since she had already closed her computer. I looked it up on the phone for her - no questions asked. She then told me she was expecting. Since she has shared with me in the past some of her many fertility and other womenly issues, I was super excited for her and know she has a lot of pressure on her to make this a healthy pregnancy. I was so happy for her that I hugged her and then told her on the spot that I was having twins too.

Then we found out that we are both due in late July. Not such a good thing for the office. We ran to our supervisor's office together to tell him what we pieced together already. She told him earlier in the day and I had tried twice today and at least once yesterday to tell him about the pregnancy. He then put it together, why I was having so many drs visits lately. This summer will be interesting in our dept to say the least - since we both kinda have the same function. Same but different. And we are both due in late July (mine will probably be earlier, and she may also have high risk pregnancy issues because of all her previous procedures)

And since the higher ups' offices are so close together - sharing a wall, the Sr VP of our dept saw us lurking in our boss's office and wanted to know what was up - I think he was afraid we were both leaving. So now he knows too. Congratulations all around of course, but you could practically see the wheels turning in their heads about how they were going to cover things down the line, and the comments came out about what is IN the water around here?
The company receptionist is due in February, an accountant recently came back from maternity leave and then quit to manage her husband's office. The IT #2 is due in April and one of our manager's wife is due soon after that as well.

And I made Teresa, my office neighbor and all around chatting buddy, call me from her car so I could tell her today too so she wouldn’t be the last to know. I invited her to lunch with me and my friend from HR (who I told today at lunch) and Teresa declined so I had to tell her over the phone. I chastised her that if she had come to lunch she wouldn've found out then.

Not to mention that because this is the beginning of a new year where they finally have some capital dollars to allocate, the bosses are tied up with massive spreadsheets and a million meetings. This is exciting news for the girls, but on the back burner for the boys at least for the next 3 weeks or so.

Tomorrow should be VERY interesting.


When it rains it pours ! :-)

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

And you thought stupid tests were for high school

I'll just put it out there: I HATE MEDICAL TESTS OF ANY KIND.
Especially when the results don't come out like what the doctor wants and you have to do them again. Or worse - a more invasive version.
I'm done venting - for now.