Been busy

Just a little note to say hi to blogger-land and to admit that we have been busy leading our lives, not leaving much time for blogging.

Here are a few highlights:

• Yael went on her first buggy ride at school this week. And the daycare ladies still fawn all over her, its even a little embarrassing already. For example, they mentioned that she only had winter clothes in her cubby for changes and that I should really bring some lighter stuff for her. One of them even commented "Don't make me go to the store!" Every day I dress her in a onesie and something on her legs and I think that maybe they wait till I hit the parking lot to strip her down to just the onesie and sometimes the socks.
• Jonathan's has been a little pukey lately, and struggled for a long while with a barky cough, but we are overcoming those hurdles by giving him more medicine and a little more to drink and hoping for the best. Meanwhile his doctor gave him a stronger dose of steroids so as to avoid us going back in the hospital. So far so good. Kudos to the pulmonologist!
• He has also MOSTLY mastered the art of using the bathroom - at every opportunity, in every public place we go. Of course he sometimes misses the toilet and pees all over his feet and shirt and shoes and socks - so even if we make it to the potty, we sometimes still need a wardrobe change.
• We had class pictures at school and I remembered to send my kiddos in cute outfits, although my daughter was wearing a cute little hat that made her look like a silly little stupid orange flower.
• Eran and I endured the Magic of Meyerland Minyan 6th year anniversary Gala Dinner. It was actually quite nice, a silent auction, live music, kosher fleshig buffet, free drinks, some honored guests, lots of chit-chat, the usual drill. And I sat at the table next to Michael Duke's mom - what a blast from the past and such a small world. Guess I do know people (and have connections from way back when) and when the time comes I should be able to get our article for Aleh published in the Jewish Herald Voice. Remind me to post the story about the rodeo and how it relates to the dinner.
• We survived 2 Pesach seders (me and the kids while Eran "went to English class") We were invited to share them both with Aunt Carol and her father and the kids' grandparents, with other assorted family and guests. Thank goodness for the 4 cups of wine to get us through this stressful year.
  
• That was also the week I found out my blood pressure was through the roof - so much so that the doctor put me on medication immediately. But since I am my mother's daughter, the doctor ran an EKG in the office and changed the dosage of one of the meds before I even finished paying my co-pay and making my next appointment. Luckily, she reduced it to half a pill a day so I could make them last longer. But it is to bring down my pressure and to stave off my recurrent migraines and I hate the fact that I am ONLY 32 and have to be taking BP medication!
• Eran basically singlehandedly moved our apartment (with some muscle help from his friends - many thanks to Ben and to Ariella for sharing him, Javi, George, David, Brad, etc...) and right before Pesach - this is becoming a trend, the second time we have done that...Boy were my parents sick of me and my kids.

And the biggest news...

• Jonathan had his first haircut, and he looks like a different kid!

It was really much ado about nothing as I finally decided on Easter Sunday that it was enough already. I sat him down on a chair on a towel, grabbed the kitchen shears (the ones that are made to cut through chicken bones, but have never seen anything tougher than twine) and snipped away all his beautiful ringlets :(
He has one small spot that is slightly bald and one side that is longer that the other since he got wiggly towards the end, but I must admit that he doesn't look like I took a soup bowl to his head - I did alright for my first (and hopefully only) attempt at a haircut. Lets see if Eran will let me at him with the shears :)
I promise to post more pictures soon....

Bathtub baby

Yaeli-la-la as I sometimes like to refer to my baby girl, is a woman on a mission. According to Grandpa Grizzly Beard, {who is not always the most observant as far as childhood milestones go}, she has learned locomotion in reverse – the first step in becoming a moving menace [How’s that for alliteration?]

Here’s a picture of her first real bathtub bath with momma freaking out nearby. Big brotha Jonathan just has to be part of the action. Then I decided that she was not secure enough in the 2 feet of water in the tub with her brother lovingly hugging (squeezing) on her and I hopped in there with them to hold her better - fully clothed (ok, I was still wearing some clothes, anyway). This pic makes it look like we're in jail, but really it is just a better way for us to get in and out.

Birthday Parties

This part of the post was originally started on Jan 14th at 7PM

So we're working on planning Yoni's 3rd birthday party. We've been to several lately including: a dance party, a clown, sports theme, fire museum, inflatables

I've talked him out of Elmo (for now anyway) since it seems babyish.
I was thinking Spiderman or Hot Wheels type racing cars.We also have the Thomas the Train or Bob the builder options too, Any ideas?

With Spiderman I was thinking tossing a ball of yarn around between the kids to make a web, or pin the spider on the web. With hot wheels, they could paint their own cars to take home. I really need independent things they can do together in a group.

So now it's official. We are doing this theme:
Things That Go!


We have an interactive book with that title that is all pictures that move and Yoni LOVES it. Since we have had so many health problems, we opted for an arts and crafts party where they can be stationary for at least some of the time...see the cute invite here.

I am missing many email addresses for friends we want to invite to come. Please send (or post) any friends and family that you might think of -
Brian, Norma, Ellen, Marla, Micah, etc...

We are family

I just had to post this picture...


Not only is MY Aunt Carol holding Ms. Priss, (Yael's great Aunt or Aunt once removed - I never have figured all that stuff out)
the Princess is dressed in a chick outfit that HER Aunt Carlye and Uncle Sam got for her.

Isn't family grand :)

Daktur

Am I psychic or what?

I took half a day off this morning to take Yoni to the doctor and half expected to be admitted to the hospital AGAIN since that's what happened last time we went for a follow up visit at this clinic with this doctor after our hospital stay (in May). We were even in the same room that we were in the last time. I could tell by the amount of time it took her to get in the room that something was not good, and then she took a long time scrunching up her face while reading the X-rays before telling us that she wasn't happy with the films. Then I went and peeked over her shoulder (from across the room) and unfortunately I understand enough about these chest x-rays to see the white areas she was concerned about.

Instead of admitting us on the spot, she just ordered a bunch of tests since Jonathan's lungs are still not clear and now it seems there is some irritation on both sides (we were only concerned about the right side before) Then she admitted that she would consult on this case with one of her colleagues who happens to know Jonathan as he was the one who visited us in the prior visit in the hospital.
Of course the fact that we had a barking cough for the past two weeks and that Yoni turned blue for no apparent reason except being excited should have been the first clue that we still have problems.

So now we are waiting to do a barium swallow study and then possibly a pH test of his stomach by way of a probe down his esophagus to see if maybe he is not aspirating food into his airways when he swallows or if he has more than normal acid reflux. We'll also decide whether to do a CT scan of his lungs to get an even better idea of what is going on - should be outpatient length of time she suggested.

I told you he doesn't have asthma, my mother's instinct still believes that, but it can't hurt to give him some Albuterol to make him stop coughing and breathe easier in any case.

At least the good news is that I am not crazy, he still has lung irritation which makes it hard to breathe and probably accounts for his waking up every night as well as his snoring, and of course the fact that he is not laying in the hospital right now and we will get to go back to do the tests.

Once we finished at the clinic, which was the first time Eran had been there - I've been there 3 times, we grabbed a quick bite and Yoni fell asleep in the car. So I took Eran to work and then took Yoni back to school for nap time. That was nice cause I got to pop in and see Yaeli being fed her noon time bottle and the ladies were so sweet. So I got extra time with her this morning and got to lay her down on the toys and then I got to give her kisses when I saw her in the middle of the day. And when I finally picked her up this evening she quieted down when I picked her up -no offense Grandpa, she just missed her Mommy that's all.

So the Jonathan 3rd birthday party ball is finally rolling - we set a date and an activity to do with a room full of 2 and 3 year old preschoolers - that was another thing I did this afternoon before going in to work where I did the only thing I HAD to do today - put together 2 books and have them overnighted to the drilling rigs - It was actually quite nice, I was greeted at my desk by 2 bouquets of Valentines flowers from an older gentleman co-worker (who graced a few of us with them last year too) and the departmental muckety mucks - too bad it was overshadowed by my shocking news from earlier in the day and the fact that I was too stressed about getting those books made to enjoy them, but they will be there all week and I will enjoy them then.

More on that birthday thing in later posts too....Now on to the pics...

A Golden Oldie from December of my precious Yael





3 Month old Yaeli after the rest of us came back from seeing Sesame Street and Elmo











Here's Big Brother Yoni "reading" to Yaeli about his most favorite "Things That GO" - trains









Isn't she a magnificently sweet way to keep your mind off the not so happy news about that other cutie?
These pics just don't do her (or me) justice...I have some really cute pics to post tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Presenting

The promised posting of some of the pics from Sesame Street Live

You must be at least THIS tall and love Elmo THIS much to be admitted


Happy Hands


Yoni and Abba Eran show us "its a GO to start the show"


Blowing kisses to our many fans


Being the Mommy is definitely something to look up to - at least in the bright eyes of an excited 3 yr old


Yoni somehow got it into his head that this was HIS party from uncle Sam. I'm not quite sure he gets the concept of presents and parties because we can look at the Nemo calendar where I marked last months parties and he'll still "read" the calendar to me.

Stay tuned for more pics of the Namer kids - Yaeli will be the star of the next round. And then you'll get to see the 2 of them together - how sweet. It's in the works.

Bingo

Oh the things we do for our kiddos...

We live across the street from the clubhouse at our apt complex, where they hold Bingo games several times a month. So this afternoon, Yoni saw all the people congregating outside the door waiting for the event to begin and he wanted to check it out. So we went over there and stood just inside the door as they were signing in (rent coupons are sometimes prizes).
Of course they made a huge fuss over him and I said that maybe we would come play sometime. Of course it would help if Yoni knew his numbers better in order to actually play Bingo.Then we went home to take a nap - yeah, right!

Also, later in the evening I was singing the BINGO song to Yael and hit upon this simple variation:

There was a mommy who had a girl
And Yaeli was her name-o
Y-A-E-L-I
Y-A-E-L-I
Y-A-E-L-I
And Yaeli was her name-o

You get the picture, I'm an idiot

Elmo Makes Music

Thanks Uncle Sam and Aunt Carlye for helping Yoni have a very special birthday. We went to see Elmo and his Sesame Street friends (click here) and spared no expense on the chachkies.

He got a spinning Sesame Street lightup wand with Elmo on top - his new favorite toy, which he nearly ran the batteries down on already, an Elmo T-shirt, an Elmo doll and the show CD. Then at intermission he got a $10 mylar Elmo face balloon-see above pic.


It was a cute show, but we were exhausted after the first half and since I am fighting the ghastly chest congestion and cough (which I haven't dealt with until now since I had my adenoids taken out), it seemed that the 2nd half after intermission was a little too much, but of course they saved the Sesame Street classics like "Sing" for the 2nd half and as a finale. It just seemed a little anti-climactic since it was nap time for most of the kiddos and the meltdown factor could be seen everywhere.

Kudos to the Yonster though - he actually made it to the potty at intermission (disgusting public men's' room I can only imagine, Eran got this one - the women's line was around the corner) and actually did his business rather than needing a new pull-up mid show. We're so proud!

He was so excited he called Sam at least 10 times this afternoon instead of napping. He was also about seven different shades of grey and blue in his face and lips today as lately he has been coughing also. Next week he goes back to the respiratory doctor (pulmonologist) who is monitoring him after the surgery and his asthma. We'll see what she has to allow and how badly we've done and whether we have to alter his care at this point. My guess is we'll probably end up on oxygen or something of that nature since he is barking like a seal when he coughs and then coughing something up that he doesn't actually spit out (or vomit - thank goodness)

However, another tidbit of work-related news, I got a phone call on my cell phone on the weekend at 8:30 AM (which is relatively late for a field man) from the oil-field in Louisiana. I forgot that I have my cell number on my card and in the office directory and didn't answer the first call...Anyway, I got the relief field supervisor set up with the necessary username and password and mapped to the right forms in the database in about fifteen minutes, right as we were getting ready to walk out the door. If he had called twenty minutes later, I would have been dropping Yaeli off at the grandparents. Ah the wonders of technology, and extra responsibilities since "Ms Thing" is gone. Good thing he caught me or he would have been calling someone else (my boss) to get it done. Yippee for me and for feeling extra special important enough to merit a phone call on the weekend, good thing it wasn't 4:30 in the morning, although I probably would have been up.

Reap what you sow

So after doing my job and the one who left’s job and fixing the one who is about to leave’s mistakes, I am officially “under the weather” - cough, cough, sniffle, sniffle. I had a serious sinus attack earlier this week after throwing my back out somehow over the weekend.

Yoni has a barking cough where he sounds like a baby seal, but he hasn't thrown up from it so far and he doesn't seem to be particularly lethargic or running a fever. Now Yael is a little congested as well and therefore never completely finishes a feeding - she kept me up nursing for hours last night!!!

Also, I am completely convinced that the whole attitude of the former employee should be construed as “Tom Sawyer Syndrome”.
After finally receiving all the materials she had been getting all along, it turns out that the whole thing is just finding the correct information and plugging in the right info in the right spot – pure data entry.
And she compiled books for distribution around to the different higher-ups and drilling folks out on the rigs. Well in that case it is purely a case of Administrative duties – any monkey can print out documents and make a bunch of copies and punch holes and print dividers. The real work in compiling all the information contained in those books and set-up materials is done by a more highly paid engineer.
So now, fielding the phone calls and emails from the field and our partners, and directly dealing with the software folks is the main challenge of that part of “her” former job.

The other girl is doing the job I was doing before I left, well she can’t seem to get any part of it perfectly down.
I am constantly checking her and finding all kinds of mistakes – leaving things out, putting things in the wrong place, etc. I really think I can do a great job in this as far as you have to keep track of lots of different details and that is the biggest challenge. The most difficult part is more time consuming – it is the printing and filing things away.

So really, all along being responsible for the daily report seems to be the challenging part of this position and it is one I was handling quite well all along (except for the filing papers part – the electronic filing was no biggie as it kept me straight as to what I was doing and where I was.

Just when you thought it was safe...

Some of the initial shell shock has passed (finally) and we are all moving on.

Today, the lady they hired to do my job while I was out submitted her resignation.
I'm thinking she has to be aware that she was not doing a great job, and was causing problems for others. Plus she just never really ever got it to work smoothly.

Apparently, she found some other job that is doing more along the lines of what she was doing before and much more in her comfort zone as well as getting the chance to go to the deep water rigs (which I could never or would never do because of the time constraints and my small children)

My boss had asked me to step into a meeting to make sure I am trained on our ever changing software database. A few minutes later he busted in with her letter in hand which he flashed and then quipped "You're not planning on going anywhere are you? cause you're the drilling reports girl now."

And earlier in the day my favorite one of the management eschelon, the one I finally went to with all this mess originally, casually asked how I was hanging in there and then cautioned, "you gotta be careful what you wish for"

Again, I have to wonder about the mysterious turn of events and the way things pan out. When I was working at Kenes in Tel Aviv, right before I moved to Jerusalem and left the position, they were working on building a new database software. I really enojyed that troubleshooting and input and that I was able to help make it a better system. I even considered that as a possible career route, but didn't know how to get into that area. And now, I am basically doing the same sort of end-user bug fixing and trouble shooting.

And I have also picked up the AFEs that I have been complaining about not receiving all along in order to get the big picture about the projects. When I came in this morning, there were a few on my chair waiting for me. Luckily, I already have some experience with the tools used in tracking these things otherwise I would totally be lost. And the few AFEs I have seen DO have all the information I would have needed to be totally independent of this crazy woman all along.

So now is my chance to shine - I just hope I can step up to the challenge of learning all these new aspects of my "new" job and hold it all together with my family life.

The next few months should be an interesting roller-coaster ride. We have the all-important 3rd birthday where Yoni will get his first haircut and since we have been to all these other parties lately, I want to throw a bash for my kid and reap all the fun (and presents) to be had. But that takes planning and finding the time to make it all happen. Plus, my brother is hitting a milestone birthday in March so I need to do something special for him too. And of course Eran's birthday and Valentines Day (its still fun to give presents even if we don't really celebrate the holiday - I already got mine, a beautiful heart shaped white gold and diamond pendant necklace from Eran)

And the biggest of excitement of all ... we are finally moving to a larger apartment with a second bathroom and a wet bar which basically affords us another two sinks and vanity mirrors. Again, in my life I never manage to do anything half-assed. Whenerver there are major changes, the changes are usually to all aspects.

Stay tuned for more on the continuing saga of "As Brenda's World Turns"

No turning back

I got this woman fired!!!
She invaded my privacy and terrorized me and many others for the last time.
I can't believe I did it - and with such coolness and calmness and no emotional outbreaks - at least not yet.
The HR department got involved this morning and I had to write up my case in an email to the HR director. Then right after lunch they called me downstairs to keep me out of way and off the same floor to avoid more of a scene - and I chatted with another new mother in the HR department about our babies and the possibilities that could be happening upstairs. I was a chatterbox as I tend to be when I am nervous.

Supposedly [I was downstairs at the time] they confronted her and she admitted to doing it. They confiscated her access cards, reclaimed her computer and she packed up her personal things and left right there and then - in the middle of the day.

Of course the rumor mills were flying!!! And she called one of her friends claiming that I was gunning for her job since the beginning and that I had her framed or something along those lines in order to save face. But mostly the story was correct. A personal file was sent to her computer and I was somehow involved.

My boss was shocked on Friday when I finally got around to telling him, and also that I had been sitting on this for 2 weeks already. I told him I had to think long and hard before I did anything about it, and that's true. This whole situation consumed me for the past few days. And then once I got the ball rolling, it was so fast it left me thrown for a loop. And she has been being so nice to everyone lately, I guess she was expecting it.

True, this woman terrorized me personally for at least the past year and most people would agree she was difficult to work with. But she was also a work-a-holic. She came in early and left late and worked weekends. She was not married, had no children and when her last cat attacked her, she had it put down. Apart from being a psycho, she has lots of physical ailments as well. She is asthmatic and recently spent time in the hospital for pneumonia and had a cyst removed from her lung. She also has knee problems and is severly overweight and generally not a healthy person, so I am sorry to have taken away her medical bemefits more than anything. She can go to the temp agencies to find work and collect some sort of unemployment, so I am less worried about her actual financial position.

But as my support system has been telling me, she made her own bed and now she has to lie in it. She is the one who crossed the line and for some reason thought she was untouchable and that she wouldn't get caught - and isn't it funny how G-d works in mysterious ways. Why oh why didn't she just read the damn thing on my computer since she was already there, if it was so important to her, and no one would have been the wiser? But she not only compressed the file (which I don't even know how to do) and left it there out on the drive, she also sent it to her computer. And there was nothing she could do with the information anyway as it was a SELF appraisal and confidential at that. Then she didn't really completely delete it off my computer, which also blows my mind, and that basically sealed her coffin.

We'll see what the next few days reveal. I am petrified! Eran even had me ask for an escort to my car this afternoon. The HR director took me personally in her car and it gave us a chance to debrief a little bit as well.

And there you have it - as the world turns, and there is the first real "pigua" (terrorist bombing) in Eilat - also previously untouchable in all the Middle East mess, my own little world keeps on turning and unfolding new and dramatic turns.

Meanwhile, Yael is super excited about finding her hands with her mouth and actually grasping things but not on purpose yet. She is gurgling and cooing and generally making all kinds of happy sounds which counteracts any sort of negativity in the whole wide world. And Jonathan has gained a little weight towards his third birthday and grown a little taller and become a little more headstrong. But he constantly reminds me of the wonders of the world in seeing them through his eyes and that "it's a beautiful day", right mommy? So we sing first thing in the morning in the car on the way to daycare: "Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I've got a wonderful feeling, everything's going my way"

Have a beautiful day everyone. And some of the pictures are being processed, I promise!

The Deed is Done!

I am officially a corporate whistle blower.
I set the ball rolling with all the incriminating evidence and even GAVE her enough rope to hang herself. [See this previously posted text to an email]
Now its a wait and see kinda thing as far as what happens next, but the higher-ups were definitely not happy about the whole situation.
I will keep you posted as the drama unfolds on the soap opera that is my life.

Black Socks

This is a quick tribute to Mrs King who taught us many funny songs throughout the years.
I have taught it to Yoni (right after she passed away) and he occasionally requests it [by name]on the way to school or before bed. It reminds me fondly of my younger years and I thought I would share it with you here:

Black socks
They never grow dirty
The longer you wear them
The blacker they get
Whenever I think about washing them
Something inside me says...
Don't wash them yet

Yoni pauses dramatically before the last line and wags that finger back and forth like a stern school marm but with his charming smile to balance it out.

Thanks for the memories Mrs. King and for other favorites like Cukaburra and Father Abraham and his seven dancing sons .

Oh and here is your daily picture my loyal blog readers

Dress for Success

This is one of my new year’s resolutions. I posted about it here originally.
As I get a clean slate at the beginning of the year, I also get to return to work after a couple of months off for maternity leave. I decided to turn over a new leaf and dress up for work on a daily basis.
I got the opportunity to do alot of wardrobe (clothing) shopping while I was off, I just need a little income to finish accessorizing with new shoes (my father calls me Imelda, but I haven’t bought any lately) and contemporary jewelry.
Once you’ve done something for three weeks it supposedly becomes a habit and that is certainly my intention here. To dress up and wear makeup to work daily – at least for now – as this should counteract any lingering “pregnancy brain” phenomenon and instances of sleeplessness to be encountered with an infant and an almost three year old at home.
Its all about the appearances we put forth to the world and I intend to look professional.

Yum

Some things you just have to be a kid to understand.

Yoni loves Challah (any bread is referred to as challah)
and chicken nuggets (any form of chicken can be chicken nuggets)
and pasta (any and all shapes and sizes, but he can be picky about sauces - sometimes macaroni and cheese is a winner, and sometimes a tomato based sauce works ok, and sometimes butter, and lately no sauce at all).

Today we had all three for lunch - pasta by special kid request. We also had rice and beans flavored with steak bits, which was AMAZINGLY yummy - thanks Eran!

But Yoni just had a spaghetti sandwich for dinner.
I never heard of such a thing, but when your tiny undernourished kid (it's a Jewish mother thing) is finally eating with a vengence, he can get away with these things.

Here's how it goes -
a large slice of challah (the best in town, fresh from Wish Bakery - and it is so yummy it tastes like cake)
folded in half
and stuffed with plain Jane spaghetti - with no sauce this time (my purist boy)

Would you like some carbs to go with your carbs? Of course this means he could have either the beans dish or a yogurt as a side dish - both of which he turned down.

He did however have banana Laffy Taffy candy and some other sugary treats (but not chocolate - where did this kid come from) earlier in the day and some not-too-sweet cinnamon rugalach at the neighbors' to go with his "special coffee"- which was Nestle Quick Shoko which he also didn't drink, but he turned his nose up at my French Vanilla flavored milk drink too. Go Figure.

Meanwhile, Yael was adorably sweet as usual and despite her cradle crap and eczema, she is a beauty. She is smiling and cooing and generally making sweet faces and noises to all whom she graces with her precence.

Little Mt. Vesuvius

So we're at a birthday party - the fourth one this month - for one of Jonathan's classmates at a fun place called Pump it Up! with inflatables for the kiddos to climb and slide and jump on.

We make it through all of the jumping and climbing and general mayhem with no injuries or upsets to all these 2-1/2 and 3-yr olds and their siblings.

Then we get to the pizza and cake stage. All the kids sat down and had pizza (a classic kid favorite) put in front of them. My child won't touch it. Then he doesn't want the juice boxes either - he wants Abba's water. So then he complains (my kid SO doesn't usually complain) that his tummy hurts - twice to his Abba and then he wants Mommy. Meanwhile, thankfully, Yael has recently fallen back asleep - so she is peacefully resting in her stroller/car carrier.

Then it was like a scene from The Exorcist. Yoni threw up everywhere.

I caught the first bit in my hands thinking that it would be a small episode that and we would be done - boy was I wrong! Thankfully the other mothers were quite calm about it. Someone found a paper plate for him to throw up on and a huge roll of paper towels and Sani-Wipes. And most of it got the floor and on his clothes.

Of course, the child that was sitting next to him and got the brunt of the show was the son of the most neurotic mother there - and also she happened to be some sort of adolescent doctor. She was pretty calm about Yoni - otherwise I would have totally lost it. As it was, I was pretty mortified. I had Eran take him out of that room as fast as I could to contain the screaming Yoni and make much less of a scene as I could. It was awful! But obviously not the first time the staff has had to go through this as they had a mop in there pretty quick.

Needless to say, we skipped the singing and cake part of the party. We took our 2 books as a party favor and got the hell out of dodge. Meanwhile all Yoni wanted was new pants - despite the fact that his shirt was entirely covered.

We obviously made a bad choice to go this party in the first place.
Yoni had not been feeling well that morning and he got overheated and threw up early that morning. Then he choked on some Frosted Flakes and spit up a little then too. But I knew how much he loved jumping on that inflatable at the carnival last week that I thought he would enjoy it with kids his own age and his friends. To top it off, it was a dreary day and he didn't get to go do anything fun outside after the party.
Also, earlier in the weekend, he took a rather harsh tumble and I was worried about a possible concussion. I guess if you can survive childhood, life is good.
My poor little boy :(

The saga continues...

Is there a reason you felt the necessity to forward my confidential self-appraisal to your computer on the day my daughter was born?

Yaeli stats

She is vaccinated.

And she has grown.
Now she weighs in at 10 lbs 14 oz and is 22 inches long.

And its official - she has dry, sensitive skin with eczema, hence the constant pimply "heat rash" as I referred to it on her shaina punim (beautiful face).

And I was SO glad to have left the office just then to take her a it gave me a chance to cool off and think a little more rationally after my big discovery.

GOTCHA!

We survived

The first full week back in the swing of things -

• Yoni back at the BAC from dawn till dusk
• Mommy back to the downtown Houston office - albeit on the 57th floor rather than the 52nd or 44th -[We're moving on up!] With a new wardrobe, a new handbag and a new attitude.
• Yaeli with her first bottle feedings (ok 2nd, bubbe gave her one bottle once upon a time - BTW we're still on a strict diet of boob juice and no formula - so far anyway)
  And introducing Yael to the whole newness of the pacifier episodes (for me she choked on them, for the not-mommy persons, she did just fine!)
• Abba having to rely on rides with people other than the Mom-taxi, and getting excited about his upcoming English classes, while desperately needing a vacation from his life right now - he didn't get maternity leave like me and his head is so full he really needs a break! About the only thing that truly makes him laugh and smile these days is playing with our special little Yonster!
• Our first round of birthday parties. We had a joint party on Sunday that was for 2 boys in Yoni's class. And directly following that, we went downstairs to the Family Fun Day at the JCC where Yoni spent literally hours jumping in the Disney Princess moonwalk.
  What a difference a few months make.
  At the Fall Festival he was not quite coordinated enough to enjoy jumping on the Tiger moonwalk, but 2 months later he couldn't get enough - even with all the bigger kids rumble and tumbling about in there too. And this was after a sports-themed party filled with active activities for active 3 year olds.
  Needless to say he was exhausted!

The whole breat-milk pumping thing causes some interesting questions in the ladies room from my co-workers, since that is the only place I have found on my floor that doesn't have a window in the door frame or that isn't out in the open. It's not ideal - to put it lightly. I pulled an office chair (at least its a pretty comfy one) into the ladies room and stuck a sticky note on it asking to please not remove the chair from the ladies room. Then when I need to pump at the office (twice a day at the moment, but I should probably up it to once more at work and once more at home) I just roll the chair into the handicapped stall and face away from the toilet (next to the the little trash can in the wall - YUK!) with my handy little lunch kit on the floor in front of me. In addition to the less than sanitary space, I also have to contend with the oh-so-pleasant sounds of others using the toilet.

But the important thing is that it is still enough for Ms. Yael to survive on during the hours I have to be away from her. And like it or not, this phase will pass sooner rather than later :(

So one of the reasons I was so grateful for having made the transition back to work when I did was that it was a short work week. I was able to contend with all the trials and still know that the weekend was only a few days away. And everyone at the office has been extremely nice and excited about me coming back.

Also, my witchy co-worker was absent and still on vacation on the west coast giving me a few blissful days of getting back into the swing of things without having to contend with her breathing down my neck. Today was her first day back and that is exactly what she did.

She immediately pointed out all the things she could that were wrong with the work I sent out on Friday (which I was just supposed to be proofreading). Then she changed the access I had to one of our essential programs, but when I brought it to his attention, my supervisor got her to change it back.

Also today, the woman who has been doing my job while I was out was absent with the stomach flu, so I had to deal with fixing mistakes she had made previously in my abscence, plus 3X as many reports (Mondays are always hectic) and having my nemesis back on the premises. In addition, I have another department breathing down my neck, waiting for me to update a report that I didn't pass on to anyone while I was out - job security - so that they can use it for end of the year accounting and accrual purposes.

All in all, it is nice to be needed, but I hope I can cope with the added stresses of running a one-car family and keeping up the professional standards I expect for myself.

And again

So I have already made RED updates to the Looking Back post but I keep remembering things I meant to put in there and I know that they'll get lost or worse yet, not get read, if I continue to edit on that post, So...

In September Eran and I "celebrated" our 5th wedding anniversary together. This was the whole reasonI posted about the September 11 th anniversary specials on TV - we got married just days before and were therfore able to cheaply get to Vegas for our honeymoon trip. We had planned to host a kiddush at Meyerland Minyan in honor of that milestone, but instead we had Jonathan admitted to Texas Childrens and forgot to cancel or postpone the kiddush, so it went on without us as the guests of honor - oh well. We were still able to spend it together. And of course, there is the fact that we were discharged from the hospital on the eve of Rosh HaShana. We were able to spend the High Holidays at home with Yoni, but I stayed away from shul with him so as not to get him sick after his surgery.


Mom pouted that no one mentioned their 37th (or was it 38th) anniversary of wedded bliss - going strong since June 9th 1968.

First Day Jitters

Happy 2007!
And welcome to the first day of the rest of your life - with 2 little kids at day care and back to work full-time in downtown H-town, where appearance is everything.

It was Yael's first day at Bertha Alyce Center at the JCC where Jonathan is already ensconced, and my first day back to work. We all survived.

I took pictures at home before we left, but forgot the cameras there too, so I will have to get more pics tomorrow. She was dressed as cute as a monkey - hint, hint - she was wearing the stuff Aunt Carlye and Senor Sam got her when they were here in Houston.

We (Eran and I) met Hanna Karny who has been at BAC for 24 years now. She is my friend Efrat Karny's mother (Sam went to HSPVA with her and I used to play Mahj with her and some other girls) and supposedly she's the greatest teacher there. I have wanted to meet her for quite sometime. She actually wanted to meet Eran because she heard him speaking Hebrew to Tzvia (our favorite morning teacher who makes Yoni eat breakfast everyday) and wanted to meet the "new" Israeli. We were talking to her outside of Yael's class which is in the infant wing whereas Yoni is already a big boy (just ask him, he'll tell ya) and is on the other side of the building.

Happy 28th and/or 29th Birthday Carlye

Gevalia Cake 'N Cup Hot Chocolate Set


The Cake 'N Cup Kit supplies ingredients to bake two individual dark chocolate, marshmallow-topped cakes—even the cups! All you need is milk and butter. We’ve added the perfect accompaniments—rich, white chocolate almond cocoa and Black Forest cocoa. Made in USA; cups imported.

This is what I sent to Carlye for her big milestone birthday on January 5th. At least I remembered to send a gift this year. A touch of elegance and gourmet style for my favorite chic Brooklynite sister-in-law. Hope its not too "froo-froo" for you and that you and Senor Sam (guess that's my newest nickname for him) enjoy both making and eating the "birthday" cakes together. Wish we could be there to drink a toast to you too.

Team Baby

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

Looking Back

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!!!

A Yael Update

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

Yonisms - Part II

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.

Addicted

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.

A Beautiful Day

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.

What a way to spend the day

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.

Yoni-isms Part I

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

Maternity Leave...Finally

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.

Baby Stats

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

More pics from the Levine Whirlwind baby tour

This post is an addendum to Mrs. Carlye Levine's, previous post on her blog. Since I don't know how to upload pics to Snapfish or some other venue this is just a snippet of the 24 pics I got developed this afternoon.

Aunt Carlye and Uncle Sam holding Yael in her oversized blanket.
Eventually she'll grow into the adorable monkey suit outfit you got for her and we'll post pics of that when she wears it.



Aunt Carlye holding my loveable little camera hog Jonathan.


Barb can handle and hold even the smallest of babies and here's the proof - We're so proud that you could hold Yael at a few days and Jonathan at a few months old. Thanks for being part of our celebrations.

And also thanks for getting the TMX Elmo. Hope you all enjoyed seeing him and his antics when you were here.

Horsie, Horsie!

We start them off early in the South.

My 2-1/2 year old son thouroughly enjoyed his Thanksgiving trip to Louisiana (Huge thanks to Perry and Marla for putting up with ALL of us for so long), including a trip to the horse races. Good thing they skipped the Casino.
I had to put my foot down and insist that we had to wait to take Yael there until she was at least 2 months old.

It was a first for Saba and Safta too. See the look of awe on their faces

Big horses running at breakneck speed topped with colorful jockeys - leads to an interesting action shot.
Go Horsie #3!

Abba helps Jonathan cheer them on - Go Horsie #3.


I don't think Horsie #3 was the big winner - or I'm sure I would've heard all about it by now.
Oh well, you win some, you lose some. But is sure looks like they had fun.

Hot dogs and peanuts and popcorn - oh my!

Our first real outing

Yael, Saba and Safta and I all went out for a few hours to my downtown office today. For me it was mostly to check on the status of things at the office and to pack up my stuff so that no other poor schlub had to do it for me, since we are moving to the taller building next door.



It was the first time Yosefa and Avi have seen skyscrapers up close and in person and I made sure they got a really good look. We drove around a bit near my building so they could get a sense of the concrete jungle where we live and work. I then took them to my building. I took them first to the 44th floor where they got a good look out of the "executive" conference room window. They were impressed (among other things) that they could see the Aquarium where they had gone over the weekend with Eran and Yoni. (see pic)


Then we went up to the 52nd floor so we could pack up my desk and work area, where we were summarily accosted by all the ladies - in order to see the newest Namer.

We came during lunchtime, on a short week when most of [the engineers in] my dept were out (except of course for those most diligent worker bees - including most of the friends I wanted to see anyway, and my immediate supervisor - good business sense for him to see both me and the babe at the office! I was hoping that we wouldn't cause too much commotion, but who was I kidding, boy was I wrong about that - almost everyone wanted to see us both and stopped by to give the proper praise to the Princess.





This sculpture in front of my building reminded Avi and Yosefa of another sculpture in front of one of our miserable old houses in Jersalem, "The Mifletzet" in Kiryat Yovel. Now that you mention it, I wonder if they had the same weird artistic influence. You be the judge

My prodigy

So here's the latest yummy Yael news.
Yael is officially her own person. Her last link to me (the remnants of the umbilical cord) fell off yesterday morning at the first diaper change.
She is making all the proper baby movements that "the books" tell you about - rooting, sticking out her tounge, mouthing "ohs" and getting wide-eyed at all the appropriate things.
She is also already lifting her heavy head some and making what could be construed as distinctive sounds other than cries - my little prodigy.
I can tell when she is focusing on things like the difference between our navy blue couch and the stark white wall behind it, or when she is studying my face and the silly expressions I am showing her in the middle of the night when no one else is awake.
Her fingers are still long and the nailbeds are even longer, but she has only managed to inflict minor injury on herself - is it too early to order her custom-made Raabs (that was for you Daddy)?
We have to protect her from her over-loving big brother who wants to hold her hand (better than her soft head) while she eats or sleeps or gets any attention whatsoever. He has only actually climbed into the bassinet once - while it was on the floor and she wasn't in it, but he tries to hold her hand in the mornings before I am totally awake and I am afraid she will be squished or something wihle my back is turned.

We have misplaced our digital camera at the moment and don't have the proper software loaded on the home computer to download the pictures anyway - so pictures will be forthcoming eventually.

Introducing...

Yael Netanella Namer

being held by her big brother Jonathan

New Arrival

We're so excited to welcome our new addition to the family on November 7, 2006.

You can see the first family photos on my sister-in-law Carlye's website here: http://gracefullysocial.blogspot.com/ and I'll find some others and post them later on this site

Here is the link to our daughter's very own webpage:
http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage.asp?URLID=1S5J3V1R0I
password: Namer

She was ready to enter the world quite quickly when she finally decided to join us and we're happy she waited for the doctor to show up. She was a healthy 6 lbs 13.7 oz and 19 inches.
And NO we don't have an official name for her yet - but we will very soon - I hope!!!

The Namer in-laws from Israel have landed in New York and are currently on their way to Houston for the next few weeks - It's gonna be a full house around here!!!

I finally deliver the promised goods

So maybe it took awhile, but here are the promised pictures from the Fall Festival.
And again - comments on our cuteness are always appreciated!

Unfortunately, I only had a few pics left on my Fun Saver camera or I surely would have snapped some of him at the petting zoo and with the pregnant goat too...Oh well.

Childhood memories -

No one would know from this picture that a cute, blonde pre-teen girl helped Mr. Independent get up to the top

but he didn't need any help coming down - Cowabunga Dude!

Aunt Carol - Thanks for spotting so we didn't roll off the side! And for holding the cherry red snowcone which of course we ended up spilling all over your shirt later anyway

So, what do you call those bouncy things - a moon walk? ....
We were not so big on the bouncy thing as our plain jumping up and down on the ground still leaves a lot to be desired - coordination is just not quite there for those muscle groups yet, I guess, since running in circles can sometimes still prove to be a challenge.

How apropo though - this moon walker, bouncy thing was an orange striped tiger - our Namer family mascot :)


Here's Bubbe in the front by the eye of the tiger


And a very pregnant Mommy at the back by the tail - And how do you like our orange balloon sword to match?




And what would a day at the park be without a trip or two down the slide?

This one made Mommy cringe when we got to the bottom and the gap between the slide and the ground was way too big for Mr. J to navigate - and so he landed with a pretty hard thud on his diapered butt - great padding - not even a bump in the road for this rambuncious kid

Good thing Aunt Carol was there to dust Jonathan off though, since Mommy just couldn't get there fast enough or bend down to pick him up.

It sure didn't bother him much though, he was off to do it again and again and again and even knocked some bigger kid out of the way on the way down.

Kids
You just gotta love 'em and the crazy things they will do to make your heart leap out of your chest!

I'm so special!

CHECK THIS OUT!!!

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Tzniut (modesty) - Take 2

There's no way I can recreate exactly what was eaten yesterday by the Halloween blogger monster, but here is a second attempt, somewhere along the same lines

So there are many side effects of being pregnant, some of which are less pleasant than others, but I'll leave that to your imagination...

One unexpected side effect for me has been the fact that I am just much more comfortable in skirts than pants. In fact the last few times I wore pants just made me realize just how much I like wearing skirts - despite the fact that my legs are not so pretty since they are constantly covered in some sort of bug bites and/or scratches that are at various stages of healing.

In one of my previous posts I mentioned the fat lady, front pleated jeans - and about how those were the most recent pants I wore - leaving a bad taste in my "mouth" about the way I looked. Also recently I wore my most favorite pair of pre-pregnancy work-trousers to work and just did the rubber-band waistband trick to accommodate my pregnant tummy. I forgot about the zipper part and totally busted it open. It didn't phase me one bit and I just threw out the pants without much ado or hullabaloo about it - my favorite pair mind you, and that's a big deal for someone who doesn't like shopping for clothes for myself too much.

In addition to the airy comfort of long modest skirts, I also like the shorter knee-length flirty ones. .{Somewhere in here would be where the part about my son playing peek-a-boo under my skirt should fit in, but because of that other side effect known as "pregnancy brain", I don't remember how the story fits in now a whole day later} I wore a flouncy knee-length skirt yesterday and it just made me happy to have a feminine ruffle right at my knee. Because I have never been comfortable with my legs, a mini-skirt is pretty much out of the question, but it was really fun to wear a short(er) skirt and feel good about it during the last part of this pregnancy.

Now I have to mention my disgust with my pregnancy hair. Some people love the fact that they have glowing and shiny hair during their pregnancy, but not me. It is not only a mousy shade of brown, but it is both stringy and frizzy at the same time and the population of stray greys is ever-growing, much to my dismay. A few months ago I went and chopped about 4 inches off hoping that it would improve the situation - it didn't, although I don't have split or dead ends to report. And I have changed both shampoo and condition at least 3 time snow, all to no avail. This pregnancy hair (and skin) almost makes me consider wearing a hat or maybe a wig just so I could remember what a good hair day feels like.

Now I am contemplating the customary or not so customary ritual dipping in the mikve before giving birth. Haven't done enough research, can't remember if I was for it or against it myself, and time is quickly running out.

My doctor's visit this afternoon went something like this --- "Where do you live? Meyerland? Good! That's pretty close to the hospital. If you lived any further away, I'd be sending you there right now. Friday I am in Clear Lake so if you don't have any contractions that are 10 minutes apart before then, give us a call on Monday and we'll go ahead and get this party started"
And that's because I told her I had Pitocin with my last delivery and ended up having to have an epidural and at this point I am walking around already further along than I ever was with him (they really, really had to induce me with him - I mean from nothing), so I'd kinda like nature to take it's course as much as possible at this point.
Now I'm going to get off this computer and call our family friend the OB/GYN who has been displaced from New Orleans and see how irrational I am being about waiting this out and what I should really expect at this point. She was surprised at how long they let me keep walking around with my high-risk pregnancy in Israel, let's see how she feels about the most lackadaisical pregnancy I ever heard of in comparison.
Goodnight!