Time and Boys Fly

Boys Fly:

 
 
 
 

Time Flies:
I guess I am so busy having FUN (and cleaning, and changing diapers, and washing diapers, and folding clothes, and looking for lost objects, and taking photos, and getting Adel out of places she wedges herself into...) that I barely have time to upload photos. So as I mentioned before, I'm putting those photos back to their proper chronological order.

October Boys

October Adi

Dandilaya

Dizzy Busy (This is an old post, but now I added photos.)

Have fun.

Fire Truck Monday

"Fire Truck Friday" would have sounded better, but hey. I don't get to choose.

Two weeks ago (on Monday) we were ready to leave the library, waiting for the elevator down. there was another family before us- a mother with a baby in a carriage and a little girl. I was with all the kids, and although we'd fit, it would be somewhat squishy. So I decided to wait.
Soon after they went in, I heard a ringing sound. The library's elevator is prone to breaking, so I immediately suspected that that was the reason for the bell. I asked a librarian if the elevator was working, and she said she didn't know. Nice. Meanwhile, another librarian already heard the bell and ran over to a phone to call 911.
By the time we bumped the carriage down the stairs, we heard sirens and soon enough saw firemen walk into the library. The boys wanted to stay and watch them rescue the people. I was so grateful for my claustrophobia from preventing me from entering the elevator with another family! I mean, they weren't in any danger, but being stuck in a 4' x 5' area is bad enough with one adult, two kids and a carriage... it would be that much more unpleasant with two adults, five kids and two carriages.
Soon enough the firemen were able to get the elevator to come down and the family was freed!

  By Gedalya, age 4.5

Last Monday I entered my bedroom and smelled smoke. It was pretty faint. I looked out the window and saw fire trucks lining our street. What?! I tried to look down the block to see what they were doing, and it seemed they were working around a car. Soon we went outside and a few feet down the block I stopped in my tracks. There was a car... or more like the frame of a car. I'm not sure what happened, but from what I gathered, it started smoking while people were driving, so they pulled over and got out before it burst into flames.
The fire was already out when we got there, but here are some pictures I found online:

 

I was hoping that this Monday there will be no fire truck events... and there weren't. Although, whether there were or not, fire trucks wouldn't be able to get ANYWHERE because our streets aren't plowed! And by that I mean kids are sledding on the streets. Cars can't enter at all. Our government is messed up.

Just One Week

In the past week...

we got stuck outside in a blizzard

I did something to my back and now it hurts to move. Anyhow.

Mel drowned our phone

I thought I lost some important report papers that I had to give to Adel's therapist which would cause two therapists' salaries to be held back, but apparently, the therapist saw the papers on the table and took them herself

did I mention my back hurts?

we witnessed a car fire

I made a clip holder for Adel's hair accessories

I made a decision to stop being an editing purist and just post photos unedited or I will never post them at all!

we woke up in middle of the night to watch an eclipse

I promised myself to upload photos... about seventeen times
Zusha lost his eighth tooth. He is 6 1/2 years old.

I realized that I forgot to post about Mel's one year anniversary of being found- it happened at the beginning of this month!

I uploaded SOME photos to Shutterfly... (but they are from October. Hmph.)

I decided to show that I actually still do have boys, even though I haven't shown them or mentioned them in a while

 

Whooops, Adi's awake! Here's a squirrel for a bonus. She's eating an avocado.

It's Snow Joke! (And a Tornado, Too!)

This is a serious snow storm! I was excited to see gentle snow falling today, and I relished the feeling of stepping out in the wonderfully white world.
It was all good and well for the first ten to fifteen minutes of our walk to pick up Zusha. We arrived at the yeshiva. I thought to take photos of Gedalya enjoying the snow while we waited, but I didn't feel like taking my gloves off. And I was feeling anxious about Adel refusing to wear her mittens.

By the time Zusha came out, we looked like snowmen! My scarf was solid white- I'd challenge you to guess what color it was originally, but I don't have a photo. I guess you'll just have to imagine that there was no hint of yarn peeking through the snow!

I had planned to go to Shop Rite and Amazing Savings. I needed to get coffee cups, cat food and all that, but with the snow piling up, I wasn't sure it was a good idea. But after walking a couple of blocks in the awful cold, I thought it would do us all good to go in and warm up. So we did.

When we left the stores, I could not believe what I was seeing. Or more accurately, I wasn't actually seeing anything. Except white. So then I decided to take off my glasses because I'd rather see things blurry than see snow encrusted lenses.

Long story short (too late for that, huh?) we were stuck in a blizzard. I don't know how I made it home. I couldn't see more than three feet ahead of me. We were freezing. Ferocious winds were blowing needle-sharp flakes into our faces. At some points I wasn't able to get the carriage through. I had to turn it backwards and pull until we hit somewhat more trampled snow.

It seems to me we have a tendency to get stuck in storms.
Like one fine September day when we were playing in the park after picking up Zusha...

We were playing on the grass

and Adi asked to go on the swings. "Up!"

Since she loves swings so much, I use them as an incentive to walk. So I told her to stand up by herself and she did.

We were on the swings when the sky began to darken. It turned a stony color... kind of swampy looking. We watched together as a gigantic cloud zoomed into view and enveloped the sky. Well, that's not precisely it. I guess a more accurate way to describe it is- picture a pot of boiling water. Now picture that pot as the sky, all bubbling, rolling, moving.
At first I was in no rush to leave. If it would start raining, we wouldn't get home before it starts anyway. 
And then someone turned that pot over.
There was so much water in the air that there were waves in the air. So much water on the ground that there were waves on the ground. There was no distinguishing between sidewalk and street because they were both equally flooded- at least a foot deep.

By the time we arrived at the nearest grocery, about six short blocks away, we were soaked. Usually the word soaked is used figuratively, but now it was literal. As if we jumped in a pool. Not a dry fiber anywhere near us. We wrung ourselves out and did a little shopping. By the time we went out of the store, the sun was shining... birds were chirping... mini lakes disappearing rapidly into gutters.
It wasn't until we came home that we discovered we were stuck in the midst of a tornado!

Zusha was pretty scared and for the next couple of months storms made him nervous. I explained to him that we have apparatuses that can predict these sorts of things and help us keep safe in such storms. We will usually know if we need to evacuate, stock up on food for a few days, or just stay indoors for a couple of hours. Never mind the fact that this tornado wasn't predicted... LOL. But Zusha was somewhat appeased.

Let's see how long we'll be stuck indoors with this one. It's really something!

Proof Positive

Proof positive that not all the kids in the photo need to be looking into the camera in order to get a nice picture:

In fact, it's not necessary for any of them to look into the camera!

I don't know... I just like to capture life as it is... life as I will want to remember it. Not life as it was set up for a photo. (Which is why I decided to return the DSLR camera I bought last month, but that's for another post!)

Aren't they so cute and small? Just a few months ago, and what a difference.

Adibaby

On Shabbos Adi woke up at night. Instead of trying to put her back to sleep, I let her come out and join the seuda. One of the foods I put on her plate was butternut squash. It was hot, and I told her so. We blew on it together to cool it off, and Adel was saying, "Ot! Ot!"

The next day she surprised me. I took some of the same butternut squash, now cold, and handed it to her. She shook her head side to side and said, "Uh-uh" (the sound for no. It's her latest trick, and I love it!) and then she explained to me why she doesn't want it: "Ot!"
I was so proud how she remembered that it was hot and was able to communicate to me that she didn't want it and why.

Right now she is listening to a CD we haven't put on in a while. It's an exercise CD and there are motions to go with the songs. And after several months on not hearing this CD, she remembers some of the motions!

 More random cuteness:

Adi and Gedalya at the library

Adi admiring her work

Adi's friend, Tehilla

Chewey

Adi is happy to announce that...


...She is eating almost all table foods already! Until recently, Adel was able to eat small pieces of finger foods- as long as they dissolved easily. I gave her Bamba, but had to break each piece in thirds, Same thing with the whole grain baby puffs I gave her. She didn't chew- kinda just mashed the food around her mouth.
One day I bought a new food- peanut butter filled pretzel sticks. I handed one to each boy, and naturally Adi wanted one, too. I thought about breaking a piece off, but decided to see how she would do with a whole stick. Since they were peanut butter filled, they weren't solid... they had thin walls and were easy to bite and break up. And since they were long, she couldn't stuff a whole piece in her mouth.


Well, she handled them just great! Bit off pieces and chewed them like a pro! This was on chol hamoed Sukkos, right before she turned two. Zusha was so happy for her and said, "Adi is almost two, and two year olds already know how to chew. So see, she is almost two, so she is starting to chew!" And then, with big-brotherly pride, he added, "But Adi is not even two yet, and look! She is already chewing!"

Well, since then, Adel moved onto regular pretzel sticks, and then to crackers, and whole Bamba pieces. I can't tell you what a relief it is to be able to HAND SOMETHING OVER to Adel instead of breaking off bite-sized pieces and putting them in her mouth. And Adel loves her food freedom as well!
She loves Bamba the best. It's almost comical.Except when it's not. Like every morning.
She comes to the kitchen and points up to the cabinet and says, "Aah awi dea awy a Bamba am." I can only translate the last two words: Bamba eat. And she will demand and demand her Bamba and eat nothing else if she doesn't get her Bamba. We can't leave a grocery without Adel carrying her Bamba bag triumphantly.

Another favorite food is a baby food sandwich. I invented/discovered it one day when we were outside and I wanted something healthier than pretzels or Bamba for Adel to snack on in the park. I bought a loaf of sliced bread and a jar of baby food... and made a quick and simple sandwich! Now it's a daily thing. A couple of spoonfuls of peas, pears, carrots, banana, or blueberries and apples on a lightly toasted (if Adel has patience to wait for it to toast) multi-whole-grain bread and Adel has a healthy mini meal.

Aaand, I might as well finish with the rest of the pictures from the set above. These are the last photos of one-year-old Adel!


I kept trying to get her to walk here, but no luck.


Unlike now! Now I can be cautiously optimistic and say that walking is here to stay as a major part of Adel's life! Finally!

Mary Beth

How do you say goodbye to someone who has been dedicated to your baby for over a year? Someone who has been coming to your house several times a a week, working with your baby. After watching Adel get so attached to her occupational therapist, seeing her get all excited when she comes, it really is a hard thing to say goodbye.




Last week was Mary Beth's last day at our house.




Adel will be getting a new OT, who I'm sure will be great! But we really miss Mary Beth already.


Adel doesn't understand that Mary Beth will not be coming back, but the boys do. They keep asking why she had to leave and telling me they miss her.

Mary Beth brought lots of presents for Adel and the boys on her last day here. It was like a birthday party! LOL. Now they want to make a "We Miss You" video for her with all the presents and stuff. That'll be featured soon!

Thank you, Mary Beth, for all you've done for us!

Whooo.... Long Time

So due to the influx of inquiries about where I have been (cough*oneperson*cough) I decided to throw together a post.

The main problem was that our phone and internet conked out for over a week. I did use that time to edit photos, so I have some to put up, but that brings me to another problem. Blogger rotates all my vertical photos. I can fix this by rotating them sideways myself in my photo editing program before uploading to compensate... but then I have to straighten them out after the upload and it's just too much of a hassle. I have decided to use Shutterfly instead, but it's an extra few steps. Also, Shutterfly logs me out after 20 minutes of inactivity, and with a houseful of kids, can you imagine if I need to return to the computer in 19 minute intervals?? Logging back in and finding the photo I was working on takes time... so therefore I usually don't even start.

And then there's Adi. Adi doesn't let me use the computer. And she has been sleeping worse than ever, so I don't feel like starting a blog post because I will certainly not be able to finish it.

So now here I am. A lot has been happening. Adi decided to give walking another chance. She gave it a try two months ago and decided it wasn't really for her. Now she got back into the groove and can walk across the room! I'm not sure if she will decide to stick with it or take another break.

In any case, I do have much to update on. Since this blog is primarily for the purpose of recording my kids' lives, it's important to me to keep it up. Before I had readers, I would write posts and date them back a couple weeks or months to the time the events actually took place. Then when people started reading, I couldn't jump around like that. I had to have my most recent posts at the most recent spot.
Well, now that I skipped so much, I think I will have to go back and fill in posts into the times the events happened. (Like Zusha's birthday! I wrote about it, but there are still some things I want to fill in. And the week-by-week summer summary. I stopped abruptly on the first day of school, but I want to finish it up.) But I will put a link into a recent post for anyone who wants to read!

The Haircut Photos!

Here are the photos of Adel's most recent haircut.

As usual, her hair flips in and out and all around for a few hours after a bath. And since these park photos were taken shortly after washing and cutting her hair, the ends aren't tucked under the way they are supposed to be.

Drinking her boxed juice like a big girl!

Lookie those cute Shabbos shoes!

Why is Adel wearing Shabbos shoes on a casual Sunday at the park? Well. Basically, when we got Adel her first pair of shoes, they had to meet certain criteria. They had to be high tops, lace ups, have arch support, flexible soles, and oh yeah, they had to be Ecco or Ricosta. And since I had to go to a store and get Adel measured, I was extremely limited in my choices. Going into summer, I also wanted something lighter than a high top bootie. As a secondary shoe, I bought the cute ones above. They basically broke all the rules. LOL. They have buckles, the worst kind of closure for Adel's needs. Not extremely flexible. And they were one size too large. I didn't even show them to the therapist. I fear she might have gone into shock. Adel wore them on Shabbos and any other time I wished to fancy her up a bit.
Well, a few weeks before this photo was taken, Adel was outgrowing her first Ecco shoes. Since I knew she needed Ecco in the next size, I was able to just get them online (instead of being limited to the local stores' stock.) I picked out this adorable pair:

 

I kept it for a bit until Adel really outgrew her first pair. I put these on her for the first time on a Tuesday. On Thursday of the same week Adel had an appointment with the orthotist. I wasn't expecting to get an appointment so fast, and I didn't imagine they'd give her orthotics right away! It all happened so fast, and on Adel's third day of wearing her new $65 shoes, I was told I need to get a bigger size to accommodate orthotics! Since Adel doesn't really walk, these shoes were mostly worn while sitting in the carriage and during therapy at home. They were new enough that I was able to return them!Yay! I was kinda sad to give them up, but at least everything went smoothly.

So while these sweet gray booties were traveling back to Amazon, Adel needed something to wear. That's where the Shabbos shoes came in! Adel wore them for about a week, until her orthotics came in.

I really got off topic, didn't I? Well, might as well finish the story. I had saved Zusha's baby Shabbos shoes to use for Gedalya, and even after Gedalya they were in good condition. I decided to take them along to the orthotics center to try them on over the orthotics. The doctor told me they fit well, so I went online and ordered new shoes in the same size.

Ralph Laurens for $12

I also came across another sweet pair that was only available in a size bigger, so I threw it in the cart as well.

Naturino for $22

Well, they arrived, and the Ralph Laurens were way too big! I thought to return them and order a smaller size, but when I went back online, they had gone up from $12 to $39!!
I just kept these two for later and got a pair for now at a local store where they fitted Adel first. I'll present it soon enough!

Oh, yeah, back on topic. Haircut. That was the topic, remember?
This is one of the last photos of Adel before the haircut, so you can see the difference. Not much difference in length- mostly in neatness.

.....aaaand, that's why I don't blog as often as I used to.