Dizzy Busy!

Otherwise titled: The Week of the Walk

Oh, how I needed this Shabbos to come. Last week was just... wow.
On Monday I took Gedalya and Adel to the library RIF program while Zusha was in cheider. The library is half a mile from my house... not bad at all. But then I have to go pick up Zusha, and that's a 1.5 mile walk from the library. Plus the one-mile walk home... that makes three. Gedalya hopped onto the carriage for part of the way, so that made for a REAL workout!

The next day we went to pick up Adel's orthotics!
 
 (Notice Adel's insoles on the chair on the left... they were taken out so the orthotics would fit inside the shoes. Below the chair is some cardboard full of molding plaster. Thankfully, we escaped that procedure, because Adel's orthotics require measuring instead of molding!)
That was really exciting. I can't wait to see Adel progress in her walking with the help of the braces. She needs bigger shoes now for them, so picking them out was fun!



Then we picked up Zusha and wound up with three miles of walking under our belts again.

Wednesday was a big day for Adel. We had a neurology appointment for her... a general checkup and a discussion about an MRI. Poor baby Adel was SO nauseous on the train and bus.   She was sweating, crying, screaming, wriggling, dry heaving. We got off the bus ten blocks early and walked the rest of the way to the hospital. Poor baby fell asleep. She woke up in the exam room in an AWFUL mood and was screaming the whole time. It was quite a flop.
Adel LOVES water and playing in the sink, so I decided to try that to calm her down.

 
 

The weather wasn't great, so we didn't go to too many places after the doctor. We stopped off in Borders and got some fun books and toys.
 
 

Then we went to the pet shop next door and played with the kitties. Gedalya was begging me for a parakeet, but we didn't buy one.

Thursday was Adel's one-year re-evaluation at the therapy center. We met with a government official. This was a crucial meeting where they were going to decide which services to increase, which to reduce and which to terminate. The Special Ed and Speech therapists put in for an increase, but Early Intervention started being very stingy with giving out therapy. We weren't expecting the increase, but we thought we'd try anyway. What we really hoped, though, is that they wouldn't decrease it. The therapists coached me on what kind of questions I'd get, how to answer and all that. I brought Adel along to show how she really isn't functioning on a two year old level. I brought letters from the geneticist and neurologist describing her level of delay. I needed to show them that this wasn't just an average kid who needs a boost, but would catch up sooner or later anyway. This is a kid who will not reach her potential without maximum therapy.
Well, we got Speech and Special Ed increased by one! It was very exciting. Now Adel has Special Ed four times a week and Speech three times. Occupational therapy was decreased to one, but that's okay because I wouldn't be able to fit so much into my week anyway. Then I went to pick up Zusha and that was three miles again.

And if you actually read all that, here are some photos as a reward.

The End!

...for now.

Dandilaya

I love taking photos of Gedalya with dandelions. I love taking photos of all the kids with them, but Gedalya especially because his hair kinda reminds me of one. *giggle*

All spring long I take photos of them all blowing the fluff... but we didn't expect to find dandelions in October!







What a satisfied little boy!

October Adi

My newly-two year old!





Adi doing the sign for , "Give me."

October Boys

All these tree photos were taken in the same spot. I was standing in the same place; I only moved the camera angle slightly. There was just so much beauty and color. The boys were amazed at the variety or colors.

Blogger Repents

Blogger repented for its misdeeds. I am now able to load photos, and ...dare I even hope that... they don't rotate my photos anymore!

So here are some of the things we've been up to!

When the weather was warmer, Adel loved it when I filled her carriage tray with water for her to splash in.

My smiley face!

We went on our first trip to Target. It was lots of fun!

Most of my photos of Gedalya look like this:

So I treasure the ones that look like this: 

LOTS and LOTS of leftover challa from the yomim tovim. Yum!

Adel busy with the iPad. This photo should be used as an advertisement for Apple. LOL.

I realize that there aren't really pictures of Zusha here... I usually try to be fair and include all the kids in my post equally if it's a mixed post... but then I realized... eventually it will even out. This time Zusha got shortchanged. Last time Gedalya did. Next time maybe Adel will. This need for representing all the munchkins equally, the fear of appearing to favor someone more, actually prevents me from putting up posts sometimes if I can't find a picture of someone I'd like to share. So when they grow up, I think they'd appreciate reading imperfect posts instead of no posts at all!

I'm Still Here

What happened to my posting? It went from 30 or more posts a month to less than ten! Well, not to use a cliche, but we've been... busy.

We've always been busy, and I've always cut corners somewhere because of it. Now the corner is the blog.
It's been kinda hard to blog because of all the changes Blogger is making. I used to upload photos to Shutterfly.com and drag and drop them into my posts. I used Shutterfly because I didn't like how small the images on Blogger were back then. But it was an extra step, so when Blogger raised their image size limit, I went back to uploading my photos straight to the blog.
There I encountered more problems. The new method didn't put the photos straight into the post, but rather kept them in a pop-up that you had to click to open. But if my browser crashed, or the kids closed something, the images didn't get saved. I lost a couple of posts like that and wasn't motivated enough to go search out the images again to rewrite the post.
Now they changed the upload method again, but it rotates all my photos! I have to go to my image editor and rotate the images I want to use to the left- so that when Blogger rotates them to the right, it works out. Whew. That was one more responsibility I didn't need. On top of it all, only one (out of ten) photos I wanted to put in this post actually managed to load.
So here it is.

I will switch back to good old Shutterfly and hopefully everything will go smoothly again.

In other news, Adi has a few new words:

Down

On

Hello

Hat

Hot

Hug

Finished

Probably more. I have to remember more. "Down" she learned when we were walking outside hand in hand. Whenever I wanted to pick her up, she yelled, "Up! Up!" She wanted to go DOWN, so I asked, "Down, Adi? You want to go down?" And after several times, she repeated, "Dine? Dine? Dine!"

She brings me any shoes she can find and says, "On!" It sounds like, "Ine!"

"Hello" is an old one. She takes a phone to her ear and says, "Ah-woe?" She also forces me to say hello into the phone for up to five minutes non-stop. LOL

Hat... "At!" She loves hats, and if she finds one on the floor (a fire helmet, police hat, yarmulka, or her own outside hat, she will insist everyone in sight take turns putting it on. That's why I am often seen walking around with a construction hardhat  at home.

Hug! Adel is a snuggle bunny, and is giving me hugs as I type. She presses against you and says, "Hock" while patting you on the back. Hugs are often followed by exaggerated kisses.

The sign for finished is brushing hands together. She does some approximation of the sign and says, "Nee-new!" Sometimes she also says, "Na moo!" (No more!)


So that's Adel's vocabulary update. I have so much more to write about, but I must run to pick up Zusha from cheider. Hopefully soon I will share lots of photos, news, and everyday happenings!
Oh... one last bit of Adi news. She will be getting orthotics! These are braces that go into her shoes. They are ankle-high, with straps in the front. I'm excited to see what it will do for her walking, because after that initial heart-stopping moment, she has walked on her own two or three times. She enjoys walking hand in hand but isn't doing it alone at all. So we'll see!

It's Really Fall!

So it's really fall, huh? I guess with all the brouhaha with yom tov after yom tov, I didn't really pay attention to autumn creeping up.

In my mind I was still here:

Meanwhile, the rains are falling...

The coats and hats are making their appearance...

 The umbrellas are getting good use...

And maybe the best of all, the colors! The lovely, calm, earthy colors.


Each season has its beauty.