In the Park... with Friends

Living around the corner from a park has its benefits... especially when the park is also half a block away from your sons' school. Pretty often the kids' friends go there after school, so it's that much more fun.

The first stop is ALWAYS the swing. For half an hour at least.

This little girl was walking since she was 9 months old! She's about 10 months in this photo. Two of her brothers are in my boys' classes. 

This brother is in Zusha's class. He loves to make Adi laugh.

It's a win-win situation. Adi gets entertained and Zusha's friend feels important.

This brother is in Gedalya's class.

And another friend from Gedalya's class.

Another boy from Zusha's class. Adi is pretty popular with these seven-year-olds because she loves to say hi to everyone, which makes the boys laugh. They all clamor to say hi to her so she could say hi back. :)

Between moving closer to cheider and the park, and the social butterfly Gedalya starting cheider this year, everyone is making many more friends and having much more fun!

Chanuka

Happy Chanuka, everybody!

All these photos are from last year... Interesting to see how much everyone changed! This year's Chanuka photos are still a work in progress. :) You know me. If they are up by Purim, I'll consider it on time. :D

OMGKITTIES!!!

What I haven't mentioned on the blog before is that my cat, Mushu, is pregnant. Or, WAS pregnant until just a few days ago. At midnight on Wednesday night/Thursday morning she started meowing really loudly. I found her in Zusha's bed and took her to the basement so she doesn't wake him. She continued meowing and returned to Zusha's bed, sitting on his pillow and meowing right into his ear.
Of course, that woke him up. At first I tried to move Mushu somewhere else- the basket we prepared for her birth. But she just wanted to be in Zusha's bed. I told him to climb up to the top bunk to sleep next to Gedalya, but she followed him there as well!

I explained that she might be having babies, but it's not a reason to stay up, and he should try to fall back asleep.

Throughout the commotion, Gedalya woke up as well, and I allowed them both to come down from the top bunk because it became obvious that Mushu will go wherever Zusha goes. So both boys were lying quietly on the bottom bunk bed, when I noticed Mushu licking something... something that wasn't part of her. I turned on the light, and...

The first baby has been born!

We watched as more and more babies were born. Two, then three, then four...
The first one to be born was solid gray. The second one we thought was a tuxedo cat like Mel, but when his fur dried, we saw he was gray and white, not black and white. The rest of the babies were calico/tortoiseshell like Mushu.

We set up a playpen for her and put inside a laundry basket draped in cloth.

At this point it was 3 or 3:30 AM. I shooed the boys to the top bunk (Mushu gave birth on the bottom one and I didn't have the energy or the time to change sheets) and went to bed myself.

I was sleeping for no more than 15 minutes when the boys came barging into my room with more news. Mushu had her FIFTH baby next to them on the top bed. :0 I picked the baby up gently with a washcloth and placed her in the basket with her siblings.

Here are two of the calicoes:

One of the kitties rolled away and snuggled into the folds of a blanket when I took this photo:

The adorable little brood. The greys are boys and the calicoes are all girls. Aren't they so sweet! We're looking for good homes for them all when they are old enough to leave their Mama. If anyone wants one or knows someone who'd want one, let me know!

Several Things

If you look at this photo, you will learn several things:

a> That my kitchen is messy.
b> That Adi loves playing with water.
c> That I suck at cutting hair.
d> That Adi has an awesomely cool band on her wrist.


I'll start with <d>.

 As most kids with low muscle tone, Adi has a problem keeping her saliva in her mouth. Which was cute to photograph when she was a few months old, but at age three it's not that cute anymore.

Wearing a bib is one option. One that I wouldn't consider for a second. It looks to *special needs* when a big kid wears a bib outside of mealtime. And anyway, it won't help with the drool on her chin, only with the drool on her shirt.

So I got a pack of these awesomely cool wristbands and taught Adi to wipe her chin when it's wet. She usually hates to have things on her wrist, but I guess since this is almost like clothing (and since I got her teachers at school to introduce them) she went for it.
Now all I have to do is say, "Adi, chin," and she wipes around her mouth with this wristband. Cool. :)

Now, onto the unfortunate topic of poor Adi's hair.

Adi had beautiful long locks. All I wanted to do was to trim the ends, I promise! But you know how it works. One side comes out longer... so you trim it. Then you trim the other side. Then the first one again. Gah!

Here's the "before." Look at what I was able to do with her hair!

(Adi and Randi, her PT.)

(Adi playing with Zusha's friend.)

I just left her hair uneven because I was afraid to continue chopping. I can't take her to any professional hairdressers because she will not let anyone else touch her if it looks like they might be doing doctor-like things. And of course, she'd NEVER sit in the chair. So I gave it my best run with Elmo as an aide.

Apparently my best run stinks.
This took place about two months ago. The only reason I got the courage to post it now is that it has grown out somewhat and settled into a standard short style. In the beginning her hair stuck out in all different angles and didn't curl in at the edges. Hats were our friends during that trying time.

See? Cute!

And now that is settled down somewhat, Adi's hair looks kinda cute from a distance.

iPad Story

There was once a little girl that was very much addicted to her iPad.
We had an iPad for her to help her with her special needs. It was a great tool for her to hone her fine motor skills and help her learn many other concepts like cause and effect.

But this little girl was very addicted to it. She'd ask for it all the time and it was a struggle to pry it away from her.

Then one day, this little girl did this:

She dropped the iPad face down. Uh- oh. No more iPad! Fixing it would be way too expensive. It wasn't worth it for us. Especially since we have only Linux computers at home and the only way you can back up/sync/update the iPad is with Windows or Mac. So I wasn't about to spend $100 or more to fix an obsolete piece of machinery.

Off to eBay this little iPad went, where it sold for $240 within a few days. With that money we bought a Nook Color for only $150 (and a case for it, a large capacity SD card, etc.) 

So now we have a new tablet, a lot more customizable than the iPad ever was, slightly smaller (doesn't crack as easily if dropped and is easier for little hands to wield), much larger capacity (16 GB vs. 40 GB) and we didn't have to spend any extra money!

But the best part of it is that during the break between tablets, Adi had gone through withdrawal symptoms and came out okay. She is no longer addicted. The videos she would watch over and over and over again are only mildly interesting to her. She had to learn to navigate a new system and get used to different educational games. And since she hates changes, she never fully got into the Nook. She'll just as fast play with blocks as with the Nook. 

Right when Adi cracked the iPad screen, I was devastated. I couldn't afford to get it fixed, and I didn't want to deal with her begging me to let her play. But it turned out way better than I could have imagined!

Some Days

Same days my house looks like this.

And some days I care about as much as the little tornado girl in the photo above.

Trust me, the photo doesn't do it justice. My house looks ten times worse in real life.