Yoyo and Goo

Yoyo. Goo. Yogurt. Whatever you choose (Zusha's baby language, Gedalya's baby language or English), this is what the post is about.

Or more precisely, it's about how Zusha needs to hide his food from everyone in the house if he wants to be the one to eat it.

One morning, I was photographing Gedalya as he was jumping on his Tatte's bed. Zusha came into the room and decided to join the fun. He put the yogurt he was eating on my bed and went to jump as well.
Not three minutes later, he returned to claim his yogurt, and what did he find?

Everyone was eating HIS yogurt.
Adel claimed the straw.


And this creature



was licking the yogurt from the jar.


Uh.... hi?




That Adel and her cat. They make a great team.


These photos are pretty ancient. Both the human and the cat were just babies back then.

And already plotting trouble together!

The boys better watch out! Adel and Mel make an awesome team!

Captellers and Bapipibees

Sorry, but I can't help but use the boys' silly toddler words.
That would be "caterpillars and butterflies" for those of you foreign to this language.

One day the boys received a little jar in the mail with five cute caterpillars inside.

At first they were small and black. But then they ate and ate and ate.
And the hungry little caterpillars grew.They sprouted fuzzy, white tufts.

We also got a mesh pop-up habitat for the butterflies to live in once they emerge from the cocoons.
Until then, we had to keep the caterpillars in the jar.

"What? I'z caterpillar."

Zusha and Gedalya adored their new "pets." They took them outside for walks. They brought them to library programs. They played with them.

Soon enough, the five little buggies were ready for the next big step in their life.

They climbed up to the top of their jar and began to hang upside down.

They made cocoons in two groups. First two caterpillars went, and the next day, the other three. After missing the transformation of the first batch, I was determined not to miss the second. I stayed up till 2 AM (not much later than my regular bedtime) but when the J shaped creatures remained J shaped creatures, I just went to bed. The next morning...

...there was not a caterpillar to be found at our house.

Only fabulous, iridescent cocoons.

Luckily, I found a great video showing the whole process. I posted it here.

And then, we waited....

Funny Baby Yaya

I didn't get my act together to post a full week synopsis, but our Sunday activity needs its own post anyway.
Somehow we never actually got out of the house. Instead, we spent the day watching old videos. In particular, I got stuck on videos of Gedalya when he was Adel's age. Bad move, but I'm like that. It's not just comparing kids, it's comparing a significantly delayed child with a pretty advanced one.

In any case, here is Gedalya at 20 months:

Hilarious peanut butter episode! Gedalya is begging me to wipe his hands but instead of complying, I continue to videotape the funny kid. Eventually he gives up and attempts to clean his hands off himself.


Introducing rollerbaby! Gedalya was able to do at 20 months what neither of his siblings were able to do- ever. LOL


This is 19 months- a little younger than Adel, but I just had to include it. After dropping Zusha off at cheider, Gedalya and I would walk home. On the way we would stop and read letters on school buses.
Here I am asking him to name the "lammed" and he announces, "Lamna!" After that, he correctly names the "yud" I show him before launching into his demands to see another "lammed." "Annana lamna! Annana lamna!!!"


When I was watching Gedalya's videos in chronological order, the age I was most able to relate to right now was 10-11 months. After that it all got too advanced. I hope Adel is more advanced than an average 10-11 month old.

Lovey Dovey Fuzzy Wuzzy Nature Happenings

I went on a mini nature walk last night. Probably "micro" would be a better adjective.
My goal: to obtain leaves that the butterflies would lay their eggs on. Our cute, furry little caterpillars formed their chrysalides and have emerged this past Thursday and Friday. It is an awesome and mind boggling experience. The whole transformation goes so against my mortal understanding of how physics should work.

I only went down the block because I knew the plants we needed were to be found here. And since I'm all immersed in this nature stuff right now, I might as well share the nature photos that have accumulated in my photo files over the months. :)

We have been planning to release the butterflies within a few days of their hatching. Since the last butterfly emerged on Friday night, today was the most reasonable day to release them all. They stay in the place of release for a few hours, so we needed to find a remote area where they wouldn't be bothered.

One time, several years ago, we were at a playground when a class of preschool girls arrived with their teachers. They had several butterflies with them and released them on the grassy playing field. The poor creatures were disoriented and had nowhere to hide. Right in the pamphlet that is sent out with the caterpillars it says that they will stay in the spot you let them go for several hours before trying to find a hideout. So the responsible thing would be to let them go in a place where nobody walks. Here's a photo from that day, three years ago, of Zusha pointing out the butterfly:

(The poor things, with no shelter or shade...)

We planned to bring the beauties to Prospect Park where there is plenty of greenery and all the remote spots we could ever want. I even penned it into the summer planner I got. But we weren't able to do it in the end. Several factors prevented us from going but the decision was finalized by a phone call from a friend that a close friend of ours is here from Eretz Yisroel and today is her only chance to get together with us. So of course, we grabbed the chance.

We ended up releasing the butterflies locally. I will post about that soon. :)
But now, back to my nature walk. I read up about the butterflies' mating and egg-laying habits, and discovered that they lay eggs only on plants that the caterpillars like to eat. Smart insects. After googling "hollyhock," "thistle" and a few others, I was pleased to find that the two former grow on my block. Hey, if we get butterfly eggs, we'll save $18 on a new caterpillar kit.

I went out after midnight to collect the leaves. The breeze was heavenly. The sweet floral scent that it carried was even more so. I don't remember the last time the city air smelled so wonderful.

(nest)

On that walk last night I discovered the residence of the chipper insomniac bird. Probably a wayward toddler, he alone sings his incessant song all. night. long. I thought we had it bad, until I passed the house in whose front-yard tree this bird resides. You'd need ear plugs to sleep. And I was only across the street. Imagine having your window parallel to a creature that produces a sound not at all unlike a car alarm- you know, the ones that change every few seconds... eeeooo eeeooo eeeooo, bzzzz bzzzz bzzzz, ooo aaa ooo aaa... well, you get the idea. :)
Not only does it resemble a car alarm in its song of choice, but also in volume. I really should go out one night with a camera and get a video.

(Really, really big anthill)

So I collected the leaves and headed home. Through the maze of water bugs. They rule the roost at nights. I seriously could not walk in a straight line. I was amused by the contrast of the divine floral scent and the... water bugs.

Anyway, the butterflies (or bapipibees as Zusha and Gedalya like to call them in remembrance of their toddler word) attacked the leaves right away, but unfortunately they didn't lay any eggs. I guess I'll have to buy more before summer is finished!

We happened to have missed all five of the cocoons being built, and then, despite our best efforts, we also missed all five butterflies emerging. But this time lapse video I found kind of makes up for that.

Smile

Oh! To add on to the post below... our fleishik sink got stuffed up over Shabbos. The water was not going down and we weren't able to use the sink. We did manage to clear somewhat it with hot water and bleach, but the water is still going down slowly.

But it's okay. I'm through with depressing posts.
Some things that made me smile recently...

The way Adel spent twenty solid minutes carefully reading the manual to my new cell phone

The look on Zusha's face when we learned that "24 hours" on Mercury lasts 58 Earth days, while on Jupiter, it lasts eight hours.

The way Gedalya sorted the recycling into bags and boxes without me asking numerous times. He worked so hard and got four mitzva stickers for that!

Adi saying "Ngengengengengengeeeeeeeh" when she's really excited for nursing, as opposed to her original "nge-nge."

And once she washes over the initial hunger, she unlatches and sings, "Nge-ngeeeh, nge-ngeeeh, nge-ngeeeh... AM!"
Here she is singing, although just randomly, and not in middle of nursing. (The best part of the song starts at 15 seconds.)

Having NO laundry to do (and only some laundry to fold.) That's right, I ran a laundry marathon, and now I'm free till the end of the week. The kids' hamper is empty (except for the pajamas from this morning), the darks hamper is empty, the towel hamper has a couple of things, but not enough for a load. The whites- it's partially full, but Hillel does those. I folded ALL the kids' clothes and put them away. Just some linens and my own clothes left to fold.

Finally being finished with the winter to summer closet transformation! Hurray!

Finding Adi with a mouth full of rock. It's only funny because I got the rock out safely. Once it wasn't dangerous anymore, I couldn't stop giggling. Gedalya brought home a couple of rocks, and apparently Adi found one an popped it in. Not suspecting anything, I offered her some food. When she opened her mouth to accept it, I saw a rock filling her whole mouth. The part that made me giggle is that she was probably sitting with a mouthful of rock for a while and none of us even knew. She was acting all normal.

The fact that my kids don't know what chocolate hazelnut dip is and I can just keep it in the cabinet without hiding it. And I can take a spoonful whenever I decide, without being sneaky. They are clueless!

Which brings me to another thing that makes me smile: kishkase. That's a word the boys made up. It refers to our snack cabinet. I think it may have originated with the word "cheesecake" although I'm not sure how. When the boys were younger, they'd climb up on the counter and call out, "Who wants kiiiishkaaase?" Now they just refer to the cabinet by this name in all seriousness.

These photos:

Do you know why I'm so happy?


I'll give you a hint. It's NOT because I'm extremely inappropriately dressed for the 80 degree weather. I am very appropriately (and cutely, I might add!) dressed for MARCH.
So back to my happiness level. I'm having a happy time because...

I'm in a swing! I just love to swing. There is nothing that can compare to the feeling of flying through...


GAH! Where are the brakes? Please tell me this thing has brakes!

Test Results 5-6/9

Since I got some results back, it's a good time as any to post our regular feature: a "Trip to a Specialist" post! (cue applause).
I want to write about our previous trip (the one where I brought along all the kids) but I know that if I don't post the results first, everyone will just scroll to the end to read them. So here they are. Results 5-6/9. (That's not a medical code. That's 5 through 6 out of 9.)

In summary:

These are the tests to date (all negative) :
Micro Array
Cohen
Angelman (imprinting)
Prader Willi

These are two the tests we took at the last trip:
Angelman (UBE3A)
Williams (mosaic)
Both are negative.

We are waiting for results for these two tests from the last trip.
Rett (atypical)
Fragile X

We have yet to conduct this test:
Celiac Disease

So now about our trip.

The train ride was nice, and really fun for the boys. They kept going on and on about how they are going through a TUNNEL!!! under the RIVER!!! We went on an accordion bus, which was a treat for the boys as well. (Those are the types that are so long that they need to bend in the middle.)

We got into the geneticist's office, and as usual, the wait was less than ten minutes.
The boys had a fun time playing with the toys in the office. The geneticist himself went to the waiting room to bring some toys into the exam room. Wow.

The doctor was taken aback by Adel's singing skills. He had seen videos on this blog, but when he sang to her and she repeated the tune perfectly, he was really surprised. That prompted him to test her for mosaic Williams Syndrome.
Mosaic means that only some of the cells in a person's body have the genetic disorder. Since we had tested Adel for all chromosomal disorders (micro array) and it all came out negative, the geneticist thought that it's possible that Adel has mosaicism. If so, the lab could have chosen one of the unaffected cells from Adel's blood. That would show all the results as normal.

The test for mosaic Williams Syndrome takes several cells to test. That way, they ensure that at least one would be affected.

To say the truth, I was kinda hoping this would be it. Williams Syndrome is milder than any of the others we had tested Adel for. And mosaicism would make it even more mild. Sounds nice, right?

Looking at the list of facial features, I thought we hit the jackpot:
The characteristic facial features of Williams syndrome include puffiness around the eyes (check), a short nose with a broad nasal tip (check), wide mouth (check), full cheeks, full lips, and a small chin (check). People with Williams syndrome are also likely to have a long neck (check), sloping shoulders (check), short stature, limited mobility in their joints (check), and curvature of the spine.

But what's the point now that it was found negative?

Well.
After the doctor we went to the nearby park and had a great time.
Adel was very happy, even though she just had a tinchitilik.

What, you don't know what a tinchitilik is? It's a word my boys made up to mean a poke, like a shot or blood test. Adel had so much blood taken that they drained her dry. She actually had no more blood to give, and they were hoping that she'd have enough for all the tests they were drawing for. But Adi is a trooper!

We ate lunch and then the boys ran off to explore the new territory.

They were enthralled with the fun new features that our parks don't have, like this bridge.

...and this rotating stand thingy.

And best of all... TIRE SWINGS!

Adel enjoyed her own little version of the swing.

Then I hoisted Adel onto my back

and put her down for a nap. We explored Manhattan a little. Visited some stores, got a few useless things... and unexpectedly met up with Hillel outside! It hadn't occurred to me to make up to meet specifically. There's always next time!

We went home on a different train- and this one went on a bridge above the river. The boys were even more excited this time around.

We has a great time, and I will definitely be going with the boys again!

UPDATE:
Today I got a phone call with the rest of the results. All negative.
the only thing remaining is celiac disease, about which I will post next time!

HAPPY BURTAY TU GYDALAYA

The title says it all! And-- I wrote it myself. Yes, I am a big boy- I am now 4 years old!

The week before my birthday we had a countdown. Not just any countdown... a really fun one!
Mama filled seven balloons with little prizes and hung them on my bedroom door.

Every night when we boys got into pajamas, I would pop one balloon and two little prizes would fall out (one for me and one for Zusha).

We got things like key chains, stickers, a cool pair of socks with monster trucks on them, itty bitty mini rolls of tape, and other little things.

(Mel loved the ribbon! That was his present after all the balloons were popped.)

We also got REAL birthday balloons.


I loved parading around town, showing them off to people.

On Monday, after it became dark, it was Rosh Chodesh Nisan. My birthday!
We had a family celebration.
And we had

I could really end the post right here. There is nothing in the world that can compare to delicious, frosty iscreeme . (That's my word as well. I spelled it, and I made the graphic, all by myself! It has an "e" at the end. Do you know why? It's a silent "e." It doesn't make I sound. But I know what it does make. It makes the vowel in the word say its name. And since the "i" makes the "i" sound, it means this word needs a silent "e". :) I am philosophical like that.)

See all the glittery confetti on the table?

Mama bought a party popper and exploded it over the table! Then we covered them all with a clear plastic tablecloth.


Adi joined in the party, too, and even had some iscreeme. :)


Mama made me a crown and I wore it almost every day, from my birthday until Shabbos. Everyone noticed and made a comment- the therapists, the librarian, Mama's friends... and I was so proud to announce that I am FOUR and not anymore THREE.


I was so into the iscreeme that I didn't want to open the presents.


Only after Zusha offered to open them for me did I tear myself away from licking the iscreeme cup clean.

Ooooh, I love this robot box!


Ooooopen...


Yea!!


I also got a street-cleaner train and a garbage train for our train-and-track collection. Zusha and I were so happy and we took them to sleep with us. I got a book, cute, colorful kid scissors, a stamp set of wild animals, and a few more little toys. I loved all my presents!

On Shabbos we had a big cake. It was kosher for Pesach, but it was soooo good. I especially loved the orange cream. :) But that wasn't the end of my celebrations. My grandma, grandpa and aunt came on Sunday, and they brought MORE presents. An electronic math mat that we need to jump on the correct numbers, a mini chess set, clay, and a magnetic building block set. Thank you! Zusha, Adel and I LOVED everything.

I really made it out well! It's great to be four!