Brooklyn Children's Museum

This was our first time visiting the museum, and much fun was had by all!

They had a nice garden where children could water plants.

My boys love plants, so this was just their thing.

There was a little koi pond in the garden, which the boys enjoyed a lot as well!

Adel was on my back in her carrier, so she enjoyed it from up high.

We went back inside and had a great time making pizza.
"Almost done!"

"Here ya go!"

And buying groceries.

Now this was the most important part of the trip- the boys got to drive a bus!

Gedalya:

Zusha:

Awesome stuff.

Meanwhile, Adi had fallen asleep on my back and was taking a sweet little nap. Soon enough, she woke up, ready to play.

We stopped off at the gift shop and got some cool stuff, including NYC subway train replicas that work with our tracks! Zusha got the A train, and Gedalya the F.

There was a neat park right behind the museum, so we went there next.

And afterward we walked around Crown Heights a little. Lucky for me, Zusha and Gedalya love exploring new places as much as I do. We went into some shops, and got ice cream as well!

By the time we got on the bus to go home, we were falling apart, but still giddy with the awesome day we had!

Accepting it with Grace

This post is raw and real and was hard for me to write. I don't know understandable it is... but, it is what it is.
Today we are heading to the geneticist once again. I have been there many times, but have not gone since right after Pesach. That's almost five months. I made the decision to take a little break, although I didn't sit down and decide that. It just happened. And it was good for me to forget a little.

Now we are going back. It's after midnight. I can't sleep. I'm writing up posts about our summer fun to distract myself. I'm listening to upbeat music. But still, the dread is there. As soon as I allow myself to think about it, my insides start shaking and my eyes get moist. And then I wonder... I thought I had accepted it with a full heart. I thought I was okay. I mean, I have it so good.

I thought that the poem I wrote last winter does not reflect my feelings anymore. I thought I was past that.

Looking at you;

Your deep, baby blue eyes,

What is it I see?

What is real? A disguise?

I know what I see,

Yet confused I am still.

Will it all turn out well?

It must, so it will.

Your eyes twinkle joyfully

Right back at me.

I don't know what it is

That I'm trying to see.

There is doubt, there is hope.

There is fear. And there's love.

And a prayer, and a prayer

Finds its way above.

Life is filled with busy, fun days.

Again I look at your sweet, happy face.

A glance

A chance

All doubts are erased.

Just look forward in life,

Accept it with grace.

And yet, as I cuddle

Your soft little frame,

I stroke your round cheek,

And whisper your name,

I can't help but wonder

What will be tomorrow.

And I promise, you, baby,

You shall never know sorrow.

I wrote this poem, but wasn't ready to share it with people I actually knew. I posted it on a special needs forum I am part of and the editor of Spirit! magazine, who also posts there, asked me if she could publish it. It's in the Spring 2010 issue. Now I feel somewhat more ready to put myself out there.

(Baby's not mine. lol.)

So I guess this is not something I will "outgrow" anytime soon. There will always be a delicate balance of  looking curiously into the future, trying to get a glimpse of what life will be like for us... and taking every moment of the here and now, ignoring whatever may or may not be. A balance of acceptance and ... hm. Acceptance vs. fear? longing? pain? I'm not sure myself, and I imagine it will be a long time before I get it figured out.

For now, I'll just strap on my baby carrier, watch Adi's eyes light up with glee as she raises her arms, "Aaahp!" and daven that this geneticist visit will be the one.

Baby Baby Ah-Mia

Whoops, I just found this post from a couple of weeks ago... I thought it got posted, but I guess not. So, tonight there is a bonus.

Here is Adel's beloved ah-mya (meow/cat):


At one point, Adel discovered that we have another "ah-mya" living in our house.

Oh, how surprised she was! She has seen him before, obviously, but I guess then she didn't really understand what it was and wasn't too impressed.
But at one point, several months ago, something clicked. And when I took Moorkitz out for Adel to play with, she flipped with excitement. It was just like her ah-mya, but mini!

Now she starts giggling when I carry her past the cage and she spies the hamster out of his hole. When I take him out, she just soars from happiness. She hugs him by putting her cheek on him. She lifts her arms and crosses them above the hamster. And she even said the word "nice"! "Naiiii, naiiii," as she was petting him! For the first time! And she's been using it properly and consistently since then. My awesome girl.

Speaking of Adel's vocabulary, I can't believe I forgot to mention Adel's latest and greatest word!

MORE! MMUH!

 She is finally saying "more" instead of screaming. When I don't give her the next spoonful of food fast enough. When I try to take her out of the swing before she is ready. So many possibilities!

 This is also when I learned that Adel is a master signer. This baby thrives on sign language! When the therapists were all trying to get Adel to understand the concept of "more," Adel kinda tuned them all out. She didn't seem to care much. Soon they started using the sign for more, and Adi's interest perked up. She looked like she was understanding what they wanted of her! She sometimes mimicked them, saying, "Mmm."

One day I was just so frustrated at Adi's screaming for more of whatever it was that I just took her hands and formed them into the sign, saying, "More, Adi, more."

And then a light went on in her head. I'm serious. I saw it. And then she just stopped screaming for more, and politely signed to me, saying, "Mmmuh."

Yesterday in OT she was having a great time with the toys and whenever the therapist wanted to change to a different toy, Adel was "moremoremoring" at her.

Another recent funnie is "Ow!" She uses it so appropriately, it's hilarious. She says "ow" when she bumps or plops down but doesn't get hurt. If she gets hurt, she SCREAMS. I much prefer her adorable ow!

So these are Adi's three new words. 

Naii/Nice

Mmuh/More

Ow!

Brought to you by: animals, sign language and a sense of humor!

It's Adi Time!

So what is the sweetie up to lately?
A lot!

She's developing in leaps and bounds.
*She is saying sentences!
Probably not the way you'd expect, but she really is. Once we went into a store that we go to occasionally. Near the cash register, there is a a rack of beanie babies and I usually give one to Adi to hold while we wait. She loves her "ah-myas." Well, one time we went into the store and as soon as we got in, Adel put her palms out in a "where" gesture and said, "Uh-uh... ah-mya!" which translates to, "Uh-oh, where are the cats?" Is this child brilliant, or what?!
Another time I was sharing a snack with her. Usually if she wants more food, she'll say, "Am." If she is feeling verbal. she'll say, "Moooh."  (more). But this time, she said, "Moooh am." More food. Wow, Adi!
And... she is finally using "up" properly! She says it when she wants to be picked up and raises her arms.
 

*She is calling me Mama!
She was able to say the word mama for a while, but didn't use it purposefully to mean me. One time I was busy and felt a little hand banging on me, saying repeatedly, "MamaMamaMama..." Now, as a mother of three young children, I always have someone pounding on me and saying mamamama. At first I kind of tuned it out, but then I realized... it was Adel! What! Was I ever surprised.

*She is doing much better physically.
Adel pulled up on her own in the photo above! And she isn't terrified of walking holding onto one hand only. One of us can hold just one of  Adi's hands and she will walk! It's not smooth, though. She walks very jerkily and stiffly, but going from two hands holding on for dear life to just one hand is HUGE. When we used to let go of one of her hands, she'd shriek and grasp at something to hold on to. Usually, it was her ear or sunhat. Funny girl.
She is also working on standing up without holding on. On my bed, she often pulls up on the bedrail and then lets go. She topples after a moment, but it's obvious that she is attempting to keep her balance longer. And one time, she actually got up in middle of my bed! Without holding on! She stood for about two seconds. Zusha was so excited! He kept re-enacting it. "Look how she got up!" "Look how long she was standing!!" And he'd remain standing for about ten seconds before falling. He really loves that girl.

*She is beginning to chew!
On Friday I was reading on my bed and watching Adel out of the corner of my eye on the floor. She was busy with something... I couldn't see what, but she was quiet and happy, so I relaxed for a while. Until the "quiet happiness" became suspicious. I took a look, and there was Adi. Face smeared brown. Chunks of brown all around her. Luckily, it was chocolate cake. I have no idea how she got it! We didn't have chocolate cake at home. I did buy soft chocolate cookies, which this food resembled, but the box was sealed and in a bag, just as I last saw it. I so wanted to take a picture of it! But Adel has a very high sense of right and wrong. As soon as she saw me looking at her, she burst into tears! She started spitting out the cake, throwing pieces as far away from her as possible, and crawled away, crying. I have no idea why she reacts this way when I catch her eating off the floor. I never scold her. All I do is take it away and say no. But she acts so remorseful if I find her eating off the floor!
In any case, on Shabbos I found her on the floor with a family sized bag of potato chips which she sneaked from somewhere, crunching away. And today, she found a raw piece of curly spaghetti on the floor and popped it into her mouth. and I heard a CRUNCH. She was chewing! In each of those situations, Adel had to do some chewing. Yay!

*She is realizing that body parts have names
Whereas before she thought that drumming on her belly while singing, "Yummy in my tummy..." was a fun game, I sense that now she is understanding that her tummy has a name. She says "popa" (tushie) when she is making, which is totally unexpected and gives me hope that she might be able to be toilet trained at an average age! Her favorite part of the body to show are her toesies.

Keep on growing, little bird!

Week Five Already??

This summer vacation thing is more than halfway through. Whoa.

Monday was library day, as usual!
These are the Summer Reading Program games that my boys are so into.

You see, you start by the star fish in the corner and color in boxes when you accomplish each task. Whenever you reach an octopus, there will be a place to put a sticker. The boys finished their game already. Adel has six more squares to do- just one more sticker left to get! At the end of the summer, all the kids who completed the game will be entered in a raffle for a prize.

On Tuesday we packed up three packages to take to the post office. Two were returns to stores and one was a special fun package for our friends.

The boys had never been to a post office before, and it was a fun and educational experience.
Swarming our friends' package with stickers wasn't quite as educational, but it was every bit as fun!

On the way home from the post office (or poster as Gedalya calls it), the sun was beginning to descend. The light shone so warmly, softly and clearly. It lit up the kids' faces and eyes with such a glow. I loved the contrast of the last spot of light amongst descending twilight in this photo.

It made Adi's eyes look almost transparent.

Yeah... Adel chipped a tooth. Dunno when or how or why. Some time within the last three weeks. Poor girlie.

Wednesday was extra super-duper fun! We went to the Brooklyn Children's Museum for the first time.

Much fun was had by all!
All the juicy details in an upcoming post. :)

Then on Thursday we were going to have a quiet day... rest up from the museum trip, do some shopping, play in the park. Then the bell rang and the postman brought us something! It was the S2H Replays we ordered!

These watches monitor your physical activity. It will not register regular walking; the activity needs to be more intense. Throughout the day, the longer you exercise, the more bars get filled up on the screen.

When they are all full, the watch generates a code which you enter on the S2H site and redeem for prizes!

While you are exercising, you can switch on your "personal trainer" as they call it. (LOL!)
It's a face that smiles when you are active and filling up the bars, and frowns when you are not.

It takes one hour of activity to get a code. Both boys got their codes on the first day! They are really trying to be more active, and if they find themselves with nothing to do, they will choose to race around the house rather than sit around.
The customer service is great, as well. At first these were advertised as waterproof, but when it didn't live up to that standard, they removed that statement from their site and replaced the watches for free when they got ruined!
They are $20 each. I have a 20% coupon code for anyone who is thinking of getting one of these, so if you want it, lemme know!

Friday was plain old Shabbos prep.
Sunday we went to Kids' Gym! It's an indoor park in the basement of a shul right around the corner from me, and it's only open in the summer. We go every year! I'll post all about it soon. :)

Trip Four on Week Four!

Normally one wouldn't call a gastroenterologist appointment a "trip" but wait till you hear about ours!

 According to the boys, if it involves a train ride, it's already awesome.

 The waiting room at the doctor's office was kid heaven. There were dozens of toys, including a train table!

 The kids approved.

We didn't really discover anything at this visit. Adel needs to be tested for several things because of the digestive issues she has. After our visit we went back to the waiting room to get ourselves ready to go, and the receptionist told us that they are cleaning out their waiting room and giving away toys. ALL the toys on this table... and she pointed to a table piled high with wood train tracks! Ohhh, how my boys love those train tracks. We packed a bag full and made away like bandits.  

Over 50 pieces there!

Then we headed towards the park. We passed by Borders and I got a couple of nice books on clearance as presents for the boys for future occasions.

We stopped by a street vendor to buy some berries and tomatoes for a snack and headed to the park. The sprinklers were on!

We hadn't brought a change of clothes because we'd have to carry them with us, and then bring the wet clothes back home, so I offered for the boys to take off their shirts (to keep them dry) and shoes and just run around in socks. Zusha didn't take me up on this offer. Gedalya did.

We all had a nice time there, running around and eating snacks.

Adel needed a blood test, so before going to he hospital, we walked 'round the back to the river. Bodies of water fascinate the Poozils.

As a sweet cherry on top, there is a heliport near the water!

A kid's dream come true... rarely visited body of water accompanied by humongous flying machines up close and personal.

"Perfect" is too mild a term to describe this!

After the blood test (six tubes!!) we headed home. On our way to the bus, we spotted a pet shop! What do you think we did? Said, "See ya later!" to the bus and marched right in to the pet shop. Did you expect otherwise from us?

In our local pet shop, the birds and small mammals are in a separate room, where we can't go in; only watch through the glass door. But here we were able to get up close, and they all loved it! Adel was just "ah-mya"ing away!
Speaking of which... they had real live ah-myas!

They were so tame compared to our crazy cat!
We were told not to pet this white one because she is aggressive. Hmph, all she does is bat at you. Mel attacks much more fiercely.

Then they let another cat out of the cage to play with us. This one is a "flight risk" and has to be watched carefully when out of the cage so that he doesn't get out of the door.

The worker kept one eye on him, but mostly bustled around with papers and supplies. Whenever someone would go in or out of the shop, she'd hear the door open and glance to see if the cat is still there.
Uhhh, our Mel is a "flight risk" as well, and in this situation he'd probably open the door himself. One of the cats there didn't even jump out of the cage when it was opened, even though there was a sign on the cage that workers should be careful when cleaning because this one is a jumper.
Nice to know how normal cats behave. Now I have confirmed that mine is wild.

Soon enough we left and caught the bus. It was already 7 PM. After a long, long day and a long, long ride home, we finally arrived, stopped off at a pizza store for dinner and walked home! (BTW, I had not taken a stroller with me, so most of the time Adi was strapped onto me!)