Celebrate the Small

Genetics

2012-01-12T16:42:00.001-05:00

Clearly, he is the son of a genetic counselor!!!!

IHOP

2012-01-09T21:17:00.000-05:00

Kids eat free!!

Da BoyZ

2012-01-08T21:31:00.001-05:00

At DUNKIN

Today we had Kingergarten "family event" at Hebrew School - making special shabbat bags. Even the little guys got into the fun. Noah made a star of David and put a heart in the middle!

Later, at home while T was still napping and daddy and Noah were at the CIRCUS, Max made his own "project" and was quite proud... AS ALWAYS.

Five years

2012-01-07T21:27:00.001-05:00

This was meant for yesterday, but couldn't get it to upload.

Five years ago, life changed. Today, the memory of that day remains, but the worries have faded. How lucky we are! Love you, my sweet, curious, affectionate, funny, brilliant little Noah-Roo.

Swimming

2012-01-07T21:09:00.000-05:00

It was a swimming lesson trifecta today. Two cried, but got over it. Not too shabby!!

Status

2012-01-05T09:08:00.002-05:00

My automatically generated "Status"collage from last year - about 29 out of 152! But pretty much sums it up!

Bookworm

2012-01-05T08:57:00.000-05:00

Not even 7:30 a.m. and this guy has already finished a 65 page chapter book.

Rub a dub dub...

2012-01-04T18:09:00.002-05:00

Old Friends

2012-01-02T20:02:00.000-05:00

Project 365 - Ready, Set, GO!

2012-01-01T21:01:00.001-05:00

Decided to jump on the 365 bandwagon and post at LEAST one photo per day for the next year. I will have this "book" to look back at next year and see how much we've grown/changed. Got a few good ones to start the year!

Back to Blogging?

2011-12-19T13:09:00.000-05:00

Like I don't already have enough to do.. but debating getting back to blogging. Life is so nutty these days that it may be nice to have a place to record some of the nuttiness again, rather than just posting random updates on Facebook all the time and boring the masses.

I shall mull...

Latest tricks

2010-02-13T23:05:00.004-05:00

Why do I keep falling off the blog bandwagon? I just can't keep it together, apparently. These three boys are keeping me busy these days. They are so frickin' feisty and so damn adorable at the same time. How do they manage it?

Noah - latest trick is crying if I'm more then 5 feet away from him... hysterically. Refusing to go to bed at night, saying he "just can't relax...can't chill...can't go to sleep." Perfecting his whine. Breaking down crying often at school, to the point where the teacher actually has to stop me in the carpool line to talk about it. Wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that since my last blog post over a month ago, this child hasn't spent one hour napping. My 2-3 hour reliable daily happy napper is no longer napping. Coincidence? Doubtful. Not sure i'm digging the nap-free Noah as much as I was the nap-lovin' Noah. Not sure I'm ready for him to be such a big kid. Apparently, he's not either.

Noah's other tricks - telling me how much he loves me. Stopping random girls on the street to ask them how old they are and saying that he's "gonna be as big as they are really really soon..." adding that he's already "three and three-quarters." Chasing his brothers around with great delight and alerting me the moment he realizes that one is doing something that might put them in harm's way. Screaming out "I DO!!!" when the conductor of the NJ Symphony asked the audience if anyone plays an instrument. Telling me how much he loves me again. Telling me how beautiful I am. Playing his violin with great fervor...morning and night. "I have to practice in the morning and at night, right mommy?" he asks? If you want to, sure. But maybe only once a day right now since you haven't even had your first lesson and have no idea how to make a sound suitable for human ears yet. But if you need to do it twice a day, don't let me stop you, sweetie. Your enthusiasm is beyond precious.

Theo - the second born, beating out Max by one minute. What are his latest tricks? He still likes to cry and hold his breath until he turns a quite unpleasant grey color and even Noah has to shout "Is he breathing?? Breathe, Theo!!" Lucky for us, he always does decide that breathing is probably the way to go. Arching his back and refusing to put his body in a position necessary to get into his carseat. Losing his mind if you attempt to extricate his binky and blankie from him, well after he's woken up and come downstairs. It has to be a stealth operation. He drops it...I move in for the swipe. He sees me...he reaches for it and sweetly begs for his "night-night...night-night", his new name for his binky. If I insist that binky and blankie are going away until naptime, he'll throw himself into hysterics and continue for a while until mommy loses her mind and gives them back. Repeat... repeat again until I can somehow accomplish the impossible. What else - seeing a wide open sidewalk, grocery aisle, library stack, etc. and just making a run for it...over... and over...and over...laughing all the way while mommy chases and chases and sacrifices the well being of his brothers to assure that he is actually caught...eventually. Repeat.

Theo's other tricks - being as sweet as they come. Resting his head lovingly on your shoulder when you pick him up from bed and keeping it there and keeping it there until I'm so in love I can hardly stand it. Eating like food is the most incredible wonderful exquisite thing in the world. Bringing me small pieces of lint, trash, tissue, or anything else that he finds on the floor or rug and presenting it to me with great pride. Smashing veggie sticks on the floor only to go find the broom and start sweeping it up. Titlting his head to the side and beaming at you when he does something he's proud of, like sucessfully completing the Elmo shape sorter or navigating himself on and off of the big red chair. Waving at me out the window with great enthusiasm as I head out to the car to pick up his brother.

And then there is Max - our littlest rascal. What are his tricks? Hitting me. Hitting Theo. Hitting Noah. Grabbing his glasses and ripping them off his face, throwing them to the ground just to make sure we realize how mad he really is. Then reaching for any nearby object and slamming it on the ground to make DOUBLE sure that we "get it." Hitting me. Hitting Theo. Repeat. Pulling all of the toilet paper off the roll and running through the open gate to get to the bathroom any chance he gets just to see if we've foolishly left the toilet paper on the roll. Waking up at 1:30 a.m... or 2:30 a.m...or 5:30 a.m. and screaming hysterically for SO long that daddy finally gives in and brings him to sleep in our bed (and yes, I'm on the couch at that point). Throwing every single food item presented to him straight onto the floor. Stealing Theo's milk at every single opportunity, including mid-sip.

Max's other tricks - pointing to a star or moon and screaming "STAR! STAR!! MOON!! MOON!" with such overwhelming delight that you can't help but crack up. Dragging a 50 page Elmo book that weighs as much as he does across two rooms screaming "MOMO! MOMO!", presenting it to you, turning around and sitting right down on your lap and proceeding to turn the pages and shout "MOMO!" and "BIG BIR!" for the next 10 minutes while pointing at every single image in that book. Screaming "MAMAAAAAA! MAMAAAAA!" every single time I walk through the front door. Telling me that a chicken says "bawk bawk" and The Count says "ah ah ah!" Patting Theo on the back and rubbing his head when Theo is crying hysterically (probably because I took the binky away..see above). Finding a binky on the floor and bringing it over and placing it into the mouth of screaming Theo. Waving and smiling at all the women in the restaurant.

Those boys. Can't live with em, can't live without em.

Three Years

2010-01-08T01:18:00.001-05:00

It was three years ago today that Noah was admitted to the hospital, we learned of his infantile spasms diagnosis and its terrible prognosis (70-90% chance of severe to profound mental retardation), and our world came crashing down. It was years of intense therapy, many overnight EEGs, days full of worry, and now - finally - a sense of normalcy. Today, we could not have a more sweet, curious, funny, affectionate, brilliant little man. As Noah's neurologist told us last year "You realize, don't you, that you won the lottery." Indeed we do.

Noah told me tonight "Mommy, I love you. I love our family. All of the Pockriss family. There are five of us. I love you. I don't ever want to be a grown-up."

That makes two of us!

I love you too, sweet boy. More than you could ever know.

THEN

First EEG at Columbia Presbyterian

NOW

Busy bees

2009-12-16T16:30:00.000-05:00

Let's see.. Theo just took every single piece of Kleenex out of a brand new box. One...piece.. at... a.. time. I turned my back and he had moved on to the wipes. And the ones he wasn't taking out and throwing aside, he was sucking on. Where was Max during all of this? Playing with the OPEN VASELINE. No, I'm not kidding.

Just another afternoon here at the crazy house. Now they are both in their beds, very much not napping. But ya know what? They aren't pulling every book of the bookshelf which was what they had moved on to after the Kleenex, wipes, and Vaseline. Wherever there is trouble, these two will find it.

It's been a busy week here. Last Friday was Noah's class Hanukkah party. We got to listen to dreidel songs up the wazoo, eat tasty treats, and watch the little latkes "run right out the door" because you can't catch a toasty hot latke that jumps out of the pan! It was tres cute.

Afterwards, Noah and I went to Hanukkah Baking class. We made fun latke plate games, colored our own drip mats to put under the menorah, sang holiday songs, played dreidel etc. Oh, did I say it was baking class? Right... we also made tasty donuts and fried em up and made Hanukkah cookies and decorated them. And all of this for just Noah and one other kiddo. What can I say, his preschool seriously rocks.

And then we had our own first night of Hanukkah with presents for the whole gang. Noah sang all three of the hebrew blessing - very impressive. And the babies actually got into it! Fun surprise, after Noah showed no interest in opening a present until about age 3. Finally some kids who like to rip open paper! As long as you're gonna bother wrapping, it's nice to have some ripping.

The weekend was packed so many fun things. Since when did we get to be such the social butterflies? Saturday was the Winter Festival at Noah's old school - old friends, more tasty treats, and more clothes from the used clothing "shop" then I even know what to do with. I simply can't resist - all you can fit in a big for $10? And I only had $5 left after paying for admisssion, the maze, spin art, make your own cupcake, sand art, the lollipop grab, glue-and-stick-all-kinds-of-random-S-H-I-T-on-a-bag, and several other games that Noah actually decided to participate in FOR ONCE. But since I've dropped more money at "the shop" in the past few years than I care to admit, Carla was nice enough to let me have that bag for the $5 I had left, and BOY DID I STUFF IT. More cute clothes than you can imagine. There is really no greater pleasure in life than adorable CHEAP kid clothes.

Then we headed to Aunt Ellen's for Hanukkah festivities. Latkes, applesauce, present opening, piano-banging (wonder who that could have been...), a taking-tiny-legos-out-of-babies-mouths. Great fun was had by all.

Sunday we went to a b-day party for "baby" Susannah, who turned 2. Noah informed me that we could no longer call her baby Susannah, and I'd have to agree. She's one of those adorable girls that makes me pine for a girl! And no, I'm not having any more, so everyone can stop asking. The babies were most interested in a tent full of tinsel and shredded paper. And imagine our surprise that Noah was most interested in.... (drumroll please..).. the PIANO.

After a quick stop home we headed to my friend Jordan's COOKIE SWAP! Yes, I'm a Jew, and yes, I went to a holiday cookie swap. Is that kosher? Well, apparently it is now because it was quite tasty, Jordan was a fantastic hostess, I met even more great neighbors, and when I wasn't trying to keep 2 small children from ripping glass ornaments off the tree and eating all of the crackers off the coffee table, I thoroughly enjoyed the delicious holiday cookies. I even whipped up my own batch (let me rephrase that.. batches) of ginger thins the night before and added them to the mix. Probably made like 800 cookies. MMM MMMM. Doubled the recipe and was probably putting cookie sheets in the oven for 2 straight hours. And for cookies that only cook for 4.5 minutes, that's a crapload of cookies.

Today I spent an hour at Noah's future elementary school for a pre-evaluation meeting going over his entire history with the social worker, psychologist, speech therapist, learning specialist, and pre-k teacher to see if they agree that he should be evaluated. And phew, they do. They'll all be going to observe him in his current class to see him in action and see what testing they'd like to do and then do some one-on-one testing back at the local school (PT, OT, speech, IQ tests), etc. It will be great to finally get a real picture of where this kid is - his strengths and weakness continue to amazes us, his teachers, and all those who really know him.

Oh, and almost forgot. On Sunday, Max started crossing his right eye. Kept going straight to the middle, usually only when he was in his highchair (where Noah started having his seizures.. what is it with my kids and showing me all their freaky medical issues in the highchair?) ANYWAY, when he was still doing it Monday morning, I had already convinced myself he had a brain tumor and wasn't sure who to call first. Ped? Optho? The neurologist? You couldn't get me to an MRI machine fast enough. By Monday afternoon we'd been to the pediatrician who sent us straight over to the pediatric opthlamologist's office. And luckily for me, Max is just is horribly farsighted, has strabismus - specifially accomodative esotropia (eye crossing because he's trying so badly to focus and it will only become worse), and will need major glasses/contacts for the rest of his life. Starting now.. i.e. keeping my insanely mischeivous 14-month-old in glasses every waking hour. But HEY, he doesn't have a brain tumor. So there is THAT.

Oh, and did I mention that we've all had colds? Fun week. What have y'all been up to?

New Tricks

2009-12-10T15:35:00.006-05:00

Max and Theo - jumping on the couch. Yes, they can get up there without any help. Only problem is THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET DOWN. Except head first.

"Two little monkeys, jumping on the couch. One fell off and broke his..." You get the idea. It's a whole lot of scary around here these days."

Max - coughing and coughing. Only, of course, when you lay him down to go to bed. He coughs once every...let's say 3 seconds. And eventually he just throws up from all the coughing. It's really a joy. Pure joy.

Noah - playing piano till you want to CRY. Same three notes... over and over and over and over... LOUDLY.

Mommy - buying Hanukkah presents. On sale, of course. But when you see a Fisher-Price sweet lookin' toy for 40% off it is VERY hard to step away from the aisle. Very hard.

Noah - listening to the Paul Zim Hanukkah CD "Hannukah is Tops!' over and over and over and over.... LOUDLY.

Daddy - staying at work late and missing "three monkey bedtime". Last night it was a ribbon-cutting for a new building, tonight it's a holiday party, tomorrow it's Boston, MA. All good excuses.. all make mommy very sad.

Mommy - eating cookie after cookie after cookie, because she somehow miraculously thinks that they won't actually make her fatter than she already is, which is fatter than she's been in years, and considering that she doesn't work out a bit or eat healthy, feels that she should still just go to the kitchen right now and eat another cookie.

Theo - trying to walk very very badly but not being able to, so insisting that mommy take his hand and ALLOW him to walk everywhere. And FLIPPING if mommy should need to let go in order to, for example, rescue his brother from getting a cervical spine injury falling off the couch.

Noah - asking mommy to go on a pretend "Backyardigan adventure" or "Little Einstein adventure" and asking which character I'm going to be.... over and over and over and over and over.. LOUDLY.

Mommy - losing her mind. Well, that's not really a new trick.

Gotta run and wake up three children - one that has been happily sleeping for 1.5 hours and two more that are sick and have JUST now finally fallen asleep - so that I can have the honor of loading them all into the car in the 32 degree weather by myself to go get them all H1N1 booster shots.

Mommy - seriously losing her mind and running far far away and possibly not returning for a long long time. Now that WOULD be a new trick.

Back when life was easy, and I had one small child who slept all the time and didn't know how to play instruments and/or whine... LOUDLY.

Who needs dinner?

2009-12-05T08:35:00.002-05:00

Guess what? It's Friday, I've showered, had lunch out with all three boys, and they are ALL ASLEEP. I seriously feel like I've won the mommy lottery.   AND, I'm going out tonight! Yeah, no crazy girls night out in the West Village.  A girl can dream... Heading to a preschool dinner and Shabbat "Milk and Cookies" with my big guy at his school- and a friend and her two girls are coming along. It's MY idea of a hot date! Nothing like two 2-3 year olds on your night out. Sad that I'm actually serious - it beats two 14-month-olds! They will be happily frolicking at home with daddy and I coudn't be more pleased. (Love ya boys...)

So yesterday was GORGEOUS here. Almost 60 degrees, a nice breeze - ran into Jill (my new Texan neighbor) outside and we planned to take an afternoon walk.   The babies had gone to sleep late in the morning and I decided they'd take one nice long nap and we'd have the afternoon free. Then Jordan (my around-the block-friend who I never get to see) texted and SHE wanted to go for a walk. It was like a relative LANDSLIDE of mommy good fortune. And guess what my children had the nerve to do - take short naps. Meaning they'd need another one in the afternoon. I mean really, seriously, babies. How dare you. Have you no consideration for ME and my BIG PLANS? (to talk a walk...while pushing a stroller and cajoling a 3-year-old to walk faster than a slug....so thrilling to you all, I know, but for me it felt like as much fun as heading into Banana Republic with someone else's credit card).

So there was the dilemna. Let my dear sweet children nap again, as they should, as they would want to, as would be best for their little brains and growing bodies. OR, "screw the nap" as I like to say, and go out for a walk. Tick.. tock... tick..tock... which would it be?

Yeah, you bet your ass we went for a walk. On a cold walk, with two rather pissed babies, a 3-year-old who just wanted to go down the slide at the park we passed and NOT walk, freezing our booties off as the wind picked up, walking around in circles for a while as we waited for one of my friends' daughter to finish her bottle, ("why are we walking around and around, mommy?"), dealing with picking up a CRYING 3-year-old who fell and scraped his knee because he was taking great pains to avoid the adorable, sweet, harmless, dog who was walking along with us and "might get close" to certain 3-year-olds. Have you ever tried to push a wide double jogging stroller with one hand over the bumpiest sidewalks this side of the Mississipi WHILE carrying a crying 33-pound 3-year-old with one hand on your hip? And I CHOSE this fate over hanging out at home while two babies happily napped upstairs? Apparently I did.

Because after the round-in-circles, screaming child, wind-frozen walk, we ended up at my place with all five kids and actually hung out and talked like regular people. Imagine that! Granted, we talked about labor, fertility issues, baby food purees, cruising, holiday present ideas for children, ya know... very gripping stuff. And I enjoyed every minute of it. As did the kids. "Mom, this is like we're having a PARTY at our house!" chimed in Noah. And a party it was.

Jump ahead to 6:15 p.m. - the girls were getting ready to head out with their monkeys, we were gathering up some grub for dinner, and guess what the babies decide to do. LOSE THEIR F'ING MINDS. Screaming, carrying on, flailing their bodies, throwing any food I attempted to give them straight on to the floor. We were in official meltdown mode. It was official "Mom, what in the hell did you think you were DOING skipping our nap" mode?   Forty-five minutes later, at 7 p.m, they both still had refused any food or drink and were collapsing in heaps on to the floor, so those dear un-napped babies were put into bed without any dinner and slept together in the same room for nearly 12 straight hours.

Anyone want to go for a walk tomorrow? Dinner isn't really THAT important is it? I didn't think so.

Dear Max,

2009-11-29T14:51:00.004-05:00

Dear Max,
Hi sweetie, it's mommy. I was just wondering if I could ask you something. Could you please PLEASE stop waking up at 1:30 a.m. or 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. and crying hysterically for two hours straight? I mean seriously... what is the dish? You're in a cozy cozy crib, with your yummy binky and your smooth satiny blankie. Your favorite buddy, Theo, is sound asleep (desperately trying to stay asleep) only two feet away. You're in your toasty warm jammies. Life simply couldn't be better. So... I ask you again. What is there to cry about? Night after night after night?

After waaaaaaaaay to much crying, when she can't take it anymore, mommy comes in, reminds you it's time to sleep, gives you a nice pat pat pat and slinks back out of the room, and you just keep on crying. Maybe it's your teeth? So mommy squirts out a nice pile of Oragel onto her finger and attempts in the pitch dark to slather it all over your bottom gum (because for some insane reason, you are almost 14 months old and still have no teeth), and most of the Oragel either ends up on your chin, your jammies, or on mommy's hands (only for mommy to accidently lick it off later, making her entire tongue numb and cherry-flavored to boot). And guess what? You keep crying.

Theo now rouses, sits up, and is like "say what? what is your DEALIO Max? for crying out loud, i'm trying to sleep in here!!! bro!!" and he puts his head back down like "hmmphf.. you're such a baby."

Daddy goes in and tries the pat pat pat trick too, and you sometimes get really quiet, making us think that maybe, finally, you're losing your will. But two minutes later and you're back at it again... wailing, wailing, wailing. Then you try the "throw my binky and blankie over the side" trick, knowing that WE know we'll have to come back in to retrieve them or you'll NEVER go to sleep. Have you noticed there are several binkies in your crib every night now so that a dropped binky a'int no big thang?? Apparently, you could give a s**t.

So, what to do? What to do? Well, you know what we do. We realize that poor Theo is now getting upset because all he wants is the sweet sweet slumber, and you're totally cramping his style. We know that Noah will likely be woken up any minute from now because, well, you're going on 1.5 hours and you are damn loud. So we weigh our options - let you keep screaming, knowing that it could go on for another hour, that we will not sleep until YOU sleep, and knowing that any minute Theo's whines will turn into true hysteria on his part because his precious sleep is being totally impinged upon and we will have TWO awake babies, OR option 2, which means going to get you and take you out of your room, teaching you exactly what we fear you'll learn and had been trying to avoid by letting you scream for 1.5 hours rather that getting you as soon as you started crying - that screaming long enough gets you out of your room. Not only will it mean that you can escape, but that you will then get to cuddle up on daddy's chest for the rest of the night because it will ensure that daddy can get back to sleep quickly and so will you.

Mommy clears out and goes to sleep on the couch because there is no way she can fall asleep with both you and daddy in the bed. But no, mommy doesn't fall right back to sleep, because now that she's been up for 1.5+ hours she's pretty darn awake. She lays on the couch and starts to think about all the things she has to do, where she needs to go tomorrow, what she can write about on her blog, etc. etc. etc. So she does eventually drift off to sleep at around 4:30 a.m., only to be woken up at 6:50 a.m. when your brother Noah sneeks downstairs proclaiming "Good MORNING MOMMY! Is it dark outside?" And wonders where YOU and your brother and daddy are (all upstairs sleeping, FYI).

So Max, sweetie. We're maybe going on a month here. I just want to repeat the question, in case you've forgotten. Can you please please PLEASE stop waking up at 1:30 a.m. and screaming for two hours? Your entire family (but especially yours truly) will thank you.

Love, smooches, and all that,
Mommy

p.s. thank god you're cute

A Thanksgiving Conversation with Noah

2009-11-25T16:45:00.005-05:00

Wow, Noah, you really brought home some great things in your backpack today for Thanksgiving! Look at this pilgrim!

Noah, what's a pilgrim?

"A pilgrim is something that isn't to play with. And it doesn't play either. A pilgrim is happy because it just is. My pilgrim is a thing that I don't play with. It's a person. My pilgrim has a hat and a buckle. And googly eyes and a mouth - a red marker one."

Why do we talk about pilgrims on Thanksgiving?

"Because they are special."

Oh really. Wow, look at your pumpkin bread.

"Pumpkin is something that you eat. I made it with pumpkins and vanilla and hmmm....I don't know. Elias helped and Berit helped. I helped too. It tastes good!"

What's this, Noah?

"It's a headband. It's green. It's almost Thanksgiving. Everyone in the whole class wears them. It's an Indian one... yeah, they're special."

Did you wear your headband?

"No. Because I didn't want to."

What's that?

"Indian corn. It's colored yellow -yep. See? Indian corn is something that is big."

Do you eat it?

"No no no, it's pretend. I don't know what else I'm doing for Thanksgiving."

Let us talk about some of the things you are thankful for.

"My binky and my blankie. Mimi and Pop-Pop. I'm really thankful for Max & Theo. And I'm thankful for YOU! And daddy too! Yep!"

You also brought home this!

"It's a turkey!"

How did you make it?

"I traced the turkey...I just did. I traced my hand. I put feathers on it. It says Happy Thanksgiving! It's a card."

I'm going to open it up.

What a great card! I love it! Who wrote your name on there so nicely?

"Me!"

So, what are we gonna do for Thanksgiving?

"We're gonna go to Cole's house. We're gonna eat popcorn. And pumpkin bread. And pumpkin pie and pizza pie."

Really?'

"Yeah...that's all. That's all!"

What about the idea of going to the parade tomorrow?

"But I don't want to go because I just don't."

But we would have so much fun and see some great balloons!

"But I don't want to go. I just don't."

What should we do instead?

"Um, we should do something else. I'm done talking."

And there ya have it.

Addendum: After some prodding, I got Noah to model both his headband and his "wampum necklace" which also made it home in his backpack.

Ikea Ups and Downs

2009-11-24T07:40:00.008-05:00

What is worse than spending 2 hours at Ikea? Having those 2 hours become 3 hours as you encounter "Kidz Musik" in the cafe - a musical duo straight from some bad scene in a Christopher Guest movie. Sombreros, scarves, an electric Korg keyboard, banana shakers, some bad bad tunes...you get the picture. Unfortunately, we also have a music-obsessed 3-year-old, so you can imagine how that went. And went again about 30 min. later when he insisted we go BACK to the cafe so he could continue shaking and waving and singing with "Mr. and Mrs. Joe" of Kidz Musik. And went again in the middle of our attempt to feed our family of 5 some Swedish meatballs in this same cafe. Lord save me.

And what's worse than spending 3 hours at Ikea? Spending 4 hours putting together the bookshelf that you got at Ikea, that you paid $80 just to have delivered because your minivan is so full of carseats that you couldn't use it for it's original purpose - to have a vehicle big enough to avoid paying $80 for an Ikea delivery. A delivery which included a 8 x 10 rug for the babies room that is much larger than the 5 x 8 rug you MEANT to purchase at Ikea and are going to have to figure out how to TAKE BACK ANYWAY. I guess listening to Mr. and Mrs. Joe of Kidz Musik for 45 min. straight had affected our brains so terribly that we didn't even have the sense to look at the rug's label and see how big it was.

What makes up for spending 3 hours at Ikea, listening to 1 hour of Kid Muzik by Mr. and Mrs. Joe, paying $80 for the privilege of having two items delivered (one of which was the wrong item), accidentally tipping the delivery guy twice because you had no idea your father-in-law also tipped him, and then spending 4 hours putting it together?

Having your 3-year-old come downstairs this morning, stand in awe at the sight of the playroom and say "Mom! This playroom is AWESOME!!" So, at least there's that.

Turkey, anyone?

2009-11-23T15:45:00.001-05:00

In case anyone is looking for a good turkey recipe for this Thursday, Noah has an excellent one. He brought it home from school today. For more specifics, feel free to give us a call and I'm sure he can give you more precise directions. (click on to see the full text...otherwise it gets cut off)

Laundry

2009-11-20T14:51:00.001-05:00

I am SO glad that I took the time to carefully fold all of the laundry and sort it by Noah/babies, long-sleeved shirts, pants, jammies, undies, socks.

At my house, you apparently cannot turn your back for even a moment.

Drop-off

2009-11-19T09:58:00.002-05:00

Okay, so it was 8:40 a.m. today and Noah was still asleep.

Let him keep sleeping? Skip school? Just show up uber-late?

8:41 - I open his door to gently see what's up/wake-him
9:04 - Drop him off happily at school.

And yes, he had peed, was fully dressed in a fresh outfit, had hair that was slightly behaved, had socks and shoes on (double-knotted), had on a jacket, had eaten an entire blueberry waffle and a big glass of milk, had a backpack on his back, had chatted with me during the 12 min. car ride, and was SMILING when I drove away.

Think a daddy could have said the same? Don't think so.

MOMS ROCK.

(love ya adam...)

Downsides

2009-11-18T14:51:00.001-05:00

Downsides....

To finally walking? Further to fall.

To a minivan? More room to leave all of your useless crap.

To twins? FIGHTING.

To actually finally having some wine? Falling asleep on the couch one hour later.

To having a babysitter for a morning when you don't have plans? Spending money on random stuff you find in random stores that you didn't need because it would be too lame to actually go HOME and get some laundry done/shower when you have a babysitter.

To only one nap for the babies, rather than two? FIVE hours till bedtime.

To having great photos taken of your kids? Having to actually spend hundreds of dollars on prints because you can't NOT have copies of all of those amazing photos.

To going away for a few days? Coming back and realizing how insane your life actually is and feeling worse than before you left, because you'd sorta forgotten how insane your life is.

To skipping dinner? Having swedish fish for breakfast the next morning because they are the closest thing you can grab to fix the pit in your stomach.

To having all boys? Having to hear another person say "you can always try again for a girl."

To Facebook? Realizing how interesting so many other people's lives are.

To Hannukah? Having only three weeks till it's SHOW TIME.

To Noah going to a Jewish preschool? Him full well knowing when Hannukah is.

To not going to the dentist in 2+ years? I'll find out soon.

To writing this rather than playing with my kids? Nothing I can think of at the moment! :)

HAPPY FALL.

Back to Blogging!

2009-11-17T21:20:00.001-05:00

"When are you going to start up the blog again?" "We miss the blog?" "Um, I check the blog every day and every day there is NADA!"

Really? Seriously? For reals??? Well, I guess people were reading!

So I decided to GET BACK AT IT.

I'll start with a quick summary of what's happened over the past few weeks since I fell off the "blogging wagon."

1. We lost a blankie. Yes, one of the "blankies" that rule our life. Yes, all the boys go to sleep with blankies and yes, we did have a spare, but no, we couldn't find the spare. One precious blankie dropped out of a stroller in early October at the Long Island Fire and has never been seen since. There is nothing like putting a baby to sleep with Noah's blankie, putting baby #2 to sleep with the other blankie, needing to put Noah to sleep and having to steal the blanket away from a sleeping baby #1 without him waking up, only to realize that baby #1 ALWAYS wakes in the night looking for a blankie and baby #2 sleeps through... so then having to go steal the blankie away from sleeping baby #2 without HIM waking up and depositing this blankie back in the crib of baby #1 without HIM waking up. You get the crazy insanity of it all. But MAN, THOSE BOYS LOVE THOSE BLANKIES! Thank god the spare showed up the next night... you can only do the blankie dance for so many nights.

2. Theo stopped breathing. We don't know why, we probably never will. He may have been stepped on, he may have gotten hurt and held his breath till he passed out, we dont know and we probably won't know. He was blue, not breathing, and it was NOT pretty. Good to know that 911 gets their asses there FAST. Hooray for our EMS. After urine cultures, blood cultures, a chest x-ray, an EEG, an EKG, an echo, lots of lost sleep, and 24 hours in the ICU-stepdown unit, we have no answers. Fingers crossed that it doesn't happen again. Sweet baby T.

3. HALLOWEEN!! When people said our neighborhood was crazy, they were not kidding! Maybe 400 peole came to our door? Maybe 420? And this was in the rain! They just kept coming and coming and coming! There was no need to even close the front door. Noah had a great time collecting candy galore (and he's still eating it!) and even the little guys got in on the fun. Noah (a "silly spider"), Max (a kangaroo) and Theo (a puffin) hit a halloween open house that morning, did the candy thing that night, and even made it to another friend's (Batman) party the next day. Talk about a social life...

4. Mommy left town! I wasn't sitting on a beach in Bali, although that would have been LOVELY. I was sitting in a freezing hotel conference room in Atlanta for three days (while it 75 degrees outside) learning about chromosomal chip arrays and lung disease, cleft lip/palate genes and fetal surgery. It wasn't all arduous - my fabulous grad school girls were there and we broke out of the genetics insanity in search of sushi and sangria!! I reunited with my old coworker from Children's in Oakland - my first job!! I remember the day she chatted with me in Spanish at this same conference in 1996 to find out if it was good enough for the job! And 13 year later we're hanging in Atlanta. Wow, time flies (and I'm old!)

5. H1N1 shots/spray were conquered. Man, you'd think it was the greatest drug ever, the way my mommy friends and I were in search of this fix. We ended up driving 30 min. away to a clinic just for the privilege of jabbing the babies with needles and holding Noah down while he kicked and screamed bloody murder to protest the little "sniff" he got in his nose. And we get to do it all over again in a month. Oh goodie. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

6. We had professional photos taken! Three snotty nosed children, a cold cold day, and yes, we actually succeeded in getting at least one incredible photo of this gang. (We haven't seen the rest yet!) One has a crooked smile, one is looking up at some mystery object in the sky, but four of us are actually looking at the camera! I can't share the photo here because then there would be no surprise when you all get your holiday card in the mail... assuming I actually find time in my life to make/send them. A girl can dream.

Okay, if I fill you all in on too much more, I'll have nothing to say for the next week. And wouldn't that be a crying shame. I can't spill my goods at all once. I'm happy to be back, happy to be writing, and very happy to go have an oreo right now.

Hey, it's reduced fat... not that that does any good when you eat TWELVE.

Off the Wagon

2009-10-14T04:15:00.001-04:00

Sorry, folks, for falling off the blog-wagon this past week or so. It's been a bit of insanity around here - started with Max & Theo's 1st birthday and our fun birthday bash (still can't believe they are such big boys), in the middle was losing one of the babies' precious blankets that they can't sleep without (luckily, we have one "back-up" so we've been surviving, until another mysteriously disappeared today so now we are TRULY screwed...three kids + 2 blankets is BAD BAD BAD), and then it was topped off with Theo being found face down on the floor, blue, and apparently not breathing two days ago, which led to 24 hours at the hospital with test after test and still no answers. And very little sleep for either of us.

SO this momma is a bit run ragged but promises to put back on my blogging hat and get to it. At the moment I'm gonna get to my couch - I'd sleep in my bed, but daddy is already up there with a baby on him who drew the short straw and has no blanket, so if I want any true sleep, then the couch (as it often is) is about to be my best friend.

Cheers to you all and thanks for the patience - not sure which crazy story I should share first!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX & THEO!

2009-10-02T10:56:00.002-04:00

Are they seriously one? Could it BE? These last 12 months have been the longest and shortest of my life. My, time flies when you are having fun and totally sleep deprived. They've been sleeping through the night for months but always want to keep us on our toes - Max wailed and wailed in the middle of the night last night just to let us know that he's still playing our game (teething, maybe? or maybe he was just pissed that it was officially his birthday since it was 12:10 a.m. and he wanted to PARTY).

More later on all the birthday fun - gotta pick up Noah from school and celebrate "Big Brother Day" since in some ways, today was a "birth" day for him as well! And what an amazing big brother he is!!

Love you boys. All of you.

THE FIRST FEW DAYS

THE LITTLE MEN TODAY!!

Chillax Max

2009-09-28T23:39:00.001-04:00

While Max hit the bottle again, Noah and I DID actually make that apple cake I promised to whip up using our pickings from the weekend. TAY-STEEEEEEEEE.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

2009-09-28T23:14:00.000-04:00

We live two houses in from the corner and the street at that corner is a wreck. When we moved in a few months ago, it was filled with major potholes that nearly swallowed up our car every time we came and went. It was with great delight that I welcomed the bulldozers and other large machinery that arrived in JULY to, we thought, repair and repave the street. However, after a week of digging, digging, digging the machinery left and all we had was a refilled hole covered in gravel. That was July, this is almost October... still gravel.

Then last week we received a note in our mailbox that OUR street (not the above-mentioned disaster street) was going to get new curbs and driveway aprons this week. Why they are failing to notice the gravel pit a few houses up on our neighboring street, I don't know, but I was thrilled to hear we'll get a new curb/driveway apron as well as the newly paved street that I'm told will follow.

However, I failed to realize the jackhammering that would follow! Double jackhammering - they work in pairs, apparently. And they haven't even gotten to digging up the curb on our 1/2 of the block yet. That will surely be tomorrow and the next day. Hours and hours of jackhammering today - which does NOT mix well with BABIES WHO NAP! Or they nap in theory, if they aren't being kept awake by incessant jackhammering. Did I mention they are loud? So loud you can't really even think, let alone sleep. It's gonna be a long week... naps today were a total disaster all around (and I'm not even referring to Max coughing and coughing until he threw up four times - a replay of a few weeks ago). Maybe we'll have to go away for the week. We can't park our car outside our house anyway. Anyone want a mom, a belligerent whiny preschooler, and two snotty-nosed-almost-1-year-olds camping out for the next week? Yeah, didn't think so.

My enthusiasm has officially been curbed.

Apples! (aka "The Difference a Week Makes)

2009-09-26T23:33:00.007-04:00

So last Saturday was a disaster. A royal disaster. If you've forgotten, just scroll down a few posts and read about how I wondered why we ever leave the house.

Today? Divine. As we were getting ready to head out for apple-picking, I reminded my husband that last week we also eagerly anticipated a great day out and then reminded him of my blog post that followed about the sheer insanity and nightmare of it all. I told him we were nuts but that "clearly, we never learn".

Max napped on the way there - maybe 20 min. Maybe we SHOULD have picked the farm that was almost 45 min. farther away but that we opted against. But I decided to "not care" that his nap was basically non-existent, which for me is a major step. For those of you who don't know, I'm the nap nazi and I take my job very seriously.

Macouns, Cortlands, Empire, McIntosh - we picked em all! Noah was a great helper and even the little guys got into the fun (and filth) of it all. What a gorgeous crisp fall day - they really don't come any better than this. Noah's job was putting each apple proudly into our bucket, Max and Theo's job was to look cute in the stroller. Then we felt like terrible neglectful parents so decided to let them out to crawl around in the dirt/rotten-fallen-to-the ground-apples for a while and they had a hell of a time. Noah could not have been more thrilled with his job and proudly announced "I'm catching up! I'm catching up!" if he fell even a few steps behind. The scene was picturesque and daddy was shutter happy with the camera, as usual.

After we picked more apples than we'll ever eat (I said I'd make an apple cake but we'll see if THAT happens), we headed to the farm store to get some goodies. Nothing like a little cider and donuts for lunch. Max and Theo had a little non-donut lunch (back in their strollers, poor boys) while Noah explored the hay bale maze, hay bale pyramid with slides, hay bale tunnel, etc. etc. I haven't seen that kid more delighted with himself in weeks. Good thing the camera ran out of batteries or we'd have taken 400 photos in a 15 minute period. (We took 220 photos as it was).

Both babies fell asleep on the way home. For Max it was a short nap #2, for Theo it was a short nap #1 and for Noah it was a short... yeah right, no nap for Noah. Attempted to get the babies back to sleep once we got home, but we all know how that ended up. Got all the kids to bed early for the night (after Noah shook his booty to Beyonce for 20 minutes straight in nothing but his underwear and Adam and I laughed until we almost peed ourselves) and everyone survived. Well, Theo was just up screaming bloody murder for 45 min - one dose of Motrin later + some oragel and he's back asleep. Those top two teeth are KILLER.

So maybe we can leave the house after all. Or maybe today was a fluke. I'd like to think last week was the fluke and that we can now successfully get these three boys out of the house for an adventure, maybe get a few even out of the stroller for a few minutes (hallelulah), have crappy naps and survive, and actually have some damn fun. I guess only time will tell. But for today, as Noah would say, "I'm happy." And I have a kitchen full of apples.

Theo

2009-09-24T23:43:00.000-04:00

A day in the life -

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Waiting

2009-09-24T15:04:00.005-04:00

Waiting for the dishwasher repair person to show up.

Waiting for Max's bottom two teeth and Theo's top two teeth to show up so the neverending drool-fest can stop for a few days.

Waiting for Theo to stop rolling around in his crib and just take a nap so I can stop looking at the monitor every 30 seconds.

Waiting to miraculously getting skinny again without dieting or exercising after this took over my life last year:

Waiting to have enough time to actually share the whole "Noah story" with everyone, because I realized that not everyone knows it and some people were puzzled by my comments at the bottom of the blog.

Waiting for Adam to come home from work so I can have him here for FIVE days straight! (Yes, working from home tomorrow, weekend, Yom Kippur on Monday, and he took a vacation day on Tuesday to use up days before they run out).

Waiting for Max to start walking - well not really, I dread it. But he is really into walking around holding one hand the last few days and it's gonna be pretty darn cute when he finally decides to let go.

Waiting for them to pave our street that has been sorta ripped up for 2 months now in "anticipation" of the blessed paving event.

Waiting for my sister to call me, since she does at least five times a day.

Waiting for some inspiration to help me figure out what all three of these boys should be for Halloween. If I have to hear Noah ask "What should I dress up as?" every five minutes and then listen to him reject every suggestion one more time...

Waiting to dry my hair until I'm sure that all 3 kids are asleep, but by that time the 1st one will be up already.

Waiting.

Still waiting...

Mommy Time

2009-09-23T15:52:00.001-04:00

Mommy time? What's mommy time? I must have made my way to the end of the rainbow, because in the last 24 hours, I struck gold. Last night was my first BOOK CLUB meeting! Thanks, Jess, for wrangling me in and getting me out of the house. I even left daddy with all three boys very much awake! "The Help" - great book, in theory, although I only made it to page 160 out of 451. But the lovelies at book club didn't even discuss the ending, so I can now finish with a clear head and no blown surprises. Thanks, ya'll. Not sure when I'll get around to finishing, since we have already picked the book for next month, and considering how I fared this time around, I better get ON it with that one. I'm already on page 6. WHOO HOOO!

Jess must have felt badly for stuffing my face with birthday cake, cupcakes, and a melted chocolate/marshmallow combo last night because TODAY she dragged me out to exercise class! Yes, I donned work-out gear for the first time in...let's, see... five years? And I actually broke a sweat. This was after leaving the babies with a sitter and after the mad dash to preschool drop-off and driving back past my house in the absolute opposite direction to make it to class on time. And I kid you not - it was Jazzercise. Yes, that same Jazzercise that we all envision filled with 70-year-old women and Olivia Newton John blasting over the speakers. And there were quite a few folks in the 50-60+ crowd, but damn, they could shake their booties. I, on the other hand, was a rather pathetic specimen of womanhood, trying my best to keep up and not have a coronary. Damn, I need to get in shape. At least there was no Olivia - we had Kelly Rowland and John Mayer serenading us and I tried to do them justice. So $15 and a bit of humiliation later, I got back in my minivan, hopped over to the library (to pick up my next book club selection that I'm sure I won't finish), and headed back to preschool pick-up. Mommy time over. No massages, no shopping, no tasty meals out... but any bit of mommy time is precious these days. And this mommy isn't complaining.

You know...

2009-09-22T23:07:00.003-04:00

your kid is music obsessed when he's playing his triangle with ZEAL for hours on end... listening to a Dvorak CD of the New World Symphony when suddenly a new track comes on - Slavonic Dance #1 - and he increases the volume of his triangle clanging (played with a spoon because he misplaced his stick) and shouts "Mom! This Dvorak piece sounds more like Georges Bizet!!"

Only my kid... only my kid.

Panties

2009-09-22T23:04:00.000-04:00

So I reached into my underwear drawer this morning to pick out a fresh pair and picked a nice aqua stripped number. I went to put them on and could not even get my LEGS into them. I mean, I knew I'd gained weight since I weaned the babies, but this really freaked me out. It took me a few minutes before I realized they were Noah's underwear. PHEW. Close one.

Milk

2009-09-21T10:50:00.001-04:00

When oh when will I ever learn to buy gallons of milk instead of 1/2 gallons? It must be the small-fridge-city-girl in me still taking over when I'm standing in the dairy aisle. I just can't do it. And here I am, again, just wanting a little cereal but thinking about the consequences of finishing the milk at 10:47 a.m., on a day when my 3-year-old will surely beg me for milk, and I'm without a sitter and wouldn't DARE drag three children to the grocery store in the middle of the day, for fear of meltdowns galore and no way to get three children safely in and out of the store along with all of my bags of groceries without losing my mind. I guess I'll move on to breakfast option #2 - vanilla wafers.

p.s. PHEW - I found a milk drinkbox for Noah, which allowed me to wash down my cookies with the rest of our milk. The day is saved.

WHY?

2009-09-20T17:05:00.002-04:00

Why do we try to go anywhere? I mean, seriously, why? Adorable fall festival in a nearby town - seems perfect on a beautiful 76 degree day. Right? Wrong. Babies would not nap on time this morning and it was 1 p.m. by the time Theo was up (well, I woke him, so he would have gone longer). By the time we got the entire gang changed and into the car, it was 1:40 p.m. Yep, 1:40 p.m. - Noah's naptime. SO we decided to go and stay for an hour and head home. Get there and we can't find a place to park for ages. So the babies spent over 1/2 hour in the car, and then screamed when we tried to put them in the stroller. The entire time we were there, Noah was asking to go home. He refused to eat anything so we went to Panera and got him a PB&J that he also refused to eat. We were so busy trying to keep the kids from freaking out that we didn't really get to look around or enjoy much ourselves. Pushed them around for an hour and then put them BACK in their carsearts. They were not thrilled, to put it mildly. Just let them crawl around our front yard for 10 min, changed them, and they are now back in their cribs for their "afternoon" naps.

It's 4:57 p.m. and they are both wailing. SCREAMING. At this point, it's too late for Noah to nap so he's watching t.v. and we'll have to try for a really early bedtime (since he had no nap yesterday either). AGGH!! What a relaxing Sunday. Again, why do we leave the house? I've yet to figure it out. And the screaming continues...

"The Days of Awe"

2009-09-19T03:58:00.007-04:00

I'm in awe, allright. I'm in awe that Noah had his first haircut at a barber shop today and didn't flip out about the fact that he wasn't sitting in a cute little jeep and watching a DVD (as he had been at all of his previous haircuts at the schwanky kids cut place in NYC).

I'm in awe that Max and Theo will be turning one in exactly TWO WEEKS! And that I've done zero to prepare for their party. And that I have nearly survived the first crazy year of twindom. I'm in awe at the sheer amout of pizza that Theo shoved into his mouth today when we went out for lunch.

I'm in awe that, upon returning home from school today, we were greeted with a bag hanging on our front door - hand delivered by someone on the preschool board - filled with challah, shabbat candles, crayons, coloring pages, info about the upcoming holidays, a stuffed animal for Noah, and a warm welcome from the school. We don't even live near school and not only had the board taken the time to make these wonderful welcome bags for new and returning families, someone hauled their tushie all the way to Glen Ridge to deliver it!

I'm in awe that Noah has already learned so much at school this week and was really excited to try some holiday honey cake tonight - bought from a local student who made 120 of them this week to raise money for a local charity.

I'm in awe that I get to watch all of these great little guys grow up. We took a walk over to Linden School before dinner to run around on the playground and Noah was so excited to proclaim that he'd get to go to Linden when's he's a big kid - "This is my KINDERGARTEN school!" he shouted, and wanted to know exactly how old he was going to be when that time comes.

The little guys chilled in their stroller and laughed with delight when daddy found a jump rope and showed off his crazy jump-roping-skills. Who knew?

We all strolled home and Noah, riding on daddy's shoulders, said "Mommy... I'm happy." Happy New Year everyone! L'Shana tova! May we all have many many days of awe this year.

Scribble

2009-09-17T18:18:00.001-04:00

Fourth day of preschool and this is the art that came home today - just today. I mean, people... I have three kids, so that's 9 total years of preschool - about 2268 DAYS of preschool. I'm gonna have to buy a storage unit at this rate. And don't just tell me to throw it away. Moms don't throw their kids' art away. At least not this week.

Dirty pajamas

2009-09-17T16:32:00.002-04:00

Everyone says I won't have time to blog. They are totally right. But I'm sitting here watching Max play ball with himself right now, and I suppose, YES, I could be playing with him. But it's damn cute to just watch. It's 4:29 p.m... he's still in his pajamas. At this point, it's so close to bedtime that I kinda figure -what's the point? And yeah, he has pancake on them and maybe a little blueberry, but he doesn't seem bothered by that. Why should I be? More dirty laundry just means more loads of wash which just means more water used up. And aren't I supposed to be saving the environment "for the future of my kids?" So heck, let the kid wear dirty pajamas at 4:30 p.m. One day he'll thank me.

Blogging- who knew?

2009-09-17T15:37:00.003-04:00

My sister's friend just started a blog, and I was so touched by what she wrote, I was inspired to start my own. Thanks, Vivian - your words truly touched me.

Not sure that what I have to say is actually very interesting to anyone, but I suppose we shall see. Theo chowed down on gefilte fish, canteloupe, turkey and banana for lunch today. Great menu, T! Max stood all by himself for about 5 seconds, crashed down on his tush, and beamed. Noah made a shabbat placemat at preschool and told me he used a glue stick to put on a kiddush cup, and then, after I gushed over the beautiful art he brought home, he asked me if I was going to show my husband. And it all made me smile.