Birthdays, Throw Up, Karate and More

So far behind!!!! Let's backtrack a bit.

Last Tuesday night I went with Lori to see a play at Bar Ilan that Melissa was staring n. It was a little bit late and was a little long but Melissa did a spectacular job and the show was really funny!

On Wednesday I went in to my office at work to find out that they were eliminating my job! I am now back on the job hunt, but enjoying my free evenings! Wednesday was also Jordy's birthday! Happy Birthday Jordy!!! He was so excited for it to be his birthday that I felt really bad that we had nothing planned to celebrate. We decided to give him a few options of things to do to celebrate. He choose bowling. So we all headed out to bumper bowling! Josh and I were a little embarrassed that we hit the bumpers a few times!

I am pretty sure that Thursday was spent shopping and cooking as I don't really remember anything else.

Friday was Shabbat prep. We had our neighbors over for dinner. They brought their married son and daughter-in-law as well. We had a really nice time with them. We don't really see them or talk to them very often so it was very nice.
Shabbat day we walked in the rain to the Eckmans house for lunch. I felt bad fr Benjy who had come in from the states the day before and kept dozing off at the table. We stayed there for most of the day(Danya stayed until after Shabbat playing with their daughter), returning an hour before Shabbat ended. Josh took a short nap and Jordy and I read books and played some games until Shabbat ended.

On Sunday Jordy had his birthday party at Gan. He brought his cake and was so excited!!! I took Danya to the doctor to look at a rash on her hand that wasn't going away. He said it is probably eczema...so sad for her that she has to have it too! After Jordy was done at Shira's Danya, Jordy and I headed to the "fun place" to meet Emily, Simon and Eli and Karen and Ayelet Levine. We didn't stay too long but everyone had fun.

On Monday afternoon I got a phone call from my Dad, who was in town for a mission, that my Grandmother was sick. It was kind of vague at the beginning but after many tests they determined that she had a stroke. My Dad made reservations on the first flight out. He came to Hashmonaim for a while since he didn't need to be at the airport until 9 and we hadn't seen him yet. We all ate dinner together and then I took him to the airport (Sidenote-Bubby is doing well; sitting up and talking).

Tuesday I woke up not feeling so great. The sore throat from last week seems to have developed into a full blown sinus infection. Luckily Josh was able to run the few carpools of the afternoon and let me rest. Unfortunatly my doctors appointment was during the hail storm. It was really gross and cold outside! I got a prescription for some medicine but it was way to gross to drive to Modiin so I headed home and had another Sudafed. At 3am(ish) Jordy showed up in my bed saying the he keeps coughing. He then got his pillow and returned to my room. About 5 minutes later he started screaming with his hand over his mouth(his signal that throw up is on the way). Josh grabbed him and ran to the bathroom with him. We then did that again and again and again(6 more times to be exact) until 6am when he/we finally collapsed in exhaustion. During all thie Danya(who continues to come to our room in the middle of the night) kept waking up too.

When the alarm went off at 6:50 this morning I turned it off and everyone went back to sleep until the kids got up at 9. Surprisingly, after that great night of sleep, I woke up feeling worse. Josh got the kids(who were both 100% fine) to school and he went to pick up my medicine while I slept. Then Josh continued to be super Dad, driving all the carpools and taking Jordy to Karate and watched him get his test for his orange belt! Jordy was so excited about this accomplishment! I have some videos but will add them later.

Ahhh...all caught up!

We Want Our Cousins!

On Friday morning I started my Shabbat cooking. This past Tuesday I had gotten a call from the welcoming committee asking if I would have a new couple over for Shabbat lunch. Since I was told they were newly weds I decided to invite another newly wed couple we knew and wanted to have. I left them a message but didn't hear back until late Thursday afternoon at which point I thought it was too late to invite anyone else. I had asked Lori what they were doing and she said that they were having Jeff Stein for Shabbat so I told her that they should all come for lunch. She said they couldn't because they had invited another family. After talking to Lori I was talking to Lisa who had no plans for lunch so I told them to come. She accepted the invitation happily.
Fast forward to Friday morning. I had already put the cookies in the oven and placed my challah order at the bakery when I got a phone call from Lori. The people who were supposed to come aren't coming anymore because they think their son has chicken pox and Lori's baby Yakir hadn't had the vaccine yet. She was a little disappointed since she had already done most of her cooking. I told her to come over ad bring her 25 pieces of schnitzel with her! So we went from having a couple to having a couple and 2 families! The good news for me was between the kugel Lisa was bringing and a ton of food Lori already cooked I had very little cooking to do...woo hoo!
Friday night Danya had a friend and Meira over for dinner. I told Lisa that she didn't need to pick Meira up since the friends parents were coming to pick her up after dinner and I was sure they could drop Meira at home along the way. Well the girls were all falling asleep at 9pm and Meira was begging to go home. Josh walked Meira home and close to 9:30 the friends sister came to pick her up(and we had to wake the girls who had fallen asleep on the couch!).
Before the company came we were invited to have a laChaim with our neighbors who keep inviting us for Shabbat lunch and we keep turning down because we have been busy the past few weeks. Nothing like a shot of scotch on an empty stomach to start out the morning!
Everyone came over for lunch and we had a really nice time. There was a TON of food(most of which I didn't cook). The kids got into a few fights but we are used to the Danya/Tamar drama!
After Shabbat Josh headed out to play hockey in Kfar Saba and I got the kids into bed.
Sunday morning, after getting the kids out the door and my aerobics class, I went to Modiin. I stopped at the fruit store and the grocery store. I was a bit annoyed because there was a problem with the credit card machine at the store and I had to wait a half hour for the charge to go through.
Not too much else to report from the day. I feel like Jordy did something funny but I can't remember now.
Today I was so tired from Danya's repeated waking me up in the night/sleeping on her floor(yup, still going) and I think I am starting to catch her cold and my throat hurts. So I let Josh get the kids out and I went back to sleep. There were a few phone calls but it was OK because I was still getting more sleep!
The afternoon was pretty typical, pick up Jordy, take Danya to English, take Danya to and from exercise class.
I did stop in at Lisa's for a little bit to pick up the stuff that we ordered which Nafi's sister,Yael, brought when she arrived yesterday(thanks again Yael!). Danya for some reason had a tantrum in the car afterward when I explained that we weren't related to Meira's Aunt Yael and cousin Shana(who came with for the visit). I did tell her that we are extended family and that seemed to make her feel better. She was a little jealous that Meira's cousin came for a visit and hers didn't. She said she wished Atara, Moshe, Talya and Yoni would come. I told her I would pass the message along(DID YOU HEAR THAT DAVID AND JODI???).

Espaniol?

Danya didn't go to school today since she was still a little under the weather. It was a lazy day in our house. I finally went out to the store and the butcher in the afternoon. When I returned Josh dropped me off with Jordy's bike to pick Jordy up from Shira. Jordy was so happy to see his bike and immediately requested we ride it to Moshe's. I told him that he couldn't go to Moshe's since he goes almost everyday but I said Moshe could come to our house. That was good enough for them.
I went to the attic after a while to see what they were doing and they were watching Madagascar(yet again) but this time in Spanish! I asked them if they needed help switching it to English but Jordy informed me that they know Spanish and are watching it that way. Danya told me that they know it by heart in English so that when they watch it in Spanish they know what is being said. Strange kids!
We ordered them a pizza for dinner and everyone was happy. After Moshe left the kids went to bed and Josh and I headed back to work.

Bad Shirt

This morning Josh had an errand to run in Talpiot so I joined him. After his errand we stopped at a store that makes semi-custom book cases and closets. We were trying to see if it is cheaper but it comes out about the same price and it isn't exactly what we want.
We then stopped in a mall across from the cabinet store. While we were there we stopped at a clothing store that was having a sale that the second item you buy is 20 shekel no matter what you buy. I remembered that we owed someone a baby gift so we bought an outfit and then spent a lot of time trying to find a second item for 20 shekel. We finally found a good shirt for Jordy with a motorcycle on it. It is good because he is really into this motorcycle racing game on the computer lately. It needed to be good because he has a few shirts that for some reason he will not wear. One of them has chipmunks playing baseball on it and he said that the kids in his class laughed at it(how sad!) and I can't remember the other one. When he has no clean clothes left and I want him to wear one of them he will not!
After the mall Josh wanted to swing by the shuck(never tried spelling that before, it looks funny) to buy some cooked eggplant. We got stuck in traffic so he ran ahead while I drove and then waited for him. We then got a little turned around heading out of the city. We were going to be late picking Jordy up from gan so I had Josh call a friend to see if she could take him. She said she wasn't going to pick up since her kid was going to a friends house. We called another friend who said her kid was home sick...this went on for about 6 or 7 calls when we finally gave up and called the school to say we were going to be late. Jordy was upset when we got there(maybe because we were late?) so I showed him we bought him a cool shirt and he announced that he didn't like it! Shoot!
Danya came home from school crying that her tummy hurt a little. She was all sneezy and had a low fever. She got to stay home from English. She was a bit on the crabby side and very sad.
Funny story from the other day: Whenever I burp(I know Josh is reading this and cringing since his family does not allow burps and mine does) I turn to Jordy and say "Was that you?" and he usually gets a kick out of it and anounces "no, it was you". Well yesterday we were in the car and Jordy says "was that you?" and since I didn't hear anything I said no. Then he let out a huge burp and said "Was THAT you?". I thought it was so funny that he finally turned it around on me...teach me a lesson!

So Israeli

I had been really proud of myself these last few weeks since I had been really good about blogging and then I fell off the wagon. I blame the Turks since they asked me if I was still blogging and I told them yes, I am almost daily. Then I didn't blog for 5 days!
Friday morning Jordy came to our room saying he was freezing. I too was freezing but after I cuddled up with him I realized that he was warm. Turns out he had a low fever. I did a minor panic since we were supposed to be going to Modiin to the Turks for Shabbat and had no food in the house. I called Chani Turk who said that if he is feeling OK we should come anyways. I gave him some Tylenol and he was fine. He stayed home from school and happily watched Madagasgar(again!!) and played the motorcycle game on the computer. We went to Chani and Moshe Turks for Shabbat. We arrived about 7 seconds before candle lighting. The kids hit it off from the start and had a great time the whole Shabbat. They also had 2 shana aleph girls from Chicago. Shuli Kahn, who had lived around the corner from us, was one of them. We stayed up WAY to late on Friday night playing a wild game of scrabble! We were exhausted on Saturday but had a fantastic time none the less.


Nothing too exciting has happened since then. School, carpools etc.

I did have 3 examples of how Israeli we are becoming:
1) Josh has started drinking coffee
2) Jordys favorite sandwich for school lunches is a pita with humus and pickles
3) Danya is saying Kacha(anyone want to help out with a translation here? I feel like it is a rude version of because). I asked her if she wanted to do something and she responded that she didn't want to. When I asked her why her response was "Kacha".

A Good Laugh

Last night I decided that I needed a night off of dealing with Danya's fear and was more concerned about everyone getting a good night sleep. Before she went to bed I told her that when I went to sleep I would do so in her room. This way she doesn't need to be afraid and I will be with her. My goal was for her to get a decent sleep since the bags under her eyes aren't attractive. Of course the pump for the air mattress had no batteries so I piled a few blankets on her floor and went to sleep last night. I woke up at 6:50 because Danya was getting dressed for school. She slept the whole night!!! She told me she didn't wake up once and she wasn't crabby and tired!!! I was so proud of myself!

After my exercise class I went with my friend Devorah to Modiin to do a little shopping and lunch. First we went to the bead store for a few things. We did a little browsing and then headed to the new Cup Of Joe for lunch. We also stopped at the grocery store before returning home.

When I got home Danya invited Meira over for a playdate. I went to pick Jordy up from Shira's and he wanted Ariella to come over. I brought the 2 of them home and we were welcomed by Danya who was wearing her bathing suit and her goggles and bathing cap(which I bought her this morning)! She looked pretty cute but it was funny because I was freezing in my 6 layers of clothing and she was running around like it was summer.

Jordy wasn't particularly nice to Ariella but luckily Danya and Meira were and Ariella watched a movie with the girls while Jordy ignored her.

After Jordy went to bed Josh and Danya were working on a picture on the computer that they were making with paint shop. This morning Danya had told me that they finished a lot but tonight they were going to add a picture of a horse wearing underwear. When I saw them working on it and noticed that there was no horse I asked her where it was. She answered "I didn't really mean it, I just thought you would get a good laugh out of it"! Josh and I were cracking up! Where did she learn that one!

One more funny story from yesterday. Before I took Jordy to his classmates house for the Bayit Cham I asked him if he needed to make on the potty. He said no but then asked "Do they have a bathroom in their house?". Josh and I could not stop laughing! How many play dates do you think he has been to where they didn't have a bathroom??? I know we live out in the middle of nowhere but we do have indoor plumbing!!!

Bayit Cham

The trauma continues....Danya is still having difficulty sleeping and I am going to give it one more week before I call in enforcements.

This morning I went to my neighbors for our book club. We spent a couple hours drinking coffee and discussing A Thousand Splendid Suns. If you haven't read it yet you should! It was a great book.

After book club I came home for a few minutes and then turned around to pick Jordy up from gan. On the way home we stopped and picked Amitai up for a play date. Danya came home from school and then I took her to English class. When I returned Amitai and Jordy were not getting along so well and Amitai was crying that he wanted his mom. So I took Amitai home. After that I got Jordy out to the car and he came with me to pick up Danya. Once we had Danya we picked up her friend Ita who was coming for a play date.

After dropping the girls off at home Jordy and I headed to a classmate of his house. The teacher started the Bayit Cham(warm home) program. The program splits the class into groups, Jordys has 5 kids. Once a week the group is suppose to get together at one of the kids houses to do an activity run by the parents. Last year Danya's class had the same program and nobody in the group took the initiative to get it going and we never did it. This time one mother called the day the note went out to say she would do the first one! We went to their house and Jordy was very hesitant to go by himself so I ended up staying. This mother is a teacher and she was very into the program. She had snacks for the kids to eat while she read them a story. After the story the kids sat at a table and did an art project about the story! She set the bar VERY high! The other thing is that the teacher suggested that the group meet for about a half hour to 45 minutes. This mother had them for an hour and a half! Granted, it was a good group of kids and they played very nicely together, she is going to make me look very bad!

By the time Bayuit Cham was over it was time for Jordy to go to karate, so I took him straight there. By the time I got home Danya's play date had already left.

2 funny conversations from today:
1) They recently repaved the main street near our house. Today they painted the dotted line down the middle of the street(for those of you who have driven here you will be happy to know that they painted the speed bumps a few weeks ago). Danya commented that "Now our street looks like a real street! Like the kind you see in books!". Do we live in a small town or what?

2) Jordy and Danya were talking during dinner and Jordy said the word truck which he mispronounced because he has a hard time with the TR sound(yes, we are working on speech therapy). Danya said to him "Jordy say TR-uck" (I will give you one guess where she learned this from). When he tried again and still mispronounced it she looked at me and said "I guess Jordy had an accent". I thought that was a cute assessment!

To Sleep

I woke up this morning so excited that Danya FINALLY slept the whole night without waking me. I felt so well rested and refreshed! Then I looked over and noticed that Josh was not in bed. In fact he ended up falling asleep in her room and spent the night there. She slept well and I slept well. The only one who lost out here was Josh.

After getting the kids out the door I was very tempted to go back into my nice warm bed(vs. my freezing cold, poorly insulated house) but I fought the temptation. I washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. Then I did one of the jobs I hate most, organized the filing cabinet. I was proud that I actually made all the new files early on in the year. It usually takes me several months to make the new folders, and then I am mad because it is a major job. Take last year for instance, I never actually made new folders and continued filing all 2007 into the 2006 folders. Which meant that today I had to separate 2006 from 2007 and make both 2007 and 2008 folders. This also made me realize that I am running out of file folders. Normally this wouldn't be such a problem but since I now live in Israel and my filing cabinenet is from America we are going to have an issue since standard sizes are different. I kind of feel like I am going through Y2K all over again!

When I picked Jordy up from gan he requested a playdate with his friend Amitai. For those of you paying attention, Amitai was his best friend last year. This year they are in different classes this year and for some reason Jordy never wants to play with him. I was happy to hear that Jordy wanted to see him so we stopped by his house to see if he could come. Unfortulantly, Amitai could not come and Jordy was very sad. He didn't want anyone else so we went home. When we got home we were greeted by Sarah and Ari Goldberg and their cute baby girl Tali. They are in town and stopped by for a nice visit. I felt a little bad because while they were there I had to deal with sad Jordy and then Danya came home with a friend and they wanted lunch. After bringing Danya and her friend to English, we said our goodbyes.

After Danya's English class I met with the pediatrician to see if she had any suggestions for Danya's problem, aside from seeing a psychologist.Unfortunatly, most of her ideas were things we already tried. She did suggest to use imaginativ images to help her feel safe. I was skeptical, thinking that Danya would point out that it isn't real, but I am at the end of my rope, so I thanked her and went home.

While I was gone Jordy got an invitation to a friend from gan. He was hessitant to go for 2 reasons, 1 is he is completely addicted to a motorcycle game on the computer and didn't want to stop playing. 2 is that he had never been there before. I convinced him to go and brought him over. An hour and a half later I picked Danya up from exercise and the we got Jordy from his playdate.

The kids enjoyed their tuna melt souffle which Danya had requested last night. After putting Jordy to bed I had Danya get in bed. I told her I would lay with her for a little while and then I had to go back to work. Danya then asked why I needed to work so much. I told her that I needed to work so I could pay for her swimming lessons. She then commented that Daddy makes more money than I do because he works more. As soon as she said it you could tell she was concerned that she hurt my feelings because then she added "but don't worry, I am sure you will make more soon"! So funny! Then I had her close her eyes and try to imagine she is locking all the doors in the house. Then she had to check each window in the house to see it was locked in her imagination. Next I had her set the alarm in her imagination. Then we discussed what other things would make her feel better. So we added a Chayil(soldier) to guard the front of the house. Then she added me staying in her room with her. She also made her stuffed animals real. She got more creative and had her bed made out of cotton candy cloud so she could have a comfy sleep. Lastly she made our house float above the trees so nobody could get in(leaving the Chayil to guard our car and shed). After all this I asked her if she felt safer now and she answered how I anticipated "But none of that is real and robbers are". So I am calling the therapist tomorrow! She eventually fell asleep but she just woke up now, a little after midnight, so I am going to go. I hope you sleep well....somebody should!!!

Sleepy Saltzmans

Friday was another tired day after another long night with Danya. Luckily we weren't doing anything for Shabbat(we originally planned on going to the Hermon to play in the snow but we canceled earlier in the week when we heard there would be no snow). The cleaning guy came which made my day even easier. I spent most the day doing and folding laundry and doing minor cooking. Jordy brought Moshe Balsam home with him after school and the 2 boys played nicely. Friday night when Josh went to shul the kids were playing so nicely in the attic that I fell asleep on the couch. We had a pretty quick dinner and half way through Jordy was begging to go to sleep. The plan was that Danya was going to "sleep over" in his room. This was a great plan since when she wakes up in the night she begs for someone to sleep in her room with her. We figured if she has Jordy in the same room we were more likely to get a good night sleep. Well they didn't go to sleep as early as they had initially indicated they wanted to, but they were asleep around 9. I went right to bed in hopes of getting the maximum amount of sleep before Danya woke up. She did get up once in the night but went right back to bed. Not too bad. Shabbat morning the kids played(sometimes nicely sometimes not so nicely) until Josh came home. After lunch Tamar Gerson came over and the girls were happy to see each other and play. Jordy requested to go to Moshe's so Josh walked him there and back while I napped. Saturday night Danya was up again and I finally let her sleep on our bedroom floor because I was too tired of sitting in her room trying to get her to sleep. Sunday morning the kids went to school. I ran a few errands in Modiin and then returned to do a little cleaning at home. Danya came home from school early because her after school activity was canceled. At 3 her new tutor(not sure if the title is appropriate for a 5th grade girl?) arrived and the 2 of them got to work. At 4 Josh picked Jordy up and then dropped him off at Nitzana Katz's house. Danya and I went to pick Jordy up at 5:30 and then the fun began. Jordy was crying that he was so hungry. Then Danya lost it when I told her we could not have Tuna Melt Souflee for dinner. Josh finally calmed Danya down convincing her that we could have a family movie night. So I made the kids pasta and Josh and Jordy ended up playing computer games while Danya and I watched High School Musical. I had never seen it even though Danya has seen it about a million times. It was a pretty cute movie and it was even funnier listening to Danya's commentary throughout. We got both kids to bed at a decent hour but Danya came up as we were going to sleep close to 1am. Josh volunteered to sit with her while she fell asleep and I went to bed.

Sleepless Night

Last night was a rough night. Danya was up pretty much from 3:40 until 5am. Most of it was spent either in her room hoping she would sleep or in our room listening to her cry about how she doesn't want to sleep in her room. I could not get out of bed this morning. I had Josh get the kids up and out while I slept a little more. After getting up I stopped by neighbor Claudia who just redid her kitchen with IKEA. She had been telling me to stop by and see it because she was impressed with their work. It was really nice. After that I came home and Danya returned from school soon after. She was in a pretty crabby mood and seemed really tired of course. I had her get into pajamas and we went to the attic to watch Ratatoulie together. Then I picked Jordy up from Shira and dropped him and Moshe at the Balsams. A few hours later I picked Jordy up and everyone ate dinner. I just finished tucking Danya in for bed and I am really hoping for a solid night of sleep tonight!

As promised, here are some pictures from the past few days:







These 2 are from Danya's party at school from Sunday night:

Those Things

Monday morning I met my Mom, Lisa and Michali for an early lunch if Kfar Rut. After lunch we stopped in Shilat for a few things we needed to pick up. Danya went to her English class and exercise class in the afternoon. We stayed home for a semi-quiet evening. Tuesday morning Josh headed to Yerushaliam and I stayed home with the alarm installer(I know, a little late!). Danya had a field trip to the Israel museum during school and was supposed to be home a little early since they were letting them out as soon as they returned. Of course they didn't actually get out any earlier. She and Daniella came home and ate a very quick lunch and then my Mom and I took them and Meira to their swimming lesson. We stayed and watched them for a few minutes. After swimming Danya was very insistent that even though we were going to celebrate Savta's birthday at dinner, that we have our own party for her at our house. So after swimming Danya and I put sprinkles on a brownie and hung up Happy Birthday napkins in the kitchen and we had a mini party. A little later we headed to Modiin along with Lisa and kids for dinner. Danny met us at a nice restaurant that was not the one we intended on going to. Apparently the good steak house closed, but the al ha'aish place was really good too! We had a birthday/goodbye dinner with Savta and said goodbye. Danya was really sad to say goodbye to her and cried most of the car ride home. When we got home the kids went right into bed. After saying goodnight to them I called my Bubby. I felt bad that the kids were asleep and couldn't say hi but then Danya came up to my room because she couldn't sleep so she got to talk to her. Danya was really excited to talk to her and I felt better that at least Bubby got to talk to one of the kids. This morning, after taking the kids to school, I returned home to go back to sleep. Between all the running we have been doing with my mom plus the fact that Danya has been waking up in the middle of the night a lot lately because she is scared of robbers, I was exhausted! Danny stopped over around the time the kids came home so they both got to see him. It was funny because when Danya came in she was so excited to see him, she yelled "Uncle Danny!" and ran into his arms. This was mostly funny since we had just seen him last night. The rest of today was mostly carpools and at home. I had a funny chat with Jordy tonight as I was putting him to bed. It went like this:
Jordy: Tomorrow can you go to the makolet and buy me those things?
Me: What things?
Jordy: You know those things...
Me: Nope
Jordy: Those things with the colors.
Me: Huh?
Jordy: Those things with the colors and the circles.
Me: (laughing) huh?
Jordy: Those things with the colors and the circles on the shelf near the wall.
Me: (laughing more) I still don't know what you are talking about.
Jordy: Those things with the colors and the circles near the wall that you have to pay for???(at this point he is starting to get frustrated)
Me: I am not sure but I will look.
Jordy: Well if you buy the wrong thing but it is a thing I like that is OK too.

It's is a good thing that it will still be OK because I have no idea what he wants!


Thank you for your patience, a whole bunch of pictures are coming tomorrow!