Bedtime Story

Ben has found a new audience for his nightly reading.

Not the Weekend We had Planned

Our weekend was supposed to consist of Ben's last basketball practice/game, a couple of birthday parties, an open house to get ready for, our usual Saturday night dinner out, etc... instead the weekend was spent largely in the ICU at Carolinas Medical Center, where Joel was admitted Friday night with severe intestinal bleeding. Happily (to give away the ending in advance) the bleeding blood vessel was located and clipped, and Joel was discharged from the hospital yesterday afternoon. He is now resting comfortably, but very tired still from all the blood he lost, so he'll be taking it easy for a couple of days...

The fun started Friday right after dinner, when Joel called me to observe what we determined to be abnormal contents of the toilet bowl, yet not horrifyingly alarming at that point... more just concerning. Joel called the doctor who advised if it happened again he needed to go to the ER. A few minutes later it did happen again, this time much more alarming. I called Joel's mom and asked her to come over to watch the kids so I could take Joel to the ER. Then it happened AGAIN, more alarming still, and Joel started to look very pale and feel dizzy. We decided not to wait for Joel's mom and called an ambulance instead, which freaked out the kids/neigbors a bit, and Joel was whisked off to the hospital. The kids went to a neighbor's house to wait for Joel's mom. Ben was visibly scared; Rebecca was happy to get to go play at the neighbor's and that nanny was coming over ;) The baby came with me to the hospital.

At the hospital Joel's condition continued to worsen, and he was eventually admitted to the ICU and had to receive several units of blood before the source of the bleeding was found and fixed. I went back and forth between home and the hospital for the weekend, and Joel's parents took care of Ben and Rebecca for most of the weekend while I kept the baby with me. Now finally we're all home/getting things back to normal!

Here's hoping for an uneventful week from here on out :)

Super Cutie!

My little baseball

Thanks Jessica!!

Got milk?

Clara Gets the Snip Snip

Today is Clara's appointment to get spayed, a procedure to which Ben is vehemently opposed ("Can't we let her have just one or two puppies?") In an effort to keep costs down, we made her appointment at a veterinary hospital in Fort Mill, SC whose spay/neuter services were recommended by our dog trainer and which costs about 1/3 the price our regular vet charges.

Saving money sounded like a fine plan until I realized that Clara needed to be in Fort Mill by 8am this morning, which as I discovered is an hour and a half round trip in morning rush hour traffic even though I was going against the flow of traffic for the trip down, and during the trip back the traffic had cleared considerably.

This early morning commute was also complicated by the fact that I needed to bring Rebecca and the baby with me. Clara, who hates car rides, was actually reasonably well behaved and only whined for the first 10 or 15 minutes of the trip before falling into a defeated silence. Caroline also was behaved, taking advantage of the car ride to continue her morning snooze.

Rebecca spent the entire time talking a blue streak about a wide variety of subjects, including a (non-existant) planned trip to Disneyland, and the fact that the Syrians need to "learn how to be mensches" so that they will stop fighting each other. (We had NPR on). Sound advice that I don't think they'll be taking anytime soon. When she finally seemed to have run out of things to talk about, she just yelled "Echo! Echo!" repeatedly.

I have to pick Clara up later this afternoon, which I hope to accomplish without quite the entourage that this morning's trip necessitated. A further update, if any is needed, later ;)

2 Month Checkup

Caroline had her 2 month well visit yesterday. Falling as it did on President's Day, I had to take Ben and Rebecca with me also. They were very well behaved, crammed as we all were in a very small exam room. They made room by sitting underneath the exam table and giggling hysterically when the doctor came in and pretended she didn't see them. Then Becca came out and made it very clear in no uncertain terms that it was NOT HER CHECKUP.

Caroline weighed in at 14 lbs 4 oz, and measured 24 inches long, putting her at the 98th percentile for both height and weight. I am pretty sure Ben also was 14 pounds at his 2 month visit, so she's tracking right along with big brother (though I think he was longer).

She got a bunch of vaccinations, and her brother and sister reacted very differently to her distress- Ben asked if he could leave the room and settled for covering his ears and closing his eyes, while Rebecca elbowed her way to the side of the exam table for a front row seat at her sister's misery ;) So typical of their different personalities!

Tuesday

It's Tuesday. Ben has a teacher workday (in other words he is off from school). I dropped Becca off at preschool, dropped off a couple prescriptions at the pharmacy, stopped at Starbucks, took Ben to a play date / lunch date where he ate gobs and gobs of wasabi apparently with no ill effects, came home, gave the dog a shower after she apparently rolled in a mud puddle, fetched Ben from the neighbor's house to go pick up prescriptions and light bulbs, came home, broke a light fixture in the kitchen in the process of trying to change the light bulbs, and the day is not over yet...

Sharing the Love

Slave Labor

The kids helped me get ready for the showing this afternoon.

Nap Time

This week has been a lot less hectic than the last few. With the house finally on the market, there is not a whole lot to do anymore, except for keeping the house picked up / laundry / dishes so that if there is a showing request the prep work will be minimal. Unfortunately last week we only had one showing. We have one scheduled for later this afternoon, and another scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, but it is still slower than I would have liked. But with all the insanity of the last few weeks behind us, there's now time to do non-house-related errands (buying birthday presents for upcoming birthday parties, school supplies, new shoes for the older kids and new clothes for the baby, etc). There has even been some time (pictured above) to RELAX!

On tap for this weekend: hair cut appointments for the kids, basketball practice today + basketball game tomorrow for Ben, birthday party to go to tomorrow, the aforementioned showings to get ready for, and dinner at The Cheesecake Factory tonight (not one of our usual Saturday night dinner destinations, but we have a $50 gift card to spend).

Two Months Old

The Shoe on the Left is Mine

The one on the right is Ben's.

Weekend Update

As you might have guessed, it has been a busy last few days. We got the house officially listed on the market on Friday, and had 2 showings on Saturday and an open house on Sunday that 7 prospective buyers came to. The realtor said 5 of them were good prospects and they all had nice things to say about the house and some of them inquired as to whether anyone was really living here ;) I think our house looks as good as possible for having 5 people a cat and a dog living here ;) The dog, by the way, went to overnight camp for the weekend due to the open house and the showings. She is coming home this afternoon.

Besides the house stuff, Ben competed in his first chess tournament on Saturday at South Mecklenburg high school (my dad's alma mater coincidentally enough considering we are not Charlotte natives). Ben competed with his school's chess team against teams from other elementary schools. Ben won his three matches, though his team as a whole did not fare as well. Ben had a great time though and afterwards since there were showings scheduled at the house I took him to lunch and to Monkey Joe's before heading back home to meet up with Joel, Becca, and nanny and papa to head to dinner at PF Chang's.

Yesterday (Sunday) was filled up with Hebrew school, getting ready for the open house, errands, and Ben's basketball game. The open house seemed to go pretty well as previously mentioned. I can already tell that keeping the house ready to show at all times is going to be a considerable pain ;) Here's to hoping it sells quickly.....

Becca and baby sis

First Chess Tournament

Go Ben!

For Sale!

We are officially on the market. The listing pictures crack me up because of the wide angle lens they use.... yes some of our rooms are big (most notably the master bedroom and bonus room) but the wide angle lens they use for the photos make it seem like we have a football field or two in our house. And one in the back yard. I'm afraid people will be disappointed when they see the real thing ;)

Wait a Minute - This is MY House?!

I took some pictures after the stager left. The "real" photographer is coming tomorrow, and the MLS listing should be up by Friday. I'll snag those pictures as well and post them here. But for now here's a preview!

This is What I Did Today

Went to Home Depot to get blinds cut for back door, buy a toilet seat and some wood glue and c clamps to try to fix a couple doors in our house that are splitting apart. Put toilet seat on, fixed the doors, took down a ceiling light, cleaned it/changed bulbs/put it back up, put laundry away, emptied dishwasher/rinsed dishes, emptied out bonus room closet, organized bonus room toys, went to Wal Mart for light bulbs and a neutral colored comforter, changed 6 light bulbs, put new comforter on our bed/found some accent pillows/moved rug into bedroom, piled a ton of trash out by the curb (another ton still in the garage). Somewhere in there I took care of the baby, got Rebecca to preschool, cleaned up a bunch of dog poop in the back yard, picked the kids up, took them out to dinner, did homework, put them to bed. Oh I went to the bank somewhere in there too. POOPED! POOPED! POOPED! Need to stop the never-ending to-do list and get this house on the market!

Tomorrow - 2 doctor appointments, the Pod is being picked up, the trash is being collected (had to schedule a special pickup for all the trash), and a new dining room table is being delivered.

The definition of mass chaos

Gettting ready to go to a super bowl party, thought I' d save some time and throw the kids in the tub together.... Clara felt left out I guess!

Precocious Sleeper

This is the face of a girl who slept from 9pm to 7am last night! Thank you Caroline!!!

A Whole Lotta Boxes

All this stuff is waiting to be loaded into the pod. What could possibly be left in the house, you ask?

2nd Grade Program

Last night was the 2nd grade music program at ELE. The theme was Going Green, hence the sea of green shirts. Each class took center stage for one of the songs. Ben's class sang This Land is Your Land and accompanied themselves with "boom whackers". It was very cute. Ben is just left of center in dark green - Joel and I as usual did not get our acts together well enough to secure better seats in the gymnasium and the house was packed ;) Great job kids!

Granite!

An astute observer will notice that we're still missing a faucet - plumber coming tomorrow.

Caroline @ 7 weeks

So smiley!

Smiling Buddha

Girl & Dog