Weekend Recap

In addition to Purim festivities this weekend - baking hamentashen (we made 4 trays, 2 chocolate, one blueberry and one nutella) and going to the Purim carnival at the JCC - we also attended Becca's friend Sara's birthday party at Sky High. Ben was happy to come along also, because he is friend's with Sara's older brother so he had at least as much fun as Rebecca did. Since the weather was gross and rainy, it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. Other people seem to have had the same idea because we ran into several other people we knew there, besides the birthday hosts. Joel and I also got to go out Saturday late afternoon/evening, thanks to babysitter Sharon! We saw Silver Linings Playbook and had Indian food for dinner and Pinkberry for dessert. We also had the usual Hebrew school, grocery shopping, and umpteen loads of laundry to get through. So it was a full weekend.

Begging

Not the one who usually begs for food under the table....

Two Thumbs up for Chocolate Hamentashen!

My Queen Esther

Or, as she insists, a pop star. Whatever the case, she is going to rock the Purim parade at school today!

Belated Birthday Gift

A coworker of mine sent Caroline this beautiful silk dress all the way from India! Caroline says "da do" (thank you).

The Snow

Here is a picture of the snow we got Saturday late afternoon/evening. Good thing I got this picture because it all melted by Sunday afternoon! The kids played out in the back yard for a bit, then came in to warm up, then took the sled out to the hill behind one of the neighbor's houses. However since Ben lost his gloves earlier this winter and we didn't have a spare pair, they lasted all of about 30 minutes before they came back inside and Ben needed to run his hands under warm water to warm them back up! Caroline got a taste of the snow while it was falling Saturday night since we were out when the snow started. She did not like it one bit, and I did not feel particularly obligated to have her experience it Sunday morning. She stayed inside with me where it was warm ;)

Play Date

Ben and Becca were off for President's Day today. The baby's day care was open, so I took the opportunity to send her and just hang out with my two older kids for the day :) We met a friend at the indoor pool at the JCC for a pool playdate, then went out to lunch together, then the friend took Becca for a play date while Ben and I did grocery shopping, and then Ben and I picked Becca up at her house. Becca was in the finest of dressup regalia, and it took awhile to extract her from her playing. Meanwhile Ben acquainted himself with Bentley, pictured below, whom he instantly adored (and then started asking me if we can get another dog).

Playoff Basketball

Ben played his final game of  the season of under-10 Hoopsters basketball yesterday - the four teams each get to play in a playoff game, and then the winner of each playoff game played eachother immediately afterwards in a championship game. Being the lowest seeded team, Ben's team had to play the number one seed, the dreaded Yellow Team ;) Ben was rather pessimistic heading into the game, but his team really hung in there and went to DOUBLE OVERTIME before finally losing. Ben blocked a shot, stole the ball and took it back for a layup late in the fourth quarter to tie the game, sending it into the first overtime. Way to go Ben!!

Snow! For Real This Time!

Snowflake Sighting

Only if you look really close,lol.

Sabotage

Clearly I think Joel is trying to sabotage my diet. 8 boxes?! Really?

Valentine's Day

Look Who's Walking!

Urology Update

Becca went back to the urologist for a follow-up on Friday. This was her first appointment since I'd taken her off the Ditropan because of the over-heating/no sweating side effect. The urologist exclaimed that Rebecca was only the second child in five years she'd seen with this side effect. (Lucky us?) We discussed her continuing symptoms, and the urologist asked, "Does she seem to have a great sense of urgency when she has to go to the bathroom?" And I was forced to say, "Yes, but... Rebecca does most things with a great sense of urgency!" She laughed. We decided to try Detrol LA again - Rebecca had tried it briefly but since it was in pill form we switched after a couple weeks to the Ditropan which was available as a liquid. Since she can't (won't) swallow a pill (even a small one, as these are) I am pulling apart the capsules and sprinkling the contents on top of a spoonful of chocolate pudding. So far this is working well. Detrol has the same side effect profile as Ditropan, but it's not a done deal that she'll react to it the same way. We are keeping a close eye on her though, and have instructed her teachers to do the same.

The Blowout

Murphy's Law states somewhere that whenever you leave the house with the baby with anything less than full  disaster-preparedness, you will definitely end up needing whatever item or items it was that you neglected to bring along. Like last night when we didn't feel like fixing dinner so decided to go out to grab a quick bite to eat. I brought the diaper bag, but there was no spare change of clothes in it. Before the end of our meal Caroline had done such a huge diaper blowout that I had to take off all her clothes including socks, and she managed to get poop on every inch of herself including somehow on her forehead and in her hair. She had to come home wearing nothing but a diaper and her coat. Here she is shortly after we arrived home (but before chucking her in the bath tub). I can only imagine her thought process below is something like "Why, why WHY did you have to stick me with these dolts for parents??"

Baby in the Fridge!

Dental Hygiene

Caroline takes brushing her five teeth very seriously.

Super Bowl XLVII

By 9pm Rebecca was out just like the stadium lights ;)

Kid of the Week

Becca is kid of the week this week for preschool. This means, among other things, that she had to make a poster to share with the class. Here she is, hard at work on her poster.

Kitchen Helpers

We made cupcakes for our little Super Bowl party today. Becca helped bake, and Ben made an appearance to taste test.

I Do Not Like Podiatrists

So yesterday I had to leave my desk at 2pm to go pick up Ben and take him to the podiatrist to get an in-grown toenail taken care of. He had finished a 10 day course of Keflex to take care of the infection, but the nail was still in-grown so we needed to get it fixed so it wouldn't get infected again.

Our appointment was at 3pm and we sat in the exam room until at least 3:30 before the podiatrist even made an appearance. Ben was of course apprehensive about what was going to be done to his toe, and the podiatrist explained that he would numb Ben's toe so he would not feel him taking part of the toenail off. Ben seemed happy with this until he asked, "How are you going to numb my toe?" Of course the answer was that he would need to get a shot, at which point Ben started crying and freaking out. Then the podiatrist said, "I'll let you think about it for awhile and I'll come back in a bit."

Then he promptly got up and left for another 30 minutes (thanks dude) while I tried to console Ben and tell him it wouldn't be that bad, promised him Madden 13 if he was good about it, etc.  And Ben grabbed my phone and started Googling ways to numb a toe without a shot, how to get a shot without having it hurt, etc etc, in a desperate attempt to find some other way to do this.

Finally the podiatrist came back in (by this time it was 4:15 or so and I was getting rather annoyed), and proceeded to numb Ben's toe, which didn't turn out to be all that bad because he used some cold spray stuff and Ben said it only hurt in one spot. It did take quite a while with the needle to get his toe completely numb though. Then we were alone for another 10 minutes, waiting for that to take full effect, and then a 5 minute session with some pliers and Ben was all set, with a toe wrapped up in red vet tape. Ben was very happy by the time it was over and announced that it was not all that bad. I had a different opinion, considering we left the office over two hours after we'd arrived, and needed to hustle across town to pick up Caroline and Rebecca.

I took the kids to Noodles & Co for dinner, since Joel was heading to the gym after work and I'd not been home all afternoon to think about fixing dinner, and then we went next door to Game Stop for the promised Madden 13. Of course, they did not have it for Wii, so we had to go over to Wal-Mart for it. By the time we got home it was 7pm and Ben still had to do homework and unwrap/soak his toe, and Caroline was about to fall apart from exhaustion.