CJP Seder 2012

Wednesday afternoon the kids had their Seder at Rebecca's preschool. They put on a little performance for us before the meal. Here is an excerpt (Rebecca the wiggly one in blue dress).

Now Accepting Applications

After a long discussion about how miserable our lives have been over the last 3 weeks since I returned to work, Joel and I have decided the day care thing is just not working out, and despite the fact that it will be a lot more expensive, we've decided to try to hire a full-time nanny. In order to make it a little more cost effective, we'll drop Rebecca down to half-day preschool and remove Ben from the after school program, and possibly cut back on summer camp. So the nanny in addition to having charge of the baby full time, will also take care of Rebecca in the afternoons, and all 3 kids during school breaks/summers when they are not in camp.

The advantages over day care are that 1) hopefully Caroline will not get sick as much, 2) when the kids are sick the nanny will still come (I'll only be screwed when the nanny is sick), 3) Since I work from home I'll be able to see Caroline whenever I want, 4) I will have the nanny do Rebecca's preschool drop-off and pick up as well as for camp in the summer, so I won't have to do that any more and can get started at work earlier.

So far (using care.com) I have over 30 applicants. I have not begun to go through them/schedule interviews yet, but will start doing so next week.

Illness Chronicles Part II

So after Wednesday's full day of work, with all kids back at their respective places of care, things deteriorated again... Caroline came home Wednesday very fussy, spent the night being very fussy, and we were back in the doctor's office (for the 4th time in 2 weeks) yesterday morning where she was diagnosed with ear infections in both ears. I missed half a day of work between the doctor's office and getting her prescription filled, etc, and finally dropped her off at day care around noon, then tried to cram a full day's work into the afternoon.

Somewhere towards the end of the day I realized that somewhere during the craziness of the morning I seem to have lost my wallet. Since it did not materialize even after a thorough ransacking of the car, I just now ordered replacement credit cards, bank card, driver's license, etc. Of course this means it is bound to turn up any moment now but since all my cards are now suspended, that will not do me any good.

Today I have the day off (thank god). Caroline is home for Good Friday, Ben is at spring break camp, and Rebecca is off for Passover but is at her friend Conrad's house with some of the kids in her class, being babysat by a couple of her teachers.

Tonight we are hosting Passover Seder, pictures of the event will be forthcoming I am sure.

The Illness Chronicles

So if I thought things couldn't get any worse than having 2 sick kids home on Monday, I was definitely wrong. The moment I picked Ben up from camp on Monday I knew something was wrong - fever strikes again! Monday night was NOT FUN. Rebecca was up 2x coughing, the baby spent an hour sitting in her car seat in the bathroom with the shower running at 2am trying to make her breathe easier, and Ben woke up at 5am with a raging ear infection that landed all 4 of us in the doctor's office by 9:30 a.m. We left an hour later with a prescription for omnicef (Ben), a cough suppressant (Becca) and a major headache from listening to Ben cry for an hour (Mom). We filled the prescriptions and then headed home so that I could clean up, because it is a law that when you have three children home sick and your house is on the market, someone will want to see it.

Today I sent all 3 kids back to camp/preschool/day care, although Rebecca is still spewing out germs in the form of a horrendous cough and runny nose, and Caroline is less than stellar, having barely napped and barely eaten and being very fussy and congested all day today according to the day care. Ben, after a couple of doses of omnicef is doing the best of the three. I even sent Clara to doggy camp today thereby getting rid of every living being in the house (except Ulysses I guess I should say) so I could have some PEACE AND QUIET. Wednesdays is our cleaning day, so I even got a clean house today.

I did some major catch-up, having missed three days of work in a row (I was off last Friday, and took Monday and Tuesday off because of the sick kids). And we had yet another showing, from another person who thinks our kitchen is too small, our upstairs hallway is cramped, and who would like separate living and dining areas. So true, all so true. This one scheduled the showing all of 20 minutes in advance, a personal record of some kind. In the OH SO ANNOYING category: the house that's just like ours down the street that was for sale for 10k more than ours, is now under contract. OH SO ANNOYING. Probably the people who came into our house on Monday and complained it wasn't clean enough went ahead and put an offer on that one :P

An Open Letter to the Guy Who Showed my House Today

Dear Guy Who Showed My House Today,

I do not appreciate your feedback that my house "does not show as nicely" as the [empty] one of the same floorplan down the street, and that "it could be a little cleaner." It is possible that I may have left a changing pad on the dresser and a basket of laundry on top of the dryer, there may have been a few muddy dog prints by the back door, a stain of questionable origin on one of the bedspreads, and Rebecca may have left a wad of Play Doh on the kitchen counter unbeknownst to me. However, I have two kids with fevers at home today who I had to pile into the car along with the dog and sit in rain in the Wal Mart parking lot watching Cars on DVD, so that you, after requesting a showing with only 30 minutes advance notice, could tell me my house could be a little cleaner. And that your clients don't like my floorplan. You're lucky I let your sorry ass into my house at all.

Croup

You wouldn't know it to look at her, but this girl has croup! Yes, just three days after recovering from her weeklong fever/diarrhea illness, this apparently immune-deficient baby now has croup. She spent 5 hours in the emergency department with Joel Saturday night (midnight to five a.m. of course) where she received a breathing treatment and a prescription that turned out to be impossible to fill outside of the hospital, so that Joel had to return to the hospital to pick it up there after calling 10 different pharmacies none of which had it in stock.

She is currently doing much better, still coughing but not in the barking-seal way and not having difficulty breathing any more. Of course, this means more day care missed, and more work missed for Mom... because not only does Caroline have croup, but Rebecca must have the same virus because she woke up in the middle of the night last night with a 102 temperature, runny nose and cough. So I have not one, but two sick kids at home today, and likely tomorrow too. I am seriously considering throwing in the towel on this day care stuff and hiring a nanny instead.

Goooaaaal!

This is Becca moments after scoring the only goal of the game in yesterday's intense match up between the Tel Aviv Kickers and the Jaffa Jazz. I did not get a picture of the winning goal (nor actually did I take this picture) because I was in such disbelief that she would actually score when she got the ball, and also I was feeding the baby at the time. Joel missed the dramatic moment entirely because he was off picking up Caroline's medicine. We are so proud of you Becca! And thank you Melanie for the picture ;)