It has been a LONG time since I last posted. Mostly this is because life has been really normal (which is a good thing!). A few updates:
Matt's dad had very scary open heart surgery at the beginning of February. He is thankfully doing great. Considering his sternum was busted open and his heart was out of his body, I literally can't believe how well he is doing! But that was scary. Matt took a quick weekend trip before the surgery to be with the family, and we all went back for a week during school break.
We met my parents in Florida for a long weekend to visit my grandparents. It was a super nice, but short visit. We hung out a lot at their place and the pool, went to the beach and visited a bird/nature reserve and saw LOADS of cool birds and a few alligators. My grandma is amazing - at 85 she is still cooking up insane meals and worked so hard to host us. My grandpa just turned 90, and he seemed VERY old. The last few years he has been older, but now he really seemed old. Kinda sad. Glad we went.
I had met my doctor once, for five minutes, since my first appointment was cut short, and the next one was cancelled due to snow, so I saw a different doctor. Today I met her again (she seemed great), and since all is going so normal (I literally CANNOT BELIEVE IT), they're letting me go until 39 weeks, and we have a c-section scheduled for 27 May. The last I had heard was from the maternal fetal medicine people (the high risk scanning doctors) who said they would probably deliver me at 36 weeks, due to all of my risks with delivery, so I feel like I won back three weeks of life today. It's not that life will end with the baby comes, but it kind of will.
The kids are doing great. Sam is at a bit of a difficult stage for the last week or so - screaming, getting frustrated easily, not always interested in listening, but I would say that this is super normal. It's just kinda inconvenient for me! She is loving school and learning SO much (today she taught me about composting - she's also learning a lot from Dinosaur Train). She has a crazy imagination (also kinda inconvenient for me - how many times do I have to pretend I'm the teacher, the mom, the kid, the dinosaur...), she asks super quality questions, and overall she's pretty fun. She still eats nearly nothing and sleeps like a champ - napping 1.5-2 hours per day and sleeping 11.5-12 hours at night. Unbelievable.
Elie is hilarious. He is kinda like a parrot right now, finding words we say and repeating them again and again. Funny ones today were "maybe" and "pie." He cracks himself up. He is still super frum, fully obsessed with shabbat and especially havdallah. His favorite books are the Mensch on the Bench and Sammy Spider's First Book of Jewish Holidays. He is into EVERYTHING - turning on the garbage disposal, the dishwasher, unrolling all of the toilet paper in ten seconds flat, finding random markers and drawing all over the floor - EVERYTHING. I just ordered a whole lot of babyproofing things from Amazon, as once that baby is here I won't be able to watch him nearly as well - and those things are what he's getting into when I AM "watching" him. He sings. He dances. He just cracks up all day and cracks us up too.
I'm still really enjoying being in America. I love having space. I love having great food stores and things like goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, organic broccoli. muenster cheese, lox...I'm really appreciating the time with the kids. Life feels super not stressful and manageable right now (until #3...), even if I sometimes want to sell my children for really cheap. It's not very often. I struggle a lot with being a stay at home mom (though I'm a fantastic housewife - I impress myself) and "what am I doing with my life" type of stuff. When someone asks if I'm working or at home I can't just say, "I'm at home right now." I launch into a whole diatribe. It doesn't sit well with me to be home, but it also doesn't make sense to work right now. That's a post for another day.
The snow has melted to the point where it's even with our back porch, so I'm guessing it's about three feet of snow left. Our driveway is completely clear, as are the sidewalks that have been shoveled. It's still hard to "play" outside, but if we put on rain boots, snow pants and other snow gear, the kids can climb ON the yard and play up there. Elie is obsessed with splashing in puddles (see the video below). I ordered rain boots for him and me, and they can't come soon enough.
We're still working on the social side of things - we're meeting some people through Sam's school and others through random connections, internet, etc. Overall people are very friendly and welcoming, but it takes time to make connections and form bonds.
Overall, we're doing great - and so so happy Spring is coming!
Matt's dad had very scary open heart surgery at the beginning of February. He is thankfully doing great. Considering his sternum was busted open and his heart was out of his body, I literally can't believe how well he is doing! But that was scary. Matt took a quick weekend trip before the surgery to be with the family, and we all went back for a week during school break.
We met my parents in Florida for a long weekend to visit my grandparents. It was a super nice, but short visit. We hung out a lot at their place and the pool, went to the beach and visited a bird/nature reserve and saw LOADS of cool birds and a few alligators. My grandma is amazing - at 85 she is still cooking up insane meals and worked so hard to host us. My grandpa just turned 90, and he seemed VERY old. The last few years he has been older, but now he really seemed old. Kinda sad. Glad we went.
I had met my doctor once, for five minutes, since my first appointment was cut short, and the next one was cancelled due to snow, so I saw a different doctor. Today I met her again (she seemed great), and since all is going so normal (I literally CANNOT BELIEVE IT), they're letting me go until 39 weeks, and we have a c-section scheduled for 27 May. The last I had heard was from the maternal fetal medicine people (the high risk scanning doctors) who said they would probably deliver me at 36 weeks, due to all of my risks with delivery, so I feel like I won back three weeks of life today. It's not that life will end with the baby comes, but it kind of will.
The kids are doing great. Sam is at a bit of a difficult stage for the last week or so - screaming, getting frustrated easily, not always interested in listening, but I would say that this is super normal. It's just kinda inconvenient for me! She is loving school and learning SO much (today she taught me about composting - she's also learning a lot from Dinosaur Train). She has a crazy imagination (also kinda inconvenient for me - how many times do I have to pretend I'm the teacher, the mom, the kid, the dinosaur...), she asks super quality questions, and overall she's pretty fun. She still eats nearly nothing and sleeps like a champ - napping 1.5-2 hours per day and sleeping 11.5-12 hours at night. Unbelievable.
Elie is hilarious. He is kinda like a parrot right now, finding words we say and repeating them again and again. Funny ones today were "maybe" and "pie." He cracks himself up. He is still super frum, fully obsessed with shabbat and especially havdallah. His favorite books are the Mensch on the Bench and Sammy Spider's First Book of Jewish Holidays. He is into EVERYTHING - turning on the garbage disposal, the dishwasher, unrolling all of the toilet paper in ten seconds flat, finding random markers and drawing all over the floor - EVERYTHING. I just ordered a whole lot of babyproofing things from Amazon, as once that baby is here I won't be able to watch him nearly as well - and those things are what he's getting into when I AM "watching" him. He sings. He dances. He just cracks up all day and cracks us up too.
I'm still really enjoying being in America. I love having space. I love having great food stores and things like goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, organic broccoli. muenster cheese, lox...I'm really appreciating the time with the kids. Life feels super not stressful and manageable right now (until #3...), even if I sometimes want to sell my children for really cheap. It's not very often. I struggle a lot with being a stay at home mom (though I'm a fantastic housewife - I impress myself) and "what am I doing with my life" type of stuff. When someone asks if I'm working or at home I can't just say, "I'm at home right now." I launch into a whole diatribe. It doesn't sit well with me to be home, but it also doesn't make sense to work right now. That's a post for another day.
The snow has melted to the point where it's even with our back porch, so I'm guessing it's about three feet of snow left. Our driveway is completely clear, as are the sidewalks that have been shoveled. It's still hard to "play" outside, but if we put on rain boots, snow pants and other snow gear, the kids can climb ON the yard and play up there. Elie is obsessed with splashing in puddles (see the video below). I ordered rain boots for him and me, and they can't come soon enough.
We're still working on the social side of things - we're meeting some people through Sam's school and others through random connections, internet, etc. Overall people are very friendly and welcoming, but it takes time to make connections and form bonds.
Overall, we're doing great - and so so happy Spring is coming!
