Chanukah

Trip to NJ

December 30, 2009 by Jessica

As we had been planning, we decided to head to New Jersey to celebrate Micah’s birthday, Chanukah, Elliot’s brother Dan’s birthday, and his nephew Brian’s birthday with his family. On December 29th, we packed up and took off on our trip. Not surprisingly, traffic was a bit heavy, and we left later than originally planned.

I was driving, but the morning sickness was making the drive challenging for me. Micah was actually wide awake for the first 1 1/2 hours of the trip (we were hoping he would fall asleep quickly and nap for most of the trip). Luckily he was in a good mood, playing with his toys and enjoying the Elmo CD playing in the car.

About 1 hour or so into the trip, Micah started playing his new “game.” You see, he thinks it is funny to stick his fingers so far down into his throat that it makes him gag. It is an awful sound (especially for someone like me who already feels nauseated), and I just think it is a terrible thing to do! He sticks his fingers down his throat, he gags, and then he laughs and does it again. I kept telling him no and told him to stop, but that just seemed to make him want to do it more. I tried to ask Elliot to give him some food or a bottle or another toy to distract him, but no such luck. I actually said to Elliot that if we didn’t get him to stop, he would make himself throw up. No sooner than I said that…yup, you guessed it, Micah puked all over himself. And started laughing. He thought it was hysterical! All I could think about was the smell and wanting to throw up myself.

We pulled over to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere on the highway. Elliot did the best he could to wipe him down, but we decided in the cold weather and on the side of the road, it was too difficult to change Micah. So…we got back on the road. Micah quickly fell asleep asleep after this, but I kept smelling vomit the entire trip.

Micah woke up near a rest stop about 30 miles from our destination. We decided to pull over, change his diaper and clothing and give him a snack. He was really cooperative and enjoyed his break, but he was very unhappy to be returned to the car. The last part of the trip was awful – Micah was crying and the traffic was terrible.

We finally arrived around 5:30 pm. I was still so sick from the traveling that I immediately threw up. Micah spent some time with his cousins Melissa, Brian and Stephanie and Aunt Jodi and Uncle Steven while I did my best to recover (and popped another Zofran). We headed out to dinner to celebrate Brian’s birthday at this cute little restaurant, but it was FREEZING cold there! We had these incredible potato chips (made fresh), but I couldn’t get Micah to eat the macaroni and cheese or any other food. Micah started to melt down towards the end of dinner, so we headed back to the house and quickly put him down to sleep. He was not thrilled to be sleeping in a new environment, unfortunately, so it took him a while to fall asleep – he needed Mommy to stay in the room and hold his hand for a while.

Elliot and I stayed awake until about 2:45 talking to our nieces and nephew. We finally went up to bed, got settled in, and I even got into bed without waking Micah who was sound asleep in the pack ‘n play next to the bed. Until Elliot made a ton of noise in the hallway and woke him up!! Micah was crying and would not stop, so I had to pull him into bed with us. Naturally, Elliot passed out a few minutes later, and I was awake for the next 1 1/2 hrs with a very perky Micah who wanted nothing more than to cuddle with Mommy and bounce on the bed. Finally, Micah fell asleep around 4:30. I woke Elliot up to help me move Micah back to the pack ‘n play so I could get some sleep.

Around 6:00 am, the room started to get very hot. By 7:00, it was almost unbearable, and Micah woke up crying. I knew we were in for a long day!! We opened up the door to the bedroom and got Micah’s bottle. He drank his milk and fell asleep again for another hour. By 9:00, I took him downstairs and gave him breakfast. I think he threw most of it on the floor, but he was having fun. After breakfast, he kept using the chair as a “walker” and he made circles around the first floor. We managed to get him down for a nap, and he woke up in time for the rest of the family to start arriving.

Daniel, Jody and Ethan arrived first. The kids all played together while we waited for their grandparents to arrive. We also learned that Micah is quite musical – he was enjoying playing the piano with his cousin Brian. He was actually pretty good. I do think he has a musical sense – he loves to bang on things like drums, and in music class, he loves to dance and shake the egg shakers to the music, and he loves both real pianos and his toy piano. Grandma Roberta and Poppy Ira arrived around 1:00, and we had a wonderful lunch of latkes. We exchanged gifts and then had birthday cake, and just had a lovely day together.

Most of the family left by 4:00. We stayed a few hours longer to feed Micah dinner. We put him to sleep in the car around 7:30, and we had an easy ride home (except for my nausea). We stopped to pick up the dog, then went straight back to our house. It was a very nice visit!

An announcement and some stories

December 8, 2009 by Jessica

A bottle of baby shampoo…$7

A can of formula…$25

A package of jumbo diapers…$43

The fact that there are 4 people in this photo….priceless:

It is with great pleasure that we are finally able to announce that we are expecting baby #2, due June 22, 2010. After a very rocky couple of months (we thought we lost the baby several different times), we had our 12 week nuchal tanslucency scan on December 8. After everything we went through, we were quite nervous about this visit. We got there and the tech started things up…and we were SOOO relieved when we heard there was still a heartbeat. As the ultrasound went on, the news got better and better. The baby was moving well, the neck measurements were perfect, all the parts were in place…hands, feet, arms, legs and nasal bone. Here are the two pictures of our beautiful little bean, (who we are calling Twoey), that we were able to take home.

Random Story Time

I adore Micah, but he is becoming quite a challenge to handle in so many ways. First, let’s start with diapering. Diaper changing is really and truly an exercise in baby wrangling – Micah twists, turns, stands, flips, dances, squirms, crawls, and hollers. We hand him a toy – sometimes it appeases him and he’ll play. Other times, he’ll throw it on the floor and return to insanity. We’ve tried remote controls, books, digital thermometers, the blue nose squeegey – at different times, each of these “toys” enthralls him, but some days, nothing but freedom will do!

Now that we’ve covered diapering challenges, let’s talk about eating. Micah does not like to drink much milk, and he refuses to take a sippy cup. He should still be drinking 20-24 ozs of formula a day, but I’m lucky most days if he drinks 10-14. In the morning, he likes to go play. In theory, that alone would be fine if he did a great job of eating. And some meals, Micah is a GREAT eater. He loves veggie burgers, hamburgers, turkey burgers, cheese sandwiches, pizza, cheerios and kidney beans. He also loves bananas and pears. Just about anything else, however, is a crap shoot. He appears to hate pasta, although he was willing to eat pesto-coated tortellini the other day. He will sometimes eat yogurt and cottage cheese, and he will sometimes let me feed him applesauce or oatmeal. Other times, he grabs the spoon and smears it in his hair while dumping the bowl on the floor. He will not eat white potatoes (can you imagine?), peas, green beans or carrots anymore. I can actually handle this newly found pickiness, but what is driving me crazy is his need to “share” the food with our dog! He drops at least half of everything he touches on the floor for her! And if we say “no,” he smiles and tries to “sneak” and drop the food on the floor. I mean, seriously, is deviousness an instinct or a learned trait? The worst part is my dog is supposed to be on a grain-free diet because of her allergies. We finally had her skin doing better and her hair re-growing, and all this recent influx of waffles and Cheerios and bread and crackers has her skin back to being a mess again, her bald spot is back with a vengeance, and her nose irritation returned. How do you explain that to a 1 year old? I think I’m going to have to put MICAH on a grain-free diet for the sake of the dog!!

By the way – did you notice I said 1 year old? That is right – Monday is Micah’s first birthday! We are having a party for him on Sunday (well, two). It is also Chanukah for us (the “festival of lights”), when we celebrate Judah and the Maccabees’ (the Jewish makeshift “army”) victory over the Syrian King, Antiochus, who tried to kill us. After our victory, Judah and the Maccabees sought to rededicate the Temple, and there was only a small amount of oil left to light the eternal flame. Once lit, the eternal flame should never be extinguished. The miracle is that the little tiny bit of oil managed to last for eight days. To commemorate the miracle, we light candles every night for 8 days. Each night, we add one more candle to the lighting, and on the last night, the entire menorah is lit – all 8 candles (plus the one we use to light the other candles – known as the shamas). Because Chanukah falls around Christmas time, in the US, Jews also celebrate Chanukah with gift-giving.

In honor of both Micah’s birthday and the holiday, we are having a Chanukah party for Micah’s birthday! At 12, his playgroup friends will join us, and we’ll serve traditional Chanukah food (like latkes – potato pancakes). Micah will then take his afternoon nap, and around 3:30 or 4, we’ll have some other friends and family join us for Chanukah party, take 2. We’ll continue eating traditional food, playing Chanukah games, and we’ll have Chanukah music playing. We’ll light the candles, exchange gifts and watch Micah destroy a birthday cake. What could be more fun?

Jewish Christmas

December 25, 2008 by Jessica

Well, we do not celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense, but Christmas for us is still a time to celebrate. Every year, Elliot & I volunteer on Christmas Day at The Original Pancake House where they feed over 300 homeless people. Elliot works in the kitchen cooking pancakes, eggs, and bacon (we always find it funny that the guy who keeps kosher cooks the bacon). I usually work the “gift” table, and this year I arranged for 300 bags of toiletries to give out to all the people who came to eat. We also raise funds to buy hats/scarves/sweatshirts, and we collect donations of clothing, jackets, gloves, etc. and give those out to people who need them.

This year, we weren’t sure if we would be able to volunteer – Micah could have been born much later making it impossible for us to attend. Instead, he arrived nice and early, and my mother graciously agreed to come babysit for a few hours so I could run down the street and volunteer. Micah and his Grammy spent the day napping on the couch together, and Elliot & I got to volunteer. I was only able to stay for 2 hours, but it was so nice to go and participate. One of the women (a Russian lady) yelled at me for abandoning my son to work, but everyone else couldn’t believe I was out so soon. It felt good to see this project through, and I’m so glad I could be there!

After volunteering, we went to eat at my cousin Michelle’s house. We don’t celebrate Christmas, but since everyone is off of work, it is a great time for the family to gather. We ate potato latkes and lit the Chanukah candles, and we generally had a good time and relaxed. Elliot’s brother, SIL, niece and nephew were passing through town, so we had a quick visit with them as well. All in all, it was a great day, and Micah was wonderful!