Hellos & Good Byes!

Good Bye Summer - Hello Fall!

Thank godness!

The fall breeze whooshed in yesterday morning!  It made me think of crunchy leaves under our feet, the brilliant colors of autumn, apples(maybe even pumpkins), and YES SCHOOL!!!  We had to find some long pants to wear and everything!

Whoop! Whoop!

Yesterday was Jonah's first official day of school (even if it was a shortened one because he is "transitioning" in a full schedule - and we had an official play date at the playground at his school last week plus an open house on Friday - you can never be too prepared for these things...).

It made me remember how that "not very august August" began... We started August off one Saturday with a fantastic day splashing in another friend's pool on her roof top down by the Navy Yards.  It was wonderful and hot!  The sun was shining and we all swam the afternoon away!   Time to say Good Bye to roof top swimming for a while.

Yesterday, it was Hello to a new schedule.  Hello to a new school bag.  Hello to a new routine.  We really need it over here.

But with the Hello was my first Good Bye to Jonah in his new classroom at his new school.  And wait for it... it was completely uneventful!  How fantabulous is that?!?!

Jonah hasn't been one for Good Byes... especially at school.  So today was a big one.  He walked in to his new classroom - it has birds on the door.  He is in the "Birds or Parrots" class (or Tukim as they call it in Jewish Nursery School).  He saw his new teachers (who he had met last week at the open house) and sat down with the scissors... his new favorite activity. He gave Vera hug and me a quick wave and that was that.  Good Bye. Vera was not so happy about leaving and she sort of had a little hissy fit all the way to the car.  That girl really wants to go to school!

When I showed up just over an hour later to pick him up - he was ALL smiles.  A huge kiss and hug and a big Hello mommy!  His teachers said he had a great day.

Hellos and Good Byes.  Really really heavy & powerful stuff.  Whether it is saying it to a season, your kids, a loved one, a job, a relationship, an address or a way of life... often hard, but part of life.  You know, just like that song by the Byrds (yes, the same name as Jonah's new class) from the Bible passage in Ecclesiastes 2-3:

To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, a time to die.
A time to plant, a time to reap.
A time to kill, a time to heal.
A time to laugh, a time to weep...

And yes, appropriately so, today is also September 11... 11 years later.  Another moment of Good Byes and Hellos in our national conscience.  All of this, just in time for next week's Jewish New Year, they are my big introspective thoughts for the day.  No matter what happens in life, no matter how many Good Byes and Hellos we must utter, no matter the context, change is what happens in life and often in the midst of chaos.  I see my challenge to make it wonderful and beautiful whatever it may be - and the kaleidoscope helps - but what also is a challenge is to remember the things worth remembering - because forgetting is often worse than saying Good Bye or Hello.  Our memories are what keep us grounded and centered.  They help us not to make the same mistakes twice and to know how to reach our most important triumphs again.  As this season turns from one to another, as we think back 11 years ago today, as we approach the Jewish New Year and as I watch my kids each day becoming more of who they will be, I choose to say my Hellos and Good Byes with strength and introspection, maybe a few tears, but always with a healthy dose of remembering what needs to be remembered for a lifetime to come.

With those "oh so heavy" thoughts on your mind, I leave you with the pictures below- they are just plain fun!  Enjoy!

By the end of the summer, Jonah was swimming like a fish - without the noodle!

with our cool buddies who had a pool on  the roof!!

Vera napped for the first half of our  pool outing...

Finally all four of us - in the pool at once having a great summer afternoon!

Vera is a little fish too!  GOOD BYE SUMMER!

HELLO FALL!  HELLO FIRST DAY OF NURSERY SCHOOL!  HELLO TO NO TEARS AT DROP OFF!  HELLO TO MY BIG BOY!

Lots of hugs on the porch before they hugged again as we sad GOOD BYE at school!  My two sweeties!

Zoo Shapin' Fun!

(AT: Remember - After Tonsils)

During our recovery time at home, we started going to town (or to the zoo) with our play dough.  We made some play dough and used bought play dough... the more the better.  But we have a little issue over here with "eating the play dough" so we try to build buildings, pirate ships and things like that with the play dough so as not to confuse anyone that we should actually eat the stuff...

The whole "not making stuff we eat" limits the universe of actual play dough toys that are available.  I did find this fun looking Zoo set and the kids LOVE it!  I even love it.  It is fun to make all the animals and the baby animals...

We have spent lots and lots of play dough time with this purchase!  Highly recommend it.

I love a good "smushing up the dough" session and it turns out the kids do too!  Although Vera loved walking around with the little bucket and playing with the play dough containers just as much!

It's all fun!

our homemade play dough

hard at work

lots of concentration

playdough bucket

play dough containers!

Splitting it Open & Stitching it Up!

Just when we were over the tonsil turbulence, we had a little detour (seriously, exactly 15 day after the surgery).  I figure let’s just get it out now and then we can move on to all the fun happy stuff we did in late July and August.

On Wednesday, August 22, Jonah and Vera were home with one of our babysitters. Jocelyn and I were out together in the car we had met up during the day to take care of some errands.  I was driving.  My cell phone rang.  Jocelyn grabbed it from my purse – it was the babysitter (who happens to also be studying to be a nurse) – she never calls me.   I grabbed the phone.

Babysitter: (hysterical crying in the background) Heather I think you need to come home now.

Me: Tell me what is going on.

Babysitter:  Everyone is going to be ok.  Jonah hit his head very hard and it is a really big cut. 

Me: (in the way too calm scary voice) Did he black out?  Is it still bleeding?

Babysitter:  He did not black out.  He has been crying the whole time. I stopped the bleeding but it looks bad.  He is going to need stitches.  You should come home and take him to the ER.

Me: (as I quickly calculate how far we are from home and how to get there the fastest…) Should we call an ambulance and I will meet it at the house?

Babysitter:  No.  Just come and take him yourself.

We got home in about 10 minutes.  I pulled the baby car seat out of the car and told Jocelyn to sit in the back with him.  I was going to drive to Children’s Hospital.  I went and got him.  He had stopped crying.  It looked HORRIBLE!  It was a huge gash on his forehead about four inches long, sort of “open,”  swelling as I looked at it, and looked very deep…  OIY VEY!

I put him in the car and told Jocelyn she had to keep him awake.  Which is actually not so easy – the kid falls asleep every time we get into the car on a good day when he hasn’t split his forehead open and been crying like crazy for over 30 minutes…

Mama worked hard.  She was in face talking about toys and making him look into her eyes.

I was driving.  It was the longest 5.3 miles I have ever driven in my life…

We drive up to the ER but end up at the wrong door.  I get out with Jonah in my arms and bang on the back door.  Jocelyn was going to park the car and meet us inside.  But then she jumps out to help me get inside – and then the car starts rolling away… seriously she jumped out while the car was in drive…

Quickly, a security guard let me in the ambulance entrance and he ushered us into a room – Jocelyn got the car and went and parked it.  The people at Children’s Hospital were awesome.  Another shout out for Children’s Hospital!!! THANK YOU!!!

They checked us in while we were in one of the “rooms” and Jonah watched Scooby Doo.  Someone came in right away and looked at the gash and bandaged it up.  She said it would need stitches and someone would be in as soon as possible.  We waited what seemed like forever - but I seriously have no idea how long we were there.  Jonah slowly started to become Jonah again.  He started looking all around.  Opening up the cabinets.  Climbing all over the furniture… jumping around. 

How did he get this gash you ask?  Well, he was running around downstairs – remember we don’t have much furniture and the kids love to run around downstairs.  The kitchen has 2 doors so they make a loop into the living room.  That’s what they were doing.  He slipped on the area rug and flew forehead first into the 100 year old solid metal radiator…

Thinking about it makes me cringe and almost throw up.

So there we are in the ER and Jonah is totally getting into everything.  He found a roll of tape and managed to tape everything up, the bed, the chairs, me… I let him go with that.

Then they bring in the “burrito” and lay it on the table.  They come in and explain to me and Jocelyn in a way that Jonah can’t really understand what they are saying – that they are going to wrap his body and hold his head.  They will give him a local shot of anesthesia and then stitch it up.  I asked if I could hold his head.  I just needed to be with him when this happened to him.  I knew the “wrapping” was going to put him over the edge – the kid can’t sit still normally for more than 2 minutes… he was not going to be happy about all of this.  I asked if I could hold his head. The woman who was going to do the stitches looked at me and said if you could do it, that would be great.

So then it happened.  They wrapped him up.  He got out of his mind hysterical.  They gave him the numbing shot in his head.  He was screaming, “mommy, please, please, help me, get me out, it is too tight…”  I was holding his head and talking to him the whole time and staring into his eyes.  And then completely exhausted, he just fell asleep.  The room went quiet.  The amazing woman doing his stitches said to me, “they don’t often cry themselves to sleep, but it actually means I can stitch him up perfectly now!”  And she did.  Two internal dissolvable layers of stitches and a top layer of stitches to be removed.  She was teaching a resident how to do it as she stitched him up - which was very illuminating as she described everything she was doing and did it painstakingly slow – and quite perfect as far as I could tell.  When they were finished, we put him in the stroller and brought him home… quite the day.

When Jonah got up he looked at his “scratch” as he likes to call and and I explained how it had stitches just like the ones in his shorts… he thought that was kinda cool.  He also asked me if he had to get wrapped up again – he told me he didn’t want to do that again.  As if I didn't already know how he felt about it.

The next day we went out and got him Bullseye from Toy Story for being brave. He deserved it…

Jonah planning some silliness in the ER...

Jonah took this of me...

back home with stitches

he even manages a smile!

SCIENCE + YOU = FUN

Here we go folks... this one is BT (you know Before Tonsils came out)...

The last week of camp and the last week of July, we tried to squeeze every last bit out of summer.  I had wanted to go to the Science + You  exhibit all summer but the time was totally messing with our schedule.  It didn't open till 12:30 on W, Th and Fr.  I figured it was then or never (it was closing in August)  - so the last Wednesday of camp was Pajama Day and it was also going to be - after camp we go to Science + You day!

I picked Jonah up from camp and he was proudly wearing his Scooby Doos!  He loves Scooby Doo and really loves his Scooby Doo pajamas... Vera was also dressed in pajamaesque clothes - as Jonah insisted that Vera should wear pajamas on pajama day too - why argue?

We drove down to the new Yards Park as that is where the exhibit was.

We got there in good time.  We found a parking spot and walked our way over to the Foundry Building.  We walked in and we were the only ones there!  It was a smaller exhibit that I thought it would be.  It didn't really wow me... but my kids had a ball.  Plus there were two women there who just loved my kids and I think they were bored so they were excited to hang out with Jonah & Vera... win/win I say!

We hung out for a good 45 minutes and the kids were totally happy.  They cleaned up with an imaginary shower and washed their hands at a make believe sink.  They LOVED playing with the different colored test tubes!  The looked into microscopes.  They pressed tons of BUTTONS!  They cooked and served some pretty delicious soup... and tried on scientist goggles.  All in all, my little scientists were hard and work and loved every minute of it.

Then we went for late lunch/snacks at Potbelly's around the corner.  Everyone ate.  And the sleepy eyes started to roll in.

We packed it back in the car and made our way home.  Both kids were out by the time I got to our front door.

It was a good time. It was fun!  It was sciencey... I was glad we went!



taking an imaginary shower



pretend hand washing



this was a big hit!  the test tube station!



buttons

microscopes!

sharing



they loved this!





milk shakes with lunch!