Friday, March 12, 2010

Scrambling

It's been busy around here. Well, it's always busy, but it's been even busier than usual. Lots I could blog about but don't have time to write up. So, in brief:

1. MHH had two job interviews last week: one for the Israel program, one for a job prospect here at some indeterminate time in the future. So far as we know, decisions for the program have been made and letters are going out next week. Stay tuned.

2. Xtreme Telecommuting: no decisions, since my boss, reasonably enough, wants to know about #1 (above) first.

3. After discovering her thumb around Purim (the joy!) and soothing herself back to sleep with it a number of times (the amazement!) and a few nights of fantastically good sleep (the sleep!) Marika has... well, not lost her thumb exactly, but lost her taste for it. I hope she gets it back. We really liked that thumb phase and want it back. And yeah, yeah, I know, you can't take away a thumb like you can take away a pacifier when she gets older. Know what? I DON'T CARE. I just want her to sleep at night. Which, lately, she hasn't been doing, preferring instead to be entertained at, oh, 1 am. Every night I am determined that she will stay in a dark room in a sleepy environment all night. Every night I give up when it's been an hour or two of bright perky-eyed happy baby wanting to play. I lie down and nurse her and she screams hysterically; I turn her upright and she quiets down, hiccups a few times, recovers slowly from the trauma, looks at me shyly, and starts showing her dimples. She wins.

4. Iyyar is getting so big. He's talking more clearly, gets himself dressed in the morning by himself (although his sartorial choices--oof. Blue plaid flannel shirt with red and green plaid flannel pants! "It's gonna be all cozy for me!") He likes to yell "potch!" as though it is a very bad word. Or whisper "stupidhead!" and giggle madly. Who's got a big brother?

5. Speaking of big brothers... Avtalyon thinks he's five. The other day he came up to me with a Lincoln Log wanting me to put it in his belt loop. So he could shoot it like a gun. He's talking more and more every day; last week my friend Charlotte sent us this massive Costco-sized Special K box full of about 50 different pairs of hand-me-down little girl socks (let us not even contemplate the kind of laundry organization that must have been involved in maintaining all of those socks in paired states over two and a half years of twin girls wearing them... clearly, she is on a different laundry level from us mere mortals). Anyway, one of the socks had Elmo on them and Avtalyon was, of course, enraptured. For some reason I don't now recall I couldn't get them on his feet quite as quickly as he wanted--probably I was holding a baby--and he protested. "Imma! I want it! I want it my Elmo socks!" Wow.

6. Now that I'm on the topic of Avtalyon speech: "barkip," "barkistan," and "baykinih" are still going, but really the word of the moment is "Matim!" as in, Hebrew for "It fits!" He is obsessed with jigsaw puzzles--specifically those big Melissa and Doug floor puzzles that we now have about seven of because even though they're expensive they are so fabulous. All the boys will do them, together, without fighting, which is a miracle in itself; but most fun of all is watching Avtalyon find a piece that fits, throw up his hands in victory, and shout, "MaTIIIIIM!" I bought three new puzzles last week--a tractor, a barn, and a Noah's ark. Barak wanted to know why there were only two giraffes and not seven like the pasuk says. I told him that the giraffes couldn't all fit in the picture and he was OK with that.

7. Barak is in a new toy stage: Playmobil. Jasmin sent Iyyar some Playmobil when Marika was born, and I added a little to it via star-chart prize, and then my friend Karen blew their minds by sending a HUGE box of Romans vs. Barbarians. Lots of shooting and "You're dead now!" I've given up; the Y chromosome has me beat. I still won't buy them violent toys myself but they've been making guns and swords and bomb-shooters out of Lego so that's really just for my own self-respect. And Barak's little Lego has what he terms a "cannonball-shooter." As opposed to, you know, a cannon.

8. Work. Work is busy. Not much to say there.

9. I still don't have Marika's social security number, which means I'll have to get an extension for my taxes if it doesn't turn up soon. This is annoying. She was born Nov. 30 and I filed for it at the hospital! How long does it take, really?

10. I just bought a new carseat because the convertible carseat I bought for Barak when he was 1 has expired (!!!). Two days later, I just saw that Combi now has a convertible carseat that snaps into a stroller. Oh for one of these when I took Iyyar to Hungary! And if we're in Israel next year and I have to come back for work, that'd be an awfully nice thing to have for Marika. Hmm.

1 comment:

miriamp said...

9. Call them. (The Social Security people, not the hospital.) If they have it, they'll give it to you over the phone (once you provide yours to prove you are you). This will have the desired effect of having it arrive in the mail the next day -- and if not, you'll still know what it is.

As for the rest, well, you know your kids are adorable, and hatzlacha on the job related stuff.