I've moved

And you can find me here.

Too many pills today

Used to be a time I'd pop an advil for any ache and pain. It hurts? Here, have a pill.

I'm still somewhat good with the aftercare, although lazy at times.

I do admit that preventative care is not really my forte. Hence, the bottles of prenatals still sitting in our medicine basket. I think one of them is from when I was pregnant with Eden.

After getting what I thought might be swine flu in the November while nursing a 2 month old and traveling, and realizing that I just hated swallowing monster pills, I decided that I would find some good gelcap multi-vitamins, as well as vitamin Cs, and take them. Regularly.

Well except for last week when I was too busy changing diapers, taking temperatures, cooking for holidays, and switching Disney movies. Somehow working did not really come into play much. Also taking vitamins.

Which is of course how I got to a stomach ache this morning. Here are the pills I ended up taking - all before deciding my breakfast tasted like cardboard:

• 2 antibiotics for a lovely dose of tonsillitis
• 2 ibuprofen for said tonsillitis's accompanying headache
• 2 multi-vitamins in sweet tasting gelcaps
• 2 vitamin Cs, also in clearish white gelcaps that look like something illegal
• 1 probiotic, because i don't want to get sick from the antibiotics
• 1 weird feeling analgesic throat lozenge, just to get my mouth working right

Add all that in, a drive in traffic, then a descent to the 4th floor underground in the parking garage, and I got to work just wanting to go back home.

I'm planning on losing about 5 lbs on this round of infection. In Israel, we don't really have "April showers bring May flowers" - rather more of an indecisive weather god with a streak of kindness. Why else would we be having this weird "I'm cold! I'm hot! I'm really cold! Wow it's hot!" that gets us sick enough just in time to fit into our pre-pregnancy summer clothes?

Eden went to bed early with a sniffly nose too. Have to say, she's a bit young for our weather god's target audience.

Feeling Old

On Friday, Ben and I were sitting in the park with Yemima and our new landlord, signing a contract. (Well, really my parent's new landlord. Theoretically. Techincally - ours.)

The grass was pretty, and yummy, according to Yemima, and some old men played shesh besh next to us.

Some small talk ensued, along the lines of, "Adorable baby! She must be a handful." "Thanks! She's wonderful." "And are you her mother or her grandmother?"

??!! WHAT ??!!

"Her mother." *Smile*

How young do the grandmothers come in your family? Or rather, where do the grandmothers you know get their skin cream?

Suddenly I felt tired and really wanted an afternoon nap.

Sunday Morning Over Coffee

Last night, after a long (but relaxing, enjoyable, and admittedly, not that tiring) Shabbat, and cooking tonight's dinner for us and another family with a new baby, I noticed that the dishwasher had finished.

Me to Ben: If I were a really good person, I'd unload the dishwasher and reload it with all the rest of the dirty dishes from cooking.

Am I a really good person?

Ben to Me: No, babe, you aren't a really good person.

So there you have it, folks. How wonderful to be able to rely on my mediocrity.

On other topics, Eden's makeup advice can be inspired. She somehow dug up a pot of green glittery shadow at the back of my makeup drawer (what was she doing in my makeup drawer?!) and begged me to wear it. This is the 2nd week in a row, so I decided to agree, even though I thought it was a bit garish. Turns out that just a little bit of it looks terrific. She was so so happy to have a pretty Mommy. Note to self: Art classes for her next year.

Blogging Forward

So I realized that I don't really know where this blog is going. I don't have any sort of direction for it, and feel limited by lots of different things.

Some being:

• I don't want to blog about my kids. Meaning, I don't really want to quote all the cute things they say, what they are up to (aside from the basics - Yemima crawls all over the house now.), and how I feel about it. Some day, Eden and Yemima will be better at internet searches than I will be, and will find all these things. As will all their friends, potential boyfriends, possibly employers - who knows?
• I don't want to complain. Vent - yes, but complain and constantly complain - no. That cannot be healthy, and I don't want to do it.
• I also don't want to continuously tell everyone how wonderful my life is. I have a severely jealous streak in me, and I know that I wouldn't want to read that about someone else. So I'll save the stories about what a wonderful family and life I have and how lucky we feel, and how much we feel that God has blessed our lives in countless ways for a more private place. (Ok I just had to get some of that out...)
• I refuse to write about work, other than a few words here and there. It's a major part of my life, and I enjoy it, and that's all I'm going to say about it. I think that any more is unprofessional.
• I also refuse to talk a lot about family. I have too many family members as readers to risk that. If I did, I might end up with no traffic at all.
• I also refuse to talk about religion. While I have some interesting thoughts (I think), the above goes the same. If I did, I might end up with no traffic at all.
• Sometimes I have big and great ideas (or more often, Ben has big and great ideas, and I say - Ben! You should blog about that! and he says - No, you should blog about that!). But I also don't want this blog to be about our great ideas. I mean, even if I do think that we are great and wonderful parents and have some great and wonderful parenting schemes, ideas about religion, balancing work and family, etc, I don't need to go on and on about it.

So basically, according to this blog, I don't have a terrible life, but neither do I have a wonderful one. I have family and and children and work, and sometimes think about things, but don't speak about any of them here. I'm super completely and totally average (those are my favorite adjectives. aren't they wonderful?). Wow, how depressing.

I just bought and read Sleep is for the Weak: The best of the mommybloggers. I have not laughed so hard in a really really really long time. (Thanks, Aunt Joan for the gift certificate!) But also, I never have the time to read all these things online and so I realized something new - I'm totally un-unique. Usually this would be a good thing - I realize that I am not alone in my perception of children. There are people out there who provide less nutritious food for their children than I do. And people who have the same post-baby aches and pains that no one tells you about beforehand and no one mentions afterwards that I do too! So, while it's comforting, I also realize that I have nothing new to say.

And.... Erev Pesach in My House

I suppose I didn't want to leave the blog with such a cynical feeling going into the holiday.

Just a few hours before the holiday begins, Ben and and Yemima are napping, Eden is "resting" in her room - singing hagaddah and Dudu Pesach songs quietly, and I am watching the Pesach rolls bake.

Not making seder definitely takes a load off. Tomorrow's salmon is marinating quietly in the fridge, ready to be baked tomorrow morning, and salad can be done tomorrow morning also.

Looking forward to a week of vacation - for both me and Ben! - ahead. Yummy food, new beginnings.

Wishing all my (less than 10?) readers an enjoyable, restful, and insightful holiday of spring and freedom.

Pesach in my house

Many Orthodox Jews are extra stringent about getting rid of all chametz over pesach. Has something to do with karet as punishment - being cut off from the community. Always very scary, out there on your own.

This usually involves a great deal of heartache and raw skin on your hands, use of great gobs of cleaning solution and scrub brushes.

Me, you know I like a good efficiency. And I don't like heartache or raw skin.

Here's how we do it in the Gold household, circa 2010:

Rule #1: Have a baby that year, which enables you to say things like, "I just can't do that. I'm just not up for doing X,Y,Z - I didn't sleep well last night."

Rule #2: Catch a bad cold the week before Pesach. Usually helps with #1.

Rule #3: Have one spouse take on a major project at work, clocking 50-60 hours a week, for the two weeks before Pesach. Always helps with rules #1 and #2. Better that it's the spouse who usually does the oven and fridge, enabling #4.

Rule #4: Have the cleaning lady do the oven and fridge. Best NIS 150 ever spent.

Rule #5: Don't clean where there's no food. Like Yemima's room. She doesn't crawl that well and can't reach the cookies on her own. Nuff said. Quick peek - oh no chametz? Great. Check.

Rule #6: Spring cleaning waits until retirement, when it can last the entire spring. Oh well.

Rule #7: Close off the freezer. Who needs a freezer over Pesach? I'm not cooking ahead, can get plenty of fresh meats, and since I'll be home all week, leftovers won't last very long. So, no need to scrub at the frozen chametz in the freezer.

Rule #8: Who needs lots of things over Pesach? It's only a week!!! We make do with lots of fresh fruits and vegies, lots of matza meal and eggs, cheese and yummy matzah cookies.

Rule #9: Eat kitniot. Higher taxes for living in the Jewish state have to be worth something. It's not my problem that my great-grandparents were born in Europe. I chose differently.

Rule #10: We really mean it when we declare any chametz still in our possession worthless and null, as the dust of the earth.

Off to look for ways to make the seder fun for my five year old. She doesn't know the mah nishtana yet, and clearly, I'm not pushing her (If I'm not pushing myself, how can I push her?). Let's see if she can complete a Pesach bingo card!

PS. Ben just read this with me and says that I'm a great lister. Hah! He doesn't know the least of it.

Sorry - make that enumerator. See what I get for marrying an editor? And Ashkenazi to boot! Well, at least one of those we can do something about...

31 reasons you shouldn't feel mom guilt

Sarah sent me this link.

My favorite:

18 Tossing their artwork. After you've saved the truly superior thumb pots and the especially sentimental glitter collages, you will still have a heap of crafts the size of Mount Etna. Fill up a big black Hefty bag after they're asleep, pour yourself some wine, and then watch Hoarders. You'll feel better instantly.

Travel Meme

I love getting tagged.

Thanks, Dr. Savta.

I'm not one so big on "bests" and "worsts" - I mean it's all relative, right? So i modified this a bit (also why I didn't use my friend's new meme site. But you should).

I'm not tagging anyone. But feel free to take it!

Rules: Fill in the following questions & tag 5 friends (try friends who travel a lot).

• A really great trip…
  Our senior trip to - I think hiking in N Carolina? Gosh I don't remember. I'm also not sure how many people who were there actually read this blog.... Anyone remember the nudists in Asheville? Not sure if I'm remembering that right either...
  Also our stint up in the Italian Dolomites.
• A really awful trip…
  When Ben and I thought to go out for dinner on Yom Hashoah, just because it was the one night we could both get away. Right...nothings open.
• Important things lost on a trip…
  I left my coat in the airport in Rome. However, Ben got his wallet stolen on the subway.
• Important things I forgot to take on a trip…
  I also can't think of anything! Maybe something like my glasses.
• Thing I miss most when I’m away…
  My bed, kitchen, bathroom.
• Thing I miss least when I’m away…
  The mess.
• Favorite travel partner…
  Ben
• Place I hope to travel to someday…
  You know, I have no real interest in any particular place. Give me quiet, serenity, privacy. Perhaps a swing in back. Cool air. Yummy food (that I don't need to prepare). Maybe some snow and a fireplace. Interesting town. Books.
  
  
  
  

Executive Decisions

I'm going to wake up tomorrow and regret this.

I cut Yemima's bangs tonight.

This is how I feel.

"I'll spare you the suspense: I did a terrible job."

It was one of those really really rash decisions, made in the time after shabbat when Ben hasn't gotten home from shul yet, Eden's complaining of a tummy ache (hint, too many shabbat snacks, not enough vegies), Yemima's tired enough to go to bed and there isn't enough hot water yet to run a bath for her and stave off the inevitable.

I just got sick of brushing it out of her eyes again. So I plunked her down in the high chair, got Eden to hold her hands and SNIP. Done. Then straight to bed. I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning what it really looks like.

My other executive decision: To put Yemima to bed without a bath. Her hair has gotten long enough that it doesn't get knotted up from a day of sleeping on it. I daresay it's longer than mine!

Some other news, just to keep y'all in the loop:

Eden received a bike from her Grandma Lila and Grandpa Irv for her fifth birthday. 2 wheels, training wheels, helmet and all. Boy oh boy is she excited. Now watch me be a great mommy and schedule time to take her out with it.

Yemima's eating all manner of solids. Vegies, fruits, etc. Seems to prefer to to formula actually, which means that we'll be following up with some proteins soon - beans, chicken, etc. We might wait on the eggs and dairy, just to be safe.

I'm going to bet that Yemima will be crawling by Pesach. This morning when I went to get her when she woke up, she was on her hands and knees all ready to go. And on the floor in the living room - that girl moves. Little Toys of Eden's: Watch Out. Also, she did not pull herself up, but was able to keep herself up standing against the bath tub tonight. (Please don't tell me it's bad for her hips and knees to let her do that. If you are going to tell me that, you may as well keep your comments to yourself, it'll only annoy me and I'll lump you together with tipat chalav nurses.)

We are celebrating the retainment of our sanity after 6 months of this by going out to dinner tomorrow night. (Also some nice things about Ben's job. Ptu Ptu Ptu.) Whew. I'm excited and nervous - are we actually going to leave our 6 month old with a teenager? What if she cries? I mean the baby, not the teenager. I sincerely hope Yemima doesn't drive her nuts. Actually, I sincerely home she doesn't see her and Yemima sleeps perfectly well. I'm looking forward to spending lots of money on good food. That's not to say anything about Ben's birthday (coming up) and our 7th anniversary (coming up a little later).

Hmmm nice things to think about.

Never a dull moment

I took Yemima to tipat chalav today for a checkup and a couple of shots. Big news - Yemima is tall! She's btwn the 60th and 75th centile for height, and smack center 50th for weight. Hooray! No wonder she's growing out of the clothes Eden wore at her age.

Otherwise also, she's doing great. She's ahead in some ways, trying to sit up. The nurse told me that we should start giving her tastes of our own food - salted, spiced, everything. Just to stay away from milk, honey, and instant soup mix. (!!!). It's interesting, how is it that they are so far away from what you generally hear/read about giving babies solids. She's not even 6 months old, and they want me to give her tastes of chicken? And what about staying away from peanut butter (not even for allergy reasons, but isn't it a choking hazard this young?), wheat, egg whites, etc? It's as if they've never heard of allergies.

I'm confused as to whether it's because they just disagree with the rest of the world, or are just completely out of touch with the generally accepted medical opinions. My inclination is to the latter. Especially after seeing the nurse's face when she saw Yemima try to sit up, lifting her head and shoulders and almost all her back. It was as if she'd never seen a baby do that before. Call that experienced much?

We're still working on sleeping through the night. Seeing as she still downs 1-2 full bottles every night, crying it out isn't going to work for us. Nuff said. We do have our evenings though, which is a lot and I am very grateful for them.

Eden's hebrew birthday crept up on us. It's this Sunday! And I totally forgot to call her teacher and plan a gan party for her, and now her two best friends had theirs together and she's been very sad about it ever since. So now we are racing to put something together for her - or even two somethings, one for gan friends and one for neighborhood friends/our friends. And then in another month or more we're going to celebrate the English date. Very confusing. I mean it is a milestone birthday (five!!! my baby is five years old!!!), but does that mean that it has to last a full month? It seems that it does.

One big thing I do want to do for her is get the cake of her dreams. Ever since our trip to Disney back in November, she's had a bit of thing for princesses, and she wants ALL of them on her cake. This one I'm going to order - no Dunkin Heinz for us this year. It'll be BIG, PINK, and CHOCOLATE. Some of her favorite things. Her friends will be very jealous. This is a good thing, seeing as she is currently painfully jealous of her friend's party at the local gymboree/child-size nuthouse, where the kids have too much fun to hear eachother.

It's never a dull moment at our house. It doesn't seem as if we've had one week where one of us isn't sick, one of us isn't totally stressed from work, Eden doesn't have a party or an event, or SOMETHING. Blogging falls by the wayside, as I knew it would, but I miss it, I do. Really I miss having something interesting to say. Well, maybe that's missing having done something interesting with my day. Isn't my day interesting? Isn't it? Isn't it? Why am I desperate for it to be interesting? I should be happy when it's lame and calm and I have nothing to write about.

Confession of the day: I sent Yemima to gan today without her bottle by mistake. Bad, bad, bad parent.

Don't think I can diet and exercise when not sleeping at night

It seems to me that weight loss and an infant in the house must be mutually exclusive.

I've decided to put the following measures in place in an effort to lose the pregnancy pounds:

No sugar in coffee any more (and no fake sugar either...nasty stuff!)

No snacking on fatty things. Fruit OK.

Balanced meals with lots of vegies

Also, in an unprecedented decision of desperation, I've decided to exercise. When though? Evenings I am just too tired, and there are house things to get done and a husband to read with. Afternoons is my kid time. Mornings and day time I work. So really the best time is to get up at 5 on the dot every day and go for a 20 minute walk. I could do that.

But I find myself sabotaged. I'm just too tired. We are trying to get Yemima to eat more during the day, but she can still finish 1-2 bottles at night. Also lately we've all been sick and she wakes up. A lot. Part of having a baby, I know. But I find that when we don't sleep well, we get sick. And that is not the time to be getting up extra early and go walking in the cold. And the less I sleep, the more sugar I need, just to get me through the day.

I've never been a good dieter, nor an exerciser at all - good or not. I don't think I'd even care that much. But I've found that my last couple months of pregnancy really did a job on me, and my knees and ankles have taken a big hit. I'm achey and creaky, and I'm not serving myself or my family best this way, and I know that the best solution really is to just lose the pounds and keep them off.

Ho hum.

I stayed home this morning while Ben went shopping so that I could clean and we could have a more relaxing Friday afternoon. So I'd better hop to it.

Why I Don't Use Our Public Library

I used to. When I was on maternity leave, I paid for a maximum membership at our public library - 2 books per person in the family. I was reading about 1 book every 3 days, and 8 books took me on average about the full month that I had the books.

My last set of books was due on Sunday, and I didn't get around to returning them before I went back to working full time. One of the main reasons is the idiotic opening hours. I went yesterday and then again today - and it still wasn't open at the time that I went!

Why is it that I have to check the opening times every time I go somewhere? Why can't things be open, like from 8-7 or something normal like that? Or at least be open for the same time every day?

I had intended on going on Sunday after work with the girls. Sunday was running late and I forgot all about it. But I had checked the times, and knew that it opened again at 4 PM.

So Monday, 4 PM, and I'm at the library with all 8 books. No go, on Monday's it's not open until 5. I DID look at the times when I was there, but somehow I forgot what they were.

Eden went to a friend's today, and I took Yemima to the library at 5. And messed up again. Tuesdays, they aren't open in the afternoon at all! But see it was misleading because there was an event at the library that people were going to. So I followed them. And the door downstairs, with the elevator was locked. So I trudged up ALL the stairs (you Modiiners know how many there are) with the Snap'n'Go. And Yemima bundled up in her coat which she doesn't like so much getting cranky. And nobody asked if I needed help! I think that is the FIRST time I've been with her on steps and no one asked if they could help. Usually I say I'm ok, it's kind of silly to have someone help you on 2 or 3 steps. But this time I really did need it! And the regular Israeli brotherhood failed me.

In the end, someone unlocked the door for me (special!!) and put my books on the desk to be returned tomorrow. Hope they do. I'm going to be lazy about calling about it to follow up.

So this is a bit of a rant - you could say it's my fault, because I didn't check the times. But see for yourselves.

Sunday: 4-7

Mon, Wed, Thurs: 9-2, 5-8

Tues: 8-12

Fri: 8-12

Who can remember that?

What demographic are they aiming for? Ladies Who Lunch and can be there for the mornings? Because it's certainly not for working parents, who are working in the mornings and would like to be home with their kids during dinner time. Certainly not THIS working mom who would like a couple of quiet minutes at the library before picking up her kids. And certainly not school age kids, who are in school in the morning, and who should ALSO (IM not so humble O) be home with their family at dinner time. I mean, school gets out here at 1:20 so that they don't have to provide lunches. What better place to go then to the library? Ooops, but it's closed. I think I'll hang out in the street for a few hours, go smash some bottles in the park. Later on, I'll go when it's opened and if I'm not too wasted already.

I'm not done yet. I made a slight suggestion to the librarian who kindly took my books that there should be a drop box outside so that people could return books when the library was closed. She said that they couldn't because it would get burnt. That's right, burnt. Apparently, the kids who I guess are not hanging out at the library because it's closed are burning things around the library instead, including drop boxes for the library's books. (Ok, I'll admit that possibly the kids who are burning things are not the same kids who'd be spending their afternoons reading through the reference section.) But it seems to me that there are some ways around this. First, by arresting arsonists. I mean, that's legit, isn't it? Also, put the dropbox slightly inside, similar to ATM machines at banks. Or just cut a hole in a window and put the box totally inside the building. Or something! But we can't have a drop box because the kids will burn it???

Also, it seems to me that this is not a library problem, but a city problem, and a police problem. I think that the library shouldn't be cowed by some stupid hooligans. We should protect our city, and protect our rights to read!

This would be an issue for the famous Modiin Listserv, but as I'm not about to start lobbying at city hall about it, I don't think there is much point in posting there. But this is good fodder for blogging. I'm sure you all are happy to have a break from reading about breastfeeding. Because, you know, soon we'll be starting on poop.

It's not like I'm not familiar with the Israeli library system and all it's faults and it's few good points. I am - I studied Library Science for 3 years. (I could swear the librarians here were in my classes....if only I had let them copy my notes!) I know these things. I know they have no funding and have to seriously pick and choose. Once upon a time, I wanted to make it better. Give people the gift of information. Seems to me it might be a lost cause, it's each man for himself around here. I'll stick with the books I can buy and borrow from good friends and family. Whose opening hours are a little more friendly.