Speakng of Swimming, Surgery, Shabbat, School, and again...Surgery...

It's been a few good days, Baruch Hashem. Yesterday I took the children to the community pool, all by myself. Robert had to work, and the children and I were supposed to go to Hilary's Kibbutz to her pool, but that plan changed at the last minute. With the children disappointed, I decided to take on the project of getting them to the community pool myself. It worked out well! I was pretty proud of it all. The one problem is that the kiddie pool side was completely on the opposite side of the big pool, and that's not good for four different aged kids and one parent. Especially when that one parent needs great efforts to get from one side of anywhere to the other. But, we managed. At first the bigger boys compromised to play in the kiddie pool a bit, and after that got boring, Shifra and Azriel braved the big pool with me by their sides. Actually, Azriel was on my back in the pool. We bounced around. It was actually quite fun.

At one point, Dov wanted to do swimming races with me. I felt bad that I never play with him one-on-one in these situations when the little ones are around, so I decided to make an executive decision. I set up the other three with watermelon, plums, rice crackers, and Bamba (a staple of Israeli children's snacks) that I brought with me. Then Dov & I went into the deep end and did swimming races. We did laps, crawl stroke, breast stroke, back stroke, and I taught him side stroke. It was really fun to hang out with him. But, unfortunately, my leg hurt too much after that. I overdid it. The evening was very painful, meds and all. I want to be able to do these things, and I think I can... I rationalize it. "Swimming is good for joints, I do hydrotherapy, the impact is much less in water..." But it hurts. It hurt while I was swimming, also, and I took it easier when I felt it, but... ow.

When we got home (this is with me driving the 4 kids in my new little green Renault Clio!), Ravit (pronounced 'rah-VEET') was here making dinner already. (Ravit is our babysitter since Zimrah left. It's working out nicely). So, I had help from that point on. But, you know, it was the first outing I did on my own with the kids in a *Long Time*. I can't say it was the easiest, but I enjoyed it, and everyone was happy. Yay!

On the Azriel front, he is now a week post- tonsillectomy. It has been a hard week for the little dude (and his mommy). He completely stopped eating, not even ice cream or chocolate puddings. He drank, but he was so weak. He whimpered and cried all the time, and held onto a low grade fever all week until this morning. Actually at the pool yesterday, he started picking up a bit. He ate a whole bag of Bamba. It isn't much for nutrition, but it is calories in his tummy! He is down a whole kilo since the surgery. He is almost 4 years old, and starting out at 12.5 kilo, he didn't have it to loose. He is so thin- it's really noticeable. But he ate more today; potatoes, a filo pastry, sucked on a good portion of a cucumber, and a plain yogurt with honey in it. I look forward to seeing his weight back (not that he was such a bruiser to begin with, mind you). He still sleeps a fair bit, and wakes up a few times a night crying. I think he is having bad dreams. I do see an improvement today, though, so maybe he'll sleep better, also.

We are going away for Shabbat. Looking forward to spending some quality time with good friends, and my BIL & SIL.

School starts next week. Fifth grade, fourth grade, my kindergartner goes to first grade, and Wazi in the same nursery school he attended last year. A new year starting, and with it the excitement and pressures of getting used to new routines, new situations, and new people. I feel the pressure of it, and am nervous of the change coming around the corner here. And with my tentative surgery date a few weeks away also, well, it's the "tentative" part of it that makes it all so hard.

I guess all these real-life pressures help make the good days so alive, and so.... good.