On Whiff, boxing day and socks

I ended up doing some car cleaning today , looking for my credit cards and ID.  car cleaning is an unusual task for me, especially on a potential awesome day.

a while ago i realized that today, boxing day was ideal. Kids at school, Alla at work and i have a solo day as we dont work today. i love the planning part, though most plans fail. its part of the fun. so any things could be accomplished, i can sneak one of the kids and continue my buckeye trail journey. i can do two session, one in the morning and take the other in the after noon. even the weather is accommodating. after a week of snow, some heavy and more then a week of just above freezing temps (during the day), it is finally warm today, the snow has completely melted, it is not raining and i am stuck here, completely hike less. i had other plans. complete the route plan for Sardinia, finish a photo album, continue my school project, watch a man u game. so many possibilities.

however..

it started last Monday night when Mattan had a fever, nothing severe, just a 24 hour virus that doesn't know how to count. a normal day at work, Mattan is home with a sitter and no fever. Tuesday night, the fever returns. Ibuprofen. the meds help and in the morning mattan is all better, but cant go to school, sick policy. I stay home to help out. all day fine, then at night fever strikes again. we now address it as a nocturnal virus. i stay home with him on Thursday and i am not very work efficient this week. two many little distractions. but it is nice to have once again fever less Mattan cuddle on me all day.

the fever strikes again that night and now it has brought a friend, Tal vomits in bed. we change the sheets and this vomitirus is nasty, poor tal vomits several times and get a nightly ER visit. XRay is fine, he didn't swallow anything, just a bug they say.

I stay home Friday, i dont even try to work. both kids seems on during the day, they are cuddly, playful, eat well and full of snot in all shapes and colors. Tal gets inhalation to help him clear out his raspy lungs. 

then friday evening comes, Mattan has no fever, yeah all better.. Till Tal vomits again, and a few times more in the next hour. now on the carpet. he seems fine, smiling and then without warning, Mary carpetmess. wipes at first, paper towels, shark vacum, and finally several rounds of napkins moisted with detergent and i almost got the stench out of the carpet,

we were to have company on Friday, we call it off, and have a smaller meal just with family.

on Saturday,  Kids are fine, except the endless parade of holiday green from their noses. I am adapt at yanking the blobs out. we now have a new Instruction for Mattan to call a Nazelet (Snot) break. 

I talk with my mom and she assures me that viruses dont last this long, by Monday my dream day both kids will be fine.but the nocturnal strikes again, carpet cleaning efforts continue. bed sheets were replaced multiple times, laundry machine is aiming to strike. yet the cycle continues. chicken soup is not helping. lots of pedialite and other measures to keep Tal hydrated. on sunday we think things are going well, Tal has an appetite , some what , he eats pomegranate and rests during the day, he looks a bit sleepy , but not worse.

we have a very nice family meal at Dina's , play a game, which is as noisy and argumentative as any other family gathering. part of the fun.

by Now alla is sick too, just a basic cold and very stuffed. Mattan found a way to have more snot, i didnt think it was possible, today he sneezed and had a little trail from nose to chin. no i didn't take a photo, though i did want to.

as we come home, Alla sees that Tal looks funny and rushes him to the sink almost in time. she cleans him while i clean the floor and cabinet doors, then Alla cleans her puke covered hair...  well just a little bit. Tal didnt look good last night, we considered an ER again, but decided not to. we gave him as much liquid as he would have. 

this morning, a.k.a awesome solo day. Alla was planning to come home at noon, asked for sick day , waiting for replacement. and Mattan would return to school.

then around 8 am, Mattan is dressed and ready to go, then he vomits his yogurt.

Alla goes to work and i have a solo morning with both. Mattan eats some rice and reports a tummy ache. he seems ok, kind of , he plays and drinks a bit, then I see that he is funny looking, i rush him to the sink just in time, vomit #2 i thought I had all content in the sink, and soon i find the missing piece, just under my sock.... more laundry.

Tal has an appetite and eats chicken and is now a sleep. Alla came back as well, they all nap. but before that. Alla shut off the "office" my new binge watching show and Mattan took my phone to watch Thomas, so without entertainment i went to clean my car to try to find my credit cards, gone for about 4 days. Im not worried, they will turn out. 4 days ago, Alla cleaned the house a bit for the upcoming guests. i think that is the cause of the latest disappearance. While clearing the car i found 22 single socks, mostly Tal's since he always takes his socks off. 22 of them, plus 2 pairs of underwear, a hat and whiff. 

whiff is a train lost not long ago, found at last.

but still no credit cards.

the 22 socks were only in the back, on further excursions to the front, i remove a few more socks, some in whole pair sets.

meanwhile Tal has a bad new habit where he takes his diaper off. not a useful trait when the diaper is not clean. so today i had a little variety in the types of material i was cleaning off the floor. Tal finally had diarrhea today, that is a good sign , it is meant to signal the end of the noctuVirus for him. I hope Mattan will not repeat this chaos.

so awesome day became, no keys, floor poop, vomit socks kind of a day. but at least man u won.... cheers from the only not sick person in this house, for now....

oh, they are all sleeping.. i think i will watch the office.

on ohhhh and bloopers

when we have an oooohhhhhh moment we want to remember them, but they disappear from memory too soon, here's a couple

on the packing for the trip last weekend, Mattan takes a toy cell phone, when asks why he said, he takes it for Tal ....

when i take the kids from school, i take Tal first, he sees me, and runs to his little cubby to grab his coat and runs out the door, when we stop at Mattan's class, he comes inside and they always hug 

Tal's favorite game remains, whatever Mattan plays with

Tal decided to eat some play-dough - it came out in colors the natural way

Tal likes to do whatever mattan does- that's ok in general but not when he tries to climb after him, lots of scary moments

one aspect of the Washington trip was not reported. the last time we went to DC we were supposed to come to the pentagon, it was a Thursday... long story short or yada yada yada... Osama was shot.  2 weeks ago in DC , yada yada yada. and Castro dies... coincidence??

I picked the boys from school yesterday, Mattan sits in the car and declares, " i Want mummy" i give him a sad awwww  and he looks at me and says " I want you too aba"  wouldn't you just melt?

I help Mattan brush his teeth,  he is trying to brush them himself, then asks us to do it thoroughly, he has difficulties with this word. when done, and i tell him good job, he says "I am growing up.....   but tal isn't"

"my boots are bigger then my shoes" mattan observes.

i think Tal just began Terrible twos. fussy about clothing, wants to do everything on his own.. the coming year will be a challenge

cheers till next time. 

on Frosty, pools and bath bed and beyond

Alla, your mission should you choose to accept it , is to take 2 children and a husband, drive 5.5 hours, pass three state and somehow manage to be on time, in a place with no parking, at one specific hour to complete paper work.

for some months we were debating where to go. in the summer we will be visiting saint petersburg. to avoid the need to obtain a Russian visa, we decided to get the kids israeli passports- no need for a visa this way.  the problem is a lack of consulate around here, so Chicago, Washington new York and Miami were debated heavily.  Thanks giving was the only time we can take the kids away without taking a priceless vacation day. 

we started getting ready, get kids photos, get hospital birth record (its not birth certificates), get birth certificates certified and get clarification on when the consulates are open.

on Wednesday  was working and alla spent all day, packing, at 4 i picked up Mattan and headed to Nathan's birthday- happy 4th... kids were running around on slides and trampoline and i returned home to finish packing and around 7 PM we finally left and headed east. driving is always fun after a long day, at night, with complaining kids..  Tal fell a sleep after a long hour, mattan took another hour, i somehow stayed awake as we pulled into Haggerstown Maryland after 11.

Alla fell in love again, not with me, with the hotel. homewood suites. parking, pool, , 1st floor room, breakfast , fairly large room with kitchen and the crib was already there- the full check list. we loaded up the room and after a few minutes of kids jumping on the bed, way after bed time. the key for the love was Tal's room. we needed a quite room for the crib and this specific room was perfect, had its own internal door and some extra features- like toilet and sink.   the bath room was perfect for a sleeping baby, the crib slid right in. lucky Tal will not remember this. I also crashed soon after.

I woke up and took bathroom baby out for breakfast, few minutes later the table was full with cereal, raisins , milk and other stuff. a Christmas tree with full lights was in the room and soon one of the fruit looking decoration was broken by bathroom baby. soon Mattan wakes, short breakfast and pool and we leave early around 11 am and head for the national zoo.

we reached the zoo an hour and a half later and Tal falls a sleep, i stay in the car with him and leave the lights on while Mattan\Alla team go and enjoy the cheethas. 

a bit later, i get the now awoken kid to the zoo, after the car refuses to start.

we go fast to meet the rest and head directly to the zoo restaurant. strange zoo, i see no animals, its a bit cold but not that cold, all the animals stay hidden, we see sculptures of various mammals. lunch is pretty horrible, avoid the mane restaurant. 

we continue on, the urang utang are hidden, so are the lemurs. we see some snakes and various lizards. the gorillas were interesting- one of them was stretching and doing yoga.

the enjoy the cheetahs and  red wolves and the car finally starts 2 minutes before the AAA person arrives. too much for the kids and we head for the hotel with a stop at trade joe's we are low on Mattan's "special rice that i like"

cookies and very good lemon tea awaited for us at yet another home wood suites, in Bethesda now. the pool was ok and the kids move from the cold pool to the hot tub. mattan was playing with a 6 year old girl hide and seek in the pool without hiding really well. after special rice dinner we all went to bed with tal in his bathroom nightly prison.

in the morning, we found the consulate, we came early and learned there is no parking.. great location. we went to a nearby play ground for a while and returned. the cops on duty let us park in the Pakistani embassy lots - there are several embassies here, passed security. we feared long lines, but found it fairly empty. but a small room with only chairs and a water fountain is not ideal, we kept chasing after them in the automatic doors, away from the water fountain and the one fountain that Tal just had to explore... twice.

after about an hour we finished all paper work and headed out, mission accomplished.

we went to another playground in chevi chase. regular slides but this one had lots of bikes and other kid rides. i wondered how they are not stolen.  the kids enjoyed running around.

originally we were meant to see friends in Baltimore, a single stomach virus change out plans, we had no choice but to go to Uncle Julio's... mmmmm... by far the best Mexican place. after a serious stuffing, we went looking for victor.

we bribed Mattan with Victor (an engine from Thomas the train) if he would sleep a week in his bed, the bribe is working, but now it was time to pay. we left the restaurant area and didn't find a good toy store, on black Friday mind you. and finally searched for Barns and Nobel (also sell trains) and found one, right next to the restaurant, we drove back and i stayed in with a napping Tal while Alla went to find a 10$ toy

and hour and 75$ later Alla returns with ice cream wake up and headed out of downtown Bethesda row, we looked for trader Joe's again only to find out it again a street next to the restaurant,  this time we decided not to go back, that area is busy, especially on black Friday. the rest of the day was spent at the hotel, pool once more and early nap to digest the Tortillas

lucky for hotel breakfast, we don't have to clean up after the serial cereal droppers.

there was a kids shop, right next to uncle Julio's that area has everything but instead we went to the KID museum, which is a big room filled with kids science activities. the kids spent two hours pushing ping pong balls into vacum tubes, building vavum pipes, creating pipe networks.  this place is for a bit older kids but they had fun. the place also had 3D printers and i saw some printed creations. neath.

later it was time for lunch, we didn't think long and headed for Uncle Julio's .... so good.

with the kids half napping in the car we drove for 3 hours to seven springs.

we stopped at a rural Italian place for a bit of pizza and a little dropping water on our table and the one next to ours. 

we reached seven springs after dark and the whole resort is full of lights. trees are lit all over and it looks very pretty. 

we checked in to this ski resort, enjoyed some pool time, and finally Tal had a crib in an actual room.

this is opening weekend here and all the snow is man made. in the mronign we had an excellent  breakfast - chef made omelette, and some other goodies. and a frosty surprise. 

Frosty himself came to breakfast. at first Tal was scared, but then he wouldn't stop hugging the mysterious person in the frosty suit. mattan was hugging him two and Tal wrestled him out of the way to get another hug.

this resort, the hotel part is spread out and  we kept going back and forth. we spent some time at the arcade. i had both kids then and trying to play video games with both is a bit much, since they want different machines.  there is a big slot machine game and someone won 1000 tickets, jack pot twice in a row....  the machine was printing tickets for 30 minutes.   with 2500 you can get a zebra... so big money on the table. they had so much they handed us a handful of tickets and both received some knickknacks.

these winners had so many rewards that they gave us the rest... we were just in the right plane at the right time for a few little things we don't really need.

we passed the little Santa village , rode the indoor train, Tal loved it  Mattan is beginning to be too old for this (yes... already :(  ) and took a horse and wagon ride out side in the big parking lot-  kind of lame, but Frosty was on with us and Tal just loves frosty.

we played a few more games in the arcade, i shared a Jurassic park shooting game with Mattan, he loved it, but wasn't really aiming his laser gun.

it was a bit after noon when got some pizza, ice cream, a cookie and we hit the road, and around 3 hours later we reached home where there is no pool, but tal has a private room

on the way Mattan reached state #6 with Maryland + district of Colombia - so 6.5

Tal is now with 5.5 states.

and poor me, no new destinations.... just a great event less weekend