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Books for boys

Posted on April 23, 2009 11:03 pm by TheAngelForever

Growing up I remember reading several different book series. My Uncle J and Aunt A hooked me on the Polk Street School books by Patricia Reilly Giff. I recall going out with them to have pizza, playing Pacman at the arcade and going to the book store to get something to read.

There were other series that I read as a child. I quickly became a fan of the Ramona Quinby books by Beverly Clearly. In addition to this, I loved the Anastasia Krupnik books by Lois Lowry (author of Number the Stars) and adored reading about Peter and Fudge in the books by Judy Blume.

As a college student who was an education major, I read a lot of children’s literature. Some of these include Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling), Junie B Jones (Barbara Park), Cam Jansen Mystery books (David A. Adler), Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket) to name a few. As a teacher I read even more. While teaching Language Arts I read many of the books that my students were reading outside of class to keep up with their interests.

This past summer we decided that NHL was ready to start listening to chapter books with us. I had bought a copy of Dinosaurs Before Dark, the first book in the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pop Osborne.

Originally I started reading the books with NHL, but soon JL took over and it became a nightly thing for them. Over the months the boys have been reading the books here and there. Last night NHL and JL finished book #40 in the series. Today I requested the newest book from the library.

So my question for youthis week:

What series of books did you read as a child, or did your children read, that you would recommend for a little boy? NHL is in kindergarten and loves to read so the more ideas the better.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #45

Categories:
Aloha Friday books looking back nhl

Up and down battles

Posted on April 23, 2009 9:09 am by TheAngelForever

My boys are pretty healthy (*knock on wood*). The problem, when they get sick they like to drag it out for a while. Nothing is ever simple with NHL and JSL. It seems to be a major uphill battle with them when we are fighting an illness. Just when we seem like we are at the top and all better.

BAM! Right back to where we started again with a climb back to the top.

As I mentioned Tuesday, JSL had been on an antibiotic for three days and spiked a 104 fever Monday night. Obviously we had to go back to the doctor to have his ear rechecked. After some hoopla at the doctor’s office, we were lucky enough to see the doctor we really like. She looked into his left ear and there was now fluid in it. That had not been the case Saturday at Urgent Care. The infected right ear was still horrible looking and red. We were put on a new antibiotic.

While there I voiced my concern about being sick so close to when we go to Disney World. I was floored when she not only suggested a prescription for antibiotics go with us on our trip, but we fill it and take it with us. So we have a refill on the antibiotic just in case we need it while visiting Mickey Mouse and friends. We head back for a recheck a little before our trip. The doctor is holding off on an ENT visit for now. Since we only have 3-4 confirmed ear infections during the 2008-2009 season he is on the line. IF we get one more infections before the fall we are off for a consult.

Thank goodness this antibiotic seems to be kicking JSL’s infection. We can now see signs of everything draining from his ear. The poor kid is coughing and sneezing, but at least it is breaking up. With any luck he will be feeling great and we can head to the park for some fun again. As you can see he truly does love it there.

Categories:
doctor jsl looking back nhl photos sick kid

We love you Grandma

Posted on April 19, 2009 8:21 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday afternoon just before 1:30 the phone was ringing. I was on my cell phone and told Aunt M that I had to get off because I thought it was the doctor calling back about JSL. Then my heart sank. I saw the phone number and it was my in-laws. My in-laws NEVER call during shabbos.

I answered the phone and my FIL asked me to guess why he was calling. I immediately asked what was wrong with Grandma since I knew she had been sick and to Urgent Care the othe day.

A little history: JL’s grandmother, my FIL’s mother, has been living with my in-laws for several months now. She had not been doing well at her new complex and went to stay with them temporarily. That changed when they realized she needed assisted living. Rather than put her into a nursing home she moved in permanently with them.

My father-in-law floored me. He quickly told me that Grandma had passed away. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. I put JL onto the phone to talk to his father briefly. The details were sketchy. Apparently my father-in-law had gotten home from shul and had my mother-in-law make sure Grandma was up for lunch. She went to the table to eat some lunch. Suddenly she told them she didn’t feel good. Those were the last words from her mouth as she passed away at the table with them holding my mother-in-law’s hand.

Grandma was 94 years old in October, the last time the boys and I saw her. We went to celebrate her birthday with the entire extended family. JL saw Grandma when he made a trip alone to see her at the start of February. He wrote about seeing her on his blog.

Grandma’s funeral will be tomorrow early afternoon. We are still trying to figure out the details of JL getting there. Right now we are battling a very high fever with JSL. We went to Urgent Care yesterday afternoon and he has a raging ear infection. With Motrin and Tylenol in him last night we were struggling to keep his temperature below 102. Scarry range since it was exactly three weeks ago that he had two febrile seizures in a 30 hour span of time.

JL will be at his Grandma’s funeral one way or another. I also know that NHL and JSL will have all of our beautiful photos to remind them of the times that they saw and spent time with their very special Great-Grandma M.

Hamming it up with Great Grandma

Grandma . . . we love you.

Categories:
bad news decisions family jl looking back photos sick kid

Lots of lists

Posted on April 17, 2009 12:03 am by TheAngelForever

I admit it, I am a list person. For some reason I do better when I have lists of items that need to get accomplished and can manually cross them off as they are finished. In the past, I have made the following lists:

Things to do during a given day
Groceries needed
Questions to ask the doctor
Coupons needed for a store run
Presents that we need for upcoming birthdays/holidays
Meals for the upcoming week
Items to do at home (when I was teaching)
Phone calls that need to be made

As you can imagine we had a lot of lists for Passover. Now that Pesach is officially over, I can concentrate on the lists that need to be made for our upcoming trip to Disney World. Off the top of my head I need to do the following:

Documents that need to be taken with us
Clothing that needs to be bought before trip (shorts for everyone)
Questions for TSA about bringing medication on the airplane
Items we need to pack (clothing, diapering needs, food, medicine, toiletries and the like)
Things to bring on the airplane to keep the kids entertained (this will be their first flight)
Rides/shows we hope to see at each of the parks

Call it the teacher in me, but lists work well for me. It helps me to organize my thoughts and work toward the goals needed. So my question for you this week:

Are you a list person? Why or why not?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #44

Categories:
Aloha Friday Disney looking back me moments

Chuck E Cheese memories

Posted on April 10, 2009 7:37 am by TheAngelForever

Growing up I can recall going to Chuck E Cheese. We did not go there a lot, but when we did it was a fabulous treat. I loved playing all of the different video games, going on rides, watching shows and earning prizes. Of course, my little brother did not like it at first. He was quite afraid of Chuck E Cheese and would hide under the table.

NHL does not like Chuck E Cheese. We think it has something to do with the costumed rodent. He does not like costumes, which will make Disney World interesting in a few weeks. Thanks to NHL we have not been to Chuck E Cheese in a while. Last Thursday my mother had the day off from work and I mentioned that I had a lot of tokens left from our last visit. She and I went to Chuck E Cheese with JSL.

This was really the first time he had been there since he would romp around and try things. At 23 months old he was a little overwhelmed with all of the items, but thanks to no crowds quickly got used to everything. Eventually he tried a few rides, loves the car driving game and played many games of Skee Ball with me. Here are some photos from our trip.

So my question to you this week, assuming you have been to Chuck E Cheese in the past and recently:

What do you think of the new look at Chuck E Cheese? Do you prefer the old style or the new? If you have never been, what is your favorite arcade game?

BTW – Don’t forget to enter my giveaways for the Exergen Temporal Scanner and Tie Buddies.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #43