No particular number of random things about our family in no particular order and for no particular reason.

I like cold hot tea. Not iced tea - brew a cup of hot tea, add nothing, and let it cool completely. I smell all food - just in case - even freshly opened things. I fold my pizza. I live a measly three small blocks from our synagogue and will rarely get there before 10:30 (services start at 8:45am) I lied about my height on my driver's license - but only by an inch! I'm not a fan of sugar cereal, though I distinctly remember eating Lucky Charms as a treat for breakfast when I was little (from my pre keeping kosher days). I love to cook but hate to clean up the... more

Anna was never one of those kids to be scared at the doctors. We - thankfully - have an amazing pediatrician's practice, with a great play area in the waiting room and fantastic doctors. You can totally see why these individuals chose to go into kid's medicine rather than something more lucrative like plastic surgery. And they're one of the few practices around that basically take any insurance including Medicaid - important when dealing with foster kids. The receptionists know my kids' names - and they must see a tremendous number of children. They are... more

My husband - who I must say is wonderful himself - also has really nice benefits at work, many of which I'm still trying to understand. One of which is the concept of the "floating holiday" - it's not exactly a vacation day, because he can't carry it over from year to year, and it's not really a holiday, but it's nice of his company to force him to take a day off whether he likes it or not. Today, my husband took his floating holiday. We put the baby in day care an extra day today so we'd get more done, as we were talking about going to Ikea to look at some furniture for our (now finished!) attic. Instead, the baby (and I) had been up since 4:30am after finally getting to sleep well after... more

Okay, so recently, my husband decided he was unhappy with the state of affairs in the house (read: not organized enough, not getting dishes washed fast enough, not getting laundry put away at acceptable speeds) so he's taken over the running of things around here. I'm interested to see how long this will last.

On the one hand, I applaud his efforts. He really has done a totally amazing job in keeping up with chores that were really neglected in the past, and amazingly hasn't complained much about the way I do things around here.

On the other... more

When Anna came to us, her case was being processed for adoption. In fact, she was designated fost-adopt, meaning that while she was a foster child, the direction that her case was headed was officially toward adoption. There were no relatives interested, and the details of her case indicated that there wasn't going to be a chance of reunification, even if her birth mom did resurface. In fact, the district attorney working on the case assured us that Anna wasn't going anywhere.

While there were some small ups and downs and lots of hurry up and wait time, we were pretty confident that Anna's adoption would go through. And, thank G-d, it did.

When we were placed with the new... more

Okay, all you adoptive parents or hopeful adoptive parents out there: Raise your hand if you've had someone tell you that now that you've adopted (or are adopting) you'll get pregnant. How many times have you bit your tongue and stammered some neutral response? How many times did you fly off the handle and take them to task for their insensitivity? And how many times have you had the same conversation with the same people?

We can talk about all the good lines - and maybe some of you will share your good ones - but I think there really are two schools of thought on the matter, and people not touched by adoption have a hard time understanding why I tend to choose one and not the other.

If... more

I don't think Anna's two year old stage was so terrible. She wasn't very contrary, generally followed directions and was a pretty happy child all around. The main issue we had with her two year old year was her sleeping - she continued to have night terrors - and totally random screaming and occasional tantrums.

Now, thankfully, her behavior is much improved. We have few tantrums with her - and now if she has one, it's generally "for a cause" not just because she happens to feel like throwing a tantrum. We've practically eliminated the random screaming - which if you imagine the loudest child screaming, I'd bet you a nickel she was louder. And she really doesn't have night terrors... more

Anna has refused to eat breakfast food for breakfast. A meal by the name of breakfast no longer exists in our house. Today, she is eating chicken cutlets. Without ketchup, by the way, something that amazes me to no end. But other days it is sweet potato kugel or leftover meat or something of the like from Shabbat meals. I've stopped buying breakfast cereal because I'm tired of it going stale from Anna giving it the cold shoulder.

We are playing musical chairs with the baby seat for the car. My husband picks up the kids from school two days a week and needs the carseat in his car, but he doesn't necessarily drop off the baby on the days he picks him up (he does have a car seat for... more

So, I when I posted this story the other day, and promised to post my own reactions, I gave little thought to what happens next. I made a simple committment to post a bit later that day, but in the words of John Lennon, life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. Work is busy, school is busy, the holidays are busy, the new baby keeps me busy and my husband's grandmother passed away as well.

For a time, I was thinking about who was right in the case of the mother looking to un-adopt an older child she had been raising. How could she do such a thing? And what would I do if I was faced with the same situation?... more

I posted quite a while ago about the contoversial topic of how best to put babies or young children to bed. While there are many supporters of the "crying it out" method and variations of different famous doctor's philosophies, I've always had the approach to do what your particular child seems to need at his/ her developmental stage. Anna was never really the type of child we could let scream in her bed or crib until she went to sleep. We tried at the suggestion of her pediatrician - who is wonderful - but claimed that all children will eventually go to sleep. Well, I've got one kid to prove him wrong. Anna would spend the entire night screaming. Really really loudly. But anyway,... more