Not the Only Chickens in the House

Adi was exposed to chickenpox on Thursday. I still can't believe it. Our friends called us last night saying that their daughter has the chickenpox and that they found the spots Friday night, meaning she was contagious and didn't know it on Thursday when they came over to visit. I'm still reeling. This particular couple is really my only set of friends on the Moshav but their parenting choices have been making me feel more and more uncomfortable and this is really crossing the line. How did they not pay attention to the fact that their daughter had been exposed? I can tell you we're not taking Adi anywhere near kids for the next 21 days. I'm fuming, especially since I am decidedly pro-vaccine and this just proves it even more for me. The fact that so many kids have the chickenpox in my area is a little rediculous, but then our friends kept putting off the vaccine and boom, now their daughter's sick and who do they put at risk? My daughter, who's not even old enough to get the vaccine! Maybe epidimioligists actually know what they're talking about.

I'm praying with every fiber of my body that Adi doesn't get sick. She's still so little, she'll just be miserable. I feel so awful. I don't know what to do about these friends. How do you go to someone and say, hi I think you're an irresponsible parent and I don't want my kid around you?

Bahhhhh

My old template is gone, poof. I saved it but it won't read whatever format I saved it in. Aggggh.

Well, now I remember why I hate the new blogger template customization thingy. And I pretty much forgot all of the Html I had taught myself. Sucks.

Two Weeks Worth of Rambling

I just decided that I need to make a batch of cupcakes. Something poufy and sweet and completely self-indulgent. My parents just left after a two week stay this morning. I'm always rediculously sad after they leave, it makes me feel so alone and far away. At least when they come here to visit I have my life to fall back on immediately. When they leave I always feel like I need something to make me feel less depressed that they're gone while at the same time celebrating being on my own again, that's where the cupcakes come into play. What kind should I make????

Anyway, the past two weeks were great. Lots of grandparent/granddaughter time. It took Adi about a week or so to really get comfortable with my parents, but that's why they came for two weeks. It really was great.

We decided to send Adi to the local daycare center coming up in September. Her nanny is officially retiring, and the drama that has surrounded finding her a new place for next year has been a bit rediculous. We originally wanted to send Adi to a family run daycare (they are called Mishpachtons here, women who take care of about 4-5 kids in their homes) until she was a little bigger, we figured she would get more personal care there. Plus, we really needed something in our Moshav because we only have one car and being able to walk her there if we need is a huge deal. So then we went looking, there were none opening in our Moshav, so we increased our search to the town nearby. We looked at lots of them but I really came away with a creepy feeling from all of them, I don't know why. Then one finally decided to open by us, we went to visit, we actually really liked it, then due to cultural prejudices some other families wouldn't even go look at it and it didn't open due to too few kids. Ahhhhhhh. Finally, we decided to look at the daycare center (I really don't know why we ruled it out, I guess same prejudices) and you know what? we really liked it. They're really professionals, the caretakers seem great, it's clean, a good kid/adult ratio, and there's definetely somthing to be said about it being government regulated and very official. They have their shit together. It's things like how they have a full time cook so the caretakers don't have to take their attention away from the kids. We just felt good leaving there and we couldn't say that for any of the other places. So, it's not in our Moshav, but we'll deal with it. The most important thing is that Adi will be well taken care of and she'll have a great time being around other kids.

Oh right! How could I forget! Adi officially started crawling (forwards, and actually getting somewhere) last week. It's absolutely incredible. She can go get what she wants now. The changes that have happened with her in the past two weeks have absolutely blown my mind. She interacts like there's no tomorrow, she's starting to make noises like she's talking, she says ma ma ma, even Ima sometimes (while referencing me no less), and she has a specific noise that she makes when she's trying to get your attention. I feel like we're at a calm before the storm right now. All of these new developments have turned her into such a person and it's so much fun. But I know that in a matter of weeks, maybe even days, her little will is going to start showing it's head and then the real work starts. I'm at this surreal point where I see it coming before it's actually here. I pray that she's as easy a toddler as she has been a baby, and that if not I hope we have the sanity to deal with it the best we can, and if we need help later on to get help. Oooooh, scary. Well, time keeps marching forward and the best we can do is just to try to be aware all the time. I just hope we'll give her what she needs.

Oh, she gives kisses now too! Big open mouthed kisses. And she waves hi and bye. Incredible. And before I forget, may I introduce the four newest members of our family....

From front to back we have, Tzilli, Gilli, Fluffy, and Coco. E wanted chickens so we got chickens, well he really wanted a goat but I put my foot down there. Their job is family egg producers. So far so good. E is still trying to convince me that we need a rooster but these chickens are like 10 feet from our bedroom window. The puppy will have to protect them instead.