Out of bed (sort of)

Good days and bad days. For the entire month of December, I have been struggling with various symptoms ranging from burning tonsils, stomach aches, vomiting, swollen glands, ear aches, coughing (constantly), fever, nasuea, fatigue, etc....After two emergency room visits for dehydration, a 13 pound weight loss, an appointment with urgent care, and 3 doctor visits, I finally met with my own doctor after three weeks of fragmented medical care. My family was correct. Mononucleousis. Part of the problem is that I have a sesitivity to antibiotics which I believe poisoned me and made me sicker. On Christmas Eve, I had this debate with my doctor's assistant who was adament that I needed to take it. Needless to say, I was sick the following two days with my sister filling in for me for Christmas to ensure Alan enjoyed the festivities along with our family tradiations. So when I met with my doctor on Friday, he confirmed that I should NOT have taken the antibiotics. HOW FRUSTRATING!!! (3 other medical professionals had given me three different rounds of antibiotics which made me sooooooo sick!) It's a catch 22. With burning tonsils, you can't eat or drink, so when you take the antibiotics, it burns the tummy. Plus, MONO is a VIRIS, and antibiotics should NOT be taken!!!

So my recovery is slow. I feel like my mind wants to move, and it has to tell my body to follow, but all my body wants to do is collapse. This is the first time on the computer in 3 weeks. We flew my mother in on Christmas day. She's a nurse who has been sooooo helpful. My mother-in-law, Roger and Suzanne have been such a support. There has been nothing but love and caring in the house, and Alan is well taken care of. Instead of watching TV, I have been listening to the sounds in the house. I enjoy listening to Alan interacting with family. It made me feel a little sad one night when he woke up asking for "Emma" instead of "Mommy". I am pretty contageous, so I have been trying really hard to keep clean.

Since I never finished Christmas shopping, I feel a little bad about not getting presents for my family and freinds. But as soon as I am well, I will make it up to everyone. I want to THANK Melanie and Eileen for visiting me on Christmas Eve and Jules the days before and for Patterson for checking up on me, and for Portia and Louis and Julie and everyone for your support. I thank Phil for watching Alan while I went to the ER.....It made SUCH a difference to know that people are there for us!!!
I was so depressed and sick, and it made me feel so good! Also, Louis's phone call about a job offer was also good news too! Suzanne - you were AMAZING! You made Alan's experience special by bakign cookies with him, leaving a note for Santa and celery for the reindeer. You played with him and made him feel so special. I AM SO THANKFUL TO HAVE ALL OF YOU IN MY LIFE!!! I have tried to call people to connect with them to let them know I am alive and miss them I hopefully will be on the mend soon. Portia was such a great listener last night. I had a setback yesterday which freaked me out, but know I am a little better today. And thanks to both of the Mom's for taking care of me....they both even slept with me explosing themselves to my germs.....And Roger, thanks for putting up with the drama at the ER (before and after), and for being such a great advocate for my care.

Thanks for letting me vent!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISSS YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! WE have so much to look forward to in 2008. Melanie is about to have a baby!!!! Can't wait for that!!! Enjoy the snow and the rest of your weekend vacation!!!! Send me a note of phone call. It has meant alot. THANKS!!!!!!

PS - One more depressing thought that is somewhat humorous. So I didn't get a chance to open all of my Christmas presents. They were still stacked under the tree. Three days after Christmas, I had a little burst of energy, and walked downstairs to open up some presents.....but....they were all gone!!! Nothing under the tree. My family had opened the presents on my behalf. I figured out what some of them were....new pots and pans, a lamp, coffee maker, etc....socks, But Roger did get me a nice pair of earrings on Christmas eve in bewteen violent episodes of various symptoms....so I don't really feel like I missed out. I also was able to pull it together for about 20 minutes on Christmas day to see Alan open up his vaccuum cleaner and Fire Truck bed. Okay, that's all for now...

Portia's Pulled Pork Party

I could barely hear anything because the rap music was so loud. But the pork was good, and my mother gave me a time out for standing on a chair. I finished crocheting my scarf at this party and bypassed the dessert for another helping of pork. Here is a link the party's website.
http://web.mac.com/portiaaltman/iWeb/Site/Pulled%20Pork%20Party.html

Holiday spirits

So Bootie showed me how to crochet holiday wreaths which I will use as tree ornaments. Blankets, scarves and table clothes have been crocheted in my family for generations. (Alan and Bootie are currently listening to Ave Marie/Pavarotti downstairs- I wish you could hear Alan singing...I am so impressed with this little guy's voice....)....Last night Marie came over and the three of us walked around Woodstock for the evening's open house while Roger watched Alan. This morning, Louis was over early and he and Roger left for Albany to consult with Santa on a Firetruck bed. It's a sunny morning and with the dusting of snow, it is really quite glorious out. Bootie purchased a pair of boots for Alan, and he wore them around the house last night, so today we'll stomp around the backyard.... Today he wants to make a snowman. Very cute. Have a great day!

I've Fallen and Can't Get Up!

On Monday night, I fell asleep holding Alan on his "brown chair". As I got up to put him in his crib, my legs gave out, and I crashed into his crib and fell to the ground, holding Alan in my arms so as to not drop him. I laid there for 15 minutes clutching my rib cage - couldn't get up. Alan fell asleep on the floor, uninjured and unaware of my crash.

By Thursday, my ribs still ached but there was no bruising, but I was still in pain, and decided that I better get myself checked out, especially since I was having trouble breathing which was freaking me out. Plus, I could only sleep at night on a chair because it hurt to much to lay down. As a result, I strained my neck which also was painful (Such a bag of symptoms I am!)

Thursday afternoon, I finally hauled myself to the doctor...I ended up at the Urgent Care office because my own doctor said they could do an x-ray. Turns out that the x-ray machine (from the 1960's) kept on breaking down, but the good news is that nothing seems to be broken, and FINALLY I have some pain medicine and can take solice that my breathing issue has nothing to do with anything punctured, but just a result of the contusion/pain.

Shaking Your Bootie with the CEO of US Air

7:32 AM - Just called Bootie. She's at the Charlotte Airport, all charged up. Turns out that she was bumped to first class with all of the frequent flyer miles. A gentlemen enters the plane and he's talking with the staff. He sits down next to Bootie. As he buckles in, she says, "Do you work for the airlines?"

"I'm the CEO," he responds.(US Air).

Needless to say, the flight was flawless, people catering to his every whim, etc...and Bootie took note that this 44 year old CEO completed a crossword puzzle on the flight before he reclined for a nap....

We're off to pick her up this morning at 11:50 in Albany. Roger also arrives home from Florida today. Tomorrow, Bootie is joining Suzanne for a play in NYC, so Alan will be overjoyed that "the Boot" will be staying overnight at our house.

Devo Fans

So this is Alan's impression of Devo. You 80's music fans know what I am talking about. For those die-hard fans, please note that the colors are opposite (they wore red planter-hats and black shirts). I you-tubed the Whip-it video in the hopes that I could show Alan. Do you recall that video? Strange. Needless to say, I didn't show Alan.

Santa Rocks!

What a day...birthday party in the morning (See next post for BIRTHDAY PHOTOS!) , followed a very chaotic Christmas bash in the village. (nobody seemed to know what was going on - police, fire department, etc....But it was still fun and cold) We started out by having a "Jam" session with Santa at the Keirsted House. Jace was a little shy about Santa. Then after a stop at the Festival of Trees at the library, we headed over to the tree lighting only to find that the tree was already lit, despite us being there on time. We were the only ones there except for about 4 police officers who had no idea what was going on. I can't remember who coaxed them into unplugging the tree, but after a little reluctance,one of the officers unplugged the tree and we ceremoniously cheered when he plugged it back in...Here are the photos....(We saw 4 Santas today but I will only post Santa number 3)






Julie and Jace Decorating Cookies (Alan is off camera playing guitar and singing (screaming)

Party Circuit - Happy Birthday Ben Ben and Ricky!

Last night we watched Jules and Rick perform in the village, this afternoon, we watched their two children perform at their Little Gym birthday bash. Ben Ben (2 years) and Ricky (4 years) hosted a great party which included lots of loud music, jumping, pizza and cake.



Have your cake and eat it too Jace!


Hold on tight!


Birthday brothers

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Looking good Mel and Nick!


Gentlemen...(and ladies) start your engines!!!

Ricky loves cars and pizza!


Ben Ben is taking it all in!


Ivan enjoying the food of champions!


It's all a balancing act!

Hi - random notes

Hey everyone. Weeks are flying by. Had a fun playdate yesterday at Jace's. Trains galore! Afterwards, Alan napped for 3 hours, then played quietly in his crib till 5:30. After an evening walk, we were up until 9:30. (Plus he was up early this morning!). We have a busy weekend. We'll be at the gym within the hour, then food shopping...a trip to Barber Joe's...errands and more errands...etc...tonight, Jules and Rick are playing at a local store for the open house which is walking distance from the house, so I am taking Alan to see them. Possibly sometime today there will be an appearance by Santa (either at Adam's or in the village, or both).....I'll be sure to post photos tonight if I can remember to get batteries for the camera or will post audio from utterz.com! OH - AND ALAN IS EATING CARROTS (shredded) and LETTUCE (Italian dressing!)

Op-Ed by "Emma"

Dear Family/Friends - FYI, the following op-ed by my mother-in-law appeared on Monday in the Providence Journal.

Eileen Landay: Students as ‘struggling readers’
Monday, November 26, 2007

IN 1978, RESEARCHER Dolores Durkin published a study describing how teachers taught students to understand what they read (“What Classroom Observations Reveal About Reading Comprehension Instruction”). Her finding: They didn’t. Durkin concluded that the teachers she studied offered almost no comprehension instruction. Instead of showing students how to understand what they read, teachers assigned and tested.


Often, education research doesn’t have a direct and immediate effect on what actually goes on in classrooms, but this study did. Educators began to consider more carefully how to teach students what skilled readers, writers and thinkers do when they read, write and think. They found they could identify the processes and strategies that these people used to understand, analyze and respond to ideas in print. Lists of such strategies proliferated. They include activities like predicting, questioning, inferring. As a result, 25 years later, my bookshelves are filled with titles like Comprehension Strategies for Reading and Reasoning.


As a society, we’ve raised the bar on what it means to comprehend a text. At the same time, we’ve increased the percentage of students we expect to master these processes well beyond the 50 percent who graduated from high school half a century ago. Recognizing now that many students don’t achieve the standards now being set, we have labeled them “struggling readers.” That label seems to me incorrect and inadvertently ironic. Much more than a semantic distinction, it signals the murkiness of our own understanding.


Schools are now buying programs and employing consultants to teach teachers how to teach comprehension strategies. But teaching strategies without making further changes is like teaching dance steps without turning on the music. Better, I suppose, than no dance steps at all, but far from sufficient.


When I walk into secondary-school classrooms — as I have for the past 15 years as a teacher educator — I often enter places where the struggle, long over, has been replaced by apathy and disengagement. The root of the word comprehension means to seize, grasp or take hold of. In my classroom visits, I rarely see students and teachers actively, energetically working to grasp and respond to the rich and valuable storehouse of knowledge embedded in humanity’s written record.


Instead, rows of students sit passively and mostly in silence in orderly rows while the teacher holds forth gamely and at considerable length following his or her own train of thought. Or, the opposite: Groups of peers supposedly working collaboratively on questions or projects but more often discussing last night’s game or surreptitiously checking their messages. Neither of these approaches has much to do with seizing and working with ideas. So my question is: What genuine changes do we need to make — in classrooms and beyond — for students to reach out and seize ideas, to become truly struggling readers?


In addressing that question, it’s easy to fall into playing the blame game. In the education world, everyone has his or her favorite villain. There’s more immediate satisfaction in getting mad than in grappling with how to make needed changes.
Don’t blame teachers. Teaching is astonishingly hard work. Don’t blame administrators, unions, parents, community members or even the students themselves. Don’t blame the increase in the special-needs or immigrant population, the Internet or even the No Child Left Behind legislation, although all of these are relevant to the discussion and worthy of extended examination.


Instead of an adversarial stance, I’d suggest we begin by acknowledging that we’re using outmoded methods and structures to achieve increasingly ambitious goals in new circumstances. As the adults in charge, we need to re-educate ourselves to be reflective, to think more carefully about how we learn in both our personal and professional lives. What new ideas do each of us reach out to seize, grasp or take hold of? And why? Often, what we choose to learn derives from a deeply personal place. We reach out to grasp what matters to the people we care about. We reach out because we believe it matters that we do so.


Some students come to school believing that their effort matters. Many others believe otherwise. For those students inspiration needs to precede strategies and inspiration comes not from packaged programs purchased by the school’s central office but from interactions with real human beings who demonstrate and point the way. With some reflection, each of us can remember a time when something mattered enough for us to want to continue learning; the day we found a door to a world we wanted to enter.


Perhaps it was the day the actor from Trinity Rep came to class, invited you to grapple with some scenes, talk about political activism and power, and arranged for you to come to the theater to see Julius Caesar. Perhaps it was the day you and a friend solved the “egg drop challenge” set by the endlessly energetic physics teacher.


Sometimes, the inspiration comes not in a single incident but slowly, over time.

More often than not, it comes from activities outside rather than inside school. Whatever the source, the initial impetus is only a beginning. For students to build on those moments, there must be strong support. Continued relevance and purpose counts. Respect from others counts. Opportunities to practice counts. Hard work counts. Rigorous response counts. And yes, learning to use strategies counts.


Factual information and strategies are what students now get in school. We need to add the kind of inspiration that encourages struggle. To figure out how, I’d suggest that everyone involved with education — researchers and other university faculty, administrators, teachers, as well as parents and community members when possible — do what Dolores Durkin did 30 years ago and spend time sitting in classrooms, talking to teachers and students, figuring out what they can contribute, then finding a way to lend a hand. How do we re-create institutions that teach students dance steps and turn on the music?


Eileen Landay is a clinical professor of English education (retired) and the faculty director of the ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown University. With the support of the Ford Foundation, she is working on a book about the ArtsLiteracy Project.

Hi there

Flu shot this morning followed by excursion to a new indoor park. Check this out:
CBS is looking to cast a new game show and Regis (my favorite!) is the host. Here is the e-mail and info. So many of you would make such great contestants!!!

Reply to: milliondollarcasting@gmail.com
The Producers of American Idol are currently holding auditions for their
New Primetime HIT
“MILLION DOLLAR PASSWORD”
hosted by Regis Philbin
CBS is proud to re-introduce one of the greatest game shows in the history of American television
With new twists, higher stakes, and a one million dollar grand prize, Million Dollar Password promises to be the most exciting game show of the coming season
To be considered please submit a current photo and a paragraph about why you would be a great contestant to milliondollarcasting@gmail.com

Compensation: up to $1,000,000

Leftovers?

Well, I just finished the last of the leftovers for lunch, so it was Chinese Food tonight....and Curry Pumpkin Soup from the restaurant next store. Couldn't resist.

Pop-Pop's flight to AZ was cancelled (traveled to Albany and back, next time we should call ahead to confirm!)...So he is staying overnight and it will be an early 4:30AM departure. I'll be sure to brew the coffee extra strong. He and Alan are playing with tangerines downstairs. Which reminds me of some cute quotes from Alan which I have been stock-piling:

"I am honored to sing like that!"

"Can you say hello to the tangerine?"

"Lollipops don't have hair."

Switching gears a bit, I want to share with you my nephews website and blog. He's an amazing kid. It's www.maxrosenbaum.com and http://idealisticrat.blogspot.com/.

Also - Also thank god for the indoor park......and I finally made an appointment for our flu shots!

Bye for now!!!!!!

Sunday

Went to visit Helen and her family for breakfast in Cairo this morning (we tested out an Utterz - see below). Then, Alan, Pop-Pop and I went to the model train museum in Kingston. Alan has been wired with all of the excitement, so I am looking forward to getting back to our regular schedule tomorrow.

Visit with Helen!!!!

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Getting Ready - Cook, Cook and Cook Some More!!

After yesterday's turkey crisis (first turkey was too big, then pan too big, so turkey had to be returned, etc....), we finally prepared Thomasina for dinner. She was popped into the oven by 8AM. Don't ever believe those red plastic poppers...Ours needed to be cooked an additional two hours! Also, here are pictures of Alan and Eileen stirring the cranberry sauce, and the Rosenbaum brothers with their mother peeling potatoes. Gabi is arranging the appetizers. YUMMY thanks to everyone for their help with making this all happen! ALSO - THERE ARE THREE AUDIO FILES OF TODAY. YOU CAN EITHER PLAY THEM BY CLICKING THE WIDGET TO THE RIGHT, OR THEIR INDIVIDUAL POST....

Then Main Event

**** BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN TO THE AUDIO FILE OR LISTEN TO THE WIDGE TO YOUR LEFT OF THE THANKSGIVING SPEECHES!!! FOOD WAS DELISH!!!!

Dessert

Be sure to scroll down to the audio file of the dessert discussion between Pop-Pop and Uncle Gary..... Suzanne made pumpkin pudding cakes and Uncle Gary and Aunt Andrea brought cheesecake....the Babka was there too!

Playtime!

Murray plays the Coronet

Being silly in the Kitchen

The Clean-Up

Everybody pitched in with cleaning up....thanks!!! Plus...Aunt Andrea, Suzanne, Gary and Pop-Pop rearranged my living room furniture!

Dessert Discussion

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Dinner Speeches

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Pre-Dinner T-day Chaos

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Today's TURKEY Dilemma

My turkey is too big for my roaster. Think I overdid it a bit. Off to Eileen K's house to see if her roaster will fit mine before I make a trip back to Kingston.....

Tuesday Turkey Talk

Hi there - It's snowing out while I write this!!! Can't wait for Alan to see the snow when he wakes up. (we haven't even finished raking leaves yet)

Well, only two more days until Thanksgiving, and I haven't even started shopping yet. I did clean out the frig to make room for the turkey, and have my list ready to go. No new recipes this year, though I did print out some new ideas....But it's not that I am not adventurous (is that a double negative), I just enjoy the traditions of making the same thing....(stuffed mushrooms, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, scalloped corn chowder, broccoli with cheese, sausage and cranberry stuffing and Eileen will make homemade cranberry sauce (I recall having to ask her to add more sugar in the past, its often too tart so if you plan to make it, in my opinion the recipe should be sweetened up a bit :) )

....For dessert: Chocolate Babka (Pam bringing from Zabars!) and Cheesecake from the Nass family!!!

Our guest list: Michelle, Roger, Alan, Steve, Pam, Max, Murray, Gabi, Aunt Andrea, Uncle Gary, Heidi, Eileen, Pop-Pop and Aunt Suzie. Unfortunately, Bootie has to work, so she stayed in Arizona :(. Hopefully Julie and family will stop over too!

Other notes: Thanks for the comics below Portia - very funny - have a safe ride up today to Syracuse. Call on your return trip.

Also, there is a possibility that one of my Hoot photos made it into the Freeman. I'll let you know later. Have a great day!

Tuesday Turkey Talk