Roscoe village

Elijah's teacher recently asked me if we own a cat. "Kitty cat" has been Elijah's imaginary friend for several months now and he loves talking about her. "Mommy, my kitty cat has a robot. And you know what? It can fly!" Elijah also enjoys keeping us posted on the whereabouts of his friend Doggy. Doggy has been living in Mexico for sometime now and Elijah has suggested that we move there on several occasions. He is fascinated by remote places and his animals have traveled from China to Machu Picchu. I find that Elijah's animals (fictious and otherwise) make it easier to parent as they seem to provide him with an alternative way of expressing his emotions. "My kitty cat is a little bit nervous." I have also started using the animals to prepare Elijah for various transitions. "Elijah, can you get tell Elephant that we need to leave in 5 minutes?"

Elijah prefers reading the same books over and again. It had been getting a bit painful for me, so we recently instituted a new bed time rule. Elijah picks one book and Mommy picks another. He loves the Corduroy books and has continued to pick books about Hannukah. He has strong opinions about virtually everything, and I finally quit trying to guide him towards more seasonally appropriate options. I still consider Elijah to be easygoing but his mischievous streak is becoming more noticeable. Setting limits can be a challenge as he is such good kid and his mischief is frequently more amusing than anything else. Thankfully he is a happy little guy and hasn't driven us crazy (yet). Finally, I must share one of Elijah's best quotes to date. He recently received a new stuffed elephant and Amiel asked him what he wanted to name it. "Roscoe," he said. "Roscoe Village." For those of you unfamiliar with the Chicago area, Roscoe Village is a neighborhood on the north side of the city. Pretty cute.

Moving

I am pleased to announce that we just sold our condo!! Getting our place ready to sell was a wonderful albeit somewhat stressful experience. As the date of our first showing approached, I was up packing and cleaning until the wee hours. We had the house painted and our home is now swathed in a soothing chamomile. I spent an evening reorganizing our oversized IKEA bookshelf and was quite pleased with the result. I finally removed an unsightly file cabinet out of Elijah's room. Closets were thinned, toys were packed and books were lined up in neat rows. While far from perfect, things were starting to come together.

Thankfully Anna was visiting during the weekend of our first showing. She helped us scramble to get things in order and the house was miraculously transformed over the course of a few hours. You know someone is a good friend when you can ask them to wash your windows and empty the laundry from your jacuzzi (clothes organization has never been a strong point for me). Thank you, Anna!! The best part about moving has been enjoying our newly de-cluttered house. It will be bittersweet to leave but we are all excited about exploring a new neighborhood and keeping our next house pretty and neat.

The book fairy

I just stumbled upon a delightful children's book, The Incredible Book Eating Boy. I could not resist the whimsical illustrations and loved the story's message. I purchased a copy for my favorite little man and decided to give it to him in a special way. I have been wanting to make a treasure hunt for Elijah and thought the book would be a perfect prize. I wrote simple clues, tucked them into envelopes labeled "Treasure Hunt" and hid throughout the house. Elijah caught on right away and it was fun to watch him trying to make sense of the clues.

Elijah seemed to think his elephant had hidden the envelopes. Upon opening the book, he announced that it had been hidden by his kitty cat.

He loved the story and was especially amused upon discovering that someone had taken a chomp out of the book's back cover. It's been less than a week and Elijah is already requesting that I make him another treasure hunt. It seems that he now thinks that Mommy is the Book Fairy. I keep telling him otherwise, but I think he's on to me.

Family photos

Michiana

Thank you to Stacy and Dave for a great little getaway to Michiana!

Pesach

The best

Elijah is now three years and five months old. His little personality has really blossomed over the past few months. His teachers noted that he became more outgoing after his three year old haircut. One of them told me that he is "turning into an extrovert" before her eyes. He still takes a few moments to warm up to new people, but he is now quite comfortable at preschool. He occasionally reports that one of the little boys has pushed him, but otherwise seems to get along well with the other kids. He is especially close with Shayna, one of his old pals from the JCC. School pick up usually takes a good half hour because he is never ready to stop playing. He loves to show me around his classroom and particularly loves to point out snapshots of himself on the bulletin board. When it's time to go, he sometimes blows kisses to the teachers.

Like most three years old, Elijah comes up with some of the most unexpected questions and entertaining comments. I have been terrible about documenting them and should really make a better effort. My love for Elijah seems to grow with time and I sometimes wonder if I might burst. I couldn't ask for a sweeter little boy. He is quite brilliant, but I am most proud of his gentle demeanor and quirky sense of humor.

Here are some more tidbits about my little man. He is still smitten with his blue elephant. He loves to nap and sleeps for a solid two hours on most afternoons. He misses his long hair, and we have decided to let it grown out again. He puts on his own jacket by laying it on the ground, slipping his arms in the sleeves and flipping it on over his head. His favorite toys include Legos, Tinker Toys and his Melissa and Doug Wooden Pizza set. I recently introduced him to the Corduroy books by Don Freeman, and he adores them. He tells Amiel that my Hebrew accent is "not good," but I don't mind. As for eating, Elijah is a happy little pescetarian. Some of his favorite foods are pizza with green olives, fish, Cheerios, dried fruits, yogurt with granola, corn, mushrooms and avocados. He has a particular affinity for broccoli and even likes the stalks (I peel off the tough outer parts and he munches them raw). As for music, Elijah loves to sing, bang on his drums and play his harmonica. We listen to the Dixie Chicks "Lullaby" nearly every night and he refers to it as our love song. I've never actually slipped in bed with him while he was asleep but I just might have to one of these days.

Happiness

What a lovely evening. Sabba and Savta came over to watch Elijah, and Amiel took me out on a date. The little one bid us a happy farewell and we were on our way. There is a movie theater a few blocks down the street and we picked up our tickets for "An Education" before grabbing a quick bite to eat. Dinner was at an inexpensive falafel place; alone time with my charming husband made up for the mediocre food. Loved the movie, highly recommended. We then poked around at Borders, and I splurged on a new work of fiction. I say splurge because I've been trying to stick with library books. Anyway, I wore my hat and mittens home, but didn't really need to as the temperature is finally a few solid degrees above freezing. How I love spring in Chicago. And just when I thought the evening could be no better, I came home to discover that Savta had folded all our laundry (two huge baskets of it). Are clothes now sit in perfect little piles, my own things are between a mound of Elijah's socks and perfect stack of his t-shirts. It looks so nice that I hesitate to put anything away. I am a lucky girl.

Psychiatry

I hate to be be gloomy, but my first two months on psychiatry were a bit disappointing. For starters, I have been working overnight every 5 to 6 days. This is far better than many resident schedules, but I still despise it. Staying up all night is not bad of in itself. I actually like the quiet atmosphere of the hospital after hours. The problem has working the next day; we are supposed to get out early but that never happens.

As for the work itself, my first rotation was spent on the neuropsychiatry team. Most all my patients had an underlying neurological condition: seizure disorder, traumatic brain injury, dementia or something of that sort. I had a few catatonic patients and even performed electroconvulsive therapy! Unfortunately, a number of my patient were non-verbal group home residents with severe mental retardation. They were mostly admitted to have their medications tweaked after aggressive behaviors. It's important work, but definitely not for me. Thankfully I had a great attending and still learned lots.

I am now at the Veteran's Hospital inpatient psych unit. It's a pleasure to have patients who can actually hold a conversation. The unit is known to have a lot of patients with substance abuse and social (as opposed to psychiatric) issues, but I have already been assigned a few interesting psychotic patients. One of them is extremely sick, the type of person you might see talking to himself on the streets. The other is a bright guy who seems entirely "normal" until he starts talking about his distressing delusions. It should be a good month.

Shuffle board