Happy 6th Liverday!

Shayna celebrated by being at school for the afternoon after a walking pneumonia diagnosis yesterday morning. Antibiotics are amazing as she was crying with belly pain yesterday afternoon and skipping into school this afternoon. She brought her transplant journey book to share with all her class mates like we always do. Instead of a big party, we had a quiet family celebration tonight at the kids' favorite pizza place The Mellow Mushroom. We will have a small party later this month but we are billing it more as a family/holiday party. Shayna's successful transplant gave us a complete family so that's what we want to celebrate.

This last year was not as rosy as the others have been but we survived and are now working towards a healthier and adventurous seventh year for all. Shayna seems to have recovered from the rejection she  experienced at the beginning of March. She has also recovered from all the side effects of the medications, mainly prednisone, she was on. She still has one extra medication in her life that she will stay on it until at least March 2016. She is now permanently on a morning and even dose of Prograf.

I have been struggling to rebalance my thyroid, I'm hypothyroid with Hashimoto's, since Maya's birth. At the beginning of the year, it seemed like that had finally been achieved but all the stress of Shayna's ordeal brought me down as well. By March 2017, I'm hopeful I can feel the same way again just in time to have energy to get ready for a new adventure.

By the end of February, we will know if we will be able to spend the next academic year in Haifa, Israel. Nahum will have been at Virginia Tech for eight years in January so we're planning a family sabbatical year in Israel. Shayna and Elijah will be in some sort of public schools, kindergarten is still at a separate school for little people, and we'll find some morning home day care thing for Maya so we can all learn Hebrew. I don't know how fluent I will be but I'm pretty sure the kids will be by next Chanukah. Nahum has turned in all the official paperwork. Now he is working on finding the other six months of salary we need and some one to rent our house while we are gone. (He is also teaching a new class, continuing to work with his post-doc and grad students on research, and joined a department committee so he is staying very busy.)

Elijah is developing his reading and writing skills much like Shayna did at this time last year, only he's not in kindergarten yet but preschool at our local Montessori school. He has been bringing home maps, "banking" number sheets, little books he's made and lots of copies of his name and he regularly works with his teachers trying to read every beginner reading activity they have. He brings his enthusiasm home and tries to sound out the books he asks me to read to him or makes me point out each word as I read. He still loves to do his "homework", a kindergarten math book he assigned himself and play chase like a stampeding hippo around the house.

Shayna's reading and word recognition has really taken off and she's flying through math concepts at school. However, I have had to do some remedial handing writing work with her. Luckily, we started right before Thanksgiving break so have had lots of uninterrupted days to practice. We did a couple more sessions before school today. She has improved greatly in the last nine days. Now we'll see what happens when a full school day is thrown into the mix. She loves to take the easy way out so may revert quickly back to old habits so she doesn't have to take the time to think so much about what she's writing. At least Winter break is less than three weeks away so I will have two and a half weeks to make proper letter and number formation a habit of hers. She loves her make believe world both alone and when she's dictating roles to her brother and sister. She continues to improve in allowing them to participate in the making of the story. All three kids seem to love each other fiercely.

October 13: Our annual family pictures
at the Hahn Horticultural Garden.

Here is our year in review in pictures:

December 10, 2014: Elijah's favorite activity during 2013 & 2014, playing with the train table at our Chiropractor's office. He now builds his own elaborate tracks at home so we haven't been in a while.

December 20: A tub almost full of kids. It's a bit fuller these days and they still love baths together. Since it gets a little crazy with all three, I usually only allow two at a time.

Dec 20: Last year's BJCC Chanukah party. Elijah has short hair because of our November lice invasion. The whole family suffered but only the guys got their hair cut.

Dec 21: Maya "helping" me as she still does with anything that involves the vacuum.

Dec 21: Lighting Chanukah candles on their own for the first time at the Kornblith's.

Dec 23: Maya "helping" me cook without the mess.

Dec 24: Having a tea party with the Chanukah tea set from grandparents. It still gets heavy use but has lost at least 2 pieces since due to breakage.

Dec 26: The view from our favorite hiking grounds Pandapas Pond's boardwalk. Any chance the weather is a little warm, we usually head out all winter long.

Hiking together.

Dec 31: Maya vacuuming for my birthday.

Jan 6, 2015: It's supper Shayna to the rescue!

Jan 20: Biking in our favorite neighborhood cul-de-sac.

Feb 11: Biking and creek playing on a trail just down the road from us.

Feb 13: Shayna is always creating extra things at school. Here she made a baby owl for the mama all the kids made.

Feb 14: Shower love: all my kids have loved showers since they were born, or at least 2 weeks old.

Feb 14: Finally some real snow to play in!

Feb 16: Heading out for some family sledding time.

Feb 27: Sweet sleepy baby.

Feb 27: My ever-present kitchen helper with her slicked back hair, she was going through a phase where she took all hair accessories out so I just slicked it back with Morocco Method hair oil.

March 2: Waiting for the bigs gymnastic classes to start.

March 4: Nahum giving a well received space presentation to Elijah's preschool class through the early-elementary class.

March 6: Everyone wanted to help make Shayna's birthday party ice cream cake.

March 14: Out for a neighborhood walk, both my girls inherited their father's outstanding hiking legs.

March 15: I wouldn't put the pool out because it was too cold so they found other water to play in.

March 18: A USA kindergarten parade finishing the end of the social studies unit on America.

March 21: Shayna and I went to the Transportation Museum for a chocolate tasting. We enjoyed playing on the trains just as much.

March 29: An egg painting party with Lynn and Gray. We all love painting eggs but this is the first year they all got eaten in time too.

April 1: Finding Cheerios hidden by Grandma Carole.

April 9: Maya and I on a morning walk at the VT Duck Pond. The 2nd to last month of enjoying my baby at home with me but without the distraction of the other two.

April 10: They really do love each other.

April 11: Enjoying a leaf-filled gulch at Pandapas, and hoping for no ticks.

April 12: Shayna showing off her new reading skills and keeping the little ones occupied.

April 14: Dr. Elijah confirming Maya is ill with Dr. Berry's experimental stethoscope. We loved them while they were in the exam rooms but I never asked him how the "experiment" went.

My children are truly becoming useful.

April 17: Maya inspecting our garden of late blooming daffodils. Despite pictures to the contrary, it was a very cold winter than involved a burst pipe in the basement.

April 19: Enjoying the warm spring and watching Shayna blow bubbles and cars go by.

April 20: A double spring rainbow.

April 19: Grandma Kathy brought another week of peace to our house again this year.

April 30: I enjoyed reading day at kindergarten and listened to a few stories illustrated and written by Shayna's classmates. What a sweet bunch of kids.

May 2: Playing in the creek in the forested area in the middle of our neighborhood.

May 3: I caught these two being super sweet with each other, again.

May 8: Our daily 3:45pm ritual of waiting for Shayna's bus with our special guest Grandpa Michael.

May 10: Playing in Douthat Lake on the first of 3 car camping trips we took last summer.

I forgot to bring pants for Maya but I think she heard "clothes were forgotten" as she wandered around like this much of the time.

May 12: It looks chilly but they must have talked me into getting the water park out anyway. 

May 14: Maya and I volunteered on Wednesdays during kindergarten centers. Maya always wanted to do whatever Shayna was doing. 

May 31: Our second camping trip, at Clayton Lake, was made relaxing thanks to friends that joined us and were great fire starters.

June 13: They all take turns spraying each other with the cold hose water, even Maya likes it.

June 23: I can never get over how happy the sea makes all my children. Of course, it has always made both their parents very happy too.

June 28: Enjoying one of the many amazing playgrounds that seem to be everywhere in Israel.

July 2: Maya always hammed it up for Nahum's parents Dov and Lea.

July 3: The high waves and jelly fish never stopped us from enjoying the beach, mainly Hof HaSharon, at least twice a week.

July 3: Our typical Shabbat Friday night dinners in Israel with family.

July 5: Every third day was spent swimming at the pool in Lea and Dov's complex. They would sit on the side to admire our children while we played.

July 16: Doing summer things in the front drive: riding wheels devices, making chalk drawings and blowing bubbles.

July 18: Enjoying a dinner picnic at a park in Newport with a creek with a swimming hole, hence the naked children.

July 19: We finally made it to the Cascades in Pembroke as a family, a 4mi round trip local hike.

July 29: An up-grade in pools but it now means that I have to keep a very close eye on Maya again.

Aug 6: Dancing in the rain in our front walk puddle.

Aug 7: Posing in front of my tomato garden. Shayna is the only one of the three that likes tomatoes. Luckily, she likes them a lot so was very happy having them all to herself, and Nahum.

Aug 7: Grandma Melinda and the kids in "Elijah's tree". Melinda came to see Shayna off to first grade.

Aug 8: A family snack break in the Poverty Creek trail system.

Aug 11: Shayna's first day of First Grade is complete.

Aug 19: More obligatory puddle jumping.

Aug 20: Shayna showing off some of the produce from her first garden, on the left.

Aug 25: Almost everyones' start of school picture.

Aug 31: Admiring Nahum's coconut cracking skills. We all love fresh coconut.

Aug 31: She did not like me laying down on my own so got a book and shoved me over so she could join me on the couch.

Sept 5: A very short train ride in a caboose at the Transportation Museum.

Sept 7: Maya did not appreciate the over two sitting in her carriage on our Labor Day bike ride.

Oct 3: A warm rainy day hike near Pandapas.

Oct 4: A cold rainy day Sukkah decorating with the BJCC Religious School, part of my new job. 

Oct 5: Waiting for the grownups to get their flu shots as the kids got theirs the week before. This makes us a responsible transplant family.

Oct 6: Happy 2nd Birthday, Maya Lynn!

Oct 20: Exploring a nearby house construction site on a family neighborhood walk. The top soil pile was especially interesting.

Oct 22: Playing hookie with Grandpa Michael and forest. Instead of sitting behind a desk she walked on logs, threw rocks and dragged big fallen branches through the forest. Later that day, we went for a neighborhood walk where all the kids and adults got to do outdoor shenanigans like leaf and big branch throwing and rock jumping and chase.

Oct 13: This years Halloween crew: Shayna the rainbow leopard, Elijah as Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates because "Jake's a good guy," Maya the duck because all my children must wear this suit at least two years in a row, and our neighbor Diya the busy bee. Elijah out lasted the girls by half an hour.

Nov 7: Where there is a puddle, there my children will be jumping too.

Nov 8: Elijah first North America map, he already made two world maps.

Nov 14: My brother Aaron married the lovely Brandy Lynn in Eugene, OR and gave me the excuse, and a place to stay, for a wonderful, kid free weekend on my own.

Nov 18: Replacing batteries as needed; otherwise, just checking their sizes. I think we may have an engineer on our hands.

Nov 20: Listening to students say what they are thankful for at the first grade's Thanksgiving Tea. (She said she was thankful for her family and her liver transplant "so [she] could live".)

Nov 27: A dinner-snack picnic at Pandapas.

 

Nov 27: Elijah made it across then I slipped in, oops, then Shayna made it across.

Nov 30: Shayna and I went for a wet walk before her pneumonia diagnosing appointment. We were both excited to find a slack line next to the path; though, all either of us could do without the other's help was stand in one spot for a few seconds.