For the adults, it means that we basically do the same work, but apparently just stand there and hand money to every camp/scout trip/other camp/etc/basically anyone that asks for money. All of my kids are at the age where they are too old for most camps, but 3/4 of them are too young to work. And 1/4 of them has been looking for a summer job, which is not easy to come by in a city of zillions of teenagers looking for the same thing.
So far, it is the second week of July. (Okay now it's August, I got sidetracked)
Kid #1 - finished up school exams, found a job, he thinks
Kid#2 went camping for five days, came home sick for the following five days, just left again to go camping for another four days
Kid #3 - went semi-camping for three days, just left today to go camping for another four days
Kid#4 - into the second week of Hacker Camp, that he also did last summer. Today is on a field trip to Shuk Machane Yehuda where he will get to eat at his favorite place, Fish and Chips
Since this was written, all four have gone to tzofim/scout camp for 5-10 days depending on the kid.
Me - still laughing it up at myself at work. Literally yesterday I was chatting with a student at work and she seemed to have me confused with someone else, so I said (in Hebrew) maybe you have my accent confused with the other American at work. But the word for accent is somewhat similar to the word for sale. So she was super confused until we sorted that out. Hebrew also isn't her first language. And then she said that my Hebrew is Sababa. So it was all good.
Then there was the day last week when I came on shift and I see that all of my babies are dressed in hospital issued tiny white clothing. Now, it isn't that those aren't cute but we have a full drawer of boy clothing and a full drawer of girl clothing (usually) so I always try and dress my babies in real clothing. It helps their parents feel like they are real babies and not just small or sick babies in the NICU.
So I head back to our clothing and pick out the most adorable little pink outfit for this girl. I come back and start dressing her. And then the head nurse points out that this baby is a boy. oops! I mean, he was so pretty! So I head back and from the boy drawer I get another cute outfit, blue and white stripes. I dress him and as I finish snapping up the outfit, what do I see? On the pocket it says, Mommy's little girl. I really just couldn't win that shift. Finally, I found an appropriate outfit. When I met his parents the next day I told them the story and they were laughing and said well, he is very pretty.
So thankfully I have fewer Hebrew issues at work, but of course they always pop up. Lucky for me, the babies are really not judgmental at all. They sleep through my stories (maybe that is being judgmental) or they cry at my grammar (also judgmental) or the grab onto my fingers which I will just assume means that they know I love them. People ask me all of the time, how can I work in the NICU and isn't it really hard.
The answer is, first of all, I have only been working for a year so I have not seen post of what the veteran nurses have seen.
Second of all, yes, sad things do happen and we see a lot of what no one should ever need to see or hear about.
Third, I also get to experience miracles. This what is really amazing about my job., You can have a baby who is very sick, or who is very premature and small. And you get to watch them develop from a tiny thing into a full fledged giant fat baby who is trying to eat your arm while you try and change their diaper three months later. Below is a small sampling of what I do at work. Pun intended.
I have lost all perspective of what a normal sized baby is, and I feel like I need to bend at the knees to lift a 3kg/7lb baby!
Moving:
Okay, so I mentioned before that we are moving. In 20 days. Down the street. Because we are crazy apparently.
Update( We moved one week ago. I'm officially crazy. )
One benefit of packing is that you get to throw stuff out. I love throwing stuff out. Sadly, only one child has inherited this trait from me.
A negative of moving is that you find stuff that you forgot about and then you need to look through it. So I possibly got a bit lost looking through old photo albums. It was fascinating seeing all of the photos of my girls in the NICU, and comparing it to what I now know as a NICU nurse.
Then I found all of the photos of my year in Israel. So of course I had to take pics of the pics and send them to friends. And then I found pics of hubby and I when we were 19 years old, so I had to take pics of that. Finally I just had to pack the albums.
Other gems found while packing..
A giant rubber band ball. Apparently I'm not allowed to throw this out.
The world's largest personal collection of siddurim (prayer books) and chumashim (Torah) and related books. It's not normal. The photo below is about half of what we have.
What was the funniest part of moving. Well, the two funniest? We had to move six bikes down the street. Except our kids have apparently been listening and the bikes were super duper secure and interlocked as we have taught them to do. And the kids were all away at scout camp. And we could only find one of their bike keys. So we released only one bike and one of the movers rode it over. I think the other guys were a bit jealous.
Then ummm, okay we weren't exactly 100% packed when the movers showed up. So towards the end they just gathered up junk and tossed it in random boxes. I'm in the new house directing them where to put everything. So one guy shows me this box and I see that it doesn't have a label so I peek into the box. And he says the box is kibbutz galuyot, which is basically the ingathering of the exiles 🤣 And this my friends, was a perfect description.
End of the year stuff:
Final Netball game of the season:
Good news - after two full years of attending netball games, including the junior maccabiah in Haifa last summer, I somewhat understand netball. Child #3 was rocking her final tournament of the season. And even though they lost she scored a bunch of baskets and it is always fun seeing your kids do what they love.
Art Show:
Then child #4 had his end of the year art show. This year he took an art class once a week and he absolutely loved it. He has always loved art but this was the first time we sent him to a class. He will continue to do the class during august and hopefully again next school year. We lucked out with the teacher, especially because half of the reason I chose this class was because it is within walking distance. My weird work schedule means the kids need to be able to get around mostly without us.
Music:
You all know that child #1 is obsessed with the guitar. I don't get to see him perform that often, but if he is home, all I hear is guitar. And then he comes out of his room and asks if I heard that. Umm yeah, because I cannot turn off my ears, kid.
But seriously we love that he has found what he loves. And when he performed on the last day of school, a friend was my spy and snapped a pic of him.
And we had an end of the year ukelele concert for child #4 as well. Let's just say, he isn't continuing with the ukelele next year and we are okay with that.
Only in Israel:
What "only in Israel" moments have happened recently?
Well, I was walking around Mamilla, outside of the old City of Jerusalem, waiting to meet an old friend of mine who was on vacation in Israel. I was early so I was wandering. Then I am approached by a group of teenage girls wandering around with a bottle or water and a stack of cups. What do they want? They are looking for people to give water to, and have the people make a bracha (blessing) so that the girls can say Amen. Well okay then, glad I could help girls. That was a first for me.
Okay, I had better publish this blog before I get distracted again by annoying things like unpacking. Or like cooking. Did I mention that the week we moved I decided that it was urgent to bake three cakes. Because I had bananas and lemons and we can't waste those!
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