At Shir Chadash on Monday (the 1st day Rosh Hashana), the CK was outside the synagogue playing ball with Gideon (the Australian-American-Canadian-Israeli whom the WK had met at Moshava Park). Gideon threw the ball to the CK, who somehow seriously jammed his thumb on his right hand. (Hmm, maybe they should have been inside at services instead of playing ball in the courtyard?!) The CK was in a lot of pain and his hand/thumb were swollen. We put ice on it and gave him something for the pain. Yesterday (Tuesday), it didn't look any better and the CK was very uncomfortable. At the end of Tuesday's Rosh Hashana services, Scott, one of the congregants with whom we were chatting, said, "I'm a doctor. I can take a look at it." While Scott was examining the CK, he commented, "Well, I'm a chiropractor, not really a doctor, but I think you need to get this x-ray ed."
So, back to the Terem Clinic (where I had been on Friday with the WK and his weird bug bite/sting), the CK and I went first thing this morning. Interestingly, the Terem Clinic doesn't open until 9 am, but when we arrived at 8:40, the doors were open and there was already a line. The nurse took the CK's vitals, and then we waited for the physician who examined the CK's hand/thumb and ordered x-rays. The x-ray did not show any fracture, which is good. They wrapped the CK's hand in an ace bandage and told him not to use it for the next few days. If the CK still has any pain after 3 or 4 days, the doctor instructed him to see an orthopaedist in case there is a break that didn't show up on the x-ray.
The CK was not happy when we left the Clinic, partially because the bandage was kind of uncomfortable but more so because I told him he had to go to school for the rest of the day. The CK cried and refused to go. If we let him "stay home a day or two, to get used to the bandage" the CK promised to go to school. Despite his complaints, we took a taxi from the Clinic to the Szold School. The CK was crying as I basically dragged him by his wrist (on the hand that didn't have the bandage) past the security gate and down the stairs. It was not a pretty sight, and we (the CK and I) both felt awful.
As we walked from the stairs to the school campus, many of the older kids from the 5th and 6th grade came over to the CK to ask what was wrong. Several gathered around him, put their arms on his shoulder, and asked, "Mah kahrah? Ahtah bseder?" (What happened? Are you OK?). It was actually very sweet. I think, however, that the CK was a bit embarrassed by the attention because he thought the bandage "looked stupid." and because he was crying. The CK asked me (or, rather I should say, pleaded with me) to let him see the WK before going to class, and I acquiesced. Poor guy had already had a crappy day; if seeing his brother would help a little, I wasn't going to say no. The WK was having class in the library and came out to the hallway. It was very sweet to watch the two boys together. The WK offered the CK an invisible stuffie (a squid stuffed animal), so that the CK could have something "to hold" during the day. The CK accepted the invisible squid and thanked his older brother. They hugged and agreed to meet at the end of the day to walk home together. (Later today, when I asked the CK about the invisible squid, he reported that he and the WK have been "exchanging" who has the invisible squid each day, depending on who needed it the most.) The CK was sobbing again when I left him with his teacher Meital.
Oh yeah, and the hives! At the end of services on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashana, the CK came to the women's side to say hello and to show me the candy in his mouth because he knew it was my favorite Israeli candy, a kind of fruit taffy. When I asked the CK where he had gotten the candy, he said it was from the "Candy Man" on the men's side. So we wandered over to the "Candy Man" to thank him (and, I must admit, to ask for a piece for me!). The Candy Man's name is Alan Lurie, who made aliyah many years ago from Johannesburg, South Africa via Sidney, Australia. Alan invited our family to his house to join him and his wife (Lori Lurie, try saying that three times fast!) for lunch. (More on the lunch later.) There were 2-3 dogs at Alan's house, and the CK immediately went over to play with them, despite our urging him not to do so. He actually didn't have any reaction to the dogs for the first 60-90 minutes we were there, so we thought maybe his episode Friday night (with Sheleg, the dog) had been a fluke. But then, suddenly, there were lots of splotchy hives on the CK's face. I left immediately with the CK, and the hives were already dissipating by the time we reached our dira.
For now, we are going to assume the CK is allergic to dogs. We spoke to his pediatrician who instructed us to carry an Epi-Pen in case the CK has an anaphalactic reaction. When we return to the States, we'll see an allergist and take it from there. (I booked his appointment today for early January - I was okay waiting the four months before the allergist had an opening!) For now, we'll try to keep him away from dogs while we are in Israel. The CK is miserable about that; he loves animals, especially dogs. (His favorite book series is "The Puppy Place" about a family who fosters dogs until they are adopted. We shipped a dozen of the books to Israel.) The CK was crying last night that he won't be able to "l'latef" (pet) the dogs in Israel anymore. This afternoon, whenever the CK saw a dog, he kept saying, "I am sad" and had a mournful look on his face.
When I spoke to a girlfriend in the States about the CK's last few days and the start of our Rosh Hashana, she said maybe it means that we have all of the bad stuff out of the way for the year! Here's hoping!!
As I find myself writing again and again in this blog, I do think life in Israel will get easier for the boys, but I still feel terribly about how hard all of this seems to be on them, especially the CK. Several times this afternoon, the CK said, "I want to turn back the clock before we came to Israel." And, tonight in the bathtub, he said, "I want to turn the clock back so far that you and Abba never even had the thought to come to Israel." And, I admit I feel frustrated that they feel this way. I know it's very hard, and we do try to do whatever we can to make it easier, but the complaining and crying about school (the CK) and the willfulness they (especially the WK) have shown in terms of doing what we ask has grown tiring for Pentheus and me. The situation then makes it even harder for Pentheus to get work done in the dira, which stresses him out, which, in turn, stresses me out. Full disclosure: I've had a bad cold the past few days, so maybe tonight isn't the best to time to write this part of the blog posting.
Rosh Hashana itself was okay. We did not go to services on Sunday night, but had a quiet family dinner at home. It really was nice, and the 4 of us had a good time. As Pentheus commented to me later, it was "like money in the bank" to have a good experience and make a good memory for the family in Israel. Pentheus had made panko chicken, which was great though not quite as good as it is in Cambridge. (Pentheus thinks the garlic powder in Israel is different than in the States and that it had something to do with his first time using this oven.) Monday lunch was also at home, and we had lunch meats. We had invited the daughter of our friends in Cambridge to dinner, but she stopped by at 4:30 that afternoon to tell us she couldn't make it as her program had scheduled a dinner for the program participants. We convinced her to stay for "dessert before dinner" and had cake/tea and cold drinks in the afternoon. It's always lovely to spend time with her. Monday night we had the prepared foods that we had ordered from Grill Plus, a yummy take-out place near us. We had chicken with apricots and plums; szechuan beef; broccoli; cauliflower; and rice. Because of the holiday, we also had challah at every meal. Yum! We had leftovers of all dishes tonight for dinner.
As I wrote above, we were invited to the Lurie household yesterday to lunch. Their house is gorgeous and very big. There were around 50 of us, all sitting at tables in the beautiful Jerusalem stone "meerpesset" (porch), adjacent to the spacious living room and huge kitchen. There was a lot of food, served buffet style, with several different types of chicken, stuffed-cabbage-meat (without the cabbage part), many salads and starches (rice, quinoa, etc.), wine (lots of wine), and challah. At the end of lunch and before dessert was served, Alan went around the tables and had each person state his/her name, where s/he was born, and whether s/he thought Abraham or Isaac had shown more faith in G-d during the "ahkehdah." (The "ahkehdah" refers to the "binding" of Isaac as Abraham prepared to sacrifice him as G-d had commanded him to do. We read from this part of the Torah on Rosh Hashanah.)
Although I learned a lot thinking about the answers and reasons the other guests offered to the Abraham-Isaac question (by the way, it was about 50-50, I think), I was more intrigued by the birthplaces. Many were from Toronto and various places in New York/New Jersey, but others were from San Antonio, Georgia (the one in Russia, not the one in the US), Melbourne, and Philadelphia. Almost all of the guests, except for us, had made aliyah. One middle-aged man had just made aliyah last Thursday, another man moved here 10 days earlier, and the 11-year old boy sitting next to us had made aliyah 3 weeks ago.
Speaking of aliyah, I am reading a very interesting book.
When I showed Pentheus the book, he laughed a little and asked what had made me choose this particular book. I told him I had wanted a break from praying on the women's side at Rosh Hashana services, and had seen it on one of the many bookshelves at Shir Chadash. To be honest, I don't see us making aliyah for a bunch of reasons, but I still think it is important that we are here. A couple of weeks ago, over the phone, my father asked if we were "enjoying" Israel. Before answering, I paused for a moment and asked Pentheus what he thought. We both agreed that while we're not sure we're "enjoying" it as much as we had hoped we would on a daily basis, we are very glad we are here, just a little less so on days like today.
I so much appreciate the honesty in your blog.
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