When they called ‘Aaron?’ at the doctor’s office Saturday morning, I completely did not respond. It wasn’t until they repeated and added the last name, ‘Aaron Calisoff?’ that I realized they were calling my son.

It was the first time I’d ever heard Aaron’s name on it’s own, so I didn’t recognize it! Normally it’s Sam and Aaron, or the twins, or Jack, or Ben, or Jack and Ben or all four names together but not until this day did I hear little Aaron’s name all on it’s own.

“It’s actually got quite a nice ring to it”, I thought as I walked out of the waiting room.

What was I doing at the doctor’s office with just one kid on Saturday morning? Besides treating it LIKE A VACATION?

Some Weird Viral Thing

Aaron had developed some weird rash. Anjelica noticed little bumps on his skin when she gave him his nightly bath. Every night they spread a bit further. Pretty soon they covered his stomach, groin and back.

I asked my doctor friend Carrie to have a look when I met her at the Lincoln Park Conservatory last week for a play date. (Another cool place that I wanted to blog about that I never got to. Let’s just sum it up, warmth from the winter, trains and a dinosaur hunt. Perfect one hour, winter after school play date spot.)

She diagnosed Jack’s Reflux when my own doctor couldn’t. And she was spot on with this one too. Either dry skin or some weird viral thing you just have to wait out. We tried lotioning him up, it didn’t help. Two days later we took him to our doctor, who confirmed it was probably some weird viral thing and to use an over the counter cortisone cream. We stuck it on and it’s been clearing ever since.

Sorry if this one bored you readers, ever since the big bird incident, I’ve realized my brain is swiss cheese and I’d better write it all down, good and bad, or I’ll forget it! I found the cortisone cream in our cabinet I couldn’t remember why we had it. Even after Adam reminded me it still didn’t jar my memory. Then Adam tried testing my swiss cheese out by telling me it’s been 3 months since we had sex. Nice try, it’s not that befuddled. Yet.

Sorry Aaron, this was meant to be your post, but I couldn’t resist – @ the LP Conservatory

Bubbie’s Menorah

Okay, I know I said last night was our last night of Hanukkah, but no one objected when we decided to add a ninth night.

Tonight we headed up to the ‘burbs to Bubbie’s house. In addition to Hanukkah, we also celebrated Bubbie’s seventy somethingish birthday.

The boys had a blast. And who wouldn’t? They were showered with gifts from both Bubbie and Grandpa Bill as well as their Aunt Brenda. Brenda is a teacher and mother of three. She always knows the perfect gift for the boys at whatever age they are at. A remote control car for Jack, books for Ben, the twins got a toy phone and talking ball. Even a kid friendly iPad cover (which I think it more of a gift for me than anyone else). And everyone enjoyed the electric piano with microphone! Thank goodness there is a volume button on that one.

Bubbie and Naughty Cake

Once again we ate too much, including a very naughty Culiver’s Turtle cake (Bubbie’s favorite).

As an added bonus, the Meyers (Grandpa Bill’s daughter, her husband and son) showed up. Having 11 year old Evan there was like having a built in baby sitter! He disappeared in the back room with the older boys for a while and not once did I feel the need to check on them. Evan showed up later carrying a giggling Ben.

The twins scooted around on the floor like little cats. But they were far from ignored, as you can see, they got plenty of attention from the entire group…

Grandpa Bill, Bubbie and the Twins

Evan entertaining Aaron

Liz and Aaron

We had so much fun on our last night of Hanukkah that we actually forgot to open our presents.

Lighting the Candles

We may not have our elf on the shelf or great holiday Cartoons, but we had managed to have a bit of fun of our own anyway.

We ate a ton of unhealthy food. Brisket, latkes, and matzoh ball soup were part of the tradition. I threw in some roast broccoli with chick peas as well as a brussel sprouts with balsamic and cranberries recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Rebecca brought an insane pie from Hoosier Mama Pie company.

Dreidel Game

Dreidel Dessert

We played the driedel game.

Hedy organized a make your own dessert, a dreidel made out of a hersheys kiss, peanut butter, marshmallow and pretzel. It was so good I ate two. Okay, maybe I ate three. ALL RIGHT it was four. I had to make one later to photograph it for you people!

The kids stayed up way past their bedtime, with the promise of opening their last presents in the morning.

Also, between the Processco Rebecca brought and the Cote du Rhone Hedy brought I’m definitely not breastfeeding tonight!

Jack’s front tooth has been coming in over his baby tooth. The baby tooth, much like it’s owner, has decided stubbornly not to move an inch. It’s really stuck in there.

We were hoping it would work itself out and gave it a good amount of time, but no luck. The dentist would have to extract it.

Against the dentist’s wishes, Adam sat in with Jack. He said Jack did very well. There was crying when they shot him Novocain. A few times. I cringe thinking about it. And he said he felt them yank the tooth out. But by the time I saw him, he seemed fine.

They put his tooth in a little plastic treasure chest. While Adam put the older boys to sleep, I set to work on Jack’s favorite gift from the tooth fairy – a scavenger hunt.

In the past I have drawn Jack maps, but since Jack is learning to read at school, I thought words would make for better clues this time.

I wanted to share this in case you want to use it for your own kids, or any loved one. And not just for the tooth fairy, it could be for anything! Wouldn’t it be cute if that naughty elf on the shelf stole the gifts and sent your kids scrambling around the house with clues looking for them?

So, first I picked ten spots to hide clues…

Each clue was put in an envelope with the number clue on the front. On the back corner I wrote where the clue is located (basically copied the clue in front of it before folding it into the envelope.) I didn’t add the number on the clue in the picture, but I think it’s a good idea to do that also. Jack often wants to re-hide the clues and do the hunt all over again, and if you do this it only takes a second to stick them back where they were.

Next hide the clues.

Jack followed all the clues to ‘Breakfast Time’. The only mistake I made here was being too clever. I had his last envelope, the one with the money in it, on his breakfast plate. He wanted to know if I saw the tooth fairy put it on. I could see the gleam of suspicion in his eyes.

Finding the clues.

Jack put it best when he said, “Angelica is the best babysitter ever.”

Yes, she is!

She showed up Monday night bearing Hanukkah gifts for the whole family. It’s no easy feat to find something perfect for ALL six of us, but she did.

The boys got these t-shirts and onsies from a company she used to work for called Threadless.

From the top left, counter clock wise: For Jack, his favorite food – “Mac and Cheese”. For our little chunker, Sam – “Runnin’ Rhino”. For Aaron, “The Day the Fire Brigade went on Strike”. For Ben, our budding artist, “Crayons”.

But there was more! Fannie May chocolates for all. Assortment boxes, chocolate snowmen, hot chocolate mix and mint melts. Mmmmm.

Thank you Angelica!

Last night was the first night of Hanukkah. Such a fun time for the kids! It is so much fun to watch them every night. This year we were given a present from Ben’s teacher’s that had us rolling on the floor in laughter. More on that later.

Adam took the boys up to the suburbs for the morning. Besides driving MIchelle home from our saucy evening the night before, he wanted to take them to see Nickel City. From what I understand it’s kind of like Chuck y Cheese. He was hoping I’d get a nap in, but the twins never slept at the same time unfortunately.

Instead I laid on the floor of the basement, vowing never to drink again. I pumped every three hours and tested my milk for alcohol content with Milk Screen Strips until it cleared.

Lighting the Candles

That evening the boys got their first Hanukkah presents. They actually went with Adam and picked out their own presents, so they told us what they wanted to open that evening. Jack picked his 2 remote control cars and Ben picked his busy book with miniature Mickey Mouse figurines.

We got this present from Ben’s teachers…

Can you see it? It’s a picture of Ben’s first painting at school….

I like how he didn’t take his shoes or socks off. That would be uncouth.

The evening festivities continued in the suburbs. Our friends Dave and Caryn had a Hanukkah party. Most of their friends had older kids who also attended but since the start time was 7pm, we decided to get a sitter.

It was a pretty impressive spread of food and, having no kids to distract me, I completely stuffed my face. They gave out iTunes gift cards to the kids, including our kids which were not even there. I thought was a very clever idea. One I fully plan on stealing at some point.

Last night I was surprised over and over again by my good friends here in Chicago.

First Pam and Cindy came by to pick me up. I was surprised that Pam was driving. Wasn’t she going to drink with me? I found out later she was dropping her car home and we were going to a restaurant nearby.

But before that, she drove us to the suburbs train station for my next surprise – Michelle came in from the burbs to celebrate with us!

After that we went for a drink at a bar near Pam’s house. I thought it was the end of the surprises but after drinks we sauntered over to Namo Thai. Once again I was surprised to see many more good friends sitting together waiting for me to show up – Katia, Jackie, Hedy, Jennifer, Kelly, Karen, Myla and Vonda.

I felt very special seeing so many friends making such an effort of my big birthday.

There was a 40th birthday balloon hanging on the back of my seat which followed me with pride for the rest of the night. Though I can’t say I’m proud of the way I acted the rest of the evening.

I’m not going to do into all the details. Basically because as the night went on the details got a bit fuzzy. I will say this – my good friends, when I say “let’s do shots” what I really mean is, “I’ve obviously had enough, time to shove me in a cab home.”