Hello! It has certainly been a while. Today we got the results of the 7th Chimerism test and, thank G-D, once again it is 100% donor! The over all blood work looks very good as well. Things took longer this time because of a week's delay in the appointment. On the planned appointment date we were in the middle of an unpleasant stomach bug and the clinic agreed that a will-to-live-sucking virus is best kept away from a immune-compromised people. We have since all gotten better and are no longer contagious, if anyone is wondering.
Life has been moving along, one week, one runny nose, one evening at a time. In recent days Zevi has been sleeping better. We are grateful for every night he lets us sleep until 6:30 uninterrupted and hope he makes it a habit! The boys have been playing together more as well, a couple of times over an hour at a go, having conversations. Just so you don't think it is all roses here, there are still bitter conflicts with Benya over hitting his brother and with Zeva over throwing things if he wants one more book at bed time, for example. In most cases the real culprit is being tired or sleepy or cranky, but I refuse to accept that as an excuse for hitting or throwing. Which leaves me, more often than not, in the role of a barking enforcer.
At other times, things are sweet. The boys give hugs as we leave for work and remind us that they are our friends (sometimes strategically / preemptively to avoid getting in trouble). In recent weeks I have taken the boys for ice cream after work a couple of times and the ice cream shop is still there. We still need to work on estimating the amount of ice cream per child, as more than half goes uneaten, but this is progress. Today, for instance, Benya and I went to Costco while Zeva, grandma Rita, and mom went to another store. Both trips went well, no fight over who gets to go with mom, and boys helped unload the groceries.
A quick highlight of personality difference.
Zev: recently for the first time produced a drawing that is not abstract art. With some small (unspecified) amount of help from the nanny he drew a green field for grass, yellow for earth and blue for the sky with a couple of flowers and even a butterfly (sponge, came with a set).
Benjamin: on Monday at 'circle time' at the daycare Alla got to witness a rare occasion of Benya volunteering to tell a story about his weekend. While other kids mostly spoke of Easter, Benya offered an entirely imagined account that went something like this: "We went up on an escalator, then up on an elevator, and then the transformer came over and pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew." Suffice to say Transformer cartoons are still off limits.
I shall conclude on this cheerful, if somewhat violent note, and leave everyone with the 7th result of 100% donor. F@cking A!
