Day 48

Day 48 just about on the books.  Alla and I each got in a solid day of work.  As a matter of fact, Alla is still finishing up a slide right now, at 9:36 pm.  The kids did something academic-y today, too.  With only nominal snarling and whining, the kids folded and put away a bit of laundry, set the table at least once, helped Alla cook, and dusted the floor.  Mind you, each activity lasted no more then ten minutes and was accompanied by extensive whining, but still…  No tears, no dropped weights, only moderate yelling. 

Alla cooked us a delicious meal, did a bit of pressure washing and I managed to get workout in, in addition to some domestic duties.

In the evening we watched a bit of TV with the boys and bedtime was pretty peaceful (for our rather bellicose values of ‘peaceful’).

All and all – I am calling this a win. 

Day 47 of quarantine

It has been nearly a month since last post.  Not surprising, since the days blend a little.  I am happy to report that, to date (t’fu – t’fu) all in the family have dodged COVID-19 or anything of that magnitude.

The weekdays involve work for Alla and I and some resemblance of a schedule for the boys.  Morning include yelling about setting the table and getting dressed.  Late afternoons involve yelling about screen time.  In between yelling Alla and I work, with short breaks for food, bathroom, and yelling.  On occasion I manage to teach boys a little math or give them homework on what we have covered.  More rarely I read to them from “The Book of the Future Commander” (in Russian, no longer available in print, but for mere $2.80 a .pdf can be had on Google Books).  The next generation shall not go deprived of “Книга Будущих Командиров”.  I figure, reading about history of warfare will lead to some discussions about history and some development of logic and imagination.  But mostly – I read it, I liked it, and the kids shall too!  On more occasions Alla manages to assign boys work from education books – which they, shockingly, do!  On occasion I manage to work out; even more occasionally one of the boys joins me.  They like it, so long as no one drops a dumbbell on themselves – which happened once so far, to Ben (resin-coated 8 lb weight, glancing blow, resulting in lots of crying and a fat lip for half a day.  Glorious!)  On some days we even manage to take a walk together.

The weekends are more mostly work-free for Alla and I, which frees up a lot more time for yelling about screen time and not wanting to go for walks.

All days include interminable dusting, dish-washing and laundry-folding.  Attempts to get kids to fold laundry, while occasionally successful, have been uniformly Pyrrhic victories (see?  History!) 

We do manage to play some Risk, which all seem to enjoy.  The boys have also built a few robotic creations which, surprisingly, have worked and, more importantly, provided distraction for hours of building process.  The boys have taken a liking to Mythbusters which we watch in the evenings, for nearly an hour of relative calm. 

Last weekend we took a lovely, two-hour walk through the Hoyt Arboretum.  With few other hikers around, distancing was easy and the weather was gorgeous.  In the “minus” column was the sh@tty behavior by the boys (Alla and I chose the wrong day to let the boys skip breakfast).  In the “plus” column was a gorgeous walk, beautiful scenery, perfect weather, fresh air, and even a chance to share some of the walk with an old college friend presently recovering from COVID-19 in NY. 

I shall conclude this post with a haiku I composed today:

Present, I punish,
And yell.  Absent – withhold love.
Parenting failure.

Kids are asleep.  Time for a glass of wine.

Day 17, late morning

For the last two days the boys have been having their “spring break”, which means we have completely suspended anything remotely academic.  We have been, however, trying to keep ourselves entertained in other ways.

One of them: an exercise regimen led by yours truly.  I rush to assure you that any psychological benefit we gain from the workouts is dwarfed by the stress of trying to organize said workouts.  Still, here is the evidence:

Notice how Zev’s facial expression changes through the set

Ben and I are working too.  For the record, Alla does participate, but she is behind the camera as much as on the floor.  Alla did decide to support our drive towards healthy living:

Sabotage!  Delicious, delicious sabotage!

We are also trying games.  Some are played solo:

Pretty sure Ben is winning

I have decided that the kids are old enough to be introduced to a classic: Risk!

In this game: Zev and Ben has taken control of a continent each; I am gambling on trying to hold North America and Alla is curving her way through Europe and Asia.

Not surprisingly, your humble narrator was eliminated first.  Alla and Zev fared slightly better.

Predictable result.  yes, Ben's army is so huge that pieces of one color were not sufficient.

Day 13

The unequivocally good thing about today is that it is close to over.  There was definitely yelling and screaming and crying today.  At the same time some math was learned and some English homework was done too.  Alla cooked delicious things and cleaned the aftereffects of the cooking.  And cleaned most of the downstairs, in fact.  My achievements are much more modest: kids learned material that I planned to go over yesterday and, after several iterations, completed the assigned homework.  Somewhere along the way Zev was given (and, hopefully, learned) the lesson about not throwing notebook in frustration when asked to redo whatever part of homework he got wrong.  And then about not escalating and not talking back to his parents.  Somewhere along the way the shouting started.  On the plus side we made it through most of two episodes of Mythbusters and through all of the homework and the boys played some music, and we had a delicious dinner (thank you, wife!). 

Oh, by the way, this was a workday and both Alla and I attended meetings and got work done.

If you will excuse me, I think my wife needs wine and I definitely need scotch.

Official restarting of the blog - Day 12 of quarantine

Hello, everyone!  Your humble narrator has decided to re-start this blog.  It is not lost on me that activity of this blog appears to correlate with some awful health-related disaster, either personal or global.  Case in point: we are back to counting days.  This time: we are at Day 12 of isolation.  Yes, this is a personal blog, so I am counting since Friday before last, the first day that Alla and I were both told to work from home.

So, Kaplan house this morning: the kids are doing academic things (for some pretty wide margins of “academic”) – Ben is reading, I hope, and Zev is programming visual effects of a dancing alien singing “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons.  I hear giggling, “pineapples”, “dabbing”, and “floss”. 

Last night, with the last of the free-ish movement, I borrowed a pressure washer (thank you, Smotkins!) and sometime today Alla will be doing something she predicts will be therapeutic.  The amount of actual therapy that Alla will get – or everyone else will need – as a result will be spelled out in subsequent posts.

The kids outside my door have switched to scheduled play time and are off to clear a dungeon in Munchkins: I hear of doors, warriors, and helping – they are learning, hopefully, that a small amount of cooperation makes for a better game.  I give it about 45 seconds.

My parents have been in self-imposed isolation for several weeks now.  Last night I was able to stop by.  I proceeded – responsibly, through the outside – straight to the back porch where I enjoyed a small pre-arranged scotch while at government-approved social isolation distance (do I sound 1984-ish enough yet, comrade?).  I rush to inform you, my reader, that my parents are fine, both physically (for present day values of “fine) and mentally.  In fact, they are so fine mentally, doing so well at the whole “stiff upper lip” thing, that it makes me wonder if they are somehow British.  On the other hand, the barrage of medical and near-medical instruction I receive from them provides a comforting reassurance of our Semitic origin. 

Alla’s parents are fine as well, active and loving as ever.  Their degree of social distancing has been a matter of some debate.  Our degree of influence on them has been about the same as on my parents – none whatsoever. 

With that, I am going to log off for now and do some work.  And, perhaps, prepare a math lesson for the boys.  The key here is to have two approaches ready: if the peace holds, compliment both and parley joint dungeon crawling into individual math lessons.  If the cooperation goes to heck, then use their desire for individual time for private math lessons, like it is their idea.  Wish me luck!

tooth fairy visits

In other news Zev lost his first tooth.  Zev agreed to place the tooth in a plastic bag and place it under his pillow, but not too far in, to make it easier for the tooth fairy.  Which the tooth fairy much appreciated.

In an impressive display on ninja skills, the tooth fairy retrieved the tooth and left Zev a personal note and a $1 bill. 

Also, Zev has been doing Brrazillian Jiu Jitsu and Benjamin has been fencing.  And both now have surpassed the parents in piano - by having taken more than one lesson each.

Been a while

Been over a year in fact.  Today's news:

Alla had an interesting conversation with Ben today. Ben was told that everyone is "the -est" in something. He was then asked to describe the family members. Ben said that:

Ben is the hangriest

Zev is the curliest

Mom is the workiest (and waved fingers like typing on a keyboard)

Dad is the sleepest (because dad always wants to sleep)

Grandpa Misha is the scientiest

Grandma Lina is the buggest (because she studied bugs)

Grandpa Tolya is the TV-est (because the watches TV)

Grandma Rita is the electronicest (because she lets boys have electronics time)

Cousin Rafi is the smartest and

Cousin Felix is the sportiest.

Zev later contributed that

Anya is the toughest and

Zev's Teacher Mrs. Miller is the nicest

Halloween!

We tried and to Halloween, like normal families.  We started by decorating the house.  The project was designated PORTA DENTATA

Making the eyes, 30-Oct-2016

Got the eyes and some teeth on Sunday

Then the rain washed the eyes off.  Oh, well.  PORTA DENTATA shall return.
Then we curved some pumpkins.  Not too bad for a first try.

And then we went prospecting for candy, like all normal people.  Prospecting gear:

If you are not sure who is who here - I am sorry, you might be at the wrong blog.  Happy Halloween!

First week of Kindergarten

First of all, it is my pleasure to inform everyone that Zev's Chimerism came back 100% donor (go Ryan's cells!) and we are now officially on the 6 month checkup.

This week also saw a few firsts.  On Tuesday the boys went to Kindergarten

9/6/16

Very clearly, Zev would not be where he is, off to school, without quite a few different people, starting with our amazing donor.  Here is to you, Ryan!

On Wednesday the boys were home (kindergarten wisely splits the first day by last name) Zev got taken for vaccinations.  He is now officially caught up with all his vaccinations.

Today boys got to ride the school bus with other kids.  As usual, Zev could not wait and was the second one on the bus with a quick wave goodbye.  He dodged past three older boys to get on, I guess one got ahead of him.  Ben hung back for another hug, and then he was off as well.

9/8/16  Get ready, school!

Good to go!

Still August 14th

Been a busy, eventful few months:

Benjamin on a swing, in Mexico, June 2016

Ready for blast-off, June 19, 2016

Life found on Mars!

Life on Mars is just as goofy as here

The artists working together, June 29th

... or solo.

Why should brother have all the medical fun?  First cast, July 29th 2016

He seems OK with the chamo cast.

Day +731

Day +731, Dan here

Today is exactly two yeas since Zev received his life-saving transplant from his blood brother Ryan Zimmerman. This is a great milestone, one that seemed infinitely far away mere two years ago.

Zev's 24 month checkup went great. While we still await results of Chimerism test, the blood test results were great and, pending the Chimerism, Zev is now on a six month checkup schedule.

Thanks to Ryan's blood, Zev is now a charming, stubborn, fearless, infuriating, sweet five year old who is getting ready to kindergarten in a few weeks.

July 7th 2016, Sunriver.  Zev enjoy some high-flying time.

And some climbing time

Day +685, another quarterly check up goes well

Last week we got results of the latest quarterly checkup.  Once again, Zevi's Chimerism test came back 100% donor!  The rest of the blood work looks great as well.

Zev continues to feel well, play well, eat selectively, but well enough to satisfy mom and grandmothers.  He communicates remarkably well, learning English rapidly and asking one of us for a word he does not know once in a while.  He also continues to have epic fights and meltdowns once in a while.  While I understand those are (at least somewhat) normal for a just-about-five year old, they are still hard to take.

Benjamin gets excellent reviews in school, speaks English with no discernible accent (like he was born here, right?), and still runs like the wind.  He particular approach to misbehavior is "fuss early, fuss often".  He also backs off sooner and does better accepting consequences of misbehavior.  As a result, warnings work better with Benjamin.

For reason I cannot understand that last two soccer classes both of the boys showed more interest in playing (as oppose to, say, lying down to watch the clouds mid-game).  Zev, when he is 'on', can grab the ball and drive to an opposing goal with determination.  Benjamin has shown grit in defending the goal for his team.  Plus, Benjamin both runs and swims well ahead of most kids his age.

At least three times within a month I have seen the following: at some public venue Ben is being moody and grumpy (see fussing, above).  In each case, an adorable little girl materializes and wishes to comfort Ben and hold his hand.  True to the sullen 5-going-on-15 form, Ben ignores the young lady.  In the mean time Zev swoops in, introduces himself, and tries to entertain the young lady Ben is ignoring.  His persistence paid off in one case out of three so far, but I do anticipate greater success in his future.

Over all, the boys are growing.  They can be trying and, for me at least, incredibly emotionally draining to wrangle.  I do hope that within a year or two they will become a little more rational and a little less ruled by their emotions.  The warnings and requests (as oppose to threats) do elicit compliance once in a while.  Dare I say, a tiny glimmer of progress?

Big Island, Day 2

After about a two and a half our drive, we arrived at a gorgeous place called Akaka falls.

A long drive was followed by a near mile long hike and both of the boys walked on their own to the main waterfall, including quite a bit of stairs.

Mom and Zev at Akaka falls

Tired Ben and dad at same falls

After the gorgeous water falls we headed for the Volcano National Park.  But first we stopped to try some fresh coconut.

Turns out fresh coconut and coconut juice is delicious and nothing like what one gets off the island.

Grandpa, dad, and Zev heading over to the volcano's edge

Zev is impressed

Add caption

By the way, the stuff all around is is steam billowing out of the ground.  

Sure, you can come right over

Yes, that is a steaming whole in the ground

Looking down into the caldera

sure it was a little grim, but we still liked the place

If you are wondering where Benjamin is: he was a little tired and chose to hang out in the car.

Grandparents by the steam vents.

By the time we got to the lava tube it was getting dark and both of the boys were getting very tired.

Tube!

Alla in the tube

And then it was time to look at the volcano!  Turns out it is very difficult to photograph burning lava in the dark.  Especially if you are an amateur.  But Alla got the pics!

Yes, that's a volcano

Lava!

Turning the Earth

Hawai'i trip, Day 1

Of course, gots to go to the water:

3/7/16, boys with the rainbows

view of the bay

Benya among the trees

Chillin' Zev

Ben returning to shore

time to dig!

And then we headed up to observatories on Mauna Kea.  The visitor center is at 9200 feet and the rental van was struggling for oxygen by the time we got up there.  The temperature went from high 80s to just above freezing in the two hours we drove up there.  The boys were tired and Benjamin and mom spent a bit of time resting before joining in the fun.

Zev, grandparents, and Linda with a native Silversword plant.

Yes, these are clouds that the road disappears into

The setting sun paints the hills

We got shuttles!

Looking at the stars.  Tired ...

... but still goofy

By the time we got  back to the hotel.  Waiting for the train in the lobby.