Halloween 2006

And now he's five. Today is Simi's birthday. The four days of birthday celebration ended today.

The boys got to wear their Halloween costumes to school today. Asher was so excited, he tried to wear his costume to bed. He was Spiderman today. Simi was also excited and couldn't wait to be Batman. Their school hosted a Halloween parade, which was more for the parents than anything else, I think. The children paraded around the circle in front of the building in their adorable costumes while the parents watched, cheered, and took video clips and photos. After the parade, we went inside and did some trick-or-treating and had a party.

Asher's room was particularly sensitive to Asher's allergies. For the trick-or-treating, each parent brought in one small treat for each child in the room. I brought in "Asher-safe" candy and each parent who gave candy (some gave non-edible treats, such as glow-lights or pencils), was given an "Asher-safe" candy to give to Asher. Asher had absolutely no idea that he was getting something different than the rest of his class. It was his first real trick-or-treat experience and he was thrilled.

Raj and I showed up at the end of the boys' lunch to celebrate Simi's birthday with song and cookies. Asher joined Simi's table and shared in the festivities. Then, at the end of the day, we went trick-or-treating. The boys looked absolutely adorable dressed in their superheroes outfits and went up and down the block in search of candy. Asher, especially, thought this trick-or-treating thing was a great idea. Simi tried telling the folks giving candy that Asher couldn't have those treats; he was allergic to them. Once home, we exchanged all the toxic candy that Asher collected for some "Asher-safe" stuff. Thankfully, Asher's a good sport about this stuff; Phew!

Then, came the difficult part; getting Asher to remove his Spiderman costume. He wanted to sleep in it.

And now my Simi-boy is officially five years old. Where DOES the time go?

Simi, Asher, and Leila

When Asher was born, Simi was 23 months old. While Simi was thrilled to hear that he had a baby brother, he didn't interact much with Asher until Asher was about 2 - old enough to be a playmate. Of course, now, the two are inseparable.

Asher was the same with Leila. He was 28 months old when Leila was born. The way that Leila's birth really affected Asher is that there was less parental supervision, which means that he could get away with more stuff. He hasn't really interacted with her or even noticed that she was around.

Simi, on the other hand, absolutely LOVES Leila. In fact, the challenge is to keep Leila safe from Simi, since he doesn't exactly understand the meaning of "Please be gentle, Simi". He hugs her and plays with her and makes silly faces at her to get her to laugh and brings her toys. They have a special bond and it's entirely because of Simi's efforts.

But now, it's almost like a lightbulb went on in Asher's head. It's like his eyes opened and he noticed that Leila is in the room. Now, the past week or so, Asher has noticed Leila and gone to hug her and touch her and bring her toys. Now that he's three, perhaps, developmentally he's ready to interact with her.

Online photo album

Liz has been putting together some picture books, I've taken one of them and uploaded the pictures. I've put in a few captions, and may put in some more.



Asher Age 2 to 3

Simi's Scar, One Year Later

Here are a couple of pictures of Simi now, one year post surgery. You can't really see it in the first one, the second one is bit closer. 

Ugh!

This is Liz speaking. I need to tell you: Seeing those pictures brings me right back to surgery time again. I feel all those emotions just like I felt them a year ago. Ugh! I am SOOOO very glad that we are on THIS side of the surgery and now Simi's fine and we never have to think about it again. Simi DOES have his one year check-up, which is scheduled for some time in December. But that's no big deal. Phew!

Raj and I mentioned the anniversary to Simi. He mentioned that he has memories of Boston. He remembers parts of the hospital visit: making a building with me with the cardboard "bricks" in the play room (which happened before the surgery), playing with cars with me in the play room (which happened the night before he was released), watching "A Bug's Life", and Raj sleeping with him (although it was actually me who slept with him). When asked if his memories were happy or sad, he responded, "happy". I'm 95% sure that he doesn't remember the surgery. I remember Dr. Breitbart saying something about the pain medication they give the children helps them "not remember" that day. That's nice. I remember bawling my eyes out that entire day and just thinking about it brings back the anxiety I felt - in full force. I've somehow managed to keep that anxiety away from Simi, and we managed to fill his "adventure" with fun and love and that's what he remembers. Phew!

Raj took a photo of Simi and his scar and will post it as soon as he can. In the meantime, I think I'm going to write and write and write and push those pictures WAAAAY down to the bottom of the page.

Simi's Scar, one year ago

Here area a couple of pictures of Simi after the surgery last year. The first is still in the hospital, the second back at the apartment and in much better spirits!

-raj 

Simi and Dr. Pigula, one year ago

Here's a picture of Dr. Pigula talking to Simi the day before his open heart surgery. We didn't post any pictures of the trip last year, so I (Raj) am going to post a few of them now, one year later, and here's the first. Dr. Pigula was the surgeon and was wonderful. 

This Time Last Year...

This time last year, we were traveling to Boston to get Simi's heart fixed. I remember the caldron of emotions that engulfed me during that time. All those emotions come bubbling right back up to the surface like it was happening all over again.

I'm so glad we're on this side of the surgery.

Simi's doing great. He's still nursing his broken arm. He's still thin, although not as "concentration camp victim" thin as he was last year. He's much bigger now.

More later; I'm beat.