no glasses yet but...

Bummer. We went all the way to Niwot but they weren't ready yet. We'll pick them up Monday. However, we did manage to get Ted into Vision Therapy there starting this Wednesday! We'll do 10 sessions and then he'll have another eye exam to see if he can stop. Apparently, Vision Therapy is completely successful and he will train his eyes to track and focus properly. Cool! I set up a screening for Sam on Tuesday morning. Might as well check him out earlier rather than later.
Ted's been on "Conferences" break all week and it's been very nice. Relaxed, mellow, lots of Legos, lots of chatting. Very nice. Tomorrow I'm going to drag him with me to the trails so I can get a good run in (he'll bike, which might mean I'll be running harder that usual. Eek.) More about my new fitness craze in another post. He tests for his Brown Belt Decided stripe tomorrow night. He's had a great few weeks, very motivated, happy to go, happy to be there. It's been fun. Anyway, I know my mom was looking for a pic of Ted in his Harry Potter classes. Maybe on Monday.

One more piece of the puzzle that is Ted

Big news today! Ted needs glasses! Not for vision per-se, but because his eyes do not track correctly nor do they focus properly. The eye doctor recommends vision therapy and "training glasses." She also confirmed his "color deficiency," but said it is only genetic through the mother's father. Dad, do you have color issues? Paul certainly does, but I guess it's not coming from him anyway. I doubt that this will solve Ted's reading problems overnight, but it's going to make things SO much easier. He chose Harry Potter-esque frames in dark blue. He looks GORGEOUS (I'm only a little bit biased). We'll pick them up on Thursday. Ted can hardly wait. He is only to use them for "desk work" or computer, so not at recess, TKD, lunch etc. Hopefully this will decrease the chance of losing them (kids' glasses are not cheap!) I'll take a pic on Thursday of my handsome boy. His tutoring session on Friday should prove interesting.
At his conference on Friday, Elizabeth showed us how when SHE uses a pointer when he's reading, he does SO much better. It must have helped him track. Kids with tracking problems skip words or letters, switch their letters and can't remember long sight words, as well as experience eye fatigue. I have a gut feeling that there is more to it, but I am overjoyed that we can add another piece to the puzzle. Hooray!! And thanks to Nathalie for sharing her experience with her daughter ... if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have even thought of taking him to the eye doctor until he started squinting. Whew!

a high energy week!

The weather was fantastic this week. Highs in the 70's, sunny and warm. Perfect! Every day (except for Thursday, my day off), I ran for about 40 minutes with Ole, then came home and did a Shred workout. Today was cold and rainy, so I did the 45min Jillian as well as a 30min, but that 30min one was a new DVD (from Netflix, luckily) and I didn't like it. I didn't count it as a workout because there was so little explaining going on that it took more than half the time to figure out what the move was. Dumb. So, I'm sticking with Running + Shred or what I now call "the long Jillian." Sam calls it Level 99. Hee. I don't know how long this enthusiasm will last, but for now, I really am getting a kick out of "discovering" muscles in my stomach. Who knew?! I love Jillian.

CF Walk 2009!

It's that time of the year again! Time for the Annual CF Great Strides Walk! For those of you who don't know the special friendship our family shares with the Stoutenbergs, let me share it with you.

When Ted was 6 months old, I went to a new moms group at the Boulder JCC. In walked Stacy with her 9 month old son, Jack. It all began with that first meeting. Since then, our two boys have been together more than they have been apart. Ted and Jack swam together at Infant Aquatics, took soccer together, went to the JCC Preschool together for 3 years, and are now in 1^st grade Sunday school together at Har HaShem. They are such good friends. Sam and Jason, both 5, have followed their brothers’ example and are also great friends. What treasures my boys have found in Jack and Jason. I have no doubt that they will remain friends throughout their lives.

Jack and Jason were diagnosed with CF (Cystic Fibrosis) as infants. CF is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000 worldwide). A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and obstructs the pancreas, causing lung infections and stopping natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food. In the 1950s, few children with cystic fibrosis lived to attend elementary school. Today, advances in research and medical treatments have further enhanced and extended life for children and adults with CF. Many people with the disease can now expect to live into their 30s, 40s and beyond. We want Jack and Jason to live long and happy lives!

I am going to walk in the annual CF Great Strides 5K in Denver on May 16, 2009. I have chosen $1500 as my personal fundraising goal. If you would like to sponsor me, I would be so grateful! 

I have set up an online donation page at: http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/EllenMoeller. Your generous gift will be used efficiently and effectively, as nearly 90 cents of every dollar raised is available for investment in vital CF programs to support research, care and education.

Thank you in advance for any donation you can pledge- no amount is too small!! I’ll be sure to post pictures from the walk on my homepage. It is an annual family event and will be thoroughly documented! More info about the walk can be found at: http://www.cff.org/

We've been doing the CF Walk since Ted and Jack were quite little and I can't imagine Springtime without it. Of course, some day, we all hope we won't need to walk or raise money because a cure will be found. But until then, we walk! Thanks for reading and hug your children close today! 

taking it up a notch

Everyone who knows me has probably figured out that I am a "fair-weather runner." If it's too cold, too wet, too muddy or too anything, I'll skip it. I was happy to find Jillian's 30 Day Shred a few months ago. Paul and I have been doing it on and off, especially when I hadn't done much of anything else that day. I started last week on a high, going on a fabulous "couldn't be better" long run followed by the Shred (Level 3 of course!). Tuesday I did a bike ride (to and from the J) with more Shred. I don't remember what happened on Wednesday and by Thursday I was in trouble. So I found another Jillian tucked away in the DVDs called "Banish Fat: Boost Metabolism." It's a 55 minute cardio routine that is really really really hard. And good. Really good. The type of workout that leaves you amazed at the muscles you didn't know you had. I did it again today, because I really wanted to run on the trails and they were too muddy. (I know! But I'm like that.) So now I have a really good hard workout to do when I wimp out of a good run. Hopefully this beautiful weather will stick around long enough for everything to dry up. Tomorrow I might try the trail with the baby cows. Surely they're old enough now for their moms to not charge us, right? Hmmm. 

what a week!

This week was very busy! It was Teacher Appreciation Week at Horizons and every day was filled with love and affection for the amazing teachers. It was really fun. Plus it was Passover. I sincerely enjoyed Matzah Brei every morning. Mmmm! On Wednesday I sang a yitzgor service at Temple Sinai and Heather babysat Sam and Mae, who had no school for Passover this week. She took some really sweet pics (I think Paul is going to update moeltini sometime soon, so check back!) I love this pic of Mae. When she's not screaming in fury, sobbing in despair or cracking up in hysterics, she's serious. VERY serious. She is getting more and more fun to be around, less and less prone to unexpected bouts of emotion, and simply growing up. I think 4 is going to be a great year, if 3.5 is any indication. 

Friday we had Family Movie Night again. We watched Jumanji. VERY scary for the kids but they enjoyed it. Sam pointed out that he isn't scared of anything on TV because it's not real. Good to know, Mr. Reality. Ted huddled next to me the entire time. No one had nightmares though, so that's good. There was a game at the end of the movie that Sam was reading to us. Yikes. Ted is coming along. I think I was hoping that we'd start tutoring and he'd say "Aha!" and be off. Instead, it is slow going, but he is improving and, happily, is still enthusiastic about the whole process. 

Today we played hooky from soccer (didn't want to deal with waking the kids up early) and the boys are happily playing a computer game. We have a 'no computer during the week' rule that nearly drove them to despair, but they survived. Wonder if we'll see them today? I think we have a parental obligation to throw them outdoors in what is probably our last snow of the year. I am tired of snow. 

Chag Sameach, and Rosa's visit

Poor Rosa. First I forgot her at the airport (I thought she was arriving Monday night, not Sunday night! A happy surprise!) then she had to help me prepare for Pesach. We had such a great visit; the weather was amazing. My favorite day was Tuesday when we hiked the Mesa trail off of Chautauqua and had brunch at The Kitchen. We cooked up a host of goodies too. She also helped me bake our GF matzah. The best news of all is that Ted really likes it - hooray! We introduced her to the craziness that is a seder with five active children. Luckily there was plenty of wine, so she survived. It was a wonderful visit and I can't wait to visit her in June, if our 8th grade reunion really materializes. 

Here are some great pics of Ted and Sam at the seder (we went to Ted friend Annie's house). Mae stayed clothed in her original pretty dress but had a very good time nonetheless.

A Girl Day

Believe it or not, I came up with this idea on my own. Mae's been a bit annoying lately, constantly needing to be touching me, demanding equal attention if someone else gets any, that sort of thing. I decided that today (Sam has preschool on Thursdays) we'd have a girls day. We often spend Thursday baking or running errands, which is fun because it's just us, but this, I decided, would be special treats. Girl-style. First we got a coffee while we waited for the nail place to open (in reality, I had a tea because I'm sick and Mae had a hot cocoa). Then we had our nails painted. Mae picked my color (a deep reddish-purple that looked truly frightening to me in the bottle but is actually quite nice on) and her own BRIGHT red. She was SO cute. The Vietnamese lady oohed and aahed over her, and she did so well sitting still and letting her file her nails and everything. She LOVED it. Next we went to the bookstore for a while before going out to lunch. Now, this is the girl who eats sushi and Indian food like it's going out of style but she wanted to go to, of all places, Red Robin. And she wanted Macaroni & Cheese, which she eats at least 3 times per week! Oh well. We went and had a lovely lunch and then wrapped up the day by picking up Sam at school before nap time. Tonight at bedtime we talked about our next "Mommy and Mae Day" (probably next Thursday) and what we would do. I think this extra attention will go a long way towards soothing her insecurities when I compliment the boys. Let's hope!