The Drive

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, we made it. Actually, we made it here about a week ago already. Time flies. The trip up was...interesting. We drove through Phoenix to LA where we picked up I-5 and headed north for what seemed like Forever. And we, of course, learned some things along the way.

Like:

• It's probably better to not leave for vacation after your husband has worked a half-day. It is very unlikely that you will be able to leave within, say, a few hours of when you thought you would.



• Also, make sure your doctor tells CVS that you would like your prescription ready sooner rather than later when she calls them to order it for you. That way hopefully it will be ready in less than 4 hours.



• It is probably better to have all car maintenance performed on your vehicle before you leave for your trip.



• If google maps says it will take you 4 hours to drive from Tucson to Blythe, and you have 2 children under the age of 2, and you are leaving at rush hour on a Friday, it will take you far longer than what google says it will.
  
  
• In 'N Out Burgers near the freeway cause traffic jams for miles.



• Booking your hotels online prior to leaving on your vacation does not allow for much flexibility.



• Almost-2-year-olds get a little giddy when they miss their nap every day for 4 days and also go to bed at 10pm every night.



• 5-month olds just get crabby with above schedule.



• Sitting in a car for 8-10 hours a day is no fun for anyone. Especially for the driver who is sitting in front of a toddler who can kick the seat.



• California traffic is horrible. It's probably a good idea to plan for an extra 1-2 hours each day for that alone. If you don't plan for traffic, it is highly frustrating when you realize how very wrong google maps is on drive time.



• Potty breaks with 2 children under the age of 2 do not take 5 minutes. Especially when the Patton museum is right next door and the toddler's daddy wants to show her the cool 'targets'.

We did learn some good things on the trip. It's great to spend so much time with your kids; you learn a lot about their habits, their preferences and what they know. For instance, Kate can now count from 1 to 10, and is speaking in 3-4 word sentences. She is also able to say the alphabet from a-g, and will sometimes say more with help. She loves to sing, and often tries to sing Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star and Black Horse by KT Tunstall. Who knew.

We are pretty sure we saw a McLaren pass us on I-5 in California. It was going too fast for me to get a picture.

And you never know what you will see on your drive through Cali. For a moment, we thought we were back in Korea.

Now that's investigative journalism

California (and other?) car owners beware:

http://mfile.akamai.com/12924/wmv/vod.ibsys.com/2006/0503/9152183.200k.asx

Independent Spice rolls over

McLaren rolled over for the first time today! I know she is 5mo, but she's big, and Kate was the same way: slow to roll over, quick to walk. I'm sort of hoping Claire is not as quick to walk as Kate was. But Claire was on her back this morning, sticking her feet up in the air and rolling from side to side. Side to side, side to side. Then, out of nowhere, she rolled over all the way to her tummy. She was very proud of herself for about a minute, and then she got frustrated when she couldn't roll back over.

Her other favorite things to do lately include pushing away from you when you're holding her (I don't need to hold on to you, Mom), and also letting go of your fingers when she is standing up.

She tried pears the other day, and they did not agree with her, either. I'm not sure if it's fruits and vegetables, or if it's cereal, but I think we're going to pause the whole solid food thing for a few weeks. She is very good-natured through the vomiting incidents, but it's sort of a mess to clean up. ;-)

On another note, it is HOT here. I absolutely did not think that I would say that on this trip. I mean, we live in Tucson, land of triple digits. But it's been in the mid- to upper-90s here since we arrived, and there is no Air Conditioning. Also, there Is Humidity. About 50-60% of it. The kids are doing great through it; it's just me who is whiny. Go figure.

Time to let Claire have a nap. I'll try to post a bit about our journey up here in the next couple of days. Until then, photos of my girls:

A trip to Silverton park.

McLaren and Great-Grandma Irene.

We're here; we survived

And that's about all I have time to say right now. The computer is in the girls' room here, and it's bedtime (very late). The trip up through California was...somewhat painful, but we made it and are glad to be back in the Pacific Northwest.

We just celebrated Tim's dad's 60th birthday tonight. Happy Birthday, Jerry!

Tim's putting Kate to bed while I type a quick note to let y'all know we are here and that I hope to write more tomorrow.

Happy 4th of July!

Bonus

After approximately 4 hours of sleep, I woke up with what I am fairly certain is pink-eye. Woohoo!

On the upside, Claire's eye looks way better, and I think she is on the mend.

And most everything is ready to go. We packed the car last night, and only have a few things to wrap up this morning. Stress? Nothing a cup of coffee and a nice swim with Kate can't cure. Really, I'm fine, and am looking forward to this trip, however packed with craziness it might be.

Mayhem

Left alone for approximately 2.4 seconds, Kate sunscreens the patio and her hands.

Hey, y'all!

Craziness. Insanity. Frenzy. Hysteria. These words describe my last 2 days. I still am not packed. Well, I am packed. But I am the only one who is packed. All of Kate's clothes are on my bed, some of Claire's clothes lie next to them; their suitcase lies at the foot of my bed, empty. There are toiletries on the guest bed, along with some (I now notice as I look over) of my clothes that I failed to pack in my suitcase. The kitchen is a disaster with dinner dishes scattered over the counters and table, and I believe there is still a load of laundry in the dryer. Instead of doing what I ought to be doing, I am sitting at the computer blogging and drinking a glass of cold Sauvingnon Blanc from New Zealand. I am trying not to think about all that I need to do tonight and tomorrow morning.

I am trying to think of all the things that have been going on for the past few days to make life so crazy. Well, besides the fact that I'm trying to pack for 3 of us for a month, for weather that will be strikingly different than what we are used to. We are going to Oregon. Yes, it is almost July, but it won't be 110* there (thank GOD), and we might well freeze at night. Really. It gets quite cold at night in Oregon, even in the summer. Add to that the fact that very few people there have air conditioners so you cool off your house by opening all the doors and windows in the morning when it's 50* outside so that by the time it's 90* that afternoon, it's still bearable in your home. But, I digress.

Where was I. Ah, yes. Mayhem. Claire has pink-eye. Still. I took her back to the doctor yesterday because the erythromycin wasn't doing the trick. Turns out she has a staph infection (not MRSA) and the strain is resistant to that ointment. Now she's on tobramycin drops, and I think she is getting better. But her eye is still red and slightly puffy. I might have to take her back in tomorrow before we leave if it doesn't look better. Yahoo. On a separate note, the pediatrician called me today to see how Claire was doing. I almost dropped the phone I was so surprised. I love off-base medical.

Before I forget, McLaren's stats for 5mo:
16 lbs 13 oz
25.5"

Kate is supposed to finish her swimming lessons this week, but she's not ready. Tracie says she needs another few days. Of course, we are leaving tomorrow, so those lessons will take place next month, (hopefully) right before Claire's morning lessons. Tracie wants me to get in the water with Kate tomorrow to see how Kate does with me. Also, my babysitter is in Mexico so I will have to take Claire to the lesson (it's only about 97* at 10am) and try to keep her happy (and cool) while I swim with Kate.

We got a new car seat for Kate. My main requirements were that the seat be super comfortable (her little butt is going to be in it for 4 days straight), and that it converts to booster seat. The best one I found was the Safety First Intera. I am currently having second thoughts about this seat. Not good, considering when cleaning up for book club the other night, I threw the box away. So. We put (read: Tim put) the seat in his car, as we are driving it to Oregon (tomorrow). I have an Outback, he has an Acura sedan. My car: sits high. His car: sits lower. As I drove Kate to and from her swim lesson this morning, I noticed that I could barely see her in the back seat behind me. I can't tell if this is just the fact that his seats are lower or what. I had to strain my head to see the top of hers. I also noticed that she can barely see out the window. This could make for painful driving up I5. Also, the seat belt on the car seat. I am not pleased with it. It seems really short. Like when you release the shoulder straps to get your kid unbuckled: there is hardly any slack. And likewise, when you go to tighten her shoulder straps, there is only about 3-4 inches of strap to pull. Not much leverage. The buckle part also bothers me. It's the same one that the Eddie Bauer and Cosco seats use, and is not the same one that I am used to (we have all Graco right now). It seems like it sits really low to the seat, so it hits her chubby little thighs, and I am pretty sure she is not a big fan of it right now. And, since I threw the box away, and since we are leaving tomorrow, it seems that we will learn to deal with these problems because I don't see that we have much of a choice. There is the booster part of the seat that we could add back into the car to put her seat up higher, but that will put her feet right behind the driver's shoulders and I have a feeling that she'll have fun kicking the driver the whole 22 hours we are driving.

And then there's McLaren's new car seat. It's Kate's old one turned around so it is rear-facing. And it doesn't leave much room for the front passenger. After Tim installed it the other night he informed me that he'll be driving the whole way. I really hope it's not that bad, but I fear that it is.

Let's not even discuss the fact that Tim went in at 8am this morning and is flying tonight so he won't be home until at least 10:30...and then there is a change of command at 0800 tomorrow.

I'll leave out the rest of the craziness of the past 2 days and let you get back to whatever it was that you were doing before you clicked on over here. I am taking all my camera hook-ups, so I hope to post photos on the blog, along with stories of course, once we arrive. Until then, happy 4th of July!

Korea Stories

One of Tim's friends from pilot training is here for Blue Flag and he came over for dinner the other night. He's entertaining the idea of going to Korea for his remote tour, so we talked a lot about our time spent on the ROK. Most of our friends didn't like Korea much, but we had fun. We had just come from Fayetteville, NC, so I was ready to experience something that didn't involve strip clubs and car dealerships lining the streets. I was wrong on one count, but.... We did our best to take advantage of our location, and I chose to start working on my private pilot's license. I searched back through my copy of our old website and found this entry from August 2004:

About 2 weeks ago, I had my long dual cross-country (with my instructor, Marty). We went all over the place. We started by flying north to Seoul AB, which is just south of the Han River. We could see Seoul - it was great! Had some difficulties with ATC. Lots of us calling on the radio and them not answering. They were probably trying to figure out who we were and what to say back to us. Big language barrier. I tried to come in for a touch and go there after following 2 helicopters in, and at the last minute they told us to go around. Greeeat. Good practice though. All that after ATC telling us that we couldn't land and to keep heading north. That would have put us into Seoul's airspace, and too close to the Blue House (Seoul's White House) for my comfort. Next was Wonju, directly east and in the mountains. They let us do a low approach there, but not land. We were going to continue southeast to an airstrip that is uncontrolled and where "pedestrians and livestock have free access to the runway" but the weather didn't look good, so we skipped that leg and went south to Jungwon. They wouldn't let us land either, so we went to the next one, R-510. That's a ROK Army base with 2 runways - one that's only 1600 feet long. Marty wanted me to land on that one. In contrast, I think Osan's runway is 9000' long. But I did it - and landed in about half the runway length. Then we took off and headed back to Osan, where it was raining. It was a great cross country! Now I have to do it solo...

And from earlier that summer, after I had just started flying:

On perhaps my second solo, I headed out to the northwest training area to do some ground work. S-turns, turns around a point, simple stuff that keeps you fairly close to the ground. I go back to the flight office to fill out my logbook and pay for the prop time afterwards and Ms. Cho comes running over to me with wide eyes. "You go to Incheon airspace! You not suppose to go there!" I looked at her a little skeptically. Yes, the northwest training area was in the direction of Incheon, but I was no where near the international airport. "They call here, tell me you go in their airspace. They call 2 time!" Now she had me worried. I mean, it was my second solo flight. Maybe I was in their airspace. Oh my GOD, maybe I was in their airspace and didn't know it! GAH! I whipped out my map and pointed to where I had been. I mean, I think I had been there, right? Who really knew for sure. I only had like 20 hours under my belt. I spent the rest of the afternoon all stressed out. When Tim got home I told him my story, and after we looked at the map again, he reassured me that I was not in their airspace.

Sometime I'll post about our trip to New Zealand; that was perhaps the coolest place we have ever been.

For now, Kate is shrieking in her room (it's naptime, don't you know) and Claire is (I hope) sleeping. Time for me to start packing.

Bad parents all around

We had a weekend full of bad parenting here. We started out by taking our 2 young children to a nasty swap meet in near-100* heat on Saturday morning. Then we brought them back home, and I left them with their father for 2 hours while I got my hair done. When I came home, I found this:

Yo, Ma, look at me.

Rocky McLaren.

Granted, her eye looks like it is swollen shut not from the fall into the coffee table, but from her eye infection, but still. That bruise on her forehead? Not caused by pink-eye.

Then, while swimming that afternoon, Kate tried my beer. She did not like it, even though it was a tasty micro-brew. In my defense: Tim was starting the grill around the side of the house, I was in the pool, and Kate was on the patio. Not in my defense: I failed to put my beer out of the reach of Kate, and I left my child alone on the patio.

Last night McLaren had some peas for dinner. Okay, she had quite a few peas for dinner. Apparently they did not agree with her, and I found her this morning lying in a crusted pile of pea goo. I think she spit up all of the peas. I felt really bad because I had absolutely no idea that it happened until I got her up this morning, and there is no way she could have spewed that many peas without crying. We are officially turning off the swamp cooler at night and turning on the AC. The cooler is really nice, but it's also really loud, as referenced above.

Then, this morning, after McLaren's emergency bath, I was pulling the clean laundry out of the dryer and noticed both of Kate's blankets were in the pile. That explains a lot about why she was talking in her room last night until nearly 8:30, when she went to bed at about 7:15. Neither Tim nor I will be getting the parent of the month award for June.

To leave you with a more positive mental picture, here's Kate walking in Tim's sandals.

Bust

Swap meets look the same in every country.

We went to the Tanque Verde swap meet this morning in hopes of finding some patio furniture. Some of our friends have some awesome deck furniture that they got in Nogales, Mexico, and I want some. Tim's barber had mentioned that there is a store from Nogales that sells at the meet and we figured that would save us a trip to Mexico. We were wrong. We got there at 9:30am in hopes of beating the crowds and the heat. Wrong again on both counts, sort of. There were no crowds, because at 9:30am it was already 96*, slightly humid, and few vendors were open. I think we must be off-season. I bet it's a great place to shop during fall, winter and spring. So we packed up the very hot kids and headed back home. Guess we'll have to wait for it to cool down before we get that furniture.

Peas smile.

Claire got to try peas yesterday. She liked them, I think. Of course, of the 32 photos I took of the event, this is the only one in which she is smiling. But, she is also super-serious baby, so who knows for sure.

Thank you to all who sent me emails with ideas of how to shop with 2 kids! There are some great ones, like taking the old car seat with me just to use in the store, and leaving the kids at home with dad while I shop. I like the second idea best.

I think I'm going to luck out on most of it, in any case. We are headed to Oregon next weekend to visit Tim's family for the month of July. I should have either someone to watch the kiddos for me, or be able to wear Claire in the bjorn because it will be a lot cooler there. By the time we get back, I hope Claire will be sitting up a lot better in the cart so she can just use the floppy seat. By the way, the floppy seat is perhaps one of the most ingenious baby inventions ever. If you have a baby and do not own a floppy seat, I highly recommend you find one.

Life is about to get a whole lot more difficult

Kate has outgrown her car seat. This is her second car seat; it's one of those 'convertible' ones, but it only has 2 shoulder strap holes and she is maxing out the top one. I obviously did not do a very good job when I purchased this chair for her, as she already needs a new one. McLaren is also outgrowing her car seat, the nifty one with a Handle that I can use to cart her around without removing her from it. Yes, this means (gah) that Claire needs to get moved into Kate's car seat (we'll turn it around backwards, no need to call CPS, folks) and Kate needs a new one. This Means that I will now have 2 children to Carry and/or Hold the Hand of. I realize that as it stands now, I still have 2 kids to worry about. But next week, I can't just leave one in the car seat. I am obviously a little stressed about this. Because really, it changes everything.

Think about your generic trip to the grocery store.

Now: Claire is in her car seat and she and it all go into the shopping cart. Kate sits in the front of the cart (aren't those 'car' shopping carts just a hoot? My idea of fun, yep).

Next Week: Claire is no longer in her car seat in the shopping cart. Now I either have to use one of those horrible carts that have the built-in baby caddy that sits sideways in the cart (does anyone use those?? I can only imagine how many germs are on them) or she goes in the floppy seat. But she isn't quite sitting up on her own yet, so that will be...fun. I guess Kate's part doesn't change. She still gets to sit in the 'car'.

So. Does anyone have any advice for me? Like how to not lose your sanity when doing simple things like taking 2 children under the age of 2 shopping? Or like what kind of a car seat I should get for Kate? I need one that will last a little longer this time, one that will double as a booster seat in the near future when she weighs more than 40 pounds.

Now I have to go wake Claire up for her doctor's appointment. I think she has an eye infection. Poor kid.

*******

9pm update

The rest of my day consisted of:

• getting Claire packed into the car seat and hearing Kate wake up from her nap just as I was about to walk out the door
• leaving a tantruming Kate here with our neighbor Dexter while I took Claire to the doctor
• finding out that Claire has bacterial conjunctivitis (aka pink eye) and a slight temperature
• going back home and swimming with Kate while Claire took a short nap
• scrubbing Kate's hands after her first time playing in the toilet
• chasing Kate around the house (not for fun) trying to get her into the car to go pick up Claire's prescriptions
• leaving my bank card at CVS when picking up Claire's prescriptions (it is still there)
• chasing Kate around her room (again, not for fun) trying to get her jammies on
• trying to turn the chasing into fun times before reading her a story
• remembering just now that I forgot to brush her teeth

The good news, though, is that the infection should go away soon with her new Rx. And the good doctor also gave me a prescription for some hydrocortisone cream to try on Claire's face. Let's hope. We're going to the Picture People this weekend, and I would like for this rash to be gone by then.

I Never Thought it Would Happen

Kate hardly cried at all during swim lessons this morning. She started out whimpering a bit, but then gave up on it and just started talking and swimming. I'm still in shock. All weekend she wanted to show off to Grampa and Aunt Jessica in the pool, and I guess now that is carrying over into lessons. We'll see how tomorrow goes. This is week 5, and next week is her last week of lessons. By now she can swim a little on her stomach while looking for the edge of the pool or a step, flip onto her back so she can breathe, and then flip over onto her stomach again so she can propel herself to the side.

So tired after playing with Daddy.

McLaren is dissatisfied with the meals around here. For instance, I just got done feeding her. This meal consisted of milk and then a course of oatmeal and rice mixed together, with some apple juice stirred in for sweetness and flavor. I'm pretty sure more of it ended up on her than in her. She hasn't gotten to the point where she can grab the spoon yet, but she spits the food out and then smears it all over her face with her hands. She is still falling for the whole Mommy's eating the cereal, so you should eat the cereal charade, but I don't think that will last long. It probably didn't help that as I was feeding her the oatmeal, I was enjoying the last piece of All American Chocolate Cake from Costco. I swear that kid can make me feel more guilty than a cat in a birdcage. She just sits there in her big highchair, watching me take bites of chocolate cake, sighing once in awhile for effect. Her big eyes follow the fork, back and forth, plate mouth plate mouth. Where's my cake, Mom?


Not that she's hurting for food, mind you.

Ankle, what ankle?

I'm So Very Glad

For those of you who are married but miss the dating scene, read on. I haven't missed 'dating' in ages, and this story from one of my single friends in Seattle made me remember just how lucky I am.

"So I finally decided to enter back into the dating scene. On my trip home from
Miami I met a guy in the airport. He seemed pretty nice and interesting so I
talked with him at the gate while waiting for our plane. Since I was super sick
after a super-hip-hop-tropical virus my judgment may have been impaired. I ended
up even sicker by the time we landed but continued to talk to this gentleman. We
spoke about different places to eat in town and he asked me if I’d like to go
out to dinner while he was in Seattle. He seemed pretty cool. He is a wildlife
vet in the south; he is from Canada and lived in Seattle for a while…..He had a
pregnant deaf dolphin he was caring for so I figured how bad could he be.


After some reconfiguring on my end we decided on doing something on Friday night. I met him at a small little arty bar on Pill Hill. We met for a drink and he was pretty nice. We had a pretty good conversation and decided to go for dinner. He had selected an Italian restaurant, although not knowing what we were going to do for sure he did not make reservations. I vetoed the suggestion of “chicken-feet” and an ID Chinese place.


I drive us a little ways away to the joint of choice. On the way he is very generous and offers to carry me later should I need assistance for my ankle. Given that I am
in a skirt, I decline. He mentions that most of his good stories end with a girl “hiking up her skirt and crawling on him”. This is the first of many indicators of the rest of the evening. He puts our name on the list for the VERY CROWDED restaurant and orders a bottle of wine at the bar. Since I drink more wine than he does he suggests I select the wine. I ask a couple of questions to the waitress and then he proceeds to order the bottle for us. So much for me ordering the wine.


Since we have some time to kill before our table is ready we begin our chatting. He finds out that like himself, I am also a Taurus and he mentions that we should have a stubborn-contest; I am not immediately stimulated by this idea. He also mentions that I should know that he doesn't believe in compromise. There are several other uncomfortable and awkward stories that he tells about his “kooky” personality, how he likes kids, wants to travel the world with his family, teach them several languages etc. He also mentions that the lucky woman that will land his future attentions needs to have an understanding to his desire to do what he wants. Not super impressed at this point. He is getting more obnoxious and self-centered as the evening goes on.
Still not really asking much about me.


We finally get seated at our table and begin to order dinner. He asks if I would like an appetizer and I decline so he orders two. Humm, why ask my opinion if you are going to do what you want anyway. Appetizers come and he suggests we share. I don’t really want either, but I take a small bit of the beef. I am having difficulties cutting it so he whips out his pocketknife and proceeds to cut if for me. He then leaves the large pocketknife on the table. He gleefully suggests that we eat with our
hands. When I protest and use my fork, he takes his butter knife and throws it
out the open window next to my head. Dinner comes and we proceed to dine. During
the chow, I say something particularly cute and charming so he leans across the
table for a kiss. I try to feign politeness but my body jerks back. He also
tries to hold my hand, which I pull away. He is now offended that I have not
fallen for his amorous ways and proceeds to make sort of a big deal about it,
discussing it, reviewing it and telling me he was “in the moment with my beauty
and didn’t realize that anyone else was around”. I somehow manage to keep my dinner down and try to politely downplay the situation. More awkwardness abounds has he debates if I am complex or interesting or stimulating. He then throws his fork out the window. He encourages me to throw my serve-wear out the window and I decline. Finally the check comes. He tells me that since he paid for the wine that I can get dinner, but he guesses if I want that we could split it or he guesses if he has
to he can pay. He still has the pocketknife on the table. So he asked me out,
selected the place, ordered all sorts of stuff that I didn’t want and then asked
me to pay. I end up paying to hope the pain will end soon and I can go home.


He asks if we can get coffee, despite my pleas to go home because I don’t like coffee, am super tired, and not feeling well. He insists we go for coffee across the street. Not sure why I am being so nice and obliging, but I go. We have coffee across the street; he drinks and I listen to more stuff about him. He then throws his spoon into the street. What is up with throwing silverware??? We get into a conversation about Mexico and the importance of the mother there. He disagrees with me for around 10 minutes; I finally change the subject and he manages to bring it up again a few minutes later telling me how wrong I am. I change the subject again and he manages to return to topic once again to tell me about his travels in Central America and how I am wrong and he is right. Finally I have it and I snap! I yell into the air “Mother of God, please make it stop”. He stops mid-sentence and asks if I would like to go home. I say “Yes, Please!” I drive him back to his truck; I’m not sure why I am being so nice - I should make him walk. I get a handshake and he retrieves something out of my backseat. I pull my purse to the front seat, since I am planning on calling one of my girlfriends and telling her about this horrible catastrophe.
He then says he can’t believe I think he is going to steal my purse. What??? I
tell him I need to get something out of my purse and he says he seriously can’t
believe I think he would try to steal my purse. He closes the door; I immediately lock it and speed away from one of the worst dates of my life!"

And a Happy Father's Day it was

McLaren loves books.

Tim told me last night that he had a very relaxing weekend, which was good, considering there were 3 kids in the house for 2 days and at least one was crying at least once an hour. I guess that is pretty good, given that all 3 kids are under 2. My dad and sister and her family spent lots of time with us, swimming, eating, chasing Kate around, tending to infants and just relaxing. We have finally come upon summer here (no more double digit daytime highs for the next 3 months, at least), so we didn't spend much time outside except to grab a beer from the cooler or go swimming. We did enjoy sitting outside in the late afternoon heat (cold beer helps) for a short time on Saturday before heading inside to cool off.

Kate has taken to calling my dad 'papa' instead of Grampa, which is so cute. She has been saying 'bye-bye, Papa, bye-bye duh-duh' (Jessica is duh-duh) all morning.

Wearing Mommy's sandals.

McLaren is now able to pull herself up to standing from sitting on a pillow. You sit her down, offer up your fingers for her to grab onto, and gently pull her up. Voila! Standing baby. She can even hold the pose for a few seconds before her wobbly legs go all accordion on you.

Kate & McLaren made a card and a gift for Daddy for Father's Day.

The first printed installment of the blog, all 214 pages.

Tim's on nights this week, so he's at swim lessons with Kate right now. McLaren is asleep, and the house is quiet. I'm sure that silence will be broken at any minute when they come home, but for now, I'll enjoy my coffee and the peace.

Slow on the Uptake

That's me. Or maybe I'm just a positive, well-intentioned girl who always wants to think bigger than is truly possible.

Every morning I wake up full of ambition, thinking of all that I am going to accomplish that day. Let's see, I need to clean the bathroom. Maybe I'll put away all the toys in the living room today. The 2 loads of clean laundry stuffed into an undersized basket need to be put into drawers. Perhaps I'll go grocery shopping, probably ought to mop because Kate's little feet are so Black every night, I should call my sister and see how she's doing, Kate has swim lessons at 9, then I need to play with McLaren, read a book to Kate, update the blog, send some photos to friends...and the list goes on and on. You would think that just the randomness of these thoughts should tell me something: that there is No Way I am going to accomplish half of them. Yet every morning, I wake up thinking of all that is going to get done That Day. Does anyone else do this? Maybe it's just me.

Just thinking about it exhausts me.

So, Father's Day. Plans? What are you doing for the big day? My dad is headed out for the weekend, so we'll spend it swimming, relaxing (yeah, right) and hanging out with my sister and her family.

Kate's Dilla

Do I get some, too?

Aah, the confusing life of toddlers. We have had bean and cheese quesadillas for lunch for the past couple of days, and Kate has been trying to say 'quesadilla'. But she thinks I'm saying "Kate's dilla", so she points at my plate and says, "Mommy dilla" and points at her own plate and says, "Kate dilla". Adorable.

Kate's dilla.

And that about sums up our excitement for the past few days. Which is really kind of nice, actually. I'm going to go enjoy the unexcitement right now and maybe read a book that doesn't have pictures.

Aaaaaah, aaaaaah, aaaaaah

McLaren's first words! She started cough-talking recently, and now has added 'aaaaah, aaaaah' to her vocabulary. She loves to talk and when it gets loud in here she will also get louder, trying to be heard over the screams of little children. I hosted the co-op over here yesterday morning and it was quite loud. Seven kids and 5 moms in a small space makes for some racket. We had planned to go outside and play in the pool, but it was rainy and cloudy. Awesome. It didn't get above 88* yesterday and was 68* at 4pm. It's June, people! This is virtually unheard of!

We got thunder and lightning after the girls woke up from their naps, and Kate got to say "boom boom" and "sat" (splat) a lot. She loves to quote her Mr. Brown Can Moo book. I think the rainstorm is the first that Kate has seen in months, and she hasn't heard a thunderstorm in ages, so she was a little scared. We were headed out for errands in the middle of it and she came running over to me in the carport after a particularly loud boom. Then we got in the car and she said "bye-bye boom" and was okay after that.

McLaren is waking up to talk at about 5:30am every morning, but she goes back to sleep. It's after 7am now and they are both still sleeping. Why is it that they only want to wake up before dawn when Tim is TDY? Why?

He's Back!

Tim arrived safe and on time on Friday afternoon. The girls and I headed to the squadron to pick him up from his vacation (Vegas + No Kids = Vacation), and Kate greeted him somewhat coolly. She wasn't all that sure about this guy getting in the car, but she warmed up to him after not too long. Lots of playing and running around being chased by him helped. Most of yesterday was spent in the pool or playing 3-card monte, a game Kate really enjoys. Tim puts a ball under one of three pails and moves them all around and then she tries to guess where the ball is. She's getting better, but still hasn't mastered the fact that when a ball goes under the blue pail, it isn't going to show up under the white one. We'll keep at it.

McLaren has been practicing her coughing. Her favorite time of day to do this is at approximately 5:52am. Lucky for her it's a cute cough, and it's her newest way of talking to us, so we don't mind so much.

Getting into a Groove

It took about a week of Tim being gone for Kate and McLaren to get over it and start acting like grown-ups about the whole thing. This morning they slept in until 7:20am (hallelujah!) and both are now napping like they usually do, which is quite well. I really don't know whether their change in behavior was due to Tim being gone or teething or being crabby or me not giving in to Kate wanting to eat brownies for lunch and Claire wanting some of my curry chicken and not getting any. Really. They are babies, after all. But all seems to be right in the world again, and I am so very GLAD.

One thing I'm not so glad about is that Kate got onto the computer this morning and now the menu that used to be at the bottom of my computer is at the top of my screen, and I'm having some trouble adjusting. But since that's the worst thing that has happened today, I'll take it and stop whining.

Poor Claire, though. She is not all that fond of her oatmeal, even though I'm mixing a little apple juice in with it. I held her on my lap this afternoon while Kate and I ate lunch, and her little legs were going a mile a minute, and her arms were moving at the same time and she was making all kinds of cooing noises to let me know that she wanted some of that chicken, thank you very much. I think she actually sighed when I put the last bite in my mouth. I'd let her try it, but I really don't think she'd like it and I'm pretty certain it would upset her little tummy. Not that that sort of thing has stopped me before. But curry chicken at 4mo is just not right.

Kate tries to drive away before I can get her swimsuit on.

I Think I Know What the Problem Is

Teeth. I can just now see one of Kate's lower eye teeth coming in. I imagine that is what is causing so much grief around here. I hope so, at least, 'cause mama can't take much more of this!


I think we are having a breakthrough on swim lessons, though. Yesterday afternoon we swam and Kate didn't want to get out of the water again. But she also kept wanting to come to me (I'm the evil one who makes her swim to the step, so she usually doesn't want anything to do with me). I believe she might be getting more confident in the water and is now wanting to show me how well she can swim. Also, she didn't cry at lessons this morning until she actually got into the water. This is a big improvement over last week when she would start crying as soon as she saw the house from her car seat.

As for me, I'm still working on the sleep thing. The cat is hereby evicted from sleeping in the house at night. He woke me up at 2am, wanting to go outside. After I had let him out, I noticed that it seemed rather warm inside, so I turned on the swamp cooler (it was 75 and stuffy) and headed back to bed. Probably around 4am I started having dreams about how chilly it was and that I hoped the babies were warm enough. I didn't wake up from these dreams until 5am when I noticed it was freezing (65). So, up again to turn off the cooler and cover up McLaren. Kate was on her own; I know better than to go into her room when she's sleeping. There is a very good chance she will wake up and if she does, well there's no going back to sleep for awhile. After all that, the girls did sleep in until 7am, so that was a nice bonus. Just a few more days until the weekend and Tim will be home to tend to early-rising children! Woohoo!


Okay, time for a quiz. Who is who?

Making Me Crazy

Kate is driving me to insanity. She won't stop hitting, kicking or shrieking long enough for me to take a deep breath and stop contemplating leaving her on our neighbor's doorstep. Not that they want this demon-child, either, but at least my house would be quiet.

She got a cold on Saturday night and seems to be getting a little better now, although her nose is still running a bit. But now she is waking up at about 6:30am every day, and with McLaren deciding that 7:30am is too late and that 5:30am is a much better time to start babbling, I am very tired.

We went to Joanne's fabrics after swimming lessons today, and Kate tried to grab every item off the shelf and throw it at passersby. I suppose it didn't help that I found a cute child's broom for her and let her play with it while in the stroller to keep her occupied. I think she hit an old lady and a young mom with it before I could wrestle it away from her. When we got home, she ran around the living room chasing 'Ta-but' (Starbuck) with her new toy, and he cowered by the gate in the hallway waiting for me to rescue him. Now she is sleeping quietly (please let her have a long nap today, God), and McLaren is waking up. I guess there will be no nap for mommy today.

I am giving some thought to just going away this weekend by myself, maybe to Phoenix, or perhaps to Mexico. Doesn't that sound nice? I think so.

Kate the Bully

We invited Erika and Reese over tonight for dinner and playtime, and I found out that Kate is a bit of a bully. I think it's because Tim is gone and she is acting out to show her disapproval of his absence, but she was not the nicest kid tonight to her friend Reese. There was some pushing, some grabbing of toys and a lot of hitting. I think Kate is trying to figure out how to 'play' with other kids now (she used to just ignore them and play by herself), and isn't quite sure how it goes. She does know that if someone is playing with one of her toys, she wants to play with it. Right now. Sharing is not yet in her vocabulary. But I suppose that is somewhat normal for toddlers? Please tell me that it is. They did try to make up after dinner, but fell over while hugging and Kate bumped her head pretty good on the tile floor. Now I'm listening to her cough and cry a little while she tries to sleep, and I'm hoping like hell that she's not getting sick. Wait until your Daddy gets home if you really need to get sick! Please, Baby Girl. Please.

McLaren and I got to spend a few quality minutes together while I got her ready for bed. I love changing her out of her clothes because she's ticklish somewhere near her chin, or her neck, or her underarms. I'm not sure where exactly, but when I take her shirt off she giggles and it's so cute. So cute. It makes my day. So after the giggling we just looked at each other, and she grabbed my fingers with her little hands and smiled with her whole face. She has the most beautiful eyes and when she smiles they light up like a sunny day. A while back my sister said that McLaren looks like she's just going to be such a nice person, and she's right. She does look like that.

Oh.

McLaren had her 4mo appointment yesterday, and I found out that apparently she doesn't have baby acne (still), but that we might need to change detergents. The doctor said it's a rash. It doesn't really look like a rash, but seeing as how she's had baby acne since, well, birth, perhaps we'll give this other detergent thing a go. Poor kid. I thought she was just getting it all out of her system now, as opposed to getting acne when she's a teenager. What? It could happen.

So I've been rethinking some things. Like maybe we should move the gate back to where we had it before:

Kate is enjoying having free access to her room, but I am not enjoying picking up all of her clothes after hurricane Katrina hits the dresser.

Oh, and single moms? Not sure how you do it. But now I have a newfound respect for you. Tim has not been gone long, and I am exhausted, have a headache, and just want some time by myself and perhaps a chance to sleep in. I'm not complaining, just saying. So, Tim: be prepared when you get home from your vacation. I'm sleeping in next weekend.

Video Update

Kate says 'hi' to her Daddy & tells him she misses him, and swims to the bar during swimming lessons.

Icky Bins and 'Tucks'

Kate has a fascination with garbage trucks. I'm not sure how it started, but she loves to hear the 'tucks' drive up and pick up the 'icky bins'. Tuesday is our day here, and Tuesday mornings are candy for Kate. First the recycling trucks come and pick up the icky bins at the end of our driveway, and then sometime during breakfast she can hear the garbage trucks rumbling down the alley behind our house to pick up the communal dumpsters. She cranes her neck around so she can see behind her, over the back wall, as the truck's arms reach out and lift the canisters into the air, dumping their contents into the belly of the truck. Then she claps. "Icky bins! Icky bins!" It's really quite charming.

Almost 2 weeks ago now, my sister graduated from dental hygiene school, pretty much at the top of all of Arizona's classes. My dad came out to visit, and he got to spend time with all three of his granddaughters.

Kate's swimming lessons continue, and she is getting better each day. She now cries the instant she sees the pool from her car seat, as opposed to last week when she didn't start crying until I actually handed her over to Ms. Tracie. So, no progress there. But the swimming part is going great. Also a bonus: she is tired out afterwards and either takes a really long nap, or goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps for 12 hours straight. I think it's worth the money just for that.

Firsts

Overheard yesterday at the mall: "Okay, Kate, you get to be WSO."


We went mattress shopping yesterday at the mall with the girls and decided to try something new: we put Kate in the back part of the stroller (the Weapons Systems Officer's position, as Tim refers to it as) and sat McLaren up in the front seat. Why I ever thought I could live without a double stroller, I will never know. Anyway, that is neither here nor there. I think McLaren enjoyed sitting up and having a view of things, although I'm not sure how much she enjoyed having her sister kick the back of her seat incessantly and pull her hair. We ultimately ended up with Kate in the front and McLaren reclined in the back so she could take her nap.



After we got back from the mall, McLaren got to try her first solid food, rice cereal. She didn't care for it very much.

First rice cereal, 4mo.

Then, after a late nap, we packed up and headed to Reese's house for her 2nd birthday.

Megan, Reese & Carly, blowing out the candles.

Mmm, cake.

Right now, Kate is very into hot dogs. She particularly enjoys the 'rib-eye' version, the sausage version and the roast beef version. She knows she likes meat, and now associates all of it with hot dogs.

Oh, and before I forget, I have new stats on the kids (for weight, at least):

Kate (20mo): 29.6 lbs

McLaren (4mo): 15.8 lbs

My babies are chubsy.

Too Busy for More Than Photos

Kate's in swimming lessons, everyday for the next 5 weeks. We're almost done with week one. She is doing a great job, and is already learning to roll over onto her back and float. She hates the lessons, but is becoming a good swimmer.

McLaren will be 4 months this weekend. I can't believe she's already so big. She is rolling from side to side (not rolling over yet - I think she's too chubsy for that to happen for awhile), doesn't care much for tummy time, and is eyeing my oatmeal every morning. We may be trying rice cereal this weekend. She is also teething, I think. She tries to shove her whole hand into her mouth any chance she gets, and likes to bite on the teething rings we have for her. She's also now enjoying her exersaucer, which is a great way for her to be upright and more involved in the family.

Trying to shove the whole skwish into her mouth.

And the Winner Is....the Kia

The Kia. That's right. I was at the mall this morning running errands while Kate & Claire enjoyed their time at the co-op, and when I went to back out of my parking spot, another girl was also backing out...and you guessed it. Bam! And not the Emeril kind of bam. It was a slight collission, really, since we were both backing out at about 1 mph, both looking for other cars and failing to see each other. But when I got out to look at my bumper, and then looked at her bumper, I realized that my Subaru lost the battle. I am in slight disbelief. My car is supposed to be so tough. It's an Outback. Rugged. All-wheel drive. And it lost a battle to a Kia. Her car didn't even have a scratch on it that I could see. We looked twice. I'm very disappointed, Subaru.

This photo makes it look worse than it is. It's only scratched, not dented. But still.

Mexico

Awesome. Mexico was fab-u-lous. We spent 4 days and 3 nights at the Casa Blanca resort in Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco to those who think Rocky Point doesn't sound very Mexican), enjoying the sun, pool, beach, margaritas, and Mexican food. It took us about 4.5 hours to drive there from Tucson, including stops for the kids, and we arrived around dinner time on Saturday. Rocky Point is becoming quite a destination for those living in Phoenix and Tucson because it's so close, and I think we've become one of those statistics: we'll be there again (I hope) in August or September for a few more nights of beach life.

The kids did great. I'm amazed at how well Kate adjusted to sleeping in the pack 'n play in a room that was not her own. It probably helped that she didn't nap on Saturday (at all) on the way there. She was out by about 6:45pm that night and slept in until 7:30-8am the next morning. I was afraid that her lack of nap that day would cause all kinds of problems, but she was great. Claire shared a room with her (sleeping on a towel on the floor on the other side of the bed from Kate) and also slept like the proverbial baby. Woohoo! Of course, having 2 sleeping children at 7pm means you can't take walks along the beach at midnight, but let's face it, we were asleep by then anyway.

McLaren & Jen.

Kate loved the pool (it was very kid-friendly, with an area that was about 1.5' deep for her to run around in), and even enjoyed playing in the sand on the beach. She loved running about in the condo and on the deck, but didn't want to walk on the grass. She's still not sure about that stuff.

We went to dinner at La Curva on Monday night in Rocky Point, and Kate got to experience a Mariachi band, burritos, and fried ice cream. I think she was a big fan of all three.

Happy Mother's Day!

This Mother's Day, I ask you to give a mom a break. As a mom, I now understand so much more about life, and about why moms look and act the way they do.

For instance, if you are expecting a mom to meet you somewhere at a given time, understand that she could be late for any number of reasons. She could have been up late the night before, wondering when her husband was going to get home, hoping to talk to him after several days of limited contact due to his job (and hers). She could have decided to sleep just a few minutes longer, since the kids were still quiet, although she knew that she would be pushing it later if she wanted to arrive to her destination on time. She could have decided (dammit) that she was going to take a shower even though they had to leave in 15 minutes, put the eldest child in the pack 'n play that was still set up in her bedroom from last weekend, set the youngest child in the bouncy chair and hurriedly washed her hair. She probably frantically combed through her dripping locks, scowled at the 200 hairs that came out in the comb and wondered when this post-pregnancy annoyance would end.

Then she'd pick up the eldest child and smell something funny, just as they were supposed to be putting shoes on and getting into the car. After a record-fast diaper change, she might have put the eldest child on a kitchen chair to help her put her shoes on, not noticing the (full) coffee cup that she had left there from breakfast. That eldest child might then have grabbed the coffee mug and dumped it onto the floor, soaking her mother's shorts and coating the floor, table and chairs with sticky coffee. Perhaps at that point the mother would question her sanity and wonder how their "vacation" to Mexico that weekend was going to go. That, of course, would put her into a slight panic when she realized that she had not yet even begun to pack, that she still needed to sort out the childrens' sleeping arrangements whilst on vacation, and that she was now quite late for her appointment.

So Much Fun

If you can't find us over the summer months at home, we're probably here:

Kate enjoys the misters.

Peeking out from behind a water gun.

Getting very wet.

We went to Brandi Fenton Memorial Park today along with several other moms and kids. Kate was apprehensive at first, but after I started splashing around, she did too, and she had a great time. We got to leave McLaren at home with Tim since he's on nights, so it was just Kate and me. She loved it! We'll be spending a lot of time there in the next few months, I hope.

Claire is starting to laugh now. She has this silly 'ha ha ha' rapid/forced laugh that's really hammy and funny. I hope she'll keep it up long enough so that I can get a video of her doing it, but so far I think I'm the only one who has heard her. She is growing up fast and is sleeping so well now. I can put her down around 7-7:30pm and she won't wake up until 7:30-8am. And she is taking great naps, which allow me time to spend with Kate. Claire also has this fun eyebrow thing going; she is definitely related to my side of the family, as she can already raise one eyebrow and does so often. She looks like she is skeptical of everything.

Kate is doing great, too. She's so funny, laughing when she's pulling Starbuck's string for him to chase her, and playing peek-a-BOO at the dinner table. She wants to be just like me; she puts her cell phone and wallet in her purse, and walks around the house occasionally opening her phone to say "uh-huh" and "bye-bye" and then closing it again, with purpose. We're trying to teach her earmuffs ("Max, can you earmuff for me?" Beanie, Old School) because she's learning new words pretty quickly and I fully expect her to repeat something her father (never me) has said in her presence, and it will probably happen at a very inopportune time, like at church. Anyway.

Business Time

Hysterical.

Duh-Duh Baby?

Temperance Annette.

Jessica had her baby! Temperance Annette (Tempie) was born via emergency C-section on Sunday night; she weighed 7/9 and was 19.5" tall. She's a cutie, even if she does look like her daddy. Congrats to Jess and Mike!

Over the weekend I was telling Kate that she was going to have a new baby cousin, that Aunt Jessica was going to have a baby girl. She got a worried, but thoughtful, look on her face and said, "Duh-Duh baby?" Duh-Duh is my sister, Jessica, in Kate-speak. After I disappeared Monday morning and evening to go visit them at the hospital, Kate seemed a little distraught. I think she is concerned that I am going to be bringing a new baby home. Hopefully she'll relax more when we visit them at their house and see Tempie's nursery. And then come home without the baby. We'll see.

Over the weekend I realized why they don't have Toddler Day Spas. Kate now has pretty toes, but the carpet took a minor hit of red nail polish, as did my hands and Kate's leg.

Post-pedi.

Such a good sleeper.

Multi-Tasking Gone Awry

Mmm, very burnt cookies.

I am not very good at this multi-tasking stuff. Obviously. I put cookies in the oven during naptime yesterday and completely forgot about them. I started to smell a sweet-ish smell and wondered if some remnant of food was burning in the oven. I knew it was on, as I had just made a batch of cookies. I wandered into the kitchen to check that oven to see what was cooking on the bottom or stuck to one of the racks. And what did I find? A dozen cookies that I must have put in there at least 30 minutes ago.

I don't need to eat them anyway, so I guess it's a good thing. We decided we're going to Mexico next weekend, and silly me didn't think about how that was only about 10 days away...not really enough time to get into bikini-shape. But we are headed to Rocky Point for 4 days, over Mother's Day weekend. It will be our first 'family vacation not visiting other family'. I hope that doesn't mean it's going to be hell. Be sure to check back here over the next week as I write about how stressful packing for 2 kids under the age of 2 is, and how the lack of trunk space in my car is causing much grief.

Too Much

I really have got to stop trying to do so much in a day. For some reason I just think that I can squeeze a few more things in, and it is stressing me out.

I wanted to get Kate's hair cut, but wanted my sister to come with me to take pictures. It's a big event, after all. Jess is going to be induced on Monday, and we have other things going on all week, so it had to be today. We left the house late, and then had to wait at Great Clips (I'll spend more when she stops putting peanut butter in her hair at lunchtime). Kate did very well, and escaped without any cuts to the skin. I wasn't sure that was going to work out okay, considering how much she was squirming in my lap. She now has a neater appearance (except when she puts her syryp-covered fork in her hair after breakfast), and I have a lock of blonde curls to put in her baby book.

Before the haircut.

Her first trim.

After the haircut, we raced to lunch at Rocco's, late again. I think I hit every red light on the way there. Claire was starting to fuss a little due to hunger, but she hung on until we got "situated" in the restaurant. We were all sitting inside, and if you've been to Rocco's, you know there is hardly any room in there. Especially when there are 4 moms with 5 kids trying to squeeze into a booth. Carseats were everywhere, Kate was trying to climb out of her highchair onto the table, and there I was attempting to nurse Claire with a knit blanket covering us. We were hot, Kate was hungry and getting tired, and I was getting more stressed every minute. I had wanted to get together with friends to catch up, but somehow that didn't work out so well. I don't know why I keep thinking it will...pretty much every outing with 2 kids and 1 parent makes me stressed and I leave wondering what I was thinking. Having people over to the house works so much better; I think I'll stick with that for awhile.

Tonight while Tim was giving Kate a bath, she stood up and said, "up up up!". This, in the past, has been an indication that she needs to use the toilet so Tim quickly picked her up and put her on her Dora potty. She sat there for what seemed like 10 minutes, soaking wet, playing with her bath toys...and then she peed in the potty! Sorry for the graphic, folks, but this is a bit of a milestone for us. About 6-8 weeks ago she told me she had to go and I put her on and she went and then: nothing for the next couple of months. She'd want to sit on the potty, but wouldn't do anything. I had pretty much lost hope, until tonight, of potty training until she was a bit older. We'll see if we can continue to progress. And of course you'll be able to read all about it right here. That's why you read this, right? To hear about potty stories? That's what I thought.