A day in the life...

In case you happened to want to know a little about my life, I am an open book.

Lilypie Expecting a baby Ticker

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

A very long trip

I don't think people realize, but oftentimes a family vacation is not much of a vacation to a stay-at-home-mom. Aside from the precious hour that I had out with Irene, I was doing pretty much what I always do, only in hotels or airplanes or cars.

Anyway, a lot of things happened, but here are some choice lessons I learned on this trip:
  • When you purposely plan a "bedtime" flight, it screws up your plans immensely when that flight leaves at 12:45 am.
  • 5:00 am California time is too late to go to bed.
  • Two babies, one toddler, and two moms in a rental minivan with ambitious plans is just a lose-lose situation, any way you see it.
  • 20 minutes is a long time to spend trying to figure out how to take the key out of the ignition of the rental minivan.
  • Two-year olds on 6 hours of sleep can be cranky and rude.
  • It is wishful thinking to hope that the terrible twos can end at 2 years and 3 months.
  • Uncles don't like to be barfed on.
  • Playing in the water in Carmel at sunset in late October with no pants on is a bad idea.
  • Sometimes it's OK to take the screaming baby out of the carseat when he is preventing all other children from sleeping.
  • Always carry extra tissues when 5 out of the 7 people traveling together are snotty.
  • A roadtrip with two babies and a toddler is very ambitious indeed.
  • Babies who can't sit up don't always cooperate with photo ops.

Don't get me wrong. We had a fun time. It was great seeing old friends and experiencing nature and getting out of Houston. HOWEVER, I understand why a lot of people don't plan trips with multiple small children. Exhausting.

Pics in the many photo ops to follow soon.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Insomniac children


The kids both conspired together and decided today would be as sleepless as possible. I drove around for 20 minutes to get Ellie to fall asleep after school while Matthew wailed in hunger. As soon as we get home, she insists on waking up and keeping her brother up with her. She finally went to sleep, much earlier than the 10:00 she's been practicing, but still not that early. Matthew just conked out, too, after much feeding and soothing. Most of the time, they love each other like crazy. But there are days like this where they just rile each other up.

So anyway, I'm too tired to write anything, but here are some recent video clips. All Matthew. I added some new photos, too. Enjoy. I'm going to go to bed. After I do the laundry (because it's just sitting in the washer). And do the dishes (because they're still sitting on the table). And return some calls (because people are silly enough to call). And take a shower (because I'm kinda stinky). And eat some chocolate (because I bought a giant bag for Halloween). And watch Dancing with the Stars (because it's on). I'm tired.
Matthew hating his lion costume http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzE-OXADaZY
Matthew eating his foot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMfyR7O9bCI
Matthew doing many tricks except the one I want http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2HQTEODRvg
Matthew tries a sippy cup http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djzu9F103uk

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

A long bad day

Do you ever have one of those days when NOTHING you plan works out, and all these things you DIDN'T plan happen? Argh. Today was one of those days. Actually, it really started last night. If you're not up for complaints, just stop reading. That's all this will be. And it'll be long.

Paul was in Houston for the weekend, and Joe and HaYoung came in town Sunday night. Since they wanted to see each other before Paul left on Tuesday, we arranged for them to come over after dinner last night. I was thinking around 7:30-ish, but things happen (like having two kids) and they didn't end up coming until 8:30 or so. I was thinking that as long as Ellie was in bed by 9:30, she'd be OK with school the next day. Unfortunately, as all those present are parking-lot-loiterers, they ended up staying until after 10. Then of course, Ellie was super wired and didn't fall asleep until just past midnight. That's right, midnight.

I had roasted a pumpkin last week and still had some puree left, so I decided to make pumpkin bread to take to HaYoung's mom and some mini muffins for Ellie and her friends. The bread still had a little while longer to bake, but I wanted to lie down with Ellie to make sure she went to bed (she came out, like, 7 times). So I asked Paul to take it out after five minutes. Don't forget. Five minutes. Five minutes, repeated Paul. One hour later, the bread comes out, a nice hard brick of pumpkin. (Don't worry, Paul, I wasn't that upset.)

By now, the headache I'd drugged away earlier that evening had returned. I'd fallen asleep in Ellie's bed, and woke up at 1:45 to go back to my own bed. The headache was keeping me from sleeping, and I had all these weird dreams about the rapture and vomiting (a logical combination), so I didn't really sleep at all. Then Matthew woke up at 5 and wouldn't go back to sleep (he'd been sleeping 12 hours straight for 3 nights). So I went in and fed him, but then he decided he wanted to play and didn't sleep for another 45 minutes. At this point I had decided that I would skip school for Ellie if she didn't wake up on her own by 8:30. I decide this, then fall asleep in Matthew's room.

8:25 rolled around and Matthew wakes me up. I heard Dora, so I assumed Ellie had woken up. Turns out Peter had woken her up 10 minutes previous to get her ready for school. At this point, it's obviously pointless to even keep her at home, despite her tiredness. So I got her dressed and went to get her a muffin. Only, 5 out of the 6 were gone. Peter had eaten them the night before. So I snapped at him, to his confusion, explaining that anything I make that's little and cute are obviously not for him, and got Ellie out of the house.

I dropped her off, then came home. I was supposed to get my couches and carpet cleaned at 10 this morning, rescheduling after they were running more than two hours late on Friday, the date of my original appointment. So Paul and I cleared the floors of the rooms to try to save the people some time. Then at 10:24 they called and say they were again running about two hours late. Did I still want them to come? That would be no, since I had to pick Ellie up at 1. I got all huffy and they offered me a 10% discount. Supposedly they're coming at 8 tomorrow morning. Third time's a charm? We'll have to wait and see.

So Peter had said that morning that he wanted to see Paul for lunch. We decided that if possible (depending on the carpet cleaning that was supposed to take place), I would drop Paul off at Peter's office at 12, then he would take Paul to the airport, allowing me to get Ellie home for a good long nap after school. So we went (having to wake up Matthew from a nap), and we got there to find Peter still with a patient. I tried to feed Matthew twice, but he was too distracted to eat. We kinda waited around for Peter to finish, but it was getting late.

So we finally got out at 12:40 or so after Peter and Paul exchanged maybe a single sentence. Then it started POURING rain. Of course I was running late and frantically called Ginny (also running late), Fay (no answer), and Ahra (no answer) to get someone to fetch Ellie from her class. I got to school at 1:10 and met Ginny, who was trying to figure out a way to get herself, Jacob, Abby, Hailey, and Ellie to the car with one umbrella. We took Ellie back into the school, as she was telling me, "I was looking for you!" and making me feel guilty. I found a room and finally got Matthew to eat. I went back to Ellie's classroom where she and Paul were reading, then Matthew barfed all over the rug.

Finally we got in the car. I tried to keep Ellie up, but she promptly fell asleep at 1:45. Matthew moaned and groaned for awhile, then fell asleep at 2. Dropped Paul off, drove out of the airport, got a call from Paul that his jacket was in my trunk. Turned around, dropped off the jacket, Matthew decided to then wake up. Realizing that there was no way Ellie would stay asleep once we got home, I started driving 55 on the Beltway and took the long way home to prolong her nap. She got about an hour and 15 minutes of sleep in the car before she woke up to more of Matthew's groaning.

We headed over to HaYoung's parents' house for dinner. I called La Madeline from the car and asked them to get a cheesecake boxed up for me (lack of pumpkin bread and all) so I could run in and pay and run out without having to unload the kids. I got there. There was a box. The lady opened it for me to see. There was a giant gash in the middle of the cheesecake. They went to the back to find another one. It takes a LOOONG time. My phone call was deemed absolutely pointless.

The rest of the night was OK. Matthew went down at the house, which was good. We had good food that I didn't have to cook. Got to hang out with friends we don't see often. Ellie still went to bed late, but before 10. That's better than midnight.

Are you still reading this? What a trouper! I'll be glad to wake up tomorrow and let this day be over. If the carpet cleaners actually show, it'll be the start of a good day..

Monday, October 02, 2006

Ellie's stories


Peter started a bedtime ritual with Ellie a few months ago that involved telling her "stories" that started with "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl named Ellie Jung" and proceeded with retelling the events of her day. She's started telling stories now, too. Here are a few, verbatim.

Once upon a time, named Mommy Jung. One day Mommy Jung have an accident. Pee pee on the ground. It was so yucky! P-U! And the diaper have poo poo come out of it. The end.

Once upon a time, named Mommy Jung. Mommy Jung put the baby in the bed. The baby not sleepy but... Mrs. Taco put the baby in the oven. They broke the oven. The end.

Once upon a time, named beautiful Mommy. Mommy had a ring on her finger right there. And they broke mommy's ring. Not my mommy, the other mommy's ring. They broke it and eat it and put it in the oven. The end.

She also likes to type. Here are a few samples, followed by what she says she wrote.
jjjjjjjjmmkl (I love Matthew)
jmml,m,//,k. kjmmk, nioyhjigoiu ngughbuhbnjmunhjvlhlithuinyujkujh (abcdefg next time won't you sing with me)
bbjvbnvc jolo;;l'klo.;;;; (I love Mommy)
;',;;;/.;liol;.';;k.;;k;,;ml,kil.;,;.,,/l jdsh gfgbhgfgvhntgvgcfghfxghvfg (Dora)

Future writer in the making, I tell you.