Epiphanies

Today was C’s last swimming lesson. I’m going to try hard to take him swimming though. We bought a Body Glove water baby carrier so that I or Dh could hold J in it while in the water. That way C won’t drown since I’ll be in the pool with him. I want Dh to try it first though before I do.

Anyway, J decided to gift me with a poo diaper at the swimming lesson for the first time. I’ve made it these last three months without having to change his diaper so I thought I was home free. Sadly not. And they were fixing the women’s bathroom so I had to change him in the men’s room. The diaper changing station was made for giants (slight exaggeration) but it was seriously hard for me to reach. It was placed way too high for me. Wth is that about? Do men really need the table to be that high? I’m seriously considering buying the diaperbridge except I think it’s for smaller babies and J is getting bigger by the day. It’s a great idea. I don’t know if we’d use it much. I can really just go change him in the car. I think if it worked in a plane, it would be awesome. Planes are a pain and a half for changing diapers.

We made up for Sunday night’s lack of family night by playing cadoo tonight. I also solved the mystery of those random cadoo boxes that were lying around. Apparently we got them as a Burger King kid’s meal promotion. We ended up buying cadoo ($7.99 price cut at Target) since my SIL thought it was a good game. We had fun. C still needs a little help (4 yo) but I think with practice he will get the hang of it. I think he’s not exactly familiar with it and so feels trepidation about doing things. I think it’s not that he can’t do it but that he’s afraid to do the wrong thing for fear of looking stupid. I need to train him out of that. B was nice tonight. He was very helpful in trying to figure out for everyone their best move. He wasn’t a cutthroat about it – hope he stays like that. It’s a good trait to have not to be so hung up on winning. It’s still disappointing to lose but letting it go and moving on leads to inner peace *cough*.

Dh has this thing about leaving the heads on the shrimp. Not sure if he’s trying to divest the kids of their fear of shrimp heads or simply scare the bejesus out of them. Think C didn’t want to have to hurt these little animals that still have heads. Anyway, they’re finally getting used to it and have managed to behead the shrimps all by themselves. Not eat the heads, just behead them. Just goes to show you: tough love works with beheading shrimp heads. They didn’t like the taste of the heads so doubt they’ll ever eat the heads (me included).

I also learned something new. Dh taught me how to eat the meat inside the shelled part next to the shrimp tails. It’s all in the way you hold the tail. You hold one part of the tail (don’t squeeze), and pull it out. It comes out easily.

C: “One day I’ll be a professional.”

Me: “A professional what?”

C: “A professional.”

Me: “Do you know what a professional is?”

C: “A professional is someone who eats mushrooms, shrimp heads and shrimp tails.”

Me: “Ah.” Too cute.

Hung out with C, S, T and J. Had my jungle colada and potato skins. I’m really tempted to go back to drinking martinis but I always feel the martinis more than the colada so I feel guiltier about drinking martinis while nursing. I never really feel the coladas which is funny because J was buzzing with the colada and I was surprised. They seem so weak. Maybe she doesn’t drink as often as I do.

We talked about fertility – 3 of them are trying. It’s not as easy the second time around but they still got time. Talked about in-laws. S’s were in town for the last couple of weeks and I guess it wasn’t going so well. We chatted about potty training. Not looking forward to that whole thing again. And C was thinking of having a sewing lesson MNO. I’m all over it. I’m going to get a cheap but good sewing machine. She said I needed a machine that could do a ‘blind hem stitch” (?) I just think that C’s pants are in constant need of hemming (and sometimes Dh’s) so I might as well learn how to do it. I may try to do a pillow, curtain or other simple stuff too along the way. I doubt I will ever do clothing but I won’t outrule it. I’ll see how handy I am with a sewing machine.

J let Halima play in the car with her car keys.  You see what’s coming right?  Yup.  Her 2 yo locked in the car.  It reminded me of when my nephew also got locked in the car.  Harrowing experience.  Made me think I should have a talk with the kids about what to do in certain situations.  C recommended some dvd’s:  Little Hardhats. That way they won’t get scared if they see firemen in their weird gear.  They will know to run towards the firemen in case of a fire instead of away.  I probably won’t have a problem with firemen but maybe some other types of workers like ambulance workers.  It’s worth looking into.

We bought a recycle bin and a few compact fluorescent spiral bulbs at Home Depot ($10/4 spirals $10/2 floodlights) all in the name of Earth Day. Also checked out Babies R Us and bought formula ($23 plus a $7 coupon). Got 4 Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas for free because of B’s reading award certificates – sweet. Yay for reading.

Watched a few Planet Earth episodes. Absolutely gorgeous cinematography. Where do people get the motivation and wherewithal to do this for a living? Spending hours upon hours just to catch that perfect moment. I loved the birds of paradise mating dances. That was so captivating.  On another note, cell phones have been linked to the bee decline.

C also had a playdate with Niloo. Then her mom called around 5:45pm and asked if she could drop both kids off so that she could go to the hospital to visit her friend who was in a coma. She didn’t come back until after 8pm. Thought that was kind of rude (we don’t really know her, and it was pretty late for a playdate AND we had to feed her). Seems kind of atypical to me. It would be different if I was friends with her or knew her in some sort of capacity but at this point, I had never even met her. Anyway, the playdate wasn’t all that successful. I guess I’m used to boys for playdates. Don’t really know how to handle little girls. She was pretty picky and moody. Didn’t want to play anything. Finally coaxed her into playing Dora Candyland.

C had piano class again and they tried to con us into paying for the upcoming concert wherein our child who can barely play is going to be in for all of five minutes (probably). $30 is a pretty high price point.  Whatever happened to the day where you attend your own piano recitals for free.  Our kid isn’t even going to play a solo.  He would be playing in a group.  The excuse given was that they wanted their older piano playing students to have an audience at a real stage.  Pffft.

We also checked out Kohl’s for the first time.  It’s not at all what I thought.  I always thought it was one of those Sears like places but it’s more like a Robinson Mays store.  Worth checking back in the future.

Michael came over for a playdate for the first time.  He was pretty scared of Sammy.  Seems like a lot of Asian kids have a predisposition to being scared of dogs.

We played Wii Play again then we hopped over to Costco. I think the trick is to stick to your list which of course I didn’t. I bought these cute melanine mixing bowls. I want to do more baking with the kids so it should be fun. I also found the cooler that I adore for the price I wanted which I’ve been absolutely devastated about losing (Sammy chewed ours up). Of course it’s not exactly the same as the link which is the one we originally had but it’s pretty much the same. Anyway, it was less than $30 like the original one I bought. After Sammy chewed ours up, I couldn’t even find it for less than $60. I guess it’s all about the season. Love Costco!! I’ve searched for it for ages online, in costco, in target. Good things come to those who wait

It was also game night last night. We played Dinopoly. What a long game it is. I had to speed things up (I was losing anyway) so I traded my cards cheaply so that the others could start collecting bones (aka houses) on their monopolies. Somehow I ended up with Dh’s 2 eras (aka utilities) and then after that C gave me his 2 so I had a monopoly of eras (love my son ). Guess he loves dinos more than those eras heh heh. He was really attached to some dino and wouldn’t give it up no matter what. Not even when we told him he would go bankrupt. He would rather give up his monopoly of other dinos if he could keep that particular dino. So I gave him the dinos that went with that particular dino he liked for the more valuable monopoly he had. I wonder why he liked that one so much. Anyway, long story short, even though I was way way way behind (and I really mean way behind – I had one lame dino and was losing money left and right), somehow I ended up winning. Just goes to show you, when you’re not so anxious about winning and you try to help people, it sometimes just comes to you. I think the kids had fun although C was bummed about losing the dinos that he had acquired for the next time we play. He’s cute.

I watched Brothers and Sisters today. I really like that show. And it just happened to be about game night. They have the life I’ve always wanted. A large family of siblings and a cool mom. I think I’m slowly getting to that life I’ve always imagined I would have. It’s great playing games with the kids, enjoying being together. The kids getting older is really key. They’re like little people. It’s great. Although the early childhood stages are cute, it can be a bit tiring when everything is on you to entertain. Even though the burden is still on you when they’re older, there’s so much more they could do. I’m definitely going to figure out more board games we can all play together. The show is being renewed. It really is a great show.

B got bitten on the back by the neighbor’s dog yesterday. I took a photo of it. I’ll monitor it to see if any infections develop. It doesn’t look like any skin was broken so I’m not too worried about it. Hope that doesn’t turn around and bite me in the butt.

Bought some new clothes for the boys at Target.  I think I need to go elsewhere for clothes though.  They didn’t have much in the way of pants or long sleeves which is really what I needed for them.  I ended up buying a couple more outfits for J though.  I can’t resist.  They’re just too cute.  I do like baby clothes.