Memory Leak » Maia

A big shout-out to my wife

john — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:13:12 +0000

It’s 2039 hours and all the kids are finally in bed — not all asleep, but hopefully soon.

Valerie is in Utah to put her grandfather to rest; may he rest in peace. In preparation for leaving, she practically spoon-fed me everything I’d need to get through the next 36 hours: 4 night diapers for the twins, 4 sets of pajamas for the twins, pajamas & night pants for Maia, clothes for everyone to wear to the zoo tomorrow, and a fully stocked and prepped diaper bag ready to go — just add hot water. Ohh, and not to mention, she prearranged help to arrive in the evening to get all the kiddos through the bed-time routine. How could it possibly go wrong?

Enter: The Daddy.

I literally had an average of 1.5 kids screaming at me for the last 3 hours.

We got home from dropping Valerie at the airport around 1650. Not a minute afterward, Stella starts wailing. A fresh diaper helps a bit, and into the Boppy so Elise can get her turn on the changing table — which prompts Stella to immediately go to 11. No biggie, a couple of bottles and all will be happy again. By the time the bottles are ready, there’s a 2-part harmony on the couch as I settle down and try to make amends; which are patently rejected. Holding them to settle them down is not helping, so, off to the bouncer/swing and futile attempts at giving paci’s. No joy.

Quick departure from the twins to help Maia through the potty. Afterward, she wants some juice and I offer her a sippy cup of water since it was handy and I’ve still got 2 screaming babies to settle down. She makes her displeasure known by throwing the sippy cup — landing her straight into the corner for time out.

Perfect! Now I’ve got all 3 kids screaming at me. And, what do I do? Straight to the fridge and crack open a beer and take a good long pull from it and ponder my navel for a minute. Which, all joking aside about being an alchoholic, was just the medicine I needed.

At 1830, I’ve round-robined through the kids and gotten to the point that Stella is fed, in PJ’s, and in bed (screaming), Elise is nearly ready for bed and rubbing her eyes, and Maia is running around with drawers full of smelly filth asking for me to clean her bum — which I ignore and, bad parent that I am, privately tell myself she deserves to fester a while since she had passed up a perfectly good opportunity to deposit said filth in the potty just a few minutes prior.

Seeing that I’m on the down-hill slope and feel like I’m 2/3′s done with bed time, I call up Rebecca to see where she’s at. Oh, not out of the driveway yet; well, she can save herself the drive (and not a small one either!) — I think I’m good. After all, when I needed help the most was an hour ago…

Har! Har! Har!

Stella gets transferred into the swing in order to get Elise down into a moderately peaceful crib. Now to the spackle job in Maia’s pants and into PJ’s for her. Then back to Stella to check on her bum to determine if the source of her continued displeasure is gooey in nature — it was not. But, a fresh diaper is still needed. While tending to this, Maia declares she needs her bum cleaned a second time. I thought she must be joking. No, no; she dropped a second bomb in her pants.

At which point, it dawns on me that had I not called Rebecca, the cavalry would be arriving any moment now.

Finally, all the bums are cleaned, and Maia is fed, I’m fed, and Stella has finally contented herself in my arm after ~3 hours of nearly non-stop sceaming since we got home. And, all that screaming was good for something: she’s finally got the sleepy eyes. So off to the crib for her, which restarts the fussing the moment her head is down. So, we rock and she settles into her paci’. But, the toddler is very keen on coming in and out of the darkenend room, over, and over again — to the point that Stella is taking note and looking more alert because of it. Sorry kiddo, ready or not, into the crib a second time …

At 2018, Valerie calls — which was good timing as Stella had just cried herself to sleep shortly after putting her down. Maia gets to say good night to mommy and we brush teeth and read stories. But, not her favorite book, Richard Scarry’s “Cars and Trucks and Things That go”. Her Aunty Chellie got her that for Christmas and she hasn’t wanted to read any other book since then. Which is great as it’s a powerful incentive to get her to do things — eat her dinner, clean up her room, sit still for teeth brushing, and now: going poo in the potty. You got it — as of tonight: if she poos in her pants, no favorite story before bed.

There’s a point to that long winded recap of the evening, and this brings me back to the original point of this post — how much my wife rocks. She handles all this hell chaos EVERY DAY! And most of the time, she makes it look easy. Granted, bed time is almost never done single handedly. But while I’m at work there’s all the same stuff going on and she still has a smile for me when I get home.

Thank you, Valerie, for making this family run so well. I wouldn’t be able to do it without you!

Sinking in

john — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:53:15 +0000

After Maia finished dinner last night, she was excused while Valerie and I finished up. A couple of minutes later, Maia ambled back in and said, “It’s time to put on PJ’s and brush teeth and read a story and lay down with Moosey and go night night. What do you think about that?”

To which, Valerie and I responded with unplanned, yet perfect unison, “THAT’S A GREAT IDEA!”

Days without accident: 1

john — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:13:50 +0000

Today was day 3 of Maia’s potty training (revisited), and we have a new milestone: it was her first accident free day wearing big-girl pants!

For the non-parents out there, let me just state that parenting is at least 75% dealing with the bodily functions of your children. There’s nothing sacred about it — so if you don’t want to hear a poo story, bail out now…

And to top it off, it was also her first time ever going poop on the potty. Not just any potty, but, a full sized toilet in a public restroom. She wasn’t so keen on it at first, but, I made silly faces at her and she giggled and played for a minute. And then suddenly, she got very serious, and sternly said, “I have to go pee pee” and stared off into the distance. Then she grimaced and grunted, and tensed up, and grunted some more with a slight convulsion. At first I thought she was just being silly and trying to squeeze out a drop of pee, but the grunting and grimacing kept on for about 20-30 seconds and I suddenly felt slightly embarrassed — maybe she needed some privacy.

What could I do or say? “Go Maia! Push! Push!” Or, maybe adapt the Lamaze breathing techniques for toddlers? “Take a big deep breath, now hold it and push for 5, 4, 3 keep pushing, 2, 1 … and relax.” Uhhh, yeah….

So, I sat quietly and made no fuss. She finally relaxed and declared, “all done potty!”, and behold, there was a ripe brown trout in the pond. The paper work proved much more challenging than normal without 1) wet wipes and 2) a changing table, but, we managed.

As we stepped away from the toilet, the auto-flush kicked in and Maia looked over her shoulder and said, “bye bye poopy!”

All in a day’s parenting…

Sandy Eggo trip log, Part 1

john — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 07:37:08 +0000

Call us crazy, but, we loaded up the Bee and the Twinkies and ~200 pounds worth of stroller, diapers, luggage, pack-n-play, and camera gear and were on the open road at 0645 — which was a miracle all in itself considering we didn’t get our “pre-trip todo list” finished until midnight. When the Twinks woke up for their 0500 feeding, it was game on. After pulling Maia from bed, she sleepily rubbed her eyes and said, “we’re going on adventure. Go to beach” as she was plunked into her chilly car seat.

We debated about how to go; the conventional route takes you down I5 until your frustration of people zooming up the right lane and cutting you off causes you to want to start plinking their tires. Instead, we decided to take the slightly longer, but more scenic 101. An added bonus was there’d be more opportunities for the “ohh crap, we gotta stop now” excursions that many parts of I5 would mean the middle of nowhere.

The Frommer’s Califonia guide book lead us to the Big Sky Cafe, in San Luis Obispo. Not only was the breakfast delicious, but, they also have beignets; served as we’ve come to expect in a checked paper basket just like Cafe Du Monde. Steamy, doughy pillows of heart attack heaven — what more can you ask for?

Back on the road, the trip through the hills and down the coast left me wondering why I’d ever want to drive I5 again. Traffic was fairly relaxed and the comparatively few trucks kept the right-lane-zoom-n-cut-in assholes to a minimum. There was some fret about getting stuck in LA traffic during rush-hour, so, we just kept the hammer down as long as the Twinks would go; which wound up being the Hunting Beach Mall. Orange County; blecl. The abundance of boob jobs was about the only thing worth while.

We finally rolled into the hotel parking lot about 1745 with not but a few minutes of stop-n-go traffic the entire trip. Only a few tears from the Twinks, and none from the toddler. Maia was appeased for most of the trip with her moose and a bag of “raw” cereal, as she likes to call it prior to the introduction of milk.

We stayed at the Sommerset Suites, which had quite reasonable rates on …. you got it: multi-room suites. ‘Twas a bit of a splurge but, having a seperate livingroom to hang out in while the kiddo’s sleep in peace was worth it. Plus, the location couldn’t have been more perfect; walking distance to lots of old haunts from years past when Valerie lived here. The only bummer with the hotel is its location: next to the Scripps Hospital with the coresponding random emergency vehicle sirens.

With the kids and bags schlepped up to the room, thoughts turned to dinner. Over the years Lex has mentioned several times that Bronx Pizza is the best in all of San Diego. At a mere 2 blocks away,it was a no-brainer to try out. While I’m more of a Chicago style pizza man, there’s always a time and place for thin-crust New York style, and this was one of them. That said, the canned/frozen spinach did nothing for the first impressions of the joint, but it was cetainly worth giving it a second try. Best in the city? Meh.

The next morning, Maia woke up ready for adventure. We strolled the troop down Fifth street to our favorite breakfast joint — ever: Hash House a Go Go.

There’s always a wait; about a half-hour this time (note the above picture was from 2 years ago). Maia kept saying, “let’s go inside, eat pancakes!” Bad parents that we are, we didn’t get her anything to snack on prior to what turned out to be a very late breakfast.

But, we made it up to her by strolling over to Balboa Park where she proceeded to make new friends all over the play ground. By the time we strolled back to the hotel she had passed out in the back-pack carrier and napped till ~1700. Plans for Sushi Deli 2 were abruptly changed when we drove by to find ~30 people loitering in front — why do all the best places have to be so, you know, popular?

No problem, a quick trip over to another old haunt, Shakespeare’s, for pub grub and beer. Valerie carried Maia in and I lugged a carseat in each hand, which never fails to garner attention and the inevitable, “ohhh, look. Twins!” But, on top of that, I overheard, “Don’t they know this is a bar?”. Well, yes, there *is* a bar, but, it is *not* a bar. They even have a kids menu, so phbbbbttt! Our watress was a mother of twins herself and wholeheartedly thought we were doing the very best thing for them by bringing them out and getting them aquainted with the world. I’ll drink to that!

If the potty was like batting averages, Maia would go pro

john — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:59:43 +0000

We gave potty training an earnest try yesterday. Maia batted a 429 for the day. Not a bad start.

But, today started with a revolt followed by incessant bouts of giggling and screaming — combinations that do not lend themselves to relaxing for the call of nature. Ohh well, back in the diapers for a while longer…

Naptime

john — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:09:18 +0000

We recently installed a “night vision” camera in Maia’s room. It’s been rather telling about what happens when we turn the light off and say “good night”. Now we no longer have to wait for the tell tale sounds of toys to know she’s off on a mission gathering sundries to extend her wakefulness.

This 1 hour time lapse was today’s attempt to get her to nap. Valerie was busy tending to the babies, so, Maia had the run of her room.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

Direct link to download here. (CTRL+click, “save link as”)

Note — as of this moment, the video is served from my DSL. I’ve seen that some players do not stream correctly, so, you may have to wait 1-2 minutes for it to download in the background and then play.

Halloween in Willow Glen

john — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 07:25:43 +0000

Every year at Halloween, the businesses on Lincoln Ave in Willow Glen host a daytime trick-or-treat for the kids. It’s great because they break it up into age brackets so the little ones don’t get trampled by the big kids. I played hooky from work to join in the fun — and fun was had by all:

[See post to watch QuickTime movie] Long download — be patient!

There are also pictures, if the video doesn’t do it for you.

New Milestone

john — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 20:20:36 +0000

Maia is officially standing. She first did it a few weeks ago, just briefly letting go with something nearby to lean on. But, now, she just figured out that she can stand on her own without something in arms reach to lean on.

She’s a little unsure …

… but quickly realizes there’s nothing to worry of.