Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Wednesday

Today has started out to be a pretty good day. When Annamaria woke up in the middle of the night, Vince got up and soothed her and got her back to sleep. No 3:00 am feeding for me. So I got to sleep in until about 7:00 am. Got Sophia fed, dressed and ready for school. Now I'm on my second load of laundry for the day. Got the dishes put away, and am prepping myself for cleaning up the den. Not thrilling, but productive. I don't know if it's because Sophia is away at school, or I'm just getting back into my groove, but things seem to be settling down here. And Harrison seems much more agreeable when it's just him and me. I think his big sister crabs him out sometimes. I've got lunch for 20 tomorrow, so I've got to run a couple of errands and get some prepping done, but that will be no problem. And the baby is taking her morning nap, so things are pretty quiet around here. So quiet I realized the baby monitor wasn't on, and for all I knew the baby was screaming her little head off back in the other end of the house. So I turned the monitor on, and to my relief all is quiet. I'd better get busy on the den while all is still quiet.

Monday, August 29, 2005

First Day of the First Grade


Today was Sophia's first day of school. My baby is officially in the first grade. Her first grade teacher is Mrs. Elgar, who used to be a nun, but now is married and drives a woody PT Cruiser. My how things change. Anyway, Sophia really likes her. Sophia got to know Mrs. Elgar a bit last year and was very happy to learn she was her first grade teacher. And when I asked Sophia what she learned today, she told me Mrs. Elgar loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I guess they're starting off the new school year slowly. Really, what can I expect for the first grade? My happiest part of the day was getting to see Sophia's old kindergarten teacher again. Mrs. Bonica. We love Mrs. Bonica. Couldn't have asked for better. She was offered one of the first grade teaching positions for this year, and I was very upset to learn she turned it down. I would have loved to have her two years in a row. Or for Sophia to have her two years in a row. I actually cried Sophia's last day of kindergarten. I was so sad. Sophia started it though, she was very sad too. And I was post-partem, so I don't know what Sophia's excuse was.

In other news, Annamaria has found her toes. Took her long enough. I was wondering when she would get around to finding her toes. I wonder how much longer until she tries putting them in her mouth. Maybe if she takes her fingers out of her mouth, her toes will stand a chance. I can't wait for that photo opportunity.

Friday, August 26, 2005

The Doctor Is . . . Sick

Just as I was lying in bed this morning, thinking I really should get my butt moving and get the kids ready to head out for Annamaria's doctor appointment, the phone rings. It's Dr. Teregis' office, calling to reschedule our appointment, Dr. T called in sick this morning. I just saw the man yesterday, he seemed fine to me. But he's the medical professional, not I. I'm sure he has much more knowledge about him being sick than I do. So her appointment gets rescheduled for Friday, September 23. That's a month away. So much for her four month check-up. She'll be five months old by then. I'm sure she'll survive though. So since my day has been rearranged, I'm lying there thinking about how to spend my day instead. Well, housekeeping of course. What's better than visiting the doctor two days in a row? Housekeeping. My life just keeps getting better.
She's devastated she'll have to wait another month for her immunizations. Can't you tell?

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Busy, busy, busy

Today started with lunch for twenty. No problem. Sophia had an appointment with our beloved Dr. Teregis this afternoon at 3pm. Apparently the County of San Diego requires a physical to enter the 1st grade. So I didn't want to drive home, back up to Escondido, from delivering lunch off Carrol Canyon Road , only to head back out to Encinitas. So after dropping off lunch, we headed to the uniform store, off Balboa, to pick up a couple of pieces of clothing for Sophia for school. $72 for three polo shirts (with the school's emblem), and a hat and a headband in the appropriate plaid (Bel Aire). I feel violated. That didn't take near as long as I thought it would, even though the store was chaotic with children. We still had two hours to kill before the doctors appointment, so we headed west over on the 52 to 5 North. Fought traffic through Del Mar, I forgot about the horse races, and stopped at Rubio's for lunch. I like Rubio's, but man are they overpriced. Got to the doctor's office a little early, but the wait really wasn't bad. When going to see Dr. T we're usually in the waiting room at least a half an hour past our appointment time, and actually get to see the doctor an hour to an hour and a half past said appointment time. He's a popular guy, Dr. T. But today wasn't so bad, we got out of there at quarter past four or so. So traffic on the way home wasn't too terribly bad either. Home by 5pm. And the only thing on our calendar tomorrow is another doctor's appointment, again with Dr. Teregis, but for Annamaria this time. Two days of Dr. T in a row. What more can a girl wish for?

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

"School Is In"

"Now you may think I'm nerdy and telling you lies,
but I'm going out tonight to buy my school supplies

Cause this semester's gonna be a gas,
I said school is in at last

School is in, oh yeah
School is in, yeah yeah yeah, school is in

School is in, oh yeah
School is in, yeah yeah yeah, school is in . . ."

-Josie Cotton, Valley Girl Soundtrack

Yes, I'm excited. Can you tell? St. Mary's School starts this Monday, August 29th, promptly at 8:00 am with Mass. I'm even planning a trip to the uniform store tomorrow, after we deliver lunch, to update Sophia's school uniform needs. Most of the school supplies have been purchased. The only things left on our list is two red pencils and a ruler. I'm hoping that if Sophia and Harrison aren't together all day, every day, maybe they'll learn to appreciate one another. Of course in the back of my mind I know they may never appreciate one another, and if they ever do it probably won't happen until they're adults, but one can dream.

I can hardly believe my first baby is going into the first grade. Where did the time go? She actually is a very good kid. Despite my grumbling about her. Not as innocent as I would have hoped though. When she was three she told her grandma that she wanted to get her nose pierced. Where did that come from? And when we're out shopping, she always notices peoples tatoos. We may be in trouble here. And maybe it's the age, but her favorite past time is dressing up and putting on make-up. The dressing up part I get, but I didn't think she's be that into make-up until she was approaching her teens. It's not like I'm a great influence, I don't even bother with make-up most days. And a fashion diva, I'm not. My favorite shopping is grocery shopping, and I avoid the mall like the plague.

Whenever we're at the Wild Animal Park, I try to take the kids pictures in this fake egg they have. So these pictures are Sophia at 3 months, 6 months, and 4 years. Time to go and take another photo.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Yesterday

I really thought yesterday was going to be a great day. O-kay, my night wasn't all that great. Annamaria woke me up at 1:30 am. I fell asleep feeding her in the chair in our bedroom. Awoke at 3:00 am, but her back in her cradle and returned to bed. She woke me up again at 4:30 am. Not her fault I fell asleep in a chair. I was able to stay awake that time, and returned to bed at 5:30 am, just as Vince's alarm went off. Vince woke me at 7:30 am since I had a massage appointment at 8:30 am. I don't mind being woken up for a massage, one of the better reasons I can think of to get out of bed. So my massage was with a therapist I hadn't had before, so I was concerned at how it would be. Well, she was a little bit of a thing, but she did a great job. I hadn't had a massage since I was pregnant and really needed it. I went home, started getting my lists together for my catering jobs this week and toasted up a bagel. I was able to consolidate my shopping needs to four stores. Two to go to Monday, and two to stop in Tuesday. That's pretty good, I was pleased. As I was happily munching on my second half of lox and bagels (one of my favorite breakfasts), my friend Sue called me and told me about this place in San Marcos that has sushi for a pretty good deal. Small hole in the wall, and most of the clientele is Asian, so that speaks for how good it is. So I put down my bagel and got the kids ready to go meet my friend for an impromptu sushi lunch. I'm thinking, "man, this day just keeps getting better". And that's where it ended. The kids were horrible at lunch. I got two drinks, each a different kind, thinking they could share and try different things. Wrong. Always get two of the SAME, that way there is no bickering. It got so bad I gave up and went and bought another drink that was the same as the one they both wanted. Then chastised my six year-old for acting like a two year-old. Sophia wanted octopus and miso soup. So I ordered lunch for me, octopus and miso soup for Sophia, and just miso soup for Harrison. Harrison barely touched his soup. He was too busy playing with the soy sauce, which I ended up putting at the opposite end of the table from him, just to make him leave it alone. Sophia ate half her soup and her octopus, couldn't complain there. Once they were done eating (or fannying about), they thought it would be o-kay to go play under the other tables. Now I have trained my children how to behave in restaurants, and while this place was quite casual, playing under tables is never o-kay. So off to the stores we went. At Costco Harrison was fine, especially since he was strapped into the cart with his baby sister. Sophia was fine too. The vegetable store was another story. I tried being the good and patient mom. I handed them each vegetable bags and let them help me pick things out and put them in the shopping cart, but Harrison wouldn't stay with me, and the carts there aren't big enough to put both him and the baby in. He likes to hang on to the side of the cart and ride along as I push. Fine, as long as it keeps him with me and the cart. Of course Sophia wants to do whatever Harrison is doing and trys to hang on the side of the cart too. After telling her several times to get down because she's too heavy and makes the cart too hard to push, she gets up again. This time on the same side as Harrison, and both of their weight starts to tip the entire shopping cart over, with the baby in it. Luckily I see the tipping begin, and catch the cart and save the baby. I'm at my breaking point by now. The kids see it in my eyes, and hear it in my tone of voice as they stand there in terror as I chastise them both. I'm thinking the other shoppers in the store must think I'm a total witch for speaking to my children in that tone of voice. I know I've thought that about other mom's I've heard in stores. Too bad, I was at my end. Luckily the day smoothed out from there. Once the kids got home, back in their own environment they kept themselves entertained. I was able to get my Jambalaya and salad dressing made for todays lunch. That made this morning smooth sailing. Which I really needed it to be. I'm a horrible mom.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Step Away From The Baby!

Harrison just loves his baby sister, but does he really need to make her cry whenever he wants to give her some attention? He has no concept of personal space, at what age does that kick in? And why does the three month-old know she doesn't like her personal space invaded, but the two and a half year-old can't seem to grasp that concept? I don't want to squash his affection for her, but I don't want him to squash her either. Fustrating.

So some friends of ours, Dean and Sue, have a cabin up on Palomar Mountain, and they have invited a group of us up there for the weekend. Very gracious of them. Vince is very excited. He's planning on bringing Harrison up with him so they can sleep under the stars. Good luck with that. Vince also gets to bring his guns and his chainsaw. Both very manly things, in which I have no interest. He hardly ever gets to shoot his weapons, and Dean is an avid hunter and gun person. Also, there were fires up there last year so there are trees that need to be cleared away, a perfect excuse to play woodsmen and get the chainsaws out. I just think they're loud and irritating, but whatever. Neither of which are activities that I feel comfortable having a two year-old around. So this cabin doesn't have a bathroom, it has an outhouse. No thank you, you all enjoy yourselves. And they're all shocked that I really don't want to spend my weekend dealing with a three month-old in a cabin without a bathroom. They think I'm silly. "But the view from the outhouse is amazing", they tell me. "You can see as far as the Salton Sea". Thanks, I've been to the Salton Sea, there really wasn't that much to see up close, let alone from an outhouse. It really wouldn't matter if there was a great view of the Eiffel Tower, an outhouse is an outhouse. So I'll call you from the lounge of the Four Seasons, Ketel One martini in hand, and we can see who's having a better time.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Jinxed!

I knew I shouldn't have opened my big mouth. Annamaria only slept until 5:00 am this morning. And while I know that really isn't that bad, the greedy side of me was hoping this whole "sleeping until 6:30 am" thing would continue. And the really greedy side of me was hoping she'd sleep even later than 6:30 am. Oh well. This is what Annamaria looks like when she's tired and cranked out, but refuses to go to sleep. We call it her "cry face". And while I have no actual photographic evidence of what I look like when I'm tired and cranked out, I'm pretty sure I look the same.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Never Wake A Sleeping Baby

I hope I'm not jinxing myself here, but for the past couple of nights, Annamaria has slept through the night. No more 4:30 am feedings. Yea! She's been sleeping until about 6:30 am. This makes me very happy, the problem is that I'm still tired. It could be because my back hurts. I should go get a massage, or a trip to the chiropractor could be in order. Or it could be because I don't go to bed until about 11:30 pm. I know I should go to bed as soon as Annamaria dozes off, but I need wind-down time and am not really sleepy until that late.

So this weekend, Vince bought all three Jurassic Parks movies. He couldn't wait to share the scary dinosaur experience with Harrison. Harrison loves dinosaurs (don't all little boys love dinosaurs?), so Vince thought Harrison would really enjoy them. I want it to go on the record that I was against this idea. I thought the kids were too young to see such a violent, action packed movie. I fully expected to have someone extra in our bed that night due to nightmares. But the movie commenced despite my protests, and we all sat down to watch the first Jurassic Park movie. Well, Harrison was so full of energy that he couldn't even sit still long enough to pay attention to the movie, so Vince gave up and put him to bed. Sophia made it though the entire movie, but Vince insisted on covering her eyes on a couple extra violent parts. Now I believe that if you have to cover the child's eyes, then the child shouldn't be watching the movie in the first place, but that's just me. So now Sophia wants to watch the second movie, but Vince thinks it's too violent. So the first one was o-kay, but the second one is too violent? Whatever.

The other day Vince went to wake up Harrison from his nap, and he put the baby in bed with Harrison before waking him up. So when Harrison woke up the first thing he saw was his baby sister, which made him very happy. It's amazing to me how much he loves that little girl.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

The Pageant of the Masters

Last night was great. No traffic problems, we arrived nice and early and had no problem getting parking. We had to pay $10 to park, but had a short walk to the Festival, and the weather was great. Oh, and this was Vince's third time to the Pageant. I think it was my fifth, but I may have lost count. Seems I've lost some of my memory functions. I think that's a result of sleep deprivation due to having three children. No time during my sleep cycle for those short term memories to become long term memories. Something like that. Anyway, I wish I could have taken pictures, but no, cameras are not allowed. So I've included a link to the Laguna Festival of Arts Pageant of the Masters web site. The title of this post is a link. The pictures that look like paintings are not the real paintings, those are actual people recreating the art pieces. Yes, I'm talking about the picture with the three young women, and the picture of the surfer too. Pretty neat, huh? And last night I found out the Pageant has been going on since 1932, and the tradition of ending with a recreation of the Last Supper has been continued since 1936. This year's was Da Vinci's fresco version. It was incredible.

So last night was Annamaria's first time with a babysitter. Our regular, Emily, the daughter of a friend of mine. She's very good, and very experienced. Unfortunatelly, it was also Annamaria's first time being fed from a bottle, which she refused. I thought if she got hungry enough, she'd take a bottle, even if she didn't like it. But maybe it was what was inside the bottle that was the problem. I hate pumping. And even though I have the cadillac of breast pumps, I just couldn't bring myself to use it. I justified myself by thinking one night of formula wasn't going to kill her. But apparently Annamaria thought otherwise. Poor Emily called her mom, Sue, in desperation. So when we pulled up to the house, the first thing I noticed was Sue's minivan. Uh oh, what happened? At least we didn't have to drive Emily home. Convenient that her mom was here to take her home. I felt so bad. I'm thinking the $40 we paid her wasn't enough.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Christmas Is In The Air

Or at least it is at Costco. Can you believe it? I was trekking through Costco this morning, on my daily catering supply shopping, when I noticed all the summer gardening and patio stuff was gone, and rows of toys had been put in their place. I thought, geez, it isn't even near Halloween yet, and they're primed for Christmas already. Then I noticed the display of Halloween costumes too. At least they're not getting ahead of themselves or anything.

Tonight Vince and I are going to the Laguna Art Festival's Pageant of the Masters. The tickets were a Christmas gift from my mom. I think she's trying to breathe a little bit of culture into our otherwise dreary lives. I remember the first time I attended the pageant, I was about six years old. The next time I went I was in my late twenties. This is Vince's second trip. It's hard to describe it to someone who's never been. You tell them that pieces of art are recreated with live people, and they just don't get it. "Oh, that's neat?", they think. It's so hard to imagine unless you see it for yourself. Then they go and are amazed at what they're seeing. And the theme changes every year, so it's always new. Except for ending with a recreation of the Last Supper. By different artists though, so that's kind of new every year too.

Here is a picture of Annamaria's first trip to the beach. It was taken in June. Quite the trooper for a six week old. We haven't been to the beach since the beginning of July. We'd better take advantage of the summer and get back out there before August is over. Time is running out, it's almost Christmas afterall.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Tuesday?

It feels like a Monday to me. I'm exhausted, and my back hurts. It doesn't really make sense that I'm so tired this morning. Annamaria slept from 10pm until 4:30 this morning. Sunday night she was up every couple of hours, with much fustration on our part. So maybe my tiredness is carried over from Sunday night. Speaking of Sunday, our meeting went well, and the best part is that the house got cleaned and picked up really well. So I figure if I can just keep on top of the clutter from coming back, I'll be happy. The cleaning I can handle, a little here a little there. It's the clutter that overwhelms me.

Lunch for 25 this morning, so I must go get busy. But here is a picture of Sophia as promised.


Friday, August 05, 2005

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Note to self . . . think twice before accepting five catering jobs over four consecutive days.

I have a problem, if I'm offered work I cannot turn it down. Unless I'm busy giving birth or some other serious situation is scheduled in my life, I simply have difficulty saying "no". Of course it's great to actually have customers, better than not having any customers, but today I'm feeling like I was run over by a mac truck. And last night, in the middle of my last job, just when I thought I'd get some breathing room, it was brought to my attention that our small church group is scheduled to meet at our house this Sunday. So make that dinner for about 12 adults and 13 or so kids. And the real work is that the house needs to be presentable too. At least one of my jobs resulted in extra candied ginger scones for my snacking enjoyment.



In an effort to give equal billing to all my children, here is a picture of Harrison modeling his big sister's ballet leotard. His pride of putting it on all my himself is apparent on his beaming face.

I haven't forgotten Sophia, her picture will be next.

Thursday, August 04, 2005


Technologically Challenged?

Yes, it seems that I am. The photo that I thought would be published with my last entry, I have figured out, is saved as a draft. I think I'll leave it there. But now that I've started this entry without a photo first, I'm going to have to figure out how to save all this blabbing and add a photo without deleting my previous work. Maybe it's sleep deprivation, I really didn't think I was this bad.

On the sleep deprivation note, I thought I'd get tough and just let Annamaria cry it out last night. After about 10 minutes of fussing, Vince suggested I just give the poor girl a break and feed her. Softy. Afterall, she's three months old now, when will I get a solid night's sleep again? Am I being selfish? Thinking a three month old should no longer need to eat every four or so hours at night? Of course as I sit here typing, she snoozes quietly in her swing. And I have lunch for 15 to prepare, so no napping for me. But a second cup of coffee sounds in order.

So just to throw caution to the wind, I'll attempt to post a photo. Let's see what this sleep deprived, technologically challenged mom can do.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

O-kay, let's try this again. After writing quite a bit on my first blogging try, I ended up deleting everything when I tried adding a picture of the kids. So in my fustration, I added the first picture I came upon, and quit for the day. Hense the addition of one of our engagement photos. So I think the lesson I learned is to add pictures first, type later. I didn't think I was that technically handicapped, but apparently I was wrong. And the "quite a bit" I wrote about earlier, I have very little recollection of what that was about, so I'll have to forget about that and start anew. But alas, my prepping needs for tomorrow's catering job is nagging at me, so hopefully I'll get more interesting in my dailey inserts as I get the swing of this whole blogging thing.