Farmer Kael and his Tomato Grub

This spring Kael broke ground in his veggie patch. He's expressed an interest in growing things since last year and I figured he was at a good age to care for his own plants. I let him select the plants with some guidance (I nixed the hot pepper plants for obvious reasons) and in the end we settled on 3 kinds of cherry tomatoes, jumbo pumpkins and 2 kinds of sunflowers. There's some room left for either green beans or corn. We haven't decided which yet and at this late date we'll probably pick corn.

Anyway, his tomatoes have started to blossom and he's very excited to see them fruit. Unfortunately I've started noticing that the blossoms are breaking off -- most likely due to the winds. Some have survived and we actually have little tomatoes! The kids are totally excited (Malia especially since she loves loves loves to eat tomatoes) and can't wait to pick them. Lately though I've noticed that our tomato crop numbers were dwindling. Knowing that we have a snail and slug problem, I've been keeping my eyes open for them but haven't seen signs of them slimy bugs. I wonder what was taking Kael's tomatoes? My final deduction: it's got to be some really pesky tomato grubs.


Kael's veggie plots. Pumpkins and tomatoes towards the bottom with sunflowers in the top two.


Can you see how the flowers have broken off at the stem? Luckily we have some stubborn flowers that survived to fruit.


I need to devise some sort of wind screen or something to protect them. I'm open to ideas.


A victim of the tomato grub. Poor little guy. Kael was so upset when he saw this.

Upon further investigation, we've discovered the Tomato Grub:



Malia has been harvesting the baby tomatoes before their time. I don't know how many she's actually taken but let me tell you: it was almost World War 3 when Kael discovered it was her.

Good grief, he was pissed. Despite scoldings and talking-to's, Malia still makes a beeline for Kael's tomato patch so now she's under constant watch in the backyard.

Forget the wind screen... I need to build a little fence to keep her out.

What have I done?

So with the pending arrival of Blub, Truong and I have been fooling around with car seat arrangements in the Expedition, trying to find the perfect layout. The problem is we have Britax seats which, for those who are kidless, are probably the largest seats in the market.

Kael has the Regent, which Erin calls the Lazy Boy of car seats. And she's right: the seat is massive. Huge. Ginormous. It's a pain in the ass to move so wherever we stick him, he's there to stay. Because of its colossal size, it's very comfortable and roomy (it is, after all, a Lazy Boy). It's made for kids up to 80 pounds so he'll be in there for a while.

Malia has the Marathon, which while isn't as big as the Regent, it's no small fry itself. Because she's so small, Malia is very cozy and I can see her in the Marathon for a while.

That brings us to Blub. "She" will be riding in the SnugRide - a standard sized infant carrier. The problem is getting all three in the car.

Plan A
We stick Kael in the 3rd row bench. He really liked this because he got to sit in the middle and see everything (only the middle seat in the 3rd row had a top tether anchor). Unfortunately, that left the left side as empty space. I suppose a passenger (like Grandma) could climb back there and sit with him but I don't think she'd like climbing over a folded seat to squeeze in next to Kael in the "cattle section." Also I'd lose trunk space. Between the stroller and my emergency bag that could sustain a family of four for approximately 3 months should they need to live out of my car, I had room for about 2 grocery bags. Never mind hauling the bike, the scooters, the Razor, the helmets, and the sand toys for the park. I learned this the hard way after a trip to Costco. And you all know how much I love shopping at Costco.

On to Plan B
Kael on one side and Malia on the other, leaving the middle empty for Blub. This seemed to work as there looked like there would be enough room for Blub's seat. The problem was mostly logistical: I have 3 kids, who gets to go in the car first?

Do I stick Kael in first and trust Malia to sit in the stroller/shopping cart while trying to keep Blub close by so his stroller wouldn't roll down into the parking lot? No way. She can wiggle her way out of any standard lap belt unless it's a 5 point harness.

Do I put Malia in first, trusting Kael will actually listen to me and not dance around in the parking lot, while keeping Blub close by? Again, no dice. The kid can't sit still for 2 seconds and we're still not convinced he doesn't have a hearing problem.

Or do I stick Blub in first, trusting Kael to keep Malia in the stroller/cart then stick Kid1 in on one side and then run around and stick Kid2 in the other? Uh, no. That would be a lot of running around for me and I'm not a runner. What if it rained?! I'm not running laps around my car in the rain! Besides, knowing me, I'd end up locking my car keys in the car during one of the laps.

I actually tried both ways. In the end, sticking both kids in one side worked well because Malia liked having a "job" to do. Meaning it was her job to walk to her seat, climb in it, and I'd buckle her in. The problem was once the novelty wore off, she started wandering around, goofing off, not getting in her seat. I actually lost her in the bowels of the car, running back and forth from one side to the other trying to get her in her seat. Me being almost 6 months pregnant gives me the grace of a hippo, which doesn't make a pretty picture when I have to haul my butt up into the back of the car, in-between car seats trying to chase down and buckle up a squirmy 2 year old.

Besides, Blub's car seat didn't fit in the middle. We tried this weekend so Plan B is scrapped.

Plan C (we're running out of ideas and Truong keeps mentioning the minivan)
Kael and Malia right next to each other, leaving the side open for Blub. Given that I really need the trunk space and room for Blub's car seat (duh) I think Plan C is the one. I just hope that at 2 years and 4 months, Malia will have some self control to not bother Blub since she will be right next to him and that by that age perhaps she'll start listening to me as the voice of authority.

The older kids loved being next to each other. They played well and giggled and laughed and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

However, once again the novelty wore off. On the way to San Diego, Kael started yelling at Malia to stop. I could tell he was really pissed and when I looked in the kid mirror.... it was all I could do to not laugh. She had taken off her shoes and had her leg swung up and over her seat to touch Kael. He kept throwing her leg off him, yelling at her to stop. And because she was getting such a rise out of him, she of course did it even more, trying her dead set best to get even higher up his leg. I'm surprised she didn't get a leg cramp. It was the funniest thing ever. I told her to stop bothering her brother and of course it fell on deaf ears.

She apparently had forgotten the sibling motto of Payback is a Bitch. On the ride home, she started screaming "Kael! Stop it! Stop it, Kael!" Again, I look back and had to choke back my laughter. Kael had his hand touching her car seat. When she started screaming for him to stop, he took it away and with an evil chuckle, laid 3 fingers on her car seat. When in a fit of rage she tried to throw his fingers off, he laid 2 fingers on another part of her seat. On and on it went until she was beside herself and I had to step in. Kael knew he had her and gleefully sat back, satisfied with his work.

In the meantime, I drove on, going faster so we'd get home sooner, wondering just what the heck have I gotten myself into, having 2 kids with 1 on the way.

She is her mother's daughter.

Kael growing up always grew feet first. Meaning his feet got bigger and bigger while his body slowly followed. At age 4, he wore size 11 shoes. I'm not sure how big that is compared to the rest of the world, but amongst his friends, that was pretty big.

Malia on the other hand always had little feet. It took her a long time to find Crocs that fit and even now, she can only wear the Mary Janes that she got for her birthday (and that's only because there's a strap on top). She fits other shoes but all the cool and neat shoes run in the larger sizes.

I am happy to say that she's now officially a size 5. She may even fit a 5.5 depending on the brand. Her shoe world has been cracked wide open.

Currently she's got a pair of Keens and the MJ Crocs that I know for certain fit her well. No sneakers and with the wacky weather lately, she needs some closed toed shoes to keep out the wet. We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific today and we made it just in time for the torrential downpour. Malia learned firsthand just how (un)comfortable wearing Crocs in the rain was. After her semi-nap, we went to Nordstrom's and got her sized, with the intention of me buying her a pair of shoes on-line for cheap. We'd try on some different brands at Nordie's to figure out a good fit so I wouldn't shop on-line blind.

That was the plan, anyway.

What happened was we tried on a bunch of shoes. Mostly Converses because nothing else out there appealed to me. I saw a couple that I liked and we were about to pack it up and head out. Then Malia saw it.

The "Mermaid Shoes."

Despite what you think, the shoes had nothing to do with Ariel or had any kind of overt marine theme. Her "Mermaid Shoes" (as she called them) looked like this:



OK, so the blue looks like the sea and I guess the pink can look like Ariel's hair, if you squint and look sideways. That's pretty much the only mermaid-y theme I can see. She loved them and Truong said just buy them for her. She wasn't going to let me take them off her and Dad being Dad, couldn't stand to see her disappointed. So I left the shoes on her and took the box to the counter. That's when I learned what the shoes were actually called.

The Tie-Dye Slip-On.

Sheesh. She's barely 2 and already she's leaning towards tie-dye.

Is this my child, or what? I'm so proud of her.

The Ants Go Marching On...

I forgot to tell you all about Kael's latest "pet." Actually, I should say "pets."

On Mother's Day we got him.... an ant farm.

"AN ANT FARM?!" you shriek in disbelief. Yes. An ant farm. It's called Antworks, to be precise. It's made of "space-age" gel that houses and feeds the ants, lit up from underneath with blue LED lights.

We had to buy it for him. You had to see his face when he saw it, then you would understand why I allowed an ant farm in the house. He held the box like it was the Holy Grail and only asked me once, in a very reverent tone of voice: "Mom. This is an ant farm. Can you get this for me, please?" He didn't even look at me when he asked, he didn't use that pleading gimme tone of voice. His attention was completely focused on the box. My heart melted, knowing that of all the things he randomly asked for at Brookstone, this was the one thing he really wanted. The rest he asked for just to ask, like throwing out requests knowing he wouldn't get anything but hey, you never know unless you ask and you just may get lucky.

But this -- this ant farm -- it was crystal clear that this was IT. I played hard to get ("well, let me think about it") just so he knew I wasn't an easy sell. And he didn't say anything, he just stared at the box, as if trying to memorize it. He docilely followed me around the store, not saying a word, not begging, not making promises, just asking me to read every word from the back of the box.

I finally relented and told him that we could get it but only if he promised to be very careful with the farm. He just nodded and continued to stare at the box, in a trance. I paid for it, added $8 for a 2 year insurance plan to replace it should anything happen to it and had it bagged. He insisted on carrying the bag out and when I placed it under the stroller, he wanted to ride the stroller to be as close to the bag as possible. Sometime later, I noticed that he got it out of the bag and had it clutched in his arms. It was still clutched close to his heart in the car, on the way home.

Upon arrival at home, he immediately asked to open it. Now, on an intellectual level, I knew in my brain that there wouldn't be any ants in there. How would they live? However, despite knowing that, and after reading the instructions where it stated "Ants aren't included" I still thought: "well, heck, where are the stupid ants?!" Turns out you have to order the ants. Actually, you could go outside and pick your own ants, but they recommended getting harvester ants for the size. Since it was a Sunday, I told Kael that I'd have to order them tomorrow. That kind of set me up for doom since he asked everyday, at least 4 times a day if the ants came in.

They finally came in Friday and I was not happy that Truong was not home to set them free in their new home. It was about 150 degrees outside so I was afraid the suckers would die from the heat so I had to release them myself. I wasn't about to spend another $4.95 on 25 harvester ants from Utah.

First, let me tell you: Harvester ants are HUGE. Especially when there's 25 of them stuffed in a little vial with a screw top. Second, unlike the worms, ants are fast. I was really nervous that they were going to leap out of the vial and crawl all over my arm. And third, I hate ants! Really hate ants. I'm scared of spiders but I can live with one if I had to. Ants invoke a different kind of emotion in me... disgust because where's there one, there's a hundred just around the corner. Creepiness because there are so many of them. Ugh. I can't stand them.

Anyway, I manage to put them all in. One fell out and made a mad dash across the counter. Miraculously, I got him back in the vial without screaming any obscenities in front of the children and slammed the lid on the farm nice and tight.

And so we all sat there, with our faces inches away from the farm. I don't know what we were expecting, instant digging? but we didn't get much action. They sort of milled around, doing nothing. After a couple of hours they started chewing but not where I thought they would. I had made some holes in the gel to help jump start them but they weren't going there. Great, I bought retarded ants.

By Saturday though, they laid some pretty good groundwork. Did you know that ants sleep? They work and work, and then they all stop in their tracks. The first time I witnessed this, I thought they were all dead, like a mass suicide. But 30 minutes later, they were all action again. You really do learn something new everyday.

So, my final assessment of Kael's ant farm: pretty cool. They are quite amazing digging their tunnels and I can be content watching them work. It's kind of like watching a fish tank. An ant's life cycle is between 1 and 3 months so I have a feeling I'll be placing an order for more ants in the near future.


Kael is very excited about his ants.


Look at how big they are! If any ever escape, I'm tenting the house and bug bombing the hell out of it.


Retarded ants.


Malia's reaction to being told: "NO TOUCH!!"


Kael the bug scientist at work.


Malia tries to be just like her brother.


"This magnifying glass doesn't work!"


This after one day. Pretty cool, I have to admit.

It's GOT to be Dad.

There's no other reason. The past 2 nights that Truong wasn't home they went to bed great: slept within 30 minutes with minimal chatting and goofing around.

Now Dad is back... and they are SINGING!! Or maybe they are just talking -- just at the same time so it sounds like they are singing. Actually, I think Kael is singing and Malia is just talking. Malia is also using her crib as a trampoline -- bounce, bounce, bottom! We had our first gymnastics class today and she was awesome! Unfortunately she's trying out her new skills at home. In her crib. At 8:40pm. Eventually she'll realize that she can't effectively pull off a forward roll without getting a limb caught somewhere.

Looks like it's going to be a long night. I guess I better prepare myself for a 1:00am visitor.

-- I just heard Malia yell out: "Kael! Please! Come in here with Yabba! Please!" What a troublemaker.

One step closer to becoming a vegetarian.

Today on the car ride home from tumbling class, Kael asked if we could take a trip and go fishing. A totally random question, as usual, so of course I wasn't prepared. But really, how harmful is this question, right?

K: "Can we go to the river and can you buy me a fishing pole so I can go fishing?"

Me: "Sure! We can go fishing sometime."

K: "How do you fish, Mom?"
If I was paying more attention, I would have caught the trick question.

Me: "It's very easy, Kael. You get a fishing pole. It has a hook, you put some bait on it and put it in the water..."

K: "What kind of hook? Is it sharp? What's bay-ate?"
I'm blissfully (ignorantly?) unaware of his thought process and continue to chatter on about how easy fishing is.

Me: "You need a fishing hook. It's very sharp so you need to be very careful (as I'm saying this I'm already thinking about how I'm going to keep Malia safe from Kael and his fishing hook) and bait is what you use to catch fish. It's stuff they like to eat."

Kael doesn't say anything, then: "What do you do with the bait?"

Me: "You very carefully put the bait on the hook and put the hook in the water and wait for fish to eat it. When they do, you will feel a tug on your fishing pole and you pull it up and you've caught a fish on your hook!"

He's quiet, thinking. Then he says: "Does it hurt the fish?"

DOH! CRAP! MOTHER...$%#@!!!

I don't know what to say. I can't lie and "No, no, getting yanked out of your home while on the search for food with a sharp hook through your mouth doesn't hurt a bit!" but then I can't tell him the cold hard facts either because what if he decides to stop eating fish, or MEAT altogether?!

GEEZ!!

Once again, my 4 year old catches me with my proverbial pants down. So I tell him: "It probably stings a little." And as far as I'm concerned that's not totally off base because I've seen pro-fishers catch and release on TV. Now I don't know if PETA approves, but I've seen them do that so I'm not a complete liar.

I don't think I've totally convinced him because he then asks if there's another way to catch fish without hurting them. An image of him with one of his bug nets in the shallow waters trying to catch fish and being the first to perish if he ever had a Blue Lagoon moment flashed through my mind but I quickly shake it away. I can't be distracted right now. The matter of keeping him on the carnivore side of meals is at stake -- I need to focus. So I ask him: "What do you think? Can you think of another way to catch fish without using a hook?"

He's quiet then he says: "Hmmm. I'll have to think about it, Mom. I'll tell you later."

Whew. I'm off the hook for now. But I will tell you we will NOT be talking about where hamburgers come from the next time we go through In-N-Out.

Day 4

Last night was great! The kids fell asleep with minimal talking, no goofing around and best of all, they both stayed in bed. Malia woke up first this morning at just before 7:00am and started quietly calling Kael's name. I don't know if he was already awake or if she woke him up but they eventually both lounged in their own beds, chatting quietly. It was so sweet.

As for myself, I took 2 Sudafeds at bedtime at the urging of my drug-pushing friends (Shana and Erin) but I have to admit it did help clear my head. Gave me awful cotton mouth but I was able to sleep relatively clear headed. I usually don't take medicines of any kind unless I'm at death's door but last night I was glad I did.

The kids went down tonight at 8:10pm with hardly any chatting. I reminded Kael again that his bed is for Kael and her crib is for Malia. You both need to stay in your own beds and go to sleep. The inevitable "Why?" came up and the best answer I could think of was: "Because if you don't sleep tonight, then you won't be able to go to school tomorrow." Luckily he loves school so that answer worked like a charm. I don't know for how long that will be a Go card for him so I'll use it while I can.

It's 8:50pm and Kael's been asleep for some time, curled under his blankets. At this point in time, I don't know if he's actually asleep or just trying to escape Malia's chatter. I see that she's launched all her toys in her crib in his direction in an effort to interact with him. Maybe he went under the sheets to avoid getting SCUD missile'd with the Backyardigans (boy is she going to be pissed tomorrow morning when she fully realizes what she's done). Malia up until about 8:40pm, was still chatting, more to herself than to Kael since she hadn't been able to get a response from him. She's been pretty quiet and still now, so maybe she finally fell asleep too. It's hard to tell because she's under her pillow with only her feet in view, kind of like the Wicked Witch of the East under Dorothy's house.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another good night.

Roomies Day... uh... 3?

Geez, has it really only been 3 days??

The anticipated head cold hit me with a vengeance last night and this morning I just wanted to crawl into a dark, quiet hole and stay there. But alas, such will never be the life of a mom.

Malia started crying at 1:00am. Yes. That's 1 o'clock in the (fricking) morning. I let her cry for a bit (about 3 minutes) then Truong couldn't take it anymore and ran to get her. Settled her in bed with us where she immediately quieted down and went back to sleep (the stinker). Meanwhile, since I was rudely woken up, my nose started to congest and I had the awful urge to blow it. I tried blowing it in bed, but that woke her up so I stopped but I was too tired to get out. So I laid there, willing the snot to go away. But the longer I laid there awake, the more pressing the need to pee became (one of the banes of being pregnant is the near constant urge to pee about half a teaspoon of urine each time). Physical need won out over laziness and I eventually dragged myself out of bed to take care of business.

I settle myself back into bed but I can never sleep well with Malia. She sleeps like Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man - completely spread out - and can't stand to be under the sheets. I need to be under the sheets to sleep but I can't with Malia for fear of suffocating her. So there's a constant tug of war between me and her unless I scootch way down the bed for the covers but if I do that then there becomes a war over my pillow: who gets it -- me or her?

Anyway, as I struggle to get some sleep between trying to find a happy place with Malia and ignoring Truong's snoring that I swear makes me want to put my pillow to other uses at times, who comes running into our bedroom at 4:30am?!

Jiminy Cricket! Can't these kids stay in their own rooms?!

Truong settles Kael into bed but he has to get up at 5:00am to catch his flight to Oakland.
(heh heh -- at least I'm not the only one not getting any sleep...)

So Mom plus 2 kids sleep way late. I can barely muster the strength to care about getting Kael to school on time because I'm feeling so cruddy. I somehow muddle through my day and get Malia to nap. Kael doesn't nap but I desperately need to otherwise I run the risk of putting the Exorcist to shame. So I haul out the portable DVD player and settle him into bed with me to watch The Magic School Bus. OK, so he watched 5 episodes. I was really tired.

Tonight I think Malia knew I was running at half tank because she was like a vine attached to me. I had to pry her off me just so I could heat up dinner: unwrap her from my body, toss her on the couch and run to the kitchen to do what I needed to do before she scooted off the couch to follow me screaming. It was so much to handle that the Shit-O-Meter needle flew from Why Me? straight to Comical.

Got the kids to bed at 8:10pm. I read them both their own books and tucked them in. Gave last kisses (and sure, a threat to Kael to stay in his bed) and closed the door. I waited to hear the chatting but it was pretty minimal tonight. Mostly Malia playing her crib. At 8:36pm I went to take a shower and she was in the sleeping position -- not quite asleep with her leg kicking every once in a while but definitely ready to drift off. Kael in the meantime, I can only assume is somewhere in his bed. I can't tell. I think he's under the covers which is a good sign.

So even though I feel like crap, it's been a good night. Now I'm hoping they stay in their beds until morning.

Total time: 26 minutes. I'm feeling optimistic of the sleeping arrangements.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you of the Potential Disaster: Linny (from the Wonder Pets) is missing. She went to bed with him last night but as of this morning I can't find him. I'm trying to quietly look for him without alerting her but he's not under her crib or in tangled in her blanket or pillow. Perhaps Kael took him and hid him or maybe she threw him (Linny, not Kael) and he rolled under Kael's bed. I haven't had much time to search. Luckily she's not noticed that he's MIA and I've changed our bedtime routine a bit to not include the Wonder Pets in the final good nights. So unless I find him tomorrow I think we're taking a trip to... oh crap. Where did I get him? Toys R Us, Target or Walmart??

Roomies - Bedtime #2

After dinner we took the kids for a long walk. They rode in the Chariot while Truong walked and pushed, and I straggled along after him. Boy, I'm really out of shape this pregnancy! We took the long way and came home later than I would have liked (7:45pm). I was aiming for an earlier bedtime for Kael since he has school tomorrow. Of course since time was of the essence (with washing up, teeth brushing, and bedtime stories), Kael decided he had to do a #2.

Sheesh. Every single time we have to do something by a certain time and it was getting close, you can count on Kael to squeeze out a nugget or two.

Anyway, we finally get the kids to bed. Truong read to Kael and I read to Malia. We exchanged kids for hugs and kisses -- and put them to bed. Truong reminded Kael that he had to stay in his bed and I told Malia it's sleepytime so no talking, and we walked out. It's about 8:10pm or so.

At first they talk for a little bit. Malia's walking around her crib, trying to get Kael to come over and party. Kael actually kicks off the covers but doesn't head over. He thrashes around in bed for a bit before he decides he's too tired and settles back in. Plus he knows I set up the other camera and it's pointed at him so I can see him now. I like to think that it's his respect of his parents' wishes that he stay in bed but if truth be told, he was probably dead tired and really just wanted to sleep. Malia continues to talk to him but after a few minutes of Kael's silence, she gives up and starts chatting to the Backyardigans. I need to pull her away from the shutters because she can really bang them (very loudly) open and shut. I switch the monitor over to Kael and the poor kid has burrowed deep down into his sheets to escape Malia's racket.

At 8:40pm, I think Kael's fallen asleep but Malia is still roaming around her crib. She's quieted down but still awake. I go take a shower and come back to a sweet sight: Malia curled up in a ball in the corner of her crib -- sound asleep!

Total time: about 1 hour.

Roomies Day 2 - The Wake-up and The Nap

My Mother's Day started early.

It started at 5:47am, to be exact. That was the time, for some unknown reason, Malia started to cry. When does she ever cry in the morning?! She doesn't! That is until this morning when the kids started to share a room. Truong jumped out of bed and ran to Kael's room to get her before she woke up her brother. He took her to our bed but it was too late. I could hear Kael asking: "Where are you going??" and then he started to get upset. So Truong went back and got Kael too.

Four people, no matter how skinny, just do not fit in a Cal King bed. Let me tell you that now. It's impossible to get comfortable and when you add a 5 month pregnant belly to the mix, you might as well just wake up and get an early start on your day.

We did our Mother's Day dim sum run, ran some errands and headed home. The kids were very tired. Malia started wilting around 10:00am and Kael didn't look much better. I was determined to keep them awake though for a good nap so we motored through our day until lunchtime. It was perfect timing -- by the time the kids ate and washed up, it was a little before 1:00pm. Just perfect. We read stories, gave last hugs and kisses and closed the door.

First thing I noticed through the monitor was that the chatter got significantly louder as soon as we closed the door. A few minutes later, Kael climbed into her crib. I wait to see if he would leave and it looked like he was there to stay so I have to do an intervention. This time he stayed in his bed but the chatter was still pretty loud and fast.

At 2:30pm (so it's been an hour and 40 minutes with one poopy diaper change) Truong decides he's going to take Kael out for a haircut. Malia starts to cry but we're cold-hearted parents and leave her in the room (alone **gasp**). I hear her turn on her music and the crying lessens. I eventually notice it's quiet in her room and when I turn on the monitor, she's finally asleep.

It's 2:36pm.

What a little stinker. She slept until 4:35pm so it was a decent nap. Hopefully tonight will be a better night. Kael will be dead tired since he didn't get much sleep last night, woke up way early this morning and didn't nap at all. But as we all learned from last night, Kael isn't the problem, is he?

Truong is going out of town Monday through Wednesday so I'll be dealing with the late nights, early mornings and no naps by myself. I think I can handle the late and the early. It's the no naps that I'll have problems with since around 2:00pm is when I hit my wall and need a nap myself. It can't get any better than that.

Oh wait. It can get better: my throat is killing me and I'm getting congested. I can already tell it's the start of a really bad head cold.

Yippee!

It's 9:40pm....

And the kids (BOTH kids) are finally asleep!

Total time: 1 hour and 50 minutes.

I'm not even going to think about what time they will wake up in the morning. With that thought, I'm going to bed.

Just in case.

Roomie Intervention - Take 1

Our new bedroom set came in today and with it our new dresser. As such, we spent all day moving the kids together. We were waiting for the dresser so we could move Malia's clothes from her room to mine as Kael's closet is packed. And since her clothes moved, there was no reason to not move the baby too.

Kael didn't nap today (we did that on purpose so he'd be nice and tired for bedtime since we expected he'd be the problem child). Malia took about 40 minutes to finally nap but when she did, she napped for about 2 hours. So naptime was a success.

We did the usual for bedtime: shower, PJ's and storytime. We read Kael's story in his bed, then we read Malia's story in the glider with Kael listening from his bed. Lights off, hugs and kisses, goodnight to the Wonder Pets (Linny, Tuck and Ming-Ming too) and the Backyardigans (Uniqua, Tyrone and Pablo) and last hugs and kisses from the crib. We've been coaching Kael all day about teaching Malia proper sleeping habits (staying in bed, closing your eyes, no talking, etc.) so he'd set a good example.

That was at a little before 8:00pm. I took off to run some errands. I get a phone call from Truong at 8:30pm (I was almost home already) telling me that the kids aren't asleep yet. "Well, what are they doing?" I ask. He tells me they are talking, having a dialog about the stuffed animals and Malia just asked if Kael was OK. I told him that's to be expected and it will probably take about a week or so for them to get used to sharing a room. I get home and he calls me upstairs -- QUICK, take a look at this!

I run up and we both look at the video monitor: Kael is in Malia's crib, legs tucked into the pillowcase like a sleeping bag, rolling around like pigs in a blanket. Malia is jumping on him, WWF-style. She ends up riding his back like a horse and says "Giddyap Horsey!" They wrestle a little more and just as I tell Truong to calmly go in there to settle the kids down again, Kael decides to climb out. So we wait and watch. Malia hangs over the crib railing and starts calling out: "Come back, Kael! Come in! Kael! Come back, get in!" She beckons him with her hands. I hear him say "OK!" and starts the climb back in. Truong quickly walks into the room and discovers that Malia's pooped. So he sends Kael back to his bed and changes Malia's diaper.

Truong puts her back in and reminds Kael to stay in his bed. He comes out and we both watch the monitor. It's like watching "Big Brother" but in real life. She calls to Kael and he actually tells her to go to sleep. She lies down for a bit but pops back up again, trying to get him to come over. It's now 9:00pm and she's still trying to entice him to play. Kael, for his part, is sounding tired and not responding as much as she would like. Unfortunately, she's starting to yell out his name when he doesn't respond. After repeatedly screaming his name, I finally hear Kael tell her, in a very sleepy voice: "Yes, that's my name! Go to sleep, Malia!" Poor Kael. He's got to be incredibly tired.

It's now 9:23pm and Malia's finally stopped talking and yelling for Kael. From his earlier muffled responses, I think he's under the covers as that's his preferred place to sleep. I actually think he's asleep. We're now just waiting for Malia to sleep. She's still thrashing around but at least she's stopped calling for him.

"You're feeding her too much vegetables."

This is what our pediatrician told me at Malia's 2 year appointment: "You're giving her too much vegetables. Give her more meat."

Then he shook his head and said, "I can't believe I just told you that. I usually have parents whose main complaint is that their kids won't even look at anything green."

Malia's 2 year stats:
Weight: 19.13 pounds
Length: 32"

She's in the 10th percentile for height and (the dr's words again) while she's still not on the growth curve, at least she's not as far below it as she was at 18 months (16.15 pounds and 19.6"). In other words, she's not (-10%) like before. Now she's "just" (-7%).

She actually did better than I thought. I was expecting somewhere in the 18 pounds range, so to have her almost hit 20 pounds, I'm very pleased. We of course talked about her diet and he was flabbergasted that she not only ate veggies, but also loved them. She would eat veggies over meat, and meat over pasta and carbs. For meals, I have to dish out her food one at a time: meats and carbs first, then veggies, then fruit for dessert. She's eaten a whole crown of broccoli once and asked for more so I have to really hide the veggies. As in not even have it on my plate otherwise she will ask for it. She's starting to ask to eat our salads at restaurants which cracks me up.

Developmentally, she's hitting all her milestones: knows her 1-2-3's, can jump with both feet, walk backwards, talking in 3-4 word sentences, knows how to wash her hands on her own. It was kind of funny that he asked if she could jump yet, after having her birthday party at Pump It Up the day before.

Anyway, despite genetics playing against her, Malia is turning out normal.

I forgot to post Kael's 4.5 year stats:
Weight: 36.6 pounds (I was really surprised because he's waaayyy skinny)
Height: 43-44" (it was hard to tell because he kept scrunching his head down like a turtle)

Kael's appointment was pretty funny. About a minute after the Dr walked into the exam room, Kael told the him to "look at me!" and dangled himself off the exam table. Then he hopped down and went into a whole science lesson about the life cycle of a silk worm and how he's got a whole bunch of them at home and how they only eat mulberry leaves and how his mom has to go to the park and pick them. Me harvesting the leaves at the public park was something I wanted to keep on the down-low so I was trying to shush him but he ignored me and kept talking about how last year we almost had to climb the tree at the park and how we gave a whole bunch of worms to his friend Ryan and his teacher. The pediatrician had this look on his face, as if he couldn't keep up with the dialog and would look at me to check on the accuracy of what Kael was telling him. I told him that Kael's got all his facts right (I'm not sure he believed me). Then I asked him how much I should tell Kael about Blub and was told to glaze over the facts since kids Kael's age don't really care to know and most likely he won't ask any questions anyway. Basically I was told to adopt the military policy of "Don't ask, don't tell."

Ha! He clearly doesn't know my child at all (wasn't he listening to the silk worm lesson?!). I should have told him some of the stuff Kael's asked about in the past.

Kael is our little science guy. He doesn't know the rules to soccer but he can tell you which spiders are poisonous to people, which planet is the largest, and how craters are created.

He's such a trip. As irritating as his questioning of everything is, I'm pretty lucky to have a kid who thinks enough to ask those kinds of questions.

"Mama! I have a ZERO!"

Huh??

This came from Malia from the backseat. We were on the way to swim class and she was munching on a cup of Chex Mix.

"What did you say, baby?"

"A zero, Mama! I have a zero!"

I still didn't know what the heck she was talking about so I turned around at a light to see if I could decipher what she said. What I saw was Malia (with a triumphant smile on her face) holding up the pretzel piece from her cup of Chex mix. You know, the round one? (See picture.)



"I have a ZERO!"

Omigosh. I was speechless. It was so funny and yet so... so... insightful.

And she was right: it was indeed a zero.

Malia's Birthday Recap

Malia had her birthday party yesterday and she had a great time. I kept it very small -- just the families that she sees the most with similar aged kids to her and a couple of Gymboree friends. It was hard to cut the invite list but since we had it at Pump It Up, I needed to make sure the Little Kids (LK) didn't get mowed over and overwhelmed by the Big Kids (BK). In the end, we had 7 BK and 9 LK. It was a perfect balance (anymore BK and it might as well have been a party for Kael). The BK played pretty rough in the larger bounce house with the Dads but they kept it there so that left the little house for the LK to play in peace and stay injury-free. It was great.

I knew that Malia would have a great time, but I didn't think she'd have as great a time as she did. She wanted to go down the Big Slide with the BK and showed great coordination bouncing around. Sure, she landed on her face a bunch of times but I have a feeling she did that on purpose.

It was a great party - no injuries, no fighting, and plenty of room to run without playing Bumper-Kid. The kids scarfed down the pizzas like a pack of hungry wolves and then I sent them all home to sleep (the party ended at 6:45pm). From talking to some of the Moms today, all that jumping helped their kids crash at bedtime. Just consider that another party favor...

Enjoy the pictures!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALIA!

I can't believe my baby is 2 today!!

Holy cow. I still remember going into labor with her -- the 1:30am drive to the hospital, checking into L&D, then having the nurses all but catch her since she came flying out so fast at 5:45am. It's been an incredibly fast two years.

Happy Birthday, Yabba. We love you!

Any skin friendly glues out there??

That's pretty much the only thing that will probably keep her shoes on her feet.

Maybe.

It's gotten to a point where the instant I open her car door, she immediately says: "No shoes, Mama. Walk feet." Her shoes are (of course) off and tossed helter-skelter somewhere in the bowels of the car. I've decided it's easier and less stressful to not even put shoes on her feet until we get to our destination. Otherwise I waste precious few minutes (minutes that we usually don't have because we're most likely already late) looking for those damn shoes. And then the battle of trying to velcro her shoes onto feet that are pedaling madly in the air, trying to avoid getting shoe'ed -- well, that's just the cherry on top.

She will tolerate her Keens. She will not allow sneakers. And I've figured out why: it's because she can easily take off Keens. Sneakers piss her off because they don't come off as easily in the car. I've driven around with her in a fit of rage because she couldn't get her Converse's off.

heh-heh-heh... wouldn't life suck if I "accidentally" lose her Keens?

Yabba!

"What's his name?"
"Daddy!"

"What's his name?"
"Kay-el!"

"What's my name??"
"Mamaa!"

"Good girl! And what's YOUR name??"
"YABBA!!"

Close, but not quite...

"Mah-lee-ah. Your name is Mah-lee-ah. Can you say 'Malia'?"
<.pause.> "Mah-YABBA!"

I don't know where she got "Yabba" or why she calls herself "Yabba," but she does. She's done that for months. It's not even close unless she adds the "mah-" in front so I'm totally baffled as to where it came from. I have to admit though it makes me laugh every time she says it.