Names names names

Kael's name choices for Blub are in. He has asked for a brother -- actually he's really wanting a baby brother -- but said having another sister "will be OK but I really want a brother."

I told him I'll see what I can do but it was really up to Daddy.

Anyway we're stumped on names that go with Kael and Malia. Just for kicks I asked Kael what he would name his new baby. Here's what he said:

Boy - Josh
Girl - Mikayla

For those of you who don't know, Josh and Mikayla are his friends so it was cute that he would want to name Blub after his friends. Of course, he only knows who he knows so it wasn't much of a stretch of imagination for him. I am grateful though it wasn't something weird like "Pookey Bear" or "Pink Horsey." I told him that it would be too confusing to have two people named Mikayla and perhaps we should think of another name. But he was pretty adamant about having a Mikayla Mai in the family because "Mikayla is my friend and I love her!"

Can't argue with that. But, still... we're continuing our search to broaden our name pool.

"How many more babies are you going to have?"

Guess where that comment came from:

Random people I run into on the street?
Nah. I usually get a "You are brave!" or a "Did you plan it?" In response to the "Did you plan it?" comment, one of these days I'm going to work up the nerve to respond with a "Do you mean did we plan on having unprotected sex and not pulling out? Yes, we did plan that." Just to see their reaction.

Family members?
No. Although I did get a "What?! You're pregnant again? Are you crazy?!" from Truong's sister.

Friends?
Nope again. I got lots of "Congratulations!" with a few "You're nuts and/or brave!" thrown in.

The answer to who said ""How many more babies are you going to have?" would be...




Kael. My 4.5 year old son. Last week on the way home from swimming. Once again another random comment thrown out at me when I least expected it.

I looked at him and said: "WHAT?! What do you mean?"

Kael: "I said: How many more BABIES are you going to HAVE, Mom?"
As if I'm an idiot and did not understand spoken English.

Me: "We're just going to have this last one and then we're done. I'm very happy with having you and Malia and this new baby as our family."
I start getting worried that maybe he was feeling left out, being the oldest.

Kael: "No, I don't think so, Mom."
This was said in a long suffering tone of voice.

Me: "No. Really. This is the last one. No more. I promise. We're done having babies. I'm happy with our family."
WTH was this coming from?!

Kael (with a huge sigh): "No, Mom. I know you're going to have more babies. And then you would have to go to work with Daddy."
Again, said in a tone of the inevitable.

To kill time so I can formulate an appropriate response, I ask him: "How more babies do you think I'm going to have?"

Kael: "I know you're going to have a hundred babies."
A deeper, longer sigh emanates from his little chest.

At this point, I start laughing a bit because I realize this is not stemming from some deep angst of being left out or feeling the competition having another sibling brings. I have no idea where it came from but I don't have to worry about putting another dollar in the Therapy Jar.

I play along: "A hundred babies? Wow. That's a lot of babies."

Kael: "I know. That is a lot of babies, Mom. I just know it. You're going to have a hundred more babies."

Me: "Where do you think we're going to keep all those babies?"

Kael: "Well, we'd have to buy a hundred cars."

Not to mention the worry of having my uterus fall out when I go pee. But I don't mention that to Kael. No need to nail myself in a coffin when I'm still ahead.

Me: "Wow. A hundred cars. That's a lot of cars. Where are we going to park a hundred cars?"

Kael: "That's why you have to go to work with Daddy. So we can buy a bigger house for all the cars."

Ahh. If only life were so simple.

Well, minus the hundred babies part, anyway.

6 inches

I couldn't believe my eyes.

6 whole inches.

I was in shock but at the same time felt... liberated.

6 inches... of my hair. Chopped off. I hadn't had my hair cut -- seriously cut -- in about 3 years. Since Kael was 20 months and we went to Kauai. It's so much easier to pull everything back into a ponytail and be done with it. Especially with 2 kids.

I've been tired of my long hair for some time now but just didn't have the motivation to cut it. If I cut it, I'd have to actually style it every morning and I wouldn't have my fail-safe pony tail to fall back on. Then one day (yesterday to be precise) I decided to cut it.

In fact, I had to have it cut. I called Lisa my girl but her salon doesn't open on Mondays. She could fit me in Tuesday but Truong's out of town until Wednesday and home late Thursday. What about Friday -- no, she's totally booked and she's got a wedding in Ladera on Saturday.

URGHH!!

So I called up everyone asking for their stylist. And no one could fit me in. I was so disappointed. Then I remembered: Truong's cousin Hau has someone she uses in Little Saigon. Hau has nice hair and is very conscientious about her appearance. So I called Hau. Unfortunately I forgot what rotation she's on (she's in medical school doing a stint in the hospital) and got her just after a 24 hour shift, trying to catch up on sleep.

Yikes. I felt awful. But I have to admit it was interesting talking to her. I doubt she remembered what she said to me and I now know what Hau would sound like if she ever dabbled in any hospital grade pharmaceuticals, slurred speech and all.

Anyway, I got the number and the lady was able to fit me in. Hau in her stupor failed to mention that the lady was nuts. Good with scissors but totally NUTS. She wasn't where she was supposed to be, she gave me wrong directions thus making me 20 minutes late, and while she told me she had to be somewhere at 6:30pm, she had me wait while she had false eyelashes glued on. One lash at a time. And then she said something about something burning in her eye while she cut my hair.

It was an interesting visit. Luckily my kids were on their best behavior. Malia was in the stroller watching a DVD and though Kael's DVD player ran out of juice, he was content to talk to the ladies there. In fact, he chatted with them so much that I could see them shooting me incredulous looks of "Is he like this all the time?!" It was very cute. I don't think those Vietnamese ladies understood his discourse on the different spider species or why his venus flytrap will only drink distilled water but I was relieved to have someone else be the recipient of his constant chatter.

In the end, I got the cut I wanted but I sure didn't look like Ellen Barkin in Ocean's 13. Apparently my hair is too thick and wavy. While I could straighten it, it would still be too thick to be the sleek bob that I so covet. Such is my hair story: always too wavy or too thick for the look I want. But I still liked my new cut.

Truong didn't understand what the hair up my butt was about getting my hair cut but I guess Shana had a chat with him (don't think he didn't tell me, Shana). She convinced him that it was pregnancy hormones, to let me do whatever I needed to do and support me on it, and (this is the best one) to compliment me on the new cut before he said anything else, especially before he started laying into me about dragging the kids everywhere -- otherwise risk having his head bit off.

Let's clear something up, just for the record: I don't think it was pregnancy hormones. I just wanted my hair cut! It's not as if I wanted a pint of ice cream while getting my hair cut.

Geez people!

The New Purple

I've been painting No Bite on Kael's nails since he's going back to the disgusting habit of sticking his fingers in his mouth again. It's basically what Bitter Apple is to dogs, but to people. Smells gross and supposedly tastes nasty. I haven't tried it myself -- I'll just take the manufacturer's word on it. Just the fact that he knows it's on his fingernails I think helps although I don't think he's actually tasted it yet.

And of course Malia is totally fascinated with the whole nail painting process. I don't put the No Bite on her but have done colored polish on her toes. She gets a kick out of her painted toes. Unfortunately my color polishes are older than dirt and are about as thick as mud. So Sunday the whole family made a trip to Target to get nail polish.

I scouted for the cheapest polish and settled on Sally Hansen. Luckily Sally's got a lot of colors to choose from. I picked out a nice light pink and a light lavender. Pink because, well, she's a girl and I didn't feel Slut Red was age-appropriate, and lavender because while purple is her favorite color, lavender felt "more" right for her little toes than the metallic purple that was there.

However, Malia had other ideas as to what color would be painted on her toes:



To those of you with the unsophisticated eye, this is called "Mermaid Blue" (by Malia). And this was the winner, hands down. She clutched this bottle like it was a crack pipe and refused to let go. Did not care for the pink, did not care for the lavender. I couldn't even get a second glance at Slut Red. It was Mermaid Blue or bust. Interestingly, the real name is "Marine Scene" so she's definitely got an eye for color.

I haven't put it on her yet. I'm kind of waiting in hopes that she will forget about Mermaid Blue so I can paint on the pink instead. It's a futile hope because she's already asked to have Mermaid Blue painted over her current polish several times today.

I guess I'll be cracking that open tomorrow. I'll post pictures of her Mermaid nails when I get a chance.

Peace Sweet Peace

The Mai Bed and Breakfast has officially closed its doors.

My parents flew out last Monday morning, my aunt and uncle left shortly thereafter (after according to my aunt a "fast and easy" RV fix that my uncle said cost $400) and Thien's and Thao's family left with Grandma last night. After a week plus 1 day of masses of bodies milling about in my house, it felt a little weird but nice to have the house to ourselves last night. Nice with a small come down effect.

The kids kept asking today where's so-and-so? Where's Uncle Thien, where's Uncle Robert? Where's Co (Aunt) Thao and Maureen? Where's my Ba and Ong (Grandma and Grandpa?) Where are my cousins? You'd think they were deprived children, kept in a locked basement with no human contact or something.

It was a great visit -- I was sad to see everyone go. It was nice to have company and it was doubly nice to have other people entertain my kids. It was triply nice (is that even a word??) to have someone else's ear talked off by Kael. Damn that kid never stops talking and asking questions.

The only glitch was the timing: everyone came during Kael's last week of school so he missed out seeing family in the mornings. If we had timed it better, I would have liked to have family come down this week -- when he's on summer break. So after a week of being spoiled with live-in entertainment, I'm back on my own but with both kids for a week until Kael starts summer camp next week. Truong is still on his crazy June schedule so it will be a challenge to keep the kids busy during the hot days and still keep my sanity.

Speaking of keeping my sanity, for the week the B&B was open, Kael and Malia moved into our room. The way it broke down was each family got a room: Thao and Robert got G'ma's room, G'ma got the study and Thien and Maureen got the kids' room. It was the first time Malia got a taste of sleeping without the confines of the crib. And the girl went to town. There was not a single night that she fell asleep before 9:45pm. She roamed everywhere: opening this, closing that, flipping the light switch on/off, climbing and jumping on my bed, knocking on the door to be let out, and taking out her clothes from the dresser -- the usual stuff kids do when they experience freedom for the first time. Unfortunately, she took no heed of where Kael slept. In fact, she preferred to walk on Kael as the poor boy tried to sleep. Each time I went upstairs to scold her, I could hear her scampering back to her bed as I opened the door to my bedroom. It was actually kind of funny the first couple of nights but then it got exasperating. I sort of resolved this by laying her right next to Kael so she was able to touch him. In addition, Kael threw an arm and leg over her but I couldn't tell if it was to comfort her or to keep her anchored. She still roamed every night, but it was a little less. Things didn't get much better though since both kids started waking up between 5:20am and 5:40am. Between the late nights, early wake-ups, and no Truong, my sanity started slipping towards the end of the week. I felt adrift in an ocean of bodies with no life raft. Not even a floaty ring.

Despite missing the company of family, I was looking forward to having the kids back on a regular sleep schedule when everyone left. But on par with my luck, the kids still woke up at 5:40am this morning. Since it's been this way for over a week, I fear that it's now a habit. A habit I don't know how to break since they share a room and when one wakes, that one calls to the other to see if the other is awake too. Then they both wake up, ready to start the day.

At 5:40am.

Ugh.

The best laid plans...

Remember how my parents and my aunt and uncle are visiting from the Bay Area? And that they were leaving sometime Sunday or Monday in the RV?

Well, the RV broke down. It's a 2007 Sprinter so it's not as if it's a ramshackle tin can on 4 wheels. It can drive but it won't shift gears. It needs to be fixed before they can head home otherwise they are toast on the Grapevine. So we scramble to find not just an RV dealership, but a Winnebago RV dealership with a service department. And let me tell you, it was not an easy task. We finally find one, and are told that while we can drop it off today, they won't look at it until Monday. And that tells me nothing about how long it will take to fix. (I'm not going to dwell on that.)

Next we take on the Herculean task of unloading the RV. That meant taking out all their clothes and toiletries and FOOD. Remember, they won't have the RV for at least 2 days. Did I mention that my mom and aunt packed in enough food to distribute to 4 families? Mine and 3 other cousins. So it was a ton of food. It filled both my fridges to capacity and still had enough left over for 3 coolers and my counter top.

For tomorrow, they will have my car to motor around town visiting family. Come Monday however, they will need to rent a car as I have Kael to drop off at school, an OB appointment and Malia's gymnastics class. Hopefully we'll know by then exactly how long it will take to fix the RV.

Oh yeah. And Thien's family is still coming on Sunday and Thao's on Wednesday. So worse case scenario: I can potentially have 16 people staying at my house. Sharing my 2.5 bathrooms.

At least it's getting warm so at the very least the boys can camp out in the tent in the backyard. We'll just have to remember to turn off the sprinklers.

$278 later...

We have a busy week ahead of us.

First, my parents are here visiting us, with my aunt and uncle. Actually, they are here for a wedding near Disneyland and I'm just a convenient pit-stop. No problem -- I'll take a visit any way I can get it as long I don't have to make that 7 hour trek myself. As usual, my mom is convinced that there are no stores within a 100 mile radius and loaded my aunt and uncle's little RV with food she made and brought down from San Jose. All my favorites... the fridge is packed. I mean really packed. Thank goodness we now have the extra fridge in the garage. I was giddy as I packed my goodies away, trying to decide what I wanted to eat first.

I think they are staying until Sunday or Monday.

Sunday afternoon Truong's brother Thien, his wife Maureen and their 10 month old baby Ronan arrive for a week long visit. I haven't seen Ronan in a while so I'm looking forward to seeing that butterball of baby chub. I need to get Malia used to seeing me hold another baby so this visit will be a good learning lesson for her. Thien told me he had a present for Kael. The way he said it, I immediately told him it better not be alive and if it is, it better be in a sealed container and move very slowly otherwise I'd kick his a--... er, butt. He just laughed and said you'll see.

Great.

Wednesday or Thursday Truong's sister Thao, her husband Robert and their 2 boys Thai (3yo) and Son (newborn) arrive for a week. Well, they actually didn't commit a week long visit. Thao said they'd stay until people got tired of the tight living quarters then they'd leave.

So, on a good day, we'd have as many as 12 people living at my house.

Did I tell you that Truong's gone much of June except for weekends? If he's not staying out of town, then he's home really late. I have to wonder if that was done on purpose.

So about the blog title "$278 later..."

Because I'm going to be living like the Little Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe, Malia and I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy an Aerobed for our revolving guests. I found what I needed and we started walking towards the check-out counter. Along the way, we passed by the kids' bedding section, where they had a display of Mermaid bedding. Malia's eyes practically popped out of her head. Her current obsession is Mermaids. Any kind of mermaid, it doesn't matter. She stood in front of the display like it was a shrine. Then she said "Want it, mama! I want Mermaids!" I told her that this was bedding for a big girl bed and that she'd have to give up the crib. Since she loved the crib so much, I figured this was an easy out. However, I miscalculated the lure of the Mermaid. She immediately said "OK, I want big bed and mermaids."

Doh! Not what I wanted to hear. Sure, I realize that she'd have to move into a regular bed eventually, but she and Kael are still goofing around sharing the room. At least one of them is contained when she's in the crib. If she moved into a twin bed, then they'd never go to sleep! Imagine 2 little monkeys jumping on the bed...

I tried to talk her out of the bedding a few more minutes then I just gave up. Hell, if she's so in love with the dumb Mermaids, maybe that will be enough to keep her in bed.

So $278 later, we walked out of Bed Bath with an Aerobed and a full set of Mermaid bedding.

And then I realized that I'd have to hide the bedding from her for at least a week. I'm moving Kael and Malia into my room so Thien and his family can have their room. I can't set up the Mermaid bed and then move her 2 days later. She'd have a fit!


Here's the bedding. Mermaids galore.



And the comforter. Mermaid OD.



And the pillow. She's currently in love with this pillow. It's taken a spot next to Horsey during story time which makes story time very difficult for me. She and Horsey barely fit on my side with Blub front and center. It's near impossible with this pillow too. However, she's content with it and hasn't asked for the bedding so I'll juggle with the pillow for a week.

I figure when I get the kids camped out in my room, I'll break out the bedding as an incentive to keep her in her sleeping area. Too bad the tent no longer fits in our room -- that would have been a perfect "cage" for the kids.

My 80 lbs. goal is slipping away.

So my plan to gain 80 lbs. this pregnancy to get a 6 lbs. baby seems to be a far distant dream now.

With Kael I gained 32 lbs. and he was 5.14 lbs. at birth. Malia I gained 22 lbs. and she was 5.7 lbs. With this being my last pregnancy and last baby, I was determined to break the 6 lbs. baby mark. I figured I'd just pack on the pounds (at least 80 just to be on the safe side) and the baby should follow suit. It would be an interesting theory to test out at any rate.

Well, here I am, 6 months pregnant... and I've only gained 13 lbs. I have 3 months to go and I highly doubt I will be able to pack on 67 lbs. in 3 months.

But never call me a quitter. Time to break out the brownies. I'll post more later.