I need a beer.

Too bad I don't drink.

It's almost 8:00pm. The kids are showered and in bed. I'm finally eating dinner. After dinner, I have to clean up the kids' dinner mess, wash dishes and unload the dishwasher. Then sweep the floor of all the weird stuff I'm stepping on (I don't want to know what they are). Then make the kids' school lunches. Then prep dinner for tomorrow (it's another full day so we're crock potting it). Finish laundry. Pick up the stupid damn balls for the stupid damn ball pit. Get swim stuff ready and in the car (I don't want to be that loser mom where I forget their swim gear -- for the 3rd time). Hopefully I'll have time left to work on the computer on my personal projects. Then shower (maybe get a snack if there's time) and get to bed.

Whew!

What are the chances of getting to bed before midnight?

Solo parenting sucks.

Oh yeah...

"I remember now why you didn't want the ball pit." -- Truong, Clueless Dad

Why I ought to....

-Sent by iPhone

The Budding Artist

And when he's done, he holds it up and says "Uh! Uh!", waiting for
(expecting) the appropriate sounds of awe from me.

- Sent from iPhone

Oh god. It's back.

The Ball Pit.

The kids love it.
I hate it.

It was Truong's idea and he swears he will clean up the mess every
night. Which I find hard to believe since (1) he's out of town the
next 2 weeks and (2) the balls do not magically reappear back in the
pit after 3 kids go diving in it. I'll be spending my waking hours
chasing after those damn balls.

I should have known this beast would be resurrected. Afterall, I was
saving the 200 plastic balls in 2 trash bags in the garage. I am my
mother's child. She's still got several jackets that I wore in high
school hanging in the closet. Like her, I just could not bring myself
to get rid of 200 perfectly usable plastic balls.

I do have to say the look of glee on Taede's face makes it worth it.
For now anyway. It's only been up since this morning and we've been
gone all morning until naptime. I'll post an update later this week...
If I'm not too busy secretly sabatoging the ball pit, stealthly
throwing away balls one at a time, so the kids won't notice the ball
level slowly going down. Muwahahaa!

- Sent by iPhone

Helmet Head

The Good News: she loves wearing her new helmet.

The Bad News: she's in the house.

-- Sent by iPhone

The Karate Kids

Taede loves karate. He loves watching Kael in class. He loves going to the dojo. He always tries to get on the sparring mat. He even bows when he enters the dojo.

We try to practice with Kael at home whenever we get a chance, and I started noticing Taede copying the moves. Complete with the vocals.

It's so funny.

Kael was practicing his spinning back kick, hence the twirl on Taede's part.



FYI - That little jig that Kael does at the end.... not part of the kata.

The Ball

Nothing completes a playdate better than a dance set to the right music (from Beauty and the Beast).

I love how Malia admires herself in the handheld mirror.



And this is how I found her one day. Talk about a flash of insight into her tween and teen years...


She's chatting with either Audrey or Gina.

Better than XM Radio

Taede has his own boom-box. Sure, it plays the same 2 songs and the songs are about 8 seconds long and the volume choices are loud and LOUDER -- but it's his. He used to play the thing constantly. I mean constantly. As in continuously for 30 minutes. My head would getthisclose to exploding. It's a true testament of my mothering skills that I haven't chucked the damn thing in the garbage can. If he didn't look so darned cute dancing, it would have been a goner a long time ago.





Whenever he falls, he rubs his head. Even if he didn't bump his head. He could have bumped his elbow and he'd still rub his head.

Plop, plop...

Who would have guessed they can bounce??

And survive to bounce another day?!!



Don't blink otherwise you'll miss it: each time I have the little camera out to record, he automatically does a karate move. I got a little bit of a front kick with a kee-ah! It's hilarious.