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.