Tender Moments

Pirate is turning 2 years old in 2 days but still loves to be rocked to sleep at night. If I am home, he insists that I rock him & not his daddy. I just love this time with him. He typically isn't the cuddlies little boy during the day because he is always movin' and grovin' and in his sister's business but when night comes... he is a little teddy bear.

We have a little routine at night for him which includes a playing a certain cd. Princess and Pirate have both been listening, at nap and bedtime, to the same cd since their births. I calculate I have heard the cd over 2,500 times and I still enjoy it.

Pirate is an excellent sleeper. I have been blessed with two kids that love to sleep through the night. On the rare occasion that he wakes and needs me to rock him, I jump out of bed to see him. Since it is so rare, it's not a chore for me but a wonderful and snuggly time with him. I love how he tucks his head under my chin and gets as close to me as possible. He never falls asleeps in my arms, he always motions to me to put him in his crib. I then slip out of his room, while the cd music is drifting over the baby moniter and fall back to sleep myself.

The picture above is how Pirate sleeps every night. He has been doing this since birth. I can't imagine it is too comfortable.

Best trick in the book, so far....

We struggle daily to get Princess to 'clean up' her toys and such after she is done playing with them. I typically insist clean up takes place when she moves from one activity downstairs to another upstairs or vise versa, when we leave the house, or bedtime. I try my best to ignore her room and just let it be her crazy, messy space if that is what she choses. It's hard for me but I practice resistance each and every day. The one thing I insist is her bed be made every day. I only insist the her room gets clean when it has been days of the mess and I can't walk in there anymore.

We have learned from the teachers at school that Rylan typically leads and organizes 'clean up' at school with the other kids. Now that she has been outed by the teachers, I realize her laziness at home. A fellow mom shared with me that she will get out a garbage bag and start throwing toys in the bag if her girls don't clean up when told. She has gone to the extent of actually throwing them [toys, not kids] in the garbage. (I haven't got to that point yet) I tried this trick it home and HOLY MOLY!!! I can't explain how quickly my living room got cleaned up. I love this trick and have been using it all week. I get as far as getting out the trash bag and Princess jumps to attention and starts cleaning while telling me to put the garbage bag away. Love it!

Good Ole' San Francisco

Princess and I went on a Mommy/Daughter getaway this past weekend to San Francisco. We had a blast! This is the second trip we have taken. When Pirate is a bit older, he will get to go on trip alone with me too.

We got a room in Fisherman's Wharf at a nice little hotel with a king size bed. I was anxiously waiting to go to bed so I could spread out and actually finally have some room when I sleep without Dear Husband and 2 cats. Wishful thinking! Princess hogged the bed, along with her 8 sleeping buddies she brought along on the trip (Yes, we did count them because I wanted to be sure we knew how many to look for at the end of the trip) I clung to the edge of the bed all night and listened to Princess grind her teeth. During my sleeplessness, I began to rationaloze what is worse, Husband's snoring or Princess' teeth grinding. Dear Husband lost! Princess is much more cuddly and cute so I can deal with the teeth grinding.

We went to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Princess wasn't too thrilled with the stampede of animals sounds so we sat in the fishtank room and admired the fish. The hightlight of the trip for her was the gift store at the restaurant. She has already picked out the next two items she will purchase on her next two visits. She suggested that we get a babysitter for Pirate and bring Daddy to the Rainforest Cafe for his birthday. I was so proud of her thoughful planning but later realized she had alterior motives... to get the next item on her wish list at the gift store..

We took a cable car from Aquatic Park to Market Street and then another back to Bay Street. That was my favorite part of the trip. The sun was setting and Princess was so into all that we were seeing.

The next morning, we headed over to Hyde Pier to tour the Balclutha ship and Eureka ferry. I have good memories of visiting the Balclutha, several times, when I was a kid on field trips with school. Princess was a bit apprehensive about going down below on the ship but soon got over herself and enjoyed the visit. I am still amazed that the captain of the ship had his wife on board too and she gave birth to their child on the ship somewhere out on the Atlantic by India. The toddler stayed on the ship for the first few years of her life. I think life is tough living in our tiny little house, I couldn't having my baby on a ship in the middle of the ocean, teaching it to walk and protecting it from pirates and turbulent seas. Motherhood in any era is difficult and has it's challenges. (Shoot.. that could be a whole seperate blog post)

Princess soon grew homesick for her dad and brother and was happy that we were heading home. She and I had a great time and we look forward to our next trip.. whereever it might take us.

Little room for air

Finally able to find a few minutes to blog tonight. It has been tough for me lately. I just don't find the time. Blogging has become a type of therapy and outlet for me. I love writing and reflecting on my day or a thought or a cute story. So, when I am not blogging you must know I am buried to my ears in life. The idea of not having 15 minutes to blog a day has really highlighted to me that I never take the time or am given the time to breath on my own, all by myself. I am smothered from the minute I wake up until the last person in my house has gone to sleep. Then I begin to emerge and regroup. This is typically at 10pm.

I can now say that I understand fully the issues that stay-at-home moms have with losing themselves into the people they love. I am trying to catch myself from that before it is too late. Let me tell you, it is tough and not nearly as easy as people say. I was told to go to the gym and burn off the stress. I do that now every weekday. It is nice and I am getting great exercise yet I am still not being given the chance to breath. Dropping Pirate off at the Kid's Gym and walking over to a cardio machine and exercising for an hour does not help me with the things in life that are burying me... keeping in touch with friends, looking for a job, paying my bills, peace and quiet at a decent hour, etc. It's actually setting me back on my available time.

I need to start getting on the bandwagon of finding a job now that the economy is starting to turn upward yet I am struggling with finding the time to do so. It is tough to hold a business conversation when a 2 year old is crying in the background or the 4 year old is wondering who I am talking to and when I will be off the phone. It is tough to go from wearing the mommy hat one minute to the professional hat the next minute and then back to the mommy hat at a moments notice.

In looking at the calendar today, I realized I have not been kid-free since Oct. 3rd. On that day I ran a few errands all on my own and then received a phone call after about two hours wondering if I was going to be home soon. I went from wearing the 'Me' hat to the 'Mommy' hat as quick as my phone can sing Kid Rock's All Summer Long. October 3rd. was 17 days ago. I have not been out of a 50 foot range of a child ever since. I need a little room for air!

Keep your germs to yourself

Today I took the kids to get their H1N1 (swine flu) vaccination. Princess got her's but Pirate wasn't able to get one because he's not 2 years old yet. Apparently they don't have a vaccination for the babies yet. The (nasal) shot clinic told me I could bring Pirate back in a few weeks when he is actually 2. I guess they need to be that rigid but I don't see what difference two weeks will make. Oh well... we need to go back anyways because the kids need two doses of the vaccination this year.

I am still trying to figure out who is paying for these vaccinations because at our clinic today through Sutter Medical Group, they didn't take any insurance information or even double-check that we were a patient of a doctor within the Sutter Group. I asked if I needed to pay a co-pay and was told "nope". Humm.... I am sure a bill will catch up to me at some point. Nothing is free these days.

Shoot, who knows when I will get my H1N1 shot. I'm still waiting to get my seasonal flu shot. I had an appointment with my doctor two weeks ago and they canceled because they ran out of the seasonal flu shots. They have more on order but have yet to receive their shipment. I call every few days and they don't have any type of ETA. I know my age group is last on the list to receive the H1N1. I just don't want to get sick like I did a few weeks ago. Not only does it suck to be sick, it sucks to have to take care of two little kids when you are sick.

Ghost of Whitefield

If you don't believe in ghosts or things of that nature, read no further, you won't be interested in this blog post.

A month ago I visited New Hampshire and shared in my blog post on Sept. 20, 2009 our visit to the former home of my maternal great-grandmother, Mary Day Poore Osborne. I am the 5th generation 'Day' and Princess is the 6th generation. http://redherringreality.blogspot.com/2009/09/home-sweet-home.html

The house has effected my mom, brother, and I all to different degrees since we have arrived home in California. For my mom and I, we can't get the house off our mind. There is some yearning for the house that neither she or I have ever felt before about something. We have both independently, without knowing the other was doing the same thing, made attempts to find out more about the current owners of the house. We have hit a dead end for the time being because we don't know the exact street address of the home since it resides on a remote, rural road. Something is pulling us to this house and we don't know what it is. We have both been to the house since it was sold out of the family. I saw the house in 1988 and my mom saw it in 2005. Neither visit stirred the emotions we have now.

On top of everything, my brother took a picture of the house that has created some odd things since returning to California. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, we were all a bit uneasy standing in front of the house on the day we visited it. It felt like someone was watching us. There were no signs of anyone living in the home, though there was some furniture in the house. The electric meter was not spinning yet the front door was ajar. We had the major creeps and we didn't know why.

My brother took this picture of the house. He says that if you zoom in on the downstairs left window to the right of the formal front door (not the door on the porch) there is an odd figure that appears in the window while in zoom. It is a bit eerie and you can make out eyes, nose & mouth. My mom was a skeptic too but she did zoom in on the picture finally and swears there is a figure of something standing back a bit in the window, like not wanting to be seen. The creepy thing about this picture is that when my mom went to print the zoomed picture, her computer and printer completely locked up and it took her over an hour to get it sorted out. She has not attempted to print the picture again.

Spooky.....

Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch today. Do pumpkin patches actually grow their own pumpkins anymore? The one we chose to go to didn't, though it was on a farm and they made it look like they had grown the pumpkins. The kids had fun, of course.

Dear Husband and I were taken back by nickle and diming that took place on the patrons of the pumpkin patch. They had a jumpy jump set up, which cost $2.00 per kid for 5 minutes. Okay, we didn't think that was too bad since we doubt they keep a jumpy jump in their barn and, most likely, had to rent it. Also, the teenage boy manning the jumpy jump didn't seem to have a stopwatch for the 5 minute limit.

The kicker was the tractor rides that they charged for.... $4.00 per person or $10.00 for 3 people. Come on! That's ridiculous yet it gets even worse. Dear Husband noticed that the tractor had been loaned to the pumpkin patch as advertisement. The tractor was brand-spanking new (even I was impressed) and there was an advertisement for the local New Holland distributor on the tractor. Seriously... that is highway robbery for a tractor ride.

What has happened? I know times are tough and everyone is out to make a buck but still....