I didn’t take pictures today. Honestly, I think I’m losing my mind a little. I realize it sounds like it’s already far gone since I called Abe 29 times yesterday. It really was an emergency–I didn’t know how I was going to make it to school if he didn’t pick up, and I had no other way of contacting him. Anyway, as if that weren’t enough, I am having terrible nightmares about lice and eczema (just recently discovered I have this all over and every day it gets worse), and I feel like I’m barely scraping it together enough to even put on the appearance of sanity. The nightmares keep playing out in my head vividly all day long–in the background, while I try to hold normal conversations and interact with people.
I don’t handle illness, pests, or parasites well. It’s been a hard week. Mom, feel free to say a prayer for me. I would call you, but it’s so late there. Lots of love to you and Grandma.
Mom and Grandma, I’m sorry that this is so short and doesn’t include the pictures we talked about on the phone today. We are babysitting some children who haven’t seen their mom since Wednesday, and it has been a little crazy. The poor little girl basically moaned “I want my mommy” over and over again until she finally fell asleep at midnight. Abe and I tried to comfort her, but to no avail. Lydia is currently awake because they’re all sleeping in the same room. I’m contemplating how I can sneak their window open since the air conditioner scared Harley (the little girl), so I had to turn it off.
Hi Grandma! The only thing we did today was go to church. Mom and I walked over an hour to get home, and we’ve been tired ever since. Now we’re having a movie marathon at home while waiting for Abe to arrive. His flight keeps getting delayed.
The girls have been eating on the floor here. This is right before church.We walked through Fort Tryon Park (the one with the Cloisters) on the way home from church.It doesn’t feel like we’re in New York City at all in the park.The Hudson.Clark and Swathi cooked us a feast with three different curries and homemade chapatis.
Movie marathon. Lydia needs to wear her glittery headband AND tiara to watch Frozen.
We went to Rockaway Beach in Queens today. It was so fun, but I didn’t put sunscreen and probably gave myself skin cancer.
Clark built this sun cover for Mom. Everyone else had umbrellas, but Mom and Mary spent most of the time under our stroller/towel hut. They loved it!
Mary dancing after we changed her out of her swimsuit.
On our way to dinner at Saggio. It was delicious. My favorite was dessert: I had poached pears with fig gelato and a port wine reduction sauce. The girls gobbled it up (but not before I ate more than my share!).
Grandma, Clark’s computer drives me nuts and Lydia is begging to go to bed. I wish I could write more, but blogging takes me so long on this computer that this will have to do. Love you, Grandma! Sorry to steal Mom from you–we think of you all the time!!
We’re in New York! I didn’t blog yesterday, so this is a catch-up picture post. Yesterday Abe said good-bye to us as the girls and I took our flight to New York. Abe is going to Puerto Rico for a wedding, but he will join us on Sunday in New York.
The girls were PERFECT on the plane. I almost wish going by myself were harder so I could feel more authentically heroic…but luckily, the girls spared me the necessity of scrounging up some heroism.Mary was awake most of the flight, but she fell asleep during the last hour of the flight.When we arrived in New York, an airport worker gave me a free luggage cart because, he said, the girls were so cute and well-behaved. I was grateful, and, after their wonderful performance on the flight, was more than inclined to agree.
We had a wonderful reunion with Nana:
Tiaras and glittery headbands from Nana. They wanted to wear them all at once.
After dinner, we took a stroll to the park:
The girls had trouble getting to bed. They ended up sleeping with me, and I woke up to the sight of them curled up next to me. It was sweet.
We had trouble getting going, so we watched Frozen in bed before doing anything.
Then we took a walk to The Cloisters with Mom.
The girls fell asleep on the way. (It was a forty-five minute walk).
Then the girls played in a park:
We watched Frozen twice today, and now Lydia is begging to go to sleep. Love you, Grandma! Wish you were here!!
This is going to be a quick post because I am addicted to Fablehaven and am currently on the last book in the series. I want to get in as much as possible before Abe’s bedtime hits and we turn into pumpkins for the night, so a quick recap:
I took the girls to the library and grocery store. Lydia and I baked brownies and made lasagna. Ina came over for dinner, and we ate outside. I’m still sick.
Abe had another great day at work.
Here are the pictures:
Our air conditioning is not working again. I hope Mary doesn’t get too hot in those leggings (I need to do laundry and sort her clothes to find her summer pj’s!).Mid-chew, apparently.After dinner I walked into Lydia riding her horsey who also happened to be singing “Step in Time.”Mary got new squeaker sandals and is in love. She wears them all around–her favorite is to jump in them and make big squeaks!
Also, I am officially the luckiest person in the world. My friend, Candace, (who, coincidentally should get a part-time job as a fairy godmother, or at least earn an official title like World’s Most Generous Friend) got me this amazing genealogy game her mother-in-law invented! I am working on gathering info on the ancestors we want to include. I can’t wait to play it! If you ever read this, thank-you and I love you, Candace!
As if that weren’t enough to put me over the moon, Clark called tonight and told me that for my birthday, he and Swathi are flying the girls and me out to New York the same weekend my mom is visiting them!! And it just happens to be the weekend Abe is flying solo to Puerto Rico to hang out with his college friends for a wedding. I was planning on staying at home to mope, but those plans just got happily interrupted. Another title that needs to be bestowed: World’s Best Brother and World’s Best Sister-in-Law. I love you, Clark and Swathi!!
….and back to the fate of the world (according to Fablehaven).
If I have to be sick, I want every day to be like this. It was sunny and glorious, and even though I spent most of church feeling miserable and so sorry for myself, the rest of the day was terrific. Thanks to Abe’s efforts and the kids’ long naps, there was lots of down-time. I even started reading the next Fablehaven book, and it’s proving to be much better than the first one.
Here are today’s pictures:
We ate dinner outside again. It was so nice I forgot I was sick for a little bit.
I was sitting at the table eating and marveling at how green everything is. I just love, love, love verdant scenes.Lydia still has not figured out how to glide on her balance bike, but that doesn’t stop her from walking around on it.Abe was dying to trace the girls’ outlines and color them in, but the girls were scared. So he finally begged us to trace him. Here’s Lydia coloring Abe’s outline.And then she danced on it.Abe felt proud.Whenever Mary wants praise, she just folds her arms like she’s going to pray. We all go nuts.After all the fun with Daddy’s outline, Mary wanted in.And, of course, so did Lydia.Then it was chase outside.
Then we returned inside and wondered how to spend the rest of the evening. At that very moment, who should call but Clark and Swathi! We Skyped with them for an hour. That’s always a highlight of my week. As soon as we said good-bye to them, the doorbell rang. It was Suzanne!
Suzanne came over for a visit.The girls both wanted turns on her lap.Mary spent approximately an hour picking out cards from our various piles, sorting them, and handing them to all of us.Handing Suzanne a card.Returning from card distribution duty with a sense of satisfaction.
And I have Suzanne to thank for the decongestants I am about to take. Here’s hoping for a great night’s sleep!
This morning Mary woke up so sleepy that I read to her for an hour while she cuddled in my arms by the open window. It felt so luxurious and magical. The breezes smell so sweet this time of year, but since they are still brisk, I wrapped Mary in a blanket and rocked with her while we read.
We read the books on the floor in front of the chair.
Then Mary fell asleep in my arms. Normally I transition her to her crib, but I thought, “This feels so beautiful, and what could be more important?” We rocked for an hour while I day dreamed and looked out the window. Heaven (my version).
Mary woke up and I fed the girls breakfast. When I discovered Mary had fallen asleep again on her high chair, I started to get worried. Yesterday Abe played chase with the girls and Mary ran into a door. Her face got a little black and blue, and I started to wonder if she had a concussion.
I transferred her to the crib and she slept for another three hours. When she woke up lethargic and sleepy, I called the doctor. We are leaving for our Springfield trip in forty minutes, and it felt a little crazy to drop it all and run to the doctor–but Mary seemed really sick.
Turns out she had a temperature of 102, her white blood cell count was really low, and her little heart was racing. She has a nasty virus, and she is currently sleeping (again). We are packing lots of Tylanol for the trip and hoping the hours upon hours in the car give her plenty of time to rest.
I have to go finish cleaning before we leave. Here are some more pictures I took this morning:
We weaned her off of her binky over a month ago (except for naps), but with all of the travel, her teething, and now this virus, she’s getting a LOT of binky time.Almost all of Lydia’s leggings get holes in the right knee. I don’t know why that knee is more prone than the other, but at any rate, these pants are no exception.
All I did today was laundry, read to the girls, feed the girls, go on a treadmill run, play with the girls and go to cooking school. Oh, and I started watching the Mitt Romney documentary on Netflix (while I ran).
Abe had a good day at work, dropped the car off on the way home and walked the girls all the way from south of downtown to our house. The walk took over an hour (much of it uphill), and Abe said he got to visit with a lot of our neighbors and even make new friends in the neighborhood. Since it is almost midnight and poor Abe needs to sleep, I’m going to post a couple pictures from play time:
The girls cooked me delicious food.
Lydia called this her “trick” and wanted me to take pictures.
And we’re back!! Well, we got back Sunday night, but it has been a little hectic trying to get back into the swing of things, so this is the first chance I’ve had to blog. Monday morning I woke up in denial about the mountains of post-trip laundry, so I went to breakfast with Aria and the kids. We went to Gourmandise, where I fell in love with creme brulee oatmeal and their almond croissants. After that we headed to the park to join Aria’s Monday play group. I started the kids on a rock hunt, and Lydia, who is slightly passionate about rocks, had a meltdown when I announced it was time to be responsible and head home.
But responsible didn’t hit until yesterday. I spent the rest of Monday lying in bed trying to gear up for cooking school. This week was sausage week, and it was absolutely disgusting. Both nights I came home drenched in raw meat juice. Sick. I was in charge of making: chorizo, chicken apple sausage, and Scotch eggs. I have a picture on my phone, which is both a) in my purse and b) dead. Maybe tomorrow.
Yesterday I scrubbed down the fridge and kitchen cabinets/appliances because something had started smelling while we were out of town. Then I took the girls on a massive grocery run since we were also out of food. We came home and I don’t remember anything after that except that I went to school again and dealt with raw sausage meat again. Part of our final includes making a pound of sausage from scratch. I am dreading that part.
Today I took the girls to sign Lydia up for summer ballet lessons. They were mesmerized by the ballerina practicing in the studio, which made filling out the paperwork pretty easy. After that we went grocery shopping again. Then we ran the groceries home and headed right back to church for Institute.
Today Institute was on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and the BYU professor teaching was amazing. I was a little distracted with the girls, so I didn’t get to hear as much as I liked, but I got that the early Christians understood many layers of meaning in that parable. For example, Jericho (where the traveler was going) is the lowest point on earth, and the traveler fell among robbers. Christ descended below all things and was crucified between two robbers (“thieves” is a mistranslation–“robbers” is a better translation and connotes the violence of the original word). I also caught something about how the Samaritan’s promise to return again is similar to Christ’s promise to return again in the Second Coming. There was also a huge analysis of early Cathedral stain glass murals that communicated the understanding early Christians had of this parable. I couldn’t see the slides since I was just listening from the nursery. I’m hoping to ask around on Sunday to see what else I missed.
Then we came home, ate lunch, and napped until Misty, Sophia and Max came for a play date. Lydia and Sophia are so cute together. They’ve been having play dates for practically their whole lives, and their interactions have gotten so, so sweet as they’ve gotten older. Misty and I love to watch them. The first thing Lydia did when I told her Sophia was here was run to offer Sophia her cat. Then she asked Sophia to wear her princess dress. I have a picture of the cuteness that ensued.
Then the girls crafted until it was time for Misty to go and time for me to make dinner. After dinner, we all watched Sleeping Beauty while Lydia wore her princess dress.
Which brings me to our California trip! It was the BEST vacation Abe and I have had since we have gotten married–including our pre-kid days (which were, um, few). The girls were, no exaggeration, perfect on the trip there. Not any whining or crying from them for the entire twelve hour trip. We could not believe how smoothly that went, especially since we didn’t even break out any toys until half-way into it.
We stayed with my aunts, Auntie Vee and Auntie Geri:
It was so wonderful to visit with them and see them again. We loved that part of the trip so much.
The next day we took the girls to Disneyland. Abe had to get his license to officiate in the morning, and as soon as he was done, we headed off. We love Disneyland. For me, the trick is to do it in half-day doses, which leaves you wishing you had more time there. We rode the teacups, Dumbo, the fairy-tale boat trip, the Jungle boat, train around the park, the car ride (where Lydia drove and said, “Sorry!” every time we bumped), and the scary Snow White Ride. You would think that the only ride we did was the last one, since Lydia literally talked about that for hours the next day. She was really scared of the witch. We also saw the parade and watched the Beauty and the Beast show. Mary looked like she was about to pass out from the heat, so I revived her with an apple slush drink that tasted really, really good on a hot day. We also took a break in the middle and shared a mint julep and Mickey Mouse beignets while listening to a band. That might have been my favorite part.
The wait to greet Anna and Elsa was four hours long, and since we didn’t have that time, Abe just took Lydia to where she could see the princesses (but not greet them). She practically jumped out of his arms because she wanted to give them hugs, and the only way we could placate her was to assure her that she would see the princesses again during the parade. Well, this was the only part where Disneyland failed us. The parade was magical and the kids were euphoric to see such a spectacle, but as soon as it ended, we realized there was no Frozen float. Bummer. Lydia was really, really sad. Actually, inconsolable. So we tried again: This time, we said, we’d go to the Bippity Boppity Boutique and get her an Elsa dress, since our promise earlier fell through. (Lydia’s shorts had actually fallen completely apart by that point; they were basically four flaps of material hanging on her legs.) But guess what? You have to enter a raffle to be eligible to even buy an Elsa dress, and they disappear five minutes after they hit the shelves. None in stock. Thankfully, Lydia was taken with the pink Sleeping Beauty dress, and although Abe and I were appalled at the price, we couldn’t let her down again. So Sleeping Beauty dress it was.
At that point, Abe made a big deal about how Mary must be feeling. He said that she knew Lydia had gotten something special, and she should get something too. Mary was enamored with the Mickey Mouse balloons, but once I found out they were FOURTEEN DOLLARS EACH (the woman said that with a straight face!!) I was ready to just tell Mary we loved her as much as Lydia and leave it at that. But Abe insisted that Mary get the balloon she pointed too…and five minutes later, pop! She popped it. Oh, well. At least she knows she’s equally as loved.
Anyway, here is the one picture we took that is not on my dead phone at Disneyland. Maybe when my phone is charged, I’ll download some more.
Beauty and the Beast
Oh! I found one more of the girls at the end of the day:
Tired.
The next day Abe had the dress rehearsal and afterward we went to the beach. Again, the pictures are on my dead phone. I can not even begin to say how amazing it felt to be in the sun and the ocean after our long, cold winter. I could live on the beach, and I am currently jealous of every stay-at-home mom that lives near one. Can you imagine how great it would be to be able to take your kids there all the time? Oh my gosh. I looked up real estate the minute we got home. Ha! I’ll continue to live in my dreams, I guess.
After the beach, we went for Sushi with my aunts and our friends, Batch and Erin. We did this last year and have been planning a repeat for a year. We love catching up with our friends, and we love that Sushi boat.
And then the next day was Jon and Shirley’s wedding. It was the most beautiful wedding I have ever attended. They held it in Descanso Gardens in a clearing near the blooming rose gardens and veranda. I can not actually imagine a more beautiful setting. And I was terrified that the girls would interrupt this perfect wedding, so instead of watching, I took them on a dwarf hunt, which morphed into a princess hunt. When the ceremony was over, we spotted Shirley–the princess!
Abe did an incredible job officiating (so everyone told me, since I was gone hunting princesses with the girls).
After, we found our seats laden with gifts Jon and Shirley bought for the girls.
Lydia loved the magnetic dress-up Minnie Mouse doll they gave herMary loved her stuffed Minnie and is still sleeping with it.Anthony making a grand entrance as part of the bridal party.
Then the next morning we headed home.
I loved having a fenced in yard for the girls. They spent so much time outside enjoying my aunts’ yard.In their yard on Thursday.More yard enjoyment.Lavendar trees in my aunts’ neighborhood. They were in bloom last year when we visited, and they were blooming again this year!Ready to travel home.
The girls cried a little more on the way back, but seriously, we couldn’t expect perfection twice in a row. We can’t wait to do this again next year.
And now I’m going to go watch a documentary on ballerinas with Abe. I am curious ever since being in the studio.
