Animals+Kids+Rides+Treats=FUN!

We had a trip to the Oakland Zoo today (love the yearlong membership!). We met several of our friends from Mommy and Me there. E was thrilled to show her friends all the fun that we have discovered with our frequent visits. Although there were a million and one schools there for end of the year field trips we were able to see most of the animals and ride several of the rides.

Here are some photos to highlight our day:

Group Shot!

Picnic lunch! B is just like the big girls, hanging on the fence looking at giraffes (wonder if she knows what she's looking at....)

Baby Giraffe Recent Zoo Baby

BFF's

Train Ride Trio Driving in the Fancy Cars

Watching Sister and Friends Driving Big Fancy CarsSo Tired at Home That They PLAYED TOGETHER

Graying Shades of going Green

It is a goal in our home to be progressively more "green". We do find though that it is a slower process than we would like. Since our home is funded with only one income for the time being, there are a lot of steps we are not able to make. There are also things that seem a bit over the top for us-at least for now. I like to make mental lists to prove to myself that we do care about our environment, and that we are working towards doing our part to protect our world for our babies and their babies and all the future generations.

Let me share what we have done so far:

1. We compost
2. We have a very large garden
3. We water our garden with a very conservative but effective drip system
4. We use Eco friendly laundry soap (ECO from Costco)
5. Fishdaddy commutes to work in a beater car that gets GREAT gas mileage
6. We recycle almost everything possible (I "sell" my cans and bottles to the local recycle place, and everything from toilet paper rolls to cereal boxes go out in the bin for garbage day)
7. We have unplugged all electrical plugs that are not being used
8. I hang a good portion of my laundry to dry-especially in the summer
9. We have replaced most of our light bulbs with the cfl bulbs
10. We have reduced our lawn watering to once a week

There are more little things like energy conservation and educating the neighbors.

What's next?

1. Replace the seals on the windows
2. Upgrade the kitchen appliances to energy efficient
3. Replace the outside freezer to a newer and more efficient model
4. Replace the Gas Guzzling Truck with something newer and more gas efficient
5. Switch the rest of our cleaning products to green products
6. Begin to buy more organic and locally grown products
7. 100% reusable shopping bags
8. Teach the girls more as the get older about the value of using organic and green products
9. Be less reliant on the car for shopping within walking distance
10. Use no paper towels or napkins

The BIG goals

1. Solar panels
2. Hybrid commuter for Fishdaddy

So this is where we are at...little by little I hope we can get closer to our goals. Of course, it is sadly expensive to be a consumer with an environmental conscience. We will start with the smaller goals and see if they cant lead us to the ones that cost more to establish. Any suggestions?

Proud Sister Moment

I just have to share this-my brother Alex is working on the Freedom Tower in New York City.


He is working with the steel company, helping to build it up and out of the rubble left behind by the 9-11 tragedy. I am ever so proud. That, my friends, is our family's little part in this countries history. Not only is he helping to construct this massive project, he is supporting his family everyday by commuting in to the city and back...Makes for a long and tiring day.



I have to be so happy that he is doing so well for himself. So neat to see who he is as an adult.

Good job Bro!

Family Moments

Since I have been pretty wordy the past few posts, I thought I would do a picture post to fill in the gaps from my adventure to New York.

Elly before the flight to New York....

Poppa with his grandbabies (2007, 2006, and 2005 born). B is wrecked from our day of travels.

First night sleeping arrangements-started out with me on a daybed above E on the trundle, and B in a pack n play. This is how the morning was, B had come to be with me and when I was up cruising internet she almost rolled off onto her sister, so I placed her there to sleep safely.

Saturday-Sweet 16 for Angie

3 Generations! Aunt Tessie, Uncle Joe (my grandmother's sister)/my brother Tony and me/and my girls

One of the few times B went with someone besides her tired mama!~


My dad, myself, brothers, sisters, kids and nephew



Many of us from Sunday Dinner-but certainly not all of the family...

Overall, (and as the trip gets further behind me) I can see that while the girls were really difficult, I did have some great moments. I was able to visit my family, especially my brother Alex, sister Julie, and my great aunt and great uncle. I am not sure how much E will take away from the trip, and pretty sure that B won't remember much, but there are pictures to show them and to talk about later on.

Home Sweet Home

AHHHHHHHHHHH.......................

That is the sound of me sighing while I ease into my place on our couch. It was a helluva trip. I can now announce that we were in New York with my family for my sister's Sweet 16 Birthday. It was a whirlwind trip that probably never should have happened-simply because my kids and I did poorly. I believe that once I left, my cousins and family all are sure my kids are blubbering spoiled crybabies, and I am a case for the mental ward. Let's just say that I cried more this weekend than I have in a long while. Most of my emotional breakdowns were pure frusteration and exhaustion. None of us were rested, the time change and early travel times kicked our butts. My kids were super clingy, and that clashed with a big family used to passing kids around. My kids, never have been in this situation, and were simply overwhelmed. I couldn't even pack the diaper bag or take a shower without tantrums and problems. Naps didn't happen either...not for sake of trying though. Some of my tears actually were just me being so proud of my brother and sisters for becoming wonderful young people. They have been dealt some horrible cards in life, and I am pleased to see that they are overcoming and rising above. So some of my emotional meltdowns were happy tears. And sad...it is always hard to leave my family (even as ready as I was-hoping for a private jet to magically transport me home).

I have lots more to talk about-with pictures, but I am pooped~! So I will be back on tomorrow with the next chapter of my saga.

Check In...

We made it! The flying wasn't bad. Of course, I over prepared with carry-on entertainment, but with 2 small children, there must be options for all situations lol. Anyway, E was wonderful on the plane. She didn't feel entirely well-the fever was manifesting into B's messy cold. However, she was perfectly content to watch Dora and Diego and whatever else was on the tv in the seat in front of her. Jetblue is good for that. B was pretty good, although the nap I was looking for was only abot 45 mins. She was behaving as long as there was food in front of her to eat. Cheetos, cookies, fruit, bread, muffins, milk, juice were all inhaled by the 1year old monster. There was minimal fussing and squirming, and we were congratulated by the other passengers as having "done well".

The looks that people gave me though at San Francisco....whew, I got dirty eyeballs left and right. There was one lady, who at 6 am had my sleepless blood boiling. She looked right at me, no sneer but a certain level of negativy virtually poured out of her eyes. I swear not a twitch to her cheeks and lips (BOTOX maybe?). The message though as she looked at my baggage to be checked, and my 2 kids, and my carryons and my brother and his bag....scary witch. To be honest, I might have resembled a runaway train, with my airport cart holding 1 suitcase, 1 small duffle, (both mine) 1 med duffle (bro's) and 2 pretty good sized carseats. It LOOKED like a lot, bulky and cumbersome as it was. BUT who freakin cares, not her buisiness, not her family, and certainly not her checkbook funding my travels. Bitch!

Once we arrived, we were met by (secret pick up person) and it took us a while to navigate the traffic of the big city. Once we arrrived to the secret destination, it was nice. The girls began to get to know the family we are staying with and OH THE FOOD! I swear we are in one of the best food meccas ever. Dinner was pizza-and no, not Chain Pizza. Good Shizzle!

I have pictures to upload, but my camera is downstairs and my babies are still sleeping. It's 4:40 am our time, so I would like to honor the need to rest while it is available to them.

Thanks Andi for the safe travels wishes.....

Off and running...errrr flying I mean!

So the girls and I are onto our secret destination as of tomorrow early. The only thing that can keep us from going is that my sweet E has had a fever on and off since 2am this morning. I have had her stay mellow all day. Carte blanche with the kids tv (yay for ON DEMAND!). I finished the packing all the while monitoring La Sicky Girl and fending off the Clingy Bebita. All said and done, we are set. So cross your fingers that we have no further cootie developments and all is smooth and easy on flight.

I will update again once settled. Please send me Smooth Sailing..errr I mean Flying Vibes!

Bits and Pieces

This week I am getting myself and the girls ready for an adventure. We will be flying to a SECRET location (it's only secret because it is a surprise visit and I wouldn't want the person to find out early and from the blog). My goal is to be packed by tomorrow, flying out Thursday early. I would love to have Wednesday for last minute banking and store trips, as well as a once through the house for cleaning. I never get myself ready so early, but every trip have that as a goal. We'll see--kinda depends on the computer time I waste and how the kiddos are for me. Sadly, B is in thr throes of a nasty wet cold and FINALLY, some top teeth (all six eye tooth to eye tooth on the top). Hopefully, the nasty parts are finished before I confine her 5 hours of staying on my lap in an airplane. Hopefully, E can ward off the boogies and sneezes.

Saturday we went to 2 birthday parties! The 1st, for a 4 year old girl. That was cute-Fishdaddy and Bday Daddy were the only male representatives. Good thing they are buddies. After that we headed for the next party, a 34 year old friend of ours. That was fun too. E had a blast playing with the kids. It is a funny sign of growing up when the adult bday party is more about the kids we have all produced having fun, and less about getting blasted. Oh don't get me wrong, there was plenty of that fun loving flowing too. Pretty mellow though all told.

Mother's Day was nice as well, considering that B slept HORRIBLY. Understandable since she was feeling so icky, but still hard to get through. Sunday's plans were to let me sleep in, Fishdaddy had a breakfast planned for me, and then we wanted to go for a hike at the lake. UHMMM yeah, good thing we are flexible (or that I am on my "special" day). B fell asleep at 10. There went those plans, flying in the wind that also decided to pick up and bluster all day long. We then planned on watching a movie while the girls napped. Ended up watching Cinderella with E and then Fishdaddy did a carpentry chore he had been wanting to get done. I did some reading, and yes-some laundry. Dinner was made for me: a delicious steak and some vegies. It wasn't a bad day, just a low key one, perfect for a Sunday...although nothing special in light of the holiday.

Here are a few cute pics from the party hopping day....

1)B sitting so pretty in the big girl chair

2) E being wooed by our friend's 2.5 yr old son

3.) E wooing same little boy

4.) Funtimes

DOH! Total Catastrophe Avoided

Was I ever sweating bullets today....in more ways than one. Here's the story:

I decided to honor my promise to myself today and got up and exercised! Yipppeee for me! Well, yeah...sure. I even planned to walk us to the store-and using the stroller, get my few things without the plastic bag. Sweet plan! So off we set-the girls happy in the double stroller and me geared up to burn some calories. I mapped out my walk so I would get about an hour before the store-my usual walk length. I had us going down a few streets we usually don't do to make the walk lengthier...a lot of zig zagging around blocks....

I got us to the store, walked right past McD's (swear the smell alone plastered fry grease into my thighs!). Zipped through the fruit section (bananas) to the dairy (milk, Dannimals, and cottage cheese), and the bakery (fresh bread for Fishdaddy). At the checkstand-eyeballed the candybars and held strong. I told the cashier no bags please... (feeling pretty smug at my oh-so-healthy and earth smartness). She rings me up, and I begin searching, and searching and searching. DAMN DAMN DAMN! No wallet...

The problem? I had it when I left the house. It fell SOMEWHERE out in the neighborhood. Mind you, I walked for an hour before the store. I walked by 2 schools, on quiet streets, on very busy streets, past homes, a park, a church....Man I was freaking scared. I had no cash in the wallet--but ALL my cards, ALL my gift cards, my checkbook, id...the usualy personal arsenol. All of it-vulnerable to the goodness or badness of anyone who found it.

I called Lizzie, for some sanity. She had to listen to my sob story as I huffed and puffed, pushing my double cadillac as fast as my fast ass could hoof it. She talked me down from my crazed sense of Chicken Littleness. After talking to her I had an idea of where it might have fallen out. I remember hearing a clunk and looked into the stroller and thought it was the sippy cup falling out of sticky sleeping fingers into the basket. Never gave it a 2nd thought-until Lizzie. I backtracked my path. I covered 40 mins of my original walk in 10 mins....serious workout. AH-HA! There is was...lying all lonely at the edge of some person's home. All pieces intact and nothing blessedly missing. Sweet! I avoided the hassles of re-creating my life in endless phone calls to various official places and I doubled my workout. (See the hassles loomed even larger seeing that I am due for a plane ride on Thursday-no way in hell I was gonna get an ID card or new credit cards soon enough....).

Ok so now that I confessed my stupidity....PLEASE don't share this with the ol' man. He is so sick of me losing my cell phone and wallet this year. I have lost my wallet (temporarily and not so traumatically) about 3 times since B has been born. My cell phone was MIA (on silent) for days at least 2 times. Let's not even discuss my keys.....(My neighbor has brought them to me from on top of my car, in my front door...). I am going to refer you to my post FINDING ME. It all goes back to getting my brain back....

Comparisions

I made these after a model shared by a photographer named Becky Martin. Her's are way more official and fancy. In any case, I was inspired. I used a photo collage template from HP's Image Zone. On the left is E (newborn at the top left corner and 1yr mark in center photo) and the right is B.

Just thought I would share! I think it is pretty cool to see the girls at the same points in their lives and have there be something the same yet something a bit different.

6 is the new 7

Yeah, what was once a happy 7 is now a grumpy 6.

My girls, were so good at waking up at 7ish. For E, that meant anywhere between 7:00and 8:00 am. When I began to wean B of her early morning feeding along with the sleep training it would be 5ish with me getting her back down for at least another hour. GREAT! I figured I could work on getting her later and later, more towards 7, like her sister. UHM, not so. B has other plans. She gets up consitantly at 6:14 am. I have tried my sleep training tools, andc sat by the crib to convince her to stay in bed and fall back asleep. No go...I know she should be sleeping longer, not because of the "rules" that kids need X hours of sleep per their age, but because she is a royal grump. There are days when I can get her to fall back asleep, usually on me on the couch while I try to be okay with groggy eyes, no coffee, and 1 hour less of sleep. However, just as I am about to put her back into the crib...1) she wakes up or 2) E wakes up yelling which wakes up B. It is a lose-lose situation.

Now, E is starting to be routine in a 6:30 am wake up. UGH UGH UGH! (I am mentally having a hissy fit!). They are not pretty this early, and I am not either. I need at least some quiet internet zoning time. I need at least 1/2 of a cup of non-reheated coffee. This doesn't happen when one is clingy and sleepy and the other is grumpy and pissy. I end up being pissy too.

I figure we have a few scenarios for problem resolution. I can work with B and not pull her from the crib until closer to 7 (each day a little bit longer). I believe that is what I had to do with E when she was younger. I can ride it out, hoping it will naturally work itself out. I can wait until the throes of summer and fun activities come into play, so that they are more worn out and sleep more. I can wait until B pops all the teeth needed by age 1 out (of which she only still has the bottom 2 and the very tip of a top eye tooth). I can resign myself to waking up at 6am until the girls are teens and WANT to sleep all day.

All of these scenarios will have to wait. We will be taking a trip which will include5 am airport checkins, airplane confinement and multiple time zone hopping. I am absolutely sure this will be messy for our sleep. So any steps I take now, will surely be ruined in a week. I won't even bother until we return. SIGH....maybe I should be waking up with Fishdaddy and having my peace time in the wee hours of dawn....

Finding ME

I am lost. Well only partially. I have given the past 4 years up completely to motherhood. This includes "mind, body, and soul". I know this is a topic that has been addressed by many mothers.

Here's my story:

I have worked in a traditional job, with a standard style paycheck since 15. Before that I had steady babysitting jobs since 11. When we made the decision for me to stay home, we were fully aware of the sacrificies financially. I was so excited to be home. I was teaching, in my 6th year. I did enjoy it mostly-as many do with their jobs. I had worked hard to become a teacher and the challenges were intriguing. I am not a good workhorse however, so I was constantly buried beneath piles of homework to grade, memos in my boxes, plans to create. It did get tedious. Besides that, the politics of teaching in California, with No Child Left Behind left little to love about the job. I was entirely ready to join the stroller pushing, diaper changing force of mommies who grocery shopped on a weekday morning, who had playdates, who could stay home in jammies all day. I never considered that I would be so consumed that I would be begging for a bathroom break without a baby clinging to my knees. I never imagined my brain would seem to turn to mush for lack of adult interaction. I never believed I would actually want to discuss politics or finances or current events just to feel like I was still functional.

Don't get me wrong...I love my babies. I love being a mom. We had to work hard (no dirty minds....think infertility treatments) to become pregnant with E. I am thrilled to see their developing selves (literally by the minute). I just am ready to bring ME back to the world. I am fully aware that it will be a lot longer until I will have more time for ME. I am good with that. (Knowing that each little piece of raising children is so short in the big picture helps--My mantra being "this is only for a little bit---enjoy it while it lasts---").

Since I have weaned, B is moving along quite quickily in her quest to be like her big sister. I get litle glimpses of how life will be in the next few days, months or even years. The girls play more--and fight more--, they are eating the same things, 1 is potty trained, the other is fully mobile on her own. I can start to feel ME coming out again. I am paying a very close attention to my diet and my weight. I am not super overweight, but I can definitely stand to drop a few (say 20) lbs. It's all babyweight. I am putting more effort out to exercise. I also have been working with my Mommy Friends in planning some Toddler Learning Activities. This is good because I can use my background and create some meaningful interactions for Mommy and Child that have an educational basis. A good challenge. I have been cleaning out a lot of JUNK that has been cluttering our home for at the least 3 years. It feels good. Cathartic to clean. Doesn't mean my house is sparkling, just getting tidier.

Anyway, I thought I would put this out there-I am sure there are people with similar issues. I would love to hear any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, commiserations...(remember though, to comment you have to read the blog article by clicking the title and then the comment sections are made available.)

Brighten My Day!

It's 8 am and I have been up for 3 hours already....and so has E. B has been up for 1.5 hours. For some strange reason, E woke up at 5 when Fishdaddy was heading off to work. She also had issues falling asleep last night. So I would imagine, that with almost 2 hours less of sleep from the going to bed time, and then waking up 2 hours early, we could be in for some REALLY FUN TIMES. Add to that mix for disaster, a very teething and whiny 1yr old. Let's just reiterate: She has 2 bottom teeth only so far. Could be a VERY FUN DAY.....

These are the days, when I need a little shove out of negativity and feelings of self sorrow. In this case, I have these sweet pictures I took the other day.