Based on our parenting experiences raising both a boy and a girl, I have many witty observations to share.  I’m not going to share them all with you now, because really, I need to save some material for boring dinner parties at your house. Yes, you. Don’t deny it.

I do want to pontificate on how children sleep. Notice that I didn’t do that arrogant self-centered thing where I comment on how my children sleep differently from your children, and how that’s more interesting. No, no, no. Plenty of self-centered parents out there, and I’m not one of them. My children don’t do anything better or worse than other children out there. They’re all different, and yet all the same. I’ve noticed that my children often sleep in odd positions, and yours probably do too.

Butts in the air, sideways sleeping, you name it. It doesn’t look particularly comfortable, but maybe it works for them. Recently, Lily has won an unofficial trophy for the weirdest sleeping position. Recently, my wife went to wake up the kids, and found my daughter in a particularly odd position. Sometime in the night, she had taken off her shirt. Furthermore, at the time of her wake-up call, she was sleeping with her hand down her pants.

It’s just odd.

Lily sleeping kinda like Al Bundy

Last year, my wife introduced Joshua (and Lily via the trickle-down effect) to yoga for kids. Before I had even tried yoga myself, she bought this yoga-for-kids DVD set, featuring yoga instructor Marsha Wenig.  Joshua enjoys it a lot, and has his own yoga mat to along with my wife’s. Lily likes to participate too, but she’s basically hanging around.

Turns out that more parents are trying out yoga for the kids. According to CNN’s article, “Yoga helps even little ones channel energy, emotion“, hundreds of studios across country teach yoga to children. Wow, I had no idea.

That was a fun-filled and busy Labor Day weekend. To summarize:

1. My wife took the kids for lunch with her parents Saturday afternoon at some new Indian restaurant, where there was a special Onam (South India / Kerala state Thanksgiving, if you must.)
2. BBQ at my friend Doug’s house Saturday afternoon up in Orange county. I brought the kids.
3. Two of my Michigan friends, Paul and Sean, were in town for the weekend for separate events.  We partied it up with my friend Doug Saturday night….. in Lodi, NJ!
4. Paul stayed over our house Saturday night.
5. Lily wouldn’t sleep Saturday night, and she was up with us (my wife had the 10pm-3:30am shift, and I ended up taking the 3:30am - 5am shift (or whenever she fell asleep on me on the couch, and I fell asleep too.) All I know is that I woke up with Lily sleeping on me at 7:41am. She was up soon after.
6. I took the kids to the pool late Sunday afternoon.  It got too cold after a while, so we went home 30 mins later.
7. I had dinner with the kids and my in-laws at the fancy-shmancy Red Lobster. 
8. Josh requested an imprompto sleepover at their house, and we obliged. I just had to get his pajamas and other stuff from home, and take them all over.  Lily stayed with me.
9. Monday was wholesale club and other shopping in the afternoon.
10. Monday night was a BBQ at my sister’s place.  We got home around 11pm.

Sometimes it was more “filled” than “fun”, but it was still an overall decent weekend.

Lily's Three Days @ My Office

At the end of August, and the beginning of September, our daycare provider closes down for “in-service days”, which must mean something, but I have no idea.  Maybe it’s to get ready for the new school year.  Maybe it’s to retrain the teachers. All I know is that I gotta find backup childcare for the kids for three days straight.

Last year, I tried to use a backup childcare center that we have access to through my employer, but it turned out that August and September are months where they receive a high number of requests.  Maybe the other daycare providers shut down too?  Is there an association where they all agree on this stuff?  I tried last year, but there was a long waiting list, so it never worked out.

This year, I was smart.  I made sure all the paperwork was updated and ready, including medical forms. I found out that I can only make requests for backup childcare within 30 days or less. Beginning July 31st, I called each consecutive day.  There was no way I was going to get screwed two years in a row.

Starting Monday, Josh and Lily were up and ready each morning, and we did the drive to my office. Josh liked it, but Lily apparently didn’t, as she did a lot of crying whenever I dropped her off.  I don’t understand why — it’s an excellent facilty, and really nice. Professional staff, lots of toys and activities, and they are fully-stocked with all the fun stuff (even computers!) They even take photos of the activities your child did each day, and attach them to the status summary sheet you get at the end of the day. Well, Lily has always been a little high maintenance.

On Monday, I let the kids eat lunch at the facility in their own classrooms, then take their naps.  On Tues, we ate lunch in the cafeteria with two of my friends/coworkers.  Today, we and a friend/coworker of mine ate at Burger King for lunch. Overall, it was nice change of pace, and I hope the kids didn’t hate it too much.  Josh liked it a lot, and the folks at the facility stated that Lily was basically fine the rest of the days.  She just didn’t want me to leave her in the mornings or after lunch.  Josh and Lily certainly had full days, as they usually slept on the commute home.

One sick little girl

What a week.  The kids have been sick all week long, and taking turns going from good to bad to worse.  We have made so many trips to drop them off late, pick them up early this week. 

1. On Sunday, Lily got sick first, and starting looking very clingy and not happy. 
2. On Monday, one of us had to pick her from the daycare in the afternoon.
3. On Tuesday, Lily went to the doctor, and then stayed with one of grandparents Tuesday.  Turns out she had an ear infection.  After I picked her up from the grandparents, and on the way to the daycare to pick up Joshua, I got a call that he was now sick.
4. On Wed, I kept Josh with me, and Lily looked recovered, so we took her to daycare.  I took Josh to the doctor, but he appeared to just have a regular viral infection.  I took him around with me as we ran errands that morning, and then we took my parents to Newark airport for their trip. As I was just arriving to pick up Lily, I came to see her screaming and vomiting orange in her classroom.  Uh oh.
5. On Thursday, they both looked okay, so they both went back to school.
6. On Friday, they both had to go to school.  In the afternoon, we got the call that Lily had a 104-degree temperature.  I picked her as she was screaming her head off.

Concerned about this high temperature, and one bout of vomiting, and not thinking this was an ear infection, we took her to the doctor.  An hour later, all tests were inconclusive.

What a week. Sick children are no fun at all.

I store all of my application, utilities, and game CDs (along with manuals) within a small shelf built into the right-side of my desk.  My daughter Lily enjoys walking over, grabbing and knocking over all of the carefully arranged CDs and manuals.  One of my key CDs is the Windows XP Home CD that came with my Dell back in 2005, and I would need if I ever wanted to rebuild my PC. I often find a trail of CDs and manuals strewn around the upstairs, often outside of their protective jewel cases.  I’m worried she’s going to lose or ruin the CDs.

Such as tonight.  Yes, that’s right.  I am finally ready to rebuild my PC.  For months, it’s been slowing down, hanging up, crashing.  I recommend to folks to rebuild their PC every 2-3 years, but this one has been running since 2005. I’ve been prepping and now I was ready to rebuild my machine after I got home from work Friday night.  Lo and behold, I can’t find my XP CD.  After a fruitless search, I’m annoyed at my 17-month old daughter.  When she gets a job, she owes me a new PC.

I think this fits the definition of irony.  I had intended/scheduled Thursday the 9th and Friday the 10th as vacation days, as I hoped we could  take a 4-day weekend trip via train to Boston.  The schedule/logistics/cost didn’t quite work, so we cancelled the trip, but I decided in the end to keep the vacation days for myself.  Hey, everyone loves a 4-day weekend.

On Monday, I decided to cancel the Thursday vacation day, as I thought I might as well try to catch up on some work. Vacations are nice, but if you feel like you’re behind, how can you relax?

Tuesday, I got the call to pick up my daughter, as she was running a fever.  My wife stayed home to take care of her Wednesday.  Josh has been complaining of a sore throat for a while now, and not much of an appetite, so we decided that I should stay home today using a sick day, and take them both to the doctor.

So, that original vacation day traveling to Boston in the end turned into a sick day tending a sick child.  What do you think? Irony?

Edit: Added two pics of lunch with the munchkins.  We were waiting for Lily’s prescription of antibiotics to be filled, so we had lunch at Taco Bell. That’s right, I spared no expense.

Josh enjoying his Fruitista Pina Colada

Lily likes the soft tacos, but just the ground beef

We celebrated Lily’s 1st birthday party in style this Saturday.  For the first time in a long time, we got the entire immediate family together — both sets of grandparents, and both sets of aunts and uncles.  We haven’t all been together since the baptism last August.  We didn’t want it to be a large affair, focusing on just family.  Folks started arriving at 2pm.

For my fellow food aficionados, here’s the menu.  My wife put together pita to dip in iether roasted eggplant dip or hummus.  For dinner, you could have fancy meatballs or swordfish kebabs, a zucchini medley, and couscous.  Dessert was obviously the birthday cake.

Lily's birthday cake

Lily was the big winner in all this, as she was the center of attention, which is probably the best gift she could ever receive. 

Lily experienced some big steps today — literally and figuratively.  At the doctor’s office today for her 1-year checkup, the doctor saw her first tooth beginning to pop through.  Yowzers, finally.  Just like her older brother, she started teething about 6-7 months ago, and never stopped.  It’s about time!

Today, my wife saw her take her first steps in the morning, at the doctor’s office, and at school.  I haven’t seen it yet, but maybe tomorrow?  We were so happy, we decided to celebrate with dinner at P.F. Chang’s.  Isn’t that what everyone does?