Sadie's Asian Mommy

Girl time is exhausting.  At least, it can be if you have a diva like Sadie in your household.  Today, we had yet another nail painting session while Adam was at school.  Ten flawlessly painted fingers and ten beautiful little toes were painted in bright fire engine red, the color of choice today.  I have been getting a lot of practice lately.  With Sadie on my resume, I may even have enough experience to get a job at a nail salon with the other Asian women in the community if I ever needed to.

Girl time must wear Sadie out too.  She fell asleep on the way to pick up Adam from school.  When we got home, I carefully carried her in the house and laid her on the couch to finish her nap.  She woke up right as I was getting food on the table for dinner.  She jumped off the couch, ran over to Adam, and threw her arms around him.  "I missed you so much Buddy," she said.  So, I guess as much as she enjoys hanging out with Mommy when Adam goes to school, she can't wait for him to come home.

Let the germ fest begin

I guess one of the hazards of sending kids to school is exposing your household to whatever illnesses are going around.  I figured it would be coming...I just didn't realize it would be coming so soon.

Adam began school on Tuesday, August 14.  By Saturday morning, he had a runny nose and fever.  By Tuesday, he passed it on to Sadie, and two days after that, Tyler had it.  So, between running back and forth to school, canning salsa and peaches, and helping Adam with his homework, I have spent my week wiping little noses.

Adam and Sadie are much better now.  Hopefully poor Tyler will recover quickly too.  You better believe we are getting flu shots this fall!

My day (the short version)

Here's what my day looked like today...

Wake up and feed the kids

Morning stroller walk with a friend

Shower and get dressed

Get kids dressed

Do Sadie’s hair

Feed Tyler

Visiting teaching

Fix lunch, feed kids

Chop tomatoes for salsa

Take Adam to school

Chop more tomatoes for salsa while Sadie naps and Tyler crawls around the kitchen

Get salsa on stove and let it simmer

Fix snack for Sadie and give Tyler afternoon bottle

Pick up Adam from school

Help Adam with homework and piano lesson

Bottle salsa that has been simmering on stove all afternoon

Fix dinner, feed kids

Clean kitchen

Brush everybody’s teeth

Skype Cory

Pull weeds in the garden

Play baseball with kids

Fix bedtime milk for kids and bottle for Tyler

Read bedtime story to kids

Tuck kids in bed

Family history indexing

Update blog

Collapse in bed

Just realized I didn't give Sadie any "girl" time today.  Poor girl.  I'll do better tomorrow.

First day of school and my day off!

Two highly anticipated events occurred this week:  Adam's first day of school, and my day off!

Adam has been patiently waiting for months for the first day of Kindergarten.  The day finally arrived on Tuesday.  He has p.m. Kindergarten, but this first day of school was an "early out" day, which means he goes in early and comes home early.  It's a weird time:  11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.  I decided I better feed him an early lunch, but I still had time for a morning run.  Since Cory was home to watch the kids, I headed out before the sun came up and ran 14.5 miles.  After getting home, showering, and taking care of a few odds and ends, it was time to fix Adam's lunch and be on our way.  I didn't feel like eating with him at 10:45, so I figured the rest of us would eat later.  We took a few picture of our big boy at home before taking him to school...

I have heard many stories of mothers crying when they dropped off their kids at school.  Not the case with me.  I love Adam, but I have been looking forward to this day probably more than him.  He can be very demanding, and I was ready for a break from entertaining him all day.  Am I a bad mother?  I was so giddy with excitement when I dropped him off that I had to control myself from skipping and doing cartwheels all the way down the hall at school.  With Adam happily dropped off at school, I headed back home to eat lunch and enjoy the break.

I did not get the break I was hoping for...  With Sadie in tears because she wanted to go to school with Adam, she needed extra attention.  By the time we ate lunch, calmed her down, and changed a few diapers, it was time to go back and pick up Adam.  You've got to be kidding me!  Where did that precious time go?  Adam came home excited about his day and full of energy to burn off.  Luckily, Cory was home to absorb some of the energy.  After 30 minutes with some hyper kids, though, he had to lay down on Adam's bed and take a break.  I think we are both looking forward to the next day of school.

The other event that occurred this week was my day off.  For my birthday last month, Cory asked me what I wanted.  I told him all I wanted was an afternoon off.  So, he told me to put it on the calendar for a day he would be home to take care of the kids.  The day finally came yesterday.  So, after another morning run, showering, and fixing lunch, I dropped Adam off at school and headed out to shop BY MYSELF!  It was wonderful.  I didn't have to separate anyone for fighting, yell at anyone for touching something in a store they shouldn't be touching, change any diapers in the back of the car, or frantically search for the bathroom in an unfamiliar store when a child needs to go "potty."

When I got home from my afternoon off, Miss Sadie was asleep.  Cory reported that he had fun playing with the kids.  Tyler had a nice nap after snack time.  When Sadie fell asleep awhile later, Cory plopped himself down on the couch, put up his feet, and picked up the remote.  Within about 30 seconds, Tyler was awake and crying.  So, Cory didn't get a break, but at least I did.  :)  Many thanks to Cory for my afternoon off.

The joys of shopping with three small children

Let's face it... my life is a three-ring circus.  I've tried to hide it from the world way too long.  It's time for me to embrace it and share with everyone that it's okay when things don't go perfectly.  Because as we all know, it rarely will with three small children.

Case in point...

I took the little ones shopping today.  Enough said.  We made three stops.  The first stop, Adam and Sadie were all smiles as they walked hand-in-hand into the store.  Ten minutes into the shopping trip, they had to be separated for fighting.  Store number two went okay, but by the time we made it to store number three, I was ready to pull my hair out.  Tyler was screaming because he wanted his bottle, Sadie was upset because Adam wouldn't hold her hand anymore, and Adam was having a fit because I wouldn't buy the new shoes he just tried on.  (In my defense, I forgot my coupon, and I was NOT going to buy the shoes without them.  I'm a thrifty mama.)

So.... we headed home.  After feeding everyone and taking a deep breath, we headed back to the store.  This time, with coupon in hand.  Did things go perfectly???  Not even close.  But... at the end of the day, shoes have been purchased for Adam's first day of school, and I have a very precious picture of my kids holding hands on our shopping trip.