A New Chapter

I made the epic decision to start back to work this year. It's a decision that I did not make lightly and spent the better part of last year preparing for. I had to update my Nurse Practitioner certification which took a lot of work since I'd been out of the biz for a few years. Then I took my time looking for the right job and was beginning to get frustrated with the lack of part time positions out there. Just as I was starting to think I would need to compromise and take the less than perfect job just to get my foot in the door I happened to find a posting for a part time position in a family practice near Sto's office. Finally! Something I can at least apply to and use as practice to brush up on my interview skills. Little did I know that 2 weeks after pressing 'send' I would be hired and scrambling for a New Jersey license. I never dreamed I would work in NJ so I didn't have any of the paperwork done and I soon came to find out that state is about as slow as any state could possibly be. (You'd think they didn't want me to work in their state or something.) In the end, it took 4 1/2 months to finally get the privilege to see patients independently but I'm not holding any grudges. (Well, maybe a little one.) I'm really happy with this job and it's a great fit for our life. Just enough hours for me to maintain my self identity but not so many that I feel like our family is suffering or that I'm missing out on my kids. And I really like the people I work with, too. Bonus!

So as I started to make the adjustment from Poblete (pronounced the proper Filipino way) to Poblete (pronounced like a South Philly Italian) so did Lincoln begin his daycare journey. We went back and forth between the nanny option and the daycare option and settled on the latter. Overall we felt it was safer and certainly cheaper. I looked at a half dozen different places before deciding on a school just down the street from Pippa's Montessori school which is where Lincoln will be starting next fall anyway. I expected for him to have a bit of a hard time adjusting to it. In preparation I weaned him from all daytime nursing in the weeks leading up to his start date. A task that ended up being much easier than I expected, by the way. He is such a huge mama's boy and has been since birth that I figured he'd cry a lot at drop off and knew it might take a couple of weeks to get over that. Little did I know it would take longer. Much longer. After 2 months of near constant crying and refusal to participate in any and all activities while at school I knew we were nearing a breaking point. He was barely eating or drinking, barely napping (which was actually not that different from home), would start crying in the car 2 streets away from school, and was seriously glued to my hip all the rest of the time. He wouldn't even go to Sto for a second, something that was really getting to both of us!

I had an epiphany while at music class one day. Lincoln sat stoically on my lap for exactly half of the class and then, suddenly deciding he was comfortable, got up to dance in the middle of the room....10 feet away from me! He even sat on Miss Marilyn's lap during one of the songs. I started to cry with joy. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. I'm pretty sure the other mom's thought I was nuts but Marilyn understood. She was as stunned as I was. For the rest of the day something another mama friend said about her daughter kept echoing in my head. She would describe her daughter as 'slow to warm up' and it would take her 20-30 minutes to get comfortable in new situations. That's when it dawned on me that Lincoln is the same way. Little did I know that 'slow to warm' is an actual label for a certain temperament but I soon learned about it after a couple of clicks on the google. Note the major change in the approach to rearing our second child. I was an expert on how the experts would have described Pippa but I was just rolling with the punches with Lincoln. Flying blind, sort of speak. Granted, Lincoln does have this way of doing exactly the opposite of what is typical, starting from birth. He just goes ahead and does things his own way. I should have caught on sooner, really. But better late than never.

So, the next day I stayed with him at daycare for 30 full minutes. Note: this is the opposite of the 'keep it short and sweet' strategy that is typically recommended. He did so well that day that the director actually called me half way through to let me know! Again, tears of joy. Don't get me wrong, he still screams (and I mean screams) at drop off and that is still hard to hear, but at least I know now that he gets over it and has fun with his day. He's eating his lunch and taking better naps than he ever has. We have really gotten over a hurdle and things are so much better all around. It's partly that he is more comfortable at daycare but I also know it's partly his stage of development. He is more independent, less needy of me, plays happily with Pippa or by himself, is napping more normally at home, and wakes up at a relatively acceptable hour in the morning (i.e. not 4:30am). I feel like I was waiting his whole life to get to this point. We still have our challenges, obviously, but I finally feel like they are just the usual sort of thing. I have always loved and adored my little boy, obviously, but I can say enthusiastically that I have really been getting a kick out of him lately. He's so funny and has such a great personality. It's fun to take care of him all day instead of being a chore and that is a better way to live for everyone.

Baby It's Cold Outside

It's late March and the weather is still cold and, wait for it, snowy. What?! I'm having flash backs to living in upstate New York where it's winter 9 months out of the year. I moved away from there. But, none the less, here we are with a late snow day. I was so optimistic for spring last week that I packed away the snow pants and boots just to drag them back out again today. At least I did find a pair of mittens that actually stay on Lincoln's hands. A small miracle, really. Where have these been all winter long?! And do you think they'll still fit next year? They are really stretchy.






After coming in from the cold, it's always nice to have something warm and yummy to drink. I grew up on hot coco, of course. But being the somewhat neurotic mother that I am I decided that was far too much sugar and, gasp, have you ever read the label on those instant packets? Yikes! That's definitely not real food so I came up with a rather delicious alternative: Warm Vanilla Milk. I just heat up some milk (raw, of course) in a sauce pan with a couple drops of vanilla extract (organic of course) and a touch of honey (also raw)(of course). It's actually very good and the kids love it. Add some fun mugs to drink it out of and you have yourself one cozy childhood memory.

Of course, if warm vanilla milk isn't your gig you can always try watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood while lounging on the floor and sucking on a maple syrup bottle (cap on)....How did he even get that out of the fridge?

Zahav And The 2 Chambers

Dinner Club has been rekindled! While I feel like I'm cheating a little bit on Laura, I'm grateful to have found, in Jill, another friend who is as enthusiastic about dining out as I am. Possibly more so. She also has excellent taste in wine which I also appreciate...though I should probably appreciate it a little less next time. This month we went out to Zahav, an Israeli restaurant that I have been trying to get to for years, it feels like, but something always comes up and I have to cancel. I was starting to think I had a Zahav curse which was manifest that night by my 1 hour late arrival. Very unlike me (I, of course, blame it on my husband).

Zahav's menu is the type I enjoy the most; a bunch of small plates. I think we ordered at least half the menu. (Not a joke.) Little did we know that everyone is started with a complimentary array of salads. We loved the spiced carrots the best but they were all pretty amazing. Perhaps the best part of the meal, as a matter of fact, until the hummus came out. OMG! Let me say that again: OMG! I never would have thought something as commonplace as hummus could be transformed into something so amazing. I'm not sure what they do with it, but it probably involves crack. It was that good.

We also got a little daring, as is the rule of Food Club, and ordered the seared duck hearts. Looking

back on the experience, it was probably the bottle of wine that got us to even try it but I'm glad we did. It's always fun to try knew things. (Side note, remember when I used to be a vegetarian? Oh how far I've come.) It was, how shall we say, fibrous. And rather chewy. And since Jill and I met in the ICU caring for patients after open heart surgery we decided this dish just wasn't for us. But we did enjoy taking note of the 2 chamber anatomy.

Moving on, we enjoyed a couple of lamb dishes for the entree part of the meal. Both were very good but nothing compared to the hummus. We were also very involved in our conversation so I don't remember every detail of the end of the night except that we closed the place down and the valet parking attendant had to come into the restaurant searching for me! Oops. Guess Jill and I shouldn't wait so long to see each other again next time!

Luckily, next time is already planned....Stateside!

How To Clean Like A Mom

Washable crayons and markers are washable...except for the red ones. Those, not so much.

It's best to peal stickers off of surfaces within 12 hours of their application. Otherwise they are nearly impossible to remove. This goes for skin as well as walls and table tops.

To remove pine tree sap from skin, rub it with olive oil. It does not, however, wash out of clothing.

Though microfiber furniture my not be the most stylish I can't imagine owning anything else with small children. Or husbands.

Many stains can be removed from clothing if you soak them in Oxyclean long enough. So far I have left things in the bucket for up to a week with no ill effects.

Carry diaper wipes on you at all times. They work for just about everything, including the kids when you realize giving them chocolate chip granola bars on the car ride to school was a bad idea.

Definitely only potty train in nice weather when you can spend most of the days outside.

You can try double making the bed during illness but inevitably you will just be washing 2 sets of sheet when the pee/vomit manages to completely bypass the dog's pee-pee pads you placed in between layers.

Dogs are great for cleaning floors. They are like little vacuum cleaners. And, when necessary, mops. Like when your child pukes up his breakfast. (I'm not proud of it, but Ting was not easy to deter.)

And speaking of puke, it really is wise to keep an extra change of clothes for the entire family in the car. Possibly 2 for yourself because the only thing you know for sure is that you will catch the far majority of the puke on your person...and likely your hair, so a pony tail holder is a good idea too. As is an extra pair of shoes. Of this I have much experience.

Any other advice? Please comment below!

Circus

We took Pippa to the Circus for the first time. Such fun made even better by sharing it with her Na-nong, Ni-ning, Na-nong Geri, and Ate Maddy. Good memories.

Mountain Bound

It's been over 3 years since we have been skiing and snowboarding. The last trip we took was to Lake Tahoe just before I got pregnant with Pippa and I've either been pregnant or had a baby on the boob ever since. Until this year! It was time to get back to the mountain and Sto and I were really excited about it. Seeing that we were not up for the long flight west with 2 small kids we opted to stay local, the Pocono Mountains. Best of all? Nana met us there to hang out for the week. Super fun for all because you know she's always prepared with crafts and games galore.

We stayed at a place called Split Rock, which was a really nice place in the 80's I'm sure. Ever see Hot Tub Time Machine? What clued us in to the fact it's never been updated? Doors that lock with actual keys, enormous non-flat screen TVs, and cool gold trim. Luckily we are not high class people and we thought the kitchiness of it all was quite charming. And it did have a lot going for it as long as you didn't look too closely. There was a pool, of course. But also an arcade, bowling alley, and even a movie theater that was playing Life Of Pi. Best of all, there was an in-door water park that we hit up at the end of the week. The kids were both apprehensive at first but soon could not be torn away from splashing in the toddler section and going down the mini water slide. We finally dragged them away when we were all shivering and starving. One of the best parts of that experience was that while we were splashing in our bathing suits there was a swirling blizzard all about us. We weren't sure we would be able to drive out the next day it was so much snow! The kids weren't impressed, but the adults where.

Too bad all that snow didn't dump on the mountain in the beginning of the week when we could have enjoyed it more. The first day there was a small ice storm which made conditions not so great for skiing but it didn't deter Sto and I. While my mom hung out with the kids at the hotel (with Lincoln crying pitifully most of the time, of course)(God bless my mom!) we hit the slopes. I admit I was a little nervous that I might have forgotten how to snowboard but it only took 1 run to get the hang of it again. It was a really great day. There were only a handful of people out riding so we felt like we had it all to ourselves. The took a ton of runs in just a couple of hours and were reminded why we like it so much. 

We considered taking Pippa for a lesson but thought better of it and decided to take them both sledding instead. That was an experience to remember. In a continuing effort to encourage Lincoln to enjoy the company of people other than myself (can you say supreme mama attachment?!) I was going to sled with Pippa and Lincoln with Sto. He was not terribly happy with this but managing to hold it together. I popped Pippa on the sled and start trekking up the hill, remembering all those times my dad did the same thing with me. Now I understand why he would take a break every couple of runs! We climbed up only a small part of the hill to test it out for Pippa's first time sledding and as I'm trying to relay the wisdom in this to Sto he waves me off and continues further up the hill. My worry was that it would be too fast and scary and the kids would refuse to sled any more! I could totally see that happening. But dad's know a thing or two about this sort of thing so I didn't push it. Pippa and I had a great (and short) run and she was ready to go again. Lincoln, however, did not fair quite as well. Sto got going too fast and tried to slow himself by putting his feet down, which then sprayed snow onto Lincoln's face causing him to start screaming....sledding over. There was no getting him anywhere close to a sled after that so Sto took him back to get the car while Pippa and I played for a little while longer. At least one of them had fun. I'm sure next year he'll won't be able to get enough of it.

Another memorable moment of the week happened at the arcade. We got a handful of tokens to let the kids play whatever they wanted. The concept of winning tickets and buying something with them was totally foreign, obviously, so they just gravitated toward the games that had the best flashing buttons to push. We had would get a ticket here and there and I figured we would just throw them out at the end, not even bothering to redeem them for a crappy toy. So Pippa chose a game that releases the bouncy ball and you win the amount of tickets written on whichever hole it bounced into. Not a bad choice since the least amount of tickets to be won was 10. Oddly, there was a part of me that still got excited at the thought of winning a bunch of tickets, even if I didn't want anything for them. Wouldn't you know it, our ball get stuck and can't bounce into a hole! Let down! So then Sto bangs on the machine and pop! Right into the jackpot hole! We ended up with 750 tickets! They just kept spitting out of the machine. It was crazy.  That event started kicked our good luck into high gear because by weeks end we had over 1200 tickets! Sto and Pippa had fun picking out a million little toys to bring home with us (most of which are already in the trash, by the way). 

It was a fun and exhausting week and we are already talking about our next mountain trip. We liked the area so much that we would love to buy a vacation home in the area some day. I've always said I'd rather have a house in the mountains than the beach. Dare to dream, right?

Lady and the Tramp

What was the first movie you remember watching? I remember ET in the theater and Dark Crystal (which terrified me) at the drive in along with one of the Star Wars movies. We've been keeping an eye out for a the right movie to take Pippa to the theater to see but so far nothing gentle enough has come up. Actually, I don't think anything gentle enough exists. So Pippa has never been to the movies. Nor has she seen an full movie on DVD. Partly because we've never bothered but partly because we weren't sure which one to choose. But then Joel and Katelyn came to visit and brought with them Lady and The Tramp. This was a classic in my household growing up. Joel and I have probably seen it a hundred times. And even though we haven't seen it in easily 20 years we didn't miss a beat. We were still able to say the lines right along with the movie.

We thought this would be the perfect first, real movie for Pippa. Sure there is a short 'scary' part about a rat and a chase scene with some horses but we figured we could fast forward and all would be well. Really, we should have known better. We forgot about the opening scene. I know you are wracking your brain trying to remember what is scary in the opening scene. And I doubt that unless you have a 3 year old of your own you would never figure it out, so I will tell you. Lady, as a puppy, is put in the kitchen for the night and whines until she makes it into her owner's bed. Apparently this is extremely upsetting to 3 year olds. We all know Pippa is a mild, sensitive little blossom after all. We could only roll our eyes and assure her the puppy going to be OK as she clung to me and buried her head in my shoulder. She did end up enjoying the rest of the movie (minus the rat and horses). But if you ask her today about the experience she will bring up that poor little puppy.

Perhaps we'll wait a few years more before ET.