We had an absolutely awful start to the day. Tara woke up at 3:50am, and woke Anna up with her. Jennifer misunderstood me saying, “I’m going to put Tara back to bed” as “Mmmzft mum mun med,” and went and got Tara up while I made a pit stop. Upon finding Tara awake and unwrapped, I had two choices. I could go back to sleep and let Jennifer feed Tara, or I could wrap the unhappy-to-be-put-to-bed Tara back up and noisily spend the next hour attempting to get her to sleep, while Anna whined for attention, thus setting off a civil war between Jennifer and Anna. Let’s just say mistakes were made. In the end, Tara got fed, Anna went to bed, and Jen and I each lost couple hours of sleep. By the time 6:45am rolled around, I felt like I had an axe in my head.

I took Anna downstairs and Jennifer snoozed a little before getting ready for work. Once ready, Jennifer came downstairs to find me half awake, staring into nothingness and drooling. She let me go back upstairs for another hour of sleep, during which time Tara awoke, ate, and went back to bed. I woke up again, feeling much better, and Jennifer went off to work.

Since then, Tara took a three-hour nap, and Anna has had amazingly good behavior. She went out of her way to perform some reward-worthy deeds such as cleaning up the family room, and so I got her a Hello Kitty wallet out of the reward cabinet. Anna has of late become interested in coins, and wanted some paper money for her wallet. I opened up my own wallet and obliged… after a trip to the copy machine. If I had some more time I would have photoshopped Hello Kitty onto the bills, but for now it sufficed to shrink regular money down to Anna size. Later in the day, we had a discussion about the difference between play money and real money, and that she couldn’t have real money because I didn’t want her to lose it. No problem, she said, I could just go back to work and get more.

Today, Anna and Tara made a concerted effort to demonstrate to me that all is not roses for the at-home parent. They were needy at exactly the same times, and Tara woke up at the exact time I was putting Anna to bed; shortly after Anna woke up, it was time to feed Tara and put her to bed. Mind, you, this was just an unfortunate matter of timing, without the additional complications of illness or whatnot.

As frustrating as it was, I really want to be able to handle the worst; after this week, Anna starts up school again, so things should get a little easier during the day, and I can start tackling some things around the house when Tara is napping. Today, I felt like the best I could accomplish was “limited regression.”

I did manage to get a little time to add the camera-phone sidebar you see to the left. If things go well tomorrow, I’ll add some EXIF parsing so you can at least see the date that the pictures were shot.

I got my cable bill yesterday. It was 95 bucks. I noticed this was high because I usually pay more like $75 for extended basic cable + broadband. For years, I only had the federally-mandated low cost basic cable which runs $12 or so, plus the exorbitant $45 for broadband. The cable company then began calling me up to offer me a couple months free if I would switch to extended basic, and I would promptly switch back to basic basic after the free period ran out. The next step would be that they would offer me a couple months free followed by a period of $10-20 off per month for a year. That period just ran out, which is why my bill jumped up to $95.

This morning I called up and gave them the double shot of asking to drop extended cable (-$36) and asking why their broadband was so expensive, considering DSL is $15/month. They apparently have a “broadband lite” option that’s only $27/month, but it’s not even as fast as the $15/month DSL. We finally settled on $69/month for the services I currently have, but I’m going to try to talk to the DSL people to see if I can figure out exactly what bitrate I might end up with; if I drop my cable down to basic, and switch to high-end DSL, I’d be paying something like $40/month, and the lower latency of DSL might even make VOIP look a little more palatable–so I’d be paying $55/month for broadband, TV, and phone; that sounds a little more reasonable.

Inasmuch as looking out for two kids can be easy, it has been. Yesterday I managed to pick up around the house before taking the kids to the airport to drop off Grandma D. After we returned, it was time for bottle & nap and lunch & nap; I actually had an hour of downtime to boot.

After naps, I took both of the kids to the grocery store. It turned out to be a very quick trip because I forgot to bring the baby bjorn, which left me holding Tara in one arm while I tended Anna, pushed the cart, and grabbed items with the other. It doesn’t look easy, and it’s less easy than it looks. Today, we’ll go again after naps, this time with the bjorn. And pants.¹

What is it about October?

Today we received the 5th and 6th birthday party invitations for the weekend of July 9-10. Doesn’t anyone watch baseball this time of year?

Parenting Daddy-style

Today was surely the first bottle Tara has consumed in the garage. I spent most of the morning cleaning it while Tara slept. Anna alternately blew bubbles and lamented that whatever unused toy I was packaging up to store, donate, or discard was absolutely her most precious and beloved belonging, and that she would surely die without it. I never read the Lord of the Rings books, but I’m convinced that it was when Gollum’s dad had tripped over that ring one too many times and packed it up to give to the Salvation Army that caused Gollum to go all nonlinear. Anyway, the garage is approximately half cleaned, such that I can get into my car without having to slide across the hood Dukes-of-Hazzard-style.

Being Ignored Builds Character

Anna has done very well what with having to share my attention with Tara. She has been becoming more autonomous lately, and the last two days she has been downright helpful. She can get set her place at the table, pour her own cereal (and milk if the container isn’t too full), get her own cup of water from the dispenser, and clear her dishes. Yesterday and today, she selected all her desired items for lunch–soup, macaroni, fruit–and set them out on the counter for me to prepare. As good as her day behavior has been, her night behavior has been falling off. She wakes up between 5-6 am and often whines until we come out and scold her back into her room. She usually doesn’t nap, and to pass the time she uses the bathroom. I must be spending several hundred dollars a month on flushable wipes and the water bill. I honestly never thought that being potty-trained would be more wasteful than being in disposable diapers.

Both kids are now having nap, so I’ve got to get my shopping list together so we can go to the store and have something on the table for dinner tonight.

¹ Tara needs to wear pants, lest she get chilly in the refrigerated section. As usual, I won’t be wearing pants.

As of Friday afternoon, I am officially on leave of absence from work for two months. However, between preparing to leave and doing a ton of stuff this past weekend, I have not had a chance to write about anything lately. I’m just going to list off some of this stuff without making the least attempt to be entertaining, so unless you’re a relative or a stalker, just go back and read Twas the Night Before Christmas, from back when I used to be funny.

What is it about September?

We had three birthday party invitations for Saturday, and attended two of them. For the first, our neighbors across the street rented a large bounce-house-style inflatable slide. It looked to be about 20 feet tall, and the kids absolutely loved it. They did laps on it for about 45 minutes, then went to the backyard for cake and presents, then did another round of sliding. Anna and I returned home with just enough time to make lunch to eat in the car on the way to another party. Anna took a while to warm up to the unfamiliar crowd, but was in fine form within about half an hour. Between the roller coaster, the water balloons, and the mai tais, we both had a great time and hardly notice how late it was getting to be until Jennifer called to remind me it was time for

Date Night

Grandma D. has been in town for the last week or so, and watched the girls Saturday night while Jen and I went out to the Del Mar Fair, which is basically a joint meeting of fried-food vendors and food-on-a-stick vendors. We sampled some of each, and also bridged the gap with fried-food-on-a-stick. We also checked out the photography exhibition, where one of my photos would have been displayed were it not for the unreliable non-efforts of White House Custom Color, who dropped my printing order. Maybe next year.

And there was a baseball game too

Sunday, we went to the Padres game vs. the Mariners. This was a playgroup outing with six families, or 24 people total, all getting park passes and camping out on the grass. We actually stayed for the entire game, but didn’t see much of it. Tara and I did go for a little walk and have a Mariners home run land about 20 feet from us, tying the game. The Padres got the lead later in the game, and Grandma D. even got to see Ichiro hit a weak fly to shallow center to end it.

I’m going to start relaxing RIGHT NOW. Really.

This week I have both girls at home because Anna is off of school. All that I need to do today is clean my car, take Grandma to the airport, and add some photos to this blog post. And buy some steaks for my birthday dinner. And cook them. And eat them. That’s it. Really.

The best part about the Del Mar Fair is the really awful food.

These last few weeks have been crazy busy, but it’s beginning to look like =
the end is near… My cube is even clean!

You down with WST?

I’m way behind on posting. I know it. One of my brothers IM’d me today to say that I was way behind on WST. What’s WST, I asked? We’re So Tired. That’s how out of touch I am with my own blog. There hasn’t been a lot of stuff that I’ve missed blogging about lately, as I’ve been crazy busy getting ready to take my leave of absence. Father’s Day was nice, celebrated mostly by Jennifer keeping the girls out of my hair for most of the day. I wrote a python script for my phone which I will use to keep track of Tara’s inputs and outputs and sleep cycles. I so look forward to the day when I needn’t be concerned with anyone’s bowel movements but my own. If you have children, you know what I’m talking about.

Men who Take Leave, and Women who Let Them

To recap, I’m taking two months off of work to be with my kids. Everyone I’ve shared this with has one or more of the following reactions:

• Wow, you’re a really great dad.
• Wow, it’s really great that you can (afford to) do that.
• So, you’re going to be Mr. Mom, huh?

I like to think I’m a good father; that’s honestly one of the few areas I feel like I don’t need further validation. I don’t think I’m a truly great father, but I really do have the best intentions, and I’m trying really hard. Regardless, I am absolutely looking forward to my time off with my kids because I enjoy spending time with them, and I realize this will be a challenge for me, with more meaning than most things I call challenging in my life.

With regard to the second point, it is federal law that I can take this time off, and the State of California assures that I get paid a little for the time that I’m off, so it’s really not the financial hardship you might think at first. Even without the partial pay, I would be doing it. And yes, I feel fortunate that I can afford to take the time off, even if it is costing us a big chunk of money. Actually, the “lost” money is a motivator for me; if I can get up every morning and think of a dollar figure that I would be making by going to work, it gives me incentive to make the day worth it.

With regard to the third point, I’m really not all that intimidated by having one or two kids at home. I think the era of dads who never cooked, cleaned, did laundry, or changed diapers has gone the way of the dinosaur and the ubiquitous stay-at-home mom. I’m not saying that’s a good thing–some of those dinosaurs were pretty cool looking. Anyway, I have mad cooking and cleaning and diapering game, and I am not a perfectionist. I forsee meals even eaten over the sink. Lots of them.

So, I’m getting ready to do more dadding, and more blogging, and more daddy-blogging.

Anna had another reward-worthy night of sleep, and earned the book Babar Loses His Crown. I still don’t like these Babar books. Are we supposed to feel sorry for the boastful, elitist King Babar because he has lost his crown and cannot bear to be seen at the opera without it? Seriously, that is the great tragedy my four-year-old is supposed to be identifying with. Also, I noted that before going to the opera, King Babar and Queen Celeste put their children to bed in the hotel and leave them unattended while they go out on the town in Paris; what kind of message is that? At best, they have brought some of their palace staff to attend to the children, and simply don’t feel they are worth mentioning in the book.

All I have to say is don’t blame me, I voted for Curious George.

Tonight, Anna has had the most unusual behavior. The day started out typically enough, though it was Anna’s first reward-worthy night of sleeping in several weeks. She had typical behavior; partly whiny, partly good, mostly low maintenance. She had an atypically long nap; actually most days she doesn’t take a nap at all. We went out for a playgroup trip to the bowling alley, and when we returned for dinner, the unusual behavior began.

We had a lot of different foods on the table: sloppy joes, green salad, fruit salad, rice, chips and guacamole, and probably some other stuff. Anna essentially ate all the foods we’re always hounding her to eat, and none of the stuff we tried to get her to avoid. She went on and on about how she was going to only eat healthy foods and not eat chips. Further, she was going to take long naps, and by these actions grow big and strong. Through the rest of the evening, she cleared her table, used her good manners, helped to clean up, helped with Tara’s bath, got herself ready for bed, and did so with practically no resistance. I’m stunned; she has had the occasional “Stepford morning” where she has a streak of excellent behavior, but I have never seen it in the evening, nor at such a high level for so long.