It was a really good thing to be able to fall back into the regular work week today. The nanny got her car problems straightened out, and I was able to get into the office and start getting caught up on what I was already behind on before I had to unexpectedly take a day off from work. Tara is feeling better today; her fever is gone and she’s not coughing as much as the last couple days, but still has a hoarse voice. She has been so cute lately that I captured some lousy video on my phone just to get something to post, so please enjoy.

Update: somehow I had borked the audio on the movie, but it’s fixed up now.

The day started well enough; I awoke to the sounds of Anna fixing her own breakfast downstairs at 6:30. Tara was still asleep. Anna did a terrific job of getting herself ready, and I had the foresight to put Tara down to sleep in the next day’s clothes, so we were all ready to head out the door well ahead of schedule for once. It was then that I got a call from the nanny that her car had broken down on the freeway and she narrowly avoided an accident. Things sort of spiraled from there into an ugly situation involving an asinine police officer and her ailing father. An hour later she informed me that the car was taken care of, but she wanted to look after her father, so I ended up staying home with the girls, unplanned.

Throughout the day, Tara seemed to be coming down with something. She’d been occasionally cranky since yesterday and was sounding congested. By 10am I was feeling pretty wiped out; having had a few nights in a row of inadequate sleep. After picking up Anna and having lunch at home I was hoping for a little downtime with Tara napping and Anna having quiet time. No such luck as the yard guys paid a visit and woke up Tara with the mowing and blowing. It was 1pm, both girls were up, and I was realy for a nap. I decided we needed to get out and do something, so I took the girls to SeaWorld for the second time in three days. We buzzed in just in time to catch the 2pm pet show, then hit the 3pm dolphin show. By then, Tara was looking really wiped out; even in the middle of the dolphin show she was asking to go night-night.

I picked up dinner on the way home, fed the girls, put Tara in the shower, helped Anna with her homework, and got some of the dishes done. At this point, with Anna falling asleep as I type this, my responsibilities are nearly done for the day. I’m hoping Tara sleeps through the night, but I’m going go to do bed as soon as Anna knocks out, just in case someone is up tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Today, I got home to a house that was cleaner than when I left. The kids were happy and clean, the lawn was mowed, the laundry was done. I sifted through the mail and perused bills from the accountant and the pest control service. I pieced together dinner from frozen prepared vegetable medley, frozen precooked chicken strips (which were delivered to my door by a service), and potato flakes. It seems like little by little I’m outsourcing so many different things I used to do. The upside is that got to spend more of my evening with the kids; though it’s not all sunshine and roses what with Anna being very defiant these days, we had an overall satisfying evening. The girls, when they were not antagonizing each other, alternated between Anna giving Tara horsie rides and both of them playing “let’s spin around until we get dizzy and fall down.” At one point, Anna completed 142 turns before Jennifer got tired of counting. Tara, who was playing while holding a sippy cup of milk, did a no-hands face-plant onto the carpet then just giggled and got up and started spinning again. I think we’ve captured some video at some point, which I’ll have to post soon.

The bike engine should arrive tomorrow; I’m really looking forward to getting it installed and giving it a spin, but realistically it may end up waiting until the weekend.

The kids went to bed late again tonight. On Friday, we went over to our friends M. and K.’s house, and had some terrific pork chops from Bisher’s. I’ll be visiting there soon to pick some up for myself, I’m sure. Yesterday was mostly on time, after my brother’s family got into town and headed off to their beachfront rental. We got Japanese carry-out, and Tara demonstrated how much she loves the sushi. Today, we met up with my bro’s fam and went again for Japanese–Surfside Sushi in PB–and it was great, and reasonably priced. Tara ate like we had not fed her all day. Granted, she’s large for an 18-month old, but she ate: one entire edamame appetizer, three california rolls, portions of chicken katsu and vegetable tempura, and two orange slices. She was still asking for more immediately before we left, but we feared the worst. Anna had a bite of shrimp tempura and a few grains of fried rice.

Tomorrow, we’re off to SeaWorld; Anna loves the shows, so we’re buying an annual pass; since kindergarten is half-day, the nanny might also be able to bring her down there every now and then, and we’ll have all next summer as well. It’s odd thing for me to think that Anna will actually have some sort of obligation to go to school from now on; until now, our jobs have been the only attendance requirement we’ve had to deal with, and even so we get to choose our vacation days ourselves. I had forgotten what a bummer it was the have to go to school.

In other news, I got sweet revenge on Anna the other day by getting Saint Simon by The Shins (or as she calls it, “the la-la-la song”) stuck in her head by playing it for the 875th time. Take that, Raffi. Speaking of La La, I’ve been using it for a while and have mixed feelings about it. This whole trading thing is nice and cheap, but it’s a nuisance too. You have to acknowledge when you get stuff and frankly, I really don’t look at the mail more often than once a week. Also, you never know exactly what you’re going to get on your list, and the selection is biggest for college-type music. I’m afraid my taste in music just wants college-type music to stay off its lawn.

Jennifer and I were not planning on Tara staying home sick this week, but she made new plans for us anyway. She started out on Monday with a fever, followed by a cough, followed by a running nose, and a couple rounds of vomit. I suspect there’s going to be some diarrhea involved in the finale, but don’t let me spoil the ending for you. It could be anything.

Jennifer stayed home with her on Monday, her usual day off, and we split Tuesday through Thursday, trading off at lunch each day. Today was also supposed to be a split as well, but Jennifer decided to cheat by not eating lunch and thus spending the whole day at work while I busied myself with cleaning blort off the crib sheet, the baby, and myself. Combine that with some night waking and it’s business as usual here at We’re So Tired. I guess I don’t have to worry about changing the name of the blog any time soon.

Tomorrow, we’ll be meeting another nanny; I think this is the seventh prospective nanny, but who’s counting. She looks great on paper, sounds great on the phone, and hopefully will be equally great in person. It would only figure that we find a good nanny now that Anna is all accustomed to going to ESS. This morning there was some bargaining, but no actual tears shed at drop-off time. She was cheery as could be when I picked her up, and she seems to be very attached to the “teacher” there with the piercings and the big tattoo on her chest. One of them anyways.

I’m glad we don’t have a whole lot going on this weekend; after this week of being housebound, and with my trip to D.C. coming up, the last thing we need is to be scurrying around from place to place with a sick baby.

I’m officially turning in my apron. I used to poke fun at my coworkers over the amount they ate carry-out, but after my solo stint a couple weeks back, I’ve decided I just don’t have time to cook anymore. Cooking takes a crazy long time. I just don’t have that extra hour every day to make dinner. Yesterday (Mother’s Day, I know, but it was also Anna’s birthday, and for a whole bunch of other reasons, Mother’s Day is postponed this year) I bought a chest freezer, which I intend to fill with premade dinners, which will be delivered to our house by someone in a uniform. From now on, “making dinner” will consist of removing something from the defrosting drawer and putting in the over, then removing something from the deep freeze and putting it in the defrosting drawer. For the record, I’ve been making dinner for, uhm, EVER. Jennifer could cook if she was pressed to do it, but it’s just not a good idea on a regular basis.

Also, I talked with a nanny placing service today, so we could soon be interviewing nannies. This is a big jump for me, as I was very against the idea of spending more money for someone else to spend more time with my kids, rather than me doing it myself. However, the couple weeks I spent alone with the kids has really opened my eyes to how much work there is to be done around here, and how much more we could be enjoying the time we spend with our kids if we weren’t constantly occupied with the logistics and cleaning that seem to occupy most of our time.

Yesterday wasn’t much to speak of, either in terms of Mother’s Days nor Birthdays… and that fact is as probably as good an indicator as any of how stretched we are. I never have been an especially good planner of surprises, or even of non-surprise celebrations, but every now and then I do come up with a winner. The ladies that cut Jen’s hair still tell (and embellish) the story of how I made an album of Anna’s first year for Jennifer’s first Mother’s Day. In truth, I took advantage of my insomnia to do something useful for a couple months, and sought the advice of a coworker to make a simple album. According to the ladies at the salon, I took scrapbooking classes and popped No-Doz every night of Anna’s life in order to create a veritable monument to babyhood that will one day reside in the Louvre alongside Michelangelo’s Pietá[1].

Anyway, this Mother’s Day was supposed to be one of those grand occasions which would reveal another work that would further The Legend of Dave, that parable of hairdresser culture. So, it’s not done yet. And at the rate it’s going, it’s would likely be next Mother’s Day before it’s unveiled, if it weren’t for the fact that I plan to turn in my apron and hire a nanny. I’m hoping that I can free up some time for the thing that seems to be in highest demand around here: attention.

¹ Yes, I know Pietá is in the Vatican.