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The weekend
Okay, so I'm posting a lot tonight.
This was an amazingly freakingly busy weekend. My uncle (Dad's younger brother) died last weekend (a year and a day after Pop died. Oy!) and the memorial service was Saturday noon.
We tried to sleep in, but Elli woke me up at 6, so I got up at 6:30 because of bladder pressure and an uncooperative CPAP mask. Great way to start a busy day! Eventually we got everybody washed, fed, dressed (I had to go shopping in the garage for clothes for the girls because we discovered the outfits I'd picked out earlier were too small) in the car, and on the road by 10:30. Yea us! That gave us 90 minutes for a hopefully unrushed trip up to Pleasant Hill. Which it was.
We pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant at 11:35 wondering where everyone was. We sat in the car and let the kids finish their movie. When it was over, we gave them our expectations for their behavior. It was a nice restaurant and we didn't want to repeat the experience we had with them at Loretta's Wake 18 months ago (same restaurant) (They actually did quite well...and they were the only kids for the majority of it)
Since it was an Italian restaurant...I wasn't holding my breath that the food would be edible (it wasn't last time). It wasn't too bad. I didn't touch the deep fried appetizers, I got glutened on the salad (after it was replaced for the 3rd time. I still need to call and bitch to the owner about the waiter.) My steak came sauce free, and the dessert was a chocolate mousse.
After the meal my Dad and his brothers spoke about my uncle and opened the floor to anyone else. Thankfully, my Mom decided that she would fall on the bullet of taking the kids away from the building for this part of the afternoon. She took them down the street to the park where they played. I got saved the fun of repeatedly shushing kids and sending them out to the hallway with Joe.
This was another occasion of "Who the hell are they talking about and why didn't I ever meet this person?" (To be brutally honest, I never tried. My uncle always struck me as an odd duck who always gave me a slight case of the heebie geebies and never took the time to get to know him.)
An amazing number of people Buddha'ed me. Since it was all family I thought it was cool. Perfect strangers, however, I hit. Most of my family missed seeing me pregnant before...and I'm looking kinda big right now. Most were surprised to hear we have another 2 months to go. I refrained from giving dirty looks to those who said I looked ready to deliver later in the day.
Afterwards we went to my Grams house. Thankfully, the girls decided this was time to take a nap. It was all close friends and family. And a lot of family that I only see at weddings and funerals. Sad, but that is what it takes to get people to come around from out of state. I had a good afternoon sitting in a comfy chair, visiting, gestating and stitching a bit. I also got the bonus of picking one of my cousin's brain.
She's been a teacher for 30+ years and has taught K-5. I talked to her about Ike and helping him to figure out how to read, she gave me some pointers, gave me some things to think about if we consider holding him back to repeat kinder, and definitely gave me an interesting idea on something do to to help build his "I can learn" confidence. (Since his strength is auditory learning, she suggested we look into the Suzuki Method of violin instruction. He's asking to take music lessons, I never would have thought of this approach on my own) It was a really good conversation.
The drunk people were hilarous to watch.
Believe it or not (this being my Grams house) there was very little I could eat. It was a lot of finger food, dips, and mini sandwich makings. I couldn't touch any of it because it either: 1. Contained or was assumed contaminated by Gluten 2. Deli Meat (Which you really can't eat while pregnant). I eventually got lucky and somebody finally pulled out a gluten free green salad. That and a rumage by my Mom in the fridge turned up a block of cheese. So between that and a large handful of Fritos...I got food!
The kids really were well behaved. Or at least so I heard. I really didn't see them much after the girls got up from their naps...in fact, now that I think about it...I don't know if they ever ate any dinner.
Ike stayed the night with my mom. He later passed out on the couch.
Elli wanted to stay with my Dad and was quite put out that we couldn't let her (not wouldn't. I didn't expect my Dad to stay at Grams, and I hadn't packed any extra clothes or diapers for Elli/Gwen to make it possible to leave her. If I had had clothes, I would have.) She pouted the entire way home and told me repeatedly she didn't like me anymore (her new phrase) We didn't get home until after 10PM.
One long ass tiring, but good, day.
Sunday was almost as bad. Woke up late, Joe took the girls to church, then I drove up to Fremont to meet my Dad and get Ike. The three of us had lunch at McDonalds (okay, they ate, I got something to drink) and got to visit a bit more. Then I drove Ike to Sunnyvale for a birthday party at Pump it Up. (We waved at you Allan!) Then we went home and I collapsed.
Like I'm about to do now.
This was an amazingly freakingly busy weekend. My uncle (Dad's younger brother) died last weekend (a year and a day after Pop died. Oy!) and the memorial service was Saturday noon.
We tried to sleep in, but Elli woke me up at 6, so I got up at 6:30 because of bladder pressure and an uncooperative CPAP mask. Great way to start a busy day! Eventually we got everybody washed, fed, dressed (I had to go shopping in the garage for clothes for the girls because we discovered the outfits I'd picked out earlier were too small) in the car, and on the road by 10:30. Yea us! That gave us 90 minutes for a hopefully unrushed trip up to Pleasant Hill. Which it was.
We pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant at 11:35 wondering where everyone was. We sat in the car and let the kids finish their movie. When it was over, we gave them our expectations for their behavior. It was a nice restaurant and we didn't want to repeat the experience we had with them at Loretta's Wake 18 months ago (same restaurant) (They actually did quite well...and they were the only kids for the majority of it)
Since it was an Italian restaurant...I wasn't holding my breath that the food would be edible (it wasn't last time). It wasn't too bad. I didn't touch the deep fried appetizers, I got glutened on the salad (after it was replaced for the 3rd time. I still need to call and bitch to the owner about the waiter.) My steak came sauce free, and the dessert was a chocolate mousse.
After the meal my Dad and his brothers spoke about my uncle and opened the floor to anyone else. Thankfully, my Mom decided that she would fall on the bullet of taking the kids away from the building for this part of the afternoon. She took them down the street to the park where they played. I got saved the fun of repeatedly shushing kids and sending them out to the hallway with Joe.
This was another occasion of "Who the hell are they talking about and why didn't I ever meet this person?" (To be brutally honest, I never tried. My uncle always struck me as an odd duck who always gave me a slight case of the heebie geebies and never took the time to get to know him.)
An amazing number of people Buddha'ed me. Since it was all family I thought it was cool. Perfect strangers, however, I hit. Most of my family missed seeing me pregnant before...and I'm looking kinda big right now. Most were surprised to hear we have another 2 months to go. I refrained from giving dirty looks to those who said I looked ready to deliver later in the day.
Afterwards we went to my Grams house. Thankfully, the girls decided this was time to take a nap. It was all close friends and family. And a lot of family that I only see at weddings and funerals. Sad, but that is what it takes to get people to come around from out of state. I had a good afternoon sitting in a comfy chair, visiting, gestating and stitching a bit. I also got the bonus of picking one of my cousin's brain.
She's been a teacher for 30+ years and has taught K-5. I talked to her about Ike and helping him to figure out how to read, she gave me some pointers, gave me some things to think about if we consider holding him back to repeat kinder, and definitely gave me an interesting idea on something do to to help build his "I can learn" confidence. (Since his strength is auditory learning, she suggested we look into the Suzuki Method of violin instruction. He's asking to take music lessons, I never would have thought of this approach on my own) It was a really good conversation.
The drunk people were hilarous to watch.
Believe it or not (this being my Grams house) there was very little I could eat. It was a lot of finger food, dips, and mini sandwich makings. I couldn't touch any of it because it either: 1. Contained or was assumed contaminated by Gluten 2. Deli Meat (Which you really can't eat while pregnant). I eventually got lucky and somebody finally pulled out a gluten free green salad. That and a rumage by my Mom in the fridge turned up a block of cheese. So between that and a large handful of Fritos...I got food!
The kids really were well behaved. Or at least so I heard. I really didn't see them much after the girls got up from their naps...in fact, now that I think about it...I don't know if they ever ate any dinner.
Ike stayed the night with my mom. He later passed out on the couch.
Elli wanted to stay with my Dad and was quite put out that we couldn't let her (not wouldn't. I didn't expect my Dad to stay at Grams, and I hadn't packed any extra clothes or diapers for Elli/Gwen to make it possible to leave her. If I had had clothes, I would have.) She pouted the entire way home and told me repeatedly she didn't like me anymore (her new phrase) We didn't get home until after 10PM.
One long ass tiring, but good, day.
Sunday was almost as bad. Woke up late, Joe took the girls to church, then I drove up to Fremont to meet my Dad and get Ike. The three of us had lunch at McDonalds (okay, they ate, I got something to drink) and got to visit a bit more. Then I drove Ike to Sunnyvale for a birthday party at Pump it Up. (We waved at you Allan!) Then we went home and I collapsed.
Like I'm about to do now.