Etc, Etc, Etc.

Remodel Update
This phase, the moving back phase, is more work than I ever expected. Somehow no one warned me about this part. Love the house, but will someone please come unpack me, decide where everything should go and then just call me when it's done? I'll be with the kids at gymnastics, dance or swim lessons.

The Amazing La Nina
Speaking of swim lessons, La Nina shocked her swim coach, me and everyone else sitting pool side yesterday, when she decided to swim the length of the pool. (It's a regulation length pool 25 yards or so). While she was supposed to swim to her coach at the half way line, she blew past him and swam to the end. He called in another lifeguard to sit with the class and swam with her. When he offered her a dolphin ride back to class, she passed and swam the length back. After class, her reward was 3 big tosses into the pool...which she loved. Today, the coach forced her to start working on her back stroke. Let's just say, he was very successful at slowing her down.

The Magster's Swim Lessons
Not to be outdone by her sister, the Magster has been picking up her feet and swimming in the shallow end. She hasn't figure out how to lift her head without putting her head down, but she doing lots of other things. In fact, she can now complete forward rolls in the water and dive for rings. It slays her that she can't keep up with her sister and for her age, she's doing great.

That's it for me. Dance for 2007-2008 starts tomorrow and I'm thick in planning for the start of school. Hard to believe 4 weeks from today, La Nina will start school. I hope I'm out from under the boxes by that point.

Work is done, but there's still a ways to go.

Since the day we started our remodel, I've envisioned my completed house. In my vision, everything is perfect. The paint, the furniture, even the inside of every cabinet is organized and efficient. The gleam of my new stainless steel appliances competing with the slick, gloss of my granite.

Today was supposed to be the day I realized those visions. We moved back into our house on schedule. (God bless our contractor.) The major portion of the project is complete and the items left to be done are truly minor. Yet, my visions of perfection are a distant blur...'cuz somewhere in my future plan I never considered I'd have to move. Again.

Somehow, even though the nail pounding work is done, the remodel of far from over. I'm back to boxes. Boxes stacked so high I can't see the gleam of anything but packing tape. I did get my kitchen put together last week and that's the only reason we had dinner here tonight. And we do have beds to sleep in..I did that yesterday. it's a start. But otherwise, it's camping. We have one functioning shower for all of us. (The other is inaccessible due stacks of books I need to put back on a shelf.) We're missing a kitchen table. (The old one doesn't work, so we have to find a new one.) Our clothes are still in suitcases. I have no idea how we'll find anything to wear tomorrow.

Regardless of the mess around me, it feels so good to be home. The girls both love their rooms. Maggie's having a tough time getting used to sleeping alone again. For the first time tonight, she told me she didn't like to be alone. Only new thing in that statement is she can now articulate it. La Nina's a little disappointed she didn't get a new bed like Maggie did, but La Nina didn't need a new bed.

Now I get to unpack and figure out what else I should've gotten rid of before we remodel. And someday, my house will match my vision. Someday soon, I hope.

Why I haven't finished Potter....

My sister finished it. A friend from Pismo who got the book after me finished. Me...not done. Why?

Well, I could use the two kids excuse or I could blame the remodel...both true barriers to me accomplishing anything. But the real reason: I can't remember the six other books well enough to follow this damn plot. Ok, I sort of remember, but I have to reread passage several times, then I wrack my brain trying to remember the history, then I remember the history two days later, search for the section of the book with the memory that has just occured to me...reread that section, lose me place in the book, refind my place in the book and start reading again. This sequence occurs many times a day.

See, motherhood made me lose my memory. The RAM is full. If new information flows in, some old bit of data flows out. Including the details of books I read 7 years ago. Yes....I read some of the first three books over 7 years ago. Before kids, when my life included completed cups of coffee, blow-dried hair and considerably less bodily fluids. When I wasn't homeless and trying to wrap up a remodel. Juggling dashes to Expo for knobs, trips to the pool for swim lessons and jaunts to the dance studio for Princess Dance Camp.

So before you call again, that is why I'm only on page 500, sis.

Reunion Time!

We had a rollicking good time this weekend visiting with the Magster's travel group. The reunion was held in Pismo Beach, kind of the mid-point for Southern and Northern California. Despite Pismo's gritty reputation, I like the place. Great beaches, not too commercial, not ridiculously over-priced...but then again, I'm a Californian...so what do I know.

Out of the 25 families we traveled with in November 2004, twenty two families attended. Only one family is completely missing and the other two families had major conflicts. We missed them both. So, yes, we spent the weekend with 20+ girls under the age of 6. The elder statesmen of the group were two brothers 8. Lots of kids.

As with all reunions, it was wonderful to reconnect with the people who "knew us when." It was also fun to see how wonderfully the girls are doing. In this group of girls, there have been no problems I consider major. A few kids had some speech therapy and some physical therapy, but that's hardly unusual among any group of children. Frankly, now, three years after their adoption you'd never guess which kids had extra help.

Whereas at La Nina's reunion last year, the four and a half year olds really understood their connection to each other, this group is still too young for all of that. Instead this was more an extended play date of long lost friends. There's no doubt this reunion will be a wonderful chapter in the book of their relationship and next time, they'll get the whole back story.

On another note: Of course, this reunion completely got in the way of my Harry Potter Book Seven purchase. I was chatting with one of the Dad's (mind you, not my husband...just a travel friend) about the lack of a book store in Pismo and lamenting the Potter-less weekend. I even witnessed kids reading the book on the beach. It.was.killing.me. I wanted to kick sand on them and steal their books. Isn't that awful? Later that night, this wonderful, thoughtful man surprised me with a copy of the book on my chair. Caio- I have a book to read!

Why It's a Drag to Be the Little Sister

We heard before we left on vacation that La Nina was going to be an afternoon kindergartner. That means her school day will run from 11:30 to 2:50. Of course, for her this is a minor disaster. She needs her naps and I'm not sure how she going to stay awake until 3pm.

This had implications for me, as well. Our current preschool program runs from 9:00-11:30 or 12:30, depending on whether or not the Magster stays with them for lunch. So, basically, I'll be dropping one kid off just in time to rush across town and pick the other kid up if I don't do anything to change the configuration.

And this is where it's a drag to be the younger sibling: The Magster's life will be totally uprooted based on her sister's schedule. If I want to stay sane, I'll have to change the Magster's preschool to keep her schedule aligned with her sister's.

Of course, the timing for a change isn't bad. The Magster is envious that her sister is going to go to big kid school and she's being left behind. And of my two, the Magster tolerates change better than her sister. And yet, the Magster has a very tight group of friends in her existing school, and it'll be tough to break them up.

And that's the difference between a first and second child. The first child, you make the schedule work for the child. But with the second, the schedule has to work for me. Oh, the dilemma's of motherhood.

Catching Up

I've been away for several days on a vacation and am just now getting back in the swing of things...so I thought I'd catch you up on the happenings.

Kids: The kids loved our trip to Colorado. They rode horses, fished, played with the other kids on the trip and took spins on 4 wheelers. But the most memorable part of the trip: A mouse that wandered into the ranch house where we were staying. They have talked non-stop about the mouse, the trap that killed the mouse, the wheelbarrow where the dead mouse stayed and now want to know exactly why we didn't want a mouse in the house. I've tried to explain that mice are dirty and better off outside, but my reasoning is falls on deaf ears. Who knew a mouse could trump a horse in terms of vacation entertainment value? Strap a saddle on a mouse and we may just have something new for the kids.

Remodel: Yes, we're still homeless. It's very disconcerting to return home from vacation and not actually get to go home. The first thing we did when we got back to town was check house to see the work completed. The floors are done, the granite is in and we're waiting for the tile work to start. It looks like a whole new house and the closer it gets to completion the more anxious we are to move back in. Our timeline has been pushed back 1 week and we should be back in by Aug. 1.

Other Happenings: I took the kids to see Ratatouille solo today. It was a fairly bold move given that La Nina has struggled both times we've taken her to the show. She did okay today. At one point, she had both her hands over her ears and her face buried in my shoulder, but she made it. One big disadvantage of taking kids to the movies alone: The popcorn line. It was so long, I couldn't possibly wait in line and the theatre was so crowded, I couldn't leave the kids alone. So...no popcorn today. The Magster was quite dismayed, but suffered through the snackless movie quite well. My girls are so different. The Magster sat through the whole movie laughing at funny parts and whining at every opportunity the lack of popcorn. La Nina sat on my other side, clutching her ears, covering her eyes and begging me not to leave her alone to get popcorn. Oy vey!

Incidentally, Ratatouille is a cute movie. It seemed loud to me, but I don't get out much.

That's it for me tonight.

Straight from the Mouth of Babes

A conversation with the Magster in the grocery store:

"Are you tired, Maggie?"

"No, Mom," she answers, her voice thick with disgust.

"You look a little tired, honey."

"I'm not tired. My eyes are still on."

"Your eyes are still on?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Well, how do you turn them off?"

In answer, the Magster looked up at me and shut her eyes. It was a very sarcastic gesture if the closing of eyes can be sarcastic. Apparently, I'm not quite clear on the indicators of "tired" in my children. Eyes on, not tired. Eyes off, tired. Silly me.

Happy 4th of July!

A Good Read

If you've followed my blog for awhile, you know I'm an avid reader. I'll pretty much read anything. And every now and then I read a book that mesmerizes me. When I find a book like this, I simply have to read it.

Last night, I found the best book I've read in a few years: "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. I started it a couple of weeks ago and was very sad that I had to put it down for something else. When I picked it up last night, I simply had to finish it. It was the most compelling story I've read in a long, long time.

I read for five straight hours, from 10pm to 3am, and I don't think I took a breath for the entire second half of the book. It was that good. The book is set in Afganistan and tracks the lives of two very different women. It covers the span of about 40 years of recent history and how the events of our times play out in these women's lives. It also shows the repression, the hardship and the eventual triumph of these women. I don't want to ruin the story, but suffice to say I.could.not.put.it down.

If you liked the Kite Runner, this is better (and I loved "The Kite Runner".) The ending is crisper, the story sharper. I think his writing style is a little cleaner too. The backdrop of Afganistan and its people remain incredible contrast to our lives here in the US.

Thank God I finished this book now, because we're three weeks away from Harry Potter, and I would hate to have to read this book and that book back to back. I have to get some rest now, but if you're looking for something to read, don't miss this.