Christmas 2007

I've been reading my past Christmas posts and frankly, having a good laugh at myself. You know, it's amazing how much mellower my life is these days. By no means is my life peaceful. I still dream of the days when I had quiet mornings with a cup of coffee (REAL COFFEE--NOT HALF CAF), James Taylor and the morning paper. When I made one breakfast, not three. Ahhh, the time I wasted!

But even now, by the standards of my early days with two wild girls only nineteen months apart, my life is predictable. I eat hot meals, I no longer change diapers, bottles are a distant memory. And while I type this in the middle of a huge Christmas mess that I'm ignoring, I can honestly say I enjoyed Christmas this year. It's the first Christmas in years that I enjoyed.

When the kids were little, they were so much work, Christmas just wasn't all that fun. The shopping, the wrapping, the baking, it was way too much added onto a pile that felt too high to scale. Now, the kids can feed themselves, dress themselves and tell me what they need. It's so much easier.

Thinking back, the hard times were really short lived. In terms of Christmas', it numbered three pretty rough ones. Of course, I still have my moments with two kids, but mostly now, the kids are fun. Side splitting, belly laughing fun. Sometimes a lot of work, but it's different now. The constant physical demands have lessened, but the their needs are more mentally taxing and emotionally challenging. Of course, I still feel like the luckiest woman in the world to call these two angels my daughters. And on Christmas, they will always be the two greatest gifts I have ever received.

Less Than Five Days To GO

This has to have been the LONGEST Christmas season in my entire life. I can't remember a year when I waited longer for Christmas day to arrive. In terms of the To Do list, I'm fairly organized. The cards went out in a respectable timeframe thanks to the kids labor, most of the presents are wrapped, some are even delivered. Santa is well informed of the girls wishes and is on to of her game. The reason the season is dragging you ask? Oh, the reasons are many.

Take for instance, the laundry! I mean really, why on earth when I'm filled with goodwill towards my fellow men should I be stuck in the master bedroom folding clothes. It's criminal. I have gifts to wrap, cookies to bake, a couple of un-constructed Gingerbread houses to build, yet, there I stand, folding socks. It's so bad I have two loads of unfolded laundry sitting on my bed and another in the dryer and I don't think it's going to happen tonight.

Another reason this season is dragging? The 3pm doldrums caused by not getting my afternoon diet Coke. Only a real sicko would require a mother of two young children to cut back on her caffiene three weeks before Christmas. I've had to resort to a few well timed pieces of chocolate (also forbidden-for the record) to get me through the afternoons, especially on the days after I've been out of the house after 9pm. And if I'm up after 10pm, I start to feel faint. I'm not off the juice completely, I still drink a single super tanker of 1/2 caff in the morning. At least the headaches no longer wake me up in the morning.

Final reason, season is moving slow? The children are moving so fast. Yes, the kids are wired. In fact, Maggie's behavior is best described as wild. She's a singing, dancing, whirling dervish, and alas she's been out of school all week. She just exhausts me. Picture this, a wild four year old bounding like Tigger around a master bedroom with a mother who hasn't had enough caffiene trying to fold clothes on the bed. Four year old thinks it's great fun to 'help' the exhausted mother by jumping on the bed and watching the folded clothes fly into the air. Mother doesn't find the four year old all that funny. Trust me.

I need to get to bed now. Enjoy the Season.

PS. Kid Tip: The NORAD Santa site starts it's count down on Christmas Eve morning. Last year the videos were amazing and the girls loved seeing Santa's progress around the world. We highly recommend the games too.

Family Day

Well, we're fast approaching the big day that Santa comes to town, and the girls are wound tight as tops. In fact, La Nina is shrieking with laughter at this very moment...45 minutes past her usual bedtime. It could be ugly tomorrow.

We celebrated our fifth family day with La Nina on Sunday. It's so hard to believe it's been five years. I reread all my previous family day posts, and geez...I waxed poetic in the past. You know it's funny, this year the day held more fond memories than intense emotions. Here's this year's little update.

Dual Immersion Kindergarten is going well. She's reading in Spanish and doing pretty well at reading in English too. (English is far more difficult language to learn to read.) She can read some headlines in the newspaper, a few street signs--especially the ones that are Spanish words-- and other phonetic words, but anything unusual throws her. She likes math too, and she really loves the social aspect of Kindergarten. Outside of school, she loves dance and gymnastics.

She still sleeps more than any five year old I know. She usually needs a solid twelve hours of sleep every night or I pay the next day. And she still is just a dream eater. She prefers fruits and veggies to junk. In fact, it's common for her to hand me a half eaten cookie and say, "Mom, this is just too much for me." Trust me, that NEVER happens with her sister.

As far as the adoption goes, she asks some pretty tough questions these days, but the topic runs hot and cold. Some days or weeks, it's all she wants to talk about. Others it's not. With her, she'll usually ask the question she wants answered, then once she hears what she needs to hear, she leaves the whole topic alone for awhile. The hard part for me is she never asks a question I expect. I'm always winging it on my answers. Frankly, I'm usually way behind in what I think she understands. She understands it all and has for sometime.

We're beginning to think about taking both girls back to China. Not necessarily to see their hometowns, more just to be tourists. We've never really been tourists in China, despite visiting the country three times for a total of almost eight weeks. I really do love traveling in China. The food can be tough, but the country fascinates me. So, I'm excited to think we'll go back in the next couple of years.

That's it for year five. I know everyone tells parents it goes so fast, and when you're in the trenches with a wild twenty-month old, time feels like it is standing still. But in hindsight, it does seem like those hard times flew by and now when she waves at me as she walks into her kindergarten class, I wonder what happened to my baby.

A Visit with the Big Guy

Well, the girls got to see Santa this week and what a visit it was. They were invited to join Santa for a ninety minute private audience in the caboose of the local Christmas train. Santa led story reading, caroling and lots of cookie consuming during the ninety minutes of fun. (Have I ever mentioned my children are the two most spoiled children in the world?)

La Nina, an old pro at Santa and never shy when it comes for asking for what she wants, told Santa her top items were high heeled shoes and clothes. (That's my five-year-old!) The Magster, who actually sat on his lap, told him she wanted LIttle Ponies. Of course, she never made eye contact with the big man, but hey, last year she wouldn't go within fifteen feet of the merry elf, so she made big progress.

In all of our conversations about her wish list, La Nina has never mentioned wanting clothes. Of course, the desire for shoes is not new: she always wants shoes. She also usually rounds out the wish list with make up and jewelry. She could be in for a tough Christmas morning. Likewise the Magster has never mentioned Little Ponies before, but she play with her all the time, so it's not surprising.

I ran out and finished my shopping for the girls last night as soon as these formal requests were in the books. Maggie's last day of school was today, so my available work time will be limited next week.

The Real Reason You Should Be in the Classroom

A little background: About a month ago, La Nina informed me she no longer wanted to take snacks to school. Eating snacks was causing her to lose valuable recess time and she would prefer I just not pack them. After a couple of weeks of her not eating her snacks, I complied with her request, but each morning I'd ask if she wanted a snack and each morning she'd say no.

My day to volunteer in La Nina's classroom is Friday's. I typically drop off Maggie and head straight to Kindergarten, staying until it's time to pick up Maggie. Due to holidays, miscellaneous days off and a couple of conflicts, I missed every Friday in November and last Friday was my first day in about six weeks back with La NIna's class.

I like volunteering so much. It gives me a chance to interact with her classmates, watch her teacher in action and improve my Spanish. But best of all, I get to see La Nina with her peers and she seems to genuinely like me being around.

So, back to Friday...I'm in the class, quietly assembling workbooks in the back of the room, playing the role of fly on the wall, my favorite role of all. The teacher tells the kids recess and snack time are to be indoors due to the rain and they should get their food from their packs. Now the kids love this. Such a rare treat, free time inside. All the kids clamor to the area where I am working, grab their food then head back to their work tables. When La Nina's table is called, she stays at her table and raises her hand.

"Maestra," she says, "My mom forgot my snack again, can I get one of yours?"

The teacher says Yes and La Nina heads to a special snack cabinet, grabs a couple of handfuls of pretzels and sits back down. I own pretzels. I offered her pretzels that morning...what makes the teachers pretzels so damn appealing? I tell you what, they aren't mine. That little devil. I was half furious, half cracking up.

And then I realized, I was standing there facing the teacher, knowing there was no snack in stupid backpack. Defend myself? "But really, she said she didn't want a snack" sounded so guilty...especially when I knew there was no snack in the backpack. Damn.. La NIna had me.

Well, I kept quiet on Friday, as I don't want her to start editting herself when I'm in the room. And today, I packed the little devil a friggin' snack, which she didn't eat. But hey...I have proof I didn't forget next time I'm standing there, And oh yeah...Santa's decided he better bring her a coat too. See, La NIna hasn't wanted a warm winter coat, so I didn't buy her one. She never wore the coats I bought her in the past, and even balks when I make her wear a sweatshirt on chilly days, so I've debated the value in purchasing one. Well, let me tell you, I learned the value on Friday. And at least she can't tell the teacher, her Mother never bought her a coat. And this is the real reason you should volunteer in your child's classroom.

A Debut

Last night was a big night for La Nina and seven of her friends. After four months of practice and much angst over her costumes, La Nina and the magnificent seven made their Nutcracker debut as Gingerbreads in the local production.
I was a novice to one of these productions and the amount of work it takes every family to stage this show amazed me. I thought I'd write my own ode to having a child appear in the Nutcracker. You know the tune...

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, one perfect show.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two cookie dances. (Shows in which La NIna will appear)

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, three back up tights. (xtra tights I took last night)

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, four mismatched hems. (Attempts at hemming the costume before I called in professionals help)

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a five mile drive. (miles to practice studio...we live than two miles from the studio we usually practice at.)

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, six hours back stage. (hours back stage last night for a two minute appearance)

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, seven helmet adjustments. (number of times La Nina pushed her head piece out of her face while on stage.)

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eight little dancers. (Number of Gingerbreads in La Nina's cast.)

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, nine backstage buns. (La Nina's hair fell out backstage, number of attempts to get it back in a bun.)

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, ten minutes "shhh-ing" moms. (Backstage parents had to keep the kids quiet.)

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eleven crying kids. (Number of melted down dancers....it was mice, soldiers and mints....thankfully, the Gingerbreads held up well.)

On the twelth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, twelve hours of practice. (Extra classes held since August.)

You mean, you're serious??

So, I was sitting in the doctor's office the other day, and he made a statement that made me laugh.

"And of course, you'll have to give up caffeine."

I laughed in the man's face. "Of course, you know I have two small children."

"Well, I don't recommend going cold turkey, especially with small children. Just cut back slowly."

It finally occurred to me, he wasn't laughing. Oh God. The man was serious.

Now if you know me, you know, I consider caffeine a sixth food group. Coffee in the morning, a diet coke at lunch, and chocolate whenever required. Each dosage is carefully metered out until the next one is due. But according to the science geek in the white coat, all my favorite things were now all off limits. Damn him.

Of course, I could just ignore this recommendation, but becuase I love my children and want to be here with them for a very long time, I decided to listen.

This conversation happened last Thursday. My efforts began on Friday morning by going to half caf coffee in the morning and skipping the lunch time diet coke and other doses of chocoloate. I did okay until three pm, then exhaustion hit. I worked through the afternoon, slept like a log, until a pounding headache awoke me on Saturday morning. Of course, I crawled to the coffee pot, resolved my headache, and my day followed the same path. Today, the same headache woke me up.

Everytime I've told another mom about my plight, they laugh. Several have told me, they'd ask for drugs to treat the condition and keep the caffeine. It was an issue of survival. Today, someone bought me a decaf out of pity.

I don't think I'm overly cranky, but my children may disagree. I do know that I'm pretty tired and the morning headache is pretty miserable. I'm hoping that going to half caf solves my problem and I don't have to give it up completely.