8.30.2006

Everyone Is (Or Was) Sick!

Fiona just called me a few moments ago to let me know that Vanessa has now puked. Not only that, but Fiona's stomach is aching. That's just great! Really bad bug going around in this household. And it sounds like Jadon's not going to be able to make it to class tomorrow (barring any dramatic change). He's sleeping a lot and just lying on the couch. Bummer.

Jadon's 1st Day Of School In Jeopardy.

The stomach bug that has claimed Natalie, Jadon, and I has been quite tough. It wipes out our entire energy to the point where we are just slugs. Natalie looks like she is slowly recovering from it. Her appetite is coming back. Jadon was pretty much lying down the whole day (either in his bed or on the couch). He has hardly eaten anything and it looks like if he is energyless today, he might not be able to go to his first day of school tomorrow. Luckily Fiona went into for a open house of sorts to meet Jadon's teacher, Mrs. Hamilton. It's not imperative that Jadon make it for his first day if he can't make it. It's mainly orientation and that next week they start with the curriculum. Still though, I am holding out that he can still make it tomorrow so he can get familiarized with his class.

8.29.2006

A Long And Pukey Day.

Yesterday turned out to be a long, long day. It started off at about 12:00pm. It was nearing the stretch run on my day at work when I get a call from my IT Director. He wanted me to head up to Los Angeles to assist him in greasing the onboard mobile's satelite array. So that meant an hour drive up north, two hours of aiding, and then an hour or so drive (in potential rush hour traffic) home. Luckily for me I didn't hit too much traffic at all.

When I got home, I had a few minutes of rest before Natalie and Vanessa woke up from their naps. Natalie seems to have recovered from her butt blow-outs but she's annoyingly needy. Plus she's crying for the silliest of reasons. Vanessa will bring over a toy or a book for Natalie, and she just starts crying. Or Vanessa will be off playing and Natalie will come and sit by her and just start crying.

While the girls were playing I went to check up on Jadon and he was still sleeping. A few moments later I went to check on him again and I saw him sitting near the edge of his bed. He ended up doing a major puke job on his sheets. Oh boy! Fiona was out grabbing some dinner so I had to go solo. I gave Jadon a bath (he had some puke on the side of his face and in his hair). Then I had to navigate getting his sheets off his bed and take the massive amount of throw-up and dump it into the toilet. Just disgusting. I plopped everything into the washer. At that point Fiona had arrived home. Jadon ended up bypassing dinner. During that, Jadon ended up puking again. Another bath for him. He ended up puking probably a half dozen times. Some times he would sip water and then just puke. I felt really bad for the kid. Hope he gets better soon because he's going to be starting school in a few days. Well I decided to take off the child-proof door handles off his bedroom knob. I told him that if he has to go to the bathroom or he has to puke that he can just open his door and go. Unfortunately he was using that option for nonemergency purposes. He came out of his room after 10:00pm, 2:00am, and 5:00am. The reason? He was thirsty. Unfortunately we didn't give him water for fear of him throwing up. At the 10:oopm session I fed him a small spoonful of water and he ended up puking it up. I guess tonight, the child-proof door handles are going back on.

8.28.2006

The End And The Beginning

This past Saturday was Jadon's last session of his all-sports class. It was basketball and I didn't have high hopes. Surprisingly though he did well on some of the drills. The teachers taught the kids to do bounce passes (to the parents), no-bounce passes, catches, and shooting. He did well with the bounce pass, no-bounce pass, and most impressively, catching the ball. The teacher apparently showed Jadon tip and he caught on. There is hope for him yet! Unfortunately when it came to putting it all together, dribbling and then shooting,..... let's just say that there is still a lot of work to do. They finished off the class with a certificate ceremony and ice cream! My fav-...I mean, Jadon's favorite part!

Now that that is over, it's time to hype up on Jadon's official start of school this coming Thursday. I can't believe that I'll be a parent of a student! I hope to be highly involved in the education of my children. I would love to attend PTA meetings, open houses, functions. I want it to be more than just the grades when it comes down to it. I just hope that Jadon will enjoy it and not cry when Fiona drops him off. We'll see.....

Natalie The Sick.

Unfortunately it seems that Natalie has contracted what I had last week. She's has major (and I mean major) diarrhea, no appetite, and she's puked. Let's start with the first symptom shall we? For the past two days, every time she's pooped it comes right out of her diaper and onto her clothes. Apparently her diaper cannot hold in the amount that she's going. It's pretty nasty smelling and nasty looking. She even went on the playmat. I washed it out but I decided that it was time to transition it by taking them out. We'll be searching for a new rug to replace the alphabet/numbers mat. Everytime she poops she cries, so it must be sore for her to do it. Poor girl. And just like me, she's not eating. Not like she doesn't already have weight issues. At dinner, Fiona tried to feed her a little food and she just started crying. Sometime during the night on Friday, Natalie puked up her food. When Fiona went to grab her in the morning, she noticed puke seeped in her bed and Natalie had taken the peas that came up from it and thrown it out of her bed. Fiona had found about ten of them around her bed. Funny baby. In the afternoon, I decided to take the girls out by myself. I had just put the girls in the stroller, put some snacks on their tray, and was walking away from the car when I heard Natalie barf. That was pretty disgusting. Natalie was crying, drenched in puke. Vanessa meanwhile was just watching and eating in her snacks. I used every wipe that I could find to clean up the mess. Then all I found in the extra-clothes-bag was a gray shirt that said "it wasn't me." When I got home, Fiona took care of Natalie by bathing her and I took care of the stroller. I took the seat covers off and put them in the wash and hosed down the stroller. That thing is almost as good as new. Fiona called the doctor but it didn't seem helpful. Hopefully Natalie will have a better day today.

8.25.2006

Where The Heck Have I Been?!?!?

Well I have been out of commissioned. First it started off with a last second swing commuting to our mobile trailor up in Los Angeles this past Monday and Tuesday. The worst part of that trip was I got sick. Apparently the movers of our mobile system didn't stabilize it so I was essentially getting motionsickness. And I think coincidently I came down with something. It might have been some type of bug or food poisoning. Without going into much detail, I had major (probably the worse that I have experienced ever) bowel movements. I was probably prepped well enough to go through a colonoscopy. So I was nauseous, no appetite, going to the bathroom like crazy, no energy, pounding headache, and dry throat. Usually when I'm sick I can still help around the house. Not this time. Poor Fiona. Luckily I am just about better now. So what's been going on?

-Jadon finished has third of four weeks in his sports. Last Saturday he participated in soccer. He didn't do poorly nor did he excel at it. At times he would just lose focus and lift up his shirt or stick the tightening strings on his shorts into his mouth. Next week (actually tomorrow) is basketball.

-Jadon is going to start preschool next week. That will be an interesting transition. I hope he loves it.

-Jadon is doing pretty well on his potty training. There are a handful of times when he has gone by himself. He won't say anything or tell us he has to go. He'll just go to the bathroom and all of a sudden we'll hear him lift the toilet seat up and then hear him piss in it. Then after he's done, the seat clanks back down, the flush, and then finally the hand washing. Our boy is growing up! There have also been a few instances where we are out and he has to go so we ended up having to use our newly purchased (but well invested) inflate-a-potty which Fiona and I read off of Minnie's blogsite. It will definitely come in handy when the girls come of age.

-Natalie and Vanessa are sort of saying words or names. Besides the typical 'mama' and 'dada,' they know how to say milk ('ma'). Now the word 'dada' is not just reserved for me. That's what they call each other. But there is a distinguishable tone when they use 'dada' for me verses for each other. When they are calling out for each other, the pitch is a little higher then when they call out for me. Natalie knows some sign language (which she has learned from her therapist). She knows how to sign 'more' and 'please.' It's cute when she does it.

-Natalie loves to copy Vanessa. Vanessa will pull out a chair into the living room and sit on it and Natalie will see her doing that and copy her. Last evening Vanessa crawled onto my lap. Natalie saw that and crawled on to her momma's lap.

-I have just been asked by few friends of mine if I would like to join a basketball league and I happily accepted. So starting next Thursday, I'll be participating in organized play. Now it's time to get my ass back in shape and start running and shooting.

There's probably more that I am leaving out because I have most likely forgotten. If I remember anything of interest, I'll be sure to blog it.

8.17.2006

A Sleeply Night.

Vanessa has developed a cough and cold that she seems to have contracted from Jadon. Thus it didn't bold well for us (or at least me) when it comes to sleep. Lastnight seemed pretty bad. She woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night. That didn't help considering that I was already sleepy from the alcohol that I had ingested. She woke me up at 1:30am and I couldn't get back to sleep for a bit. Fiona and I didn't check on her. We just figured that she would go back to sleep and she did but then she woke up crying again a few hours later. She went back to sleep shortly. And now here I am at work, sleepy.

A Buzzing Night

Lastnight, Fiona and I went out to dinner alone! The last time we did that was back in April. Fiona's mom was originally supposed to watch the kids after they went to bed but she couldn't due to illness. So we made a made dash effort and was able to secure Angeline & Elliot to watch over them. Fiona applied for this paid-solo-restaurant-critique. They provide you with a $75 allowance and then pay you $5 for a 50 question evaluation. It was pretty much covering the service and cleanliness of the restaurant. We went to the Karl Strauss Brewery in Costa Mesa. The service was great and fast. Although we were there for about an hour and twenty minutes, at times we felt a little rushed. The food was good. We were required to get one beer. Fiona opted to get their 'Taster 6' which was a sampling of 6 of their specialty beers. They poored each one into a 5 oz glass. Now I'm not an alcohol drinker and when they brought out the 6 glasses, I was thinking that we were not going to come close to finishing even half of the amount. I asked Fiona why she ordered it and apparently she thought that the beers came in shot glasses. She ended up sipping 4 of them. I probably ended up drinking a little more then a glass worth but I quickly found out that I can't hold my liquor. My face lights up red when I drink any type of alcohol (which would make it impossible for me to lie if I said I didn't drink). I can't seem to acquire the taste of beer. It's just not my thing and I don't think it will ever be. I'm not too fond of the intoxication and I seem to get nauseated at the taste of alcohol. I ended up with a buzz during my meal. So Fiona was the designated driver for the drive on home.

8.16.2006

So Close Yet So Far.

Yesterday we went out to Target to purchase a Radio Flyer Tricycle for Jadon. Actually I said that it was momma's and that he could play with it if he was a good boy. We got the all-metal frame one (original) as oppose to the plastic foldable one. A while back Fiona's parents bought Jadon a bicycle with training wheels. He has yet to grasp the concept of riding on it. I think that it's a little too advanced for him. So we opted to retrain him from the beginning with a less intimidating bike. What was cool about the purchase of the tricycle was Fiona had called in earlier to inquire about it and the Target Employee had quoted her $29.99. When we got there, it was listed at $39.99. Well when we got to the counter there was a father who was purchasing the exact same thing as us. The cashier rang his up at $39.99. Then when it was our turn to be rung up, Fiona mentioned to the cashier that she had called in and was quoted for ten dollars less. The cashier called over the manager and we got if for the reduced price. That was sweet.

We got home and I started to put the tricycle together. Jadon was full on excited. Unfortunately it was getting to his nap time so I told him that he could ride on it after dinner and that he had to finish his dinner. He was so jacked up. When dinner rolled around, he was being such a brown noser and telling us that the food was his favorite (he ended up forgeting that he said that because I asked him "didn't you say that it was your favorite food?" and responded with a "no"). I mentioned to him that he had to finish all of his dinner without gagging, crying, and/or whining. Well it wasn't looking good for him because he was eating it slowly. I asked him why he wasn't eating and he just shrugged. I kept on reminding him that he would play on the tricycle afterwards. Eventually it hit him that he didn't think that he would finish and he started to cry. After he composed himself and went potty, he continued to chug on his food. He was stuffing himself and he had the last bite in his mouth and that was when he started gagging and spitting his food out. Close but no cigar. I felt sorry for the kid but I didn't give in. He ended up not playing with the tricycle. I told him that he could try again tomorrow. Hopefully he'll be able to finish his food with out much painstaking. I really want to seem ride on it and learn.

8.14.2006

Terrible Twos x2

The girls looking like thet are entering their terrible twos early. The one thing that they happen to excel at. Natalie isn't so bad but Vanessa is going to be a toughy when she hits her potential. Natalie cries and whines when she see grandma. She wants to be held the whole time. Then she gets jealous when grandma is holding someone else. Vanessa on the other hand, doesn't really care. She bawls when she has something (i.e. cup, tissues, cloth, toys) and she gets it taken away. She just cries and whines, big time. Pretty soon they'll probably kick and pout. I just can't wait for that.

Three Day Weekend

I took last Friday off so Fiona, the kids, and I can go to the beach. We almost called it off because Jadon was (and still is) sick. He's developed a cough and runny nose. We figured that the fresh air would help his congestion. He ended up not coughing for the duration at the beach. As for the girls, it was their first time on the beach. We dressed them up in their bathing suits. Natalie was the bravest out of all the kiddies. She didn't cry one bit (a little whining). Vanessa was just freaking out. She would't let us put her down at all. What a little scaredy cat! It wasn't until Fiona brought out some snacks to eat that she would stop crying. Jadon was a little scared at first. He would want his hand to be held but after a while he wanted to go out on his own. We ended up getting home way after the kiddies naptime, so we decided to keep them up through the evening and put them to bed earlier.

On Saturday, I took Jadon to his all sport class session. Fiona and the girls accompanied us this time. This weeks sports was T-ball. I don't think that Jadon has a knack for t-ball whatsoever. They started off with batting practice. The kids would hit the ball off orange cones. Jadon would just swing at it the ball but most of the time he would hit below it and hit the cone thus causing the ball to fall off. Plus when he's swinging, he doesn't look at the ball. He's usually looking at someone (or something) else. Next up was throwing. The teacher was showing how to throw the ball. They told the kids to raise their throwing hand way back behind their head and with the other hand, to point straight at their parents, and throw the ball in the direction they were pointing at. Well Jadon wasn't pointing with his hand extended. He got lazy. Then he wouldn't throw it towards me. He would be throwing it in the opposite direction and just start laughing. The next thing that the kids had to do was learn how to catch. No success there. Jadon doesn't follow the ball at all. At one point he got frustrated and didn't want to play anymore. The last thing the teachers had the kids do was base running. Jadon did well at that. I didn't even have to run with him. Next up for next week's session: soccer.

Yesterday was devoted to doing house chores. I got into one of my rare cleaning moods. As soon as the kids got up, I just went right into it. I ended up doing everyone's laundry (4 loads), I decided to vacuum the house, clean the kids' floor mats, clean and scrub the bathroom sinks and counters, I even cleaned the toilets too! That was ontop of the normal daily chores that I already do too. Man I should be a stay at home dad. Fiona should go work!

8.09.2006

My Family Has Hearing Issues

Sometimes I think Fiona and Jadon need to get their ears checked out. Yesterday over dinner we had a conversation piece that went like this:

Me (I was thinking that I need to schedule an eye doctor's appointment): I need to schedule an appointment with Kleinberg. I forgot to call today.

Fiona: Huh?

Me: Kleinberg!

Fiona: You need to make an appointment with Lumberg?

Me: Robert Kleinberg at the Marketplace Optometry!

Jadon: Dadda, you climbed a tree? (all he apparently heard was the "Klein" and "Optometry")

Me: (smacked my forehead)

8.08.2006

Recap Addendum

As I reviewed my last blog, there were a couple of things that I left out.

August 5, Saturday - Jadon started his first (of four) session of All Sports Class. Initially he was timid in participating but he eventually warmed up to it. The first event that the teachers had the kids do was hurdles. Jadon would walk up to it, stop, and then step over it. His second try he actually ran up to the hurdle, stopped, and then stepped over it. The next event was the long jump. That wasn't successful. Jadon would walk past the line where he was suppose to jump, turn around and jump back. The third even was discus throwing. They used spongy frisbees and he wasn't really adept at that. At one point he was throwing it behind himself. The following event was shot put. They used squishy baseballs. He actually seemed to excel at that. The last event was a relay race. Two teams of four. His team won! Up next week: T-ball. I better go out and practice his swinging.

August 6, Sunday - For lunch we went to The Old Spaghetti Factory in Fullerton. Good food, good price. After that we went to the Metrolink/Train Station which was literally right next door. Jadon got so excited. They have a viewing bridge so you can see the top of the train. That was pretty neat. They had a freight train that stopped almost underneath us. They also had an Amtrak that came at the same time as well. When the freight train started moving, the engine was roaring. That was pretty loud. It made Vanessa cry, streaming with tears. I comforted her and she gave me a kiss. What a sweet little girl. This experience has inspired Jadon to get out his train set and play with it. He asked me if I could put it together. I obliged and he has been playing with it ever since.

8.07.2006

Recap

Most of last week, I have been working out in the field aiding a temporary tech. That would explain my lack of blogging. Now that I am back into my normal schedule, I can do a little bit of catch up.

Thursday, August 3 - Fiona and I finished up Ratzenberger Sinagpore Edition puzzle. We made a mad dash for the finish and probably didn't finish until almost 11:00pm. We'll probably glue it but we're not sure if we will hang it up or not. Now we have to find our next challenge.

Saturday, August 5 - We went on a preliminary scouting of new homes. Irvine is such an expensive area that it has prompted us to look at other financial options (i.e. moving, refinancing). Some times we just enjoy walking through the model homes on displays and at the same time we check out the existing area and what's around the new community. A few weeks ago we checked out Chino. I think we can rule out the new community homes out there. It was next to a couple of cow pastures, not to mention it was really close to a private airport. This past Saturday we check out some places bordering Riverside and Corona. New cluster homes built in not such a nice area. Following that we headed south to Canyon Hills in Lake Elsinore. I like the master planned communities and the area surrounding it is developing. It reminds me of Ladera Ranch. Good size homes and good prices. The only thing is it would triple my commute time to work.

Sunday, August 6 - Fiona and I finally took Vanessa out on a date. It was the first time that we have been out with just her. Last year we took Natalie out. We dropped Jadon and Natalie off at the grandparents' house and we went to a restaurant called French 75. Jadon cried because he wanted to come with us and I think Natalie was in bliss because she had grandma all to herself. Vanessa look perplexed when we were driving to the restaurant. She was looking over at the empty chair that her sister sits in. Evenutally she warmed up to the idea that it was just her though. She was lauging and giggling and just soaking up the attention that Fiona and I were giving her. She gave us her patented frown followed up by a big smile. Lately she has picked up this funny looking frown as if she is upset with you. She tricks you into thinking that there is something wrong which prompts us to ask "What's the matter?" Then her face just goes into a full on smile, as if she can't hold her little masquerade any longer. It is so dang cute. I can't help myself from imitating her. The food was good, service was not so good. The waitress was extremely slow (not with just us but with other patrons as well). Vanessa had her first taste of horse radish which was mixed in with the mashed potatoes. She had one of those looks that most babies have when they taste something that doesn't agree with their taste buds. Her nose turned red! She also had her first taste of brussel sprouts. She seemed to be fine with that, except at one point she was trying to wear the little outer leaflet covering as a hat. Towards the end she was acting like a silly drunk.

Monday, August 7 - Back to work and blogging away. A quick shout out to Pete, Happy 3x Birthday!

8.06.2006

Breaking The Habit.

Months ago when I was driving home from church I was listening to my IPod. There was a song that Jadon said that he liked. It somewhat stood out in my mind and yet it didn't. It stood out because it's one of my favorite songs currently. But then I quickly dismissed the thought because sometimes he says things one second and changes his mind the next. Anyways, this morning when we were on our way back home, the same song just started playing and he immediately recognized it and said that he liked the song. It was Linkin Park's "Breaking The Habit." How funny is that? I won't expose him to too much pop rock (due to lyrical content). As long as it's nothing to do with killing,sex or contain any profanity, I'm ok with it. He does need a little exposure to pop culture time to time.

8.04.2006

Wicked Falls.

Yesterday, it was bad for the girls. They both, coincidently, had some nasty falls.

Vanessa apparently was riding one of Jadon's vehicular toy (not meant to ride on) and she fell off and landed on the floor, lip first. She had a nasty cut, which Fiona said, caused some bleeding. It ended up swelling and now she looks like she was in a fight.

Natalie probably had it a little worse. Last night I decided to give both girls a bath at the same time. Usually I give Vanessa a bath first and then Fiona will give Natalie a bath afterwards. Well I ended up taking Vanessa out first, plopped her in her crib, dried her, lotioned her, then put on a diaper. I went back for Natalie, got her out, plopped her in her crib, and dried her. Then I went back to finish off Vanessa by dressing her. As I had diverted my attention, I heard a loud thump on the floor. I was thinking, "What did Natalie throw out of her crib this time? What, in her bed, has enough weight to make that sound?" So I turn my head in her direction. Apparently she had thrown herself out! I saw her laying on the floor (carpeted). I wasn't in too much of a shock maybe just a little disbelief. At that point I didn't find myself to be overwhelmingly consoling. I just shook my head because for some reason I knew that at some point in life, Natalie would pull something like this. So I went over to Natalie and looked at her. She looked in shock, trying to figure out what just happened. She was probably seeing stars at that point. She let out a little cry but surprisingly it didn't last. I picked her up and put her back in bed. It was cute to see her rub the back of her head. Usually I don't put the crib rail up because the girls are still small and it makes it easier for me to bend over the crib and dress the girls. Well it seemed that Natalie was in an extremely rambunctious mood. She was running around in her bed and she has a tendency to throw herself at the rail. Apparently she exerted enough force and weight to fall over. I guess I'll have to start putting up that rail. Don't worry, she turned out to be just fine. She was pretty much right back at it running around.