A Happy Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my beloved wife! (I won't disclose age for fear of my life)

The Little Things That Get Me Excited.

Last week Jadon's bed arrived (fast shipment) and this past weekend I assembled it. Jadon was just ecstatic. He really wants to sleep in it but there are still some small details that we need to settle. We're waiting on a comforter (construction vehicle design). We just got his bed sheet, pillow case, pillow, and bedside gate (so he doesn't fall off his bed). The next thing we need to get are the bed sheets for the girl's crib. Then all I would need to do is to disassemble Jadon's crib and put it into the girls' room (Jadon's other crib is already in there). The thing that sucks about cribs is it is just a tad bit too big to move through the door. Do manufacturers fear that kids will be able to move their beds from room to room? So I am excited for Jadon that he get's a big boy's bed and I am definitely excited for the girls because they will actually sleep in a bed (as oppose to a Pack N' Play/Bassinet). That's my life, living vicariously through my children. =)

Jadon The Bully.

Jadon doesn't seem to want the role of big brother at all. I was really hoping that he'd be protective of his sisters but so far he wants nothing to do with them. He dislikes his sisters and he will tell us everday (couple of times during the day) that he "no like baby sista." Not only does he tells us but he makes them cry. For a while it was hard catching him in the act but the past few days he's been clumsy with his cover ups. Fiona's suspicious of him pinching the girls, she's seen him pushing them, and yesterday while I was holding him saw him deliberately kick Vanessa in the chin. So he's been in time out more than usual. Someday the girls are going to come to their senses, join forces, and really hammer him. He better watch out. Right now the way their relationship works is he hates his sisters, his sisters love him, and the girls don't like each other (or don't really care for each other because they have already exhibit jealousy towards one another). This will make for an interesting household in the future.

OCV - Obsessive Compulsive Vanessa

At first I was just amused with Vanessa, but now I am even more amused. Lately I have seen a particular type of behavior become even more compulsive. There is this little dent in our wall in our our dining room. It's just big enough to put the tip of a baby's fingertip in it. It started off with just a curiosity that all children innately have. Vanessa and Natalie would poke and prode every now and then because it was just a new concept to them. Then Fiona and I noticed that over the past week Vanessa would just get up, walk towards it, put her finger in it, and then just walk away. She's done this probably a half dozen times. Well yesterday I got to see her obsession hit another level. I was in the t.v. room and I noticed her walking over towards the dining room. There was a high chair in front of the area of the dent (but not completely blocking it), and Jadon's little tykes car that was also in the way. Vanessa was carefully maneuvering around the car (moving sideways between the narrow space between the car and the high chair). Then she bends down into a crawl position to crawl undernearth a portion of her high chair and gets up on the other side. She succeeds and continues to touch the dent and then crawl backs out from the high chair and walks back to the t.v. room. Weirdo......

Grumble, Grumble...Damn Home Owner Assoc.

It seems like our neighbor has nothing better to do then to observe us until we do some nitpicking thing wrong that doesn't comply to the Home Owners Association rules. Ever since we moved in to our new townhouse, we've been getting compliance notices. We got a few for landscape upkeep. With our front yard area, we just decided to take the full 6-month requisite to finally design and landscape it out. We've gotten notices for landscape planting. I guess he didn't like the weeds =). Then we got a notice for taking our trash out too early. We were putting it out in the morning the day before trash day as oppose to the afternoon the day before. I have also seen him moving our trash bin because it was less then an inch on his side of the property (in front near the garage). Now last week we got a notice for keeping our garage door opened too much and too long. We keep it open in the afternoons because when I get home, the kids are asleep. So I don't want to open it and wake them up (their rooms are right above the garage). That is the only reason why we'll keep it open. I've parked my car in front of the garage and haven't been approached about it but my in-laws have and he's told them that they can't park in front of my garage. Now I don't have hard evidence that he is the one reporting us but I have a strong hunch that it is him because... I dunno....he's the president of the HOA of our community. He's this old, mid-to-late 70's, caucasian man who lives at home with his weiner dog. Then to top it off the HOA fees were just raised an additional 25%! This guy sucks, next time when it comes to voting I hope he's out.

New Beds In Line.

Pretty soon all three kids will have new beds....sort of. The past week we have been gearing up for the next challenge of putting all the kids into different beds. We have been implanting the idea in Jadon's head. We'll build it up with him by asking him if he would like a new bed. At first he was saying no but I think he is getting excited and says "Jadon wants new bed now." We have a twin bed on order right now and hopefully we'll be getting it soon. We're looking for bed sheets now that have a nice boyish type patterns (i.e. sports, cars, dinosaurs). As for the girls, they have been sleeping in their pack n' plays believe it or not! We have padded it with extra soft blankets. But I think it's time to actually get them in cribs. The reason why we haven't is because Jadon has been occupying one of them. Jadon has another one at his grandparents place (spoiled ain't he?). This past weekend I managed to disassemble it and bring it home. So once Jadon's new bed comes in the girls will inherit Jadon's hand-me down (like new!). I hope the transition is smooth.

Vanessa Drops In Latest Poll!

Poll:

1. Jadon (2)
2. Natalie (3)
3. Vanessa (1)

Like I mentioned before, this poll is ever changing and quite volatile. Vanessa woke up 30 minutes prior to my alarm clock (that meant at 4:30am!). Why did the lil' munchkin wake up you may ask. Was she too cold or too hot? Nope. Was it because she hurt herself? No. Did she have a nightmare? Not as far as I can tell. Was she hungry? Perhaps. The real reason why she probably woke up early was she threw both of her pacifiers out of her bed! *smack my forehead* She is really addicited to those things. I really want to take those away from her. It's not a good way to start off my day. *grouchy*grumble...grumble.......

Better Day.

Well today turned out to be much better then the previous days. Natalie still whined and cried a little bit but definitely a lot less then of late. I told Fiona to try and hold her more often then usual. So Fiona held her and played with her after dinner for five minutes and that seemed to fill up Natalie's "happy-emotion bank account" because she behaved well the rest of the night until bedtime. Not only that but the girls and Jadon are eating much better. Here's hoping for the continued trend.

The Natalie Reversion.

This afternoon Fiona called the doctor's office to see if we can figure out what's going on with Natalie. She constantly cries, she won't eat, and she keeps grabbing at the right side of her face. So the doctor said that Fiona could take Natalie in at the 4:45pm appointment. They weighed her and she has lost almost 1 lb and a half! She weighs an astonishing 13 lbs!!! What's going on with that little girl? So we have a 13 month 13 lber (I sense a potential Guiness Book of World Records in the future). The nurse (one that Fiona has never seen before) asked how old Natalie was. Fiona asked the her to take a guess. She guessed 6 months = o!The doctor checked her out and said that things look normal, but couldn't explain her behavior. She ruled out that teething because Natalie's behavior was to extreme. So the doctor is going to request and review all lab results that Natalie has had and see if there was anything that was missed. I was resigned to the fact that Natalie was just going to be a slow grower but this is really worrying me now. It looks like Natalie is reverting back to her newborn stage, both physically and mentally.

MRI Results.

Yesterday, after work, I went to see the doctor to go over my MRI results. It was not a good prognosis at all. My right jaw joint is completely dislocated. It use to click which meant that it would pop out and pop back in the socket. My left jaw joint is now clicking which is popping in and out of the socket. So what does that mean? Probably more money out of my socket. The doctor said there are several steps that are non-surgical. There's a splint that I would be fitted for and there's physical therapy and steroid treatments. I asked the doctor if those solutions would pop my joint back. She said that it could pop back in but with the severity of my jaw, it's not likely. She said that the non-surgical procedures would just alleviate the pain and give me more jaw mobility. She said that if those solutions were not helping after a certain amount of time, that surgery (more specifically, arthorscopic surgery) would then be explored. She also said that it's best to take the more conservative (non-surgical) procedures first for insurance purposes. In order to get covered for surgery, most insurance companies require non-surgical procedures first. Hopefully I won't have to go through any surgery.

My Poor Fiona.

Things have been really tough for us, especially for Fiona, as far as the kids go. All three kids have seemed to have caught a virus that started about a week and a half ago. First it started with Natalie (we have traced it to her physical therapist), then Vanessa got it, and now Jadon seems to have it. The virus causes high fever, diarrehea, loss of appetite, and possible soar throat/cough. It's a definite nightmare. The girls already don't eat and are low on weight to start off with. Now they are hardly taking in anything and still crapping a lot. All three are cranky, whiny, and overly sensitive. Fiona is so warn out from it and frustrated. I don't blame her at all. Plus her parents are off on a trip to Singapore and China for three weeks, so her mom isn't around to take Jadon off her hands. No relief insight.

Last night was probably one of the worse nights and it was on Valentine's! Fiona was already having a bad day with the kids when I got home. Jadon had been crying a lot. The girls were just bad. Their last nap was a terrible one. I went to Marie Callendars to do a pick up for dinner. Fiona had called in the order around 5:45pm. The restaurant calls me at about 6:00pm (I'm on the road) to tell me that they don't have the pie selections that we had ordered (major bummer) and that the food would take about 20 minutes because they had just put the order in. Say what?! Fiona called in 15 minutes prior and they're just putting in the order. So I happened to get there 5 minutes later and I paid for the dinner ahead of time. The cashier tells me that they just put the order in (around 6:10pm at the time). Say what (x2)?!?!?! So the restaurant was pretty darn packed. I forgot that it can get quite busy at rush hour. Usually when we go out to eat, we go earlier (like senior citizen time) to avoid the heavy crowds. It's 6:30pm and I go up to the cashier to check on my order. The cashier checks up on my food and it takes her 10 minutes to assemble my order. I don't think she recognized me because she asked me if I had paid. So while she is getting all the food items together, I'm observing her and she was messing it up. I had to correct her a few times. I ended up getting out of there by 6:45pm!!! So I get home around 7:00pm. All three kids were crying. Fiona, through all the frustration, decided to give the girls an early bath and we ended up putting them to sleep way early. We've been putting the girls to bed early as of late. At our current rate, we'll probably put them to sleep by 5:00pm in no time =). Jadon was crying because he was hungry. With him, it seems to be an endless cycle. He hasn't been eating which is probably making him cranky. So after finishing up with the girls we finally get to dinner. Jadon kept saying that he was hungry. I asked him if he wanted to start with some cornbread. Nope. How about chicken? Nope. He ate one small bite of mash potatoes, one small piece of cornbread, a tiny piece of of chicken, and a tiny piece of ribs. That was it. How frustrating is that? Earlier he hadn't eaten any breakfast and lunch (his favorite food, mac n' cheese).

Most of the time it's usually one kid that is having a bad day and that can be frustrating. Then when you have two kids acting up, your day is just shot. But to have all three kids going off, I can just see our fuses blow.

So how is your day? I hope better then ours. =)

Park Outing.

On Saturday, Fiona asked me to take Jadon out to the park for 20 minutes while she prepped up lunch. I told Jadon that if he sees any kids, to not cry and to just play by himself if he wants. He said "Okay." So we walk to the park nearby and there were no kids on the jungle gym. There was an older kid with his father (or grandfather) sitting at the tables. Jadon had his eyes on the kid majority of the time. I sat on a bench and Jadon wanted to sit on the bench with me.

I said "Jadon, if you want to sit with me then we might as well sit at home."
Jadon responds "Go home now."
I roll my eyes and say "Jadon, c'mon we just got here, play at the park."

So after a little coaxing he went on the slides a couple of times and went on the swings for a little bit. A noticed a funny little thing about him, he likes to narrate to himself. While I was sitting down on the bench, I could hear him talking to himself about what he was doing: "Jadon is driving" -he was steering a wheel, "Jadon is sitting" -sitting at the kids playground table, "Jadon is going down on this one" -going down some stair blocks. Strange little fella.

Children's Poll.

I couldn't resist the temptation of ranking my children (I hope this doesn't bite me in the butt in the future). I get the sense that most parents (especially the moms) would never rank their children, or say who they liked more, or show favoritism. Please note that my ranking system is merely based on who is the most likeable (currently) and does not denote that I favor (or show favor) one child more then the other. I love my kids conditionally (and of course unconditionally). Think of this ranking system like that of sports rankings (i.e. college football, college basketball). It's an ever changing system that can change on a weekly basis.


Here is my current assessment (last weeks standings) followed with analysis of each child:
1. Vanessa (1)
2. Jadon (2)
3. Natalie (3)

Vanessa
Pro: She is such a cuddly baby. I could just hug her until she pops. She always gives a big smile and I just love how she laughs (think Barney Rubble and how his shoulders shake when he laughs). She is a fast walker with a curiousity of an explorer. She exhibits a quality of independence. Sometimes I forget that she is just a little baby sometimes. I just love it when you walk from room to room and she can't keep up with you she'll break out into a cry.
Con: Her cries all sound the same (whether she is hurt or she's needy). They sound like she is in utter pain every time. She has a tendency to whine a lot but usually it's because she wants to get down from her high chair and play. When it comes to eating solid foods, she's pretty bad. She has gone on a nursing strike which has created more work for everybody.

Jadon
Pro: He's my boy! He's been really consistent going to the potty. His main motivation for trying to be good is tomake his parents happy. He always says "Make momma/dadda happy!" He is our little helper. You can ask him to clean up his toys, or throw away something (dryer sheets, paper) and he'll do it. He'll also put dirty clothes in the dirty pile. What's really cool is he knows the nighttime routine and without being asked, he'll go around and turn off the lights that need to be turned off for bedtime and clean up his toys.
Con: He's too sensitive at times which makes him whiny. He'll cry for some of the most roll-your-eyes type of reasons. Sometimes he talks too much and the worse of it is when I can't understand what he said. One time he asked me a question that I had no clue what he was asking. I just said "Uh-huh, yeah." That was a bad idea. The next day Fiona told me that Jadon had asked me if it was okay to take down one of his toys (that he had outgrown) from the closet and that I had said yes. Oops.

Natalie
Pro: She has her moments when she can be really and adorable little angel. But those moments don't seem to last too long. She is a really good mimicker (better then her two siblings). She'll copy hand motions and she is a really good hand clapper (makes a clapping noise and all). I love her crooked smile and I especially love it when she gets into her whining-crying mode (or when she coughs) her left eye squints.
Con: She is the biggest whiner of them all. She sets the bar. Her whining is so bad, it's a "Calgon take me away" moment. Not only does she whine incessantly but she cries just as much. One moment she'll be just playing and she's fine, the next moment she'll break into full on tears. I'll pick her up and console her but she just cries even more. I'll try food, no luck. Same thing if you offer her a toy. It use to be Fiona would be able to pick her up and she'll stop, but lately Natalie still cries and whines when she picks her up. Can't figure her out at all. Sometimes I have to just put her in her bed and close the door because it gets so frustrating. She definitely knows how to bring down our spirits. Hopefully it's just a teething thing and it'll pass.

Updated: Pictures

I have finally gotten off my lazy butt and updated the Picture Realm (2005 & 2006!). Please feel free and check them out. It's definitely taking me a lot longer to upload the pictures because of the size that my new digital camera produces them at. That means that I won't likely update the Movie Realm anymore because a 1 minute segment is around 50mb! Doh!

Full Of Blog.

I don't know if it's because I am just bored, or someone put a quarter in me and I am just going off, but I am just blogging to no end as of late. As I reminisce over the past week(end), it hit me that I got the most consecutive hours of sleep last Saturday. I think it was about 8-8.5 hours. During the weekdays I sleep from after 11:00pm until 5:00am. On the weekends Fiona and I have been waking up at the 5:00am hour to feed the girls still. Well since last weeks girls' doctor appointment, we asked the doctor if we should still do the 5:00am feeding. Her response was if we wanted to. Does she think we really want to? So this past weekend we temporarily stopped doing the morning feeding and we woke up at about 7:30pm. The last time I have gotten that much sleep was before the girls were born. Probably the last time Fiona got that much sleep was a lot longer. Now I crave more! =)

Tax Freak.

I just finished my preliminary round of doing taxes. I love doing them believe it or not. Of course it doesn't hurt that I get money back in the process. I just love Turbo Tax. That program just makes things not only easier but funner. I started doing my taxes through Turbo Tax about five years ago. About three years ago I physically went into an H&R Block broker to try them out. I figured with a new house, selling stocks, and Jadon being born, I should let the experts handle it. Of course they charged an arm and a leg. All they did was use their own tax program and entered the information. I thought that they would do more. All they did was exagerate the amount of money I was donating and that was about it. So I just went back to Turbo Tax. I love their basic feature of having this little counter of how much you will be getting back after you enter each deduction. And I especially love it when it keeps going up. As you might have not already guessed, we got money back this year (preliminary of course, but I don't see it changing much if any when I double check it)! With Natalie and Vanessa coming aboard, we got even more back. Finally something the girls are useful for =) hehehehe. Now if I can get them to work and earn some money. Some of the proceeds are going back into savings (mainly for the next property tax), part of it will go towards Fiona's IRA, and I proposed to Fiona that we can take a small amount for the each of us and use it as a shopping spree. I think we deserve one. =)

Boredom Hits Again.

I'm here at work, sleepy, yawning-every-two-minutes, no patients on today's schedule, finished most of what I need to do within the first two hours, jaw hurts still, and hungry. What time is it? It's only 8:30am. -Sigh-

Let me update you on what's going on with my jaw. Two days ago I went in to get an MRI of my "bilateral t.m.j. opened and closed." I was sort of dreading it for fear of being in tight quarters. It didn't turn out as bad as I had expected. It only took 25 minutes (opposed to 45 minutes that they told me) and I closed my eyes most of the time. Those scanners are freakin' loud, even with ear plugs. I have my doctor's appointment next week to go over results and hopefully get some type of solution to the pain.

Natalie has gotten sick. She has a slight cough and, at one point, she had a really bad fever. It spiked at around 105 degrees. We called her doctor and said that there is a virus going around where the fever lasts a few days. Natalie seems better but she seems to have lost her appetite, and she's a lot whinier then her usual self.

Yesterday, Fiona took Jadon for his 3 year wellness check up. From what I heard, he bawled like a baby when they tried to measure his head and weight him. I forgot the exact numbers but I think Fiona said that he is 39 inches tall and weighs in at 34lbs. When they gave him a shot, Fiona was distracting him so much that he didn't realize what had happened. He ended up not crying at all from that.

Vanessa is pretty much walking all the time. It's so strange having her walking because she is so small. You really have to watch where you walk because sometimes you might miss her and trip. When I am upstairs she follows me all around and she's fast so I can't lose her.

Well enough blogging for now, time to find some more work.....

The Second Coming of Jadon....

Back in September of last year, Jadon was going through this phase where he would throw doggy out of his bed and start to cry. He would do this when he had to take a nap or go to sleep. Well it looks like Vanessa is the second coming of Jadon. We supply her with two pacifiers and she manages to throw them out of her bed and cry (just like Jadon). *smack*smack*smack* She is starting way earlier then Jadon did. I don't imagine myself tying the pacifiers ot her bed. Here we go again.......

IHOP Excursion

Two days ago Fiona and I took the kids to the local IHOP. It was unsually crowded for dinner at 5:30pm. Fortunately one side was not being occupied and the waiter placed us on that side. We literally had the whole side of the restaurant for the duration of the dinner. And believe it or not, all three kids were actually behaving rather well. At one point there were some patrons that the waiter was going to seat on our side but it looked like they wanted to sit on the other side. I guess they thought our kids would ruin their dinner outing (I don't blame them).

The Wedding Challenge.

Yesterday was my sister-in-laws wedding. Congratulations to Angeline her husband, Elliot. Well it was a challenge to bring all three kids to the ceremony and reception. The ceremony took place in Dana Point (Monarch Beach), about 30 minutes south (fast pace driving) where we live. It was held at the South Shore Church (I think). Luckily it was held at 2:00pm, and luckily it was a short one. Natalie was really antsy and Vanessa was following suit. Plus Jadon was whining and wanted to be held constantly. It was a nice view of the Monarch Beach Gold course on one side and the ocean on the other side. It was a hazy afternoon but at least it wasn't that cloudy. So we were out of there about 3:00pm and the reception/cock tail hour started at 5:00 pm (that meant that the dinner reception would start about 6:00pm). It was held at the DoubleTree hotel in Santa Ana/South Coast Metro area. So we took the kids back home and put them for nap. That worked in our favor. The reception was chaotic from the standpoint of having to take care of three kids. Jadon was really bad. He cried, fussed, and wanted to be picked up every minute. I had to keep pulling him to the side and tell him that if he continued to act this way that I would put him in timeout. Natalie was just as bad. Fiona brought tons of different snacks and things to play with to keep the girls occupied. The girls went through (eating and then getting bored of the snacks) most of them by the time the main course was served. Natalie went through four spoons, two or three saucers, some forks, and other things. She was just flat out whining. Vanessa was angelic for the most part. So we took off at about 8:00pm right before the chocolate wedding cake =(. Lets just say that I don't think I want to take the kids out anywhere after tonight.

New Cell Phone.

I got a new cell phone today. I was using a Motorola V220 but the reception on that sucked. So I went back to a Nokia brand. I got the Nokia 6102 model. I read reviews that it gets great reception. Now I had gotten the Motorola about 6 months ago with a 2 year renewal agreement so I wasn't planning on upgrading my phone. Well a few days ago I was bored at work and I saw online ads for free phones from Cingular. I just decided to check it out and I ended up logging into my account. For the heck of it, I decided to check my upgrade status. I expected it to say that I was not elgible. I guessed wrong. When I had upgraded to my Motorola, I did it at a Cingular Wireless store. Apparently they didn't update my account. So I checked out the prices on the phones and I saw the Nokia 6102 for free! So I called Cingular Wireless and wanted to see what I would have to pay, if there were rebates, activation fees, etc. They said that I was not elgible for the online price even though I was elgible for upgade. Now here's the kicker, the sales rep said to call their e-store and that they would price match the Cingular.com's price. I have no clue what that is about because you would think that they are under the same company. The rep said that they would have the $18 upgrade fee too. So I called the e-store up and after a few minutes of telling that rep my story, they were sending me a free phone, no tax, no fee. They sent it out on the 31st and I got it today (the 2nd). Sweet!

Allright, it's time to stop blogging. My contacts are getting dry and I gotta get them out. Later.

Girls 1st Year Wellness Visit.

Well I am at the scan trailor for my company covering patient check in duties. My office manager and the V.P. of clinical operations (who normally work this position) are on a business trip. There is another person who has experience working front office detail but she doesn't seem to be to keen on doing it (two words: CEO's daughter). So I am stuck here waiting for the last patients' to get out of their consultations. I don't particularly like this position (but I do it because it needs to be done). It get's too stressful trying to figure out when patients are going to be seen plus you mix in a doctor who is late and unpredictable in the amount of time she spends with each patient.

Yesterday, Fiona took the girls for their 1st year doctor's appointment. From what I can recall from Fiona telling me, Natalie weighs in at a measily 14lbs 3ozs and Vanessa weighs in at 15lbs 4ozs (I think). They both had two shots. Natalie just whined and Vanessa's cry reverted back to being a newborn. Poor girl. Otherwise the girls are doing well.

Anyways, I that's it for now.