Another Monday

It was SO hard to get up and leave my sleeping babies at home this morning. It is always hard to leave. The kids ask me every night at bedtime, “mommy, will you be there in the morning,” and most days I have to say “no.” I wish there was a way that I could be with the kids and not work, even part-time, but even with me working we keep on sinking. Going, going, and oh-so-long gone. We had a really good weekend, though. We took my friend’s daughter along with us, out and about, for one afternoon, and got lots of nice comments. When she is along everyone thinks I have FOUR beautiful kids. I just smiled and told everyone thanks. Here we are on the way to a magic show:

At the show. See who is front and center?

After the show, waiting to touch the magical pigeon that kept appearing out of nowhere:

Really happy boy. Glad birdie didn’t poop on his head. One dropped a big glob on me out running the other day.

And the whole line-up. Aren’t they adorable?

I love it that I live in a town that assumes we are all a family rather than assuming that I’m babysitting two of these kids. People are so great around here. And I could so handle another one, don’t you think, filling in the gap between the first two. Ha! It’s not going to happen, but I love it that Cara wrote in her blog recently — after going from 3 kids to 5 in one month — that five kids just isn’t that many. That is such a good attitude. Anyway. Like many people told me on the airplane, I DO have my hands full, don’t I? Hope you all are surviving, and perhaps even enjoying, the last Monday in March.

Wearing her red “sandies”

The girl with the shiny shoes just fell asleep on my shoulder, with a half-chewed bit of apple in her mouth, as I surfed the net with my free hand. The little boy is sick, AGAIN, in bed in the next room, and I have some nasty rattling lungs myself.  It’s been a good 36 hours since my poor little boy has wanted to eat or do much of anything, so we are homebound, once again. Sigh. At least I got out this morning to get the taxes finished, and the esposo (hmmm…. think we’ll change my blogger name for him from “Esposo”  to the Puerto Rican phrase for dad, “Papi,” sound good? It does to me.) will be home early, so maybe I can get a breath of fresh air. At least tomorrow is Friday, and the sun has finally come out.  So we’re doing OK.

Rain, endless rain.

It is STILL raining out there. It has been raining since I last posted. Which reminds  me… rainy season and hurricane season are coming to Haiti again soon. There was an article in the NY Times (what newspaper do I read?… well… ALL of them, of course… silly me…) today about the lingering devastation in Gonaives. Why. It is all so beyond my comprehension. Why, why everything.

On a postive note, classes have gone unusually well since break. We’ve been on a streak of goodness that sometimes borders on silliness, at which times try to I remind myself to quit smiling so much and put on my real serious  teacher face so we don’t all forget who’s who. So many roles we all play. Speaking of roles, it is always interesting to be the daughter and the mother at the same time. That isn’t too tough, though, for the most part. Here’s a cheery picture of my mom with her littlest grandchild last week, in a MUCH drier place.

She’s holding up pretty well for 62, don’t you think? My parents have been great with the kids. It was sure nice to be carpooled around for a week, too. This rain is putting me to sleep. Send us some sunny thoughts.

Flying flip-flops

Wow, is it really Monday morning? It is. It is just above freezing out there, dark as night and raining. When I got to school this morning at just after 7:00 am I noticed I wasn’t the only one staggering down the hallway clutching a hot cup of coffee on this first-day-after-spring-break. Actually, according to the school schedule, when I arrived at work I was still on break — Spring Break offically ended at 8:00 on the 23rd. I get such a kick out of that. Our school LOVES those 8:00 am deadlines. All things, due at 8:00 am of their due date. It really can knock your socks off the first time you see the small print and realized that you really have one less day to get those grades in, because after 8:00 am the online grading program is magically turned off. If you’ve missed the window of opportunity, I hear you will need to grovel at the registrar’s office; luckily, with my nearsightedness, small print and I are good friends.

Anyway. Back to a quick trip picture post, along with a bit of advice. Do not go see ostrich races. No, just don’t do it. It is the “too-pid”-est (an unfortunate new word in Zufan’s vocabulary) thing ever. Even the mechanical bull riding going on at the same time was a huge step up in quality, except for the array of gawkers. Anyway, if you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position of being forced to see a poor ostrich carry a human on its back, be SURE you don’t let your daughter talk you into a nauseating ride at the neighboring fair. Oh my gosh (another unfortunate addition to the vocab). I’ve had my very last ride ever on the twirl-till-ya-hurl. The big girl loved it, however, and asked to ride again! Kids’ inner ears must be made differently. Zufan rode the merry-go-round with Grandpa, and they all shot darts and won some fine prizes. The ostrich-ride-fair was one of the big vacation hits. The things we do for our kids, huh?

OK, enough babble for today. Here we are, getting ready to spin in circles at highway speed for a good 10 minutes

Watch out below! Never, ever again. I was sick for an hour. Next time, you can find me on the mechanical bull.

Three cute little faces, happy to be in Arizona

I loved mornings at the too-fancy-for-the-likes-of-us Embassy Suites. Breakfast was included, so my parents met us every morning at about 8:00 or so. I was always pretty proud of myself for getting everyone up and ready on time — but we did have the time change working for us. Except for two mornings when Zufan was up at 5:50 and 6:3o, I was the first one up. It was wonderful to wake up early and NOT have to get up right away. I would wake up in the midst of this:

and then just rest for awhile, half awake and half sleeping, stretched out in the amazingly comfortable giant bed with a collection of little legs tossed over me. It probably seems crazy but that, I think, is always the best part of the entire trip. When the kids and I were discussing our favorite vacation experiences they thought Mommy was nuts to enjoy sleeping more than anything else. Ha! Just wait. We love things more when they’re a bit scarce, don’t we? After finally sneaking out of bed, I made in-room coffee (that is some gooood watered down brew). I never did make it as far as the shower without the static cling baby along to “help” me with my hair wash, but at that time of day I usually felt especially grateful for this short time of living the way-too-good life. Feeling thankful for all the good things helped me to be tolerant of my lack of alone time.  

Anyway, here the kids are, still on the morning of the first day, waiting for Grammie and Grandpa outside our room. Happy Thursday to all of you!

On the way to the hotel breakfast, Day 1

Looks like this is going to be mostly a picture report. I downloaded 245 trip pictures this afternoon. Yep.  Here are just a couple of my parents and the kids, the morning after we arrived. I love that they show Zufan’s personality. We won’t talk about that plane ride. No, we won’t. I’m trying to forget. It was sort of like childbirth. Anyway, morning of day 1. Much, much more later.

It’s been a great trip

Sorry to have not updated in forever! I’ve missed you all. I’ll get you the real trip report soon! We just got home, minutes ago. For now, a couple of quick pictures and we need to get to bed.

Hope you are all well, too!

Heading to the airport… soon!

I wanted to leave you with some magnificent post that would generate a steady stream of comments clicking into the inbox. Instead, I’m leaving you with absolutely nothing. Not even a photo because my camera holds up a little white palm ever time I try to shoot, and nothing happens. No time to decipher that code right now. I just found out that our flight, which was scheduled for 10:05 am (I had thought THAT was a bit early), had a minor schedule change and is now departing at 6:30 am. What??? Same flight number. I’m really not kidding. Can they do that? I guess they can! Since I’ll need to get up at 4:00 am to make it, I’m thinking I better pack now. No more posting, no more reading.

Here are a couple of random photos from last year’s trip (I think I posted most of them at the time), ’cause leaving with nothing up is killing me. Poor baby’s little head is sweating in the Arizona sun on the first. Yes. Heat. I’m ready for it. Wasn’t Zufan so little last year?! On the second I’m carrying two kids, one in front, one in back, and on the third her little baby tummy looks so chubby.

There. Got something up! I’ll see you all on the other side.

Springing ahead to Phoenix!!

I want to post something, but all I can think of is that I’m tired. I’m so tired. Tired, tired. And that sounds a bit dreary, so let’s put a positive spin on this: Daylight Savings Time is tonight! Yeah! That means I’m setting the clock ahead, and we are all going to bed shortly. It’s worth a try, anyway.

Next Thursday the kids and I are heading to Phoenix for a short spring break. I’m really looking forward to it, mostly to sleep in the white sheet hotel beds, to get up to the amazing hotel breakfast of fresh fruit, omlettes and hot coffee, and to watch the kids swim at this hotel:

Is this dejavu for anyone? Maybe, if you were reading me last year, or the year before, or the year before… I’m very lucky to have a dad who works in the education field but in consulting, and is not yet retired, so he accumulates the hotel and airline points every year in order to bring us all down to AZ to see them while they are snowbirding. Honestly, I know it will be a ton of work to take the three kids on the plane by myself, again, and to keep Zufan from throwing herself into the pool or onto the fancy grand piano in the lobby or into the breakfast display, for that matter. Nevertheless… I’m looking forward to it. I’m also looking forward to having something new and different to post about! Five more days. The kids have already packed their suitcases (mostly with the heaviest books and toys they could find); I better start packing mine.

Trying to get a picture of the little cheeseface

Zufan, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned, doesn’t take naps anymore unless it is a snooze in the car. It has been 2 months? 3 months maybe? since she’s taken a nap in the bed in the afternoon. It makes bedtime easier, but she gets quite squirrelly in the evenings. Here are my picture attempts from just a couple of hours ago, from the health club. I wanted to get her cute face posted. The pictures aren’t very clear, but hey, it’s current and it’s all we’ve got.

The cheeseface. We see this face often.

The serious face. Is she adorable, or what?

The perpetual motion machine running away from mommy in her “fancy shoes,” as she calls them. She wants to wear her “fancy coat” (it is a glossy pink, um, Barbie coat, from Grammie) along with it. We are so done with winter.

With the siblings on the side, the usual goofiness. Buenas noches!