so i took claudia to see WALL-E last night. it was really cute, very much an eco-green film, but i liked it a lot, and so did she.
it was very fun just getting to go out with just claudia. sometimes it's really hard to get one on one with her when all the kids are around. she's by far the lowest maintenance of all the kids, she's eager to please and in general just doesn't like to break the rules.
on the other hand, joe is really a lot of work. he constantly is testing the boundaries and i'm convinced he likes to be naughty just for the sake of being naughty. i'm constantly on him trying to at least keep him in the realm of tolerable insanity. thia is a baby and even though she's a great and very happy baby, she's just that, still a baby and needs so much attention and extra measures of care and such.
of course i would never have wished it to be any other way. i know that there was a plan behind all of this and it's going to work out for the best. there is just a small part of me that wishes we'd had a little time with claudia alone. she's the oldest and unlike most first-borns, she never got that alone time (not even with her bio-mom). although when they came to live with us it was just her and joe at first, he was even more of a challenge in the beginning.
anyway, it was just fun being out with her, getting to hold her hand, kiss her whenever she wanted, (she likes to ask every 5 minutes), talk to her-just her- when ever she had something to say, and in general just be really together, not distracted, not preoccupied and not worrying about the other kids.
i just got to watch her be silly, dance, sing and giggle in her seat. we did watch the movie, but i also watched her. and for one night, it was just her.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
TDS (Technology Dependency Syndrome)
I've recently been diagnosed with a life altering disorder. It's known as TDS or Technology Dependency Syndrome.
TDS usually manifests itself in typical ways, in my particular case, my brain no longer relies on internal memory to do nearly anything. I can seldom remember my own phone number, let alone anyone elses, on my computer I have alarms set to tell me when to pay bills, when to send birthday cards (and to whom), when to get an oil change, when to schedule cleaning, lunch, coffee, play dates, and free time with my husband. My cell phone doesn't just have a phone book, but games (I have no idea when I last played a board game on a real board) it connects to the internet, sends email and instant messages (I almost don't need my laptop as well), is a voice recorder, my alarm clock, calculator (yeah, who remembers basic math anymore) is a camera, video camera, and an MP3 player. I don't use pens, pencils, or paper (only paper I use gets it's ink from the printer). I don't remember the last time I actually flipped pages on a real cook book, I usually google it.
Speaking of Google; the phone book that gets left at the door gets thrown away before we even take it out of the plastic bag, I haven't used my Thomas Guide Street Map in ages, and who knows the last time I booked a flight through an airline or travel agent. We check movie times on line, buy everything from clothes, shampoo, vitamins, food, clothes, games, flowers and even gifts for other people that our hands will never even touch. I'm not even sure if my money is real or imaginary, I haven't really held cash in a long time.
Despite the fact that all of this is overwhelming evidence of my condition, I was not completely aware of its severity until one crippling symptom appeared;
One day while in a rare moment separated from my gadgets, I was forced to use a pencil and paper to jot down a note. As I was writing I wrote a word which as I wrote it didn't seem to be spelled correctly. I looked at it again wondering if I'd spelled it right and thought surely it must be; after all, if I had written it wrong wouldn't the little red squiggly line have appeared under it?
Yes, indeed I had expected my paper, made of nothing more than wood pulp and water, to some how posses the power to tell me if a handwritten word was spelled correctly or not. Clearly I had a full blown case of TDS and at this point the prognosis was grim, it would probably be a chronic condition and the symptoms will only get worse as time goes by and more technology makes it's way into my life and takes over my brain.
Gotta go, my alarm is telling me it's time for me to feed my kids....
TDS usually manifests itself in typical ways, in my particular case, my brain no longer relies on internal memory to do nearly anything. I can seldom remember my own phone number, let alone anyone elses, on my computer I have alarms set to tell me when to pay bills, when to send birthday cards (and to whom), when to get an oil change, when to schedule cleaning, lunch, coffee, play dates, and free time with my husband. My cell phone doesn't just have a phone book, but games (I have no idea when I last played a board game on a real board) it connects to the internet, sends email and instant messages (I almost don't need my laptop as well), is a voice recorder, my alarm clock, calculator (yeah, who remembers basic math anymore) is a camera, video camera, and an MP3 player. I don't use pens, pencils, or paper (only paper I use gets it's ink from the printer). I don't remember the last time I actually flipped pages on a real cook book, I usually google it.
Speaking of Google; the phone book that gets left at the door gets thrown away before we even take it out of the plastic bag, I haven't used my Thomas Guide Street Map in ages, and who knows the last time I booked a flight through an airline or travel agent. We check movie times on line, buy everything from clothes, shampoo, vitamins, food, clothes, games, flowers and even gifts for other people that our hands will never even touch. I'm not even sure if my money is real or imaginary, I haven't really held cash in a long time.
Despite the fact that all of this is overwhelming evidence of my condition, I was not completely aware of its severity until one crippling symptom appeared;
One day while in a rare moment separated from my gadgets, I was forced to use a pencil and paper to jot down a note. As I was writing I wrote a word which as I wrote it didn't seem to be spelled correctly. I looked at it again wondering if I'd spelled it right and thought surely it must be; after all, if I had written it wrong wouldn't the little red squiggly line have appeared under it?
Yes, indeed I had expected my paper, made of nothing more than wood pulp and water, to some how posses the power to tell me if a handwritten word was spelled correctly or not. Clearly I had a full blown case of TDS and at this point the prognosis was grim, it would probably be a chronic condition and the symptoms will only get worse as time goes by and more technology makes it's way into my life and takes over my brain.
Gotta go, my alarm is telling me it's time for me to feed my kids....
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
dorothy ain't got nothin' on me.
alright, i know, it's been way too long. things have been busy, chaotic and a little overwhelming lately.
i took thia on a trip back to Lincoln to visit my family. thia did great on the trip, our flights to OMA were pretty uneventful.
the trip itself was fun. minimal family drama, we didn't get in nearly as much as i'd planned, but she got to meet the family and that was, after all, the main goal.
there were some tornadoes with wonderful timing on our way back. on wednesday the 11th we arrived to the omaha airport a little early, 5pm for our 7:39 pm flight. my dad stayed with us until 6:50ish when i was going to need to take thia through security. he left and within minutes we could see things weren't quite right outside. for anyone who's been to OMA you know that there are windows pretty much on all sides of terminal B. on one side, it just looked like dusk, on the other it looked like mid-night. total blackness and you could actually see the point where the darkness took over the light on the horizon.
it wasn't long before they let us know that we would not be departing on time, and it was unlikely that anyone would make connections. shortly after that, due to a tornado warning, we were required to head to the tornado shelter. so i'm sitting in the shelter with thia, of course she can't get down and play on the floor because it's in an employee only section of the airport and not frequently cleaned.
at 9:15 pm they lift the warning and we're allowed to go back upstairs. they let us know that flights will still be leaving, just very late, and no one can expect to make connections.
at midnight thia and i take the flight to denver. at this point it was sleep in OMA or sleep in DEN, we choose DEN. i'm by no means a fearful flier and after years of flying frequently not much bothers me. i must say that this was by far the most turbulent flight i have ever been on.
so we get to denver, have to stay up till 2 to use the kiosk that will let me print a boarding pass for our next flight. by this time thia's wide awake again so we're roaming the terminal looking for snack machines, she's laughing at strangers, i'm trying to wipe mascara residue off of my puffy eyelids. around 3 we find a dark spot between a gate sign and the wall. i unload her blankets from our carry on and we lay on the floor, almost sleeping until 5am when they bustle starts for the first departing flights.
we use the restroom, i make her a bottle, we board our 6 am flight and we leave finally for LAX. she sleeps again pretty much the whole way there.
finally at 7:30 am PDT we make it to LAX where i was thrilled to find my husband, claudia and joe waiting already. we loaded up and made it home. home to a bed that was ready and waiting for me to climb into and take a nap. God Bless my husband.
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