a day in the life

my dad asked me what was new and as i typed i figured this was good material for here. i'm certain i've gone from 3 readers to 1 or even .5 readers. hope those who are still standing enjoy the latest from the frontlines:

all in all, life is good. between isaac and joy they find ways to keep us awake at night. it's some sort of sleep deprivation torture to get more ice cream and tv during the day. if one's snoring the other is awake. it looks like isaac has an ear infection. saturday he was up crying a good part of the night. amy started him on antibiotics and we'll get him in with the ear guy hopefully tomorrow. we think joy is teething because her nose is running more than forrest gump and she spikes temps every odd night or so. last night she flailed and tossed and turned for an hour straight. she was pretty much asleep the whole time but i kept taking blows to the back, groin and face.

i took her in this morning to get caught up on the american newborn hearing screening tests they do. she can hear. i had suspected as much but it's nice to have proof. our pediatrician also had us do the same thing with the eye doc and all the newborn blood tests they do here in the states. it's hell playing catch-up.

kinda feel bad that we're not as excited about her first birthday coming next week but that's what she gets for the sleep deprivation. besides, she hasn't been with US for a year. i figure at this age birthdays are also an annual celebration of survival so we'll throw another layer of cake on next august (with isaac and amy's cake) for that part. come next monday i'm sure we'll come up with something.

but joy is definitely feeling more secure and becoming more like a one year old (instead of an extremely heavy 6 month old). she's cruising around on the furniture, actually crawling away from us to go explore, and tracking us down when we set her down and go to another room. she's playing and smiling. getting isaac in trouble when he takes toys away from her or knocks her over. at first she just was stunned in silence. she loves to make maple yelp. now that joy is mobile the dog has taken to sleeping with one eye open.

i'm the primary driver of the minivan (which makes amy nervous. the sedan more and more is looking like it's been in a demolition derby. my latest stunt - taking out the front left headlight in the grocery store parking lot. to be fair, that was the first one that was my fault - on this car. the others were done by a massive hail storm, a lady in the mexican restaurant parking lot and by the neighbor kid and his mower - tho he denies it). so, in the minivan, my morning route starts with dropping isaac off at pre-school where he's learning all kinds of big boy things like writing his name, being the line leader, and pooping and pottying in appropriate locations. then i take joy to her babysitter's where she gets to play with another baby a month younger than her, as well as a few older kids that are between 2 and 3. she loves it there but has to put up a good holler when i initially hand her over. but that's what she gets for the sleep deprivation.

at the end of the day i repeat the process in reverse. we end up at home and i try to keep everyone conscious in the misguided assumption that delaying sleep in the early evening equals a better sleep through the night. even still sometime between 8:30 and 9:30 we have a quiet house. then amy and i reorganize and regroup until 10 or 11p to get ready for the next day. amy's doing a good job keeping the crew in line and making us organized. food and outfits for the week are all neatly packaged and ready for distribution each morning. the net result is i have been to work earlier with two kids than when we just had one. about 11:30p one of the two of them wakes up and initiates whatever next phase they have scheduled in their sleep deprivation playbook and the cycle starts anew.

update on the brood

just a quick note to say we are officially moving into a routine. joy did well yesterday at her first day with the babysitter. isaac is doing well being in the big kid class at pre-school (which means he's doing great at pooping and pottying in the appropriate places and at the appropriate times - may not be a big deal to you but to my poopy fingers, it's awesome), and amy's first day back on the job went well, too. so far so good.

i was worried a babysitter would be some kind of emotional chernobyl for joy but it wasn't. she really digs other kids. i'm constantly impressed by this little one. she's tuff. has to be. her brother regularly tries to smother her. it's under the guise of giving hugs and kisses but me thinks they are not so subtle attempts to snuff out the competition. the good news is she's quickly learning to crawl and walk. that should greatly aid in her ability to fight or flight.

all in all life is good. it's nice to be in a routine again. even just a couple days into it. the only problem is routines are so - routine. there is more important stuff to write about but this will have to do for now.

moodiness

i was up most the night last night with a migrane. ended up taking tons of medicine and watching rain man. joy and i slept until noon. now it's the next night and i'm still up. doesn't bode well for tomorrow's activities. nor does it for the quality of this post.

i don't really watch much tv. i rarely miss it. occasionally i'll hear about some great show that everyone is watching and i'll wish i could see it. this time of year (football season) can be hard but i live in a predominantly bronco-free zone anyway so i still miss most of their televised games. but whenever there is some sort of national event, usually a tragedy, i wish i could turn on some sort of 24 hour news channel. so currently being at the in-laws i stayed up late watching katrina stuff.

i catch most of the details on-line and even some of the images but it's still different seeing it moving, unfolding. for some reason, i'm more caught up in this than i have been for similar stuff in the past. maybe it's age catching up with me? sometimes when i go to the movies i'll leave still wrapped up in the emotion of what i just watched. coming out of a micheal bay film i'm likely to speed, yell "cover me!" to any passengers in the car, and dive head first through the door to the house. after turning off the tv tonight i felt that sort of way. as if life was all screwy. surreal. discombobulated.

we got back to the US from china on a saturday. the following monday i learned that a 20 year old kid, a friend, died in a car wreck just a couple miles from where i was. i saw the wreck on the local 24 hour news station but didn't learn that i knew the person until later in the day. a few days later and i was at his funeral. coming back from china, a new daughter, getting back into the swing of things at work, jame's death - that whole week felt prfoundly screwy. that's how i felt when i turned off the tv. and i suppose it's what has compelled me to type instead of stare at the ceiling waiting for sleep.

life just feels - important - right now. it seems like things are speeding up, or falling apart. turning a corner, or just plain different than it used to be. the year started with a tsunami that killed people in the hundreds of thousands. i actually knew a family caught in it. i had met them in london last summer. they let me and my two traveling buddies stay in a flat they rent to college types, or to interns of the church they belong to. the flat was empty and we were homeless for 3 days waiting for our flight back to the US. so they said we could stay in their flat. so this family, back in august of 04, was feeling like God had plans for them in sri lanka. to start an orphanage. this past january i called our mutual friend in london after the tsunami primarily to check up on them. they indeed had gone to sri lanka. arrived in early december and no one particularly cared that they were there to start an orphanage. the doors seemed closed. the day after christmas the whole family (this is a large family, something like 12 people) were all on the beach when the waves hit. all were swept out to sea, except the 2 year old. two strangers grabbed her and ran with her to higher ground. everyone of them survived. within a few hours they were all reunited. they were supplying food, water, etc. before the red cross was even there. last i heard they were rebuilding a school and had started their orphanage. that was how the year started.

skipping over much of the last 8 months to the last two weeks and here we are again. watching the news. nature has struck another deadly blow. and in iraq nearly 1000 people died in a human stampede on top of that. it just seems tragedy after tragedy keeps happening. and i found myself at the funeral of a 20 year old. you think about the last time you talked to someone after they are gone. i wish i had spent more time with james. had paid more attention. i wish i had respected his "person"hood. that i had listened more the last time he came to the house. he just stopped by to say hello. nothing majorly new going on. he really was just killing time until the movie he was heading to started. and we had pizza coming so he stayed. but had i known that would be the last time he would ever just stop by the house . . . so, maybe that's why watching 24 hour news makes me feel the screwy-ness?

joy has to be held to fall asleep. if i'm around, i have to hold her. she was asleep on me as i watched the news earlier. it takes awhile for her to be soundly enough asleep for me to sneak away from her. so i get plenty of time to just look at her. she's beautiful. it's beautiful that she is her. that she is here. that we get to be together. we were at a family party earlier today. my sister-in-law taught my little boy how to swim with those little swimmer balloons strapped to his arms. when i left for china he was solidly strapped to me when in the water. i about passed out when he just leapt into the water and was paddling merrily along. i'm pretty certain today was the first time joy ever was in a swimming pool. and she loved it. it was fun to splash in the water together. it was fun to be together. it was fun to "be". i'm really just feeling how important life is these days. i don't think it is just in my head. life is different than it used to be. how can it not be, you know? every living thing changes.

that's plenty for now. i'm going to climb back in bed. amy passed out next to isaac upstairs. joy and i are in the basement. i'll lay there and listen to her breathing. and i'll ponder. talk to God. i don't want to miss out on what's happening right under my nose. i'll just lay there and listen. for awhile, and then i'll be sleeping soon, too.

haven't posted in awhile

getting caught up here. getting used to life as 4 and it is going well overall. i'm back to work already. amy has just a short week left. joy is doing really well. still a bit on edge when it comes to sleeping - she hates to wake up where she didn't fall asleep. and she usually falls asleep with me or amy holding her. that translates into not much sleep for us, so far.

both kids had a doc appt. yesterday and both did great, though isaac got off relatively easy. joy had 10 months of catching up to do. but she weathered the multiple shots, blood being drawn, and other fluids being gathered remarkably well. i think she's still recovering from that today.

i really like getting home to my family. i'm looking forward to feeling settled in. not sure when that will come. but so far, so good.