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.