LA: Day 18

I can only assume it's a Moo growth spurt because I am freaking tired again these days. K will be here soon and I can't wait, it'll be nice to have my parenting partner back. We've already got a full week planned when he gets here.

Monday. my dad, Pig and I will pick up K at the airport. Then after my work day is over, we're heading over to the Americana mall to go visit the Santa. Tuesday, K's off skiing with our brother-in-law, D, and possibly my dad. Emo is heading over to the house to sleepover after work. Wednesday, K'll be watching Pig (going to Kidspace) while Emo and I go out and have a girl's spa day out and then he'll be taking me out to dinner for my birthday while Emo and my dad watch Pig. Thursday, my mom arrives so K, my dad and Pig will be heading out to the airport to pick her up and Emo, D and I will work on Christmas dinner at the house. Friday, I'm driving K out to Anaheim for his Christmas present, an hour plus on a jet fighter simulator. Saturday, off to LAX to fly back home to Maryland.

A little glimpse into what the work week schedule has looked like since we got here:


6:00 am - Pig starts rustling in her pack and play. Rustling gets louder as her legs get tangled up in her sleep sack. She sits up and starts playing with her Rainforest crib toy...and it's loud. If we're lucky she poops and we can start the day relieved that the poop of the day is over and done with.


7:00 am - I give up and lift my head up from my pillow and summon the energy to say a cheery good morning. I unzip the sleepsack and carry Pig over to her grandfather's room. Turn on computer in the office and log into work extranet. Lumber into kitchen and mix up formula bottles for the day and line them up in the fridge for my dad. Make mug of tea and head back to office. My dad gives Pig her morning bottle and turns on some kid tv show so that Pig can do her morning dancing.


7:30 am - Check work emails, note the meetings for the day and early morning meetings for the next day.

8:00 am - Pig gets her oatmeal/yogurt breakfast.

9:00 am - Lumber out for breakfast, eat quickly and head back to office. Tuesdays through Fridays, my dad will get Pig ready to go out, diaper change, change of clothes, socks and shoes on. I'll pack up her lunch in her little cooler bag and get it beside front door.

9:30 am - Noon - Work, work, work. My dad and Pig head out to Kidspace.


11:30 - Noon - Dad and Pig are back from Kidspace. Pig gets bottle of milk and goes down for nap...usually.


Noon - Lumber out for lunch.


Noon - 3:00 pm - Pig naps. I head back to office to work. 2:00 pm, supervisors in East Coast are gone for the day, so I get blissful quiet time to catch up on work sans meetings and phone calls.


3:00 pm - Pig wakes up, my dad feeds her a small snack and she plays in the living room.


5:00 pm - Quittin' time for me! Head out of office, play with Pig. Do grocery shopping if necessary.


6:00 pm - Dinner for everyone. Afterwards, weather permitting, head out for short neighborhood walk or go out for drive.


6:30 pm - My dad bathes Pig.


7:00 pm - Bedtime ritual starts, Pig gets into her jam jams, sleep sack, gets her hands washed. I fill up the humidifier and warm up her bottle of milk. My dad and I take turns putting her down for the night.


7:30 pm - 10:00 pm - My dad collapses in front of the tv. I read in the family room until I start to get sleepy and then blearily head over to the room Pig and I share and fall into bed and roll about into I can get Moo in the right sleep position. Goo' Nite!

LA: Day 12

We're starting to get into the holiday spirit here. The weather was oddly warm for awhile but it's cooling down quite a bit now and I feel the urge to burst forth in a decorating frenzy and eat hearty soups.

My parents have a large artificial tree, but I decided that it'd be easier for my dad if we went out and bought a small 3 ft tree to put up on a table...one last thing he'd have to keep Pig from assaulting. So my sister, Pig and I went out to several tree lots until we found the right size. I had this mental image of being thrown unceremoniously out from a tree lot once we stated our intention to purchase a knome-ish tree. I started picturing red faces of indignation as lot owners pointed to magnificent 7 foot douglas firs before storming off to shove a potted cactus at us. It's actually similar to the scene I picture ensuing in the kitchen of a fine dining establishment when my dad asks for tabasco sauce.

Luckily, the last lot we visited, had several little trees right out front. We picked the fullest one of the bunch, roughly the size of Pig standing, and placed it pretty much standing into the back of my parents' SUV. Easiest tree purchase ever, no twine necessary.

When we brought it back to the house, I realized the tree was way too small, my parents have cathedral ceiling in the back section of their great room and canopied by that, the tree would be likely to develop a major napoleonic complex. We decided to keep it once my sister pointed out that the table wouldn't be able to support a bigger tree laden with ornaments.

My dad went out to the garage to look for the ornaments and lights and came back with one small box and one shopping bag. Eh? Where are all of the ornaments we used to have as kids? He shrugged, "it was a mess and I threw them away." Sigh. Luckily what was in the box was enough to cover the knome tree but I'm thinking we might be going to an after Christmas sale this year to replenish the holiday stash.

LA: Day 7

So Pig and I have been in LA at my parents for about a week now. It all came as a result of a daycare snafu. My dad luckily agreed to look after Pig the catch being that he couldn't leave his business affairs in LA. So after receiving permission to telework from LA, Pig and I packed our bags and made the trip out here.

That makes it sound like it was a smooth trip over...but it warn't. The week and a half before we were due to fly, I checked the airline website to see that the flights were fairly empty, and they were, even 6 hours beforehand. So K and I went ahead and picked up a gogokidz carseat carrier...which I highly recommend, although you're sure to get strange looks, more about that later. Pig is still battling a cold so her cooler bag and backpack were stuffed with things to help relieve the symptoms. I had toys galore and some lunchables in the bag for myself should I get too busy to eat a decent lunch.

At BWI, we got the news that in the one hour before we left the house, the flight to Atlanta had booked up. Color me skeptical. This was the day after Thanksgiving, so unless a sizable group of people had huge altercations with their DC based family and decided to hell with them and return posthaste to Atlanta...I thought the system might be mistaken. So at the gate I asked very politely again if there might be two empty seats together. The guy didn't even bother checking the computer this time, he said "nope, full flight." So I tethered Pig to me using her Scootababy carrier, shoved her carseat into the huge red carseat gate check bag and lugged it with me, prompting looks of dismay/horror/pity as I struggled by. Anyway, you can probably guess what happened, after the carseat had been stowed away under the plane, I looked around and saw several empty rows...wtf. In fact, the seat next to me remained empty.

Same damned thing happened from Atlanta to LA, three lovely empty rows in the back. I sat next to a lovely 10 year old who liked to sit with her legs planted in my seat area, never bothered to retrieve any items that Pig threw on the ground, kicked me in her sleep, and grumbled when Pig and I had to get out of our window seat to use the restroom. Meanwhile, Pig spent 2.5 hours settling in, kicking poor Moo as she squirmed in my lap. I sat and thought of the wonderful things I'd swear to do for humankind if God would graciously speed time up a little or at least place Pig and I into sleep hibernation mode for the remainder of the trip.

Funny airplane bathroom story. I went to change Pig's diaper. Thankfully, the bathrooms were equipped with changing tables. So after I finished snapping her into a fresh outfit, I realized that I ought to just do my business as well to avoid having to come out again. Should you decide to do this yourself, I recommend that you wrap your child snuggly in something to keep limbs from flailing, or better yet, resist that crazy urge and sit back down knowing that the weight of your child will render the lower half of your body numb anyhow. So I'm sitting there, Pig on my lap, most likely looking like we were waiting for a bus. Suddenly, Pig was struck by the crazy stick and her legs started flailing and somehow she managed to get her foot tangled up in my underwear.

My friends, untangling your child's foot from your underwear whilst sitting on the throne in a jostling plane is well....there aren't words enough....