Wild beasts

Trix and I had another movie date with our neighbors today, and we sandwiched it between kindergarten visits. I took my neighbor and her son with me to drop off Vinny so they could see our place, and then in the afternoon we went to visit another kindergarten nearer to Andi's work. This hunting for kindergartens is a major pain. You have to register when you are still pregnant, and even so they have to fill some kind of age and sex quota and no matter what you do, you very likely may not end up with a spot at the end of the day. I really like the teachers and method where we are now, but the location stinks for us. We also liked the one we visited today, so we will try to register for this one and see if we get a spot.

But the more important part of our day involved the Baby Kino (movie theater) where we saw the Beasts of the Southern Wild. I was completely expecting a fairy tale from the two seconds I took to look at a poster advertising the movie. As it turns out it is a story about an impoverished motherless four year old girl, living with her alcoholic father in the Louisiana swampland and surrounded by the realities of live and death and suffering. Super uplifting.

And here is little Trix today, wanting to walk. ?Big time.

Littles

My littles are basically eating the same things these days. Trix has decided that she doesn't like puree food and that whatever Vinny eats is much more interesting. So here she is eating apples and cucumbers, just like Vin. Mind you, she only has about 23% of her two bottom teeth, and nothing else to work with. But she manages.

Sharing a snack.

Looking at this picture I can really see Vin's luscious mullet flowing in the breeze. It took so long to get here, I just don't have the heart to cut it yet. But I think the time is getting near.

Today was a good day. Vin hopped into our bed at about 5:30 this morning, Elsie was already there, so it wasn't long before we all grunted our way out of the bed to start our day. Vin and I headed to the bathroom to continue his face washing/teeth brushing/hair brushing routine. We three headed to kindergarten early and I dropped the boy off by 7:30. Grocery shopping, house cleaning, lunch at the UN, Vin picking up, more house cleaning, picture drawing, piano playing, song singing, bread making, dinner eating, bath taking, book reading and here we are.

Vin even earned a lollypop for being extra nice to his sister today (i.e. kicking her in the stomach and back instead of directly in the face). Baby steps.

Things are going great in the sleep training department. Vin gets out of bed from 0-3 times before settling down for an entire night's sleep. And, great news for me, after 4 days in bed with a 104 degree fever, I was able to rest enough for my back to repair itself and now I feel amazing. I guess all I needed was some rest, and I don't mind at all that it took a debilitating fever for me to get it.

Pools and Parks

This weekend was a cold one, so we stuck around the house most of the time. We did, however, manage to head to the local pool first thing in the morning on Saturday, and then we also made it to the park for some serious swinging and frolicking on Sunday. But the rest of the time was spent in the usual, mundane, family way. 

In the very narrow window between naps and preparing food, or cleaning up, we thought we could quickly finish our spot light job in the cellar. As fate would have it, Andraz broke our last skinny metal drill bit upon drilling the third hole, and we had to abandon the project entirely. Sigh. This job will never get done.

Kitchen: Still not finished
Tiles: Still not finished
Upstairs lights: not finished
Stairs: not finished
Cellar lights: not finished

I am impatient with having to have so much patience.

Trix helping with the dishes.

Cute little hippy boy.

Brotherly love.

Enjoying the park on a cold Sunday.

Some more videos from our lives

Vinny and Elsie Eat Cheerios from a Bowl from Andraz Zuccato on Vimeo.


Vinny and Elsie Eating Cheerios from Andraz Zuccato on Vimeo.

Vinny and Elsie Play and Chat on the Floor from Andraz Zuccato on Vimeo.

Vinny Plays Alphabet Song on Piano from Andraz Zuccato on Vimeo.

After a long while - a video from our lives

Elsie's Early Attempts at Crawling from Andraz Zuccato on Vimeo.

It's back

Got a call today from the kindergarten to pick up the boy early due to the return of the fever. So I left Elsie with our cleaner and jumped in the car and picked him up...got back and Zita told me that Elsie now has a fever. So both kids are hanging onto the sickness, poor beans.

I would feel sorrier for Vinny if he weren't acting like a total jerk. I am not sure what it is, but he is absolutely stretching my last nerve past the breaking point. I have never felt so frustrated, angry, miserable in my life.

Trix and her broccoli and carrots.

Mmmm, delicious.

Cute.

Ah, that's better.

Vin, dancing in Elsie's new skirt.

Little Ms. Vinny.

A rough weekend

Sick is hard. Sick with two sick kids is ridiculous. Andi helped as much as he could over the weekend, but both kids want mommy. All the time. And there is only so much he can do. Vinny has been particularly difficult, hitting, kicking, throwing, he doesn't like me to feed or hold Elsie too much, but Elsie also has a fever and will not be satisfied with anything other than being held and rocked against my chest. I have not stepped foot outside the house for four days. I am either nursing or rocking the girl while the boy is jumping onto my stomach and off of my legs and pulling on me or hitting me on the face or hitting Elsie in the back of the head. It is awful.

Vinny has slept in the bed with me the past two nights, and Andi has slept with Elsie. But tonight Vinny is back in his own bed and Elsie has returned to her crib and we even lowered the crib a notch, sadly signifying her way out of babyhood.

I am not sure what to do with Vinny. I love him to pieces, but we are getting on each others nerves. He is testing me to a huge degree and I do not always react well.

Please dear God, let me be learning some patience from all of this.