Another day, another story. I realized today, for the umpteen millionth time, that when we have interesting stories we want to preserve...we have absolutely zero time in which to write them down.
Right now, I am in a beautiful sort of hazy middle ground. There are no major holidays taking place as I type this. No new lives being created, or ending. No major milestones. Just life, progressing as it ought to. And that is lovely in itself.
Baby Ying Ying is 9 months old now. This has always been my favorite age for babies - fat, happy, not yet able to run away, and as of yet unable to argue with their parents. At least not verbally. Baby YY is no exception. At her check up today, she weighed in at 22 pounds and 29 inches. She charms people everywhere she goes. Two days ago, she learned to wave, and it is absolutely precious. Of course, I am biased, but even complete strangers are charmed by a chubby, grinning, nearly-bald baby waving at them. I don't care who you are - when a toddler waves, you wave back, and you do it with a smile.
Today was a rather busy day. I woke up and felt nearly intoxicated - I realized it was 7 am and my baby had skipped her 3-4am feeding. I had slept a solid 6 hours, and I couldn't remember the last time that had happened. Hooray! (My husband later informed me that the baby most likely HAD woken up, but it didn't rouse me. Apparently, it didn't sound urgent enough to truly rouse him, either. He only remembers glancing at the clock and going back to sleep.) Shower for me, breakfast for the kiddos. We got Ming Wai off to school and then had to run back home so Siu Jeun and Ying Ying could eat their breakfasts. 20 minutes later, we were back in the car and heading down the hill to the doctor's office. Siu Jeun had an appointment for his flu shot.
That appointment very nearly went catastrophic. My big kids had discussed the merits of flu shots, and flu "doses" (nasal sprays) for days, and both decided that they absolutely wanted the "dose." So, when the nurse brought in a sharp kit and asked if he wanted his flu vaccine in his thigh or in his arm, his eyes got huge, and he swiveled his head to stare at me. "Um, he really wanted the nasal spray this year." "Oh, I'm sorry! We are all out. So - arm or thigh?" It became apparent that it would need to be thigh, as that was the option you take when a child is going to need to be restrained to receive their shots. A second nurse was called in, and SJ was starting to get really worried. As she scrubbed her hands, she asked, "So, why aren't we just doing the nasal dose?" Apparently, they were out yesterday. Today, they had four boxes!
Crisis averted.
Sharp kit put away, nasal dose brought in. *pfft* *sniff* *pfft* *sniff* Boom. Bam. Take your lollipop and sticker and get out of here, kid! I had a little chat with the nurse, and she winked and agreed to hide one dose of the nasal spray for me - Ming Wai's flu shot was scheduled for that afternoon, and her reactions to needles are fairly epic.
After that, it was time to run some errands in that part of town. A top returned to Nordstrom Rack that, tragically, didn't fit the birthday girl I bought it for. Curtains returned to Target that, sadly, don't fit my freakishly large windows. I took the kids to the children's museum after that, until it became obvious that Baby Ying Ying was badly in need of a nap.
Back to the car, a quick snack for the baby, and then we drove home. I transferred her to her crib, and had some alone time with Siu Jeun. We had lunch, and I started a batch of cinnamon chips and dough to make cinnamon chip bread. Baby woke up, had her lunch, and then we loaded up the car to take Siu Jeun to school.
Funny thing, though - when we pulled up to the school (i.e. Grandma's House), nobody was home. I suppose I should have read this week's schedule more carefully, eh? I called my sister, who had obviously READ her calendar correctly and was still at home shuffling her kids through lunch and morning chores. "Hey, why don't you come down and see us?" A few thoughts flashed through my head...there was a pot of cold mac and cheese on the stove. Bread rising in a bowl on the counter. Baby Ying Ying still needed more lunch. " Uh, ok!" Aunt Myrnie produced a banana and some rice and beans for Baby Ying Ying, Siu Jeun disappeared to the basement to play with his cousins, and I enjoyed a few minutes of adult conversation with my sister. A winning afternoon!
At 2:30, it was time to get back up the hill to grab Ming Wai from school. We stopped by the house to punch the bread down - it had traveled out of the bowl and was inching across my counter. Oh well - two rises is good for yeast breads, right? No time for it now - we had to go! The kids got a well-earned trip to the library, where Siu Jeun proceeded to grab 17 books about tractors, trucks and "how things work", and then off to the doctor again. This time, it was time for the two sisters to have their Well Child Checkup. We got the appointments back to back, which was kind of entertaining. Siu Jeun sat patiently in a chair looking at his 17 books. Ming Wai took off down the hall with a nurse to get her stats taken while Ying Ying and I went down a different hall to get her stats taken. We all met back in the exam room where the doctor took turns checking out both my beautiful girls. She has a daughter who is just a few weeks older than Ying Ying, so we always have fun checking in with each other. Neither of our daughters are sleeping through the night, mine has learned to "cruise" remarkably early, and hers still hates her carseat. Same ol', same ol'.
(Official stats, for posterity - Baby Ying Ying, 9 months, is 2'5", 22 pounds, and has a head circumference of 43.8 centimeters. Ming Wai, 7, is 4' even and weighs 52 pounds.)
The nurses came back in for the flu vaccines. Siu Jeun's nurse came through for us, and Ming Wai had her precious flu "dose." Aside from accidentally blowing half of the dose OUT of her nose and onto the nurse, she did very well. Baby Ying Ying was distracted by a pen I was holding and didn't even notice the poke for hers. Apparently, babies with ample thighs are like that. Heh.
Home for dinner, baking those loaves of bread (which turned out delicious, by the way), some homework for Ming Wai, and bedtime.
Homework tonight was...exciting. I KNOW that Ming Wai needs to do her homework early in the day, but it just didn't happen this week. I taught piano every afternoon this week, and we had the doctor's appointment today. She has a project due tomorrow, so it was tonight or nothing. Highlights of the evening included: Sentences that took between 5 and 10 minutes, each, to write. A complete melt down over a sun that came out square instead of round. A face plant onto the table and the child yelling, "I will just go live somewhere ELSE!" Her first threat to run away from home? Perhaps other homes don't have homework as stressful as drawing thank you posters for veterans.
I sat next to her and spoke in soothing tones, while I helped to color in the large expanse of blank space that had been left to be the blue sky. The square sun had been replaced by a round one, drawn from a stencil in her art kit. The purple line really just looked like an arm of the person next to it, and maybe nobody would notice that person now had one arm too many? After some training from me in the fine art of stick-figure drawing, all the girls had on dresses, and the boys had on pants. She calmed down.
10 minutes later, as she lovingly smoothed the last little glob of glitter onto her creation, she sighed. "It's beautiful, Mommy. I love it."
Drama, oh drama, they name is a 7 year old too close to bedtime.
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