Amelie goes to school!?

So today was officially Amelie's first day of school at Montessori. That's right...Amelie. My little tiny baby turned two-year-old ready-for-more! Up until now, I've been dropping in to Miss Cindy's class for extra little people with Amelie. We sit, join in circle-time, sing the good morning song, and work a few puzzles. Then we leave. But today is the first time I've ever said bye-bye to my little girl and let me tell you...it's a little crazy in my head!

In preparation for the worst, instead of driving all the way home (6 minutes with traffic) I decided to stop off at our downtown apartment (2 minute drive) to do some inventorying of what needs to be done before my Mom-in-Law comes to stay there two weeks from now. I figure when they call to tell me Amelie is inconsolable and they need me to come, I'll be there lickety-split.

So I stop in, look around, realize it just needs a basic clean up that can be done two weeks from now, and decide put my feet up, close my eyes and try to catch the elusive sleep that never seems to come around anymore (I've had insomnia for months worrying god-knows-why about Amelie's start at school). But sleep doesn't come. It's 9:00. 9:30. 9:45. Nothing. So I get up and drive home. I come in and realize the kitchen is a mess from breakfast. I could start the laundry too. But I don't want to do any of that...besides I have help later today that can do that stuff.

That's when I realize what the problem is. I'm the one not prepared for alone quiet time. It has been full steam ahead toddler raising for 2 years. Before that? Full steam ahead baby raising.

I. don't. know. what. to. do.

And why hasn't the Montessori called to tell me I'm needed? Could it be that my gut was right and Amelie is absolutely ready for this and will enjoy herself and all the new stimulus? Is it possible that both my girls are already....there?

A trip to the past

Well, tonight I was toodling around my blog, reacquainting myself with the me of the past, when I came across this post. It's the one I wrote about four years ago, when Ajay and I go to Ruby's for dinner? To be "fun" and acquaint ourselves with the things people with kids do. Yes, we were the married couple sans children at Ruby's for dinner, looking around marveling at how families with small children live their lives, and smiling as the kids nearby melted down, got time outs, were constantly rounded up by frazzled Moms...yep, we were the freak couple looking at these poor souls with warmth and love, nodding at them with hopeful eyes while their kids drove them crazy, hoping that we'd be in their ranks nine months from that moment.

Flash forward 4 years. We have two monkeys. We are the frazzled parents. Ours are the kids melting down. We are the ones looking at expectant parents like they are smoking crack when they nod lovingly at each other and then at us when our child spills milk and loses it.

What. Were. We. Thinking!!!!!!!

A conversation overheard....

The Sears Repairman:   How old are you?
Alia:  Three. How old are you?
The Sears Repairman:   Really old.
Alia:   Like my Dad?

hello? anyone out there?

Last month I covered Amelie's second birthday here in my little blog. Since then, nada!

In fact, it's been so long since I kept up with a regular daily blog that I couldn't even figure out how to get into my blog and sign in and start writing today...that's how much has changed since even my last entry.

So where am I now? Where is our little family now? Well, of course we're here in Laguna, but we know that's not what I'm asking. 

Right now we are getting ready for the holidays. Wrapping presents, listening to endless Christmas music via Pandora, and enjoying the season as best we can. However, this year seems to be busier than ever, and we've been struggling a little just to keep up with the day to day. Ajay has been working like crazy. He's gone at 6AM and returns maybe one day a week before the girls bedtime at 7. The rest of the nights he's been home late late late. And even his days that are supposed to be short have been running long. He's burned out, exhausted, and with all the work has not been able to train at the gym, which means his hips and back are locking up. And the girls? They miss him terribly. Alia has her own brand of naughty when he's not around much, which makes me crazy. And Amelie, our little pack animal, misses him in her own way...she gets sweeter and sweeter and needs cuddles. Lots of cuddles. So like I said...we've had a tough month.

And sure, all that impacts me, too. I'm sad that my husband is working like a maniac and missing home life. 

And I'd be lying if I said I'm just awesome at managing all things all the time, especially when my Alia is just about the most head strong person I've ever come across in my life....not most head strong 3 year old...the most head strong person out of all people. At times I feel like I'm failing her because my endless patience and positive outlook ends and turns sour. And Amelie...well, she's easy. Since her colic ended at about 4 months, she has been a gem of a human being. 

Lately, I feel like a very fortunate single Mom (that doesn't have to work, but is in charge of all things without a partner many days). With Alia testing me to my maximum nearly every day, I'm a step from tears or pulling my hair out nearly every day. The magic of the season spreading through the air like the magical snow flakes that gave life to Frosty the Snowman eludes us.

But enough of my holiday blues. Actually right now is a very peaceful and wonderful time. Alia and Amelie are napping. Ajay is home and reading in his favorite chair. And I'm here typing away. Nothing could make me happier. 

Happy 2nd Birthday, my dear Amelie

Well, I can't help myself but to say I feel bad that I have not been able to chronicle Amelie's early life in as much detail as I did with Alia...but who knew two kids would be so much more than one! Especially now that they are soooo busy.

Well, lets start with right now, since that's what's on my mind. Amelie turned 2 last week and this weekend we had a wonderful birthday party for her at Alta Laguna Park up the street from our house. I hoped to have the important people in her life there to celebrate and we weren't let down...nearly forty people showed up and it was seriously a wonderful day. The sky was bright blue, big white puffy clouds sprawled, and the sun was as bright as a November sun could be. Amelie was in heaven since she was surrounded by all of her favorite people...Jessica our nanny, Kori our former nanny who moved away about 5 months ago, and of course Mommy, Daddy, Aunt Carol and Uncle Jim, and let's not forget her big sister Alia. All the rest of the people were very comforting to her because they were all the people Amelie has come to know in her life, but let's just say Amelie is a small pack animal.

Developmentally, right now Amelie amazes us. She began talking in sentences at about 18 months. Way ahead of the curve. She has known all letters and numbers up to 20 for at least 6 months. She sings Old MacDonald Had a Farm on key. Oh, yeah, and she also speaks Dora Spanish (counts from 1-10, colors, up, down, yes, no, good morning, good night, hello, goodbye, and anything else they teach). She is a very early talker. Amelie expresses herself very well...she never had the frustration-based tears Alia had before learning to talk. I remember teaching Alia to sign because her cognitive skills were so far ahead of her verbal development. Not Amelie...sure she signed because her sister did, but she also learned to speak so early that she's been able to articulate her thoughts with ease.

Physically, Amelie is tall and lean. She is the same as Alia height-wise, but a little leaner in stature. She walked a little earlier than Alia, too...she had some one to catch up to and that really has been the motivator of her life...keeping up with Alia. She walked at 11 months, and since then has been very physically active. She runs so fast that she shouts "Slow down, Mimi!, Slow down!!!" as she rounds corners without slowing. Her favorite thing is to run with her favorite bear held high above her head at full speed ahead and shout "slow down Bear! slow down!" She has quite the sense of humor. Oh, and did I mention she's already showing great progress with potty training daily? Mommy likes this!

Personality wise, Amelie is pure love. She warms my heart with her sweetness. She is loving, funny, and hilarious. Her sense of humor is beyond her years. She hugs and kisses and so far has not shown too much of terrible in her 2. Although I do see signs of her asserting her independence daily, it's not quite so hostile as Alia's display. Amelie's favorite expression is "Mimi does it byzherself!!!". This is shouted any time she is struggling with something and I try to help. Getting something on a fork, unzipping something all the way, unbuttoning something, fitting one thing into another thing.

Activity wise, Amelie has taken toddler gymnastics and toddler ballet through Laguna Beach community programs. She attends lots of play dates with the parents club, and loves going to the park and the beach. She loves television although I limit it to one or two shows like Dora the Explorer or Calliou or Max and Ruby per day, and she loves to draw, paint, and work puzzles. And I cannot believe I am this far into the post to mention her loooooove of the iPad. and iPod. and YouTube. And anything technological. In fact, her technical savvy is frightening.

Her favorite people are 1) Alia her sister 2) Mommy and a close 3) Daddy. She prefers women to men in general. She  loves her Noni (my Mom), her Aunty Carol, and Aunty Tina. Amelie really connected with her Aunty Merfe this summer, and always asks about when we see her 'gain.


My last year with Amelie has been a joy. She is so loving, so smart, and a joy to be around. I cannot imagine life without my little love.

Alia: Mimi! You smell like wild animal poop!

Thank God for video...

A day in the life...

So lately, it's busy around here. I know I've been saying this forever, but I just can't seem to find time to keep up with my blog. So how better to determine when I should make time for it than to account for the time I do have.

Well, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, my days go like this....wake up and shower before 6:00AM. Get ready for the day...makeup, shower, dress. Get the girls up around 7:00. Make breakfast and prod them along by singing various songs on demand or telling various stories with or without variations. Clean up breakfast and pack Alia's snack. She's in school from 8:30-11:45 for the next few weeks. Throw in a load of laundry. Round up the girls and lead them to their room to get them ready. Brush teeth. Wash face. Brush hair. Lotion up their little bodies. Get both girls dressed. At this point I allow them to read, work puzzles, do whatever they'd like while I gather my purse, keys, sunglasses, Alia's backpack, Amelie's travel needs (diapers, snacks, milk) and load the car. Put the laundry in the dryer. I then return and attempt to gather up the girls again and move them to the car. Buckle them in. Determine the popular song of the day...Pop Goes the Weasel or the one about the tired horse.

Once we're in the car, we head to the Montessori and drop off Alia. Although drop-off is not quite the reality. Currently it involves 20 hugs, 20 kisses, cuddles, 20 bonus hugs, crying, more hugs, bargaining, promises, and finally Miss Cindy offers the prize...she leads Alia to the corner where she can view me pulling away with Amelie. We stop outside the window, make funny faces, and leave the premises an emotional wreck. (By the way...the moment I'm out of sight, Alia's fine and already painting and making bead bracelets). By now it's 8:45 or so.

From here Amelie and I attend to what needs to be attended to. Grocery, a trip to Target, back home for chores, etc. My nanny arrives at 11, so I've got Amelie all morning. Around 11:30 I start thinking about picking up Alia. I make lunch while nanny plays with Amelie, or I play with Amelie and she makes lunch. I go and pick up Alia at 11:40. I'm back at 12:00 or a little after. Once again I work on rounding up the girls with nanny's help, seat them and offer them lunch. They eat. We sing songs. Then Alia bargains that she wants to play awhile before nap, which is at 1:00. Around 12:40 I put Amelie down for her nap. I leave for exercise at 12:45. Nanny puts Alia down around 1:00.

I've been working out with a trainer since January on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1:30. It takes me a little over 20 minutes to drive there which is nice because it's the only time of the week that I'm alone with my thoughts. I can listen to podcasts, call friends, or just space out and drive....for 20 minutes. I start the workout by running a mile or so, or if my knees feel wonky, I'll walk at 15% incline at 3.2 for about 20 minutes or however long I have until the trainer shows. He systematically kicks my ass for about an hour, and then I go home. I arrive at 3:15. The girls are waking up. They are hungry. Nanny has packed my swim bag. We have Mommy and Me swim lessons every day at 4:00PM. I change to my bathing suit and grab whatever girl is joining me, and head out. Sometimes I'll drop nanny off at the park with whichever girl isn't partaking in the day's swim lesson. Go to swim. Finish swim. Pick up nanny at park. Go home. Start dinner while nanny plays outside with girls, or sometimes we reverse this role. At 5:30 or so it's dinner time. After dinner we move to bath. Every other day we wash Alia's long lustrous hair before moving to bath. Around 6:15 we finish with bath and it's cozy time! That's when the girls line up on the couch and get to watch one, perhaps two episodes of Dora the Explorer. And then, around 7:00PM we make the pilgrimage to the girls' room. We brush teeth. We read stories. Alia goes potty for the last time. Amelie gets her last fresh diaper. And we toss them in the bed and sing the last song of the day...Amelie likes to hear her ABCs and Alia prefers 5 Green and Speckled Frogs.

Tuesday, Thursday are very similar, however, there is no meeting with the trainer, so I typically use the time between 1 and 3:00 to either 1) nap or 2) attend to whatever little projects pop up, such as reorganizing the play room, boxing up old clothes the girls have outgrown, pre-making snacks for weekday snack, attempting to organize my iPhoto events, or call me crazy, going to pick up miscellaneous items without 2 girls in tow. We still have swim at 4:00PM. We still have the same morning and nighttime routine...it's just that I'm not spending nap time at the gym.

And every day of the week? After the girls are in bed? I make dinner for Ajay and myself. We spend the remaining hour or so of our day eating, cleaning up, catching the latest show that Tivo caught for us, and call it a night at 9:00PM. From that point, I may be awakened throughout the night by Amelie's cries perhaps 1, perhaps 3 times, or perhaps rarely not at all. But on the not-at-all nights, I awaken myself, in fear of being awakened, and wait for the crying. Which, if it isn't happening, really sucks because I'll lie there awake all night waiting to be awakened.

Saturday and Sundays are family days when Ajay isn't working. We try to do something together as a family in the morning, like going to the park, the beach, the carousel, and as of recent, the movies (Winnie the Pooh is the first movie that both girls have gone to and we've seen it twice in one week!). We have lunch together, and then during nap time, Ajay and I usually take advantage of the silence and grab some rest ourselves. After nap, we swim in our pool, play in the playhouse, or go to a park or a local outing. Then again, it's time for dinner, bath, and the bedtime routine.

So, where might I find time to write? Well, I could get up earlier. But typically I'm bargaining for the love of whatever God might be out there for more time in bed when my alarm rings, so the idea of facing the day earlier is well, just sad. There's Tuesday and Thursday nap time...which is when I'm writing this...but typically I schedule myself to the hill with my doctor, dentist, haircuts, errands, etc. on those days.  So where does that leave me? In my mind, the weekends are kind of off limits because I really like for us to spend what time we have together as a family as a family and second, I typically put Ajay's have-tos ahead of my want-tos. If he needs to call his patients for work on something for his job, I'll cover the girls so he can do what he needs.

So I suppose I'm going to have to keep eking out little bits of time here and there and record what I can. In the meantime, trust that my girls are growing, healthy, adorable, challenging, smart, funny and beautiful. Totally worth falling behind in the blog I've dedicated to them!

Alia this morning: But Mommy, I can't eat right now. I need to dance.

...a little wedding in France

So at the end of our holiday, we stopped in Crouttes, France for a beautiful family wedding. The bride was gorgeous. The family traveled from far and wide to attend. And my girls? And their cousins? Were flower girls.

Here, Alia sits with her cousin Haylah with her Aunt Shefali and Uncle Shuja behind.

Thank God for the iPhone...

Did I mention my girls love the iPhone? 

My handsome husband with his beautiful mother

...and me with Amelie, and Amelie with her iPhone...and Buttah Bear

...with thanks to my trainer for getting those arms in shape for this dress!

Alia with my first niece Haylah and her lovely Mama Lena

...and Amelie with her iPhone...again...

 And me the proud Mommy of two beautiful girls...

...how proud am I?

and let's not forget the most beautiful bride, Lia, and her lovely party!

.