Photos are forthcoming.

Due to some technical difficulties, my photos are taking their sweet time getting loaded. I took over 600 photos - Jeremy is patiently moving some old stuff to make room for the new stuff. And things are slow uploading to flickr, so maybe tomorrow will be the vacation recap.

Vacations spent in a house in the country with extended family can be stressful, even when everyone is being nice to each other.

Today, it was nice to be back at work.

Back in the saddle again.

We are back home - all in one piece. The kids are getting to be better and better airline travelers - granted, it could be that after a few back and forths to Singapore with crying/screaming/awake at 3 am kids - anything under 18 hours seems like a breeze.

Xin and Shwe come to play with the cats

Edda and the Ocean

Dinner

B-I-N-G-O!

Hunt

Who's the Girl?

Windowsill napping. Again

Storytime

Sunrise in Marin

Vacation Cabin

Spring Break!

I'm on Spring Break! I have never been so excited about going on Spring Break, after six months on the job, intently working like a little cog in the beast of a machine called the federal government, I am ready for a break. The last time I had a real spring break was in 1994. I wonder what I did on that spring break? I vaguely remember a road trip with a few friends, but since blogging didn't exist then, I guess I'll pretty much have to make up what I did. It has been more than a full decade since I've graduated from college and after that, I have let the whole ritual of spring break lapse.

No longer! Now the kids are in school and there is a mandatory week of rest and we must all travel somewhere and so we are headed off. Not right this minute, of course, but in a few days - after I squeeze in some doctor appointments, some last minute laundry/cleaning/and packing. And then we are off! Into the wild blue yonder... I hear the place we are going has no cell phone coverage and flaky dial-up internet! Egads, we are going to have to make do with a land line and you've got to really, really, really want to see that video on youtube to stand the 13 hours it will take to download some video of Britney showing her hoo-ha while getting out of the car.

Alien replacement.

You won't believe what Vince was doing when I walked into the house. He was cleaning his room! We run a pretty relaxed house around here; we don't ask Vince to clean his room because it's as much his parents' fault that it's a mess as it is his. We leave old magazines on the floor and all of Edda's clothes that are scattered are our fault too because she shares Vincent's room and since she can't use her hands, there is only so much of the mess you can blame on her.

He even made his bed and arranged the stuffed animals neatly on the pillow.

Cats 1. Donald 0.

Well, I thought I did a great job hiding the kitty feed. I put it in a drawer, cause, you know, cat's can't open drawers. Right? Hahah but of course, I was outwitted again. I forgot to remove the _extra_ bag of feed that's sitting in the closet, and whaddya know. Those hungry cats have clawed their way into that. I actually don't know how long they have been in the spare bag, since I hadn't been paying any attention to the closet, after I moved the first bag. The only way I noticed was because the first bag was running a bit low, and I went looking for the extra kibble.

Argh.

It's only Tuesday.

Jeremy and I are both a little sick. Not sick enough to stay home and wallow in bed and wish that some nice person would bring us chicken soup, but sick enough make us snappish at each other and both the kiddos.

Edda is still a little hoarse from her strep throat.

Vincent is obsessing about Easter and all the candy that goes with it.

Working at Home

Life is good.

I can't believe I have to go to work tomorrow.

How the weekends fly by. And the laundry is still not done.

Winston balancing on my thigh

Not much going on with the cats. I actaully have been in the city more this past week... Chin Ping stopped by on Saturday to play with them. Lynn has come and grabbed her stuffs. Hopefully the house isn't too much of a mess. I think that would a hard thing for me if i lived by myself - keeping the place tidy. Or maybe it would be easier, since I would know where everything is? Hrm...

Edda is feeling better.

After 3 days on antibiotics, Edda feels much, much better.



Here are a few of the many, many photos of Edda mouthing. She's mouthing up a storm this morning, which means she's back to her perky old self. For a long time after we got the Rett Syndrome diagnosis, everytime the mouthing decreased, I'd get all excited that the mouthing would be ending and she could do the hand clapping or wringing instead, which is much less slobbery than the mouthing, but it always meant that she was on the verge of being sick for days. (You can also observe Jeremy's bad haircut.)

Seeing old friends.

Sheila, Scott and Josh were in town this weekend. We went to the Air and Space Museum.



We posed with sculptures at the National Gallery and ate Bomb Pops.



We hung out at the mall and ate a giant ice cream sandwich and something called a "two-ball screw ball" - italian ice with 2 gum balls at the bottom.



And we saw a stuffed elephant.

Lazy Windowsill Napping

Strep throat.

Yesterday, we told B, our sitter, to sleep in and feel better and Jeremy was going to send the kids off to school. He got both kids on the bus and then he called to let me know that he was headed off to work when he got another call from Edda's school to come pick her up because she was ill.

Turns out she has strep throat. Apparently her tonsils were as big as cherries. The doctor was amazed that she wasn't protesting more about how sore her throat was. She's still been eating like a champ, including acidic foods like oranges, just a little hoarseness when going to sleep. I guess someone has a high pain threshold.

Jeremy, since he's been at a conference all week, hadn't been at the office Monday-Wednesday and yesterday, he had work from home - three teleconferences/meetings while fielding other calls and emails to catch up at work and he took Edda to the doctor. Thank goodness B came to help out in the afternoon.

So today I'm home with the kids. We thought Vince was getting sick too, but I think it's more a sympathy illness, he's fine, it's just that he wanted to be sick too, so he's home as well.

And we are slowly canceling our weekend plans.

The perfect storm.

Things that are happening:

1. I am furiously trying to cram as much work as I can into these next few weeks. I'm skipping lunch, skipping the office chit chat, skipping unnecessary trips to the vending machine and the potty. My hours are defined by my child care so I can't dally at the end of the day just to finish something up. The end of the quarter nears and I am up for a promotion, but I have to do well the next few weeks in order to qualify. The faster I'm promoted, the faster I get to work from home!

2. Jeremy is stressed out (in a good way). I hate that I can't go into anymore detail, but he's busy with important stuff this weekend and things will resolve themselves out in the next few months, but he's a little antsy in the pants.

3. B., our sitter, has a pretty bad stomach bug. She did not sound good when I stepped into the house today.

4. Edda seems to have a hoarse throat.

5. Vince has the sniffles.

6. We have friends coming in from out-of-town this weekend, so we have a full weekend schedule planned.

7. My parents are coming into town again this weekend and they are hosting the DC Martins dinner at our house, so the house has to somehow miraculously clean itself.

We are in such deep doo-doo.

Walking around the neighborhood.

With our neighbors Debbie and Magic.

We are ready for spring.

It is still cold, but someone is ready for spring!

Strange

Happy birthday.

My little boy turned 6 today - my 6th anniversary of being a mom!



Nothing better than some false teeth and Star Wars legos.

Gong-gong and pua-pua are here!

Watch out for the dog poop!

We decided to take the Edda-mobile off-roading.

Good morning!

Well, I guess I have cat on the brain these days. I had a really weird dream about them cats last night. I kept thinking Winston and Toro were romantically involved somehow. There was this big drama, but I forget the details.

Anyhow, I know I'm posting a lot about the cats, but I think Pei-Sun would want to know how they are doing. I think Toro hates me, probably because I skipped her first meal. I didn't the we started off on the right footing there. Whenever she has to walk by me, she slinks to the far corner and runs by me. Hrm... But I supose she doesn't hate me all that much, cause when I woke up today, I wokr up to that: Toro was curled up right on top of me. :)

Oh also, I've moved the feed bag. I don't think I closed the closet door very well, and the cats have gotten into the feed twice now.

Commuting.

Today I stayed at home in the morning, babysitting the pimple on Edda's chin. Our sitter came at noon today and I spent 4 hours commuting in order to put in a 2.5 hour day. I know, Jeremy thought I was crazy too, but I've already paid for the childcare, so what the heck, I've got nothing else to do.

As promised, pictures of the pimple.

Can you see it?



Maybe you need some better light and a band-aid to show you where it is...

Don't know nothin'

The only drawback about my job is that it takes me so far, far away from my kids. If something urgent happened, I'm an hour and a half away. I guess it would be an hour if I could convince a very nice coworker to lend me his car. Jeremy's a little better, he's an hour away from the kids.

Today at 9 am, Edda's school called me an told me that they thought she had impetigo - a la Amy Winehouse - so one of us needed to bolt back home and get Edda to take her to the doctor. It's basically a glorified pimple that's on her chin and it's contagious and the school doesn't want us back tomorrow. I'm a little skeptical that it's anything more than a glorified pimple, now I'm worried that she's going to be home everytime she gets a pimple which may be every other week or so since she's constantly mouthing and slobbery. So since today Jeremy basically spent 2 hours and ten dollars going to work and promptly turning around again, I'm staying home tomorrow morning to put ointment on her pimple which will promptly be wiped off and ingested by the mouthing.

It's been kind of a long week, I'm too beat to load the photos up so you can see the pimple, it'll have to be tomorrow.

Jeremy's media appearance.

No, it's not on Leno. It's here.

Physical therapy.

Damn, that's ugly.

Our durable medical equipment guy delivered Edda's new stroller today. OK, it's not really a stroller - it's the EZ Rider by Convaid, the "Compact Folding Support Wheelchair". I got home before Jeremy and got the low-down from B. about how to fold it up. B. was relieved because she is actually the one who needs it the most as she puts Edda in a jogging stroller to pick up Vince from the bus stop and Edda was like a caterpillar in a cocoon - no wiggle room. It weighs a ton, I'm not sure how this will aid us in traveling light, but we will give it a go in a few weeks when I'm flying to CA by myself with the two kids.

Jeremy came home and saw the stroller in the kitchen and said, "Damn, that's ugly."

Edda's been running a fever.

Edda has been running a fever since Friday night. It's been a classic Edda illness, her only real symptom is a high fever- no runny nose, no coughing/sneezing. Her temp has been hovering around 39.5 to 40 C (we converted to metric while in Singapore, 40 C is 104 F). So she spikes a fever, we give her Motrin and then, an hour later, she's happy as a pig in mud. Six hours later, the fever spikes again and she feels bad. It's fine, the fever responds well to Motrin (which is the best thing anyone has ever invented - note to self, find patent on Motrin) but, she's not sleeping as well and since I've been staying up until midnight for my own selfish reasons, we are a bit bushed.

Quirks of Choon's House..

Well after living in Choon's place for a little while, you come to understand it a little better. Here are my top 3 peeves of the house so far...

1) There's this shelf in the garage that I always bang my head into as I'm trying to get around the car. It's a sharp corner too, and just the perfect height to whack you good, but not notice in in your field of vision.
2) The wireless internet connection sucks. It doesn't work near the TV. I'm thinking a new router might solve the problem.
3) I just figured it out, but I was taking lukewarm showers for a couple days. The knob stops at a lukewarm temp, but then if you twist it a bit harder, it'll go by that stop into a nice warm temp. Ah. I thought I was gong to take cold showers for a month. Yuck.

Cat update (for Pei-Sun) - Winston is definitely the more curious and friendly cat. Perhaps Toro was put off by no food the first night. Winston is curled up on the bed next to me. He was licking my hair. Oh also, Winston has started to attack my clothes. So um.. I can't have that. All my clothes are in the drawer now.

Variety show.

Vince's school hosted a variety show on Friday night. Vince sat in the front row on the ground; I sat in the back row studying for the patent bar exam. It's hilarious what little kids can think to do for a variety show. The supremacy of Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana was clear - 4 acts based on her (their?) music! There were violin minuets, Scarborough Fair on the harp, juggling and magic tricks. My favorite acts came from the boys - there was the Star Wars re-enactment with trombone accompaniment and the jumping rope while on a pogo stick. I always look forward to the bake sale, but the percentage of homemade items was quite low. I was disappointed.

Happy Birthday Ronnie!