I touched the Berlin Wall

I did. I touched the Berlin Wall. I put my hand on it, actual physical contact. It was cold and powerful and ugly.

My meeting with the wall was coincidental.

The other day I set out to take my daughters to the zoo. We got to the zoo and drove around the parking lot for 40 minutes trying to find a parking spot. It was packed solid! People were creating their own parking spaces and then two cars collided in the parking lot while they were trolling around searching for a space. I drove through the lower lot, the overflow lot, the two lots nearest the zoo but aren't really for the zoo, and the streets were packed too. There was no parking! The zoo was a zoo!

Forget the zoo. We drove across Balboa Park and found a parking lot with spaces and decided to do something near there instead. The nearest museum was the Air and Space Museum. I have very little interest in planes and rockets and stuff like that, so I was encouraging the girls to walk to another one, but they like planes. I was outvoted, so we went in.

There in the Ripley's Believe It or Not section of the museum was a piece of the Berlin Wall.  It was not roped off or anything, in fact it was right along the walking path  between exhibit pieces. It was big too. 

Wow. The Berlin Wall. I remember all of the celebrations on TV when it came down. I laid my hand on it and it was amazing. I told the kids, "Look, it's a piece of the Berlin Wall." I got no response because they were looking at a motorcycle made of bones and a car made of wood. Those were way more exciting than a hunk of ugly concrete with rebar sticking out of it.

I hung our paper doll on it (Flat Stanley) and snapped a picture. The paper doll is pretty good size and he looks small on the wall.

Homeschooling Meltdown

Is there anything worse than doing worksheets at home? According to the resident first grader, No. Nothing on earth could be worse than sitting at the table with a pencil and a worksheet. Nothing!

I've been following the school's guideline to the tee. Worksheets for Language Arts, Math, Handwriting and other subjects. I've been super-nagging and making the kid do them all. Then I've been topping it off with spelling lists.

This is not working.

I've lost track of why we are homeschooling. The child is not a worksheet girl, she's a hands-on girl. She learns best when there is something to manipulate, touch, or experience. She's a tangible learner. (Is that a legit educational term?)

After our parent/teacher conference in February where I expressed my concerns about our weekly worksheet wars, the teacher said "so, don't do them". Really? I love her! She's right! Why didn't I think of that?

I made her do one day of worksheets because I really didn't know what to replace them with. How do I do homeschool without the worksheets? It was a horrible day. Fine, I give! The teacher is right, if she hates worksheets at home then they are not teaching her what she really needs to learn. The lessons will be lost in the madness and she will hone her skills in whining, rebellion and arguing. Yeah, we don't want that.

Besides, I don't like being called "Evil".

I looked over her worksheets carefully. Let's see...  this month's worksheets are covering contractions, plural vs possessive spelling, and in math: measurement and time. We can do these in other ways. We have to!

First rule: Read anything you want anytime you want. 

The monthly project is to write a healthy recipe. So, we need to learn about nutrition and cooking too. I'm lucky enough to have a helpful friend who is wonderful with concocting recipes and has her own child in the kitchen often. These are two things that would make my brain implode, so I enlisted her help.

I gave Gracie an analog watch for her birthday and I am constantly asking her what time it is. This is helping to teach her to tell time. She can look at a digital clock to check and see if she was right. It's working! Not only that, but she is grasping the concepts of how long is a second, minute, hour, etc. I also downloaded a free time telling game to my Nexus and I told her she had to play for ten minutes before playing Angry Birds.

Disneyland turned out to be a wonderful place to learn about time. What time is it now? What time is the next show? How long do we have to wait? What does 20 minutes feel like? 

I put one of my sewing measuring tapes in my purse and had her measure anything she wanted to at the park. She had to measure 5 things before being allowed to go down the big twisty slide. Score! I let her choose to measure in inches or centimeters, in her decision making she would flip the measuring tape over and look at both before deciding. Yay! She's doing it! 

I was reading one of my favorite sewing blogs, Indietutes, and the blogging mom "unschools" her children. This is a new concept to me; basically it is as she describes it, "project-base, interest-led, home learning".

I'm not sure how to unschool on homeschool days, but I think it's totally worth a shot! I want this to work and it's up to me to make it work or find a way to succeed. Success is learning. With that in mind, I'm trying my best to unschool this homeschool thing!

So far, I think we're doing a pretty good job. She asked to go to the Dinosaur museum, so we went! I've taken her to many places but this month on our outings, I've been trying to see what she is learning. She's also been having movie-nights with her dad and learning lots of pop-culture. This fills her with questions and she's learning a lot.

Right now, as I type this, she's watching Spongebob and not learning a darn thing. But, it's Sunday.

I have to figure out how to account for her homeschool days without the worksheets when we turn in her next homeschool folder. I have no idea how to do this, so I'm going to wing it and hope it works out.

My Turn to Experience the Magic

I cannot believe this happened, but it did.  Disneyland showered some of its magic on me for once! No worries, the kids got plenty of magic too. It was nice to get in on some of the good stuff though.

We had a very long day at Disneyland and as usual, I was focused all day long on the kids. Keeping them close, keeping tabs on them, worrying that they'll trip and fall or run into a lamp post or something, making sure I don't run over people with the stroller, constantly taking inventory of the jackets and toys and other tag-along items, monitoring the kids for hunger, thirst, and potty, and taking pictures.  That's how I do it. At the end of the day, I'm always tired! We usually head for the exit around 6 or 7pm at the latest, this gets us home right at bedtime and frankly, that's a long enough day for me.

Last time we went, it was 8:30 when we got to the end of Main Street. I always make a bathroom stop before exiting so that we don't have to use the car potty in the parking structure; I don't think the security staff wants to see me on the security cameras using the potty chair in the parking lot. We stopped at the restroom right at the end of Main Street.

Libby just hates to use public toilets, even at Disneyland. But, I persuaded her to try. At first she tried on toilet and decided it wasn't good enough, so we moved to another stall and tried again. Success! Got everyone through the stalls and hands washed and all, and off we went through the exit.

KaBoom! Fireworks! Really? We were here late enough for fireworks? I was in shock that we stayed so late! This was really when I realized what time it was. It was 8:45pm. We had a great view of the fireworks from the area outside the gates, so we just stopped and watched the fireworks from there. They were amazing!

After a while, I decided we should get on the tram before the mass exodus of the huge crowd in Disneyland are all upon us. I put my hands on the handle of the stroller and realized my purse wasn't hanging on the hook. The ground? Did I set it down? No. In the basket? No. Gracie, did you pick up my purse for me? No. Wait, where did I put it?

Panic.

My purse is GONE!!!

Was I so enchanted by the fireworks that I wouldn't notice if someone took it right from my side or from my stroller? No, I would have noticed. I think. We had a good size personal bubble of space where we were. That could not have happened. Could it? How could that have happened?

In the interest of safety, I keep everything that is super important in my purse and everything else (except the kids) are replaceable. My purse has my keys, phone, camera, cash, credit card and Disneyland passes in it. That's basically all that is in it. If I lose anything else at Disneyland, I can still call for help, get whatever I need with my credit card, preserve the day's memories, and drive home. I never thought about what would happen if I lost my purse!

How could I have lost my purse!!!

My inner voices were all screaming in my head. My heart was pounding. I was panicing on the inside. Trying to hold it together on the outside so that my kids wouldn't freak out.

I thought for a second and remembered that we just used the restrooms. Did I leave it hanging on the stall door hook? I could have. I remember hanging it on a hook. I went in one stall; I went in the stall Gracie used to check to see if she flushed, and I went in two stalls with Libby. Did I get my purse off of the stall door? I don't remember. I know I herded the kids to the sinks and helped Libby wash her hands. I washed mine and then we left. I must have had my purse; I never forget it. Guess it's possible.

Great, I can't get back into Disneyland because my passes are in my purse and I'm outside the gate! And I can't just go home, my keys are in my purse! How did this happen? I was praying that is really what happened anyway.

Thankfully, a security guard walked by and the girls were still watching the fireworks totally unaware of my panic attack. I walked up to the security guard and said, "Excuse me, I have a problem!" And then I told him that my purse is missing and I thought I had it but now I don't and maybe I left it in the ladies room but it contains my keys and my passes so I can't go look and I can't leave and." He very calmly asked me if I had it out here or if I left it in the restroom. I said in the whiniest voice ever, "I don't know!" He said what does it look like? I told him, it's a smallish brown fake-leather backpack and contains keys, wallet, phone and camera. He said to follow him.

He took me to the gate and told the ticket lady to let me and the girls through and another security guard took me from there to one of the trees in a planter. There were a bunch of Disneyland staffers just standing there and the guy nodded to them and they stood aside, there was my purse. Sitting on the planter. I squealed! "That's it!!!  Thank you! But, I wasn't over here, I went from the restroom on the right (we're now on the left side of the entrance) straight out the gates and stopped out there. I wasn't near this planter.  And they were all standing around it like it was a suspicious package and they were waiting for it to explode or something.

They asked me to identify the contents, again, I told them what was inside then without touching it they said I could look inside and one guy held a flashlight so I could see. Yup, everything was there! I checked my wallet, nothing disturbed or missing. I realized at this point that my camera was in the cup holder of my stroller and not in my purse. I used it to take photos of the fireworks. They said it was found in the ladies' room hanging on a stall door. Yes that is where I put it. How could I have walked out without it? They said I could go back in and watch the rest of the fireworks.

I said Thank you a million times and then I started to cry. What a relief! They were consoling and saying everyone loses something, no big deal, was there anything else wrong? No, just so relieved and happy! I put that purse on my shoulder and exited again, this time with my purse.

We  headed for the tram and got there just before the huge crowds came pouring out of Disneyland. I cannot believe I left my purse in the bathroom and then exited the gates. I am so very grateful to whomever found it and turned it in so promptly where it could be retrieved. I am amazed at the security taken to protect my purse while it waited for me to come to my senses. I am so mystified by the Disneyland magic that took over and made a non-event out of something that could have been the highest level of stress and inconvenience and hassle and agony.  All is well and I am glowing from the magic that is Disneyland.

I also feel a lot like Grover at the end of the book "There is a Monster at the end of this book".  I am so embarrassed.

Welcome to the World, Alfred!

My oldest daughter, Katie and her husband Andrew have given us our third grandson.  We now have Charlie, Lexie's son; Henry, Katie & Andrew's first son, and now Alfred.

He was born March 1st at 9:38am.  22.5 inches long, 9 pounds 11.5 oz, 14.5 cm head circumference.

Katie called our house phone at 5:15am. I answered the phone in a groggy haze and had no idea who would be calling at that hour, so I said "Who is this?" in my grumpiest morning foggy voice. I forgot to sleep with my cell phone and I know the house phone is just for telemarketers.

Once I heard Katie's voice, I forgave the phone for ringing and waking me up. She said she was in labor and I should plan to come down to San Diego. Ok, I can do that. I laid back down wondering if I could sleep for another hour, but I couldn't. I tried, but I just tossed around thinking about how to handle the day.

I would have to drop the girls off somewhere and I have people lined up to watch them, but who do I call so early in the morning and leave them with. It's a school day which means someone has to transport Gracie to school and back. I'll need to give someone both carseats in order to get this transportation done right. Keith can't stay home, it's a school day. I juggled carseats around in my mind for a bit and then decided to just get up and get ready while I figure things out.

I showered, dressed, and started packing Gracie's lunchbox before waking the kids and then Andrew called. It was 6am now. He said, "you better hurry". Ack! School doesn't start until 9am and I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with the girls! I was starting to think about dropping them at different places so that one friend wouldn't have to squeeze her own kids and mine in together. I decided to ask Keith to take the day off.

He wanted to, he thought about it, paced back and forth a bit and finally said he just couldn't. Lexie wasn't home either, and her phone is broken so I couldn't get ahold of her.

I decided to just take them with me. Forget taking Gracie to school today, it just wasn't going to work. I have two people in San Diego who offered to watch them so I can call them later and that would work out better than trying to get Gracie to school and back. That sounded like a good plan.

I poured a to-go cup of coffee and grabbed a bag and filled it with clothes for the girls. We woke the girls and tossed them into the car in their pajamas.

I got on the freeway just before 7am. I don't know where that last hour went, but it was gone. Traffic was thick, guess I was on the road with all of the people who commute to work. Good thing I brought the girls so I qualified for the carpool lane! I got to the Birth Center at 8am. I was hoping I made it on time because Andrew said to hurry and I really got the feeling that he meant it.

Henry was playing with a barn and some animals behind the receptionist's desk, happy as can be. I got the girls dressed and they started to play with Henry too. Everyone was happy and Katie was asking for me. She was in a birthing room up the stairs from the waiting room. All I could think was, "she had to climb these stairs while in labor?"

The nurse said "right at the top of the stairs", um ok, there were 4 closed doors at the top of the stairs, and it was silent. Great. I tried calling out to see if anyone would come see who the loon was lost at the top of the stairs, nothing. Nobody. So... I started opening doors and yelling. Hopefully, I wouldn't disturb anyone else, but I was just standing there for such a long time trying to figure out where to go. Finally, a nurse came out of one of the doors and she said Katie was just through that one. Ok, I opened it and no, it looked like a waiting room so I went in there. Finally found her, I had to go through that waiting room and down a little hallway. She was laboring in a warm bath tub and Andrew was fully clothed and in the tub with her.

Katie really wanted to tell me to take Henry and go do something fun with him, he needs to have fun, just take him somewhere fun, ok, go, just go and make sure Henry has fun. Then she waved me out.

The midwife, or nurse, or someone, I couldn't tell who was who, anyway she said it would be soon, very soon. I sure didn't want to leave if she was going to have that baby in the next few minutes.

The kids were having fun in the waiting room, playing in the toy corner and having fun just being together. My job was easy. I decided that I was honoring her wishes without going anywhere, besides, I forgot to grab the other carseat. It's sitting at home in the garage. Now I have three kids and two carseats, not sure if that's such a great idea to be running around San Diego like that. Plus, I had time on the parking meter. We'll just wait it out for a bit and see how it goes. I kind of want to hear from the midwife or doctor about how Katie is doing.

I caught one of them coming out of the stairwell and asked about Katie and was told she's doing great and it will be soon.  Eh, that's not really helpful news, but it's good to hear. 

The kids did great playing in the waiting room, but it was 9am now and Henry was starting to get rowdy, Libby was hungry and Gracie was bored. I told the receptionist that I was going to take them all for a walk around the block and we'd be back shortly, but they need some fresh air. She said there was a park two blocks away. Ideal!

I walked them to the park where they had a great time. I recognized the park, it's on the edge of Balboa Park. Felt nice to get my bearings and know exactly where I was. I get lost so easily!

Luckily, I had Gracie's lunch box packed and had the presence of mind to bring it along. I didn't bring water, so the kids had snacks but nothing to drink. Oops it was 80 degrees and sunny. We were there for about half an hour and Andrew sent me a text. Alfred was born!

We walked back to the Birth Center and after just a few minutes, Andrew came downstairs to get us. Henry jumped up into his arms and then wanted down. "Ewww, wet." We herded the kids up the stairs and through the labyrinth to the corner room where Katie was in a nice bedroom with beautiful sunlight, and she was holding a perfect little baby with lots of black hair.

She looked great! The girl didn't even look like she was in labor a few minutes ago. How does she do that? My daughter is a natural beauty. She said she felt fine and she was very happy to see all of us, especially Henry. He loved meeting his new baby brother and it was such a joy to be there and witness that moment with the four of them were together for the first time.

Gracie was super excited and curious. She wanted to touch him and she was concerned about Katie and asked a bunch of questions. I don't even know what all she asked; I tune out her chatter a lot and I think the moment was just so beautiful that I didn't allow her chatter to interfere. Libby was excited too, but she was just a happy little observer. She didn't get in the way or ask any questions, she just absorbed it all in her own way.

We went back to the waiting room to wait for him to be measured and assessed. Katie wanted food and wanted it NOW. She also wanted chocolate birthday cake. Andrew volunteered to go get it, in fact, he insisted, so off he ran. It took him forever to get back!  He finally came back in dry clothes, with a fruit and cheese tray and a sandwich wrap for Katie and chocolate birthday cake that looked like cookie monster. Very cute. And very very blue!

Thankfully, my friend Audrey had just given me a package of diapers and they were still in the trunk of my car or Henry wouldn't have a nice clean bum. I was very thankful for that fresh diaper supply, as was everyone in the waiting area. Henry suddenly had a bout of diarrhea. 

When Andrew arrived with the food we all went up to see Katie and Alfred again and watch him get measured. The midwife measured his length and said, "Well, that can't be right." and she tried again. He's a big boy: 22.5 inches long!  Everyone guessed he might be a nine-pounder, she put him on the scale and it turns out he was almost ten pounds! At this point she mentioned that they would need to check his blood sugar to make sure his size wasn't a result of gestational diabetes (his sugar level was fine). He's just a big healthy boy. I herded the kids back down the stairs so that Katie could eat without the kids all begging for her food, they were pretty hungry at this point and it was close to noon already. I also didn't want them to see Alfred have his sugar tested and get his Vitamin K shot. No need to traumatize the kids by seeing a newborn get a needle. Who am I kidding, I didn't want to see that needle!

I was about 2 hours past my parking expiration on the meter, whoops, but luckily no parking ticket! Score! I put Henry in Libby's carseat, Libby in Gracie's booster seat and Gracie in the middle without a seat. Illegal for two of them, but it was the best I could do aside from walking in an area I didn't know well. Libby isn't legal in a booster seat until she gains 4 more pounds and Gracie isn't legal to sit on the actual seat of the car until she is 8 years old, she's got another year to go even though she is bigger than all of the 8 year olds in her class at school. I've broken so many laws today, what's a few more?  (Speeding, parking meter ran out, didn't feed the kids very well so far, took small children to a birth center, probably more.)

I took the kids to Costco and fed them pizza and fruit smoothies. Filling, yummy and cheap! Then we walked across the parking lot to Ikea and I checked the girls into the play area. They love the ball pit! Ikea offers an hour of free babysitting and the kids love it. They needed to burn off some energy anyway. Henry fell asleep in the carseat and was still asleep so I strolled through Ikea while he napped in the stroller.

It was 3pm now so I called Katie and told her we're on our way back to the birth center to see her one last time before heading home to Murrieta. She said, "I'm home now" What? Really? That was fast!  I drove to her house instead.

Andrew cut cake for everyone. It was cute and festive, but I just couldn't bring myself to eat that blue frosting. Katie opened presents from her friend and poor Henry had two more yucky diapers.

I grabbed a fresh outfit for Henry and his carseat, and took all three kids home. Andrew said he would come and get Henry tomorrow. I know they need this night alone with Alfred, especially since this would normally be a night in the hospital for Katie.  Henry loves coming to our house anyway.

Poor Henry had one more nasty diaper in the morning and started to run a little fever. Not bad, and he seemed to be eating and playing well and he was in good spirits, but he has a brand new baby brother at home so I called Katie to warn her that he might be hosting a germ. His diapers were fine the rest of the day, maybe he worked it all out of his system. Katie decided to let him stay one more night to keep Alfred safe.

I babysat for a friend so she and her husband could attend a retirement party, and the kids had a fabulous time together! Henry hung out with the kids and wasn't at all acting ill. Whatever he had, it was gone and he had so much fun with all of the kids. We had 6 kids from noon till bedtime.

In the evening, he was still fever free, playing hard, eating great, smiling and no more signs of diarrhea except for the rash it left behind. A bath nearly cured that though. Just when I thought he was all better, the blue frosting worked it's way through. Yuck!

When Henry woke up in the morning, he had a big smile on his face, looked at Keith and I and said "Yes!" Funny boy!

Andrew came around noon and poor little Henry had to go home. He was having so much fun playing with his little aunties and cousin that he didn't want to go home. He covered his eyes with his hands to hide from his daddy. What an attitude! I'm sure that once he got home to his mama and his new baby brother he was happy. I'm so glad the four of them can have this family time together. I know a lot of military families do not get this opportunity so it is extra special.

We're so proud of Katie and Andrew. They have two beautiful boys now, what a wonderful family! Katie had that big baby after only 4 and half hours of labor from start to finish, and delivered without any medications. She is feeling great and doing well. Andrew is taking extra great care of her and the boys too. They are they kind of family you hear about, but are afraid to believe that much happiness could be true. They are living proof that dreams come true. Welcome, little Alfred.