Date: 2009-04-21 12:39 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Exhaustion. Welcome to it. Or should I say welcome back? Last night was horrid, save for a few moments that make you feel like you're actually doing something amazing in your child's life when they give you that look or cling to you to tell you that they "love you da." That's the best. But last night, Alan and I definitely had to work for it. For lack of a better phrase.

Picture the start of a normal evening. We have dinner, we go to the play room and play superheroes for awhile. And for the record, even at home, I get cast as the villain. So I play along and chase the babies---and Alan---around in their blanket capes and try to take the cues from their pointed 'magical' fingers for when I should freeze or get caught up in a spiderweb or whatever fate I have succumbed to under their superhero power. It was fun. Imaginations at work. It makes me proud. And I think we all sort of got caught up in it because it was nearly thirty minutes past bath times before we started pulling off capes and becoming our regular non-superhero selves again.

So with pouting babies, we got the round of baths out of the way, but didn't manage to catch up on any time. So by this time we were forty five minutes past schedule. We could hand this.

Then sometime between brushing teeth and meeting back up in bedrooms, Brennan whacks Patrick in the face with his slipper. And Patrick retaliates by smacking Brennan. So I come running from Mei's bedroom, to find a wailing Brennan and Patrick running off to his room. Mei starts crying for no apparent reason other than sympathy pains for her brother apparently. Alan had punishment duty, while I made sure Brennan really was okay. He kept sputtering "ban nay" which Alan and I have come to learn is Brennan speak for "band aid" and so he got a band aid on what will mostly bruise. And we gave one to Mei in the same place and she stopped crying immediately. We're about an hour and fifteen or twenty minutes behind schedule at this point.

Finally, we get all the babies---ALL of them---into bed and tucked in and we let out a breath of relief as we wandered into our own bedroom.

Not even an hour later, we hear Mei screaming. Nightmare. She's been having a lot lately. So I go down to Mei's room to lay with her [on her tiny toddler bed that is very uncomfortable for adults---even short ones]. Her screaming woke up the twins, so Alan was over there soothing them back to sleep. I think it took some rocking and fresh bottles. Just when Mei was close to sleep, in walks Patrick with his teddy to give to Mei to make her feel better. It was terribly sweet and I think I 'awwed" out loud. He walked over to tuck his sister in and asked if he could read her a story to get her back to sleep. I think he just didn't want to go back to bed because Mei was nearly passed out by that point. But I let him. And Mei was out by page 3.

After Patrick was back into his own room and bed, I met Alan in the hall and we tried to get back to our bedroom to sleep. It seemed to be working until sometime around 1am when Mei came running in, jumped up in our bed and begged to sleep with us because of another nightmare. No problem. We get Mei calmed down and snuggled between us. Then in pads Patrick because he heard Mei. So Patrick jumps in bed. And all the chattering kids [Alan included] wake up the twins. So it was my turn to get the twins back to sleep. By 1:43am, we were all quiet, tucked in and sleeping. At 3:03am, Mei woke up from another nightmare, kicked her brother in the shin---unknowingly---and we had a bed full of kicking screaming kids. But at least Mei forgot about her nightmare. However, it all took too long to calm down. And I don't even know what time it was when we all fell back asleep from that.

Thankfully, that was the last interruption before morning. But let me tell you, 6:30am came quickly. And both Alan and I were pulled out of bed by hungry and somehow energetic children wanting to eat and play and go wake up their sleeping brother. THE ONE MORNING THAT BRENNAN WANTS TO KEEP SLEEPING!

So, here we are at lunch time and I'm praying that the kids will go down easy for a nap afterward, because I think I'm going to need to join them. And when my agent calls me again tonight and asks me why I haven't read the script that's been laying on my bedside table yet, I'm just going to have to tell him that there is not enough time in my day.

Don't get me wrong. I love my family with all my heart, and I wouldn't trade my life for anything in the world. But sometimes I wonder if there can ever really be an actual functioning balance between career and family?

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Date: 2009-02-24 17:08 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

( Private to Al )

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Date: 2009-02-14 19:44 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

( Private to Alan )

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Date: 2009-02-05 20:08 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

There are a lot of things that I should say but I don't know how. The words don't come as easily when they're not scripted.

( Filtered to Alan )

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Date: 2009-01-31 04:01 Subject: spam & anon & whatever else you think important Security: Public

Patrick wants to be a pirate when he grows up.
Mei wants to be a lady bug when she grows up.
Brennan wants to... okay, he doesn't have aspirations past pushing all the cheerios off his high chair and onto the floor currently.
And Alan, well, Alan wants to be a SEXY cowboy.

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Date: 2009-01-30 15:34 Subject: credits~ Security: Public

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