LaLaGirl - Twinfinite Chaos! Parenting Multiples and Dealing with Autism
LaLaGirl - Parenting 2 Sets of Twins and a Child with Autism
I finally finished painting the walls in the kids’ bathroom yesterday, and finished one of the Yo Gabba Gabba characters, too. I think he came out cute! I think Brobee’s going to be below him, catching the toothpaste on his toothbrush. The kids are pleased!
I’m doing these MUCH, much smaller than the ones I did at the old house. This is like…12 to 18 inches high, maybe. Maybe not even that big. The scale will be more evident when I finish, and you can see the sink next to it. Fun!
I keep thinking I need to write a series of blog posts about all the ways my life has improved since we moved across town. Maybe we’ll make this the first post in that series. Here’s my first topic: Tokyo Joes! Where have you BEEN all my life?
I remember eating at Tokyo Joes with my favorite Julie way back in the summer of 2002 when she lived downtown, in Capital Hill. We walked there from her apartment at 11th and Sherman and at that time, I didn’t even like sushi – but I dove into a chicken teriyaki bowl and some edamame like I’d never seen food before. Everything was just so GOOD and so FRESH! And for YEARS now, literally years and years, I keep thinking, “Mmmm, I should find a Tokyo Joes!” I would drive past one going to my twin club meetings way up north and feel greatly annoyed that there wasn’t one remotely close to my house.
Fast forward to last December. The day we closed on this house, Paul and I were sitting in the office of the closing company about five floors up, and Paul said, “Hey, look, there’s a Tokyo Joes down there on Havana! We should go there for lunch.” But noooooo! Our closing ran long, and I had to go pick up the kids from school. Once again, teased with the idea of cheap, delicious sushi, only to have it snatched away from me.
And then we moved in! And did you know, I have not one, but TWO Tokyo Joes restaurants near my house? The girls and I are practically regulars at the Cornerstar location, at Parker and Arapahoe. And I met my girl Arin and her boys at the Southlands location a few weeks ago. I even got a nice sunburn having lunch out on the patio. My kids go to year round school, you know, and they’ve been home with me for about 3 weeks, during which time we haven’t eaten out anywhere that doesn’t have a play area. So, I’m really looking forward to hitting up Tokyo Joes this week! The little girls and I will be grubbing on some noodle bowls and California rolls very soon, I promise you. It’s sort of like our little thing, you see. Poor Pablo and Mallory don’t even know what Tokyo Joes IS! Just as well; they’re the picky eaters, unlike their baby sisters, who like to dip their fingers in the wasabi.
As long as I’m writing a freakin’ novel about Tokyo Joes, I might as well continue on, and share a few Tokyo Joes facts with you. Did you know:
So there you have it. I’ve professed my love for Tokyo Joes – I want to marry them! I LOVE having them in my neighborhood. Yay for sushi!
I’m not sure whether I’ve mentioned that the former owner of this house spent thousands of dollars and probably hundreds of hours on what was once a gorgeous backyard pond. I keep saying we should drain it, fill it up with pea gravel, and let the kids drive their Tonka trucks around and dig with shovels. Screw ecosystems! I don’t want my kids to fall in and drown. But part of me loves the idea of having a beautiful water feature in the yard. I used to have a small pond in my backyard at K’s dad’s house, and I adored it. This is three times bigger, and ten times nicer than the pond I once had. It seems like a shame to just seal it all up.
According to the neighbors, the pond was an explosion of color in the summertime, with the surface completely covered in lily blooms. One guy said he used to sit on our deck, having a beer with Former Homeowner Guy, watching the huge koi fish swimming around. The pond had two waterfalls, multiple lights under water, plus lots of professional landscaping all around it. It’s even got a few boulders in place I can’t imagine were placed there by anything but a backhoe. It was BAD ASS.
Fast forward a few months, and now it SMELLS like ass. It was completely frozen over when we moved in, but the 3 or 4 days last week of 60 degree temps has thawed that sucker right out. Saturday, Paul and I decided to muck it out a little bit and figure out what we should do with it next. We started attacking it with a couple of rakes, just trying to snag some of the debris. We pulled out half a dozen tree branches, three large dead fish, and a HUGE pile of fallen, decaying leaves. It smelled SICK. It was probably the worst thing I’ve ever smelled in my life. Every time we’d stir up the bottom, the stench would rise up and grab our attention like a slap in the face. And with every pass I made with the rake, I seriously expected to snag a human jawbone or something. I could not imagine an odor like that coming from anything but a dead body. But, no. The only dead bodies were those of the unlucky fish.
Paul got one of the waterfalls going again – the other one is missing its pump, which I guess the Former Homeowner Guy took with him. And our neighbor gave us a big bottle of algicide which we dumped in the water. Hopefully after the waterfall runs for a couple of days, some of the horrid stench will subside. Paul and I also raked lots of leaves out of the flowerbeds and cut back lots of vegetation, but we still have a long way to go. It already looks a lot better! I’m really excited about spring and summer – it’s obvious that the previous owners enjoyed having a gorgeous yard, and we’re going to reap the benefits of all their hard work. There are so many shrubs, ornamental grasses, trees, and flowers everywhere, I can’t wait to see how it looks when it’s not all brown and DEAD!
I took this picture from the deck – it shows Pauly hosing off one of the waterfalls.
NOW what? I’m still not 100% comfortable with the idea of having a body of water a few feet from my back door with small children around, but…maybe they’re old enough now? Maybe we can slowly add river rock to it until it’s like, a foot deep. Huh? Maybe? Any ideas?
Update…we kept the pond…and look how pretty it looks in the summertime! The kids haven’t fallen in, but they have dunked their feet in the water quite a bit. We threw about 50 twelve-cent feeder goldfish into the water a month or so after I wrote this post. A little over a year later, we have about 35 really large goldfish swimmin’ around in there.
Moving is a drag, kind of. I appreciate the fresh start, and really, what better time for that whole clean slate thing than at the first of the new year? It’s just that the GETTING THERE takes so damned long! We’ve been in our house for two weeks now, and we still have a ridiculous amount of unpacking and setting up to do.
However, we’ve all but finished up business at the old house, which concluded with a huge estate sale yesterday. Paul collected all the furniture and toys and housewares and stuff we couldn’t bring here for whatever reason and we blasted the hell out of Craigslist all week long to really get the word out. I stayed home with sick kiddos while Paul and his brother ran the sale. Our garage, basement, living room, and family room were FULL of stuff! And it was a huge success. Had I been running it, it would have been a huge clusterfuck. Paul and his brother are such hustlers, though, especially when they work as a team, that they had no trouble selling off almost everything. Today, we went back and boxed up what remained so Goodwill can come pick it up.
Back home, the kids tore through boxes of toys in their yet-to-be-unpacked-or-organized playroom. While they made a mess of that, I set up my china and antiques in the dining room, assembled and set up our living room lamps, moved about ten thousand empty boxes to the curb for trash day, and tried to get a few loads of laundry done in between. I need to mention something about the TOYS, while I’m thinking about it. I may have mentioned here that in the months prior to our move, I cleared out a LOT of the kids’ toys. My sister and I spent an entire night going through old stuff, boxing things up to get rid of, organizing the toys they actually play with, and getting their playthings down to a manageable total. All of that has apparently been in vain, though. On moving day, I kept seeing box after box after box after fucking BOX marked “toys” entering our house. Apparently, for a couple of YEARS I would box up old toys the kids were done with, and Paul just stowed them away in the basement! Here I thought he’d been getting RID of the toys I wanted gone, but he was just storing them for some absolutely unknown reason. So we have several boxes of BABY TOYS I now need to get rid of, but in the mean time, they’re strewn throughout the playroom and basement here at the new house. Also, he had several LARGE boxes of toys from his oldest little brother (he’s around 20 now) that he’d been saving for our kids. Some really cool stuff, and some total freakin’ JUNK, too, which I’m going to toss as soon as his back is turned. It’s just daunting, really. I thought the toy part of the move was going to go so smoothly, and it’s now this huge new issue to deal with. Tomorrow, I’m planning to seriously dive into it and see what I can get done.
And, have I mentioned that I haven’t been away from my children for more than an hour since New Year’s Eve? And even then, I was only away from them for about…an hour? And the only alone time I’ve had since before we moved has involved really speedy trips to the grocery store? My hair is ridiculously grown out. I had acrylic nails for a minute (really, I have no idea why, they’re so not me) but I gave up on them when they grew halfway out, and I’ve been snapping them off one by one over the past few days. I haven’t had my brows done since before Thanksgiving. I haven’t had a pedicure since SUMMER. My kids have been out of school for what feels like YEARS! This has been their longest “off track” break so far. They’ve been out since December 19th, and they go back on January 27th (for 12 weeks, I believe, which will be their longest “track on” since school started.) I’m going a little stir crazy up in here.
But! I’m actually LEAVING TOWN in a few days. Paul and I are taking a super duper quick fast trip to California to pick up a vehicle we bought from his aunt. I’m sure I mentioned that the transmission died in Paul’s van right after Halloween, right? He’s been borrowing his dad’s spare vehicle since then, but we’ve been kind of shopping around for something between gall bladder surgery and buying a house and moving and all that. This deal came at us at the right time. Paul’s aunt wanted to downsize to a smaller vehicle since HER twins have up and left for college, so she’s giving us a stellar deal. We’re flying out this weekend to pick it up and quick-quick-quick driving back home before my sister has to go back to school on Tuesday. So, new year, new house, new car. Paul’s taking MY van, since it gets good gas mileage and he does lots of driving. And I’ll be making my many Costco/elementary school/Super Target trips in a big ol’ Chevy Tahoe! Whee!
Honestly, I’m more excited about spending a couple of days without the kids than anything else. Isn’t that awful of me? I’m just so burned out being the mommy in these times of chaos and madness and disarray! Maybe this time I’ll be able to meet up with Julie for a minute when we stop in Vegas! Nighty night.
I’m so tired. Dude. I can’t even put into words how exhausted I am! Between having the kids all home and living in this mass chaos, I am worn OUT.
But! We’re here! Lots of our friends showed up bright and early one week ago, just two days after Christmas, and ended up moving FOUR huge truckloads of our stuff. It’s not all set up yet, but we’re getting there. On Sunday, our fridge arrived early, which I was thrilled about. The kids and I immediately made a huge trip to Wal-Mart to fill it up. (Funny aside: Kayley noticed and pointed out that the Wal-Mart by our new house has far fewer cameras spread much further apart than the Wal-Mart in our old ‘hood. I was not surprised by this.)
Paul and Mike worked like dogs putting in a 2nd water heater, as the existing 45-gallon water heater was way undersized for a 5-bathroom house. Besides doing all that, they ran a gas line to the kitchen so I could have a gas stove, which I’ve always wanted! They finished it up at about 11 p.m. Tuesday night, and Paul repaired the kitchen floor about 5 minutes before the delivery guys arrived with the stove on Wednesday morning. It’s gorgeous! 
Paul’s installed our new microwave over the stove since this picture was taken, so it looks even nicer. All we’re waiting for now is the new dishwasher, which should arrive on Monday.
Unfortunately, we still have a ton of stuff left in our old house. It’s all (for the most part) been moved to the front formal living room, so we can have a big Craigslist sale and get rid of it all. Mostly baby furniture and toys and a few housewares we just had to part out. This house has much less storage than the old house, since the basement is completely finished, so we don’t have anywhere to PUT anything. And honestly – Paul is such a ridiculous packrat, it’s just what we need!! His friends were teasing him on move day that he needed an intervention. As we sat around taking a pizza break, someone said, “Paul, we’re all here today because we care about you.” Someone else said, “Let me read my letter first!” and someone else said, “Now, there’s a roll-off dumpster coming, and all you need to do is admit that you need help!” Ha! It was a funny moment – straight out of that intervention show. Obviously, we’ve all watched too much reality TV!
My kids are enjoying the new house. We have a small park right next to us – the entrance is on the other side of our next-door-neighbor’s driveway. We’ve been over there once. And yesterday, the weather was gorgeous, so we checked out a bigger park just a few streets away. It was really nice! Great equipment, lots of room to run, and a beautiful view of the mountains. I’m loving this area. The kids are really driving me up the wall, though. Their room/playroom/toys are just barely unpacked, and it’s total chaos right now. They’re bored to death. And did I mention they’re moving schools? They go to year round school, and with the switch of schools, they switched to a different “track” that doesn’t go back until JANUARY 27TH. Ack!! It’s good in that it gives them lots of time to get used to the house before school starts, but it SUCKS FOR ME! I’m having a hard time unpacking with everyone underfoot, whining and fighting. Lord, send better weather, PLEASE. The 65 degree temps yesterday rocked; The 27 degree temps today aren’t so wonderful. I don’t care if it is January!
Kayley’s LOVING her room, but she’s loving her own bathroom even more. She has it all unpacked and decorated pretty, while her room still looks like a pit. Silly girl. I’m going to lean on her to get it done this weekend before school starts Monday.
Anyway – that’s it from here. I’d post more pics, but I can’t find my camera cord. Soon!
The kids were playing in “the elevator” of the new house today. I quickly grabbed my new LG Dare fancypants phone and snapped their picture. We’re moving in next weekend and I’m sure that TV hole won’t be vacant for long (even though our TV won’t fit in it. I’m sure something will go there!)
Our closing went pretty okay. We’re heading out tomorrow to hopefully buy appliances for our new kitchen. Paul and I, along with my sister, have been packing FOOLS all weekend. I’m so crazy tired, I can hardly stand it. Today, we just went over to the new place to show it to Paul’s folks and his brother. Then we came home and chilled. I’m just beat.
