things that make me go hmmmm

on the work front....

• the twins are obsessed with the bathroom. if you close the door to use it, they will freak out and wail at the door until you open it. then they will stand right at the door jam and just watch.
  
• mom and dad must not know how to close a box. every box of anything in this house is wide open, which means that everything inside those boxes is stale. same with bags of chips. nothing tasty about a stale tortilla chip.
• what is the point of having storage containers for the fridge if you just put leftovers on a plate and put a sheet of plastic wrap on it (not even sealing the plate. just on top)?
• as far as i have seen, the twins refuse to eat any sort of meat unless it's in meatball form. and most days they refuse that too. they also aren't fond of milk. could be because mom and dad feed them mac and cheese most nights.
• what good are the millions of bibs you have if you refuse to use them? ruining small children's clothes ends up costing money. and i'm not having them look like orphans.
• will the twins ever grow out of crying at the drop of a hat? i will reprimand them in a very non threatening tone (oh, be careful moon! you don't want to hurt your foot!) that verges on super happy and they will just bawl inconsolably. and when that starts, there is nothing i can do to stop them.
• where the frack are half of the girls' socks? the missing sock box is stuffed full and i have yet to find their matches.
• if you fired the gardeners so that you could tend to your yard yourself, when are you going to actually tend to it?
• do you really think it's ok to use a disgusting dish sponge over and over again?
• i'm really trying to figure out what professor mommy saw in silicon valley daddy to make her fall in love with him, marry him and bear his children. cuz i'm not seeing it. she gripes about how absent minded and irresponsible he is and won't leave him alone with the kids, but she's crazy for him. whatevs.
• what would they do if they didn't have a nanny 5 days a week for 40 hours and a grandma next door that covers the time i'm not here?
  
• why do i even bother asking?
  

this morning's chain of events

text message while getting ready for work from professor mommy: is there gymnastics today?
me: yes.
her: ok, where is her leotard?
me: i thought it was in the drawer. (um, where it's supposed to be)
her: found it.

i get to work and find that pc is still eating breakfast (and in a super full pull up from the night before). moon, who got sick yesterday with a virus that pc had over the weekend, is still looking haggard. even more haggard is chipmunk, who came down with it in the middle of the night. i tell mom that i don't feel comfortable taking the twins with us to gymnastics for fear of spreading the virus, let alone that they should be at home getting better. she agrees and tells me they've been up (and so has she) since 4 am. grandma, who has come over to help, leaves for work. dad had to leave at 6 am to head farther up the state for a meeting this morning.

i go to get clothes for pc so that we can get ready to go to gymnastics. i am under the assumption that since mom is home until she has to leave for a meeting in the afternoon, that she will stay with the sick twins. as i gather up pc's stuff, mom asks me:

mom: so, is she going to gymnastics? what's going on?
me: um, you don't want her to go?
mom: so you want to stay home and you want me to take her?
me: so you don't want anyone to go?
mom: that was my plan. were you thinking otherwise?

she had mentioned something about getting a quick nap in before her meeting, but i assumed that she would do that after i got back with pc from gymnastics.

no. instead, she is going to nap and then go to her meeting and be gone all day. i find it interesting how she HAS to be out of the house on a day like this. it always seems to be the case. yesterday, when i could handle it all myself, she demanded she stay home and work so that she could be there if i needed help. funny, help never came.

i felt very belittled after our conversation. her tone was so snippy that i wanted to give her a piece of my mind, but i just clammed up and went into the other room. i know she's tired, but c'mon. she should be very appreciative of the fact that she has a mother next door who is at her beck and call and a nanny who puts up with constant illness. and wtf would she do if she had neither at her fingertips? she'd have to keep her ass awake and deal with her sick kids. all. day. long.

supposedly, her meeting is at noon and it's now 1128 am. she's still asleep. i'm not going to go and make sure she's up. *shrug*

then yesterday she made jokes about how she would probably get sick after the twins and then i would. i flat out told her that i cannot get sick yet again and be with my family. i was sick at thanksgiving and i am NOT going to be sick for christmas. if i start to feel like crap over the weekend, you can bet i am calling in on monday.

also, on monday i came into work and she was telling me how pc was sick over the weekend. she then tells me that dumb daddy took pc out on the bike in the cold to go to the coffee shop. ok, if your kid is sick, keep them at home. do not spread a virus by taking her to a place where a bunch of people gather.

right now the twins are crashed out for an early nap. at 10 am neither one of them could keep their eyes open, so i put them down with little complaint. yesterday, moon slept for 3 hours in the late morning due to being sick and tired, so we'll see what happens this go around.

wish me luck.

goings on

greetings from the land of nanny snot!

i am on the last bits (knock on wood) of the cold that i got from the girls right before thanksgiving. i think if i blow my nose anymore, it just may fall off. all the girls are still snotty but seem to be feeling 100%.

i did spend my trip to my nephew's baptism feeling like utter poo. i don't think it helped that i was on an airplane 2 out of the 3 days either. nothing like recycled air to bring you down! but, the baptism went off without a hitch and i got to squeeze the little man until he could no longer be squeezed (and at 17.5 lbs at 3 months, there is a LOT to squeeze!).

things have been going well with the organization. the girls all love to help clean up before nap and at the end of my workday. i think moon may be destined to become a professional organizer because that girl gets on task and gets it done! either that or chipmunk is going to be able to bribe her into doing HER chores as well. we shall see!

i have to admit that i did cave and cleaned out their freezer on monday and their pantry on tuesday. i was just tired of opening up either and having things so haphazardly tossed in that they would fall out. in both cases i found food from back in 2005, 3 packages of fish sticks (all opened), 5 packages of chocolate chips (half expired), more meatballs than one could ever need and a load of taco seasoning. let's see how long it takes to all go to pot once again. i'm giving it a month.

pc has been having some potty issues lately. she turns 4 in mid january, but is all of a sudden "forgetting" that she has to pee. she has 1) peed in her carseat on the way home from school with mom 2) peed in the stroller while out for a morning walk with her family 3) peed herself and lied about it to me, going as far as to hide the pants and the underwear and then blatantly lie to my face and tell me that she changed because she was hot and that she put her pajamas away where they belong. #3 happened just yesterday and i was pretty amazed with her technique. i asked her if she had put her jammies away and she said yes. when i asked her if i was to go in her room, would i find them where they belong? and she answered YES! so, i believed her. silly me.

dad, as always, is a lost cause. we've (me and mom) been giving him rules to follow about barging into the house in the middle of the day and how he handles the kids when he comes in. basically, he walks into the house to use the bathroom before heading off again, while on a business phone call. the twins cry as soon as they see him and want to be picked up. he'll either try to carry both while on the phone, or just pick up one and leave the other in the dust. then 5 minutes later, he is out the door again, leaving them in shambles. i am left to pick up the pieces. so, long story short, mom and i gave him rules to follow (if you're coming in, be ready to be dad and not work guy) and he's failing miserably. he messed it up again today. yay.

i haven't done anymore research on school vs. new job yet because of thanksgiving/sick/travel/work/still sick/prepping for xmas. i want to get on task with that soon so that i can be ready for whatever may come my way!

i'm hoping you're all doing well. rebecca, i'm so excited that you got the loan and the apt. sarah, you're new gig sounds great! just remember to communicate as soon as you feel the need and save yourself all the issues i'm dealing with!

take care, everyone!

those faces!

moon in one of my favorite pictures of her currently

chipmunk giving her token look (and yes, that shirt is WAY fitting for her)

all eyes and smiles

moon flashes the baby blues

chipmunk bats the lashes

hanging out and happy

2 sides of pc

modeling the latest fashions

casting spells just like harry

it's official

i have officially decided to start looking for a new gig of some sort. it may end up not being a nanny position and i am ok with that.

i had a revelation yesterday in the middle of yet another day filled with sick twins and a whiny big sister. i was in the minivan and had just driven the twins around for over an hour to get them to sleep. they were so congested and the snot was so thick in their throats/noses that they couldn't breathe when laying down. they were miserable and so was i. i thought about how this more than likely means that i will be getting sick again. and then i thought about how i am going to meet my new nephew this weekend and cannot afford to get sick. this led me to think about all the times in the last year and a half that i have gotten sick because the babies have been sick. and i decided i was tired of paying the price with my health.

so, i sent a text out to all the people i knew that had ties in the bay area. it said "please keep your eye out for any great nanny gigs or some other job that i would rock at. i am officially looking". the most amazing part was that out of the 8 people i sent it to, 5 of them replied immediately with support and/or suggestions. with that, the weight was lifted and i actually felt relief.

what harm will there be in seeing what is out there? i am not obligated to take any job, but i can see what is available. if nothing pans out, then at least i am secure in this job. but, if something comes up that is bigger and better than where i currently am, i can leave. i've given about 3.5 years to this job and the last 1.5 years have been filled with frustration, illness, lack of energy and lack of respect. i love the girls, but i have to love myself more at this point.

wish me luck.

mix and match

am i the only nanny out there that has employers who can't match their children's clothing to save their lives?

i get to work today and both the twins are dressed. pc picks out her own unmatched clothes, so i can't fault her. she's 3.5. but when i see what one of the twins is wearing, it just slays me. moon is wearing a velvet, long sleeved top with green, light blue, yellow and orange stripes and a lion on the back. her pants are a hot pink base with a wild flower pattern on the legs and striped flares at the bottom. i'm assuming daddy dressed her because i know his theory would be "well, they have the same colors in them!"

lucky for me, her pants were wet from the milk she poured into her lap from breakfast (that no one noticed but me). so, i got to change her pants and put on the ones that actually came WITH the top. call me crazy, but i am NOT going to take out 3 children that are all dressed like little mismatched hobos. instantly, people assume that i have no skills when it comes to dressing small people. like i said before, with pc it's ok. she's 3.5 and doesn't know any better. but with 2 small creatures that can't dress themselves yet, well.............

i wish i would have taken a picture before i changed her pants. i think i may have to start making that a feature on this blog. perhaps i'll call it "little miss matched". stay tuned.

small miracles

i convinced mom to get organized.

so far so good! we've organized dressers, we've weeded through toys. we've labled. we've purged. and it's SO nice. we are far from done, but it's such a great start that i need to keep pinching myself to see if it's really happened.

however, silicon valley daddy has come back from his latest business trip and has already managed to screw it up a bit. when it came time to clean up the massive mess he made with pc last night, he just threw the toys into random places, leaving me and mommy to pick up the pieces.

my response.

ok, i thought i'd check email while the girls are all totally engrossed in building with blocks (and not arguing over them! yay!) and i read this email and laughed and nodded my head in agreement with you on almost everything. i feel you. i really do.

let's see if i can go through point by point and let you know my feelings too......

i know when i can't find something i go look in the minivan and then i look in the garage (strollers). i will look in bags in the house and under the bed in pc's room and under the couches. usually they turn up, but on occasion (such as the stuff i've listed) i can't find it anywhere and it drives me batty too! you're right. where could it go?

i asked ____ about the broom a few weeks ago and his answer was "oh it's probably out on the deck". i have looked and i think the squirrels took it because it's NOT there. i'm thinking i may have to go look in his cave at naptime. with the scissors, i've only seen them in one place (the drawer in the kitchen) and then they weren't there. good thing those were finally found. i actually bought a new pair and hid them in the rat closet on the left side up on a shelf. they are still in packaging and figured they could hide out there if we ever needed them. :)

here's what i've noticed about things moving location and what i've tried to do about it. the kids play with play kitchen stuff and bring it into the front room. at cleanup time, it gets tossed in the baskets rather than back in the kitchen play area where it's 'home' is. i've gone through the house trying to find all the missing pieces to something one time and found pieces in every single basket in the house, as well as stuck in alyse's bags/purses and in her bed. i've tried to ogranize things into various bins in the past but you've told me that you just want to have places to toss stuff in and that you're not good at organizing the stuff (paraphrased, of course...).

in regards to the fridge, i have tried various things with the girls and most stuff they will NOT eat for me. i've tried the ham and the turkey and some of the other things you've mentioned at lunch time, like the meatballs and they just won't eat it. i end up sticking with things that i know they like just to get some food in them. so i'm sorry that stuff ends up going to waste, but i'm trying on that end. of course, it seems their tastes vary from week to week so it's always an adventure.

i'd love to help you organize stuff. i feel i work much better if things are organized. i've tried in the past to get stuff organized here, but then it ends up only lasting a few days. for example, i went through the kids drawers in the kitchen and organized all the cups, lids, straws, bowls, etc. the twins had one drawer and pc had the other. 2 days later they were totally destroyed and i couldn't find any of the pieces for pc's camelbak sippie. i've tried organizing baskets, but after a day that's shot because stuff gets randomly tossed into other baskets. alyse and i have organized her room and after a few days it was back to being chaotic again. i've tried to get the girls dresser drawers organized so that outfits are in one pile, shirts in another, pants in another. but when someone else puts laundry in or goes to find clothes for the twins, it gets disorganized.

so, here are my ideas:

• things need homes. shoes go on the shelves. blocks go in the block box. dolls go in the cradle. bibs go in the basket on the new table/shelf thing, etc.
• we need to keep a running list of what we are in/out of stock on. that way you aren't buying too much of something and not enough of another.
• things need to get brought in from cars by the end of the day.
• if we find toys are missing pieces and/or are broken, they are gone (either donated or tossed). we definitely don't need more toys.
• i'll start a cleanup with the girls a half hour before i go home everyday. we'll also get cleanups before naps.
  
• do laundry for the girls on certain days. that way the washer/dryer will be available and i can get stuff put away by the end of the day.
• get the girls involved in all of it. pc feels better when she helps out and knows where her stuff is and the babies like to 'help'.
  
• work together to establish basic house rules of where things go and what we do with them. formulate some routines that get the girls involved.
• make sure that leftovers/food are properly sealed and put away in the fridge/freezer to extend their shelf life.
  

those are just some ideas i shot out there. i know that it will basically come down to you and me instilling them in the house and i am ok with that. i have no problem with reminding ___ when he doesn't abide. :)

if you want, i will gladly get started on things. i'd like to start with pc's room since a lot of random things end up in there with her squirreling habits.:) and then i'll move on from there.

you don't need an organizer since you've got me! we may be able to weed out toys that aren't played with, clothes that don't fit, broken toys, toys with missing parts, etc. we'll find homes for everything and work on keeping it that way. i know that if you and i are on the same page it will work.

so, let's do this. thanks for letting me know how you feel about it all too. i know i've been wanting to get stuff organized since the twins were born to help everything run a little bit more smoothly, but honestly thought i may be the only one enforcing it so i stopped trying so hard.


email me back or we'll talk later when you get home. in either case, i'm on board with you.

correspondence

so, the other day i emailed mom and grandma because pc was missing all her shoes. there were 2 single shoes from various pairs on the shelf and i couldn't find the mates or any other shoes anywhere. she's also been missing a couple of jackets and the broom has vanished from the house. there are also about 10 pairs of socks that have missing mates.

this is the response i got from mom today....enjoy! the _____ is referring to daddy. my response will be in the next post.


Hi --

-- Converse shoe was sadly lost on Sunday when it fell out of the stroller on the way home (was taken off at playground due to sand), and could not be found even by my friend who was with us and went back to search the way we had walked again after wwe couldn't find it. Those were such great shoes, I've ordered another pair in the next size up, since those were just starting to get snug.
-- Nikes located, along with pink and purple crocs
-- Have not seen the gap shoe or flip flops, but I hate the flip flops because she trips in them if she tries to walk any distance and insists on wearing them to the playground where they are NOT safe
-- Have not seen sweaters
-- Have not seen broom

I mean, where could that broom have gone? Or the scissors (which ___ produced from the garage when I complained that all the scissors were gone)? I know I didn't take them anywhere, but I have no idea who/where/how these objects were moved.

This stuff drives me ****nuts****. I feel like nothing is ever where I last put it. Sometimes I'll even see something in the morning (e.g., ____'s toothbrush yesterday morning), but when I look for it at night, it's no longer anywhere to be found. Or I'll put a toy in a particular place and then the next day, the toy is somewhere else and I can't even find the container it goes in. Or the container now has something else in it. I'm not sure why this is such a problem. Do the kids move things (yes, sometimes)? Do the cleaner's move things? (yes, sometimes)? Do things get left in cars and strollers (yes, sometimes -- just last week, I was going batty looking for the twins striped hoodies and then found you had left them in the minivan -- and of course, I often leave things there, too, sometimes since there isn't always a free hand to carry everything)? Do things get dropped in the park (yes, sometimes)? Is it the problem that there are at least four adults regularly in the house (me, you, _____, my mom) who may put things back in different places, each thinking that the place they put things is the "spot" for a particular thing and not realizing that someone else thinks somewhere else is the "spot" for that thing (yes, probably)? Like, my mom and I put the twins' plastic plates with the big people plates on the shelf, while you and _____ typically seem to put them in the sippy cup drawers. I don't think either place is the "right" place for those plates in some abstract Platonic sense of the right and the good, but they keep getting moved because each of us thinks there's a natural spot but we don't all agree on what that natural spot is and we have no system for communicating the organization! (Okay, I think you, me and my mom may each think we're putting things back in their "spot", albeit in different spots, while it's possible that ____ doesn't have a system he's trying to follow.)

I've thought of getting a label maker and sticking labels all over the house indicating where things "go", but I'm not sure it would help. A professional organizer? Do we need less stuff? More room to put it? I mean, I never had five pairs of shoes as a kid -- I had two at any one time (sneakers and dress shoes) and I never lost them. The refrigerator is a nightmare, too -- everyone puts things like leftovers in, but then isn't quite sure who put something in and therefore doesn't throw it out. I keep trying to institute sticker systems so we know when to throw things out, but no one else understands or follows the sticker systems, or PC randomly stickers everything when I'm not looking. I buy so much food that never gets eaten. I just threw away perfectly good turkey and ham that was overlooked, and there are all kinds of vegetables for the girls -- a squash, sweet potatoes -- that are about to go bad, because you don't see them to cook for lunch. I feel like I organize the fridge every other week and it deteriorates within days. Not to mention the sippy cups and the difficulty in reassembling them once a straw assembly is separated from its cup. And the freezer, which is loaded with kid lunch food that never gets served -- chicken nuggets, three types of meatballs, trader joe's risotto and gnocchi that the kids like -- because it's too hard to get it out.

I'm not, by the way, blaming you for any of this -- I just can't figure out how to get control of it. Hire an organizer? Have a labelling day where we all agree where things go together? Get rid of excess stuff?

AAAARRGH. Sorry to go on so long, but you have hit on one of the MAJOR aggravations of my daily life. It drives me bananas.

venty vent vent........you've been warned

silicon valley daddy is getting on my last nerve. it is all i can do to even stand talking to him anymore. i would rather sock him in the neck. i don't know if i'm having another sinus headache or a stupid headache from him.

today:

• he is doing some work on his computer and phone at the dining room table. when he gets on the phone, everything around him ceases to exist. and he paces. all over the house. so, 8:30 this morning he is talking and pacing and ignoring everything around him.
  
• mom brings pc in to the room i am in with the babies and tells us that daddy is on the phone and she doesn't trust him, so she brought pc in so that she'd be watched.
  
• i close the door to the dining room and keep the kids in pc's room in the hopes that daddy will be done and heading to work in a few minutes.
• 20 minutes later, daddy comes barging out the dining room door, swings it open without looking to see if a baby is nearby, heads into the bathroom and shuts that door. when he comes back out, he throws open the dining room door that i had just closed and doesn't bother to close it. all the while he is talking on his phone.
• 10 am? still working. he's on the phone, has his stuff all over the dining room table, is pacing.
• 11 am. still at it. meanwhile, we are now sequestered in the front room where the door actually closes and latches so i know that the kids can't get out and i get a little warning of him coming in.
• finally at 11:30, i take all 3 kids into the dining room because it is lunch time. he is still on the phone and as soon as we come in, he leaves the room.
  
• halfway into lunch, pc starts the whine and moan about how she didn't get to play with daddy at all that morning and wants to play with him right then and there. i tell her she has to finish her lunch to which she starts crying. right after saying he's running late and needs to get into the office, he changes his mind and decides he's going to take her for a walk after she eats.
• i tell him it's ok as long as she is home by 1 for a nap. at 11:50 am he says he is going out to the back office to print out something and will be back in in 10 minutes and for pc to pee and get shoes on so they can go.
• 30 minutes later he still isn't back in the house. pc has been dressed and ready for him and has been sitting by the door waiting. i have her go out to ask when he'll be ready.
  
• the next thing i know, they are gone. i can't find them anywhere. not only does he not tell me they are leaving, but i find her jacket laying on the floor by the back door. she's got a cold and a cough and it's cold outside.
• 12:30 i hear the door open and shut. i go to see what's going on and he is strapping her into his seat on the bike with no jacket. i ask why she isn't wearing it and his response is "the weather isn't too bad" to which i reply "but she is sick". he says "well give me it and we'll bring it if she wants to wear it. " whatever, fucker.
• she comes home at 1:10 (so much for being home on time) and has scrapes on both her elbows. she tells me that daddy made that happen and he says something about it is from the slide. in either case, i clean them up and bandage them and he then decides to make her a pb and j sandwich. it's now 1:20.
• finally at 1:30 i get her into bed. she's a big sobbing mess because she doesn't want to leave daddy and wants mommy home RIGHT now.
  
• if he had just let me do my job, she'd be zonked out by now and there would have been no tears or injuries.
  

i'd just like to say THANK GOD for hulu online. i let the girls watch a couple of episodes of the electric company and harold and the purple crayon. it kept them happy and quiet for a good amount of time. this will be my new go to when nothing else works. they said i can't watch tv, but they didn't say anything about stuff on the computer!