z’s bubbles 2

It is amazing how hard it can be to remain cheerful this time year. Aside from all the usual challenges life brings to us, there is the added pressure of holiday preparations, insane amounts of money being spent on presents and and the dwindling of storage space caused by the storing of presents, the tree, etc…

And then there are the “normal” things… the pressure of there not being enough funds to buy all we need much less want, the sometimes shaky relationships with others, the feelings of inadequacy we harbor regarding our daily tasks and the never-ending to-do lists we berate ourselves over.

In the midst of all that, it seems a miracle that (well, except today), Cora has been an incredibly cheerful and easy-going baby and that Liam is happier than he’s been in months.

Speaking of which, Cora just got her first tooth. Well, she doesn’t “have” it yet, but it’s peeking through the gums…

Liam is more vocal than ever, but now mostly makes sense. It’s amazing the things he picks up. Just yesterday, he stood next to Gillian commanding her to sit back down in her chair. Makes one realize how hard a time Gillian has with that

And Gillian is growing by leaps and bounds through school. Though she has developed somewhat of an attitude, it is amazing to see hew progress in reading, writing and speaking.

I’m hopeful though that by Tuesday next week, it’ll all be better

Hmm… there still are a few things to do before the day really can be closed… cleaning up the kitchen would be one… How come that room is always destroyed at the end of the day? Huh?

So I thought I’d start a picture of the day (for the days that I actually take the time and jolt down a thought or two), but then there is the challenge that not every day has pictures… Well, today there are a few cute ones… I’m still tempted to delete the ones of me fixing the bubble gun…

But, here’s a late lunch for Liam and Roo… Both of which were extremely good today. Well, for Ruth that’s a normal thing but Liam has been exceptional the past two days. He definitely was at his best today, trekking from shop to shop to find things to bestow onto his mom. Yes he was an angel.

I briefly looked back at the last three Decembers in LJ… Boy some things seem like they were just yesterday, others seem like they happened in another life… It’s interesting how memories seem to evolve once they are created…

Off to the kitchen I go!

Melancholic? Or romantic (in the classic French literary kind of way)? Either way, true to the tradition of previous years, 2006 appears to be promising three things: the days/weeks leading up to Christmas are more emotionally stressful than most of us would like, the year went by way too fast and will definitely leave us feeling somewhat unaccomplished. Though I will not expound on the last one at the time…

For the past two weeks, Gillian and Liam have been plagued by a cold/pink-eye combination which Liam seems to have a harder time battling. I’m afraid his friend Monkey is a big reason for that (speaking of which, I should whisk him away to the washing machine while he’s entertained by Fisher Price’s ABC game and watching the music video to DHT’s rendition of “Listen to your heart” over and over again. *LOL* I guess there’s no denying it. He really is my son! Surprisingly enough as well, it’s the only song that I found that he’ll actually let me sing along to.

Unfortunately between my own real or imagined personal shortcomings, the daily grind, work, Cora’s spotty sleep patterns and what they call “life”, I’ve been spending far too little quality time with all our little ones, including Ruth (since she is a little one too after all!) save it Cora maybe. But she’s a lot more vocal than the other ones and it’s easier to accommodate her since she can be easily carried anywhere and she’s so cute that one can’t resist the urge to making her smile one more time… Especially now since coos, babbles and giggles. Goodness, they grow up so fast… Way too fast.

And then there is the giving season… Which is not only challenging because I have no idea what to give Ruth; there are so many things and yet so few that seem really “special” enough to warrant wrapping them and hiding them under a tree. It is also challenging because of the financial repercussions. There are 5 of us. With a budget of $100 per child that’s $300. Add to that the $150-$200 for Ruth and I, plus all the little things we’re closer to $1000 than is comfortable. Add to that the other family members: my parents, Ruth’s parents, Ruth’s brothers and it’s starting to look pretty bleak.

Anyway. Liam has been patient long enough and the strong scent emanating from his diaper is the best “I’m done” indicator I’ve ever known…

How is it that I can find so many ways to make my own life completely miserable????

What is it with people standing me up this week?
I’m this close to taking it personal…

Can I go home now?

Some weeks, work and me do not agree. This is one of those weeks. Definately. Like today. Almost the entire day was wasted on writing a script to sort some files depending on their contents. It wasn’t even on my to-do list yesterday! Well, it was when the problem arose, but not before then!

And then there are all the other things that compile on top, one of which is when one works late, it’s hard to do anything else after work. The motivation isn’t there at all. And then there are the people here that I can’t seem to get along with. *sigh* You know it’s bad if they still bother you even when they aren’t here! Or the cell phone that needs to die…

Thankfully though there are always valiant troops around to save the day! Like unexpected lunch buddies involving three cuties (one of which was all smiles, coos and gurgles the whole time!) and my mother. Or like my cube-neighbours who definately can brighten up any day.

But I still wish I had some more violent music to listen to. Especially for the way home. Or maybe it’s good that I don’t for then. But right now, I sure could use some….

Last night we finished Alias after watching all 5 seasons of the course of the last year. How it was? I fell asleep during the finale. Honestly though, the first three seasons were fun. Then seasons 4 went downhill and season 5 was just abysmal. But that’s only my opinion.

On a more humorous note (almost as fun as Ruth teasing me about pushing the piano’s right pedal with only my big toe) family can be an endless bucket of fun. Yes, this happened a few days ago but I still get tickled pink every time I think about it. So my mom came back. And we gave her the van back after her and the red Mazda didn’t get along at all. That night she came over to have a talk about “the car situation”. *lol* And I told her that we were wanting to get rid of the red Mazda when she bought the convertible she’s been talking about for a year. I added that it would be a good time since Ruth’s parents are looking for a car for her younger brother since his is pretty much dead and he’s been driving his mom’s…

Which brings me to the point of the story. So Ruth’s mom calls her and asks if we would be willing to trade the red Mazda to give it to Jared while we take in her wagon until my parents give us the van back. The reason being they are afraid that he is “tearing up’ her car Hmm… let me think about that one…

No!

They want to -give- the car that Ruth’s dad said was too nice for himself to drive to him? Because he is “tearing up” the car that was wrecked by Ruth’s mom herself? The one that has a taped up steering wheel from when the airbag deployed and a in which you’re constantly zig-zagging because the steering rack is severly out of whack?

I’d have to agree with Ruth… someone is in denial about that wagon…

So last night we watched Little Children…

Poor Ruth. I was more vocal in my indignation over the character’s lack of neural activity than I should have been but they really weren’t using those gifts very well.

In the end both of us knew why people weren’t recommending it to their friends and family and were left hoping that Kate would do something that left you with a better feeling at the end. Honestly, when was the last time you thought after watching one of her movies “Man, that was neat. Let’s watch it again!”.

We need to see that mouse movie of hers… That should be better

Yipee, my main inbox is down to 4 items! Two of which are to remind me to do something, the two others will be lenghty writings…

I can’t believe some of this stuff had been sitting in there for the past 10 months.

So sad.

Now that web.de account though *sigh* It needs tobe cleansed and then retired. The spam filter filters out my friends, does not filter out spam and gets more spam than anything else! (about 1 message every 15 minutes).

Ah well. At least the other one is done. Though there are 120 messages in that other infamous inbox… *sigh*