Congratulations! You Survived a Day at Disney!

8 04 2024
Last Photo of the Night

There is a huge sense of accomplishment and comraderie when you inch through the crowds alongside other parents that have just survived a full day at Disneyworld.  


You are from different places (most likely had to travel, possibly on a different timezone), have various sizes of families, have different backgrounds, jobs, parenting styles, etc…..but walking alongside these other moms and dads at 930pm knowing that you all woke up early, battled the heat, hangry kids, line ups, meltdowns, way too much sugar and the inevitable sugar crash, overtiredness and overstimulation, being a packmule for bags and kids…. all you can do is make eye contact and say ‘Congratulations!  We survived a day at Disney!  Now who’s waking up early and doing it all over again tomorrow lol’.


Boarding the ferry from Disneyworld with the lights of mainstreet and the Castle twinkling behind us, I was very aware of how sticky and sweaty I felt, my feet felt every one of the 22,000 steps they carried me on and my back was definitely not happy at the 22lbs of wiggling one year old that it had to bear the weight of when my boy just needed his mama.  But I could also tangibly feel the excitement and the energy we all had when we took that ferry across to the Magic Kingdom over 12 hours prior. 

Ferryride to The Magic Kingdom!

And that made me smile and honestly made all the rest of it worth it.  Yes the kids were tired, yes we were tired, but we made some amazing memories today.  And I am so impressed with these kids pushing through to the very end of the day.  And I also made sure to say ‘I love you’ to Nathan, and most definitely gave myself a pat on the back. 


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Categories : Florida

I’m a Mom

14 05 2021

2021 marks my 5th Mother’s Day and I have to say it felt more….not more important…but… more impactful. It felt like I finally understood the value of motherhood as an experience – the selflessness that it entails – but also the value of the experiences that my mom has given me. Being a Mother. Having a Mother. It’s important. It shapes who we become and who we want to be for our own children. It shapes the kind of experiences I choose to create for my daughters. It’s not the easy choice, but I choose to bake homemade cookies late at night after the girls have gone to bed, so that they can bring homemade cookies to share with their class for Valentine’s Day. I choose to spend their nap time figuring out how to draw a giant cornucopia so that when they wake up they have a giant coloring picture taped to the window at Thanksgiving. I choose to use my hand as a child headrest on the airplane for much longer than is comfortable, so that Lucy’s head is supported and doesn’t bob around as she sleeps (and I also have chosen to buy a travel neck pillow for the flight home!)

On the flight to Hawaii (our 1st night flight), I sat in between the girls as they slept for almost 4 hours. Before you wind up for that high five….it took a lot of rearranging of limbs on my part, and so, I clocked about 30 minutes of sleep around 1am. I divided my time between keeping Brooklyn from stretching her legs out into the middle of the aisle and trying to rearrange a ‘too long to fit comfortably in the seat’ Lucy who is a classic ‘Head Bobber’. But as I sat in the dark, with my daughters’ heads in my lap, I thought to myself, THIS is what it is all about. This is where the love and the selflessness shines through.

On Mother’s Day, I came across an old blog post that I had written up on my phone, that I never got around to post. It was from when the girls were just over a year old and even though it was more than 3 years ago – it still resonates with me, and it felt very relevant to how reflective I was feeling that day. And so I share it now:

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You spend so much time building up to the 1 year mark. It is an incredibly emotional time and you think that time should stop at the One Year mark and let you take it all in and adjust to having 1 year olds. But time marches on and just like that, they’re 13 months old!

It took me a while to adjust to having babies, it didn’t sink in to me that I was a Mother until I said it out loud…’I have 2 daughters!’ (and that was a couple of months in). And now, my mind is grappling with the idea that I no longer have babies, but toddlers.

In the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People it talks about how adjusting your title adjusts your perspective on the world, the way you interact with others and your actions. I don’t think there is a bigger title adjustment than ‘Mom’ that adjusts your every thought and action more – at least it hasn’t for me.

I feel like I hit a Motherhood milestone very recently. The first time one of my girls was feeling like crap (turned out she had Hand Foot and Mouth 😦 We were out of town and all of a sudden at 10pm, Brooklyn was crying in her crib and could not be consoled. For babies that were sleeping through the night and able to soothe themselves at 5.5 months old…this was unexpected at the 12 month mark.

Between not feeling well and a strange environment, the result was Mom getting maybe 1.5 hours of sleep and spending the majority of the night soothing a sad baby. In the past (and even in the present), if something prevented me from getting sleep (my husband, my cat, my own insomnia, etc), I would be so angry in the morning. Frustrated, definitely bitchy, and wanting to take it out on others.

But, after my 1.5 hours of sleep and a night of baby snuggles, I emerged with so much energy, and a mindset of ‘we will just make the best of the day’…. and also, that it would be a caffeine day.

There was no frustration or anger, it was a feeling of acceptance and understanding, that I was there for my baby when she needed me, and I was happy to be there for her.

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Now, don’t think that this is all about motherhood bliss, because, man oh man, do I get frustrated, and tired and stressed. But I am trying to feel more of the bliss than the frustration, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. But I am definitely trying to make it MY choice instead of being swept up into the vortex of Motherhood.


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Categories : California, Canada, Hawaii, Oahu, Seattle, Vancouver, Washington, West Seattle

How Many 1st’s Can you Pack into a Year?

23 02 2019

Firsts are exciting, scary, frustrating and memorable.

Honestly, I became a little bit obsessed about ‘tracking things’ when the girls were born.  I was tracking everything.  Their sleep, their feeding, their pees/poops.  And then I was tracking my own sleep and my own moods.  And then I was tracking their milestones (smiling, laughing, rolling, WALKING), holidays, new foods that they were eating, and new experiences they were having.

There are A LOT of firsts that happen during that first year and a half.  A lot of living and a lot of becoming something other than a squishy pile of baby.

One of our most notable firsts was our 1st Road Trip.

It’s laughable when I think about how much we managed to pack into our car when we took the girls on their first road trip to Vancouver BC.  Nathan and I had done this drive many many times and we had usually packed the night before or even the morning that we were leaving.  I think I spent 2 weeks making lists and practice packing before we departed on our 3 Hour road trip to take a 3 Day Trip.  And even after we had packed up everything on the list, we added the Baby Bjorn Bouncer Seats, the Rock ‘n Plays and the extra pack ‘n play….just in case.

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It looks like the babies won’t fit in the car!

Brooklyn and Lucy were just over 5 months old and it was time to take them to Vancouver, BC to introduce them to some of the extended family.  We had attended previous cousin’s 100 day celebrations with the traditional Chinese Feast, so I figured this was something we should do as well, and to be honest, I had never hosted a 12 course Chinese meal before and was kind of excited about it.  Luckily, the restaurant is so used to this type of thing, a 12 course lunch meal on a Saturday for 40 people was nothing they couldn’t handle.  I on the other hand, felt like I was planning a wedding – complete with seating charts (and the drama that comes with seating charts), table numbers, guest favors, a guest book, special outfits, etc etc etc.  All while still trying to figure out nursing, nap times, and what it means to travel with twins.

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But look at these cuties!

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They were champs.  I was the stress case.  And if it wasn’t for my sister making a plate for me at every course, I probably wouldn’t have eaten anything.

But, although I don’t really remember eating anything, I will carry these memories with me forever:

The fact that everyone spent so long taking pictures with the twins and holding them that the restaurant told me we had to start lunch or we would run out of time before their next party 🙂

Cousins meeting their new baby cousins.

My dad, holding Lucy while chowing down on the feast with his chopsticks.  Actually, I don’t think I remember any moment of the day that my dad wasn’t holding Lucy.

My Yin Yin (grandma) cooing and singing to Brooklyn.

My friend telling me how great the wine was….and asking what we were going to do with the leftover bottles…

It was a huge blur.  I actually didn’t remember what we had done that weekend other than that lunch, but looking back at the photos I now remember that we had a great visit with my brother and sister, the girls were spoiled with their first hotel suite looking out at the Coal Harbor Marina, we enjoyed a morning Seawall walk with the mountains in the background and we actually just had a lot of great family time.

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Uncle James / Lucy + Auntie Nicki / Brooklyn

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So spoiled!

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Early morning cuddles/snooze

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Vancouver Seawall / Coal Harbor

Since that first trip, we’ve taken the girls back to Vancouver so much that the valet and most of the breakfast staff at the hotel restaurant know the girls – even the coffee shop owners down the street remember us!  We don’t pack quite as much as that first trip, but the girls’ suitcase is still bigger than ours!


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Categories : Vancouver

Beware: Potty Training Twins

17 02 2019

Bath Time

I am going to share a few stories that my girls will probably hate me for when they get older, but that I would hate myself if I didn’t take the time to memorialize these moments in something other than frantic whatsapp chats with my girlfriends and family.   These are the moments my girls will cringe at when they are brought up at family gatherings but ones they will completely understand and sympathize with when they have children of their own.

These are the stories that I think (I hope) all parents of toddlers have.  Although, I have to admit, when I shared these stories with my other mama friends, they laughed hysterically and also told me this was their greatest fear (and they have boys!) …..so I’m thinking this may not always be the case.

At this point I have probably tempted you with intrigue, but I warn you that these stories are kind of gross, deal with ‘potty’ humour, and once you hear these stories (and picture them) they can’t be unheard or unseen!!

So let’s get on with it!  My first story features Brooklyn.  She is the first born, extremely stubborn and willful but lives life freely and loves passionately.  And one of the things she loves is dates!  Those super sweet things that no one really eats on their own but use for recipes (or wrap in bacon).

One morning, after a very tough night with her where she was wired and awake until 10pm (2 – 2.5 hrs past her regular bedtime) and awake again at 3AM.  When 7am rolled around, I went into their room to get them ready for the day, Brooklyn was babbling and standing at the rail of her crib.  She keeps saying ‘date date date‘.  The room is dark and as I get closer to her, she is holding something in her hand.  It looks like a date.  And I’m so confused but I think, ‘maybe one got stuck to her blanket when it was downstairs and she just found it?’.  So I put out my hand and she places the ‘date’ in my hand.  <I think you can see where this is going>  It isn’t a date at all!  It’s a piece of poop!!!

So I take the ‘date’ to flush it down the toilet, grab Brooklyn out of her crib and go wash her hands and change her dirty diaper.  I ask her, ‘Did you taste the date?’  She nods.  ‘Did it taste bad?’  She nods.  Geesh kid.  After a tough night, this is what you start the morning with???

At this point, Lucy is up and starting to fuss, so I pick Lucy up and get her on the potty.  Then Brooklyn comes over to me and says, ‘date date date’, she hands me another ‘date’!!!!  OMG!  Brooklyn where are these coming from!!!  So I turn the lights on full blast and go inspect her bed and blankets – where there is a little nest of ‘dates’.  

Oh Brooklyn….this story will live with you forever!  

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My second story is one that I feel only twin parents can truly understand…or parents that have two kids that they are potty training at the same time!

Brooklyn and Lucy are just over 2 years old (26ish months) so we are just starting to dive into potty training.  Grandma bought them little toddler sized toilet potties – which they love to push around the floor more than they love to sit on and use them for what they are intended for.

We are winding down for the night, and they are having a little bit of naked dance party time where they dance naked to Baby Shark, Uptown Funk, and their favourite Moana songs.  So they are running around naked and have pushed their potties around the room, when Brooklyn runs into the bathroom and sits on one of the potties.  Good Girl!  She’s gone poop in one of the little potties (a learning process but the part I was not looking forward to when we starting training with the little potties).  So I’m praising her efforts and cleaning up the potty and when I hear ‘uh oh uh oh uh oh’.  I look around the corner and Lucy has peed all over the floor….right next to her potty!  So I go to clean her and the mess up when she starts to try to walk away and slips and falls…. in her own pee!!  Covered.  At this point I call out for Nathan – I’m pretty sure he’s outside taking the trash out, but I call anyway.  I need backup for 2 naked toddlers, one covered in pee and pee all over the floor!  No answer.  I’m on my own.

So I get Lucy cleaned up, start cleaning up the floor when Brooklyn pushes her potty from the bathroom to where I’m cleaning up the pee on the floor.  Then she sits down on the potty to go pee.  Good Girl!  But now I have to keep them off of the pee floor and go and help wipe Brooklyn before she dribbles pee all over the floor.   Brooklyn is quick about her business and just as I’m about to reach her to dry Brooklyn and deal with the pee in the potty, Lucy says ‘what’s that?’ and dips her hand in Brooklyn’s pee!!!  Oh man!!

So I get the potty cleaned up, get the floor cleaned up, get the girls cleaned up.  What feels like forever has really only been 10 minutes of naked potty craziness.

And then Nathan walks down the stairs (from upstairs, from our room, where he was the whole time!!)  Are you serious????!!!!!!

(side note: don’t be too mad, because Nathan was taking a shower and did not hear me calling for him, or the craziness, and I didn’t hear the shower because our dance music was turned up pretty loud)

I don’t think I would have ever imagined that these would be stories I would be telling anyone.  Not because I wouldn’t want to share these stories when they happen, but does anyone ever think that this actually happens in something other than a sitcom?

Toddlers are crazy.  I promise my next post will be more glamorous than this…..

 

 

 

 


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Categories : Seattle