‘sup?

So… it’s been a good long while since I’ve written anything. Since the last post… we’ve got a new kid! It’s been a real adventure with two – I don’t think I’ve ever been this constantly wiped out – it’s just so rare to get any genuine downtime. Used to be we could trade off, but a lot less so now, and even in the moments when Ei-Nyung’s got the two kids, it’s one of those things where the guilt of knowing she’s going to be totally overwhelmed, and I know that the feeling is the same in the opposite situation.

Still, it’s been wonderful to see J blossom as a big brother. He’s really generous & loving, and while there are definitely moments of jealousy or “regression”, he’s really taken to his new role well. He loves running over to K & giving him a big laugh – and he loves it when K smiles back at him.

What else is new since the last time? Hm. It’s been a bit strange realizing that there was this period in my life when I logged a lot of information through blogging, but now, with stuff on Twitter & Facebook, and without an easy-to-use keyboard when I’m browsing the web, there are way fewer opportunities to actually write anything that isn’t incredibly short.

That said, the smaller, incremental communication also precludes a lot of thoughts accumulating and needing to be put down in longer chunks.

So… we just got back from a vacation at Donner Lake. Gorgeous place. We got a place through VRBO, and it was a great house. The general location was a sort of wooded pine area, 5 miles or so from Donner Lake – basically exactly what I was looking for, though slightly less “in the middle of nowhere”, because Tahoe Donner is a big ol’ development with a bunch of amenities and such that are geared toward this kind of visitation. So that was odd, but still – close enough to what I was looking for.

K, J, Ei-Nyung & I were there for 5 days, and some friends came up to spend the first few days with us. Overall, just a few days of relative relaxation – though definitely having two kids around 100% of the time, and having some trouble getting a good night’s sleep meant that at least one of the days was a complete wreck where just staying awake & engaged was all that I could handle, but getting away from home was something I sorely needed.

Donner was great, but I don’t know that I’d be back any time soon – it was a little too developed & crowded for me – I think I’d like to find somewhere a little bit a.) closer and b.) a bit more off the beaten path – I’m looking for contrast, after all, and it wasn’t quite different enough from home.

Still, some really great times/memories – I went out kayaking with J, and it reminded me a LOT of spending time on the lake at the cabin my aunt used, when my cousin & I would play out in the lake. I’d love to do more of that, and am seriously looking into picking up a kayak to do that again more locally.

K was really good  – he cried a lot on the trip home, but on the trip up, where traffic was horrendous (and we had to stop to charge up the car halfway up) he was *amazing*. He’s also getting way more aware of things – he knows his mom (less his dad, since I spend a lot less time with him (*weeps*)), and appeared to realize when he was *actually* home. Generally a really pleasant, good-natured kid, and a lot like J in many ways (though a.) much, much bigger, and b.) still fairly different, personality-wise) – it’s clear that they’re brothers, but not the same.

Otherwise, things are chugging along. Work’s … work.

There’s still a fair deal of work to do on the house – the interior’s basically done – I spent the last few days before we went up to Donner just reorganizing the garage, and made a TON more space, but still have a ways to go. Reorganized all my music gear, which was good. Tomorrow, a few errands to run – I might pick up one more wire rack to just up the storage space, since I think we’ve got a lot more stuff we need to store. One of these days I’ll tackle the hallway closet, but I think that’s almost another day or two worth of work to figure out what to do with what’s in there. 😛

The few remaining house projects: Concrete work in the front (including the front stairs & walkway), concrete work up the side of the house (which we’d do at the same time as the front). Theoretically re-stucco-ing the remaining three walls of the house. Concrete work in the back, or just redoing the back patio. Also the entire backyard.

So still a reasonable amount of stuff to do.

Also gotta paint the stairwell – it’s mostly done, just have some edging, a touch of sanding, and have to pull off the railings to paint it properly. Friday, maybe? Saturday? I dunno. Was easier when J consistently took naps in the afternoon. Alas!

Anyway. Yeah. What else? Been picking up tons of boardgames. Formula D, Dreadball, The Perfect Heist, etc. Mostly Kickstarter stuff – but it’s been interesting seeing the rise of boardgames on Kickstarter. Stuff like Dreadball really feels like it’s enabled by advances in manufacturing, and it’ll be interesting to see how the bar for miniature-based games changes as 3D printing becomes progressively more commonplace.

The last thing – I really want to make this the year that some of the interior of the house gets organized, but more, I want to finally lose some of this weight, and get down to and *maintain* a weight that’s close to 200 lbs. We’d done a good job with the paleo diet, and it worked amazingly well when we stuck to it – but the catch is that with work & just trying to find things we can do in a timely fashion with the two kids, it’s been really easy to lapse ALL THE TIME. And the problem with the paleo diet is that if you do it half-assed, it’s WAY worse than almost anything else. So, back on the train, back with some discipline, and even over the last few days, I’ve seen a noticeable improvement. Give it a few more weeks, and we’ll see where we are.

I picked up a new bike attachment for J, because he no longer fits in the Wee Ride. It’s one of those things that clamps to your seatpost, and is just a handle, seat, pedals, and rear wheel. So far, it’s been good, but it is a little weird ’cause there some backlash in the clamp joint, and it’s a little hard to get used to the wobble. It’ll be interesting at some point if I end up carrying K in the Wee Ride, J on the “Afterburner” (that’s what it’s labeled – I’m sure there’s some more generic name for it), and riding around with three people. At least some time in the future, J will actually pedal. I hope. 😀

2 comments

  1. Holly says:

    Hooray for blogging!

    Two kids is hard, so hard. We feel you. We aren’t out of the thick of it either even though L is 15 months old now. We are constantly tired, and going to work feels like taking a vacation compared to taking care of both kids at the same time. I think things will get better for our family when P starts preschool in September.

    Glad to hear about your experience with J’s bike attachment. I’ve been trying to think about how to carry two kids on a bike as well. Hmmm.

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