Woman, Thy Name is Sisyphus

It's a dreary existence when your entire life feels Sisyphian.

Dress kids. Undress kids. Wash a mountain of clothes. Fold clothes. Put clothes away. Dress kids. Undress kids. Wash a mountain of clothes. Fold clothes. Put clothes away. Repeat daily.

Feed kids. Clean up kitchen. Wash dishes. Cook food. Feed kids. Clean up kitchen. Wash dishes. Repeat 4-5x per day.

My two lil' boulders - so small, yet so destructive.

Kids dump out Legos. Clean up Legos. Repeat 3x per day.

Kids dump out multiple puzzles. Clean up puzzles. Repeat 2-3x per day.

Kids leave balls scattered around the house. Kids leave Hotwheels scattered around the house. Kids leave dinosaurs scattered around the house. Kids leave magna-tiles scattered around the house.

Pick-up. Pick-up. Pick-up. Pick-up. Pick-up. Repeat ad nauseam.

Kids spill milk. Kids spill juice. Kids spill scatter cracker crumbs. Kids scatter bread crumbs. Kids scatter chip crumbs.

Clean-up. Clean-up. Clean-up. Clean-up. Clean-up.

From morning to night. Monday through Sunday. We roll the boulder up. It crashes back down. We roll the boulder up. It crashes back down.

And each time, I am never able to push the boulder back up as high as it was the last time.

The laws of parental entropy.

It makes me yearn for something permanent. Something I can point to and say - AHA! I've DONE THIS! And it SHALL NOT BE UNDONE!

Thus, this blog entry.

Our So Called Vacation

I've been putting off writing this post, but I knew it had to be done - the obligatory giant vacation photo/recap dump.

Turns out digital scrap-booking (via blog) is just as annoying as old-school scrap-booking. But at least it's faster. So without further ado, here are the highlights.

We kicked off our trip by attending Judah's preschool graduation. It was so unbelievably cute and yes, I teared up when they sang "So long preschool, it's been fun. Kindergarten here we come!" Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, where did my baby go? WHERE IS MY BABY?! And who is this giant child standing in his place?

A mortarboard and diploma - now that's a legit graduation!

Apparently Judah has reached his pose-and-smile saturation point.

Then we hopped in the car and drove for 12 hours. No big deal.

Over the next few days we hit some great spots in SD:

We walked along the majestic La Jolla coastline.

We got to see Judah and Noah's beloved auntie graduate from med school. I'm pretty sure Judah was equating it with his own graduation - now they're academic peers. Of course.

We visited the San Diego Zoo. An orangutan was one of the few animals the kids saw - the zoo was so enormous. But they didn't really care since they both got toys from the gift store.

The kids got to go to a beach for the first time in their lives. And as if that wasn't enough, we got to go with our good friends who live in that area, another mom of 3 young kids. This was definitely a big highlight of our trip.

The kids had such a great time here I regret that we only went for one day. It's like every child's greatest fantasy - endless sand and water play + seashells to collect.

The kids got to go to their first aquarium ever too. 

Looking back, it was definitely exhausting and not at all a time of sitting back and kicking up our heels. BUT, a change is as good as a rest and certainly good times were had.

Of course, we didn't need to travel 500 miles and shell out a lot of cash to make the kids happy. If you ask them, the highlight of their trip (other than seeing family and playing at the beach) was eating all the yummy treats they would never get at home.

I think this kind of thing would probably be fun in 2 or 3 years...if we also traveled with a nanny.

Hot Tubs for Hot Dogs

Last week I took the kids to the pool. Noah saw a hot tub for the first time and asked about it.

Me: That's a hot tub Noah. It's hot. Don't go in there. It's not for kids.
Noah: Oh, hot tub. For hot dogs.
Me: Uh...yeah...  Let's just go to the kiddie pool.
Noah: Kiddie pool for cats!

Toddler logic at it's finest!

When is a vacation not a vacation?

When you have kids.

There is no vacation from parenting (unless someone else is doing your job).

That's why the Spouse and I have never wanted to take a vacation since our kids came. What's the point? Let's do exhausting childcare in a different locale WITHOUT all the convenience of home!

But this week we bit the bullet and went for a week to the place that most resembles paradise in the continental US - La Jolla, CA (but spoiler alert - it's not paradise if you bring tiny tyrants). We went NOT because we thought it would be relaxing in the least bit, but because we wanted to be with our far-flung family and sometimes "a change is as good as a rest."

We kicked it off right - an exhausting 12 hour car trip driving down from SF to SD. I can never look at my car again without thinking of a tiny torture chamber now, complete with phantom nausea.

Wanna get guaranteed dirty looks from a stranger? Bring your kids into a rest stop that sells breakable items.

The last 2 hours were spent like this. THANK THE LORD BABY JESUS.

The next day I escaped from the looney bin for a couple hours to have brunch at a delightfully hip restaurant with some friends I haven't seen in years.

One of my friends has 3 little ones at home and the two of us were like college girls on Spring break - Moms Gone Wild! It is an unbelievable HIGH to talk without being interrupted every 2.3 seconds. We were talking and laughing like a drowning person gulping pure oxygen - with pure joy and desperation.

One day if I've gone missing, this is the first place you should look.

And I ate better than I've eaten in years. A Paris-Brest puff pastry with strawberry compote and fresh marscapone? (Without grubby little hands grabbing it and wiping it all over my shirt?) I think I just died and met the angel Gabriel...who apparently moonlights as a waiter.

Anyway, since that delectable highlight, it's been nearly pure torture. Kids bouncing off the walls, annoying downstairs tenants, smearing food all over, dumping out crammed suitcases, coloring on white carpet - you know, being kids.

But at least we're being frustrated and tortured just 5 miles from the beach.

Ha, haha, ha, ha.

Sorry, gallows humor.