Pico DiPaolo

Monday (8/3) - We all pile in to the car for the zoo in the morning. As is her custom during the trip, Elise kinda gets tired of the car (was it the seat? was it the time in the car?) and starts complaining. Uncle Joey is a sport, but later comments that Elise has pretty much convinced Uncle Joey and Tia Ria against having more kids. Was it the car trips?

The animals seem to come out for us and go right back in as we pass by and we enjoy our zoo experience, especially the kettle corn. I will note that the Houston zoo also has a “ghost of the bayou” but doesn’t make a big deal of it. We walked in the reptile house at the Houston zoo the weekend after returning from SLC and I exclaimed, “a ghost of the bayou!”

We went to the mall in the afternoon where the kids play in the play area. Chris notes the typical zoned out parents there. Just like Houston!  We go to dinner at Joy Luck, but Petie secretly notes that it isn’t quite as “authentic” as her experiences in Houston. Elise is a complete mess with dumping water, then dumping sugar. …and it’s all a sticky mess all over.

Tuesday (8/4) - We visit Thanksgiving Point gardens in the morning. We thoroughly enjoy the vast gardens, really very nice. At the end of the morning with everyone tired, Chris runs with Joelle up THE hill to try to get it over with.  Ouch.  Joey and Petie try to quickly roll the stroller up the hill.  Not much easier.  When we go back in the afternoon, I have to prove to Chris that I can also carry Joelle up the hill. I’m not competitive at all. Luckily, Chris and Elise appear at the top of the hill to witness my approach. It sucked.

Joelle and I enjoy chalking up the back porch with messages to Joaquin before another yummy dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. I liked Maria’s comment about our system there. Yes, we do have quite a little system…We all have an iDesign night until bedtime. During our IDesign play, Chris has a famous comment about no shoes. He judges one of Maria’s outfits as the best…but it lacks shoes.  An outfit is not complete without shoes, according to Chris. Maria sweeps otherwise. Uncle Joey has very questionable outfit choices - the pill box hat, again?

Wednesday (8/5) - We take a trip to the park at the elementary school (little park and one with rocks) and come home to get ready to leave. Sniff!!!! When will we see Tia Ria, Uncle Joey and Joaquin again? Elise LOVES the escalator at the airport. We went up and down that thing at least 20 times. The flight is pretty tolerable.

Throughout the trip - We all enjoyed watching some spanish videos. STAIRS were constantly a problem with Elise. She loved them, all of them, everywhere. Elise was completely enthralled by Joaquin’s old bouncy chair. She would climb in and her little face looked like she was expecting it to take off even as it sagged to the floor…not made for 18 month olds. Maybe she thought it was a ride at Disney? Joaquin looked like a little tortoise in comparison to his rowdy cousins. Elise took awhile to get on schedule… I think she was OK on the last day. Joaquin loved Joelle when he first met her. Oh, a princess, he thought. He got over it though. I enjoyed the fruit pilfering from Nani and hope she attains success with her peach, er, apricot trees.

Elise has a new power. She learns words and chooses to utilize some more then others. “More,” was a good word. She used it a lot. “Hand,” is also proving to be powerful. What was endearing has now become somewhat of an obligation, because any time she says, “hand,” she offers up her little manita and pulls us somewhere. No exceptions allowed! It is adorable.

Unrelated, I like how Elise can finally say, “Lucy.” It sounds like she’s saying, “sushi.”

Usually Joelle takes a “medley” approach to playing after dinner. She’ll transition (sometimes without a segue) from one scenario to another. I had forgotten how often the scene was the classroom since she hadn’t played that much during the summer.

Tonight, though, class was in full effect. I don’t know what we were doing before it - each of us (including Elise) was waving various objects in the air. One of us had a ribbon, one a scarf. Petie and I were chatting while Elise was trying to “skip” and Joelle was prancing around giving direction.

Suddenly she let out the familiar phrasing. “OKeverybody I am your teacher and you are in class everybody quiet!!”. We didn’t react quickly enough. With a steely gaze she busted out a new trick by holding her index finger to her lips and raising her hand. Obviously something she had learned from her new teacher. We asked as much. She shook her head but grinned from ear to ear…until she realized we weren’t doing the same thing she was. Finally we relented and put a finger to our lips and raised our hands. We were ready to listen to our “teacher”. We turned our eyes to Elise who was standing in astonishment that Joelle had trained us so easily. She did the only thing that made sense. She put her finger to her lips and thrust her other chubby little arm toward the ceiling. Class was in session.

Throughout the night she referenced things like Ms. Aguilar’s class being next door and we alternated playing the roles of teachers and students. Joelle’s favorite game is back. I recommend when she raises her hand you clam up and do the same, she’s already acquired “the look” to keep her students from crossing their teacher.

The jury is still out on whether or not Joelle enjoyed school today. She came home and promptly told me that she wished she could go to another school. However, Chris came home and casually said, “how was school?” She said, “good.” When prompted (by Chris) what her favorite part was, she said, “everything!”

Obviously, he also asked the worst part. She said, “mommie not being at the bus stop when she said she would be at the bus stop.” Ouch. Bad mommie moment of the day. I didn’t realize there were two stops for the bus on Barryknoll and was at the wrong stop, literally 5-6 houses down. I saw her get off and run to the house, does that count? Also, it’s worth noting, that all the neighbor kids and mommies waited with Joelle until I got there. I just can’t be perfect, despite how hard I try.

The morning was funny, in retrospect. Elise was the hidden factor in the equation I had worked out for the morning routine. She was a mess! She woke up first, beating my alarm to the punch and literally threw 4 tantrums while we all tried to get gussied up for school. On the way out the door, I laughed with Joelle over Elise’s behavior and said, “well, I haven’t had any time to be nervous or even think about school, have you?” It was true - it kept our minds off everything.

Nana dropped us off, so that we could avoid the nest of traffic and congestion around the entire perimeter of the school. We raced up there, 5 minutes until the bell. Man, this is going to be crazy getting her to school on time! Anyway, we took 3 quick pictures (good thing since I missed the cute picture of her getting off the bus for the first time). She commented on Wilchester’s exemplary status by saying, “oh, the school was built in 2003.” She walked into her class, a deer caught in the headlights. She picked up the pink crayon as if sleep walking and began to draw. The very loud bell made us both jump and I quickly blew a kiss and left.

My only chance for tears was walking into the school. We ran into Holly walking out, tears streaming down her face. I smiled and said, “Oh no, none of that yet.” I kept my composure for Jojo and was ok after dropping her off because I ran into another friend Liz, who had it completely together. It’s ok - I shed my tears at the end of pre-k. She started a new chapter today - it’s happy.

So, we just got back from meet the teacher at the school. All went well, Joelle seemed happy and played a lot. (vs. Popsicle Party where she came home and declared, “that was not fun.”)

The only thing is, and this is where the perfectionist planner in me has the hardest time in life, she’s not sitting exactly where I would like her to sit. She has friends in class, but none are at her table. That would be ok, except that when I sat down in her spot to fill out paperwork, her neighbor came and sat down next to me, too. He pulled my hair a couple of times and then started tickling me.

Joelle, like her daddy and I, is not a super touchy person. My first thought was, “he’s going to do this to Joelle and, crap, Joelle is gonna hate this.” Sigh. So, where I might usually just grin and put up with it I told him, “no, please, no touching, thank you.” Once, twice, ok. No, I had to tell him over 20 times to get his paws off of me! Oh boy. I was really close to immediately marching up to the teacher to insist a move, but, I stopped myself. Maybe he will be ok on Monday? My friend Amy introduced the term, “helicopter mommie,” to me. A helicopter mommie is not what I want to be, we’ll see how it works out…

Saturday (8/2) - We wake up early to finish the usual last minute packing. Since we are travelling with little ones and are going to a familiar place (i.e., not a hotel) we try to pack very light. Only one suitcase for all of us! We still have two backpacks and a Pack N Play for entertainment and sleeping purposes, respectively.

No Economy Lot for us, we’re springing for the terminal. Let’s make sure all our lights are off (unlike last time after Disney). We make sure we are the last ones on the plane because 3 hours is plenty, thank you. Elise and Joelle get into a groove watching a new DVD and 2 hours pass relatively quickly. We wonder if we have waited too long for Elise’s nap…and we did. She’s too tired at this point.

We disembark from the plane and find the luggage. Realizing that I didn’t coordinate how we would get to Tia Maria’s and Uncle Joey’s house, I call an old cell number and Maria finds me with a worried look on my face. Yay! We get to see Joey and Maria. Maria and I split up from the group with a cranky Lis and Joelle to try to install the carseat. Elise falls asleep on the way home for 30 minutes. We try to quickly set up the Pack N Play to put her down (Joey taking the scenic route while Petie sets it up) but, alas, she doesn’t sleep long enough.

We have a meal with family at home (yummy chicken from Joey and potatoes from Nani, Joaquin’s other abuelita), get to meet Joaquin (he is absolutely adorable and I want to squeeze him - but he is understandably a bit aloof with us), and then we have a trip to buy things like a booster chair. That was funny for me because I was the one to go with Uncle Joey and Nana. First, there was a endcap selling LDS wares, bam, right when you walk in the door. Second, we walked by the Wii games and they were just out. In Houston, they have to lock ‘em down.

Sunday (8/3) - Elise and Joelle, without a toy-strewn bunker into which they can retreat, are stir crazy by 8 a.m. so we take a stroll over to Sunrise Elementary’s park. Some beautiful mountain views and updated playground eqiupment (see an old and new shot). Joelle lives it and Elise likes the IDEA of it, but tries to follow Joelle step for step and just can’t keep up on the “big kid” stuff. We particularly “enjoyed” seeing her try to climb a huge boulder that was intended for kids older then Joelle. Working on a sleep deficit, she starts to lose it. Through tears, Chris tries to take her up onto a large boulder-like area and on the steep slides but she knows she cannot tame the park like Joelle and tears stream down her face in defeat. Chris and Joelle go back to “base” while Petie calms Elise with a long walk around the neighborhood.

Joey knows of a scenic hike a few minutes away so Joey, Chris, Petie, Joelle and Elise pack snacks and head for the quarry. We go on a short loop hike where Joelle amazes Uncle Joey with her reading. Similar to Stone Henge and the silly signs Joey and I made fun of long ago, these signs make us laugh with strange questions. Joelle reads, “listen to the rocks, what would they say?” She presses her ear against it and says, “there was a snake under me that I stomped.” After our walk, we continue (in the car) up the mountain to Snowbird Ski Resort, a familiar site to all but Elise. The summer activities were just getting started but we knew Elise would not be able to last too much longer. Joey saves the day by volunteering to drive Petie and Elise home, allowing Elise to nap and then he drives back up the mountain to pick up Chris and Joelle later after they sampled the activities. (Uncle Joey is our hero!)

Per my friend Trang’s sister’s advice, we visit the main city library in the afternoon. The library is pretty cool, but Elise loved the stairs most of all. This was a theme for us the entire trip. Elise, up the stairs, down the stairs. (Uncle Joey and Tia Maria have a three story house and even an extra bonus split level living room). In the library, we were surprised to find some rude kids. Everyone in Salt Lake is nice, I wonder where they were visiting from? Anyway, Elise is knocked down, and in the process of trying to keep her from getting knocked down, chris is knocked in the head. We all head to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner (Joelle never got tired of that place, she requested it for dinner the Saturday we got back!) Uncle Joey and Joelle play Monopoly that night.

I understand it, I really do.  It’s just that when you’re a mom and you’re enjoying a little park time with your little one, it’s really a bit frustrating when a bus load of camp or day care kids pull up to also utilize the facilities.  Again, I’m happy that these kids are using the park.  It’s there for everyone.  I just wish there was an easy to utilize park report, kinda like a traffic report, that let you know when to expect these big floods of kids.  Like a moth to the flame, it didn’t take long for Elise to notice the 30 kids in bright mustard yellow t-shirts with “tunzoffun” camp shirts on.  She sprinted towards the big park where they were. 

It was pretty much time for us to go anyway.  As we walked towards the car, I noticed itty bitty beads of sweat on her nose.  On a baby, even sweat is adorable!  Chris is right, using the park to release constructive energy is helping and Elise is loving it.  She’s mastered slides, loves the seesaw, swing and can even climb up.  I love her laughter and when she says, “big,” when she gets up there.

One year at Trinity - probably Junior or Senior year - we were studying for finals in Wimberley.  It was a great place to get away that was peaceful.  Reading Days at Trinity always seemed to be either loud (people who figured it was two days of vacation…probably business majors) or stressful (people in all the study lounges looking stressed at all hours of the day as they make their last stand in whatever class they are failing).

Wimberley has grown a bit since then, but still isn’t known for its selection of restaurants.  At the time I remember it was DQ, Subway or a couple of sit-down restaurants unless we wanted to go to San Marcos.  So we went to Subway.  “Can I help you?” the person behind the counter asked.  We told him what kind of bread we wanted, standard Subway protocol.  He replied with a straight face, “Oh, we don’t have any bread today”.

“OK…,” we paused.  “So, what do you have?”

“Not much”, he replied.  Not only did he not find it worthwhile to mention the lack of bread before we ordered but he didn’t have much of a back up plan either.  I honestly don’t remember what we ate for lunch that day, I just remember how nonchalantly the guy said he didn’t have bread as if it was the least popular side order on an extensive menu.

Chris said we’d start writing down top ten stories as we remember them. Here’s the first one that came up since his blog.

Chris and Elise played all day on Saturday because Joelle and I had a date with the elephants at the circus. He lined up a playdate with his friend Thomas and his baby, Roshan. They met up at our pool. Before I left, I reminded Chris to put Swim Ear in Elise’s ear when they were done. He was surprised that I put it in Elise’s ear and I said, “Yep, she knows the drill. She expects it.” I said, “you know, I’ve been through a lot of pain in my life and that is still very memorable to me. I remember laying…” Chris cut me off to say, “laying on the tile for a little coolness to relieve a little of the pain.” He then said, “top ten, top ten.”

Seriously though, that was a very painful thing if I do remember that so clearly. I was about 10 years old! Always remember the swim ear! (You can purchase drops at a drug store or make your own with equal parts rubbing alchohol and white vinegar.)

When you have two kids, you really feel like you should strive to be equal with them.  We ran into friends at Target and they commented how they had to buy two boats, one for each child.  It works that way with everything.  If I give Elise a hug, then Joelle should get one, too.  I think it’s a losing battle - everything can’t be equal all the time. 

However, I feel like I should write something about Joelle since I dedicated a blog to Lis last night.  I told Elise’s side of the story regarding the name tag at Vacation Bible School drop off, but I didn’t mention Joelle’s reaction.  One might think that she’d be mad at her little sister for putting on her name tag, but she was actually quite thrilled.  Joelle has turned into a pretty sweet big sister.  She seems to really enjoy Elise getting bigger, at least when her toys don’t end up chewed on by Elise!  Joelle was egging her on and pleading with me to let her stay.  It makes me a little sad that they won’t be at the same school next year because I know Joelle would be the big sis who would be thrilled to see Lis in the halls. 

The other story about Joelle that is recent and cute comes from Chris.  He asked her what she watched on tv that day.  She said the name of the show, but Chris didn’t recognize it.  Joelle said, “It was on Noggin.  You know, it’s like preschool on tv.”  Chris laughed and I laughed when he told me that story.  Advertising works for kids.  They’re little sponges for everything!