What kind of Mom am I?

Last night, Asia asked me, "Have you played dolls before?"
I'm wondering what she's leading up to, so I answer, "Yes."
Asia adds, "But have you played dolls with me before?"
Does the girl have a bad memory? Or do I? I'm wracking my brain trying to remember the last time the two of us actually played dolls. Sure, I've bought her dolls. Told her to play with her dolls. It's after her bath time and she's playing in her room while I get her brother ready for his bath. That means, nagging him to get in the bathroom and get in the bath. Lately, he dawdles for ever before actually getting in the bath. First he probably goes to the toilet. Then he looks in the mirror while he's washing his hands. I usually hear him talking to himself so I'm assuming he's making faces in the mirror and pretending to be some superhero. At this point, I tell him to get in the bath. Eventually, I hear splashes of water and then, "Mom, the water's too cold!" This is because he's using the same bathwater that Asia was in. This is okay, right? I don't want to waste water and it's not like Asia peed in the water. So I tell him to turn on the hot water. This is logical. Why he has to tell me it's too cold and not just turn on the water is beyond me. I think it's like me telling my husband that the trash in the kitchen is full. He knows it's full. That's why he started stacking the trash above the trash can. My statement means, take out the trash now. I just don't say it that way. So I think that's what Zach means when he tells me the water is cold and knows that he can turn on the hot water himself. He wants me to come over and turn on the hot water for him. And often it's because he's completely immersed in the water or again, making faces in the reflection on the faucet.
So back to Asia and playing with dolls. We're having some quiet time before bedtime. She's asking me if I've played dolls with her before. I'm sure I have. I can't remember when, but I'm positive there was one time in her five years on this earth. So I tell Asia that yes, I have played dolls with her.
Asia says, "I don't think you have. Do you know what you play with me?"
I'm dreading the answer.
"Webkinz." She says.
And it is so true! What do I like playing with her? Computer games! Not playing with the actual Webkinz stuffed animals. But computer games. So I felt some guilt. But I still didn't play dolls with her. I watched her play dolls. It was more amusing. If she's happy playing on her own, why interrupt?

So today, I vowed, well not really, I planned for less computer time. We first went to the library. I forgot it was closed. So we went to a restaurant across the street of the library and ate. While waiting for our food, I had Zach write down as many words as he could that ended in op and then finish a book. Asia drew pictures and then we worked on some words too. She can read maybe 20 words. I think that will pick up like lightning in Kindergarten this year.
Then we went to Bruester's for ice cream. Representatives from the animal shelter were actually at the ice cream shop, so the kids played with two dogs there. One was a really cute minitaure pinscher named Zeus who is about 2 1/2 years old. Very cute little guy. Very mellow. He had just been dropped off at the animal shelter the day before. Apparently he wasn't getting along with one of the owner's cats. Poor doggie. We then went to Target. See this is what I do with the kid's on weekends when John's out doing his thing (rafting today). We go out to eat and we go shopping.
Now what are the kids doing? Playing in a mud puddle in our backyard. Again, the best of intentions - I was going to pull out our kiddie pool, except that it had been sitting curled up at the side of our house all winter. So it was all muddy and had bugs on it. By the time I had it out flat and somewhat rinsed off, I was too tired. Not only that, I couldn't find the air pump. So I sprayed the kids with water and then let them loose with the water hose. They decided to make a huge water puddle. Hey, if they're happy, I'm happy.

Chicago

I'm finally back in Pittsburgh, trying to get back on schedule. We were in Chicago last week. Or Chicago parts. First two days in a hotel by O'hare, spent a night at Hans & Grace's in Prospect Heights, another night at John's dad's house in Streamwood, two nights at Tom's house in Irving Park, and a night at Nick & Kathy's in Evanston. So if you're a die-hard Chicagoan, you might say we stayed in suburbs all week and weren't really in Chicago. If you're from out of town, then it's all the same. Metro Chicago, I believe would be the term. I worked the whole time, but I did manage to take time off to have dinner with our friends Avni and Ardita in the South Loop area. Zach and their son, Rron, went to preschool together. It's great for them to be still friends after we moved away. I also took a 1/2 day off to go to our old neighborhood on Taylor St and have lunch at Francesca's with Zach & Asia's old babysitter, Joyce. On Saturday, we also hung out with Marissa. The kids got to help her with some cookie-making as well as jump on her bed. I got my Korean food fix at Nick & Kathy's. I have yet to find a good Korean restaurant in Pittsburgh. I sorta found a good Chinese restaurant in Squirrel Hill. It's just quite a hike to get there because of the traffic on 376 and constructions. Yuck. The kids also had a blast in Irving Park, staying with their cousins - Justin, Christian, Seth, Henna, as well as Christian's girlfriend, Cora. Zach got to sleep in the basement with Seth and probably stayed up late playing video games. And then woke up and played video games. Now how dreamy is that for a 7 year old? Anyway, it was a whirlwind, but fun. Good to see old haunts and old friends. Not enough time to see everyone of course. John has this idea now that he wants to rent a place next summer and stay in Chicago for about 6 weeks. Could be fun. We'll see.

bittersweet

I'm in Austin, TX this weekend. First I was in Harrisburg, packing up my sis's stuff. She transferred her residency to Houston, TX and didn't lose a year! She's transferring right in as chief resident (4th year). How divine is that? Now she'll only be 3 hours away from my dad, versus 23 hours. But now she'll be 20 some hours from me. You win some, you lose some. So anyway, I helped Es pack up her stuff because she was working til 6/30 (on call that weekend) and then had to be in her new apartment by 7/3. Her hours were so crazy. Even when she was "backup" on pager, she still had to go in. One night, she called to say she was done and that we can go out to dinner (when my dad was in town already). I got all dressed up and then just as she's pulling into the garage, she gets paged. Apparently a little 2 year old girl was running around and fell down some stairs or something while holding a toothbrush in her mouth. It wasn't a baby toothbrush either. So the dad cut off part of the toothbrush and the little girl was rushed to the hospital. Es said she had to cut into the little girl's neck to remove the head of the toothbrush. A toothbrush! You wouldn't think that would be very sharp and puncture your throat! So anyway, we couldn't go out to eat since my dad's truck was hitched to this big Uhaul and Es had to drive back to the hospital. What a life! I now understand one of the reasons doctors get paid so much once they're out of residency. They go through pure hell for those 3-10 years of residency.
Es was so lucky in finding a nice apartment online without ever having seen it! No floor plan. Just google maps and hearsay from friends. She really didn't have much choice, also because of having 2 dogs. One of the apartment complexes wouldn't take both dogs. So we packed up her stuff and loaded it into a Ford pick-up truck my dad rented that was towing a 12x6 UHaul trailer. Her stuff almost didn't fit. She had to leave behind her doggie door insert and some patio chairs. I also sold off two of her couches, lawnmower, lamp, and her guest bed. Thank you Craigslist! You sell it cheap enough, it goes! I actually sold the guest bed first. A family was moving from an apartment to a new house and looking for more furniture. The wife actually said she was looking for beds for the kids, but when she saw my posting, she thought it'd be nice to have a newer bed for her and her husband. When she and her husband came to pick up the bed, I asked her if she wanted couches too. I told her I already had an offer of 75 for the two, so if she wanted to beat that price, she could have them. She took them for 100 and also bought a lamp for 5 bucks. The kicker is that Es got the couches and the lamp free from a friend. The lawnmower was also a hand-me-down.
Back to the trip from Harrisburg to Houston. Not bad of a trip at all. My dad drove the pick-up the whole time. Es and I traded off driving her car - loaded down with her guitars, keyboard, miscellaneous stuff, and two dogs. Boy, those dogs were so good on the whole trip. My dog would have been getting antsy. But he's only a year and a half. Cous and Cory are like teenagers already - in dog years. We stayed in hotels on the way - one in Wytheville, VA and the other in Baton Rouge, LA. Thanks to my visa card points - free hotel nights. I forgot about the dogs though and didn't look into hotels that accepted pets. Cous and Cory had to spend those nights in Es' car. Can you believe it? Again, they were so well-behaved!
We arrived in Houston and found Es' apartment complex. Nice gated community. Interesting demographics. Very un-Harrisburg/Hershey and very un-Pittsburgh. Probably very un-Pennsylvania. Surprising enough, the apartment was pretty nice. A one bedroom with a little study connected to it. Nice sized living room, dining room, and kitchen. Nothing compared to owning an actual 3 bedroom house, but for 2 years, it'll be comfy. I hope.
I drove back to Austin with my dad on Saturday. Now I've been just taking it easy. Catching up on the internet (my sis didn't have her internet hooked up yet - we spent hours on the phone on the car trip to Houston yelling at AT&T because they couldn't hook up her internet until 7 business days later - not counting 7/4 and the weekends - AT&T entertainment said they could hook up the cable in 3 days, AT&T internet needed 7 days just to process the account information! Get it together AT&T!), enjoying Texas weather and getting some sun. The sad part is that I keep seeing little things here and there that remind me of my mom. I was cooking dinner and started getting teary-eyed because I thought, my mom should be standing here cooking. This is her kitchen, not mine. Earlier, I had been cleaning out one of the refrigerators because my dad turned it off to clean it and never got to it before he left for PA. So I was throwing stuff away and came upon my mom's stash of cake frosting and the little frosting flowers she was practicing making. They were so cute - little pink flowers and hearts. I hated throwing them away. I could picture Mom making them. Her hobby - cake decorating. She was so proud of her cakes. I still couldn't bear to throw it all away. How long does purple frosting last? Hopefully forever. I drove by Walgreens on the way to my dad's house and got teary-eyed, just remembering when I would take my mom to there or CVS to pick up her arthritis prescriptions.
My dad and I stopped by her grave today after the meeting so we could check on it. The gravestone must have just been installed. It's very nice. It says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord." I'm hoping that in a few weeks, the grass will have been planted and the grave area cleaned up. Then Es is supposed to help put some flowers in. Okay, now I'm getting weepy again so I'll type more some other time.