Let's Take Turns Being Sick

This is week 4 at UCLA. Nobody is sick this week, but Rudy is out of town....  I mention the fact that nobody is sick because this is what the past three weeks of my final quarter at UCLA have been:

Friday Week 1: Daycare is closed; Rudy had to come home early so that I could attend two classes at 1 and 2

Monday Week 2: Dina has pink eye.  I naively believe that this three-year old will be quiet in my PhySci class if she has earbuds and a tablet.  But of course she laughs at the funny parts in Mulan, gets mad when I tell her to be quiet, and gets highly impatient when the tablet runs out of battery.

Dina, at the Dr's checking my heart

 

In front of Royce Hall

 

If there's something certain in this world, it is that Dina 

WILL have her nap, even on a city bus

 

 

Monday Week 3: Elena has pink eye, I stayed home.  At around 12, when I'm trying to decide whether or not to take her to school with me, I get a call from the daycare with the news that Abel has vomited and cannot return until he has been vomit-free for 24 hours.

 Elena at the Dr's

Tuesday Week 3: I cannot miss another day of class, so I take Abel with me. I make sure that the tablet is on 100% battery and bring my own iPad just in case.  But of course I forget the earbuds.  But he behaves anyway, yay.  I think it might have helped that I also bribed him with cookies.  (Don't judge me!)

Abel and Dina LOVE the city bus

We stopped by the office where I work and Abel got some "pops"

 

 "So which one am I gonna get when I'm big?"

 

 "Ok, now give me a coin because I have to wish for something"

The next day and every other day in Week 3 Abel and Dina kept on trying to convince me to take them to "my school."  Abel even tried saying that he learns more at my school than at his and that's why I should take him.  Today, Dina told me that she has pink eye so I have to take her to my school.  Nice try.

Mommies go to school, Daddies go to work

Abel and Dina LOVE riding the bus.  Everybody else hates it, but they can't get enough.  About two years ago, we literally got on the bus just to ride it down the street and then back from the daycare after I picked them up.  When we were walking to one of the bus stops, we saw a boy that looked to be between 7 and 9 years old waiting for the bus on his own.  As we got closer, Abel asked me why the boy was by himself.  I said "Well maybe his mom is working" to which he replied "No, maybe his dad is working and his mommy is in school."

Abel about two years ago

Abel was just over three years old back then so his assumption that all mommies go to school and all daddies work was just what he had seen in the world back then.  I was a student when he was born and I'm still a student.  When he was born, Rudy would go to work every morning and he still does.  Due to his increasing circle, Abel now knows that not all mommies go to school and that sometimes even daddies go to school.  Nevertheless, this sort of generalization came up again some time later.

The Academic Advancement Program at UCLA has a freshman and transfer summer program (F/TSP) which serves as a bridge to help students transition from high school or community college to the quarter system.  During the program, those students who commute get a number of meal vouchers to use at the dining halls.  When I did F/TSP I used to save my vouchers so that Rudy and I could have dinner with the kids at the dining halls.  The next summer, I was able to get some from a friend that worked in the program.  Consequently, the only times that Abel and Dina ever went to "my school" was to have dinner.  One day after my second summer at UCLA when I was dropping Abel and Dina off at the daycare Dina asked me what I was going to do after I dropped them off and I told her I was going to go to school.  To which she replied "To go eat?"  I'm usually very slow, but I caught that one right away and I couldn't stop laughing.  Did my kids really think that all I do at school is eat? Too funny.  This past summer that we got meal vouchers we told the kids that we were going to the dining halls, but when we got there they said, "No, this is mommy's school."

Mommy's school

Abel and Dina's idea of Mommy's school

Super Speed

Two days ago when I was driving back home after picking up my kids from daycare Abel told me that his boots give him super speed.  When he and his friends ran during outside time he ran faster than all of his friends and his teachers did not like it.  So he has to get rid of his boots.

Abel

A little bit about Abel and shoes: he chews them up.  The way his shoes end up, you would think we had a dog.  Or at the very least that he spends several hours a day scraping them on a rough wall.  Even though this story was absolutely, well you know, I still had the Ha! Yeah right thought in my head.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about

I told him he just has to learn to control it (his super speed).  And he excitedly replied "Like Frozen!?"  I had no idea what super-speed-inducing boots had to do with Frozen.  He followed up , "Yeah, like Elsa has to control her powers!"  Um, sure, like Elsa.

The next day I decided to walk to the daycare instead of taking the minivan. This was a bold move on my part because I was already running late and my kids are the slowest, most reluctant walkers ever. Cue super speed. Abel noticed that he was wearing his boots again and started running.  "You see? I told you they give me super speed" and of course Dina followed Abel's example and ran ahead. Yay.

Dina, many, many bad hair days

But then Abel slowed down and said he needed to get hydrated. I guess it's ok that he doesn't know how to write his last name seeing how he knows words like hydrated and horticulture.  Of course, this is just a tangent.  

Intro

I've wanted to start a blog for years now.  Unfortunately, there is not a creative bone in my body and I thought my posts would be dull and boring.  Not to mention the fact that I feel like I have almost no time for anything besides the absolute necessities in my life (go to school, homework, feed my kids, occasionally do some cleaning, etc).  But a few weeks ago a friend of mine started a blog and I became very interested in blogging again.

Then I remembered that I can't even keep up with my frustration journal so a blog was out of the question.  But as I read my friend's blog I kept on trying to remind myself that this blog was about her because I kept on wanting to post comments about how Abel did that too and yeah Abel does that all the time (my friend has an 8-year old son).  So the answer?  Start my own blog.

But even that wasn't convincing enough.  Then I remembered that my friend's blog was not the first instance of me trying to convince myself to not post comments about Abel or Dina.  On Facebook whenever one of my friends posted a milestone or funny/cute thing that their first baby did, I wanted to post a comment like "Yeah that's so Abel!"  But of course, I don't because their posts are supposed to be about their babies and it would be rude to hijack that way.

So I'm going to start off by saying two things:

(1) this blog is exclusively for funny/cute things that my kids (Abel, 5, Dina, almost 4, and Elena, 1) do and

(2) PLEASE feel free to comment on similar things that your kids have done that you just have to share.  I love finding out that Abel is not the only one that has baptized his cousin in the toilet or that Dina is the only girl that can outclimb her male friends.

Now, as is the tradition with inaugural posts, a little about me:
I am an undergraduate at UCLA and I will receive my Math/Applied Science B.S. in June.  Unlike many people assume for some reason, I did not "go back to school."  I simply never left.  I'm 23 years old (do I look old?); I had Abel in high school when I was 18.  I actually got married when I was 16, so yeah, that's how that happened.  Although I am a math major, I hate abstract math, which is pretty much all you ever do in upper division math classes.  I am an MD-hopeful; currently on the waiting list for the University of Minnesota Medical School.  Ok that's enough for now, you'll find out more about me later ;-)