I had what we coined a “Code Red” at home last night and nobody was there to help me. When the babies were infants, and we’d have a situation where we would need ‘back up’ (usually both of them crying, one threw up and the other is crying, etc) we would yell out “CODE RED” and between Bao, Mike and I, two out of three will run up stairs…sometimes all three. So last night’s code red involved a very upset Aidan screaming for “Daddy, Daddy” (who isn’t home) waking up her super sleepy and frustrated sister who started to cry which resulted in a pool of vomit all over her crib…bumper and all.

As all seasoned mothers know, every situation can easily be remedied with a plan.

PLAN ONE | Bath both kids, Clean crib, put them back into bed.
I picked Brooke up to console her to stop the crying that will hopefully stop the vomiting (so naturally there is vomit all over me as well). I tried to put her in the tub (Aidan is still screaming in his crib, by the way) but she just won’t let go of me. So I take off all her clothes and my shirt as well. (So let me quickly paint a picture: Brooke is in diapers, I’m in a sports bra and shorts and Aidan is a snotty mess from all his nonstop crying.) I left their bathroom and go back into their room. I thought, “Maybe if I bathe them both, they’ll calm down.”

Mommy to Kids: “Do you guys want to take a bath?”
Both: “No…..”
Mommy: “Do you want to play with the wah wah?”
Both: “No….”
(New plan formulates in head)
Mommy: “Do you want to watch Hot Dog?”
Both: *Nods head Yes*

PLAN TWO | Let kids watch TV, clean crib, bathe Brooke downstairs in sink
I carried both kids downstairs and turned the TiVO on for Mickey Mouseclub (AKA Hot Dog). I went back up stairs took the laundry out of the dryer. Put the stuff in the washer into the dryer and broke down the bedding on her crib, bumper and all. I put all the dirty stuff, including her pajamas and my shirt into the laundry and went back into the room to put the clean bedding in. Every few minutes Aidan will let out a scream if disapproval that I’m not downstairs with them. I’ll just yell back at him “Wait, Aidan! Can you say wait?” Aidan: “wait”. I finally finish dressing her crib, went to the bathroom to pick up the shampoo, a towel, new pajamas, a wash cloth and went downstairs…one more thing and I’m done. (Or so I thought)

INSULT TO INJURY & PLAN THREE | Plan two PLUS clean up more vomit.
Just as I was getting a grip of the situation, I was halfway down the stairs and I hear Pepper regurgitating. “Oh no!” I ran down the stairs but was too late. Pepper threw up a giant hairball on the carpet! I was at a lost and so frustrated and just about to cry when she started to regurgitate again. I don’t know how I had the strength to do it but I lifted her up and carried her to the tile where she threw up a second time. I was just about to cry when I hear on the other side of the room Aidan’s little voice, “Ewwww…” I just had to laugh. I laughed so hard and said to him, “Ew is right! You all are ew.” Both Aidan and Brooke laughed at my statement and I went on to clean up dog vomit, bathe a smelly child in the sink smiling the entire time. It’s amazing how one simple statement from a 1 1/2 year old can make something that felt like such a crisis into an every day trivial event.

I have to say it was a rough night, Mike came home around 11pm and help me put them into bed. I also went to bed but my mood before bed was of pure humbled joy from my little boy’s “Ew”.

Bathing in the sink and pointing at Mommy

Park fun photos:

We will miss you, Baltas!

SATURDAY: We decided a few months back that it’s time we visited our good friend, Anne Eurose and her family. We woke up at 3am on Saturday morning and was on the road by 3:40am. Brooke wasn’t too happy about this but Aidan woke up alert and naming all the things he sees (Stars! Moon! Light!). They were both up until 4am and fell asleep until 7:30am. We stopped at Harris Ranch for the exotic McDonald’s breakfast, changed the kids out of their PJs and were on our way. On the road, the kids amused themselves with ‘trees’ and ‘mooooos’ (aka cows). We didn’t really need to use the DVD player until the last hour of our drive.

We reached Tracy around 10:30am and Mike took a nap while Eurose and I entertain our kids. They LOVED their Ate Eurose’s house. I have since they coined it as “Abris Daycare”. Completely stocked from a beautiful yard with a playground and toy cars/bikes to a toy room downstairs (of course, well organized). They were super comfortable there. Brooke kept asking to go outside. Once outside, she wanted to go in to watch Nemo. We had lunch and George came by to visit and we caught up and talked about old times until the kids’ nap time. Around 1:30-2pm we left Tracy to continue our adventure to San Francisco.

The kids napped in the car on our 2 hour drive into the city. Our plan was: Kara’s Cupcakes, Exploratorium, Golden Gate Bridge, Fishermen’s Wharf/Pier 39 then Ghirardelli Square. We never made it to Ghirardelli and ended up having dinner at Hard Rock at the Pier but not bad for a one day trip! We met up with an ex-coworker of Mike’s who is the coolest couple. Their daughter, Simone, is gorgeous and so well behaved. It was way pass all the kids bedtimes, but they were all doing great. Especially my little troopers considering they have been in a car all day!

Here we are with the sea lions at Pier 39.

On our way to the hotel we considered driving home which would put us home at 3AM making it a true 24 hour trip, but we weren’t THAT crazy and spent the night a little south of San Francisco to avoid the ridiculous parking fees in the city.

Family photo at the exploratorium.

SUNDAY: The family was on the road again by 8am. We decided to take the 152 through Gilroy to get back on the 5 freeway which turned out to be so much fun. We stopped at the first fruit stand advertising 8 ears of corn for $1! (SO WORTH IT! We ended up cooking it for dinner once we got home.) Driving away from that stand, we stopped at the next one for garlic ice cream. (SIDE NOTE: I remember being a kid and hating stopping at these…it’s official, I’m an old Asian parent.) We then drove off to stop at a stop I did growing up with my parents: Casa de Fruta. Man, it has changed. It actually expanded a lot! There’s casa de…EVERYTHING! Brooke saw her first peacock but insisted it’s a chicken. I’m not going to argue with a 1 and a half year old. We got mah-mah some wine and continue our drive home. The kids ended up napping a long ways after lunch. Overall, it was a very successful trip. So proud of the husband for driving the entire time. And equally proud of the kids for making it through another Lam family vacation.

Casa de Fruta

Working the railroads at Casa de Fruta

The plan: Use the #2 guide for the sides and #4 on top…just a trim.
What actually happened: Mike forgot the #2 guide and ended up zeroing the side of Aidan head! After that, the entire hair cut was just, “How can I fix this!”

Good thing for Mike Aidan has a cute head shape, because it turned out okay. Perfect for summer! =P

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Aidan modeling the tickets.

Amazing hat tricks…

This is where I went crazy…

On Monday, my mother-in-law was already sick but didn’t know the extent of it so she did not tell us. She was so sick she didn’t take the kids out and told them she’s going to nap and play among themselves. At one point, she woke up to find Brooke fast asleep on her leg. She just decided to nap on her own. It’s 3pm and the kids usually nap at noon. She looks at Aidan who was still up and said, “Sleep”. He repeated his grandma, “Sleep” and laid down and took a nap. Too sweet for words.

Anne Eurose and the Abris trio are in town for Deejay’s baby shower this weekend. We were suppose to meet up on Tuesday but Bao and Van had this fabulous idea to go to Disneyland with 4 adults and 5 kids ranging from 4 months to 3 years old. I don’t know why we listened to the ‘ones who don’t have children’ but we did and went to Disneyland! Super chaotic from helping Eurose with the kids and Bao parking her car to super fun of Jaden’s reaction to Woody in It’s a Small World and Brooke’s discovery of “hot dog” in Toon Town (“Hot dog” is Mickey Mouse because of the Hot Dog Dance at the end of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse).

It was pretty much crazy but so much fun. The kids were such troopers! We met up with a very pregnant Deejay at Downtown Disney, went to DCA to visit Bug’s Life where the two older Abris really had a good time on rides with Van. Watched a glimpse of World of Color and tried to get on Toy Story Mania but it was a 40 minute wait so unfortunately the kids had to miss that. We all stayed out until 11pm (Yes, we’re nuts)

Hopefully we can do this again next summer and spend an entire day so the kids can do everything they want to.

We went on Sunday with Van, Bao and the kids. My fair trip was almost ruined due to some tres leche cake (damn lactose) but I would like to report that the fair has very nice clean bathrooms.

Bao and Mike were dying to get a bunch of fair foods, particularly the Krispie Kreme Fried Chicken sandwich. Very much like the Monte Cristo, it was a Krispie Kreme donut split in half with a fried chicken breast and what I think is grape jelly inside. I wasn’t feeling too good but had a bite. It was good but super rich of course. Mike ordered the fried zucchini nachos which is fried zucchini strings topped with nacho cheese sauce and bacon bits. What’s not to love (besides the calories)? The kids loved it too. Other disgusting yet delicious fair foods we tried included: Australian battered potatoes (two thumbs up), the big D donut and of course…the corn – possibly the best thing about the fair! Well, that’s my opinion, the kids were a little different.

Van and fair food

With their beers

Aidan was loving the fair! I would say they loved the livestock the most, followed by how super stimulated they were with all the lights and sounds. They both would point at the stuff animal prizes at the carnival section and tell us what they saw: “Frog!!!” “Fishie!!!” “Banana!” It was super cute and worth the fact that we parked at OCC and walked to the fairgrounds!

Lovin’ the goats

We ended the night by visiting the exhibits to check out Jackie’s cakes (1st place on cupcakes and 3rd for both cake entries..great job!) and walked back to the car. It was a lot of fun.

Back to OCC parking!