Qualifications

Aidan and Zoe wanted me to write about their qualifications as President and Vice-President of this household.

Aidan: Having been a member of this household since summer of 2003 (in utero counts, since well, that is where one really gets to know one's mother), I know what makes my parents get really upset. Let's face it, if there is one thing to do each day that is to be sure they don't get too upset. In the event that one gets them REALLY angry, it is super duper important to say something like, "I am sorry" and use our puppy eyes. Also, helps the case to say, "Jesus said to forgive!!!" I also know to say things like, "Mommy, this is the BEST dinner ever!" True, my foreign experience is limited to major cities in the US, the Mediterranean, and Sydney, Australia, but how one navigates Naples, Italy (a crime ridden city) is how I would maneuver any difficult foreign situations.

Zoe: It helps to be stubborn. Just don't give up! Whine, Cry, Scream, it all helps your case!!! I am decisive: when life only has two options (more or all done) it is good to know the signs for them, and to use them emphatically. I know a lot about agriculture: I eat all kinds of fruits and meats. Yum! As for being green, I contribute by insisting that I get carried everywhere, when I don't expand energy, I am being green!

VOTE FOR US!!! VOTE FOR US!!!

Our Presidential Ticket: A&Z

This presidential race has been very exciting. Just as one thinks there could be no surprises (for instance, last fall, I thought for sure Clinton was going to get the nomination and win the general election), there are always surprises.

Since we don't watch TV, all my political information comes from The Wall Street Journal, which I think, has a slight conservative bend to its op-ed page, although, I do think it is impartial in its reporting. Anyway, recently, most of the op-ed articles has been about the weaknesses of the Obama-Biden ticket. For instance, I keep reading about how no one knows for sure what Obama's plans are. That he is rather vague about how he will change things. As for Biden's strength in foreign policy, that has been evluated also. Apparently, as of two years ago, Biden had a plan to divvy up Iraq according to tribes, which in the last two years had been proven to be not workable and faulty. As much as the Obama-Biden team tries to not address this, the omission is not lost on the astute op-ed people. (I really have no opinions of my own so far, I am simply getting other people's opinions...)

As for McCain picking Palin. Wow! Clinton must be so peeved. Perhaps the Clintons really want to see Obama lose so that she can run again in 4 years, (I mean, in 8 years, she is going to be o.l.d., although not as old as McCain!) but to have the possibility of a woman as a VP, who could possibly run in 4 years if McCain ends up only going in for 1 term. That would be yet another exciting race to watch. I have heard that Palin has about 90% approval rating in Alaska! Yes, there aren't that many residents in Alaska, but 90%! That is like the opposite of Bush. Wow.

Meanwhile, I would like to report on the Presidential Race in our household.

Aidan would like to run for president. He has picked Zoe as his running mate. These are their positions on hot button issues.

Foreign Policy: My mother keeps talking about this place called China, and how it is important to speak Chinese because there are so many people there. We do not care about China, or about speaking Chinese. Our policy is to speak English exclusively. Maybe when we are old enough, we will travel to China to eat yummy food, but for now. ENGLISH!!!

Economy: The interest rate is way too low. 10% compounding interest rate is for babies! We demand a matching interest scheme. If we have $5, the Central Bank owes us $5 more!

Immigration: We want another sibling. We should fill the backseat full of carseats. ONE MORE BABY! ONE MORE BABY!! ONE MORE BABY!!!

Labor: We are very good at helping. We set the table, we clear the table, we put laundry away. We should get more in compensation. $2 for a week worth of laundry!

Vote for US! We will make your world a better place!!!

LOOOOONG Drive

We wanted to go to the Monterey Aquarium today. We went to the Aquarium today. It was quite a feat. The Aquarium is about 100 miles from us, much of it on Highway 17, a road that is very curvy through the mountains, making it impossible to go 75 mph. When we purchased our membership, we had thought of making it a weekend trip, staying in a hotel overnight and going to the Aquarium for about 2 hours each day. However, most of the hotels down that way are the quaint type- read, not all that kid friendly. With A&Z out of school and Hubby and I taking time off anyway, it seemed like a perfect time to make a day trip of it.

On our way down, I was looking at the sticker book, ripping out pages for A&Z, when Hubby missed the exit for Highway 85- okay, he didn't actually miss it, since he didn't know we needed Highway 85. Doubling back took a long time...

On the way home, I fell asleep, and Hubby missed the exit for Highway 17- okay, so it was really unfair that I was sleeping while Hubby tried to stay awake and take all of us home safely. We ended up driving along Highway 1, ALL THE WAY HOME. It felt like an eternity. Of course, the children whined, I whined, I needed to use the potty, it was a very LOOOONG drive.

In between our 4 hours of driving, though, we had a lot of fun.

Aidan loved the shark exhibit. Zoe thoroughly enjoyed the Splash Zone for kids. About 30 seconds after Hubby took the picture of her giddy on her rocking seahorse, she bit her tongue... Blood gushed. Tears flowed...

Sometimes, I feel guilty about not traveling with Zoe more, both internationally and domestically. By the time Aidan was a year and half, he had been to North Carolina, Illinois, and New York. On the other hand though, Zoe has been to the Aquarium (twice), Disneyland (twice), and the Lego store (gabillion times).

More INS Woes

First of all, I love my job. Hubby was very gracious and offered to keep the children company so that I could keep my private practice appointments today. (In private practice, you don't work, you don't make money... no such thing as paid vacation.) So it is excellent that I saw four awesome patients today.

I like these patients a lot, because in many ways, I am just like them, and they are just like me. There is something about treating people whose experiences I can relate to.

I have this patient, who is having some issues with the INS, different issues than the person I had previously mentioned. She had to postpone an interview with them due to work issues, and which meant she wouldn't get permission to leave the country, which meant she would have to miss her brother's wedding. She also could not just leave the country, which apparently, would be worse than being here illegally to begin with...

I had my run in with immigration not that long ago. My entire family was applying for citizenship when I was in college, and of course, the process lingered on and on and on. While my application was started in California, I had gone on to medical school in New York. My interview date came up, but I was not about to spend $500 to travel home for this interview. The letter even had an option of postponing it. So my interview was rescheduled, like a year later. I showed up, and waited for hours, only to be told that my file was in Fresno. The appointment got rescheduled AGAIN! I ended up making this elaborate plan of flying to California for the interview, then fly to Newark, to drive to JFK, to catch my flight to Venice, Italy, to meet up with my very new husband. Well, I did not know that once I start the process of naturalization, I had to give up my green card, and without an American passport, I would not be allowed back in! I called Hubby from a pay phone inside the INS and just cried. Seriously, I considered giving up an all-paid trip to ITALY to see this ridiculous process through. I ended up just leaving the INS, with my green card (which wasn't green at all!) and asked to be rescheduled.


I don't know why the INS is so difficult to understand and work with, but I guess, that is how it goes... People who need INS don't get a say, and their Congress people and Senators don't care about them. When they do have a say, who has the energy to take on the INS?!

Sucks

There is no other word for this entry, other than 'sucks'. However, as I am typing this, I am wondering, why do Americans say something 'sucks' when they mean something terrible/undesirable/awful? For infants, it is actually really great fun to suck on something...

Anyway. Back to what sucks.

I saw a patient yesterday, he is undocumented. Not just undocumented. He missed his opportunity to get a social security number. Before September 11, 2001, anyone could get off the plane, on a tourist visa, head over to the nearest Social Security Administration Building, and get this magical 9 digit number. For my patient, he landed here on a tourist visa, hung out a little too long, then 9/11 happened, the laws changed, and he was stuck without a SS #. Meanwhile, he really wants to stay here instead of going back home. He has plans of working to support his son and father, who are still in his home country. However, without this SS#, he can't get a decent job. He can't even get a California driver's license! So he had to get in a van, with other undocumented folks, head north to another state, to get a license. Yet most driving jobs here require a CA license, not to mention legal status. To make it worse, he is actually college educated, in engineering! He is underemployed. For now, he drives his little car and delivers pizzas. Out of the $8/hour he makes, he has to pay for gas. So he takes home about $50 a day. He has filed his paperwork with INS and will be legal in 2012. I haven't asked him how it works in terms of staying here as undocumented while waiting for legal status. That is for our next visit.

While I am typically conservative in my opinions, there is just something not right about this. Yet at the same time, I am not sure it is all that right that he receives treatment from me for free, gets his medications for free...

Tell me what you think. I am curious.

Bags

Zoe is all of of 17 months old, but this little girl has a serious accessory problem. Okay, not a serious problem, just a problem.

As she moves on to her toddler class, she now needs to have a smaller lunch sack (no more bottles!) as well as a sleep sack (to carry her sheet and blanket to school on Mondays and to bring home on Fridays.)

When Aidan moved on to this class, Grandpa bought him matching bags featuring Thomas the Tank Engine. As he grew, he grew out of those bags (and Grandpa bought him more bags...) Zoe, meanwhile, really likes this Thomas the Tank Engine backpack and lunch bag. I would have just let her use them, but since everything that goes to school is labeled, so are these bags, in permanent ink. I suppose I could cross Aidan's name out, and write in her name. However, I know that one's name is the first thing they learn to recognize and spell, I don't want Zoe to think her name is actually Aidan Zoe.

When I was at the store today, it quickly dawned on me that if I were to buy bags for her, it would probably be pink. And it would have Dora or another princess on it. Nothing against Dora or royalty in general, but I am not sure if I am ready to embark on this phase of life. But to order something on-line would require way too much effort on my part.

What is worse?
A bag with someone else's name on it, or more pink stuff? In terms of self discovery and development, I think the first option is worse... Or is it?

Managing Three

A&Z's school is closed for three days in anticipation of a new academic year. Every year, we say we should have booked a vacation for those days, and every year, we find ourselves at home, with no place to go. I had made plans for this year, booked a hotel and everything, but canceled it all when we decided to go to Sonoma for NASCAR, but then we canceled that too. So, we are here.

Aidan's friend, Maria-Luisa, needed some supervision this morning as both her mom and dad couldn't get out of work. Hubby still needed to go to work, so it was me, with three kids. Since I am a very task oriented person, I made plans to fix my windshield (which had a crack and had been extending its ugly streak...) Anyway, my plan was to have ML here by 8:30, we would relax for a little bit, get in the car at 9:10, get to the dealer at 9:30. Walk over to a please-rip-me-off-children's-hair-salon for haircuts for both A&Z. Then walk to park/library/whatever, and Hubby would pick us up, for lunch at home by 11:30.

Everything was accomplished. We ended up getting some sushi for lunch, and it was actually fun. I did run out of words though, and when Zoe was taking her 3 hour nap, and Aidan was relaxing on his bed, I fell asleep, for 1.5 hours! My kids have this surprising ability to stay in their beds, quietly, for long periods. I love that!

After Zoe got up, we went swimming, and I met this mother who has FIVE kids. Only four were with her, the age range was 1.5 to 8. Wow.

Anyway, Hubby thought to have 3 kids would be super fun. I, on the other hand, firmly believe my limit is 2. Besides, we named them like bookends, A through Z, we are done! (Unless God has different plans...)