Sheep Guarding Llama

Into the office this morning.  Nothing special.  Had an incredibly busy morning, probably related to the early market close and three day weekend (Monday is Memorial Day.)  Dan and I tried to go to lunch and it took until almost two before we were able to leave because of so many people requesting work during the normal lunch hour.  That’s one thing that I hate about working for a global organization – someone always wants you to work and no one knows when you would normally be starting, lunching or leaving.  It gets to be pretty obnoxious some days.  And if you even so much as use the restroom some days people will escalate to management and say that you aren’t around.  It’s ridiculous.

So we got to lunch and ended up working all through lunch and I had to leave Dan there (luckily we had driven separately) and ran back to the office to work like mad the rest of the afternoon.

Luckily I was at least able to leave decently early, just a little after four, so that I could run home, grab the family and get on the road.  Steve Romano’s wedding is tomorrow afternoon in Vassar, Kansas so we need to drive up there tonight to be able to make it.  So we got on the road as quickly as we could which was nearly six by the time we were actually loaded into the car and moving.  We hit Sonic around the corner to get some food before getting onto the highway.

Because of the holiday traffic and the disaster area in the Oklahoma City area we decided to avoid Interstate 35 and instead take the US75 route through Tulsa which is shorter but takes forty-five minutes longer.  That is a long, boring drive that we do a few times a year because it is the route back home to New York as well, at least as far as the Tulsa area.

The drive went well.  We were really concerned that we would hit rain but we did not and no tornado warnings either.  Clear sailing the whole way.

It was two thirty when we pulled into Ottawa, Kansas where we stayed the night at the EconoLodge there.  We got a king room that was actually pretty nice.  We were very happy with our room there.  Slightly more expensive than an EconoLodge normally is but the room was a bit better too so that explained it.

Unfortunately Luciana decided that she didn’t want to go to sleep and so she kept us all awake until four in the morning.  That is going to make tomorrow really hard as we are tired as it is.

Dominica had to go to work today and the girls are headed to daycare.  So Dominica was up and out the door early.  I slept in a little, got the girls ready, dealt with a bunch of crap for the office from home and then ran them up to Corinth for daycare getting there just after eleven.  I worked from there on the phone for another half an hour or so.  What a stressful morning.

Dan needed to carpool in today because he had left his truck at the office yesterday and so needed a ride.  So he and I left Corinth around a quarter till noon.  I was supposed to be meeting Watson at Redneck at that time so Dan and I drove straight there and met him.  We did lunch and then Dan and I headed into the office from there.

I had a stressful afternoon at the office too.  It has not been a good day.

Came home and we just spent the evening at home hanging out.  Liesl and I played more of her game and it turns out that there was probably only thirty minutes of it left so we finished it and installed the prequel: The Book of Unwritten Tales – The Critter Chronicles and started playing that.  We only got, at most, one hour in on it today.  We won’t be able to play again until Sunday as we are traveling tomorrow and Saturday up to Kansas but we will play more over the weekend.  So far it looks and feels just like a continuation of the original.  Liesl is still loving it.

Day Three Alone with the Kids.  Luciana got me up at six thirty this morning having soaked through her diaper during the night.  She didn’t want to go back to sleep and wanted to watch Dora the Explorer or “Boots and Wowa” as she says.  I went to find it and Netflix couldn’t find it.  So I tried Diego, also no luck.  I knew what had happened and feared the worst.  I ran to my office and Googled the situations, sure enough, Netflix let their contract with Viacom expire this morning and the Nickelodean content that has been so important to us these past few years is now gone.  The shows that Liesl grew up watching are not going to be available for Luciana.  This is going to be hard to explain to both of them, Luciana especially as she is right in the early stages of the series Dora frenzy.  It is her favourite show.  She watches it every day and some Diego too.  They watch them together too.

Later in the morning, Luciana came into my office with Lambie asking me to help her put him into her backpack and then to put no the backpack.  A routine that she does so that she can pretend to be Dora the Explorer herself before going to watch the show.  She was very sad when I explained that we didn’t have Dora anymore and she took off the backpack and sat in my lap for a while.

Later in the day we figured out that the Nickelodean shows that we care about are being mostly made available from Amazon VOD either for free or for purchase.  So we plan on purchasing a lot on there to ensure that Liesl and Luciana continue to have access to them.

We had a pretty good day today.  It’s amazing that I have managed to be home with the girls, alone, for so long.  This is one of my longest stretches without leaving the house too.  I can see why Dominica likes to just stay home for a long stretch, it is very relaxing.  The girls and I have been having a good time getting a lot of time together and the timing was perfect that all of my college stuff wrapped up so that I don’t need to be worrying about that at all.

I worked all day and Dominica got home at a pretty decent time in the early evening.  She had left Houston just minutes before one and made the drive up only having to deal with Dallas rush hour traffic which held her up a bit.  The girls were very excited to see her and Liesl was very excited to show her the video game that we have been playing and how Liesl is now able to actually play the game herself rather than watching me play – something that Dominica has not gotten to see yet.

This evening Dominica was exhausted and mostly just relaxed.  Liesl and I played more of our game.  We are very close to the end of it but didn’t quite make it all of the way tonight.

Day Two Alone with the Girls.  I’m into uncharted territory here having never been alone with both kids for this long.  This is a new experience for everyone.  I’m sure that Dominica is kind of enjoying having some time without the kids as well as she never gets a break longer than about twelve hours from them.

Dominica said that she plans to be home tomorrow night, probably pretty late.  If everything goes to plan I’ll have three complete days alone with the girls.  There isn’t much opportunity for it to go longer than that because Dominica needs to be home for work early Thursday morning.

Very busy day at the office today.  That made it hard to spend any time with the girls.  They are a little restless as I’ve been very busy.  Liesl spends all day asking when we will get to play the video game, The Book of Unwritten Tales.  She is so into that game.  I don’t think that she has ever been so into a video game.  I’m not sure if it is the game itself or if this is a game that she and I can play together.  That’s certainly why I like it.  It’s awesome being able to actually game with my kids.  I’ve always looked forward to this.   So much fun being able to do this together.

The girls did a bit of painting today.  Liesl had me set up a painting station in the kitchen yesterday and she painted a mask and Luciana set up and painted one too.  Today Luciana put in probably an hour painting again.  Liesl decided that she wanted to paint her nails today too so did that all on her own (with permission) and then painted Luciana’s finger nails too.  They were adorable together.

Both girls were really good today even with me being exceptionally busy.

Once work was done, both girls came into the office, sat on my lap and we played Liesl’s video game.  It was great having both of them.  Luciana just watched and after a while Liesl took over mouse control and actually started playing the game!  She needs me to help her with the dialogue decisions since she can’t read yet but she is able to use the mouse expertly, navigate around the game, look for objects and clues and select the dialogue options.  It is very cool having her be able to really play and not just watch.  We really need to get a computer hooked up in the living room to the projection system so that she and I can play together from the couch.  That will be far more comfortable and engaging and I think it will be easier for her to do out there.

Luciana napped a bit today making it really hard to get her to bed tonight.  Liesl is happy to go to bed on the early side because she is sleeping in my bed.

Dominica left for work at a quarter to seven this morning.  Thus begins my first stretch at home alone with my girls for an extended period of time.  Dominica might be home late tomorrow night but more likely she will be coming home late Wednesday morning and possibly later than that.  So this is an adventure for the girls and I.

I had to work all day so that made it tough.  But at least I was home and got to see the girls all day.  Ciana was up first and watched some shows alone in the living room as she likes to do if she gets a chance before Liesl is awake.  She and her stuffed animals get some quite time to just relax.  I’m surprised by how much Ciana looks for alone time. She will often spend the day alone off somewhere on the far side of the house just hiding out doing something quietly.  Liesl did that a lot but she didn’t have someone with whom to play so seeing Ciana work to get away from everyone is interesting.

Both girls went down for early naps today.  Liesl just rested by Ciana slept a good long while which was helpful as working with the girls here is always challenging.

Dominica got out of work at four and went to Sonic and got on the road, in rush hour, to drive down to Houston.  She is going to have a really long drive.  The weather here was okay while she was driving but it was right as she was getting onto the road to head south that the massive hour long EF-4 tornado was tearing apart Moore, Oklahoma right up I35 from us so people from some distance away who weren’t sure that the DFW wasn’t getting hit with bad weather were pretty worried about her.  Her drive was fine, though, she was driving directly away from the bad weather systems the entire time and I don’t think that in Carrollton we even got rain all day although it was dark and windy.

The girls were taking a shower this afternoon, Luciana decided to open a bottle of shampoo and wash her face.  Poor little girl was screaming quite a bit when I got to her and had to hose her face off to get the shampoo out of her eyes.  Hopefully that is a lesson that she will not forget soon.

The girls watched some Dora the Explorer in my room while I finished up work for the day which went way too long, working till about six thirty, then they came into my office so that we could play a video game together.  Liesl has been just so excited about playing The Book of Unwritten Tales, she really loves that game.  This is our third day playing it and she just can’t get enough of it.  By the time that we turned it off so that Liesl could get ready for bed, which was way too late for her, we had just crossed the eleven hours of gameplay mark and appear to be around about halfway through the game.  Liesl is following the story really well.  She knows what is going on, she understands most of the puzzles and she helps out when she can.  She either sits on a chair directly beside me or she sits on my lap and snuggles.

Luciana doesn’t really watch the game at all but really likes having blankets put on top of the chairs that Liesl drags into my office and she plays on and under them while Liesl and I play the game.  Then, this evening, Luciana made me make her a cape so that she could run around the house being “Super Ciana.”  I have no idea where this came from or how she managed to explain to me that she needed a cape but apparently Luciana styles herself as a pint-sized super hero.  It was quite a game and went on for probably forty five minutes.

And that concluded the first ever, as far as I can remember, complete day in which I had the girls all to myself without any Dominica helping out with them at all.  That is probably not true, but I cannot remember it happening before and if it did it might have been when there was only Liesl.  Tomorrow will be the real challenge.  One day without mom they barely noticed.  But when Dominica is not here tomorrow Luciana will, at least, begin to worry I presume.  Liesl will be fine.  When I put her to bed she said that she had so much fun having a day just with her dad.  She gets “just mom” days regularly, at least every few months.  But a day with just me is unprecedented.  And without Dominica here that meant that I was home all day, watched no television (never even turned the projector on) and did nothing, other than work, but play with the girls.  And, of course, the big win in Liesl’s book is that when mom is away Liesl automatically gets to sleep in our room as it is only Dominica that she keeps awake. I get better sleep with Liesl there than without.  It’s amazing how much Liesl is the snuggler and Luciana wants to sleep by herself.  And Liesl has to have the light on to sleep and Luciana needs it as dark as can be.