Kristin vs. The Worst Day

Where do you begin describing one of the worst days ever? Well, I suppose you start at the beginning...

Last week we had scheduled a meeting with Medicaid (or Medi-Cal, as they call it here) to apply to get health insurance. The meeting was for this morning at 6:45am. A horrendously early time, I know. But it was the first meeting of the day (which bodes well for office timeliness), and it was at a time when Brad could go, before his classes started. So we dragged our dreadfully sleepy selves out of bed very early (December was the exception -- she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 5:56am) and managed to pull into the office parking lot before they opened their doors.

We got into the office and told the receptionist that we had arrived for our appointment. She told us to go wait in the waiting-area. 6:45am came and went. 7:00am came and went, as did 7:30am. At 7:45, Brad decided he would miss his Greek quiz and class (which would probably give him a zero for the quiz) in order to get the three of us applied for Medi-Cal. At 7:50am, we were told that the lady who we were supposed to meet with had called in sick, so someone else would come in for her at 8:00. At 8:20 we were finally called back to have our appointment. So much for office timeliness. As for the appointment, I don't think it could have gone any worse! It was confusing and horrible, and December only wanted to run amuck over everything, empty my purse of its contents, pull all of the papers on the desk onto the floor, and scream like a banshee if she was prevented from doing so (all of which she accomplished in a very short amount of time). She had gotten sick of the Medi-Cal idea after the first 45 minutes of waiting.

By the time we got back home around 9:45am, we still hadn't gotten ourselves applied for Medi-Cal. I think the lady we met with was so harried that she just wanted to see us gone (and, if she had her way, never see us again). Brad had to rush off to school, and I was given the task of doing phone calls to try to figure out some of the confusion. By this time, I was so frustrated with the waste of a loooong morning that I just wanted to sit down at the kitchen table and cry. But I told myself to buck up and start in on the phone calls. I actually had done a couple (and gotten nowhere) when December needed me.

Now, for the past few days (that have truly felt like weeks) December has gotten into one of her ornery phases. I'll describe this phase to you. The only word she knows is, "NOOOOOO! NO! NOOO! WAAAAA, AHHHHHH, MOMMMMYYYYYY, WAAAA," (well, I guess that would qualify as more than one word). But you get the point. Nothing is right in her world, and anything you offer her is the exact opposite of what she wants. For example, if her friends come over to play (something she normally thinks is great fun), she watches them arrive, and her first reaction is a loud scream. Everything is worthy of a long, drawn out wail. It's like you're in a never-ending melt-down mode. It makes all of the days more difficult, and December gets disciplined tons more during those days, but you eventually get through them.

So, anyway, I was called off from phone duty to tend to a few of her melt-downs (about 4 or 5 of them, to be exact). That's certainly a draining activity! When I got back to looking up phone numbers, the one ear that is always tuned-in to the station of "WTRU-UP2: December Activity" told me to check up on December. She was in the bathroom, and, as you might guess from me describing this as a really bad day, she had succeeded at locking herself inside! As you know, December's newest trick is to climb into the sink (a dangerous feat). As I worked feverishly with a paper clip to unlock the bathroom door from the outside, I heard her climb up into the sink and open up the medicine cabinet. Great. What kind of horrible taste-testing was she going to do on the plethora of pills in there? I threw the paper clip down and ran to my purse to grab a credit card. I know December's weird love of toothpaste's minty taste, so the entire time I worked on the door, I was yelling, "December, put the toothpaste DOWN! Icky toothpaste! Do NOT eat that toothpaste!" Really, I had no idea if she even was thinking about toothpaste, but I thought I should be safe. Unfortunately, I make a horrible thief, and I couldn't get past the bathroom's lock. I tried calling our apartment manager to see if she had some kind of a key, but she didn't answer the phone. So I called Della (one of the seminary wives) and asked her to come over and watch, or rather, listen to December while I searched for the manager.

Thankfully, Della and baby Samuel came right away. As they walked up the stairs, I heard a large crash coming from the bathroom. My heart nearly flew out of my chest as I waited for December's pained cries, but thankfully, they didn't come. I was relieved -- anything besides December is replaceable! Della came to the bathroom door, continued the "December-DON'T-eat-the-toothpaste" tirade and started plucking at the lock with my discarded paper clip. I ran down the stairs toward the apartment office. I found the manager sitting in her office (roar -- why in the world did she not answer her phone?!), and after I quickly spewed out my problem, she said, "Oh, dear," rather coolly and picked up the ringing telephone...and then proceeded to have a good-sized conversation with whoever was on the other end. Oh boy -- I wanted to scream at her that my BABY was stuck behind a locked bathroom door, about ready to fall out of the sink while eating whatever pills she found in the medicine cabinet and washing them down with a good mouthful of toothpaste!!

She finally got off the phone and called the resident handy-man. I raced back up the stairs to wait for him to arrive...thankfully it only took him about 5 minutes, but at the time 5 minutes was FOREVER to wait! He pried open the door, and December walked out, safe and sound! The thing that had crashed to the floor and broken was my duckie toilet-wand holder. Its head has been quite cleanly severed off its body.

When I put December down for a nap, I had high hopes of a solid 2 hours in which to get things accomplished (which she has been giving me lately)...but again, I am writing to you about a very bad day, so you may intelligently guess that she only napped for 30 minutes...which she did. Since she has been awake, I have been looking up phone numbers and calling different people who might be able to help, calming the relentless flow of temper tantrums in between calls. I think I've called close to ten different numbers, all which have proved fruitless. I have left lots of messages and have listened to lots of automated voices and waded through phone trees, but to no avail. This all fills me with great angst (I actually don't know if "angst" is the most correct word to use in this instance, but it's a fun word to say and I wanted to say I was "filled with angst" -- because it sounds cool).

Also, December has just managed to rip off one of the sides of the door knob on the door into our closet...and then she shut the door, thereby making it impossible to get into our closet. Sigh. Oh well...who needs to wear clothes or wear shoes, anyway? Clearly not us!

I can only say that I am thankful that it is dinner time. That means that the day is drawing to a close. Brad is off helping at a theological conference, so he won't be home until later. I'm sorry for not including pictures...typical of this day, I could only find one of the batteries in order to take any pictures. December likes to play with batteries, so I'm sure she's put the other one in a great hiding place.

All in all, I guess today could have gone a lot worse...after all, we are all still in one piece and healthy in body (though disgruntled in spirit). I had better go and feed December some dinner, lest I treat myself to Melt-Down #144 of the day!

I am quite certain that tomorrow will bring a better day, and boy, do I ever look forward to that!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas??

Here are Brad and December on Saturday night, eating dinner

December is examining her pizza before she eats it

We're recently started putting December right up to the table with us, instead of eating on her own tray. I like it alot! It's nice that she's not so separated from us...but she likes to reach out for the hot pans, so we have to keep a close eye on that!

Boy, next week is Thanksgiving...already! After that comes the Christmas season! In my family, we always put up the Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving. I loved it! Christmas is by far the best season, my favorite holiday. But this year, it seems so weird that Thanksgiving and Christmas are happening already! The weather here is playing tricks on Brad and I. It feels like we're perpetually in the month of August. Since we've moved here, September has never arrived. It's such a strange feeling! Imagine having Thanksgiving in August, putting up a Christmas tree in August. That's what it feels like! That's all right, though, I still love these holidays, no matter what month my brain tells me it is...our seminary friends here are staying around for Thanksgiving, so we'll all be having dinner together. The girls are going to come over later today so we can plan what we'll all bring.

December is such a little chatter-bug! Sometimes she gets in these little chatty moods where she'll just string words together, and only she knows what she's talking so much about. She often does this in her car seat. If you were ride in the car with us, this is what you'd hear: "Ahh...dahhh...Mommy, Daddy...goh doh doo...baby, deh baby, dat baby, dat baby...Mommy...boo, goh goh...goh...dat Daddy baby. Shh! Baby. *whispered* Baby, ni baby." She goes on and on, and I wonder what kind of a story she's making up. All I know is that it has to do with her three favorite words: Mommy, Daddy, and Baby. She must be very creative, because she comes up with these stories many times each day. Hopefully one day, as she learns more words, I'll be able to listen in with more understanding and hear these fairytales she's writing.

The Ever-Changing Moods of December

All of the pictures in this post were taken within a few minutes of each other...just showing how December's mood (especially when she's tired) changes quite quickly! I call this picture "Happy December."

This is "Surprised December." She's not actually shocked in this picture; she just likes making this face when she hears an unexpected noise -- like a car alarm going off or a door slamming or something crashing to the floor...she just likes being silly!

This is "Frustrated and Pouting December." She can get ALOT more pouty than this, but she just didn't do "Super Pouty December" in the span of these few minutes. Since both Brad and I were expert pouting babies, she has good genes for that trick!

Here is "Generally Discontented December." This is her most common face that I see when she's tired of being awake.

Here is "Sad December." This closely follows a certain Dutch picture that was written about in May. She's doing the beginnings of the pout I was telling you about!

Currently December is "Contented December." I'd get a picture of her, but the camera's batteries are dead, as always. I am going online today and getting those batteries Michael was telling us about! All of the cute pictures of December that I want to get are always unget-able because of the terrible batteries. I put them in the battery charger, and after they charge up, if I don't use them within 30 minutes, the batteries are dead again! Harumph. Anyway, December is contented because she is out playing on the porch, peeking through the slats at our fellow apartment-people going about their business. Ooop, and now she is sitting in the bathroom sink. Ha! I'll have to tell you more about that when I can get some good pictures of December in action. I'll just go and charge up those camera batteries.

One Full Sentence (and a Couple of Large Burritos)

Here is what December wore on Halloween -- it's so beautiful! I wanted December to wear it and have lots of people see her :) She looked super cute and got lots of comments.

Here she is, running around and having a grand time

December being happy

December is a good little Mommy, as you know -- here she wanted her baby put in her new high chair and the bib put on the baby. December is feeding her some cheese.

Now the baby is thirsty, so December is giving her a drink from a bottle.

December is laying on her folded-up stroller, in which she has put one of her dolls and covered with a blanket.

Giving her doll a kiss...

It's great to hear December learn new words every day. Last night she hit a milestone -- she said her first full sentence! We were sitting at the dinner table, and Brad jumped up to get something and went out of sight. December watched him leave, and then looked at me and asked, "Wh- Dadeee goh?" (= Where'd Daddy go?) Brad and I were quite excited! That's her very first sentence. It's also pretty cute to watch her when we do family devotions after dinner. When Brad gets the Bible, December lifts her index finger to her lips and says, "Shhh! Dadeee -- Babo!" (= Shhh! Daddy -- Bible!) That comes from us constantly saying that to her during the months when she thought it was fun to yell at the top her lungs every time she saw Brad getting the Bible out. Now, she has learned to be fairly quiet when Brad reads...usually.

We didn't take December out actually trick-or-treating, and we only got five kids coming to our door...one of which was December. BUT that makes me super happy because that means I get to eat all the unclaimed candy! I was even happier last year when we only got three kids. Ha! ;) Boy, I sound like the Scrooge of Halloween. Our seminary friends came over that night and told us that there is this restaurant where you can get a free burrito if you dress up like a burrito for Halloween! So a bunch of us went there and ate for free! It was the perfect seminarian get-together! :) The restaurant wraps their burritos in tin foil, so Brad fashioned for himself a tin foil sign with the restaurant's name on it, along ith a tin foil hat, and then he made me a tin foil hat, and I wrapped a tin foil tube top around myself (I thought that was terribly creative of me until I saw that most of the other girls at the restaurant had done the same thing). It was very fun!

Brad found my set of keys last night -- yay!! They had been missing for a few days, and the last time I had seen them was when December was playing around with them. I should have taken them away from her, but I had been quite foolish and had given them to her in the first place, when she said, "Deees, deees!" (= Keys, please!) Brad found them when December was trying to knock the guitar off its stand. He heard an unusually brass-like sound coming from inside his guitar. She had managed to slip the set of keys behind the strings and dumped them into the guitar's innards. She's great at hiding things! ;)