Sleepless Nights

No, we aren’t worried parents anymore. We are just hoping that our two young daughters will sleep through the night.

We recently moved to a new house, and as a result, we moved our older daughter from the crib to a normal full size mattress. For more than two months, we had a great routine going:

• I would announce bedtime
• She and I would brush her teeth
• I’d change her into her pajamas
• I’d read her some bedtime story
• I would walk out the door and say “Good night, see you in the morning”

So much for the good ol’ days. Now it’s such a fight just to get her to brush her teeth. Over the past two weeks, our oldest has not wanted to sleep in her own room for some strange reason. At first we thought she was afraid of something, a strange and scary noise perhaps. So, we decided it would be ok to let her sleep in our bed. The problem with that was our bed was too small because we already had our new addition sleeping in our bed. So, I took Eliana with me to the bed downstairs so that she wouldn’t sleep alone. This was ok until she started to throw her terrible 2 tantrums. Now she doesn’t even go to sleep until late at night, and still wakes up in the middle of the night yelling about something.

Last night, in preparation for her nightly awakening, her mom put Annabelle (the little one) into her crib so that the yelling wouldn’t wake her up. When Eliana did wake up, being the frustrated dad, I put her downstairs in another bedroom to let her ride out her tantrum. I was surprised when she didn’t really put up a fight (I guess she was tired), and when I put her on the bed, she didn’t try to run to the door. I closed the door, with a small opening for some light. I returned to sleep in my own bed, and two things immediately surprised me: Eliana was quiet and not screaming, and Annabelle was quiet and not screaming. For the first time in over two months, i was alone in the same bed as my wife. We are actually able to have a nice discussion about our strategy, and things that are coming up in the next few days…overall a nice chat, one that is definately easier without screaming kids around.

I only hope we can repeat last night’s success with the kids…

Up high

It’s hard to believe that only 24 hours ago, this little girl was writhing in pain, clinging to me and with only enough energy to look into my eyes with a very sad look on her face. Now, she is full of energy, and was very excited to play at the park today. It was also a good day for a photoshoot as I took several great pictures of our little girl.

Being sick is no fun

A day after her birthday, Eliana still wasn’t feeling very good. Only today did we find out that she has a mild case of pnemonia. It would really suck if she had a really bad case of pnemonia. Let’s hope she feels better soon.

Learning as we go

So, Eliana has been sick this whole weekend. Even though she is two, we are still fairly new parents and don’t know all the things to do when it comes to things like childhood illnesses. My first reaction was to give her some blankets and keep her warm: I know that the last time I was running a temperature, even though i was burning hot, that is what I wanted to do…it helped my body deal with the sickness.

Next we had already scheduled her birthday party because, hey, it was her birthday. We did as much as we could with a sick child. It would have been more fun if she was not sick, but then that’s how it goes.

At her party which happened at her grandparent’s house in Tucson, we learn that she needs to be kept cool. Upon returning to casademora Gilbert, we strip her down to her diaper and cover he with wet towels. Some children’s tylenol helps keep her fever symptoms in check.

So, today we notice that she still has a temperature in the morning, so we give her some tylenol and head to the doctor. After waiting for an hour in the office, we’re finally seen. At least she doesn’t shove us onto the next area in the assembly line right away. She suggested that she might be suffering from pnemonia, and that we need to get some X-rays done to be sure. So, after another hour wait at the radiologist, we were told to wait for a few hours before a final diagnosis is made.

The doctor called and said she does have pnemonia, which means more medicine for Eliana. She hates taking medicine as it is and I hate forcing her to take it.

The moral of this entry is to know how to deal with kid colds and fevers before they have them, don’t schedule your child’s birthday party on their birthday, and visit the doctor ASAP if you kid has been sick for more than 2 days.

Happy 2nd Birthday Eliana!!

March 25, 2006, Eliana turned 2 years old. It was a bittersweet day for her, however, as she was fighting an illness all day.

Ready for her closeup

Annabelle has been causing us many sleepless nights lately. Even so, when she is awake and not crying, she is a very beautiful baby who now seems ready for a few camera poses.

Where does the Time go?

Seriously, it seems like these days time just flies by. It used to be that I had a few hours every day to do little things that benefited myself such as read a book, write a little code or some other brain enhancing function. Now, every minute of my day seems to be accounted for, and none of them are for me. Here is a brief sample schedule:

6 -7 am	Wake up and eat before the kids wake up. I get to read the morning news, but usually only for a few minutes before they figure out I have snuck out of the room
7-8 am	Shower and get ready for the day. This also includes bathing and clothing the kids. I guess I should count myself lucky that I can get all of this done in one hour.
8-9 am	Driving to work. Normally it would take only 15 minutes to drive to work. However, now that one of our kids is going to daycare (we tell her it’s school, I think they learn somethig there anyways), it is 30 minutes to drop her off, and another 30 minutes to get to work. Thanks to be my brilliant driving skills and deductive route finding techniques, I have shaved nearly 20 minutes of this time. I try to make the most of my mundain driving time by downloading some informative podcasts and listening to them along the way. My daugther is also linstening, so I don’t know if she’ll come out to be a techno-nerd like me or not.
9 am – 5 pm	Work. Work is my saving grace. I have fun at work, and I learn a lot of things every day. If it weren’t for work, I would be a mental pile of mush.
5 – 6 pm	The drive home from work. More podcasts, more traffic.
6 – 7 pm	Family dinner time. It doesn’t take an hour to eat, however, it does take that long to get the kids to settle down and eat, and then to clean up our mess.
7 – 8 pm	Some times I can fit in some nice activity here like watching a game on TV or whatnot. Most of the time, this is play time for me and the kids. It’s nice to play, but sometimes I just have things on my mind that I want to get in the computer before they evaporate from my brain.
8 – 9pm	Bed time. This used to be easy, but lately not so much
9pm – 7am	Sleepy time for me, if I’m lucky. But I usually not able to do anything useful here as I’m mostly asleep anyways

While this schedule isn’t all that bad, it doesnt’ give me a whole lot of time to do the one thing that I absolutely need to do to maintain my health, exercise. Sure I can to it from 8 – 9 maybe, but that hasn’t happened yet because of the amount of attention I need to give my kids. Hopefully, just by posting this schedule, I can figure out a way to reinclude exercise back into my normal routine.

A Day to Reflect

Today was day for some minor celebration. Today marked a milestone event that has completely changed my life. Today was also just another day, not to mention Pi day. Today was my first year anniversary of working at Intel. In my previous job, I was getting really bored, and it showed in my work. I was uninterested and any solutions I had to cool problems were subsequently tossed aside as the wrong solution. All these things take their toll. Along with the fact that the company was doing very flaky things to the rest of my coworkers, I knew that it was in my best interests to find a new workplace.

Luckly, Intel found me. I had posted my resume on numberous job board, and an HR representative from Intel left a message on my home answering machine. I don’t remember the words exactly, and really, they don’t matter much to me right now. The one thing I do remember is that the follow-up call was from a guy named Jason Morris. He leave me through my technical interview, and I guess I did alright as I was invited to an onsite interview. I was flying high that day because In knew Intel’s reputation as a great employer. I had also heard about the awesome sabaticals.

I arrived at Intel on a very cloudy day. It had just rained, which in Arizona, is quite rare. When I arrived at the front desk and asked the security guard to call my first interviewer, I was a little nervous that no one answered the phone. So, I asked her to try again, with no luck. So, I took a seat, and waited. I figured there were going to be more people interviewing, so if they come for someone else, I will ask them what’s up. Five minutes do not even pass by when a man with a folder containing notes calls my name. Saved me the trouble, I guess. Let the games begin.

I’m not going to list everything that happened on my interview that day, because I frankly can’t remember everything. I do remember that I was exhausted mentally at the end of it, and that I knew I had done everything I could to get the position. And, in the end it all worked out, and I have worked with those same groups of interviewers ever since.

My time at Intel has thus far been great. I work with smart people, and I am learning new things everyday not only because I can, but I am challenged to do so. There has not been a day when i do not look forward to going to work. There have been days where I am just tired and could use more rest, but this is quite possibly the perfect job for me.

Oh, what a life

Don’t you remember the easy going days when your parents did everything for you? Well, thanks to this picture, I hope Eliana will remember all the little things we did for her everyday in preparation for school in the mornings.

Message to the future

I’ve been doing lots of thinking about this blog. My current audience is non-existant. My postings are irregular, and not too many people can relate to my topics. So then, why should an anonymous Internetizen such as myself even consider posting topics so close and dear to my heart?

The short answer: My two daughters.

I think it comes from not knowing my parents as well as I should, or maybe my desire to find a way to relate to my kids in the future. My own childhood wasn’t unhappy, however, I think i always wanted more. More from my parents. But then I always thought I wanted too much, and put aside what I wanted and accepted what I had: two loving parents and a great family. Nevertheless, I want to do things a tad differently for my children, not because I think my parents did it wrong, but because I am different from my parents. I have evolved into my own person, as does everyone. And as my own person, I personally want to be able to talk to my daughters about anything, and hope they are able to do the same with me. Yes, even though they are my father.

I am still a strapping young man, full of life, with many dreams. Life has not beaten me down yet, as perhaps it has others even my age, but most certainly those who are older. My dream is that my children will have a deep first-hand understanding of their father. And not as their father 15 years from now. But as their father who was only 10 years older than they were. It may be an impossible task, and perhaps through my everyday communications, blog journals like this may not be necessary.

However, I also look back at history, and how much of what we know of our past is learned from journals and letters of fathers to their wifes and daughters. This is my legacy for all the Internet to read. It will be my eternal gift to my children, worth more than any car, xbox 1080 or whatever material item may come. This blog, which they will no doubt someday read, should help them to understand some of the things that have gone and, and why I chose to do things a certain way. Don’t you wish you could ask your parents why they did something to you as a kid? I think I can tell them now, and they can read about it later.

I love my daugthers, and I hope they will understand me better as they get to know me in the coming years as not only their father, but a close friend.