No Phone Thoughts

I'm running on day 9 of life without an iPhone.  I do have iPhone messaging on my computer and internet at home, but otherwise, we're cut off from being phone less.  In today's world, that means not only missing out on a million useless apps and games, but more importantly- no text, no maps, and no internet for whatever odd question I have and want to google.

On the bright side, my sleep pattern has improved.  I no longer have a handheld distraction to get lost in way past a reasonable bedtime.  I also have become more punctual.  Since we tell people we're going to be somewhere before leaving home, we can't really afford to be late since we don't have a phone to communicate with once we're out and about.  I've also become more resourceful with researching wherever we are off to because I can't just google where I am if I'm lost.

On the down side, we don't have a phone and have to rely on the kindness of strangers and friends to let us text Andy about where to meet up, or just wait and hope he finds us.  We've gone to a Nationals ball game and used someone's phone at Guest Services to let Andy know where we are and we've even made a trip to Andy's work and gone through security at the Department of Labor, just to ask the security guy downstairs to call him so we could let him know where we were.  We also don't have a camera when it's just me with the kids, so I've been lugging around our huge single lense camera to take photos while we're out and about.  I've come to realize the most important things to me about my phone are its capability to call/text and take photos!

I'll hopefully have a phone by day 12 but as for the weekends, it's not a huge deal since we're always with Andy all day.  It feels like a simpler life but also a little more complex when you have to prepare and be ready to be out and about without a phone!

Off to research our next adventure today... to Rosslyn to play with our friends from South Pasadena!

UPDATE: We made it!  We had a blast and now I feel completely comfortable on the Metro with three by myself.  It's great, the confidence and looks of approval and subtle nods from strangers make me happy.  The doubt and disbelief from strangers however rubs me the wrong way a lot more than anywhere else.  Note - work on that.  It was also so great to have Natascha meet us outside of the Metro and she was so sweet, she walked us back as well, hill and all!  I'm not sure why Capitol Hill is called that, because the hills in Arlington were way worse.  We attempted French macaroons and semi-failed.. the feet came out but then the tops deflated and they looked more like woopie pies than macarons.  She fed us leftover udon noodles which my kids engulfed.  Rasmus and JJ are both a bit younger than Jordan and Bubba but they get along great!  It's been fun seeing the Bentleys almost every week while here.  We're sure going to miss them!

My Body is Not Me.. Or Is It?

I still can't quite fit comfortably into my wedding dress, but I can zip up my Chinese qi-pao, suck it in and zip it up, and then glance at my own reflection, the robust body slowly ripping away at the seams as my airway tightens from lack of air, relieved only by unzipping it.  I can now button up pants from before I had kids, and because I've adapted to the tightness of my muffin top overhang, they even feel okay, just a little bit tighter than before.

I am somewhat content, maybe even a bit happy with where my body is now, and I know I should be pleased that it was able to have three kids, even if two were premature.  I happily wear a c-section scar low enough that nobody will ever see, even in a skimpy two piece swimsuit.  But I am human.  I am a woman.  I have moments of longing, of anguish, and of hopeless desire to just go on a shopping spree and have cute, new, fun, and non-Mom looking clothes.  Then the fiscally responsible and financially aware brute in me takes over.  Does it make sense?  You'll probably be pregnant in the next few months.  Your body will be going through whatever it has to do to grow another child.  That means another 8 months of pregnancy (assuming my at risk pregnancies result in a premature child again), and then likely another 15 months to normalcy, and not without lots of hard work eating better and working out, all while taking care of three kids, a new baby, and hating my post-partum body that is not itself and struggling to find things to wear everyday besides exercise gear.

I am not my body.  But I am.  I try so hard to love my body, but I have a love hate relationship with it.    I also have out of body experiences as I observe myself wondering where my body went.  It doesn't feel like my body... at least not for the next little while as I'm having kids, growing them, birthing them, nursing them, etc.

And yet it feels so pathetic to woe over something so superficial and meaningless.  But it is where I am at this very moment as sales pop up in my junk mail and I unrelentingly look at them, momentarily get excited, and then fall into a gloom of dejection.  Sacrifice is never easy.  Growing up, I never thought of the toll my body would have to take for that big family I wanted.  Now.. four kids looks like a great end game.  Sorry little Daisy.. five is just a bit much... unless you adopt or have a surrogate. HA!

Saturday with Family

I love breakfast.  If I could choose, I would have breakfast for all three meals of the day.  With kids though, we have rarely made it out to any nice breakfast joints.  Normally, we settle for lunch but with family in town, we opted to go to breakfast at a popular join on the Hill called Ted's Bulletin.  We underestimated just how popular (and small) this place was... and ended up waiting an hour and a half for breakfast.  On the bright side, my dad was flying in from LA on a red eye flight, so he was making his way to us as we waited.  He arrived just in time to sit and eat with everyone!  

homemade pop-tarts.. one for each kid

when your meal matches your outfit

cinnamon roll as big as your noggin

Ted's Bulletin on 8th by Eastern Market 

vintage decor

After breakfast, we made our way to the metro.  It had been raining, snowing, and hailing a bit on and off during breakfast, so when we left and it was just overcast, gratitude and relief was felt by all (especially yours truly).  We decided to make a day of museums to stay out of the rain.  So first on our list was Spark Lab in the American History Museum where kids ages 6 and up could go and problem solve.  I hadn't been able to take Jordan there with the two littles but Andy wanted to take him, so off we went!

A little helpful hint for visiting the American History Museum is that they have an express no bags line.  So while Dagny and Bubba napped, we waited in the cold outside with everyone's bags and they all went in.  Bubba woke up, Andy came and grabbed him, and then Dagny and I eventually made our way inside as well.

Right next to the Spark Lab is a fairly new Wegman's Wonderland exhibit which is basically a small play place for kids.  It's got stations for building, little kitchen, carrot planting and eggs, vegetables, etc. and even a tiny space for kids under 1 who are crawling or just starting to walk.  The best part is, there's a tiny toilet in there for potty training kids or my 4 year old who loves the small toilets his size, along with a diaper changing table and a normal sized toilet for adults.  We've been here a few times with friends, but it was the most empty we had ever seen it on the weekend!  Most likely because most people visiting the museum on the weekends are here to see actual other exhibits too, meanwhile us stay at home moms and nannies come during the week to pass some time (and rarely stop at the other exhibits).

all the stuff on the board!  I have never seen it like this!

We made our way to the Natural History Museum as well, assumed there was a bag check line, and then ended up realizing there was not.  Meanwhile, our aunt Jan, made her way to the front, told the people in line they were in the wrong line, and then walked on into the nonexistent "express" line.  We had a long laugh about this, then we advised her to take off her bright pink jacket so she wouldn't be easily recognized by the poor family who walked to the end of the line looking for the bag line.

My dad was tired from his red eye flight, so he went home after the American History Museum.  Since all my photos are from his camera, there are no more photos from that, or our jaunt home to grab dinner and then home.

On his way home, he walked by this Church that is a block away from our house.  It sits on the corner of the street.  He also snapped some other shots of Capitol Hill that I'll also leave here.  The clouds cleared up a bit despite the still cold weather, but we were just grateful the snow stopped as we've heard that the brick roads can become VERY slippery, to the point where you are holding onto the iron gates everywhere you walk.

Pay Phones Don't Exist Anymore

You never stop to think about them, because you never have a need for them.  But when your 1 year old drops your iPhone from the top of a very high second floor and you're too cheap to buy or fix the existing phone and have to meet your husband at a ballgame in the afternoon... you quickly learn that pay phones don't exist anymore.

As we walked yesterday afternoon to the Metro stop to go towards Georgetown to the Apple Store, I realized having no phone was kind of liberating.  I felt like a rebel.  An outsider in today's social media driven world.  It felt really good to have nothing to distract me from my kids, and I was all in.  The downside was I couldn't take any photos, but I also couldn't waste any time looking at other people's photos.  It was just me, the kids, and the walk from Foggy Bottom to Georgetown.  I observed the people around me.  I watched my kids.  I thought about how I was going to get to the ballpark before the rush. I took in the scenery around me.  I noticed a lot of white and black bricks, perfect for a photo, one I could not take as I was sans phone.  Jordan had a long conversation with me while we were walking.  It's not like I'm some kind of phone freak, but I do get easily distracted looking at the weather, my Instagram account, Facebook, email, etc. and nothing is really that important or time sensitive, I just like to pretend I'm important and have to check my email for work every now and then.  I actually really like to tell my kids outloud, "Mommy has to go home and take a work call later," because it makes me feel good about being more than just a stay at home mom, because those 8 hours really mean a LOT at the end of the day (NOT).  Haha.  I know, I'm weird like that, but I'm a human too! 

I actually almost bought a $500 phone.  I figured I could expense it for some consulting stuff I'm doing on the side to offset my self employment tax.  Turns out I'm one cheap person.  When they quoted me $500, that seemed okay, but then it turned out to be $799 and that was too much, even for me. So I decided I won't have a phone for a week before my in-laws come since my FIL just got a new phone, my MIL got his old one and her old one is still around.  Way better solution!  In the meantime, I'm pondering a computer purchase to expense... or some nice office supplies or office decorations.  Maybe an upgrade to my existing stereo system so I can take work calls while driving...? 

I might not have my phone, but when we're home, I have my text messages available via ichat (with iPhone users), so there's that!  

New York On the Cheap with Kids

We did two nights and two days in New York this weekend on what we consider the cheap.  In the end, it still cost more than it would have been to stay in DC for the weekend, but we said Happy Anniversary (our anniversary is in June) and called it a good vacation.

I had frequented New York quite a bit when my brother was at NYU for school.  Any chance I got to go to training in New Jersey meant a quick trip over to New York before or afterwards.  Prior to that, we had been with our family on one of those big Asian tour bus trips, then I took my brother out to look at schools again when I was working (sugar momma sissie) and he was in the middle of transferring to film school, and a lot of my high school and college friends were here for school or work at the time, so I'm pretty familiar with New York and how crappy the subway system is to a non-New Yorker.  But I had never been to New York with three small kids, so I was a bit nervous, and a lot relieved I didn't have to party until 4 AM again. HA!

In the end, we learned to be aggressive with our stroller on sidewalks with a polite "excuse me" and "sorry" whenever we had to veer onto the path and people were just standing there waiting to take the intersecting crosswalk, learned the best way to navigate the stairs of the subway system with one holding the back and the other the front (Bubba in his chariot, Jordan walking, and Dagny in the carrier), and were thankful for our kids' sincere prayers when it only rained a tiny bit first thing Friday morning and last thing Friday night and then a bit Saturday morning.  For the most part, it was overcast or bright and sunny with a chill perfect for us to walk around pushing the boys and wearing Dagny.

The food was deliciously cheap, the lights were big and bright, the streets were bustling with tourists (and annoyed working people on Friday), and we had an absolute blast!

Here's how we did New York cheap.
1) We ate from street carts, hole in the walls, etc. and ate most of our meals a la fresco on the steps and sidewalks of the big New York buildings, and we only got told once by the big security guy that we were not supposed to be doing that.
2) We stayed in a semi ghetto hotel with a fridge in Jersey, drove to the nearest park and ride, and bused into New York (10 minutes and $10 to park and one round trip plus $6.50 for another round trip since kids ages 5 and under are free).  You politely ask the bus driver to open the bottom trunk, then you slide your stroller in on its side, and retrieve upon arrival!
3) We used the subway for far distances but mostly walked our way around midtown, uptown, etc.
4) We enjoyed free things like playgrounds: Hecksher Playground (on the southwest side of Central Park), a nice stroll in Battery Park (and we walked past the West Thames playground, but that is on the list for next time we're near the WTC 9/11 Memorial), took the FREE Staten Island ferry (that runs on the half hour) to see the Statue of Liberty from afar (zoom on our iPhones work great) to and from, and enjoyed all the beautiful churches and architecture inside (Trinity Church where Alexander Hamilton is buried and St. Patrick's Cathedral), and spent time window shopping at kid friendly stores like the M&M Store and Disney Store in Times Square and the Lego Store in Rockefeller Center.
5) We don't drink so we ate cheap and weren't out enjoying New York's nightlife without our kids.  Sadly, we were bummed we didn't get to do any shows as we walked by the Theatre District every night on our way to the bus stop inside the New York Port Authority, but we figure when our kids are older, we can all go together.