Parenting is hard

I don't know what is going on with the kids, but they have been particularly difficult this weekend.  Sienna, my easy-going, happy baby has been fussy, fussy, FUSSY!!!  She insists on being held - by me - 100% of the time, ideally while being walked around.  If I sit, if I put her down (sleeping or awake), she freaks out.  I actually let her cry in the crib for 20 minutes yesterday while I prepped dinner - something I've never done with either child!!

It's been taking me an average of 3-4 hours every night to get the kids down.  I put Sienna down, I put Hudson down, Sienna wakes up, Hudson wakes up...  repeat, repeat, repeat.  On really bad days, nap time is the same.  Hudson has been relatively decent with naps, but Sienna either refuses to sleep altogether, cat naps for 10 minutes, or requires that I hold her or lie next to her to sleep.  I've put her in the crib or left her alone in bed asleep many times, and done a little happy dance when I've managed to leave her successfully, only to have her wake up 2 minutes later and then have to spend the next hour getting her back down.

This coupled with the fact that I haven't managed to get to sleep before midnight (because of the kids waking, not going to sleep, etc) the past week, and Sienna gettting up at 5am for the day (after several nursing sessions overnight) - has turned me into a bit of a monster.

Devin is leaving on Friday for 10 days and it is making me very anxious indeed.

But in any event, we still had an enjoyable weekend and I've been very excited to have made some new friends!!!  :)

Easter - part 3

Despite a dreary, rainy Sunday, we went to church in the morning and then enjoyed a lavish brunch at the W hotel.

This was the area solely dedicated to dessert!

What a magical place, the W Taipei!!

yum, yum

And now some pics of the kids ;)

She was in such a funny mood - she was talking/screeching in this pic..

And for all Sienna's smiles...

This picture makes me laugh every single time!!!!  I asked him to show me his biggest smile - LOL!!

And then he made this face..

What a funny character!

Extremely rare family pic, albeit not a great one

Huds was given balloons on the way out

He was pretty excited about them

Surprisingly difficult to snap a pic with unwieldy balloons! (Not to mention kids)

lol

Happy Easter!

Easter - part 2

Saturday, we braved the international bakery show - which was crazy insane packed, and then went to an Easter picnic in a park by the airport. What a great afternoon!! Visited with the few moms I knew and met several more (plus the husbands :) and all the kids had a wonderful time. Unfortunately we forgot Hudson's goodie bag, but he didn't notice. He's still just a tad too young to understand what's going on, but loved it nonetheless.

Exploring the park

I loved this sign with a map of the walking trails - and calories burned on each leg.

I especially like leg A - a whopping 26 meters long!

Sienna basically lives in the carrier...

Was quite pretty, actually...  I think there was a flower festival of some sort before.

random, but cool

As I mentioned, we were close to the (domestic) airport - and then planes were passing RIGHT above us the entire time that we were there.  Part scary, part cool.

caught him by surprise here..

face he made when i asked him to smile

so many planes!!  hudson started off terrified, but soon got used to it.

One of the many things I love about Taipei is how clean it is here - there are constantly people out sweeping the sidewalks, the MRT trains are spotless..  In fact, they sort of messed up our Easter egg hunt as the park cleaners collected most of the eggs before the children had a chance!  (I heard that they figured out what happened and returned the eggs..  Sort of defeats the purpose, but amusing nonetheless..)

The hunt for the eggs-so-well-hidden-the-cleaners-missed-them begins!

This wedding couple was thrilled to have a hundred eager Easter egg hunters storm their photo shoot

Poor couple...  They got fed up and went into the maze part of the garden - just in time for the chocolate hunt for the younger kids to begin!

Hudson found nothing, but a very sweet new friend, Eliana gave him both (!!) the eggs she found!

Hudson, meanwhile, was happy just holding the one real egg he had decorated, watching this mom blow bubbles for her kids

She gave him a turn, and his attempt was adorable, even if it yielded nothing.

Was a great turnout!

This is Joshua, almost the same age as Sienna and her new (first!) love interest

She was very interested in him!

Until we realized all she really cared about was the chair he was in..

Haha - what a great afternoon!!