Hot Dogs and Headaches

If I had eaten one I suppose I could have blamed the headache on that, but I didn't. 

Although China is the third largest country in the world (after Russia and Canada) it only has one time zone.  If you live in the middle of the country, this is great, especially during this time of the year when the days are getting longer.  However, if you live in the eastern part of the country, this can be quite bothersome.  What this means to us is that this morning dawn began at 4:09am and sunrise was at 4:40.  Now, we have blackout curtains to try and fool the kids into sleeping until a decent time but I have realized that Ryan's are malfunctioning.  At about 4:30 this morning he came in and told me it was time to get up.  I don't do 4:30am unless someone is vomitting or I am catching a flight.  I did manage to get him back to sleep for a little bit but with Nicholas waking earlier in the night with achy legs and my having a headache for the last week or so, I just feel like a big ball of crap.

Despite not having a great sleep last night I decided to run some errands with the kids today.  We needed a couple things like money from the bank, supplies from Metro and I wanted to finally mail two parcels that I have had since three days after we got here (they are for some special people that did scrapbooks and a going away party for us, but don't tell).  I told the kids that if they behaved themselves we could go to IKEA and have lunch to which Nicholas specified that he didn't want lunch in the restaurant, he wanted it from the hot dog counter by the checkouts.  He has been asking for a hot dog since we left Canada so I figured today the kid deserved a salty, greasy hot dog.

Mr You picked us up at 10am and we managed to get to the bank and post office fairly easily.  Unfortunately at the post office they had nothing to pack my parcels in so all I ended up doing there was mailing an insurance form.  I think I will likely end up hand delivering these parcels in December as it seems it will take me that long to get them mailed.  Anyway, I decided today to leave the kids in the van with Mr You while I went into Metro.  I only had to get a couple of things and figured (hoped) that he wouldn't have sold them off or anything by the time I got back.  I was right and all was well when I came out.  In fact, he was sitting in the middle seat talking to them or watching the iPod, I'm not sure.  Everyone in the van was happy so I was too.

From here IKEA is just a couple minutes drive and when we got there, Ryan didn't want to come with me.  He climbed into the front seat and wanted to stay.  I bribed convinced him to come with me and when we got in we bee-lined it for the bathroom.  This store has sit down toilets and I had to pee!  They don't have any toilet paper in them but I have learned to carry tissues with me.  At this point Nicholas was driving me crazy asking over and over again where the hot dogs were so we skipped most of the store, grabbed a couple of items and went downstairs to the checkouts.  When we finally got through them we got into the line for the hot dog counter.  I knew what Nicholas wanted and asked Ryan if he would like a hot dog too.  "No Mommy, I want ice team" was the response.  "Are you absolutely sure you don't want a hot dog?"  "No, ice team."  I purchased the hot dog, ice cream cone and a drink and headed for the ketchup.  I tried to hand Ryan his ice cream but he wouldn't take it.  "I don't want ice team, Mommy.  I want a hot dog."  It's a good thing that all the people who watch us don't understand English, including swear words.  But, when I have a headache, I am tough.  "No.  You said you wanted an ice cream."  This is where the whining and screaming start and I get sad looks from the cashiers.  I simply walked away carrying his ice cream cone.  He continued so I softened a little and told him that if he ate his ice cream, he could have hot dog.  Normally it's, "If you eat your vegetables you can have some ice cream" but today was special - I just didn't give a damn.

Ryan ate (most of) his ice cream so we got back in the line and I bought him a hot dog.  We stood around while he ate that and Nicholas finished off the cone.  When Ryan was just about done and I thought we were out of there, Nick informed me that he wanted another hot dog.  I was too tired to argue so, back in the line for another hot dog.  While we waited Ryan decided he wanted the rest of his ice cream, which was now gone, so I bought another one of those too.  (As I write this it sounds ridiculous.  The things a mother will do to avoid dealing with stress.)

We finally headed toward the exit of the store, Nick inhaling his second hot dog and Ryan his second ice cream cone.  As we got to the van Ryan started crying for another hot dog, handing over his ice cream again, but I was steadfast.  I just gave him some of Nick's and as compensation gave Nick the second cone.  When all the food was gone and we were on our way home Ryan says "Mommy, where's my ice team?".

The rest of the day was a bit of a write off.  The kids watched their Thomas movie while I searched the web for resorts in Thailand.  It seems early to be booking for next March but a lot of the places are already full so we don't want to wait too long.  We did get outside for a little while but a certain two-year-old was uncooperative so we came in and I made some supper.  The kids are asleep now, thank heavens, so I think I will try to relax for a bit and get to bed early.  No pictures today, shame on me.  Perhaps tomorrow.

Goodnight all.