We had a good day. A nice, long morning. My work interrupted our early afternoon routine and I ended up not going out to lunch with Tiger. Instead we ate Soy Sauce Chicken that I cooked a few nights ago. Very yummy with the eggs and rice. Afterwards I drove Tiger around for 30 minutes to put her to sleep.

Before she fell asleep she was talking to herself. She was replaying conversations where someone would tell Tiger what to do: something like, “Time to sleep, Tiger” And then Tiger would respond, “Please wait. No. Wait your turn.” She repeated variations of this conversation until she dozed off at a stop light, while I waited to turn the car around at the end of our drive to Issaquah.

After arriving back home, I managed to transfer her from the car to the stroller without waking her, and she slept for another hour with our babysitter while Doolies and I went to Naginata. The babysitter told us that Tiger woke crying, and then Dinosaur started crying too. The babysitter was overwhelmed as she didn’t know who to hold first. However she managed it, Dinosaur was asleep in his car seat when we returned home, and Tiger was happily playing with her puzzles.

For dinner we went to the Indian place in Renton. We ordered two dishes of Paneer Mattar. That’s an orange curry with handmade cheese. Last time Tiger and I fought over the cheese in the dish. This time we each had our own—and that’s a good thing as I finished mine and Tiger didn’t leave many scraps for me to gobble down. Doolies ordered Mushroom Mattar (the same orange curry with mushrooms instead of cheese), and we all shared two orders of Naan (the yummy Indian bread). The meal also included good, spiced rice, and we ordered Tiger a Mango Lassi (mango plus yogurt and ice in smoothy form).

Dinosaur again woke up during dinner and wanted first to be held, and then walked around the restaurant. We have a lot of experience with this, as Tiger wanted the same thing at his age. I remember holding Tiger and walking around the same Indian restaurant while waiting for Doolies to relieve me as she scarfed down her food (we would eat out but not together, as only one of us could eat at a time as the other strolled the restaurant). Dinosaur was also fussy in the car. Once again this is similar to Tiger at his age: I remember approaching red lights slowly because if she wasn’t sleeping yet, she would cry when the car stopped and wouldn’t stop crying until the car moved again. I guess monsters are more alike than different.

Tiger is now sleeping and Doolies is cleaning up our already clean kitchen. She’s waiting for me to be done with this so we can watch the final few episodes of our current anime series.

I took a break to finish the anime. I’m back now. Dinosaur is dozing and Tiger is still asleep. Dinosaur slept last night again from 10pm to 7am. Hopefully he’s found his rhythm and will continue it.

I read a terrible article about not saving for your children’s college (it recommended spending the money on enriching family trips and experiences—why save for tomorrow when you can spend today?). While I don’t agree with the savings logic, the author’s advice about family experiences was interesting. His secondary thesis was that you should spend your money on experiences together and not trinkets.

That got me thinking about how we don’t do enough with the monsters on the weekends. I usually use the excuse that nothing is open in the morning, and the afternoons are taken over by Tiger’s naps. Those excuses sound hollow. On my U-turn in Issaquah, I passed by a trailhead and saw a bunch of hikers pulling out their hiking poles from their car. While Tiger is not yet old enough for real hikes, we certainly can start her on easy hikes, and Dinosaur would do well in a Baby Bjorn now. We have museums to visit, trails to hike, and interesting places to experience. It’s either that or Factoria mall tomorrow. We’ll see which wins out.