Baby Tuesday

I never stop hunting for the ultimate public park. I'm like a suburban conquistador[a], always asking the natives if they know of the El Parque Del Oro.
Donde esta?!
This afternoon I tried Las Palmas. It was like the set of Gilligan's Island interpreted into a children's playground. The only bummer was that the water spayers were turned off and the Professor was nowhere to be found to fix them [with a coconut husk and stick of bamboo].


Here's our little Bob Denver-Dawn Wells hybrid.


I was sure that Baby C would fall into the "lagoon" before we left, but alas, she did not.
She did however, run away from me when I said it was time to go, across the concrete and biffed it onto her knees. I told her that was the way the world worked, "when you don't mind Mommy, then you get hurt."
It's more or less true, right?


I don't care how much she looks like her father otherwise, when she makes that face, she looks like a little me.



She's plotting her escape and possibly her revenge upon the rest of us.


"I love nakedness!"


Yes, this one will be printed and framed. I love the "warthog."


Man, this may be the best photo of him to date. He is cuter than a hamster wearing mittens having tea with a pink bunny.
(and yes, I had to erase the laundry basket that was originally behind his head in the photo, and I didn't do it very well, sowy.)


"I am naked, by the backdoor on Daddy's bathrobe in my car seat...but I trust you. You're the one with the milk."


Modesty pleat.


'Looks like he's about to start up a polite conversation, right?


Thank you to great-aunt Cindy for making this muscle car quilt that mgaically matches his muscle car car seat cover made by yours truly. Kismet!
And that's a 12mo onesie and 18mo shorts. He's a hunk in more than one way.

on a separate note...
I've never donated to a presidential campaign before, but I want Barack Obama to win next year's election so darn bad, that I'm considering buying this shirt (20 bucks towards his campaign)

because I am an Obama Mama

great to wear when standing still, indoors, when its warm

I went out yesterday afternoon to a regular stomping ground of mine. And a very many pretty and fit young women were wearing the style of dress pictured above.
And why shouldn't they?
This style is everywhere this season, every store is telling you to buy this and wear this.

There's just one problem:

the breeze

Each woman I saw wearing a babydoll dress was holding it down to her thighs to keep it from flying over her head, Monroe style. In fact, they looked like someone had just run off with their pants and they were left trying to cover themselves with a maternity shirt.

Very unfortunate fashion/weather victims.

talk to my agent

For the second time this month I've recieved an Evite from a person I don't know.

The first Evite I suspect came from someone 20-ish at church that somehow got my email address and invited me because I appear from a distance to be good party material.
Obviously they don't know that all I do at parties is park it at the food table and run through an internal monologue about other guests' shoes.

Then I got another Evite and I really don't know who they are or who the person whose birthday we're supposed to be celebrating. And either my false reputation precedes me in ways I wasn't aware of, or they spelled someone's email address wrong.
Perhaps they were inviting a "Charles" who loves cake and keg stands? Or a "Charisa" that is renown around San Jose for mixing a really great White Russian?
Dunno.

But it's weird, and I have declined their advances.

dab of this and that

Here are my half designed, half paid/appopriated images that I've been working on lately.




(that's just a placeholder set of words for the subtitle, btw)


I've been reading a book about not being too busy. And since I've read it, I've taken on more projects than ever before...one painting, one website, 4 DVD covers, two title slides, one invitation, one business card, two T-shirts and one logo.
All to be done in the next two weeks or so.

The book says we do things like this to ourselves to feel important.
The book is totally right.
Yes, I need affirmation this bad.
I'm only getting paid real money for the painting.

I got a certificate of appreciation from the City of San Jose a few days ago and it only stoked the fire.

proof or excuse?

Attention everyone, can I have you attention please?

I'm here to publicly shame my mom for buying a pack of cigarettes this afternoon.

She just paid bookoo bucks to quit again
and apparently my home is so stressful that she couldn't make it even two weeks here without losing her mind and starting smoking again.

Last time her excuse was her husband was going through chemo-therapy, and that was stressful so she had to smoke.

Does that mean that my home is as stressful as cancer treatment??

(It possibly could be, for all I know.)

Shame on you Gwynn! SHAME!

If you have a moment, please call her and add some more guilt, will you?

Baby Tuesday

I'm always making a smarmy face when Kevin takes the picture. I must secretly (or not so secretly) feel smarmy towards him



[[film noir saxaphone* playing]]
"4:45PM, Father's Day. I drank and drank [milk] until I forgot about all of my problems. I took off my tie [bib], unbuttoned my shirt and laid on the floor. It had been a long 3 1/2 months..."



Dad's day with the dads, all 3 of them, out in the garden.


Look at this guy will ya? Good lookin'!


Baby C as always, has her eyes on the prize, or the bean dip in this case.



I bought a "mommy swimsuit." Everything is covered and stays put so I don't look like a hussy-mom.
I bought another one for Hawaii where I don't care what people think.
But here, I put on my sparkley Mott's apple juice suit and sit in the sand with the babies.



Howdy howdy howdy...as a sheriff, I'm tiny and ineffective against banditos. Sorry.





fat rolls = art


A little help please?



Stop it with the camera and get me out, look at me.



Baby C and her GG.


"Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin' world go 'round!"



Thank you modesty-blanket.


*While I did notice that I spelled saxophone incorrectly, I wanted to double check it. I googled "saxaphone" and was given many many websites featuring the word spelled with an "a" instead of an "o." Curious!

snapshot

It's 10:20

Both babies are now in bed

Kevin is working on his heat pump/stirling engine in the garage

My mom's pounding in vinyl tiles on the bathroom floor* [trying to wake the babies!]

I have a headache and I'm a bit nauseous.

[Because] I got new glasses and my dinner was brownie batter and 3 days old chuck roast.

I spent most of my day keeping my babies from crying and my mom from smoking a cigarette.

I need sleep.

*She needs sleep too, she painted and recaulked our hall bathroom today.

Baby Tuesday

Oh my gosh, it's Baby Tuesday again!



How happy would we all be if as adults we were this joyful at a little orange ladybug rattle? I think we would have less problems.
Granny G rattled it for him for a very long time-- it never got old.



The handheld shower is a must for bathing a little baby, as well as censoring his little bits.

Um big ladies, what is going on? I'm naked, you're spraying me with water and now you're flashing me in the face with the camera. Can someone put me back in my blankie and hold me?


I put strapped them into the stroller and went back inside to get my keys. When I came out, they were giving me this expectant look.


Look, Baby R and Great Auntie Sandi are color coordinated.


Great Auntie Norma came to town and we immediately put her to work baby-holding. Nothing Baby R likes more than being held and looking outside.


Granny G and her first grandson. Oh love.




...yes, still watching the ladybug...

why do I do this?

I have this need to know about local crime news. My motivation being if there's some sort of serial offender, I need to be on the look out, or if there's a dangerous area that I'm unaware of, I should become aware of it.
But inevitably I get depressed by it.
Like just now, I was reading brief synopsises of San Jose's homicides from 06 and 07 and I'm totally depressed because a handful of them were small children. I can't take that. In order for me to function during the day, I have to not think about innocent little children and death or else I'm overwhelmed by empathetic grief, and any joy I might have experienced is then tainted.
(I'm sensitive, hence no sad or R movies for me)
And now, I'm about to go to bed, and what have I filled my head with? Tragedy!
I might as well have watched a double feature of Schindlers List and United 93.
Gah! What is my problem?!

how could he not?!

I saw this sticker on a car the other day and I seriously considered buying it and sticking on Kevin's car without his knowledge or consent.
But then sure enough some guy would say "hey! Promise Keepers!" and he'd go "huh?"

(I also considered making my own that said "Back Off Hussies!")

Baby Tuesday

This B.T. is gruel and water compared to the richness of other B.T.'s of recent past.
It' s my fault the camera ran out of memory space, I kept forgetting to clean it out




The Bumbo rides again! The blur of his head turning was no doubt because of Baby C galloping towards him, insisting that she sit in the seat instead.
Oh and those jammies no longer fit him, he's too fat. They're 6M and he wore them about 4 times.


Jowls!


Baby C likes to play in Baby R's room with all her old toys. If it's a toy and she's happily and quietly playing with it, fine with me.
While I was putting away laundry, I saw her walk into his room and try to crawl onto the walker. I told her when I passed by to be careful not to fall off it and that she's too big to get in it.
When I returned down the hall and looked in, this is what I saw. She not only got into the walker, she had brought her blankie and a cold beverage as well.


This one is really old, like two months old, but I don't think I had posted it before. This is when he wore 3M clothes, not 12M clothes like he does now-- now that he's a beluga whale.



Whichever parent is holding Baby R often must endure Baby C climbing in between. She's not mean about it, she just thinks she'll fit on the lap too. Many times she has a pretense of purpose to climb on the lap, like here. "Look Daddy, I brought you the phone. I thought you might want to call someone."

In other baby news, Baby R rolled over onto his back for the first time this morning, just in time for his 3 mo checkup this afternoon.
I bought Baby C those Color Wonder markers that only work on the special paper and they're great. The first thing she tried to do was color on herself and the carpet, once she knew that they were "pens." Thwarted!! At this point, she's more interested in pulling out the markers and putting them back in the box over and over again, but s'okay with me.

chi chi bug sings the blues

If Mojito did this, I might not get so mad at him for pooping in the house.

ToysRUs Giraffe: "Giraffe's are from Africa?!"

I heard about this documentary on TV this afternoon about kids and skin color preferences. It makes me sad, somehow moreso because the little kids the filmmaker interviewed are so gosh darn cute. Here's the entire 8 minute documentary, but



if you can't sit through it all, here's a
a quick synopsis
(with a KFC ad in the beginning, sorry)

It makes me want to get Baby C a whole bunch of dolls with different colored skin. That's probably not the desired response from the film, but hey maybe if there's more demand, toy makers will make more cute "ethnic" dolls that all kids will want to play with?