I forgot these

I took some photos with my laptop while we were in Yosemite Valley, here they are...


Hey...big mountains. I like 'em.


Yes, I've been here. Check it off my list.


Happy family in the RAVioli.

Brilliant.

Someone thought of it first:

The Momergency Kit

I might regret this

Baby C has told me that she thinks she's getting a jump house for her birthday party. I never said we would, and after I found out they cost 100 bucks to rent, I thought "oh no."

Though she said that's what she wanted, we made her an apple tree for her room instead, which cost about the same in materials as a jump house.

However, I think I need to make her party something special to distract from the fact that there's no giant inflatable thing in our front yard.

What do I have to offer, and how could we keep it outside (since many of her friends are allergic to our pets)?....hmmm....

So I thought, "how about an 'art party'?"

I have plenty of supplies here around the house, and all I would need to do is sew smocks and berets for everyone.

Now it is true that I absolutely hate the stereotype of the artist in the beret and 15th century tunic.
But how cute would it be for them all to be wearing them? Especially if I make them in cute patterns like polka dots or something.

I might even set up a silkscreen for them to put an image on a shirt. Who knows.

But it's cheap and outdoors and she'll probably forget all about that jump house business, right?

p.s. this site is a crack up

Baby Tuesday

Now this is really Baby Tuesday.
Baby C had made very little potty progress since yesterday, let's not talk about it...



bathtime irony


Here is Baby C playing in her apple tree trunk in the beginning stages. It's about half done, and she's already slept over night inside it. Big hit.
It still needs branches and leaves, which are only a a few jigsaw/x-acto knife cuts away from becoming a reality. Also to trick it out, I plan to upholster the inside and poke christmas lights through the leaves so that it lights up as a giant nite-lite.


Yes we did go to Yosemite and here's proof!
Ok, this is Oakhurst, pretty darn close.
This photo captures the general pattern for our stay:
Babies C, E and V all played together rather quietly and nicely and Baby R got into trouble.


Oh and anything that was big and grown-up looking, he needed to
pick it up,
carry it around,
drop/throw it,
and carry it around some more,
and then leave it far away.


But he's so cute.


You can kinda see the valley view and the koi pond behind them here.


Give us a big Sierra Mountains cheese!


Baby V and Jenna, our gracious host, whose life my family and dogs probably subtracted minutes from after our stay.
I mean Frankie-the-sprinkler is enough to drive a person bonkers.

Halfway up to her house, I realized that I had forgotten to load the port-a-crib in the car. I almost fainted at the wheel. And I thought "this is bad" but I really had no idea how bad Baby and Baby R would be when a crib is taken out of the equation. Horrid. And if it weren't for the blessed Baby Van Gogh DVD that Jenna had that I played for them to get them to calm down, it would have been worse. But all of us probably only got 2 hours of sleep all night.
So at 6am we were already on the road to the nearest Wal-Mart to buy a port-a-crib. Now I have a total of 3 port-a-cribs, but it was worth it. The next night, total peace. I think I might have seen a rainbow and heard a choir singing from heaven.

Speaking of driving. Have you ever been given directions but then mapped it online instead and used those directions? Have you ever done that and then it goes disastrously wrong?

See illustration below:


I should have know that when the instructions tell you to drive for 45 minutes on something called "Road 600" it's not a good sign.
It means a robot is telling you to take a hike, because I not only passed through the remote old west towne of Raymond, but I also reached Crazytown and Cuckooville.
It was one of those roads that I couldn't imagine why they built it.
There's nothing there! Do the coyotes and skunks need a two lane [incredibly windy] road?

It was so confusing and sign-free that I had to call Kevin 3 times to have him look up where I was an how to get back to civilization.
And so windy [WHINE-DEE] that Mojito* threw up 3 times.
If I hadn't had my laptop playing a movie for the kids in the backseat. I might have pulled over and cried.

But yes! we saw Yosemite! We saw Bridal Falls spittling out water, since it's late August and there's about a swimming pool's worth of water in this whole dry kindling state.
And we picnicked under El Capitan, and Baby R just wanted to play in the bear proof trash cans and the giant boulders and collect more owies.
We came, we saw, we bought a t-shirt (for Baby R).

Rewind a bit to the 80's party.

Arapaho Elementary, that's where I was in the 80's so I wore the shirt!
(Thanks Robyn, it's actually yours I think).
I'm wearing legwarmers, but you can't see 'em.
Even the kids were dressed for the occasion.
I asked Kevin to shave his goatee into a mustache in honor of Tom Seleck, can you tell?
I couldn't stop laughing at it.


It was mostly a pool party, as far as the kids were concerned.


Mad/indignant face. I get this look alot.


Bubbles, but no heat. Note the purple lips on the kids.


Hey, tattoo.

*Kinda funny story. When the dreaded Rd 600 spit me out on Hwy 41, I had missed my turn and wasn't in the right spot so I needed to ask directions. I pulled over next to this woman, about my age, feeding her horses and putting their blinders on (I think, I wasn't really sure what those mask things are for).
But since Mojito was carsick, I had to pull him out of the car with me and hold him, or else he could barf some more in the car.
So I walk over to her with a chihuahua on my arm, after getting out of my new black SUV with bay area license plate frames, and asked her for directions.
I kid you not, she looked back at me, scowled and continued tending to her horses silently until they were completely set up. And then she walked over to me and flatly gave me directions. And I wanted to say "I know this looks bad, but I swear I'm not a prissy city girl."
I mean, I am kinda, but I'm not a Jimmy Choo, teacup pomeranian city girl.

if momma ain't happy...

Today I'm taking out my PMS aggression on Baby C and her complete insolence in regards to diapers/potty.

I am once again down to one snappi clip! Those snappi's are 4 dollars each and I'm tired of losing them!
I'm tired of paying for diapers!
I'm tired of her bed smelling like pee!
I'm tired of defending myself as a mother because people think I'm ignorant!

I really just want to throw her in the backyard and tell her she has to live like a labrador until she can act like a human girl.

Apparently that's illegal.

Right now she is unable to watch TV, color, cut paper, or read stories until she pees on the potty.

She told me "I'm going to wear diapers forever," this morning.

"Don't you care that ALL your friends wear underwear and you wear diapers like a baby?"

"No, I'm going to wear diapers forever like a baby."


I think I'm going to start lying to people and saying she has a medical condition.

"Her bladder didn't form right, she may have to wear diapers for the rest of her life."

Yep, that's my new plan. Lying.

Baby Tuesday, now with 33% more!

Baby C is very into gardening with her Daddy. So you can imagine how excited she was to harvest the two mini ears of corn from the backyard. Her enthusiasm wasn't exactly captured on film.

Speaking of Baby C, I just got back this morning from the hardware store with two giant sheets of wood to make her a apple tree for her room!
I got the idea from one of the areas of the Children's Discovery Museum. If you look in the far back of that linked photo, you can see the tree I'm talking about. I really liked how it was covered in carpet and you could get inside it.
Kevin's in charge of the heavy labor, and I'll be there afterward to make it look like a tree. It will also be accompanied by Chipmunk ABC murals. Because after all, "it is Chipmunk that lives in the burrow under the apple tree."


On Saturday I was crazy enough to take the kids to FLAX up in the city for their Kidfest. I've never been to their kid thing before but I knew I was in for it, particularly with Baby R. But who am I to deny Baby C the luxury of free art projects just because her brother tries to eat everything he sees, especially the pointy things? Here's a video of him running loose in the store.



It got much worse than this at times, and all the while there was quiet and angelic little Baby C, just gluing googly eyes on a popcicle stick (which I later called the 5-eyed-pickle) and drawing away.


I let him carry this dry brush all around the store.
He felt he was doing something and I let him believe it.


That would be Hot Tamale drool coming out of his mouth.
They didn't have the calming effect I was after.

Funny story:
There was a marble painting station that was certainly Baby C's favorite. She sat there for a long time carefully painting her glass rocks next to bigger, pushier, louder kids.

(there she is painting them)
After she was done we laid them on a table with some other ones to dry. When we went to go back for them, as we were leaving, I told her I didn't see them and that some other kid must have taken them on accident.
She lost it!
I went back and quickly painted a couple of rocks and brought them back to her and she said "these aren't my rocks! where are they? why did they take them?"
So I went back and somehow I had overlooked them, because they were there amidst the dozens of other rocks after all. I brought them back and it took her a few minutes to calm down, after carefully inspecting and confirming that those were in fact her rocks.
It was rather chaotic getting out of the store because I bought some printing inks and the guy had to restart the register's computer because my reciept wouldn't print. It was one of those times I wanted to say "it's okay, I'm outta here."

We strolled out front and I said we were heading back to the car.
"Where's the car?"
"It's where we left it, around the corner."
"Where is it?"
And right at that moment, another black RAV4 drove right in front of us, and down Market St.
She started freaking out.
"Mommy! Someone took our car! Someone took our car!"
I tried to explain that lots of people have cards like ours, but it wasn't until we finally arrived back at our car, that she believed me.
Rough afternoon for her. She thought she was under siege.

A few days ago, Grandma took the babies up to a pony farm up in the mountains. Well less a farm, and more a place where some ponies happen to live.


Tiny horses in need of a tiny herding dog.


Baby R wasn't too sure of the "giant" animals, or so I heard.




The boots are pretty convincing right? Yeah.


"I think I'll just check on this fence instead."


Yes, definitely more his speed. Toy dog cowboy.


You can't tell, but she has little horsies and horseshoes on her shirt.


And he has his western snap shirt, with tight jeans and boots.


Don't you just want to hug her in this pic?!


It was said that this is the closest he got to the pony.
And that was enough of that.

yeah, I'm crazy

more than ever before I'm considering a move to San Francisco.

I've found some little jewels...


Sunset District house



West Portal house
(okay, that one's out of our price range, big time but it's kinda close, and way cute!)


Outer Sunset, two blocks from the ocean

cheers and jeers

I've been running a tally in my head of things that are great and things that annoy me.

great
-10 day Nail Polish

-all day lipstick

-the idea of ditching the wig compulsion for home install hair extensions

-ice cream and pepsi after 3 days of beans and rice (and bananas and water).


lame

-Because of stupid terrorists, I, and everyone else has to wait in line and personally hand anything over 1lb. to people at the post office. Nevermind that the postage is already on it. And nevermind that I dropped it in the mail drop at the post office.
Oh no, my packages were returned twice! If there was a bomb in those packages, I think it'd be pretty clear by now. Gah.

-the dishwasher is still broken and will remain broken for a long while.

-houseflies and fruitflies

-speaking of terrorists, the squirrels are back for their August reign of terror. They mounted an full assault on our front yard, using the entire walnut tree as their arsenal.
Nut shrapnel is everywhere.
And so is their poop.

slightly pitiful

Today I began making my own webpage.

www.pullittogether.com

And for right now, since no one is helping me with the code, it's at the mercy of Google Apps.

And it kinda sucks and it looks nothing like I plan on it looking.

But it's step one.

And I feel like I've accomplished something.

What I'm really not looking forward to it editing down this huge video of me painting in order to post that on the site. oye.

I've always been esoteric

In addition to He-Man, Mr. Rogers and Care Bears, I also liked these cartoons.

Does anyone else remember?...


Adventures of Little Koala




David the Gnome




Pinwheel




Noozles



and
Eukreeka's Castle



I think other kids were at gymnastics and jazz class, while I was home watching koala anime and eating corn flakes.

Baby Tuesday

Truly a break-fast, this morning. For the babies at least. I still had my good ol' bread and water. And now I can say, viscerally, I know why there were food riots in Port Au Prince. Bread and water makes me cranky. I couldn't get two bowls out of each other (like suction-stuck inside one another) and I was so irritated that I threw them on the floor.
If I hadn't eaten anything, I might have broken a window or set a car on fire.

I will say that they ate all of their food this morning, didn't complain and didn't throw it on the floor. So I'm taking a lesson from this, that a beans-and-rice day will make your kids appreciate their Panda Puffs a little bit more.


I like to say that he has an eating disorder.
He crams as much as he possibly can in his mouth and this tries to chew it.


I'm currently sitting in the chair pictured behind her. And unfortunately that mess is still here on the table in front of me.


Hooray! Sugar!
I'll be making a similar face on Thursday morning.


"I'm worried and confused. But I'm still eating."

beans and rice update 2

Day 1: Sugar and chocolate addiction confirmed.

It would be way easier to not eat very much while in another country.

But being in my house all day, with cookies in the cabinets, and milk in the fridge-- it's causing me to obsess!

I keep fantasizing about the cheating possibilities: Red bean milk tea? Does that count as beans? Chocolate covered coffee beans? Do those count as beans? Mochi's? Do those count as rice?

beans and rice, that's nice

We've all been challenged at WG to eat only beans and rice (and/or bread and water) for [the next] 3 days, in order to strengthen our solidarity with people in other countries who have very little to eat.
We started this morning, but we've decided to supplement with bananas, for the kids, and for Kevin before he plays soccer. Which is totally cheating, but I'm telling myself it's better than nothing. Besides, bananas are potentially a 3rd world food, right?

One meal down, and the kids loved it. I think they'd prefer to live in Nepal or something, because they turn their noses up at fresh peaches from the backyard or blueberry yogurt. But give them a plain bowl of rice and they eat every grain.
We'll see how it is by Wednesday's dinner.

UPDATE:
I went grocery shopping to get more beans and rice...and bread and bananas. I got boil n bag rice, ranch style beans and french bread. That also seems kind of cheaty.
I bought what looked like tiny bananas, but it ends up they were tiny plantains. Darnit.

thanks Trina

(totally unphotoshopped, let the braces shine!)

I just came across this photo that Trina took, while sifting through hundreds of Haiti photos in order to print them out for JeanJean and Kristie since they are in town this weekend.

We realized that most parents don't have any photos of their kids and that if anyone did have a photo they treasured it.

So I mentally noted that I needed to print all the pics of the kids we took and send them back.

exhale, man, I've selected 163 photos, one by one, so far, and I'm not done...

oops and oops

I lost wallet yesterday at the beach. We couldn't find it an no one's turned it. Which I'm guessing means that it fell out in the sand and it's been washed out to sea.

And then I broke one of my favorite bowls.

Drat!

UPDATE: The wallet has been found! Hooray!

Unfortunately, the bowl remains broken.

Baby Tuesday

Today was the last day of Baby C's ballet class. She handled the news like a champ.
I mean, she is about to start preschool in a few weeks so that took the edge off it.
They let the parents in to watch for the last class (we had never been allowed to before).
Baby C was the star student in opinion, only outdone from time to time by a cute little Asian girl.


Here she is with her "comeptition," heh.


These women were super patient. There were two girls that were disastrously misbehaving and I was so glad that I didn't have to deal with them.


Fingers in the mouth, alot of that this morning.


Baby R really wanted to join in. And if he was old enough, I would totally enroll him in ballet with Baby C. Kevin would probably be irritated, but he wants to dance with the pretty girls, who am I to stop him?


Before class started I let him mingle with the "ladies."


This is a still shot from the roll call that I got on tape below.
Instead of raising their hands when their names are called, they're supposed to raise their arms just-so. Baby C was very good at this even when other's names were called.


"I put my hands up!...I did my hands!..."






She barely paid me any attention, thankfully. But she did give me a cute smile for this shot without me prompting.


Stretching very important when you're a toddler. We wouldn't want to strain a muscle. ;)


As if tutu's and dancing wasn't enough fun for them, they added wands to the mix for one song.
Merriment!


I wish this wasn't so blurry. She's so happy here.


Classic the-brother-has-to-go-to-dance-with-his-sister pose.