The Bounce House

This past weekend was a birthday double header. Two pals from daycare both turned one with a party on Saturday and another on Sunday. Two days, two birthdays, two cakes, two bounce houses. When I was little we called them Moon Bounces and they only existed at fairs and carnivals. Now they appear to be a birthday standard along with cake. Fancy cake. Cake that rivals the most expensive wedding cakes. The best part was that I got to hang out with the daycare parents - something that somehow hasn't happened in the 10 months Addie has been at daycare. Guess what? These folks are awesome! I'm so excited to add new friends for both Addie and myself. I spent most of Rya's birthday being the self-designated party photographer. At Teddy's party the next day I abdicated the photographer's throne to a guy who had a bigger camera and took a break from being the lens. I'm finally beginning to admit that I really might want to do this professionally. Wow. There. I said it. Deep breath.

Okay, back to the bounce house. I was convinced that the bounce house phenomenon is an LA thing. You can drive around to any part of town on a weekend and spot at least half a dozen. But is it an LA thing? Jamie kindly offered an alternative theory that perhaps it wasn't regional but a sign of the times. Interesting concept. Imagine birthdays being different from when I was a kid?! Apparently I am unable to comprehend that birthday parties may have evolved and instead can only wrap my head around the concept that that things are different when you leap coasts, not when 30 years have past. I haven't queried any east coasters, or midwesterners to test the theory. Is it an LA thing to have a bounce house or is just a now thing? Either way, Addie really enjoyed it as did Spiderman, and it was amusing at the very least to see 3 dads, 1 mom and 5 babies squeeze themselves out of a tiny flap born anew from the belly of a multi-colored plastic castle.

put a cork in it

Litter Warden and Medicine Man

The ear infection cleared up thanks to the tasty pink goop that Addie enjoys. She doesn't even mind her vitamin drops either although the smell is rather rancid. Addie is the only baby I know that takes vitamins. I don't take vitamins but maybe I should. After all, I don't think TJ's pizza is fortified with B12. Our pediatrician is a fan of vitamins though. Addie was on them when I was breastfeeding, off for formula, and now back on again since we've almost totally switched to cow's milk. What am I going to do with all the extra cash we have around now that we aren't buying cartloads of formula? Reinvest it in Addie's future? Why, get pedicures of course!

And for the litter warden. It's our new name for Addie who can while away her days picking up tiny bits of trash off the floor. Here she has carried the waste paper basket from our bedroom, where she had thoughtfully thrown away two clean diapers, into the kitchen where she is storing her blocks. I can see this being a very useful talent only so far she's only tossed away things we need. We have to check our trash cans before emptying any of them for fear she's stowed away something valuable. Like the remote to the hi-fi. Where is that remote?

Jungle Fever

Check out paradise, Pasadena style. That's right. Addie's just increased the property value of Mit and Vede's new house by adding a tropical pool.

Happy Father's Day

I gave both Cap and his dad a framed copy of this print for Father's Day. This is my final project for my Photo II class. It's an 11 x 14 print of Cap and Addie in a friend's hot tub that was taken with, gasp, real film and printed by moi in the darkroom.

Happy Addie. Happy Dads.

(Unfortunately I had to scan it in two parts and lost some of the detail in the translation in order to get it on the blog)

everything in the mouth

I think I've dwelled long enough on "the incident" and decided that we could all use a nice photo of Addie and some flowers. Ahhhh. Isn't that nice? Only she's trying to eat the flower. Cap is right there again though to save her.


Addie admirers at Descanso Gardens last Saturday.


Dead Japanese Iris. I played with my macro lens for the first time at Descanso which was fun but very challenging to switch from taking up close shots on manual focus, to jumping back to regular zoom lens on autofocus so I could get Addie. The problem is evidenced in the above photo of Addie and her gang where I didn't remember I was still on manual focus so the shot is a little blurry.



And a cute little ladybug with no spots. this was a tiny, tiny bug about the size of a plump sesame seed. As my photography teacher said, if you get a macro lens he'll just leave some food out on the back step for us because you can spend all weekend shooting every square inch in your backyard.

no george clooney here

Don't worry. Addie is fine. Now. But we did spend 3 hours in the ER and Cap and Addie got to ride in an ambulance.

Without being too dramatic, after all I wasn't there, Addie choked. seriously choked. face purple, can't breathe choking. Cap got her to barf but there was some blood and very smartly he called 911 for an ambulance. I have dreams pretty regularly about trying to call 911 but in my dreams I keep misdialing or getting interrupted and over and over again I try to make the call. We're not sure what she choked on but we're guessing a tortilla chip possibly with or without the assistance of a small chunk of plastic that had broken off the remote. I thought the remote was a no-no because it would mess up all of our setting and short-fuse if she drooled on it. Turns out it's a choking hazard especially if your baby likes to hurl things at fast ball speeds on the floor.

But back to "the incident." Addie has coughed up whatever it was and is breathing fine but the EMTs want to take her into Cedars Sinai as a precaution. Cap sits on the gurney with Addie on his lap and they both get strapped in for their ride to the ER. I forgot to ask Cap if they used the sirens but I think not since he was calling me from his little traveling bed en route. She is also given a stuffed polar bear in the ambulance which they apparently have on hand to give to kids. Brave Cap! Brave Addie!

I got the call at work and meet up with them in the ER waiting room where Addie is chilling out shirtless and shoeless in her army green cargos and a pink bib. With a temperature of 102 (guess who also has an ear infection!), the EMT dude told Cap to keep her shirt off and her shoes were left at home. G.I. Addie.

We feel at this point that everything is fine and Addie is happily babbling away, but we've been told we have to wait to see the doctor. 3 hours later we get our first glimpse of a doctor. This is so not what E.R. is like on TV. It is a little more like Grey's Anatomy because the first doctor we saw looked like she was 14 and told us that she didn't have enough experience and wanted to get a second opinion from the other doctor on duty. When we finally saw him in our little exam room he looked about 21. When did I get old?

Poor Addie is hungry and tired. It's past her bedtime but she very valiantly lay still for her chest x-ray just to make sure she didn't have any sort of foreign object lodged somewhere it shouldn't be. I had asked the experienced doc if we could get some juice so when they rolled a cart into our room, I actually thought it was a snack trolley. Ha! Like they have those. Instead it was a mobile x-ray machine. Cap donned a black with rainbow glitter lead robe and they lay Addie on a tray while Cap held her in place. The x-ray was fine, her fever was normal, she was dosed with antibiotics for her ear infection, and we were finally dismissed. Only it turns out you have to wait another 45 minutes for paperwork. Addie fell asleep on Cap's chest on the exam room bed and at 9:00 we finally got to go home.

I am so proud of Cap, our hero, for handling the scariest situation ever with such presence of mind.

banned?

I am on the lam. I’ve broken the rules. It was risky, I know, but it had to be done. After 6 or 7 rooms of the Dan Flavin retrospective at LACMA surrounded by awesome colored fluorescent light, wide open spaces and a cute little munchkin that wanted to wander around, I just had to break the law. This is the renegade, illegal shot, snapped midday while the guard walked into the other room for a moment. Now, I'm not the type of person that would ever knowingly harm art but we're talking lights here so what the prob? No flash, no dirty finger prints, no harm, right?


You aren’t going to believe my self-righteous art lovin’ ways when moments before entering the the museum, we climbed all over the Donald Judd sculptures. It’s cement. It’s outdoors. I think it would be a crime if we didn’t experience it. I also didn’t notice there was a sign asking us to refrain from walking on the gravel and to stay on the path. And for the cherry on the museum of shame visit, we had to practically run away from the nice Membership desk lady who was beseeching us to join. What? Join a museum where we can't take photos and run amok like uncultured heathens? I don't think so.

Sit 'n' Spin

Who needs toys when you are your own.

Welcome to LA (Pasadena)

Grandpa Mit and Great Grandma Vede have moved to Pasadena from the wilds of rugged Tucson. Mit exorcises all bad spirits from their new abode while Addie keeps a beat clapping.

I am so excited to have them in town and of course because we have more babysitters! Yay! Their new place is amazing and I can't help but pretend it's mine. Since I was a little girl I've always played that game. We'd spend our summer vacation touring southern plantation homes or New England salt box houses and the first thing I'd do was pick where my bedroom would be if this was my house and assign rooms for my siblings (i'm sorta bossy that way). Now I can unpack our house in my mind into any new imaginary abode. I'll be of no use however in this move, as the moving truck arrives today. Cap hops on a plane tonight to NY, I take my photography final on Tuesday and Mit babysits. We put Grandpa to work immediately though. Sorry about that.