13 Months

Sooo close to walking. Xavier took a stumbling step in Colorado and then, after 4 weeks of mulling over the idea, he took 3 steps yesterday. And repeat. It's mind over matter now. He's still doing his one knee crawl but this weekend I'm expecting a big leap. My baby isn't going to be a baby for much longer. Sniff sniff.


Showing off his standing skills


Kewpie doll

Double Header

Two weeks ago and I had a Girls Night Out double header.  Saturday I went with two friends to see roller derby - the LA Derby Dolls Fight Crew vs Tough Cookies. If you haven't seen the movie Whip It, you should. Totally fun time. We drank Pabst Blue Ribbon, ate Mexican chocolate-cinnamon-chili ice cream sandwiches and tried to figure out the basic rules of roller derby. Touch Cookies got their butts kicked. Those ladies are hard core!

Sunday night another friend and I went to see WWE Summerslam. And if you are asking, that's wrestling, right? You would be correct. It was a total hoot. I cheered and hollered with the rest of the sold-out arena. These tickets were free from my office so I wouldn't necessarily fork out $80 of my own cash to go, but I had a great time. Now, roller derby I would definitely check out again.

Hot Summer Days (it ain't over yet!)

It's been hot these last two weeks. If I had air-conditioning at home, I'd use it.  It's always broiling in The Valley and East of downtown, but on the West side it's pretty much always nice. (Some West of the 405 dwellers would argue that my 'hood doesn't qualify but whatever.)

We made homemade popsicles in a few around-the-house flavors - banana-blueberry smoothies, sleepytime tea and OJ. We also made ice-box pickles with our homegrown Persian cucumbers. I'll try another recipe next time - ew. The girls also cool-off in the backyard splash pool and go on evening bike rides.






Long shadows


Looking sharp in her pink helmet. Now we just need to get those training wheels off.


Eliza getting the hang of her balance bike. Maybe with her we can skip the training wheels altogether.


And if you wake up at 6 am, it's even cool enough for a sweatshirt.

End of Summer

The end of summer arrived early with LAUSD shifting their schedule. Camp ended Friday and school started Tuesday which left Monday open to a day off. With the littler kids at school, Addie and I had a special opportunity to do something really fun together. I've been wanting to check out the gorgeous Annenberg Community Beach House which was renovated a couple of years ago and has a huge heated pool and is located right on the beach in Santa Monica. The place is open to the public but due to its popularity can be hard to get in to.



We hooked up my friend (and also my boss) Teena and her daughter, Petra, who is Addie's age and starting 1st grade too but at a different school. The pool opened at 10 am but we arrived at 9 to ensure us a spot in line. I'm so glad we did since we scored four lounge chairs poolside and other folks were put on the wait list. It was fun to splash around with the girls and get lunch on the beach.  We spent the whole day getting home at 4 pm just in time to get an ice cream treat before picking up Eliza and Xavier from school. Addie had her first double scoop of ice cream and she ate the whole thing.

I cherish these special days off with Addie.

1st Day of 1st Grade

It's August 14 and Addie started first grade today. What happened to summer?! In preparation, she had four inches cut off her hair, picked out a new Pokemon lunchbox, and selected her First Day of School outfit.

Cap and I both got to take her to school today and give her tons of hugs before she went into her new classroom. She had her brave face and didn't cry.  Outside the classroom, her teacher gave a little speech about how the only homework this week was for the parents to fill out the emergency forms and then we were shooed away. We weren't able to actually talk to her teacher or see the classroom so I assume there is some sort of open house or parent's night soon. Her teacher used to be the pre-K instructor but they closed that program due to budget cuts and now she's teaching first grade. I'm hoping she will be filled with enthusiasm and high energy for her new job but so far she hasn't cracked a smile. Well, she's supposed to be a teacher not her grandma. Addie said she liked her which is important.

I'm proud of my first grader and excited to see what the new school year will bring.

911

Here is the end of the story. Xavier is fine.

This is the beginning.

Immediately after eating lentils and hummus for the first time after dinner on Wednesday night, Xavier's started to get hives on his face. Rapidly. Within minutes, they spread from his mouth to his chin and then to his eyes which started to swell shut. When he threw up and the swelling was showing no signs of abating, I decided to forget the first plan suggested by our on-call pediatrician which was to give him Benadryl (which we didn't have in our medicine cabinet). Afraid the hives would spread to his throat and affect his breathing, I dialed 911 for the first time, and I hope if I'm lucky, the last. 

I have recurring nightmares that I am trying to dial 911 and can't get my phone to work or my fingers are too clumsy to dial. This didn't happen. The fire department was at our door in about 3 minutes. Xavier's hives were getting worse and spreading down his neck to his chest and back and his lip and eyes were swollen. Thankfully he still was breathing fine and all his vitals were good. Mit stayed with the girls, and Cap, who had just arrived home after a frantic phone call from me, followed Xavier and I in the ambulance to the ER. Lights flashing, sirens - the whole thing. 

The ER doctor calmly told us that Xavier would be fine. I was so thankfully he said that first because after that I could relax a little and listen. They hooked him up to an IV (his little tiny hand!) and gave him steroids and Benadryl and put him on oxygen to help his breathing. The response was immediate but after two hours or so, he threw up and started to swell again all over his body - legs, arms, torso. They gave him a shot of adrenaline in his leg and another dose of Benadryl through the IV along with some anti-nausea medication. There was a respiratory doctor who was giving Xavier oxygen and also brought us juice and sandwiches. Our nurse gave Xavier a plastic, sterile syringe (no needle of course!) to play with when he got restless. I am impressed by all the staff at Cedars-Sinai for their professionalism but also their kindness.

The doctor sent us home around 10:30. Xavier was still spotty but no longer swollen. He slept soundly in the pack-n-play by our bed so he could be close overnight. In the morning he woke up happy as can be and completely spot-free.  As you can see from the video which was taken the next afternoon, he is back to his normal, happy self and doesn't seem to remember a thing.

Rocky Mountain High

Colorado is breathtaking in the summer. We weren't sure what to do for a summer vacation and I wanted to go someplace that would feel like a real vacation (not a staycation) but wasn't bank-breaking (Hawaii) or didn't require 14 hours on a plane with 3 kids (Italy). Colorado!

Not only could we see Reid and my God-kiddos, which was super fab, but we could be in a beautiful place together as a family -  Papa Mit included! We rented a 3-bedroom cabin right on a beautiful lake just a skip and a hop away from the West entrance to Rocky National Park and 15 miles from Reid's house in Granby (that's our view in the photo above). Truly perfect.

There were a few moments at the beginning of the trip where I wondered why I bother going on vacation if I'm going to be this stressed out, but after the second nightfall, we all found our groove and settled into a week of hiking, boating and exploring. We had a such a great time that we even checked out local real estate for our make-believe second home in the mountains - a place in the Rocky Mountains, another one in Palm Springs. And since we are dreaming, I should add in a home for us here in LA!

This was truly a memory-making vacation.



Our house


Right out our back door. One of my favorite activities - taking the boat out on the lake. We borrowed life jackets and paddles from a friend of Reid's and "borrowed" the boat from the cabin owners.


Celebrating Sawyer's 6th Birthday party on our first day in Colorado. I also got to see Reid's mom - my "other" Mom - and Dara, Mike and their little girl Rye who were all in town that weekend for the festivities.


Checking out the horses at Grand Lake Lodge


Cap fishing on our dock with Xavier on his back. Cap caught a big rainbow trout which he later grilled that night for dinner.


(not great) photo of a moose Bull and Cow. My 3 goals while in Colorado were to see a moose (we saw at least 7!),  go canoeing (I'm counting the boat as an equivelant experience) and eat
pie (which I did at Xavier's birthday part after I gobbled up a cupcake).


All those little brown dots are a herd of elk. Seeing what the park map referred to as "charismatic megafauna" was a highlight for me. In addition to moose and elk, we also saw mule deers, a marmot and a porcupine. Eliza does a great impression of a porcupine waddling.




12,000 feet above sea level. This alpine tundra drive through the Park was another highlight. It hailed on us and then quickly turned to sunshine. The rock formations are schist on top of granite. Addie and I thought the delicate tundra vegetation was a perfect place for fairies to live.


The girls were sworn in as Junior Rangers after completing their activity books. When the ranger asked them what their favorite animal was they had seen in the park, they didn't mention the moose or elk. Instead they told her they liked the grasshoppers and hummingbirds.








We all loved hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park which we did almost every day.


Silly sisters in their matching Winter Park t-shirts, a present from Reid.

Check out all of our photos here.