Blessed Sleep

After the bee sting incident, we all crashed out on Saturday. Eliza in her crib and then Addie and I in my bed. Addie rarely naps on the weekends but I was especially thankful this time that she did. Cap had to work on Saturday and I had been working insane hours often until 11, 12 or 1 am including an 11 hour day on Sunday, attempting to balance deadlines and Eliza' roseola (all better now).

And I have new bedding. After years of all white, I went for a splash of color and pattern. Isn't it sumptuous?

The Bee

Picking up a baby bumble bee.
Won't my Mommy be so proud of me?
I'm picking up a baby bumble bee.
Ouch!
It stung me!

Poor Eliza.
Thumb like a sausage.
She wailed.
I put ice on the wrong hand.
Then I put ice on the correct hand.
More wailing.
Couldn't hear what Addie was saying over all the wailing.
Dialed the pediatrician.
Hung up.
Eliza stopped crying.
All better.

Company Picnic

My office's summer picnic corrupted my children.

Sure, snow cones, balloons, a bounce house at first . . .


even miniature golf.

But then . . .


Gasp!


The next day, Addie made a gun with her Duplo Legos. Maybe it was the water guns or that we let her watch Transformers.

11/500

Yup, Eliza is 11 months old today. She left crawling behind this past month, walking all over the place and just about running to catch up with her big sister. I love the sound of her little feet swishing on the hardwood floors. Eliza is so sociable, loving to be with people and at parties. She's got a sense of humor, usually cracking up to Addie's antics. The two of them spent this evening chasing each other around the house, both of them squealing with delight. Is she saying any words? I'm not really sure but she has murmured Mama, Dada, Ada, Bah (ball and bottle) but not consistently so I don't want to call a first word yet. Soon I think. Her eyes are blue, her hair straight unlike her sister's who has a slight curl and is getting more blonde as Addie's darkens and mine turns more gray. She's a total delight and growing up so fast.

And as it so happens, this is my 500th post! That's a lot of baby this, baby that over the last four years. Hugs to all of you reading this and to my beautiful family - thank you!

Thanks for indulging me this pleasure and, of course, Happy Birthday Eliza Wren!

Is he an owl?

A little pre-bedtime fun.

Addie has told us a few times that she wants to be a movie maker when she grows up. She's also mentioned doctor, teacher and "a person that is in a store." She has an idea for a movie she's called "Kitty Cat Galore" that involves, yes cats, and the wind that turns into a witch. I hope she does make the film! Addie loves scary stuff and frequently requests scary movies which could mean Snow White, Peter Pan or more recently Transformers. We let her watch it and she spent the whole time asking Why. Why is the allspark so big? Why did they make the cube small? Why is that guy frozen? Why is that guy mean? Why can't Bumblebee talk? Why does Megan Fox have orange skin? Oh, wait that was my question.

Out of Sorts

That's a little how I'm feeling these days. Like someone stuck their finger up my nose.

Work is stressing me out. Really stressing me out. The work-life balance is messed up and then Miss Eliza has been sick. After two visits to the doctor we've returned home after being told she does not have an ear infection (visit #1), nor does she have Hand Foot & Mouth Disease (visit #2). She just has a cold. Guess the sleeplessness is making us paranoid!

Eliza though seems to be recovering and her smile is coming back. I hope mine does. (I know, a little melodramatic. You can practically hear the violins playing.)

New Pony on the Block

Meet Tiessa, the limited edition Comic-con My Little Pony and the newest in Addie's collection. Pretty sick, right?! Addie named her. I can only guess it's a derivation of Tiana from Princess and the Frog. Addie got her as a special treat last Sunday when I drove the girls down to meet up with Cap and soak in the pop culture fest that is Comic-con.

Gone are the days when I could tag along with Cap, freeload off the nice hotel, swim in the pool and just relax. Going with the two girls while Cap had to work was not fun. Eliza had a cold, the hotel was dank, and I basically spent over five hours in the car (round trip) just to be trapped in the hotel room. No pool, no cocktails. But on the bright side, I spent the afternoon with a friend and on Sunday finally got to go into the convention center and walk around the exhibit hall which was pretty cool.

Addie was so excited to go. For days she asked me to "talk about Comic-con" before she went to sleep. Once there, the massive crowds and the huge action figures kept her tied to the stroller but she soaked it all in even if she didn't want to have her photo with SpongeBob, Batman, or Bumblebee. Next year I'm going to dress Eliza up in a Princess Leia costume that we abandoned one Halloween when Addie got sick two years ago.

Check out more photos from Comic-con here.





Grant in Ghost Hunters is Cap's step-cousin. Hardly a close relation but the last time we saw him was at Grandpa Woody's funeral. If Woody could see these photos, I know he'd get a kick out of them. I wish he could have met the girls too.

On with the Show

Addie and I were playing Movie Theater in her room recently. She set up all her stuffed animals in their seats for the show. She told me that after the movie, she would put on a dance for them. In the meantime, I was to be the "maker." I thought that was the film maker, but it turns out the maker is the concessionaire. I had hand out "special" (3D) glasses, soda and popcorn to the patrons.

It's certainly a sign of the times, when she expects movies to be in 3D. I took her to see Toy Story 3 (so good!). She had seen it already in 3D at a special screening with Cap, but I really wanted to go. She and I went to a non-3D showtime, and right as the movie was about to start, Addie wanted to know where her glasses were. Sorry, this movie is just regular ole 2D.

Look Who's Walking!

This past week Eliza has been motoring around on two feet more and more. She even got her feet wet walking a few steps on the sand.With Eliza, the walking experience has been more about physicality than confidence. She seems to have confidence in spades and she's just waiting for her body to catch up.

Walking is probably the biggest milestone during the first year. I suppose I'm supposed to lament the end of babyhood and welcome in toddlerdom, but she's still seems so much the little munchkin at ten months that I'll save the sentiment for her first birthday which is just around the corner. I'm already thinking pink and lots of it!

Twinkies

I don't normally dress the girls a like, but when Addie veered from her usual dress uniform and wanted to wear her I Heart NY t-shirt, I just had to toss on Eliza's too. We got them for $3 each on Madison Avenue and gave them as a Christmas gift. Did I get a shot of them together, nope, but that's how it goes.

I love New York - or as Addie's says, "I love Nyork." Not sure what borough that hails from.

10 months

Somehow I neglected to mention in my last post that Eliza took her first steps in our hotel when we were in Tehachapi. Maybe it's a second kid thing, maybe I had too much pie, or maybe Facebook is claiming all the glory.

Eliza, my deepest apologies. This post is going to be all about you.

About how you smile and clamber across the floor at warp crawl speed to greet me when I pick you up from school.
About how you cruise around furniture, stand for a few seconds, and yes, even take a few steps.
About how you can hold your own bottle. Much appreciated!
About how you have just learned to point at what you want.
About how you sleep through the night - from 7:30pm until 6:30am. This has nothing to do with anything we did as parents. This is all you. It's a miracle really. Thank you!
About how you devour food, especially pancakes, blueberries and carrots, and how you scream if we don't serve you first.
About your love of strange men and women's dress shoes, according to your teachers.
About how you can sit surrounded by toys, but only see the tiny fragment of a dried-up leaf to pop in your mouth.
About how you love your older sister, even though sometimes you show it by pulling her hair.
About how you snuggle up against Mommy or Daddy's shoulder when we pick you up out of your crib in the morning.
About how I can't believe we'll be celebrating your first birthday in 2 months.
About how lucky we are to have you in our lives.

Happy 10 month birthday, Eliza!

American Pie

We didn't really have any plans for the holiday weekend thinking that 1) we would be on an Alaskan cruise but that never get beyond the thinking about it stage and then 2) going to visit GranJanne's new house in Tucson but that was thwarted by cost and extreme heat, leaving us without an agenda to celebrate the fourth.

Saturday we went to Addie's swim lesson and then went to LACMA for their free Saturday night concerts. Very fun. Next time we'll pack a picnic and bring some wine. Then on Sunday after waffles for breakfast and knee deep in laundry, Cap suggested we drive up to Tehachapi for the night to visit his Grandma Kathy. Sure, I got no plans. I'm not really sure why, but I had never met her in all the 18 years I've known Cap and he hasn't seen her since 1995 or something. I also had never met his Uncle Richard and Aunt Charlotte who also live there.

We packed a suitcase, made a reservation at a hotel with a heated pool (I made Cap cancel our first hotel after we found out their pool wasn't heated), left the dirty dishes in the sink and hopped on the freeway towards Bakersfield about an hour later. Grandma Kathy is 94 and the cutest little grandma ever. I'm so happy I got to meet her and that she got to meet her great granddaughters. Right before we left, she handed me a pad of paper with her late husband's name on them and asked that Addie draw her a picture every now and then on the stationary and mail them to her. I love the idea, and we've already put her first drawing in the mail. Addie wrote "Happy!" - the exclamation mark was completely her own addition.

Nothing is more American than grandmas, but we also snuck in some pie (a slice of apple-peach and slice of cherry a la mode) and fireworks. Fireworks in LA are capital L Lame. This is one area, along from bagels, that I know NY has LA beat by a mile hands down. I was so excited to see fireworks for the first time in ages. When Addie announced at 7 pm on Sunday that she was sleepy (weird I know), we decided to go back to the hotel, call it a night and put the girls to bed. We had a suite and Addie was in love with the fact we had two(!) flat screen TVs in our room. Somehow all four of us were still awake at 9pm. We thought we would be able to see the fireworks from our balcony but after the first BOOM!, Addie and I bolted outside and down the side of the road to perch on a rock by a gas station to watch the display, leaving Eliza and Cap in our dust. I'm not sure what Addie liked better - the fireworks or running down the street in nothing but her pink pajamas and a pair of gold sandals.

Back at school on Tuesday, she drew this amazing picture of fireworks. BOOM!


Today is also Pop Pop's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad!

Strike a Pose

Getting Addie to take a photo just smiling at the camera, apparently, is something only the school photographer and the teen elf photographer with Santa can accomplish. Mostly, Addie just likes to pose.

Addie, can I take your picture in the pretty dress that Gran bought you? Sure, but don't expect me to just stand there grinning like a monkey.

She thinks she's pretty fun. Here's a recent conversation we had in the car on the way home from school:

Addie: "Oops, I toot tooted. No, YOU toot tooted."
Me: "I didn't toot toot"
Addie: "I didn't toot toot. Let's fight over it!"
Me: "Well, I still think you tooted."
Addie: "You said tutu. Now you have to play ballet with me."

Addie also thinks its hilarious to blow bubbles in the bathtub right by Eliza's bum and pretend Eliza farted underwater. I have a video but, in the name of discretion, I'm not posting it on youtube.

Dads Rule

On Father's Day, Dad gets to do what Dad wants . . .

even if it means terrorizing your four year old



and poking your infant in the eye.


Papa Mit and Grandma Vede came over and we honored the Dads with a back yard BBQ and a lot of golf on TV. We dined well on 16-spice grilled tuna, an asparagus, pea and radish side dish, corn on the cob and ice cream cake for dessert. I need to work on presentation, but I'm definitely going to make this again. I softened two pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (Americone Dream and Karamel Sutra) and refroze them in a bread pan with a layer of crumbled Oreos in between. Voila - ice cream cake!

Princess and the Pea

Visualize whirled peas (and blueberries)


Remember Addie and the blueberries?

First Tomato

Lookie a tomato! Addie has clearly stated in the past that she does not like tomatoes but may like them when she is a grown-up. Nonetheless, she has been an excellent tomato grower watering the plants, so she got to pick the first one tonight(and pretend she wants to eat it, which she doesn't).

I'm going to let is ripen a tiny bit more on our windowsill and then it's mine all mine! I just need some buffalo mozzarella and a sprig of basil from the garden and I'm in heaven.




The very same tomato 3 weeks ago


I let the cilantro go to seed but the white flowers were so pretty. The whole plant shot up about 3 feet with a spray of these tiny flowers.

The Funny Page

Can you guess who these two best friends are?

I'll give you a hint: one of them lives under a rock.

Need another hint?

His best friend lives in a pineapple under the sea.

Yup! You guessed it!