The Princess and the Hot Dog

I'm feeling guilty. I didn't take a single photo of the girls on Halloween. Even the picture of the pumpkins above was taken last night right before we had to trash them. Bad mom!

A week ago we went to the block party by Addie's old daycare which we go to every year. Addie was Cinderella (of course) with eye shadow that is just reminiscent enough of the late JonBenet that it sort of freaked me out. We kept to just pink sparkly lip gloss for the subsequent two times she was in costume thankfully. Eliza that night was a hot dog and Cap was a Sith Lord (the below is the only photo of either in costume!). I was just the lady pushing the stroller who was not doing a good job taking photos and was paranoid about losing Addie in the crowd.

Then on Friday, Addie got dressed up again for her school Halloween Parade. They did a few laps around the yard, pet some fuzzy critters and rode a pony. There were plenty of other princesses in attendance, a gaggle of firemen and a couple of spidermans. Later that afternoon, I ditched the hot dog costume and took Eliza as Harriet Potter to my office party and Cap took Addie to his.

On Halloween night, we went to a halloween party with daycare friends again and went trick or treating with 11 other kids Addie's age partying until 10 pm. Addie has been asking for a month if it was time to trick-or-treat and boy was she excited when the answer finally was "today!" She was very good about only taking one piece of candy and saying thank you. After the second house and the second time I reminded her, she turned and said, "I DID only take one piece of candy!" Gee mom, like, get off my back, okay?!!! Cap and I went with a last minute 80s-themed costumes, Addie was Cinderella again and we only managed to get Eliza into a seasonal ghost t-shirt and orange stripped pants. I was amazed what Cap could do with only a single neon t-shirt to work with.

Cinderella (from Addie's school parade)

At the ball in our backyard.

Eliza as Harriet Potter at my office party

Cap as a Sith Lord and Eliza as a hot dog

Cap and I in our tribute to the 80s or as someone else suggested - Jersey Mall Rats

I felt so guilt that I didn't have a better photo of Eliza that I took this yesterday (3 days AFTER halloween). As you can see, Eliza didn't think this was such a great idea. Poor, sad, little dog.

Check out a few more photos here.

Who is Who?

The girls are both about 6 weeks old in these photos. Can you tell who is who?

Some folks think Eliza looks like Cap, some like me. Some folks thinks she looks like her sister, some folks don't as much. I think she and her sister do look very similar - same mouth, same chin and I think same eyes. I definitely think they have different noses, different eyebrows and different hands. It's kinda like a Mrs. Potato Head.

She Likes Me!

A little sister time.

The Photo Shoot

My friend, Jan Birch, whom I met when we were taking photography classes together, offered to do a newborn photo shoot of Eliza as a gift. I told her I wanted a few that captured how small Eliza is as a newborn (even though she's rather a big baby!) because I know I won't remember myself. These are two of my favorites. Those little feet! I have so few photographs of myself with Addie when she was an infant because I was always the one behind the camera. I love having these of me with Eliza. You can check out the entire photo shoot here.

Eliza is about a week and a half old in these photos. Today she is 6 weeks old. How did that happen? She smiles like a charmer and her vocabulary of coos is growing. The other day she made an expression exactly like her big sister that made me laugh out loud. Her eyes are lightening up, and even Addie exclaimed, "the baby's eyes are blue!" Just like her big sister.

Capt. Bones

Sunday we met up with Addie's pals from her former daycare for a little pumpkin time at Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch in Beverly Hills. Gone are the days when I can just plunk Addie down in a sea of pumpkins and expect her to sit and smile for a photo. Eliza was passed out in the Baby Bjorn so there aren't any cute pictures of either of them snuggled in between the gourds. Instead, Addie and the gang ran amok, got their face painted, ran some more, rode in a wagon, ran some more, jumped in a pumpkin shaped bounce house and then ran some more and more and more and more . . .

I'm not sure where the kids got this pirates hat, but there is a hatless skeleton somewhere.

Check out more photos (mostly of Addie getting her face painted) here.

Pumpkin Patch Round One

We made a detour on our way home from Idyllwild to explore Oak Glen which I had read about in Sunset magazine as a great day trip for apple picking. We missed apple season (next year!), but did get to enjoy a giant slice of apple pie with cinnamon sauce at a local diner, buy a mandatory jar of apple butter and pick our own pumpkin.

It was cold and a dense fog was rolling in making the fields even more romantic and mysterious. We had the pumpkin patch at Los Rios Rancho to ourselves. Addie selected her own pumpkin, and she and Cap cut it off the vine with a knife. I love pumpkin patches. There is something so timeless about photos of children in amongst the giant orange beasts.

On Sunday we are off with some friends to a more urban pumpkin excursion in Beverly Hills where we'll stock up on more pumpkins and funny shaped gourds. Can't wait! I still haven't decided yet what to carve on my pumpkin but Addie said she wanted a scary face on hers.

Check out more photos from the pumpkin patch at Los Rios Rancho here.

Where the Wild Things Are

Nothing like a little mountain town, a cabin in the woods, s'mores, an old-school metal slide and some football to put you in the Fall spirit. We spent 3 nights in Idyllwild nestled a mile high in the San Jacinto mountains. I had a cold (and a clogged milk duct - ew) unfortunately but our cabin was a great place to convalesce - a one bedroom with kitchenette, TV and fireplace. Plus it was Eliza's one month birthday and taking a mini-vacation is a great way to celebrate. Happy Birthday my sweet little pea pod.

Let the wild rumpus start!

Spoiling Addie is super fun.

Old-school metal slide

Bird watching from our cabin's front deck

S'mores in our cabin

Hanging out in the local coffee shop, a short walk from our cabin

Check out more photos from our weekend here.

My Crafty Wreath

In between bouts of Eliza screaming, I finished my Halloween wreath today. She's either colicky or I'm just really bad at calming her. Right now I have her in the car seat on top of the washing machine set to the spin cycle. It works for a few minutes and then I have to reset the spin cycle over and over again.

I bought this fall wreath at the end of season, half-off sale at Target last year and then spray painted it glossy black for Halloween and added a silver ribbon. I think it looks splendidly gothic.

Sisters

"Where's my baby?"

That's pretty much the first words out of Addie's mouth when she wakes up in the morning or comes home from school. She adores her little sister and is eager to help out - often a little too eager - although she has learned to apply diaper cream which is always a useful skill. When we remind her to be careful around Baby Eliza, we're met with an indignant, "I AM being careful!" Addie also enjoys impersonating her sister's facial expressions which has Addie in stitches. Her new nickname for Eliza is Baby Eliza Weedy or just Weedy for short. This is in honor of the Weedy Sea Dragon we saw at the aquarium on Saturday. Eliza Weedy is not so weedy though. At her 2 and half week doctor's appointment, she weighed in at 9 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches (8lb8oz and 19.5 in at birth). No wonder she doesn't fit in her newborn diapers anymore!

When Addie and my mom came to visit us in the hospital, Addie immediately noticed that her baby sister, her mama and her dada all had fancy new hospital bracelets compliments of St. John's Medical Center. She demanded that she get a bracelet too. The nurses kindly made Addie her very own Big Sister bracelet. How sweet is that?!

I was a little nervous about what Addie would think of the whole breastfeeding concept. "Oh, my baby sister has special milk from your nipple?" (pronounced with an equal accent on both syllables - "nip pole"). The first few days Addie would head off to school with her own nipples lubed in Lansinoh breastfeeding cream in solidarity. She also concocted a special pretend soup for her baby sister which she presented to her in a silver goblet. The secret ingredient? Special Milk from the Nipple of course!

Despite the outpouring of affection for her sister, Addie is also struggling with all the changes. She's a tough cookie, and I know she will adjust to our new family of four.

Hot and Cold

Two weeks after we brought Eliza home from the hospital, we finally got around to giving the poor girl a bath. With two weeks worth of kisses plastered on her head, she was dirtier than a Port Authority bathroom. Eliza appeared content at first with her sponge bath and then changed her mind - a few times.

Content 1:30 pm

Discontent 1:31 pm

Content 1:32 pm

Discontent 1:33 pm

GranJanne bought Eliza her very own Dwell Studio owl hooded towel (their new baby collection is out!). Addie has one too from Dwell Studio which she got from Papa Mit, and we still use it three years later making it one of my all time favorite baby gifts.

2 Weeks Old

Miss Eliza is 2 weeks old today. Happy day my sweetness.

Here is what's been going on:

Cap went back to work.

My mom had to go back home after having been with us for 10 days. Sniff sniff.

GranJanne arrived to stay with us for a week. Hurrah!

Eliza's umbilical nubbin fell off and was MIA until I found it on Cap's pillow. I'm not sure what to do with it. Why can't I bring myself to just throw it away?

Eliza has outgrown her newborn diapers.

Eliza has figured out day from night.

Eliza sleeps 2 hour stretches at night, eats and then goes back to sleep. Not too bad.

Eliza saw (slept through) her first art exhibition: Pompeii and the Roman Villa at LACMA

Eliza went to (slept through) her first restaurant for lunch: Swingers

Eliza went to (slept through) the aquarium. the first trip of many.

Eliza had her first photo shoot. My friend Jan spent an hour and a half taking photos of her. Most of the time though was spent trying to calm Eliza down so she wasn't crying in every shot. I'll share the photos when I get them.

Eliza also has the most engaging smile that moves her ears a quarter of an inch up. I can't wait for her to mean it.

Big Yawn

I'm too sleepy to write much now, but I wanted to report in. Eliza has gone from needing to be fed every hour all day and night to last night where she at least gave us a few 2-3 hour windows of sleep. I actually felt rested this morning. Or at least I didn't feel like a might melt in a sobbing ball of goo.

I am slowly returning from a sleep-deprived stupor to a world where I once remember valuing personal hygiene. I've been wearing a nursing bra and sweatpants for a week and to make it worse, they are the same bra and sweatpants. Aside from a trip to the pediatrician and a trip to my doctor because I was sure I had tonsillitis (I don't), I haven't left the house until today. The post-partum cramping, which at times was so horrifically painful I sent myself into shakes, shivers and chattering teeth, has subsided and it seems that maybe there is hope that breastfeeding won't always be this painful.

Eliza is a dream and love to watch her make a thousand faces in her sleep and rub her soft, downy head. She has the sweetest rose bud lips and a tiny button chin which sinks into her cheeks. My mom discovered two submerged dimples on those cheeks too, just like her big sister.

Thanks to my mom and Cap too who are doing countless things to help.

Meet Eliza

Welcome Princess!

Eliza Wren
Born Saturday, 9/12/2009
4:35 am
8 lbs. 8 oz.
19.5 inches

With love,
Mommy, Daddy and Big Sister Adelaide

Labor(less) Weekend

Here's a little of what we did this weekend instead of spending it in the hospital popping out a baby as I had envisioned. I didn't take photos either so this will have to do of Addie on Sunday entertaining us in the backyard. You'll have to imagine the entertaining part since this is just a picture of her elbow. Apparently, even clicking a small black button on my camera is proving to be to much for me as I enter Week 40. Cap has been a complete saint though - cooking, washing dishes so much that he even has a blister on his thumb (really), and watching Addie so I can just sit down. I love to sit.

Our laborless labor day weekend:
ate pancakes
went swimming
tried to nap
didn't go into labor
ate pancakes
went swimming (Addie put her head under the water for the first time!)
tried to nap
had a BBQ at our place with Papa Mit and Grandma Vede
didn't go into labor
didn't eat pancakes
went swimming
road the trolley at The Grove
ate gummy alphabet letters
ate ice cream
tried to nap
didn't go into labor

and now to just sit for a little bit longer. Ahhh.

39 Weeks

No baby yet and no signs of a baby other than the existence of my enormous belly. My doctor said that with the second baby there may not be any indication that labor is imminent. It will just happen. Actually that was how it was with Addie. No false contractions, no dropping, no dilation, no water breaking, no nuthin' until I was in labor and then BAM out she pops (okay she was actually sucked out with a vacuum) 6 days past her due date and 17 hours of labor.

My due date is this Sunday, but I'm actually fine not having the baby early now (or so I tell myself). I've been a whirlwind errand runner and movie goer this week having seen a movie in the theater every day. Just me, a large Mugs root beer and a pack of red vines. Plus Cap has fallen victim to a cold so we absolutely can't and won't have the baby until he's better. As if I have a choice in the matter.

The Artist II

I'm just going nuts for Addie's drawings lately. She spent Friday night doing full size faces on her easel, this one is of me. Her noses are my favorite - big exclamation points right in the middle. Here are a few other selections from the past month.


fuzzy face


a dancing princess


a bevy of centipedes


a shell


a duck. she's learning to color things in now too.


and a spider. This one I want to put in a frame.

Another Day at the Museum

The weather has been a little weird lately. Cloudy cold, then humid. We bagged going to the pool on Saturday and risked the potential heat in Pasadena to revisit the KidSpace Museum. It's really more of a discovery center than a museum and Addie got to explore all sorts of rocks, shells and yes, even a fine pelt. I like this photo because she looks like a sales lady at the fur counter at Bergdorfs. I keep thinking of fun places to go when my Mom is in town in a few weeks and then I remember that having a baby is less of a vacation and more like house arrest.

Sunday I was treated to an amazing baby shower hosted by Jamie and Jeannine with decadent food, a little champagne for the pregnant lady, sweet gifts and most importantly lots of time to gab with my lady friends. I loved every minute of it. This is my last week at work until January which means there must be a baby coming soon! Addie is ready as she's dragged the bassinet into her room as well as the infant car seat. Baby Doll sleeps face down and shrouded with a wash cloth while Elmo keeps the car seat warm. I gently told Addie that her baby sister can only sleep on her back and she can't have any blankets in her bed, especially not covering her face. Addie promptly told me that her doll was a toy and it was perfectly fine for her to sleep any way she wanted. Well then!

Who does she look like?

Me, at my third birthday


Cap, I'm guessing, is three here. GranJanne?


I am becoming more and more curious and excited to find out who Addie's little sister is going to look like. If she pops out an Inuit, then we know she'll transform into a blond-haired princess like her big sister. As for Addie herself, I think she's a mix of both Cap and I. What do you think?

Getting Ready

I've been a little in the denial mindset. The baby isn't due until Fall - that's ages away. There isn't really anything we need to do to get ready for the new baby - just the car seat and the bassinet, right? But once I started to bust out with a list, it grew longer and longer. Sure, we don't need to buy a lot of stuff, but we still need to locate it from the bowels of the garage. We spent a little of last weekend soaking breastmilk-stained onesies, bibs and burp clothes in Oxy Clean overnight. This weekend we managed to uncover a few items including the car seat and the bassinet as well as other key items that were safely stored in a box called Infant Gear. Everything is washed and put away, car seat is by the door, bassinet by my bedside. While unpacking, I came across one teeny weeny newborn sized diaper that I had saved from Addie and was confounded by how small it is and the recollection that even this micro-diaper will seem gigantic on a newborn. Remind me I need to add diapers to my To Do list!

I'm officially full term now with 3 weeks to go until my due date. I hold on to everyone's story about how their baby came early, but I know from my own experience that I need to mentally prepare for late when every day after is an eternity. Are you kidding me? I'm still pregnant?! This time, I won't be working past my due date. What was I thinking? I remember being in the elevator on May 18, 2006 at The Standard Hotel downtown for a work event when a stranger asked me when I was due and I said, "today."

I have two more weeks left of work and then one week off (maybe, the baby will come early?!?). I'm thinking I should take myself to the movies every day that week, get pedicures and lounge around Urth Cafe in West Hollywood sipping iced hibiscus tea and reading mystery novels. Perhaps if I make elaborate plans with my freedom, it will be Murphy's Law and the baby will arrive a little bit early. Not too early, just a little bit.

I want to go to a museum

Mommy: "Do you want to go the beach today?"

Addie: "No, I want to go a museum."

Sunday morning was sunny, warm, clear skies and gorgeous. The perfect day to go to the beach. Only Addie didn't want to. She said it would be too windy. After much convincing, we got in our swim gear (as if we go in the water but we pretend), made pb&j sandwiches, packed our beach bag and gathered the sand toys. Off we went until we hit the west side, a bank of dense, low cloud cover and a temperature that read 68 degrees. Um, what happened to sunny skies? Darn it if it Addie wasn't right! So we turned around on PCH and headed back to sunny mid-city and to Addie's original plan. Luckily she hasn't figured out the phrase, I told you so.

We hadn't been to see the new Renzo Piano designed Broad Contemporary Art Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum yet where, incidentally, my firm did all the engineering. LACMA has a cool (and free!) kids membership called NextGen which gets her and a parent into the museum at no charge until she's 18. Awesome.


Addie ran though the 99 cent store installation . . .


. . . ran through the lamp post installation . . .


. . . and ran after the pigeons.

She thankfully didn't run while inside the museum. We already were reprimanded for having her on Cap's shoulders and for not holding her hand while in 25 feet of the Jeff Koon's giant blue balloon dog should she make a mad dash for it and defile it's shiny surface with peanut butter fingers.

I'm really glad we ended up at BCAM, and next time we'll listen when she has an idea for a weekend adventure!

Check out a few more pics from our museum outing.

3 Week Progress Report

Isn't that a nice note from Addie's teacher? Addie seems happy and when Cap drops her off she says "Bye Dada" and hurries into her classroom. When I pick her up she's in the playground catching caterpillars with a small group of bug lovers or drawing with chalk. She is starting to talk about her new friends which is great to hear. I can't tell you how different pre-school is from our daycare. I feel a little like Addie is in college or something. She has "work" and, as she often tells me, you can't be loud in the classroom. There wasn't even a real "inside" at her daycare. Even the term teacher is brand new. She told me that big girls learn things.

I am hopeful that since this note was written, we have overcome the accident problem. You have to be potty trained to start in the 3-4 year old classroom, and we sent her into her new school knowing that she was almost but not quite there. We haven't used a diaper or washed poopy undies in a week. Fingers crossed that we are in the clear! This will make us a diaper free household for about a month until the new lil pooper arrives in September.

Another thing I love about her new school is that she's an Adelaide. On her first day at daycare 3 years ago, Andi asked me how to spell Adelaide and she seems so flustered, I just said, "Oh well, we call her Addie." And there it was. She was always and only Addie there. Now, however I have the chance to use her real name and let her nickname catch on organically. I ordered labels with Adelaide, her cubby is labeled the same and her art projects are sent home with her real name spelled out. If someone asks her name, she'll even say Adelaide. We still call her Addie, but it's nice to know that she's an Adelaide too.

Tomorrow she has her first field trip to a lagoon in Redondo Beach. I considered chaperoning, but I'd pretty much be useless since I can barely bend down and certainly can't run around.

San Diego (again)!

We returned to San Diego last weekend to celebrate Cousin Esme's wedding and dance the night away with family. Esme looked gorgeous and it was so great to see so much family! Addie I think had the most fun of anyone there. She partied for 5 hours and we had to lure her off the dance floor after the last song with a beach ball that a groomsman kindly offered her.

After a yummy brunch with family on Saturday morning, we explored the science center and hung out with my friend Karen, her husband and her super duper cute almost one year old daughter Sofia. Addie is gaga for babies. She loved meeting her 9 month old second cousin Octavia at the wedding and (s)mothered Sofia - washing her hair, bringing her toys, feeding her baby food and brushing her hair. Addie is getting pretty excited for her little sister. I'm hoping I can just lounge around on the sofa watching Weeds while Addie takes care of the new baby.

Sunday we said goodbye to baby Sofia and headed out to Sea World. It was fine. There were shows. I got drenched by a dolphin, ate ice cream and generally felt that one time was enough for me. I have also renewed my love of the Long Beach aquarium which beats Sea World hands down in that department. If you go to Sea World, skip the aquarium stuff and stick with the animal shows. Or just go to Disneyland.

Check out more pictures from our weekend in San Diego here.