Tiny Tiny

What's smaller than small?
Tiny
What's smaller than tiny?
Little tiny
What's smaller than little tiny?
Little tiny tiny

Addie's got a thang for little tiny ting things.
"My have a tiny tiny pony" or
"tiny tiny pizza," or
"little tiny tiny roly-poly bug."

Kicking off the Halloween season, Addie also a few little tiny tiny pumpkins
from the pumpkin patch in Beverly Hills.
After sorting through a giant bin of pumpkins, she ended up
with one orange tiny tiny and one white tiny tiny but what she really dug was
the single cob of indian corn she picked out.

Don't worry, we'll be picking some big big pumpkins next Sunday when we head to a giant pumpkin farm.

Check out a few other photos of Addie decked out in her seasonal regalia on the left side bar.

(p.s. now she announced she wants to be a rhino for halloween.)

Happy Birthday GGV!

Great Grandma Vede turned 94 years young last week.
Addie wanted to bake her a cake.
A pink cake.
A pink cake with raspberries.
And we did.




Addie loves birthdays. Happy Birthday to Addie is a frequent song she sings
and often times ordinary toys are transformed into delicous cakes
complete with candles to blow out. Remember that toy where you
pound in the colored pegs with a mallot? Addie and I were pounding
away when suddently the pegs where candles which she blew out.
She then served wooden block cake slices to her guests.
Sometimes those same blocks are cookies or ice cream.
Addie gave me an imaginary ice cream cone so I paid her an imaginary doller.
Then she went into the living room and gave Cap an imaginery cone and the imaginary dollar.
Hey Dada! What kind of a racket are you running anyway?

Time-Out!

Our little sassafras likes to be her own boss - and the boss of everyone else.
When I ask her to climb into her car seat she tells me, "No Mama. Time-out Mama! You cry!"
Um, sorry lil' monkey but it just doesn't work that way. Still, she makes her stuffed animals
go into time-out, and the other day she yelled at a house fly that was zipping around the kitchen,
"Go a-way! Time-out Fly!"

the economy fairy

Remember the pink octopus of 2006?


and the itsy-bitsy spider from 2007? seriously. too cute.

For the past two years, we've had an unplanned, eight-legged theme.
Addie hasn't quite grasped the concept of halloween and costumes,
but this year I feel like she'll have an opinion about what she wears,
and should I select incorrectly, we'll have a 2 year old dressed
as herself. Maybe we'll call it the Terrible Twos. Cap suggested
we dress her as a dumpster baby, but we later decided she had
to be an infant for that to work.

I asked Addie this weekend what she wanted to be, and she replied "purple."
Later in the day, after I told her that Teddy was going to be a penguin and Clyde a frog,
she said "dragon. red dragon."

While she was napping on Sunday, I decided to start the hunt for dragon costumes.
"Oh, this looks like a dragon!"
"Oh, no it says it a dinosaur."
What the heck is the difference anyway?
Per Cap, dragons always have wings.
Oh.

I found a green dragon costume at Pottery Barn. For $70. Um no.
The search continues.
I was having trouble navigating one of those enormous on-line stores and ended up
looking through all 376 matches for "toddler costume." No red dragons so far,
but I did find a costume called "Toddler Economy Fairy Costume".
I think our fine nation might need a few of those!
Some other noteworthy choices for toddlers include the Barbie bride (seems wrong to me),
UPS guy, and the Cute as Can Be Rapper costume. The description read,
"Yo! Hook your toddler up with this fly rapper costume."

Escape from LA

Addie flees from gunfire in war-torn Griffith Park

or

Addie runs from misting machine in delight at Los Angeles Zoo

The After Party

Cap and I told the photographer we were channeling Falcon Crest for this shot.

Because the Emmy's are shown on prime time in LA, we attended the after party
before the show aired on TV here on the West coast. We drank sake, ate tuna snow cones
and saw almost no celebrities.
(Note to self for next year: get there late.)
(Second note to self: you are too old and have to work in the morning to get there late.)
I did get to meet the crying eyes lady from Heroes who is lovely.
She said she was an Artist.
I said I was a Fan.
All was good in the world.

Back to the Drawing Board

I was in San Francisco for 2 nights and while I was away,
Cap told me that he was watching TV
and heard a scratch, scratch, scratch.
After some investigation, he found Addie
sitting at the office desk drawing away – at 10 pm -
well after she had already gone to bed.
Lil trickster.

"I draw faces, Mama."
I hope this won't be followed by "I see dead people."
Addie told me when I got home that the figure
on the right had ponytails. Very stylish, I’m sure.
The hieroglyphics that run along the bottom
is the alphabet, which Cap said she was reciting while writing.
Question is, who's alphabet?
There is one character that sorta looks like the Omega.
Opa!

The Artist

If we leave Addie to putter around the house in search of entertainment, you'll often find her at her easel or sitting in the chair at our desk busy drawing. Of course, we might also find her in the living room begging to watch Buzz (Toy Story 2), Dalmatian Dog (101 Dalmatians) or Monster Movie (Monsters Inc.). She comfortable in most mediums - chalk, crayons, marker or paint. Ah, but it is a pen that trumps them all.

To have and to hold the precious ink is to have found paradise. Even last Christmas when Addie was 1 and a half, and we were flying to Detroit, Addie would walk the aisles and snag pens out of people's hands. One kind woman, unfortunate to have an aisle seat, let Addie draw on the backside of the carbon copies of her checks.

We have been rather disorganized keeping her drawings as most of them have been drawn on scrap paper I brought home from work -100 legal size sheets of paper with my old firm's annual budget misprinted on the reverse. I did get inspired though from spread in Sunset magazine and transformed some of Addie's drawings into graphic prints. (thanks Jamie for the photoshop lesson!) We're going to frame them and hang them up on the wall along with an assportment of photos that I'm finally going to convert from digital purgatory to print.


Now try to get the girl to play with a ball and it's as if I've asked her to eat a slug. Oh wait, she probably would eat a slug if I asked.

the painter in the tub

What was that pink ring that the Cat in the Hat couldn't get out of the bathtub?* Well, let your toddler illustrate themselves with tempura paint, and you'll find out how to create it yourself. Tempura paint doesn't dissolve in water as much as it reduces itself to a fine dusting that clings to your tub. Just remember not to use your mother's white dress to clean it off.




* I had to do a little google research to learn that the pesky cat ate cake in the bathtub, but I'm still not clear if it was the cake that left the pink cat ring residue or if cake is just circumstantial evidence.

The Real Deal

Hello Malibu Kiwanis Club Annual Chili Cookoff and Carnival!


Well, my wish finally did come true. And I can say that the (county) fair dream has been realized and the craving for funnel cake has been conquered. With all the best intentions to go for a hike in Malibu with Clara and her parents, we got waylaid by breakfast tacos, chai tea and a playground at our initial rendezvous point. By the time we were finished playing along side the well dressed Malibu locals, the sun was too high for a cool hike so we took to the road. After a rather weak attempt to find beach parking, a giant Ferris wheel a few miles up the road beckoned us over.





Good times on the Ferris wheel. Addie sat in reverence for most of the ride, hands clasped on her lap but after a few rounds she got into the spirit. Addie and I have also been in a little Mama-Daughter Independence battle. She will only let Dada read her books and if she cries in the middle of the night, I am promptly sent "Away Mama! Only Dada!" She did let me on the carousel with her at the fair, but I was told not to touch her or any part of her horse. I had stand a foot back like her bodyguard. I wonder if she learned that from the kids at the Malibu playground earlier that day?

Check out more photos of our day at the Carnival on the left side bar.

Not quite a county fair but close enough

Someone mentioned funnel cake last week and since then I've had a hankering for an old fashioned county fair.

Hello Santa Monica Farmers Market.

I almost had to take a valium to deal with the crowds, but Addie had an awesome time. I had been getting kinda wonky in crowds last weekend. We hung out on the lawn at LACMA on Friday night with hundreds of other families and a big squadron of kids from daycare. I sort of went into turtle mode and by the time Cap arrived I was ready to run home in a half panic. I realized that wasn't fair to him or Addie so I managed to hold it together until the sunset when it Time To Go Home NOW.

The farmers market definitely had more people clad in designer footwear (children included) than your average county fair, but we did have a picnic of omelets and strawberry crepes, listened to a band and Addie got an orange balloon butterfly. She also rode on her first pony. No matter what you may think of pony rides, I was so proud of Addie for riding Blondie all by herself while we waved from outside the ring. I'm already getting excited for pumpkin patch season. I think the influx of costume catalogs months in advance may also have started me on it.

Last Comic Standing

In case you are wondering what Addie thinks of her charming, 

eloquent parents, take a look.  Sorta reminds me of 

adults according to Charlie Brown.

so much for nostalgia

Have you had a push-up pop recently? Well, I don't think you need to 

chase the ice-cream truck down the street for one.  Tastes like chewable, 

orange flavored aspirin shoved into a toilet paper tube. Give me tart 

frozen yogurt any day (and recently it pretty much has been).

Twinkle Twinkle

Topping the charts at #1, Addie with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

22 Hours

I know, I know. I am totally milking our Hawaii trip, but this will be the last post on the subject I swear (pinkies crossed).

For most of the trip we pretended to be locals and stayed with friends of my mom in Haiku. For one night though I fully embraced my pasty-skinned, tourist-loving self. My mom became Extra Super Gran (if that is possible) and watched Addie, while Cap and I snuck out to the Sheraton at Ka'anapali Beach for one extravagant night in an amazing resort. Man, I LOVE resorts. 

We were miraculously upgraded 2 levels to a Deluxe Ocean Front room. Above is the view from our private balcony; nothing between us and the ocean but a manicured lawn and a long drop off a cliff. In 22 hours we attempted to relive our 7 day honeymoon, and I think we did a darn good job. We crammed in the entire resort experience complete with mai tais by the pool, wine and appetizers in our room at sunset, and dinner at a fabulous restaurant in Lahaina.


At sunset, we raced (and I mean I really ran) from our room service bottle of wine on our balcony, down to the beach to see the ceremonial cliff diver, and then a few minutes later hauled butt back to the room to catch the sun sink below the horizon. The next day we slept in (until 8 am but that still counts!), went snorkeling with a green sea turtle, and then topped it off with more pool time and a bloody mary. Did I mention that I love resorts? I LOVE RESORTS. I'm spoiled and I know it.



And to Po, thanks for sharing 22 hours with me in paradise.

Yucky

The top picture especially is Addie’s "I don’t like it, Mama. It’s yucky" face.

“I don’t like rice. I’m sorry.”
We’ll at least she was polite about it.

Sometimes she’ll also use the scrunchy nose face when she wants to remind me of rules involving what not to eat.

“Addie, do you want to go outside and look for roly-poly bugs?”
“I don’t eat bugs.” (scrunched up face)

"Today we're gonna go to the beach!"
"I don't eat sand." (scrunched up face)
That is also not always the case as Addie has been known to get down on all fours and lick the sand.

“Oh Addie, Look! A hummingbird!”
“I don’t eat hummingbird.” (scrunched up face)

“We’re going to the swimming pool today!”
“The big swimming pool? I don’t eat swimming pools.”

How much do I love you?

There are sunsets . . .




. . . and then there are sunsets from the top of the world . . .





The Summit, Haleakala Crater



"Addie, guess how much Mama loves you?"
I stretched out my arms really wide, "this much."
Addie replied, "Too much."

Blow Dolphin, Blow!

Addie takes on the dolphin exhibit at the Maui Ocean Center - headbanger style.

Promise from Heaven

Want to see your soul?

8,800 feet in the sky when the sun is shining from behind, we were blessed to see our own shadow cast onto the clouds below with a rainbow surrounding it. The Hawaiian legend around this phenomena is that your own soul is revealed to you as a promise from heaven that you will be cared for.

Pretty neato.

Return from Paradise

In case you happen to bump into me, I want to warn you first.

I am not tan. I am also not sunburned. This might be why (plus the 4 cans of continuous spray SPF 70 we went through).


Addie totally dug the ocean. We've taken her to the beach several times in LA but she refused to even dip a toe into the water. Of course, maybe the crystal blue water and warm ocean temperatures of Maui beaches may have something to do with her new love, and who could blame her?

Addie loved jumping into the waves holding hands with me, Cap or Gran. "One, Two, Three, JUMP!" she'd shout. I also found a new love - snorkeling. It is one of the most amazing things I've experienced in my life (after my wedding and giving birth to Addie of course, but it does rank way up there). After a day at the beach, we'd strip Addie down to her birthday suit and Cap would wade out and give her an "Ocean Bath." Ah, we're gonna miss Ocean Baths.


There was so much we did, I don't know what else to say really except it was a wonderful vacation and I can't wait until Addie can swim! (and snorkel). I think instead of trying to summarize our trip here, you can check out photos of our entire trip by clicking on the sidebar, and I'll try to break it down over the next few posts.

I do want to at least show the view from where we stayed. Our beyond-gracious hosts Dave and Irene have a gorgeous place in Haiku with views here:

and in the other direction. Seriously. They LIVE here.


It's back to work for me on Monday. Gulp! And we miss you Gran!

Aloha!