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There She Grows

A couple weeks ago, Lilah picked some flowers in our yard and I helped her press them flat in our dictionary.

Then, for some Mothers Day gifts, we used the flattened flowers to make garden pictures.

Happy belated Mothers Day to all moms out there!

Its noon on Sunday and she just fell asleep. That means, after this procrastination post, work time for me until she wakes up. Much like… every other day.

I do sometimes fantasize about working on location somewhere, having a set schedule and some structure. It doesn’t have to be full time, just out of this house. So that whenever I have the rare moment of freedom at home I wouldn’t feel like I have to be working. I’d love to be using this naptime to do art projects in the garage, or watch a movie, although I’d first need to use it to finish up our xmas thank yous or tackling mount laundry… the kind of things I never seem able to finish during her waking hours. And then maybe once in awhile I could just go the eff back to bed. Which is at times my ultimate fantasy, lol. 2 and a half years into this parenting thing, waking up at 6:30 is still a huge struggle for me. Dont’ worry I’ll save that for my next self-pity post.

Yeah this is one of those moments I am feeling rather bleh about my current routine. Why should I, when things are so great I thank my lucky stars its worked out the way it has. But when I’m feeling particularly sleep deprived and ineffective, my darker pessimistic side comes out easily. I think this year is going to see some changes. Could go in one of two directions. I’m going to have to figure some stuff out.

oh wait, she’s not even asleep yet. Still just playing in her room. I can hear her reading to herself in there. Heh.

This video just cracks me up. I love that she is good friends with some of the 8-10 year old neighbors.

As it continues to reach new heights, our palm tree occasionally sheds its lowest frond. It is surprisingly immense once its off the tree, and crashes down crushing plants in its wake. I fold it out of the way until Mike or Miguel saws it into manageable chunks that can actually fit in our yard waste bin.

For a week the latest frond languished on the ground and Lilah was perturbed. Every morning as we set out for our walk she immediately pointed to it and announced what had happened. “Palm frond, fell down! So big! Fell down!” Sometimes she would insist on running up to it, giving it a gentle pat as she inquired to its current status of ok-ness. I sometimes bring my cell phone on our walks, and one day I couldn’t resist snapping this photo.

“You ok, palm frond? Ya got an owie? Kiss it better?”

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One of the moms in our playgroup is expecting her 2nd son next month, so the other day instead of meeting at the park, we had a little baby shower for her at my place.   We had lots of snacks and gifts and it was lovely to celebrate and chit-chat.  We also had a house full of crazed kiddos who are used to running rampant at a playground during this time slot.   Our house looked as if 7 small tornados had run through it afterwards.  Look how adorable they are, mushing together in our bed.   

On Memorial Day, we did something we haven’t really done before. We had a big BBQ in our backyard and invited a ton of people from various facets of our lives. Aside from Lilah’s birthday party, I don’t think we’ve ever had a gathering of this size at our place. I feel as though I’ve been putting off doing something like this for far too long so we just went for it. Our yard is finally at the point where I am ok with entertaining back there. We had a bunch of Mike’s friends, lots of my friends, we had our single friends AND some of my “mommy” friends along with their kids. This mix of folks was the very definition of worlds colliding…and it felt really good. Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday is a very exciting day for Lilah. Not only is this our playgroup day, but its GARBAGE DAY in the neighborhood! For a few months now, Lil has been super interested in the whole concept of garbage. She knows the locations of all our household garbage receptacles and not to mess with them. Only trash goes in, and nothing is taken out. She knows where the special recycling container is kept, as well as the tupperware that stores our organic scraps for composting before we add them to the large bin out back. She knows that we periodically transfer the contents of our indoor garbage cans to the three large outside containers.

The whole process reaches its dramatic climax on garbage day,  Wednesday, when the large noisy trucks can be seen and heard throughout the neighborhood.  She knows they will drive down our street 6 different times. (One truck for trash, one for recyclables and one for green waste…on both sides of our street). Her ears are poised and ready and she hears them coming long before they arrive. That telltale screeching of brakes will make her stop what she’s doing and yell, “truck coming!” Sometimes she’ll be napping, completely sound asleep, and suddenly emerge from our bedroom at top speed because a truck is approaching.

Then she runs to the front door waiting for me to bring her outside. She waves and yells “hi truck!” over and over. Occasionally the driver notices and, if he’s feeling peppy, will wave back. She’ll stand to watch the truck stop at house after house until she can’t see it anymore. While the truck picks up each can, raises it up high, dumps it out and places it back on the street, Lilah announces each step as it happens. And she doesn’t have closure until the final part of the weekly process occurs: we drag the emptied cans back up our driveway to the side of the house where they reside until next time.

Mike finally got an awesome digital camera after far too many years of pining over the decision to shoot something other than film. True to form, he is now fully immersed in photography again. As well he should be. He even got a nifty fish-eye lens and has actually started updating his flickr. This is a Very Good Thing ™. He’ll have an updated site in the relatively near future, but until then check out his flickr page where he has only just begun to bring the reign. (by the way, if you type phrases like ‘bring the reign’ you just might be a huge dork).

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So, our garage-office leaks.  Still!     Now that i’m working more hours from home again, i’m desperately in need of revisiting our office set-up.       There’s a lot of room and potential out there, but its currently a chaotic mess  and certainly not toddler-friendly.  I have grandiose plans  to achieve what is both a viable work environment for me and a baby-safe play area for Lilah.

All psyched up to make major progress a few weeks ago, I moved a bookshelf away from the wall only to discover there was a mold problem there.    We knew the room had leaked once or twice; its why our computers are standing on the floor inside big waterproof ikea bags.    We’d go in there after heavy rains and sop up small amounts of water from the concrete floor.   But, I had no idea mold was growing behind the furniture. great!   I tossed out the shelves and  scrubbed and sprayed and got medieval on the ass of that mold until it was taken care of.   Mike got up on the roof and sealed every conceivable nook and cranny to nip this problem in the bud, once and for all.

Well los angeles has this way of being dry all the time except for when its raining torrential-downpour style for days on end, about 3-4 times each year.   We hoped the leak was gone but had no way of knowing until the next monsoon happened, which is now. Its been raining hard for the last 2 days, and guess what I just discovered.  Water. On the floor in there.  Surrounding a pile of books that happened to be on the floor only because I am moving them elsewhere.  These ‘books’ are mostly photo albums. Including our wedding pics (and the negatives).  My Bali pics (and the negatives).   Waterlogged, all.

So we spent our evening gingerly removing negatives from sleeves and laying them out to dry – I hope hope hope they can be salvaged.  If not, I will cry. Either way, what a pisser this whole thing is!  I spent all afternoon driving around LA county in a downpour with an annoyed baby to pick up furniture and other items for Project Workspace Reboot, only to discover that yes, leaking is still an issue and no, i will not be able to transform this workspace any time soon, and possibly never.   And that is SO annoying.

back when i got lilah’s first decals, i thought the idea was somewhat unique. now i see wall decals sold everywhere i look. came across these cute ones the other day and they just matched her room so well i couldn’t resist.

her room is very busy and colorful; admittedly there is a lot going on in there. if the rest of our house reflects at least some minimalist compromise with mike, lilah’s room is where i have truly taken over and, perhaps, gone a bit nuts. but she adores her room, and is quite pleased to have these new decals here. the first time she saw them she pointed at each one and said “thanks”. i said, “you like it?” she looked up at me while tapping them and said, “good”.

and now she counts them and points them out as i am changing her. “flowers. green flower. bug. fly!” i’m sure the novelty will wear off soon and then it will be back to the crazed flailing around that she’s been doing up there lately.

lilah loves water and now she has her own little pool in our backyard, compliments of grandma. she has a blast! definitely looking forward to more splashing this summer.

Lilah’s room was featured on apartment therapy.

we’d been looking for the perfect nursery chair forever. something soft and comfy that rocked and glided, looked cute in the room and did not cost a fotune. i wanted a fully upholstered big chair, not one of these wood gliders you see a lot lately. i want lil to be able to curl up with me and a book well into her childhood – as long as she has the patience for it. well, we finally found the perfect one. at costco of all places! i’m so happy with this find.