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There She Grows

Major back-posting here, but Happy Third Birthday to Lilah!!

She turned 3 on June 21, but her birthday celebration seemed to last for weeks.
Here’s a full rundown and a few photos. Read the rest of this entry »

April was a month full of friends, family, events, birthdays and excitement. I am not keeping up with this blog, at all.

So here is a quick and dirty rundown of what made April 2010 a fairly big month for us. Along with our particularly Big News at the end.

Read the rest of this entry »

My cousin-in-law Lori Kaplan has written and published a memoir that chronicles her experience raising her daughter, Jaclyn, who was born with Congenital Heart Disease. We’re so proud of her for accomplishing this, and excited to read it. Here’s an excerpt that describes the book:

Written by her mother, this memoir describes Jaclyn’s personality, her ability to find humor in frightening medical ordeals, and her perseverance in the face of serious illness. It is about being “normal” and doing what other children and families do, in spite of health issues. It is also a story about adapting to circumstances as they arise, and how a family can cope with chronic illness, without having it define their lives.

This book is an inspirational tale for parents and families, especially those who may have a terminally ill child in their lives.

Jaclyn’s Journey will ultimately be available for purchase at online bookstores but for now, you can buy a signed copy from her website.

Click the book cover (designed by our cousin Danny Kaplan) to visit the website (made by yours truly).

This was part of the holiday card we sent out this yr. Miss two-and-a-half smothering Marley with her joy. FEEL IT. lol, its so them.

And here is Lil’s very first Santa experience. Taken at the SL moms club holiday party. She wasn’t afraid in the least; the moment he walked in the front door she ran right to him for a hug. Then started in with the hard questions: “Santa, where’s your sleigh?!” he pretended not to hear, lol.

She also put both hands on his stomach and said, “bowl full of jelly, mama?” I’ve read The Night Before Christmas a few times, and she really seems to love that part.

OK. So much. Hannukah, two christmases in two cities. So much family and friends and fun. This post shall serve as a placeholder until I return to elaborate on the holidaze. In the meantime – Happy Celebratory December Holiday of your choice, and Happy New Decade!

Toward the end October we travelled back home to spend a long weekend in the Chicago burbs. The centerpiece of our trip was the wonderful wedding of Amy and Larry, which I got to witness from the stage as a proud bridesmaid. It was full of fun and happiness. And the rest of our time was filled with a whirlwind of friends & family.

To my Angelenos: this is what fall looks like.

And without further ado, here’s our weekend in pictures (and a few videos)…

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We had a great halloween this year, with plenty of excitement and participation from Lilah. Its so fun to experience my long-time favorite holiday from this new perspective, to see it through the eyes of a young kid. She was gearing up for it all month; telling everyone about her costume, making decorations, becoming obsessed with books about halloween and the concept of trick or treating.

It felt like our halloween fun went on for weeks, which was pretty awesome. And when the day finally came, Lil really had a great time with it. And then we ‘grown-ups’ even managed to do some partying of our own. Here’s my long picture-post. Read the rest of this entry »

And then way later, tonight in the car, Lil randomly announces: “I have babies inside my body. And they’re gonna come out. I have babies inside my body and they’re gonna come out.”

me: You have babies inside your body? How many?

her: Two.

me: Oh. Just like Carrie?

her: Yeah. I have babies inside my body. They’re gonna come out. In just a few seconds. Brothers! My two brothers.

me: That’s very interesting. What will they do after they come out?

her: I don’t know.

me: If they’re your brothers, then they come out of my body.

her: No! No, my own body. Babies in my body. They’ll come out in a few seconds.

mike: Are they talking to you right now?

her: Yes. They’re babies.

mike: What are their names?

her: Um… Rose. And… Jasmine.

Janna has been living in San Diego for a few months now, which is awesome because when she gets time off she can randomly visit us. That very opportunity arose on labor day weekend, the first time we’ve all seen eachother since Lilah was 2 months old! So in essence this is the first time they’ve met, and it was great to hang out.  Jen was here too, and together we discovered Oinkster in Eagle Rock.   OK, Sara told us about it.   But yay: a family-friendly place where one can sit outside, eat delicious burgers with a decadent concoction called Piggy Fries, and drink pitchers of good beer.  Score.

All too soon, Janna had to return to her busy life as a veterinary intern. And on Sunday afternoon, the rest of us drove out to the desert to visit Jen’s new house. She’s recently moved into a spacious and adorable house in  La Quinta, and now has a pool! Which is a very key thing to have in that hot hot heat. It was so fun, Lilah LOVES being in the water.

Two things.

1. My digital camera broke, many weeks ago. It just straight-up stopped working.  This doesn’t stop me from taking photos constantly, it just stops me from taking decent ones.  I’ve been shooting iPhone pics pretty much exclusively since then.  The iPhone is significantly better than no camera at all.

2. August was a really busy month for us and A LOT HAS HAPPENED.

I’ve considered writing one long post about everything but at this point that’s not gonna work.   So, expect some backdating here, because I have to talk about the fact that my sister Sarah Rose and Osman visited us, which was wonderful.  And the very next weekend we went up to Portland and had an awesome 5 days with Traci & Jim, and the very next weekend after that, I left the fam behind and went back to Chicago for some girlfriend party time in anticipation of Witte’s wedding.  With Mike’s birthday ending the month it seemed like every weekend was a major event.  But, there were a few other things I wanted to mention too.  Like our playgroups’ shifting dynamic, new chapters in my freelancing adventures, and visits to Descanso Gardens and Travel Town. Not to mention, all of Lil’s new tricks.   I’ll try to get to everything!

Our playgroup has begun meeting earlier, and expanding our horizons a bit. Instead of sticking to the same old local parks, we’ve been checking out more of the destinations our region has to offer. Mostly on the recommendations of Sarah, our only member with an older kid who has been there and done that.

This month we finally did a zoo playdate, and we picnicked on the rolling hills at Mayor’s Bicentennial Park up near La Canada.  And, we visited Descanso Gardens for the first time. Hopefully not the last, because we barely delved into all there is to see. The sprawling grounds seem to go on and on; check out this map. Starting our playgroup at 10:30 has been tricky with Lilah, who is ready for a nap at noon and gets quite cranky when she’s tired. I’d like to be able to hang for longer and we’re working on that. In the meantime, check out these pics of Lilah having fun with Indie and Zachary exploring the gardens. Read the rest of this entry »

This August was seriously one of the best and busiest months for our family, and we saw lots of great people. To start it all off, my sister Sarah Rose and her boyfriend Osman, who I had never met before, came and stayed with us for a few days. This is the first time she has ever visited me without the rest of the fam and actually stayed at our place instead of in a hotel. It was something I’ve been wishing could happen for so many years now, and it was wonderful!

SR is my half-sister, 13 years younger than me, and we have never lived in the same house or region of the country for that matter. We’ve seen each other so infrequently but despite all that, it always felt like she was still my sister. The others don’t really think of me as family but somehow she gave me a different vibe, even as a little kid. Through all these years I felt connected to her from a distance but I still wish we were a million times closer. Now that she’s an adult we can hang out in a different way. I love it. And I finally met her boyfriend who was great to hang with. I’m so pleased to see how happy she appears to be with life. Here is their dogblog.

Now that i got that out of my system, here’s what we did during their brief visit, along with more pics. Read the rest of this entry »

(pic by daddy)

Its been about a year since they met and developed a near instant rapport.    It was easy to tell early on that these girls are in a league of their own, and the relationship they naturally fell into was something special from the get go.   All this time later, they are still best of friends.    It just makes my heart swell up, seeing how much they love eachother so.   Watching them grow up throughout the past year, its definitely clear they’ve learned a lot together and from each other.    They have separate and  unique talents and strengths that seem to compliment and challenge each other well.   They’ve both got these adventurous, silly, outgoing, cheery personalities and they are both very bright.  And, fairly  mischevious.  They get into trouble sometimes, pushing their boundaries and seeing what they can get away with.  Sometimes they act like sisters.    Since Lilah has become very expressive about her emotions in the past several months, she has been known to say “I love Indie.  Favorite friend.”

Every year at our reunion vacation, the cousins are expected to put on a little play for the grownups. i paid my dues for years doing this too, but lately I’ve managed to take a seat in the audience as one of the grownups. I am in my 30s now, after all. We (myself and my fellow cousins of the older echalon) would always do little skits. Sometimes we attempted to work in a bit of a roast on our aunts and uncles, depending on our level of annoyance at that time. But for the past few years they younger ones have opted for a singing and dancing variety show.

This year, Lilah insisted on being a part of every number. She would not entertain for a moment the idea that she was too young to involve herself. She is a born performer; if there is singing and dancing involved she is all about it. At first it was a bit of an annoyance to the other kids but, having no choice, they got over it. As far as Lilah was concerned, she was an integral part of the whole thing in its entirety. (which lasted about a half hour or 45 minutes total… throughout which Lilah did not sit down or stop moving even for a minute.) Here’s just one small part of the show – what was supposed to be a Sophie solo act.

After the cousin show was over, our whole family got up ‘on stage’ for a dance party. Good times! I love my fun family.

We’re in the middle of a family reunion vacation at my mom’s beach house on Lake Michigan. Its an annual event, and this is Lilah’s 3rd year in attendance.     The first time she was a 2 month old, then last year she had just turned 1 and had a lot more fun.    This year, however, is a whole new world.  Now she can do so much more, and she just LOVES playing with all her older cousins, doing everything she can with them.

I’ll make a photo post at the end of this long trip, but I had to pop into ye old blog to just say (have i mentioned this before?) my kid talks SO freaking much for a just-turned-2-year-old.   I know this has always been a thing, but it seems like she has become even more talkative in the last few days. I just emerged from the bedroom to find her already in her swimsuit about to be taken back down to the beach by Grandma and Aunt Mairz.

She sees me descending the stairs and yells out, “Hi Mama!!!!” I ask her what she’s doing and she says, “Go to beach! Play in sand! Go swimming! Find some rocks! Throw in water, maybe! Sunscreen, all done. Lets go!”  All at once, before I reached the bottom stair.   I was like, whoa!

Here she is doing the Hula Hop with her cousins, who she is having SO MUCH FUN with.

My kid is totally 2. Wow! I guess I may as well talk about her birthday party.   Like last year, we had a party at our house and invited some of her little friends and a lot of our big friends. We had some snacks and finger foods for people to munch on, and this time (unlike last year’s sweltering day) the weather permitted us to hang out in the backyard. Mike and Papa hung a sunshade up in the yard the day before, which helped a lot. We decorated our windows with glass markers and hung balloons everywhere. Mike pitched one of our camping tents for the kids to play in, and he painted one of our small outdoor tables with chalkboard paint for the kids to draw on. We had bubbles and pinwheels and flower leis and a bowl full of little instruments. We had a huge pitcher of grapefruit juice squeezed from our backyard tree for everyone to enjoy, along with vodka for the grown-ups. Lilah picked out her birthday dress and was thrilled with it, as soon as she put it on she was twirling around saying, ‘feel like princess!’ Seeing my happy kid made me a very happy mom.

Lots more after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »