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There She Grows

A good likeness, most agree. Sometimes my build is annoying.

Here is the flyer I made for a MOMS Club fundraising event. Attn: Los Angeles locals – get some quality second-hand kids & baby items while supporting Alexandria House.

Thats a pic Mike shot a couple weeks ago. Lilah will be three in a couple months.
And here’s a random conversation i wanted to jot down from earlier today. Read the rest of this entry »

After a few too many times of yelling “stop!” Aunt Jen had Lilah saying ‘hammer time. da na na na’ afterwards. Then we decided she had to be introduced to MC Hammer.

Lilah is now 36 inches tall – which is apparently the official height required to ride carnie rides all by herself. And she sure is psyched about that fact! Here she is at some festival in Indio, during a visit to Aunt Jen’s.

I’m putting this in the milestones category for LOLs.

A few weeks after this photo was taken she even rode the Matterhorn with us at Disneyland. But that may have been too much for her at this juncture. Her complaint was “too windy!”

Lilah and I both love dried-fruit chips and we buy them often. But such small amounts really seem expensive at the store, especially considering how ludicrously easy it is to make big batches of fruit chips at home! At least with apples and pears, using this no-brainer method I saw at weelicious.com.

We used apples only because I had a giant bag of them laying around. Using a sharp knife or an even handier mandoline, slice the fruit super-thin and arrange the slices in a single layer onto silpats or cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Dusting them with cinnamon is entirely optional. They taste great without it, but Lil enjoyed doing it.

Then bake at 250º for 1 hour, turning them over halfway through. Once you take them out, let them sit for 10 minutes for optimal crunchiness. (Thicker slices require longer cooking and longer resting time). Watch these healthy nutritious chips disappear in record speed.

Occasionally, Lil is “Super Arrow”, a badass alter-ego who tends to fight bad guys. My theory is that she overheard superhero and adapted that, but I can’t be sure. I once asked her, “superhero?” And she was NOT pleased at the suggestion of a name-change so I quickly dropped it!

I haven’t taken much video at all lately, because I can’t keep up or do any justice to everything that goes on. She gets so involved in her imaginative scenarios. I wish I could just capture some of this stuff through my eyeballs, but all I can do is occasionally write these things down before I forget.

This photo of Lil cracks me up. Yesterday as we explored Mayor’s Bicentennial Park, she found some good sticks and became Super Arrow. Then we were on an important quest and she told me exactly what we were doing the entire time. I was helping her as best I could. I was “Super Arrow Kid”, after all.

She’s using a super magical wand stick to cast a spell on three bridges, capturing them. In order to protect us from three wild cats, who are capture cats. She also holds a sword. We want to catch capture cats. (She plays with words a LOT).

We’re trying to rescue a dragon, a good dragon. What’s the dragon’s name, I ask. “The Big Dragon…Hepsido. He’s invisible. He’s right over there, sleeping on that rock.” I have the gall to ask how she is able to see him if he is invisible. “I’m Super Arrow!”

Actually, he’s a baby dragon. Wait, he’s not there, he disappeared! So we walk down the river bed calling Hepsido! And then she discovers him sleeping in a cave. Its a bit precarious, honestly, so I break character slightly and suggest it may be too dangerous to retrieve him from under there. She says, “lets sit down and think about it.” And finds a rock on which to mull it over.

“I got it! We can reach him with sticks, find some good sticks, Super Arrow Kid!” She tells me.

The idea has merit, so I do.

Today we had a fun time at Mayor’s Bicentennial Park in Glendale, which I revisited on a lark. I was just cruising around in an attempt to help Lil take a nap, and I hopped on the 2. When it became clear that wasn’t going to happen, she wanted to “go somewhere cool” and luckily, there we were.

We’d been there several months ago on Sarah’s recommendation, so I knew what an uncrowded gem of a place it is. There’s a nice grassy area with gently rolling hills and a series of concrete winding paths, with small bridges over dry rocky beds. Read the rest of this entry »

In preparation for our upcoming travels abroad (!! yes !!) we were in desperate need of a lightweight umbrella stroller. One that could endure being thrown around by countless baggage carriers, one with a strong cargo area. Preferably something I can control one-handedly with authority while I’m being pulled in the opposite direction by Marley. And perhaps the most elusive feature of all: something that works for tall people.

We needed something lightweight but durable like that Maclaren Volo.
Its $130 online.

Today I got that very stroller for less than a tenth of that price – gently used in great condition. This is exactly what we need for our trip! For about a hundred bucks total, I not only found the Volo, I also got a pretty awesome step1 desk & chair. The fact that its used means the thing is already assembled, nice. I have it all set up in the livingroom with lots of art supplies stashed away, and she hasn’t even seen it yet. That will be a fun surprise tomorrow.

Oh and a bunch of other stuff. Three pairs of summer play shoes and a bunch of gymboree & children’s place comfy clothes. Lil has grown out of everything. I also got a huge bag of dress-up clothes like tu-tus, accessories and princess dresses. A nice red silk kecci convertible diaper bag for a friend, and some other stuff for the many pregnant women in our lives. A swimming floaty ‘bubble’ for L, like the one I had as a kid. (Mom always said, I was swimmin’ since I was 2.) A cool new kid’s backpack (also thinking about our imminent travels!) and other odds and ends.

That’s right, its that time again. The LA Kids Consignment Sale is open to the public starting tomorrow and through the weekend. A lot of the great finds on sought after items go quickly, so I am glad that as a consignor I’m able to get in a day early. But seriously there is just so much stuff there you can’t even see it all on the first day. On Sunday most of the remaining items are half price. I’m planning to go back that day to get tons and tons of books and play clothes for Lil. Moms in the area, you should check this out.

Location:
7733 Hayvenhurst Ave.
Van Nuys, CA 91406

Sales totals from today were just posted online and I found I have already made about $70 from my own items. Does that mean I only spent $30 for all my new stuff? kind of!

end-of-sale update: Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve all heard of time-outs as one of those standard issue parenting techniques that have stood the test of time throughout generations. Now that I’m a parent myself I’ve learned that time-outs don’t mean the same thing to all parents or all kids. When, how and why parents resort to time-outs and the ‘ground rules’ that surround them are surely as varied as parents and kids are varied.

Lately I’ve heard some talk from the attachment-parenting set (something I’ve considered myself a part of in many ways, go figure) that time-outs are in fact a detrimental no-no. An article on rootparenting.com was recently brought to my attention. It lists 5 reasons why time-outs are harmful to kids.

The whole write-up evokes the image of a dismissive parent angrily shaming their child off to their room at the first sign of ‘bad’ behavior. Paragraph after paragraph describes how time-outs lead to low self esteem, lack of trust, rebellion in the teen years, a kid’s inability to think for themselves, and just the general deterioration of your relationship. Finally, the author allows himself to admit the following:

Sure, you will need to let them simmer down from a tantrum or tears before discussing the issues they are having.

Um, bingo! Read the rest of this entry »

Here Lilah takes a bow after going peepee and poopoo on the potty. Thank you, thank you very much folks.

Yes, this has been one of the greatest developments of recent times.

The potty isn’t new in our lives, at all. She’s been using it on occasion for a whole year now. But full-on potty training has been a very gradual process for us, obviously. Partly because of my lack of insistence and consistency on the matter for far too long, and in huge part due to her flat-out stubbornness. For quite some time L had a full understanding of using the potty but because she likes to be in control of things, she would go when SHE wanted to, and strongly fight the idea when others (particularly myself) suggested it. It was often a frustrating struggle.

Here’s more detail about the long road leading to this wonderful achievement, if anyone is interested. Read the rest of this entry »

Vocab is reaching new heights. Her pretend-play is hilarious and has been for so long. This stuff isn’t necessarily new, its just me blogging about what’s been going on lately.

This morning she’s running around yelling, “The volcano is erupting! The hot lava could leave burns but I’ll protect you!”

Sometimes she walks around blurting out, “Met-a-morph-a-sis! That means a big change!!!”

She’s trying out new big words that she isn’t 100% sure how to pronounce, just to see what kind of reaction she gets, and to be corrected so she gets them right. She looked at me the other day, while we were trying to fit some of her toys into bins, and says, “That was suspessful?” She said it a little bit off, and knew it, hence the question. I said, “did you mean, successful?” and she nods. Now she’s got that one under belt.

Same thing with words like annoying, frustrated, exclamation (we’ve been talking about punctuation marks when reading together, because she’s been asking about them). Yummy foods are occasionally announced as “scrumptious!”

She knows the evil queen’s name in Sleeping Beauty is Malificent, and will readily correct anyone who gets it wrong (such as me). Something we discuss often is photosynthesis. Ever since she was first read this small vintage book about how plants make their own food from water, sunlight and air, Lil has been absolutely fascinated by the concept. She doesn’t remember the term yet on her own but asks about it to be reminded.

Pretty big words for a kid who is still months away from turning 3, no? Of course, its not like multi-syllable words are a huge deal; she’s been able to say some for ages now. I think it was a year ago when she first began to marvel waiters by demanding “guacamole”. But it is still a thing of excitement for me, how many new big words are added to her vocab all the time. Its all happening so quickly.

A relatively new one, that isn’t necessarily huge but has us laughing, is “whatever.” She tried it out on me the other day in the form of a question, to make sure she was using it right. She couldn’t figure out which tee shirt she preferred so I said, well lets just put this one… then and she asks me, “whatever?” yeah, whatever. i say. and so now she’s been using that one a lot. Whatever, mommy. Yep she is 2.5 going on 14.

Really though, I wish she would adopt the “whatever” attitude a bit more often when it comes to stuff like that. Because mostly, Lil still can get extremely upset and frustrated over little decisions like that, or when things don’t work out perfectly on the very first try. But when she is able to take it with a grain of salt, what used to be “no biggie” seems to have been replaced with “whatever”. lol…

Lil always speaks positively about her pre-school teachers and friends; she absolutely loves it. So I don’t believe she is actively involved yet in too much exclusionary play while interacting with the other kids there. However, its apparently common and expected behavior for the 4-5 yr old set, in general as well as at her school. Lil is already keen on watching and learning from everything the older girls do, so its something to think about.

This article on BecomingtheParent.com, sent out by her pre-school, is a good quick read on the subject. It highlights a few different causes of this behavior and ways to handle it from each of those perspectives.

Checking out the stark beauty of La Quinta, where Aunt Jen lives.

Quite a few in our friends & family have recently had a baby or are pregnant, some of them with twins. So L has been talking about babies in her body for some time now. When she plays pretend, if its not teacher or doctor (or monsters or animals), its being mommy. She is forever wrapping various objects in blankets and putting them down for naps. And last week we visited the California Science Center with our playgroup, where L stared wide-eyed at an exhibit of fetuses at various stages. Needless to say, she is now more fascinated than ever. Here is one example.

This morning she was playing alone and I could hear her getting upset. I found her struggling to fit a baby in its crib (L becomes exceedingly frustrated about things like this not working out instantly as she envisions they should, an intensity I should talk more about some time). In this case, the baby was her camera case wrapped in a pair of her tights and they were not staying on properly, which infuriated her. As did the fact that the whole thing didn’t lay comfortably in the plastic bowl that was its crib. The horror!

Once we managed to tuck baby camera case into a shoe box with a proper blankie, everyone was much happier. She kept it nearby all morning, and later she put the camera case under her tee-shirt and was pregnant. Saying he was going to come out in a few minutes.

She talks a lot about having a baby brother. She wants a baby in general but definitely leans toward having a brother. She’s been discussing this with me for quite some time now. I only hope she is still this interested in the idea of a sibling if and when it does happen. Lil is changing and maturing leaps and bounds all the time; she acts well beyond her age and is extremely opinionated. I sort of figured spawn2 would be on the horizon by now but things don’t always go as planned. I just hope we haven’t missed a great window, so to speak, of two little ones being close friends. On the other hand, with a little more space between them, L might feel less like her turf is being infringed upon, and could be a great help in caring for and teaching a new little one.

When I tell her that a new baby might be a sister and that its not something we can choose, she just says, BROTHER.

No pressure though!