hatching a patch

More Photos for Grandmama

2011-04-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

We took a walk to my school's campus and I gave the girls a tour.

Here You Go, Grandmama

2011-03-31T21:56:00.000-07:00

My mom requested some pictures of her grandchildren...

I'm Still an A Student

2010-07-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

I don't often find myself with nothing to do these days. I got a promotion at work and am pretty much working full-time now. But I like my job so that's cool. I finished another semester of college; got an A in my African American History class. Thank goodness I planned a June Vegas trip back in January--I ended up needing it more than I thought I would! We just got back from Vegas a few days ago after spending 3 days there with friends from different states. I don't gamble but I still feel like I won.
My sister came to visit us from Virginia. She also took care of our kids while we were in Vegas. How great is that?! My sister and I went rollerskating together and we also did some karaoke. I think she had a good time.
I am not taking any summer classes this year. I remember taking a class last summer, having homework 4 nights a week and a research paper to write, all while planning my husband's birthday and our kids' birthday party...NO THANKS!
Raquel has finished Kindergarten. She starts 1st grade September 14th. She learned so much from her teacher this year, it is AMAZING. We loved her teacher so much, we gave her a nice gift on the last day of school. How a teacher can teach a 5-year-old how to read is beyond me. And I'm proud of Raquel for being the young lady she is--she's outgoing, smart, friendly, funny and creative. She's everything a mother could want in a daughter. She'll be 6 years old July 7th. :)
I'm currently dealing with a toddler full of temper...Maxine. She'll be two on July 25th. She's sooo sweet when she's happy but when she doesn't get her way, she's red-faced-angry. Raquel was never this way. Maxine is a very different child, though, and I'm learning as I go.
Thanks for checking in :)
(The picture above is a bento box I made for Raquel recently)

My Maxine in Shoes

2010-03-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

Maxine struttin' her stuff in a pair of new shoes...

Incited by The Short-Sighted

2010-03-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

Today, a father questioned whether or not he should quit his 9-5 job to go back to the "easy" life of dealing drugs and taking vacations at will. This incited me to think of my responsibility as a parent and also as a citizen of the world. I feel sorry for a person like this father whose sight is so short. Does he have any expectations of his own child? Is he satisfied raising a career-bartender or worse? Does he at least realize that going back to selling drugs to the public is, at best, just perpetuating the status quo? Am I special because I think my own life and the lives of my children are destined for greatness? I thought everyone felt that way. Does not everyone feel their lives are special?
Every chance I get, I make sure I am not raising bitches, bimbos, douches, snots, assholes, wallflowers, doormats or dummies. I fully believe my daughters have the potential to be powerful, influential, creative, inspiring, philanthropic leaders. To me it goes without saying that all parents must have this same opinion of their own children. But I'm probably wrong.
When I was a kid, my dad used to say I could be president. I never wanted to be the president of anything but hearing him say that and be genuine about it was good for my heart and ego. As far back as I can remember, I have always felt like someone special; I'm meant for something important and some day I'm going to find out what that is.
I feel the same way about my kids. They're going to be great adults. I raise them with this in mind constantly. Kids are not just mindless whippersnappers who like to ruin your day and piss you off. This is just part of a parent's obstacle course. The REAL job is teaching them the concept of respect. I believe this is where it all begins. One way to instill this concept in them is to never make fun of people in front of your children. This is obviously not a priority to some folks, which is evident when you encounter a bully in public. I'd bet $100 the bully's parents are bullies themselves. These parents have no idea what monsters they're creating by disregarding the concept of respect. Disrespecting others in front of your children is one of the worst things you can do to them. If you think this isn't a big deal, you're dead wrong. You are disrespecting your own progeny when you forget to teach them respect and they grow up without the option to be respectful because YOU failed to be a good example. You will give your child no choice but to be an asshole. That is, until someone teaches your child a hard lesson or two.
If nothing else in my life, I hope to raise my children to be great adults. This is my mission.
Thanks for reading.

Had a Birthday, Got a Job...

2010-03-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

Grandma, this blog is for you.
I had a birthday in February. About 15 of my friends joined me at the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale for a little rollerskating party. Most of us hadn't been rollerskating in a decade or two; some fell, some fell more than once but ALL seemed to enjoy the evening very much. I would actually like to go rollerskating every weekend if I could. It is good, fun exercise.
For school this semester, I am only taking one class. It's a history class and our term project is to write a 12-15 page paper about a grandparent, including a family tree and images from their time as a child. When I saw this was our major work of the semester, I had a big smile in my heart. I knew exactly who to write about and I think it should be quite rewarding.
I started a part time job a couple of weeks ago. I won't say who I'm working for because I don't want to associate them with my blog at all but I will say I'm enjoying it for the most part. Being on my feet all day and smiling all the time can be exhausting. Who takes care of the kids when I'm gone? My husband, who makes his own hours and organizes himself around my work/school schedule, thank goodness.
I got to go on a kindergarten field trip to China Town last month with my daughter's class. We all took the Metrolink and spent a couple of hours there. I got several cute pictures. This is one of Raquel and her best buddy.
Raquel went to Big Bear with my dad for a 4-day weekend in February. I hear she got homesick the first night but after that she enjoyed herself. We missed her and were glad to have her home. I'm thankful she has grandparents and great-grandparents who adore her and make her life so wonderful. Speaking of, here is Grandma (Raquel and Maxine's great-grandmother)
Little Maxine is about to be 20 months old. We bought her 2 pairs of nice shoes from Stride Rite last weekend and, to my surprise, she is taking to them quite well (for a chronic tip-toer). She used to hate shoes. Now, she seems to like them. It is a big relief to me to see her take this next step.
Maxine picked up a fork at a restaurant and taught herself how to use it. Nobody helped her or told her what to do--she just took it and ran with it, so to speak. She is looking so grown-up and talking all the time. She mimics us, even counts and says the alphabet but of course it's in her own dialect and isn't exactly correct.
I'm going to end this post now. Whatever I've forgotten will be included in an upcoming post. Maybe I'll do an all-pictures post.

Change of Taste

2010-01-24T16:18:00.000-08:00

The four of us went to the birthday party of a 1-year-old boy yesterday at a place called My Gym. Raquel and Maxine got to play with several kids their age and romp around on the play equipment--they even had a zip line for kids to try. Maxine's favorite activity was the trampoline and, surprisingly, she was really good at it!
The sun shone this weekend, which put me in an instantly-good mood yesterday morning, playing loud, happy music while sweeping the house.
I'm getting really bored of eating the typical healthy groceries I've been eating since January 4th but I haven't had a chance to do any grocery shopping so I have eaten some not-so-healthy things, like cereal. What a disappointing experience this has been--eating cereal, that is. My taste buds must be refining themselves! I used to be a cereal fanatic, all my life, and now? Not even my old favorite, Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch, does anything for me. What else has been a disappointment? Cheeseburgers. I haven't had a really good one in a year or more. I feel like I'm on a quest for one worthy of my sacrifice [of calories], because to waste calories on mediocre would-be delicious food doesn't even reach the point of satisfaction. It rather leaves me seeking that taste I long for after eating brown rice and veggies day after day to "make my tummy smaller" as I explain to Raquel (who keeps me on my toes about what I eat, now, mind you).
Where have all the good cheeseburgers gone?

Weather-Induced Cabin Fever

2010-01-20T11:42:00.000-08:00

(Photo taken yesterday by my friend Nick Romero. I told him I had to steal it.)
Southern California is having some type of El Niño revival and I'm not enjoying it. Fortunately, our house is above ground by about 4+ feet and we haven't incurred any flood damage, NOT that the water is that high but it has been raining nonstop since about Sunday (I think). The lack of sunshine really gets to me. I have been cooking and reading recipes out of boredom. That's not such a bad thing--better than drinking up everything in the booze cabinet!
Actually, my kitchen fun started Friday night when we had "Maki Night". I made several different nonfish maki rolls for Jose and the girls. After that I fried up some banana fritters. It was really fun for me to make this fun meal for them. They all liked it very much and even pretended they were at a sushi restaurant and I was the slow waitress/chef. And yesterday I made two simple but unusual potato salads: teriyaki was one and curry was the other. Raquel liked the teriyaki one. I put the curry one in Jose's lunch today and have yet to hear his opinion. I do not care for potato salad so I have not tried either one. I'm glad I have two guinea pigs to try my funky recipes.
Raquel has been home sick for two days. She will most likely go back to school tomorrow. Maxine only got a mild version of Raquel's flu. Jose and I are fine, so far. We have a couple of plans this weekend so I hope we stay healthy.
Thanks for reading.

Dude! : A School Update

2010-01-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

The Fall semester ended for me December 17th. Checking for my final grades online during Christmas time offered no news, so I waited until today to check again. Let me preface the results by telling you a little something embarrassing I ended up doing during my final writing assignment in Art History...
I missed class one day. It couldn't be avoided. But wouldn't you know that was the day our professor talked about Suprematism. It must've been the day I was gone because I knew nothing about it. I studied the text book to prepare for writing my final paper and for some reason, I did not study this one piece of art history. And it was never brought up in any of the other class sessions in which I was present. When I walked into class that final day, I had hoped that up on the projector screen there would be a piece of art I recognized, at least for its style, if not the artist, and that I could at least speculate about the artwork and do my best writing. Well, that's when the professor popped this piece up for us to ponder and write about:
The class of 100 gasped, then giggled. The professor said, "Back then, they didn't laugh." I think my brain started to sweat bullets. I had absolutely no clue what this was supposed to be. The assignment was to write about what style of art we think this is and why. And, though it wasn't required, we could venture a guess at the artist's name. All I could do for at least five minutes was sit and think. Many students were already well on their way to finishing their answers. And then something clicked and I went off on a tangent about Monet and Impressionism. When I got home from class, I searched for and found this painting online and found out I was completely mistaken, which made me feel so embarrassed. It is a piece of Suprematist art--the art for which I did not study. My bubble burst and my hope for an A evaporated.
We mysteriously and abruptly go from that to this : My tangent on Monet paid off, evidently, because yadda yadda yadda, I got an A in this class. Yes, I am celebrating. I won't know what my teacher had to say about this paper until I go pick it up from his office but I'm quite interested in finding that out.
I also got an A in my speech class. I'm very glad of that, too, just not surprised. The Art History grade is what I'm so thrilled about. Thank you!

Christmas Pictures. Enjoy!

2010-01-01T16:26:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all our friends and family for the thoughtful gifts we received and for making it such a great holiday season with lots of happy memories. I'm very grateful to have such a delightful family to be with at this special time of year. I just wish more of us lived closer together so we could share all the fun with everyone.
As a reward for making it this far, please click here to watch a short, funny video from Christmas Day at my dad's house; just a sample of the goings-on.

Longing for a Traditional Christmas

2009-12-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

It's true: I only devote the very last smidgen of brain cells to writing the posts in this blog. That is all you get. That and sometimes cute pictures. Now...
When I was a kid we spent 95% of our Christmas Days at my maternal grandmother's mobile home in Chatsworth, CA. It wasn't a tacky mobile home park like the stereotype would have you think; it was pretty, well-organized and well-preserved, kinda like Grandma, herself, when she was alive, at least. Gosh, she's been dead for almost 12 years! She passed away at the young age of 70, right before my 20th birthday. She didn't deserve to die like that, from Cancer, I mean. Isn't it strange, for lack of a better word, when someone who has lived a healthy, low-salt, low-cholesterol, low-fat life, dies a horrible death like that? I don't understand.
I am thinking of those old Christmasses. I miss them very much. Back then I took it for granted that it would always be that way. The adults had their table and the kids (me, my siblings and cousins) had their table. The adults drank boxed wine and maybe some had whiskey with 7-up. After dinner the kids would retreat to the guest bedroom where grandma kept a few toys for us to play with and we'd laugh up a storm the rest of the day/night. Of course after we opened presents we'd have a lot more to play with and when that was out of the way the adults would gather around the table again for all kinds of card games and more drinking, which made for lots of funny noises us kids would laugh at from the other room. "Shh--Listen! Our parents are so dumb when they're drunk! HAhahaha....!" When it came time to leave, I'm sure we cried and tried to sneak into each others' cars to go home with our cousins instead of plain-home. And it was always a kind of slap in the face how ready our parents were to get the Hell out of there when the night came to an end--they'd had enough, which I now understand as I have wild children of my own and I, too, am older and less spirited, just like those adults seemed to me back then.
We were Catholic and Scotch-Irish-English. That's how it went down. And we loved it.
Another slap in the face was going home to our dachsunds having gotten their revenge for being left home alone--our new Christmas gifts were sometimes chewed to shreds or at least slightly mangled. Thinking back on this is comedy.

Christmas Potluck Last Night

2009-12-13T19:35:00.000-08:00

That picture is my new favorite snapshot of the girls. Those dresses were given to them by my dad's wife, aka, Grandma Debbie :)
Our friends a few blocks away threw a fantastic Christmas party last night, complete with games for the children, a table full of potluck goodies, craft activities, cookie and cupcake decorating station and even Santa himself paid a visit. Raquel was thrilled to see Santa. Maxine was frightened of him. He gave presents to all the children and eventually made an exit through the sliding glass door at the back of the house.
I made two trays of different open face sandwiches inspired by Smørrebrød or smörgås of Scandinavia and one tray of shortbread topped with cream cheese and sweet things. It took several hours of work and my neck is killing me today because of it!

Joyfulness

2009-12-03T23:16:00.000-08:00

Rudolph was on tv last night! We pigged out on doughnuts and milk and enjoyed the show together. I have always loved this tv special.

Before the show, I took Raquel to Payless to get a new pair of shoes for school. She had received a special gift card from her school--many more fortunate people donate food baskets and gift cards for the less fortunate students at her school--Raquel has been designated as one such student. We have also received tons of groceries in the past week. All of these donations were a HUGE surprise to us. I didn't know they knew we needed it! Jose and I can't believe how much food we received. It filled our pantry! Writing this and thinking about how much people care really makes my eyes wet. It has given Jose and I one less thing to worry about but not only that--the feeling of joyfulness just makes everything better.

Then I woke up this morning with a somewhat mysterious burst of positivity. It carried through all day and into my evening class. I had to give a short presentation. Just yesterday I was worried about it but this sudden confidence made it a snap. I felt like a different Me because I just wasn't nervous. And guess who got to be the first one to present? :)

Two weeks from today this semester will be history. And a week after that is Christmas. It's gonna be a good one. I am feeling joyful.

Thanks for checking in.

The Holidays are Very Different This Year

2009-11-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

Usually I'd already be in the swing of the holidays. I would have already asked Jose to bring up the boxes of decor and lights from the basement. I would have already baked and stored 5 different recipes of cookies in my freezer. I would have already planned what presents to give out. I would also be ready to embrace the season and the revival of warm memories of holidays passed. Things are different this year. Who would have thought a little adjustment to my schedule and priorities could have such a dramatic effect on my life?
Of course, I'm talking about COLLEGE. A year ago I had just quit my job as a barista to stay home and raise my kids full-time. I wasn't in school or even thinking about going to school. One year later, here I am with text books, extensive writing assignments, the responsibility of group research with a 20-minute presentation, another presentation on some volunteer work I did, finals to study for, a kid in kindergarten who cannot read her own homework instructions yet and then all the other extra-curricular stuff like a baby, a husband and a house. Oh, and myself! HAhahaha, that's funny.
Last Thursday in my art history class all of us students were asked to participate in an anonymous evaluation of our instructor. I had only good things to say. I am enjoying the class so much. It may be the best course I've ever taken and I wasn't even expecting it to be such. He's not easy. He assumes all 100+ of his students are seasoned. Sometimes I get my assignments back and I re-read what I wrote and wonder, Where did that come from???, in a good way! I take super fast, messy notes and a lot of them. The only one who needs to read my writing is me :)
My other class is giving me a lot of grief. The text was written by the professor. It's terrible. The book, I mean. Oh, but so is the class. This is probably the WORST class I've ever taken. The professor simply reiterates what she has "written" already in the text (I use those quotes because she didn't write anything--she stole it all from other books). Pretty much word-for-cliche-word. It's a 3-hour class and she keeps us the entire time. We have a TON of work due in the next few weeks. This is what weighs on my mind all the time now. I hope we get to evaluate her; I have a lot of suggestions to improve the course structure. One suggestion is: don't make all the big assignments due on the same freaking day, especially when we also have to study for the final.
Thanks for letting me vent.

Good Griddlecakes Recipe

2009-11-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

Jose and I woke up before the girls this morning, strangely enough, and he requested pancakes for breakfast. That was when I realized we hadn't had breakfast together in a long time, I'm talking about several months. How sad?! He made a pot of coffee and I got out my cookbooks to find my little penned notes next to the recipes I had liked in the past. I made this one from an old Country Cookbook (I modified it just a little by adding vanilla):
2 C flour
5 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
3 tblsp sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
2 C milk
6 tblsp oil
1/2 to 1 tsp vanilla extract (to your liking)

Combine dry ingredients with a whisk in a large bowl.
Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla to flour mixture. Mix well. It will be kinda lumpy.
Cook on a greased griddle and flip when bubbles pop open on top, as usual for pancakes.
While cooking the rest of the batter, keep griddlecakes warm in a 170 degree oven on a cookie sheet, adding butter to each cake on the sheet. This keeps them from drying out while staying warm and of course butter tastes good.
Serve with your favorite syrup.

These were so fluffy and filling! Jose only ate two before he got full. I have made many pancake recipes this year. This one was my favorite so far.
********
Raquel and Maxine have been sick this week. Maxine has been sick for one week now and Raquel just came down with it on Thursday. She is faring much better than Maxine, who seems to really be miserable. To put it frankly, she's pissed off. That girl has a temper. Raquel is just the opposite--very pleasant and sweet, even though she, too, has a fever. My sanity thanks goodness for having at least one child with a calm attitude about being sick. The mad child is driving Mommy a little crazy. I have found that giving Maxine a nice, warm, playful bath helps calm her down significantly. But that's the only trick I have.

The Short of Our Day

2009-11-05T17:00:00.001-08:00

Raquel said, "Mommy, you go to college. You know EVERYTHING!"
Maxine had a little turd in her mouth.
I put a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in my oatmeal.
Yes, Maxine actually had poop in her mouth for a minute.
The oatmeal was good.
Maxine is my gross child. She tried to eat her own puke once, too.
Raquel still likes hats, jewelry, make-up and other non-gross things.

Friday's Fail

2009-11-01T13:16:00.000-08:00

Early last week Raquel was sent home with a notice to us (her parents) that she would be receiving a 'special award' at Friday's awards assembly. We were to keep it a secret so she could be surprised when they announced her name. Jose couldn't stand not knowing exactly what the award was so he found out by asking around (I would have preferred to be surprised). Her teacher invited us to the assembly which was to be at 10:20am Friday, October 30th. Already planned this day was the school's annual Halloween Parade at 1pm. Since the children were not permitted to wear their costumes to school in the morning, parents who could were allowed to arrive at 12:30pm to dress their children and apply makeup in the classroom. Raquel's costume was a clown with full facepaint and a wig. I was also in charge of bringing Halloween cupcakes to the after-parade party in the classroom. Jose was able to switch shifts at work so he might help me in the morning with everything but he wasn't able to stick around past noon. I am getting ahead of myself, hold on...
Friday morning I painted clown makeup on my own face, Jose dressed Maxine in her witch costume (which had been Raquel's 4 years ago) and I packed the truck with diaper bag, makeup case, bag of costume and accessories for Raquel and 3 containers of cupcakes. Jose got caught up with a business associate on the phone and I thought I would be late so I strapped Maxine into the truck and took off to the awards assembly (we were taking separate cars anyways since Jose would be leaving from the school to go to work). Confused yet? It gets worse. So, I'm driving on the 210 freeway hoping not to be late to the assembly when upon exitting the freeway Maxine got carsick all over her pretty costume. Her carseat was a complete mess. And since she hadn't gotten carsick in so long, I didn't bother to bring towels or extra clothing--assuming we were in the clear was a huge mistake. I must have uttered the F-word 20 times while parking the truck and wondering what my next move would be. I carefully took off the witch dress and threw it in the bed of the truck, leaving Maxine in her dampened undershirt and black tights and smelling like vomit. I smelled that good, too. We walked into the assembly and sat with my sister-in-law in the audience. I was in a terrible mood but Maxine was cheerful as could be.
Anywho, Raquel won an award for creativity. She really is the most creative child I have ever known. After the assembly we gathered outside to take pictures of the award winners with their teacher. That's when Jose showed up and boy was he mad. Apparently, he had left the keys to our other vehicle in the truck, which I had driven to school, obviously, leaving him at home without keys. I was so involved in getting to school on time and then cleaning up Maxine's puke that I didn't even notice him calling my cell phone. We were both very unhappy that morning to say the least.
Jose then took Maxine home and changed her into clean clothes and came back to school. In the meantime, I travelled back and forth from my truck to the classroom, dropping off the cupcakes and the Halloween costume bag and makeup case and then I sort of cleaned out whatever I could in the truck. Jose put the other carseat in the truck and I put the yucky one in the bed of the truck. Then Jose left for work and Maxine and I hung out at Raquel's school until we were allowed to enter the classroom to put her costume on. Maxine's bottle was empty by now and she was cranky. I was hurrying to do a decent job on Raquel's clown makeup. The classroom was hot, stuffy and crowded. Raquel's teacher was kind enough to carry Maxine around while I was busy with Raquel (she couldn't bare to hear her cry). I was sweating and anxious for this ordeal to be over. It was supposed to be fun and I wasn't having any fun. The parade seemed to go off without a hitch even though we stood outside a while in the sun and heat waiting for all the classrooms to get lined up. There was even a drum section from the middle school across the street, the drummers being mostly female, which all us mothers thought was so cool. Raquel looked cute and Maxine seemed to be entertained enough to forget she needed a nap and a bottle. She was pretty content in the Bjorn and even feel asleep for a few seconds to the beat of the marching band drums. Everything was OK from then on.
When we got home, I was beat. I don't know how single mothers do this day in and day out.

Raquel's Halloween Costume

2009-10-31T22:56:00.000-07:00

I'll write a full blog on all the haps over the past few days at a later time. For now, here is Raquel as a scary clown for Halloween. She was a hit!

It's Been So Long!

2009-10-28T17:12:00.000-07:00

Gosh, I haven't blobbed in a while! I have so much to say but will limit it to the most interesting/pertinent items.

We have just been informed that Raquel will be receiving a "special award" on October 30th at her school's awards assembly. I am so anxious to know what it is! We are not supposed to tell her about it. She's going to be so surprised! I cannot wait to attend my very first awards assembly as a parent and my own kid is getting an award! I'll be showing off her pictures this weekend.

Also this Friday is Raquel's school's Halloween Parade. The children and their parents will actually be walking the block around the school, in costume, and then returning to their classrooms for Halloween snacks and treats. The problem is the children are not allowed to wear their costumes to school--rather the parents have to show up a half an hour before the parade to get the kids gussied up in their respective classrooms. I can imagine how chaotic this will be! I'm not sure how I'm going to get Raquel ready while Maxine runs around the classroom. So, this Friday I have the awards assembly at 10:20am and then I have to show up again at 12:30 to do Raquel's costume. A busy exciting day!

Maxine is growing up in leaps and bounds. She signs the word "Eat" when she wants to eat, though she can verbally say the word, too. Other words she can verbalize are "hi", "Dada", "baba" (bottle), "sissy" (sister), "soss" (socks), "hat", "eyes", "bubble", "tickle" and she also says a very enthusiastic, "Ooooooh!" when she sees something interesting, like yummy food or a bird in the sky. She is extremely sweet and affectionate. Her favorite activity is putting random objects into drawers and into the bathtub. We finally have her drinking whole cow's milk now that her little tummy is ready for it. She enjoys getting her teeth brushed and actually has her first molars now. Hind sight being 20/20, I think the reason she was waking up at 3am last month almost every night was probably because of those big molars cutting through her gums. She now sleeps through the night every night. Also, she hasn't gotten car sick since we stopped using a formula called "Nedo", and she actually behaves pretty well when we have to drive around running errands. She still hates shopping, primping and waiting for anything.

I'm doing well at the half-way point of my college semester. I got an A on the one midterm I had and in my other class I have gotten all As on the writing assignments except for one B. I am really enjoying my Art History class but glad to be moving on from Renaissance art to more interesting art (in my opinion). There are over 100 students in that class!

Last weekend Raquel and I did volunteer work at her schools' Beautification Day. The PTA provided coffee and breakfast treats and we picked up trash, raked leaves, dug up sod, transplanted dirt, all kinds of sweaty dirty work. I was the only one there with a camera, which I had brought to document our work for a presentation I have to do at the end of this semester. The lady in charge was really glad to have me to take pictures of everything--I felt really useful. I will be emailing them the best photos. They have since recruited me to serve hotdogs and popcorn at the upcoming "Movie Night" at the school.

Jose works nonstop, just about. I hardly ever see him. I miss him. I also miss being able to leave the girls at home with him while I run errands.

The end!

Saturday Doings

2009-10-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

We spent a lovely evening with in-law's yesterday. This is a picture of Maxine walking away from me, toward Guapo who is behind the wooden fence where lies his dog house. In the background you can see Raquel and my nephew Ricky talking to Guapo. Guapo is still a puppy (a pretty Boxer) but he's just about full-grown and very hyper. He would knock over any of these kids with his happy love if he were let out. Maxine isn't afraid of him one bit--she even knows how to say his name.

Also, I made homemade gnocchi yesterday. This is something one must make when the baby takes a nap. It's a bit time-consuming with lots of repetition but the process is extremely peaceful and simple and yields a beautiful thing you don't see in many restaurants here in Southern California.

My Wreef

2009-10-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the girls and I had some fun shopping at Michael's. Maxine gnawed on a wooden cat figurine while Raquel and I chose fixins for our Autumn wreath to go on our front door at home. She chose the crab apples and the sunflower. We like the way it turned out but I'd actually like to do another one, a silly one without pretty faux flowers but rather with little turkeys, pumpkins and other cute fall-ish items. We could put it on the inside of the front door and gaze upon it all day if we want.

For now, we like this wreath and will enjoy it every time we walk up to the front door.

Great-grandbabies Round-up!

2009-10-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

My sister, brother-in-law and their son, Lucas, are in town for a couple of weeks. They drove from Virginia and Lucas isn't even one year old yet! I couldn't do that with my one year old but Lucas is really good at travelling--what a blessing. This weekend they spent at our grandparents' house in the San Fernando Valley. I took the girls over there yesterday. It was our first time meeting Lucas and it was their first time meeting Maxine. My cousin was also there with her husband and their newborn daughter, Evie. She is a little doll. Maxine was very curious about her and tried to wake her up by shaking her seat and touching her little face. Maxine was also interested in her cousin Lucas and he in her. I think my grandma was in Heaven having all her great-grandkids at the house. Everyone was happy and well-behaved :)
Here are Maxine, Raquel, Lucas and his mommy (my little sister) Samantha in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard swing. Samantha is pregnant with Olivia and happens to be due on Lucas' birthday, which is also her husband's birthday--wow!

Horror: My Little Pony 2009

2009-09-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

Have you walked through the toy section lately? Hasbro has redesigned the regular My Little Pony line and the result is a pony-like alien species sporting big frying-pan eyes, lollipop heads, skinny bodies and overall nothing like the originals. I'm very, very bothered by this. Their faces are smashed in, as if to appear more humanoid because, of course, it's every little girl's dream that ponies will look more like human babies with four legs and 0% body fat. Oh yeah, the torso of the ponies has shrunk down to almost nothing. Their ankles have more width than their mid-section. I am disgusted.

*Click here to see the new ponies*

Why should I care so much? My 5-year-old is a MLP fanatic. She mostly collects the Ponyville series which are miniature ponies with little houses and accessories (surely taking after The Littlest Pet Shop) but she also has a lot of original MLP from the 1980s and a few ponies from recent years. The subliminal messages she would get from these revamped ponies is not one of natural beauty, humility and health--these new ponies, if that's what they even are, tell little girls to dumb-it-down, strive for a waistline tinier than an ankle, wear too much eye make-up, make sure your pupils are always dilated to the point of no return (and you know what it takes to dilate pupils...), be annoyingly cheerful 24/7 no matter how you really feel inside, be obnoxious about being "cute", in fact, be OBSESSED with it. The list could go on. You could even say the smashed-in pony muzzles might send the message to girls that having a nose is only for ugly people.

The original ponies (as above) were not malnourished, happy-go-lucky idiots. They looked, well, nice. They looked gentle and calm. Their proportions were closer to normal if not chubbier than a real-life pony. This was charming, lovable, respectable and marketable because they looked like ponies while maintaining a delicate cartoony quality that made them a toy instead of just a figurine.

A most important aspect of the originals was their inherent humility. Humility is no longer a virtue for kids these days. They don't even know they're being robbed of this crucial personality trait. It is evident in today's popular toys. Show me a current popular toy that looks humble. Show me a current popular toy that looks sober even. Show me a doll that doesn't have giant eyes and dilated pupils surrounded by inexplicable crystalline sparkles.

I don't have a new pony in front of me but if I did I could pinpoint even more disgusting changes. Go to the toy section and take a look for yourself.

School Lunch Dilemma

2009-09-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

At Raquel's school, the cafeteria can only accomodate so many students, so each grade goes into lunch at different times and each group is ushered out to make room for the next group. This is a problem for me because Raquel is a SLOW eater. At first, the lunch lady was tossing Raquel's uneaten food in the trash, so I enclosed a little note requesting that any leftovers be kept in the lunch box--this is so I could see what Raquel had eaten. Turns out she's not eating that much. There is nobody around to make sure she eats enough. Jose wants me to give up on making her lunch and just let her eat school food. I don't want to resort to this, even if it is just one meal a day. All they serve is pizza, chicken nuggets and hamburgers. Making her lunch myself gives me a sense of accomplishment--that's me being selfish, I know. But I would feel like I'm not doing my part if I let Raquel eat the crappy food her school serves.

There aren't many things I have control over. I don't have much say in what happens to my kid at school. I trust she is getting a good education but I don't trust the school's way of doing lunch. Do I relinquish what little control I have on this issue until Raquel is a little older (and hungrier)? (that is a picture of Raquel's lunch today. I packed less food.)

When I was a kid I got white bread, white rice, processed cheese, lunch meat---these were everyday parts of my diet. My mom made dinner for us every night, including some kind of vegetable or salad but we ate a lot of unhealthy stuff. This was in the 1980s. Back then we didn't have as much information available to us about nutrition as we do now. My children are pretty much damned to have pot bellies or huge asses, not to mention high blood pressure, because of heredity. I would like to do whatever I can to prevent this. Right now, that means feeding them a well-balanced and varied diet to get them started out right. When they're older they will eat what they want but I will have done my part.

About her education, I know she has a good teacher. Raquel has learned the days of the week already and she's only been in school for 5 days. She goes around the house singing the songs her teacher has taught the class. I enjoy hearing her sing these songs.

Daddy Bento #3

2009-09-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

Other than this beautiful bento box lunch I made for Jose today, I am feeling like a failure. This whole post could be a spewage of negative thoughts so ttfn.

p.s. my camera does no justice to the things it photographs. Sorry!

So Proud of Our Raquel

2009-09-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

I do not ask this child to make faces for the camera, I swear! She just does it on her own. Jose said when he opened the girls' bedroom door this morning to get Raquel up and ready for her first day of Kindergarten, she was already awake, stood up, smiled, opened her eyes wide and nodded her head like, let's do this!

Jose, who drove her to school today, said he sensed she was a little nervous. I think that shows maturity on her part. She has every right to feel unsure of what's going to happen and I'm kinda proud that she recognized that this was a special day-- the beginning of her new life as a student.

When she got home from school she was full of energy, actually on the hyper side. I made her favorite meal (macaroni & cheese with hotdogs) before I left for class. Then at about 8:30 she asked Daddy if she could go to bed. Her busy day had finally caught up with her. So Daddy put her to bed.

We know it's just kindergarten but we're really proud of her for being such a big girl and I think part of it, also, is that we have a lot of hope that she's gonna do big things in her future. She's a great kid.

What I Did With Quail Eggs

2009-09-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

Tonight I made Scotch Eggs with quail eggs instead of chicken eggs. They were pretty good but next time I'll cut out about half the onions, skip the nutmeg, add Worchestershire and wrap them in bacon. These were fun and easy to make. I will make them again some day but my way. I got this recipe from justbento.com (thanks!). I was going to put one in Raquel's lunch if she enjoyed them at dinner tonight but I could tell it was a food she needed to be encouraged to finish. So her lunch won't include a Scotch Egg tomorrow since I won't be in the cafeteria with her to make sure she eats it.

Cooking For Kindergarten

2009-09-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

Raquel has "three more sleeps" until she gets to start kindergarten. She is VERY excited. Her school hours will be the same as the big kids, which is about 7 hours a day with each Monday being a short day, only about 5 hours. Wednesday night we are going to a kindergarten orientation. I'm looking forward to that. I am also looking forward to sending Raquel to school with some good stuff for lunch-- stuff I tested on her this weekend after our totally fun shopping spree at the Asian Supermarket. She loved everything!

I have prepared/cooked/assembled/portioned-out and stored in the freezer the following:

onigiri
spring rolls
banana coconut muffins
swirl cookies
purple satoimo noodle nests with slices of pink fish cake (so girly!)
brown rice
fried poached tofu cutlets

And there is more where that came from. Her lunches will not always be of the Asian kind. But if you've ever been to an Asian market you know there are so many cute and fun things to buy and make--just perfect for creating bento meals. And the prices are right, especially for produce.

Look how cute Raquel looks in bowling shoes! We bowled this afternoon at the fancy 300 Pasadena bowling alley. We had never been there before and will probably not be going back until we're rich. That is the most expensive 2 games of bowling I have ever seen. And the service sucked. I don't think management planned on having such a busy day on this Labor Day (hello?!) and only one server/lane assistant was working the entire 24 occupied lanes while the bartender stood alone behind her bar without a thing to do. Something not right there.
P.S. Raquel bowled better than me.

Today's "Daddy Bento"

2009-09-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

A "Daddy Bento" is a lunch I make for Jose to take to work on Saturdays (and sometimes Sundays) when he has an open house to do for a house he is selling. He has been trying to sell a really nice house in Arcadia for about two months now and it is having a very hard time catching an interested buyer. The problem? Feng shui, believe it or not. It is situated on a "T", meaning the cross street is directly in front of the house. Jose doesn't know the first thing about feng shui--all he knows is that people who come to view the house always mention it's bad feng shui. I read a book on feng shui 5 years ago, just for fun. I thought is was quite fascinating. I retained some of the knowledge and have tried to explain briefly to Jose the problem people have with the house. It doesn't matter if feng shui is "real" or not, if someone believes in it, it is real to them. Anywho...
In this bento, there is a tuna sandwich on whole wheat, some pickle slices, cheddar cheese slices, homemade swirl cookies you saw in yesterday's post, a hardboiled egg with salt and pepper, and some green "spinach flavour" noodles stirfried with asparagus and teriyaki sauce. I think he's really going to like this. I was just thinking about how much it costed to make this meal. I'm guessing less than a dollar. Wow!

Baking in This Heat?!

2009-09-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is still summer and I baked today. What a weirdo. It's nice to get back into the swing of things in the kitchen after not having baked since early June. This recipe came from an old Farm Journal cookie cookbook. I have had great results with some of the recipes while others, like this one, are far more effort than they're worth. These are pretty bland as far as flavor and texture. But they're good enough to keep in the freezer and use to pack Raquel's lunchbox. P.S. Raquel made one of those on that cookie sheet ;)

Up In Smoke, Off To The Beach

2009-08-30T23:01:00.000-07:00

This morning we woke up to see that our neighborhood had been flooded with smoke from The Station Fire. So we took the girls to Santa Monica for a day at the beach and to get away from the smoke. It was Maxine's first time at the beach and unfortunately she couldn't really enjoy the experience because she was fighting a head cold. After about an hour and a half we drove home. While on the 10 freeway in Downtown Los Angeles I snapped the above picture of The Station Fire. Those are not Mother Nature's clouds--that is all smoke. Amazingly huge, right?!

Pictures of "The Station Fire" UPDATED

2009-08-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening I noticed how pretty the sky was. Thick smoke was pluming towards a vast pink sunset. Bright orange flames from the La Canada Fire, aka, The Station Fire, were visible to me as I drove around Altadena to find a good location to photograph this event. Of course I couldn't get very close but I got a few respectable shots. I saw others driving around taking pictures from their driver's seats. I made two or three stops, got out and tried to see the fire through trees and phone lines. This collage is a collection of the best shots I got that night.

This morning, 36 hours later, the fire has spread incredibly fast, moving southeast and is visible through my kitchen sink window. I saw flames. That white cloud-like shape is actually grey smoke. We're in the middle of a heatwave. This fire has the upper hand.

My house is deep enough into town that we are not in any danger but we know several families who are right there near the fire. Jose's mother has apparently packed a bag just in case she is told to evacuate. She lives in Altadena.

More local bloggers are talking about the fire here.

*UPDATE*

More pics from the past hour. The fire is still winning...

Mommy, Can I Have...?

2009-08-24T16:57:00.000-07:00

I'm in a frustrated-and-bored-mommy mood. Motherhood is not always cute, rewarding and filled with afternoons making Rice Krispy Treats. Once in a while I exist, mindless in a sea of laundry, lacking the energy to say, "Before you get out the Thomas toys, first clean up Ponyville," and the house quickly overflows with every crappy toy anyone has ever given your children. And when the toys lose their charm in the owner's eyes, the kitchen drawers are a convenient resort for non-toy entertainment. More mess. The last thing I want to hear right now is, "Mommy, can I...?".
My least favorite question: "Mommy, can I have a snack?". When I've heard it 4 times in one hour after you didn't finish your lunch, it really extra bugs me.
When I'm busy driving, don't yell, "Uh-oh!!" from the backseat unless something bad has happened, like, you wet your pants or something.
If I have already told you, "No, you're not going to play video games today." Don't ask me again and again to play video games that same day.
Don't follow me around.
Don't make your sister cry.
I'm sorry that you have a kajillion toys and you're still bored.
Everything will be better when school is in session. For me and for the kids.
Rant over.

Maxine's New Trick

2009-08-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Look what our baby girl did tonight {click me}

<--She gets tired after walking practice.

New Red Wagon

2009-08-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

The girls' great-grandparents always have the best gift ideas. This year they gifted the girls a new Radio Flyer red wagon. It is exactly what they needed! The four of us went on a nice long evening walk on Monday. A little off the subject, but, isn't this the most pleasant August weather you've ever seen in Southern California?

That nice house in the top picture is a place where a lot of tv shows, commercials and movies are made. Obviously, it is very picturesque and quaint. I'm glad we don't have to walk very far away from our own neighborhood to see such interesting properties.

Thanks for the wagon, Grandma and Grandpa!

Our Baby at 12 Months

2009-08-13T22:40:00.000-07:00

12 months is such an exciting age. Maxine does something new everyday. And she is so sweet. Here is an update on what she is like now.

She still takes two regular naps a day, usually 2 hours at a time. Her bedtime lately has been 10pm and she wakes up at 8am. Sometimes she wakes up at about 3am and cries but more often than not she will go back to sleep without us having to do anything. Raquel sleeps through everything!

Maxine is a fantastic little eater. She eats everything I put on her tray. Grandma Emma had given us a bunch of tomatoes from her garden and Maxine LOVED them, I mean, she kept shoveling them into her mouth this one time and that night, she vomitted in her crib--we think she probably had too many 'maters. I can't help but compare my two kids--When Raquel was this age she scared me because it looked like she wasn't eating anything. That worried me so much!

Maxine is showing a sudden interest in walking. This is big news. She has been so happy crawling for so long now. For some reason she loves to be up on her tip-toes--I think she's going to have to learn how to flatten her feet before she can walk unassisted. It's funny though because I see her up on the balls of her feet constantly and it makes me think she was made to wear high heels.

We still have Maxine on formula instead of Cow's milk. Her stomach is sensitive and the cow's milk was making her get car sick. Poor thing: both of her parents were car sick kiddos long ago and now we've passed it onto her.

As you know, she LOVES to dance!

A couple of days ago, Maxine and I were playing quietly in my room when suddenly she pointed to my eyeball and said, "Eye" clear as day. It really took me by surprise. This is not a body part we have practiced very often, like tummy and teeth. So for the past two days now we have been having fun saying "Eye" and pointing to eyes.

Maxine adores Raquel. And Raquel knows exactly how to make her baby sister crack up. When Maxine cracks up, we all crack up. She has such a funky laugh! It's definitely not a dainty or pretty laugh!

If you saw Jose playing with Maxine you might be frightened for her. He plays kinda rough and talks in a gruff voice with her, but guess what--she digs it. She is all smiles and giggles with Daddy. When I hear him drive into our driveway, I say, "Daddy's home!" and she stops what she's doing to look out a window or go towards the front door.

I have probably forgotten to mention something but the stuff I've told you is pretty cool, right?

Oh by the way, in the picture up top she had just eaten her dinner of teriyaki brocolli and chicken and I gave her a whole strawberry to try for the first time (they say a baby has to be 12 months old before they can have strawberries). At first she looked at it and didn't know if it was food or not. Then she sunk her teeth into and I think the juice she tasted surprised her, that's what she's doing in the second picture. She ended up loving it and ate the whole thing.

The end.

A Night at Dodger Stadium

2009-08-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

Maxine went to her first Dodger game in September of 2008 when she was barely two months old, documented here. Last night we took the girls to a game, which was Raquel's umpteenth Dodger game but only the second for little Maxine. She was such a trooper--stayed up til about 11:00pm, too excited to sleep. Raquel ate a Dodger Dog and shared some with Maxine. I brought with me my own microwaved popcorn and had a Diet Coke (sticking to my diet) but I did sneak one bite of Raquel's Dog. Raquel did a lot of cheering for our team but at about the 5th inning she started to grow tired of the whole experience, saying, "When can we leave?". Maxine had a moment of upset when she bumped her head and I thought, with all the crying she was doing, I might have to take her back to the car for a while. But fortunately she got over it, got her second wind and stayed cute the rest of the night. My favorite thing about last night was watching Maxine's face when the crowd would cheer, when a beach ball would bounce near us, and also watching her enjoy her first taste of Dodger Dog while sitting on Daddy's lap. And she did enjoy it.

Onion Breath

2009-08-01T22:42:00.000-07:00

Grandma Emma gave me some of these really good onions that she received from a friend. I forget the name of them. Anyways, they're really good and sweet! I have had onion breath since she gave them to me yesterday :P Thanks a lot Granny Grunt!

Last night, Maxine astounded us. I got it on video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96zHBQBfDUs

Today after I did some early morning cleaning, I spent the afternoon catching up on other peoples' blogs. I would hate them to think I've been ignoring them. It's really nice to have time to do these sorts of things. Raquel went with Jose to his open house--from what I hear she was really a hands-on helper, showing people the rooms or entertaining children while parents looked around. I filled up a couple of lunch boxes for them and Jose sent me a text message that said, "What a great lunch!". That made my day.

Thanks for reading.

My Schoolin'!

2009-07-31T14:43:00.000-07:00

After about a decade-long hiatus, I started back to college this summer at Pasadena City College down the street from home. I applied late and they didn't have many classes left so I took a critical reading class. I was pretty sure I was gonna kick it's butt. I ended up working so much harder than I thought I would. Jose played "Mr. Mom" several hours a day more than he usually does (that's what he called it). Housekeeping was the last thing on my priority list, I'll tell you that much. At several points I tried to convince myself to keep trucking and not buy into the vexing thoughts that I had bitten off more than I could chew. It's just one class!, I told myself repeatedly.
I'm older now and I'm a completely different student than I was before...in a good way. This time, it is not just about having fun, floating along in life--this time it's about getting more out of life than just surviving. I'd like to enjoy my time on Earth. That means cutting out the struggling, worrying, fighting and moping.
In January of 2008 I made one little resolution to pray more and worry less. It worked. My blood pressure, which had been "borderline" for a while, even went back to a healthy number. But worrying less only took care of one (major) problem. After I gave birth to Maxine last summer I weighed nearly 200lbs. That's a slow death for a person of my stature. I changed my diet and since then have lost about 45lbs. I'm still not at my goal but I'm damn close. Losing so much weight eventually made me feel worthy. Whether that's right or wrong doesn't matter. That's what happened. I started to feel like I was wasting my life at home washing dishes and changing diapers. I'm fun to be around and I have a lot to offer, I told myself. I should go see what I can get! Yadda yadda yadda, I'm a student again!
This class was a short 6 weeks long, 4 days a week, homework every night, exams and quizzes every week and as a finale, a research paper and related oral presentation. I got a B on the first exam. I wasn't satisfied with that but it served as a gauge for future exams from this professor. I knew exactly what she was looking for at that point. I got an A on the next one and got A+'s on the rest. I also aced the oral presentation, which was a big deal for me because I loathe doing oral presentations. But I warmed up all semester long by contributing to class discussions from my desk and asking lots of questions. Yesterday I took the final exam and I have to say I'm 95% sure I aced that, too. The research paper won't be graded until next week, so we'll see. Even though this is technically a reading class, I earned my A's by writing good essays. I found out writing is my forte as opposed to multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank questions. My teacher said it also helps that I've started reading books instead of watching TV (I stopped watching TV a few months ago when we couldn't afford cable anymore). Reading helps you write better!
Now I'm off for a month before I start the Fall Semester. I'll be taking photography, art history and speech (eeek!). I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully, Jose and I will figure out a way to organize our time as parents and housekeepers. That, I think, is more challenging than working hard for an A+.

Poolside at Dad's

2009-07-31T13:47:00.000-07:00

My dad has a GREAT backyard. Not only does it have a pool, a jacuzzi and a comfy covered patio (with a bar area) but it also has a smoker and about eleventy barbeques. Think he likes to cook?

We took the girls over for a pool day earlier this month to celebrate the birthdays of Maxine, Raquel, Debbie and Jose, who are all July babies. This was Maxine's first time in a pool. She loved it. I'm positive Raquel had a blast, too.

Dad and Debbie got two new puppies. They went from "none" to "two" and they're so very well behaved!

The last shot is Raquel playing on Dad's homemade putting green. She's been playing on that thing since she was born. She looks like a mini pro.

The Birthday Bash

2009-07-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

(This beautiful photo was shot by my friend Hektiklyfe)

Hey! My life was ruined for a few weeks but it's getting back to normal now that I'm not spending hours a day researching and writing and rewriting for school. You would have thought I was taking a full schedule. I think I'm really a perfectionist and the older I get, the more that is true. Today is my first day of relief and relaxation as this morning I turned in my paper and did my oral presentation. I am thrilled to be done and not even half-worried about the final tomorrow.

For this post I will tell you about Raquel and Maxine's birthday bash that happened about a week and a half ago. The party was great. I've never seen Raquel have so much fun. She had lots of kids to play with and couldn't wait to finish opening her presents so she could get back to playing. We had very hot weather that day but Jose installed misters outside to cool us off and they worked quite well. Maxine did not take a nap all day. She, too, was excited. You can see her sleepy face in the picture of her about to eat her cupcake.

Grandma and a bunch of our friends brought food and Jose ended up hiring a taco man so he wouldn't have to BBQ in the heat. A friend I hadn't seen in 13 years showed up with her cute little family. And my sister, Susan, was in town from Virginia. It was a happy day.

(The picture above is by my friend Kitty) And then I took some pictures of myself cleaning up the next morning. Hehe!

We Walked in Two Districts

2009-07-03T23:42:00.000-07:00

Old Town Pasadena and The Playhouse District [of Pasadena] are right next to each other. The girls and I took a walk this evening when the sun was about to set. Maxine was strapped onto me in the Baby Bjorn. Raquel carried her Thomas backpack with snacks and other little necessities. Our walk was a delight. Both girls were content and peaceful (so was I).

Raquel posed for this shot. The cart was already tipped over so why not make art out of it?!

Raquel couldn't hold still for that last shot.

Updates Grab Bag

2009-06-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

This is Westminster Presbyterian Church-- the back of it, anyways. Maxine and I were walking last Friday and took several pictures of it. It looks best in sepia, I think.

*****

Raquel stayed at her great-grandparents' house last week from Monday to Saturday. Poor Grandma! Not only is Raquel relentless with activity and conversation, which is more than enough for a great-grandma to handle, but also Grandpa was feeling ill the entire time Raquel was there. So Grandma had no help at all with Raquel and no time to herself either. Wow! She did say that Raquel was very well-behaved and of course taking care of a well-behaved child is tons easier than the alternative. This was Raquel's first time spending that many nights away from home and not to my surprise, she never got homesick. Jose, Maxine and I had a nice quiet week. To me, the peace was very refreshing. Thank you SO much, Grandma Emma.

*****

I found these sweet potato fries in the frozen food section at Target a few weeks ago and I'm hooked. They are healthy enough for me to eat and stay on my diet and I'm so glad because they are delicious. Maxine really enjoys them, too. It has to be this particular brand though because the other sweet potato fries are covered in an evil batter. These are innocent and plain.

*****

This is my second week of school and I'm so glad this class is only five weeks long. I highly prefer to do my own work but in this class we "pair up" or get into groups of three DAILY. I am against compromising the level of work I do for a grade but in groups you cannot avoid this. Being paired with people who cannot write in complete sentences quietly frustrates me. But the teacher did say last week that she does not grade on spelling and grammar and that she is only concerned with our critical reading skills. So, technically, it doesn't matter but it still REALLY GETS TO ME.

*****

How do you throw a party for your kids' birthdays, invite everyone you know and not get caught up in the stress of planning? If you know how, I am seriously asking! I feel like if things aren't perfect then I might as well not do them at all. There is no changing that about me. So I guess I'm probably doomed to feel this way every year around this time! And then when the party's over, I'll be fine.

*****

And here is a snapshot of Maxine dancing to her new favorite dvd, Rufus Wainwright at the Fillmore. Yep, she's got taste. I'm telling you she stares at him singing and it even calms her down when she's cranky.

Backpacks Are Unfashionable

2009-06-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

I just don’t want to look like a turtle, OK? But after my first three days of school, carrying a folder, a dictionary, a big text book, a notebook, a journal, a sweater and my purse, and walking to and from my car parked at least 4 blocks away from campus (on purpose for exercise) I went and bought myself a bag (not a backpack) I found on clearance at Target. I can’t wait to see how it feels to walk all that way and have fairly free arms and hands.

School is fun, so far. I’m just taking an English class right now for that’s all that was left by the time I registered. It is transferrable to any university, not a prerequisite or a just-for-fun course, so that makes it feel even more worthwhile. I have to admit, I am surprised at how remedial the work has been these first three days. Yes, we have had homework every night and we also do writing assignments in class daily but it’s all easy stuff, like a high school class—“Ok, partner up with someone and answer the questions on page 248” (ugh, I’m not a fan of partnering up in class), or “Who would like to read the next paragraph?”. We answer tons of true-or-false and multiple choice questions, as if the teacher only wants to know that we’re reading the passages she assigns. Just like high school. The class is only five quick weeks long and I can’t help but wonder if and when it’s going to get challenging. Maybe this is exactly what I need to ease myself back into studentry.

(that's the Pasadena Public Library)
Since when does it cost $14 for a paperback novel? It seems like yesterday I paid about $4.95. Those days are over. Well, I’m not paying that much for a paperback. Thanks for my new library card, Pasadena! By the way, this library reminds me of the one in Ghostbusters! I want to start spending more (alone) time there. Raquel is spending the week at her great-grandparent’s house. I dropped her off on Monday. We had a nice visit before I left and I also brought home a giant zucchini from their lovely garden. It's as big as a newborn baby human... Maxine is such a sweet thing. She does a lot of dancing now—twisting, bouncing and bobbing her head. She has a favorite commercial, too. It’s an El Pollo Loco ad about their chicken sliders (I think). Maxine suddenly is afraid of some things: the face of James in the Thomas and Friends series and also the little Collie statue next to Grandma Emma’s piano at her house (see picture above). She laughs and shouts funny things all the time but she has not yet said a real word. She enjoys feeding herself and wants nothing to do with baby food but I actually enjoy being able to give her pieces of what I’m eating now that her digestive system is ready for it. Oh, a funny thing: if your feet are in her reach, she lays on them, like she’s snuggling or kissing them. I think it’s because we have always kissed her feet ever since she was born. She’s returning the love. Jose is still looking for work but I’m confident he will find something soon. He knows a lot of people, people who can help him find what he’s looking for. We’re living on our last bit of cash but I have to say it’s been nice having him home since his restaurant closed down last week. He’s very supportive of me going to school and I am grateful for that support.

Thanks for checking in on us!

Shoreline Village, Long Beach, CA

2009-06-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

Now that Jose's restaurant has closed down he has a little more free time (in between networking for new jobs). Yesterday was his first full day off. We decided to get out of the San Gabriel Valley. Since it was our first sunny day in about 2 weeks (sheesh!), Jose took us to Shoreline Village in Long Beach. There isn't really much to do there but eat, walk, peruse and photograph stuff. We had worn pants since we'd grown accustomed to the coolish weather we've been having but it was actually pretty warm and shorts would've been much more comfortable.

Jose and the girls had some ice cream. I like to watch Maxine try things that are new to her. She's such a sport and loves to try everything. Then Jose and Raquel played a little bit in the arcade while Maxine and I looked at a water fountain and enjoyed the beach air.

Sudden Improvement!

2009-06-07T17:20:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I made something that required egg whites which left me with a couple of homeless yolks. So, remembering that egg yolks are something a baby Maxine's age can try to eat, I made her scrambled yolks with a tiny bit of salt, pepper and chili powder. I tasted first. They were notably delicious. She tried them. She liked them. And she did not choke on them. So I put several tiny pieces on her tray and let her feed herself. She did this successfully for about 20 minutes while I finished what I was baking. I was thrilled. She really liked egg yolks!

So, suddenly I have hope that Maxine is going to get pretty good at eating semi-solid foods. Something I can't quite control yet is the way she feeds herself a bottle. Her new game is this: I hand her a bottle, she sips it for about a minute, then she pulls it out of her mouth, turns it upside down and bounces it on her tray, like a bingo marker, getting milk all over the tray and her clothes. I tell her not to do it, she giggles. I give her another chance, she does it again. I put the bottle away and say, "All done baba." She giggles and goes on with her life. It seems she only drinks a bottle when she's really super hungry or wants comfort from falling and bumping her head (but she only gets a post-injury bottle if I know it's been a while since she's had one. The typical post-injury comfort is lots of snuggles). I know this is the age to introduce a sippy cup but I tried that when she turned 9 months and she was obviously not ready for it. Now that she is 10 months+ I could introduce it again but I see how she plays with her bottles now and I don't think I should. I don't know.

Raquel was with me in the kitchen for a while yesterday while Maxine ate her egg yolks. She was helping me make cookies. I think she looks very mature here in this picture, scraping ingredients off the mixer attachment...

Maxine: 10 Months + 1 Week

2009-06-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe Maxine is going to turn 1 year old next month. I'm so thankful she has been healthy and normal all this time. Besides her bout with teething at the age of 5 months, she has been very pleasant and easily entertained. It is usually pretty easy to put her to bed, although lately when I put her in bed she gets right up and stands holding onto the crib rail, jumping and talking it up. Then she eventually gets tired, whines a little bit (I listen from another room) and falls asleep. When I'm sure she's sound asleep, I quietly enter her room and cover her up with her blankets.

Her Uncle James is hardly ever around but just last Saturday he came over and played with Maxine for a while and we both heard her say her first word: "Ooh-ka". I must explain... When Raquel was a toddler, she used to call James "Ooh-ka James" as she could not pronounce the word "Uncle". We all started calling him "Ooh-ka" on a regular basis. Now, when he comes over, I tell Maxine, "Look, it's Ooh-ka!". So, last weekend, I said this to her and she said, "n-KA!" James said, "Did you hear that?!" So we tested her by repeating "Ooh-ka" and she'd respond each time with, "n-KA!" It was so funny! But the thing is, now she's saying, "Ka!" all the time when she tries to say something. I think she liked the excited response she got from us when we thought she was trying to say James' nickname and now she just uses "Ka!" for almost everything. It's still something. Now that I know she can recognize certain words and sounds, I am always annunciating key words, like, "bath", "daddy" and, "night-night" in hopes she will try to copy me.

Maxine seems to have a sensitive gag reflex and still cannot eat solid food, not even semi-solid food, like a tiny piece of bread, without gagging or choking a little. At this age, Raquel was already picking up half-pieces of Cheerios and feeding them to herself without a problem. Maxine does do the pincer grasp and is able to pick up very tiny objects but she's definitely not ready for the responsibility of feeding herself with her fingers. So Maxine and I just practice a little everyday with semi-solid food. She has 6 teeth and does chew with them--I really don't know why she so often gags/chokes. It makes me think of when she was a newborn and scared me so often by choking while breastfeeding or bottle feeding. Makes me wonder...

With Food Out of the Way...

2009-05-28T22:48:00.000-07:00

Food is no longer an enemy, nor a friend. It's nothing to me but a part of the daily routine, like teeth-brushing. I have lost 40 lbs, folks. Pretty dang amazing.

There is something I did not foresee, something happening to me right now. It is this: Without my former life-long vice, unpleasantries abound. The proverbial hole in my soul is staring right at me. Who knew I'd get to see it like this? Or ever? I have no want to drown it in booze or fill it with pizza (admittedly, pizza sounds fantastic right now, but no). There has got to be something else to do with this thing, this hole. Right?

Yes, I have wonderful children. Yes, I have really neat friends. Yes, I am capable of doing and creating a surplus of questionably useful things that are semi-interesting. But I suddenly feel I'm wasting my capabilities and that I should be doing something to turn them into talents.

This entry is all over the place but you know why, right? I'm just now putting my thoughts into these little words for the first time ever. I am a new me. Thank goodness I'm young enough to follow up the figuring with actions. Go figger.

******

Here is one of many illustrations by Raquel in my sudoku book. She draws pictures in this book everyday. This one happens to be me getting my hair done by my hair-doer, Sara, and Raquel and Maxine are sitting in chairs off to the side, waiting for me to get done. I don't know why Sara has crazy-big teeth. Don't you love it?

I Love Taking Pictures

2009-05-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

These are some of my favorite shots from the past couple of weeks.

Good Food and The Museum

2009-05-14T19:49:00.001-07:00

Monday was such a fun day! Jose took us to lunch at Macaroni Grill (where he works) and it was so good. We sat on the patio because the weather was great.

Then we went to the Museum of Natural History across the street from USC. I hadn't been there in 20 years. Some of it looks sadly the same, especially the bird exhibit, like it hasn't been updated in at least 25 years. They have a gemstone exhibit that is amazing! I took so many pictures in there. I thought of my grandpa the whole time because he's a sort of geologist. Raquel wasn't really into the rocks but overall she enjoyed herself throughout the tour.

This cotton ball-looking thing is from the gemstone exhibit. WEIRD!

Maxine Refuses the Spoon

2009-05-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness I looked this up; I feel so much better...

At this stage, your baby may not have a big interest in eating. (click for the article)

Maxine is crawling everywhere and also pulling up onto furniture, the latter being still a challenge for her. Ever since these knew abilities showed up a couple weeks ago she has only wanted bottles, no veggies, fruit or cereal. This had me worried. You always think you're doing something wrong and not only do you worry about your kid but also what your doctor is gonna think of your parenting skills. I'm relieved to know this refusal to eat is totally normal!

In the above photo, Maxine is enjoying her new favorite activity: pulverizing an organic teething biscuit. This is exciting for her but the end result is a huge, crusty mess. She never eats the whole thing. It kinda looks like a well-used salt lick when she's had her fill. Her highchair requires vacuuming, too.

Since she is not interested in being spoon-fed at the moment, I'm going to let her try some finger foods: soft-cooked noodles, egg yolk omellette with mashed veggies mixed in, fish. She has four teeth now, all the better to eat with!

At the Park

2009-05-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

Went spent some together-time at the park today. Jose is hardly home anymore and I really wanted us to spend time together outside the house while he was home earlier today. It was windy but warm. Maxine really loves the swings. I can see how relaxed and happy she gets every time I put her in a swing. This is yet another thing that is different between Maxine and Raquel--Raquel is kind of a scaredy-cat like her mom about getting on rides or apparatuses at the park.

Maxine is Mobile/Jenny's Baby Shower

2009-04-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

(I bought that walker for her for $8 at a yard sale a couple weeks ago)

She started crawling fluently this week. There is a big difference between dragging yourself with your arms (mopping the floor with your belly) and actually moving palm-knee-palm-knee (belly completely off the floor). She goes where she hears voices. She goes where she's never been. She is very curious about the laundry room and 1/2 bath towards the back of the house but she seems to know she's not allowed over there.

Also, on Monday, I walked into the living room and was startled by Maxine doing this:

She pulled up onto that coffee table to reach a toy she spied. She got it. This marks her first time pulling up onto furniture. After five minutes in this position she cried because she realized she couldn't get herself back down to the floor! This means we have to take the crib apart and lower the mattress. Why they make it such a hassle, I don't know. But she pulled up holding onto the crib rail this afternoon so it must be done. Last weekend, the girls and I attended Cousin Jenny's baby shower in Grandma Emma's backyard (my favorite backyard in the world). I brought Maxine's walker in case my arms needed relief but as soon as I put her in it she threw a fit. Grandma came and picked her up and she stopped crying. She stayed on Grandma's lap for a long time, talking, grabbing buttons and beads, nibbling her little shoes and being plain adorable. The affair was catered by Brent's Deli which is WAY better than Subway--not even comparable. So I ate lunch while Maxine played with Grandma and then we switched. Later, Maxine also spent a lot of time on Grandpa's lap, equally at peace and equally playful and adorable. She already knows and likes her great-grandparents, huh?! Raquel at this age was the opposite--she couldn't stand Grandma. It brought a lot of joy to Grandma that Maxine was so happy on her lap.

Here's Max trying out the grass in the front yard. She tried to eat it.

Cousin Mary made Rainbow Sherbet Punch that was so pretty! I didn't try it but Maxine did, hehe! Grandma was giving it to her and she liked it so much she tried to pull the cup to her mouth for more! She didn't get a sugar high or a tummy ache, just so you know.

Raquel socialized with everyone and played all the shower games. Grandpa gave her a mini agriculture lesson in the vineyard. I took several shots of this. I don't want Raquel to forget these things.

Raquel's Flag Salute

2009-04-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Raquel was chosen, along with one other preschool student, to lead the entire school in the morning flag salute. They were the first preschoolers to get this honor. Jose took Raquel to school that morning and asked her if she was nervous. She was SO not nervous of course. Daddy was pretty nervous, though! The video is pretty quiet so please turn up your volume to listen and watch.

Easter

2009-04-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

What lovely weather we had on Easter Sunday. The day was spent at my in-law's house. We ate machaca and fruit tarts, took about a billion pictures of the kiddos and let Raquel hunt for eggies. My nephew Ricky is such a cute little boy and so strong! He cried a little at first but by the end of the day he let me hold him for a long time.

Raquel's Mini Makeover

2009-04-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

I gave Raquel a hair cut at home yesterday. Something got into me to make me think I could do it, so I did! At first, I thought I had made a mistake, bitten off more than I could chew. But then I envisioned the result I wanted and with Raquel's extreme patience, I achieved it. The "after" shot is from her egg hunt today at Grandma Rosamaria's house.
More pictures of Easter Day to come.

Cherimoya

2009-04-02T22:19:00.000-07:00

It's a fruit. Supposedly Mark Twain's most favorite. I bought one yesterday to make some baby food and I am glad I did. It has a creamy texture and very light taste which is perfect for mixing with about any other fruit. They are ugly on the outside with a pretty pail whitish yellow flesh on the inside. The seeds are large and black so they are easily found and removed.
I made a small batch of plain cherimoya, a batch of kiwi cherimoya and a batch of banana kiwi. I made several batches of other types of foods yesterday, too. We have a market nearby that has an EXCELLENT selection of produce at very low prices. Many of their items are specialties in cultures other than my own, I guess. I almost bought these miniature eggplant called Indian Eggplant. They are the size of a golf ball but obviously egg-shaped. Cute! I will buy them when I find a good recipe for them.
*****
Raquel is doing fine. She is still her silly self but I bet you she really misses jumping on her bed and playing with the kids at school. Next week is Spring Break so she'll have a good amount of time to heal more before she goes back to school.
Thanks for reading.

Yes, That's a Broken Bone

2009-04-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

This is an x-ray taken of Raquel's shoulder this morning. She fell off her bed while asleep the night before last causing a clavical fracture. Her pediatrician says its a good thing the broken ends are facing each other, that this will make it heal itself faster. For now, she wears a "figure 8 sling" to hold her shoulders back just a bit and aid in the healing.

You noticed I said the night before last? Yesterday morning, Raquel was whimpering about pain in her neck but then she took it back and said she was pretending. At that point, we didn't know what to believe. This was our first experience as parents with a preschool child who is capable of telling plenty of lies and trying to figure out what the heck to do. It was a little aggravating. We ended up keeping her home yesterday and then in the afternoon, through some tests, and despite all the fake giggling and smiling (through tears) Raquel was doing, I discovered she really was hurt.

We didn't think it was broken and neither did the doctor, because there was no swelling or bruising and Raquel wasn't complaining too much. The x-ray surprised us all. Maybe Raquel is tougher than we think she is?

Her doctor said she could return back to school tomorrow if we felt like she should but I think I'll keep her home one more day. She is very afraid of people touching her arm, pulling or shoving her even the slightest bit.

We will take her back in 4-6 weeks for a check up on the break.

Spring Walk

2009-03-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

(Somebody wanted his picture taken)

The girls and I walked the neighborhood today. I have been noticing all the flowers blooming and wanted to take in all the Springiness we have right now. I have never loved Spring more than this year. I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with the brilliance of the glimmer of hope I've been recognizing.

One of My Hobbies

2009-03-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

Having little money and seemingly meager amounts of food you would normally eat can make one very creative and resourceful when it comes to cooking for the family. It has become kind of a hobby for me. When we did have a little more money in years past, I would flock to estate and yard sales to stock up on vintage cook books but back then it was only because I love(d) to read them and I admired the pictures and quaint graphics. I wasn’t really going to use them for their original purpose. The more I read, the more enchanted I became and pretty soon I was trying out the recipes. To this day, when I try a recipe I write the date and any notes or opinions next to the recipe right in the book. Some of these previously owned books have pencil marks from the 1950s with faded, lady-like handwriting stating the date and the event for which the dish was made. Little details like that really make a book that much more valuable to me.
Most of the dishes are extremely dated, a food snob’s nightmare, but charming as ever in my opinion, even if they don’t sound appetizing.

Salmon Cocktail Mold
(Recipe from The New Antoinette Pope School Cookbook, Second Printing, 1962)

2 cans salmon (doesn’t say what size!)
¼ cup chopped green onion and stems
¼ cup chopped green olives
½ cup chopped celery
About ½ cup mayonnaise or salad dressing thinned with 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine all ingredients and stir until well blended. Place in a small bowl and chill at least 1 hour.
To serve, turn out onto center of a platter, and with spatula go over mold to make it smooth. Garnish top with hard-cooked eggs, olives, or vegetables cut to simulate flowers, or as desired. Place crackers around base of mold.
Serves 8.

I made this recipe for a dinner party I hosted. If I remember correctly, nobody ate it. It’s a shame because I ate it and thought it was delicious. And I ended up polishing it off myself over the next 2 or 3 days. It isn’t attractive to the mainstream, in my opinion. It’s a big sculpted mound of light pinkish brown with tiny bits of green and red here and there. The hard part is the canned salmon, which I had never bought before—there are hundreds of tiny bones mixed in that you must pluck out by hand, unless there is some tool of which I’m unaware. The book this came from has tons of extremely dated, sculpted, unnatural looking dishes (think cream cheese dyed green and shaped into flowers and fruits adorning a gelatin mold salad made of chicken and peas). I love it.

Green Beans w/ Oranges
Easy; combines two well-liked foods
(Recipe from Farm Journal’s Country Cookbook, 1972 edition)

2 (10 oz) pkgs. frozen whole green beans
1 (11 oz) can mandarin oranges, drained
3 tblsp. butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook beans according to package directions, drain. Add orange sections and butter. Heat through; season with salt and pepper. Makes 6 servings.

That recipe above doesn’t sound very tasty to me but someone must’ve thought it was good enough to include in a DoubleDay cookbook. I found it when I was looking for ways to use the canned green beans in my pantry. Not sure if this is the way I want to use them.

Buttered or Cheese KIX
(Recipe from Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook, First Edition, 1950)

Each taste calls for another.

Melt in heavy skillet 5 tbsp. butter. Remove from heat. Stir 5 tbsp. Parmesan –type cheese, if desired. Add ¼ box KIX (4 cups). Sprinkle with ½ tsp. salt. Stir well.

Now THAT sounds tasty! I’ve never heard of using KIX cereal to make an appetizer. Did you know KIX was that old?
That was fun. Thanks for reading.

Nice Day for Sunny Portraits

2009-03-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!

Back in Action

2009-03-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Target had a flyer in the paper advertising a 4GB memory card for $12.99 so we went and got it today. Hooray! I think it was a very good price.

I baked some muffins tonight, just for fun. They are Blackberry Yankee-Style Cornbread muffins. Turned out pretty good even though I should've taken 'em outta the oven a minute or two earlier. Raquel was expecting them to taste like cupcakes--I can tell she didn't care for them. But Jose and I enjoyed them. No, they're not on my diet!

No pictures of the girls tonight but give me a day or two and I'll get some good ones. Maxine grows up so much each day, I bet she'll look different to you when you see her new pictures.

Handsomely Homemade Handout

2009-03-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

(I grabbed this photo from flickr.com)

The first five people who respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! (Though I hope you will!)

2. What I create will be just for you.

3. It'll be done this year. {might be a little while}

4. You have no clue what it's going to be. I don't even have a clue what it's going to be.

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same thing to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to leave a comment will win a homemade gift! It may not be great, but it will be fun!!***Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it***

Thanks for the fun idea, Iris! Yes, I was one of the first five commenters on Iris' post of this subject and she will be making me something I will treasure, I'm sure!

I REALLY don't like to submit posts without pretty pictures. Here are other peoples' pictures of their handmade things that I think are really neat even if some are rather useless.

UPDATE: Apparently, a lot of people have been tagged to do this kind of post recently! How fun! I commented on a similar post in Constance Pelkey Designs and am hoping to get something delightful.

Sorry, Mom!

2009-03-19T20:45:00.001-07:00

My mom just emailed to say she misses my blog updates and pictures of her grandbabies. I do, too! Issues with my camera must wait, though. Other priorities are higher on the list. I will now tell you what I've been doing all week.
I had a wake up call this week. Realizing that living here is too expensive for us and wondering how to get us out of this situation, a light flicked on in my head: Sarah should get a good job in a town with lower rents. So I searched CA.gov for jobs with the state. There are many. Soon, I noticed I am missing only one qualification: a college degree. Many of the jobs require either a degree OR a few years experience in a specific field. I need to go back to school! I thought. My next idea was that I should study something that is in demand and has the potential for growth and of course, something interesting.
So next I researched "best careers" and then narrowed that down to "best careers to get with an Associate's Degree" and I looked at a few on the list. In California, Skincare Specialists are number one on the list, which projects growth of 60% in the next 8 years. That didn't interest me, though.
A few numbers down I saw, Environmental Engineering Technician. I know "Technician" is one of those terms that sounds fancy but it really isn't, just like "Administrative Assistant". I found out what kind of work an EET does. It's kinda vague but I get it. This is something I am interested in and I know I can do it. Investing two years or less at a community college to get into this career seems pretty fair.
Then I found this school: Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, Ca. No other community college I've seen so far in California has such an attractive-looking program in Environmental Science. Check this out. I feel strongly that this is where I'm meant to go.
If I'm broke, how am I going to pay for school? My grandma said she's help me pay for it. She has made a lot of things possible for me in my life. I'm grateful for my grandparents and the great relationship I have with them.
Of course, both Jose and I are going to have to get regular old jobs up there in the meantime, which is what he does now, anyways. He does real estate, too, but that isn't producing any income for us at all.
Oh! Also, the college offers childcare for around $100 per month! I would just have to enroll in some little parenting class and volunteer 1.5 hrs a week in the childcare facility on campus. That is wonderful!
Can you tell I'm a little excited and maybe even hopeful?

Maxine's New Skills

2009-03-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

I ruined my camera's memory card and have no new pictures to show off. But Maxine is making a lot of progress and I thought I'd share her new "skills".
Maxine has started to realize that just because something disappears from her view doesn't mean it isn't there. If you stand in her way of the thing she's trying to see she'll crane her neck to look around you. It is pretty cute.
She is such a good eater! She still loves the homemade baby food, sweet potatoes being at the top of her list. When Raquel was this age (almost 8 months) I don't think she had a big appetite but then I was feeding her Gerber, not tasty, homemade, unwatered-down food.
Maxine is still not really crawling but she does get around the living room quite well by a mixture of dragging/pulling and crawling. She can also balance her body on one side with one arm in the air and one on the ground to steady herself--this is the precursor to sitting up on her own with the next move in the sequence being using that arm on the ground to push herself up to sit.
She is ultra sensitive in two ways. 1) Music makes her want to bob and bounce, whether she hears it on tv or one of us singing to her. When I sing to her she stares at me like I'm an angel or something. Her favorite song, the first song I ever sang to her inside OR outside the womb, is My Bunny Lies Over the Ocean. 2) She LOVES a good back massage. Her eyes will roll back in her head when you massage her back. I'm guessing her little muscles get sore from learning to crawl. She also responds similarly to light touches on her legs, arms and face. At the mall yesterday, she fell asleep sitting on my lap while I ran my fingers up and down her left leg. I couldn't see her face but her head slowly fell forward and Jose looked and saw she was falling asleep. So cute!
Her favorite tv show is Blue's Clues. It really gets her attention.
She can say "dadadadada", "tss", "babababa" and "ah-ba" but I don't think she's actually trying to speak english yet.
When I'm trying to comb her hair, she tilts her head all the way back to see what I'm doing. So I usually give her something to play with while I do this.
Sometimes she puts her hand in the way when I'm changing her diaper. So I also give her something to occupy her hands when I do this.
She likes to scratch everything, even her own tummy. I am teaching her the meaning of "soft" by placing her hand on my face and saying "soft" while running her hand down my cheek softly.
When I'm feeding her she thinks its fun to spray food out of her mouth by making a "tss" sound after I put food in there. So, she is now learning the meaning of the word, "NO", hahaha. When I say "NO" I have to make sure my face has a certain serious expression, otherwise she thinks I'm being funny and she'll just laugh. :)
That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

Schoolio!

2009-03-10T18:15:00.000-07:00

I know Raquel is smart but she still manages to impress me with new skills. Her teacher was the first one to introduce her to the concept of lowercase letters. Raquel had only known capitals and only knew how to write her name in all caps. Teacher wanted us to practice with her at home so we have been doing that. She has improved so much in just a few days. The picture above and to the left is her first attempt. And a couple of days later she did this. I wrote her name up at the top so she could go by my example. I put a silver star next to the one she did the best.

I have been getting a lot of compliments from teachers at the school on how I make Raquel's lunch. Last night I tried something new: a thin egg omelette wrapped around a small rice ball that I had dipped in light soy sauce. I tied it with nori. It was not easy to tie and didn't look as pretty as the picture in the recipe on Justbento.com but everyone asked me about it today--it surprised them that it really wasn't as fancy as it looks--it was basic foods, nothing Martha-Stewart-y. Raquel ate one but not the other so I'm not sure she liked it.

And here are some portraits I took of the girls over the weekend that I think will make you smile.

That last one reminds me of chimps! Thanks for reading.

Maxine's Eating A Lot

2009-03-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

When I got the idea to go to a farmers market today it was already too late. They were closed. So I went to Vons instead. I bought bananas, a big yam, an avocado, a butternut squash, a fennel bulb, carrots and Jonagold Apples to try and make more baby food. Everything is done except the yam, meaning, everything got pureed but the yam. It's cooked and waiting for me but I'm too tired now! I needed to make a lot today because of how fast my supply is dwindling.

It turns out bananas and avocados are soft enough raw that you do not need to cook them at all to mash them. I made a banana-cado mash with a fork. It looked like a lot even though I only used about 1/5 of the avocado and 1/4 of a large banana. Maxine loved it! I tasted it, too, just to make sure why she liked it. She ate so much of it that I could only fill two wells in the ice cube tray with this mixture. Yes, it will probably brown a little but the flavor will still be there so I'm okay with that.

I found a site I like and that I referred to today specifically for the banana-cado recipe. The site is called weelicious. The layout is simple and the recipes look great.

The squash was a big one, I guess. I got SO much food out of it! I did one puree of plain butternut squash, one with carrots, fennel and squash and one with banana and squash. The colors are so pretty. Maxine didn't care for the plain batch, which is why I started mixing it with other stuff. She liked the mixed batches. She was my little taste tester but I tasted it all, too.

I also made apple sauce good enough to serve for dinner... to adults! All I did was add a bit of cinnamon. It came out so good.

I'm positive Maxine enjoys eating my baby food. She eats so much more now than before. It's quite surprising how pushy she gets when I feed her! She wants me to hurry up with the next spoonful and there is still food in her mouth. I'm pretty flattered.

Something interesting about fennel: it can relieve your baby's gassiness, it aides in digestion and can calm down a teething baby.

My First Homemade Baby Food

2009-03-05T16:07:00.000-08:00

It was scary. That's why it took me so long to get started. I meant to start doing this a couple months ago. For one thing, I had never used a food processor before--Have you seen those blades? Secondly, I'm a little afraid of produce I buy at the store and wish I had my own garden. Third, foods considered safe for babies are different depending on who you talk to or what you read--this is actually the most frustrating part. The girls' pediatrician warned me not to give strawberries to Maxine, that babies shouldn't have strawberries until they're 12 months old, yet, look at the baby food at the store and you see "banana strawberry" or similar. Huh?!? And then I was looking at wholesomebabyfood.com and it said that carrots and spinach (two things I was going to puree today) have too many nitrates in them and babies shouldn't eat them until after a certain age. Maxine LOVES carrots from the jar! Why would Gerber put unsafe food in a jar for babies to eat? I have decided I don't fully trust this neurotic site but will look around for more conclusive information about their claims before I mash up my carrots and spinach.

Today I made two batches of baby food: peaches and sweet potatoes. I used only one peach and one pretty big sweet tater. I steamed the peach and baked the tater. After pureeing the sweet potato, it looked and tasted so good (that little tiny bit I got on my finger) that I wished I had bought more so I could have my own all mashed up like velvet! It was very starchy so I added to the processor a little of the cooled boiled peach water. I'm very happy with how it came out. The peach didn't come out like velvet but it doesn't have the starch that the potato has and I figure that has a lot to do with the resulting texture. I spooned both foods into one ice cube tray which I filled completely. After the cubes freeze they will be popped into freezer bags and stored.

Maxine has been in a bad mood since last night. I have a feeling more teeth are coming in. It is so tiring trying to cheer her up and more difficult when Raquel is testing my patience at the same time. I have mommy burnout today for sure.

In Between Drizzles

2009-03-04T16:16:00.000-08:00

The sun almost came out this afternoon so I bundled the girls up (California style) and we played in the yard for a short while. It started sprinkling again but I'm not complaining. Our grass needed it and I really don't want to pay for this expensive water just to keep it green for the neighbors' sake. If we owned this house, I'd get rid of just about every inch of grass. If we don't get rain, I don't think we can afford to keep it pretty.

Raquel did well at lunch today, almost ate the entire thing except for a few broccoli florets and edamame. Her and I sat in the cafeteria after the class had all gone home and we watched the upper classmen arrive to eat lunch. About 50% of the children had brought lunches from home! I was very happy to see this, not only for their sake but mostly (selfishly) because I was worried I might be the only mom who thought her kid was too good for school lunch. This is only true for the preschool group.

Since making the sushi took some time to assemble, I did some research on "speed bento" and found tips on how to make lunch fast but nutritious. I cooked rice, pasta and vegetables (seperately), divided them into servings and popped them in the freezer. I believe I'm set up for the next month of making Raquel's lunch!

Here are my favorite shots from our time outside...

Maki & Stuff for Lunch

2009-03-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, I made tomorrow's lunch: Spamburger Maki with sides of brocolli, pickled baby corn, edamame, kiwi and butterscotch pudding for dessert. I am sure about everything except the kiwi but since it was only 25 cents I figure I can afford to waste it if it isn't a hit.

In case you're wondering what the ingredients are: one nori leaf (roasted seaweed), spread half of it with neufchatel cheese, then Calrose rice on top of that (the bowl of water is for keeping your hands moist enough to handle the rice), then raw spinach, light Spam, carrots and ketchup. I know it sounds like it wouldn't taste good but it does. And Raquel likes it so that's what really matters. The reason I only spread the filling on half of the nori leaf is because of who this is for. I must make the maki slices small enough for a four-year-old to eat with ease. The plain half of the nori leaf acts as reinforcement when the maki is rolled--everything is kept inside neatly.Every sushi instruction video I've seen says you need a bamboo sheet/placemat and plastic wrap to roll the maki tightly but I've never used these things. I just roll delicately but firmly and then squeeze the roll if it feels at all loose.Cutting is the hard part for me. I don't have any good sharp knives. So I do the best I can with the heaviest knife I have and rely on the weight of the knife to pierce the nori and gently "saw" back and forth all the way through.And here is the result:I did this with brown rice last time because it is healthier but since this meal has to travel I figured I'd use sticky white rice. I topped these off with a bonito flake seasoning mixture that tastes so good with sticky rice.

Thanks for reading!

No More Daily Pizza

2009-03-03T14:37:00.000-08:00

Look how sophisticated Raquel looks in her school uniform! Jose snapped this picture of her for me while I was still in bed. I just got that vest for her on a clearance rack and couldn't wait for her to wear it.
On Monday we received the preschool newsletter informing us of special events, lessons and reminders for the month of March. We also received a school menu and it confuses me. There is food on there I've never seen the preschoolers eat, such as orange chicken and rice, bean burrito and tuna sandwich. I don't believe they give the preschoolers these choices and this menu is probably just what the whole school gets. My sister in law who works in the office says the kids in 1st through 5th grades get a salad bar option and a good variety of healthy and tasty food. For these reasons, I have started making Raquel's lunch as of today. She was upset that she wouldn't be eating school food anymore, "...but I LIKE pizza!" I explained to her that eating pizza everyday is not healthy and that I would be making her lunch three days a week and allow her to eat the school food every Friday (chocolate milk day). Monday is a short day and no lunch is served so I will make lunches only Tuesday through Thursday. That plan seems reasonable to me and Raquel agreed.
Yesterday she went grocery shopping with me and I showed her what kind of food I'd be making for her. When we got home, I start washing celery stalks and she filled 3 zip top bags with seven pretzels each. I read that if you let your child help build their own lunches they are more likely to eat everything instead of throwing it away. But, since I know my daughter, I showed up 10 minutes early to pick her up from the cafeteria just so I could see her eat and help her with anything she couldn't open. The children were eating chicken nuggets, caeser salad, peach chunks and a frosted cookie. The boy next to Raquel ate nothing but when his Grandpa showed up to pick him up, the boy was given the frosted cookie anyways. I was secretly shaking my head.
After I post this blog entry I will be assembling tomorrow's lunch. And I'll show up early again tomorrow to make sure she eats most of it.

Relishing the Warmth

2009-02-28T21:41:00.000-08:00

My in-laws, Miriam and Ricardo, are in town this weekend with my 7 1/2-month old nephew Little Ricky. We made plans to walk around the Rose Bowl this afternoon with all our babies even though I secretly wanted to just stay at home and hang out in our backyard on such a beautiful day as today. I thought myself lucky when Miriam showed up in high heel wedge boots and a skirt. That was all she had to wear. So we stayed here at our house and played outside for a good three hours, just soaking up the sun and talking about our children.
Ricky is a mere twelve days older than our Maxine but he acts much older than that. He is adept at crawling and is getting really good at climbing up on legs and furniture to a standing position. The only area where Maxine has him beat is in the gums--she has those two teeth that are now well in view when she smiles. His two bottom teeth are just about to pop up, you can tell. He was teething the entire afternoon, drooling profusely and apparently in some discomfort. Miriam wanted to soothe his pain so she gave him a teency bit of baby tylenol and that really did the trick. He was calm after that and stopped drooling, too.
Maxine was unusually quiet, actually very serious. I couldn't tell if she was shy or just sleepy. Rosy, Miriam, Ricardo, Jose and myself were all chatty and happy to be together. I think Miriam took a few videos of the kids that I can't wait to see. We got so many cute photos today, it is difficult to select only a few for this post!

Raquel shared her tricycle with cousin Ricky. He liked that so much! He was holding the handles tightly and watching the pedals spin the whole time. I wonder what he's gonna get for Christmas.

Later on we went to my mother-in-law's house for an early dinner. Jose ate quickly and headed to work while us girls stuck around and played with Guapo and the kids for a few more hours. I accidentally left my camera at home for this part of the day.

I love days like today.

How to Melt Your Mother

2009-02-26T19:52:00.000-08:00

When your mother doesn't know what to make for dinner and she decides to grill slices of banana and yam sprinkled with cinnamon, top that with vanilla yogurt, honey and pecans and serve it with cinnamon toast and turkey bacon and then asks you, "Well, how is it?"....Say nothing. Just bring her close to you and give her a hug. She'll say, "Hey, what's that for?" and you tell her, "That's because I love you and I want to say thank you for making me something I like." Trust me, she'll melt in your arms. And if you eat it all except for the pecans, she will be satisfied and not make you eat "those kinda peanuts" she didn't know you didn't like.

And then do your homework.

Not So Sure About School Lunch

2009-02-25T16:34:00.001-08:00

(Raquel likes to make this face)

Preschool is still a happy place for Raquel. It has been one week since she started and she's doing very well at listening and getting up early five days a week. Her parents are enjoying this new schedule, too. Jose likes to get up early to take her to school. I get everything ready the night before, lay out her clothes, make breakfast. He gets her up at 6:30, brushes her teeth, dresses her, fixes her hair and off they go to Starbucks for Jose's coffee and then to school where he walks her to the classroom and signs her in each day. I have had to change the way I do things at night as to get Raquel to bed early enough and make sure everything's ready for the next day. But I like having this new routine.
I have noticed she's putting on weight and I'm not exactly sure why but when I pick her up everyday in the cafeteria (that's where the parents go to pick up the kids) lunch is usually something greasy, like pizza or a corndog. That's not how she eats at home. But I know that a lot of 4-year-olds are allowed to be picky and won't eat grilled chicken and brocolli on whole wheat pasta as readily as they will gobble down cheese pizza. So the school must go with the safer choice, the foods that most kids will eat without being prodded. I'm just going to wait and see if Raquel continues to gain like this. The girl is damned when it comes to her genetics and predisposition to get fat. When I was a kid, I remember asking my mom if I would get fat when I was older (she was, at the time, very overweight). She told me I would not get fat and that I didn't have anything to worry about. She was wrong!
Jose had always been "husky" as a kid and now he's technically "obese". Our kids have the potential to be really overweight and I have always been aware of that and concerned about it. This is why ice cream, candy, soda and Happy Meals are rare things in our house. Raquel is very good at eating what she's given, although there have been those phases of pretending not to like chicken and such, which is so frustrating when it happens! She is used to the taste of whole grains and veggies. But she's very smart, too, and if she is eating dinner at someone else's house, she'll act like she doesn't like anything which will result in people feeding her less healthy food. Yes, she's that manipulative! You are all a bunch of suckers in her eyes. HAhahaha!
And now about Maxine...Yesterday after I picked up Raquel from school, the three of us went to the Target by her school to get groceries. It was Maxine's first time sitting in a grocery cart and I had to photograph the moment. I put bulky blankets and toys in the seat with her so she wouldn't slouch too much or hurt herself. She is so tiny in that cart seat! She enjoyed the ride, behaved so well the whole time.

A Gifted Weekend

2009-02-23T16:06:00.000-08:00

My husband threw me a sweet birthday party Saturday night. My mother-in-law had both girls overnight (for the first time) so we could have as much fun as possible and not worry about waking the girls up with loud laughter or music. We played Pin the Tail on the Donkey, sang Happy Birthday, danced, ate chips and candy, all the usual birthday-party-type things. This was my first birthday party in a very long time. I don't even remember the last one I had. I even got gifts! I thought I was too old for that!
Jose brought home a cake from a local bakery. After I blew out the candle, I took my hand and grabbed a huge chunk of cake and ate it from my hand. I never got to do that before and I really enjoyed it!
Several of the gifts I received did not have a card attached so I don't know who each one is from, unfortunately. I got a really pretty vintage-inspired apron and timer (above) from my friends Kitty and Sean. My friends Jeff and Sara got me a vintage cookbook (Jeff knows me too well!). My brother James and his girlfriend Ally got me a miniature rose plant (that looks SO pretty in my kitchen window). Other gifts: bath fizz/bubbles, a yummy cranberry candle, 2 fancy journals, melamine plates/cups and matching napkin holders, Target giftcard, bath scrubby-thingy and a bottle of merlot. Oh, and my mother-in-law dropped by earlier in the day with a dozen red roses for me. Her late mother and I share the same birthday, February 20th.
Talk about a happy birthday. I felt pretty special. Sure wish we could do that more often.

Pretty Baby Things

2009-02-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

(vintage smocked dress hand-me-down. the decoration is little pink hens)

In the middle of reorganizing some of the girls' things, I noticed Maxine has a terrible habit of growing out of fancy baby accessories before having a chance to wear them. Maybe, if there is no occasion to wear fancy things, the occasion should simply be a photoshoot? I'll have to remember that from now on. We've been given so many nice gifts and hand-me-downs, I feel they deserve a little archiving, at least. Here, I have taken some photos of special things Maxine will never or may never wear. (leather boots, a hand-me-down from a friend who got them as a gift from actress Abigail Breslin)(another vintage smocked dress from a friend. still with tags) (suede moccasins from a thoughtful Starbucks customer)These little red numbers are actually Raquel's first Christmas shoes. I bought them second-hand on ebay when she was 4 months old especially for Christmas. I have always loved them. Maxine wore them in the mall Santa picture but they were a little too big for her at the time. They are special and I will never get rid of them. I considered bronzing them but I decided bronzing is just for boring old white baby shoes, not pretty bright red ones.

Well, these are only a small part of our stash of fancy baby things. Maybe some day I will find a way to display them on the walls in the girls' room.

Jam and Another Bracelet

2009-02-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

In a recent post I mentioned that Grandma gave me several different items and mementos when we visited over the weekend. One gift was this jar of her homemade boysenberry jam. With it, I made a sandwich for Raquel that looked so good I almost took a giant bite but I decided to behave and wait until my cheat day on Saturday to try it. I LOVE getting jam from Grandma! I'm glad she makes it so often and always has a huge stash of several flavors in her guest bedroom cupboard.

Grandma also had found the charm bracelet she wants to hand down to Maxine as a high school graduation present. I get to hold onto it for 17 more years, theoretically. It is smaller than the WWII charm bracelet she handed down to Raquel but it is still very interesting and charming. This piece was a birthday gift to her in 1973, I think from my grandpa. She'll let me know if I'm right after she sees this post. In the pictures you will see a cuckoo clock charm--its doors open when you pull the little finials. And I believe the little girl charm is by Holly Hobbie.This typewriter charm is really cute and the one that looks like a spoon is actually a banjo. My grandma is somewhat of a musician and has played many different instruments over the years. The coolest one she knows how to play? The accordion! She used to own one but I'm not sure she still has it. I better not forget to mention Grandpa also plays music. He still plays the banjo if you ask him to! I have seen pictures of my grandparents' old bluegrass band. They were wearing red checked shirts, all matching. I wish I had a picture to show you. I have gone off subject though!As you can see I will use any excuse to be a shutterbug and a Bloggy McBloggerton, ha!

Teency Weency Turlets!

2009-02-18T11:22:00.000-08:00

We woke up extra early today to take Raquel to her first day of pre-school. I was more nervous than her for sure. She was just plain excited, kinda like a bull in the pen right before they open the gate and he busts out and starts bucking like crazy.I had spoken to the teacher yesterday about what to expect today. She said that a lot of kids cry when their parents drop them off the first time. I told her I was pretty sure Raquel would run away from us when we got there because she is so excited to go to school. Turns out I was spot on. Right when we got there, Raquel flocked to the other kids and the assistant teacher and immediately began participating in classroom activites while Jose and I sat down with the teacher to talk about everything. I watched her from where I was sitting (in one of those tiny chairs) and marveled at how she looked like she'd been there forever. The teacher invited me to inspect the in-class bathroom. Everything was tiny! I got a real kick out of that.My sis in law works in the office at the school. She escorted us to the classroom and said she, too, was nervous and excited! She stayed with us and took several pictures which I am SO thankful for as I wasn't sure I was allowed to photograph anything. She got some great shots.When Jose and I were done with the teacher, we tried to say goodbye to Raquel but she only barely turned her head to say, "Bye!" really fast, couldn't care less that we were even there! I'm SO glad she wasn't like me when my mom dropped me off the first day of school. I was hysterical to say the least.

Here she is about to leave for school, carrying her breakfast to eat in the car. It's an 18-minute drive to school. From tomorrow-on her grandma and aunt Rosy will be driving her to school (since Rosy works at the same school) and I will pick her up.

Here is Aunt Rosy escorting Raquel to her class.Assistant teacher introducing Raquel to her classmates.Jose and I talking with the teacher.Sitting in the front row.When I picked her up after school, Raquel didn't have much to say except that she did not get to play on the computer in class and she didn't remember her teacher's name or what she learned today. She was pretty quiet on the drive home. I guess she had a big day and needs time to think about it.

Ten C's

2009-02-17T15:40:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by Hektiklyfe to play this game...Post 10 things you love/like/enjoy that start with the letter "C" and tag ten people. :) Simple....or is it? Hektiklyfe did ten things with the letter "B" so I decided to do the letter "C". Whoever I tag should probably do the letter "D". I'm only going to tag one person......Samantha!
1. crayons
2. coupons
3. Cheez-itz
4. character
5. coffee
6. comedy
7. California
8. Christmas
9. (The) Carpenters
10. chocolate cake

That wasn't easy. I think I have too many edibles on my list. Your turn, Samantha.

Fridge Detail

2009-02-17T13:50:00.000-08:00

Cleaning the refrigerator used to be a tedious job. Uneaten leftovers and wasted produce were a big problem. Now that I cook almost every meal at home, using up all of our groceries and eating up all the leftovers, my fridge is so easy to clean! If you never looked at the shelf surfaces, you'd think it was a nice tidy fridge. But I know there is a sticky layer of dried on food leaks and with that, tons of germs. I forgot to take a before picture of the scum but you know what I mean.

We bought this fridge three years ago and have really liked it. I never had a complaint until today...

That gunk you see is not quite get-able. The plastic frame of this glass shelf is one solid piece. I don't see how anyone can get the glass out to clean the nasty bacteria hanging out in there. So, armed with a paper towel, I kept jiggling, wiping, squeezing and obsessing over this trapped dirt and eventually coaxed some of it out.

Maxine sat in her high chair playing with Tupperware while I worked. I finished and had a snack. She played with those little containers for a long time! Her real toys are getting dull, I suppose. And now I have a really pretty fridge.

A Birthday Dinner for Grandma

2009-02-14T21:12:00.000-08:00

Grandma Emma turned 85 on February 12th. If her brother Bubs was still alive, he'd be 85, too--they were twins.

Grandma, ready to dig into her Super Nachos.

My dad took us all out for an early dinner today at El Tecolote, a little Mexican restaurant right off the 101 freeway in Camarillo. Celebrating special occasions here is a tradition in my family that dates back to the 1960s when Combo #1 only set you back 75 cents. It isn't fancy by any means but it has been there a long time and holds many happy memories for my whole family.

My dinner: Combo #2: ground beef taco, cheese enchilada, chili relleno. I eated it all gone.

Dad, Debbie and I had Cadillac Margaritas and Grandpa had a Dos Equis.Grandpa had his usual Combo #1 and ate the entire thing. I've never seen him do that!Dinner delivery system: (also notice the salsa dispenser)Maxine woke up when we finished eating. She was scared of everyone, not just Grandma.

It was a long drive and Maxine slept the entire time and didn't wake up until we finished dinner. That was nice for me! Then we all went to Grandma's house to drink coffee and eat cookies and cake. Grandma had a bunch of things ready to donate to the Salvation Army but she let me pick stuff out that I wanted. I took home several LPs, some dishes and a Roomba that just needs batteries--I've been wanting one of those! She gave me another old charm bracelet to gift to Maxine when she graduates high school. She also gave my dad a handmade crib coverlet that was made by her grandmother when she was pregnant with my dad. Grandma has kept so many nice and interesting mementos.

Thanks for hauling us girls in your truck, Dad, and thank you Grandma for letting us celebrate your birthday with you in such a fun way!

Maxine's Montage

2009-02-13T22:28:00.000-08:00

This is a video I made for Jose. He really likes John Lennon and he gets really sentimental about being a dad. Hopefully this double whammy will bring a little tear to his eye. I also posted it up on youtube where all my other videos are available, http://www.youtube.com/user/pepeYjuana

Almost Crawling

2009-02-09T12:02:00.000-08:00

Before Maxine's six-month physical exam last week, I was worried there might be something wrong with her, developmentally, because she wasn't sitting on her own or trying to crawl. All the baby literature I have was telling me she should be doing these things, or at least the sitting part. Our doctor said she's totally fine. And even though it doesn't matter how fast Raquel was at most things, it is normal for us as parents to compare the girls to each other.

The pre-cursor to crawling is usually the "Bucking Bronco". A baby will get on all fours and just bounce without going anywhere, so I've read. Turns out this is true for Maxine. When she got her energy back after being sick she started doing the Bucking Bronco. I was happy to see this and it was so cute to watch!

This morning she looks like she's starting to crawl! This is happening quicker than I thought it would. She starts by putting her palms on the floor with her fingers kinda pointing in towards each hand. This is a brand new development, as before she would only make fists. Then she pulls her body forward with her arms, bends one of her legs and tries to get on her knee, trying to lift herself and move. I'm sitting here watching her do this and cheering her on! I'm so glad my baby has muscles!

Speaking of comparing the girls, Raquel had the strength to crawl but chose not to at this age. I have a picture of her doing the Spider pose at 6 months old but she did not use this as her form of transportation. Instead, she would get herself to a piece of furniture, pull up and cruise (standing up and walking while holding onto furniture). She didn't choose to crawl until shortly before she started to walk. I think she didn't like the feeling of carpet or hard floors on her knees.
When Raquel was still a baby, Jose and I used to hypothesize about our next child. We have always said, "Our next kid is going to have to work hard at things while Raquel will be a natural at everything without much effort." We mean in life, not just in babyhood.

Germs

2009-02-05T21:31:00.000-08:00

When Maxine was at the worst point of her cold she was like one of those rotating sprinkler heads you connect to your hose and let water your lawn. She would bury her snot/eye booger-encrusted face in my shoulder/collar area and cause me to have to change my shirt three times in one day. I have been washing things like crazy around here trying to keep Raquel and Jose from getting sick. It's too late for me. However, just as I was going to buy some Zucol from the drug store I opened a package I got in the mail from Grandma Emma. In it was a package of Zicam! She knew about Maxine's illness and she had an extra package so she gave it to me. She knew I needed it!

Maxine is back to her old self today. She's not 100% well but she's acting like she feels really good. Something about her cold made her not want to eat baby food. I have wasted a lot of it trying to feed her and all she does is gag and heave. She used to enjoy it. I'm gonna wait a couple of days before I try again.

Here are some cute pictures of the girls when I was getting them both ready for night-night.

Maxine's Second Tooth

2009-02-04T15:12:00.000-08:00

Just before Jose left for work, Maxine fell asleep in my arms to the tune of The Macarena, her new favorite melody (and rhythmic bouncing) that makes her fall asleep. She had her mouth wide open and I saw her teeth. Jose took this picture so we could show everyone. I have read that teeth usually come in fours and I should expect the top two in the next couple months.

She also had her 6-month exam today but did not get her shots because of the fevers she's been having. She will get them next week. She weighed 14.8lbs today, surely due to her lack of appetite from being so sick. The doctor wasn't concerned with her cold but did give us a prescription for eye drops.

*****

Raquel won some money in the football pool for Super Bowl Sunday so on Monday I took her shopping for clothes and a new pair of shoes. We spent $20 on clothes, which included a new jacket, a denim dress and several tops from the Salvation Army Thrift Store on Del Mar in Pasadena. Then we went to Payless and she got some new pink and white velcro tennies. The shoes with laces were a lot cuter but I like her to be able to put shoes on by herself and she can't tie laces yet. I was surprised that the 9.5 size fit her already, as at Christmas time she was still an 8.5!

Thanks for reading. And pray for lots of rain so we don't have to turn on the expensive sprinklers!

Introducing Guapo!

2009-02-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

Guapo is my sister-in-law Rosy's new puppy. Isn't he gorgeous? She has had him for not even two weeks yet. He is considered our puppy, too. Jose has been going there at lunch time to let Guapo out to eat and make poops since Rosy is at work during the day. Guapo already adores Jose. And since Raquel usually accompanies him, she is getting acquainted with her new cousin and doesn't get scared when he wants to play with her. Today, we all went over to see Guapo and to get Maxine out of the house into some fresh air and warm sunshine--she's been really sick with a head cold since Sunday.

Anyways, Rosy has a system down for training dogs and we follow it when we go to take care of him at lunch time. You don't pet him until he eats and you have to pet him while he eats and praise him. This is to prevent him from being aggressive when he eats because he is a male. Then, after he eats, you tap his water bowl to get him to drink water. Then you let him run around and poop and every time he poops you praise him. He is, I think, 8 weeks old and already you can see how smart he is.

Poor Maxine...She's been getting low-grade fevers off and on for 5 days now. Then on Super Bowl Sunday she came down with a terribly snotty cold and cough. Last night, her eyes started oozing greenish boogers and today, the eye booger situation is out of control. She will see her doctor first thing tomorrow morning. I believe the fevers are somehow caused by her teething but you never know--some books say babies get fevers when teething, some books say they don't. I, for one, believe painful teething and fevers are hand-in-hand. She has two teeth on the lower jaw now. This is the only "milestone" that she has achieved before her cousin Ricky, who is doing so many mature things for his age (12 days older than Maxine).

January's Best Pics

2009-02-01T10:18:00.000-08:00

Can you see how grown-up Raquel looks suddenly? I can.

Maxine's First Tooth

2009-01-31T14:54:00.000-08:00

(1st time in high chair and 1st taste of egg yolk)

Wednesday morning Maxine woke up and dry-heaved. I immediately started her on Pedialyte and no formula. She developed a low fever that lasted through the night but never vomitted again. I'm puzzled as to why she vomitted in the first place. She was due for immunizations but we had to postpone that 'til next week because they don't give shots to sick babies. I'm anxious to speak to the doctor about Maxine's seemingly slow development.

Maxine's painful teething process has finally produced a tooth. It's on the bottom left. The one next to it is about to pop up, too! Here is a face she makes when her mouth is bothering her:

Teething seems to happen at night. She gets pretty upset and won't go to sleep until after 11pm. It gets pretty monotonous trying to comfort her and my arm gets pretty tired. Here she is looking sleepy but fighting sleep:

If she lets me, I will get a picture of the tooth and update this post when I do. She doesn't like me looking around in her mouth.

New in My Kitchen: Fennel

2009-01-29T18:43:00.000-08:00

Weight Watchers has been the way I'm living since about 5 months ago. As such, Raquel eats a lot of what I eat plus other stuff that she loves. She is being exposed to some semi-sophisticated ingredients while also enjoying her macaroni and cheese in the blue box. For the most part, she likes what I cook.

My diet consists of foods from a specific list which excludes added-sugar, bread and alcohol. It forces me to try new things and try to present the same-old-same-old in new ways. Avoiding boredom is super important to sticking to this lifestyle. The newest item in my fridge is fennel or anise (not sure why it has two names). I think it's pretty. If celery and onion were to have a baby, this is what it would look and feel like but the taste is completely in a class of its own. Tastes like black licorice with a refreshing hint of citrus. When the oranges in my yard are ripe I'm going to prepare them together, maybe in a salad. But for now, I sautee or roast the fennel with carrots, salt and pepper. You should try it!

Since I gained a little weight last week, this week I'm making up for it, cooking strictly healthy foods for myself and whoever else feels like eating what I cook. I consider this week a big success in regards to losing weight and being a creative cook.

Homemade sushi is really fun to make and it's pretty simple. I make up my own recipe and put whatever I happen to have in the fridge inside the roll. I use brown rice, which isn't as tasty as sticky white rice *drool* and it also makes it more difficult to cut clean slice as the rice kinda falls out a bit but it's still managable. Nori is a staple in my fridge. It is easy to find at a regular grocery store in the Asian foods section. No need to locate a specialty store. Raquel loves it when I make sushi. Although I love to eat sashimi at Japanese restaurants I do not use raw ingredients in my homemade sushi as I have not found a trustworthy source yet.

My favorite vegetable is brussel sprouts. I was buying them frozen and cooking them in the microwave but have recently discovered how delicious they are when bought fresh and sauteed with fresh garlic, salt and nutmeg. The nutmeg really brings out their spiciness--something you don't taste in the frozen variety. Raquel likes them, too!
*****
My strategies for eating healthy...

Prepare a big pot of brown rice in the morning. Zap portions in the microwave for meals the next 2 days.

Buy only whole grain pasta if you want pasta. Don't buy "multi-grain" because that does not necessarily mean whole grain. My favorite brand is Heartland.

If you like ground beef (burgers, tacos, meatloaf) make sure it has no more than 7% fat.

Buy frozen veggies when they're on sale. Stock up. You can keep them a long time while you figure out how best to prepare them and make them flavorful.

Pretend sandwiches don't exist. (no bread, no deli meat)

Search the internet for recipes first, then go get your ingredients at the store.

Be aware of expiration dates on fresh meat and store them in the fridge accordingly (stuff you should eat within the next day or so should be right in front while stuff that can wait 6 days should be towards the back)

Nonfat sour cream isn't half bad. Try it on a baked potato with I Can't Believe Its Not Butter Spray.

Stock up on frozen fruit when it is on sale. You can use it in so many ways: mixed in oatmeal (the heat makes them soft), homemade fat-free parfaits, homemade smoothies.

Dennisons Turkey Chili is delicious and it is on sale for $1/can at Vons right now. I melt a slice of fat-free cheese on top of it.

Eat eggs. Figure out ways to make them different every time you eat them.

When you're hungry at night before bed time, drink a big glass of nonfat milk.

I could keep going! If this post bored you, sorry :)

My Baby is the Big 6!

2009-01-25T16:29:00.001-08:00

Guess who's 6 months old today! She has the tiniest tip of a tooth coming in on top. I felt it. I have been liquidating the 3-6 month clothing from her dresser drawers, packing them away for someone else who might need them. So many of our friends have given birth in the past couple of months or are still due within the next few months so I'm sure there will be someone who would like some nice pre-owned baby girl clothes (and gender-neutral ones, too).

*****

I recently started doing some of my grocery shopping at Target. I use coupons from the Sunday newspapers, too. The deals are great but I was told I'm missing out on "Super Target" which houses its own deli, produce and bakery sections. Unfortunately, the nearest Super Target is in Palmdale, which, if the San Gabriel Mountains were not in the way, wouldn't be as distant. Palmdale is due-north of Pasadena by about 30 miles the way the crow flies. At our local Target, they have a good frozen foods section and plenty of packaged foods like crackers and cereal but the diet I am on calls for produce and lean meats--not lunch meat, not granola bars, not Hot Pockets. I'm still able to get baby items for cheaper than the supermarkets, which is the main reason I shop there.

In the Sunday L.A. Times today I read a really cool story about thrift store shopping (for clothing). With the recession we're in, thrift stores have seen a jump in customers and sales have risen 25-35% since one year ago. The article listed several shops I wasn't aware of and gave tips on what days to shop and which stores offered the best chances for scoring name brand like-new clothes. I really appreciate articles such as this, especially because this year, for the first time, Raquel's wardrobe will be very important and require a big boost come September when she starts kindergarten *bittersweet tear*. Raquel has had a growth spurt since November. The reason I know is because I bought new clothes for our trip to Virginia and the pants she got are now too short! Awww.

Thanks for reading.

Jose's Day Off

2009-01-18T23:14:00.000-08:00

Yes, Jose actually took an entire day off today. What a nice Sunday it was for us. He made a big pot of coffee, read the paper outside in this perfect weather we've been enjoying for over a week now. Then he kicked back and watched both of the football games he had been so amped up about. And his team won. Go Cards!

Raquel left for Grandma Rosamaria's house shortly before noon and is spending the night there. You have never heard our house so peaceful!

One of the benefits Jose gets for working at Macaroni Grill is a 50% discount at any restaurant his company owns. We went to Chili's for dinner and used his discount. What a difference it makes! We rarely go out to eat anymore so it kinda felt like a special occasion and without Raquel there with us, there was a lot of silent moments, both of us not knowing what exactly to talk about. Pretty pathetic, huh? Maybe not if you know Raquel.

*****

Maxine is going to be 6 months old in a few days. I've been reading about 6-month old babies and what they should/might be able to do, such as sit up and/or say "bababababa...". She isn't strong enough to sit on her own yet so I have started training her by propping her up with my hands or my feet or a pillow. It's hard because she really likes to do this rocking back and forth thing all the time, so when she's seated, she just flies backward (and I catch her). Some babies at this age are beginning to crawl. Maxine just rolls around and ends up moving herself about the floor quite a bit. Sometimes I put my hands on the bottom of her feet so she has something to push off from.

I have pictures of Raquel at this age sitting on her own and standing on the sofa, holding the arm with one hand and her bottle in another. I can't imagine Maxine doing that now! She seems far from it. Of course every baby is unique but I still can't help but feel at fault for Maxine's, uh, lack of strength. Don't get me wrong, I am in no hurry for her to grow up. I love having a snuggly little baby! I love having someone to hold who is so small and quiet and listens to everything I say and loves to hear me sing. I'm telling you, when I sing her to sleep, she is captivated. I just don't want to hold her back from her capabilities.

See my feet holding her up?

The Ugly House

2009-01-15T18:04:00.000-08:00

Jose liked my blog about houses in our neighborhood (yesterday) but he said he would've liked to see more pictures. So I mentioned that I snapped some shots of the ugliest house I've seen in a long time and on his suggestion, I'm going to show you what I'm talking about. I did not get a picture of the front of it. Just as I started to snap away, a family parked in front of the house and I left.

I cannot tell if this is all an add-on or if they tore down the original digs and built a new one from the ground up. Either way, it is grotesque. Weird shape, ugly color, strange jutting-out window on the second floor, no style or sense of direction. Sucks to be in the same vicinity as this structure. I think it's vacant-- there is a bunch of crap outside, like a toilet and old toys. Just my guess. If the owner is reading this, what the heck were you thinking? I feel sorry for the neighbors and their property values.

Okay, on a lighter note, here are Maxine and Raquel playing in the yard. We have been loving this warm weather and spending a lot of time out in it.

Walking by Craftsmans in Pasadena

2009-01-14T17:04:00.000-08:00

Today I was inspired by this blog, a photographic contender in The Craftsman Challenge, to take a walk in my 'hood and try to photograph the Craftsman style houses, or what I think are such. I found it difficult to get a picture without phone lines, cars or trash barrels ruining the image. A lot of homes around here are dilapidated or at least need a good paint job. That doesn't mean they aren't "Craftsmans", it just means the owners are unable to take care of them or they don't realize how great their homes really are on the outside.

This house is on my street. We pass by it a lot on our walks. It looks very homey and pleasant, especially at night.

This house is on Los Robles, a fairly busy street loaded with pretty Victorian and Craftsman style houses. I'm not fond of the color choices here but it's still quite charming. There is no way to get a clear picture of it.

Now, to my untrained eye, this is a Craftsman but the more I look at it, the more I doubt my guess is correct. That circular area on the porch there is throwing me off. It, too, is on Los Robles. I like it and I bet the inside is much more interesting.

Actually, my favorite photo from today is the one at the top. I just happened to walk right by this ugly, forgotten, maybe-empty house and these, I don't know, brackets caught my eye. It is details like this that can inspire a whole new life for a dumpy old house in need of major TLC. Like a jumping-off point.

History in a Family Heirloom

2009-01-13T09:57:00.000-08:00

My Grandma Emma has been "liquidating" her Earthly belongings for at least a decade now. She is going to be 85 years old in February. My grandparents have lived in the same house for nearly 60 years and were lucky enough to hold onto keepsakes and certain other items from long ago. Grandma's goal is to simplify her life by getting rid of things she has no use for. To clarify, her house is not cluttered--she has a shed, a garage, and a few closets worth of stuff and memories--her house is neatly kept.
Grandma's only sister, Eva Laura, passed away a few months ago, just before her 99th birthday. Until a few months before her passing she was an active person, unlike most 98 year olds! She traveled, gambled, went out with friends and was always making her own little crafty creations, like dolls and potholders.
Grandma's mother, Lena Looney, was alive during my lifetime. I'm told Grandma Looney adored me. I do remember her wanting my attention when I would pass her sitting in her rocking chair or her bedroom. My closest sibling, Susan, did not like her, was afraid of her as a matter of fact. She called her "The Witch". Grandma Emma has told us that Grandma Looney was not fond of Susan either. I do not know why. What could someone have against a 3-year-old girl? Anywho, I believe Grandma Looney died at the age of 98, on her own terms. That's another story.
My point is I think Grandma Emma has a lot of years left. I think she thinks so, too. She doesn't want to be bogged down with a bunch of belongings and prefers to take care of that business right now while she is able. She's been handing down a variety of items to her three sons and myself and probably others, too. I remember being a teenager and Grandma telling us grandkids to go around and put dibs on any of her household things that we wanted to inherit. We all thought it was morbid of her to talk like that. But eventually we realized she was serious and we ought to start staking claims now before someone else took what we wanted. Susan chose my grandma's beautiful old art deco vanity, one of those that has a big huge circular mirror and a cute little matching seat. It looks to be in pristine condition.
Some of Grandma's hand-me-downs have already been given to us. I've received several of them. The most recent one is the subject of this post: My grandma's charm bracelet. This dates back to the beginning of WWII, when Grandma graduated high school, the beginning of the "Golden Age of charm bracelets" which lasted until 1960 when the fad fell out of fashion. There are 21 sterling silver charms on the bracelet, each one a gift from her aunts, uncles, friends, parents, etc. I think they were graduation presents. She said each charm sold for between $5 and $25 back in those days, which was a sacrifice for anyone during those times. Each charm had special meaning. Almost every charm is inscribed or engraved with the name of the person who gave it to her. Those left blank, Grandma has no recollection of the gifter. She typed an entire page describing each charm, who gave it or why it was given. I have photographed my favorites, the most unique.
The flag charm was a gift from a Colonel Caphton (pronounced Capeton). The Colonel's wife lived in a big house up the street from my Grandma and she would stay with this woman while her husband was away during the War so she wouldn't have to be alone. I like that story.

I just think this one is the prettiest. It's a flower on a platform of mother of pearl. None of the other hearts are anything like it.

There is a charm in the first photo that was replicated from Grandma's high school class ring. She grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. I would love to visit there some day. Maybe on my "dream-roadtrip"! And maybe Grandma would go with me. We've only been talking about doing that for, I don't know, 20 years now. Ha!

Included with the bracelet were four other unattached charms/pendants. One from "Daddy" her dad, one from a "Harvey" she doesn't remember, one that looks like a four-leaf clover with Catholic Saints on each petal and one photo pendant with a picture of me and Susan when we were very little. Grandma's wish is that Raquel gets this charm bracelet when she graduates high school 13 years from now (gosh, that doesn't sound very far away). She has another bracelet that is meant for Maxine but I haven't seen it yet. I really appreciate knowing my family history and especially having meaningful items from the past that show what kind of family my girls and I came from. Thank you Grandma! Love you much!

Short Nature Hike

2009-01-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

This afternoon Jose had an appointment that got cancelled, so we packed some snacks and went to the Eaton Canyon Natural Area Park. I got the idea from this blog I recently started following. While we live here, I'd like to start taking advantage of all the natural attractions that surround us. Being that we live nearly at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and not far from Griffith Park there is presumably much to see.

I'm not happy with some of the landscape shots I took. It seems I had the flash on when I shouldn't have. But here are my favorites. There was no water at all in the wash (creek). And the birds in the tree are Woodpeckers, busy pecking (so cute)! Raquel was actin' stank. Look at her face.

Crisp Night Walk

2009-01-08T11:48:00.000-08:00

We expected it to be cold outside for our evening walk through the neighborhood but it was actually pleasantly chilly. The walk was a long one and everyone we passed said 'good evening' or 'happy new year'. Some kids told us of a dog named Maxine just a few houses up the street from ours. But we didn't see the dog outside when we passed.This is the sign on our block. I don't know what it means yet. But I do know we live in a ghetto area. There is a half-way house very nearby where Scott Weiland has stayed in the past. And the elementary school that Raquel is supposed to attend this Fall is the worst one in the district and is in the Accelerated Schools program which I am learning about. I think it is for kids who live in not-so-good 'hoods, whose parents might be addicts or in jail or for kids who live in broken homes, kids who need extra attention at school because their homelife isn't nurturing. We are`applying to other schools.

Sunny Day In January

2009-01-07T16:09:00.000-08:00

The girls and I went on a walk yesterday in our neighborhood. We are relatively deep into this neighborhood and it would be a long walk to reach any retail establishment or place to grab a refreshment. So on our walk we just talked about the trees and flowers we saw and Raquel learned to be careful when approaching a blind corner, one where she might meet a dog who barks at the sight of her. It usually just takes one time for her to get frightened about something.

Maxine was in the Bjorn (the best front-loading hands-free baby carrier). That's why she isn't in any of these photos.

Raquel wanted to touch this big Oak. She said, "It's so soft, like one of my blankets." Maybe she just wanted to give it a compliment.

Our street is lined with these Oaks. They are protected by the City of Pasadena. The street just north of ours' is called Flower and it is lined with Palms, I think the Washington variety. It amazes me how the trunk is so straight and narrow, yet the trees are about a hundred feet tall, give or take.

I feel funny taking pictures of peoples' houses but sometimes I try to be sly and sneak a shot. I am afraid of upsetting anyone in their house who might see me. We have so many quaint century-old houses I'd love to take pictures of. We just found out our house, which I thought was built in the 1920s, was actually built in 1905!

We passed a tree that had dropped a bunch of these weird fruits on the ground. They're really pretty, covered in tiny dull spikes. Raquel picked one up and took it on a walk with us.

There was this one Oak with a root system that was very above ground. It looked kinda neat.

Then we came home and swung in our backyard.

Not much else going on except cleaning up all the Christmas crap and WAITING for my sister and friends to give BIRTH!

Nothing Special NYE

2008-12-31T23:09:00.000-08:00

(a doll Raquel got for Christmas from Grandma Debbie)

Jose and I didn't want to have to hunt for a babysitter for tonight so he picked up a shift and I'm home with the girls who are in bed now. Luckily, SciFi is showing a Twilight Zone Marathon and my little brother brought me a Diet Coke before he went out to party. Easy to please, yes, but I'd be ecstatic if I were wearing a cute old dress with a tiny waist, out on the town with my husband.

Just for fun I took pictures of some old things I own and wanted to show you.

Here is an old album I got at a thrift store. Pasadena has a Salvation Army thrift store that has a very large selection of records. I haven't added to my vinyl collection in several months but I'm thinking I should go the next time they have their end-of-the-month blow out sale.

This is an old piece of linen from the 1920s I bought at an antique store in Topanga Canyon. Raquel and I went with my buddy Jeff. I remember the road was extremely windy (pronounced "wine-d") and I thought, "this place better be worth all this nausea I'm feeling." Well it was. The stuff they had was so neato, I thought I was in a museum. This fabric is probably a table cloth. I haven't figured out how to display it yet.
Here is something I didn't buy. When my maternal grandmother passed away in February of 1998, she had a mobile home (a very nice one) full of her belongings. We had her funeral reception in her home and our parents said each grandchild could choose one item from Grandmama's house to keep as sort of memorabilia. Well, I chose this Fisher Price toy camera. It had been in her house since I could remember and I'd played with it a billion times. Come to find out it had belonged to my Uncle Michael who has autism and retardation. He's lived in a hospital for the mentally ill his entire adult life.This book is part of my Little Golden Book collection. It's my oldest one and it is in almost mint condition except I cracked it open to look at the pictures. I was the first one to read it since it was born in 19-fifty-something.It's about to be 2009 so I better publish this now so I can celebrate with the people on tv!

Memories Aren't Just Dreams

2008-12-31T17:22:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen old films of yourself as a toddler or even as a newborn? Well, for Christmas I received a dvd created by my dad that was made up of 30-year-old footage from his old Super 8 camera. I guess the technology to transfer film to dvd has become more common since my days in film class in college. The good thing is that the films have not lost their beautiful, gritty graininess, a trait of old home movies that video could only hope to replicate.

The first part of the movie is of Christmas time 1977, when my mom was very young and very pregnant with me. My late Grandma Betty (known as Grandmama to her grandkids) was decorating a Christmas tree with my mom and dad. My dad was making goofy faces, something he has always done. They didn't have a tripod so the camera got passed between Mom and Dad so everyone got a chance to be on film. There is also footage of my parents shoveling snow into their little blue pick-up on the side of a road, some place where it had snowed a lot. And then it goes to my dad's parents' house, where the Christmas tree, complete with running train and wind-up monkey crashing cymbals, was decorated to the hilt and the room overflowed with presents wrapped in oldtime-y paper, lustrous ribbons and festive bells.

Watching my newborn self flail my lanky arms about was surreal. I wondered what I was thinking. Being that I was the first born of my dad's three kids, little me is in the rest of the movie, growing up, getting a little sister and then a little brother. The movie stops when I am about 3 years old.

Thanks, Dad, for the most thoughtful gift I've ever received! I am treasuring it.

Christmas Dinner at Dad's

2008-12-27T15:03:00.000-08:00

My dad lives about 45 minutes away from us but it took at least twice that long to get there on Christmas afternoon. Rain was pouring and the 210 freeway wasn't flowing faster than 20 mph. Seems to me traffic was much heavier than usual for Christmas Day.

We were so happy to get to Dad's house. It was FREEZING there and windy, making it rain sideways! Maxine slept for the entire trip and was happy to be the center of attention when we got inside. Both of my dad's brothers were there, making it a rare occasion, especially appreciated by Grandpa Charles who, at certain moments, seemed overcome with pure joy. He gets like that sometimes.

Dad made a beautiful prime rib roast. Everyone brought a little something to share at dinner. The food was so good, better than most in recent memory. Dad opened up a $60 bottle of Cab. Don't remember the name but its the best wine I've ever had.

Uncle Mark ate a giant spoonful of some super hot homemade thai sauce from the next door neighbor's garden of peppers and Uncle Jim suggested he drink whiskey to cool himself down. Yadda yadda yadda, a huge bottle of Jack Daniels appeared at the table and Uncle Jim had himself some. Grandpa, the nondrinker he is, couldn't resist being a part of the fun and decided he'd try some. It was pretty funny. None of us had ever seen him do that before. I got it on video for you to watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6IDTFZDdqQ&feature=channel

For the rest of the evening we sat around talking, eating pie and cake, drinking coffee, watching classic Christmas movies, playing with Raquel and gratefully absorbing the happy feeling evident in every space between us.

hatching a patch

More Photos for Grandmama

Here You Go, Grandmama

I'm Still an A Student

My Maxine in Shoes

Incited by The Short-Sighted

Had a Birthday, Got a Job...

Change of Taste

Weather-Induced Cabin Fever

Dude! : A School Update

Christmas Pictures. Enjoy!

Longing for a Traditional Christmas

Christmas Potluck Last Night

Joyfulness

The Holidays are Very Different This Year

Good Griddlecakes Recipe

The Short of Our Day

Friday's Fail

Raquel's Halloween Costume

It's Been So Long!

Saturday Doings

My Wreef

Great-grandbabies Round-up!

Horror: My Little Pony 2009

School Lunch Dilemma

Daddy Bento #3

So Proud of Our Raquel

What I Did With Quail Eggs

Cooking For Kindergarten

Today's "Daddy Bento"

Baking in This Heat?!

Up In Smoke, Off To The Beach

Pictures of "The Station Fire" *UPDATED*

Mommy, Can I Have...?

Maxine's New *Trick*

New Red Wagon

Our Baby at 12 Months

A Night at Dodger Stadium

Onion Breath

My Schoolin'!

Poolside at Dad's

The Birthday Bash

We Walked in Two Districts

Updates Grab Bag

Backpacks Are Unfashionable

Shoreline Village, Long Beach, CA

Sudden Improvement!

Maxine: 10 Months + 1 Week

With Food Out of the Way...

I Love Taking Pictures

Good Food and The Museum

Maxine Refuses the Spoon

At the Park

Maxine is Mobile/Jenny's Baby Shower

Raquel's Flag Salute

Easter

Raquel's Mini Makeover

Cherimoya

Yes, That's a Broken Bone

Spring Walk

One of My Hobbies

Nice Day for Sunny Portraits

Back in Action

*Handsomely Homemade Handout*

Sorry, Mom!

Maxine's New Skills

Schoolio!

Maxine's Eating A Lot

My First Homemade Baby Food

In Between Drizzles

Maki & Stuff for Lunch

No More Daily Pizza

Relishing the Warmth

How to Melt Your Mother

Not So Sure About School Lunch

A Gifted Weekend

Pretty Baby Things

Jam and Another Bracelet

Teency Weency Turlets!

Ten C's

Pictures of "The Station Fire" UPDATED

Maxine's New Trick

Handsomely Homemade Handout