day 76 blog 63 missy's baby

manuel's sister had her baby yesterday. she is making us come visit to find out whether she had a boy or girl. needless to say i just got back from my mom's and haven't packed/done laundry etc. plus will be trying to finish sewing a banana costume on my drive up so i will update in a few days...

day 75 blog 62 more to do

so we leave U2 and the cool photo with bono and i can see why back in the day when i didn't have blogging goals i would just leave the last post i liked for a long time...way too long...like, i somehow thought if i left it there more people would find it and keep coming back for more...only the irony is when they came back that same post was all they got and i'm sure i lost readers this way. not that i keep track. i still don't know how to do that...kinda like i don't want to know my IQ...would rather just THINK i'm brilliant than know either way...anyway, i really am mostly blogging for myself and my family and friends to keep up with my current life and to someday look back at and read a photojournalistic version of our life together...but now that i'm "following" several bloggers, i'm starting to get a little more in to the blogging community. this brings with it a lot of interesting posts to read as well as a sense of responsibility to not only keep up with (and record) my own life but several others as well...i'm not complaining, i choose this and enjoy little snippets of others' lives...just sometimes i have trouble striking the balance (an ongoing theme with me you may notice) between LIVING life, writing about it, keeping connected to others, giving back to others, putting my priorities in the right places and not only knowing what i value but living consistently with that knowledge (oh no, back to my thesis...sorry, i can't go down this tangent anymore...)...this also goes back to manuel's "pie" theory which someday i'll try to better articulate...basically he once told me that he thinks everyone's life is conceptually like a pie...the more you put in it, the less each piece gets of you...so i try to choose my slices carefully and give them the attention they deserve...

this post was supposed to be a free association about all the balls i have in the air and how i'm visiting my mom and sister so i don't have photos like i usually like to (remember, i have like 56000 photos on my mac so i have a LOT to choose from for any given post)...but those topics seem so mundane and really i want to write about something more meaningful. but it is late and i stayed up reading friends' blogs and one of them was about taking care of yourself and getting more rest so i'm also feeling guilty that i'm choosing "catching up on my blog" over my health which will affect other areas sooner rather than later...but i drank too much chai driving here and i'm wide awake...story crying...more later...

day 74 blog 61 U2 and the history of us

our family (mommy, daddy, sea age 4 and story age 1.5) went to the U2 concert last night at the rose bowl in pasadena. this was story's first concert and sea's second (we took her to see keene when she was just a few months old). there were something like 100 thousand people there and it was broadcast live on youtube (haven't checked it out yet)...definitely an experience...i felt like i was part of something bigger...bono is good about connecting, bringing people together for bigger causes...and they put on quite a show, too...i wanted to post about u2 not only because it was a totally spontaneous decision (we looked for tickets online at 4 p.m. yesterday and were in the car driving to los angeles before 5...there by 7:30ish) but because u2 is probably the most influential and memorable band in the "history of us" and even for myself...

they were my favorite band back starting high school...87ish and manuel was also a huge fan...even made it to the joshua tree tour...i went to the zoo tv concert my second year in college...somewhere in northern california 1992...popmart tour, again, somewhere up north in 1997...

then manuel and i were newly dating (with or without you was "our song"...we would sing it together and then pretended the two guitars playing off each other at the end of the song were us singing to one another...together, in harmony...the song is playing extra loud right now while i type and it still chokes me up...) and we were traveling in europe summer 1997 and realized we could catch them again...so we worked out our itinerary to pass through leipzig, germany, and scalp tickets...difficult speaking little german but we got into the show and then were walking back to the eurorail late at night and we saw a group of kids out in front of a hotel...lots of excitement, signs...sure enough, the band pulled up and got out right in front of us...we were some of the only ones speaking english so we got to talk with the band for awhile...a little 15 year old girl in front of me said something to bono like "i met you last year, remember? we were talking about ..." and instead of making her feel stupid for asking that question he validated her and although didn't say he remembered her, he agreed that he liked the poet she was referring to...he was very down to earth and made you feel like you were old friends...i couldn't believe with all the fans he has all over the world that he would take so much one-on-one time and personally connect with so many...so these photos (me with bono and manuel with adam clayton) are from that europe meeting 12 years ago...
we saw u2 again in 2001 for their elevation tour...thought about inviting them to our wedding in 2003 (not narcissistic enough to think they would come, but just felt like they had been so influential to both of us growing up and in our history together that we felt we "should")...and then the last time we saw them was in april 2005 for the vertigo tour...i was 6 months pregnant with sea so hopefully she was even influenced by them in utero...

i could do several posts on their lyrics and times in my life that they have influenced me but for now i just wanted to say thank you...

day 72 blog 60 road trip cont'd: sacramento sept 26-28

so i've been putting off the next leg of my road trip documentation (arrival in sacramento) as i was hoping i could talk my sister-in-law (seen here with her husband, sea and story) into letting me post some adorable belly shots...story poking her belly, sea lifting her shirt and looking at her belly button at the same time (i am so sad i never got that shot of my own belly when i was pregnant with her brother)...but she didn't feel comfortable with them up here and i am respecting that decision...just moping around a little bit about it...
this one was the closest i could come...story's head was blocking my SIL's belly but sea is proudly showing off her's...we arrived in sacramento saturday night, sept 26, about 10 hours after leaving san diego...stopped to pick up a friend, stopped at anderson's split pea soup, stopped for too many potty breaks, coffee, you name it extra 2 hours from what it should have taken...but we arrived in time to make music/share music/play music with my in-laws and their friend JD who was gracious enough to let us crash at his house. i SO want to learn how to play the guitar...so here are a few shots of my brother-in-law playing guitar with sea and story...

the next morning, sunday, sept 27, was the shower...here are my SIL and her husband in front of their classic victorian style house (there are a lot of those in sacto) right before she left for her baby shower...she looked radiant, glowing, and so happy....he was gracious enough to babysit sea and story during the shower so we could have a quiet social mommies and ladies only time...i soaked up every second!
i took a lot of photos that day and made her a little baby shower album...since i didn't know most of the people there i will instead document this with one of my favorite things she had (in addition to a full brunch and tiramisu i might add)...CREPES! i LOVE them...chocolate and banana ones and fresh strawberries and whip cream...i had one of each and didn't stop there...i really have no shame when it comes to food that i love...
after the shower i went by ritz camera downtown to select the digital photos to print as my gift to her...i had to take one photo of sea and story with the gorgeous giant trees lining the streets of sacramento...that is one thing i miss about living there...
that night we went out to eat at the old spaghetti factory. manuel and i used to eat there a lot pre-marriage/pre-kids days...i always got the manager's special with half marinara and mushrooms and half mizithra cheese and creamy pesto dressing on my salad, lots of garlic butter on my bread and ending my meal with coffee and spumoni. this night was no exception...here you can see me holding story, my in-laws holding sea and old friends john and becki...
becki is an adoring aunt who smothers sea and story with kisses...
monday, sept 28, i woke up and my SIL was already gone to work but we had breakfast with my brother-in-law...i thought this was a classic shot of story way too small for the chair trying to be all grown up with his feet hanging off...cheerios...we also had yummy granola and blueberries which i love...
close up of my son enjoying breakfast...
around lunchtime we headed out of town...here is the sky line of sacramento with the yellow bridge going over one of the many rivers...i should remember which one? maybe the american river? i'm guessing only because i taught at american river college when i lived there...

day 71 blog 59 "white collar" update: on at 7 in CA

one more classic shot of trav dancing with me in the streets of san francisco (manuel's bday way before we were married)...i'm off to babysit my friend eyke's 3 kids...sea and story are coming so 5 children total...went to record "white collar" and found out it is on at 7 california time so i don't want anyone on the west coast to miss this show. if you missed my previous post...my friend travis is co-writing this show on tonight on USA...

day 70 blog 58 watch our friend trav's show "white collar"

i'll start with the bottom line: WATCH "WHITE COLLAR" on USA network tomorrow night at 10/9 central (Friday, October 23). our dear friend travis (who came up with the concept, and is co-writing the series) is one of the best storytellers i know. he is one of those guys who you can stay up all night with talking about whatever and he is smart, witty, thoughtful, clever, hilarious...i feel like i'm writing in his yearbook and it is too hard to summarize all the great things about him in one post. so i'm excited for him to have a show that i think can showcase his talent...i expect the show to do well for many reasons...trav is a great writer and storyteller which means he will have well developed, meaningful characters and a captivating plot that keeps you thinking and looks at bigger life issues.

quick overview of the show: "White Collar is about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years. Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer), a charming criminal mastermind, is finally caught by his nemesis, FBI Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay.)

When Neal escapes from a maximum-security prison to find his long-lost love, Peter nabs him once again. Rather than returning to jail, Neal suggests an alternate plan: He'll provide his criminal expertise to assist the Feds in catching other elusive criminals in exchange for his eventual freedom. Initially wary, Peter quickly finds that Neal provides insight and intuition that can't be found on the right side of the law." (from USA network's website)

i might add that the main character, neil, played by matt bomer is HOT! but i want to keep the focus of this post on travis...he and manuel (my husband) became friends at monterey bay academy and he has remained one of our best friends since i met him in college. he was in our wedding, there days after sea was born...
he's a guy with a lot of integrity who would do anything for his friends. he's in new york right now shooting the series...on set, interacting with the crew.... manuel is going to go out and visit him next month. i am just SO excited for him i want to post all the links raving about this show...one exciting article for me is an interview in the new york times with his co-writer, jeff, that gives him the credit for coming up with the show. you have to become a member of new york times to read the article but it is free if you do want to read the whole article. i will continue blogging about him and his show once the series begins...do watch the premiere tomorrow and tell me what you think!

day 69 blog 57 halloween coop preschool

i hosted preschool this week...had so many ideas for themes but since i will be at my mom's house again next week i wanted to be sure to fit in a halloween theme...coop started at 11 today (later than usual) and i was much more relaxed not trying to be super-host (last time i was rushing to get pastries, coffee, etc. and frantically cleaning just before everyone arrived). the plan was to start eating potluck brunch to start and then do crafts but people sorta filtered in so we let the kids make these foam pumpkins while we finished cooking/laying out the food...sea was going "ooooh.....oooooh...." like a ghost in this photo...
ruhi and ella both gave me big smiles proud of their work...
after lots of yummy food including home baked apple crisp, brown rice with sesame seeds and indian spices, chick pea/carrot/pea salad, corn on the cob, roasted seaweed, artisan bread with flax seeds served with sliced gouda cheese, fruit, organic french roast french press coffee...i'm forgetting things i'm sure but being a "foody" had to get some of this down...anyway, we went on to craft #2 painting the bodies (cut egg cartons) of our spiders black...story got a little more on the table and himself than on his spider...


the moms helped a lot with crafts including maintenance clean up, punching holes, stuffing pipe cleaners for legs, cutting out fabric for ghosts, stuffing them, tying them...here is a group shot of most of the kids holding up their ghosts...they colored the eyes/mouths...
here they are gluing the googly eyes on their spiders...
here is char helping ruh with a craft...sorry i didn't get the other mommies in my photos!
oh except lisa m's cute orange toe nail polish...love the color violet (her baby's name) skirt, too
(story woke up before i got to finish labeling this post last night so i'm back)...
more spiders and gummy candy (from trader joes...made from fruit juice not corn syrup)...
calvin was the only one who posed with all three crafts...pumpkin (we made necklaces for them to wear around their necks first), spider and ghost...

char stayed late to help clean (i need to intuit when everyone is leaving to remember to initiate singing "clean up" so the children all get in the habit of helping pick up toys)...so ruhi was past her bedtime when she left...

and here is the final product (light was coming through the window so i couldn't stand back to get the whole effect of halloween crafts streaming from each edge of our dining room window)...
close-up of the spider...
close up of the ghost...sea made the ghost smile and added hair in back...
overall it was a fun day!

day 68 blog 56 a morning in my life

i'm posting only this single photo of sea and story loving each other and it is difficult to not search my photo library for examples of a lot of the details i'm about to share...hopefully i spent enough time writing down all the specifics in this "observational study" (12 pages long in the new journal i bought to record all the cute things my children say/do)...

thursday oct 8, 2009 sea 4 story 19 months 7:20 a.m.

sea: "i'm feeling sad in my heart a little bit" (dad leaving for work)
...
"let's paint!" (i actually do get out butcher paper and watercolors and we spend a few minutes making random drawings and splashes that will later be used as gift wrap)
...
"mom, that's a wild good chase!" (not sure the context...heard this in a video, i believe)
...
"...by the time i count to twelve-teen..."(20)
...
"i think daddy is going to be concerned when he sees this scary monster"
...
"brother's throwing balls he's not supposed to...please help!"
...(she begins role playing with her animals...complete with different voices and turning them to talk to each other) "i'm not a monster, i'm your mom!" "i don't want to be scared"
...
"mom, ready to go inside the bathtub? i need to...goggin is really dirty so can i please put them in the bathtub?" (her favorite little stuffed tiger)
(story pushes around the bubble popper)
story: "mombee" (throws, bites, hits out of frustration then climbs on my lap, grabs, bites again...yes i fear he learned these things from sea although she went through a violent spell out of the blue when she was a little older than him)
...
sea: "i'm a carpenter silly" (she saws and hammers with her play tools...then story starts crying while i'm trying to write this all down)
me: "sea, what happened to story?"
sea: "he bited himself"
story: (he reaches for me) "mumgees"...(nursing makes everything better)
...
sea asks me to read her "what if the zebras lost their stripes" and "herb, the vegetarian dragon" and we get through most of both of them while story hums to himself "are you sleeping" a little too fast and frenetic over and over...we walks around us, reading his own books, exploring sea's room...i decide we should take a bath with epsom salts, lavender oil and grapefruit scrub (these details matter only to me)...sea nearly rips her clothes pulling them off so fast...she is in before we are...story goes "uh...uh...uh..." trying to communicate something (probably that he wants to get in quickly, too)...somehow i manage a blow out poop diaper clean up before he makes it in after her...sea is singing "la cucharacha (sorry i didn't look up the spanish spelling for the cockroach song)"...story starts singing old macdonald's farm "oh...oh...oh...oh...oh..." he also shows off his new skill of blowing on the "flauta" (flute...we try to throw spanish vocab at them when we know it)...sea had another piano lesson with daddio last night, too...oh, my, if ever this post was deserving of the label "free association"!!!!
...
sea: "oopsadaysee...look what brother did to your socks!" (he pulled them all out of my drawer and was sitting in the middle of the pile) "instead of putting ba-ba's (what story calls balls) in (she is now referring to the little trunk of their toy car) we can put socks in and take them to a new city!" she jumps on this car and sails out of the room as fast as her legs can push on the slick hardwood floors...
story: "ba-ba" (he shows me the ball he chewed on that is now deflated)
...
sea: "no hair" (she grabs ahold of her hair and runs off naked down the hall to avoid having her hair brushed...she someone talks her way in to brushing her own hair which never works but i hate this battle every day and am trying to hard to write it all down to put up too much of a fight...she immediately starts brushing story's hair instead)
"i've got a great idea!" (she skips off down the hall) "how about for dinner we can have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"
me: "how about for breakfast?"
sea: "yeah, come on!" (she goes in to cupboard...i tell her to get out--as i do every day--she grabs bread anyway...i yell too loud...overreact...also, as i do almost every day...in the meantime, story is stacking the soda cans in a pyramid...i get them out and then they both climb up in her chair "to cook"...i try to eat a few bites of my own cinnamon toast in between..."mom, can you please help me i'm having a bit of a problem...this peanut butter is too stuck...too sticky...oops, i'm sorry, i fell out of my chair...it was an accident" (she has a lot of accidents wiggling around too much on said chair)
story: "uh-oh...MA...ma..."
sea: "story made me spill my milk" "brother..." "look what we did!" (dollop of yogurt on top of sandwiches...story dips his whole hand in his yogurt...sea wipes her dirty hands on her pants...way too close to her dad's clean shirt hanging on the back of a nearby chair...i have itunes on random and originally listed the songs that were playing throughout our breakfast but they are so random i'm not sure that they add much to this story..."boogie woogie" was in there somewhere if that means anything..."i'm sorry, mom, i didn't mean to sit on brother"
...
(they are both now jumping on the bed...sea puts on my nightgown and a long silky slip and plays dress up...story rides around on the little car then pushes it as fast as he can in to walls...sea jumps on and he pushes her...she pushes off with her feet and then coasts...this causes him to drag part of the way before he gets his feet back under to run and catch up to her...then they play bumper cars with each other as the bumpers and one car in between...sea then takes off without story and looks over her shoulder to see if he is still chasing her and it is still worth running away...)
...
(now they are both under the comforter and playing peek-a-boo...then both back under taking turns lifting the edges to look out...
sea:"there's brudder"
me: "where is sister?"(story tries desperately to talk in an excited squeaky voice: "EE...EEE..."--his way of saying "sea"--story then jumps on top of sea under the covers...
sea: "i couldn't breathe for just a couple of seconds...not like as long as i could die breathe..."
(they both keep taking their socks and slippers off and i put them back on all throughout this morning i might add while i'm thinking about it)
"we're right here, mom, in a holee hole house" (back and forth under the covers together) "i'm in my chin-e-chin house" (i think this came from the 3 little pigs story? combining "not by the hair of my chin-e-chin-chin" and the concept of houses?)
(i get under and we make a "chin-e-chin house" together...this basically means one person stands up or hold their arm up to make a tent so the rest of the people can group together and see one another in the air pocket...sea and story are on and off my lap...crawling around and over me...this then buys me a couple of minutes to pick up my socks, nightgowns, etc. in the bedroom while they go in and out of the chin-e-chin houses they are making for one another...story jumps on the car again and practices pushing himself backwards...
sea:"oh dear" (she grabs a bite of scrambled egg...it tumbles out of her mouth while she's on the run, story runs to get his baby broom and starts scattering the mess...all this despite telling her every day she has to sit down at the table to eat...sea is now in and out of a giant computer box in the back room...i go to clean up the egg mess and as i try to vacuum story obsesses over it, takes over, "helps" me push it for awhile...sea pauses by the computer to see if she recognizes the next song on playing on random...i still haven't found a moment to brush my own hair let alone her (a small thing i take note of as i'm recording all this)...i do now recruit sea and story to pick up a little and then we go back in the chin-e-chin house...story nurses...sea says "mom, please help me, i'm on the edge" (of the mattress or between mattresses...we have a giant family bed made out of two...she always seems to need the most help when i'm nursing story)...she ends this story she is telling (living) with "...we lived happily after after in our chin-e-chin house"...

day 68 blog 55 road trip up north sept 26

sorry i'm all over the place...but i got a fair amount done in the house (probably because we never left it) and story is sleeping so i wanted to back track to our road trip...these are just from the drive up back on sept 26...you can see lollipops and chocolate banana vivanno from starbucks were keeping us sane for the first 4 hours or so...grrr...story woke up...nursed him back to sleep but i always get anxiety balancing "going back to sleep with him, playing one-on-one with sea, blogging, cleaning, etc."...hope to finish this to do some of the other...

i picked up missy's friend cynthia outside of bakersfield (about halfway in to our journey)...
when we stopped for gas, story was starting to get over it so we looked at this dinosaur and made funny roaring/growling noises to entertain him...he copied us...sea painted her toenails in the background black with one of her markers...
i'm sorry for more of the same but i liked the lighting on sea's lolly, eyelashes...toes...
story for a few more moments of laughter before he melted down...i think they were singing...oh, one more "little thing", like sea, he is humming several songs now even though he says very few words: "twinkle, twinkle", "old macdonald", and "are you sleeping?"...
we started playing "eye spy"...windmills...as i knew there was one at anderson's split pea...
i usually get the traveler's special that includes all you can eat split pea soup but i knew watching two wee ones i would only get in about one bowl anyway...here are sea and story as "hap-pea" and "pea-wee"...
close up of me with story...
sea being dramatic...
and we end this part of our journey with cynthia and sea (sea wouldn't pose for a happy shot...to her credit sea actually did great for such a long journey)...we stopped at missy and clarence's and went together to j.d.'s house...

day 68 blog 54 "football football"

we live in san diego. last night the san diego chargers hosted the undefeated denver broncos (sea calls this "football football")...they played at qualcomm stadium right down the street from us...manuel's family is originally from denver so they have been bronco fans all their life...which makes our children broncos fans...manuel's brother matt and his fiance visited us for a day....here we are watching the game together...and yes, despite a controversial call on a touchdown, we did win...
story was throwing the football to daddy...usually when daddy throws to him it bonks of his head or nose before he realizes what happened...although while recording "little things" he has been hopping up and down several inches off the ground which seems advanced for a 1.5-year-old...gets his athleticism from his daddy, not me!
if i was a little more vain i would leave this photo of myself out...i hate when i strain my neck/jaw like this instead of just looking natural...
auntie brina reading bedtime stories...
story waking up uncle matthew this morning...i enjoyed a few moments of peaceful chatting with matt and bree...drinking coffee together around the table and sea pretending...both kids took turns trying to entertain/get attention from their auntie/uncle before i was off chasing them to the next distraction...
story's flirty sideways look with auntie brina...
sea chatting with uncle matthew...
group shot before they hit the road...