"the blo (bowl) map"

today sea delivered this present to me that she wrapped in a washcloth...she had broken one of my blue bowls and so she drew me a map of where i could get a new one...

"let's go fly a kite"

...as in the lyrics of "mary puppet" as sea calls mary poppins...one of my favorite children's movies along with sound of music...sea asked me why julie andrews was called mary in one movie and maria in the other...fortunately for me they were close! anyway, sea rescued this little kite from a tree at the beach last week and has been asking me if she could go fly her kite ever since.

today we went to the swap meet for most of the day but my camera battery died and is charging so i'll be a day behind on photos...

my family is asleep and i'd like to join them...will hope for a longer post tomorrow...

fort with kyra

here is sea in the little fort she made for kyra...

all the friends love kyra

this first picture of sea holding kyra is a good blurry (moving) representation of her wanting to be in the now, enjoying her new puppy without being captured on camera yet she gives me the requested smile anyway...i'm going to try, for the month of april at least to write about the NOW even if that means a day before or a day ahead, i'm always upset i've left so much out and can't catch up and for this month i'm going to be ok with the little that is...

a couple days ago we went on our first walk at the beach with our new dog. the kids have been riding in the double stroller while we walk/jog on the mission beach boardwalk but wednesday we went with kyra...
manuel noticed i'm not in a lot of photos so he's starting to take more...i have veins and pimples popping out but am happy to be with my children...

sea got to be line leader this week at kindergarten...of course we've been tardy 4 out of 5 days due to the new puppy (mainly sea crying she didn't want to leave her!) so she only made it to the line twice...here she is telling her teacher how excited she is about her puppy...
and again, someone offered to take a photo of us together...
kyra also recently had her first vet visit. i took this photo really quickly just before the vet opened the door behind her and am surprised how in focus and centered it is...she got a good health/well adjusted/happy report and our easy going vet made it sound like raising her wouldn't be as difficult as it seemed at first...
so the rest of these are various friends who wanted to hold and connect with kyra...ruhi...
all the little girls in art class...
sea with mackenzie fighting over who holds her next...
sachi...
raiden and jolie...
jolie and billy...
jolie...
billy...
i had more than one photo of some of them because there are so many delighted faces...kyra brings out the glee in people...

i had so much more to say all day long and unfortunately ran out of energy so all i could do tonight was post and label photos...hope to offer more tomorrow but i'm not too hopeful as the POOL opens for the spring and we hope to spend a long time there!

puppy part 2 and nablopmo commitment in april

i think sea looks a little bit like me in this first photo. not sure why i wrote that as my introductory idea, just noticed it...she is growing up too fast...they both are...time slips away before i can capture it in photos or writing and even worse i can't seem to keep it in my memories...i try to hard to hold on to too much...just need to appreciate the little moments and experience them fully...so i stopped blogging for something like 3 weeks and it was painful and easy at the same time. so i don't want to go more than 4 days without blogging in the future if i can help it...i think daily is too much for me but i nonetheless signed up for nablopomo for the month of april for several reasons:

1) i need the external motivation to blog more
2) i have a little bit more free time in april
3) i liked the topic of "sprout"...more on this later...
4) nablopomo is merging with blogher and the annual conference this summer is where i live here in san diego...if i end up attending this i'd actually like to be an active blogger

i'm so scattered and tired and distracted...so here are a few more photos of our new puppy kyra that took forever to load and they seem to be low resolution and fuzzy but at least the idea and movement of the moments is still here...
here she is with 3 of her other litter mates...
following us everywhere (while my husband was shaving)...
while story watched t.v...






and even fell asleep with story...


i think i ended on these photos of sleep unconsciously knowing that is what i should be doing...but alas i'm plugging away as my whole family is sleeping much more soundly than i expected and i'm cherishing the free time knowing how limited it is but knowing at the same time any day now i'll have too much time and wish my children needed me more, clung to me, were little and vulnerable and nagging and hanging on me...i feel like i'm missing these things even while i still have them! oh the conundrums of living life and trying to capture it...

i was hoping to do a photo a day for 365 days but i don't really think/write like that...so maybe at the end/beginning of each month i'll go back and do a month recap of all the photos and experiences i photographed but didn't write or blog about...

i also have decided not to follow so many blogs this time. i was trying to be fair about commenting and keeping up with people's blogs but it was at the expense of writing in my blog, living my life, time with family. so for the month of april while i'm blogging every day, i'll allow myself to read one meaningful blog and comment while the photos are uploading for that day's post. i'm committing to this publicly which is funny because i have few readers but the few i'm going to go back to comment on are people i really care about...two i'll share with you here:

on the topic of meaning, my local friend andrea is writing about 365 days of meaning here and my blogger and fellow mommy friend amanda of i am mommy just had a new baby along with some amazing newborn photos here...if you are looking for people with integrity, sincerity, good writing, meaningful dialogue/questions, you should check these blogs out!

"mommy i'm ready for my new life with our puppy"

idealizing my moment in the castle top with my daughter

yesterday was my son's 3rd birthday party...i took over 500 photos and have a lot of details to share at some point but for now the idea stuck in my head (and all i have time for) is the moment i spent with my daughter after everyone had left and my son and husband were taking a nap...i made myself get up out of bed, turn off the movie i put on for my daughter and said "sea, let's go have 1 hour of mommy and sea time in the jumpy house!" she didn't hesitate...we played chase, jumped to different colors, ran in circles, climbed, slid, slid upside down backwards, she slid through my legs, through a tunnel, we read books...but my favorite moment is when we had climbed up together on the perch in between this jumping area and the top of the slide and i was looking out of the windows, down the canyon, around our yard, the grey skies above and it was gorgeous and photo worthy and I WAS OK JUST EXPERIENCING IT INSTEAD! this is ironically, the photo that was never taken, the picture that stays in my mind the most vividly from the party! it was lovely and i'm so glad i took the extra time to be with her...wish i'd done the same with my story before i got too caught up in party prep and maintenance...

just as we were about to finish playing in the jumpy sea made this sign right outside the entrance:
"mommy and sea's jumpy house. sign your name"...she told me i had to sign in before entering...here is one photo of story telling everyone he is now THREE...more photos to come...