Has Your Heart Grown Fonder Yet?

Hey…

Come here often?

Oh… you do?

I guess I would know that if *I* came here a little more often, huh? You might have noticed my absence in the past couple weeks. I have spent what little free time I have working with a friend on a project of hers, dealing with the media and information and rumor control for a big funky yearly festival of sorts we both usually attend (but didn't this year). But that is winding down now, and I can now give you all the love and devotion that you all so richly deserve.

That is, between working on the photos of a wedding I photographed last weekend, shuttling my kids to appointments, planning vacations (two of them!) and just, well, maybe I will toss in a little parenting here and there as well.

Life here is busy…

Noah is winding up kindergarten. He is reading “level 6” books and they start first grade at "level 7". He can write full sentences with creative spelling, knows the cycles of evaporation and condensation and can tell you all the layers of the earth. He has seen baby chicks born, dried his own raisins, seen a couple plays, been to a couple museums, learned a few circus tricks, and how to play well with others.

Somewhat.

Ethan’s language skills are taking off and he is perhaps as big a fan of Super Mario as Noah is, and this only because he loves to watch his older brother play video games. I am doomed, I think, to a boy’s world of video games and competitions. Even though he was the twin born first, is bigger and has better language skills than Luka, he is a bit of a follower, copying things Luka does (except things that will hurt him) and saying words the way Luka says them even though he knows the proper pronunciation. He is the sweetest little guy and knows how to use his facial expressions like a master, to flirt, to sway your opinion, or show you he is sorry.

Luka, finally, is occasionally putting two words together. Yesterday he said, “more toys!”. Yeah, I AM doomed. His favorite words are “Sure!” and “k’you!!!!” which is short for “thank you”. He also likes to wag his finger at people and say, “No! no! no! no! no!” My brave boy has also become fearful of loud noises but still jumps off the back of the couch. He loves Indian food.

Michael bought a bicycle and sometimes rides to work now for exercise, although that adds to his time away from home, which has gotten longer since they added patients to his work load for the past month. Hopefully, that is going back to “normal” soon.

Me, I am looking forward to my parents and my brother’s son arriving in a little more than a week! I plan to show my nephew (who is 14 now!) a grand time, and do some relaxing. Michael has taken a couple days off during that week to spend some time being “touristy” with us. Gonna see some museums, hang at the beach, wander down into Mexico, and maybe see a play.

In late August, we are throwing the family into the ‘ole minivan and taking our first real family-of-five vacation together to Yosemite! (Yeah, it was gonna be Big Sur, but, well… that’s all on fire and stuff). We would like to become a camping family and plant our feet in nature as often as possible, but at two and a half, we aren’t ready for herding the twins while cooking over campfires. So we are getting a cabin.

One with walls.

So, that is what we are up to, and have planned for the future. I think we are all caught up now. Sorry it’s been so long.

So… ‘we good now?

Bits and Pieces

I have to admit, I have been kind of lax when it comes to my blog lately. Haven’t been keeping up with my Wordless Wednesdays and have been posting about patio furniture and bird’s nests.

Even with summer coming, our lives have fallen into a pattern of the same things over and over. Not a lot of variety, weekends usually spent getting small jobs done and just relaxing at home. Nothing to write home about.

Or blog about, for that matter.

So, here are some small goings-on in our world, not worthy of their own blog posts, but together, maybe enough to make a decent read.

* Tonight I am off to a seminar at Noah’s school that was recommended to me by his kindergarten teacher. The big group will break out into smaller groups to talk about topics pertaining to kid’s with behavioral issues like ADHD, autism, mood disorders, anxiety, and behavior management. You can pick two topics to sit in on and I am going with “Mood and Anxiety in Children”, and “Understanding Mental Health Services” which explains what kind of therapies are available and how to find out what is right for your child. Hopefully, this night will answer some questions I have and set us on a path to find some help for Noah (who is not a basket-case but clearly has some issues that we are finding difficult to define).

* The ridiculous heat wave we had has finally passed and we are back down to the high 70s, which is rather lovely. My plants outside are a little worse for wear, even the desert plants. I might give them an extra watering tonight. I have been cutting the dead branches out of the jasmine vines and knocking off (and sweeping up) some of the dead blossoms when the kids want to play outside. I want to hang some pretty string lights up above my new patio furniture to make the pergola a more festive and inviting place in the evening.

* This weekend we are heading up to Michael’s mom’s house in Encino. Michael’s cousin Tanja is having her wedding reception there. She is originally from Serbia and found a nice Yugoslav boy here in America. He lives in D.C., though, so it’s a happy celebration and a bit of a sad farewell. I have been asked to take the “official” wedding reception family photos.

* Michael is getting a week off in late August and I have been scouring the internets looking for a place that our little tribe can attempt our first full-blown family vacation with twin toddlers. I really want to go to the woods. But the more we think about it, tent camping is just going to be too hard to be fun for a couple more years (visions of trying to cook food everyone will eat over a campfire, while trying to keep toddlers from running off into different directions in the woods). So, are started thinking of those campgrounds that have cabins. I found this awesome place that has tent and cabin camping, kitchenettes, a café, playground, swimming pool, kid’s crafts, movie nights, trails, a lazy river to swim in, rocks to climb and is right in a dense forest. Unfortunately, after I fell in love with it, I realized it was pretty far north of San Francisco. Looking for something as good further south is not going well. Anyone know of a place that would work for us?

Well, there is your latest news on what we are up to here in lovely, not-too-hot-anymore San Diego. What are YOU doing lately?

Outdoor Living

It's gonna be a comfy summer!

I love that here in San Diego, it's lovely weather almost all year long. And while we can afford smaller houses here in California than we can back in Ohio where I grew up, our yards and patios are almost always available for lovely, outside living.

I have a fence around my back yard (a good-sized courtyard, really) and just allow the toddlers to open the sliding glass door and go out and play most times they want to. It's a safe, small environment for them to run around and explore.

But for me, it's never been very comfortable. I find myself sitting on the ground, or on the occasional camp chair.

I have fantasies about these lovely outdoor rooms with palm fronds and hanging textiles, lounges and pillows and lanterns and waterfalls. I have no such patio, nor do I plan to put that much expense into a rental house.

But I came a tiny bit closer to realizing my dream patio. We invested in a set of that all-weather resin-wicker patio furniture. We spent a bit more and got the deep, comfy kind you sink way into, with an ottoman so you can put up your feet.

Now, I can sit comfortably and watch the kids cavort. Since the acquisition, I have been taking a little more "me time", too. I have a bowl of cereal out there while listening to the baby birds chatter, or drink some coffee while I read my friend's new novel and the twins have their nap.

It's a nice, thing. It slows me down. It gives me pleasure.

And maybe, just maybe...

...I will start to invite some of our new San Diego friends over for the evening, now that I have an attractive place to seat them. It could be the beginning of some beautiful friendships!

It Was Bound to Happen Eventually

Noah, at the ripe old age of five (and a HALF!), finally learned the real truth to the deep, dark family secret that we have been keeping from him all these years: that the lyrics to the age-old song go, "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!"

And not, as he had thought, and we had allowed him to believe...

"If you're happy and you're Noah, clap your hands!"

He is doing as well as can be expected.

Small Things

With all the Giveaway Shenanigans and the Odes to my dear sweet hubby, politics and my Wordless Wednesdays, it’s been a little while since I just sat down and told you what’s going on with the family.

Not that much has been going on, but I know how my parents and Mother-in-Law love to hear the minutia, so here we go…

Let’s see… nothing at all very exciting.

Tonight, Noah and I started on a project, making a hat out of recyclable materials for show at school on Friday. It’s basically going to be a milk-jug (which fit nicely with the bottom cut off) decorated to look like a bug or a robot or something.

The twins are doing great. Ethan’s language skills are quickly picking up and he is finally putting two words together on a regular basis. He also sometimes tells me when his diaper is dirty! Luka is still the silent type. But FINALLY! FINALLY, he is calling me Mommy instead of Daddy.

Ironically, he is now calling Daddy… MOMMY!

Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!

What else… Oh, the other day, while watching the Super Bowl (okay, I was only turning around to look at the TV when the commercials came on) I saw an old friend of mine on the Taco Bell commercial!! Remember the one with the Mariachi band? He is the one who pops up between the two office workers and pushes them down. No lines, but a national commercial, ON the Super Bowl, so WAY cool for him.

You likely saw him on the post I wrote about taking my son back to the theater I used to work for to see La Posada Magica, the show I worked on for 7 seasons. His name is Lencho (Lorenzo). He also was one of the guys playing the rocking music at my wedding.

I finished reading The Interpreter of Maladies and just in time I got the book, Eat Pray, Love in the mail through swaptree.com and after reading the first couple pages, it jumped right to the front of my reading list, leaving all others in the dust, on the shelf. Looks yummy.

On Monday, Michael had the day off because he occasionally works weekends. Noah was at school so we packed up the twins and had a great morning wandering through the shops in the Cedros District of Solana Beach, fantasizing about how we will decorate our "someday home".

This coming Saturday night, I am off with our friend Jason to see some local theater, so that will be really fun. It’s always nice to, you know, shower (!!!) and dress up a little, even if my date was arranged by my husband with another man.

What can you do?

I spent the week getting all my media files organized on the computer (photos, videos, Lightroom tutorials, photoshop plugins and actions and templates, oh my!). Okay, well, I still haven’t finished all of it, but made a really big dent.

I did some research into a pediatric dentist in this city for the kids. We have been really slacking in that area. Not that there were many pediatric dentists on our plan to research, but I think I found one to try out. I also found what looks like a great kid’s salon to take the twins to for their first non-bang-trim haircuts EVER! But I am nervous, and so they may go a few more days being called, “beautiful little girls!”.

But then, they said that about my brother and look, he turned out just fine.

Oh…

Hmmm…

(Note to self: call hairdresser for appointment tomorrow.)

New Blog Header! YAY!

So, I went and fixed my blog header finally! And it was such an easy fix! But I also wanted to play around with my new updated Photoshop, so I went over the old picture and tried to spruce it up a little bit.

What do you think?

I see it really needs to be redone with a higher resolution. It's a bit grainy. Actually, I may go back and just redo it completely; try to make it look more professional. But I am not known for my design skills.

We shall see.

But it's certainly better than it was the last few days! Whew!!!

Wherein She Explains to Her Mystified Readers How This is Not a Blog About Giveaways And That She Will Return to her Memoirs Post Haste

Really, I will.

Really, really!

A Little Down in the Mouth

Have you seen my Tylenol anywhere?

Its this tooth, you see. See how it’s a little wiggly? A couple weeks ago the gum around it got all swollen and throbby. It’s done that before, and then calmed down. Took a little longer this time. And when it deflated a bit, the tooth was left a little loose like some ready-to-jump-ship baby tooth. And I have been having trouble not playing with it like you do with a loose baby tooth.

I have had slightly loose teeth before, and like the throbbing, it tends to go away, firm back up. Not this time.

Time to google….

Google Search: “loose teeth” “swollen red gums”

ACK!!!

Periodontal Disease!!??

Karma, I guess, for not noticing my own kitty’s periodontal disease until it was too late.

Well, it’s at least a good kick in the pants for us to settle in and find a family dentist. Since we moved to town, we haven’t had a dental exam once. None of us. It’s way past time. So I started looking through the Pennysaver for coupons you usually find: Low cost first exams, free teeth whitening on one of them! Whoo-hoo!! But when I started thinking about it, I didn’t want to be sent from one dentist, off to a periodontist, back to the first finally for a cleaning. So, I started hunting for a general dentist who did a good amount of periodontal work, took children and worked late at least once or twice a week.

You see, when your husband is a physician, if YOU want to go to the dentist, HE has to cancel and reschedule 5 patients so he can stay home with the kids for a couple hours. And those people likely already cleared their appointments with THEIR job.

…sigh…

Well, seems there is no such dentist. And believe me, I searched. It took all day. All day. Until my household fell to pieces from lack of supervision while I searched webpages, yellowpage listings and made phone calls.

You know what I discovered? A lot of people list themselves under General Dentistry, but they don’t clean teeth. Unless you consider putting thousand-dollar-each veneers over your old stains “cleaning teeth”. Lots of veneer-folks and whitening at DENTAL SPAS (!!) in La Jolla and Del Mar. (for you out-of-towners, read: “wealthy areas”. Lots of ads with words like “luxury”, “5-Star” and “artistry”.

I had to give up something, and so gave up the late hours. Oh well. Sorry, Michael’s Patients!! Have fun rescheduling. But it saves me from having to have three or four appointments on different days to clear this up.

I got a new family dental plan to boot. It says I can change dentists anytime. Maybe when the periodontal stuff is done, I will switch over to that office with the free teeth whitening!!

(She says, as she slurps another sip of thick coffee)

Now the Pressure's On

Oh man...

I was just going to post a quickie explaining why I have been too busy to post lately, and when I log in to type some lame excuse, the danged thing tells me that this is my One Hundredth Post!!

Huzzzzah!!!
(a small handful of confetti settles to the floor)

Well... that's that. So, I have been this cleaning fiend lately. The good news is that my house is getting cleaner than its status quo, even the parts no one sees. The bad news is that it is because the owners of our house have decided to put it up for sale and the owner, and a realtor are coming by this week to do a price analysis. And having the owner here makes me a little nervous. Not that we are doing anything that should upset her. I just think that the cleaner it is, the more she will see us in a good light... taking good care of her house, the type of folks you want to give back their entire deposit. The kind of folks you feel like doing the right thing for when you are negotiating an early end to the lease.

So, I clean until I drop.

Leaving you all out in the cold.

No Fun Monday this week (unless I finish it by next Monday) and no Wordless Wednesday for tomorrow unless I get my s**t together early tomorrow and pull one out of the vaults. I haven't taken a picture in weeks.

What else... hmmm...

In the spaces between cleaning and trying to be a good mom, I am watching HBO's show, ROME, which is just AWESOME! I got addicted to it just after the twins were born, and I was living in a room in the hospital for three weeks. All I could do in my spare time was pump breast milk and watch TV, so I watched the entire run of Rome, Season One. Now, finally, I am catching up with everything post-"Et tu, Brute". Lovin' it. Highly recommend it.

The carpool thing is working out really well. Noah is making a good friend in Cooper, the other boy in the carpool, and we are hoping some of Coop's sweet good nature will rub off on Noah who is becoming a bit pissy and mean lately. On that note, Michael and I are trying our damnedest to reward the positive behavior and ignore the bad behavior or have some of those "little talks" about what we expect from him. It's a hard row to hoe.

Did I say this was going to be a quickie? Ah well...

Off to bed for me... What are you all up to?

Catch Up (Not Ketchup or even Catsup)

It’s been way too long since I have posted. And I don’t even know why… I am always busy, but I guess it’s easier to just read other blogs sometimes than to sit down and be creative and interesting when it comes to my mundane life…

Let’s see… since last we met…

I probably really stopped writing about what is going on around here when the heat wave hit. It was hard to even sit on the couch and stare at the wall. We had 8 long days of heat and 3 of them were insane. It was 92 degrees downstairs in our house. Did I ever mention that we decided to go for the house with no air conditioner as opposed to the big apartment WITH an air conditioner? Now I believe I made the right choice, but during the heat wave I was ready to pack up and move. I took a thermometer up to Noah’s room and checked it mid-day. It was actually 98 degrees in his room. So I had to let him nap down in the living room, because making him go to his room was like leaving your kids in the back of your car with the windows rolled up while you go shopping for three or four hours. “But officer, I left him a glass of water! With Ice Cubes!!” To keep the babies from jumping up and down on him while he sprawled on the living room floor, I had to baby-gate them in the kitchen with me for three hours each day.

Then, umm… Oh yeah, while we were suffering in the heat, my hometown in Ohio was inundated with water. 80 percent of the town was covered over, and even Wolf Blitzer was talking about it. My parents were thrilled to discover that they were living on the highest 20 percent of the land there in Findlay, Ohio. I wrote to my friend Cathy, and her parents’ house was just drowned. They are now living with her brother until insurance can come up with repairs to make it livable again. The basement of the theater I grew up working in was filled to the ceiling. They lost everything that was down there, which is the audience reception area for intermission, the dressing rooms, the bathrooms, a nice kitchen, electronic equipment, and I am guessing a lot of photos of old shows that were on the walls. Sad…

Hmmm… Noah started kindergarten. I blogged about that already.

Another thing that happened lately is that my Godmother, a wonderful, sweet and beautiful woman, unexpectedly passed away. I don’t really feel like writing about it except to say that I will miss her.

On the home front again, Luka injured himself in many different ways… two small holes in his tongue from falling and biting it, a scrape and bruise up his spine from falling on the tiled step, the ever-present unicorn bump in the center of his forehead from bending over and banging his head on the hard floor every time someone (hello, Ethan) takes his toy away. And the bloody nose, which deserves its on blog post. Stay tuned.

Note to self: Add Category called Luka Injures Himself Again.

We, umm… had a family photoshoot because the whole family (sans Mama) needs passports if we ever hope to buy Mexican tchotchkes again. Hence, the mugshots at left.

Oh! I also met the mother of one of the other kindergarteners at the community pool, and after chatting with her a few times out front of the school before end-of-day, I asked if she would like to start a carpool, and she said YES!! (And the heavens opened up and the angels sang!!)

See, this is important because Michael used to drop Noah off AND pick him up after work when he went to Montessori, but now he gets off school at 2pm and comes home to nap. The problem is that when he needs to be picked up is usually when the babies are sound asleep, both in their little beds. And you know what they say, Never Wake a Sleeping Baby! That goes doubly so for twins. So I have started training them to nap a little earlier, but on Thursdays, Noah gets off 2 hours earlier! An hour into the babies’ three hour nap!!

So, Joyce, my new friend, who works 3 days a week until just before 2pm, suggested that she pick the boys up 3 days a week, including the short day, and I only have to do it twice! Her son, Cooper is a full year older than Noah and in the kindergarten class right next door. She also has another son, maybe a year older than the twins. So we are helping each other’s young’ens get a little more afternoon nappage. I also like that Noah will be making a friend (and Cooper seems like the sweetest little guy ever!) and Joyce seems pretty cool, too.

I finished the book I was reading, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, and will now go on to read the last two Harry Potters. (Please, all of you who assume everyone who wanted to must have read the last book by now and you can start talking about it… please… DON’T!!)

So, I guess that’s a wrap. Needed to get you all caught up so I can write more of those way-too-long posts about one single topic again soon. Ciao.

Only 73%??

So, the folks are coming out to visit for ten days (mine, from Ohio) and they are bringing along my neice who hasn't been to California, I think, since she was my flower girl at the wedding (She was barely three and needed to be walked down the aisle by her daddy, my brother, to keep her on track). So, I don't have a lot of time for blogging.

After moving into this house we did a lot of unpacking and got out and put away most of the stuff we really needed and left all that other crap in boxes up against walls, and in closets, and in corners of every room. Now with visitors looming, I have been taking a second look at getting back to unpacking a few more of those boxes, maybe putting a few more pictures up on the wall.

And so as not to leave you with some little tidbit in my blog to read (because I know your day is less swell without it, I leave you with this little "meme" test I took (wow, my first blog-meme. Am I stooping low? Selling out? Getting cooler?) which tells me just how addicted to coffee I am.

I am 73% Addicted to Coffee

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

Minutia? I got yer Minutia right HERE!

These are 14 white socks.

14 white socks with no partners.

Its laundry day.

Did I find the best matches and stick them together? Did I scoop them all up and throw them in the garbage?

Nope.

My friend Jessica, who is a professional organizer, would be appalled. But I scooped them up and put them back in the drawer. (I DID tie them all together with the longest sock, Jessica!)

Maybe their missing partners would find their way home someday, and need someone to snuggle with in the sock drawer!

Besides, these are some of the only socks I have without holes in them...

They're still good!

Moment of Zen

Lots of families have those little nighttime rituals to lull their children to sleep. Sitting in the rocking chair, bed time book, warm bath.

My family ROCKS!!

See, it all starts with someone screaming "Moment of ZEN!!!!" to whomever is not in the room at the appropriate time... hmmmm... maybe I should back up and explain.

See, we usually watch (or attempt to watch over the chaos) the Daily Show with Jon Stewart at 8pm. After the opening monologue, Michael and Noah go to brush their teeth and get into pajamas. At the very end of the show, right before the Colbert Report starts, Jon plays an odd little video which he prefaces with "And now for your Moment of Zen..."

"Mommy! Mommy! Its MOMENT OF ZEN!!!!!!!"

And we all come gather around the television. Luka goes right up and grasps the edge of the entertainment center. Ethan usually comes running to me and wants to be picked up so we can dance together. Noah finds something that looks like it could be a guitar, and Daddy gets ready to get his groove on, too. And then the theme song for the Colbert Report begins and our whole family begins to dance with wild abandon!

Luka has to hold onto the tv stand because he is pumping his shoulders back and forth like an 80's glam rocker. Noah's hair is flying, Daddy is doing his silliest goofball dance and I am bouncing Ethan till he has a giggle fit. At the end of the song, Noah screams along with the eagle cry, and Ethan throws both hands in the air in triumph. Luka usually applauds our efforts although he couldn't have seen them with his face six inches away from the television.

Then its off to bed for everyone.

You all do that with your kids too. Right?

Turning my black thumb green.

So,

When we moved into our little house here in San Diego, I just LOVED my little backyard fenced in courtyard where my babies can play and walk around in the shade and not be able to escape, allowing me to wash some dishes or even (gasp!) run in and pee!

Did I say Shade?

There is this almost sad joke now, that everytime I move into a new rental, the landlords cut down a tree within the first week. I was told they would "clean up" the courtyard and true to their word, they DID! Including chopping down both shade trees.

Well, this has spurred a desire to "green up" the place even though I have never been good at keeping plants alive.

So I have this new mission... I go on craigslist and look for people who are selling their plants because they are moving. I write them an email and tell them I cannot buy anything, but if they are unable to sell their plants before their move, write me and I will come, get them, and give them a good home. If I don't kill them in the process...

And it has worked! I have so far about 12 free plants, many of them very big bushes and small trees. All in pots so I can take them with me when I move. And I also got a number of cuttings and free little pots. So Noah and I planted all the cuttings and have been trying to get them to take off. Noah is also studying flowers this month in school so we planted some flower seeds that he picked out on his own and I am PRAYING that they come up.

Also got this big window box to put on the shelf outside my kitchen sink window. Got lots of flowers in red, yellow and blue to put in there.... maybe tonight. Should be gorgeous.

If I don't kill them in the process...

Oooh, Photoshop... yummmm

Ooooh,

I think I just figured out how to put photos on these things. I believe there is some sort of limit to how many I can put on here, storage and all... but lets start out with a family shot. Many of you already got this pic in my last spam mail.

A secret... in this photo, everyone looked great except for me. There was another shot where I looked good and everyone else was a mess. So, finally, having gotten my adobe photoshop back, I put my good face from the one picture over the goofy face from the other picture. And voila! A picture where we all look pretty good!!

This was taken at Easter of 2007 at Mima's house.

(Mima is Michael's mom.)

Karen