My kid is Bi-lingual

It is time to start taking Spanish classes.

Apparently when Jake was walking in the hall today (hallways in California schools are outside remember) he saw the rain, pointed and said "Agua"

*******Just so you know Jake does not point and rarely speaks. ********

Pretty cool eh? He has been slipping out more and more lately.

When I read the journal report from his teacher in the car I asked him if he had done that and he put his head down and smiled!

Just now he gave his sister a toy in her highchair (after stealing all of her Cheerios, of course.)

I think he is hitting another phase of development.

On Wednesday he didn't seem to want to eat anything 'normal' so I asked our babysitter to make him whole wheat cinnamon sugar toast. She sliced it up, then told me he wasn't eating that either. I said, from across the room, "C'mon Jake, you love cinnamon toast"
He then dropped his head made a face and shook his head "no" and smiled at Valerie!

As if to say "my mom is nutters".

Christmas Parts Two and Three

I do not find it odd at all that I am writing about Christmas in the near middle of February. I have taken down the tree, the lights off the house and the Christmas boxes are back out into the rafters of the garage, but I am still sorting through holiday cards, peering at family and friends and debating whether to throw away those lovely photo cards, or stuff them into a small sack (think babyGap bag) and place them in a box or on a shelf where i will find them in one and two and three years and experience the wonder of whether I should keep them all over again.

So Christmas part two was driving back to Northern California. I suppose I never finished Christmas part one. That was Christmas dinner at my mother's house. My mother and father have a beautiful home which has a view of the ocean. They took advantage of the vista and placed a tent with a heater in the back yard, set up a long table, put out the finest china and wheeled out the high chair and booster seats for the babies. It is not very often that we are all in one place. This year we had all four kids and spouses and their kids.

We are an odd lot, filled with insecurities and joys and pride and eagerness and needs and hopes. I know each family has their own shape but I am not sure this family even knows what it is supposed to look like sometimes. It took so long for the "blended" part to blend.. we are still working on it. When my parents remarried and I realized I was going to have three step sisters and one step brother in addition to the one brother I came with.. I just decided that this is what my family looks like, what it will look like for a long time so I had better get used to it. I called the girls my sister when I introduced them ( and when I put their names on Gap family Day invitations) and the brother, well he was a brother. I introduced my new step parents as my "mom" or "dad". This was most painful to everyone else at first. My older step-sisters probably didn't really want me around at all at first, and it has only been in the last 5 years or so that I feel like there is a deeper affection (at least with one of them!) My step-brother (from the other side of my family) and I really love each other, but we don't know each other very well. We are getting to know each other better as we get older, but having never lived in the same house, it is difficult to have shared memories outside of the Christmas when Demanda fell into the Christmas tree and Easter when Maga (his grandmother) wore all black. We are getting there though, and have had quite a bit of fun in small bits and pieces.

So Christmas part one was beautiful and made very relaxing by the fact that my parents had put us up in the fanchy schmancy hotel providing us with a little breathing room with crazy Jake and babyLucy...and giving the precious objects in their home a chance to live another year.

Candy hearts are not Vitamins

do you know how much I love candy hearts? It is wrong. After Valentine's day I sometimes fill my cart with candy conversation hearts. I like the white ones. I found out my friend Sage likes 'em too

My hair is falling out. One would think that conversation hearts and hair have not much to do with each other, except I wondered the other day whether I could last even one day without candy.

Somehow I have stopped eating food that is good for me and have begun eating basically nothing until my body starts to revolt and I eat nearly a bag filled with candy hearts. My husband and kids are still eating food that is healthy but by the time I nurse Lucy, make Jake dinner, feed Jake dinner, feed Lucy dinner, make Descartes something ... when I sit down to eat dinner I am so sick of food that I just can't eat. It also doesn't help that Jake's talker is programmed with my voice. So I hear "I want something to eat". in my voice about 6 gazillion times a day.

Perfect way to diet... listen to yourself saying I want something to eat all day long... you will never be hungry again...
until you are.. then you will eat candy hearts and then your nutrition will be so poor that your hair will fall out.

Christmas! Christmas! Christmas! Part One Orange County

Our family has successfully traveled the length and width of the state, nearly, to celebrate Christmas with every family member on the left Coast.

We journeyed to Southern California...a harrowing 10 hour tour complete with rain, a sixth-month old who is teething and wanted to be nursed every twenty minutes for the first 250 miles of the trip, a very patient, and surprisingly flexible autistic big brother who tried throwing toys VERY far out the door of the car at each stop (as if we were going to let him get out and run to fetch them)...and fog on the Grapevine that slowed traffic to about 10 miles an hour between spurts of 70 miles per hour. Very scary that part.

We arrived at The Balboa Bay Club at 5:36. We had dinner reservations in the nice "coat and tie" part of the club at six. Somehow we managed to get Jake an ironed outfit, the Mom into a holiday dress, the dad into a coat and a tie AND pants that fit comfortably, babyLucy nursed and dressed in her Christmas dress...and make it into the restaurant by 6:15. Not bad. I think. We were able to see my neighbors from childhood, even Julie who was making a Left Coast appearance.

Jake didn't make it all the way through dinner. It was a lot of stimulation for those of us without "special needs". He was a trooper though. He finished his dinner, but before even our appetizers could arrive he really needed to go to bed. Descartes graciously said he would retire with Jake (I'm sure the lure of removing his tie helped him make the decision). We sent Descartes' food "to go" to the room. Descartes noted later that Oysters Rockefeller is not a good item to go.

just walking in the woods

Me and Demanda with our babies...

Crazy Jumperoo Lucy

Happy Christmas moments

BIAD the SnowMan

I'm an open book

So this evening my father-in-law asked me if I had a blog. For a moment, for just a brief moment I thought that I had better say "no". I told him I would send him a link to the blog, then I got nervous.

There is really nothing I am hiding here.. I mean obviously it is in the public domain. Why is it so much easier to think that only strangers would read what I have written? I can sing very well in front of large crowds..thousands of people. I have however completely sucked at just about every wedding where I have been asked to sing.

It may be that this precise fear, of those closest to me actually knowing me and seeing me is actually preventing me from finishing my writing.

I realized the other day that I have not worked on my book since I let my husband read through about 40 pages of it. It was a huge thing for me to let him read it. He said that it was very good, but he also said that "it isn't funny". I had not intended for it to be funny, so I suppose that is a very good thing that he wasn't laughing. It was just not what he was expecting. I'm not sure why, but it made me pause before I invested any more time in it.

Oh yeah, and I also had a baby, so maybe that is what slowed me down a bit. Lucy is 6 months now, so I suppose it is time for me to get back to work.

Anywhooo, so read on dear father-in-law.

babyFace

Nosy the Elephant