20 months and on our way to Reno

Twenty months is full of surprises.


(oh how i love this face!!)

and although i know she is almost 21 months, i want to record each month in it's glory for as long as i possibly can.



so surprises.  like taking out my cake pan to bake the most delicious chocolate cake only to find an alphabet letter stuck to the bottom.  a blue "y".  or sitting down to watch the tail end of the oscar's and finding a turkey baster stuck between the cushions.  and not so fun surprises like last night's hour and a half toss-a-thon after waking at 130am, finally resulting in a baby rolling off the bed, a thump and crying.  she is fine. i only wish we could have caught on film mine and Adam's reaction to the whole thing.  Charging at her like crazy hyena's or something all distraught from no sleep and pure fear pulsating through us.


playing in the rain






her vocabulary has far surpassed our understanding of half of it.  she talks so much and i try so hard to recognize what she is saying, but sometimes i have to just smile and nod because i have no freaking clue what she is jabbering away about.



this morning she woke up so happily and looked at me and said "hi mama, hi dada"  "hug?"  gave us big hugs and kisses and then said "dada sleepy".

tonight she looked at kitty and said in a motherly and excited tone "big girl" after kitty ate a piece of chicken we gave her.  i was cracking up.

she is feeding herself a lot lately, sweet potatoes are her favorite to do.  i made the mistake of letting her do strawberry yogurt by herself while i surfed the web.  there was quite the splattering of yogurt everywhere
only moments later.  she is doing so well though, and she has to learn somehow.



Daddy bought her a fancy mickey mouse trike today and i texted him this evening telling him i was going to kill it and throw it out the window afterwards.  it's really cute and she loves it, it just has so many loud abnoxious noises and buttons and she gets frusterated because she can't ride it yet so she just sits on it and pushes the buttons and then asks me to help her off and then 5 seconds later she wants help to get back on it again.



snacks packed.... we are off to Reno, 4 generations driving in a rented nissan altima.  To go celebrate my great aunt mary's birthday with her five daughters.  Let the fun begin!!!

to Adam
We will miss you sweetheart, have a fun and relaxing weekend.  We love you so much.
xoxo,  your girls

kimchi, a power outage, and auntie Lala

Today Bayley and I were coming home from the asian market in downtown oxnard (ran out of kimchi), when i decided to go an alternate route to check things out.  As we drove i looked around and saw to my left a line up of people.  Hmmmm.....i thought maybe it was a really good restaurant and there was a long line.  I kept driving to see the end of the line, but it kept going over a block long.  I finally reached the end and saw a man holding up a sign that said "FREE FOOD"  my jaw dropped as i looked at the people and the families, little babies, pregnant mamas, all waiting in what seemed a very long time for a bag of groceries.  I felt upset, very upset.  I wanted to go buy 50 boxes of granola bars and hand them out to these people.  it was cold and some of them didn't even have warm clothes on.  i remembered i had 2 bags of goodwill items and decided to go see if someone wanted them.  i didn't want to offend anyone, but i knew if they were standing in line for food they probably could use almost anything.  i asked a woman with a baby and could tell she only spoke spanish.  her friend said "no" and gave me a dirty look.  crap, i offended her.  i started to walk away with my bags thinking maybe these people weren't poor and they were just handing out really good food......uh no.  Then a woman with 2 kids stopped me, looked at me with desperate eyes and said "yes"  i smiled and we went back to the car with no bags.  it felt good, but i was still upset that i offended the one lady, oh well.  i drove away and saw the little boy holding the bags twirling in circles. 

we came home and i made a wonderful dinner and felt so grateful that i had the food to cook the meal.  we said a blessing and bayley said "amen" after. 

i have a new way of life i have been working on where i'm trying to make things simpler and more meaningful.  so far so good.  i find myself being more mindful, less hurrried and calmer. 

Auntie Chara ( attie lala) came up on monday and tuesday to visit and we had SOOOOOO much fun.  We've known each other for 17 years and are more like sisters than friends.  We went thrifting to find a craft table for me.  we organized my downstairs area which is now a play room for both bayley and I.  we went on a day trip to ojai.  we drank a little too much red wine and laughed our booties off the whole time.  we stayed up til' 3 in the morning catching up and talking about the good times we've had.  it was pure joy.  pics soon.

today bayley fed herself and actually got the food in her mouth.  i think she gets it now and i am so happy.  she also had her first bite of kimchi and asked for more "chee"  that was a proud moment.

i made kimchi fried rice and it was divine.

fried rice

sautee
butter
garlic
add
basmati rice cooked
add
2 eggs scrambled
add
kimchi diced
grated carrot
green onions
cooked meat diced (i used steak diced up small)

cook 5-10 min med high stiring often

yummy

and tonight whilst in my cleaning and completing my "list" the power went out.  like the whole town was pitch black.  my heart started pounding and i was scared, i couldn't see an inch in front of me.  luckily i knew where a lighter and candle was and shakily lit two.  i looked outside only to see stars and they were the brightest i'd ever seen.  it was so quiet and after calming down, i realized it was kind of nice and i just sat on the couch and made kitty sit with me.  they eventually came back on and i continued my to do list, but it was kind of a nice break.

so here are pictures from the last week or 2

love her love for music






she likes hats again!!! yay!!!






cool beans....i made bean soup and it was soooooo yummy.  i felt so cool that i soaked beans overnight.




kitty got a haircut


4am bayley needed a "nack" and so did kitty


she loves to "dwive"




she went down the big girl slide all by herself at least 20 times!!




where we live




it's been raining sooo much


part of my fabric addicton


our happy little family

random bits of everydayness

i am so moved after reading SoulMama's The Creative Family.  i guess it just reaffirmed the many new thoughts i have against consumerism and  and how imagination and creativity are essential in life.  i read all 199 paged tonight, it was awesome.  

i have so many thoughts the past couple of days that i am struggling writing fast enough.

thanks to adam i had a great relaxing sunday and i went to yoga, the farmers market and just unwound. that's when i felt transformed.

yesterday i took bayley to the beach, we made cookies, we're planning a trip to reno for my great aunts birthday, i'm sewing, i'm trying to be better to myself and those around me, i feel inspired, i'm finally feeling okay about having to move (5 months after we moved ), i'm simplifying EVERYTHING, my daffodills are blooming.

getting over this bad cold has left me feeling grateful and energetic. 

bayley is forming sentences, like "hi dada" at 4am  and listing names of all her favorite family and friends

she really really loves the moon and the other day we were at this little cafe and she met a girl named luna, the next day we went to a mexican place in camarillo named "luna's" hmmmmm......what is the universe trying to tell us??

today bayley's friend riley came over and we had lot's of fun.  we painted, wore silly hats, danced, took a wagon ride. bayley was in heaven.  she calls him wiley woo.  at night i tell her a story and it starts off:  bayley boo and riley roo went and sailed the ocean blue.....she asks for it if i don't tell it. 

seriously, i could stay up all night writing all i am grateful for and how blessed we are, but i'll go to bed cause i'm tired.  xoxo

love and colds

we've been sick.  coughs, fevers, runny noses just to name a few
and before that our house was fumigated and we went to disneyland
and i'm tired....really tired

but i keep thinking of all these little moments that make up "our story" and i want to write before i forget, because i have already forgotten and it's only been two weeks.

like how bayley loves this song and when it comes on the radio she yells out "love you!love you!" and boogies in the back seat.













and our valentines day was good and yummy


















so cute even with a runny nose...and i do wipe it always, it's my pet peeve.  but sometimes it just keeps running.




flower picking and giving


cookie makin'



it was a very sweet day

and even  though we've been real sick we're making the best of it



her new favorite thing, playing doctor



maybe since she went to the doctor monday and screamed bloody murder at everything, even being weighed!!  poor thing, she didn't feel good.  maybe she's retaliating...
oh and she weighs 22lbs and is 32 inches and is healthy and well

bayley likes watching dinosaur train because she heard a little dino say "lala luuuuu" and thought it was funny.  now she says it all the time and it's so cute how she says it with such feeling.


and since my mom was here and helped me do 9 loads of laundry, i'm even keeping it up-yay me!!!

tonight bayley and i took a steamy shower/bath with candles and she thought that was really cool, she played with her baby and train while i relaxed until i realized i was sitting on the vapo rub dollop.... 
then we had a little dance party where she totally rocked out to the song "in the colors" by ben harper-awesome song!!!  and said "moa-moa"  (more)  mama.

bayley likes to point to things (objects) and say the word  i.e.  "candle"  and then wave and say "hi candle"  she even pointed and said hi to my boobs yesterday morning as i was getting dressed, whilst counting them.  "one, two boobs.  hi (waving)"  she said proudly.  Oh this is a fun stage!!

she talks more than anyone i know, and most of the stuff we understand.  she says "mickey balloon" very well after all day at disneyland trying to find her a freakin balloon, my mom finally got her one and it lights up and is really fancy.  it's still afloat too.  maybe i'll put up pics of disneyland....maybe not.  she didn't like the rides, but she liked toontown and the parade and her balloon and her bubble gun.

let us be well soon