Sunday, March 29, 2009

I wish I could.....

1. Sleep. For eight to ten blissfully uneventful, uninterrupted hours. Oh, dream within a dream. Sigh.

2. Get over this head cold.

3. Help Diego get over his, too.

4. Learn to meditate. I figure it's good for de-stressing, right?

5. Enjoy all the messiness and joy of the moment. And there has been both and they have been great and horrible. (But, in the end, mostly pretty great.)

6. Sing opera. Ok, if not sing, then maybe just enjoy it more often.

7. Go back to Spain. If only for the foooood. Oh, YUMMM...drool.

8. Be in a small town musical. I liked being in musicals in high school, especially the small roles with only one or two lines. I could still dress up and play pretend, but didn't have to stress about anything else. Fun, fun.

9. Eat something delicious. Thinking about Spain has made me hungry.

What do you wish you could do?

Saturday, March 14, 2009

a letter to sleep

Dear Sleep,

Why did you have to leave? Did I do something wrong? It WAS me, wasn't it?

I can't help it, I miss you. I miss reveling in the hours of sleep I could grab and hold and pull up around me all night long. I miss sleeping during rainy days simply because I was tired with the day and the rain sounded so nice, softly, gently tapping on my windows and padding down the street.

Remember the good naps? The hours upon hours of sleep, through the night and into the next morning? Don't they mean anything to you? Because...they meant a lot to me.

Please come back. I miss you.

Love,
e

Friday, March 13, 2009

5 senses

This is gratefully taken from secret.genius.

My 5 senses:
(at least today)

taste:



Bun (#69, beef, eggrolls and lemon grass) at Pho the Bowl. That's their name. Pho the Bowl.

sight:
Seeing Diego pat Daddy's head then take his glasses off, only to try to put them on himself. Jim and I helped put them on and he sat there, his chin lifted and grinning, as if dropping his head would make them fall.

sound:
Listening to Shaina and I chatter on and on about her upcoming wedding, the scarcity of good education, and trying to balance everything else.

smell:
The playdough Diego put under my nose to smell. It smells like playdough, of course. It smells good.

feel:
Hugging Jim when he comes home, like I do every single day, no matter how long it takes me to get out from putting D to sleep. It's one of the best parts of my day.

Monday, March 9, 2009

goals for march:

1. Go on a date with Jim
2. Get a baby sitter for Diego
3. Plan my next home improvement.
4. Read more.
5. Internet less.
6. Plan on making something for a soon-to-be born baby friend. :) Yay!

Lots of planning this month! Maybe I'll plan everything in my barely used sketch books. With crayons. Get those creative juices flowing.

What are your plans for March?

Saturday, March 7, 2009

the patio project, an update

This is the year I've decided to make Southern California my home. Not just a place I live (and complain about). (A lot.) (Seriously, a girl can only be asked so many times if she speaks English or if her son is her's before getting snippy.) (But I digress.)

This is the year I am putting down our roots here as a family. One of the ways I wanted to start was by making our patio more usable. Before, the patio was bare, cold, cement gray, damp, and just a place for storage. I had the remnants of a dead tree that I tried to keep last year, a few old boxes, a pinata from Diego's 1st birthday...you get the idea. We wouldn't just sit and enjoy the pleasant weather or listen to the hummingbirds chirping angrily or watch the streaks of sun on the apartments next door. I wanted to have a space we would enjoy, and visiting my family in Florida earlier this year made me yearn for a patio Diego would love, too. He LOVED my Tia's patio. I mean, REALLY. Would have never gone inside if he didn't have to.


(D enjoying the cool bricks and damp greens)


My plan to change this patio into a part of our home was threefold:

1. Go green!
2. Muddy tables
3. Time.

First on my list was to get more plants. Plants that would enjoy the shade, relish in the deep gray hues. At the local garden store we bought a fluffy fern, a tall clivia, a gold dust plant, and some caladium bulbs Diego and I could plant together. I also got a big watering pail and a tiny one just for Diego.


(l-r: clivia, gold dust, fern)


Second! Muddy tables!! I mean a pouring table, or a sand and water table, for Diego. I found a great deal on a barely used table on craigslist and it, too, came to live on our patio.


(splish splash)

Time. It took an actual effort at first to just force myself out onto the patio with Diego, to look at the birds or blow bubbles. Now that we have plants of our own to water and a pouring table to dig and pour into? It's really changed the space.

Now we're on the patio daily. Diego totally loves it. He helps me water the plants every chance he can, and would water them every day if I let him. He is so sweet with the plants, too. Yesterday he even gave the fern a kiss when we were out there saying hello. Oi vey. Now we can sit and enjoy the sunny days, of which there are many, and even the few cloudy days we've been graced with. The space is full of life and love and I feel more at home on there now than ever before. Here's a little tour.


(let's go outside)




(a place to sit and a place to splash)


(our little green friends)


Question of the day:
So how have you made your space more personal this year?

Friday, March 6, 2009

this and that

For a few months now I've been secretly (and not so secretly) worried that Diego would NEVER TALK. I'm sure Moms of two, three, and fifteen year olds are looking at me like I'm crazy since they can't get their kids to shut up. He's just 17 months old, he's learning sign language and English and some Spanish, blah blah blah.
Besides, I know Diego pretty well by now, enough to say that he is a cautious, quiet kind of kid (so far) and was doing quite well with sign language, thank you very much. But being the Mom I am, I worry. I worried about the lack of language, but marveled at how much he knew and understood, and then worried again about why he wouldn't talk. Was I not pushing him enough? We read at least 10 books a day (sometimes again and again and if I have to read Little White Fish one more time I might explode) and I talk constantly. Well, maybe not Constantly. A girl has to pee in peace, you know.
I had all these checkmarks in my head about "what I was doing RIGHT" and how it still wasn't "working." He was happy babbling and pointing and signing away. And I couldn't see that he was fine. He is fine. The last two days he's finally said something besides babbling, Mama or Daddy. This and That. The boy picks the two words he can use for EVERYTHING. Therefore, no other words necessary. He's either the most lazy talker ever or a genius. I think I'll go for verbally efficient.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

my doppleganger

I was having a tough evening, and I think D was, too. We haven't been sleeping well, and D has this last bit of a cold that won't go away, and he may be growing an extra foot or so. Maybe just some teeth. Who knows? But we have both been tired and fussy. We were chilling, and by chilling I mean I was sitting and eating my last few bites of dinner while he ran around grabbing random things off the bookshelves. Like pinecones. And Jim's banjo. He sat in front of me at one point and started pointing to a DVD on the floor (which he had put there) and then pointed to me. And again and again. Like he thought the girl on the cover was me! Which is cute because I look nothing like Mandy Moore. Made my day.