Sunday, June 30, 2013

I've decided that it's about time that I start recording things that Mila is saying, with dates. For example, last week she started waving & saying 'bye' to her diaper once we had finished with it, knowing it was going to diaper-heaven inside the trash can. Over the past few days, she added 'bye di' to the send-off, and just this morning she said 'bye diaper' perfectly clearly! What a trip! So I've started a section in my 'Notes' app on my iphone titled 'Mila says' so that I can document all this, with dates. 
My friend has a daughter who is 6 months older than Mila, and she said right when her daughter Eva turned 18 months, it was like, bam, she was saying sentences. I'm excited for what's to come!!

Heat Wave!




Yesterday, we drove down to Menifee, which is on the way to Temecula, for a family birthday party. Every year we head down there around the time of my Aunt Jami, cousin Noah, and cousin Faith's birthdays. They have a huge home in a gated community with private lakes. Mila had a great time pretending to blow up balloons, eating hummus & crackers, playing with the dogs, and sorting through Faith's American Girl doll's clothes. We ate cold cuts and fruit salad, some people played Monopoly, and we truly enjoyed the shelter of their central a/c since it was somewhere between 107-112 degrees outside yesterday. (I read an article about two guys who baked cookies inside a van in Phoenix yesterday. It was about 120 degrees outside, and the thermometer measured 200 degrees inside the van!!! It took them 4 hours, but the cookies tasted like they had come out of the oven, and they took photos to document the baking. Holy crap).

Friday, June 28, 2013

I don't know what the rules are in the blogging world, so in lieu of copy/pasting an entire blog entry, written by another, onto my blog, I'm just going to paste the link. 
dinneralovestory.com/best-of-summer-awards 

If you have 5 minutes to spare, this is worth a look. Too cute!

Summer is here!







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Yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary. We left the kiddo with my parents and headed Downtown for some amazing food and cocktails. Here's what we ate: 

caramelized cauliflower
pine nuts, mint, garlic, lebni


“caesar” brussels sprouts
pecorino, anchovy, garlic


hamachi crudo
abkhazian chile spice, avocado, hash brown


“el pesco”
crispy shrimp, sriracha, chive dressing


Fun, right?? Their food is served as small plates meant for sharing. The first two were vegetable dishes. That 3rd one was a tuna ceviche. And the 4th was their sandwich on flat bread, which is what they're known for. 

Top all that off with some amazingly potent and special cocktails? It was a pretty rad evening. 

Monday, June 17, 2013

Updates:

  • Mila is 16 months. When people ask how old she is, my answer varies. '16 months.' Or, 'almost a year & a half.' Or, 'She turned 1 in February.' Or, '16 months, she's walking, it's a fun age.' I just never know how to answer that question in a way that will make sense to people. I'd imagine that '16 months' might not mean much to someone who, perhaps isn't a parent of a toddler, or doesn't want to have to count. Kind of like when you ask a pregnant woman how far along she is, and she answers in weeks. I did it all the time, but hey, it's annoying! Quite hard to comprehend. 
  • Anyway. 16 months over here means that she can finally say 'bye' and not just hi. She's also actually making kissy noises when she kisses. Finally mastering the pucker, and not the open-mouth, tongue on your cheek thing. She's also climbing. Pray for us. She's starting small, with a shallow bench in our office, though I'm sure those dining room chairs and the couch will follow soon enough
  • We start our very first class together on Weds. Through Burbank Parks & Rec, we're going to take a 'mommy and me' type class at the Ovrum Center near the Trader Joe's that I used to work at. The class will involve rug time and crafts and songs, etc. It's only 45 minutes, once a week (2:15pm on Weds, my day off). I'm very excited. Though she's technically not of-age (two months off) so we'll see if we actually make the cut. 
  • On Thursday morning we will board our first flight together. We're going to fly up to the Bay Area with my mom, to visit my grandma. I'm very excited. A little nervous, of course, but I just keep telling myself that the flight is only one hour long. She can eat all the peanut butter sandwich crackers she wants. 
  • We will be gone for two nights, and will stay at my grandma's, and also get to see my aunt and uncle, and hopefully lots of deer. It feels strange, and I feel badly, that Greg doesn't get to go. It'll probably feel very surreal to him, to have an empty house.      

Monday, June 10, 2013


Yesterday, we had fun with old and new friends. 

I had mixed emotions about having the day off, which has been common lately due to how busy work is and my constant thinking about it and almost wishing that I could just be getting things done so that my return the following day wouldn't be so swamped. 

Anyway I pushed those thoughts aside and allowed myself to have a truly care-free day. 

We met with Lucian and Elliot at our favorite Garfield Park in South Pasadena which was packed and almost felt like Central Park, with people everywhere on blankets, playing with balls and toys, hosting birthday parties, bbq's, swinging and sliding and dog-walking and bike riding. It was a fun vibe and Greg actually got to come! I subjected him to the girl (read: mom) talk and he was a great sport. After some lounging and snacking (Mila could eat TJ's kale & spinach yogurt dip on crackers from sunrise to sunset) we all ventured over to the playground. This was the first time that we've done that as a group, since in the past we'd just stick to the lounging part and have the babies crawl around. Now they're getting older and it's time for sand, slides and swings whether we like it or not ;)

After the park, we went to a BBQ at Greg's friend's house. He went to high school with Ayo, who comes from a big Jamaican family and they all get together every Sunday. Reggae music was blasting, chicken, hamburgers and lamb were grilling, kids were playing, adults were drinking, and everyone made us feel like family. It was a pretty rad vibe and I especially enjoyed just sitting and chatting with 93 year old grandma who credits her good health and spirit to never smoking, and growing up eating fresh produce in Jamaica. She still has an accent. 

The bottom photo is of Mila with Stella, and Jayven, Ayo's niece and son. They were so sweet with Mila and I hope we find another Sunday to go back and hang with that family again.  
So, obviously it's been forever & a day since I was last on here. I have two words to describe why: Wedding Season. 

This time of year always sucks the life out of me. I'd say that I'm more ahead than I was this time last year, and so I'm not panicking the way I was last year, yet work now consumes (practically) all my thoughts and zaps my energy and knocks me down then picks me up and keeps me going yet keeps me dragging. 
I totally love my job, and realize that, in retrospect, it's really not that stressful. So many others have it so much harder. 
So I'm not complaining. Just explaining. At the end of the day, I'm able to do the dishes, take a shower, and get into bed. 

I've missed blogging, and feel like we've done so many fun things lately and Mila's really growing up before our eyes and I'm really realizing that this is....easy. 
(I should get that in writing, huh?) ;)
Now, tonight didn't feel easy, but that's probably because we were both tired and there were messes to take care of and dinner to make and then new messes to take care of and toys being thrown into the litter box (ugh) and dinner to be cleaned up and bath time (and oh crap she didn't drink any water with dinner. damn, I just realized that & now she's asleep). 

Anyway, if that's a 'hard' night, I think I can handle this. 

What's feeling 'easy' is her ability to communicate. The sign language that she knows, for 'more' and 'all done' allow her to express so much, even if she can't do so verbally. I can tell her that it's time to put the ball away and go inside, and she does just that. I can tell her it's time for dinner and she walks over to her high chair. Tonight she unpacked the groceries and stacked (and restacked, and stacked, and restacked) the yogurt cups into a tower. It was so cute. 

So yes, there's the throwing toys into the litter box thing. And the crying in defiance when I put her in her pack n play so that I can get dishes done (Greg's at work tonight, obviously). There's throwing chapstick under the stove, and throwing peas onto the floor. But you know what else there is? Standing in the kitchen together, after dinner, peeling orange segments off the peel and letting the juice drip down our hands and Mila knowing that when all she has left is the peel, she needs to lift the lid of the trash can and throw it away. 

And that makes for a really sweet, and rad moment.