The Finish

In addition to fabulous weather and times in the Bay area, we spent several days with my sister and her brood.  Makili LOVED his cousins, and running around with them.  He loved their attention, their toys, their activity.  I could have taken many more pictures, but you know what, I was just too tired.  Those kids are damn cute though.  Makili also really loved their cuckoo clock.  He would beg anyone who happened to be near to press the button so the little birdie would come out.  It was cute and annoying at the same time.  We had a great visit, which is good because I can promise that I won't be getting on another airplane too soon.  Well, we'll see how I feel about it in another week...  Today I fly home.  Whew.  One more 1.5 hour trip.  And another hour drive and then that is it! 

A start

We returned last night from California.  I'm sitting in Pittsburgh recovering trying to figure out how I can spend the remaining years of my life without ever flying on an airplane again.  Mind you, it was a great trip, as the pictures will attest to.  But seriously, I must have been mad.  And I never want to do it again.  At one point I though I might even go without my mother.  You can laugh out loud at this point, which is the rightful thing to do.  Ha.  Hahahahaha.  Except that now I am crying at the mere thought of the endless hours in the plane and in the car and in the hotel.  Makili was a total trooper, but I might never recover.  Here are some pics of the fun side of the trip (I did actually go to do some work stuff there).  I can't post them all at once, so I'm starting with our time with our friend Kathy, who lived in Pittsburgh when I was a kid, but as you can see is clearly a Californian at heart.  She started our trip off at high pace, but in total beauty - picnic on San Francisco Bay, a lovely dinner with her family, a hike up Mt. Tamalpais, then another down the Tennessee Valley Trail the next day.  From the pictures it is hard to believe that we spent scarcely more than 24 hours with her.  Whew.  

Raph's To-Do List

I'm headed to California tomorrow morning before the crack of dawn for training for work and to see my sister and the rest of the fam. I left the following to do list for Raph. I thought it would be helpful to post it here in case he loses it. It is a pretty reasonable list of things to accomplish with no baby around. I'd be able to get it all done if it was me.

1. Clean entire house.
2. Install wood stove
3. Put walkway down (happy birthday)
4. Move and finish vegetable stand
5. Put up greenhouse
6. Check tomatoes (inside and out)
7. Water plants
8. Install new windows
9. Put on 2nd story addition
10. Get rocks from Tim's house for new garden beds.
11. Put in new garden beds.
12. Weed whack
13. Take care of dehydrated tomatoes.
14. Call your wife every day
15. Change brakes and rotors on the Jeep

Bagels and Bert Southwick's

First off, I'd like to pay tribute to Ann's homemade bagels. Homemade bagels are the new cobbler in case you wanted to know. I seriously cannot get enough of the homemade straight out of the oven bagels. I ate three for breakfast (the third I sort of shared with Makili - this was my excuse any way.) Obviously, I had to run extra to cancel that out. Anyway, they are completely heavenly or sinful, I'm not sure which.Also, Ann and Larry took us to the best kept secret this side of the Rockies - Bert Southwick's farm. This guy has been farming for his entire life. He is old, like missing lots of teeth, jacket full of holes old, but totally with it. Except that he apparently missed out on the price increases of the last half century because we bought 10 squash (big honking pumkins, blue hubbards twice the size of my head, etc.) and 40 pounds of potatoes for $20. Yeah $20 for everything! That is unbelievable. And the guy was so nice, showing us the abandoned wasp nests that he sort of collects. Coolest old farmer dude ever I think.

Monkey on My Back

A few quick cute shots of Makili and Kane, Kane and Ann, and Makili with a monkey on his back, a gift from Aunt Bunny and Uncle George. Makili really wasn't sure what to make of it.

My Life

I write a lot about Makili and the garden, but amazingly there are a few other things that go on in my life that I feel like talking about today.

1. I got a new job that I'm really excited about and is paying me pretty well. I place exchange students and make sure that they have a great experience here. And the company is sending me to California next month for training. My mom is coming to help out with Makili, and I'm going to get to see my sister, and Makili will get to see all his big cousins in California. Pretty good deal as far as I'm concerned.

2. I've been running. Anyone that has known me for any amount of time is surely laughing out loud at this point, and justifiably, but it's true. I'm up to running 2.5 to 3 miles a day (at least three times a week), which is a HUGE accomplishment for me and something I'm very proud of. It is making me dream a little too. I told Raph last night, "I already could run a 5k. I bet if I keep going I could run a 10k or even a half marathon!" I don't want to get too excited, but I am proud of the progress I've made. You see, running is extremely mental for me. I have finally learned to ignore that voice that yells "STOP THIS RIGHT NOW YOU CRAZY BITCH" the entire time I'm running. When I started last January, I was running less than 1/2 mile, so I've made a lot of improvement.

3. Raph has been begging me to read Harry Potter for a long time. The truth of the matter is that it just hasn't interested me. Sure, I like the movies, but it just isn't my genre of book. I have so little time to read as it is (and usually I'm reading Pat the Bunny, or Mr. Wishy-Washy) that I would rather read "good" stuff like historical fiction, or non-fiction for that matter. BUT, after years of nagging, I agreed to give it a try. I just finished the first book, and I have to say, it was pretty entertaining. I honestly enjoyed it. So I have book group this week, and we'll get a new book which I have to read next, but then I will probably move onto book #2.

4. We are refinancing our home loan. We still owed a little money on one of our lots in Hawaii, so we decided to look into refinancing as way to pay that off. We ended up getting one of these Federal Housing Authority loans, and honestly I'm so glad that we did. The state of the world is pretty frightening to me, with banks crumbling left and right. I really do think things are only going to get worse. I'm glad I live in a SMALL house that is cheap to heat. We even used some savings to buy a wood stove to heat our house with. Raph also bought a cheap motorcycle that he can use to save gas (if it ever stops raining!) We also bought an awesome glass greenhouse of of craigslist, though our town won't let us erect it. (We're appealing that at the moment.) We have several other projects in the works. 1. THe walkway so that shoveling in the winter isn't impossible. 2. solar hot water 3. solar water pump Actually, the list goes on and on, but these are at least priorities.

Makili just climbed on the couch for the first time. Uh-oh.

What Rain?

I won't pretend that the past three days of solid rain haven't been making me crazy. But we did have a little fun in the water yesterday, when the rain slowed for a few hours. Makili didn't last in the clothes, soaking them almost immediately. But he had a lot of fun doing it. Which I guess is what is important!

Parenting Zen

I don't actually know what zen or feng shui or any of that eastern stuff is, but I will say I've been trying to live in the parenting moment.

My friend Evan, who I once described as the most nostalgic person I know, told me once that her mother was even more nostalgic. Her mom, Meryl, a lady close to my heart who recently rescued Raph, Makili, and I from the sleeping in a mosquito cloud, would mourn for the 18 month Evan that grew up, the 2-year old, the 3 year old and so on. She would miss every age of her children. I've been trying to live more like that. To enjoy the age that we're in and not spend my time looking forward to when he'll talk, nap better, communicate, potty train, play soccer, etc.

I actually am in love with the smile he gives Raph when he sees him for the first time on a given day.

So in my effort to live in the now, let me start by saying I really do love this age. Makili is soaking up words and signs and trying so hard to communicate. He signs more, all done, eat (which looks like "make me puke"), hot, cold, up, help, fan, and probably more that I can't think of. He has some utterances that he uses for words, such as apple, watermelon, outside, daddy, berry, broom, etc. He'll tell you that a dog goes "woof, woof" (thanks to Charlie), a cat says "meow" (though his sounds more like a screech), and a horse says "neigh," and he'll do the "choo choo" while pretending to pull the whistle on the train. He will no longer say that cow says "moo." Apparently, he's moved on from that trick. If you ask him to dance, he will shuffle his little feet. If you tell him to get the mosquito, he will do a wide purposeful clap. He does all the signs for wheels on the bus, patty-cake, etc. He loves singing and any time I sing and stop he will vigorously sign "more." I've got quite a little trained seal. It's very cute.

And I actually am in love with the fact that he insisted on eating his snack while wearing Sam's helmet today.

He LOVES to eat, though he still does his share of nursing. Number one food is still watermelon, followed by beans, brown rice, cereal (now with soy milk), beets, cooked carrots and broccoli. He will NOT eat tomatoes (though he always sinks his teeth into them so that they rot), and rarely will eat cheese. He also loves to eat an apple. Now that we're in apple season, I can give him a whole apple and I swear eating it will entertain him for an hour. He loves to pick things in the garden, especially green tomatoes and green beans. He does like to chew on the green beans. He still nurses quite a bit - definitely first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but many times in between as well.

He has a mouthful of teeth. I thought we'd hold out at 12, but no they just kept coming and to be honest I have no idea how many teeth he has now...16? We can barely remember to brush them all. We're working on that, but as you may know, I'm not known for the whole bathing/cleanliness thing. I went for years of my life bathing only so as to wash my hair. I'm trying to do better as a parent, but well you know some things get skipped over here and there, like a tooth-brushing now and again. But we're working on the bedtime routine, so we're trying to make it a normal nightly thing.

He still sleeps great at night and has been napping very regularly for two hours in the afternoon. We've started putting him in his crib at bedtime instead of laying with him and falling asleep ourselves at 7:30. This has been going very well and he only cries for a minute or two usually.

And I actually am in love with this little face that he makes when he knows he is being naughty.

He LOVES reading. His favorite books (which I read over and over and over. I know... zen parenting - relax, enjoy it) are PeekaWho, Mr Wishy Washy (still?), Noisy farmyard, MooMoo Brown Cow, Moo, Baa, La la la, Baby Faces (because I act out all the baby emotions too), I Love You Sun, I Love You Moon, and Spots and Dots.

As for favorite activities, riding on the lawn mower is definitely at the top of the list. (Try to avoid the urge to leave comments about the lack of helmets around here. We know, we're irresponsible, but if makes you feel better he wears ear protection.) He also loves to ride around in his free dump vehicles. And to go down the slide. He has also taken to emptying toys out of baskets and then getting himself stuck in them as seen below. Today at the McCalls', he leaned over the kid "pack and play" to reach something, his feet left the floor and he got totally stuck balanced on his waist. He couldn't get in our out so he started screaming until I came and helped him. It was all I could do not to go get the camera first. That is apparently the mom I am, as seen below.

And I am totally head over heals, sickenly, disgustingly, whole-heartedly, blissfully in love with this exuberance, playfulness, silliness, total joy.

Pastel Tomatoes for Evan