Looking at Jane

It's hard to catch Jane with the camera. She is a blur of motion and mood. As her second birthday approaches, I've been trying to photograph her more. I'm still trying.

A typical Jane moment, complete with hat, necklace and baby:

Jane loves tea parties:

I let her spoon sugar into water and make a delightfully sticky (and delicious) mess:

She loves to go down the steps by herself and take off walk-running:

Jane is busy, busy, busy (and happy):

Maggie's open house

Robert and I went with Maggie to her school's open house the other night. She was very excited and proud to show off her creations in the classroom, plus we got to tour the first grade classrooms and get a sneak peek of what to expect next year.

Posing with her diorama:

Art portfolio:

Deep sea diver portrait:

Starfish drawing:

Clay fish:

Posing with Daddy:

My name is Maggie:

Maggie's ocean diorama

We only had two evenings to build it, but Maggie worked hard to finish her ocean diorama for her school's open house. She planned out exactly how she wanted it (including the genius idea to use gold glitter glue on the bottom for "sand"). I tried to be hands-off, though I did talk her into hanging the fish and sea turtle by thread instead of taping them to the back. She was very proud when she carried it into school today and showed it off to her classmates.

Weekend in Santa Barbara

For Robert's birthday and our wedding anniversary, his parents gave us the gift of a night away and free babysitting. Isn't that the nicest thing you've ever heard?! We then finagled the deal into two nights away with my parents helping with childcare, and the two of us slipped away to Santa Barbara for a quick, peaceful trip.

We arrived Saturday afternoon and were somewhat unimpressed with our hotel, though it was comfortable enough. It was a converted apartment building, and Robert kept saying it reminded him of the Karate Kid. We found a bar and grill on State Street and settled in to watch the Lakers game. Our dedication (three and a half hours on bar stools) paid off with a win.

Sunday, we started the day by cruising an arts and crafts show along the harbor:

We really liked the craftsman style of this seller's pottery: 

For an anniversary gift to each other, we bought a vase very much like the green one you see here (though the one we picked has a slightly different shape):

Next, we drove north into wine country and visited four wineries. My favorite was Foxen, with its no-frills, rustic setting:

We sat out on their deck and sipped wine in the sunshine. Bliss:

We ended up in the tiny, picture perfect town of Los Olivos, where we discovered many wine shops, gardens, art galleries and restaurants. I was particularly charmed by a shop called J. Woeste, where I wandered the garden:

And admired these gigantic wind chimes:

I don't normally care much for wind chimes, but these person-sized, deep toned chimes were irresistible. But they also cost $1500! So...no.

After wine tasting and walking in the sun all day, we were worn out. We spent a couple hours recovering in the hotel room before venturing out to find dinner at 9 p.m. It felt weird going out to dinner that late! That shows you how entrenched in the kid time zone we are now, I guess. Dinner was marginal, but things improved when we hit Pinkberry for dessert.

Monday we met some friends for brunch and then got on the road early to beat the traffic. Plus, I was really missing the girls and wanted us to enjoy the rest of the day as a family. Which we did. 

Family update

Maggie: For her school's upcoming open house, all the kids in her class are supposed to make ocean-themed dioramas. A diorama! In a shoebox! Heee! I'm a little excited. She and I have been planning it in minute detail, and today I bought the paper and accessories she requested.

Audrey: Sometimes I feel like Audrey and I are ships crossing in the night. The demands of Maggie (school projects, volunteering in her class, homework, early reading books, t-ball...) and Jane (therapy, wheat allergy, babyness, extreme cuteness...) seem to take up a disproportionate amount of my time, and Audrey can get a bit lost in the chaos. One day last week I kept Audrey out of preschool and spent the whole morning hanging out with just her. We ran errands, ate lunch together, and talked and held hands a lot. It was really nice. I'll have to do that more often.

Jane: Her therapists want her to start attending a special playgroup once a week with other kids with various types of delays. The idea is that it will improve her social skills and encourage the things she's working on, like her gross motor movement. I'm going to observe the group next week.

Deborah: I'm up for a big, though short-term, freelance editing gig. If I get it, it will take up a lot of my time in June. But I'd like to keep my skills sharp and add another client to my resume, so I hope it works out. If not, I might pursue some other possibilities. I'm not doing any fiction writing at the moment, and am having a hard time working up any enthusiasm for it.

Robert: Working. He claims it's all he ever does, but in truth he manages to spend a lot of time and attention on me and the girls despite a demanding job. Robert is awesome.

Further proof of his awesomeness:

Robert & Deborah: We are slipping away this weekend for a belated anniversary/birthday (Robert's) trip to Santa Barbara with no kids. Whoo! We're looking forward to 48 hours of sleep, wine tasting, laziness, strolling about, and other luxuries. I can't wait.

Birthday party face painting

Maggie at the bat

Backyard bubbles

Happy Mother's Day

I love being a mom. It's good on Mother's Day, and it's good all the other days too.

I love that having children has made me grow closer to my own mom.

I love that my mom lives 9.5 miles away and that we see each other several times a week.

I love you, Mom. Happy Mother's Day.



Let's get a new picture of you with the three girls, okay? I can't believe I don't have one newer than this!

Happy birthday Robert

Robert is away at a conference this week (boo) so the girls and I celebrated his birthday with him a couple days ago (yay). We dinner'd him with pizza and pineapple upside down cake and presented him with several carefully chosen gifts. I gave him a Kindle (which he has wanted for a long time). Maggie gave him a Lakers gift card (she planned it for weeks and was thrilled that we were able to get such a thing). Audrey made him a bunch of paper hearts decorated with faces and her name. All three girls gave him a s'mores set that includes new skewers for toasting marshmallows. Happy birthday Robert/Daddy! We miss you!

New pool

Jane has things to say

Maybe that speech evaluation scared Jane straight, because she's had a verbal explosion over the past week and is talking up a storm: putting together two- and three-word sentences and showing off all kinds of new vocabulary.

She likes to point out our similarities: Mama shoe, Jane shoe. Mama nose, Jane nose. Mama chair, Jane chair. Mama snack, Jane snack. She does this all day long. She loves saying her own name, and will point at herself in photos or the mirror and happily exclaim "Jane! Jane!"

Another cute thing she's doing now: when she's looking for me she calls out "Mama, are you?"

She's also very polite, saying please, thank you and excuse me. She will grab the remote, plop herself down in front of the TV, look up sweetly and say "a show peese?" When she bumps into me she says "sorry, scuse me." And I swear that last night at dinner, when I offered her a carrot, she said "no tank you." She meant it too. Janey is not a fan of veggies.

She's also learning some numbers. If I say one she will usually say "two" and then "eight, nine, ten!" Or sometimes if I say one, two, three, she answers "eight, nine, ten, Mama are you?" I think this is her way of letting me know she wants to play hide and seek.