Where I am

We are in Crescent City, Trinidad, Redding, and in the Redwood Forest... it is a good po boy vacation, and it is our second time here, so we need a new spot!

Where's a good po boy vacation (meaning inexpensive, decently nice, pool is a big plus and lots of fun inexpensive things to do...we like cycling alot). Want your tips!

My daughter.

I was counting like The Count from Sesame Street.

"ONE scary zombie! muahaha! TWO scary zombies! muahaha! THREE ..."

When she started to finish for me by doing the "muahaha!" part.

I never knew I could love anyone so much.

Baby Bee

My whole life revolves around A, in a way so but I still don't write much about her here.

Lately she seems to just have blossomed.

We play a game with her where we tell her to say stuff and laugh at how cute she sounds. She honestly thinks ladybug is merely a mispronunciation of babybug. And everything small with wings is a babybug.

One morning when I walked into her room we had a small conversation.

Me: Good morning!
Her: G morning!
Her: Ah love you too!
Me: I love you!
Her: Ahma happy girl?!

Is there any better way to start a day? She is cultivating this little personality. Ninety nine percent of the time she is so sweet it is almost surreal. I don't talk about it because I know no one wants to hear me brag on my kid. But man, she is something else. What did I do to deserve a child that makes me so happy?

I wonder sometimes about how God wired our brains to be parents. I have become so patient, so empathetic. That's not to say she doesn't get in some trouble occasionally. She lately won't let me get her clothes on and wants to roam around nekkid while I try to get the day going. She has always had major issues with having her face wiped. It is like some form of primal torture for her. She never wins that battle.

She knows the butones for getting the atencion. She does her ABC's and she knows she can get a "good girl!" even if she can only make it to G. After G it is a random assortment of alphabets. Her numbers are the same way. She can identify numbers and letters correctly mostly, but not reliably. Still she knows mom will become much more interested in her when she chooses to practice.

I am wishing I could stop buying diapers. It was humorous, the other day a mom who had started Infant potty training with her son at 4 months was boasting to me that at 18 months he only needed a diaper at night. But A, at nearly 2 is waaaay less than interested in the pot that has been lingering since October last. So I have begun to ply her with m n m's. I know it has to be her idea. I know it has to be fun. But I can at least make it more fun when she chooses to sit on the pot. As for the mom who did infant potty training, after having read about rushing the kid to the toilet when they make the certain face that meant they were doing something, sheesh, it sounds more like parent training to me. Let her brag, after all the work she probably did for over a year?

Mostly it isn't these "typical" benchmarks that are fun. It is her surprises with what she knows. Like when she tries to stick a pencil in her hair like mom and then get on her little toy scooter and says "bye bye!" so important. It is amazing to me how she tries to act like me, wear my shoes, imitate me in small ways. I realize again, wow, I am her MOM. With all the weight that word carries.

Job Interviews

I have gotten very superstitious about job interviews. The job I currently have, the principal actually talked me into taking the job. That was an experience that was surreal, and encouraging.

For that interview, my sister in law was itoning my shirt and accidentally burned it so we had to find a sweater to cover it that would match..but I got the job! I was not at all nervous because I wasn't even sure if I wanted the job.

For this interview, J's truck broke and had to stay home with A, which was awesome and made my life much easier. So I tried to explain to him that his truck breaking wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I don't know if he bought it... But then as I was getting ready, I couldn't find a cosmetic item. I was wondering if I was going to end up with the worlds shiniest face as I dissassembled the house looking for powder. I mentally recorded this second omen.

Arriving in the little town, it was like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, the town was cute, liveable, not backward and just seemed really wonderful. I got the same feeling from the high school, which was attached to a branch of the community college...another excellent feature. I slowly started to love the town full of old farmhouses and cottages and rolling hills, a drive-in theater. All this made me want the job more.

Even more so, the principal had assembled a panel of people to interview me and give my spanish a test drive. While I had anticipated a dry run of my spanish, I hadn't anticipated answering interview questions in spanish and I am sure that I came a little short for them in that area.

In fact, I flubbed enough times to warrant an end to their interest. But who knows what lurks in the hearts of Spanish teachers and Principals. I didn't think I would be granted my current job either. But still, I am not holding my breath. Especially because now I want the job...

But on to continue the job search. It is exhausting work if one lets it, I know I just need to remember that it will all work out okay. I will make sure of that.

On the good news angle, an old caretaker for A said she would stay with A for the remaining days of the year. WAHOOO!!! What a relief!! No daycare!!

Admit it

C'mon, admit it. If a little girl pressed her face into your cheek and said "Kiss? Happy! Happy! Happy! Thankyou Momma," wouldn't you play her stupid music like The Wiggles just to see her smile?

I am listening to this stuff, and it is just really a basic cross between the Cab Calloway (which she already has memorized--ok ok, she say's"Hey now!" when I walk to the stereo, by way of request I am guessing) and a few choice Beatles songs (beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah! Baby you can drive my car...) with basic children's stuff in the mix. Brilliant, these guys I am sure are laughing all the way to the bank. Marketing. Good ideas.

What about childrens music selections CD's that aren't vaguely mindrotting to their parents?

In which I talk about a whole bunch of things at once

Samba Sam

Open this link in a new window and listen while you read. It is Moreno Veloso singing Arrivederci.

Now in case you all didn't know, I like to listen to brazilian samba stuff. I think that pretty much there is not a person on this earth, who if they heard this music wouldn't like it. This music is heavenly. And if you want to do yourself a favor, here are a few cd's that are guaranteed to warm up your winter. I just got a new disc from amazon that with shipping I paid less than five yes five smackeroos for.

if you didn't like that last one, try this one, Quarteto Jobim Morelenbaum.

It was Bossacucanova and there are still some left. Do yourself a favor for heavens sake and turn off that Ratt or White Snake or Culture Club or whatever it is, and geez go get this.

I admit sometimes this music can get kinda elevatorish when the composers get old, but in their younger days they are all swingin. Start out with a little Girl From Ipanema, move on to One Note Samba, Corcovado and just keep goin. Dig a little Moreno Veloso, Jussara Silviera, Paulinho Moska, and don't forget the masters Caetano Veloso and Quarteto Jobim Morelenbaum, and Joao Gilberto.

It sounds corny perhaps, but this is music in its finest hour.

Addy update

My daughter, now 22 months, is making little sentences. Around thanksgiving she had about 50 words. Christmas, about 75. Now she is saying "I like it!" and "Look at it!" or "Look at this!" or "Where is it?" and "There it is!" and "I see you!". I put my hair up and she said "That's cute!" today while she was in the bath. Folks, I don't mean to sound like a bragging mother, I know every child learns to make sentences. Sometimes I guess I am just amazed that I got all this. It's like a present one thought they never would get. So pardon me if I sound like I think my kid is better, I don't really, I know she is just plodding the development course like everyone else. Don't yak, it's just really fun to see her make these little sentences. Little steps.

Every day she just gets a little more something something. More agile, more like a 2 year old who wants everything to be her idea. She dances like a fool and hugs my leg. She tries to con me into helping her do things that she can do herself. Sometimes I am a sucker and help her.

She is learning to pick up her junk, but it's not coming easy. She is maker of entropy and undoes the house as fast as I can do it. I can't possibly spend the time getting her to pick up every item she places carefully in well hidden places. Magnet letters in the chopper, plastic strawberries in the drawers, stuffed bears in the laundry and of course the wooden blocks I finally hid because I kept almost killing myself by stepping on them.

The picture is faulty, but I enjoyed watching her dance around with a navel orange at christmas.

shameless

The first time I heard her heart beating it was at 10 weeks. It sounded like little explosions going off rhythmically. After that, her heart sounded like little galloping horses. I imagined a little herd of galloping appaloosas inside her heart.