Blog Archive
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Grace's Birthday Celebrations
This is the girl who will know how to string out a birthday...
October 1, the first in a series (no doubt) of celebrations for Grace's 2nd birthday which is tomorrow, October 2.
Vivian, Grace's nanny organized this one and the whole Brazilian Nanny Mafia turned out in force with their charges. This was my first experience of Grace's secret life and all the secret friends that she has. At last I've met Max ("Maaa") and Piper ("P-p") and all the rest of them. Grace stood serene in her etheral party dress (thanks Yasmin...it's got a lot of life in it yet!) as everyone sung happy birthday to her, first in English and then in Brazilian.
Here's a video of the singing, followed by more assorted shots:
October 1, the first in a series (no doubt) of celebrations for Grace's 2nd birthday which is tomorrow, October 2.
Vivian, Grace's nanny organized this one and the whole Brazilian Nanny Mafia turned out in force with their charges. This was my first experience of Grace's secret life and all the secret friends that she has. At last I've met Max ("Maaa") and Piper ("P-p") and all the rest of them. Grace stood serene in her etheral party dress (thanks Yasmin...it's got a lot of life in it yet!) as everyone sung happy birthday to her, first in English and then in Brazilian.
Here's a video of the singing, followed by more assorted shots:
Friday, September 25, 2009
Starlets
Gracie & Sophie enjoying one of the highlights of their trip to Scripps Birch Aquarium...a photo booth.
Leaving the aquarium
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Life taken over by real estate
So I'm feeling a little sad that it's been so long between blogs. But my life has been consumed by real estate and is showing no signs of let up.
I notice my last post was mid-March. Just 2 weeks after we put in an offer on a short-sale house. And it's been crazy ever since.
We closed on the house mid-May, started renovations almost immediately and we're still thickly embedded in them.
We moved out of our old house at the beginning of June but we've been unable to move into the new place and have since lived in three different houses and will probably add one, two or even three more to that list before we're finally able to move into our new home. Which will likely still be a bit of a building site. *sigh* as the following photos start to show:
Thursday, March 19, 2009
SeaWorld
We've lived here for nearly 7 years and in all that time I've never been to SeaWorld. Indeed Felix only went for the first time last year with my mother when she was visiting.
Why? Well, I guess we're a bit theme-parked out down here. There's Legoland (10 minutes away); the Zoo; Wild Animal Park and of course Disneyland just over an hour away. And I thought SeaWorld would just be more of the same...lots of amusements with a few token sea mammals thrown in.
So, OK I was wrong. It's really very impressive. So to is the rollercoaster, which was really the only amusement, beyond the Sesame St play area, that had nothing to do with fish. Although it does have a lot of water.
AdmittedlyI did still feel a bit uncomfortable when I saw these huge whales in these relatively small pools. Ditto the dolphins and sea lions. I know though that they have an amazing breeding program, which they remind you about constantly when you're there. A handy guilt assuager I'm guessing.
But yes, it was fun. And I'm glad I left it that long as well. There's no danger of us becoming jaded. The shows, as I said, were incredible. Very sophisticated production and well scripted. The two trainers in the water at the same time with their respective whales then pushing them out of the water so they could turn somersaults in the air...well, pretty incredible. And the exhibits were very impressive too. My favourite? The penguins. I went back about three times! Top tip, discovered by accident: go visit them right at the end of the day, they're much livelier.
Thanks to my aunt, cousin and her brood for coming to visit San Diego so we could enjoy such a great day. Here are some highlights below:
Pauline, Gerod, Connor and Pam
Liam & Felix
This doesn't show what I wanted it to, but if you click on it and look very closely above the whales, you'll see the two trainers, camouflaged by the crowd, turning somersaults in the air. Amazing.
Felix and 2 beluga whales.
Whilst we were getting soaked on the rollercoaster, Grace had her own soggy fun.
Why? Well, I guess we're a bit theme-parked out down here. There's Legoland (10 minutes away); the Zoo; Wild Animal Park and of course Disneyland just over an hour away. And I thought SeaWorld would just be more of the same...lots of amusements with a few token sea mammals thrown in.
So, OK I was wrong. It's really very impressive. So to is the rollercoaster, which was really the only amusement, beyond the Sesame St play area, that had nothing to do with fish. Although it does have a lot of water.
AdmittedlyI did still feel a bit uncomfortable when I saw these huge whales in these relatively small pools. Ditto the dolphins and sea lions. I know though that they have an amazing breeding program, which they remind you about constantly when you're there. A handy guilt assuager I'm guessing.
But yes, it was fun. And I'm glad I left it that long as well. There's no danger of us becoming jaded. The shows, as I said, were incredible. Very sophisticated production and well scripted. The two trainers in the water at the same time with their respective whales then pushing them out of the water so they could turn somersaults in the air...well, pretty incredible. And the exhibits were very impressive too. My favourite? The penguins. I went back about three times! Top tip, discovered by accident: go visit them right at the end of the day, they're much livelier.
Thanks to my aunt, cousin and her brood for coming to visit San Diego so we could enjoy such a great day. Here are some highlights below:
Pauline, Gerod, Connor and Pam
Liam & Felix
This doesn't show what I wanted it to, but if you click on it and look very closely above the whales, you'll see the two trainers, camouflaged by the crowd, turning somersaults in the air. Amazing.
Felix and 2 beluga whales.
Whilst we were getting soaked on the rollercoaster, Grace had her own soggy fun.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Solo Parenting
I've been single parenting now for 12 days. And frankly I'm over it! Mike's not back for 4 more days, so I need to keep slogging through it. We've all been sick in one form or another. Mine just a dripping, persistent head cold that has gone through various iterations, Felix with strep that saw him out for the count for 24 hours and off school for 2 days, last week, and Grace streaming with her hair often glued to her nose!
I definitely have a deeper admiration for all the women and men who raise children single-handedly. It's very tough work.
What I have found the hardest is being able to be present for them 100% of the time. And this doesn't mean I'm trying to engineer every minute or aspect of their day, but just when they need me, I need to be there present, still, focused only on them (even if just for a few minutes). It's usually pretty hard to do at the best of times, but now going into day 13 of solo-parenting it's nigh on impossible. I'm trying to get my things done, trying to keep the house ticking over, get them fed, take them out once a day, etc etc...you know the drill. Anyway, when it overtakes me I find it much more challenging to keep still and calm and they certainly don't get the best of me in those moments.
Added to this, Grace has also become very vociferous in her displeasure when Felix and I are having quiet snuggle time. She marches up, yells, tries to pull Felix's arm/leg/head away from me and quickly replace it with hers! For the most part Felix takes this in his stride, because he's such a trooper, but it's still a HUGE challenge.
Ah well. I just hope Mike doesn't come back jet-lagged because I NEED MY SLEEP!
But then on the flip side, Grace this morning was in such a happy sweet mood that I found all my tiredness and frustration melted away and in an instant I was regenerated. And then Vivian arrived to take her out for the morning (and yes, I'm very well aware that most single parents don't have the luxury of a Vivian in their lives and that yes indeed I am EXTREMELY fortunate and have very little to complain about...but I still need to decompress sometimes).
Anyway, here she is, heading out for a morning's play with her secret life friends.
I definitely have a deeper admiration for all the women and men who raise children single-handedly. It's very tough work.
What I have found the hardest is being able to be present for them 100% of the time. And this doesn't mean I'm trying to engineer every minute or aspect of their day, but just when they need me, I need to be there present, still, focused only on them (even if just for a few minutes). It's usually pretty hard to do at the best of times, but now going into day 13 of solo-parenting it's nigh on impossible. I'm trying to get my things done, trying to keep the house ticking over, get them fed, take them out once a day, etc etc...you know the drill. Anyway, when it overtakes me I find it much more challenging to keep still and calm and they certainly don't get the best of me in those moments.
Added to this, Grace has also become very vociferous in her displeasure when Felix and I are having quiet snuggle time. She marches up, yells, tries to pull Felix's arm/leg/head away from me and quickly replace it with hers! For the most part Felix takes this in his stride, because he's such a trooper, but it's still a HUGE challenge.
Ah well. I just hope Mike doesn't come back jet-lagged because I NEED MY SLEEP!
But then on the flip side, Grace this morning was in such a happy sweet mood that I found all my tiredness and frustration melted away and in an instant I was regenerated. And then Vivian arrived to take her out for the morning (and yes, I'm very well aware that most single parents don't have the luxury of a Vivian in their lives and that yes indeed I am EXTREMELY fortunate and have very little to complain about...but I still need to decompress sometimes).
Anyway, here she is, heading out for a morning's play with her secret life friends.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Give it to me now!
I love this face Grace makes. It says...I know what I want and I'm going to keep on demanding it until I get it (of course I'm completely at a loss to know where she gets this character trait from...).
But really, I'm amazed at her incredible communication skills....it doesn't matter that what she says is all a garble, I always understand her.
Lately she's taken to coming up to me and pulling on my jeans, my sweater, my hand...whatever's in reach really, and then dragging me off whilst jabbering happily away. And quite often now it's to take over to her change table to have a new nappy/diaper (I'm now conflicted as to what to call them!).
Clever girl.
But really, I'm amazed at her incredible communication skills....it doesn't matter that what she says is all a garble, I always understand her.Lately she's taken to coming up to me and pulling on my jeans, my sweater, my hand...whatever's in reach really, and then dragging me off whilst jabbering happily away. And quite often now it's to take over to her change table to have a new nappy/diaper (I'm now conflicted as to what to call them!).
Clever girl.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
LA-la-la-la-LA
The last time I saw Amanda was when she was living and working in Hong Kong and I was still in Sydney. She used to come over for her birthday and all her friends would happily drink her hard earned Hong Kong dollars in terribly fashionable venues around town.
That was probably about 9 years ago. And it was certainly a different life...a time before we had lives as wives and working mothers in Southern California.
Facebook (and Cass O’Connor) finally brought us back together again and wouldn’t you know it, Amanda’s been living and working in LA for the last few years with hubbie Justin and beautiful daughter Charlotte. Just a hundred miles away.
So us beach-burbian hicks all went up to the big smoke a few weekends ago, in February.
Amanda hasn't changed a bit. What I love about her is that she’s a spunky, energetic, stridently opinionated, very funny, smart woman who has a wonderful ability to laugh at herself and the occasional snobbery that pops out of her. Yet for all her self proclaimed pretensions she refreshingly has very few.
We drink more tea these days than we do fancy cocktails, had a lovely home cooked dinner on the Saturday and spent Sunday morning mooching around the Farmer’s Markets and the afternoon at the really stinky but lots of fun LaBrea tar pits.
Snaps from our weekend below, where I proved myself to be a terrible photographer. I forgot to take photos most of the time, managed to lose a load of them somewhere on my laptop and didn't even manage to get a photo of our hosts. I mostly framed very dull shots and even borrowing a lens made no difference...in fact just seemed to make them even more blurry...but hey ho...be prepared to be bored below:
Hollywood sign from outside Amanda's apartment. (It's that white line just below the centre of the photo!)
Charlotte. Blurry but gorgeous.
Poor Charlotte! I'm expecting the chiropractor's bills any day!
Amanda and Justin far far far away at the top of the hill.
The rear view of Felix and Amanda. Great coat Amanda. 
What's a hill for if not for rolling down??
That was probably about 9 years ago. And it was certainly a different life...a time before we had lives as wives and working mothers in Southern California.
Facebook (and Cass O’Connor) finally brought us back together again and wouldn’t you know it, Amanda’s been living and working in LA for the last few years with hubbie Justin and beautiful daughter Charlotte. Just a hundred miles away.
So us beach-burbian hicks all went up to the big smoke a few weekends ago, in February.
Amanda hasn't changed a bit. What I love about her is that she’s a spunky, energetic, stridently opinionated, very funny, smart woman who has a wonderful ability to laugh at herself and the occasional snobbery that pops out of her. Yet for all her self proclaimed pretensions she refreshingly has very few.
We drink more tea these days than we do fancy cocktails, had a lovely home cooked dinner on the Saturday and spent Sunday morning mooching around the Farmer’s Markets and the afternoon at the really stinky but lots of fun LaBrea tar pits.
Snaps from our weekend below, where I proved myself to be a terrible photographer. I forgot to take photos most of the time, managed to lose a load of them somewhere on my laptop and didn't even manage to get a photo of our hosts. I mostly framed very dull shots and even borrowing a lens made no difference...in fact just seemed to make them even more blurry...but hey ho...be prepared to be bored below:
Hollywood sign from outside Amanda's apartment. (It's that white line just below the centre of the photo!)
Charlotte. Blurry but gorgeous.
Poor Charlotte! I'm expecting the chiropractor's bills any day!
Amanda and Justin far far far away at the top of the hill.
The rear view of Felix and Amanda. Great coat Amanda. 
What's a hill for if not for rolling down??
Just plant and add water…
Sometimes I wish it was that easy growing kids. For starters it’s hard enough to even get Felix to drink water now that his juice box obsession has firmly taken root.
I’m sure lots of mothers go through this: guilt for what’s going inside and fueling their kids.
I guess I’m additionally sensitive because I find that a lot of American products just have so much unnecessary c-r-a-p added. The long list of ingredients in so many kids foods makes me shudder. I sometimes feel like I'm playing some kind of 'spot the real food ingredient' game.
But what’s worse is Grace, of course, loves to copy everything Felix does. Including wanting these bloody juice packs and boxes. Currently Felix likes these soft packs and it’s impossible to dilute the contents for either him or for Grace. At the moment Grace only gets to play with unopened or completely drained packs. But it’s not going to be long until she works out how to open it.
It’s lovely that she has a big brother to look up to and copy. But I really worry that we’re just so much more relaxed with her than we were with Felix about food etc, that maybe we’re too relaxed? She regularly has bites of cakes and cookies that Felix has, loves a little bit of chocolate and particularly enjoys the diluted juice that we do give her. I don’t think Felix ever had any juice before he was 2 years old. Certainly not on a regular basis.
They do say the second kid is much easier, because the parents are more easygoing. But I just worry about at what cost. So I'll just make myself feel better by repeating the much-often quoted refrain "a little of what you fancy"...
Ah well. They’re still the most beautiful and perfect children in the world. And on reflection, I'm always forgetting to water my plants, so maybe it is better than I’ve been given 2 children to grow instead.
I’m sure lots of mothers go through this: guilt for what’s going inside and fueling their kids.
I guess I’m additionally sensitive because I find that a lot of American products just have so much unnecessary c-r-a-p added. The long list of ingredients in so many kids foods makes me shudder. I sometimes feel like I'm playing some kind of 'spot the real food ingredient' game.
But what’s worse is Grace, of course, loves to copy everything Felix does. Including wanting these bloody juice packs and boxes. Currently Felix likes these soft packs and it’s impossible to dilute the contents for either him or for Grace. At the moment Grace only gets to play with unopened or completely drained packs. But it’s not going to be long until she works out how to open it.
It’s lovely that she has a big brother to look up to and copy. But I really worry that we’re just so much more relaxed with her than we were with Felix about food etc, that maybe we’re too relaxed? She regularly has bites of cakes and cookies that Felix has, loves a little bit of chocolate and particularly enjoys the diluted juice that we do give her. I don’t think Felix ever had any juice before he was 2 years old. Certainly not on a regular basis.
They do say the second kid is much easier, because the parents are more easygoing. But I just worry about at what cost. So I'll just make myself feel better by repeating the much-often quoted refrain "a little of what you fancy"...
Ah well. They’re still the most beautiful and perfect children in the world. And on reflection, I'm always forgetting to water my plants, so maybe it is better than I’ve been given 2 children to grow instead.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
