Monday, August 30, 2010

Summer daze

As the summer comes to its official end, here is a loose summer round-up. You see, school started today, and I already miss my girl. I sat down to finally do some work I have been itching to do yet putting off until this day, and instead I decided to dig into the photos I have taken over the past couple of months. I'm sure I just need a few days to adjust to uninterrupted time again, but until I do, the house seems awfully quiet. What did we do this summer? Well, not much. A whole lot of not much- which was really fun! Sometimes, I fight this go-with- the- flow non-planning, but I have learned that it is actually a rare and important experience to grow up with some un-scheduled time. As there was work to juggle, our fun plans were close to home, and usually pretty last minute. We spent a fair amount of time at the beach, rode the roller coaster at the pier (LOVED!), swam under the desert stars, lost some teeth (2!), spent beloved QT time with my brother and family who were here from China, baked (Tate's chocolate chip cookies!) and bbq-ed (everything), bowled, danced, climbed some trees, and fed the stray cats too. Isabel got really good at reading by herself, drawing and coloring next to me at my computer, doing Highlight puzzles (yes!) and engineering cool Lego structures. Oh, and, almost every night was a "special occasion" with a movie. We heart Harry Potter now...all 6 of them. I am really proud of how good she is at adapting to situations. If given the chance, she loves to be a wild spazz, but when it's clearly a mellow, entertain-yourself time, she is great at doing that too. This morning she lined up and walked away with her new kindergarten class. Smiling and waving goodbye, she blew me a kiss. She is SO ready.
Not sure about me.

























Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Toy Story: Home Edition

Like millions of other Americans, we recently saw Toy Story, and pretty much loved it. The adventures of these funny Toys gets me every time! Sniff.
Afterwards, we brought out some of our own toys and had fun seeing how they all got along. Freddy Krueger, meet Totoro. Million Dollar Man meet the Mummy, aka "Astronaut Mummy". Annie, meet... Obama! You might imagine the conversations these introductions inspired, channeled by Isabel. One of the best pairings was Captain Kirk side by side with Michael Myers from Halloween. Did you know that his super creepy mask was actually a Captain Kirk mask?? I had no idea. Where or where did this motley crue of figurines come from? From one great treasure trove of a chest that belongs to my husband and resides safely in our living room. No attic for these toys!








Sunday, June 20, 2010

She Will.

Isabel doesn't just want to be a fan of music, and certainly not just a groupie. No, she is pretty into the idea of playing music herself. Writing, singing and performing it too. Just "like Jem!" of Jem and The Holograms 1980s fame. As a mother who fights the pointless fight of the commercial princess invasion, I'd take Jem over Barbie and the Disney blondes any day. Don't get me wrong, she still loves Snow White and Sleeping Beauty ( I do too!) but I am proud to say that when she dresses up and dances around singing, it's pretty original material, with style and flare all her own. Girls can be princesses, but they should be unique in all the land! Princesses that do stuff and are creative, not just pretty and in need of saving. The other day, we stopped by one of her Daddy's sound checks at a club on Sunset. She was thrilled to"help out" on stage, mostly by dancing and knocking a microphone down. Backstage, the smell of stale beer hung appropriately in the thick air of the small trailer. The walls were rock stickers gone wild. Cool! Sure- she might grow up to be a math teacher, but it's hard not to notice the light in her eyes fire up, as she starts to compose her next song. This one is a song for guitar. Scratch that. Indian tanpora!