Mini-Vaca

March 26th we celebrated Grandma Josie and Grandpa Andy's 62nd wedding anniversary on their turf. Yes the family, all 30+ of us made the trek out to Laughlin, NV. Where Grandma and Grandpa are pretty much regulars with comped rooms and all that jazz.

We all stayed at the River Palms (never again!) We had a room on the 10th floor with a pretty awesome view of the river. When I originally booked the room I opted for a non-river view. I figured $10 a night wasn't worth looking at the river for the 10 minutes a day we would be in the room. When Joey found this out he immediately called and switched to a river view which I guess was nice, but worth $20.00. I'm still debating that one. 

On Saturday night we all went to the Harrah's buffet for one big family dinner. And boy was there family!

Grandma and Grandpa with their Grandchildren 

(Well the ones that made it to Laughlin)

See Joey is totally use to being surrounded by women.

And here they are with the great-grandkids that were there.

Here they are with their favorites. Yes they have favorites. At least I married one of the faves!

Even my Mom and Pops came out for the celebration. Broken wrist and all. If you look close you can see where The Phi signed my Mom's cast!

Lou meeting her great-great-Uncle. Crazy

I don't know what The Phi is doing. At this point I have stopped asking.

Our lifesaver Julie! She will do anything to make Lou smile. If Lou even gave one little cry Julie was there to make silly faces and noises. No wonder all the kids love Julie.

On our trip The Phi had one request. She wanted to take a boat ride. So the water taxi meant for people too drunk to walk to the next casino became the highlight of the trip for The Phi!

Arizona to the left.

Lou just loved the wind whipping through her hair!

She must get that from her big sister.....

Joey contemplating....stuff

I am still getting use to the missing front teeth.

I love her little stride with Schmonkey swinging back and forth.

Yea he's pushing a stroller but he's still hard-core.

Getting our $10 a day worth of view.

Despite the awful hotel service, the blisters on my feet and the fact that I probably slept a total of 3 hours in 2 days, it was a fantastic little mini-vacation. Awesome to have Joey's family together in a new place. And even more awesome that my parents were there to help celebrate and spend some time with us.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

And the winner of the Miss Scarlett's School of Patternless Sewing is...............


drum roll


MERCY ELAINE!

Congrats and your books will be sent out to you soon!

Thanks for playing!

Good news and bad news

I thought I had another year before dealing with all this. Most kids wait until they are 6 or 7. And with The Phi not getting them until about 9 months I thought for sure she would loose them late too. But no, my little overachiever has now lost a total of 4 teeth. The bottom 2 came out pretty quickly once they got loose. The top front were are another story.

Those guys were soooo loose for soooo long. I thought for sure we were going to be tying her tooth to a string and tying that string to the bumper of the car to get them out. Fortunately we did not have to take such drastic measures. On Monday night I put the kids to bed at 8:30 and I had one hour before Joey came home from work. AHHHH peace, quiet, wine, reading! Not even 15 minutes later The Phi comes flying into the den shrieking "Mom! Mom! my tooth!" And there is was in her hot little hand. We hugged. We shrieked. We took pictures.

 

The tooth fairy successfully gave The Phi 3 bucks and things were awesome. I knew that other tooth was going to come out soon. I just didn't know how soon or the drama that would ensue.

The next day we sat around the table eating dinner. As a very rare treat I had baked brownies and we were all enjoying my amazing baking skills (that is called sarcasm people). I was in the kitchen with The Phi says "Mom I bit something hard." I didn't think anything of it. Told her she had an end piece and they ends are harder than the middle. I asked her if she ate it and she said she did. 

Do you see where this is going???

After dessert we headed to the girls room to get ready for baths when The Phi looks in the mirror and exclaims "MOM MY TOOTH!!"  I went to her and looked at her hands and on the floor. Nothing. So I asked her where the tooth was and she had no idea. As Joey walked into the room to find out what all the ruckus was it dawned on me. I heard her say it again in my mind....

"Mom I bit something hard." 

I looked at Joey and said. I think she swallowed her tooth.

This lead to a discussion of where the tooth was and how it was going to come out. The Phi was not amused. But she was happy to have those loose teeth out!

 

Since we didn't have the actual tooth we had to make do with a cut out picture of a tooth. Just for the record this one was WAY bigger than the tooth The Phi lost, but if she takes after my sisters will be about the size of the new ones that come in.

As we placed her "tooth" under her pillow The Phi asked me, "Mom if I leave the tooth fairy a fake paper tooth will she leave me fake paper money?" I told her I didn't know. Since we all know the tooth fairy is quite a joker this is what The Phi found the next morning.

Now don't go feel sorry for her. This was taped to the back.

What That?

The Lou is quite inquisitive these days......

Firsts for the Second

Today Lou had her first teething cookie. Joey gave it to her and I got to see the aftermath when I picked her up at about 2 today. She was sitting in her high chair and as I went in to greet her with a kiss this was staring back at me....

 A messy face, but a happy kid. I kissed her anyways because, well it's hard to resist such a cute little face.

 I was afraid that since Lou is our second child all her milestones would not be as awesome. In fact they are not only just as amazing as when The Phi was a baby, but they also bring back memories of The Phi's firsts.

As I grabbed the camera to capture this messy face and how much Lou enjoyed her first "cookie" I remembered the picture I took of The Phi, at about the same age, with the same satisfied grin after her first cookie.

It's nice to experience these "firsts" with my second and reminiscing about all the firsts of the first.

Spring Break 2011

Believe it or not, The Phi was on spring break this week. As usual she spent most of her time stuck with me at the office. She was fantastic at the office and did not complain once. So on Joey's day off, I took the day off to surprise The Phi with a trip to the Cabazon dinosaurs. See a few months ago The Phi and I watched the movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure. And when she realized that the dinosaurs we pass on the way to Palm Springs are the same ones from the movie, she has been begging us to go. It is now a Robotic Dinosaur / creationist museum now. There is a gift shop, lots of motion sensor robotic dinosaurs, the dino dig area where of you find a rock with a dinosaur name on it you get a prize, a place to pan for rocks, a trail with lots of dinosaur statues and the end of the trail is the T-Rex. Yes thee T-Rex from the Pee-Wee movie! AND..... we got to go inside it!!

"Picnik Show"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

The best part of the whole dinosaur experience was by far going into the T-Rex. It was so cool! It was such a good day and most importantly of all, The Phi had a great time.

(if you are reading this on Facebook and cannot see the slide show just click on see original post!)

How The Phi Almost Got Her Little Butt Kicked Out Of The House

As I was putting her to bed, The Phi asked me to do something for her one night. I told her I would do it the next day. She frowned and pouted and mumbled, "Why not? All your going to do is have fun with Dad on the couch and watch American Idol". I threw up my hand and gave a loud "Oh no she didn't!". Even though she was totally right. She just forgot about the glass of wine.

Her comment was just proof positive that she believes that fairies come into the house everyday and do all the work around here. When I told Joey about The Phi's comment he did his best to explain to her all the things I do for them throughout the day. How at the end of the night, those couple of hours Joey and I have together after the kids go to bed is our time to relax and talk after long days of jobs and taking care of her and Louella.  It was good for her to hear it. To realize that food does not magically appear. Birds don't fly into the kitchen and wash and put away the dishes. The clothes don't march themselves into the washing machine and march back into the closets.

This shit doesn't happen around here...



I have not successfully trained Roo to sweep the floors. Reality is I am the only one who does any housework. So it got me thinking. The Phi is going to be 6 years old very soon. Sounds like a great age to start carrying your weight around here. I think this summer The Phi will begin doing some chores around here.And of course even earn herself a little allowance. So what kind of chores can I give a 6 year old? I'm guessing mowing the lawn is out of the question.

Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing Give-a-way!

2 things I love.....

1. reading
2. crafts

This book was a perfect match. I picked the book up on a Friday and by Saturday afternoon, my kids were running the show because Mommy had locked herself in her room.....to read. Totally kidding. I did what all Mom's do. I stayed up way too late reading in bed.


Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing is the second Fiction novel from the one and only Kathy Cano-Murillo better known as Crafty Chica. I was introduced to Kathy through my constant blog reading and my passion for Chicana art and literature. Her art work is fantastic and her writing is just as fantastical.(Yes I know that's not a real word.)

Here is just one reason I like Kathy Cano-Murillo so much. Her bio includes this...

"Kathy's mission is to promote, celebrate and share in the Chicano craft experience. As a professional crafter, she is impressed that Latinos make up a large part of the $31 billion craft industry. Her goal is to promote and motivate women of all backgrounds, ages and ethnicities to join in the art and craft movement." 

When the chance to review this new book came up I jumped at it. I am going to admit I have not read Kathy's first book, Waking Up in the Land of Glitter. The book came and I was super excited to start reading. Then I got nervous, what if I didn't like it? What if I had to write a bad review? I cracked open the book and dove in and my fears subsided as the book quickly became one of those "I can't put it down" kind of books.

The story revolves around Scarlet Santana, a young single woman who decided to put her college degree away and to follow her passion of sewing. As a way to raise money for a prestigious designer class Scarlet puts together a class on patternless sewing. The novel follows the stories of Scarlet and her students and how one little weekly class and a mystery changes everything. One part I really enjoyed was the way music was embedded into the story. It was like it came with its own soundtrack! And just when you think you have the mystery solved there is a twist. Very Mexican novella like!




 

 The characters were so well crafted. Most of the characters are Latina's and Kathy managed to keep the characters culture and ethnicity alive and an aspect of the story without turning them into stereotypes. She makes her Latino characters authentic so that other Latina's can relate. Scarlet and her students are lovable Latina's who's issues and victories everyone can relate to.

So the bottom line...... I loved it! A book filled with love, betrayal, secrets, fashion, family drama, and following your dreams. What's not to love!

And now the best part of this whole review. I am giving away a copy of this fabulous book AND a copy of Waking Up in the Land Of Glitter! That's right you can win 2 books!

Here is the dilio. In the book Scarlet Santana does what most of us can only dream of doing. She leaves the corporate, steady paycheck world behind to live her passion. For a chance to win both books leave me a comment and tell me if you could live your passion what would you be doing? Be sure to leave me your email address so I can get back to you if you're the big WIENER! 

A winner will be chosen at random and contest ends on Thursday March 24th.

Good Luck!

Books

It's hard to say no when they are asking for a book and are just sooo cute.

Last Dia de Los Muertos (November 2nd) we were at a celebration and we came across a booth for this childrens book called "Rosita Y Conchita". A bilingual book about twin sisters. One dead and one alive. The illustrations were adorable and The Phi fell in love with it AND they were sold out. As a consolation prize The Phi got to take home a postcard advertising the book. She has kept this postcard in her backpack ever since.

Last night at Art Walk, we went into a building to use the restrooms and The Phi noticed the booth with the book was back. We went over and there was a pile of books for sale. She grabbed it and looked up at me as said "Can I get it now Mom?".

I mean look at that face. What was I going to say.And it's a book. I love books. Like so much that I should marry them. So I bought her the book. And bonus! One of the authors was there and signed the book to both the girls. We read the story today after school and it was as adorable and as sentimental as you would imagine it to be. The story is about twin sisters, one living and one not, and how a Dia De Los Muertos altar brings them together.

I am so happy The Phi was so excited about a book.

When Ronin met Louella

Date: February 27, 2011

Time: 11:00AM- Brunch

Location: Honey's Cafe

Ronin and Louella are seated side by side. Each waiting for brunch to be served. They looked over and their eyes meet.  

It was time to eat. He was having the carrots while she was having the oatmeal and fruit bowl. His food was stage 1 and hers was Stage 2 but they didn't care.

It the middle of all the conversation Louella, ignoring the shiny noisy toys, moved her hand closed to Ronin in a sign of friendship.

Ronin, being much bolder reached over and touched her arm.

He pleaded with her to be BFF's. He was new to the world and with the extra 2 months of experience she could help him figure out this big ol' world.

Louella was more than happy to accept his proposal. And they happily dropped toys and talked all through brunch. They left each other with plans for a trip to the zoo very soon.

And a friendship was born.

9 months.....seriously???

Lou-miester,

Today you are 9 months old. Excuse my language but holy crap! Where did the time go? Seriously the fact that you are only 3 months away from your first birthday is beyond ridiculous. Beyond.

So some exciting stuff as happened. Mostly you finally got some teeth. Just like your sister you waited a long time to cut your first teeth. You guys must get that from your Dad, because the overachiever I am, I was born with a tooth. That's right, I was teething right out of the womb. It's amazing my parents kept me.

There are some things that haven't changed. Like you still can't say Mom, but Dada you can yell all day long. And you adore your sister. And it's been awesome to watch your relationship growing and changing. You love to play with anything your sister is playing with, and bath time is your fave because its time with The Phi. No one blames you, The Phi is rock star status.

You are mobile in the sense that you can get to anyplace you want to be by rolling and pulling yourself. Again like your sister you will wait a little longer to crawl and believe me...I am totally okay with that. I have a feeling that with you we are going to be forced to baby proof EVERYTHING!

You are my "wild one with an angel's face". A friend of ours asked your Dad and I if we ever just stare at you and marvel at your cuteness. And I have to admit it, we do. You are such a beautiful baby. And not just on the outside, but when you smile you radiate this happiness and it is the most amazing thing ever. I have been doing my best to capture it all in photos but a lens cannot capture your radiance.

I love you my chubby one,
Mom