The Littlest One

So far my summer has been consumed by all things Amelia.  Jacob is visiting Grandma in Chicago for a few weeks and Andrew has a new best friend that lives next door, so Amelia and I have been spending lots of time together. 

Everyday Amelia comes up with creative things to do. She has a very imaginative little mind.  We have had countless tea parties, stuffed animal picnics, dress up play, treasure hunts, and lots, and lots of arts and crafts days.

A few weeks ago Amelia drew portraits of everyone in our family.  They are hilarious.  I'm the one with the messy hair on the top right. We cut them out and pasted them onto black construction paper.  She drew one of Bela as well but it tore a few days ago.
   

After a visit to Costco today Amelia constructed her own TV from the cardboard box our groceries were placed in.  She made herself into a human TV and is now insisting that we save her creation for Halloween.  I'm not sure how I feel about my child being a TV for Halloween but I have plenty of time to change her mind.

Home tour part 1: The living room

The family room:

Our new place is a work in progress.   It's been fun making it our own.  The last three photos were taken in the perspective of Amelia who took about 50 pictures of random things today. 

Last days of school

After moving to La Mesa, Aaron and I thought about enrolling the kids in our local school but after much thought we couldn't do it.  We love their school. 

I love that I know the name of every single kid I see on the playground.  I love that the 5th grade girls have the tendency to braid Amelia's hair and tell me who their crushes are.  I love that Jacob was allowed to get half way through the 5th grade math book when his teacher realized that the 4th grade one was too easy and that Andrew's teacher gave his grade lots of projects to do this year because he realized that is where their strength is, and that Amelia woke up everyday excited to go to school. I like that if I don't feel like driving all the way back home to La Mesa after dropping the kids off at school I can stop by our principals house to have a midday margarita with his wife who is the most hilarious and inappropriate woman I have ever met. 

My kids school is like a little bubble--a fifties time warp of good manners, morals, and old fashion community love.  Last weekend was the 8th grade graduation ceremony and I actually cried because I will miss those kids and I have loved seeing them mature and grow.  My favorite 8th grader whose is moving to Arizona, stopped Andrew and Jacob when we were leaving a graduation party to give them a hug and to tell them how much he was going to miss them.   It's moments like those where I realize how lucky we are to have them in such a tiny school.  As much as I complain about having to pay tution and the traffic we sit in to get there, in the end I know that it is worth it and I know that they will look back on there elementary school days with some pretty awesome memories.

P.S.  My camera got wet during the end of school water ballon toss.  That is why the pics are hazy.

The WT on the street

My neighbors may or may not think we are trash balls.

 It all started when Aaron took some hedge trimmers to the vivid green, wildly growing bushes that once lined our driveway.  He took it a step too far and trimmed them to death.  When the kids and I arrived home from a weekend trip up north we were greeted by their bareness. 

The following weekend he trimmed more off and currently all that is left is the lonely carcasses of what were once bushes.  To add insult to injury he lined our front yard with weed killer and now everything is brown.  In his defense it was basically all overgrown weeds. At some point in the very near future we plan to do some great landscaping. For now our neighbors have an unsightly looking home on their block. It will get there.  At some point our hosue will be pretty. 

Family

Last weekend the kids and I headed to Santa Rosa to spend four days with my sister, her hubby, their adorable little baby Seamus, and my big bro. My sister planned the trip months ago and arranged it around my kid’s spring break. I consulted the kid’s school website on the dates they'd be out of school in April. Michelle promptly bought her tickets and arranged lodging, only to find out a week before the trip was scheduled that the website hadn’t been updated in a year and the dates listed were for the kids spring break from last year.   If there is a way to screw something up I always find a way.  I remedied the problem by pulling my kids out of school for two days.

It was the first time I drove all the way up the California coast without Aaron. It was relaxing. I had full control of where we stopped, what we listened to, and the route I took. It was liberating. 

In my opinion there is nothing better than a road trip. They are intoxicating. I like to think that my kids have gypsy or maybe tinker blood in them what with the way they take to travel. They settle back and watch the rows of crops whoosh past  while enjoying the mountain backdrops.  they even note the amount of cows or a bird with red on the tips of its wing. They are fantastic travelers. The ride was harmonious with the exception of Amelia’s need to constantly sing which annoyed the boys to no end.

Michelle rented a house up on a hill on the grounds of a vineyard. It looked like a postcard.  I felt like we were on a movie set and that at any moment Jude Law would emerge from the flowery hill next to our cottage with a bottle of deep red wine. We filled our days exploring wine country and walking around the grounds of the vineyard. Roger, my bro, who lives 40 minutes from the cottage, was a no show the whole time until the night before our scheduled departure.

The kids adore him so they kept asking "when is he coming! When!" He is moving away from San Francisco for good in a few weeks.   His life is crammed packed with loose ends, work, and saving for his upcoming move to Chicago.  Still, despite all the worries in his life right now, I had a tiny feeling in the back of my mind that he didn’t care to spend time with us at all. It appeared that to him seeing us was more of a chore than anything else. I felt all those old childhood feelings bubbling up again. I have always had a deep admiration for my brother but at the same time I have never felt completely loved by him. There is a small part of me that always feels like I need to prove myself worthy of his love.  I find myself behaving like a child trying my hardest to impress him.  I don’t know where that comes from or if my feelings are warranted but nonetheless they are there every time I see him. I think this is the first time I fully recognized the way he makes me feel.

On Sunday when the kids and I pulled out of the winery driveway in my dusty pickup truck to head all the way back to San Diego I wished more than anything that I lived closer to my family. The biggest adjustment I had to overcome when I first moved to San Diego was being so far away from them. I am used to it now but every now and then I feel an intense homesickness for my family. A weekend with them just isn’t long enough. Next time I’ll have to stay longer.

Studs

I wrote this week's San Diego Reader cover.  This story was the bane of my existence for nearly two months because I got so caught up in trying to make it perfect.  I awkwardly interviewed numerous western world enthusiasts and pretended to be professional.  I loved/hated every minute of it.  I am super proud of this article because it was way out of my comfort zone.  It was the most challenging article I have ever written. I learned so much.  The best part--I got paid to do something I enjoy. 

Giddy up

12

Andrew gets BO and is developing arm pit hair. He rolls his eyes at me and is almost always embarrassed by my presence.

That's what it's like to be 12.

He says mom, with the m drawn out a way to make it clear that I am humiliating him. His moods are extreme and his room is always messy. It is clear that things will be rocky from here on out.

The silver lining? He still spills it all. He tells me stuff that most kids don't tell their mothers. Last week he told me that he almost always feels like his friends just don't get him. He also told me that he might want to someday marry the girl in his class who has nearly as many freckles as him.

This year he wanted grown up things for his Birthday--an iPod and iTunes gift cards, He has an affection for NOFX, the Eagles (tragically), and Kayne West, which may be the most bizarre music combination of all time. Also, he detests the Beastie Boys and anything sounding remotely similar to them.

Andrew wants to be a writer when he grows up which makes me irrationally giddy. He keeps stories in a green folder in his closet. He wrote a story about a lizard king that was pretty darn good. He inhales books the way I wish I had at his age.

I see an astounding amount of potential in him that I cannot wait to watch take shape. I am eagerly anticipating all the little adventures his life is going to take him on.

Happy Birthday to my sweet little man.