18-monther gets first haircut (operation mullet-be-gone a success!)

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you fathers. We threw a party last night for the neighborhood. We were pretty much ready for a party around here. I suggested that we switch Mother's and Father's Days this year because I got Brandon a kick ass gift and I didn't want to wait. It's a bounce house. It is awesome. We had it up for the party as well as a couple of kiddie pools and the climber and the teeter-totter and the picnic table and the inside toys and a bunch of juice boxes and cookies and cupcakes and sugar, sugar, sugar!!! Thank god for the bounce house. I was asked by another mom if I'd laid down the rules for the bouncer. Huh? Rules? Oh, apparently there should be big kid time and little kid time. Okay, got it. And then she asked if I was gonna let the kids eat then bounce then throw up in the bouncer. Huh? And then she said, "You really haven't thought this through, have you?" And she was right. Luckily there was no vomit. You're welcome. Here's a video of the baby dancing with her papa this morning. Her papa is sitting in LAX right now, waiting for a rescheduled flight which puts him into Washington DC at midnight. After that he only has an hour drive. Talk about a happy Father's Day!

Also, while we were readying the backyard for the party, we found a very swollen-with-eggs black widow (killed it), a two-inch scorpion (relocated it to the desert), a partial rabbit (offered it to the coyotes) and a dead baby bird (put it in the trash)! Yay!

We three

Photo by Grandpa Scott (Haku) who, along with Grams Judy, surprised us with a quick overnight visit on their way to a Yosemite trek. (Okay, it wasn't a total surprise, we got a few hours warning.)

A True Trail-Blazer

One of the brightest bulbs in our family chandelier burned out before his time. Brandon's grandfather, LeRoy, died when his plane crashed on Friday morning. Details are still coming in. I was asked to set up a blog site to centralize info.

http://leroypoulin.blogspot.com/

Please visit. There is an email address to which to send photos and remembrances which I will then post.

Ancient Mama-ese Wisdom

"The raisins eaten on a Wednesday afternoon will be re-plumped to grapes on a Thursday morning."

I'm a winner!

A couple weeks back I was cruising through my morning routine - drinking coffee, sitting on the couch, checking the internets - when I read this post on a fave shopping blog:

Dudes. Dudes. 696 valid entries* into the contest to win the 60-minute Flip camcorder. Sometimes I say to my husband, “They really like me!” and he replies “Yes, dear. They really like you…r stuff!” Regardless, I’m glad to have you all along.

I have but one Flip to give, and Ye Olde Random Number Generator picked number 65: Rebecca! Congratulations, Rebecca! (Check your email, and mail me back with your address, please.)

"Self," I say, "Your name is Rebecca." I moused over my name and saw my blog address. I did it again. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, drank more coffee. Could it be? I gingerly tabbed to my email and lo and behold. There was the aforementioned email! Dag. I was a winner.

The shopping blog is wantnot.net and is owned and operated by the lovely Mir. I have been reading her personal blog, Woulda Coulda Shoulda, since Brandon was deployed and have come to include it as one of my daily fixes.

This post is a belated thank-you for the Flip, Mir. We love it!

This thanks is in the form of a video of my kid being cute. You would’ve gotten it sooner but Amelia just wasn’t being cute enough. Kind of a bad deal for her since the agreement is love in return for cuteness. Hopefully she’ll continue to keep up her end of the bargain from now on.

Rebecca


(Try to ignore the creepy way I tell my first-born to "shake it")

I'm not sure what this says about me

Carl's Jr. has Cap'n Crunch shakes and malts. I had a malt last evening. Last night, I dreamed about it. Was it that good or is my life that small-town. Hmmm.

Bubble Dance

Taken March 14.

Survival guide excerpt - Amelia-style

What do you do when a big, yellow dog sits in your lap?


Why, you hug it of course!


Yay for puppies!

Things you've missed out on...

Him (from behind the bathroom door): No, no, no! Aargh. Gah.
Me (greatly concerned): What happened!?!
Him: I accidentally read Cathy!

A month later, repeated with substitution: Mutts.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me (unloading groceries): Look, Albertson's has organic milk by the gallon now.
Him: Cool, how much is it?
Me: Seven dollars.
Him: Gah!
Me: The half-gallons are usually $3.50 or a little more, so...
Him: Gah!
Me: Hey, what's more important than the food we feed our family?
Him: How we're gonna pay for our iPhones!

(Editor's note - Fear not, we found a way)

AC went to the birds

Grams and AC - nature lovers, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

And to the fishes. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Grams last week. Brandon was on yet another business trip (4th one this year) so the dogs and kid and I packed ourselves into the car and headed to Haku and Grams' place for the week. We did a couple of runs to the fantastic playground that is Dennis the Menace park. One of those was with Grams and the other with Uncle Josh, Aunt Julisa, and Cousin Jocelyn. Joss is a year older than Amelia and they're now at an age where they interact and play with one another. Good times. Nothing better than babies chasing babies.

Valentine's Day 2008

Valentine's Day 2008, originally uploaded by Monkey loves Kitten.

Hope you all had some monkey love of your own!

What's in a name?

I made a new friend a few weeks ago. Her husband is new to Brandon's squadron and they have a daughter four days older than Amelia. Another wife put us in touch and we've had playdates at home as well as the park. Today we ventured downtown (that is hilarious if you've ever been here). We were in a shop where we each made a purchase. I went first. After she paid, the shopkeeper said, "Oh, Rebecca, I forgot to get your signature on the slip." Naturally, I walked back to the counter and looked at the slip. It said "Rebecca FriendsLastName." Quoi? I was perplexed to say the least. You see, my new friend is named Annie. So...

"Oh!" says Annie, " "Rebecca is really my first name. I was gonna tell you."
"Wait. What? How is that not something you would tell me right away? P.S. We have the same name."
"No one ever calls me that."
"Okay, you are definitely weird! And now I don't trust you because all the Rebecca's I know are untrustworthy."

I think I may really like this gal.

Thought

This is the hardest time of the year for me. The weeks between ordering the Girl Scout cookies and their arrival. *sigh*

safety

Bounce Houses is having a "Blowout Sale." That's one of those product categories where a blowout really doesn't sound like a selling point.

Sorry, Crimson & Gold

I was at the grocery store with AC today. We were nearing the end of our trip, looping back from beer to ice cream (we're healthy like that), when an elderly white female riding a Rascal gestured to display.
"I wonder if there's a UCLA shirt under that USC one."
"I think there is. I see blue."
"I went to UCLA, I want to put it in front."
"Let's check."
So we did and there were in fact UCLA tees hidden behind the SC sweatshirts. There were two SC shirts showing. I offered to assist. I moved the SC shirts to one rack so the Bruin shirt was showing. That wasn't enough.
"Cover up the other one, too."
Happy to oblige, ma'am. Happy to oblige.

Words do no justice

Un-cross that one off the list

After a second examination and x-ray, it appears there was no actual break. Merely soft tissue damage. Brandon is glad because he had been grounded after the initial diagnosis and is now cleared to fly. I'm glad, too. I am! Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the hand. It initially swelled so that his normally veiny and tendony hand was smooth like a baby's bottom. If that baby were particularly hairy. Then there was a bruise in the palm of his hand. Then that bruise migrated to his wrist bone. This was very strange since neither his palm nor wrist hurt. Anyway, he's still in some pain if he uses the hand much or knocks it into something unwittingly. He tried to distract himself from that by stubbing two toes over the weekend. Didn't work, just added to his list of sore parts. Oh well.