Manic Sunday

As an example of how booked our Octobers are getting. Mom scheduled her birthday dinner last night, a week before her Oct. 5th birthday. Saturday, October 6th has been taken by Dominic (11th) who is turning THREE! And Henry is lucky enough to have his birthday and party fall on a Saturday, so of course he has dibs on the 13th! Yours truly has fallen on a Friday this year (12th). And let's not forget Auntie May the 14th. Lisa the 2nd. Christopher the 3rd. Leigh the 8th. Email me if I've forgotten anyone else.


I worked all week on the above for mom. I've just finished another today which I will reveal this week as soon as I dispatch it to another birthday girl!

I am getting excited about tomorrow. Something to tide me over until then. Going to see Dave Matthews Band at the Bowl tomorrow night with Mike and Maria! Can't thank Jacki and Tom enough for helping make it happen as they were instrumental in getting us the best tickets available at the time, since we got them so late! Am worried about Kenny's foot. He hurt it biking last week and am worried about how far we'll have to walk for parking. Anyhow he's taken it a little easy this weekend, so hopefully it's on the mend and will be as good as new tomorrow.


Tonight Henry spent some time at a playdate with his classmate Ian. Afterwards Ian, his sister Maya and dad Jim walked over to drop Henry off and stayed for a spell. It's so nice to have great neighbors and to have Henry and Ian in the same class is just magic. While saying goodbyes Rhys told Maya to 'give me five' and gave five to Ian as well!

from the Star Wars Episode

Picture of the Day

Silver Linings

Image taken from postsecret.com

I love looking for silver linings, but even more I love to hear about others who do as well. This morning I heard a story about a couple who got engaged last night. He was still on bended knee when a mugger jumped out of the bushes and got away with the ring as well as the cash for their celebratory dinner and night on the town. This couple spent the first day of their engagement in a police station filing a robbery report. And would you believe the man's response was 'It could have been worse, at least she said YES!'

Last Friday night Kenny and I had our first date night in a long while. Guess what we saw? Superbad. I have never heard so many p jokes in one movie! But the highlight of our night for me, besides dinner :), was getting my hands on a book called 'Post Secret'. I had heard about it, but had not seen it, so imagine how excited I was when I spotted it. The post secret website is just as interesting.

I am so enamoured of this book and the whole concept behind it that I brought it to Andrew's Bday Party. Passed it around to my cousins who were just as fascinated by it. Afterwards we sat around the birthday cake discussing the fall tv schedule and debating which one of Rory's boyfriends was the best guy ever. Victoria, Jacqueline and I agree that Jess by far was the most intriguing, and that this picture of Milo Ventimiglia found on wikipedia is something to drool over.

Finally! A Reason to Recycle Gum

The skies over LA have been just beautiful today. There are clouds everywhere forming the most gorgeous patterns, and when the sunlight hits at a certain angle everything lights up. It is simply magnificent!

I guess living in LA makes you really appreciate the gift of an exquisite panoramic sky all that more. I wish I lived in a world, or at least in a city where I can take the beauty of today for granted.


It's a rare day when you can actually see the Hollywood sign.


Today Rhys personally showed me how to use recycled gum. All together now "GROSS!"


Last night the boys and I were playing with this contraption called the Super Fort by Cranium. It's like a big Lego toy where you put pieces together to build a structure, and in this instance they gave enough pieces to build a fort. They were really enjoying themselves until one of them shot their eye out! I joke. But they might as well have. They began to fight over the materials and both got extremely frustrated with the other. Rhys began to pound on Henry and Henry getting really upset took a foam stick from the kit and smacked Rhys on the left side of his head! Boy what a mess!


Henry woke this morning a little pissed but with a mission. He would not stop until he made his fort. I was really impressed. Afterwards I asked Kenny if he had shown Henry how to build it. Kenny answered 'no that it was all Henry'! Our little engineer!

Arrgh 'Talk Like A Pirate Day'...Matey!

Rhys doing his homework.

Did you know that today, September 19 is International 'Talk Like A Pirate Day'? I learned this fascinating fact on NPR while driving the kiddies to school this morning. Went online and looked up the following (click on wikipedia to get additional info):

International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD) is a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by John Baur ("Ol' Chumbucket") and Mark Summers ("Cap'n Slappy"), of the United States, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate.[1] For example, an observer of this holiday would greet friends not with "Hello," but with "Ahoy, me hearty!"

I feel the season changing. Was so exhausted last night after supervising homework, bath and dinner. I think we all conked out about 9:30p, after a couple of crossword puzzles, which is mighty early for us (meaning Kenny and I, the kids usually are in bed by 9p). Today as I dropped Henry off at school he remembered that it was Show & Tell in his Spanish class. Oops!

After dropping Rhys off I did a few errands which included a stop off at Target. While in line I saw the biggest fly EVER! I was so excited I felt my jaw drop to the floor. I wanted to point the fly out to everyone in line, but the lady ahead of me was engrossed in conversation with the cashier and I didn't want to interrupt so I took a picture of it!

Saturday AM/pm

We spent much of Saturday at mom's company open house. It was a very nice excursion for the boys. We had so much fun playing on all the rides, eating hot dogs, cheeseburgers and ice cream! Thanks for inviting us mom!

friday FRIDAY!

I want to wish Happy Birthdays all around to Angele and Hilary, the best mother-in-law and sister-in-law a girl can ask for!

We celebrated both their birthdays with a combo dinner. Among those in attendance were birthday girl Angele, Muni, Lisa, John, and Hilary (Happy Birthday Hilary!). We were very excited to present Angele with a piece I had been working on this past week. Kenny took the picture and the kids helped with placing the spiders. Ta da.

Here's a play by play of the cake cutting last night.

Although it wasn't my birthday, and it certainly was not Rhys'! Kenny surprised me with all available seasons of the Gilmore Girls! AND we were loaded with gifts from Hawaii courtesy of Muni and Angele who have just returned from that lovely place. We had a such a wild and crazy night we didn't get home until well after 9p!


This morning we kept slapping the snooze and did not wake until past 7a! Luckily Kenny volunteered to drive Henry, and when he returned he suggested that we enjoy a cup of coffee and some of that rum cake Muni brought back for us from Hawaii while doing a couple of crosswords together. The cake was delicious, and even Rhys enjoyed it (although he ejected the macdamians). Thanks Muni.

Afterwards we decided to check out clips of Britney's performance at the VMAs the other night as well as the clip of one fan's plea to "leave Britney ALONE". (Please note that there is language so moms please make sure kiddies are not in the room while viewing). Our response to the latter is WOW. Then I saw this one by Seth Green, which is unfortunately even more hilarious!


The following is a really cute email I got from Mary today entitled 'Why God made Moms'. Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

What ingredients are mothers made of ?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.

What kind of little girl was your mom?
1. My Mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

What's the difference between moms & dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

This reminds me of something I read yesterday that Carrie Young wrote on her blog called I'm Invisible that had me in tears.

OMG! R-H-Y-S

It's been a pretty hectic week, weekend and start of another week. I don't know where this extra work is coming from but I am happily plugging away. So, I'm assuming my normal position in my office and all of a sudden I hear this coming from the living room, "R- H- Y- S... Rhys". I pause in my work. And am lucky to hear him repeat it! I run out and cuddle down next to him on the lounger and he's pointing at a Gamecube game box which has some of the letters of his name. I think he recognized the H and Y and just began to spell out his name from memory. This, just after less than a week at school! I quickly call Kenny to share this happy episode. I am so esctatic!

PS When I went to pick Rhys up from school today I was greeted by the teacher with a comment on how different he is away from me. As in 'he was SOO good today!' ?!@@$%#@!!huh? The teacher's other comment concerned how S-M-A-R-T he is, and I kid you not she S-P-E-L-L-E-D it out for me :)

Annual Rx ouch!

Took the boys to their annual check up today. We were all geared up for their 2:40p appointment in Santa Monica. Because, or if you'd prefer despite- prepping them all day, setting the timer to leave at 2:00p just in case traffic was bad, we got there just in time and by the skin of our teeth. Traffic is just that bad. I'm probably showing my age by saying that I remember a time when it took only 20 minutes to get across town. This is still possible if you travel in the dead of night.


Once we arrived at the doctors office Henry got a brief hearing and vision test. Both then got a chance to pee into a cup and then it was off to find out how much they have grown since last year. I can add another factoid to interesting Henry and Rhys lore.


4) On Sept. 7, 2007, during his 4th Annual checkup Rhys was found to be as heavy as he was tall. OR maybe a better way to put it would be for every pound he weighed he equaled in height. Which in a weird way makes him a perfect square? 41" by 41 lbs. Henry on the other hand is 1.25 lbs. heavier than Rhys and 5 inches taller.


Since informing them of their impending check up Henry had been in excruciating pain. The pain of not knowing if he was getting shots or not. He's developed a fear of needles that I believe manifested from his numerous dental visits. He was NOT happy when the doctor informed him that he was getting a shot and a TB skin test (not as bad as a regular shot, but a shot nonetheless).


As soon as news of this sunk in he bolted for the space under the table! Rhys following closely behind. I was able to lure them out before the nurse came back into the room.


The nurse came in shortly afterwards and since Henry was so wound up and Rhys still oblivious, I suggested Rhys go first. As soon as I had him up on the examining table he glanced over to the nurse, saw her equipment and uttered a "NOooo!" He quickly got his two shots, one on each arm and then it was Henry's turn. But where was Henry? I looked around the room puzzled, until the nurse pointed to beneath the table, where I found a huddled and petrified Henry in fetal position. I was able to get him out, hoisted him up on the table and held tightly onto him as the nurse administered the shots. He was sooo upset! They just sat there crying their hearts out!


Their tears continued into the car. They were inconsolable. Until we passed by Wendy's where Rhys suggested 'chicken nuggets' and Henry requested a 'chocolate milkshake'.


Now the tears are gone as they are munching on their snacks watching another exciting episode of the Justice League.

Rhys Lore

Here's some fun Rhys factoids:

1) Rhys began to walk a week after his first birthday with very little crawling before hand. He just upped and began to toddle and next thing you know he's running around like crazy!

2) At his 3rd annual checkup he weighed exactly the same as Henry did at the time (Henry was there for his 6th annual checkup). The nurse was so surprised she had to weigh them twice to make sure!

3) After 3 days of consistently going No. 2 in the toilet. I think I can definitively thank God, and proclaim that our little Rhys is officially fully potty trained! So, now I can say that he was completely potty trained the day before he began pre-school!

Rhys, Pre-Schooler

Today is Rhysie's first day of school. He was so excited to gather his 'Power Rangers' backpack (courtesy of Auntie Hilary and Uncle John) and head out the door this morning! We dropped Henry off first, and then drove down to Rhys' new school. We were astounded by the traffic as everyone else dropped their kids off to school. Luckily for us we have plenty of time to get him there by 8:20a.


Once we parked Rhys began to get a bit aprehensive. Even on the way over to the school his response was 'I don' wanna school' when we asked if he was ready for an exciting day of activities in his new class. While we were waiting we bumped into many people. Including our neighbors dropping their son off, some ladies from the summer session as well as his teacher from the summer. She is such a sweet lady. I hope Rhys gets her again next year.





Kenny and I dallied in the classroom with Rhys, waiting for him to get situated in his new surroundings. I found it difficult to walk out the door, but we did it. Gave Rhys a kiss told him I'd be by to pick him up later and we walked out the door and to freedom for 2 and a half hours!


After school pick up.

Henry, Second Grader

On our way to school.


Henry started his first day as a second grader today. Second Grade! As we walked him into the playground we noted how much all the kids have grown over the summer many of them towering over Henry by a half a head. I had to remind myself that many of these kids were on average 6 months older than Henry. He's one of the youngest in his class.


I couldn't resist posting these two of our little scene stealer!



We spent much of the weekend putzing around the house and getting ready for the new school year. I'm still working on the wedding programs and place settings. Kenny took on the challenge of organizing the toys in the boys room. AND We also relaxed with much movie watching.

Here's a bit of conversation from yesterday. Kenny was watching 'the Host', now renamed 'Gwoemul' according to imdb, and Henry walks in mid way.

"What's he doing, Daddy?"

"He's looking for his daughter."

"What's her name?"

"Hyun-seo"

"Oh, I don't know that name. My Spanish isn't very good."

This leads me to another cute Henry anecdote. We were in the car one day listening to the Dave Matthews Band song 'Bartender'. For those unfamiliar with the song I've conveniently attached the lyrics below:

Bartender
If I go before I’m old
Oh brother of mine please don’t forget me if I go
Bartender please, fill my glass for me
With the wine you gave Jesus that set him free, after three days in the ground

Oh and if I die before my time
Oh sweet sister of mine please don’t regret me if I go
Bartender please, fill my glass for me
With the wine you gave Jesus that set him free after three days in the ground
Bartender please, fill my glass for me
With the wine you gave Jesus that set him free after three days in the ground

I’m on bended knee I pray Bartender please
Oh when I was young I didn’t think about it,
But now I can’t get it out of my mind
I’m on bended knee please father please

Oh if all this gold, should steal my soul away
Oh dear mother of mine, please redirect me if this gold
Bartender you see, this wine that’s drinking me
Came from the vine that strung Judas from the devil’s tree roots
Deep deep in the ground

Bartender you see, this wine that’s drinking me
Came from the vine that strung Judas from the devil’s tree roots
Deep deep in the ground
I’m on bended knee I pray Bartender please
I’m on bended knee please mama please
Oh when I was young I didn’t think about it,
But now I just want to run and hide
I’m on bended knee Bartender please

As Dave is wailing away, Henry comments "Three days in the ground?" I respond with "Yes, Jesus was buried for three days before he rose from the dead." Henry comes back with "But Mommy... after he rose from the dead, was Jesus a zombie?" Huh? That was a really interesting question and something I never thought of that way.

Speaking of Dave Matthews, iTunes is offering the new video "Eh Hee" as a free download for the week!! Check it out at the iTunes Store.

THIS JUST IN... AN AMAZING UPDATE:
Rhys just went No. 2 and very successfully!! YAY!

Long Hot Weekend

It is soo humid! Last night was the first night I had to have the fan on ALL night in order to find some sleep. It was positively stifling. They sure weren't kidding about that Global Warming were they?


Caroline surprised us yesterday when she made a quick stop to say 'hi' and a 'belated happy bday' to Rhys. They gave him an awesome Aquadoodle canvas drawing board! It's so cool both boys were having a blast with it for hours yesterday. Thanks So Much Caroline (et famille)!


I dropped my parents off at the airport this morning. They are on their way to Mt. Rushmore! Can't wait to see their pictures and hear all about it. They are due back Thurs. night the same night as the first MANDATORY parents meeting at Henry's school. YIKES. It'll be cutting it close but we'll manage.

Today I am working on Sabrina's wedding programs and seating tags. I can't believe it's September 1st. Happy September!


I'm also working on bookplate designs. Here are two I finished yesterday. They are coming along nicely and am very happy with them so far. They are being commissioned by another client and I will be posting more as I finish them. My older designs are geared more towards kids, so I'm happy to add these more sophisticated selections to my portfolio.


I've got all the doors and windows open so if you sit still enough you can feel sporadic cool ocean breezes waffle through the house.