An Extrarrrrrdinary Grog Fest ("First Birthday Run-Down")

We celebrated our little monster's Shipwrecked Birthday a couple of weeks ago.  Being a former sorority girl, I still love to plan parties and I always forget to take photos (we always had hired photographers; those were the days).  Lucky me, I have a very good friend [hi, Jen!] who takes glorious pics.


Hard to tell, but that is an awesome mermaid birthday hat by Stell & Livi (love Etsy!).



Who: My Mama (Admiral Granmadre?) flew across country for this, y'all.  That's love.  Also in attendance were almost all of Hubs's local extended family, my own local bro & future sis-in-law, and a handful of friends who don't have kids but are awesome enough to [pretend that they] like HD. 

Where: Our backyard, on a partially sunny mostly windy/cold day.  I shook my fists at the sky and thrust a sword into the wind while bellowing curses at Poseidon, like any proper pirate when weather is uncooperative.

Vittles: We went Caribbean-style on the food in light of our theme.  On board was a light grapefruit & jicama slaw, some slammin' Caribbean rice & beans, "salty sea dogs" (yeah, that would be hot dogs), mango salsa, homemade guac, and grilled jerk chicken.  By the way, I highly recommend wearing gloves if you chop habanero peppers.  Better yet, don't chop them at all (just de-stem and seed) if putting them in a marinade, in order to avoid fire-hands.  One better on that?  Don't touch your nose after chopping said peppers -- you will end up frantically Googling "habanero in nose" from your phone, then stuffing pats of butter up your schnoz while your husband screams with laughter and takes pictures.  Ahem.

Hubs in all his wisdom insisted that cooking standard food was enough, and I shouldn't bake dessert.  So we go some amazing mini cuppy cakes from Sibby's:

Random Fun: 

Pirate ship pinata!  Thing was indestructible, just like in Parenthood (movie, not tv).



HD chewed on beloved Pink Poochie!!



We used awesome props from LittleRetreats on Etsy for some piraty photo fun!!!

Thanks to all who came and played along with my piratey obsession.  I love folks who feed my inner crazy.  Until later...set sail, me matey!

Day of the Padre (or, "Not the Happiest Fathers' Day")

1.  I went to the East Bay yesterday for a birthday bbq.  For those of y'all not in the know...it means I travelled 40 miles from my home to a land filled with "golden hills," i.e. heaps and heaps of dead grasses.  There's a lot to like about that area (it's about 10-15 degrees warmer than my house so I love to visit), but there is a reason I rarely head that way.  The reason being that those damned grassy hills give me a monstrous allergy attack.  Long story short, Claritin didn't work, Benedryl/Neti pot/humidifier combo is not really helping, and apparently I brought some the evil grassy spores home with me...

2.  ...because today, Hubs totally woke up with similar allergy symptoms.  I still managed to pull together a homemade waffles breakfast in bed for his Father's Day (AND brownies -- just tooting my own horn), despite my drippy nose and puffy eyes (sexy, no?).  We also somehow managed to have a celebratory lunch at The Counter, do our grocery shopping, and blow bubbles with the kid outside.  But by 2pm we were both miserable.   Plus, Hubs magically contracted a fever, so I got kid duty the rest of the evening after quarantining him into the guest bedroom.

3.  HD felt great all day -- tons of energy.  So much in fact, that she decided she just flat out didn't need to go to sleep during her bedtime.  She stayed up in her room for close to an hour after her normal sleep time, NOT nodding off.  I used my best mama tricks to try to help her nod off, to no avail.  Because she just learned the word "nose," and had to keep pointing it out to me while I sang.  Although when your daughter touches your nose with the tip of her finger, says "nah" and laughs sleepily at her own awesomeness...?  You melt.

4.  I am currently blogging while running my online traffic school (barf) in another window online.  You know, so I can actually pass the minimum amount of time that I'm supposed to be learning about right-of-ways and divided road ways and whatnot.  Oh, and makers of Comedians Teach You Online?  You may want to live up to your hype and actually include some flipping JOKES to help make this a bit less painful.

A Jig and Some Grog for One Annum! (or, "Happy First Birthday, HD")

A year ago today was the hardest, most painful, utterly life-changing, core-shaking, and most beautiful days of my entire life.  Days since then have contained a fair share of frustration, exhaustion, self-doubt.  But every single one of those days have contained some measure of hilarity, awe, and wonder at the amazing human bean that Hubs and I created (seriously, on a weekly basis we look at her doing something funny/awesome and one of us will exclaim, "We made that!!").

Kid, you are independent to a fault (you can thank your mama for that lovely trait/curse).  You are funny, and such a ham.  You will perform for anyone, and you're such a social butterfly at this early age!  Your love is deep and strong, if your near demolition of stuffed animals while you "cuddle" with them is any indication (yeah, we may wait a couple more years on getting a dog!).  You get bored easily, mostly with your food.  At age 1, you already know that variety is the spice of life.  But contradictorily, you are super loyal to your most favorite toys and books, repeatedly seeking out Where the Wild Things Are or your pink puppy dog.  You are inquisitive and kind, already trying to share your food with your parents, caressing our faces when we sing to you, and bestowing kisses upon all and sundry.  I hope you always love as hard as you do now.

We've seen a lot over the past year, here are some highlights, in no particular order:

Day one, our little sumo chick.

Age 2 months, your first vacation to the beach!

3 months = practically a teenager (i.e. disgust with parental photography)

Happy, happy, happy at 5 months

Belly scooting at 7 months-ish.

Cruising on over to the Easter Bunny

Your highly inappropriate parents think pics of babies with beer is funny.

Teeny weenie (almost a month?).

6 month "birthday" avocado treat!  And the only time we ever made you wear a headband!

   HD, your daddy and mama think you're the most awesome person ever.  Can't wait to see all the things you'll learn, accomplish, and become.  You may not always love pirates, Lyle Lovett, blueberries, puppies, and your mama's hair, but we hope you remain as confident, loving, and fun as you are now.  Love you, suge.

Doppelganger Cap'n Madre (or, "Guess What Celebrity My Daughter Thinks Is Me?")

HD's favorite activity of the moment is pulling out one of our boxes of DVDs and strewing them about.  She rifles through them, showing an odd favoritism for Crunch Fitness Fat Blasting Dance Workout.  That is, until she discovered her new favorite...

Where the Parrots Fly (or, "A Much Needed Break")

A couple weekends back, we made like parrots and flew south.  Although I suppose parrots don't exactly ever need to migrate.  Anyway, we decided to brave Southwest Airlines with a near-toddler and head to our old hometown to visit some old buddies.

Highlights include:

• Hanging with so many good friends.  Mad love going out to my girl Jasleen, Meghann and her daughter Kyleigh, my other Megan and Meaghan, Meredith, and Hubs's homeboys Clive and Paul.  I appreciate y'all taking the time to coo over our kid, and to give me real adult conversation as well :)
• Visited the gorgeous Getty Villa in Malibu.  Schooled HD in ancient Roman and Greco art, architecture, and ways of living.  She's been speaking Latin ever since!
• First experience in a pool.  The bebe didn't entirely freak out (no cries, just lots of clings), so we'll take that as a victory point.
• I got to visit my former life's version of Cheers.   Reminisced on the days when, truly, everyone at Q's really did know my name (in my defense, I lived across the street).



The Border Grill is hilaaaaarious.

• Visited the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH -- UCLA!  Hubs and I are both alum (although, we didn't meet until after each of us had graduated), so naturally we had to give HD a tour of her inevitable future.  8 CLAP!!!



Hand to God, that plaque says "We Will Valet Your Stroller."

• Ate amazingly well.  Hats off to Border Grill's margaritas and the Godmother sandwich from Bay Cities Deli.  Also happy hour sushi, which is one of the things I missed most about LA.

Trying on laurel wreath props, getting our Roman comedy on.

HD, humoring our extreme Bruin exuberance (it's her FUTURE!).

Blue and gold look so very good on HD.

Finally, I think we'll make sure that every vacation includes a full length mirror:

Gal o' the Western Trade Winds (or, "Ways I Want the Kid to be a California Girl")

I mentioned previously my desire to instill some good ol' Southern values into my daughter.  I have a great amount of pride for some of my Southern upbringing, but I am equally proud of my years in California.  This is, afterall, the place where I became an adult.  I've lived in the two most influential cities this state has to offer, and there are definitely aspects of the lifestyle here that I hope HD will have throughout her life, no matter where she goes.

Here are the Top California Influences/Ideas I Hope HD Has in her Life:

1.  I hope she loves living the outdoorsy life.  This state has some of the nation's most beautiful national and state parks, small suburbs (whatup, Belmont!) and big cities alike are packed with well-maintained hiking trails, and Cali has a crazy range of eco-systems to experience -- redwood forests, insanely hot deserts, gorgeous beaches, gigundo mountains, you name it.  HD already adores hanging out in the yard or parks, so we're off to a great start.  If only the weather would actually decide to be springlike so we could be outside more often (*shakes fist at nearby ever-hovering marine layer*)...

2. Exposure to lots of international cuisine.  Hubs and I are adventurous eaters, and very proud of that.  We've loved exploring LA's Koreatown, finding the best Thai takeout, braving Indian lunch buffets, stalking the Tamale Lady in the Mission District.  I'm hoping HD's current love of hummus and garlic means that she won't only insist on cheese pizza or crustless PB&J in a couple of years. 

3.  CA is certainly not environmentally perfect (what place is?), but there are solid attempts to make green choices more accessible to the masses here in the Bay Area.  Yay for county-wide composting and recycling programs, taking the train to work, landmark greenhouse gas laws, and blockage of local offshore drilling.  HD, this state is at least attempting to bank on your generation's future :)

4.  The diversity here is astounding in every sense of the word -- religious, ethnic, sexual, economic.  I hope that we're always able to show HD that there are all kinds of families, traditions, cultures, holidays.  That what's normal for her isn't "normal" for everyone.

5.  That In'n'Out is a spectacular thing indeed.  Especially if you substitute ketchup/mustard instead (anyone else with me on that?  Thousand Island is totally barf inducing).

Lost at Sea (or, "Why We've Been MIA")

A couple of weeks ago, Blogger had some major issues. Not really sure what was up, but my last post was completely deleted and I couldn't access the site at all. Then, last weekend we had our first family vacation (one where we have no free babysitting from grandparents!) to lovely Los Angeles. We had tons of fun visiting old friends and visiting the alma mater.  More to come in a separate post, which will be delayed a few days due to a visit from Sandpaper Pappy!  HD is stoked to see her grandfather, and so am I.  Until then...