Double Happiness

Favorite photos from last weekend

Saturday, the weather was incredibly nice so we decided to spend the day in San Francisco and what better way to do that than strolling around a big park with wild animals peering at us from behind their padlocked cages?  

As usual, Gwen and Maddy loved all of the critters (great and small) but Maddy showed a particular affection for the bronze statues.  There were plenty more but these two were my favs.

After a nice long car-nap, we went out to dinner then came home and turned on the TV and lounged around the family room with our big full bellies aimed towards the recessed lighting (just like the lionesses we saw sunning themselves at the zoo earlier that day).  Ah... the perfect end to the perfect day.

The next day, we went to our very favorite breakfast place then to our favorite park for some roller-skating fun. It's hard to capture all the action with still photography but I think you'll agree that our 2020 Olympic hopefulls compensate for their lack of speed and style with pure cuteness. You might think I'd eventually get tired of looking at them but I never do. Ah.... my sweet girls.

"Old & New"

(Click image for a larger view)

• Camera: Canon 5D
• Mode: Auto
• Lens: Canon EF85mm F/1.8
• Focal Length: 85mm
• ISO: 400
• Aperture: f1.8
• Shutter: 1/50
• Frame:  ksharonk at two little pixels 

I've spent many days thinking about the newest theme of my favorite photography blog: We Picture {this}.  This month, we're supposed to post a photo or two of something that illustrates the concept of "Old & New".  Since one of my most cherished "old things" is my Great-Grandfather's Elgin pocket watch, I decided to use that for the project. 

My mom gave me this pocket watch after my son was born.  She'd received it from my Dad's mom many years earlier.  My Great Grandfather's initials, CJP, are inscribed in fancy English Script on the back and this beautiful timepiece and it still has the original braided leather fob and flawless polished crystal.  A quick Internet search of the serial number on the movement (inside), revealed that the watch was made in 1912 and sold for about $42 new (that's about $900 today). 

I turned the watch over and over in my hand and tried to imagine how excited my Great Grand-Father might have been to buy it and slide it into his pocket.  I'm really not sure what I have that can compare to that so I decided to go with my favorite Christmas gift of 2008:   My iPod Touch.  

Like Great-Grandpa's watch, my toy also keeps time.  Probably much better time than his pocket watch (but technology has improved so much in the last 100 years).  Unlike his fancy bit of 1912 technology, my pretty little iPod also stores and plays my favorite songs and movies and games and gadgets.  No disrespect intended but, somehow, I doubt that Great-Grandpa's watch held the attention of his children (and Grand-kids) even half as well as my little bit of 2009 technology!  But will my iPod be around in 100 years like this Elgin watch?  Hmmm... I doubt it. 

"Mommy, my nose is flat"

 

Gwen is at an age where she's noticing everything about herself (and everyone else) that is different.  Recently, she was looking in the mirror and pressed on her nose and  suddenly exclaimed "Mommy, my nose is flat!".  At first, I wasn't really sure how to respond.  Did she think "flat" was bad?  Like being flat broke or having a flat tire, or drinking a boring old flat soda?   Was this what she meant?  Was she feeling self-conscious about her appearance and did she secretly wish her nose was like mine (pointy and crooked)?  Or was she just proud of herself for noticing a small detail about herself that made her nose different from the nose she's spent most of her life looking at (mine)?      

Within seconds, I knew the answer.  This is my super observant Gwenny and she doesn't have a bashful or self conscious bone in her beautiful little body.   I just smiled and squeezed her and said "Baby, your nose is beautiful!"  Then I pressed our two very different shaped noses together and kissed her loudly and she threw back her head and laughed!  Yep, that's my girl.

Big Red Hamster Ball for Kids

I'm pretty sure I once saw this thing on the Salsa Cutie Blog and thought it looked like fun.  Little did I know that a day after buying it, I'd be attempting to justify how the benefits of exhaustive preschooler play was worth having Mommy breathe what felt like her last breath into a paper sack to counter the effects of hyperventilation (yes, from blowing the damn thing up).    Really, it looked so much smaller when Ro and Ree were playing in it last year.  Now, it just looks like a giant clump of red molecules.  Or, perhaps more accurately, a big red hamster ball.

Well, that's all in the past now because we bought it and they saw it when it made its big reveal (uninflated) in the middle of our living room floor yesterday afternoon.   All that remained was the simple task of blowing it up.  Two hours later (gasp, sputter, cough), Mommy was dripping sweat but it was finally finished!  It's hard to believe but I do think that it probably was worth all that effort in spite of the fact that Daddy had to clean vomit out of it last night.  No, not Mommy's but that guess wasn't crazy.  Actually, it seems that Gwen got a bit over-excited about showing her new toy to Daddy when he came home from work.  If you have kids, you know that "over excited" usually means there will be body fluids involved.  Enough said. 

By the way, did I ever mention that DADDY ROCKS!?!.  Well, he does. 

In spite of all the hardships, this thing is FUN!!  Check out this little slide show of pics of the blast we had with our puffy red friend today.  

Whispy Hair Woes

Gwenny met us with a shaved head so watching her hair grow has been like unwrapping an amazing gift -- for 3 and a half years!

We love her hair almost as much as she does (she'll never let us cut it -- ever)  but we're also stuck with a problem because even though it's long and lovely (amazing, really) she has a bunch of shorter fly-away stuff that frames her face and constantly hangs down to get in the way.  It never seems to get long enough to include in a ponytail so she's always swatting at it.  At the end of each day, we brush it for a final time and we can always tell what she's eaten or what she's done for arts and crafts that day because it's all right there -- in her hair!    And she just screams while we try to get it out!

I've spent so much time in the hair care products aisle at Target that my head spins just thinking about it.  Really, how does anyone even start to evaluate more than 100 products!?  Do you pick something based on how  pretty or interesting the bottle looks?    They all claim to do the impossible but I certainly don't want to buy all of them just to find the one that does what it claims to do.  Assuming there is one that does what it claims to do!

So far, I've tried gels and sprays and fluffy puffy mousse but they don't really do anything more than just smell good.  The few products I've found that actually do hold her hair all day leave an ugly white crusty mess in her hair after we brush it so, unless we wash her hair each day, she goes off to preschool looking like she's got lice! Lovely, huh.  Just what every parent wants.  Ugh.

Is there anything you can recommend that will keep that hair out of her face and not turn her hair into a crusty mess?   Surely someone has solved the problem with the perfect/magic hair product and wants to share, right?