"i makin' eggs"

occaisionally, hana gets to help mommy cook. one of her favorite meals to help with is scrambled eggs. i've been trying to teach her about the gentle touch required when breaking eggs but i really underestimated how nuanced that whole thing can be... i mean, we teach her to be gentle (she even knows the sign for it) but that's usually in the context of petting the cat or not hitting other kids. so the first time i demonstrated how to break an egg, i told her that we must be very gentle, and then i lightly tapped the egg on the side of the bowl and emptied the contents. when it was hana's turn to try, she petted the egg and then crushed it in her hand. i guess to her, gentle and breaking something are more consecutive operations, than simultaneous.

as you can see, we also work with her on scrambling the eggs in such a way as to leave some in the bowl.

dinner time sillyness

so everyday for the last 3 months or so, we ask hana about her day at school and what she did all day. and everyday, she says matter of factly "um... i ran 'round" and makes a circular motion with her hand. everyday, that is, except on this evening when we were trying to capture a conversation we have had hundreds of times - ad nauseum - on camera for posterity. you see, we realize this running around thing is some kind of phase, and judging from the video, that phase ended on this evening.

i mean, the "ran 'round" thing was such a sure thing! she would even do a roll call of her friends who also ran around: "indya ran 'round, kymani ran 'round, genesis ran 'round..." and on and on. but not tonight. despite our obvious coaching. sigh. but rest assured, this particular evening was only a brief respite from the running around because, you guessed it, she picked it up again the next night. it's probably not as funny or intersting to anyone else, but we think it's pretty funny. and it's been such a signfigant phase... oh well.

before hana, jon and i had gotten into the habit of eating dinner on the couch in front of the tv. it is what it is... we're not proud. with hana, we have been pretty consistent about eating at the table and making attempts at engaging hana in conversation. she generally likes to take that much concentrated attention from mommy and daddy to a silly place. hence, the next video, singing the alphabet song, with her dinner napkin on her head. nice.

"brakabama"

we tried to involve hana as much as possible in this year's voting process on the hope that she may have some memory of this historic election. ms. leona has also exposed the kids to a lot of the election process by having the debates on tv for the kids and the historic speeches n' such. it really made an impact because one day right before the election, we were driving home from daycare and hana, (totally out of the blue, mind you...there was no debate or anything on that day), requests: "i wanna see brakabama!" needless to say, we were stunned... when we got home, we turned on the news and there was coverage of the last days of the campaign, and hana pointed to the screen and said "brakabama!" when obama was on, and then went into some sort of happy dance. and even now, when she sees his image in the paper or a magazine, she will call him out and request to see him. so if anyone has inauguration tickets they want to unload, i know a certain almost-2-year old who'd love to score a pair. HA!

on election day, hana wore her "vote for my better tomorrow" shirt. i dressed her in an extra cute outfit to go with it. she went to the polling place in style for sure. of course, at by the time that we took these pictures, at the end of the day, she was in the extra daycare pants with the broken zipper and she wanted to dress up like a tiger.

she had a blast at the polling place. we all did. we could really feel the energy and excitement in the air. and the line was kind of long (it took us over 90 minutes to vote) but hana entertained the crowds, and met a friend or two. i'm glad that she didn't violate any polling place rules by requesting to see barak obama repeatedly...

the princess of soul

hana had been home sick for a couple of days. at the end of the 2nd day, she was feeling more herself again and back to her usual hijinx. i noticed that she was marching in a circle around her chair, clapping her hands, stomping her feet and saying what i thought was "quack quack". i listened more carefully and discerned that she was singing her version of "if you're happy and you know it..."



in the video, she seems to focus on the the clapping hands and stomping feet parts. before filming began, she was also doing "hooRAY!", but she wouldn't do that much for camera.

you may also notice that the hearth of the fire place is her stage... but that she's the kind of performer who likes to mix it up with the "crowd" - of one - and therefore, doesn't stay on stage very long. such a rebel. and evidently, she likes to see the playback right away as well. next, she'll want the green bunny gummy treats picked out of each little bag.

and by the way, i think when she is looking away from the camera, she is looking at her reflection in the window. i don't think that makes her vain... just concerned. what's wrong with that?!

the next video is of her singing "twinkle twinkle little star". she sometimes sings this to herself at night in the crib. when you hear that over the monitor, it's hard not to melt...

apparently, daycare is working with her on the christmas carols. i LOVE christmas music (much to my husband's chagrin), but even i have not taught her any christmas carols. i do believe that now that she is singing "jingle bells", i feel vindicated for whipping out the christmas stories for night-night time (particularly "the cajun night before christmas"... so much fun to read!), which started november 1st. hey, if macy's can put up their christmas decorations before halloween, the this really just shows my restraint. i believe this also makes it perfectly acceptable for me to start playing my christmas music - sorry, jon.

southern cali whirlwind tour part 3: the summers-sandoval family

the third stop on our journey (after dropping off kay and anna in joshua tree again) was in pomona (another 2+ hour drive). tom and mindy have two kids, benito and lili. this was our first time meeting lili (who turns one in december), and we'd hadn't seen benito since we were all in hawaii together.

hana and benito hit it off.
a diaper explosion, and indian summer, left hana running around hillbilly style, in a shirt and a diaper. she didn't seem to care much, but i did break down and put some pants on her, lest she suffer another explosion and soil the rug... or worse, the good summers-sandoval same in the (historic) neighborhood.

although hana was generally pretty easy going throughout this whole road trip, she was clearly getting a little road weary... more specifically, she had been staying in people's houses who were "sharing" with her and she got tired of nothing really being "hers". so by the time she got to benito and lili's house, she just started claiming stuff. and she threw the mother of all tantrums at one point, over god knows what. as did benito. so i didn't feel quite so bad.

nevertheless, benito and "baby lili's" house was relatively relaxed because it was so kid friendly. at night night time, we got share hana's favorite story these days, "grumble bunny" with benito. he thought it was a pretty good story too.

the next morning hana, claimed this microphone as hers... such a diva. and then she got all naomi campbell about it when it was time to share, and bonked benito in the head. time outs ensued... cabin fever was setting in.

before we hit the road, we figured the better part of valor was to get her good and tired out and then take off around nap time so she'd sleep at least part of the way in the car ride back to oakland. this park was just a few blocks walk from tom and mindy's house. it was a beauty and hana had good time smelling flowers and picking up sticks on the walk over.

she really liked the swing. she did explore the slide, the jungle jim, eating the tan bark ("yucky!"), but she always came back to the swing. that's another thing she gets from her mama...

i don't know if this picture makes hana look big or jon look small...

southern cali whirlwind tour part 2: "gramma kay"

jon's 20th high school reunion was in palm springs. grandma kay and anna (11 year old "neice" of sorts) watched hana while we went to the party. the day before, we drove from oakland to palmdale. on this day, we drove from palmdale to joshua tree, to pick up kay and anna (about 2+ hours) and then drove from joshua tree to palm springs (about another hour). hana handled these long drives like a champ. hana enjoyed her time with anna, and anna was great with her. they really had a good time together. it's too bad they live in southern california because anna could make a mint baby sitting for us. hana was really taken with "gramma kay" as well, and grandma kay seemed equally charmed by hana. kay hadn't seen hana since she was 8 weeks old (it's hard for her to travel these days) it was a really treat to see the two of them get reaquainted.

in fact, hana has so much fun, she literally passed out at 6:00 p.m. after snapping this picture, we put her pajamas on and she didn't even wake up! well, until about 9:00 p.m. but then she was pretty mellow and watched tv with anna for a little while before falling back to sleep (we were at the reunion party at that point).
in case you're interested, the reunion was super fun. it's great to see jon's friends at these things because he went to catholic school for 13 years, so of course there are fantastic stories. but the best part is that much of the juicy stories are the grade school ones... there were about a dozen people in jon's senior class that he'd known since kindergarten, and many more still that he'd known since grade school. they all had such affinity for one another they really weren't super cliquey... which is SO unlike my high school experience. i think i was the only spouse that was also at the 10 year which was kind of interesting too. his classmates remembered me well (better than i them) and regarded me fondly as a "cool chick". it's kinda weird to fit in better with school mates that i didn't actually go to school with... and didn't meet until 10 years ago. all in all, it was a fun party.

southern cali whirlind tour part 1: "baby gyorwia" and "uncle poo"

baby gloria is my new niece such a sweet baby. she's still in that sleepy newborn stage and she was just a dream to cuddle with. she was born on 9/17/08 (a few weeks early) and we finally got to see her as part of our whirlwind trip down to southern california.

this trip was most fortuitous as it coincided with grandpa jim's (my dad) trip to california (to see the new grandbaby, attend a couple of trojan home games, among other things) and jon's 20th high school reunion (aquinas high school, class of 1988). my brother and hana seem to have some weird goofy twin connection because even though they don't get to see each other often, when they are together, it's as if no time has passed. hana alway reacted strongly to his voice in the womb - he would say "helloooo pootie poo" and she would just turn and kick and have a good ol' time it seemed. this has carried on since then and she really had a blast with her "uncle poo" this trip. hana was a huge fan of "baby gyorwia" and spoke often of giving her a bottle.


here, grandpa jim is singing "signifyin' monkey" (the oscar brown peterson version) to baby gloria. this is tradition. well, it's more like legend actually. grandpa jim has been called the "baby whisperer" because he can sing this song and engage even the fussiest baby. in fact, we requested him to sing signifyin' monkey to us well into high school (and by "we", i mean about 200 high school campers as every talent show he emceed - which was annually for about 6 or 8 years it seems)...

we also go to see my neice bre'ana, gloria's older sister. she's 10 1/2 and as tall as i am . so clearly, hana will not be the only leggy super model type in the family... this was her first time meeting hana. hana loves hangin' out with big kids so she was quite enamored with bre.

more horsing around with uncle poo on the day we move on from palmdale to palm springs (via joshua tree).

representin' for grandpa jim, hana displays the trojan helmet. between my ucla bruins, jon's (and my) cal bears and grandpa jim's usc trojans, the poor child will share her mother's dissonence about which team to cheer for. when my brother was a kid, you could ask him which team he was rooting for, and he would say "i vote for whoever wins". if she used those standards, she certainly would not be rooting for ucla... it's sad really.

my other neice, jaz'mine (bre'ana's older sister) had a baby, devin, 2 days after gloria was born. she dropped by for a visit just before we had to head out so we could see the baby.
jaz'mine and her fiance seemed to be fairly relaxed for first time parents....

here's devin... super cute! he makes these little pucker faces like he's always giving kisses. he was very alert. he's pretty much the same age as gloria, except he was full term. so in some ways, it's like gloria is younger.

"the punkin patch"

this year, hana got to go the pumpkin patch twice: once with the cousins and once with daycare. it took 3 cameras and about 35 photos to get this group shot below. if i put all of them here, it would look like some wacky-toddler-mayhem flip book.

they had a little train there that hana enjoyed. fortunately i was able to go on the train with her, but i barely fit in the cars. there's not much leg room to speak of so jon was relegated to the sidelines to take pictures.

they had a small carousel there, of which, as you know, hana is a big fan. interstingly, this little merry go round is what some would call "more than a notion" since it was completely devoid of safety features (note my death grip on hana, and eventually, hana had a death grip on me) and as you will see in the video, it gets up more than enough speed to put wind in your hair. needless to say, there was only one trip on the merry go round, and hana seemed OK with that.

the very nice bounce house attendant gave the kids extra time and the kids loved bouncing, hopping, flopping, and falling around inside the bounce house.

we knew it was getting close to time to go when the kids started showing signs that it was nap time: droopy eyelids and big yawns.

on this trip to the patch, the big boys, cole and tony, went on several attractions together that hana and the twins skipped. but while on her patch trip with her daycare, she was tall enough to ride the big kid rides (!) so she actually rode a roller coaster! she apparently loved it... another thing she gets from her mother. (i have seen pictures but i don't have any to share).

"i wanna ho'd a punkin" : hana at 22 months

at 22 months, hana has just finished a massive growth spurt. she started wearing 3T clothing over the summer but it started fitting her well this month, rendering all of her 2T clothing, just plain ridiculous. well... except for some of the dresses which i make work by putting leggings or jeans under them. and by the way, leggings are the ONLY reason to enjoy the return of the 80's... the rest is just sad and i fear this new generation of fashonistas will look back in horror as we did. but i guess we all live and learn, right? i digress.

her grandma beppy (elizabeth in L.A.: she is simone and noelle's mom, my 2 oldest friends) made this dress for her. it's so cute on her. while it's pretty long on her (which is a rarity in her wardrobe) and the sizing is pretty generous, she can wear it now, and probably well into next year. she loves this dress, and twirls around in it when she has it on. to give her something to do for this picture, i asked her to hold a little pumpkin. now nearly everyday she requests: "i wanna ho'd a punkin" and she'll carry it around for a good 15-20 minutes like it was her purse or something.

september was safety month at daycare. ms. leona arranged for a guy from the railroads to come in and talk about train track safety and this began an obsession with "choo choos". she doesn't have a train set herself, but cousin cole has thomas trains does and there are trains at grandma glenda's (both are the kind with those little wooden tracks), so when she's not running around chasing the cousins, she's playing with the trains.

during safety month, hana also had visits from the police and the local fire fighters. the firefighters were a big hit. they showed up in their big truck and they they talked to them about fire safety and gave out stickers and these clever hats (which makes a mighty fine addition to the basket of dress up hats here at home) and the kids got to climb on to the big truck. apparently, hana had a blast (and that there are pictures but i have not yet seen them). in fact, i'm told that hana may well be as big a fan of firemen as her mama.

also as part of safety month, ms. leona annually invites a dentist to come in and talk to the kids and give brushing and flossing demonstrations and stuff. it seems like a stretch of the safety theme but whatever...hana was into it. after the dentist came, the quality and interest in tooth brushing went up noticably. during his visit, the dentist showed a video about visiting the dentist office to prepare them for what to expect. i think that was genious really, because i'm wondering if he takes our insurance. i suppose that guy's no fool because i know i'm not the only parent who has plans to call him at the number he left on the free toothbrush that hana got her dental goody bag.

hana modeling her fire hat on the catwalk