We got a kitty!

Yay! We got a kitty! We named her Holly Eva.

And it's a strange story about her name. We were awaiting her arrival all day. See, Holly is a sneaky survival kitty who snuck into this woman's house during the recent torrential rain storm. She wanted to keep Holly, but she already has a kitty and the landlord wasn't going for it. So the woman who lives in the other part of the house posted on Mothering that they had a kitty to give away. I was thinking about how to approach Joey with the idea of getting a kitty, when he walked into the room and said, "We've got to get a kitty." And I said, "Well, funny you should say that..."

So the woman from Mothering was supposed to bring the kitty over in the morning. But the woman who had been taking care of her was at work, and she wanted to say goodbye, so we had to wait until evening.

So we spent the day getting all the kitty-things we would need: food, dishes, litter box, toys. And we talked about names. We threw out a few. I said I was a big fan of kitties and doggies having middle names. Then Joey said, "How about Holly?" And I said, "We should name her Holly Eva, like Hale'iwa!" Hale'iwa is a town on the North Shore of Oahu. One of the things Joey and I loved to do was drive out to Hale'iwa and have beer and sushi and watch the waves. And it's pronounced by haoles the same way as Holly Eva. So we had that name, but we thought we'd better meet the kitty first before we have a name all picked out.

So around 7:00 p.m., the woman who has been taking care of the kitty brings her over. She has her friend with her too. We get to talking, and find out that they're both from Hawaii too! We ask them where they lived, and one says she's from Honolulu, and the other one says she's from the North Shore, Hale'iwa! Can you believe it!?

So the name was pretty much settled at that point. It was fate.

So Holly Eva is about 6 months old. She's a loving kitty. She likes to snuggle on your lap and she likes to be petted. She likes to eat, eat, eat! She prefers her wet food mixed with her dry food, and she likes her water cold. She likes to chase a feather-on-a-stick, and she prefers to play at night, rather than sleep. Her favorite spot is underneath the living room table, but she also nap on my fuzzy bike seat.

We are all very stoked on Holly Eva the kitty.

And now, on to business...

In the kitty excitement, I slacked on my bar studying yesterday. So, to do:

-5 hours of Contracts!!!
-Contracts outlining
-Clean kitchen
-Vacuum
-Clean litter box

Snow!

It snowed today! I don't think I've seen it snow since I was 14 years old. This was Tania's first time seeing it, and Talula's too. Although, Talula won't remember it. It was just a little bit of snow, but we were really excited.









Talula didn't go outside today. She had to stay nice and cozy.


It was wicked cold.

Well, I didn't blog yesterday because I was on strike. My family made me angry with the messing up everything I cleaned and the monopolizing all of my time to do things for them. So Lu and I went to bed around 8:00 p.m. I woke up refreshed. Tania handed me an origami fox with tears drawn on it. She had written on him, "Please make me breakfast." So I decided that the strike was over. I made her chocolate-chip pancakes. Joey had brought home some pancake batter from one of his jobs. She thought the pancakes were "pretty good," but that they had too many chocolate chips. She's not a commie. She's a kid who doesn't have eating restrictions, so she doesn't go nuts over things like chocolate.

She also did this today:


It's her store. Note the gumball machine. It used to have a lot more gumballs in it. The sign on the wall is a map to her friend's house down the street.

Today, I began my serious study for the bar examination. It's really hard to study with a 5-month-old. She wants me to hold her all the time. I have to keep interrupting my train of thought to pick her up. I did the Contracts I series today. I had listened to it before, but quickly realized it was not the sort of thing I would get anything out of unless I took detailed notes. I took 5 pages of notes on 3 hours of lecture. Next, I have to conform it to an outline. I'll get through all 68 or so hours by the end of December. Then, in January and February, I'll listen again, revise my outlines, and go through all of the practice questions. It's hard work, but it sort of reminded me of law school...in a good way. I know, it sounds crazy. There was this one point when I had about 30 minutes left of the last part of the lecture, so Joey poured me a glass of wine. I took a good sip of wine just as he opened the door to go outside. The cold air rushed in, and the combination of that, the wine, and the notes I was taking reminded me of studying for finals. My friend, E, and I would study in the heavily air-conditioned classrooms late at night and toward the end of our session, we'd open up a bottle of wine. I don't know, it just brought it back. Studying with E was one good part of my law school experience.

Well, Lu is sleeping, but you can tell that she hates her Daddy's music. See?


'Til next time. As I get into studying, I may blog less.

Thanksgiving video

One of the guys at Thanksgiving made this amazing video of the wine bottling and festivities!

Holiday hangover begins

I always get sort of sad around today. Relatives are gone, the house is a mess, the food we have is not half as delicious as Thanksgiving. And then you have to start thinking about Christmas.

I'll think about Christmas tomorrow...no...December 1st will be a good day to start thinking about Christmas. Today...I worry about the house. Lots to clean, lots to clean.

Tania spent last night at her friend's house. I did not okay this, Joey did, but I didn't want to be the bad guy going over there to burst her bubble. I'm okay with her spending the night with my mom, because my mom's like a super-hero. She's a certified lifeguard for cryin' out loud! I've seen my mom do her lifeguard run and dive into the Turtle Bay Hilton pool to save Tania when she walked off the edge and almost drowned at around 18 months old. And Tania has a couple of aunties in Hawaii who I trusted because they had that Mama Bear quality. But I don't know these people well enough, and I'm pissed at Joey for being weasled and I'm pissed at Tania for weasling him. She's almost 8. Maybe I'm being unreasonable. But...ugh.

I had a dream last night that I wanted to weigh Lu. I saw a scale at someone's house, so I decided I would weigh myself, then weigh myself holding Lu...you get the picture. Well, when I went to weigh myself, I weighed 300 pounds! I was so shocked that I looked down at my body, and sure enough, I was enormous! I couldn't believe that I had doubled my body weight and not even noticed it.

Lu was a pain today. I think she napped for a total of 1 hour all day. Tania kept cracking me up. At one point, she brought Lu to me and said, "Okay Mom, I think she's educated now." I said, "Huh?" She said, "She's happy and she has everything she needs to survive." Warms my heart.

Here's some video of the fam:



Tania had this whole thing going today about Taniatopia, where she ruled the world. I'm too tired to go into it, but she had a whole government worked out that was sort of a cross between a feudal and a socialist system with a generous monarch...if you can imagine that. Here's some video of her blabbering about it:

Black Friday

My parents flew back to Hawaii today.

Things they left here for us:

-Wine, including an 18-year-old bottle and a 16-year-old bottle
-Fresh fish
-Walnuts
-Tools
-Their truck
-Warm clothes
-A whole turkey
-Money
-New shoes for Joey
-A half wine barrel with soil for planting
-Lots of love

We relaxed all morning. Joey played his guitar. Talula really likes it. She smiles at him while he plays.

Talula napped for about four hours. Joey took Tania to the park to ride down the hill on her little sled. I met them later. We hung out at some friends' house where we shared some of our wine with them.

Here's a little video of Tania sliding down the hill...

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was Talula's first Thanksgiving today. Sniffle...gobble, gobble!

We went back to the friends' house that we did the bottling at. (See yesterday's post.)

Food was delicious, wine was abundant, children were everywhere. It was wonderful. Here are some pics:

Daddy and Talula

My mom and friends in the kitchen

Chillin' by the turkey fryer


The food line


More food line


My mom loooooves the little ones


Tania delicately cuts her meat...


...and daintily devours it


Talula slept through the meal


Our table...of lunatics


The day ends with dancing
(just don't ask about the cowboy)

It was a really nice holiday. I am so thankful to my parents for spending it with us. They broke a decades-old tradition of spending it at my uncle's home on North Shore, Oahu. We would have been really lonely on this first holiday away from home if they were not here with us.

It's Talula's birthday!!!

Talula is 5 months old today! Happy Birthday, Talula! Here are some pics of Lu on her birthday:

With Daddy...


With Tutu...


She's still got a bit of gimpy eye.

We went to Vancouver, WA to my parents' friend's house to bottle some wine. It was so much fun. The operation was so bootleg. Here are some pics.

From the barrels into bottles...


Joey corking a bottle...


The whole operation...


Jim Beam and my Dad...


Mark, Chuck, and my Mom...


My Mom's signature move...


And we got a free case...friggin' sweet!

And here's a little video of Lu on her birthday:

So I guess I'm a "lactivist"

We woke up early (for us) this morning and rushed to catch the Max out to the airport for the nurse-in at the Delta ticket counter. Nurse-ins took place at airports throughout the country. We wanted to show our support for Emily Gillette, who was kicked off of a Delta flight (Freedom Airlines) for breastfeeding her child. Story here.

It was a success! About 40 mothers showed up, and we had 4 news stations, public radio, and Associated Press there. It was a great experience, very peaceful. Many people who walked by clapped or cheered or said words of support. You can find news stories here and here. On the channel 6 one, you can click on the video and see the news story. I see my head in there somewhere, but honestly, I was pretty anonymous.

Here are some photos:







My parents drove up from the vineyard this afternoon. They picked up Tania and went to Vancouver to bottle some wine. Yay! I'll get some bootleg wine in a couple of days. I think Joey and I might go to help them bottle tomorrow. My parents brought us some of their own wine...and it's gone. They brought us a barbecue, a sled, and a half wine barrel to use as a planter.

It's a Cleanin' Day!

I woke up in a panic: "Must clean house! Parents coming tomorrow!"

I swear, if CPS walked through my door right then, they'd have taken my children away and written in their report that they were living in filth. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but I did desperately need to clean.

Interesting items found:

-petrified slice of turkey under the couch
-piece of paper with writing: "Dum, dum, stupid, DUM, DUM!!!"
-shot glasses filled with dried mud
-sake shot glass filled with tiny things: beads, sequins, etc.

So...I cleaned all day until Joey came home. Then Tania went to play at her friend's house while we walked to the grocery store.

Tomorrow, we'll go to a nurse-in at the airport at the Delta ticket counter.

The rain is back

The bad news is that the rain is back. But the good news is that Talula is feeling 100% better.

I have to say though, rain in the morning gives me such a nice feeling. Snuggling up with Joey and my girls with a delicious cup of coffee and a cozy blanket...it doesn't get any better.


And I had to make pancakes today. It was a pancake kind of day.

We ventured out of the house today to go to Fred Meyer. They have boots that I wanted to buy. They were on sale, $39.99 marked down from $60, and they are chocolate brown suede with a genuine wool interior. They are so comfy, and they keep my feet warm and dry.


Now, I just need a decent rain-repellent coat. I know which kind I want. I just don't know where I'll buy it from. But I'm pretty sure that I'm the only non-homeless person in this city who wears a $3.00 rain poncho.

We ate lunch at Burger Ville, which is a fast-food place we don't have in Hawaii. I ate a bacon Tillamook cheeseburger and it was friggin' delicious. And sweet-potato fries. Holy crap.

Tania talked with her cousin and her best friend when we came home. Her best friend got a new kitty. Tania wants one so badly. I hope that we can get her one for Christmas. That would be so awesome. I'd like to get one from a shelter that has already been spayed and dewormed and all of that jazz.

I talked with my parents on the phone. They are coming up on Tuesday from the vineyard. We're spending Thanksgiving with them in Vancouver with their friends.

Tania has been reading the comics and cutting out clips of ones that she likes. I wonder what she'll do with them.

At night-time, we just hung out and listened to all of our NPR weekend shows. We ate nachos and just chit-chatted.

Poor, sick little Lu...

My poor baby is sick today. She slept a lot.


Would you look at the size of those lips?

She has some sort of eye thing. One of them is puffy and it's making her miserable. But, as strange as it may sound to some people, breastmilk in the eye is like an antibiotic, so it's totally helping. She felt a bit better this afternoon.



But you can see that her left eye is a bit red.

We didn't do much today. Joey practiced his guitar. Tania played. They made more paper airplanes and ninja stars.

I found this article about teaching Thanksgiving to kids, so we read it to Tania. I don't know if she fully appreciated it.

We had a nice evening listening to music, chatting, and messin' around.


Lu is keeping me on a short leash today. Gotta go!

Playdate day

Today, we got to play with our friend, Ruby. Aren't they cute? Ruby (left) was born two days before Talula.



The babies played a little...


We went to eat pizza. When we came home, it was still such a beautiful day, that Tania went outside to fly some paper airplanes.

I'm going to take break on writing a monster of a blog tonight, but here is a short clip of Tania and Talula dancing...



Good night.

What a Beautiful Day!!!

The sky was blue today! And I saw the sun!

TO DO:

-Rain gear!!!...check!
-Go for walk...check!
-Call N...check!
-Call K...check!
-Clean kitchen...check!
-Clean bathtub...no...
-Organize Lu clothes...no...
-Organize linen closet...no...
-Listen to Contracts II...no...

I guess I was feeling ambitious. Maybe it's because I woke up at 7:30...thanks Lu. And of course, once I was properly caffeinated, she decided it was naptime.

I ate pumpkin pie for breakfast.

It was a beautiful day! The sky was blue! We caught the bus out to...Wal-Mart...to buy rain ponchos. The cheap homeless-guy ones. And I bought some fabric to make a no-sew wrap.


It's not the most exciting fabric, but it was $2 per yard, and it's that soft, stretchy cotton-synthetic blend that I love. It's sort of a tester for wraps to come. My next one will be fleece. I didn't want to spend $7 per yard and find out it wouldn't work.

Joey is done with school for the week. When he came home, we had coffee and did a crossword puzzle.

We took a walk to this store that we like to buy beer at. The lady is really cute and always really excited about her new beer selections. One of the beers we got is delish. It's called Big Daddy IPA, by Speakeasy, SF. But the other beer made Joey livid. It's an Anchor brand "winter ale," and the fine print says it is brewed with "spices." It tastes like goddamn cinnamon-nutmeg beer. Joey is boycotting Anchor now, and I think we may write them a letter. This is the second new beer we've had of theirs that sucks. And they shouldn't be so sneaky with their labeling.

Anyway...

Guess who's sitting up?


Well...sort of...


By the way, I made a pretty amazing dinner: Soba noodles with a tofu, asparagus, and zucchini stir-fry in a sesame-tamari sauce, and an iceberg lettuce and radish salad with creamy sesame-tamari-furikake dressing. Mmm...

Oh! Have you all seen this in the news? A woman was kicked off an airplane for breastfeeding!!! You know what's even more disturbing? The dummmb comments on the news article. Some people say the lady should have put a blanket over the baby's head. I think that the Puritanical weirdos that are afraid of boobs should have the burden of averting their stupid eyes. Plus, didn't Jesus say something about...if your eye offends you, poke it out...do that if you have a problem with a baby eating the best sort of food available. I can't even go on about all of the stuuuuupid comments. Go read them. (Well, I can't whip out my penis in public...Boobs are sexual...The baby was too old to be breastfeeding...Airplanes aren't the place to be asserting your rights...The mother is selfish for thinking she has a right to breastfeed that trumps my right not to see her boobs...and on and on...)

I'm all worked up now. I hate stupid people. And you know what I hate more than stupid people? Nothing.

Studying for the Bar Exam

TO DO:

-Clean house...check!
-Listen to Contracts I...check!
-Make pumpkin pie...check!
-Call L...check!
-Call E...check!
-Find rain gear...nope.
-Go for walk...too windy.

Goddamnit!!! I had computer issues this morning, but I called my local Qwest assistance person and got the problem resolved. By local, I mean that I had to keep saying, "Excuse me?" because I couldn't understand his presumably Hindi accent. Anyway, all I had to do was delete cookies, delete files, and clear history. Now I'm back in business.

I made Talula some faux baby legs today. I cut the feet off a pair of argyle socks and, voila!


I think they're cool.

Tania played with mud, making chocolate Wonka bars. Then she created a dollhouse. Then she practiced her yo-yo. Then she practiced some of her dance moves. Then she played a game she calls "Soap-a-bar," that I've never heard of. She insists that she didn't make it up.

I listened to my Contracts I cds...very exciting. I read about knitting. I'm going to start soon. Tania and I did some yoga. Tania made me a melted cheddar and turkey sandwich on a potato-sage roll. Holy crap, it was delicious. Tania read some Judy Moody. Joey came home from school and took a nap.

Thus evening, I made a pumpkin pie as practice for Thanksgiving. I made this cheeseburger pasta that's sort of a Hamburger Helper-ish thing, except it's that Annie's brand, so you're supposed to feel really good about it, because it's all organic. Joey is going to bed early.

Tania played video games aaaaall night. Now she's jogging in place. We're going to go read about Medieval history now,

Oh, and I consolidated my student loans today. Yippee!

Dare I Venture Outside Today?

I feel well-rested. I love coffee. This was my to-do list for the day:

TO DO list:
-finish folding laundry
-wash diapers
-make chicken broth
-try to find rain gear
-vacuum
-listen to Contracts CDs (bar study)
-go for walk
-call L
-call E
-go grocery shopping

Joey came home early today...early enough to make me breakfast!

Miss Maniac has been getting out energy in this device:



I didn't get much done on the list today. But, we did go grocery shopping, which is a walk, so I killed two birds with one stone. I got the ingredients to make a pumpkin pie. It seems like cold weather and baking have a conspiracy. We got beer too. I think it's my all-time favorite: Fish Tail IPA. And there's only one left. It's mine. Joey can deal with the PBR.

Oh, I also washed the diapers and I did try to find rain gear, so I did a few things on the list.

Tania has been pretending that she's a "doughnut farmer." I took a beautiful picture of her today.


And also today, Lu was striking on boob milk, so I had to pump some out. It was about to become a situation. Then, Joey and Tania fed her the milk with a spoon. It was so fun!


We took Tania to play at her friend's house and hung out with the parents a bit in the evening. It was okay having some adult conversation. But I was glad to get home. I'm becoming such a hermit.

Coffee, get me the coffee

It's hard to say, really, what time we woke up this morning. Let's see, there was 12:30 a.m.; there was 2:30 a.m.; there was 4:00 a.m.; there was 5:30 a.m.; and finally, there was 8:00 a.m. Then, Little Lovely Lu stayed up until 11:00 a.m., and after an hour of boobing, went down for almost a three-hour nap!!! What's with all the daytime sleeping? Why not some nighttime sleeping? Geez. Well, I made myself a nifty little list of things to get done today, and boy am I glad I did. I cleaned the entire house and got all the laundry washed and put away. I even cleaned the refrigerator. I even took out the recycling. By the way, can someone explain to me why other people's milk cartons are in my recycling bins? The trash collectors are going to think we drink the stuff morning, noon, and night. Tania spent all morning on the computer. She's now getting into crossword puzzles, just like her mom and dad! Then, she typed her grandma a letter and began typing a story about a princess who lives in the tallest tower in the world. If you stand out on her balcony, you can touch the moon!

When Joey came home from school, we made muffins and had some coffee. I told Tania not to take the walnuts out of the muffins because they are a good source of Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and she said, "Fatty Asses? Why would we want Fatty Asses?"

Tania then went outside to play in the mud. She pretended that she was a servant in a medieval chocolate shop. Her masters treated her kindly, and she liked making chocolate all day long.

Joey has a big test tomorrow, so he's been studying. We had a pasta for dinner tonight that we named Mushroom Cream Linguine. The only requirement is the pasta and the sauce, and you can add whatever meats and vegetables you have on hand. We added chicken and bacon, and mushrooms, onions, and zucchini ribbons. I don't know why I always post about what I eat, except that I like to cook and I like to eat.

It is 7:30ish and Talula is sleeping. I do not expect it to last for very long. But I'm off to try to spend time with Joey until she wakes up.

Talula's a Maniac!!!

<---Does it get any better than this? My handsome, bearded husband playing on his guitar a song that he wrote for me. (Tania's family portraits in the background aren't half-bad either!)

Holy crap! Talula is a freaking maniac! She woke up five times last night to boob. She's been wiggling and flailing about all day long. She's been chattering, yelling, screaming, and shrieking. She's been rolling over and over again. She's almost sitting up all by herself, and I'm sure it's because she's built so much muscle from all the flailing.

Ack! She's stressing me out. I feel like this is somebody else's baby. My baby is calm and collected. She naps in her sling, wakes up, coos a bit, nurses, plays with some toys, naps again. This baby is not the same baby I knew a week ago. I feel like she's possessed.

Well, we did not do much today. Actually, Joey did a lot. He went to two of his jobs today.

I read some books to the girls, did a bit of cleaning, and baked the most delicious cookies: Oatmeal, walnut, and date cookies. Yum.

Oh! I wanted to write about how unschooling is fiiiiinally paying off. Tania finally feels free to learn things. She wouldn't touch anything schooly for months. Now, she's using reference books to look up stuff she wants to learn about. This may not seem like such a big deal, but trust me - it is. Before she went to school-school, she was very curious and loved to learn about everything. But after she had been in school for a while, she wanted nothing to do with schooly stuff on her free time. If we could learn something, she wasn't interested. When we stopped going to school, I tried to "do school" with her at home and she totally resisted. So I decided to stop. I held my breath and crossed my fingers. And I think the curious child in her has come back to us.

At night time, we ate omelettes. Joey played the guitar for us. He wrote me a really pretty song. Tania read us a story called Spider Woman. It's not like Spider Man. It's more of a mythological tale about the origins of the world.

Miss Maniac fell asleep in the bathtub tonight. I guess she wore herself out with all the screaming and flailing about.

A Couple of Items of Business

First, a friend of mine has started a new business. She makes delicious baked goods and ships them right to your home. Check out her site and note that her contact information is under her profile if you want to order any goodies. Soon, she'll be coming out with some awesome baby slings too, so keep checking back for that information.

Second, I think I finally figured out how to get a video clip of Lu up on here. This is Little Lu playing peek-a-boo with her mama.




Also, here's Lu screaming at Tania.

Cartwheels

This morning, Tania gave me a little present. It is a new friend.

<---This guy. He came in that bag.

I was really missing my friends from Hawaii last night, and she wanted to make me feel better. She says I can talk to him when I'm sad. His head is stuffed with underwear that her Grandma got her that are way too big.

I thought it might not rain today, and I wanted to walk somewhere, anywhere, to remind me that Portland is pretty and that I'm not sorry I moved here.

But truly, my heart is very heavy today. I miss my friends. I miss my little loft studio. I miss when the ocean was in my backyard and Tania and I used to feed the crabs. I miss swimming in the ocean with Lu in the sling. I miss barbecuing with friends every weekend. I miss driving to North Shore with Joey and eating sushi and drinking beer. I miss wine nights with the girls. I miss going to the store and seeing fifteen people I know. I miss seeing the sun and Aloha shirts every day.

But enough about that.

Tania has been practicing her cartwheels. She can't keep her legs straight. Otherwise, she'd have it already.

We ate pancakes for breakfast. Mine were raspberry pancakes. Tania likes hers plain. Joey had to work this morning, but he's not a real pancakes guy anyway. He likes bacon and eggs.

I listened to NPR and wrote in my journal. I have really grown to like Car Talk, even though I don't have a car and I'm not a real car gal. The guys are funny. And of course, This American Life; Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me; and Prairie Home Companion are true treasures.

Then, around 2:30, Joey came home from work and we walked to the Sellwood-Moreland library. It was a nice 2 1/2-mile walk there. It was so nice. Sellwood is a such a cute little town with unique stores and beautiful streets and homes. I think I might like to live there eventually.

The library might be the smallest one I've ever been to. But it is really cute. I got some knitting books for Tania and me. We are ready to learn, I think. Surprisingly, they have a very extensive selection of children's knitting books. Tania got several fairy tale books from medieval times and different cultures. I got some costume books for Tania. I also got a Spanish Level I set for me to learn, so I have an edge at Legal Aid. I tried to learn last spring, but law school got in the way.

We went to the Sellwood New Seasons, which was insanely busy. We got really tired on the walk home.

We ate spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner and had a $6 bottle of Sangiovese. And during dinner, we listened to Jake Shimabukuro on NPR. Way to make me miss Hawaii even more!

Then Joey read The Korean Cinderella to the girls. He's going to bed early, because he has to work again tomorrow.

Anyway, I had a great day! I was sad when I woke up, but I'm happy going to bed.

Brrr...!

It's cold! It stopped raining for a while, but I think the rain actually keeps things warmer. Of course, now it's raining again.

The house was a mess when I woke up this morning around 8:00. (Yay, me!) I made some coffee and cleaned the kitchen. Much to my delight, Joey woke up around 8:30. (No school on Fridays.) We listened to the Adam Corrolla show together. The dude is funny. You should listen to him sometime. My favorite is when he has this Phelps lady on his show and has drunk people challenge her to a debate.

Lu woke up around 9:00 and was just ever so smiley and cuddly.

I fiiiiinally mailed my Legal Aid resume and bar application stuff.

I found this paper Tania wrote that maps out all her imaginary fairy and mermaid towns and villages in and around our house. Mr. Tom Goodfellow lives under the table holding our "stareow." Our kitchen is actually a bakery. Our garden is actually a maze. Some shattered glass on the street is actually a beach of seashells. Tania's room is the Fairyland Palace. Our room is Jack Frost's Ice Castle. A ditch behind our house is actually a stream, and our shed is actually Mrs. Merry's Cottage. Isn't she cute? I love the way her mind works.

I remember playing with my little brother when I was a kid. I was big on pretending to be a Native American. I have no idea why. But we had this area at the beginning of our driveway that would always turn into a giant puddle when it rained a lot. We would pretend it was a lake and that we lived behind this tree near the lake. We'd spend a good part of the day gathering these little berry things and pretending we were trying to gather our food for the winter. You have no idea how happy it makes me that Tania plays these imaginative games too. I think a lot of creativity in children today has been lost to school and "learning" activities.

Today, we wanted to go to the Japanese Garden at Washington Park. It's right near the Rose Test Garden that we went to a while ago. It was free today, for reasons that I don't know about. Tania asked if they would have musubi there. But alas! It's raining. So we're not going after all. Another day.

Joey cooked turkey bacon, eggs, and toast. Talula napped. And Tania finally woke up at 11:00. Well, she did stay up late with her friend Wednesday night and they woke up really early Thursday morning to get some more playing time in.

Tania had two friends over to play, and only God knows what all those thumps and thuds were coming from in her closed-doored room.

I practiced whistling for a while. Lu was very entertained. I still can't do loud fingers-in-mouth whistling. I wrote in my journal. After Tania's friends went home, I read her some Story of the World, Volume II, per her request. It was about the Ottoman Empire taking over Constantinople and renaming it Istanbul.

Tonight, Joey's friend came over. She just moved out here from Phoenix, his hometown.

I'm tired, and I think the weather is depressing me. I wore my pajamas all day.