Life with Lotus Maria and Lucian Stone

Okay, as most of you know I am participating in the Memory Walk for the Alzheimer's Association this weekend so this is my final plea for pledges. I hate asking for money as much as the next guy, but this a really good cause and I really want to put an end to this disease. And in the mean time while people are working on a cure or treatment I want to help the Alzheimer's Association help the people who have Alzheimer's and help the people who are caring for someone with Alzheimer's. You all know why I feel so strongly about it, I won't pull out the violins and the tissues.

Thank you so much to those of you who have already donated and to those that can't right now I completely understand, but perhaps some of you have just forgotten so here is a gentle reminder and then I will drop it. I swear... well until next year

You can follow this link: http://memorywalk06.kintera.org/treasureisland/estherp
if you'd still like to donate.

Thanks

Today, Lotus Maria Stanton-Pearl has been home six months. In a couple of weeks she will have been with us as long as she lived in her homeland and I am still amazed at the journey this little girl has taken to get here and that our paths have combined to create our crazy family. Mid-October we go to family court and have her adoption officially completed. After that she will be a citizen, she will have a US birth certificate and most importantly she will be able to get a passport, because the girl had places to go.

Our sweet Lotus Flower is a busy bee. In her music class she dances the whole time, she runs all of over the house and goes crazy in Golden Gate park chasing after dogs and picking flowers. She always seems to have some place to go and explore and I wouldn't have it any other way. Though yesterday when I turned my back and she managed to get a cereal box out of the cabinet, turn it upside down, pour all the contents on to the floor and then stomp on the cereal I wished she was a tad less active.

Here are just a couple pictures of her being super cute and well, Lotus

Lotus Maria turned one and we celebrated in style. She had a great party with many of her favorite friends in attendance. Ron and Gloria flew out from the East Coast, her cousin Anna spent the whole weekend with her and she even got surprise visit from her Great Aunt Naomi and Great Uncle Lynn. All in all it was a great day for her and for Nate and I. We very nervous because we had planned a backyard bar-be-que (vegetarian of course) and in typical San Francisco form it was raining the day before. Though I certainly couldn't have called her party day a hot summer day the sun did make an appearance and the wet stayed away.

Lotus got to eat her first cake, though it was a vegan carrot cake, which some may argue isn't really cake at all. I did find out after the fact that carrot cake is the typical dessert in Guatemala for special occasions. Which made me happy because I wanted to honor and acknowledge her culture, but didn't really know how to do that. So though I didn't plan it at least we got some aspect of her homeland in to her celebration.

I was worried that Lotus would be overwhelmed by all the attention, but my girl is quite the party girl and did fine. She played with all her guests and loved all her present, especially the beautiful, shiny wrapping paper that they came in.

A few more shots of Lotus' first birthday.

The Super 7 store in Japan town hosted a comic book signing for Nate and the Afterworks crew. It was a large event that coincided with The Super 7 stores new store opening. Loads of people turned up for it, including Storm Troopers. Well, I think the photo speaks for itself and yes, Nate will be spending a lot of money of therapy for Lotus Maria for his insistence of this photo op.