Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Just a few lovely photos of Nate and Lotus Maria from the new Stanlee Getti exhibit at the conservatory of flowers
Lotus and Uncle Matt are two little peas in a pod. She is so happy when he is around, I don't think she'd even notice if Nate and I left. Matt is such a good sport and plays with her for hours. Like the entire length of the Academy Awards so I could stay focused and try and spot my friend Heather in the audience.
When he is not around she points to pictures of him and says "Matt" or something very close. Then she points to the phone. When I call Matt she refuses to say anything so Matt thinks I am crazy, but someday he'll hear it.
Lotus got to go to her friend and our neighbor Ben's first birthday, where she got to eat her first cupcake. The photos speak for themselves
Napa with Grandpa
My dad arrived the day we returned from Santa Cruz, to help with the sad transition of Nate returning to work. Sadly, our lovely sojourn of a two full time parents at home has come to an end. I realized at the end of it how much Lotus blossomed (pun sort of intended) during that time. She is talking quite a bit and her personality is emerging. She is a pretty strong willed fiesty little girl, and she has gotten so comfortable being herself that it is amazing. I think having both of us around has helped so much with her development. Our doctor has been really impressed at how she settled into her new family.
My dad's time here was great and other than a car accident (him not me, he is fine the car is not) we had a wonderful time. Lotus LOVES her Grandpa and even though it had been about 6 weeks since she last saw him she her face lit up when she saw him. She immediately collects all her toys to put on his lap and then tries to climb up there with them. She runs him ragged, but he doesn’t seem to mind too much. Nate. Lotus Art and I all went to the Russian festival in the City on a rainy Sunday where Art sampled the vodka and bellinis and Lotus got a nesting doll.
Art, Lotus and I went wine tasting in Napa (though Lotus stuck to water). I have to tell you I didn't think this was the best idea in the world, but I wantd to do something fun for my dad, but it turns out wineries and kids are a pretty good combo. THere was so much space for Lotus to run around and since we went up mid-week the wineries were all pretty quiet and happy to help entertain the Mighty Lotus. Neibam-Coppola brought out boats for her to play with in the fountain. Artesa had crayons and coloring books. We had all sorts of people offering to hold her and run around with her.
We stayed somewhere Nate and I have stayed at many times both with and without Lotus. There are horses and cows at the edge of the property and Lotus was very excited to see them. My little city girl ran up to the fence and yelled “puppies!” at the horse. I decided we had to go to the zoo a bit more often.
Overnight is Santa Cruz
We had grand plans of going to Australia for January, but then I decided to apply to Business School which apparently is a lot of work so we settled on an overnight trip to Santa Cruz, which is obviously a close second. We stopped on the way down to go the Mystery Spot, because I had never been. They do not lie. It is a spot and it is mysterious. I normally love things like this, cultural oddities, optical illusions and slight of hand tricks fascinate me. But this place honestly sort of creeped me out. I couldn't figure it out at all and then I got nauseous and dizzy, but we were able to get a few pictures before I ran away screaming. They also make you take a 45 minute tour of a circular area, which seems a little unneccesary, so my dramatics got me out of watching a ball roll up hill another ten times.
We had dinner that night at The Palomar with a bunch of my friends, all of who are born and raised in Santa Cruz, none of who had ever been to the Mystery Spot. Evidently the other mystery of the Mystery Spot is who the hell goes there. It was a great dinner, but I don’t think any of then will be heading to the Mystery Spot any time soon. Lotus played tag with my friend Suzi's daughter, Sydney, and was just in love with her. Lotus is particularly good with kids slightly older than her. It freaks me out how quickly kids can assess a pecking order. Lotus will either ignore kids younger than her or snatch their toys away, but she is smart enough not to mess with anyone bigger than her.
We also had breakfast the next day with my friend Meredith who I have know since I was three. She also has not been to the Mystery Spot. Her daughter Madeline is about Lotus' age and is adorable. They played well, but Lotus did snatch quite a bit and since she was on Madeline's turf Madeline was not thrilled.
Sarah came to visit!
When I was six my crazy parents decided to move to Australia with me and my six month old sister. We moved into a house in Melbourne, Australia with an outhouse and a refrigerator that was so old that I technically think it couldn’t be called a refrigerator. It didn’t have an actual freezer, but an icebox that if you weren’t quick on the draw when you opened the door to the fridge it flew open and conked you on the head. This is when I learned how to swear and all of you who know me well know that the habit has stuck with me and I am quite proficient. I know that when Lotus comes home with a note from the principal about her bad language I will be the one to blame.
Next door to this adventurous home in the second biggest city in Australia lived The Phillips'. Veronica and my mom became fast friends and my mom always claims that Veronica saved all of our lives since my mom really didn’t know they first thing about Australia when we moved there. She hated driving on the other side of the road, the stores had weird hours, people ate vegemite and talked funny. I could continue, but the basis of this meandering path is that Veronica took my mom under her wing and showed her the ropes. The Phillips’ have two daughters, Emma who is about my age who has visited us a few times and Sarah who is about Rachel’s age. We have remained very good friends with this family for almost thirty years and finally Sarah to the States for the first time for a visit.
It was wonderful to see Sarah and though my skeptical Lotus flower gave Sarah a run for her money at first (poor Sarah was practically doing cartwheels to get a smile), she warmed up and Sarah won her over. So much so that Lotus thought it would be great fun to thrown all her food at Sarah at a restaurant we took to Sarah to her last night in town. Though we were all trying to suppress laughter the other diners were not so pleased.
I hope it won’t be another 25 years until Sarah makes it out this way again.
Tamale Party
Mid-January we went to the wonderful annual event in Palo Alto with almost a hundred families with kids from Guatemala. It was so cool to see all the beautiful families with kids of all ages. Lotus was recovering from a cold so we didn’t get to stay for all the festivities, but she got to see her friend Tessa and meet some other new friends. People came from all over Northern California for this once a year traditional Guatemalan Tamale party, but with a Nor-Cal twist (a vegan tamale option, thank god). We met familes from Eureka to Hollister, with kids ages fifteen to home for just a few weeks and even some families that are waiting for their children.
I know I have said this before but seeing so many kids born in a coutry so far away come together in essentially our backyard is really special. The Guatemalan Adoption community is amazing. I have learned so much from other families not only about raising an adopted child, but also about Guatemala. The community tries to maintain ties to our children’s homelands as much as possible. Many families volunteer or run organizations in Guatemala and keep the rest of us abrest on social and political events. These California events are not only fun for the families, but also helps educate us parents about Guaetmala and Guatemalan traditions.
It is a difficult time for adoptions from Guatemala and there is a lot of speculation that Guatemala may no longer allow transnational adoption. Though I certainly have heard of cases that seem shady and there is always room for reform it makes me so sad when I see all these children with their families and think that in the not so distant future many more Guatemalan children may languish indefinitely in orphanages. I know in my heart Lotus was meant to be with us and it would break my heart if in the future other families are not united because of political reasons.
New year’s eve
We certainly had a calmer New Year’s Eve this year than in years past, but we had some of Nate’s friends from Japan over early in the evening with their adorable little girl Elena. Though sharing her toys is not Lotus’ forte she survived and we had a great time with them.
I then made a big dinner and Nate and I watched movies. Then next day the three of us went up to Napa to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. It was pretty nice not to be exhausted for the first day of the new year and to chill up Napa for a couple days.
A few pictures from our post-Christmas Pearl Family dinner at our favorite Oregon Lodge
Just as Lotus unwrapped her last Christmas gift we packed up and flew up north to have Xmas number 2 at my dad and sister’s homes. Where she opened up another slew of Christmas presents. In fact it was so overwhelming that we had to ship them back in the biggest box I could find at UPS.
Christmas time in the Northwest is fun. It was cold and there ice and snow and seemed really well Christmassy. Though apparently I am clueless what to do in cold weather since our car was covered in ice one morning and I sat in it waiting to defrost until some nice guy from the hotel came out with this weird plastic thing and told me I needed to scrape the ice off. I had no idea such a contraption existed. Though my husband, ya know from New England, didn’t give me a heads up about this ice-scraping notion either.
Christmas morning.
For about a month we had this large pine tree in our living room, as is the pagan/Christian tradition. We decorated it sparesly starting about 4 feet from the bottom up. It looked ridiculous, but we were worried about Lotus pulling it down, since Yaneth, Lotus’ foster mother, had warned me that happened last year. Yes, at three months old our freakishly strong daughter pulled down the Christmas tree. This year though, Lotus didn’t even notice this addition to our dining room until Christmas morning when there was a huge stuffed lion underneath it. It all seemed to come together in her little mind. As if she realized we hadn't had some weird interior decorating fascination with all things red and green and it all actually had some sort of purpose. So after running around the house for a bit she got down to business of trying to drag a stuffed lion that is twice her size around the house.
It is true that Christmas is so much more fun and special through the eyes of a child. Nate and I became those ridiculous parents that showered their child with way too many gifts at an age when they are way more interested in the packaging. Opening presents took all day. We took a break to go to my cousin’s house for a wonderful Christmas brunch and I think Lotus’ finally finished up right before bedtime.
‘Twas the night before the night before Christmas…
And our neighbors came over for a little Christmas cheer. We live in a great neighborhood and Lotus has made some really great friends that live so close by. Nate was thrilled that he finally had some little people to share his Christmas cartoon collection with, since neither Lotus nor I are interested in cartoons. The Snoopy Christmas or Grich whatever certainly kept the kids occupied so we could all hang out.
