Life with Lotus Maria and Lucian Stone

We had some awesomely hot days the end of May. And like her momma, Lotus likes it warm enough to wear not much clothing. We even got to enjoy a rare day at SF's Ocean Beach that didn't involve a wool sweater. Being that i am now a part time student this heat wave coincided with a few days my classmates were in school taking finals, but I was not. I tortured them with photos of us at the beach while they were taking a macroeconomics final. I know, not the nicest thing I could do. But hey these days are few and far between in SF a girl's got to gloat when she can.

Lotus got some great Poppa Ron and Grandma time this spring. They came out for two months and spent one of the months in an apartment not far from us. It was great to have them around. Lotus loved seeing them so often and it made me sad they aren't closer.

Nate and I got some amazing time as well. One whole weekend they watched Lotus so we could go to Napa. It was really great.
One of my favorite evenings while they were in town was Oscar Sunday. Andrew, Nate's brother, invited Gloria as his date to the Oscars. Ron and the rest of us watched all the horrible pre-awards show television to catch a glimpse of Gloria. It was all very exciting. We saw her many times. It will be a great thing to tell Lotus later on.

I sometimes scroll back through this blog and see how much Lotus has grown. I do this because I swear I am the only on who reads this and this blog is a very public, self-involved diary. I also do this because I miss things that I want to document and I realized we have a huge omission in our Lotus history and that is Jade. Jade is our nanny. I couldn't live with out her. On the days it is just Lotus and I sometimes Lotus looks up at me and says "I miss Jade." and seriously I totally understand.

A year ago we were looking for someone to watch Lotus occasionally and someone who could watch her more than occasionally when I started school in the fall. The coincided with a super fun time when Lotus would scream her head off whenever anyone entered our house. Not babysitters, but guests or delivery people or anyone. That sets a potential nanny at ease, let me tell ya. It was a good way to weed out the weaker ones. In any case we interviewed a few, but nobody seemed right. Around this time we had some friends visit from Australia and after a drive of Golden Gate Park we stopped by the Park Chalet, a cute restaurant out by the beach. While the adults were chatting Lotus started laughing in a way that was unbelievable. I had never heard her laugh like that unless Nate or I were involved. I saw an adorable waitress across the room making silly faces at my kid and I beelined for her. She must have thought I was nuts, since I think I said this. "Hi, I'm her mom. She doesn't laugh like that usually, do you babysit?"

Thank god I didn't scare her off, since she now spends three afternoons a week with Lotus and truly has become part of our family.


Not to brag about how amazing our nanny is, but here I go. Here name has become ubiquitous with amazing nanny. We have a few new parent friends who have gotten to know Jade and they have been known to say "How do I find a Jade?" I just tell them to hang out in restaurants and see who they meet