Life with Lotus Maria and Lucian Stone

Lotus's Award

2012-02-06T13:39:00.000-08:00

Last week Lotus received an award for raising the most money for her school walkathon. Somehow the school forgot to tell me the day she was receiving the award and so neither Nate nor I was there to witness it. I was so upset to have missed it, because this was a huge deal. Not only that Lotus received the award, but that she was confident enough to stand up in front of the whole school to go up and get her award.

First grade has been tougher than Kindergarten. Lotus was struggling in school. We realized she needed to get eyes checked and in that exam it was made apparent that she can barely see far away. In fact she couldn’t see anything the teacher was writing on the white board. She told me that she thought her teacher was waving her arms around…like some sort of jazz hand performance... and then they were to go back to their seats and do something. Yeah, no wonder we were getting notes home that Lotus was falling behind. She didn't see how the performance piece explained what to do on the math worksheet. She has transitioned to wearing glasses seamlessly, which is a lot for a kid who doesn’t transition to walking out the door for school seamlessly and we do that every single day.

And the school yard teasing has started, which kills me. Lotus is getting it about her weight, but I know that all kids get it for something. Nonetheless it was not pretty when I almost threw down with a kindergartner who called my girl a name. I am happy to report I walked away. And OPD was not involved.

Lotus is still not fond of loud, jarring noises. This is pretty typical for adopted kids. We have made progress and no longer have to go to the movies with noise canceling earphones, but she did try to crawl inside my shirt on New Year’s Eve because other kids were playing with noisemakers.

The fact that should stood up in front of the whole school (including kids that have teased her) and kids were clapping and cheering (loud, jarring noises) and walked up to get her much deserved reward was so momentous and I was devastated to have missed it. Yet it was great to see her face when she ran out of class with her award and how proud she was of herself. She was proud that she got the award and proud that she was able to accept the award with out any problems.

Along with the award she got a Target gift card. As a side note I am consistently baffled that we give monetary gifts for fundraising. Doesn’t that seem a bit counterintuitive? Back to Lotus though... I asked what she wanted to do with her gift card and she said she wanted to use it to get the homeless man in our neighborhood some new clothes. Or as she said “I want to get the man with the brown clothes who doesn’t have a home, some new clothes that aren’t brown”. I truly can’t get over how much empathy for others this kid has. I mean I thought we were heading straight to the creepy, mechanical pets aisle at Target.

So when the teacher tells me she’s worried that she’s falling behind because she has a hard time paying attention in class I explain that I’m not worried. I can teach my kid math and reading, (or get a really good tutor) but teaching kindness would be a lot more difficult.

I love my new big boy bed

2012-02-04T17:04:00.001-08:00

Lucian's new bed

2012-02-04T16:23:00.001-08:00

I am happy to report that no Stanton-pearls were harmed during the assembly of Lucian's big boy bed.

Lucian and Cirque du Soleil

2011-11-10T11:09:00.001-08:00

A trapeze act from Cirque du Soleil performed at Pixar yesterday (what that doesn't happen at your work... how weird?) and Lucian and I were all over it. Nate was super nervous Lucian would upset or upstage the entire performance doing something crazy and Luciany. I figured they are consummate professionals and have dealt with worse, but was a tad nervous when I realized how close he would be to the performers. Nonetheless he was absolutely mesmerized by the music at first and then by the amazing grace and athleticism of the artists... okay maybe it was their cool costumes, but he was stone still the entire time, except when he whispered "don't fall" a couple times.

We will take Lotus to the full performance and I can't wait until Lucian can join us in a couple years.

Lucian

2011-11-09T15:17:00.001-08:00

Lucian's face watching the Cirque du Soleil performance at Pixar!

The holidays

2011-01-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

The end of the year was a rush of Thanksgiving, holiday school events and Christmas, but these are the highlights:

Lotus having a tea party with her cousin Loren on Thanksgiving day. He had promised to come by our house a year ago to have a tea party and my girl never forgets a promise.

Lotus sent her first letter to Santa that she wrote all by herself

Her first Christmas/Holiday school concert. Which was awesome, and showed us yet again how lucky we are that we live in this awesome neighborhood with an awesome neighborhood public school. Lotus was an amazing participant, even when the girl behind her threw up. She just stepped out of the way and kept on singing.

The usually over indulgent and abundant Christmas with Santa and many others making my children's Christmas wishes come true.

And we finished up 2010 and began 2011 with a great little family trip to Monterey.

Whew! I think I am caught up now

Halloween

2011-01-06T16:04:00.000-08:00

Lotus had a great Halloween. She dressed up as a rock star cheetah. Had a super cool school parade and got to go trick or treating in the neighborhood with one of best friends.

Lucian was a puppy and was just happy to be a puppy!

Apparently there was some sort of sporting event going on so it was unusually quiet in the neighborhood, which made for slight less decrease in the amount of people at that door and consequently less outflow of candy. Worse still Nate was sick for Pixar's the day after Halloween kiddie parade which is the usual source for candy overstock so I had to do some serious hiding and eventual discarding of the leftover candy.

Girls trip to Portland

2011-01-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

We weren't able to make our annual family trip up to Portland for Thanksgiving because of Nate's work schedule and Lucian's inability to sit still long enough to take a flight to Portland. But I missed my family desperately and Lotus had the whole week of Thanksgiving off on account of the State of California being broke and we have to furlough teachers so we decided to take a girls trip and leave the boys to fend for themselves. Lotus is at an awesome age to travel with and all those sometimes painful airplane trips during her toddler years have paid off. She knows what to do when we go through security. Get her own tub, puts her shoes and backpack in it. Reads her books and colors on the plane while I read as well. One airline attendant commented that she wished more business travelers were as well prepared and mannered as Lotus. I am thrilled that I'll have a traveling buddy for life!

But the best part of this trip was we managed to keep it a secret from Kaiya and Mila that Lotus was coming with me. So they were super surprised when she was at the airport with me. I thought I was going to go deaf from all the high pitched screaming! We were also super surprised by the unexpected snowstorm that arrived with us. Lotus had never seen snow before and though we didn't have the most appropriate clothes for the weather the girls had a blast running outside and then in again once they got cold.
We had a mini early Thanksgiving at our usual Thanksgiving spot, and a great family night out!

The Pearl girl cousins are nothing but uber cuteness and have the best time together. The weather made it difficult to do too much, but we had an awesome time at the local nickle arcade.
We had super fun sleepover at my sister's house and then we had intended to head down to Eugene with my dad and fly out from there, but the weather had other plans when it turned from snow to ice and we were stuck at Rach's house.

The girls were great and didn't mind one bit, but I went a little stir crazy so I took a walk to the store. Or I should say I slid to the store. I am not cut out for cold weather, but was baffled when I got to the store and saw a guys in front of it in shorts and a t-shirt with a scarf wrapped around his neck. Really, was the scarf useful? I wish I had asked.

Welcome to the New Year

2011-01-06T12:41:00.000-08:00

The Fall/Winter of 2010 flew by! It was filled with many fun adventures. Lotus settled into school wonderfully and we feel so lucky to have landed into such a great community. In September Lotus turned 5 and we took a road trip for a belated birthday present. The first stop we made was in Santa Cruz for a dear friend's wedding. We all had a blast! We spent the morning in Capitola and included a visit to my old workplace, Mr. Toots and then spent the afternoon at the Boardwalk.

Where we warmed up for Disneyland by taking in a few rides.

Then Lotus got to go to her first wedding, which was beautiful and she danced the night away with her new friend Maren. Luckily for everyone at the wedding we left our adorable terror, Lucian with a sitter.

The next day we drove to Anaheim. Now I have to confess that when Nate suggested a road trip Disneyland as a vacation destination I was pretty sure it was the dumbest idea he had ever had. First off we don't even have a big enough car that a road trip really works, so we had to rent a car, second 6-8 hours in the car with the kids sounds like a nightmare and finally, Lotus doesn't really like rides, waiting in lines or crowds. I'm not a big fan of them either, but I don't freak out and start screaming and hide my head under the nearest shirt (at least all the time). So there was literally nothing about this trip that was the slightest but appealing as far as I was concerned. But he managed to convince me that it would be fun... or at least since he had a Disney silver pass we wouldn't have to pay for the torture and we could spend a few days recovering in Santa Monica. Needless to say the bar was set pretty low for me that this would be a good vacation. But I was pleasantly surprised, which means (as much as it pains me to admit this) Nate was right and I was wrong.

Luckily and thanks to the silver pass we were able to bring in some assistance. My cousin Mary Kay joined us for one day and Nate's Aunt and Uncle joined another. And though Lotus was pretty distressed by a few of the rides (the Jungle Cruise was a very bad idea), she loved Dumbo and the tea cups and went nuts over all things Disney princess and we did do all things Disney Princess. She got to have her hair done at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and she saw Tiana at New Orleans Square.

Most importantly Nate made us reservations at Ariel's Grotto and we had breakfast with all the Disney Princesses... or at least the white ones. Now those of you that know me know that I must truly love my daughter to have happily sat through these experiences. Since as Lotus will happily tell you "My mommy thinks Disney Princesses are stupid."

I would also add we went to Disneyland mid-week in October when it was raining and it WAS STILL FULL OF PEOPLE!! I am such a nerd I wanted to interview everyone and find out why they were there, especially the ones with out kids. I mean it's not inexpensive and you could go somewhere really cool for the cost of admission, accommodations and all the crap they get you to buy. Nate managed to convince me not to embarrass the whole family by interrogating strangers, but I still want to know if you could only take one vacation, why would it be Disneyland?? Thoughts? I will happily hear your reasoning!

I did query one of the salesgirls at why the princess section seemed to only carry the white princesses. Lotus was looking a Tiana item and they didn't have anything from Princess and The Frog, so I asked if it was because they didn't like the princesses of color? She rolled her eyes at me and explained the movie just came out and they didn't have any Princess Tiana items yet. That seemed like a lame excuse, but I let it slide.

Because as this picture obviously shows we had a fabulous time!

After Disneyland we spent a fabulous few days in Santa Monica relaxing at our fav hotel and catching up with old friends and meeting a few new ones.

All dressed up...

2010-12-31T22:21:00.000-08:00

For her first Christmas concert at her school!

Good bye 2010 and hello 2011!

2010-12-31T16:41:00.001-08:00

Sassy lotus

2010-12-31T16:27:00.001-08:00

I'm scared...

Lotus's first snow!!

2010-11-21T16:05:00.001-08:00

Mermaid Lo'

2010-11-08T16:24:00.001-08:00

I had to share this photo of Lo' taken in Capitola, gives me a chuckle every time I see it......

- Nate

Lotus participating in her first school walkathon

2010-10-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

Lucian in the garden

2010-10-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

Road trip back from LA

2010-10-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

First weeks of Kindergarten and my monkey man

2010-09-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Lotus started kindergarten two weeks ago and it's no surprise that she is loving it. Her teacher seems lovely and her classmates are all adorable. We purposely moved into a neighborhood that had a great neighborhood public school and we have had a great time joining this community and being part of the neighborhood parade that walks their kids to and from school everyday.

And though we live in a broke city in a broke state (Thanks to both Mayor Dellums and Gov. Schwarzenegger... see I am bi-partisan) the school has managed to keep most if not all of the services that have been cut from the school district's budget through an impressive and driven PTA that raises over a quarter a million dollars a year. I feel lucky that so many dedicated parents and faculty that are keeping Crocker Highlands great even if the State of California is negligent is caring and educating for our future generations. Though it can't help but make me sad and mad at other neighborhoods that don't have a PTA that has the time, skill set and ability to draw up elaborate budgets, fund raise, create employment contracts, hire and fire staff, etc. I am glad that my precocious daughter has an environment that will set her up for success, but how many other precocious children will have unnecessary struggles because we as a society think it's acceptable to continue to make cuts to public education.

Also on the eve of Lotus's 5th birthday I am reflecting on the path she did not travel. Lotus's favorite thing this week was checking books out the library and I wondered if she would ever have had that opportunity is she stayed in Guatemala, in foster care or an orphanage. As I have mentioned many times Lotus attacks every opportunity with gusto and I am so honored that we have the ability to offer up these opportunities to Lotus. Obviously there is no telling is Lotus's life is better with us and it's not my place to make that assumption, but I do know it's different.

Speaking of attacking things with gusto. If somehow Lucian survives his early years with out a broken bone I will be SHOCKED! My little man climbs, jumps and runs with kids 5 times his age, all with a huge smile on his face. Tonight there was a spaghetti feed at Lotus's elementary school and if there was a pack of older kids playing basketball Lucian wanted to be in the center of it. If there were 2nd graders climbing on the monkey bars he was trying to reach them and he must of fallen on the blacktop a dozen times and leaped up each time laughing maniacally. He's 16 months old for christ sake?!?! I'm going to need anti-anxiety medication soon!

Family dinner

2010-08-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

At least once a week we try to all make dinner together and we keep trying to incorporate veggies from our garden. Thankfully the relatively foggy summer we've had had slowed down our squash production because I thought we were going to have to open our own farmer's market stand soon. And there really are only so many squash recipes. This week we sat down to eat and Lotus was pretty thrilled that we had all contributed to dinner. When we sat down she announced, "this is the best dinner ever, because we all made something. Daddy made the chili, Mommy made the salad, I made the cornbread and Lucian made a MESS!"

Nothing gets by that kid.

Mommy Daughter Shopping Day

2010-08-02T17:44:00.001-07:00

Lotus first day of kindergarten is rapidly approaching which, for the time being, I feel totally emotionally prepared for. I know this is just my way of blocking out the anxiety that in good time will hit me like a ton of bricks and the eventual waterfall of tears when I drop her off on her first day. In the mean time I have been concentrating on fun things like hanging out with our super awesome mentor family, who also happens to be my good friend Franki and reaching out to other incoming kindergarten families. The past Sunday we went to a casual playdate at the school for other in coming families and it was really wonderful. For some reason I was quite nervous about meeting other Crocker families, which was a bit ridiculous since everyone I had met up to this point was pretty cool and awfully nice, nonetheless it is my default to think the worst and then be pleasantly surprised.

At this particular playdate it was mostly girls and they were all great. Lotus made fast friends with several of them. In mere moments they were running around and climbing together. We couldn't stay long since Lotus and I had a hot date to go clothes shopping at H&M kids in The City and then meet up with our dear friend Nan to watch Ramona and Beezus.

The shopping experience couldn't have been more fun, and that again was a pleasant surprise. Lotus HATES tags in clothes and we had to work for week convincing her that if she wanted to go shopping we were going to have to try the clothes on WITH THE TAGS. It seems that stores do not want you ripping the price tags off of things before you have both committed to the item and completed the financial transaction. This was a lot to swallow for her and it took her awhile to agree to the terms of the shopping experience. She also has a very individual sense of style and I knew there was no way we could buy her a bunch of clothes with out her approval and I had eaten enough purchases that I knew we need to shop together if we were ever going to get her clothes she would actually wear with out a fight.

In the store she was in heaven. H&M had a full line of Hello Kitty clothing and she LOVES Hello Kitty. She picked out one of everything to try on and we survived the fitting room with out to much fuss. She did have a few moments where I could tell she desperately wanted to tear the tags out of the clothing, but through gritted teeth she persevered and got some awesome clothes. She even wanted a pair of pink Doc Marten knock offs and I couldn’t be more thrilled!!

Post shopping we got a much needed snack and met up with Nan for our movie adventure. This was also an area I was concerned with. The last movie I took her to the previews really unsettled her. It was too loud and the editing was too fast. We had to sit in the hallway until she felt safe enough to enter the movie theater. Since then we have had some movie success and movie failure. Nate took her to see a revival of Muppets Take Manhattan, which she loved, and Toy Story 3, which completely traumatized her. Neither of those had previews though. But on Sunday she came prepared. She brought her noise canceling earphones and a sweatshirt to cover her eyes. She occasionally peeked out to get bites of popcorn and Skittles, but mainly stayed under until the movie started. Which was good since there were some really awful previews. Apparently there is animated film coming out called Alpha and Omega all about the a female "Alpha" wolf and a male "Omega" wolf that are kidnapped from their Canadian homeland and taken to Wyoming to repopulate the wolf population. What?!!? How on earth is that appropriate for young kids? The preview was all double entendres about wolves mating. Nothing funnier for the preschoolers than jokes about wolf sex. Ugh... seriously can young boys stop making children's films.

That brings me to Ramona and Beezus. This was a totally adorable, though hardly perfect film, where the main character is this quirky, interesting and brave girl. And there are several other interesting female characters and an overall likeable family. And with all these positive attributes it has gotten virtually no publicity. I can only attribute that to the studio that released it feels that it's not worthy of any sort of marketing budget. There are so few children's or family films that have lead female characters that are not one dimensional princesses, much less interesting female characters (and don’t get me started on girls of color not being represented at all in the media) and it is so sad to see a film that the lead character could be any of the adorable in coming kindergarteners I meet at the playdate getting barely making any box office numbers, which only reiterates the studio perception that films for girls, or with girls in them don’t do well. Clearly this pisses me off and I came home ranting at Nate about the problems with “his” industry. See I quit several years ago, so somehow it’s his problem. He loves it went I preach about how evil animation is and that Pixar is totally complacent in gender inequality in their films. He listens all while looking around at our house that essentially Pixar bought. The bottom line is I suggest you all go see Ramona and Beezus.

Sorry I was on that soapbox so long I forgot to mention Lotus also loved the movie. She only got a bit antsy at one moment that is a bit emotional, but overall Ramona was her hero and she keeps talking about her adventures. We will be checking the books out of the library next week to keep Ramona in her life. Because if I can distract her from one second from the plethora of princesses that creep out from every crevice to tell her only worth is who she marries with a imaginative little girl who would prefer dirty elbows to perfect hair then I can rest a little easier.

Lucian's in the SF Chronicle

2010-08-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

Technically I think he's just in the online version of the paper, but who cares about technicalities. This picture was taken when we went to visit Nate at work on Friday. Good thing Mike wasn't hungry! Click the link on the title of the blog to see the very tiny right up.

(or go here if that doesn't work: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2010/08/01/week_of_July_26_-_Aug__1.DTL)

Nate will kill me for this one...

2010-07-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

But I still feel the need to share. My husband is a wonderful, kind and generous man and a fantastic father... that being said there are times when he is so inept I wonder if he suffered a head trauma or maybe there are some residual after effects from his youthful indulgences. This morning we had one of those episodes where I had to just squint my eyes at him and say "seriously". He is taking the kids out for the day (so obviously I am evil for not just being grateful for the day to myself) and I was preparing snacks for them so that I can attempt to supplement the all carb diet that they normally get on daddy day. I hard boiled some eggs and handed them to Nate in tupperware and this was the following exchange.

Nate: What do I do with these?
Me: Uh, plant them...What do you mean what do you do with them you feed them to the kids
Nate: I know, but how?
Me: What do you mean how?
Nate: How do I open them?
Me: (Paused, because any wise ass thing would not be helpful. But internally I said: "Really? You don't know how to crack an egg. How is that possible? Were you raised in some sort of egg free zone. No chickens in Massachusetts? Along with alcohol were hard boiled eggs banned in Rockport?)
Instead I just took an egg and cracked it and demonstrated for my dear husband.

Nate: Cool, that's easy enough.

And off they went on their fabulous day. But how much do you want to bet that they will return with all the eggs intact and uneaten.

Things I want to remember

2010-07-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

Everyday Lotus says or does something that I desperately want to remember. I wish I had some sort of memory camera that I could take a snapshot and preserve the moment. That would help immensely, especially during the times that she does something that I desperately want to strangle her for.

Yesterday was the 4th of July and Nate was a little blue that we weren't in Rockport, but his work schedule and Lucian's -lack-of-being-able-to-sit-still-for-a-6-hour-plane-ride schedule didn't allow for it this year. So I got a little wading pool for the backyard as a way to give everyone something to smile about. Lotus and Lucian played so great together and Nate was beaming the whole time.

Later in the day we went over to Auntie Leeann's for a little bbq. Lucian and Lotus were the only kids and Lotus was quite pleased with that. She likes it when she can make all the adults do her bidding. And by god she's good at it. Lucian on the other hand was being a pill since earlier in the day he opted to splash at the pool instead of nap in his crib. Normally he really is the best, most mellow boy, but yesterday he would have none of it. Lotus was hoping Nate and I would abscond with Lucian so she could hang with the adults and maybe score a sleepover at Auntie Leeann's, but I wasn't too keen on that idea. Nate decided to take Lucian home and I told Lotus if she wanted to stay we'd have to walk home. It's about a mile from our house to Leeann's house, which for a 4 1/2 year old could be a death march, but she said she was up for it. And then she informed me, "don't worry if we get tired we can take a taxi." Alright city girl, good thinking.

When it was time to leave I was a little worried that this could be the worst idea I have ever had and would involve me dragging Lotus kicking and screaming past Lake Merrit and through the Lakeshore shopping district, but then maybe we'd get a ride home from a policeman who would drop Lotus off on his way to take me to Central booking. But Lotus really surprised me. We had the best walk where we talked all about the flying machine invention she wanted to create. In case you are curious the design process came up with this...A buckle around the waist with a spinning thing (really more like a spindle from sleeping beauty she decided) on the back and two more on your feet and something around your chest that was held together with tape. Then she had a car she wanted to create with a pool on top and a Barbie house on top of that. It was so awesome I didn't even cringe when she said "Barbie house". Her stories were so great she didn't realize we were all the way home and she had forgotten to complain and whine.

When we got in the front door Nate had Lucian on his lap and was watching "Empire Strikes Back". Lotus curled up next to him and learned all about Princess Lea. And then they both passed out before fireworks, which was cool since we were fogged in and it just sounded like bombs and gunfire. How appropriate for Oakland.

It was no Rockport, but overall a pretty good 4th of July.

Garden

2010-06-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

Moving to Oakland has had many positive effects on our life, bigger house, awesome public school for Lotus, avoidance of the SF Unified Public School lottery nightmare, Nate has a super short commute and we have awesome neighbors. But the biggest factor that keeps me smiling is the fact that our garden gets sun. I mean real direct sunlight, not just the occasional ray that pops out through the fog for a few moments. So this year when I wanted to plant vegetable my gardener didn't just roll her eyes and I got more than moldy plants. Now I can't take total credit for our garden, we do have the most awesome gardeners, but the veggie patch has been Lotus and my special project. Now most nights we eat something we have actually grown, we have chard, squash, tomatoes, peas, broccoli and the corn is just starting to come in.

After watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution I became obsessed to make sure Lotus could identify all the veggies, fruits and herbs in our garden. Poor Lotus. The exchange goes something like this:
Me: Lotus, do you know what this is?
Lotus: (heavy sigh and eye roll) uh, yes that's oregano.

Pretty cool, huh?

I've been a bit busy... with what you ask?

2010-06-15T19:43:00.001-07:00

You asked so I'm telling you... in a sentence it's been a whirlwind Spring. I mean how on earth did it get to June and the middle of it at that. I know I have only updated our blog with the occasional photos over the last few months. It seems like facebook has taken precedence over the Stanton-Pearl family bog, which is just a shame, but I could only commit coming up with miniscule sentences that make up a facebook status. And let's be honest nine times out of town I was just reporting Lotusisms, so I can’t even claim original content. But now I have a spare moment and it's time for a proper up date.

First of all you must not really be my friend or be related to me if you didn't hear that I graduated from my MBA program. And it was quite the emotional roller coaster. My last semester I decided to go back to school full time after a year and half of being a part time student and full time mama. Nate and I decided it would be a bit like ripping off a band-aid. It would smart, but at least it would be over with. We didn't realize how painful that band-aid would be. It was a tough semester, that included some good old fashioned school drama with one class having an incompetent teaching team and a new administration coming in (the two weren’t entirely related). Which was trying both mentally and scholastically as the deadlines and deliverables kept shifting under my feet. But I knew going into this that the school I choose was going to be risky since it was a new school with an innovative academic mission. But seriously I had no idea that added up to so much upheaval. In the end it all worked out and I am still so happy that I choose to go there and with the exception of this one class I loved my three year experience.

But it was exhausting!
Because as you may remember I have two kids! One that I was brilliant enough to have mid-semester a year ago. So while I was plugging away at the little ole' MBA they needed things like; love, attention, food, water. Darn them! And besides just the basics we had quite a bit going on beyond my academic pursuits. Nate is working like crazy on a little film called Cars 2, but as far as I can tell loving the challenge.

And then there were a few other events as well...

On May 1st the two most important men in my life had a birthday. Lucian turned one and Nate turned 40. Now from here on out they get one joint birthday party, but that was just not going to do this year, they were celebrating two momentous ages and with all that my family put up with they both deserved a little attention! But of course even that I couldn't make easy on myself. Nate’s cake had to come from one bakery and Lucian's cupcakes from another. I was cursing my poor planning and the need to add more to my plate in an effort to over come guilt through desserts as I was driving all over the place, but in the end we had two great events.

The next weekend was the Toy Story 3 wrap party and my cousin Monica generously flew up from Orange County to watch the kids so we could go out that night. We didn't make it to the last Pixar wrap party because I was about to give birth and was terrified of both being at a formal Pixar party, being the size of house and unable to drink. Furthermore it would have been a real bummer to go into labor as well. Though Katherine Sarafian went and sang with the Pixar singers and her son was born the day after Lucian, but anybody knows Katherine knows she's is way tougher than me.
Nate and I had a blast at this years event and the movie is pretty great, not that anyone expects less from Pixar. Go see it on Thursday when it opens to the masses.

Lotus continues to amaze us with her wit and spunk. She heads off to kindergarten in the fall and she is ready to go. I am awed by her fearlessness and then my heart swells the few times she gets scared and still needs to run to mommy or daddy. One of the greatest gifts we have had is through Lucian we really got a sense of what Lotus went through when we adopted her. Often people tell us how lucky it is that she came home at six months. Well-meaningly they say she doesn’t remember life before us and naively I think we believed it, but at six months Lucian knew who we were and his face would light up when Nate, Lotus (especially Lotus) or I walked into his view. It made me realize how at six and a half months everything in Lotus’s world was turned upside down.

This year we celebrated Lolo day, as we always do. April 2^nd is the happiest anniversary I have, the day we all landed in SF and started our journey as a family together. But this year it was hard. Lotus was acting up and being a real pill. I was disappointed that instead of creating a happy memory we barely made it one hour with out a breakdown. As I collapsed on the couch and Nate put her to bed I reflected that this may be my favorite anniversary, but for Lotus it may not be. And who knows if she was just having a bad day or emotionally she wasn’t up for celebrating not only the day we became a family, but also the day she no longer recognized any of the faces, sounds, language and smells around her. The day she was asked to be braver than any baby should ever have to be. I know I will always have a Lolo day to celebrate and honor her homecoming, but maybe I’ll approach Lolo day a little differently next year.

My dad, Rach and her girls came to town for my graduation which was so wonderful. It was pure girly chaos in our house for several days, but somehow Nate survived and I’m sure it helped Lucian develop his feminine side. And then the same day they left Ron and Gloria arrived for cousin Ben’s high school graduation. They generously stayed with the kids for two nights so Nate and I could go away for a few days. Leeann came in for the final 24 hours to relieve them and we were so grateful for a few days away.

Finally Lucian took his first steps on Sunday, July 13^th which was quite exciting. I am about to go away for 10 days to Turkey and I know when I return he’ll be running around the house. I can only wish Nate and the nanny good luck with that.

Lotus on the TS3 chair

2010-05-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Lotus has great style

2010-05-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

She picks out her clothes every morning and today's outfit was
particularly awesome!

My birthday boy!!

2010-05-02T15:19:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm one today!

2010-05-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

Making daddy and Lucian's bday cake

2010-04-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

2010-04-12T13:53:00.001-07:00

Lucian at Gymboree

2010-04-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

I finally signed up for a class for Lucian. Poor second kid. Needless
to say he loves it!

And yet another

2010-04-10T22:36:00.001-07:00

Another shot

2010-04-10T22:35:00.001-07:00

An afternoon at Little Farm

2010-04-10T22:34:00.000-07:00

One of the many awesome places for a family in the East Bay. My brave
girl feeding a cow.

Life with school, work and two kids...

2010-04-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

Has gotten kind of crazy, but we are all doing well. Though I think even Lucian has learned how to count so he can count down the days until I graduate. (he just said it's only 47 days). In our not so copious amounts of free time we have been exploring life in the East Bay and going on a few great adventures. There's so much cool stuff to do over here. I'll post some shots of our latest outings.

Amazingly enough Lucian will be one on May 1st and Lotus enters kindergarten in the fall. We are super excited that she will be attending the local school up the street from our house and we can walk there every day. Lucian is now standing and making some attempts at taking steps, but he is a super fast crawler, so I think he'll stick with that for awhile. Lucky for us Lotus and Lucian still love to play with each other and I can only hope that will stick as the grow up.

Friday night movie night!

2010-04-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

Lotus reading to Lucian

2010-02-04T17:29:00.000-08:00

2010-02-04T17:27:00.000-08:00

Pictures from Maui

2010-02-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

We are in Maui for a brief but very needed vacation. Here are a few
shots from our trip

Lotus's choice of pj's

2010-01-03T19:37:00.000-08:00

Lotus wanted to sleep in daddy's shirt tonight and chose this t-shirt.
Not sure this is the most appropriate choice for a four year old but
she's happy!

2009-12-06T19:57:00.001-08:00

A few photos from our Portland Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving

2009-12-04T10:16:00.001-08:00

We got to go back to Edgefield the day after thanksgiving because Nate
left his backpack there. Which was great because we didn't see this
super cool gingerbread house on Thanksgiving day. Unforunately I
agreed to help Lotus make a gingerbread house at home. I think she
might be disappointed that our end result isn't as impressive.

A week of firsts

2009-11-29T07:11:00.000-08:00

We are finishing up our holiday in Portland and had a wonderful time. It was a week of firsts for Lucian, first flight, first swim in a pool, first Thanksgiving, first time meeting his cousins Katya, Justin and Roma. Overall I think he had a splendid time. He is the only boy in a sea of girls in my family so it was pretty funny to think how he is going to be running with a pack of little ladies soon enough.

Lotus is an expert at all this now and also had a great time. She is really into the idea of sleepovers and was super excited to have Kaiya spend one night with us and then she spent one night at my sister's with Kaiya and Mila. It was an adventure to have three kids in our hotel room, but they all did fine. As always Lotus had the hardest time going to sleep so we know at slumber parties in the future she will always be the one up the latest.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Edgefield again which is our new family tradition. And once again it was great, easy and festive. It's such a cool property and Nate and I decided we will be staying there next year.

We fly home tonight and even though I love my family and had the best time I am looking forward to being home. It's a challenge having everyone in the same room and having a little space with be great.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. And I'll post photos soon.

Waiting for Lucian's first flight

2009-11-24T18:42:00.000-08:00

We are on our way to Portland for Thanksgiving!! I can't wait to see
my family. Hopefully Lucian will do great on his first flight.

I love sweet potatoes!

2009-11-13T17:11:00.000-08:00

Lucian's first food

2009-10-31T16:40:00.001-07:00

Lucian got his first food today and most of it stayed in his mouth!

Lotus with attitude

2009-10-05T14:26:00.001-07:00

I wonder where she gets it?

Bluegrass Fest

2009-10-05T08:23:00.001-07:00

Lo' had her best pal Chloe show up at the fest too!

Sent from my iPhone

A walk around the lake

2009-10-05T08:18:00.001-07:00

Lotus was lucky enough to have a sleepover at my friend Leeann's house. We took advantage have having just one kid and took alovely walk around Lake Merrit.

Sent from my iPhone

2009-10-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

At Hardly strictly Bluegrass

2009-10-04T12:25:00.000-07:00

A lovely Sunday with the family at the awesome and free Hardly
Strictly Bluegrass.

Picture of the day

2009-09-27T09:27:00.001-07:00

I realized I don't have that many photos of Lucian on here, because I am always holding him. Nate took this photo yesterday and it needs to be seen by all.
Enjoy!

Mi Familia

2009-09-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

Just a sleepy shot of the family

Picture of the day

2009-09-04T18:23:00.001-07:00

Lotus got to hold lucian so I could get dinner ready. I was happy for
the help and she was just happy.

Summer Camp

2009-09-03T22:07:00.000-07:00

Lotus attended summer camp, which was basically her preschool, but outside. After class we would stick around with some of her friends.

This day the kids spotted a gopher. Too cute!

This summer

2009-09-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

So it turns out life with two kids means little time to update our blog. Add to that our summer this summer was filled with less trips and one big move and it equals a hectic few months. For those of you who don't know this died in the wool SF family made the big decision to live the city we love for better weather, a bigger house, a shorter commute, better school and the more diverse community that is Oakland. When I put it that way it seems crazy that we ever stayed in the city. But it was really sad to leave, but we are very happy with our choice. And for those of you that only hear about Oakland on the 6 o'clock news let me tell you it's pretty awesome over here.

Even with all that that doesn't mean we haven't had any fun. We can always make time for some fun around here.

In June Lotus finished up her first year of preschool. At that point we hadn't found a house in the East Bay yet, but we were actively searching, so we doubted she would have returned for another year. So she graduated from Morning Glory with the children that were continuing on to kindergarten.

Lotus had a pretty magical first school experience. Her teachers Trish and Andrea were two amazing, warm, patient, lovely women. The Waldorf teachings can seem strict and some might say cultish and we had a hard time with some of the rules. The nomedia rule is pretty hard to follow, when daddy works at Pixar. In the end Lotus blossomed there and she made some great friends. But we were ready to move on.

Lotus spent most of the summer touring open houses with her mom. She was a trooper and even started mocking my tone of voice, "ooh this is nice" or "I'm not sure this is the one for us."
But we did squeeze in one little trip over 4th of July to Napa. The highight of the trip for Lotus was visiting the winery Castello di Amorosa,not for the wine mind you. She loved it because it's a "real" castle. We had a great time touring the castle and imagining what it would be like to be a real princess in live there.

We had a lovely rest of the weekend and though it was a short trip with a short travel time, we felt very accomplished that we all survived our first family of four travel experience.

More pictures from Build a Bear

2009-08-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

My last post was from my iphone so it was quick and without many details. Lotus got a wonderful gift certificate to Build a Bear workshop from Nate's childhood neighbors The Cole's. I had no idea what it was and we had to do a bit of research to figure out where it was located, but the internet has all that
information. Lotus allowed me to take her, which was so cool. It was our first lengthy mother/daughter outing since Lucian was born. I reallymiss hanging out with just her. She is so funny and well she can carry on a conversation as oppsed to our adorable lump Lucian.

When we arrived Lotus immediately picked out the pink unicorn. Since she has a tendency to chnage her mind often I made her look at all the other stuffed animals as well, but she stuck to her guns and the pink unicorn was what she wanted. She was a little concerned while we were standing in line to get the unicorn stuffed. She wanted to make sure that it didn't hurt them, so we watched a few other kids get their animals stuffed and then she was okay with it.

The people who work a Build a Bear are so perky and cute. Normally that would annoy me, but clearly I am a changed woman because it just made me smile. After "Pollie" got her stuffing we picked out several all pink outfits, which Lotus loved and I didn't even try to get her to explore other color hues.

Lotus now has a new best friend and we had a great day.

2009-08-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

Mommy/daughter outing at Build a bear. Special thanks to The Cole's
for the awesome gift certificate.

Lotus the comedian

2009-08-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

The other day I got Lucian out of the bath and was savoring his baby smell. She asked what I was doing. I told her I was smelling him because he smelt like baby. She gave him a sniff and agreed.

She then smelled herself and said, "I smell like big sister." Then she walked over to me and took a whiff and said, "you smell like mommy." She followed that by waltzing over to Nate and inhaled, "you smell like..." dramatic pause "stinky."

She'll be here all week, don't forget to tip your waitresses.

Another silly photo

2009-07-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

I captured this moment during our Father's Day brunch. Lucian's face is priceless

Father's Day Fun

2009-06-21T19:34:00.001-07:00

We spent Father's Day enjoying a glorious day in Golden Gate Park. Nate relived his youth by breaking out his skateboard, Lotus had her new scooter and I had Lucian in the jogger stroller. We had a blast, especially Nate and Lo as you can see. Nate and I are determined to make her a skater chick, and the kind that skates, not the kind the watches the boys skate. If today is any indication then she is off to a good start.

Cute photo of the day

2009-06-20T12:12:00.001-07:00

I love this picture and wanted to share it with you all!

One more cute photo

2009-06-15T18:46:00.001-07:00

I just liked this picture of Nate and the kids, so I thought I'd share it.

Lucian's first post

2009-06-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

Our poor son, Lucian. He has been alive almost six weeks and this is the first post that even discusses his existence on the outside of my belly. In fairness it has been a crazy six weeks, so hopefully things will calm down and I can blog occasionally about life with two kids now.

So for those of you that don't know, Lucian Stone Stanton-Pearl was born at 12:12 on May 1st. Which is eight days after his due date and also Nate's birthday (he was born at 10:10am, in case you were curious). I really did not want Nate and his son to share a birthday. It's hard enough that Nate has to share a birthday with his twin brother. I always want to do something for Nate's birthday, but then it's also Matt's birthday and so we have to do something with him as well and it's just too darn complicated. So I did everything in my power not to have this kid on May 1st and apparently I just don't have any power. So against my wishes he arrived on his dad's birthday and quite dramatically as well. He got to spend a few hours in ICU because he had the umbilical chord wrapped around his neck, TWICE, and had myconium. I have to say the nurses at the hospital were amazing. I didn't realize how serious it was until I went to see the little guy in ICU. But they all reassured me he was going to be fine and a few hours later they released him.

Once we got home we were taken care of by Nate's dad. And thank god for him. He was amazing and I'm not sure how we would have survived with out his help. In fact I'm not sure how we are surviving now and I think he should come back immediately.

Lucian is pretty awesome and very mellow, which is great since our life has been chaos since his arrival. Nate had to leave on May 12th for almost two weeks. Yeah, that sucked. He had his first business trip and had to go to Europe for a Cars 2 reference trip. I know, cry lots of tears for Nate, especially the part where he ended his trip in Monte Carlo at the Grand Prix and I had to take Lucian to school with me for my final presentations. My dad, my friend Sarah and Rach and the girls all rotated in to help us in our time of need.

But Nate returned and we have all found a nice groove.

Lotus has embraced Big Sisterhood with gusto. Lucian smiles the most for her. She can be a bit rough and really doesn't understand why he can't play back, but overall she is just fabulous with him. I can't wait until they can play together.

I am happy be done with school and get into the swing of this parenting two kid thing.

In an effort to actually finish this post I am going to leave it at that and allow you to take a gander at our cute kids in the following photos.

Poppa Ron

2009-04-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

I love this super cute picture of Lotus and her Poppa Ron. He came with us to Fantastic Fridays at the Crissy Field Center. Lotus loves cuddling with her grandfather.

Easter

2009-04-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter around here. Both Nate's parents and my dad were in town and the weather was lovely.

A few days before Easter my brother came by and helped Lotus dye Easter Eggs.

They had a super great time, and the eggs were quite beautiful. Lotus was even amendable to dying a few not pink.

Easter morning the Easter bunny hid the dyed eggs and a few plastic ones as well in our backyard.

Lotus found them all and then we celebrated with a brunch with both her grandfathers and her grandmother. She got pretty sugared out, so later in the day Nate and I took Lotus to Golden Gate Park to run out the sugar.

Orange County and Los Angeles

2009-03-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

In February we took one last family vacation as a family of three. Nate is super busy with his new job as Story Supervisor, so I knew we couldn't go far or for long, but we had a pretty rainy February so I wanted to head south to some sun.

Lotus and I ditched town first and flew down to my cousin Monica's house in Newport Beach. We had a great time. It's hard to say who enjoyed themselves more, Lotus or I. Lotus was spoiled rotten by Auntie Monica and I was spoiled because she did everything for Lotus. I have never had so much down time. Certainly it was wonderful, but it did make me miss my mom and her sister, my Aunt Dee. Growing up Auntie Dee's house was better than Disneyland. I got to eat sugary foods, play with my seven cousins and was generally spoiled rotten. Monica recreated her mother's wonderful and magic aura with Lotus. And Lotus loved every minute of it. I mean look at what she got to eat with in one hour of our arrival.
Lotus with my cousins Monica and Mary Kay
Lotus and Emily, her new friend and Monica's neighbor.

It was hard to leave, but I knew I would get soft and Lotus would become incorrigible if we didn't continue on to LA a few days later. We met Nate at our favorite hotel in Santa Monica and had a sunny few days playing on the Westside and seeing old friends.

It was only a long weekend, but I was glad to have a little time with my husband and daughter, before the chaos of the new baby ensued.
Our serious cow girl at the pony rides at The Venice Farmer's Market.

Slide Ranch... or a City Girl Milks a Goat

2009-03-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we got a call from Lotus' preschool teacher that the field trip she thought was scheduled for May was actually that week. I was a little annoyed, because I wanted to go and I had appointments scheduled for the day. I hate last minute scheduling upheavals, but rescheduling my appointments was a small price to pay to get some Lotus time pre-new baby.

The field trip was a Slide Ranch, which is a wonderful teaching farm not far from The City on the way to Stinson Beach

I was certainly glad I was able to go, because there is nothing like seeing your city girl learn how to milk a goat. Or realize she has a deep seeded fear of chickens.

This is the last photo I was able to take before the chickens freaked Lotus out and I had to pick her up and run far from the coop with her over my head.

Band Practice

2009-03-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

Updates are few and far between these days as we get ready for the arrival of baby X, or Equis, as we call him around here. But I wanted to post this cute video of Nate and Lotus

New Year's Day

2009-01-14T16:32:00.000-08:00

New Year's Day was our wedding anniversary. We have survived five whole years together. And sappily enough it's only getting better and better. I really wanted to do something as a family since our little world is going to be rocked with the addition of our boy in April. So we went to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk for the day. It was a beautiful sunny day, and even though only half the rides were open we had a blast.

Lotus was so brave going on all the rides she was allowed to go on and seriously bummed she couldn't go on a roller coaster. Our daredevil, I love it!

Before heading back up to the city we got an early dinner at The Palomar and made it home in time for Lotus' bedtime.

We can't wait until the summer time to go back and Lotus can't wait to add on a few more inches so she hits the height requirement for the big kid rides.

Christmas

2009-01-14T15:42:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We stayed home which was nice since the end of the year was a bit hectic for both Nate and I and thus Lotus. Nate had a few extra days off so it was lovely to lounge around SF during the break.

Lotus really got into Christmas this year and I think we are in a particularly magical time when the rituals of the holiday are more important that the stuff she gets. I'm not sure if it's the lack of television, the Waldorf School or just this age, but Lotus was way more excited about the tree, turning on the lights and Christmas decorations than she was putting together a lengthy list of loot she expected Santa to deliver. In fact her list for Santa was quite sweet. She wanted a red Rocking Chair, a tiny Clifford doll and a baby bottle. My dad procured the red rocking chair and Santa did bring the rest.

Christmas Eve we went to Andrew and Julie's, which was great and then on the way back home we saw a family of deer in the middle of the road. Lotus was so excited because she was certain they were Santa's reindeer. Which was pretty cool.

The next day we did our traditional early morning present opening and then over to my cousin's Toby and John's for brunch. It's always super fun, but this year Lotus and John and Toby's grandson, Owen really hit it off. Last year they were both a bit young to even notice each other. When it was time to go Lotus announced she would only go "if the boy was coming with us."

We try to spread the presents out through out the day, so she at least acknowledges what she got and from whom. So my dad joined us after brunch for some more presents.

Then Nate and I cooked up a traditional Christmas dinner, and yes that means turkey. Now don't go thinking this house has gone all carnivore, but I thought if we were going to have meat eaters over for Christmas dinner it's the least I could do. I was also feeling a bit nostalgic because my dad had given my sister and I my mom's china this year and it was my first meal using it. I didn't go too crazy, like actually stuffing or cooking a dead bird. I just ordered a precooked one from Whole Foods (A big thanks to my friend, Leeann for that tip). I just picked it up and heated it up and we were good to go. I did have to deal with the carcass and the left overs the next day and even then I only whined to my dad until he took care of it. We did make everything else, which was pretty fun. Lotus is a big help in the kitchen these days, so she even got into the mix.

It was a lovely holiday and it was nice to take some time to celebrate the season with our family before it grows this Spring.

A few family photos

2009-01-08T22:56:00.000-08:00

When we were in Portland in November Rachel's friend Merin took these lovely family photos.

Aren't we cute?

Lotus visits Santa

2008-12-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

We have had two disastrous Santa visits with Lotus. Last year we didn't even make it to Santa's lap. She waited in line to see Santa, but in the end she lost it and we had to run off. I mean I can't really blame her, we tell her to beware of strangers and then we push her towards an older gentleman she doesn't know and say sit on his lap and smile.

This year I suggested we send him a letter, but as the idea of Santa became clearer she decided that she wanted to tell him face to face her Christmas wants. And since her list was so sweet I really wanted her to be able to tell him.

We went to the mall mid-week so there was no line and she just hopped up on his lap and told Santa that she wanted a rocking chair, a baby bottle and a tiny Clifford the red dog doll. She then smiled sweetly and we got this awesome photo.

Later on I realized we hadn't really told Lotus the full Santa story when my friend Laurie asked Lotus where Santa lived and she responded "The mall." Obviously there were a few blanks Nate and I needed to fill in.

Thanksgiving Day

2008-12-04T15:58:00.001-08:00

After the chaos of the day before Thanksgiving Nate and I looked forward to a much calmer Thanksgiving Day. Luckily I had made dinner reservations for the Pearl's and I have to say I think this was the smartest thing I have ever done in my entire life. I booked us a table at our favorite hotel/resort/ interesting eatery, Edgefield. They had a Thanksgiving buffet, which was perfect. It's hard to satisfy us all during the holidays. Everyone but my dad is a vegetarian, or I guess pescatarian these days, but if there is not turkey Poppa Art is not a happy camper. The whole event was great, the girls all got along, it was nice without being stuffy, lots of families so we weren't the only ones trying to keep our kids in their seats, we were able to get Kaiya and Lotus with in moments of sitting downs and they had really good food. It was so good that Nate even said "let's do this every year." And you know that is saying a lot if you have ever heard how he was traumatized the first Thanksgiving he spent with my family.

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-12-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

Nate, Lotus and I went up to Portland for Turkey Day last week. One of the great advantages of an economy in shambles is the Thanksgiving travel was stress-free. Even my hated SFO airport was quite quiet. Everyone who works there was still rude and totally inefficient, so that hasn't changed. Thank God the shock would be too much for me to handle.

We arrived in Portland on Tuesday night, which was also Kaiya's 5th birthday. We, sadly, arrived too late to celebrate with her that night, but we had plans to take her shopping the next day. My dad picked us up and Lotus was so excited to see her Poppa Art. Though admittedly she was more excited to see Kaiya. Which proved a problem that night when she was too wound up to sleep. So our first night in our favorite hotel proved to be a long one.

The next day we got up early, basically because Lotus got us up with "ARE WE GOING TO SEE KAIYA!!" We told her not until the afternoon, but time is still a bit of an abstract concept to our energetic three year old. So all day long she asked, "Are we going to get Kaiaya, NOW!!" We had plans to visit some friends of Nate's and then pick Kaiya up mid-day and go shopping and then hit the indoor pool at our hotel. Those were the plans, but fate intervened. On our way to pick up Kaiya we got a flat tire in our rental car. We had rented this hideous mini-van so I could try and avoid having to be in a car with my dad behind the wheel. The problem with said car was that they did everything in their power to put the spare in the most impossible to reach location, so we had to get AAA to change the tire. Which I just have to say really bugs me. I mean statistically women/ mothers buy minivans so this just seems really dangerous and an obvious omission in knowing your consumer demographic. I can change a tire, but I need to be able to get the tire to change it. The spare time was under the car. You unlatched the spare inside the car, but you had to slide under the car to get it out. Okay, so if I was alone, pregnant and with a three year old in the car by the side of the road how would that work? Let's say it was night. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. This was of course a Dodge which is owned by Chrysler. Chrysler which is one of the now infamous Big Three, I mean seriously do we want to bail out idiots who makes cars like these. Any wonder why they are in such serious trouble. Okay, so I digressed a bit.

By the time we got back on the road an hour and a half later pre-Thanksgiving traffic was awful and it took us an hour and half to go a distance that should have taken 30 minutes. Kaiya was really fantastic, she was so excited about seeing Lotus that she was okay with us rescheduling her shopping trip, which I have to say I'm not sure I would have been so understanding. We now had to race back to the rental car place and exchange the car before they closed for the holiday. The same traffic we hit on the way to pick up Kaiya was now going the opposite direction. So we made it, barely. In the end it all work out. Even though the girls were stuck in the car forever they entertained themselves and were just happy to see one another. We met up with the rest of my family for pizza and then we all hit the pool. It was a long first day, but seeing Lotus and Kaiya together makes it worth it!

Here we go again... but much differently

2008-12-04T08:32:00.000-08:00

So for those of you who didn't catch it in my political rant blog, the Stanton-Pearl clan is growing. This time in my belly, because why do anything the same twice. We found out we are having a boy, which comes as no great shock since I think there has only been one girl Stanton born in many generations. He is healthy and now that I am done being sick as hell all is well. Lotus can't wait to "boss him around".

Halloween 2008

2008-12-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

After last years Halloween fiasco (see January 2008 to review) I was considering ignoring to whole end of October event. Sadly my daughter has gotten too clever for this charade and she knew something was coming up, but she was also apprehensive as well. See Halloween is scary and strangely enough a three year old does not like all the scary monsters and ghosts. This adds an element of fear for Nate and I, since we have just gotten over a particularly bad sleep disorder spell with Lotus. We were both terrified that all the Halloween decorations would send Ms. Lotus back to the very bad place of no-sleep.

So I was kind of torn what to do. Lotus has really gotten into playing dress up, especially with all the horrid pink princess dresses that she got for her birthday, so I wanted her to have the dress up Halloween experience, but I also didn't want her terrified. In the end I didn't think I could get away with just boycotting trick or treating.

Another option was presented to us through her school, but it also made me nervous. Lotus goes to a Waldorf School and I feel like I am still navigating all the rules of the Waldorf lifestyle. I also don't like rules and it is in my nature to recoil when there are too many boundaries. Nevertheless the main Waldorf School was having a Fairy Walk on Halloween night, I had no idea what a Fairy Walk was, but all of Lotus' class was going and I do like the families in our school so I signed us up as well. As we got closer the event we got the list of rules, the main one being no characters from the media. Lotus had her heart set of wearing one of her DISNEY princess dresses. I did not see this going well. I do have an issue with this aspect of the Waldorf philosophy. Even though I understand that the media has way too much influence on children's imagination, I feel like I am stifling Lotus' creativity if I dictate what she can or can not wear. I came to a compromise with Lotus and myself, if she wanted to wear the non-commercial fairy outfit that she had we would go to the Waldorf School Fairy Walk and if she donned the Sleeping Beauty costume we would trick or treat in our neighborhood at non-scary houses.

As fate would have it she chose the fairy outfit and we joined her classmates at the main Waldorf campus in Pacific Heights. And I have got to tell you am I glad we did. All my nervousness was for nothing. First off their were a few kids in Disney Princess Costumes with the label covered up, so I felt like there is some wiggle room and I can live with rules if there is room for interpretation.

Second, Lotus loves her classmates and they were all so cute hanging out together. Lastly, the walk itself was amazing. I am so sad they didn't let us take photographs inside. The school took groups of kids through the campus that was decorated in various Fairy Tales with older kids and adults acting out the stories. It was entirely magical and made me realize what a special experience the Waldorf school creates both in the classroom and outside.

In the end Lotus had a wonderful Halloween and she got to wear her Disney Princess costume a couple days later at the annual Pixar kiddie Parade.

A historic night

2008-11-05T14:32:00.000-08:00

Last night we allowed Lotus to stay up way past her bedtime to watch history being made. I was in shock at President Elect Obama's landslide win and it wasn't until this morning that I realized it was real and the tears started to flow. I am so excited about the future and proud to be and American. The past of old white man, ignorance, intolerance and business as usual rule was sent packing and innovation, collaboration and intelligence rose to the top. What a wonderful world!!

As a member of a multi-racial family I also am so overwhelmed what this amazing man and his family what that signifies to my daughter, my nieces and our great group of diverse friends. Today on the news they showed Obama's photo in the line up with all of the US presidents. I think I realized I have been holding my breath my entire life waiting for a change in that line up. My mother always told me I could be President of the United States, but I don't know if I ever thought it was possible because no one who wasn't a white man had done it before. Now that that door is open let's kicked it down and take it off it's hinges.

So on this day I am so thrilled and hopeful (and exhausted). I know the real work starts now, and all that work does not only fall on President Obama's shoulders. It is up to all of us Americans to work hard to make sure that change happens and we get this amazing country back on track. Yes, we can and last night we as a people showed the world yes , we did.

Moving on... Lotus' third birthday

2008-10-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

On September 11th our little princess turned three. This year in an effort to make things easier, we decided to have a little kid birthday and a separate small dinner for a few family members.

This of course made things more difficult and twice the work, but c'est la vie.

Lotus has made some adorable friends over the past year and we really wanted to have an event all the kids could enjoy and with any luck their parents as well. Since Lotus was 18 months old she been taking gymnastics class at Acrosports. We love the place. She has the best time, is learning some stuff and just gets bolder and braver with every class. When we realized they hosted birthday parties, we booked it immediately. Our plan was to have a great party for Lotus, have the kids run around like crazy, feed them and send them home ready to pass out. I think we were pretty successful.

Lotus and the other kids had a blast. I have to say our kiddo is a pretty good party host. She greeted all her guests, made sure everyone was having fun and introduced kids that didn't know each other. She loved having the whole floor for just her and her friends.

The cutest moment was went went into the other room for pizza and cake. Seeing Lotus at the head of the table surrounded by her wonderful friends created a pretty warm and fuzzy feeling. The best was when we sang her happy birthday and she pointed at herself and sang "happy birthday, to me".

My political rant

2008-10-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

Did you all think I was really going to stay silent with the most important election of our lifetime looming in the distance??? (I actually feel all elections should be the most important election of our lifetime, so I am not sure this statement is worth more than a tantalizing tidbit to drag readers in). So if you are hoping for a cute story about Lotus and our wacky family antics, feel free to skip ahead.

In the interest of full disclosure and putting it out on the table I am not a McCain supporter, but I used to have a lot of respect for McCain (Dad, you can flip out now and call and yell at me). After the first debate I heard a lot of what he said and was impressed. I was not going to pretend like he had a chance of getting my vote, but I was trying to listen to both candidates and hear both sides. It's called critical thinking and I'd like to be good at it. Certainly his foreign policy experience is worthy of respect and I heard that it in the first debate. But after the last few weeks my respect has been replaced by absolute disgust. And this last debate pushed me over the edge. Mid debate I had to put Lotus in the bathtub, I didn't want her hearing a man, who should be considered a hero, debase himself so much. It has taken me almost a full week to calm down enough to right this all down.

There were so many distortions and half truths that I wouldn't know where to start, so to focus the scope of my rant I am going to focus on one area that hasn't gotten the press I would like it to. McCain brushed off the idea the importance of women's health so patronizingly with his air quotes that I thought I had been scooped up and placed in some less developed country that still treats women like property. Look McCain has indisputable record of not voting on or voting against gender equality issues. But I got to say this clip took the cake and thenwhat really got my goat was when he refered to being an adoptive parent as if that will be some sort of catch all solution.

The one thing, as far as I can tell, that Nate and I have in common with Mr. and Mrs. McCain is being adoptive parents. And like the McCain's we are international adoptive parents, so the idea that the McCain's or the Stanton-Pearl's can promote their adoption as a prescription of a solution in a post-Roe v. Wade world is disingenuous. I can not speak about the McCain's and the circumstance of their adoption, but I can speak about ours and the idea that it is a black and white solution is also ridiculous. I love my daughter more than life itself, but I can not say many days pass where I don't think about her biological mother and the choice that she had to make (and I think choice is a pretty generous word). Lotus attacks every opportunity with such gusto and I am honored that we have the means to present her with many life building opportunities. Does that mean her life is better with us? I can't say, not that I won't say, but I can't say. It tugs at our heart often this triad that has been created, but it's not in balance. Lotus's biological mother knows nothing of her life, she doesn't even really know where she is. Take a moment to think about that. I would DIE if I didn't know where Lotus was for 5 minutes, much less the past 3 years. And that's the way it is for right now, if Lotus is old enough and wants to change that then we support her fully. But as a mother, knowing there is another mother out there that doesn't know where her daughter is... well I'm crying right now thinking about it.

I also am reading The Girls Who Went Away, about the years before Roe v. Wade and teen age mothers who had NO CHOICE and had their children ripped from then and placed for adoption. I doubt those mothers would say adoption is the best answer. That being said adopting our daughter has been the best experience of our life, and through all the craziness and complex feelings there is not a doubt in my mind that we were all meant to be together. All I am saying that is that it is not as black and white as Mr. McCain seemed to make it.

I'm not done yet, sorry. I want to go back to the hand gesture about women's health. Now that I am pregnant with our second child (just checking to see who is still reading, yup it's true). The idea that my health, if some complication arises and we as a family have to make some horrible decision, could possibly be in the hands of this man, seeing as this kid will be born during a new administration, is down right terrifying. The idea of women's health, pregnancy complications, and birth defects and what we would do in any of these situations is something Nate and I have discussed at length. And that's how it should be, choices and decisions being made by the parties involved not some 70 year old white man who doesn't know a damn thing about our family.

Finally, I'd like to know just exactly WHAT Mr. McCain is going to do for single mothers that make the choice to raise their children. Being intimately involved with two amazing single mothers I can say for a fact I don't see anyone from the McCain camp offering up any solutions to these ladies. Furthermore I also don't see anyone from the pro-life movement pounding down their door offering up support, child care or a shoulder to lean on. So someone explain that one to me, please? I will be happy to discuss this offline if anyone wants to give me their thoughts.

Okay, this election is too important to be a one issue election. I am not expecting to change minds (especially since I think about 50 people read this and we all probably agree) I just wanted to speak my peace. I will be HAPPY to continue this discussion if anyone wants to email me or call me.

Thanks for listening,
Love Esther

Girls Rock!

2008-10-01T14:43:00.000-07:00

Early in the summer, on a rare date, Nate and I got to see a great film, Girls Rock!. We were enthralled by this great documentary about a Rock and Roll Camp for pre teen and teen girls in Portland, Oregon. Nate contacted the film makers and had them bring the film to Pixar to screen it there. After the film he found out there was also a Bay Area Girls Rock camp and that they were having a showcase in a couple weeks. There was no way we were going to miss that and since Lotus has become a little rock and roller we knew she would have a great time as well. As luck would have it Rachel, Kaiya and Mila were in town as well, so we all got to check out the talents of local 8-16 year old girls.

The show was at Bottom of the Hill and it was PACKED! I have never seen so many people in that club. We couldn't get Kaiya and Lotus close to the stage so they danced on the bar. The girls on stage were amazing. In one week they have to form a band, write a song and in many cases learn an instrument. Then they performed it with so much heart in front of all these people. I was so moved, I think I cried and smiled the whole time. I mean imagine if this had existed when I was a teen, I wouldn't be near the wall flower I am now.

Lotus and Kaiya had the best time. They put on there own rock and roll show during lunch and both of them (and their parents) can't wait until they are old enough to go to rock camp.

Comic-Con 2008

2008-08-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

Clearly we are insane, because after all the traveling we have done this summer we went on yet another trip. And not any trip mind you, but we all, including Lotus, went to San Diego for Comic-Con. Now for those of you living under a rock you might not know what comic-con is. And I ask, "How is that possible? It was even featured on an episode of Entourage for Christ sake." But in case it is possible you haven't heard of it, comic-con is technically the largest comic book convention in the world, but to call it just that is really selling it short and not doing it justice. It is mostly known for it's costumed participants. Fans of sci-fi, superhero and other genres dress up as their favorite characters and wander the San Diego Convention Center. Or as my dear cousin Monica put it fondly, "the weirdos", but they are only one portion of the 150,000 people that come to this event. Yes, you read that right. Yes, that is a lot of people in one place costumed or not. Besides being a mid-July Halloween Ball it is also a great display of artistry. My favorites are meeting the smaller up and coming artist. Last time we went I met a wonderful young Israeli woman who had illustrated a really charming comic about her conflicted feelings about the current relationship between the Palestinians and Israeli's. This year I got to meet my name doppelganger. There is a comic book artist named Esther Pearl Watson. She has a comic strip in the back of my favorite magazine and our lives have run parallel enough that I am often asked if I created that comic and she is often asked if she worked at Pixar. It was nice to meet her, but a little awkward . I like my name and the uniqueness of it. I assume she is the same way so though I think we were both happy to put a face to the other "Esther", we didn't become bff's or anything.

This is also the occasion that all the major studios have displays and give presentations for the up-coming tv and film releases. So that's a huge draw. And for some reason there are always a lot of scantily clad women and washed up tv stars hawking signed photos of themselves.

Lotus and I only lasted a few hours at the actual convention. But before I felt the panic attack come on she got to meet a princess, Wonder Woman and played with Lego's. She was in heaven. The crowd got too much for me, so after a bit Lo and I headed back to the hotel pool so Nate could go to some presentations.

We finished that day doing some amazing people watching in the Gaslamp district in San Diego. Lotus kept pointing out all the princesses and how beautiful they all were, and for this I blame Nate. I tell her every day that princesses are evil, but she is now caught under their damn spell and I am doing my best to breathe deep and ignore it.

The next day we had breakfast in La Jolla with my cousin Monica and Norm and their son Kevin and his wife Michaelle. They were so sweet. Monica and Norm drove all the way from Orange County and I can't tell you how great they are. But Lotus immediately fell in love with Kevin. I have a lot of cousins and Lotus has A LOT more. It hard for poor Nate to keep it all straight. I can't do that whole "first cousin, once removed thing" so they are all just cousins and he wants to know how we are all related. I don't know why it matters, but if wants to worry about it he can figure it out. Lotus is now potty trained, so this means we need to check out every potty every where we go. Sometimes numerous times. After the third visit to the potty during breakfast she informed me that "next time I want Kevin to take me". Kevin is great with kids, but I think potty duty might be too much for even him. I told her not to press her luck or her play date with her twenty something cousin might come to an abrupt end.

After breakfast Kevin and Michaelle went to Sea World with us. Lotus was in heaven. Michaelle and Kevin just doted over her. Kevin is super tall so her could lift her up so she could see all the animals. She got to pet a dolphin and taught Kevin how to walk like a penguin.
It was so freaking cute. Kevin has always been the sweetest kid and so it's lovely to see how he is still the sweetest adult.

We spent the rest of the time in the pool and lapping up the San Diego sun. It would have been the perfect vacation, but when we got to the airport the next day to leave, there was a mix up with our flight. Meaning we weren't on it, being that about 150,000 people were leaving San Diego that day there was no chance of getting on another flight that day. So we rented a car and drove. It wasn't the funnest 10 1/2 hours I have ever had, but it wasn't the worst either. We made it home and that's all that matters.

First week of school

2008-07-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

Lotus just finished her first week of school, how crazy is that? Her preschool, Morning Glory, offers a summer program to ease the kids into the school year. Morning Glory is a Waldorf School, and the classroom is earthy and warm. The Waldorf schools only have wooden toys, all organic food and a generally very natural vibe. But it also means no TV or Media... ever. Some of the schools even make you sign a contract, my only concern was if it was legally binding. That's going to be a hard one for this household. But so far she hasn't complained.

Monday was Lotus' first day. She was pretty excited and has been talking about it for months. Mostly she would inform Nate and I that she was going to school "by myself, no mommy or daddy." Sometimes she would say that Max, the cute waiter at the neighborhood restaurant we go to all the time, could go with her. I thought that was hysterical, but it gave Nate a small heart attack. Even with all this big talk I was still pretty sure this would be a hard week. I have rarely dropped her off anywhere and left and when I have it has only been for a couple hours and now she was going to school for four hours for four straight days. She also has been particularly "two" this past week, all over the place emotionally, lots of dramatics and wearing Nate and I out. Needless to say I was pretty nervous.

Monday morning Nate and I strolled into the preschool class prepared for the worst. We were the first to arrive and she started playing immediately with all the cool wooden toys.
I chatted with the teacher Todd, while another little boy showed up and the two of them started to play. There was then a few awkward moments of me not knowing what to do and the teacher told us we could go. I tensed up waiting for the scream of all screams but she just waved to Nate and I and said "Bye, see ya later." And that was that. Everyday has been pretty breezy. Mostly she doesn't want to leave. So that's that. She is no longer a toddler, but a preschooler. But Max does not get to take her to school yet... much to Lotus' chagrin.

2008-07-06T22:16:00.001-07:00

More cute pics from our vacation. Mostly of Lotus in her favorite place, the pool.

Mexico

2008-07-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

The beginning of June we took a much needed family vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It was so great to get away and spend time together as a family. Lotus did great on the flights and we were thrilled to escape the San Francisco fog.
Cabo San Lucas is beautiful, but really touristy, a far cry from some of our past travels, but Lotus loved the kiddie pool and it was warm day and night so who can complain. We had a car and took a few day trips and were able to escape Cabo Wabo for some areas a bit more our speed.

We trekked an hour north to Todos Santos for a day. Todos Santos is a beautiful artsy town, most famously known as the home of the Hotel California. It was a pretty sketchy drive out there. I had to drive, because we rented a Jeep with a manual transmission and Nate can't drive a stick. In the past I would have loved the adventure of almost being run of the road by the work trucks, but when your child is in the car with you, that excitement gets replaced by fear pretty quickly. We obviously made it in one piece and the few passing glances I took out the window showed some pretty lovely scenery. It was worth it to get to Todos Santos and stroll through the lovely town.

Our days in Cabo were very scheduled. After breakfast we went to the beach and after lunch Lotus made it very clear that she wanted to go to the pool. And though Cabo was definitely on the cheesy side, Lotus loved some of the cheesiness. Especially the horrible band that played on the beach one night. She danced and danced in the sand for hours.

Beach Day

2008-06-04T15:01:00.000-07:00

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.

Ron and Gloria's visit

2008-06-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Jade

2008-06-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

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

Lotus and Lula the Pineapple

2008-05-12T09:17:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Elizabeth stopped by last week with her doggie Lula Poki Pineapple or Lula the Pineapple according to Lotus. Elizabethe or Auntie Boo as she would like Lotus to refer to her as is my "Into the Wild" friend. I rarely see her because she off living off the land and having grand adventures. I picture her life a bit like Chris McCandless, except she's a field botanist who works for the Federal Park System, so she has a job, as far as I know has never burned all her cash and knows what she is doing. But she is never at one park for long, all her belongings fit in her Chevy Tahoe and camps a lot, so that seems very counter-culture, checking out of society to me.

It was great to see her and have her meet Lotus. I'll be damned if I am going to go off to some nature reserve with my toddler, so I had to wait until she could make it to the city to introduce her to my kid. She blew through town on her way to Colorado for her summer gig.

I don't know if Auntie Boo will take hold in Lotus' vocab, but Lula the Pineapple now trips off her tongue. We added this photo to Lotus' bedside collection of dogs she loves. It helps bolster our argument to her father that she needs a dog.

Picture of the day

2008-05-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

My iPhone is now creator and home to all my favorite pictures of Lotus. Love the camera on this thing. I snapped this one this morning. Lotus is fairly potty trained, so she decided that all her guys needed diapers. She did it all herself and is quite pleased with herself.

Lotus Maria's new haircut

2008-05-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

I was pretty worried that the neighbors were going to call CPS. Every time we had to brush or wash or touch Lotus' hair she would scream and cry. One of us would have to pin her down to the ground and them she would try and crawl on her belly Israeli arm style to escape the evil detangler and comb. Sometimes yelling at the top of her lungs, "Stop that mommy, stop hitting me". Which can't sound good. I decided this was a battle I did not need.

Lotus has this chic French friend, Margeaux (and yes at 2 if you are French you can be chic) with adorable short hair. After one of these hair tussles I looked at Lotus and said "Do you want short hair like Margeaux?" "yes, mommy, yes" was Lotus' enthusiastic response. So we trucked on down to Snippity Crickets and said chop it off.

Here are some before, during and after photos.

Before

During

And very happy afterwards

Needless to say she loves it short and though it still has to be brushed it's no longer the traumatic event for all.

Portland trip

2008-04-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

Lotus and I jaunted up to Portland for a quick trip before school got to hectic to meet my new niece Mila. Who clearly I love so much that I didn't take one picture of her. Really not one, what is wrong with me. I did take a lot of pictures of Kaiya and Lotus. They are ridiculous together, though Lotus really personifies that line in the Pretender's song "it's a thin line between love and hate". She loves Kaiya so much and gets so excited to see her that she hits her, in the face, with a spoon, a metal spoon. Here is a photo moments before Lotus hit Kaiya.

Then when Kaiya is crying she gets upset and says "What happened to Kaiya?" Kaiya is pretty amazing and doesn't hit back (though no one would blame the girl if she did) and seems to love Lotus even with the sort of immense physicality of the situation. We had a great time. My sister is amazing, she does it all with two kids and I barely hold it together. Lotus flew really well, she loved seeing Poppa and we even made a quick trip to see her other cousin Katya and Roma. The girls are all so cute together. It's enough to make me want to move to Portland, especially when I saw my dream house for sale at a price that wouldn't get us a garage in SF.

I keep hearing the weather is terrible, but SF is not that much better. Though after all the trouble it took to get Lotus into preschool we are not going anywhere anytime soon.

Tamale party

2008-04-02T12:39:00.001-07:00

In February we attended the annual Tamale Party for Families with kids from Guatemala. This was the second year we went and it was so much fun. The weather people had threatened terrible weather, so I was worried we wouldn't make it, but we braved the elements and treked down to Palo Alto. Even with the bad weather there were about 50 families there. We saw some old friends and made some new ones.

It's tough right now for us Guatemala adoptive families. There have been some terrible salacious and and sometimes down right false media reports about adoptions from Guatemala. The international adoption system is currently shut down in Guatemala. We have been lucky that we haven't gotten too many comments. Though I have become a mad woman writing letters and commenting on blogs anytime someone reports something erroneous.

I crave these events because we can relax. I don't have to try and decifer the weird look someone is giving my family. I don't have to deflect or reeducate the seemingly harmless comments. The families are all great. We have made great friends and it is so darn cute to see Lotus and the other kids play so well together.

The event commences with the smashing of a pinata and then the free-for-all candy madness. Lotus had a great time watching the bedlam, but we thought it was best for all is this year she sat out the blindfold and a bat. I mean seriously who thinks of these ideas.

Springtime

2008-03-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

I think it's about time I just admitted I update this thing quarterly. I don't know why it takes me so long to get my act together. I really thought I'd have more time this semester, since I am now a part time student, but somehow all my time gets monopolized pretty quickly with our Lotus Beancake.

In any case the past few months have been filled with good times and some crazy ones. There are two big announcements in Lotus' life. First, she has moved to a big girl bed. If you have been to our house anytime in the past two months I am sure she has dragged you into see it. The end of last year bedtime became horrible. She would scream for hours, act like she was being boiled alive in hot oil, and wake up constantly. A few people suggested she might be ready to move to a bed and I wasn't ready to have that happen. Then she learned how to climb out of her crib and it was all over. There was no keeping her in her room, so we might as well bite the bullet and get a bed. Lotus and I went to Ikea and she laid on every bed until she picked one that she liked. Then she got to pick out her bed linens, which took awhile as well. We had the best time.

The we got home and replaced her crib with her big girl bed. I will not lie at first it was hell. With nothing to keep her in bed, she didn't stay. We actually were up until 5am once. Nate slept in her bed with her, I slept in her bed with her, she slept in our bed and at times no one slept. Then one night I turned on the TV and Super Nanny was on. She had some format for getting kids to stay in bed, which I immediately decided was ridiculous and there was no way it would work. Until I hadn't slept for five days and I started frantically searching the internet for Super Nanny. And what do you know, Super Nanny is pretty darn Super. Bedtime is pretty easy now. She stays in bed all night and she loves her big girl bed, so hooray for Super Nanny. (I really never thought I would ever say that, in fact I had no idea who super nanny was 6 months ago).

Secondly, Lotus got into preschool! The whole preschool thing in SF is bizarre. We spent more time and effort on preschool applications than I did on my application to Business School and in the end the cost will be similar as well. It was embarrassingly stressful. We went to prescool tours, open houses play dates and interviews. We applied to seven and somehow we got into them all. We chose a great little Waldorf school near our house. I think she is going to love it. She will start two mornings a week this summer and then five days in the fall. My baby starts school it's so amazing.

LA

2008-01-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

The Stanton-Pearl clan jaunted down to LA for a few days between Christmas and New Year's. We were hoping to escape some of the bitter cold we had been experiencing and see a few good friends and family.

Lotus was great on the flight. We took the new Virgin America airlines, which is a bit like flying in a night club. She had been talking about the plane ride for a week and found the whole thing pretty exciting.

We arrived in Santa Monica and soon met up with Glen and Andrea who were in town. I was so happy to see them, but a tad disappointed that Logan was spending the night with Andrea's mom. Of course I understand the joy of a night with out your kid, but I was sad not to get to squeeze him.

We had a great couple days with the two of them. Though both Nate and Glen were fighting colds. And it wasn't as warm as I hoped it would be. Lotus kept hanging around the swimming pool, begging to go for a swim. The water in the pool was warm enough, but there was no way I was stripping down to a swim suit to go in with her.

We had a great lunch with Nate's friends Steve and Davi. The next day we had a wonderful day with my cousins, at which Lotus was showered with toys and attention. We all strolled down to the Santa Monica pier and Lotus got to ride a few rides.

On Sunday we went to see an amazing Murakami exhibit at the Geffen MOCA. Lotus loved the big bright paintings and cartoony sculptures. At the exhibit they had an adorable Murakami animation, which Lotus adored, even though it was in Japanese. We then wandered around Little Tokyo. Later in the day we went over to my friend Jaime's and Lotus got to hang with Jaime's dog Jack and the neighbor's cat. Nothing my girl likes more than animals that love her back. Nothing I like more than animals that pay attention to Lotus so I can somewhat relax with a glass of wine and a friend.

Of course our last day in LA the weather was amazing, we had already checked out by the time I made this realization so it was too late to go for a swim, but we enjoyed a lovely New Year's Eve Day in the warm sunshine of Venice and the La Brea Tar Pits.

Happy 2008 everybody!
We got home just in time for Lotus to watch the ball drop in New York. We put Lotus to sleep in her own bed with all her guys (stuffed animals). Nate and I opened a lovely bottle of champagne and then barely stayed awake to usher in the New Year Pacific Time.

Christmas Brunch at The Garrone's

2008-01-04T13:58:00.000-08:00

Once I decided that Lotus had enough for the time being we headed over to my cousin's house for brunch. Lotus was showered with more love and presents.

Lotus snuggling with Uncle Danny

Lotus with her favorite cousin Kyle. Lotus would have been thrilled to have been left with Kyle for all of Christmas week, but he had to go to France. That doesn't stop Lotus from asking "Kyle back yet?"

Christmas 2007

2008-01-04T13:33:00.000-08:00

Nate had a screening for the film he is working on he same day my finals week started, so for a couple of weeks in December we all lost our minds, had no sleep and no time to even think about the big imposing holiday looming in the future. Thank god we have Jade to help hold down the fort and keep Lotus' life structured. The day I was done with school I wanted to collapse in a heap, but alas as a parent that doesn't get to really happen. Lotus and I did play "napping" and I must confess that I feel asleep for a minute or so. After the nap I had to jump up and into the consumer chaos that is Christmas.

We did manage to squeeze in the annual torture of our child by having her take a photo with Santa. We got to the mall, I had her watch about a dozen kids take their picture. I asked her many times if she wanted to do it. She was very excited and eagerly said yes. When it was her turn we placed her on his lap and she immediately started screaming and took a swing at Santa. It was of course the same Santa from last year, who I swear remembered us. Thus I am also in the holiday photo, looking somewhat crazed.

Christmas morning my dad came over to participate in the present opening event. In all fairness Nate and I lost our minds with presents for Lotus. I actually made her spread it out over several days because it was just too much. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Lotus and Scraps

2008-01-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

Scraps has finally started to see the light. Nate is gone most of the day, I am not really a cat fan, nor have the time (or in all honesty the inclination) to give Scraps a ton of attention, but Lotus on the other hand desires nothing more than to shower Scraps with hugs, kisses and pets. She really is pretty amazing with animals, and other cats let her carry them around, but Scraps has been pretty bitter and insubordinate since Lotus' arrival. Yet almost two years later he finally starting to come around. He stays in the room when she is around and has even let her hand graze his fur. By the time she's sixteen he might even sit on her lap.

Black Friday

2008-01-04T12:57:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Nate and I both needed a break from our projects and Lotus needed both her parents to be in the same room. We had a great relaxing Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house, where my adorable cousins Kyle and Loren lavished Lotus with attention. I was looking forward to a few leisurely days, so I was positive my husband had lost his mind when he suggested a trek to Union Square the next day, a day the US so lovingly refers to as Black Friday. I had been aghast at the news coverage of people waiting in line all night and then scrambling and tussling with the other crazy folks to get a deal on designer purses or big screen TV. Really the last place any sane person would be is near a shopping area on the biggest shopping day of the year. I knew he had been working hard, but I had no idea he was going to require medical attention.

Nate reassured me he just wanted to see the Christmas windows and decorations and shopping was the last thing on his mind. We trucked down there on MUNI, which Lotus loves, that could have been our whole day and she would have been thrilled. We exited at Union Square and I prepared myself for a throngs of people and a panic attack. But I was pleasantly surprised, the insane shoppers had either gone home or were inside. Very few people were in front of the Christmas windows and Lotus loved the Macy's windows with the animals available for adoption in them. Union Square itself was fairly idle and we found a place by the huge Christmas tree to drink coffee and watch the madness.