Continue reading

Today, I found this bounty in Tesla's backback (of course, she forgot to mention it to me; luckily I fished it out in time for dinner). This is from the school garden (they have two), and they are introducing edible flowers now. I love Rosa Parks Elementary school. It didn't hit me until recently that with the age difference between Tesla and Aila, we will be spending a decade involved with this school. And I'm quite ok with that. : ) Continue reading

I had to put Wakame to down a little over a week ago. I still look for her when I go to our bedroom, or when I come home from work. I still have an urge to make sure her water bowl is clean and full, and my eyes automatically go to where her insulin and needles are for the daily routine I’ve been doing. She had been getting sicker over the past 6 months so I knew it was coming, and had even made arrangements to put her down twice before that were false alarms. When her brother Katsuo... Continue reading

Interpretive dancing at its best! Yeah, she's inspired by Tesla's princess gloves, but I'm still kinda amazed. : ) Continue reading

Every Tuesday, I take Aila with me when I take Tesla & Nora to school. Aila loves this. She tries the morning rajio taiso (morning calisthenics) with everyone (video). She is so happy to be part of Tesla's routine. Sometimes she joins on Friday when I volunteer in the morning, and she sits and waits, happy at a "desk." Here they are, Tesla guiding her little sister into school. By now, everyone knows Aila. Even the Principal enjoys her when she explores the hallway. Continue reading

Rosa Parks has 2 gardens, one each classroom has a spot in, the other more general, used for Salad Days where kids eat veges from the garden. Along with their chickens, I just love this part of Rosa Parks. Today, Tesla was excited to show me her carrot. Sometimes updates from Tesla aren't clear, but it sounded like there was a leftover basket of carrots, and the kids got to choose. With an assortment of carrot colors, T chose white. Initially, she got confused when telling me, and said she got a daikon radish. But it's a carrot. After chomping... Continue reading

A parent from T's class notified us that the best low tide until December would be today at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, meaning it was a great time to check out star fish, sea snails, sea lions, and urchins. Apparently there is an elusive red octopus, that T really, really wanted to see, but to no avail. We did spot tiny shark-like fishies. For me, it was just a beautiful day to be out at an amazing beach, barely 30 minutes from our doorstep. What an incredible area we live in. I kept Aila on my back the whole time... Continue reading

Straight from the table. Continue reading

From our bookshelf in the hallway, Aila picked out a dusty book from my grad school days - Race and Education of Desire: Foucault's History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things. It's not your typical bedtime story. But Aila insisted on reading. We learned a new word, "mandy pants." Continue reading

Starts with a lot of "no, no, no...no, no no" : ) Continue reading

Aila version. Directed by Tesla. Happy New Years! Continue reading

2012 We're finishing these past 3 weeks in a fog of coughing kids, interrupted sleep all through the night, humidifiers, nebulizer for asthma, medicine, spit ups, and a tad of fever here and there. That's not including multiple doctor visits with one late night ER visit for Aila. Both T and Aila have had a horrible cough, and have been quite sick for what feels like an eternity. And this was after I recovered from a flu that put me in bed for 4 days (usually, I function somewhat even when sick, but I was totally out). Deep thanks to... Continue reading

Aila babbling, singing, and reading to herself as she preps for sleepy time. Unlike her sister, she takes time to settle down, and enjoys entertaining herself. I love peeking in during these times. : ) Continue reading

Love All The Time I love everything all the time. I love plants all the time. I love me all the time. November 18, 2012 Continue reading

It's only in recent years that I started to really appreicate the Day of the Dead, especially since San Francisco does such a great job in honoring it. The procession is amazing, and the alters people make are moving. I like how Halloween and the Day of the Dead sort of merge together, one full of kid costumes and trick or treating, the other with more tradition and about community. For Tesla and Aila, it's all a fun experience. This year Tesla wanted both of us to be spiders. I made our costumes, and being her unique self, Tesla requested... Continue reading

One of my biggest pleasures is watching these sisters bond. They so love each other. Tesla is starting to show frustration when Aila waltzes over to Tesla's carefully constructed imaginary worlds and carelessly messes it all up. I recently found this posted by Tesla. But I would too; Aila can be a bit of a terror. Otherwise though, these two are truly bonded. They are sisters, after all. : ) ↓ Post bath fun rolling on the floor: ↓ At the restaurant for dinner a bit back. All Aila wants to do is copy her sister. If T draws, Aila... Continue reading

Although, as Auntie Jessa pointed out, Aila is Aila M, for some reason, I keep calling her "Aila P----" (elongated for max effect). This particularly matches as I call after her when she is running off, which she often does, in the opposite direction I am hoping for. I have a toddler on my hands, in full swing, even though my heart still calls her babycakes. Here is my Aila P---- running around at Aesha's birthday party. I love her to bits. A bit blury, but check out her look in the 1st pic ; ) The cutest dress, is... Continue reading

♡ ♡ ♡ Continue reading

Nora lives a block away, and is a 5th grader at Rosa Parks. Since last year, we've been carpooling with Nora, making our commute a whole lot better, and we've been delighted to get to know Nora. Everyone knows Tesla comes to school with Nora; she's like a big sister at school for Tesla. Anyway, every once in a while, on the days we pick up the girls, Nora stays for a bit at our house vs. us dropping her off at home. The other day, Nora and I started playing with Aila...or, er, we went to town putting stuff... Continue reading

Dav read "our story" to Tesla tonight. I hadn't thought of that lovely, so beautiful storybook Dav put together for us, for quite some time. It warmed me so. Especially since Tesla has been to Burning Man, and can get some of the context. Not sure much clicked tonight for her, but for me, I was immediately pulled back to when we got married, and marveled where we are now, with a rambunctious and lively 6 year old, and fire-powered Aila. Seems so long ago, yet not. And we have such a true love story. And children growing within it... Continue reading

Despite our RV breaking down, us having to switch quickly to tent camping mode (which we hadn't done in years, and now have 2 little ones in tow), and having to rely on campmates to bring us our car, and carry all our theme camp stuff, we had a great year! It was a lot of work, but at least for me, worth it. To see Tesla so excited by what she experienced, playing together, and seeing her do the lemonade stand with Fia was special. And although Aila is too young to comprehend it all, she fit right in... Continue reading

Putting Aila to bed, her dressed in her rainbow striped PJs, I sat in T's small kid chair in front o... Continue reading