Kokochi

Rumi and Burning Man

A lovely Rumi poem for Burning Man, sent from Lorene, a friend who wanted to come to Burning Man for the first time this year, but who is in Kabul doing aid work right now. I hope to welcome her to the playa next year. Lorene is the one who gave Tesla a beautiful fur coat.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, There is field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, The world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other Doesn’t make any sense. -- Rumi

Tesla on Gizmodo Japan

I totally forgot to post about this neat event: Tesla's picture was used on Gizmodo Japan's 1st anniversary post! We're very honored! Thank you, いちる。

Growing like a weed...

I love watching Tesla sleeping. Many times I hover over her crib and just stare. She's so relaxed, and I sense her brain doing all the intense work of figuring out each day's activities. I love knowing how reassured she is, and how she trusts and relies on us to give her a great environment to be a baby in. We enjoy showing her new stuff, and watching her eyes stare in wonder; next a tentative hand will reach out to touch, then there will be a grin of approval about the new thing in her life. I imagine how later at night, her brain is figuring out how to store that memory. In the "F" for fun file? Or "P" for pink file? Wait, could it be "F" for fur? Of course her file system isn't alphabetical order. She is pretty much figuring out that a) having an ordered system helps, and b) what type of system to create. It's quite fun to watch. Back to growing Tesla. Again, many a nights I tip-toe in and watch her sleeping. I marvel at how big she is. Sometimes for sweetness, I give her the boob just before bedtime. I mainly only feed her once in the wee hours of the morning, and maybe once during the day if I'm not at work. I haven't forced weaning; she's naturally demanded less. Even when I just get home from work, which used to be straight-to-nursing time, she now is busy playing or will nurse for just a tiny bit. When I do nurse her before beddy time, I purposely seat myself in front of her closet mirror. I sit and watch myself hold this giant baby. In my mind she's still tiny, so it's good to see this image. Little by little, I can feel & comprehend how fast she's growing. As much as I miss Tesla as a tiny baby, I see how smart Nature is because Tesla's personality blooms to replace that. It's hilarious to watch Tesla emerge as a person: the way she says good-bye when I leave (a baby wave while she's busy showing off toys to granny), the way she welcomes me/Dav home (shriek, run, hug), the way she laughs at our silliness, the way she imitates us, the way she plays games with us, or the way she talks to herself loudly even when we say, "shhhh" because it's 6am on Saturday morning. The pace of change is still as intense as a newborn. Every other day, we see new behavior. Every once in a while, I try to vision Tesla as a bigger girl, a teenager, a young adult, and a grown woman. I realize we're raising a human being who will face life in all its beauty and ugliness, all its amazing strength and heart-breaking weakness. She will be influenced by us as her parents. I found taking care of her as a newborn rather easy in the sense that although physically hard, I knew what she needed. And I wondered how I'd do when she became a toddler, and teaching and disciplining became important. I'm beginning to think that I am ready, that Tesla actually is teaching us how to teach her. Time will tell, of course, but it's been a lot of fun getting to know her, and her getting to know us. I think we'll be alright : )

Tesla coil

From http://xkcd.com/ (http://xkcd.com/298/) Sigsy kindly pointed out this strip. Thank you!

what counts

Rachel just got back from Italy. Hadn't seen her for a while. She wanted to see me, but with Tesla, I can't just hop out easily. Plus I get tired, so staying close to home is better if it's a work night. Bless her heart. She came all the way over from Oakland, with ingredients - like dried mullet roe - to make a pasta dinner (whole wheat pasta with Flax; was great compared to other 'healthy' pastas I've tried). While I fed Tesla dinner, she made our dinner. After we all ate, she hung out while I bathed Tesla, dressed her in PJs, and got her to sleep. Later, we had about an hour or so of girl talk. She helps me slow down. Rachel is one who gets my love for food (and reminds me to take time to enjoy it), and my weird Japanese ways. Thank you, Kitten! p.s. yes, I ate ALL that giant plate of pasta...and more!

T stands for Trouble

With Tesla in town, the following has become true:

• The kitchen door and baricade must be closed at all times.
• The cats are now allowed to eat on the dining table so they can eat without their food being taken by Tesla as they try to eat, and thrown across the floor. She loves getting both their bowls, emptying out the wet food contents on the carpet, and clinking the bowls together.
• Tesla knows that the laptop power cord is important and delights in pulling it out over and over and over.
• Either way, I must use the laptop out of her reach as she has already broken 2 keys.
• Cell phones must be kept out of her reach; she actually called my brother early one morning (although it is touching that she got my brother of all the people in my contact list). Ian can testify that this really happened.
• We have not found a remote to a TV that only turns on with a remote in almost a month now.
• I have no idea how, but I found my eye shadow in the hallway the other day.
• She now distributes our pillows (as in the kind that are as big as she is) all over the house.
• She knows the garbage/recycle cans contain interesting stuff that if pulled out, immediately get our attention, such as: used diapers, food scraps, and beer bottles (which she tries to drink from). Now we have to put a book on top of the cans.
• If we give her cut up avocado bits that are a bit too soft, she will relish smearing it on the table, her chair, her face, and her hair, even the back-of-her-head hair.
• She can sign "milk" but mostly chooses to pull at my shirt, reaching down for the boob, even in public.
• But she loves goat and cow milk too, and will gladly throw to the side (literally) whatever important thing she is trying to hide, such as keys, to have a little.
• You might find spit-up (small blobs of whatever was in her tummy regurgitated up) randomly on a chair, and you don't notice until you are about to sit down
• Sometimes it's so hard to put a diaper on her that I just let her walk around naked for a bit.
• Best of all, when I say, "where's daddy?" Tesla will wander off and indeed look for daddy. It's a nice trick when I need a break. : )

p.s. Her shirt aptly says, "Wild One." It's perfect. Thanks, Mena!!

Ladybug

Lani brought over some great baby books for her birthday. They are interactive with things to open and such. Tesla is really getting into books not for reading, but at least more than for just shoving into her mouth. She seems to enjoy ones with animals. Lani also gave Tesla the cutest ladybug backpack. It fits and I'm totally gonna make her wear this on the playa : ) Now she moves too quickly all the time so I could not get a single shot in focus...

Nice coincidence

We have a nifty fold up chair for Tesla that we use everyday at our dining table for meals, and when we go out, we take it with us in case places don't have high chairs. Months ago, Dav took it to St. Francis with Tesla, but when he got home, he realized he had lost a part of the chair that prevents the screw from digging into the table. So at home, we had cardboard that we had to shove between it and the table. This morning we went to St. Francis for breakfast. The place was full - with babies too. When Dav tried putting on the chair thingy, he noticed there were two of the same piece he had lost before. Apparently, the table was so sticky underneath (ewww), someone else with the same chair at the exact table we sat at this morning lost their screw covers just as we did. So we not only found a replacement for what we lost, but we have an extra. What are chances of that? Made me happy to live in a city/neighborhood with babies around!

oh yeah, Burning Man is coming up soon!

We've been so busy that amazingly, we really haven't done much planning (or thinking) about Burning Man. Luckily, Elaine gathered the core group of us for a fun planning BBQ at their place. Remembering the great group of friends we'll be hanging out with and creating a home for a week together got me excited for BM. Looks like the core will be 16 of us, with small "villages" around us totaling around 60. The core group will take on one day of dinner cooking each, so every night we'll have yummy hot dinners all together. We're not doing combined water, hauling, garbage etc. so organizing is very simple (thank goodness!)
David (not Dav) made a cool "map" of how we should set up our space (click to enlarge). I love it when people spend extra time doing such things. And in the meeting recap, I loved how Tesla was named as a full member. : ) Yay (and yikes)! Burning Man starts in 22 days!

Tesla has big friends

Cathi, my high school friend, came up from San Diego for her sister, Patty's birthday. Cathi and Patty are a year apart. Their older daughters are days apart. Cathi has a younger daughter, and Patty has a younger son (his name is Genki, which I just love). Anyway, they all came over to play the other day. I love how these days, hanging out with friends usually means with kids and chaos. We chatted, catching up with each other all the while our kids were running around playing. It doesn't throw me off anymore. Tesla goes to the park, sees her cousins, and loves seeing her neighbor friend Sofia. But being around a group of kids is still pretty new to her. I can tell she is mesmerized by older kids. She adores watching them even though she can't really participate. I love watching her interact. A few times, she got pushed over by the older girls; she just got right up and continued!