Kokochi

Exciting news!!

Tesla is signing to us the "more" sign now! She has been on and off for a few days. Dav and I would sit at the table with her like silly eager parents, signing "more" to her before giving her another bite of food. Then we'd purposely look away, waiting to see what she'd do. For the most part she would pound the table and reach as far as she could for the food, then every once in a while, she'd do the "more" sign that actually looked like clapping hands. But who cared; we'd jump for joy and give her an extra big bite. This morning, she's doing it a lot at breakfast. And much clearer "more" vs. clapping. So fun to respond to her and see her eyes light up. We already get a lot of Tesla's communication efforts, and boy, she's expressive. But we're super excited with signs so we can really start talking to her. Yay!

It's been chaotic...

Lots going on. Work has been fine, but tons of social stuff - which is fun and good - but it makes the pace of life almost too fast for me. So much packed in every weekend. And without my phone cam to just throw up pictures for a blog post, I've taken a break. Thankfully, at Jason's housewarming party last weekend, his friend Asra took phenomenal pictures. Check em out. Other news: My nice Cannondale bike was stolen from the office over the weekend. There's even a video of it, but I don't want to see it. 3 guys, less than 40 seconds (broke office window and all). I'm small so finding a right-sized bike of that quality isn’t easy. Darn. People who steal suck! Between losing my keys, my phone, and now my bike, I give up. I'm not gonna fret about nothing. We're heading to Raindance this weekend. We actually have 2 extra tickets if anyone is interested. Coming back early on Sunday to go to 77 Million Paintings by Brian Eno, which I'm quite excited about. Tesla will join too!

Daddy and Tes time

Granny Marie was sick today, so Dav played nanny while I went to work. I think he thought he'd work too from home, but I'm pretty sure that didn't happen. The one time I tried "working" from home, I got maybe a total of 2.5 hours worth of work done in short bursts. I love thinking of just Dav and Tes spending the whole day together - without mommy fussing over how this and that should be done. They figure out their own way. And I get to see pics that make me smile.

LOST

Um... I guess I should post that I seem to have lost my cell phone. I already suspended my number so email me or call daddy-o Dav. I have no idea. I clearly remember putting my phone in the baby Ergo when leaving the car to shop for cat food (yes, for them!) at the local store. Nothing dropped. Not in the car. Nothing at the store. NOwhere. I can't imagine where it is. I'm frankly too tired to bother. I lose keys and such ALL the time. I started hanging keys around my neck so I wouldn't have to fish it out when running errands with T. Hopefully it'll show up. If not, oh well. I've got other things to fret about.

Happiness

Happiness - the kind that melts your heart and makes you feel totally content - is special. Tonight, after Ms. Queen T sacked out, we watched the Daily Show. And Dav and I played footsies on the foot rest. [the one that replaced the fab coffee table that Anil gave us but had dangerous corners so we stored...sigh]. Our footsies made me quite happy :)

Happy Friday

We've been super busy lately. Life flows on whether I can blog or not. I tend to favor life. If I can't share (or document for myself...which lately is the real motivation), well, so be it. However, our latest busy time has been sharing fun with Ele and Will. Ele has taken up blogging, so admittedly, knowing she was documenting helped me relax. So much that I'm just gonna link to fab Ele about our past x amount of days. I do want to give a warm shout-out to Ele. She is one of the warmest people I know. I don't open up to people easily, and don't mind taking my time. But Ele - and her husband too who is the PERFECT match for Ele - is genuine. I really appreciate genuine people. I don't care where one comes from, what they do, what their dreams are...as long as they are genuine. I'm letting Ele document their short stay. I already miss having them around. Telsa loved their attention. p.s. I do worry about gas. We have tons of out-of-state and out-of-country friends. Seriously, the way we jet around these days will be difficult in the future. I have parents in Tokyo, and wonder. Perhaps Dav and I should finally buy the land we dream of, build a big-ass house to welcome many guests who can stay with us as long as an airplane ticket would make sense. It's a thought I do have these days.

HUGE stinker bomb!

Whew....just as I was finishing the post below, Dav brought Tesla out from her bed after her nap. As soon as he handed her over to me, we both realized her butt was, um, heavy, wet, and stinky. We ran back to the bedroom. I got the bath going, as Dav undid her, yelling, "this is a 2 person job!" Sure enough, we discovered the BIGGEST dirty diaper we've experienced yet. Granted, poor little sick Tesla hasn't been regular, so this was a relief so to speak. It was also runny (ew!!!) but according to the doctor, that means she's getting better. Her tummy is working through that bug I gave her. Poor baby. She's seems better.

Tokyo Daddy came to visit

My dad has been hopping around the US (NY, NJ, DC, TN, CA), first for his college 50th reunion, then to visit various family and friends. His last stop was Berkeley to hang in bookstores, and see Ian & fam, and us. Thursday night everyone came over for dinner. I was very excited to have the opportunity to cook for all. I had just bought a new baking dish, and decided to make a quiche from scratch. However, when we have dinner parties, it's usually on the weekend, so as I cook, Dav takes care of Tesla. OMG...cooking with Tesla was next to impossible. Every second counted, and when she napped, it felt like I worked at the speed of lightening. Plus, since I had been sick on Tue/Wed, I needed to tidy up the house. I was just amazed when I more or less had stuff ready when everyone walked in. It was like a race all day long. But...I loved it! Once settled in, my dad brought out a bag of goodies like a Tokyo Santa. A little something for everyone. Dav got a mini flute that mesmerized Tesla. There was a bowl of tiny items my dad had found/picked up from the streets of Tokyo (watch parts, pachinko ball, and other unrecognizable things). Tesla got a wooden elephant. She also got a bib that is actually an entire shirt in raincoat material, and hasan attached food-catching shelf at the bottom. Perfect for our messy eater. The kids loved playing Wii, and we got my dad to join in the fun, albeit from the sofa : ) Julia performed a ballet dance that was the cutest ever. Here are Ian's pics.

Evidence of Tesla messing around...

Tesla has been playing with Six Apart dominoes. She likes putting them in things. I totally didn't notice this trick she pulled on the cats. I swear, I did not set this up or change anything...

6A dominoes in cat food dish

hard night for all of us...

Well, for the first time, Tesla really got sick. It must be a bug that I had on Wednesday (I left work early that day). Last night, my dad from Tokyo was over, and Ian and family. So with all the excitement, Tesla hung in there well, but threw up a few times. At the time, we thought it was just lots of spit-up. We did notice a running nose. After everyone left though...all is a blur. No one slept well, and I think Dav and I got maybe 2 hours each. Finally at some ungodly early hour in the morning, after trying to coax exhausted Tesla to sleep again, I gave up. I had an hour before I needed to get up for work anyway, so I asked Dav to take over. I needed at least one more hour! Dav obliged, but 5 minutes later came and told me Tesla threw up again, but with deeper tummy stuff. We both were worried enough I called Kaiser. Got good advice. Don't have to take her in, but we know what to look for now (ie. if she gets diarrhea, that's good) and we're giving her Pedialyte. I'm awake now, and she's snoozing finally. Can't believe - or even remember clearly - how bumpy last night was. Wow. Tesla's looking better this morning; now mommy and daddy have to recover.