Kokochi

Tesla made me breakfast today

Cooking breakfast

Edible Hats at MadHat Eight

Last night was Jeffrey's annual MadHat party. This year is year #8, so the theme was edible hats. Dav made a hat of mushrooms, walnuts, and radishes (see him drilling holes in the walnuts?). I made one of nori, senbei, ebi, and kurage. Well, actually, our dear neighbor Michelle came over and made most of it for me. She is so good with design and detail that it came out much better than what I even imagined in my head. Yay!! The best part was that there were many babies. A lot of the guests are from the burning man crowd...and I guess we're all growing up and having families. We keep having/going to parties, but they are kid friendly. I truly appreciated getting to bring Tesla and not feeling weird about it. There was even a 6 week old. I *so* believe in integrating children into our lifestyle (albeit a somewhat modified one) instead of rearranging everything we do and changing our identity just because we have children.

Testing the playground

Telsa is still way too young, but I wanted to have a little fun with her at our neighborhood playground. She was obviously swimming in the swing bucket seat, but I think she enjoyed it. She spent most of her time staring at other children playing. I then took her down the slide a few times and tried to get a picture of what her expression was like. She seems mildly amused in the first one. The second is distorted, but I still like it. The video is bad quality. I'm still getting used to my phone...and geez. I should remember to keep my mouth shut when recording. Not only is it loud, it's embarassing baby babblese.

Telsa joins the table

Usually I feed Tesla separate from when we eat. And recently I even let her feed herself which resulted in the messiest face ever. But she is so eager, and it's pretty funny to watch. Tonight, however, we sat her at the table during our dinner time. She technically was already fed, but indicated she wanted to eat while we ate too. It was so cute...to have Tesla join us. We had chopsticks, she had her silver spoon. We marveled how we're like such family now, all sitting at the table together for dinner. Was it only 6 months ago that she was curled up in her swingy thing while we "took a break" and ate? p.s. when she was feeding herself/playing with food, she kept also sucking her thumb like she couldn't decide if she wanted food or comfort. I guess both. Busy baby indeed.

we are parents???

We got our 2007 BM tickets. I first must say BIG kudos to the BM HQ for making the purchasing experience much better and completely logical. No one should complain about how it carried out (there were complaints last year, but geez...with I'm sure 15,000+ trying to buy tickets at one time, I'm fine with some delays...). BM continues to please me in how they organize this gigantic event. Very professional. I'd work for them if I weren't a Six Aparter. I've been to the BM HQ and seen their awesome child care/playroom. That says a lot. Anyway, I was reminiscing, looking at old pictures. Boy having a blog is so great for that. It really is my family album. I was reliving the year at BM when Dav and I got married, and found this. Seriously, are we parents? I feel confident and happy taking care of Tesla, loving her, not fazed by anything she brings about, and feeling quite strong that between Dav and me, we'll have a pretty balanced way of bringing her up. Yet, we really don't look the look, do we? That's what we want, I know. Throw people off. But I've been pretty narrowly focused on caring for Tesla, our family, my cats, our home...and it's rather traditional actually. I clean, make meals, wipe her mouth/butt, make sure everyone is happy. Don't get me wrong. That makes me happy. And Dav supports me in a bazillion ways. Taking over when I'm tired. Playing, talking, and reading to Tesla in ways I don't. (I've overheard words like "collapse of civilization” or "Eudoxus found a way to path up the theory...” when he's reading to her.) I think we've found our groove as a family. Yet, I wonder when Tesla can understand...that daddy has a dalmatian bunny costume, and mommy has her outfits too. I'm dying to know what she thinks!! I'm sure I'll report it here in due time. Til then, we all have to wait...

Good one

Suckiest Sunday ever

Yesterday was horrible. I woke up early very nauseous and threw up dark green goo, even though my stomach was empty. Dav has been fighting an on-going cold for days and was not feeling great either. Tesla was the only one ready to rock-n-roll at 7am. Previously, my plans for Sunday had been to hang out with my brother and family, and our visiting cousin. But I had called Saturday night to say that I HAD to steam clean our carpets, and that I'd be late to join them because on Friday night, while we were out at friends' for dinner, I had left a boiling pot of water with the plastic part of my breast pump that I have to sanitize. I left it on the stove for hours. Our housemates discovered the black molten-like long-melted plastic in the pot, and a layer of black smoke throughout our floor of the house. I was and am horrified at what I did. I am very aware of how freaking lucky we are that we didn't come home to a burned down house, and that my cats didn't suffocate from the smoke. When Dav and I came home Friday at 1am, the house was freezing cold because ALL the windows were wide open. And it stank soooooooooooooooooooo bad. All Saturday too we kept the windows open and I set about to wash every curtain and anything else that could smell. Then we went out to visit Thelonious, and stayed out for dinner too in order to stay away from the house as much as we could. It still smelled A LOT that night, and I was determined to clean the carpets Sunday morning. Even though I woke up puking green muck on Sunday, I figured it would subside in a couple of hours. So I ignored how I was feeling and went to rent a carpet steamer from Safeway. Once home though, the stupid machine didn't work! I practically cried as I didn't have the energy to go back and get another. Luckily, my super-hero husband got his tools out and fixed the thing. Man, Safeway should pay us, and not charge me. By the time it was fixed, however, I was full-blown sick. I huddled in bed, while Dav saved the day by doing all the work. He also took care of Tesla as most times I could barely do so. Needless to say, I couldn't meet up with my cousin. Today, Monday, I'm still recovering but am a lot better. However, Tesla's nanny grandmother is sick, so I'm at home today. And now Dav is feeling worse, so I want to take care of him. Throughout all this, Tesla is perky as ever. Caring for a baby when you feel sick SUCKS. Got to get my flu shot asap.

Thelonious

Congratulations to Jason and Karen in welcoming their baby boy! Dav, Tesla, and I had the honors of seeing Thelonious when he was just 14 hours old. When I was notified of his arrival, I texted Jason a congrats, but imagined they'd want private family time. When Jason replied that we could visit, I was so excited. Of course I wanted to see them, but I've also been dying to hold a newborn in my arms : ) Returning to the exact same hospital and floor where Tesla was born was visiting memory lane for sure. The last time I walked down the long hallway to the elevator from the entrance was with my mom as a contraction came. Dav was parking the car, and a woman passed by and gently said, "breathe..." When we arrived at Jason and Karen's room, and I saw tiny Thelonious bundled up, I got totally teary. New babies are so precious [yes, it's a cliche but so true!], and knowing the huge transformation Jason and Karen were going through, and that they were going to experience all the amazing things Dav and I have shared with Tesla made me so happy for them and for us. It's such a special "art project" to share with someone you love. Thelonious is the best boy name ever. Both Dav and I dig it. He was born 4 oz. more than Tesla, but when I saw him, I was in utter disbelief. He was so tiny, and I just can't imagine Tesla being that small! How weird. I'm looking forward to hearing their stories, and sharing parenthood together. Yay! Now Dav and I have more friends who will wanna hang out on a Friday night talking about diapers and sleep. p.s. When we were there, they were just being transported to the postpartum department. I got to push little Theo in his rolling bed to their new bedroom. How cool!

Bottomless Pit

That's what Tesla's awesome nanny said about her today when I got home. She drank ALL the milk I left (even the "extra" just-in-case bottle) and ate ALL the mashed veges left from the other day (even though she distinctly showed her opinion about that), and started a new "Summer Vegetable Dinner" mash. My goodness, she's growing! Also to note: she slept from 6:30pm til 4am last night. For those who've yet to experience night owls, [this is good]! She cried out briefly several times, but nothing to even get me to open my eyes. (It's funny how you adapt. I can sleep at all levels now - full sleep, asleep but with a vague awareness of baby-about-to-wake-up, sorta awake but trying to sleep for every last second I can get, and awake yet looking asleep because it makes me feel like I'm sleeping). When she cried at 4am, I was more than happy to give her a little boob and snuggling. To be honest, the past week she's been crying loudly during the night several times which was new behavior. I initially fed her to appease her until I realized it was a habit - I was actually encouraging her to wake and feed by feeding her. So one night I let her cry more. And that extra 10 seconds to minutes of crying put her back to sleep. That night was hard for sure, but I learned a lot about how she can actually "deal." I just need to give her time before I jump up and soothe her. And wow. She sleeps SO much better now. I'm inspired to work towards a complete 12 hour sleep without feeding. That would be the luxury of the year!! [ok, I'm exaggerating. It's not that bad to feed her. Like I said, I can be half asleep, feed her at 3am, and be back snoozing before it takes toll] Another note while I'm at it: I never really knew how much Tesla drank milk since it was directly from the boob. Now I know because she drinks from a bottle while I'm at work. I pump during the day. And I just want to give a thanks to my boobs cuz I'm not only keeping up with what she needs even though she's a bottomless pit; I'm still managing to freeze a bit for a rainy day. Yay!

My five

As others who have participated in this noted, it's hard coming up with things people don't know about me. Old friends and Dav know pretty much everything...but for the amusement to others, here are my 5 things that you probably don't know about me. They are all pretty embarrassing.

I worked for a night club in Tokyo one summer during college. I was placed in the V.I.P. section, meaning I served the yakuza gang who allowed the club to exist. I had to wear a red beret with a tight top and baggy plaid pants. Not sure what they were going for but it wasn't too revealing at least. I was told to be careful not to serve in a way that would require anyone with cut off fingers to be troubled. Never saw any hands without fingers (see the wikipedia yakuza link). Best night was when I was tipped about $200 (tipping isn't normal in Japan). The club flopped by the time I left to get back to college. I remember that Grace Jones was a guest performer one night.

When I was living in San Diego, I woke up one night smelling what I thought was a very strong chemical. Fearing something was leaking or that whatever it was in the air was bad for everyone's health, I called the non-emergency line. I made it clear that there was no emergency...just that someone should check out the smell. It was midnight, and I imagined a car with some technician would show up. Instead, 2 fire engines with their lights full on (thankfully not the sirens) pulled up in front of my house. The leader came up to me, asked to check out our house, walked around like a minute, then came back and said, "ma'am, it's a skunk." I was too embarrassed to even get the newspaper the next morning.

My dear friend Amy - whom I met in nursery school!! - came to visit me in Japan when I was in junior high. We decided to climb Mt. Fuji together. All went well for the ascent. We saw a gorgeous sunrise. We ate PBJ sandwiches at the top. When descending however, we somehow came down the wrong side of the mountain. This was my fault as Amy was following my lead. We didn't notice that NO ONE else was walking down with us until it was too late. Thing is, on the right side of the mountain was the bus we were supposed to take down from the half-way point to the train station. Instead, we had to walk ALL the way down to a tiny bus stop and waited hours for the bus. I cried when I finally got home and saw my mom. Most people know I'm horrible with directions. Only a few know I'm this bad.

When I was small, I had tantrums apparently. I blissfully don't remember this, but my brother wrote on certain board games, "Do Not Let Mie Play" as I had a history of throwing the game pieces out the window if I lost. Hey, I was competing with someone 4 years older than me ; ) I'm sure he has more to say about my tantrums.

Even Dav may not know this one...but if windows in my house are shut, I like to ensure they are locked, or shut snugly if they are lame windows that don't lock well. Especially when it's cold or stormy outside. I think it's less a security thing (although I'm sure there's an element of that) than a coziness and/or properly closed thing. When it's a sunny day, I love opening the windows to air out the room. But when it's time to close windows, I like it done well. And I'll even double check at different times to appease my desire for all to be snug. [I think that's my weirdest habit by far]

On to: MJ, Tracey, Helen, Katia, and Ezra.