The Max and Zahra Chronicles

Zahra's First Jiu Jitsu Tournament

2011-02-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, February 5, Zahra participated in her first in-house tournament at the Gracie Barra Academy where she began training about a month ago. We are so proud of her! She's only been training a couple weeks, but she got out on the mat and had two matches with two of the other little boys that take jiu jitsu classes with her. Willie has been attending classes here for almost a year and a half and we all really like the academy. It's a very family-oriented atmosphere and everyone is really nice. Zahra liked going to the parents-and-kids classes with Willie and we decided to try and enroll her in the kids-only classes. We gave it a test run for two weeks just to see how it would go and Zahra really seemed to take to it. We thought she might be shy and hesitant to get involved, but we were quickly proven wrong. At the beginning of class, she follows along with the warm up routine and then the instructor goes over specific skills and has the kids practice with each other. Most of the time, Zahra pays attention very well and follows directions.

(The video was taken on my cell phone, so I apologize if the quality or camera-work aren't great.) In the video, the referee is standing on the left and her instructor (who runs the academy) is seated on the right. He's offering support and helping her remember what things to do to get out of the little boy's guard. Since she's pinned underneath, she makes frequent attempts to "bridge" by pushing her hips up so that she can get him off balance. After she pushes up, she can slide out from underneath him and make another move. Although this little boy is small, he's quite skilled since he's been training for a lot longer than Zahra. We reinforced what the instructor had told the kids and made sure Zahra knew that winning the match wasn't important. We wanted her to get out on the mat and make an effort of participating and trying her best. She did just that and we were really proud of her!

Max's Birthday, et al.

2011-02-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

Wow! I can't believe I haven't posted a blog since Halloween. I've been super busy and haven't had much time to pause and reflect. Right now I should be reading for school or putting laundry away or preparing my list for the grocery store, but I decided to take a small break to share a few things.

On December 26, we celebrated Max's 2nd birthday at home with family. I baked a cake and frosted it myself. Homemade cakes usually taste better than store bought ones... but I didn't make this until the last minute and then Willie didn't want to wait for it to cool completely before I frosted it, so pieces of cake got all mixed up in the frosting. It didn't look that good, but it was still yummy!

And, about a month after Max's birthday, he pretty much potty-trained himself in a day. No kidding. I'll spare details but basically he hated being in wet diapers and would insist you change him immediately. I gave him an opportunity to sit on the potty and voila! instant success. The next day Saige babysat for me and Max kept using the bathroom by telling us when he needed to go. Nights, nap times, and going in public bathrooms still need work, but for the most part, he's doing quite well. We didn't even need to use an incentive for him like we did with Zahra (no mini M&Ms necessary). He just seemed super proud of himself every time you would praise him. It seemed to be enough so it was really neat that it happened so fast. It wasn't even on my radar. I had no plans of potty training and didn't think he was ready since he doesn't talk very much and definitely still needs help pulling pants up and down. But he is still able to communicate when he needs help with the bathroom, which is enough.

I'm still interested in getting Max therapy for his speech delay, but I'm waiting for nursing school to kind of even out. Once I find myself used to the routine, I'll work on scheduling appointments to get him some help. It seems that he's getting more frustrated about not being able to communicate and I'd like to have some professional help.

Overall, the little guy is doing great and he's a fun, happy boy to be around... I can't believe he's 2 already. It doesn't seem so long ago that we took him home from the hospital and Zahra was calling him Max-and-Ruby.

Halloween Time

2010-11-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Halloween and the Washington family had a great day! We woke up around 7, ate some breakfast, and took off for Disneyland. But first, on Friday...There was a Halloween costume parade at Zahra's school. Unfortunately we didn't get any great pictures of her with her classmates, but this one of Max was pretty cute. Perhaps it was too early for him or maybe he just doesn't understand the whole costume concept, but he seemed really out of it on Friday morning. He just kind of stood around on the playground looking lost. We borrowed this adorable little dragon costume from Max's cousin Jordan, who wore it last year. Jordan's mom got it for only $6! Not only is it really cute, it was very warm, too, which is not always a quality found in many Halloween costumes. Max really doesn't like to wear hats or hoods usually, so I was really surprised that he kept the dragon head on every time we had the kids dressed up (four separate occasions).

On Friday evening there was a Halloween party for kids at Willie's jiu jitsu academy. This happy picture was taken right before we walked in with the kids.

Halloween morning was when we started our celebration. We took this picture at Disneyland, where we had the kids wear their costumes.

Then, at half past ten, Princess Tiana had a performance in New Orleans Square at Disneyland. She sang a song with her jazz band and then took time to meet her fans.

(For those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, Tiana is the newest of Disney royalty from last year's movie "The Princess and the Frog." We were going to have Zahra be the princess and Max be the frog, but we couldn't find a frog costume anywhere. And then we borrowed that cute dragon costume from Jordan anyway...)

Princess Tiana seemed so excited when she saw Zahra in her costume. She was very gracious and she took some extra time to talk to Zahra. Of course she was nice to all the kids in line, but I think she treated Zahra like a special princess in her own right. It was heartwarming to watch, listen, and see how excited Zahra got when it was her turn to take a picture.

This one came out so beautiful! We're excited and definitely want to get this one printed.

Then we decided to take a family picture with the two Princess Tianas.

Later we went across the park to ride our favorite, Space Mountain. It's always so dark inside the ride that you can't watch the expressions on Zahra's face as you're riding, so it's fun to see her here in one of the pictures they take for you. Usually she's too short to even be seen in these, so it's fun that you can see her face and she's even got her arm raised up! Wonder why Willie looks so scared, though...

Then we went through Pixie Hollow to meet the Fairies. By this point, Zahra had decided to take her costume off and we just kept Max in his a little longer for a few more shots. But he didn't seem to warm up to the fairies very much.

Zahra meeting Tinkerbell

Here are the kids eating churros at the centermost point of the Disneyland park. (Note the little gold marker.) We had watched a documentary about Disneyland the day before and discovered something new to look for since we'd never known what it was before (if we had even looked at it).

After Disneyland, we went home to rest and watch a movie in the afternoon. Then Willie's cousin Terrace, Rachel, and their son Jordan came down from Riverside to go trick-or-treating with us. Here is Max demonstrating what he did in place of saying "Trick or treat!" He would hold up his little bucket for people to deposit candy in since he doesn't really talk very much. Willie said that a couple times Max did say something that sounded vaguely like what he was supposed to say. We also met up with our old neighbors and Zahra's friend Alysha and one of her friends and family.

We went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood around Zahra's school. By the end of the night we had walked a mile and a half going door to door at all the houses that were lit up and decorated. Zahra had tons of fun with the other kids and was really happy and upbeat the whole time. I put a lot of layers on her so she wouldn't be cold and she never complained once that she was chilly. In this picture, she's so happy that she's skipping back to the sidewalk as her brother and dad make it up to the porch.

After seeing Princess Tiana's dress and how it ballooned out at the waist, I had an idea for how we could enhance Zahra's little costume. When we came home, I ironed the dress and decided that we could have her wear a tutu underneath to make the dress stick out. Zahra thought it was a lot of fun and was happy to wear another item to make her dress look more like the one we saw earlier at Disneyland.

Zahra ran off before I could get a better picture with her cousin but at least Jordan looks happy here! He kept saying "Rooooar!" which was pretty cute.

Last year Zahra was scared of a lot of the Halloween decorations and didn't really want to go up to any of the houses without a handheld escort, but this year she seemed interested in all of the different things people had in their yards. Max, on the other hand, was extremely weary of things, even cute little ghosts like this one. I think he wasn't sure if they were real or not since they were making noise.

Zahra and Alysha in front of a big pumpkin

And Max couldn't quite make it through the whole night... By the time I set him up in the stroller, he easily slid in and sat down like it was the best thing. I thought if I gave him the flashlight to hold that he would have more fun sitting down and not joining in with the older kids, but I don't think he even cared because he was so tired.

Our little princess shows off her candy riches. We kept having to empty her little bucket into a pillowcase that Willie brought with us because she ran out of room over and over. By the end of the night, the pillowcase was so heavy it probably weighed three or four pounds. Granted it was from both Max and Zahra's buckets, but it was still a lot of candy. Overall, it was a really fun day -- visiting Disneyland and then trick-or-treating with family and friends. Since I don't remember much from Halloweens when I was a kid, this was definitely the best Halloween I have had in a long time. It was a great day!

A Work of Art

2010-09-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

I was sitting on the couch Friday afternoon, looking through the papers that had come home in Zahra's Friday Folder. There were some messy math assignments, flyers for various events, and this little gem.

Zahra was playing quietly with toys at the dining table. I thought this drawing was amazing.

"Hey, Zahra! This is awesome!" I yelled as I held up the picture. She came over to explain. All by itself, I thought it was impressive. Then Zahra told me that it was a picture of her Daddy. I realized immediately that those black lines sticking out of his head were supposed to be his dreadlocks. When I heard it was supposed to represent her dad, I thought the picture was even better. She said something about him picking up books (represented by the squares with the lines in them?) and her wanting a puppy (a few litters at the bottom?).

Anyway, I thought I'd share since I think this drawing is really cool. I'm going to look for a frame so we can make it more permanent than hanging on the fridge.

Soccer 2010

2010-09-11T13:08:00.001-07:00

Today was the first game of this soccer season. Zahra is playing for the Chili Peppers this year. She's now in the AYSO U8 division which means she's playing with girls that are 6 and 7 years old. Some of the girls on the team have definitely been playing for awhile and really understand the game well. After last year's experience with soccer, I was hesitant to sign her up again. She barely moved last year, paralyzed on the field with the fear of getting hit by the ball. Her head seemed up in the clouds or down in the grass, almost completely oblivious to the fact the game was happening around her. This year, when Willie and I asked her about signing up back in the spring, she seemed enthusiastic and excited, so we did it. Before team practices offically began, Willie started taking Zahra out to kick the soccer ball around. He ran through drills and had her practice dribbling and stopping the ball with her foot (as she so nicely demonstrates above). I think this was a great idea because it got her ready for some of the same things they'd be working on at practice. When I took her to her first practice, she did great. She listened to the coach, ran as fast as she could, followed all the directions, got into the game during a scrimmage, everything she needed to do. Her skills weren't as good as the other players, but she definitely earned an 'A' for effort. I thought this year we had turned things around and that this season would be totally different.

Then this happened. Zahra, immobile with fear, standing almost still as a statue on the soccer field again. My shoulders slumped, my hopes stared to wither. Everyone cheered her on and tried to encourage her. No change. For an entire quarter, she barely moved from the exact spot where the coach had placed her to defend. She didn't run to the ball, she didn't kick it if it rolled right in front of her. During a break, I asked her what was up. She said the field was bigger and that it made her nervous to have the ball coming towards her. I told her that she had shin guards and shoes on. I told her she wouldn't get hit in the face and if she did get hurt, we would take care of her. She asked if she could have a big prize if she was injured. I caved in and told her yes. She asked for one of those little motorized cars that kids can drive. I told her if she was hurt, we would definitely look into it. I just wanted her to play! After that and some more words of encouragement from a brother of one of the players, her attitude seemed to turn around. She never ended up making contact with the ball this game, but she started running towards it, following her team, sort of getting into it. That was way more than she did last season, so I'm hoping we're off to a better start. She does such a great job during scrimmages at practice, we just need to get her to do that on the field during the real games.

After the game, on the way to the car, Max and Zahra kicked the ball back and forth. Max already has quite the leg on him and we think he'd love to play, too. Just a couple more years and he can start playing on his own team.

In the end, our team lost the game (I think the score was 3-0), but most of the girls seemed to take it in stride. At one point, our goalie missed and the other team scored. The little girl seemed upset with herself for a minute, then she shook it off, and yelled, to no one in particular, "I'll try not to do that next time!" So hopefully Zahra will try better her next time. (We'll be out of town next week so we will be missing that game). At practice, she volunteered to keep the goal, so we'll see how that goes when she gets a turn. I'll keep you all posted...

ArkLaTex Trip

2010-09-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

OK, this post is arguably a few months late, but... better late than never? So I am finally getting around to posting some pictures from our June vacation to the south. We visited three states (Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas) in the space of a week. Yes, it was a lot of time driving around in a little rented bright red Chevy Aveo, but it wasn't nearly as bad as you might expect. For the most part, it was a really great trip. The best part was visiting Willie's family and getting to spend time with them. Here are the kids, waiting in the lobby of the rental car facility at the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport. I think this was the only period (of three seconds) where they actually stayed in one spot. The little cars that I had gotten for Max to play with would zoom super-fast across this fully-waxed floor. Either that or Max thought actually throwing them as far as he could was great fun, much to my chagrin.

We found a little stowaway that fit in our carry-on suitcase! She was playing in the hotel room and would completely close the top. She's so little that it didn't even bulge out! After flying into Dallas, we spent the night in Allen, TX where Willie's Aunt Regina and Uncle Ralph live. The next morning, we woke up really early and got on the road, in hopes to avoid morning traffic on our way out of town. We drove all the way down to New Orleans and arrived around 3 in the afternoon.

Willie, Max, and silly-face Zahra in Jackson Square. New Orleans.

Zahra eating beignets at Cafe Du Monde (New Orleans). We've made beignets from scratch at Auntie Colleen's and those were delicious. I tried making them with Zahra after the "Princess and the Frog" movie came out and those were... edible. By far, I think the best beignets are the Mickey-shaped ones they have at Cafe Orleans in Disneyland. So light. So fluffy. So delicious! So of course, we had to stop by Cafe Du Monde (world famous?) since we were in New Orleans. I was very disappointed. When I had them the last time I was there (pre-Katrina), I didn't really have anything to compare them to so I thought they were OK. This time I thought they were terrible! Not even worth it. Then, at the end of our dessert, I had to go to the bathroom because I knew walking back to our hotel would take a long time. Yuck! The kitchen was a disaster! It made me really not want to eat them again.

Mostly, Max and Zahra enjoyed the powdered sugar. They didn't really even dig into the doughy part of the beignet. But they loved it. So at least they enjoyed the experience. We walked around the French Quarter the next day and kept asking if places served beignets. No one did! The only place that seemed to have them was Cafe Du Monde. For being the state dessert or whatever, I didn't really understand the monopoly on the beignet market. I wanted to try different ones to compare, the way we did comparing malasadas when we were in Honolulu. Sorely disappointed with the beignet experience in New Orleans. I will continue to crave the ones from Disneyland.

All right, so you had to pay to take a picture with this character, but Zahra really wanted to do it! I didn't think it was worth $1, but Willie wanted to make her happy. It was funny because I think she was really intrigued by him, although you can't really tell that from her expression. After we walked away, she seemed jazzed about the whole experience.

Willie and the kids in front of the Mississippi. We visited Mardi Gras World to look at all the floats that are made for the holiday. The floats were housed in this huge warehouse that was open to the outside which meant that it was super hot in there, probably around 90 degrees. Max was suffering from a cold so he was miserable and cranky. He just kept screaming and fussing. That with the heat made the whole experience difficult. I think Zahra got a kick out of seeing the huge floats, though.

My favorite picture of the whole trip! Zahra in front of a gold-covered Buddha that was probably on a float at some point. Inside the air conditioned gift shop of Mardi Gras World.

Max playing inside the window in the hotel in New Orleans.

Family picture at Jackson Square (New Orleans)

Reading in bed in New Orleans with sleeping Max. He just crawled up and laid down and went to sleep on my arm. I love this part of vacation! I got to read so much. I probably read over 400 pages of this book while we were on vacation. (Thanks, Maryanna, for letting me borrow the latest Elizabeth George!)

After an afternoon and a day in New Orleans, we left to drive north. We had lunch in Baton Rouge with Willie's cousin Chasity.

After lunch we drove to Shreveport. Max had this bag of chips and he climbed up into the bed by himself. The pillow was there and he just made himself comfortable, popped his hand in the bag and started eating the chips. It was pretty hilarious.

When we went to Willie's Aunt Shirley's house, Zahra just made herself at home right away. I thought she might be kind of shy, but maybe because we said it was family and she heard there were kids, she just ran right back into her cousin Christian's room. They were instant best friends. It was so cute that they just started playing together like they had been lifelong friends!

At the Boardwalk in Bossier City with family from Bessie's side of the family.

After a few days in Shreveport, we drove north some more and went to Texarkana (a city which exists across the state line in both Texas and Arkansas). Willie's grandmother (Big Mama) lives on the Arkansas side. Here we are on the porch in Big Mama's backyard with family from his dad's side.

Zahra and Max with their great-grandma, Big Mama.

Zahra and her cousin Cozy (spelling?)...

Overall we had a great trip!

Fun times!

First Day of 1st Grade

2010-09-10T16:12:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, September 8, was Zahra's first day of 1st Grade. This "first day" was very different than last year. I just looked at the blog entry from the first day of kindergarten and saw how happy and excited she was to start a new school year. This time around, every time you would ask her how she felt about starting first grade, her reply was always: "I'm nervous." I would ask, "But aren't you a little excited, too?" and she'd just shake her head and say, "I'm nervous." When I woke her up on the first day at 6:45, the first thing she said was "My heart is beating really fast." And it was. I put my hand up to her chest and I could feel her heart was pounding. Perhaps mentioning "It's the first day of school!" the minute I woke her up was not the best idea. I wanted to take another picture of her in front of the school sign, but she refused to let me take one without Max in the shot. She was really excited about her new Scooby Doo lunch box. (It's fun to me that she likes one of my favorite childhood cartoons. Maybe she'll grow up to love reading mysteries, too.)

We got Zahra some new school clothes and she picked out this skirt at Old Navy by herself. (I put the rest of the outfit together and she didn't seem to care as long as she got to wear this skirt on the first day.) I wanted her to wear the black patent leather Mary Janes with this but I couldn't find them that morning. (Turns out, they were in my trunk, which I discovered when I went to take the umbrella stroller out.)

A brother-sister tete-a-tete before school. (I wanted to cut and paste with the correct accents, but it won't let me. Grrr...)

Zahra did this for a long time after Mrs. Gibson asked the kids to line up. She kept telling me she didn't want to go inside. Typical first-day jitters, I think. I had an appointment with the dentist at the exact time she was getting out of school (my crown was finally cemented after a month's worth of back and forth appointments). I called Bessie's phone when I was on my way back to work and asked to talk to Zahra to see how her first day went. She seemed upbeat and happy. The adjective she used to describe how the day went was "good." Nothing to worry about so that made me happy. I think she just didn't know what to expect and that's what was making her nervous. When she realized it would be a similar experience as last year, I think she felt right at home. Being at a school that was familiar and seeing kids she knew probably made things even better. She only has two or three kids in her class this year that were with her last year. But she gets to see her friends at recess so I think that makes her happy.

Walking in the door to 1st Grade. Somehow in my mind, kindergarten felt like an extension of her as a "little girl." Like, oh... she's just a kindergartener. Something about 1st Grade makes me feel like I have a "big kid" now. While I understand there was definitely a lot happening in kindergarten academically, in retrospect, it seems like a big practice year to get ready for what's happening now. Sometimes I think it wasn't that long ago that she was a super tiny little baby in an isolette, wrapped up in blankets, hooked up to machines and monitors in the hospital, and here she is, starting 1st Grade. It feels both fast and slow at the same time. I feel that I have been very lucky to spend so much time with her and experience so much of her life with her. (Working full time for the month of August made me really realize the difference of my usual part-time schedule.) And on the other hand, time seems to have sped by, how she was in physical therapy as a baby, speech and PT as a toddler, then preschool, kindergarten flew by, and now a whole new grade already.

While we read a lot together over the summer, Zahra still has a long way to go to catch up academically. Both of us were excited to do worksheets in the beginning of the summer, practicing her alphabet and writing 1-30. As the summer went by and our daily schedule got mixed up with vacations and swimming practice and work changes, our enthusiasm started to wane. By the end of the summer, I couldn't get her to do practice school work at all. Every day at bedtime, though, we picked up the Easy Readers we had borrowed and continued to work on those. Reading those "sight words" helped reinforce what she had learned and I saw a lot of progress in her continuing to pick up words and remember them the next time we read the story.

I asked her about her first three days of school and she described some of the assessments they were doing. She said she had trouble with the alphabet and number drills. I'm interested to see where her placement is and what her new teacher recommends to further her progress. I talked to her kindergarten teacher a little after school today and she said that she has already discussed Zahra with Mrs. Gibson and explained where things were left off. But that's all we know about 1st Grade for now. Until later...

Baby Signs

2010-07-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a short video of all the signs that Max is using these days. By far, I think the two that help Max the most are "thirsty" and "hungry." Sometimes, the first thing he does in the morning, when he sits up in bed, is sign "hungry." It's really fun to watch a non-verbal toddler get his point across without having to use words. There have been a lot of times that I wouldn't think to give Max some juice, but out of the blue, he'll just point to his throat and say something that sounds like "dee-deeeee" to the unknowing bystander. But in our house, we know what he means. I'm trying to teach him signs that are close to the real ASL, but sometimes they're just too complicated for little hands. (Like the sign for "more" is hard for him to form, so it looks like he's clapping. In context, however, we know that he usually wants more food.) All in all, I think using signs are a great way to introduce a way to communicate for a little person that can't speak clearly yet.

Last Day of Kindergarten

2010-06-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

Today, Zahra finished kindergarten! (The picture of the commencement ceremony was actually from Monday.) The ceremony was cute, but unfortunately, the pictures from it didn't come out very good. The lighting wasn't great so the pictures are kind of grainy. Zahra's class and the kids from Mrs. Powell's class had their ceremony at the same time. They sang a lot of patriotic songs for us, complete with American sign language. It was pretty cute to watch all of the kids sign as they sang. Perhaps it was because she was tired, but Zahra seemed completely bored by the whole singing thing. When it came time to give out the certificates, she seemed to perk up a little bit. Each child was called up while "Pomp and Circucumstance" played on repeat. It was pretty cute.

After the ceremony, parents and visitors were invited into the classroom to pick up the memory books and look around the room. We got a better picture of Zahra holding her "diploma" with Mrs. Conton. See how proud Zahra looks? We are very proud of our little girl, too. I can't believe a whole school year has gone by already!

We went around and took pictures with some of Zahra's friends. Here she is with Grace. These days, this seems to be her new best friend. I love how happy they look together.

Well, since today was the last day, Zahra's report card for the third trimester came home. She did pretty well. Of course, we'll be working on all those things I mentioned last time, but it was great to see that she's made quite a bit of progress.

After school, Zahra's friend Alysha came home with us. I wanted to surprise the girls, so I decided to take them out to lunch. School let out at 12:20, so we came home for a few minutes. Then Bessie met us and we took all the kids to Chili's. I think it was a fun way to celebrate the end of the school year.

Here comes summer!

Moving on to 1st Grade

2010-06-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well, here is my 6 year old, somewhere in the line for Space Mountain at Disneyland. I can't believe we're one week away from her finishing kindergarten. She has made SO much progress this year, it's really remarkable. I mentioned some of this in a previous post after we'd had a parent-teacher conference with Mrs. Conton, so I won't go over those details again. Despite all this learning, I have recently been quite worried that it wasn't enough. I was afraid that she was going to be retained and have to repeat kindergarten. But, on Friday, when I picked Zahra up from school, I had a chance to talk to her teacher for about 20 minutes. She had met with a team of teachers and specialists to discuss the best possible choice for Zahra. The team decided that the best thing would be for Zahra to move on to 1st grade with her peers. I was elated.

However, I'm very realistic and understand that this move will not be an easy one. Things will remain difficult for Zahra. She made enough points to be a candidate for 1st grade, but just barely. If students score a total between a 1 and 7 on their assessments, they will be asked to repeat the grade level. Zahra's score was at 8.5, which is just bordering on the edge. Skills that are pretty easy for some of her classmates remain a challenge for her. Though she knows all her letter names and sounds, actually writing both upper and lower case letters, in order, for every single letter, is a difficult task. Lately, she's been intrigued by numbers, and has taken it upon herself to practice writing from 1-100. (The kindergarten goal was to be proficient in 1-30.) Although she is working on the numbers, she still requests a lot of help along the way.

Over the summer, we plan to continue working with Zahra. Her reading level is way below where a student should be entering 1st grade. She can read some short words that were on a list of 50 or so that were part of her kindergarten lessons. I had taken blank index cards and written a word on each card. I let Zahra decorate the back with a picture she felt was appropriate for whatever word was represented. I think including her in the development process was rewarding for her. It helped her take ownership in the flash cards. We practiced a few words nightly and she picked them up pretty quickly. We'll continue working on the list until she has all of those words memorized. We'll work on sounding out new words together. We'll practice reading books for very beginning readers. We'll work on her handwriting and sharpening her fine motor skills. We'll keep working on being able to quickly recognize numbers.

I'm finding worksheets online, making some of my own, and will look for some workbooks to help her practice. I'm thinking that if Willie, Bessie, and I all work with her a little every day, we can make significant progress during the months she's away from school. We are lucky to have a cheerful student who is eager to learn new things. I remember how I felt when I learned to read words out in the world, things like street signs were an exciting challenge for me. (I still remember arguing with my dad that the street "Poplar," as in the kind of tree, actually said "popular." At some point, I realized he was right, and I kept playfully arguing because I didn't want to admit I'd made a mistake. I don't remember how it actually ended. I think I kept calling it "Popular Street" just as a joke.)

I think that Zahra's emerging literacy is wonderfully exciting. To see her make such a progression from entering kindergarten with only the most rudimentary skills, to a place where she has earned enough points to move on to the next grade, is amazing. I remember when she was still in the intensive care nursery and we would be talking about "the future" with the neonatologist of the day. The doctor would tell us that her prematurity might lead to learning disabilities or other problems that wouldn't manifest for five or six years. I remember thinking at the time that seemed so far away. And here we are today. I wonder if the way that she is in school has to do with the circumstances surrounding her time in the womb, her months spent in an isolette, hooked up to IVs and leads. I wonder if she would have been exactly the same way if she was born around her due date at the end of April, instead of in early February. We will never know. In the beginning, this bothered me incessantly. And now, several years later, I have come to accept the ambiguity.

I think Zahra's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Conton, was an exceptional fit. There are many good teachers at Golden View, but I am thankful for where Zahra was placed. This was Mrs. Conton's first year teaching kindergarten after years of teaching 1st grade. Because of this experience, Mrs. Conton has an extensive knowledge of where her students need to be by the end of the year. We were lucky that Mrs. Conton is a skilled professional who was able to recognize the unique needs of individual students. At Zahra's IEP meeting in January, I learned that Mrs. Conton had been taking specific actions to help maximize her potential. (IEP stands for Individual Education Plan. Zahra has been getting these every year since she started receiving therapy with the school district when she turned 3.) Because Zahra has a hard time sitting still, Mrs. Conton would ask her to get up and get something or bring something to another teacher or person in the classroom. This would help Zahra focus when she returned to her seat. Talking with Mrs. Conton and volunteering 2 hours a week in the classroom this year have helped give me a greater understanding for just what a range of academic achievement levels exist in an average classroom. There are kids who are proficient readers and those who are struggling with phonetics just like Zahra. Some are able to focus for long periods of time and those who find even a minute or two as a huge challenge. Overall, I think that Mrs. Conton is a very good teacher who not only understands the individuality of her students, but is also compassionate and truly caring. She is able to tailor the material to different levels of understanding to make the most out of the lesson for every student. While of course I am happy to see Zahra move on, I will be a little sad to say goodbye to her teacher and all the kids in Room 4.
[Although he was in Stockton when I took this picture, I can hear my dad saying, "Look at how she conked out." At the end of a long Memorial Day at Disneyland, Zahra fell asleep in this very-uncomfortable-looking position in her car seat on the ride home. She must have been so tired, because this picture was taken around 4:30 in the afternoon. When we came home, she kept sleeping on the couch. Then slept some more when we carried her up to her bed when we went up at 10 o'clock. Then, the next morning, I thought she would surely venture into my room when she woke up too early. Nope. I still had to force her to wake up for school at 7:00.]

SuperKids

2010-06-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

This is one of Max's newest expressions. The other night, Zahra started running around the living room and kitchen, holding her "cape" with her hands. When she would refer to Max, she would say, "This is my sidekick." (I don't know where she came up with that term, but it was pretty cute.) So I asked her if she wanted me to use a safety pin to fasten the ends of her cape together so she wouldn't have to hold it while she ran around. She thought that was a brilliant idea in almost every respect, except for the possibility of getting stuck with the sharp end of the pin. I managed to pin her cape together painlessly. Then she said, "My sidekick needs a cape, too." I thought a dish towel would be the appropriate size for her sidekick. Then I got them to pose for the picture above. I think it's funny that the two of them happened to be wearing shirts that had the following phrases on them: (Max) "I STILL LIVE WITH MY PARENTS" and (Zahra) "MAKING MISCHIEF" (with a picture of the character Max from the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak).

Beware of the Ghost of Zahra

Max in action

Fast Zahra

... and even Superhero kids get tired sometimes.

A Duet

2010-05-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

This picture was so cute I just had to share it immediately. I'll try to post more of a narrative later, but I wanted to get this out first. We visited Auntie Sis in Los Gatos over the weekend, and the kids had some fun playing on her piano. I have a few small videos of Max playing by himself, but I have yet to get them off the camera. Life has still been quite the whirlwind lately! More to follow, as soon as I have some of that precious "free" time...

The Little Comedienne

2010-04-22T11:12:00.001-07:00

You'll have to forgive me, for lately life has been a whirlwind of change and busy times. However, I have a quick quote to share with you.

Last week, we had the living room carpet cleaned.

Mind you, when we moved in, it was brand new and beige. A shade chosen by the previous owners. Not the carpet we would have chosen to work well with two small children, but that's how it was when we got here. We knew from the get-go that it would get dirty. We were very liberal with bringing drinks in the living room, letting the kids walk around with juice boxes, pretty much anything. So of course, within a few months, juice spilled and we would sop it up with a towel. But of course the sugars would attract dirt and it would dry into an ugly mess.

Then we couldn't take it any more so we called Chem Dry. The guy came in and did a deep clean and used really hot water and carbonation to break down the sugars so that not only would the stains disappear but they would not attract dirt again and have the same spots reappear weeks later.

After the Chem Dry guy was done, I left the house to give the carpet some time to dry. Max and I had lunch on Willie's lunch break at a delicious vegetarian restaurant in Fountain Valley. After we took Daddy back to work, Max and I went to pick up Zahra from school. I explained to her that the living room carpet had been cleaned and that we couldn't bring drinks in there any more. Unless it was something that would just leave vacummable (did I just invent a word?!) crumbs, it would have to be consumed on the tile floor in the kitchen or dining area.

Her response was classic, comical Zahra: "Awesome! That means we can just mess it all up again!" She was totally joking but it was pretty funny how she came up with that response so quickly.

Ah... my dear little comedienne.

Wagon Walk

2010-03-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

Just before I took Auntie Sis to the airport, we all needed to get out and go for a walk outside. It's fun that Zahra and Max can still fit in the wagon, and for the most part, get along.

Zahra loves her little brother!

I love to see the two of them together, when they hold on to each other and just look like they're having a great time.

This shot is kind of blurry because I'm pulling the wagon as it's racing down a hill and trying to take a picture at the same time. Not an easy task! They thought going down the hill was so much fun...

A little while later, after walking around our complex for awhile, it seemed like a good idea to let the kids get out and walk around a little. I wanted to take a picture of them in the trunks of this olive tree, but it was almost impossible to get them both to stay there...

It's funny how much Max looks like a baby here. (Yes, I know he's almost 15 months old so it's not like he's very old yet, but you know what I mean, right?) Sometimes it seems like he's growing up to be a little boy, but every once in awhile, the baby-face pops through.

Of course Zahra wanted a turn to pull her brother around for awhile....

Then we decided to sit down and I was trying to have Auntie Sis get a group shot, but getting all three of us to look at the camera at once truly was impossible. Plus, Zahra wouldn't stop being silly. She kept putting that little pillow over her face and head because the sun was shining in our eyes. (Do you think we could all fit in that Smart Car back there?)

Wake up, Little Z

2010-03-25T16:06:00.001-07:00

On some school mornings, Max wakes up before Zahra. This day, we went in together to try and wake the Sleeping Beauty. For a couple weeks now, Zahra has been sleeping on the floor, technically underneath where her bed should be. I moved the mattress from the top, where it should be, and put it on the floor, so at least it would be cushioned. She likes having the sheet hang down to make a little enclosed space where she feels more safe. Max was ready to find his big sister and wake her up.

But she was sound asleep. Notice the little purple flashlight (one of the presents we gave her for her birthday). I wonder if she ever finds it in the middle of the night and turns it on to see if she can see anything. For this little one, you have to hold down the button to keep the light on, which is nice so the battery doesn't run out since it can't be left on.

A few minutes later, two happy kids. I have noticed that Zahra is much more amiable on mornings when Max is immediately there when she wakes up. When it's early and it's just-Mom, we can have quite the frustrating time with grumbles, eyes that refuse to open, hiding under the pillow, thrashing about, you name it. But sometimes Max is sleepy, too, and since he doesn't need to get ready for school like Zahra, I usually let him sleep until he wakes up (which, more often than not, happens just a few minutes later when we are downstairs). I think he senses that he's alone upstairs and so he sits up in bed and calls out, "Mawm?" (It sounds more like that than the rounded-O sound in mom.) I rush up to get him and he's just sitting there, with his legs crossed, rubbing his eyes and looking bewildered, then immediately happy to see me when I walk in the room. To witness that expression of joy, just because you walk in a room, is truly a wonderful feeling.

Hodge-Podge

2010-03-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

When Auntie Sis was visiting us at the beginning of the month, we went out for breakfast at the Harbor House (on PCH). When Max smiled for this picture, the waitress happened to be walking by. She was so surprised that he would actually smile for the picture, although personally, I think it was a big happy coincidence. I think this actual moment in time must have been just before or just after he gave that big grin.

Max eating french toast and eggs. He must have been really hungry, because when the waitress put the food on the table, Max shrieked and almost jumped out of his booster seat. It seemed like he could hardly wait for me to cut up the bread and put some on his empty plate. He must have heard something from outside and was looking back to see what made some sound.

Later that day, after we picked up Zahra from school, we went to Target so that Auntie Sis could find some flip-flops. She had brought lots of cold weather shoes but wanted something lighter. While we were waiting for Auntie Sis to decide, Zahra tried on some adult-sized boots. It was hilarious to watch her try and walk in them.

Ever the clever little boy. Max kept putting this little bucket on his head and walking all over the house. If you got down on the ground close to him, he would try to put the bucket-hat on your head, too...

The under-the-table GIANT! Or wait, he's still just a toddler with a dirty shirt. He looks so big here. I guess that's what happens when you lay on the ground and take an upwards shot of a baby.

Yet Another Polliwog Award

2010-03-04T17:52:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, there was another ceremony in Toad Hall for kindergarten awards. Zahra got another Polliwog Award for reading books with her mom (and grandma). This was what Max was doing while we were listening to names being called (notice his crazy hair). Since I had already posted a blog about this, I really wasn't going to do another one. Except yesterday the kids celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss. By wearing pajamas. To school. (I wish they had pajama day once a week! It was so easy to get Zahra ready in the morning.) So I thought it would be fun to take pictures of the kids in their PJs. Zahra's class even had on paper hats and bowties like the Cat in the Hat.

Here is Zahra, graciously accepting her award and shaking the principal's hand.

Thumbs up, Mom!

They counted. 67 kids got Polliwog awards. Then a select few got another award where they got to go to the principal's office and pick out a book to take home. The official award said that she read a goal of 4,000 pages, but this was something that Mrs. Dreifus had mumbled when announcing this particular award. How they calculated this for the kindergarteners, I'm not sure. In any case, Zahra went to the office and picked out another copy of a book we already own! ("Lola at the Library." When it was in regular rotation, Zahra used to always insist that I inserted "Zahra" every time it said "Lola" in the book. The girl in the book is little and black and has cute little pigtails. I wondered if Zahra kind of identified with her. She would even get mad if I would mistakenly read "Lola," as it clearly said on the page, and forgot to remember to add "Zahra" instead. It's hard to remember to read things that aren't actually on the page!)

Waiting as everyone got counted...

My favorite little reading buddy!

Maxwell Shoe-y Hands

2010-03-04T17:46:00.000-08:00

Lots of times, Max will pick up shoes and bring them to you. Sometimes they belong to you. Sometimes they belong to him. Sometimes they belong to a guest. It doesn't matter. He likes to pick them up and carry them around. Sometimes I think when he brings me his shoes, it's his way of saying, "Hey, put these on me. Let's go outside." What he really means, who knows. Today, he put his little shoes on his hands and walked around the house. I was washing dishes in the kitchen and he walked up to me, put his hands in the air, and had a huge grin on his face. Like it was the coolest thing he'd ever done! He was so proud of himself. So I gave him a hug. And grabbed the camera.

He kept them on his hands for quite awhile, just walking around, banging on stuff, dropping them, picking them up and putting them on again. Great toddler fun!

It was like he kept trying to say, "Hey, Mom! Look what I can do! I've got shoes on my hands! Wow!"

My little happy Maxwell Shoe-y Hands.

Jog-a-thon 2010

2010-02-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

This morning, there was a jog-a-thon at Zahra's school. It was a fundraiser to help the school earn money for special programs, art supplies, field trips, and "extras" that the school would otherwise be unable to provide for the students. We dropped Zahra off when school started at 8:00 and then Max and I hung out for awhile since the jog-a-thon wasn't scheduled to begin until 8:20. He finished what was left in the juice box that Zahra had partially consumed on the way to school.

When we crossed the street and went back on campus, the kids were still getting ready, so Max and I decided to walk over to the farm that's part of the school. We stood at the fence and looked in while we waited. Max yelled gibberish emphatically at the animals. Since they're are used to hearing kids yell all the time (as the chainlink fence is all that separates their area from the playground), a few of them took it as an invitation to come over and greet my little boy.

"Hello, Mr. Goat."

(I was a little worried that Max would keep sticking his chubby little fingers through the fence and that the goat would come over and try to nibble on one, but the goat never got close enough. Whew...)

Then I noticed that Zahra's class was starting to warm up. Max and I headed over to that part of the playground to capture the action. Here's Zahra, in her huge (size: small) jog-a-thon t-shirt/"dress," stretching with her classmates.

Zahra and Nahomi, standing around before the action began. Zahra really wanted Max and I to come join the group, but we had to hang out on the other side of the divider line. Before the activity even began, Zahra complained, "I'm tired!" (I think she really meant, "I'm bored"). I had gotten her to sleep earlier than usual, but she has been kind of sick lately, so maybe she really was a little under the weather.

Before the Race: The card pinned to the back of her shirt, to keep track of how many laps she made. The kids got entered to win prizes equivalent in number to the amount of laps they ran (for example: 10 laps, 10 chances to win). (Alfie Kohn's theories about being "Punished by Rewards" come to mind.) I don't think the prizes were actually that much of an incentive for Zahra. I think she took sheer delight in running around with her friends and classmates just for the sake of running. Honestly, I think she forgot that there was really a reason the whole thing was even happening!

More stretching. I wish she could really touch her toes without bending her knees! I do stretches at home every day (though usually at night, before bed) and sometimes when Zahra sees me, she tries to follow along with whatever I'm doing. I've noticed she isn't very limber any more (not like the rubber baby brother), and I don't really remember often enough to get her to stretch every day. Since she doesn't see any progress and doesn't think that the stretches feel good, she doesn't really like to do it.

Stretching again. Not exactly Zahra's favorite part of this morning. But soon enough, she'll be having fun...

Listening to Mrs. Conton give directions. Off to the left is the teaching aide, Mrs. St. Pierre. For some reason, when Zahra talks about her, she always calls her "Miss Pierre." I think she really likes her, because every time there is a holiday (Christmas or Valentine's Day), she always wants to include Mrs. St. Pierre in whatever we're preparing to bring to school.

Lively music began to play and announcements were made over the PA system. Here they go! Then we see Zahra completing the first lap of the jog-a-thon. Definitely not tired yet. Still ready to run a lot more times around the track...

Pulling off to the side of the track to get her lap marked off on her tally sheet... I think there was at least one or two laps that didn't get recorded, but I guess this isn't the Olympics anyway.

Although it's not centered properly, I like this shot since it captures her braids flying in the air as she runs along. (It was so hard to get good shots with all the chaotic kindergarten and first grade kids running around!)

Running with friends. Next to her in the red pants is Gracie, then Lian or Leah (the two girls in her class look somewhat alike to me and their names are so similar, I always get them mixed up!), and Kylie. They look like they are having such a good time!

A little while later, she found her friend Kyle and they held hands and raced around the track together. One of the things that Mrs. Conton had mentioned at the parent-teacher conference (did I already mention this?) was that Zahra has a lot of different friends and will play with both girls and boys, which was somewhat unique, in that many of the other kids are not that open. I think it's neat that she choses to interact with a lot of different kids. There are still particular friends that she mentions from time to time, but overall, I think she has fun with almost anyone she plays with at school.

During the "cool down" phase, Zahra and Kyle continued to walk around as the activity drew to a close.

One of the moms is holding a box of popsicles. Look who's all ready for hers...

The final tally: 14 times around the track. Not bad for a first time. Bessie said in years past, they had a smaller track set out for the kindergarten kids. This year, they ran around the same track that the rest of the school did. There were times when Zahra seemed to be getting tired or slowing down, but when I would yell, "Go, Zahra, go!" she would perk right up and break into a sprint. It was awesome!

After the jog-a-thon was over, she still had some energy left to run to the tables where the kindergarteners eat snacks and lunches. The light at the end of this jog: popsicles! (And yes, even today, she's still jovially calling them "popiscles! popiscles!")

Max in Maine

Enjoying popiscles with her classmates

The end of a good morning: Way to go, Zahra!

100 Days of School

2010-02-23T15:14:00.001-08:00

(Photo credit: Tori)

Yesterday marked the 100th day of school for Zahra. (She was absent one day, so technically it was 99, but who's counting?) All over Golden View, students were doing various projects to commemorate this milestone. In Zahra's classroom, while I was volunteering from 8 to 9:00, the students worked in small groups on a Fruit Loops project. They had charts with 100 squares and they each counted 10 Fruit Loops of one color for one line, then 10 more of another color, on and on down the rows until they had 100 little colored circles lined up on their chart. When they were finished, they put them into a little plastic baggie and later in the day they made necklaces out of them. Zahra promptly consumed her necklace right after school let out. She shared some of it with Max, too.

So I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of the progress Zahra has made in 100 remarkable days. She has learned so much in these last few months!

Zahra entered kindergarten with some very basic skills that she had acquired in preschool. She knew a select few letters from her alphabet, barely knew how to write her name, and was nowhere near literate.

Now Zahra can read short words and complete sentences! The school sends home little readers for kids to practice and when your child reads the text well, it's sent back to school and another one comes home. Recently one of her favorites had a few sentences underneath pictures on 4 pages. The sentences read like this: "Go, Nan! Nan ran, ran ran. / Go, Pat. Pat ran, ran, ran. / Go, Van. Van ran, ran, ran. / Go, Cat! Cat sat, sat, sat." On the last page, the cat was sitting idly, having no intention to run in the race like the other characters. Every time Zahra would read it and get to the last page, she would tell me, "The cat doesn't listen. He doesn't want to run. He just sits there!" (I thought it was so cute how she wanted to explain what was going on every time.)

I think, thanks in large part to the Houghton Mifflin program called Alpha Friends and Mrs. Conton's repetition, Zahra quickly learned every letter and the sound that it makes. (Each letter has a corresponding character and picture, complete with a description of sound. Like "Keely Kangaroo says k..k..k.., Larry Lion says l..l..l.., Mimi Mouse says m..m..m..") She knows them in any order you point to them and her handwriting is continuing to improve.

Zahra can clearly write her first name now (instead of a Z-scribble-scribble) and is working on writing her last name (no easy task since it has 10 letters!). She has a little reminder card in class to help her spell it correctly.

She can also clearly identify and expand upon patterns. For example, if you put a red block, then two blue blocks, and another red block in a row, she can easily add to the pattern by putting more blue blocks down. For homework, she sometimes has to create her own patterns and they have been somewhat complex (not just two repeating colors or shapes, but multiples and singles mixed together).

I was also surprised to read in her report card from last term that she knew the day and month of her birthday. It wasn't anything we had worked on at home and I was just kind of surprised when I read that. I almost didn't believe it so I quizzed her. "Zahra, when's your birthday?" to which she quickly replied, "February twelfth." Wow. Cool.

I'm sure there are tons of other things that Zahra has learned and I will definitely know more after her next report card comes home. These are just some of the concrete things that I have seen myself, both inside the classroom and at home.

I'm so proud of my kindergartener! I hope she continues to love school and wants to continue learning new things for the rest of her life.

Driving Miss Zahra

2010-02-16T16:35:00.000-08:00

This is a short video clip of Zahra driving, including on the wrong side of the road... but really, does she even know what the right side of the road is? And at the end, she gets too close to the curb and her car gets wedged in. One of the employees had to run over and rescue her by pulling the car out a little bit. Shortly after that, all the cars shut down and the ride/drive was over.

Legoland

2010-02-16T16:01:00.001-08:00

The day after Zahra's birthday, Saturday, a bunch of us went down to Legoland, which is in Carlsbad (about 30 minutes north of San Diego). Here's Zahra with her 8-year-old friend Alysha. (When we used to live on Warner, Alysha and her parents lived in the apartment next door to us.)

I thought it was fun to see Zahra and Alysha next to this Bob the Builder guy made out of Legos since it was about the same height the kids. It was interesting to see so many big things made out of millions of tiny little Lego pieces.

The previous night, Zahra started complaining of an earache. Then on Saturday, she seemed to be a little under the weather. She said that her ear still hurt, she had very little appetite, and most noticeable was her utter lack of energy. Usually she would be bouncing and running around, but on Saturday morning, she wanted to sit in my lap or be carried around as we waited in lines. She had been quite excited to go to Legoland, to the extent that she didn't even really care about going to Disneyland on her actual birthday. We had to explain, over and over again, that since she had school on Friday, it made more sense to go to Legoland on Saturday so that we could spend all day there (not to mention, it's our family tradition to go to the Happiest Place on Earth on our actual birthdays). She just kept asking, "Are we going to Legoland today?" the whole week! So above is a picture of her riding a little mechanical pony on a track, a little out of it. Just before she and Alysha waited in line for this, I had given her some Tylenol to try and help with the pain. But somehow, a little later in the day, she seemed to snap right out of it and she was almost back to her usual self.

Willie took this picture of Max and I love his expression!

The girls look tiny in this big huge chair...

the kids table - Zahra, Jordan, and Alysha

(Jordan is Willie's cousin Terrace's son; he's 2 years old)

She looks like she wants to say, "Do I have to blow out the candles?" They weren't trick candles or anything, but it took her about 3 or 4 tries to blow them all out.

Zahra next to her birthday guy sign. We had a party package and so we rented a room where we all had lunch and cake. It was fun to have an area where we could all sit and have the place to ourselves.

After lunch, the girls went on a "driving test." They have their hands raised up because someone asked over the loudspeaker if they all had their seat belts on. Notice there are no tracks. Even so, they were surprisingly few collisions.

But that's not to say there weren't any crashes! I think Zahra had a little trouble figuring out the gas and brake pedal situation.

The proud little birthday driver at the end of her "test." She got a license... just like everybody else. I can definitely wait until the real thing. For now, I would be happy for her to drive another little Volvo at Legoland.

At the end of the day, we went to Miniland and looked at all the mock cities that had been built. Here are some Washingtons (and others) taking a picture in Washington.

From left to right: (in the back row) Rachel and her son Jordan, Willie jr., then in the front are Teshauna and Alysha, Max and his mom, Bessie, Leland, Denise, William, and Willie sr. -- But where is the birthday girl?

We regrouped and took another picture, gaining the birthday girl, but losing a few others.

Overall, it was a really fun weekend. It was really great that so many people were able to come to Legoland with us to celebrate Zahra's birthday. It was nice to do an immediate-family outing on her actual birthday after school and then do another amusement park the next day with more family and friends.

Zahra's 6th Birthday

2010-02-16T15:30:00.000-08:00

Here's Zahra on Friday morning, her 6th birthday. Can you tell this is before I fixed her hair for school? She opened her gifts when we came downstairs in the morning. One of the things she wanted was a flashlight, so here she's happily testing it out. She opened some other things from Nana Mommy and Auntie Sis before we got ready for school.

Since Valentine's Day was on Sunday, the kids had their celebrations at school on Friday, which also happened to be Zahra's birthday. The kids aren't allowed to pass out candy or sweets, so they just exchanged little Valentine's Day cards. As it was good practice for the kids to work on their handwriting, the kindergarten teachers requested that all the Valentines be addressed by the students themselves. Since I knew this would be quite a bit of work, we began the project on Superbowl Sunday and got a good majority of them done. She worked on them some more during the week and turned them in on Wednesday, when they were due. So not only did the kids have Valentine's Day stuff, Zahra got a special birthday crown to wear all day. We also donated a book to the classroom ("Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman), one of Zahra's favorites. It's one that we own, so she's asked me over and over again to read it to her. I found a little board book version for $5 at Barnes and Noble, so that's the one we gave to her class. (The school requests no sweets, so they suggest giving out pencils to the class or donating a book that the teacher reads first thing in the morning.)

Here we are, right after school, arriving in the parking lot at Disneyland. I wanted to get a picture of Zahra in her birthday hat, before it came off. Little did I know, she would wear that hat for the rest of the day, and the next day, too!

Ever since we got a little umbrella stroller, Zahra has been eager to push Max around. (She wanted to do this with our other stroller, but since it's so much taller, she can't see where she's going. The smaller size of this stroller makes it easier for her to look where she's going, though that doesn't necessarily make her that much of a better navigator!)

And when Max gets tired of getting pushed around, guess who sits where he is now? Big 6 year old Zahra...

Zahra used to be scared to take pictures with the characters (like the White Rabbit here from Alice in Wonderland), but now she runs right up and gets ready to get her picture taken. I even remember when she would be scared if she was even being held in your arms.

Here are Willie and Zahra waiting in line to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This was definitely one of my favorite rides when we visited Disneyland when I was a teenager. Since Zahra is now 40" tall, she can go on more roller coasters like this one and Splash Mountain. Also, most times she can ride them twice because of the Switch Pass. She'll wait in line, like she did here with Willie, and then they get a special pass, since we have Max (who's not big enough to ride yet). After she gets off the ride with Willie, he can come out and watch Max, and Zahra and I get to take that pass and wait in a much shorter line.

Also, for the first time on Friday, she rode Space Mountain. What a fun birthday! Since we were so excited for her to ride Space Mountain for the first time on her birthday, we were willing to wait the hour and a half in line, while Willie kept a sleeping Max in the stroller. So we went to the end of the line and asked for a Switch Pass. Because it was her birthday, the employee also gave us a Fast Pass which let us wait in a line that only took about 10 or 15 minutes instead. We were so lucky! We got on the ride and Zahra seemed excited to try something new, wondering only really where a safe place for her glasses would be. Usually, I try to look over at her while we're riding, because watching her face is more fun than the ride itself. It's great to see the smiles and expressions as the ride zooms around. However, with Space Mountain, since it's in complete darkness, with only simulated stars, I couldn't see anything! I was worried that she was scared because you couldn't see the track or know where the ride was going. I held tight to her little hand (she couldn't hear me when I kept asking "Are you OK, Z?") and just enjoyed the ride. As soon as the ride stopped, she yelled, "That was fun! I wanna go on it again!" and because we had the Switch Pass, she got to go again with Willie, immediately after she and I were finished.

But all that excitement was too much! I knew she was going to fall asleep on the ride home, so I brought her pajama pants and had her change into them in a bathroom stall before we went to the car. I took this picture because I thought it was funny how her arm and hand were raised up, even though she was sound asleep.

Rice & Beans

2010-02-08T16:33:00.000-08:00

Of course, before I got the camera out and turned on, Max was much louder and probably even a little more funny. But you can still get the idea, from some of these videos, how funny Max was being while eating his rice and beans one day...

Something about his conviction makes his speech so funny to me. I just wish that somehow I could understand what he's trying to convey. Nonetheless, it's still entertaining (to me) just to watch him babble.

The Little Climber

2010-02-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

The day before we were going to paint inside our new house, I had Max along with me one morning while Zahra was at school. I was working on taping up the baseboards and moulding so that we could paint the following afternoon. We only got around to doing Zahra's room because we ran out of time. These pictures were taken in our bedroom. (I suppose I should take some new pictures now that all the furniture is set up and we're all settled in... Coming soon?)

I was amazed at how quickly Max climbed up the ladder himself. Before stepping back to take a quick shot, I was standing behind him in case he fell. He seemed to be aware of the fact that he could take a big fall, so he held on tightly and didn't come loose until I pried his little hands away.

Needless to say, I didn't get very much done with the little toddler trying to get into everything. Oh, well.

Dear Santa

2010-02-08T16:15:00.001-08:00

(Back by popular demand: After a long hiatus, the Max and Zahra Chronicles finally resume! Between moving into the new house and subsequently misplacing the USB cable to connect the digital camera to the computer, we had a few problems getting back into the swing of things. Now that everything has pretty much settled down, I would expect the Chronicles to continue as usual. No promises, but of course, I'll try...)

About a week before Christmas, I sat down with Zahra to try and help her write a letter to Santa. While she was quite excited about this task, it was definitely a task that definitely tried my patience several times. I waited until Max was sound asleep in a deep nap before I even attempted to try and help Zahra write the "long" letter to Santa. Maybe she was too excited, maybe she's just a kid, but she was being rather silly and having her actually write the letters correctly and with enough room to fit in the allotted space was quite challenging.

Translation of kindergarten handwriting:

Dear Santa,

This is what I would like for Christmas.

1. Little people

2. Number toys

3. A suit case

Thank you.

Love, Zahra

Above, we have the proud author of her very first handwritten letter to Santa. Just before we put it into an envelope, Zahra asked, "What about Max's letter?" to which I replied, "That's one of the fun things about writing, you're able to write your own letter to Santa Claus. When Max gets older and he can write, then he'll write one too. Until then, Santa just has to guess about what Max would like for Christmas."

In the car, on the way to the post office, Zahra studies the envelope intently.

Caught in the act and now playfully defensive...

First she tried to stick it in the wrong way...

... then I helped her get it in the right place,

and the letter is off to the North Pole.

(Thanks to the letter, Santa was able to provide everything Zahra asked for! What a lucky girl.)

Glasses

2009-12-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a big day for us for two reasons. We closed escrow on our new condo and Zahra's glasses were ready to be picked up. Above is her last night, wearing them for the first time. She seemed to be happy wearing them and wore them without much fuss at first. She got through most of the school day today and then after school and this evening it's been a bit of a hassle to keep her from taking them off. Eventually, I'm sure she'll get used to them.

We took Zahra in to the eye doctor last year to have a routine check-up. He noticed that she might have trouble with her vision and asked us to come back in a year to see if there had been any improvement. He could tell that she was still having trouble with her left eye, so he asked if he could do a more comprehensive exam. Since Zahra's still learning her alphabet and might have trouble answering, "Now which looks better: number one or number two? Number one or number two?" (How many times does the doctor ask that when he's trying to figure out a prescription and keeps switching between different lenses?) the doctor asked if he could put drops in her eyes. I consented and we had to wait around for 45 minutes while the drops took effect. Meanwhile, we looked at frames since he was pretty sure she'd need glasses. Unfortunately, they didn't have any plastic frames that came in green so Zahra couldn't pick her favorite color! She also chose a wire framed style that didn't exactly flatter her cute face. So I kind of forced her to get these frames. When she's older, we'll let her have more autonomy when it comes to making a big decision like that. (Kids frames cost almost as much as ones for adults!)

(Zahra's ready for bed so I will continue writing this tomorrow. I have a lot more to say...) Good night for now.

(The picture above is supposed to show how the left eye needs much more correction than the right eye, which I'll explain in further detail when I finish the post "for real". Hard to get a picture, but you can see it when you look through them in person.)

Toddling, Part II

2009-11-30T17:15:00.000-08:00

More toddling around in the kitchen...

Toddling, Part I

2009-11-30T17:10:00.000-08:00

About two weeks ago, Max started taking his first steps. Of course, at first it was two or three quick steps from one point to another, falling into open arms or getting quickly to something he could hold on to. Now, he's pretty confident at walking around and is happy to explore new surroundings while on two feet. He still falls a lot and crawls around when he wants to get somewhere really quickly. Even when he falls, he seems to take it in stride, like it's just a small obstacle to overcome. I just love the look of satisfaction on his face while he's walking toward me. He really seems to get a kick out of it and it is fun to watch, over and over.

So he was technically 10 months old when he started walking. He recently had his 11 month birthday, so we're counting down the days until he turns 1 (on December 26th). So many things are different with Max. Zahra didn't walk until she was 18 months old, so she began quite a bit later. It's amazing how they are each such individuals. You never can tell what will happen...

(I apologize for the rather poor quality of the videos. I took them by myself, but I should have done it when there was someone around to help be the "post" Max was walking toward and I could do the camera work. But in the end, you can get the idea and see how he's doing.)

Literacy Picnic

2009-11-18T17:36:00.000-08:00

This morning, at Zahra's school, there was a Literacy Picnic. Every year at Golden View, there's a day when kids get read to by someone special in their lives (parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, neighbor, etc.). People bring blankets and chairs, lots of books, and something for the kids to snack on. I read to Zahra every night before she goes to bed, so this kind of felt like an everyday thing to me, except that we're usually at home, lying around while Max is asleep, and today we were surrounded by hundreds of other kids being read to at the same time.

This is right as the picnic began, before we actually started reading or eating or anything. I had been kind of wondering how Maxwell would fare in the whole deal, since he doesn't really like sitting in one spot much, but overall, he did pretty well. It would have been easier just to be able to fully concentrate on Zahra and reading, since she is ever the receptive audience, but I think she is getting used to having a sibling around and not being able to always have my full attention. She was pretty patient when I had to break from reading a couple times to scoop up Max or otherwise try to reorient him to a task that was compatible with me reading.

Max, eatin' a banana...

(This kid loves eating!)

... Later, you will see where some of the banana ended up

(although most of it made it down to his tummy)

This is how it went most of the time.

Zahra and I concentrating on the book

and Max, well, just being a baby...

I can hear him saying "My turn!"

(except, wait, he can't really talk yet)

We never ended up finishing this book.

One hour was too long for this enviornment. I think Zahra could be read to that long at home, where it is quiet, there are no other kids around, and Max is asleep... but here, it was just too tempting to watch what everyone else was doing.

The Book Mover

(this task was entertaining to him for quite awhile)

Zahra took this picture of Max and I

(pretty good photographer, huh?)

As you can see,

lots of people turned out for the picnic...

Getting tired of sitting around...

it turned into tumble time.

And yes, that's banana on his eyelashes and mouth.

See how he's standing up on his own without holding on to anything.
I took the picture with my hand held out to the side.

Overall, it was pretty fun. A neat way to do things a little differently on a November Wednesday. At the end, Zahra and a little boy from her class decided to walk off in search of their teacher. I kind of kept my eye on them because they seemed to just not even know where they were going, just walking off near the other grades. I couldn't find Mrs. Conton at first either, so I followed Zahra and Brandon and caught up with them. I was afraid they were just going to get totally lost, although I could see they were constantly trying to find Mrs. Conton. So I had them come back with me and I made sure they met up with their other classmates who had begun to line up in front of where Mrs. Conton was standing. It was pretty cute, albeit a little scary, to watch them walk off, confident and unaware, by themselves. Good thing I kept up after them!

Dancing Maxwell

2009-11-17T17:13:00.000-08:00

Almost any time Max hears music, he begins to dance. Well, what our family calls dancing, anyway. Usually, if he's seated, he'll move his body like you can see in the video. Yesterday, when Zahra came home from school, she was playing with this mascot toy from Ohio State. (We have absolutely no idea how it ended up in our house.) It alternates between the music you hear in the video and a cheer that spells out "O! H! I! O!" with a crowd cheering in the background. Anyway, as you can see, Max really enjoyed it.

So today, I turn on the car and music from the radio comes on pretty loud. I'm in the front seat and Max is buckled up in his car seat, directly behind me. Some random hip-hop song that had a pretty decent beat is playing through the speakers. Then I'm backing out of the garage, and I turn and look over my shoulder to make sure my path is clear. What I immediately notice is that Max's car seat is bouncing with the beat. And although I could not see what he was doing (his toddler seat is still rear-facing), I knew he was dancing and that's what was causing the seat to move. It was hilarious. You probably had to be there to fully appreciate how funny this was, but I felt it was worth sharing the story anyhow. So now I wonder how many times has he been dancing in the back seat, as I'm driving along, totally unaware up in the front seat.

Asleep, with Kids

2009-11-17T17:01:00.000-08:00

On Sunday afternoon, Willie took this video of us all sleeping on the couch. (He didn't know the camera was set to "video." He had meant to just take a picture and then the camera battery died, so he couldn't just change the setting.)

I'm just now getting over a pretty bad cold, so I was very tired on Sunday. Willie and I had watched a movie while Zahra was at church with Grandma. Max had fallen asleep in my lap and after the movie was over, I moved from the chair where I was sitting, and laid down on the couch, taking the sleeping little Max with me. I watched TV for awhile, until Zahra came home. Zahra climbed up on top of me and I thought she was only going to stay for a second or two, as she sometimes does. Instead, she promptly fell asleep. Right there, on the not-so-flat curves of my side. Not the most comfortable place to go to sleep, I would imagine, but then I'm not a 5-year-old kid who wants to sleep on top of her mom. Then, with Zahra sleeping on top of me and Max sleeping in front of me, I fell asleep, too. (I was not worried about Max rolling off because, since becoming a mother, I am a very light sleeper, especially if my children are around. Any little motion of his would have woke me up.)

About an hour later, that exact thing happened. Max and I woke up, around the same time. Who knows which of us woke up first. Max sat up and then slid off the couch with a little of my assistance. I got out from under Zahra and let her continue sleeping. Boy, was she tired! She slept for 4 more hours. Quite the long Sunday nap. I was sick and not feeling well at all, so I didn't even bother trying to wake her up. I was a little worried she'd be too awake to go to sleep a few hours later, but she must have really needed that sleep because around 10 o'clock, after Willie told her a bedtime story, she fell asleep without any fuss (which is impossible if she's really not tired).

Parents & Kids Day at Jiu Jitsu

2009-11-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, November 7, we went to the Parents & Kids class at Willie's jiu jitsu school, Gracie Barra. At first, Zahra was really apprehensive about participating. She wanted to sit in Auntie Sis' lap and just watch. Willie was positive and encouraged her to join in. He got her the smallest gi that was available and helped her put it on. Once Zahra saw other kids joining in, she seemed a little more curious about getting on the mat.

During warm-ups, Zahra jumped right in and started following along with her dad. Here they're doing push-ups.

Zahra's version of jumping jacks are sooooo cute. She kind of jumps up and down in one place (not moving the legs in and out as you're supposed to) and waves her hands up and down. It's really a kick to watch her do them.

sit-ups

stretches

listening to the professor's instructions

listening to Dad's instructions about a move

after being pushed gently down,

the move was to teach one how to brace during a fall

practicing the same move again

This was Zahra's turn to push Dad down...

Dad fixing Zahra's gi

At one point, Zahra was getting a little preoccupied and wanted to run over to the snack table for some treats intended for after the class. She was quickly returned to the mat by Dad.

more practicing...

Not the best picture (sorry!),

but this was Zahra and Willie playing a game

with the rest of the class.

I forgot what it was called...

listening to more instructions

Giving the professor a high-five at the end of class.

Zahra had such a great time at jiu jitsu, she kept asking when she could go again. Once a month, the school has a parent and kids day on the first Saturday. We were thinking we'd bring her back every month for a few more months and if she's still interested, we'd enroll her in one of the kids classes.

Baby Babbles

2009-11-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

(This video is more about sound than action, so make sure your speakers are on.)

I don't know what it is about this video that cracks me up. For some reason, seeing Max's little baby hand bang on the window is funny. And I love how he's yelling at the cars driving by on the street down below, like they can hear him, and understand his nonsense.

Enjoy watching a little person who is still fairly new to this world, fascinated with small things the rest of us find mundane...

Kids in Costumes

2009-11-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

These first two pictures were cute but I couldn't get them to rotate! Dumb computer. (Maybe I will try to re-post them another time, but right now I'm just going to leave them oriented wrong. Sorry. I'm tired.) We took these two pictures when we bought the costumes in early October and they came out better than some of the ones actually taken on Halloween, so I thought I'd include them.

Every year at Golden View, the kids get to wear their Halloween costumes for a parade at school. So on Friday (October 30), we walked Zahra to school in her costume. The kids walk around and everyone gets to see what they are dressed up as... after this, the kids went inside and took a picture and then had to change out of their stuff so they could do schoolwork without the distractions.

Annabelle, one of Zahra's classmates, had the same costume!

A picture with the Good Witch (a.k.a. Mrs. Conton)

Waiting in line while the costume parade went by

... not sure why SuperGirl is scowling at Raggedy Ann

A class picture in Room 4

A shot so you could see the cape,

taken around 6 o'clock on Halloween,

right before we left to go trick-or-treating...

My SuperKids!

Even little SuperMan gets tired sometimes...

Max fell asleep while we were out trick-or-treating.

Overall, I'd have to report that Zahra had a fabulous time this year. She seemed SO excited to go out and she bounced along as we walked from house to house. It didn't take long for her little pumpkin bucket to get filled up with candy since so many of the houses were really generous. We went out at 6, just as it was getting dark and came back home around 7:30. We were definitely the first trick-or-treaters to show up to some of the houses we went to... We also had the little girl from next door, who is 7 and one of Zahra's friends, go with us. I think having a companion to go up to each door was an added bonus for Zahra. We took Max up a couple times but mostly he watched from the stroller.

All right. Well, I could probably add a little more, but like I said, I'm tired now.... I'm adding this commentary at 9 PM on Monday night, so now I've got to get Zahra upstairs in to the bathtub and storytime. Good night.

Jack's Demise

2009-11-01T18:14:00.000-08:00

Southern California weather is too warm to carve pumpkins a week before Halloween. Bummer.

Carving Pumpkins

2009-10-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

After Zahra's soccer game on Saturday, it was time to carve pumpkins! It's been rather warm here lately, even though the nights and early mornings are pretty cool, so I'd been trying to postpone carving pumpkins as long as possible. Knowing we'd be busy all day Sunday (JJ's 2nd birthday party in Riverside) and wouldn't want to do it on a weeknight, I thought Saturday afternoon would be the best time. Dad and Carol had already bought Zahra a pumpkin from Ralph's. (Above, in the "before" picture, third pumpkin from the left.)

We went to Stater Bros. on the way home and picked up 3 more pumpkins. They were way cheaper than buying them from a pumpkin patch or even other grocery stores. (19 cents a pound! What a deal!) We also bought some pumpkin-carving kits and this was a great idea. In years past, I've used kitchen knives and just kind of free-handed the designs. These kits had perfect little saw-tools, lots of stencils to choose from, and an oil-based crayon to help transfer the designs on to the pumpkins.

Here's Zahra, using the special crayon to transfer the design she picked on to the pumpkin. She wanted to help cut the pumpkins but since this wasn't safe, this was about the only other thing she could really help with. (She was not at all interested in helping to scoop all the goop and seeds out.) Her attention span didn't really last all that long since she wasn't really allowed to help with the process very much, so after helping put the design on the pumpkin, she retreated indoors to play.

This is what Maxwell did while we were working on the pumpkins. Zahra actually took this picture by herself. Max didn't last very long in the activity center though. He watched us for a little while, ate a few Ritz crackers, then got very impatient. Turns out he was hungry and tired, so after he was fed, he took a nap inside. While he was sleeping, I finished up on 3 of the pumpkins.

This is me working on Zahra's pumpkin.

Willie picked a stencil from the internet. Jack Skellington from the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. Here you can see him using a little tool, kind of like a tiny plastic spur, to transfer the design on to the pumpkin. After rubbing the spur over the paper, little indented dots get left on the skin of the pumpkin, indicating where you should be cutting. (Zahra and I had stencils that had little holes in them so you could rub the crayon over it and leave colored dots on the face of the pumpkin.)

Close-up of Zahra's ghost pumpkin.

The stencil was titled "Boo!"

"My" pumkin with the scary skull design

The free-hand design I did on the little pumpkin
(Max's)

A close-up of Willie's work

Jack, the Pumpkin King

Zahra outside on the front porch with the pumpkins all lined up...

Polliwog Award

2009-10-21T10:25:00.001-07:00

This morning, Zahra got a Polliwog Award at school for having read 25 books at home with us. It was her second time receiving an award at Toad Hall (the name of her school's auditorium). I didn't think to bring my camera the first time, but since a lot of other parents had them then, I remembered to take mine along today. The first time, about 25 kids got awards, and today there were 42 (some kids got 2 or 3 awards). Out of maybe 130 kindergarten students, I kind of expected more kids to get the awards, since it seems pretty easy to read 25 different picture books to your child. So, since not everybody got them, it seemed kind of special that Zahra got to go up on stage and hold her award for the audience.

Here, you can see Miss Shikuma (another teacher) counting the kids with the audience to see how many awards were received. She mentioned that a lot of times it's a good indicator how well a child will read when you look at how often the kids are read to at home. I definitely love reading to Zahra each night while Max is asleep in his crib. I think Zahra also likes looking at the pictures and hearing the stories, so I feel lucky that it's something that both of us enjoy. One of these days when Max is a little older, it will be fun to have both of them listening to books. I said this before, but I really hope that both of my kids love to read as much as I do when they get older...

Gingerbread Cookies

2009-10-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

Zahra seems to be quite fond of the children's books by Jan Brett. I don't know if it's the pictures or what, but every time we are in the B section of the library, she seems drawn to her books. We've read several of them many times. We had borrowed "Gingerbread Baby" a while back. Then, the other day, this was one of the books that Mrs. Conton read to the class while I was volunteering. Since I remembered Zahra liked it, I made sure that we borrowed it from the library again so she could make the connection with the book she had listened to in class. Since there is a little boy who tries to make gingerbread men in the story, she wanted to do the same. (In the story, however, the boy isn't patient enough to let the gingerbread men cook in the oven and he opens the door to early and a little gingerbread baby pops out and runs away. A chase ensues and the story takes off from there.)

I found a recipe online for chocolate gingerbread cookies, since I didn't think Zahra or I would really like plain gingerbread. The dough came out very chocolatey, but a little on the plain side.

So Friday after school, we went to the store to pick up the ingredients we didn't have. We also looked for cookie cutters but they didn't have any at the grocery store, so we went to Michael's. They didn't have any little people shapes, so we settled for a bear shape and a heart. Here's Zahra pouring in the molasses. We had a bit of a molasses accident prior to this shot and somehow the sticky stuff dripped all down the side of the cabinet. After that was cleaned up, we proceeded with caution. For a five year old, Zahra did pretty well with listening to directions and actually participating in helping me to combine everything.

Here she's mixing the melted unsweetened chocolate, butter, and molasses mix to the flour, baking soda, baking powder, etc. mix.

Although she looks like she's having fun here, she said she didn't like the process of rolling out the dough between two sheets of wax paper.

After the cookies were baked, Zahra did most of the decorating. I think this was the best part for her.

The sprinkles came out SO fast! I had sprinkles everywhere! All over the counter, in the sink, on the floor. I had to do a lot of cleaning to get the kitchen back to normal. But, in the end, I thought it was all worth it. I think Zahra enjoyed making the cookies and was proud of herself for helping me. She shared some with the neighbors and her Grandma.

Here's one of the finished-product cookies. The end!

Self-Portrait of the Artist

2009-10-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a picture that Zahra drew yesterday. It's supposed to be a self-portrait. This is one of the skills the kids are working on in her class... being able to draw a person with certain features, like a head, trunk, arms and legs, and whatever else they'd like to include.

Last night, when I saw Zahra drawing this, I asked her why she looked so scary. She just giggled and said she wanted to be scary-looking.

I said, "But you don't look scary like that in real life."

She paused for a second, threw her arms up in pretend claws by her face, and threw on her scariest looking face. "Yes, I do."

"What about your fingers and toes? Look at how many fingers and toes you have in the picture. Do you have that many in real life?" I asked.

She studied her fingers and started to count them. She knew she didn't have that many. She said that's just the way she liked to draw them. "Where's the brown crayon, Mom? I want to color my hair."

We had a bunch of crayons sitting in a box on the table where she was drawing but the brown one was not among them. It's probably somewhere in this living room but at the moment, it's MIA.

She decided since she couldn't color her hair brown, she'd just use a myriad of colors.

When I asked what color her eyes were in real life, she said they were white.

"But what about the middle parts? The middle parts aren't white, are they?"

"No, those are brown. But we don't have a brown crayon," she argued. So she chose green, presumably since it is her favorite color. Also, she knows her arms aren't pink and purple but she was just trying to be creative. The color of the torso was supposed to be the color of her skin, so that was one thing she was attempting to do accurately. Also, she described her lower extremities in the picture as "[her] big fat legs!" (while laughing hysterically). Since her legs are about as skinny as you can get on a kid her height, it was pretty funny. The orange splotch on her leg is supposed to represent her boo-boo, as she calls it. (She really does have a little scab on her knee right now.)

As more pictures and drawings that seem of interest come along, I'll try to remember to scan them so I can share. I particularly liked this one because it took up a whole 8 x 11" paper and there was nothing else on it. I also had her write her name in the corner so you could see her progress with that but it's kind of hard to see. She chose the upper left-hand corner (above the purple line, which she drew to distinguish her name apart from the drawing).

Namely... Zahra

2009-10-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

One of the things I noticed when I was volunteering in Zahra's classroom was that she needs more practice writing her name. The other kids are pretty proficient at writing their names without any assistance. When Zahra doesn't have an example of her name in front of her, she sometimes mixes up the order of the letters. She always remembers to start with a capital "Z" but then, sometimes, an "h" or an "r" might follow.

So on this lazy Saturday afternoon, I decided to have her practice. (She's in her soccer uniform because today was Picture Day, but there was no game to play.) I found this really cool website where you can create your own writing worksheets. (http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/) You type in any text you want and then you can print out the sheets for the kids to practice. It was much easier than sitting there and putting little dots in the shapes of the letters I want her to practice (which I have done in the past).

I'm trying to take an easy approach and just work on it a couple times a day. Not too much pressure, so that she doesn't get tired of it and come to dread the practice. I think she will soon be proud that she's able to write her name by herself.

Max Pack

2009-10-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

Look at the sleepy little guy. (Sometimes Willie calls him "Max Pack.") I usually lay him down in the middle of the crib and cover him up with that blanket that Auntie Colleen made for him. Somehow, he scoots in his sleep so that his head is tucked in the corner.

I hope I don't jinx myself here. But I feel it's worth sharing. After all the trouble we went through the other night, with Max waking up 6 times... last night was much better. He went to sleep and didn't wake up until 7 hours later! Woo-hoo.

Yesterday was Back to School Night at Golden View so Willie and I walked over there to meet with Zahra's teacher. She went over things like the daily schedule, skills she expects them to have and things they will be learning this year, parent/teacher conferences, reading incentive programs, homework, stuff like that. After we finished with the school stuff, we decided we wanted dessert. So we took the kids to Golden Spoon and got some frozen yogurt. Then we went by Willie's muay thai facility (they moved to a new location and it's really nice). After we got home, I got Max to sleep around 9:30. Zahra had taken a nap that afternoon so she wasn't tired and didn't go to bed until almost 11. (She's probably really tired today, unfortunately). The little guy slept without a peep until 4:30 this morning. After nursing, he slept from 5 o'clock on, until we had to go downstairs. I was going to leave him in his crib and let him sleep until Grandma came over to watch him (since I volunteered again this morning). Zahra said I should take him downstairs with us in case he woke up and felt lonely. I thought that was nice of her to think of him like that, so I took him out of the crib and brought him with us. He woke up cranky. Luckily, the doorbell rang just then and Grandma was there to console him as I fixed Zahra's hair and got her lunch ready.

If Max could talk, I think he'd be asking,

"Why are you looking at me and not picking me up? I don't understand."

Now that he can pull himself up on the bars, he likes to cruise along.

There's my happy little guy.

And although it is October first, it's HOT!

(Thus the cool little Aloha shirt and short set.)

All summer long, things were pretty cool along the coast here. Mild and not too hot. But now, the typical Indian summer and Santa Ana winds have begun in earnest. Right now, it's 86 degrees outside! Above, the picture of Max shows him intently watching all the cars go by, zooming down Edwards street, in front of the house. I couldn't get him to look at the camera because the cars were too interesting.

Lemolade

2009-09-30T13:45:00.001-07:00

The joys of life with a baby in the house: daily sleep deprivation. (He totally makes up for it when he smiles that huge grin at you, first thing in the morning, having not the slightest idea that he's bugged you all night long.) Mr. Maxwell has been waking up at night a lot more lately. Apparently a lot of kids do this at 9 months. Teething. New skills like crawling and cruising. Not that he has ever been a sleep-all-through-the-night kind of kid; lately, it's just been much worse.

Last night, he fell asleep around 8:30. He slept soundly in his crib until 11 o'clock. I held him against my chest, with his head laying on my shoulder, and then he was back to sleep and so I laid him down. He slept for awhile and woke up again at 1 AM. He's sitting in his crib, banging his fists against the mattress. It feels like every time I put my head down on the pillow, two seconds go by and again there is crying. I get up and try to console him. At 3:45, he stands up and holds on to the bars of the crib and starts saying "mamamama" and crying half-heartedly. He briefly falls asleep in the big bed and then I lay him back down in his crib. Just 30 minutes later, at 4:15, he's up again. By 5 o'clock, he's awake again. He wakes and sleeps intermittently for an hour and a half (meaning I am not sleeping during this period either). Then around 6:30, he's up and happy in the big bed again. Can't get him to go to sleep. Starts crawling with a big smile on his face toward his dad when he walks in from the bathroom. Willie picks him up and rocks him a little, but Max is definitely not going back to sleep then. And Willie has to finish getting ready for work. Since the rest of us usually wake up around 6:45 or 7 o'clock to get Zahra ready for school, I figured I'd just be up with him. Instead, somehow he manages to fall sound asleep, just as we are waking up. This turn of events frustrates me and I'm very tired at this point. He stays asleep until I put him in the stroller to walk Zahra to school (we leave the house at 7:40). He stays awake for awhile until we are back from walking Zahra. I try to get a nap in and lay down with him at a quarter to 9. We nap until 10 and this rest makes me functional for the rest of the day. Tired, but functional. Here's the cute little guy you see smiling and you just can't be mad at. We were at Disneyland, eating at Cafe Orleans, on Friday night (the first night of Halloween Time). I think he was chewing on a french fry when I took this picture.

And, on another note, no, the title isn't a spelling error. Just the way Zahra is currently pronouncing the word "lemonade." I thought I'd do a random post and didn't know what to call it. Every time she says, "Mom, can I have some more lemolade?" it cracks me up. Maybe you have to be there in person, but it's funny.

Big foot. Here we have Zahra wearing her dad's shoes around the house. She was clomping all over the place last night and it was really funny. I couldn't quite capture how funny it was, but she and I kept cracking up. It was bedtime but I couldn't resist a few pictures. (At the point the picture was taken, maybe around 8:50, Max was sound asleep upstairs.) The pictures of Big Foot didn't come out very good but the one above was decent.

And Zahra's afro. I was washing her hair on school picture day last week and her hair made these beautiful halos in the water. They were pretty neat looking, so I decided to capture it. She loves taking baths and frequently pretends she's a mermaid.

That's all for now. With any luck, tonight will be a good night and we'll get some decent sleep in the house. Fingers crossed. Bye.

Classroom Volunteer

2009-09-29T17:06:00.000-07:00

(Photo credit: Matt Petit)

Picture Explanation

I must admit the photo has nothing to do with the topic I'm about to discuss. I just picked it because I have gotten so used to posting things with pictures, I feel at a loss as to how to do it otherwise. Our wedding photographer came over to the house and took some pictures in our living room. He brought the canvas background and special lights, which give it the studio feel. To the trained eye, you can see it's been a while since these were taken. The key is to look at the hair, how long Zahra's is (pre-August hair cut), and how much shorter Willie's locks are here. But anyway, on to the main event...

Room 4 Kindergarten Help

This morning, I volunteered in Zahra's classroom from 8 to 9 o'clock. (School starts at 8:00.) Mrs. Conton had two tasks for me to do. The first involved cutting 24 oval shapes (which were far from perfect; I don't think cutting curved shapes could be described as my forte). The second task had to do with some preparation for the October calendars the kids are going to make. I had to fold large sheets of blue construction paper in half, hole-punch the top, cut a piece of yarn, and tie said yarn in a bow through the holes. (This one I did a better job at, maybe because of all that practice putting our wedding invitations together!)

As I was cutting the oval shapes out of construction paper, Mrs. Conton asked me to supervise a table of kids practicing writing their names. (She was working on assessments and pulling kids up one at a time to her desk.)

It was interesting to watch what Zahra goes through each morning. When you ask her to elaborate on her day, she doesn't usually have much to say. I'm not really sure why she doesn't talk about school very much, as she certainly has the verbal skills to do so. She still seems to be happy when I drop her off in the mornings and when you ask her in the afternoon how her day went, she invariably replies, "Good!"

When the kids first walk in to the classroom, they are seated in front of the cubbies. If they have anything for Mrs. Conton (lunch money, permission slips, et cetera), they are to pull these items out of their bags and hand them in. After that's done, the kids put their bags in their cubbies and then sit on a carpeted area in another part of the classroom. There are different pictures and words up on the wall that correspond to different things they go over each day. There's a September calendar up and a chart that talks about which day was yesterday (Monday), which day is today (Tuesday), and which day is tomorrow (Wednesday). Then they sing a song about the days of the week to the tune of the Addams Family theme. I thought this was pretty cute. No doubt the origin of the tune is lost on 5-year-old kids, but it was a cute way for them to learn the days of the week. ("There's Sunday and there's Monday, there's Tuesday and there's Wednesday..." and then the chorus is, "days of the week" click-click "days of the week" click-click, where the kids either snap their fingers or making a clucking sound with their tongue, Zahra doing the latter.) Also, one student is chosen to describe what type of weather is outside for that particular day. There was some debate among the kids over whether it was cloudy or foggy, but the chosen student had picked "cloudy," so that's what description was posted on the wall for today.

At some point in their morning routine, the class is interrupted by the loudspeaker mounted in the corner of the room. The kids are asked to please stand and say the Pledge of Alliegiance. Mrs. Conton walks around helping some kids remember to place their hands over their hearts. After they finish, they all sit down and continue.

Mrs. Conton goes down the attendance list and asks whether or not kids are going to buy lunch. When she's finished with this, two kids get to take the list to the office. It's these very lists that my mother-in-law will use to figure out how many lunches to cook for that particular day. Some kids buy lunch every day or some kids might only buy when there is a meal they like (of course you know chicken nuggets and pizza are popular!).

The class goes over the letter of the day. Today's letter was "L." There is a chart on the easel that shows the letter in upper and lower case and several pictures of things that begin with the letter (lion, lemon). Mrs. Conton models how to write the letter and has the kids write the letter in the air.

Eventually the kids break up into three groups and go to different stations at different tables. I was asked to look over the kids who were writing their names. (This was when I was working on cutting out those not-so-great ovals.) They all had the kind of Vis-a-vis markers you would use on an overhead projector. (Ah, just the sight of them reminded me of the earlier days of school. I don't really remember any professors using them in college, but they were definitely something we saw a lot of in high school!) Each student had a sheet of paper that had their name written on it a few times and this was inside a clear sheet protector. The kids were supposed to trace their name with the overhead marker and then continue the practice by writing it several more times on the lines below. Some of the kids finished quickly and I'd ask them if they were done. They seemed so surprised and even asked, "How'd you know my name?" Pretty cute. I told them I could read it on their papers. Then they were like, "Oh... yeah."

Another group was working on the letter of the day worksheet and alphabet-writing practice. The last group were supposed to be drawing a self-portrait and something that they could sell that began with the first letter of their name.

It was neat to see Zahra among the other kids, working diligently on her letter Ls. When she got to the table where I was supervising, she didn't seem to be very focused on writing her name. I'm not sure if she was just like this today, or because I was there, or if this happens often. I'm sure we'll hear more about her particulars when parent-teacher conferences happen next month. (I think that's got to be one of the reasons that Mrs. Conton was doing those student assessments.)

I'm scheduled to volunteer the same hours every Tuesday and Thursday. I'm sure I'll have more to report about Zahra's class as the year goes on. (I didn't realize I'd have so much to say about one hour this morning!)

Max in Mischief

2009-09-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

So lately, as you can imagine, since Max is now mobile, he has become free to get into all sorts of mischief. Some of it is cute, some would border on dangerous if he wasn't being watched very carefully, some of it is messy, some of it annoys the heck out of Zahra. The gamut is all over the place, just like our little guy.

So today, I'm cleaning up the kitchen, and Max wanted nothing of the baby swing or to watch the clothes in the washing machine cycle round and round. He decided that since I was messing with the dishwasher, that's what he wanted to do, too. He crawled over, pulled himself up, and started pulling dirty spoons and forks out, one by one, and throwing them on the floor. This was cute and funny for a little while, but then I had to figure out a way to keep him occupied without getting into my chores.

This portion of the dishwasher, where the utensils belong, can come out completely. Max decided to do a little cause-and-effect research and slide the basket back and forth.

Here he is, still working on things, trying to figure out how all the relevant pieces work together. It's kind of neat to watch him. You can almost see the little wheels inside his head turning. "This is what happens when I slide it this way. Then I can slide it back."

I put him in a laundry basket to keep him in one spot. But sitting all alone in a laundry basket is no fun, so then I decided that he might like to play with an ice cream scooper and a pot. That was entertaining for awhile and then I decided to give him some apple juice in a sippy cup. He doesn't quite have the drinking-out-of-a-sippy-cup mastered yet, so mostly he just drooled all over it and got his shirt all wet.

On Saturday morning, as I was getting Zahra dressed up in her soccer jersey and shorts, Max decided to take the matter of hunger into his own hands, literally. Lately, one thing he enjoys are these little freeze-dried yogurt bites that are marketed for toddlers. They're just the perfect size for little hands to pick up and because they're freeze-dried, they melt in the baby's mouth. One reason I like them is because they have active cultures in them, too. He can feed himself and it's a not-so-messy way for the little guy to consume yogurt.

Apparently, the last time he ate them, I had failed to completely close the ziploc top of the bag. I'd placed Max on the couch so I could help Zahra get her clothes on. Max decides to dump the bag open and help himself. Initially, I was like, "Man! I just washed the slip-cover for the couch and now I'm gonna have to wash it again 'cause it has all these little yogurt pieces all over it!" and then I laughed and thought about how it was cute he just dumped the bag open and started shoveling yogurt bites into his mouth. Then, Willie was nice enough to put all the big pieces back in the bag so Max could eat them later.

Bon appetit!

Soccer in Action

2009-09-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

(Zahra's team is purple. The number on the back of her jersey is 2, but it's kind of tucked in to her shorts so it's a little hard to see.)

I took a short video so you could get an idea of the chaos that ensued out on the field. My favorite part is when Zahra is running along and she kind of jumps and kicks her leg in the air a little. For apparently no reason at all. It cracks me up. Anyway, kind of like the trikeathon video from preschool, the soccer game was very much like this the whole time...

Soccer on Saturdays

2009-09-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday, September 12 was Zahra's first official soccer game. She plays on a U6 (kids under age 6) AYSO team called the Purple Butterflies. The team they played against on Saturday was called the Green Butterflies. (All the parents thought this was pretty funny.) As to be expected, the game was chaos. Slightly organized chaos, but chaotic nonetheless. You could see the girls sort of understood what was happening, but there certainly wasn't a lot of coordination. They don't keep score in this division, since the kids are still learning how to play, but if they did, our team would have definitely lost. The score was at least 5-1, maybe 4-1. They also don't have goal-keepers. The kids just try to get it in the goal, defending the best they can without actually having someone stay there and do typical things like pouncing on balls or scooping up a ball before it has a chance to enter the net. The girls on the other team seemed taller and more athletic than our girls, but overall, it was just kind of fun to watch, no matter what level the teams were at.

Zahra seemed upbeat and excited throughout most of the game. She kind of avoided the masses when a bunch of girls would be gathered around the ball, but she definitely kept up with wherever the ball was at on the field and would kind of stay near it. I think it will be especially fun when they understand things a little better. After the game, she expressed that she enjoyed it so that was fun to hear.

Here are a few of the girls lined up during the practice they had right before the game began.

The team sign

Waiting for something...

Running down the field...

And yes, she sat down, on the field,

right in the middle of the game.

However, luckily, this digression was brief

and soon she was back up again and running around...

A little one-on-one coaching from Dad...

Throwing the ball back into play...

And congratulating the other team at the end of the game.
(Nice to see good sportsmanship developing early on.)

Kindergarten Kid

2009-09-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

Today is Zahra's first day of Kindergarten. She's in Mrs. Conton's class at Golden View Elementary. Right now, as I type this, she's sitting in Room 4, getting used to new surroundings and people. Here's Zahra, sitting on the couch, just before we left the house to walk her to school. Usually, Willie goes in to work at 6:30 (and I don't work until the afternoons), but today he went in later than usual so he could be there to walk her to school for the first day. As you can see in the picture, she seemed so happy and excited to go.

It was hard to get Zahra to look at the camera or keep her eyes open, but here we have her modeling her school bag for us.

She was so happy when we were waiting out on the sidewalk (Willie was closing the door and locking up). She started dancing around, kicking her legs up, back and forth. It was awesome!

On the walk to school....

In front of the school sign...

Hiding behind Max & waiting with Mom...

Saying goodbye to little brother...

Waiting for the teacher to come out of the classroom and take the kids in...

And more waiting...

Once Mrs. Conton announced she would be taking the kids inside and that it was time for parents and kids to say goodbye to each other, Willie and I gave her hugs and kisses and told her we loved her. We told her to have a good day and that we knew she'd do well. The goodbyes seemed to go on for a long time, so long, that Zahra said, "Why don't you just leave already?!" It was pretty cute. She was joking about it and had a smile on her face when she said it, so it didn't seem rude or anything. She seemed ready to go in and get the year started. Since her classroom is an interior one (some rooms have doors that open to the exterior of the building), she had to go through another classroom to get to her own. Willie walked her to the door because she seemed to be walking slow and not keeping up with the rest of the kids in her class. He watched her go in and see that Mrs. Conton came by to help the kids make it into the room. He said that Zahra just kept walking and didn't even look back.

We hope Zahra has a wonderful year in Kindergarten. We know she'll do well.

We'll keep you all posted.

Lazy Friday Afternoon

2009-09-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

So if you ever found yourself wondering what we do on lazy Friday afternoons, here's your answer. The kids nap and I read a book on my Kindle. It's not a completely lazy day, because we got a lot done this morning: Starbucks for Zahra's chocolate milk and my mocha frappuccino, a visit to Michael's to buy a canvas tote and iron-on butterfly patches for Zahra's school stuff (the teacher mailed a letter asking parents to get the kids bags instead of backpacks because they're easier and take up less space), a drive out to Fountain Valley to stop by Willie's work to pay for and pick up dinners we order from Jessica Todd's sister (yum!), another drive back to Westminster to go to the mall to the embroidery place to get Zahra's name written on her new school bag, and a quick stop at Chipotle to pick up a barbacoa burrito.

And we planned to go to Disneyland this afternoon, when Willie gets home from work, since our annual passes have blackout days this weekend. I told Zahra we wouldn't go to Disneyland if she didn't get a nap in. Max had just woken up from napping during all those car rides, so I let him play on the floor in Zahra's bedroom. He kept himself busy for awhile, playing with toys and crawling around the floor. I kept the door closed so he couldn't get out to the top of the landing where the stairs are, so I was able to relax and know that he was always safe, even if I had my eyes on the book. I'm currently reading "The Hour I First Believed" by Wally Lamb. I just finished reading one of his earlier books, "I Know This Much is True" and thought it was excellent. One of the best novels I've ever read, which is definitely saying a lot, since I've read quite a few books over the years. (I found out that the print version of the hardcover edition is over 950 pages long and it only took me two weeks to read.)

So after a little while, I could tell Max was getting tired of playing by himself on the floor, so I pulled him up to the bed where I was reading next to Zahra. Pretty soon he fell asleep and the two of them slept soundly, side by side, for another hour. Now they're awake and it's time to get ready for our trip to Disneyland. Willie will probably be home within the half hour. Usually we go earlier in the day, but this time we'll be there in the evening which will be a nice change. Off to the Magic Kingdom!

Mobile Baby

2009-08-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

The Washington household now officially has a mobile baby. Although he's been "practicing" and trying to figure out how to crawl for the last few weeks, Max really put everything together this past weekend. He had been scooting backward for awhile, seemingly frustrated by not being able to figure out how to move forward. (Zahra crawled in reverse at first, too.) Then, after all that practice, it seemed like he just put everything together.

Of course it's a little difficult to capture something that moves, but I think I got a few pictures that show how he's up on hands and knees now. Still, when he gets tired or frustrated, he just kind of moves from the crawling position and will just lean back and sit on his bottom. Then when he's ready to go again, he just starts crawling away.

Even just last week, you could sit Max on a blanket with some baby toys and he would sit there and play happily for a long time. Not any more. Now that he's figured out he can get away, he just decides to venture off and explore different parts of the room. And since Zahra is usually all over the place, he just tries to get to wherever she happens to be at the moment.

The Tooth Fairy

2009-08-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, out. The tooth fairy has been very busy in our house lately. On Friday afternoon, just before Auntie Sis left town, Zahra's loose tooth came out. Here she is, above, gently wiggling it out.

And here she is, seconds later, with a fresh new gap in the front. For some reason, her expression here reminds me of a pirate. I can almost picture her saying "Argh!" while she squints.

Then, a couple days later, the tooth right next to the first one, was also loose. This one didn't come out as easy. She wiggled it for two days. Then, finally, when she was doing a somersault on the living room floor (which she refers to as a "tuck-and-roll"), it just popped out. I took some pictures of her with the new gap while I had her helping me to marinate some chicken. She's in a stage now where she is usually happy to assist with things, so she thought marinating the chicken was great fun. She got to pour out the marinade into the casserole dish and then she especially liked using the fork to poke holes in the meat. When we were finished, her excited comment to me was, "Mom! Chicken is fun!"

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The big toothless gap. Some kids seem to be embarassed by the new look (I think Auntie Sis mentioned that I wasn't fond of it), but Zahra is happy to show off her gap. She's also quite excited about being visited by the tooth fairy. Auntie Sis gave her a book about the tooth fairy which came with a little tin to put the tooth in under the pillow. Zahra has a lot of fun putting the tooth in the special little tin and then looking for the money that the tooth fairy left in the morning. It's really special to watch her light up when she talks about being visited by something magical. Ah, the joys of observing the innocence of youth.

Happy wishes, little girl.

Aloha 'Oe (Part III)

2009-08-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

So I promised more pictures. And here I am, with a final few. There is a good one of nana-mommy and Zahra in front of the sand castle they made, but unfortunately, the picture is oriented sideways. I can't fix the images right now so I'll have to add them another time.

This is another picture from the day we went to the beach in Waimanalo. So Willie and I were talking and looking out at the ocean, just relaxing on our towels, and apparently, not being very attentive parents. I looked down and saw that Max had been playing in the sand and bringing his little fists to his mouth. Although it looks like he ate a bunch of sand here, I don't think he actually swallowed very much. Thank goodness for baby wipes and noticing this before it got too bad!

This picture was taken at the Pu'u O Mahuka Heiau, a state historical site. A heiau can be described as a Hawaiian temple. This one is located up on a hill, overlooking Waimea Bay, near the north shore town of Pupukea. I read that the wives of ancient chiefs gave birth here and there were also different types of sacrifices that would have been offered here. There was also a sign that reminded visitors that the stone formations are sacred to Hawaiians and asked that the stones not be disturbed or covered. (The kids were with us during this trip but we didn't get any family pictures together. Max was asleep in his carseat in the van and Zahra was running around somewhere nearby.)

Toward the end of our trip, we took a drive around the island. We took our local tour guide, Auntie Cissy, with us and it was fun to have her narrate and explain where we were as we traveled. We wanted to see some surfing on the big waves out on the north shore, but Auntie Cissy said we'd have to wait until Max was at least a year old, meaning that the best time to see the big waves that the north shore is famous for is during the winter months like December. So, instead we stopped for a break and got shave ice, which was really refreshing since it was really hot that day. I'll miss the driving and watching the pretty scenery go by.

The picture above was taken from the Pali Highway, as we returned from our trip to the north shore, back to Honolulu. (Not bad for being taken from a moving vehicle with the windows rolled up!)

When we returned from our drive, we had a small family gathering for dinner. Here is my mom and Auntie Cissy with their mom. Also, Mom and Auntie's cousin Keoki and his wife Paulyn came to visit.

(Left to Right) Paulyn, Keoki, my cousin John and his friend Tracy, and my cousin Shannon. The back of Willie's head and Uncle Hutch's knee are in the foreground. Not the best picture, but I meant for it to be candid.

On our last trip to the beach, we took my cousin Conor with us. Here he is with Zahra in the water. We went down to the beach at Kahala and went on to the private property of the hotel. No one seemed to notice or really care that we weren't hotel guests. (Was it obvious because we had brought our own beach towels and weren't using the white ones provided for hotel beachgoers?) We lounged on the beach chairs and played in the water a little. Maybe because it was our last day, but going to the beach this day wasn't as much fun as going to the one in Waimanalo.

Overall, we all had a great time in Honolulu and look forward to going back one of these days. Mahalo for listening to our stories.

Aloha 'Oe (Part II)

2009-08-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

One of the most beautiful sites we saw while we were in Honolulu was Shangri-La. Now a tour through the Honolulu Academy of Art, Shangri-La is a beautiful home built by Doris Duke. (There is more information on the website, found at http://www.shangrilahawaii.org/. There is a virtual tour which includes pictures from inside of the home, which we were not allowed to photograph.) Built in 1937 on the coastline near Diamond Head (which is pretty close to where my aunt and uncle live), this beautiful house was inspired by Doris Duke's fascination with Islamic Art. While she was on her honeymoon around the world, she was deeply moved by the art she saw in the Muslim world. When she came to the last place on her honeymoon, she decided to stay in Hawaii and build a home. The architecture of the house itself is somewhat influenced by homes typically seen in Muslim countries. Inside, where you are not allowed to photograph, there are many pieces of artwork that Doris collected from all over the world. They are not specific to one country, so there are pieces from many places, including Turkey, Egypt, Iran, India, Syria, Pakistan, and beyond. Some pieces were already complete and she had them shipped over from wherever they originated. She also commissioned other pieces and had them specifically made for her, many from an artist in Morocco.

It was an interesting tour. After visiting Honolulu many times, I've gotten used to seeing certain things that I associate with Hawaii, but Shangri-La was so different, it was pretty trippy to see all these pieces of Islamic art in a home there. Things I would typically associate with some other part of the world, far far away from Hawaii, brought together by one woman and pieced together to make a truly unique collage. Although the ticket prices were expensive ($25 per person for a 2-hour tour), I thought it was worth it.

This picture was taken outside of the house. The "play house" is what you see in the background. The pool (where the diving board is) has salt water in it that is continually replenished with water from the sea, which is just to the left and down a huge cliff.

Here are Max and I at a beach in Waimanalo. It looks like he's waving, but I think it's really just a fluke. We have a lot more pictures from that particular day at the beach, including the sand castle that Zahra and nana-mommy built, but I am running out of time for today. Perhaps I'll be able to post them tomorrow. So bye for now...

Aloha 'Oe (Part I)

2009-08-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

Aloha, everyone. We returned from our visit to Hawaii last week. It was a wonderful vacation. We stayed in the Kaimuki house with my Auntie Cissy (my mom's younger sister) and Uncle Hutch. My cousins, John, Shannon, and Conor were also at home. It was a good time to be in Honolulu since John is now back from college in Oregon and Shannon had not yet left for Chicago. Also, my mom (who, I think I've mentioned, Zahra refers to as "nana-mommy") was also in town. She was born in Honolulu and stayed there until she was about 30, before moving to California (which Hawaiians refer to as "the mainland"). Not only was it good to see my mom for almost two weeks in a row, just to hang out and be together, she was also quite fun to go around the island with. It was great to have her in town for this visit because, although she's been gone for quite a few years now, she still knows more direct ways of getting around Honolulu than I do... I can make my way around the city and even the island of Oahu, but my trips are definitely not direct or orderly. I kind of drive around until I find something that looks familiar and then take that route and eventually make my way back to the house. The house we stayed at used to belong to my grandparents and now belongs to my aunt and uncle. They are in the middle of a huge remodeling process -- we're talking quite a few rooms that have only the framing up. I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures to give an idea of the progress. The house looks so different than I remember! Although a lot of things had changed, it was really good to stay in the Kaimuki house and we are truly grateful to the Palmers for their hospitality. (Thank you soooo much for letting us stay with you guys.)

Well, we took over 200 pictures during the 10 days we were there, so it will be hard to pick and choose the best to share with you. I'm putting together an album, so whenever you happen to be at my house next, you can see the complete bunch, including all the many scenic pictures we took that I probably won't include here. (Also, I'll probably be putting together several postings since there are so many pictures to share.)

This is one of my favorite family shots from the whole trip. We are standing in a park next to the beach at Waikiki. This was on Monday, August 10, and Hurricane Felicia was lurking around. As is typical for Hawaii, the weather was humid and warm the whole time we were there. This particular day, as we approached the beach, little drops of water were falling from the sky. When we finally got to the beach, it started to rain. Just a light drizzle at first and then it started raining pretty heavily. We almost decided to leave, but just as we were about to, the skies cleared up and the rain stopped, so we were able to jump in the warm ocean water for awhile.

This was a pretty typical face for Max, when we'd put him in the water. He was not particularly fond of the water. My guess is that the unpredictable nature of the waves really bugged him. It didn't seem to be the water per se but rather the fact that he couldn't predict when the next small wave would come in or how big it would be, so we kept him up on the beach towels most of the time.

Here is a much happier Max. Don't know how we managed to get him to smile here, but it's probably not really an accurate representation of his response to the water.

Again, you can see the look on Max's face and see that he's not exactly having the greatest time in the water. His sister, on the other hand, had a truly wonderful time at the beach. She loved being in the water and playing in the sand.

I took this picture with my mom in front of a little waterfall that is on the grounds of the Kahala Nui retirement community where my grandmother lives. The grounds of Kahala Nui on Malia Street (in Honolulu) are adjacent to Star of the Sea School, which is the Catholic school my mom went to from kindergarten through 12th grade.

I love this picture! I think it totally captures Zahra's playful spirit and it almost makes me laugh just looking at her expression. This hibiscus bush was on the sidewalk between Kahala Nui and the school grounds.

This is my grandmother (and Max and Zahra's great-grandmother), Marie Foster. We went out to lunch at Zippy's, a restaurant near Kahala Nui. We were able to visit Grandma every day while we were in town and it was really good to see her. Grandma had met Zahra when she was visiting Stockton back in 2004 or 2005, but Zahra was a baby then and didn't remember anything. This was Grandma's first time meeting Willie and Max. She seemed to be very touched by our visit and I'm so glad that we were all able to get together.

This picture was taken in the front yard of the Kaimuki house on our 2nd anniversary (August 11th). After we took the picture, Auntie Cissy drove us down to Waikiki and we went to Wolfgang's (a steakhouse) for dinner in the Royal Hawaiian Center. Dinner was pretty good, and we went to have a few drinks afterward at a restaurant/bar inside the Sheraton Hotel, called Rum Fire. The neat thing about Rum Fire was that it was right on the beach and there were big doors that opened up, so you could hear and see the waves as they crashed against the shore, all while relaxing inside the building.

We went to visit the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor and this picture was taken there. Max fell asleep during the informational video and was apparently so tired he slept through the entire thing, including the boat ride over to the memorial site.

We also went to visit Iolani Palace, which was the official residence of King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani (I think that name is really beautiful), who were the last in a long line of Hawaiian royalty. Kids under 5 weren't allowed inside the palace, so Willie and I took Zahra in to walk around. We missed the guided tours with a docent, so we had to take audio tours. They give each person a little wand that you hold up to your ear and press a code for whatever area of the palace you are in. They also made us wear little booties over our slippers to protect the floors. (And they were serious about protecting things! At one point, I was kneeling on some carpet to talk to Zahra in a whisper about her behavior, and one of the docents came over and told me I couldn't kneel on the carpet! I stood up very quickly since I was embarassed about being reprimanded.)

Max stayed outside with my mom while the three of us took our tour. Since it was a Friday afternoon, the Royal Hawaiian Band was playing outside Iolani Palace on the grass, and mom and Max could listen to the music. Since it was hard to keep Zahra occupied, I missed a lot of the history during the audio tour. You couldn't back up or repeat without listening to the entire recorded portion again. Although many of the rooms of the palace were empty, I tried to imagine what they were once like when they were full of people and things. It was neat to be inside rooms that you knew were once filled with famous Hawaiian royalty.

The title of this blog is Aloha 'Oe, after the song written by Queen Liliuokalani. The words and a little history behind the song can be found on the Wikipedia site, among other places, I'm sure.

Well, that's all for this post. I'll work on another one now, I think, since I have the time. But first, I'll post this.

Zahra's First Haircut

2009-08-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

So today, for the very first time in five years, Zahra got a haircut. Our friend Mary came over to the apartment. Although she works for an insurance company now, she went to cosmetology school a few years ago and used to work at a salon. Back when Zahra was a little baby and Mary was still in school, she asked if she could give Zahra her first haircut. I promised her then that she would be the first one to give our little girl a haircut. So I kept the promise and asked her to give Zahra a trim. I like having Mary do our hair becuase I've known her for so many years now and it was neat to have someone like her give Zahra the first cut, instead of taking her to some anonymous hair cut place for kids. At first, after Zahra had taken a bath and I had washed and combed her hair, she seemed like she wasn't at all interested in getting her hair cut. I thought she might put up a fight, but when it came down to it, she was fine.

She did keep asking, "Are we done yet? Can I go?" even though the whole process took less than ten minutes. We cut about three or four inches off. It looks so much longer when it's pulled down straight. When it dried and the curls bounced up, it all looked much shorter. It reminded me of about two years ago when she was 3 years old. We saved some of the locks since it was her first hair cut.

I couldn't get Zahra to stand still for an "after" picture, but you can take my word that she looks pretty.

Thanks, Mary!

Birthdays at Disneyland

2009-08-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 23, 2009. Willie's 29th birthday. Here are the boys, waiting to ride the tram from the parking lot to Downtown Disney. Max doesn't look too happy in this picture because I think we had woken him up from a nap he had been taking in the car.

It was SO hot this day! We had just gotten in Disneyland and decided to take a picture or two with Mickey and Pluto. Notice how Zahra is pulling on Pluto's ear. I wonder if he noticed. Or if kids do that all day long and he's just used to it.

I don't really know why I posted almost exactly the same picture. It's like one of those Sesame Street games where you try to figure out what's different between the two pictures. Hmm...

Zahra is trying to touch the cow in this petting zoo. The cow wasn't particularly excited. (Although, what do I really expect from a cow penned up in a tiny 10-by-1o foot square?) She seemed kind of lazy and was probably pretty hot, even in the shade.

One of the things I love about going to Disneyland is that you can almost always find something you have never done before. Since we bought annual passes on Zahra's 4th birthday (her first trip was last year, February 12, 2008), we have gone to Disneyland about once a month for a year and a half now. This was the first time we had gone inside the petting zoo.

Zahra was a little apprehensive about getting so close to the goats. Then, to add to her anxiety, this goat, that was sitting on top of a barrel, started banging its foot down. I think Zahra thought the goat was going to attack her. But nothing happened. The goat just banged a couple times and then continued to sit there really still.

At the end of the day, Willie and Zahra took a picture in front of the celebration sign. Now I'm a little jealous that I didn't take a picture there, too, when we came back on my birthday.

Sunday, July 26, 2009. My 30th birthday. We went to Disneyland again to celebrate my birthday. Danevia and TJ went with us and it was their first visits to Disneyland. (I'm again sorry we didn't take pictures to commemorate the occasion!) Here we are on Main Street and Max was so tired he just fell asleep, right there. Even though it was hot and sunny out, he just falls asleep. Usually his head falls forward and it looks like he can't breathe, but here he looks pretty comfy just leaning against his dad.

If Max were older, you might think that he was pretending to sleep, but since he's so little, you know this is the real thing. A lot of people were walking by and saying "ahh, what a cute baby" or "I wish that were me!"

I had a lot of fun my birthday weekend, and I was happy that Danevia and TJ came to celebrate with us by going to Disneyland on my actual birthday. One of the best things about the annual passes is not only getting to go ourselves, as a family of 4, but being able to meet people there who are visiting southern California and want to go to Disneyland. We got there pretty early that day (around 9:30) and stayed until after 7:00. Usually, we don't end up leaving the house until 9:30 or 10 and then leave earlier than 7:00, so we had a long day and got to go on a lot of different rides. It was fun to take friends around the park and make sure they got to do some of the essential stuff while they were there. I never get tired of going to Disneyland over and over and I'm already looking forward to our next visit.

Pool Time

2009-08-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we took the kids to go swimming in the pool. We went to my mother-in-law's friend Mildred's pool. (How nice of her to have us over!) It was a pretty hot day and it was nice to be able to dip in the pool to cool off. I didn't realize it until we got out, but we stayed in there for over an hour. Mostly I took turns taking the kids out in the water. Zahra would sit on the steps while I'd take Max out and Max would sit in someone's lap while I took Zahra out.

We tried to practice some of the techniques Zahra had been learning at swim lessons, but she seemed more interested in playing and having fun, rather than learning how to be a good swimmer. This day was in between the two swim sessions. She seemed to show a lot of improvement over the four weeks we spent going to lessons with her.

Max's first time in a pool! Six months old here. The water was cold at first, until your body got used to it. So at first, I think Max was pretty mad that I put him in the pool. He looked like he was going to fuss the whole time and I was going to have to take him out, but then he seemed to enjoy it. He especially liked when I would lift him up and down and dip him in and out of the water. He started giggling and having a lot of fun.

(Thanks to Rachel Hart for Jordan's old swim trunks. They fit little Max's chubby baby body perfectly. And thankfully, they make swim diapers now so you don't have to worry about the little babies messing up the pool or the ocean or wherever you go swimming!)

It was kind of fun to take the kids out at the same time, too. I think Max especially liked "riding" around with Zahra. If I had to guess, I'd say that Zahra preferred the one-on-one attention when I would take her out on her own. She also liked holding on to the edge of the pool and scooting all the way around, even where it was deep. I went with her so in case she lost her grip, I would be there to catch her. But she didn't. She was very good at holding on and moving along, little by little.

Little Man Max and his mama. Bye!

Swim, Little Fish

2009-07-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here is Zahra, walking up the ramp, on her way to swimming lessons. She loves going up and down this ramp, even though there is a normal walkway right next to this. If she looks a little upset here, it's because she didn't want me to take her picture before she got in the pool. When she saw me taking this picture (I was trying to take it without her noticing, but she turned around), she said, "Mom! I'm not in the pool yet!"

For the past two weeks, Zahra has been going to swimming lessons at Golden West College (where I work at the bookstore and go to school). She's in the preschool group (ages 3, 4, and 5), which, when taken through the City, is called Tiny Tots. She's been taking swimming lessons every summer since she was 3. This is the first time she's been to the pool at Golden West. Usually we go through the City of Huntington Beach and have been to the pools at two high schools (Edison and Marina) and last summer went to the indoor pool at the City Gym. The pool at Golden West was recently remodeled and just re-opened this year. We're doing two sessions of swimming lessons, this first two week session at Golden West and then the next two weeks we'll go through the City again and go to the indoor pool there.

Here's Zahra in front of the "big" pool, before any of the kids got in. I guess her class at 9:30 is the first one of the day.

Today was "Safety Day" so the kids got to wear life jackets -- this one is almost as big as she is! The instructors had the kids go in the "deep" end (4 or 5 feet) of the little shallow pool and float around and try to kick and swim with the jackets on. In years past, Zahra has been uncooperative at times and has refused to participate in whatever the instructor is trying to have the kids do (e.g. kicking, floating, blowing bubbles in the water, anything). This year, it seems Zahra has been much more interested in following directions. She seems to really enjoy her time in the pool and look forward to each morning so that we can go to the lessons.

Her expression says it all here, but the dialogue that took place here is as follows -- Me: "What's wrong, Zahra? What's that look for?" Her: "I look funny in this thing." I had to admit to her that she did look a little silly, but still cute as ever.

Zahra lined up on the edge of the pool with the other kids. And no, that kind in the blue shirt is not falling in. Just outside the frame is an instructor who is helping him. I promise.

Zahra with her swim teacher, who seems to get a real kick out of Zahra's little personality. She always has to pull Zahra out of the pool at the end of each lesson. Part of that is due to the fact that the pool is warm and Zahra likes the temperature in there (because she's so cold and shivering when she gets out), but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that she's really having a good time in class.

Zahra wrapped up "like a burrito" and not too happy that class is over for the day. And another shot of her, walking barefoot back to the car.

Sleeping Siblings

2009-07-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

Last week, for three days, I had to be at work at 7:30 in the morning because we were doing inventory. As you can tell from these pictures, Zahra and Max weren't awake yet. I don't know why I like watching them sleep, but I do. I thought I would share the pictures so you could see what these two are like when they are just quiet and peaceful. They are both good little kids when they're awake, but only in sleep are they ever this still and relaxed.

Kidspace

2009-07-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

(My apologies for not posting anything sooner. Things have been happening but I just haven't had a chance to write much down. Plus, I tried to upload some pictures and the computer wouldn't cooperate!)

On June 20, we took Zahra to the Kidspace Museum in Pasadena. She'd been to another children's museum before, in Stockton, with my mom (who Zahra refers to as "nana-mommy"). Since Willie and I were at Steve's wedding that day, just based on the pictures, it seemed that the Stockton Children's Museum had more activities than Kidspace. Overall, I think Zahra had a great time and just enjoys being around other little kids in general. Here are some more pictures from that day.

Above is a picture from the enterance. (Yes, that's Max's head peeking out from behind Willie's arm. He was in the baby carrier while Zahra was being lifted up to touch the screen.)

There's Zahra, doing one of her silly poses for the camera. The enterance had really neat tile work.

I was so happy that Max smiled for this picture. He always seems to be content being carried around in the "baby backpack" with his Dad.

We signed Zahra up for a special class about making rockets. The website made the class sound a little more hands-on than it actually turned out to be, but Zahra seemed to enjoy it anyway. Here she is, getting ready to push her button to launch a rocket that had been set up. The teacher explained in detail about how this particular rocket was propelled. He was telling the kids, who were all around Zahra's age, about how there was water in this little container and how water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen and how there was a chemical process that occured that separated the molecules and as a result, the contraption was able to capture the energy and then something ignited a spark which then somehow turned into the energy that was used to propel the rockets into the sky. The explanation was way over their heads and all the kids seemed to care about was when they could push the button to send their own little rocket shooting upwards. The rockets launched so high when you looked up in the sky, you couldn't see them because they got lost in the clouds.

Here's a closer shot of what the rockets looked like before they were set up and the kids got to press the launch buttons.

Looking at some butterflies...

Here is Zahra, running next to the little fountain of water that would intermittently shoot up little streams of water. It was a rainy day and pretty overcast and cool out, so we didn't want Zahra to get wet. One time she did run directly over the water and she got her pants wet, but it didn't seem to bother her a bit.

Zahra pushing up the little pins. I remember in the 80s or maybe it was the early 90s when you could buy smaller versions of these and everyone thought they were really cool. It was kind of fun to play with a very big one (as you can see my hand next to hers).

I'm not sure what this exhibit is about or where that silly smile came from... but she was having fun. (No, her arm and hand are not dirty. She had temporary tattoos on. An octopus and a pirate, respectively.)

Well, that's about it for Kidspace. They also had tricycles and a little path to ride on. They had a class where you could make a tie-dye tie for Dad's since it was Father's Day weekend. Zahra got to touch a little box turtle and make ginger ale. We think they got the ginger ale recipe a little off, though, because when we took the plastic bottle home, we forgot about it until the next day (which, we weren't supposed to touch it until the next day anyway). So when we looked at the bottle, you could see that it had expanded from all the pressure inside and I made Willie open it up because I was scared it would explode. So, sure enough, as he's opening it over the kitchen sink, I'm in the living room and I hear this really loud boom. He barely twisted off the cap and the contents just came exploding out all over the sink. We refridgerated the remains of what was left in the bottle and let Zahra taste it later. It was pretty ginger-y.

All in all, though, it was a fun day to take Zahra somewhere new where she could interact and participate in different events.

Last Day of Preschool

2009-06-11T12:31:00.000-07:00

Today was Zahra's last day of preschool at Liberty Christian. I couldn't get Zahra to open her eyes for the picture. I must have taken about 5 or 6 different shots but she closed her eyes in every single one. Plus, I was holding a bunch of other stuff. Max was in one arm, along with a bunch of papers and Zahra's jacket from this morning when it was cooler out (as it often seems to be at 7:45, even if it warms up later). So between holding that stuff and trying to take decent pictures, things were a little rough. True, I could have put Max down in a carseat or stroller but he was very fussy in anywhere that wasn't my arms (he was tired and ready for a nap). So, we made do and came up with some not-so-perfect pictures in front of the preschool door.

I thought this was kind of cute, watching Zahra play in the mirrored window, right in front of the school. She seemed really happy when I picked her up from school today. When I asked her what she felt about this being her last day of preschool and that she would no longer be going back, she said she was "kind of sad." But I reassured her that she will be going to a new school for Kindergarten where she will have a new teacher and new friends. And then she added, "And I'll have a new baby. And a new mom. And a new dad. And everything new." Well, I'm not sure about all that new stuff, but a girl can dream, right?

It looks like Zahra's trying to surf in front of the door right by the sign-out sheet. She was doing all kinds of poses and dances and was just generally happy today. I was a bit surprised because she's been sick the last few days (yes, in June) and hasn't felt very well. Her nose has been runny and she's had a lot of snot that seems to get all over her shirt and her arms and even on her forehead this afternoon (who knew?). Yesterday she seemed fussy and irritable, but today she seems like a whole new kid.

Well, this was definitely my favorite shot of the day.

It seems to capture that sweet little spirit I love so much.

So that's it. She's all done with preschool. She's made a lot of progress. We enrolled her in preschool late because she took quite a long time to get potty trained (she was 4) and the school wouldn't take her until she was ready. (Now, in the days they seem desperate for students, they are willing to take 2 year olds and assist with the potty training process.) But in any event, by the time she was potty trained, she really was ready and has never had an accident. So we enrolled her late, last summer, when she was almost 4 and a half. So other kids had been in school for awhile and Zahra was definitely late on skills other kids had already picked up. Like cutting paper. I didn't know that was such an important skill, but I guess being able to move the scissors skillfully contributes to being able to write succesfully. Also, Zahra still struggles with coloring. She did a lot of scribbling in the beginning and had a lot of trouble understanding the concept of coloring things in completely, chosing instead to color things haphazardly.

In addition to cutting and coloring, Zahra learned her alphabet and numbers. She is doing OK with the ABCs but still needs practice identifying certain letters and her handwriting is continuing to improve. She's pretty good at the small numbers. We like to play the card game "Go Fish" and I think that helps reinforce learning the numbers. I think a lot of times she just pretends she doesn't know the numbers and asks for help. Sometimes when I tell her, "Come on, you know this number," she responds by saying, "I know. I'm just joking. It's a three."

Since it's a Christian preschool, Zahra also learned Bible stories and verses. She sang songs with her classmates and had time to play outside on the tricycles and the jungle gym. Through the year, Zahra made different friends and would talk about different kids. Eating lunch with other kids and trying new foods has also helped Zahra with eating new foods at home. Her teacher commended Zahra's patience and has said that she's seen Zahra mature a lot just within the last month, noticing that she has been behaving very well during "circle time" and following directions.

In the beginning, Zahra didn't seem to really understand why she had to leave school at noon while everyone else stayed for nap time and didn't leave until the afternoon. She seemed like she just wanted to stay at school all day like all the other kids. (She'll be able to do this in Kindergarten since she'll be on the same schedule as everyone else, not just the one kid who does half-days at school.) I didn't know how to explain to her that we didn't need daycare and that there wasn't more academic curriculum in the afternoons. Eventually she seemed to come to an understanding that mom would come and pick her up right after lunch when all the other kids were laying down for a nap. When I was pregnant, I would take Zahra home and we would both lay down, sometimes falling asleep or just resting. After Max came along, it was too hard to try to get her to nap since he was usually up at that time. So she's usually pretty tired by the time bedtime rolls around on the days she woke up early for school.

Well, that's all. It's neat to see my little girl move on to a new chapter in her life. Right now, Kindergarten seems to be a long way off, even though it's only a few months. For her, that probably feels like an eternity. She doesn't seem to be too concerned about a new school just yet. What she is mostly looking forward to these days is swimming lessons. They begin July 6, so I'll have an update once those begin.

Last Day at College View

2009-06-10T11:39:00.001-07:00

This week marks the end of two different schools that Zahra has been attending. Today was her last day at College View Elementary. She has been attending special classes at College View since she turned 3. The two different classes are the preschool Speech and Language Program and Adapted PE.

In the early days of Speech class, the teachers worked with Zahra solely on pronunciation. She would go over certain letters and sounds. (Her speech classes were twice a week, two 30-minute sessions: one on Monday mornings from 9:45-10:15 and on Wednesday mornings from 9:15-9:45.) Zahra even got homework, beginning when she first started attending the Speech and Language Program after she had just turned 3. Previous to that, she had been getting therapy that was funded by the state at a private institution. After age 3, the school districts take over and provide therapy for those kids who qualify. She had been getting various services for different developmental delays since she was a baby.

Eventually, Zahra learned to make all the sounds correctly and the teachers began to move on to whole language concepts (like "over" and "under," "beginning" and "endings" of stories, et cetera). They also worked with her on different things like volume and speed (as Zahra tends to talk very quickly -- they tried to get her to slow down). Though today was her last day meeting with the teachers at College View, she will continue to be followed by the school district when she moves to Golden View Elementary for Kindergarten. All preschool therapy sessions are held at College View, which happens to be close to our house, but Golden View is even closer.

Above is a picture of Zahra, waiting in front of the school. She has a paper monkey in her hand that she had made in Speech this morning. After Speech on Wednesdays, Zahra had Adapted PE from 10:00 to 10:30. She had also been getting physical therapy through the school district since age 3. Her teacher worked on a lot of different issues, such as her balance, walking up and down stairs with alternating feet, and throwing and catching balls. Through the years, they worked on issues through play using games like bowling, soccer, and baseball. I'm sure there are many more things that were covered -- but I can't seem to remember them all right now. Zahra especially liked her Adapted PE teacher and always seemed to look forward to meeting with her.

Here is Zahra, drinking her chocolate milk in the courtyard of the school, waiting for the PE teacher. I couldn't seem to get her to take any "serious" pictures today, she just kept being a goofball the whole time. Over the years, Zahra got many compliments from her PE teacher and her various helpers about what a fun kid she was to work with and how funny and creative she always was. It meant a lot to me to hear these positive things, because I know we really get a kick out of her at home, but it's nice to hear how much someone else enjoys being with your child as well.

Since she's gotten older and more mature, Zahra has seemed to get better at paying attention and listening to directions in PE. Although these little therapy sessions were separate from preschool, I think they were great opportunities for her to learn patience and other skills that will be helpful and useful when she begins Kindergarten in the fall. I am truly thankful that these types of services have been available to Zahra before she enters formal school. I think they have been a great benefit to her and have helped her overcome many of the obstacles that have happened to her, most likely due to being born so premature. Without these aids, I don't know where Zahra would be developmentally. We are truly lucky that the state and school districts continue to provide these services free of charge to kids in need.

You see what I mean about Zahra being a goofball today? I took a lot more pictures in front of this sign, but I kind of liked her little pose in this one.

Well, tomorrow is her last day at preschool, so we will be taking a photo or two in front of that school as well. I will also give updates about some of the stuff she learned there, although I kind of feel that I might not have as much to say. Today was a bittersweet one. I've enjoyed bringing Zahra to College View over the last two years and it was sad to know we won't be visiting there any more. I think Zahra really enjoyed her sessions and gained a lot from them. But it only means that we're now on to a new chapter in her life. Happy I can share these things with all of you... More tomorrow.

Sitting Up & Silly Faces

2009-05-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

Just today, Max started sitting up by himself.

I realize these aren't the best pictures to share, but there are two things we must remember:

1) It's hard to take a picture of a moving baby who constantly keeps falling over

and 2) it's the first day, so at least we caught these moments on camera!

He's sitting up for at least a couple seconds at a time,

but sometimes even as long as 20 or 30 seconds... pretty good for a beginner.

I remember Zahra fell over a lot more when she was learning to sit up.

A little blurry. Sorry!

I'm not a big fan of using the flash unless absolutely necessary,
but I was having problems with the camera.

And, oops, there he goes, falling down on a pillow.

Zahra got a little jealous of Max getting all the attention, so she wanted to join in as well.

Here's her making some silly faces.

CHEESE! The happy brother and sister!

Good bye guys...

To You, The Reader

2009-05-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone... I added a "gadget" on the sidebar so that you can be one of my "followers." I always wonder who is reading the blog, what they think, and stuff like that. Feel free to add comments at the end of any post to let me know what you think, if you feel like sharing. I've heard some feedback about having trouble posting without logging in or having some kind of account, so my mom figured out a way around that. What you can do is add a comment as "anonymous" and then at the end of your comment, you can just type your name so we know who it's from. I am quite interested to hear your feedback, so please post a comment if you have something you'd like to tell me (or the other readers). Of course, don't feel like you need to comment every time, but every once in awhile would be fun, I think. I even enjoy reading the comments section on one of the blogs I follow (the Motherlode blog from the New York Times), just because sometimes the discussion is as interesting as the original post itself. I know you all are busy, so just keep this in mind in case you ever have the time. I love sharing my thoughts with you all! Thanks for reading.

Zahra's Idiolect

2009-05-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

I remember learning the word "idiolect" in college. It was in my English 420 class at San Francisco State. Introduction to the Study of Language with Rachelle Waksler in the HSS Building. One of the reasons I remember learning the word was because I had a friend at the time who had quite her own interesting idiolect and it took some learning and translating to be able to fully understand what she was talking about or referring to in her speech.

During one of the lectures Professor Waksler discussed the word. The textbook from that class (An Introduction to Language by Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman, 6th edition) defines the word on page 399: "All speakers of English can talk to each other and pretty much understand each other; yet no two speak exactly alike. Some differences are due to age, sex, state of health, size, personality, emotional state, and personal idiosyncrasies. That each person speaks somewhat differently from all others is shown by our ability to recognize acquaintances by hearing them talk. The unique characteristics of the language of an individual speaker are referred to as the speaker's idiolect." I begin this post with the definition before delving into Zahra's personal idiolect. I've compiled a short list of things she says and think that I will continue to add to this post as more things come to mind. The incomplete "dictionary" here consists of mispronunciations, terms she's coined herself, and various little idiosyncrasies we find especially cute. I'll first list the term and then the "translation."

"hostiple" - hospital

"popiskull" - popsicle

"kitaar" - guitar

"backyardigan" - backyard

"yummioso" - a combinatino of "yummy" and the Spanish word ending "-oso" (as in delicioso)

"carpet" - a grocery store cart

"naked bread" - bread with the crust removed

"naked pizza" - pizza without cheese or any toppings (namely bread and sauce)

"sighted" - excited

"kitchen" - refridgerator

"taxi" - stroller

"pajammies" - a combination of "pajamas" and "jammies"

"splode" - explode

"channel" - commercial on TV

As I said, there are more terms for the list, but this is all I could think of at the moment. I look forward to the days when Max has his own little unique vocabulary like Zahra.

Dichotomy

2009-05-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

I was lying in bed nursing Max the other night and thinking about how my two children are quite different. In many ways, opposites. (And this is quite apparent in only five months. It remains to be seen where things will go.) I can only hope that if the dichotomy remains, the differences will compliment each other. I could spend lots of time categorizing the minutiae of various medical intervenions vs. none, but I won't spend endless time on such details.

There are obvious distinctions like boy and girl; and there are more subtle variances, like which child could be considered a better sleeper. Both were Kaiser babies, born in operating rooms, though one in northern California (San Francisco) and the other southern (Irvine). One is breastfed, the other was bottle and tube fed. One was considered a micropreemie, the smallest they come (1 lb. 1 oz./a mere 485 grams). The other was a healthy, term infant born without needing any medical interventions at all (6 lbs. 3 oz.). Eating baby food seems to be a delightful experience for one while the other pushed most spoonfuls out with the tongue. At six weeks old, one had already visited Disneyland while the other didn't go until four years of age. One was content in the carseat for entire meals at restaurants, whereas the other loves to be held. One seems to be meeting milestones on time or even early, but the other needed lots of assistance along the way. Outgrowing clothes is easy for one, though the other seemed to stay in the same size for months and months on end. Fueling that change, one child's weight would plateau for long periods of time, whereas the other seems to be constantly getting bigger. Naps were a regular part of one child's infancy, but the other seems to be more sporadic and unpredictable. One child has tiny scars to prove all of the IVs that were survived, the other has never even had blood drawn.

Although there are many more distinctions that were apparent to me in the middle of the night, I can't think of them all right now. When I was originally thinking of this post, the list seemed to go on and on ad infinitum. I didn't have a pen or paper, nor did I really want to write everything down at that point anyway.

And for now, the younger of the two seems to no longer be content watching the washing machine drum cycle round and round. It appears it may be time for his mid-morning nap, although I cannot be sure, since he is the unpredictable napper. In any event, I will rescue him from his seat to see what he'd like to do next.

Cereal

2009-05-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

Max started solids today. He did remarkably well. I expected most of the brown rice cereal to end up all over his face and his bib, but he actually ate most of what I gave him. (I really didn't expect much of it to actually be swallowed.) He even seemed to want more. Of course he made some strange expressions, like, "What is this stuff in my mouth?" and "I'm not quite sure I think I like this, but I'll swallow it down anyway." But it was cute to watch him make little chewing motions and swallow most of what came off the spoon. Our little boy is getting bigger every day!

Though it looks like most of the food ended up on his face here, this doesn't really show the whole story. He probably ate a whole quarter-cup of the cereal mixture. Not a bad amount for a little guy's first time eating something besides milk!

There were a couple times he got really excited and seemed to enjoy the whole eating process. He actually squealed. Yes, squealed.
We think he might turn out to be a big eater.
Another new and different experience than with sister. She was never a big baby-food eater. She kind of seemed to skip right to finger foods.

See? Doesn't he look like he's having a good time?
Truly, this was more like his expression most of the time. Kind of unsure of what to think about the whole new experience.

Oh, and one more note on Max's milestones...
He rolls over now!

Trike Stills

2009-05-14T12:12:00.001-07:00

Here are some stills from today's trike-a-thon. I wanted to have them in order, but alas, I didn't realize that they would load the way they did... so things are kind of backwards. Sorry.

Above is Zahra, deep in concentration!

Hi, everyone! The above picture was taken just before the race began.

Here is Zahra on the sidelines. She's supposed to be cheering on the other class, but it looks like she was more interested in the flag instead!

She was ridin' along, ridin' along, ridin' along...

Ready... Set... Go!
Below is Zahra, waiting for her turn to ride around....

The End.

Just One Lap

2009-05-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

(Begins with Zahra in pink helmet on right-hand side.) I'm happy to be able to share this video of Zahra riding her bike during today's trike-a-thon at preschool. I took a short clip of just one lap. As you can imagine, the little kids just kept riding around in circles and it was pretty much the same thing over and over. Because of that, I felt it wasn't necessary to take a long video to show you guys what the event was like today. (Plus, it took over 15 minutes just to upload this short 1-minute clip!) The whole time, Zahra mostly circled around the outer edge, staying away from the big mass of kids in the center. She was kind of doing her own thing but she seemed to be having a good time during her laps around the circle. At the end of the fifteen minutes, she seemed a little tired and ready for snack time. Congratulations, Zahra! Great job riding your little bike.

Beach Pictures, Part II

2009-05-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

The "Max Elevator" Video

2009-05-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

The "add photos" button wasn't working, so I decided to add a little video of Max. Currently one of his favorites, Max likes the elevator game. "Baby goes up, baby comes down. Baby goes up, baby comes down." (You get the idea.) So here is Max, at the beach for the first time, getting to go up and down as "the elevator" with Daddy.

Beach Pictures

2009-05-10T17:21:00.001-07:00

For Mother's Day we went down to the beach. (It was Max's first time.) Here are some pictures from our outing. Also, the one of the kids in the wagon is from Friday when I took a walk with them and took them to the park.

Junie B. Jones

2009-05-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

One thing I look forward to every day is going to bed. Not because I am so tired that's all I can think about, but because I love reading to Zahra in bed. Every night, after Max has nursed to sleep, Zahra and I brush our teeth. Quiet little Max sleeps peacefully in his crib as Zahra and I get to go on our little literary adventures.

For the past couple months, we have been reading the Junie B. Jones series of chapter books, about a little girl in Kindergarten who gets into a lot of silly situations. (If you want to take a look at the website, here's the link -- http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/junieb/.) The books are written in the first person, using the type of language that might actually come from a 5-year-old. There have been more than a few times that Junie B. has used expressions I question whether or not someone Zahra's age would say, but she does say some pretty cute things like seeing a "hugie big cake" at a wedding and "Wowie wowie wow!" when she's excited about something.

I love using different inflections in my voice to make the words come alive. Bessie had given us copies of a bunch of the Junie B. books, but I didn't realize until I went to the library looking for ones we hadn't read, that they're geared toward 3rd grade readers. There are a few pictures in the books, every four or five pages or so, but this means that Zahra is mostly listening only to words, since they aren't picture books per se. I don't remember what Mom and Dad were reading to me when I was 5, but I think it's great that Zahra loves listening to chapter books at her age.

Zahra usually asks me to change Junie B.'s name to Zahra when I am reading, so when someone addresses the little girl, Zahra hears her name instead. (We call her Zahra D. instead of Junie B.) Changing the name may be one clue, but I wonder if she identifies with the main character, since she's also 5 and she has a little baby brother, too. Junie B.'s brother is named Ollie and he always seems to take up the mom's attention when Junie B. has something important to say. Both little girls get frustrated that the baby takes up mom's precious attention and both seem to have endless energy and creativity. Although Zahra doesn't start Kindergarten until the fall, I do see a lot of other parallels between their lives. We've read all the books where Junie B. is still in Kindergarten and there are a few more books where she has moved on to 1st grade, but after that, we'll have to move on to another series. This prospect makes me kind of sad because I think both Zahra and I have really enjoyed the Junie B. books together.

We've read a couple Amelia Bedelia books, which I remember reading as a little kid, but I just can't help but think about what a nitwit she is! I'm also afraid that Zahra doesn't understand the double meanings behind some of the stupid things Amelia Bedelia does so she can't get the umor. (Like throwing a tent on a bush when someone tells her to "pitch the tent.") When I was reading them as a kid myself, I think I was old enough to understand them in a way that Zahra just can't quite grasp this early on.

I don't remember being read to as a child much, but I know that I have loved reading since I was little. I remember the picture books and knowing some of the stories behind them, having favorites like Anansi the Spider and the church mice books. I don't actually remember being the patient little one listening to the stories and looking at the pictures, but not being able to read the words myself. My memories of reading begin with being able to do the act myself, not the passive listening stage.

I have many fond memories of going to the Children's section of the public library in downtown Stockton and picking out books. I vaguely remember choosing the picture books (1o a week for each kid?), but for some reason, once we get home, I don't have memories of listening to these very stories we just took home. (Perhaps this is like the theory that says we don't have memories of infancy or other early stages of life before we learned language because that's how our memories are stored -- in words.) I remember going through a non-fiction phase where I wanted to learn about all different kinds of things and the library had a great series that had books that were just right for whatever level of reading I had mastered at the time. I remember reading lots of Babysitters Club books and then moving on to Young Adult novels. Eventually I started reading adult fiction and have stayed there ever since. Until now. I have moved back into the Children's section, only with a much different vantage point.

One of my greatest hopes for Zahra and Max is that they grow up to be avid readers. I am truly thankful that I come from a library family and that books have been an important part of my life for many years. I hope both of my children come to enjoy reading as much as I do. For now, I think the best thing I can do is to read to them daily and let them see me reading for fun. If ever there is a day that we can't read as much as usual, Zahra does seem disappointed. When she has been patient and quiet with one book or we have finished another, she always looks forward to hearing more. I think that's a good sign.

Ride Safely, Little One

2009-04-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

There will be a trike-a-thon to raise money at Zahra's preschool on May 14. In order to participate, the student must bring in their own tricycle from home as well as wear their helmet. Since Zahra didn't own a helmet as of yesterday, Grandma Bessie went to buy her a brand-new Barbie one with butterflies on it and she brought it to Zahra this morning. (Thank you, Bessie!) Zahra was so excited to have some new bike equipment.

In the pictures she's riding the "big girl bike" with training wheels, but she'll be riding her little trike for the fundraiser. I thought I'd take a few pictures to share with you all so you could see what she looks like riding her bike down the street. Complacent Max sat quietly on the doorstep in his car seat as Zahra rode her bike back and forth. It was a very nice spring day out and perfect weather for Zahra to ride around in.

After riding on the street, we moved into a safer environment by putting the bike in our little patio area out back (which Zahra refers to as the "backyardigan" because of the Nickelodeon show of the same name). Since there wasn't much room for Zahra to ride around in, as it's really only a couple square feet, she decided to put on a "show" instead. So she brought out a lot of little chairs and things for her audience to sit on. She made up an audience of stuffed animals and other little toys. At one point, we put Max out in the audience (in his Bumbo chair), so he could watch, too. She performed mock races where she would "race" the few feet on the "big girl bike" and her competitor would "ride" the tricycle. A funny thing happened: Zahra won every time. She got a lot of "Congratulations!" from me and a few smiles from Max. (In her ever-cute developing vocabulary, the word of praise has currently been truncated to "gratulations.")

It doesn't seem like too long ago that she couldn't even reach the pedals on this bike. How true it is that they grow up so fast! She looks so happy here; I love to see her like this.

Z-News Daily

2009-04-28T15:07:00.001-07:00

On Sunday (April 26), we signed Zahra up for soccer. She’ll start this fall. Practices begin in August and the first game will be right after Labor Day. As soon as we have some pictures of her in her uniform, I’ll be sure to put them up here on the blog. Until practice starts, though, we don’t have much to report yet. Just wanted to keep you updated with a bit of news.

Today (April 28) I can report that Zahra has been telling a lot of knock-knock jokes lately. Except the ones she makes up herself don’t make that much sense yet. But that’s OK. Somehow they are still pretty funny. As in silly-funny. They are just non-sense that makes you laugh because she is trying to make you laugh. I checked out a book of knock-knock jokes from the library today so she could have some fun with them. Her favorite joke was the following:

“Knock, knock.”

“Who’s there?”
“Justice.”

“Justice who?”
“Justice I thought. No one is home.”

She cracked up at that one like it was the funniest thing she’s every heard. Little kid humor is pretty cute. If I can transcribe one or two of her original jokes, I'll try to include them here so you can see what I mean about the silly-funniness of them and how they don't really make sense but are still fun anyway.

Starry Night

2009-04-22T14:50:00.001-07:00

Right after I turned the lights out last night, Zahra wanted to wish on a star.

(The last time she did this, the window was open because it was hot out that night and we were trying to let the cool breeze come in to cool off the upstairs bedroom. Only Zahra didn't realize the screen was dirty, so she put her nose to the screen and looked out, gazing upwards, where the stars should be. The soot got all over her nose and lips and we had to promptly run to the bathroom, rinse her mouth out and re-brush her teeth! It was pretty dirty and gross and I felt bad because she was just trying to do a little something cute.)

Granted, you cannot actually see the stars here in the city. What a treat it will be one day when Zahra sees her first inky black sky, complete with billions of tiny white dots, incomparable to a city sky. Like on the Big Island in Hawai'i, where there aren't enough bright lights to drown out the beautiful stars, or on a mountain top out in the California wilderness. But regardless of the star-viewing situation, she wanted to make a wish. She stood up, got up on a pillow, and opened the vertical blinds. She pushed her nose to the glass and began to wish.

"Star bright, star light," she said, getting the order mixed up and not completing the rest of the verse. "I wish for an ice cream truck in my town. It will have green ice cream all day long." And that was it. Green is her current favorite color. After she finished her wish, she closed the blinds, and got back down on the bed. Ten or fifteen restless minutes later, she finally settled down and fell asleep.

(Mostly) All About Max

2009-04-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

My intentions are to make this particular post about Max.

(As I'm sure you all understand: It's a bit easier to write about Zahra these days since she's a little more, well, everything a 5-year-old is and a 4-month-old is not. However, that doesn't mean that Max doesn't have a life of his own, it's just a lot more subtle.)

Above is a picture taken a few weeks ago, when I first pulled the Bumbo seat out of the box. It seems to be just the thing Max enjoys these days, since he's not big enough to sit up on his own. When he's content, it's the perfect thing to keep him upright as I try to do other things like fold laundry or load the dishwasher.

Poor little guy had kind of a rough weekend. He was much more fussy than usual and I think it was due to the immunizations he got on Friday. He's never cried much and is usually pretty agreeable with everything. But this weekend, he didn't want to be put down and if you were lucky enough to get him to fall asleep in your arms, he wouldn't have it when you tried to lay him down on the couch or in his crib. It took forever to get him to fall asleep last night but then I finally turned off the bedroom lights and swaddled him up in a receiving blanket and he was miraculously happy. I read the last half of a Junie B. Jones chapter book to Zahra as Max slept peacefully in his crib. (It makes me quite proud that Big Sister is enjoying listening to chapter books at age 5. They have a few pictures but not many. I think it's great that she has such a wonderful attention span to listen to chapter books at her age.)

The other day, right after I'd changed Max's diaper, I discovered something new and incredibly addictive. Max's laughter. I started playing little piggies with his toes and started tickling him under the arms and near his neck. Not only did Max giggle, but he outright laughed uncontrollably. It was the cutest little thing to listen to, so I kept doing it over and over again so Willie and Zahra could hear. Then after a little while, the novelty had worn off, for Max anyway, because he didn't seem so enthusiastic any more. I certainly wasn't done listening to him laugh, but I realized that he wasn't enjoying it any more, so I stopped.

Max can hold his own weight on those chubby little legs of his now, if you hold his hands or torso to steady him. My mom says he looks like a little sumo, which, at this point in babyhood, he does. He also can lift his head up when he's given tummy time. He doesn't like being down on his tummy, the same way his big sister, didn't like it. He seems to take a little longer than she did before he gets upset that he's been put on the blanket on the floor. Zahra was immediately angry about being put in that position whereas Max seems to try to deal with it for a few minutes before he realizes it's not something he likes.

For the most part, you could say that Max sleeps through the night now. I just finished reading a book called The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley (http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth/). She says that the medical definition of sleeping through the night is when babies sleep for at least 5 hours in a row, which Max does most nights. He's usually asleep by maybe 8:30, and usually doesn't wake up to nurse until about 3:30 or 4 AM.

In The No-Cry Sleep Solution, the author has many suggestions for getting babies to sleep through the night. I'd seen excerpts from the book and author quoted in many different articles in various parenting magazines and online sources -- and I happened to stumble upon the book itself while I was at the Huntington Beach Public Library the other day. I decided to check it out and it was a quick and interesting read. Although I'm not having trouble with Max, it was still interesting enough to hear her different suggestions. I'm even thinking about giving it as a shower gift to one of my friends who's having a baby this June.

One of the most interesting things I learned from the book was about sleep cycles and how it's normal for all of us to wake up repeatedly throughout the night. Whereas you and I don't realize we're waking up and falling right back asleep, babies might get more startled and wonder where they are when they briefly wake up. The author used this analogy: Imagine you fall asleep in your bed. You are comfortable with pillows and blankets. You awaken in the middle of the night only to find yourself on the cold, hard kitchen floor, lying there with no pillows or blankets. Babies are the same way when they fall asleep in your arms or at the breast. They awaken to find themselves in a crib, all alone, wondering, "What happened? I want to be right back where I was when I fell asleep, warm and cuddly in my mom's arms!" So I have been trying to be more sympathetic to Max's needs when he wakes up in the middle of the night. I have always been quick to respond to his stirrings and it is very rare that he actually has to cry to wake me up. Usually I'm able to awaken before he even cries (mother's intuition is quite fascinating and truly amazing to me). But I am extremely grateful that gone are those nights when he would wake up every hour or two to nurse!

Here is another picture of Max, sleeping soundly in his little Bumbo chair. (I left him there only long enough to take a picture because his neck looked so uncomfortable! But I think he actually liked it because he got very upset when I moved him to the couch to finish his nap.) Sleep tight, little guy.

Weights and Measures

2009-04-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

Before I forget, I've got updates on sizes. Both kids had check-ups at Kaiser yesterday. Max is officially half the size of Zahra, at least in pounds, anyway. He's now 13 lbs. 6 oz. and Zahra has finally moved up on the scale to a total of 26 lbs. now. She's 37 inches tall, which is a whole inch taller than the last time we measured her. Max is almost 24 inches tall, so he's catching up with his big sister quickly. We're all wondering when Max will surpass his big sister in height (or even weight for that matter). Someone said something interesting regarding his gender. I think it might have been Auntie Sis. The person said something to the effect of, at least he's a boy, because that way it won't seem like such a big deal that he's going to be bigger than his older sister. It might have seemed like more of a competition, or a reason for Zahra to be sad, if the new baby had been a girl, a little sister that was bigger than her. I think I might not be making much sense right now, but Max has decided he's no longer content in the baby swing with the music playing. He's been quite fussy this morning; perhaps he's still kind of irritated from all the shots he got yesterday. Both kids got immunizations. Poor Zahra got 5 different shots, all in her skinny little triceps. But now she's all set for Kindergarten in the fall! That's the good news. And we went to Disneyland after the doctor's appointment, so hopefully that helped her forget about the traumatic morning. OK. Well, Max needs to be given a little bit of love. Bye for now.

The Architect

2009-04-16T16:55:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have seen them in person, but most of you have not. Zahra's towns. That's what she calls them. Her towns. Shortly after Max was born, Zahra began to build. She has lined toys up in the past, but in the last few months, she has begun to create these elaborate and complex "towns."

While to the untrained eye, it may simply appear as a chaotic mess of toys, there really is an order to it, especially to Zahra. The picture above is a small example of a town, relatively speaking. Most of her towns can be much larger and complex, leaving the rest of us no room to walk or set anything down. At first, it drove me absolutely crazy because she wouldn't let me touch or move anything. Each little toy, lined up in its precise location, had a definite purpose. In the beginning, she would just build and build for the sake of building, as if driven by some voice telling her to do so. A little Mrs. Winchester. But lately, the towns seem to have taken on new meaning. They are the backdrop for her toys to play in, the setting for imaginative orchestrations, the towns for the little fairies to live in and thrive. It seems she builds them so that her toys have something to walk on, to swim in, to drive over, to hop on, to sleep in, whatever the case may be.

To maintain my own sanity, we've established a new rule in our house: no matter how much effort she puts into building the towns and how sacred they may be for most of the day, they must be broken down each night before bed. Each little toy has a home in one of the organizing bins. That way, each morning, we can walk down the stairs and begin each day with a clean living room. She can build over and over again, and she does... The day I first established the new rule, I thought I would meet some opposition, but I didn't. This was also the first day we had organized all her toys in the bins and had found a home for everything. I think she thought it was part of the whole process. New bins, new rules. I usually try to make a game out of it and see how quickly we can throw the toys in the bins.

I wonder what she thinks about as she builds. I wonder a lot about what goes on in her cute little head as she's creating these coordinated towns all over our living room floor. It took me awhile but I have begun to embrace the process, even if I still find it hard to navigate through the little city streets or can't find a place to lay her brother down for a few minutes on a blanket. The process itself is important for her and I have come to just let things be.

The Bearded Lady

2009-04-16T09:41:00.001-07:00

The scene: Wednesday night, about 8:00 PM. Willie, Bessie (my mother-in-law), and I are watching TV. "Lost" Season 4 on DVD, the episode titled "Meet Kevin Johnson." Max is drifting in and out of sleep on Bessie's lap. Zahra has disappeared. She emerges a few minutes later, smiling just like she is in the picture, completely happy and proud of herself. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. "Look, Mom! Look! I grew a beard!" she yells. At once it is silly and cute and at the next moment, I'm wondering... how does one get marker off of a child's face? I tried a baby wipe and that got most of it off immediately after taking this picture, but there was still a lavender stain on her chin, even this morning, when she was out the door and on her way to preschool. Such is the life of a five year old. Not even worried a bit about her appearance. She's probably even looking forward to telling her friends at school about the nice little beard she grew last night.

Genesis

2009-04-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

Where to begin the beginning? I guess mostly my desire for a blog these days stems from my little ones and wanting to share stories about their lives with you without having to pick and choose who I send emails to; this way, you can check in whenever you like and see if there's anything new. Not every day of our lives is interesting and I won't always be writing about the kids, but when there is something to share, I think this will be an interesting way to take note of it and share it with those who are interested. I also thought some of you enjoyed the blog I wrote from Zahra's perpective when she was a baby (http://zahradenise.xanga.com/), but I found that POV too difficult to maintain. Also, this is an easy way to share things without having to write all the HTML that Willie did when he made Zahra's website, which, sadly, no longer exists.

I've been reading a blog on the Runner's World website for over a year now (http://babysteps.runnersworld.com/) and find myself looking forward to new posts all the time. This woman is a stranger, but yet, somehow I feel an interesting connection to her because I've been reading her thoughts for months and months. Hopefully this new blog will help you feel more connected to me and can entertain you the way Lisa's blog has done so for me.

Today I can report that things are going well with both little ones. Nothing terribly interesting, however. Zahra got praised at the end of her physical therapy session for being a good listener and following directions well. I'm happy that Zahra enjoys school so much and I hope that she will develop a lifelong affection for learning like her mama. Max, ever the calm and happy baby, has been marvelous at being his usual happy little baby self these days. Both kids have check-ups at Kaiser on Friday, but unfortunately for them, they're both due for immunizations. I have been honest with Zahra and told her to expect a shot, since I always feel bad when they spring one on her without her being made aware first. She's not looking forward to it and has been expressing much apprehension when we've talked about Friday coming up. But I try to keep reminding her that she didn't even cry when she got her flu shot a couple months ago! Plus we get to go to Disneyland afterward, so that should be something she can look forward to doing.

Well, that's probably all for today. Soon I will have new pictures to post here, I promise. Hope you are all doing well and look forward to hearing from you.