An Arrest in the Sandra Cantu Case

Read about it on my other blog.

Passover 2009

We had our Passover Seder at Aunt Rabbi's house in Oakland. I was so proud, my kids sat through the majority of the Seder, which is a very long dinner reenacting the Jews escape from slavery. Not an easy task for toddlers to endure, and they did fabulous. Michael even yelled out, "Barack Obama!" and made everyone laugh. I don't know why he did that, but it was funny none the less.

Below are my 2 nieces, Kaitlyn and Haley. The blond is Haley and the brunette is Kaitlyn. They are 17 months apart just like my Mike and Bekah. And when all 5 of them are together they look like siblings. Haley took most of the pictures you are going to see below.
I love the Rabbi's house in Oakland, it's beautiful. It's so old it even has a basement, which is a rarity in earthquake prone California. That's Kaitlyn lifting Bekah into the air and Mike and Jake running around aimlessly.

That's my main squeeze posing with out firstborn. Mike has some stretchy pink bunny he got at preschool in front of his face. Can you see the beautiful kitchen behind the French doors? Some day I will have nice things when my kids are old enough not to destroy everything. Those French doors would last less than an hour at my house.

This picture is a little blurry but I just wanted to show off Bekah's cute dress. The belt has an orange butterfly on it.

That sheep goes everywhere with Jake.

Me and my girl. Thanks to Auntie M for lending me those pants. I am not as slender as her so I had to suck in my gut and then I was paranoid as hell I would stain them. I don't own any white items of clothing for obvious reasons. The next day they immediately went to the dry cleaners and even so I might owe her a new pair of pants.

Mike and that damn pink bunny.

Attempting a group photo. Where is my husband you ask. Inside eating my matzoh ball soup. Asshole! We rarely fight but I was pissed about that. And then he gave me shit for having a buzz on, well duh when you drink wine on an empty stomach that's what happens! I have forgiven him now. We made up on the living room floor. Our living room floor not the Rabbi's.

See Mike and Jake's pants? If there is wet grass, puddles, mud etc. my boys will find it. Bekah is more civilized. Even though she did spend 5 hours naked yesterday. It was inside our house, and she was wearing a shirt, but she had no interest in putting on her panties or any other item of clothing. Oh well.

Happy Passover!!!!

Pirates

On the way to taking Bekah to preschool this morning we were listening to the news on the radio. The lead story was about Somali pirates who took over a cargo ship with an American crew. Michael immediately perked up:

"Pirates?!" He yelped.

"Yes, these are bad pirates who took a ship with Americans on it."

"Bad pirates?"

"Yes, there are bad pirates, and good pirates..."

"And shy pirates?"

"Uh, yes there are shy pirates.". I have been laughing about that all morning. I just keep imagining a pirate hiding behind his mommy.


Then we launched into a conversation about how Scooby-Doo and Shaggy are afraid of pirates and that we should go to "Block-Bluster" and rent a Scooby-Doo movie.

Numbers 2009

I have 3 kids. My husband and I did not realize when we got married 5 years ago that we were incredibly fertile. So I ended up getting pregnant on my honeymoon, that would be Michael. Then I stopped nursing Michael and got pregnant immediately, that's Bekah. Then I was on the birth control pill and my husband was planning on getting a vasectomy and well that would be Jake.

Michael and Bekah are 17 months apart. Bekah and Jake are only 15 months apart. So every year at springtime my kids' ages are blam, blam, blam. Right after another.

So last year, I was having a long, rainy, stay-at-home-mom kind of day when I got this idea to make numbers, representing their ages, and take pictures. It started off with them holding the numbers, a huge disaster, so I taped them to the wall. Much better. It still took 65 pictures to get this cute one below.
I then sent out an email with some of the pics to friends and family. Wow! I had no idea that the grandparents would send this email across the universe. And now I am committed to doing this project every year at springtime as long as I grace this planet. Below is the best one from this year's batch.

I have included outtakes/bloopers from last year and this year. Look how much toddlers can change in one year, pretty amazing. Jake wasn't even walking yet. And Bekah's hair was so curly.

Just in case you are a new reader to this blog, my son Michael, now 4 years old, has a GIGANTIC personality.

It's impossible for that boy to hold still.

Jake loves that stuffed sheep.

Can you see why taping the number on the wall makes more sense?

We ended up putting Jake in his high chair because he was trying to escape.

I don't know how professional photographers do it.

I have no idea what happened here.