my new baby

This blog is in need of some CPR! Life is progressing at the speed of light around here. I can barely keep my head above water with the kids' schedules: Ruby ballet & tap on Mondays, Levi swim on Tuesdays, Little Gym for both kids on Wednesdays, behavioral intervention on Wednesdays and OT Fridays for Levi...und so weiter, und so weiter. Nurturing a starter and making bread has been my release, my indulgence. Well, that and running with some like-minded kinder moms. Really looking forward to that little breather called Spring Break. In a week, we're off to Portland and then the SF Bay to see friends and family and get away from the grind for just a bit.

10.31.11

Ok, grandmas & grandpas. We survived another Halloween.

Working the crowd at the Lincoln Elementary Halloween Parade.

Our progeny.

A quiet moment before the sugar of the Dum Dum hits her bloodstream.

it's been a while

Going on 5 months, in fact! Most succinct is to catch up thru pix.

Bozo. Creative use of a kid stool from Ikea. But still a bozo.

Who needs toys? Yes, that's Levi having a great time kicking around a head of cabbage.

The pastry case at Little Flower Candy Co. in Pasadena. This was my responsibility for the last year and a half, but I quit in August so that I could be in the classroom with Levi.

Translation: disco balls and someone shining a laser on a disco ball. Levi's favorite past time these days is googling his favorite things.

What happens when Jeff's at home alone with the kids.

Good times at the LA Zoo. Actually, we were all melting at the time I took this picture. Something like 90 degrees at 9:00 in the morning. This last summer was a hot one.

8.29.11: Levi and my first day of Kindergarten. I'm volunteering twice a week in his classroom.

Ruby turned 4 on 9.12. Her birthday balloon didn't last more than a few hours before she accidentally popped it, but at least I got a picture before that happened.

My latest pet project: making the front patio a sweet enclosed outdoor living space. To date, it's been screened in, pebble floored (think Pinkberry), awninged, water featured, and furnished with outdoor sectional and lounger and soji lanterns. Last weekend Ruby thought it'd be a great idea to have snack in the new space. Yeah!

so proud!

levi gets all mushy

Levi has made a remarkable breakthrough. In the past couple days, I've heard him tell Jeff, "I love you, Daddy." He said it at bedtime on Saturday night. Then he said it again tonight while eating dessert at the dinner table. It's totally awesome. I can't express how happy I am that Levi is learning how to express affection.

Modeling his Easter accessories for the camera.

Walk Now For Autism Speaks

I'll be at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Saturday, 4/23 walking for Walk Now For Autism Speaks. Actually, for those of you who know me, I'll be running. Please check out my donation page.

It's totally last-minute, but totally worth it.

interesting trivia

The Lautner house featured on SFGate and in Colin Firth's "A Single Man" is actuallyt right down the street from us. Pretty cool eh?

nostalgia

Remember this?!? Sweet because it's the original We Are the World. Bitter because it makes me feel old. A lot of the artists singing are younger in this video than I am now. (Well, with the exception of Kenny Rogers.) And I remember thinking when this came out that all those singers looked so old.

Levi's birthday is coming up next week. Time to get down to business and figure out how to ring in his 6th year. We've been overwhelmed with several rounds of illness, jury duty for me (2 full weeks in a criminal trial), trying to catch up at work, blah, blah, blah. Hoping, hoping, hoping to resume "normal" life and schedule.

my custom bed (unstaged)

harriet here. ruby had an inspirational thought when she woke up this morning and looked out the window: "it would be so wonderful to fly like a reindeer or a bird or a butterfly." the photo is for christina. you totally called it. the bed actually gets made maybe twice a month tops.

my custom bed

Hi gang,

Its me, jeff.

Mom, here are some pictures of the custom bed I designed and had built for our bedroom. I was going for a quirky mid-century look. I love how the bottom end turned out, with the angled, inset legs. The headboard turned out a little more... um.. cartoony than I imagined. Oh well, at least it's unique.

tis the season for urgent care

Ruby charted new territory on Friday at her preschool Christmas party. In the kids' pre-party rush to the bathroom to wash their hands, some kids already in the bathroom thought it'd be fun to keep Ruby out of it by closing the door on her. To be exact, they closed the door on her thumb. By the time I got there, she'd mostly calmed down and was finding comfort in the lap of one of her loving teachers as well as a Peppermint Joe cookie. We spent the next few hours at an urgent care clinic because her pediatrician didn't have a same-day opening. Lots of waiting (i.e., torture), but once a doctor came around, Ruby finally got some decent medical TLC: x-rays, a cast, and a referral to a pediatric orthopedic who we'll see on Tuesday. She's got a fractured thumb, but she's such a trooper. Apparently this was the first medical emergency her preschool's experienced since they opened 20 years ago. A first medical emergency for Ruby as well. Not exactly a milestone to celebrate right? Man, the whole thing just sucked. Keeping our fingers crossed for a very uneventful orthopedic visit in a couple days.

The photograph's romantic soft haze...compliments of the dirty lens on my phone's camera.

literally digesting the diagnosis

We finally got a call from the Regional Center psychologist last week. Diagnosis: mild autism. Not a big surprise, but at the same time a shock to the system to have this official label attached to our child. We're still digesting the implications. As far as Levi's eligibility for services is concerned, it's out of our hands. The psychologist has gone back to the Regional Center with her diagnosis and recommendation of services. Now Levi's file has to make it's way through the bureaucracy and we'll hear back from the RC when we hear back. In the meantime, I've acquired a growing stack of books that I hope will help Levi and us overcome his challenges. One of the things we're diving right into is a gluten-free casein-free diet. Please chime in if you have any experience with GFCF. In the meantime, I'll be in the kitchen trying to make some wheat and dairy free food that Levi will want to eat. I didn't know it until this last week that GI issues are very common with autistic kids. Yet one more area where Levi falls in line quite nicely with the autistic profile. Not sure how the GFCF diet will help with his behavioral challenges, but I sure hope to find a solution to his chronic diarrhea. Sorry if that's too much info.

this one's for the grandparents

Hi everyone, it's me, Big Jeff.
first, thanks for all of you who still read this blog and comment on it. I keep thinking nobody looks at it besides our parents, but then we post something and you're all still out there, our loyal friends and readers. we love you.

This is pretty much just kid pictures. Not much to report lately. We had Aunt Elisa stay with us for a bit to get a taste of kitchen life working with Harriet at the bakery. While she was here, Uncle Sam, Aunt Marielle & cousin Hadley came down, and we went to Disneyland! It rained ridiculously, but that didn't stop us. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that -- they're all on Elisa's camera. :(

Sometimes I take the kids on hikes on the trail above our house. here are a few pictures from one of our trips.


...throwing dirt in the air and letting it rain down on their heads...


For Levi's picture day, Harriet styled his hair into a "fauxhawk". Unfortunately, it collapsed by the time they took his picture.


Here they are with their Aunt Elisa. They love her. Ruby cried when she left.


Here are the kids on halloween. Ruby was a princess, and Levi was a pumpkin. That means an orange shirt with some black duct tape.

arrrrrrrrrrrrgh

Yesterday we went to the regional center for Levi's psych eval. I wish I could say that we walked away with a definitive diagnosis and are on our way, but no such luck. We sat there with Levi and the psychologist for a couple hours while she alternately tested him and interviewed us, followed by her saying she needed more information. The next step is for her to observe him at school. Apparently Levi is high functioning enough that he comes across as superficially typical in his development. It's a double edged sword isn't it? It seems like someone in Levi's position would benefit the most from a minimal level of services and intervention. The trick is getting the gatekeepers to realize that he does indeed need these services. Let's hope these guys are on top of their game.

our favorite little guy

The purpose of this post is just so you know. It's not sad news. It's not bad news. But it is news that will hopefully change the direction of Levi's life for the better. A while back I blogged about how the Glendale Unified School District qualified Levi for speech and OT services on the basis of "autistic-like behavior." At the time, I thought, "He's not autistic, but whatever label will help him get services will have to do." Since then, I've been trying to schedule an assessment by the Regional Center for my boy since the GUSD isn't qualified to make the actual diagnosis. In the meantime, Levi's eccentricities and rigidity with daily routine, conversational topics & social interaction have become much more obvious. In fact, we can't get through any given day without Levi breaking down in tearful or screaming frustration at my inability to answer some line of incessant questions sufficiently or sit through one of his rambling monologues while I'm trying to get done the stuff that needs doing (like make a meal, get him ready for school, get him down to bed at night, get him to use the potty, etc.). Now 5 months down the road, and easily 100 phone calls to the Regional Center later, we FINALLY got an in-home visit from a social worker from the Lanterman Regional Center. She's not a psychiatrist, but a veteran of the field, and she essentially told me by our meeting's end that Levi is autistic. After Jeff's subsequent research, we're certain that more specifically he has Asperger's Syndrome. Levi's official psychiatric eval with a doctor at the Regional Center happens at the end of October, at which point I'm looking forward to some much needed guidance on how to effectively meet Levi's needs and help him to better navigate this insane world.


Still the same person he was before the diagnosis, and always our favorite boy in the whole world.

more cute kid pix

Here are a couple snazzy candid snapshots that a coworker of Jeff's took at a get-together a few months ago.

birthdayfest

We have a friend who insists on celebrating the entire week of her birthday, not just the day. Ruby's 3rd birthday has turned out into just such an event. On the actual day (9.12) we took the kids out for a banana french toast breakfast at their favorite restaurant. Later in the afternoon we took the kids to Manhattan Beach so that Ruby could do one of her favorite things: dig. It turned out to be freezing though. It almost felt like we were back in the Bay Area. So we left the beach after braving it for 10 minutes, and went out to dinner at one of our favorite pizza places, Tomato Pie. Then we went home and had some pink strawberry birthday cake (at Ruby's request) and opened presents. I sent her to school on Monday with a bunch of pink cupcakes so that her schoolmates could celebrate with her too. When she saw the cupcakes on Monday morning, she asked me with a big smile, "Mom, is it my birthday AGAIN?!?" Then today, Jeff and I both took the day off from work and took the kids to Disneyland. I'm pooped, but in a good way. The kids had a great time, and Ruby loved turning 3.
Jeff tried to build a windbreaker at the cold beach. Didn't really work.
Oh yeah, no celebration in this family would be complete without some good pizza!

Dumbo!

Absolutely thrilled to meet Pluto.

heebee geebees

We live out in the sticks. At least that's what it feels like. We're in a remote residential neighborhood of Glendale, of which our house is situated at the very end of the road, beyond which is an unpaved fire trail that often attracts hikers and mountain bikers. The visitors to our house are more often the critters that live out in these parts with us as opposed to humans. So far we've had rattlesnakes hanging out in our front entry, sun spiders crawling around our floors at night, mice in the garage and water heater closet, bird nests here and there and everywhere, and now a scorpion in the kids' bathtub of all places. Doesn't that just top it all?? It makes me ill.

On a higher note (but not necessarily less scary), I got a promotion at work. I am now the pastry chef of Little Flower Candy Company. I've got a team of 3 bakers, and it's my job to ensure that we crank out some really tasty goodies with consistency. I've got to keep an eye on food cost, keep my bakers motivated and excited, manage inventory, and turn out some stuff that's so good that people will want to buy it again and again. Oh boy. I think I can. I think I can. Or I'll kill myself trying.

holy sh**!

reacting to scorpion, not the promotion.

dog days & close call

Initially I didn't blog because there wasn't much to blog about. And then something happened, but it was sufficiently nerve-racking that it's taken me a while to collect my wits and actually get something down about it. Jeff got in a car accident on the way to work last Monday. He'd just come out of a right turn and going straight when a car that'd been parked on the side of the road pulled out and attempted to make a u-turn in front of him. Airbags deployed, passenger window shattered, but Jeff came out of it relatively unscathed. His left arm got in the way of the airbag and is still black and blue, but he was back at work the next day. The mini's now in the shop and it'll likely be a few weeks before we see it again.

Thankfully, things are otherwise pretty status quo. The kids are in summer school. I'm still baking a few days a week. On Saturdays, we try to do a family outing and see something of interest in Los Angeles. Last weekend, it was a drive through the Hollywood hills to see how the other half lives.

For over a year, we lucked out and managed to get extended basic cable service while just paying the basic price. Then apparently we got found out, because now we get nothing. Just in time for the Mad Men Season 4 premier. BIG bummer.

Ouch.
Ruby at "the beach."
Levi showing off his own bruise. This one's from horsing around on the step stool in front of the toilet, and then hitting the toilet on his way down.
Levi made this at school the other day with some help. In spite of all the fighting, I always suspected that he liked Ruby.

We moved down to LA 16 months ago and this is the first time we've driven up to the Hollywood sign.

brilliant!

Jeff and I just got back from a child-free week in Dublin and London, and it was as wonderful as it sounds. Over the years we've come to the conclusion that the best way to experience a new place is to spend some time with locals. We were lucky enough to have this opportunity at both stops.

While in Dublin, we met up with an old college roommate of mine, Summer. Although her kitchen was getting demolished during our visit, she managed to find the time to shuttle us to and from the airport, show us around the city center, take us out for a pint of Guinness, and introduce us to new Irish cuisine. Summer's husband, Fionnan, tried to explain some Irish expressions to me. I'm pretty literal-minded and need help with such things. For example, when I asked what "taking the mickey" meant, Fionnan said it was the same thing as "taking the piss." Uh, I'm sure that is sufficient for most people, but I needed it dumbed down further before I finally got it. Anyway, Summer and Fionnan are having their first baby this fall and I'm kicking myself for not getting a photo of her and the bump.

Then we went to London to spend some time with our old pals, Audrey & Lor and their baby, Kina. With Lor's guidance, we hit some of the major attractions--Cabinet War Rooms, Westminster, Tower of London, Victoria & Albert Museum, British Library, a West End show, etc. It's pretty impressive to see Lor deftly maneuver his way through the masses of the Underground with a stroller. The Tube isn't exactly a baby-friendly environment with all those stairs and those people in the way. Howeer, the best part was just hanging with da homies. A&L have quite a comfy setup off of Portobello Rd in Notting Hill. We ate yummy food, took turns holding the chubby baby, watched some TV, and spent a lot of time goofing off. We ended the trip on a high note when Jeff and Audrey decided to practice spit takes outside in the garden. Jeff loves it when he sees scenes in movies or shows where actors spit out their drinks when the conversation takes a sudden shocking turn. (Puke scenes are a close second.) Obviously Audrey now has a new appreciation for them too!

In the meantime, the kids and dog spent the week with Grandma & Grandpa Hayes in St. George. They also had a chance to see their aunts, uncles, cousins, and great grandma in Salt Lake. The first morning home, both kids came to our room independently and announced that they missed Grandma, so I figure they must have had as much fun as we did.

The kids left to their own devices while I was packing prior to the trip. "Look, it's a Levi sandwich!"
"NO!!! It's a Ruby sandwich!" Yet another fight between the kids ensues.
For my old Oracle peeps. Check out what greeted us at the London City Airport on the way to Dublin. More importantly, the impulse to photograph it was totally knee jerk and involuntary even after all these years.
Christ Church in Dublin.
At Trinity College to check out the Book of Kells.
Jeff's delicious plum tart at Queen of Tarts on Dame St. Lor, come to think of it, I think we tried clotted cream after all.
The reward at the end of the Guinness tour. Oh so happy! Scott, you're jealous. So is the Far Side character behind me.
Yeah, that's right! I'm a tourist. You have a problem with that?
Lor and his castle.
Jeff doing the Toyota jump in front of that other castle, or tower, or something.
Partaking of our finds at Borough Market: Thai green curry with chicken and seafood, caribbean chicken curry, basil cashew pesto with crusty baguette, raclette, burnt sugar coconut balls, Iberian ham....
Getting tips on posture from Kina. I love those chubby legs!!
Good times.
Note the fine, even mist. Good technique, Jeff.
Awesome.
On the way to the airport. Sniffle.