living amid the hipsters

When we moved into this house we quickly realized that we were surrounded by some prestine examples of mid-century modern architecture. As such, our own haus is one of the more boring ones on the block. (Although, I'm not complaining. This house--especially after the renovation--suits us just fine.) Just so you understand where I'm coming from, the LA Times just featured our neighbor's house on their "Homes of the Times" section. No doubt, we'll soon see this house on Unhappy Hipsters too (see link in right column).

tastes like chicken

Spring = blue skies, blossoms, green hills, TB test & vaccinations for school registration, taxes. On top of that, Jeff turned 39 a few weeks ago. We kept the celebration low-key since he's getting old and fragile. We left the kids with a babysitter and had a nice dinner out with our friends, Matt & Amy. They're old too, so we spent the evening reminiscing about what life BC (Before Children) was like and how we used to go snowboarding, indulge in scary movies, build paper-mache volcanoes, eat out all the time together. For his birthday present, I made Jeff a batch of Tartine morning buns. He has this bad habit of returning gifts that I get him, so I gave him something non-refundable. Besides, it was a great excuse for me to make croissant dough. I love making that stuff. I just wish I had time to do it more often.


Jeff's brother, Scott, visited us a week later. We had a great time showing him around our new hometown, and the kids adore him. We used his visit as an excuse to check out a Pasadena gastropub that I've had my eye on. It's the first time I've ever had a "beer flight," but definitely not the last. Did I mention that Jeff and I are going across the pond in a few months? We're going to visit our expat friends, Lor & Audrey, in London and meet the child they've created. We're also going to use this opportunity to spend a few days in Dublin. I'm not sure what Jeff wants to do in there, but my reason for going can be summed up in one word: Guinness.

Back when we made an offer on this house, I noticed that the next door neighbor had a decal on her car for Oh My Bakery. "Sweet! The next door neighbor is a pastry chef," I thought. Up to this point, she's been a one-woman show. However, she just landed a big gig with Disney studios, who wants her to make vegan desserts for their commissary. I'm over the moon that she's asked me to help her out, and I'm having a great time geeking out on food science and helping her develop some yummy vegan recipes.

Big changes are in store for Levi. Glendale Unified just completed his assessment for special ed services. Up to this point, they simply carried over the same speech and occupational therapy services that he qualified for in San Carlos. However, I requested a new assessment when they started pushing me to register him for Kindergarten next fall when I honestly don't feel he's ready. It turns out I should have requested this assessment a long time ago. Although they're not qualified to make a formal diagnosis, they feel that Levi's "autistic-like" behavior qualifies him for their special ed preschool. He'll start there after spring break in a couple weeks, and then we'll revisit his Kindergarten readiness at the end of the school year in mid-June. In the meantime, I'm trying to get an appointment with the regional center to follow up on the autism thing. The possibility of Levi being autistic doesn't necessarily scare me, but if they're going to apply that label to him I want it to be an accurate one. What makes me most nervous is the state budget and whether there's sufficient funding for the special ed that Levi needs.


The latest saga is that we've all been hit with the latest round of flu/cold/whatever since last Wednesday. Levi appears to be on the road to recovery, but Ruby's still snotty and cranky and feverish. In fact, I got this photo of her because she said, "I want you to take a picture of my snotty face and big heart shirt."


Here's a Roo photo. He's really enjoying the haircut.


Finally, the reason for this post's title. Last weekend, I joined some friends and co-workers of Jeff's to slaughter a pig, of all things. We went to a place called TLC Ranch (yep, as in Tastes Like Chicken) that organically raises pigs and chicken. I've been a carnivore my entire life, and my meat of choice is pork (bacon, to be more exact). I figured that if I couldn't stomach the pig slaughter, then I had no business putting it in my mouth. Now that there's been some time for things to sink in, I'm really glad I did it. I'm not eager to kill and butcher a pig again anytime soon, but now I truly appreciate where my meat comes from. I'm definitely going to feed my family less meat from now on, if only because I'm committed to buying meat that's been sustainably raised and humanely processed. Feedlots are evil. Bad for the earth, bad for the animals, and bad for the humans that eat those animals. Here's a picture of our unsuspecting 7-month old pig. He was kind of cute, but apparently he was no good for breeding because he didn't have "smooth testicles." Life is cruel when you're not at the top of the food chain, ain't it?

footloose and diaper free

It's been 7 days since I last changed a diaper and it feels even better than I ever thought possible. I'm so grateful to Ruby for finally embracing the potty because now we're free. We're free, I tell you!!! I don't have to schlepp a diaper bag everywhere. I don't have to fight with that stupid diaper pail anymore. I don't have to change nasty poopy diapers. I don't have to buy diapers everytime I go to Costco. In fact, I think we just decreased our carbon footprint by 50%. Since she's our last child, a lot of Ruby's milestones--crawling, walking, talking, toking the pipe (just checking to see if you're still paying attention)--are bittersweet for us. EXCEPT for this one. Thank you, thank you, Ruby Dooby Doo. You rock, kiddo!

LEVI TURNS 5 YEARS OLD!

Hi everybody, its Daddy. Yesterday was Levi's fifth birthday! We had a small party with just the four of us. (Five-- sorry Roo!) Levi has friends at preschool, but judging from his behavior at another kid's party two weeks ago, it would have been a waste to have a larger gathering; he would have avoided the group, not participated in any games, and fixated on the ceiling fans. So maybe next year, eh, Levi? We went out to a pizza place that Levi loves, largely because of its excellent ceiling fans. We came home and ate the birthday pie that Mommy (aka Harriet) made with little M&M ladybugs. It's a variation of the crack pie that's been getting so much press lately. Levi opened his presents and played with all of the new fun stuff.






Then today I took the day off work and we all went down to the Santa Monica pier to ride the Ferris Wheel, which in Levi's mind, as you've probably guessed, is a giant ceiling fan that you can ride. It was fun! The weather was nice, and the kids had a great time, despite the expression on Ruby's face in the photo. They chased seagulls along the pier and ate sweet potato fries.

v day II

happy valentine's, y'all. got the kids some red and white balloons, even though they're the free ones from trader joe's. gave jeff a "toy story" valentine leftover from the pack i got for levi's class. i'm still recovering from christmas, so i didn't put too much effort into this "holiday." good excuse, eh? actually, i don't really like valentine's day. i guess i started resenting it during my single days all throughout high school, college, post-college und so weiter. that's a long time to dislike something, and apparently there's still some residual dislike even though my husband is hands down awesome. here's what he gave me today...

don't be jealous. i'll let you borrow it, but you have to promise to give it back.

v day

Here are a couple kid pix. The first one is to show my lovely mom-in-law that sometimes I do manage to brush and coiffe Ruby. The second is photographic proof that my kids do occasionally get to eat refined sugar, especially if it's at Levi's preschool and all the other kids are eating heart valentine cookies with red sprinkles. But I do appreciate the nod to nutrition provided by the orange wedge.

the stuff of blackmail

We're building our inventory of embarrassing photos to blackmail our children with in the future. Watch out, Ruby, we will use this.