Monaloca

Happy second anniversary to Joey and me! Much like our wedding day, this morning started out a little grey but blue sky and sunshine are peeking through the haze. Unlike our wedding day, we’ve had amazing, summer-like weather all week with skirts and sandals galore.

In honor of the occasion, I’m posting a piece I wrote called Bridal Showers. It’s about our wedding day and – go figure – the weather. I wrote this essay not long after we married and have tried to shop it around to a few places, finding some interest but ultimately no success. I may try again, but for now I’m happy simply to share it here. Enjoy!

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Joey and I have decided to start a tradition: Each weekend closest to April 14, our wedding anniversary, we’ll take a day for some local (or not) exploration. Last year we headed to Sausalito and the Marin coast, and spent the day wandering a quaint town then walking slowly (I was nearly eight months pregnant!) along a path scented with wildflowers and salt air.

This year, we decided on a nostalgia tour of San Francisco. We parked the car near Church and Market, close to both of our first longish-term abodes in the City. (Yes, we lived about a quarter mile apart and no, we never met.) First stop: Clinton Park to see Joey’s old – but newly refurbished – apartment. Then past the Mint to Duboce Park, where Melina got to watch some dogs running free (she called the small ones “cat”) and up to my old flat at 571 Waller in the Lower Haight.

After trekking to the Upper Haight and back (luckily the Jelly Bean took a stroller nap) we headed down to Union Street, where we had our wedding rings cleaned at their jeweler-of-purchase, then lunched on Mexican food and margaritas. Melina enjoyed her black beans, but ended up wearing as much as she ate. Lucky for us, my folks babysat that night so Joey and I were able to enjoy a leisurely adult dinner back in the East Bay. Happy two years, babe!

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Our little girl is now a pro-crawler and into everything. She often does a loop that includes her favorite destinations: the bathroom shelves (she pulls up on them to find her bath toys), then a short jaunt over to the scale where she attempts to weigh herself, and finally a trip through the bedroom door and around the corner to our nightstand, where she knocks books off the center shelf then reaches over to grab the phone from the receiver. She’ll hang out here for a good while, pushing buttons and flipping through or eating books. If she’s lucky, the cat will join her, or maybe her brother. She gets giddy at the sight of either one.

At just over nine months, Meli started saying her first real words (meaning those that are obviously connected to things). “Cat” was in the making for a couple months, but she now says it (minus a full “t” sound) spontaneously when she sees Thor. She also gets pretty upset when he runs away and slinks into small spaces before she has a chance to pat – or pull – his fur. Her other consistent word is “bye bye,” complete with a hand wave, though the sound is a little closer to “ba ba.” She says “hi da” quite a bit, but to me this still seems just a happy sound. Joey disagrees and says she’s specifically talking to him (even if he’s nowhere to be found).

Melina eats like her stomach is a black hole. Cantalope and watermelon, turkey and chicken and a taste of Easter ham, grilled cheese sandwiches, pasta, pinto beans, pancakes, eggs… pretty much all finger food from our table, save yogurt for breakfast and some pureed veggies to get the greens down. She now picks up and drinks from her sippy cup all on her own. This self-sufficiency is a good thing, seeing as she expresses her likes, dislikes, and desires more than ever. She’ll squawk up a storm if she has nothing but cheese on her tray and really wants a piece of that melon I’m eating. She also screams when her brother steals her toys. One day soon, she’ll get even.

She’s able to pull herself up on furniture and stand with one hand holding on, but hasn’t started cruising just yet. I think she’s too busy taking in the new view from up there. She’s able to stand without any support for a good 5-10 seconds before wobbling around and crashing down to her butt.

She’s still a social butterfly, and when out at a restaurant is usually more interested in flirting with the people at the next table than her own family. But she does have boundaries: She’s only comfortable with strangers if we (or someone else she knows well) are close.

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Kai is celebrating his fifth birthday in stages. Grandma and Grandpa Weiss started things off a week ago when they babysat Meli so Joey, Kai, and I could see “Horton Hears a Who” in the theater. Then we all dined on Zachary’s pizza polished off by a mini-cake with five tall candles. On March 25, his actual birthday, we made cardamom French toast at our house in the morn, then his mom hosted a small family gathering at her place, serving: Guess what? Zachary’s pizza and cake! Later this month she’s also taking him to Disneyland for the first time.

Kai’s big five-year milestone is that he’s just started to read, and for real. He was spelling simple words at 2 1/2, then his interest waned as he was able to “read” all his books from memory. He’s now able to sound out entire beginning reader books (like “Hop on Pop”), and recognize basics like “the,” “him,” and “and.” Watch out, kindergarten!

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Isn’t it funny how family tradition plays a role in how we celebrate holidays? Suli’s mom (aka Sapna) says her husband always laughs at the Hindi member of the family hanging stockings at Christmas and hiding eggs at Easter. She does this because her parents – new to America with two young daughters – did 25 years ago.

We celebrated Easter with my folks and sis/family in San Jose. My folks had fun showing off their grandkids at church, and the kiddos enjoyed multiple Easter baskets, all lined up carefully on the brick fireplace. It felt a little like Christmas all over again. When we were back in Berkeley Joey commented that it was a little weird for my sister to put the baskets there. “What, does the Easter Bunny slide down the chimney now?” I said of course she put them on the fireplace: That’s where my parents put ours when we were growing up. I thought it was perfectly normal until yesterday. And after all, why wouldn’t the Easter Bunny use the chimney?

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Who says babies don’t talk? We might not be able to understand them, but on a St. Paddy’s Day play date Meli and her friend Suli engaged each other in animated conversation. We tried to catch it on video, but as soon as the camera came out their attention shifted from each other to the lens staring down at them. Maybe next time.

Melina is also on the move. She now does a full crawl, though getting from point A to point B often involves a combo of scoot-crawl and sit-up-in-the-middle moves. As if on cue, she also started pulling up on furniture (with varying degrees of success) the day she took her first real crawling “step.”

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Melina’s baby-hawk (baby mohawk) days are long gone, and now her long locks are starting to fall over her eyes. I finally found plastic barretts at Target, but the other day decided a pony tail poses less of a choking hazard and is super cute in a Pebbles Flinstone sorta way. (The little girl will probably hate me for this when she’s older.)

Kai was equally excited about the new ‘do. When Meli and I picked him up from preschool yesterday, he spotted us first and came running out of the classroom. “Lynn! Come here! Can you show Miss Shannon Melina’s ponytail?” We interrupted late-day storytime for a show-and-tell of Kai’s sister’s new fanciness. She loved all the attention – she always gets a kick out of visiting Kai’s current and her future school – and Kai loved showing off “his” baby.

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One year is starting to feel like it’s just around the corner, and suddenly Meli looks more like a toddler-in-training than an infant. I’m already getting nostalgic about babyhood’s passing, though my little girl is more fun each day and I love watching her grow. Melina’s nine-month update:

Move. These days it’s all about gross motor skills. Melina’s still not quite crawling, though she desperately wants to and is quite apt at moving around a room, by rolling, when she wants. She spends a lot of time rocking back and forth on all fours – or, er, threes: One leg is usually pinned under her butt and when she finally pulls it out she falls flat on her belly. Then when she tries to crawl on our wood floor she ends up going backwards. Oops. She can army crawl a few inches forward on the rug, and has also started trying to pull herself up on furniture. Today when she was settling into a nap I walked in to find her sitting upright (and a looking a little shocked about it) in her crib. A first for the Jelly Bean!

3/7 Update: She’s officially doing the army crawl to move across the room. Also close to crawling, but who knows, she may find this oddly more efficient. Watch a li’l video.

Eat. At daycare the teachers always ask us to “Please bring more food for Melina.” Yup, our little girl loves to eat. Her current favorites: Finger foods! Especially pear, pinto beans, salmon, cheese, and little chunks of chicken or turkey. I haven’t let Dada give her salami just yet. She also likes yogurt mixed with fruit. No intense dislikes, but she tends to give tofu back to me or drop it on the floor.

Talk. Meli finally picked up the “mamamama” sound, which of course touched me to no end even though her use is still pretty indiscriminate. We’ve been practicing “da” for dada, “ma” for mama, “bro” for bro bro, and “ka” for kitty cat. Like a true Rapoza girl she babbles a lot (it sounds like she’s telling us a story), and often will talk herself to sleep.

Play. Meli’s favorite activities include rolling around on the floor, banging two blocks or stack cups together, swinging at the park, going on walks (either in the stroller or Ergo), and taking a bath (amazingly, she doesn’t mind her brother dumping water over her eyes). She also loves to cuddle with stuffed animals and sometimes tries to turn pages of board books, and has recently discovered one of her brother’s old play kitchens. Most random favorite toy: Any sort of water bottle. Play dates and groups have gotten much more interactive. These days it’s as much about the kids “socializing” as the moms.

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Last weekend Stacie and I helped our mom host a baby shower for a family friend – then we stuck around, full families in tow – for the rest of the weekend. With the festive air and all the kids running (the three boys) and rolling (Meli) around, it almost felt like Christmas.

On the ride down to San Jose, I told Kai that if everyone was in a good mood all four kids might be able to take a bath together for the first time. Kai spent a large part of the afternoon reminding me about the proposed communal bath. Luckily, all the toddler stars aligned and with nary a meltdown in sight Kai got his wish. Grandma and Grandpa got a kick out of watching four parents try to keep four wet kids in check!

The kids, for their part, are starting to play together. Kinda. Kai took toys from Lucas, Lucas took toys from Melina, and at one point Melina started sucking on one of the twins’ sippy cups. And then they all followed each other around. Isn’t family fun?

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It’s amazing to watch the bond Kai and Melina have developed at such a young age. Even when I was pregnant, Kai would make funny faces for Melina to “watch” from her blind haven in my belly.

Now that she’s an interactive little person, he loves to hug her and shower her with kisses, and will sing or make silly sounds and faces to cheer her when she’s fussy.

A friend recently saw firsthand how Meli’s face lights up when her brother approaches. I’ve noticed it for months!

On the flip side, the other day when Kai wasn’t feeling well I brought his sister to him. “I feel better already” he said, and gave her a big, smiley hug.

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