Monaloca

Since we still count his sister’s age in months, Kai sometimes wants to know how many months old he is (or Joey or I are – yikes!) In honor of Kai’s 58-month birthday next week, I’ll share a few “kids say the funniest things” stories about my stepson.

On a recent trip to the store Kai shared with us his favorite thing about grocery shopping: “Putting all the food on the conveldabator.”

We rarely watch football in our house but on New Year’s Day had the Sugar Bowl on in honor of Joey’s alma mater, UH. Kai went to check the score and came rushing back into the kitchen to report that “The team was naughty. They’re in a time out!”

The other day he started telling us all about his little gang of friends at preschool, how so-and-so brought candy and they all hid behind the red play house in the playground to eat it. I shudder to think that in another 10 or so years they’ll be hiding behind the school yard bleachers sneaking something else.

Kai’s latest catch-all phrase is “No fair!” He uses it anytime he gets frustrated, no matter the context. Can’t watch a video before school? “No fair!” Can’t get his arm through a sweater sleeve? “No fair!” Or the block tower he’s been building suddenly topples? “No fair!” As when Meli tries to crawl but isn’t able, we can’t help but laugh. Sorry, kids.

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My little girl got her passport in the mail the other day. She looks almost coy in her first mugshot, taken at six months. I?Ä´m so proud. (I guess of me, not her, since it was all my doing.)

I didn’t get my first passport until age 19, when the seed of adventure had been planted by various childhood road trips – some with our Aljo trailer, some connecting the dots of drive-up motels along an AAA map. During my first trip abroad (granted, a full year studying in France and traveling western Europe), I developed the full sense of wanderlust that took me through my twenties and early thirties, and remains, though slightly buried, today.

I hope Melina grows to love travel as much as I do. We’ve just booked plane tickets for a trip to Portugal in May. My parents will join us, making a four-to-one ratio with the little Jelly Bean. We?Ä´re probably crazy to take an 11-month-old on a transatlantic flight. My guess is she?Ä´ll be at the almost-walking stage, where she’ll want only to hold onto our hands as we walk her up and down and up and down and up and down the aisle…

P.S. The smile photo is not her reaction to her new passport, but a priceless expression captured by a friend at a New Year’s Day party last week. Thanks, Tracee!

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Melina’s seven-month birthday (New Year’s Day) didn’t feel as momentous as her six-month milestone. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that she’s growing into more of a little person – with a goofy little personality – each day. Just look at all she’s doing now.

After 3 1/2 months of rolling from her belly to her back she finally made it the other way! I think it was partially inspired by her desire to reach the Christmas tree. Once on her belly she now enjoys hanging out there – at least until she wants to motor over to pick up a toy and realizes that flapping her little arms and legs as quickly as possible won’t do a thing unless she gets her torso off the ground. We can’t help but laugh at her frustration. She is able to move herself in a slow circle on her belly. Her arms are like the hands of a clock. I took this video just after Christmas, and it already feels outdated. She rolls so much more efficiently now!

We now sometimes find her lying on her belly in her crib, but more often than not she’s still on her back with her little blankie by her side or, just to freak me out, covering her face. We stopped taking the blankie away this month. She now screams if she wakes and can’t find it, and – face covering and all – we don’t want to deny her this security. She’s obviously able to breathe just fine.

She eats all sorts of pureed fruits and veggies and likes everything but avocado. Bananas also elicit a very special “too sweet!” shiver after four or five bites. She’s started grunting when she wants food (or anything else that’s out of her reach, for that matter). It’s a very throaty sound that hurts my throat to mimic. She also reaches for her sippy cup when she’s thirsty, looks for toys when they drop, and literally grabs her blankie from the crib rail as I put her down to bed.

She’s stopped sleeping as well at night, but only some of the time. Teething? Still no sign of a tooth. Despite what this photo shows, she still takes baths in her infant tub, but inside the big tub so she can splash around with delight. We tried the big tub solo once, but after a couple wet face plants decided to backtrack… for now. Also, as a few photos show, Meli still loves holding her hands together, close to her chest, almost prayer-like. She rarely sucks her thumb anymore, so this is her new trademark. An observant friend pointed out that I often do the same thing.

My favorite recent Melina moment came the other day as we were playing with Thor, the kitty cat, on our bed. Joey and I kept saying “kitty cat, Meli, look at the kitty cat!” She would pet or pull his fur, then started mimicking our “k” sound. At one point we swear we heard her say “ka”! Perhaps a first word in the making?

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We rang in the new year family style, with an early pint at Ben ‘n Nicks (our favorite child-friendly pub), tamales for dinner (my hats off to Latin America), and a living room movie (the new “Blade Runner” Final Cut – great rendition of a great movie, but with all the rain and brooding I’ve never made it through without nodding off at least once). Today we hit two separate house parties, each, coincidentally, with a Mr. Rogers theme. Here’s to 2008 being a neighborly year.

We also started what I aim to make a family tradition: New Year’s cardamom buns, or cardabuns, as we’ve been calling them. I grew up with Christmas cinnamon rolls. Every Christmas Eve my Aunt Sharon and mom would gossip until the wee hours of the morn over foaming yeast, melting butter, and a bowl full of dough. As we grew older they grew less fond of all the work and some of us kids pitched in here and there, but eventually we all grew up, our celebrations splintered, and Aunt Sharon’s cinnamon rolls became a yummy memory.

Joey’s been on a cardamom kick ever since we made a cardamom-butter-fried banana concoction a few years ago. So when we found the cardamom roll recipe in one of my mom’s old magazines, we each had our reasons for ripping out the page and checking our pantry for ingredients.

Amazingly, we had everything. The whole process spread over several hours (we had to wait for the dough to rise) plus the finished rolls had to refrigerate overnight before baking. Kai was only around to help with the dough, and Melina got just a brief glimpse of the cut pinwheels before being put to bed. But it was all good fun. And the verdict this morning? DELICIOUS.

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After our weekend-long extravaganza in San Jose, we decided to have a low-key Christmas day at our own home in Berkeley. I’d had visions of taking a mellow walk up in Tilden then coming home to a slow-cooked, one pot meal. Never mind that it’s the start of the rainy season and we don’t own a Crockpot. The holiday stars aligned, and we got Kai for the afternoon and evening to boot.

Jelly Bean enjoyed her second morning of opening holiday gifts, but this time without all the chaos. After a leisurely breakfast of coffee and muffins from a neighbor (thanks, Caryn!), we dressed her up in a fancy Santa hat and red sweater from Auntie Sharon. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for a drive up to the Little Farm and walk to Jewel Lake, which you can see from the photos is anything but jewel-like. It’s a nice walk, nontheless.

We picked up Kai in time for a dinner of chicken and veggies in a pot. He could have cared less about the food but was ecstatic to find his last gift under the tree was the one he’d wanted most: a Winx Club video. My four-and-a-half-year-old stepson is fascinated with this Saturday morning entourage of little girl fairies who fight the evils of the cartoon universe. Of course we had to balance out his video collection with another Leap Frog “learn to read” DVD.

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This year’s Christmas activities extended over a four day period, long enough that I’ll need to write two separate posts to get in just a few of my favorite photos.

We started our official holiday celebration early, with “first Christmas” in San Jose with my whole family over the weekend. We even had a special visit from Aunt Sharon and Uncle Ray, who hosted Christmas day for their family and ours the whole time I was growing up. Even though we weren’t in Clovis, their presence still provided a partial walk down memory lane.

Melina loved all the excitement of her first Christmas, but reveled most in eating any piece of wrapping or tissue paper she could get her hands on – and before we took it away!

Kai had a second helper in Lucas when he made coffee with Grandma Nancy in the morning. He also helped Grandpa Gary build a little table and chair set that he and Melina got for Christmas.

Twin nephew Noah spent his time sitting patiently by Grandpa’s new train set, waiting for it to start chugging along, while his brother Lucas was a moving near-two-year-old target.

We all got little sleep Saturday night (our personal Christmas Eve). The twins were teething (we think), Melina was a bit thrown by the porta crib, and Kai just couldn’t wait any longer for Santa to arrive. But it was all worth it and my folks took all the chaos in stride. Oddly enough, we’ll probably miss it when the kids get a little older – something I’m sure will happen in a flash.

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Peace. Love. Happiness.

Wishing you a happy holiday season
and all the best for 2008!

~ Joey, Lynn, Kai & Melina

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I’ve always loved my parents’ hallway. Through its photos, it teaches me of an infancy I’m not able to remember. My favorites are the three-, six-, nine-, and twelve-month photo sequences of both my sister and me as babies. My mom had them taken at Sears or JC Penny, the only places to get a decent photo of your child in the 70s.

In the back of my mind I’d wanted to do the same for Melina, but we missed the three-month shoot. I did get our act together for six-month photos, but Joey and I were disappointed at the cost for just 15 poses so don’t plan on returning.

Looking at the best of the bunch, I am glad we had the photos taken. But in the end, the “need” for Sears portraits simply isn’t as poignant as it was 30 years ago.

Digital cameras allow us to take countless pictures ourselves and pick the best for show. Of course there’s also the small detail that our tiny craftsman has no hallway on which to hang them!

I’m only a few weeks late in posting my favorite photos from the shoot on December 2 – one day after Melina’s six-month birthday. Enjoy.

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Every year our friends Jenny and Pat host a holiday dinner out in the ‘burbs. They live on a cul-de-sac that turns into a “keeping up with the Joneses” fest of lights, blow-up penguins, and other holiday lawn toys each December. It feels fantastically American.

We decided it would be easier to take Melina with us than to worry about rushing home to a sitter. She could show off her holiday cute-stuff dress, play with everyone for a little while, then jammy up and go to sleep in a back room while we had our grown-up fun. Good plan, but after a brief “nap” in the guest room, Melina decided she didn’t want to miss out on the party.

She had fun getting passed around from big person to big person as we finished our dinner, and liked gnawing on everyone’s cloth napkins. Auntie Cia thought it would be fun to tuck some tangerines suggestively into the top of her shirt (mommy nipple, citrus navel, they all feel kinda the same don’t they?) but Melina was equally fascinated with the sequins covering the blouse. These days her world is just bursting with exciting new textures and toys.

Coincidentally, our family friends the Hindmarshes visited us in Berkeley earlier that afternoon. They live in Livermore – just down the road from Jenny and Pat’s place in Pleasanton!

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The title of this post makes little sense but I like the way the words flow. And it does hold meaning.

I topped off our first of two whirlwind weekends with a reading at the Ferry Building (SF) for my story in the anthology “Hot Flashes: Sexy Little Stories and Poems.” The reading went fine and I was able to have dinner with a fellow writer who has twin 10-month-old boys. Needless to say we had plenty to discuss. Unfortunately, with my lingering cold and the cool, dry weather, I woke up Tuesday morning with no voice. Almost two days later I can still only manage a loud whisper.

It’s not slowing me – or us – down. Last night we picked up both kids from daycare and headed to the Winter Wonderland in Tilden Park. Melina fell asleep on the winding ride, but was all smiles after being woken by the lights in the North Pole display and the music and laughter coming from the huge carousel. She took her first ride on an actual animal (as opposed to a bench) while Kai and Joey watched from the sidelines. Kai still has carousel phobia, so his ticket went unused.

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