In Case You're Wondering...

Some of the friends and family who read this blog may not know Los Angeles very well, but, rest assured, we are nowhere near the wildfires that are going on all over Southern California right now, as I'm sure you've heard about in the news. Most of the fires are in the north of Los Angeles County, easily 30 or 40 miles (or 50-60 km) away from our house, and are confined to the Malibu area (where Nicki and I had our wedding) and the Santa Clarita areas, and to the San Diego area, far to the south. It does however make for some apocalyptic scenes in the skies above our home, such as in this picture I snapped this evening:



The brown hue you see are not storm clouds; it's smoke. Tomorrow we will likely wake up to ash on our cars, house and yard. The fires are a somewhat regular thing here, and some years it's worse than others. 2003 was the last time. It always seems to happen in October, especially with the Santa Ana winds; hot, dry winds which fan the littlest spark to set off brush that has been dried out over a long summer without rain.

Anyway, we're not in any danger.

Dianne, my mother-in-law, came to visit and left on Friday. The previous Friday, the 12th, we went up to the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, and we drove around that area. Dianne snapped this picture of huge home in the hills above Pepperdine, known as Castle Kashan. It was named after a deputy oil minister in the Shah of Iran's government, who emigrated here. Here's the picture:



Castle Kashan was burned to the ground on Sunday.

Felix is ONE!

Our little monkey is one year old today. Here he is, the seasoned restaurant-goer, perusing the menu at Fromin's Deli. More pictures to follow...

"Hmmm.... what shall I have?"


"I think I'll have the pancakes."


"WAITER!"

Funny Stories

Two stories that illustrate how fun it is being a parent:

As you can see in the sidebar, Felix is already saying a few words, like Mama and Dada. Usually when he does it, it comes out like a mantra, saying "Da da da da..." or "Ma ma ma ma", like he's using more syllables for extra emphasis.

Last week, our satellite dish remote broke and the company sent us a new one in the mail. Nicki had it out and was trying to program it to control the TV without much luck. So I said, jokingly,"Let me try it. I'm smarter than you are." Nicki protested, "No, you're not." So I asked Felix, "Who's smarter, Mama or Dada?", also as a joke. But then without hesitation, he said, "Da da!"

Today we left the house to go to school and met a cloudy day. As Ella and I were walking to the car she looked up at the sky and said, "It looks like it's going to rain." I assured that it probably wasn't, since I had read the forecast, and that it was just a cloudy day.

A little bit later, while Ella was going to school in Nicki's car it started to drizzle and Ella said, "See? I told you!"

E L E V E N

Only one more month until Felix turns one - we're already planning the day.

Above you can see his fangs from a week ago, but now those are being flanked by two teeth growing on top and in the middle.



We took Felix and Ella to Travel Town, which has a display of actual old trains you can climb on and act like you're an engineer. It's been around forever, and I used to go there when I was a kid. Ella rode on the mini train that goes around the park. Six months ago we could never get her near one of those.

A Very Special Day

Today is Tante Dunie's birthday! Happy birthday to you, our dear Tante/Sister! If you were here, we would take you to Crazy Tokyo for some delicious sushi. Well it's the thought that counts, isn't it? So let's just pretend it happened.

Another reason why it's a special day today... Ella's first real haircut at the hairdresser! We went to Lollicut and Ella chose the pink car chair to sit in while Dora cut her hair. We got a little envelope with a lock of her hair to keep and a certificate commemorating the occasion.

Et voilà! Basically, Dora cut 4 inches off the back and cut some bangs in so that Ella's hair doesn't fall all over her face. And then she pulled the sides up into a ponytail and added a pink curly bow.

Catching Up

Last month I had my 40th birthday on the 31st, and started a two week long party during some much needed vacation time starting the 23rd.

I started a big project xeriscaping my front yard, which means killing the lawn and replacing it with decorative stones and water-wise plants, which will reduce our water use. Seems like a strange way to spend a vacation, since most people want to sit on the beach and drink mai-tai's, but it was pretty fulfilling for me, and that's the kind of thing I enjoy doing.

We went up to northern California for Nicki's Baby Signs conference, and later we visited with a friend I went to middle school and high school with, Jim, and his girlfriend Nancy. We met up in Sonoma, the heart of the wine country, in the park in the middle of town. Felix got his first trip on a swing and his first touch of playground sand.



Later we enjoyed a nice picnic and a bottle of wine (natch), and some good conversation. Felix cooperated by taking a nap, and Ella was the sweet, calm little angel she always is.


Don't ask me how I feel about turning 40. Many have, including my uncle Marshall, who arrived at a party Nicki threw for me the last Saturday of my vacation. He knew me when I was a baby, and when he saw me, he asked, "How does it make you feel to turn 40?" I replied, "How does it make you feel for me to turn 40?"

Happy 10-month birthday, Monkey!

Our little monkeydoodle is 10 months old today. To celebrate, he ate two big servings of pureed peaches and grew two more teeth, only not the top two we were expecting, but one on each side of those, like little fangs.

Ella is a big girl now, she goes on the toilet without a potty seat! Now if only she would take herself to the bathroom at night instead of calling for Dada one or more times at night.