This morning Max had all eyes on him. He was given the power and title of "person of the day" and he relished it. Max spent a few minutes at the beginning of his presentation talking about the photos on his family board. At one point when his fellow classmates interrupted him, he not so gently reminded them that "this is not about you, it's about me." During his presentation he asked me to help talk about the photos, but when I started to talk too much or gaining control of the focus he gave me a giant "Shhhh mommy!" and put me in my place. Whoa, Max is clearly a kid who is comfortable being the leader.

After the photo presentation we made fresh pasta for our family project. Each child got two opportunities to crank the pasta machine. One was to flatten the dough and the other was to cut the dough into spaghetti or linguini. We asked the school chef Celestina to cook the pasta for lunch. We weren't able to stay for lunch, but we heard it was a hit. But sadly for Max Celestina had put tomato sauce on all the pasta and apparently Max cried because he only wanted butter on his. Oh goodness.

More photos to come...thanks to Paga & Daddy for taking the time to be there and help, Max felt very loved.

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Ah the gun issue. How I wish I could suppress it and live in peace, but alas it only seems to rear it's ugly head the more I try to kibosh it. I started with a hard line response explaining that we are pacifists and there will be no guns in our house. I even made Mr. C remove the giant poster of his grinning five year old self holding an AK47 in front of an Israeli tank (not really such a weird request eh?) I pleaded with Max not to talk about guns and reiterated that we don't want to hurt anyone. But recently I've softened my gun stance. I'm still on about not hurting anyone, though I've added no pointing at people or shooting anything that's alive — "yes trees are alive." I'm feeling that fighting his inner and clearly biological urges isn't going to get me anywhere, in fact it may produce the opposite result. So I'm letting most of the finger guns, stick guns, straw guns slide — obviously there's no limit to what can become a weapon— I'm just trying to get him to aim at the skeet instead. Above is Max pictured with the gun that came from his tiny star wars drone action figure —thanks Paga ::wink wink::. He doesn't care much about the drone but he's been carrying the teeny gun around in his pocket.

Technorati Tags: preschooler

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Captain Max enjoyed ordering his first mates Aunnie and Yaya 'round Stowe Lake yesterday afternoon. As Aunnie put it "boating is such a lovely weekend activity even in this man-made lake." It was a perfect holiday afternoon, thanks you two! I walked the lake perimeter pushing Ms. Vivie in her comfy carriage while constantly waving to the peddling crew. Along the way I gazed at some lovely wild flowers and watched a family of geese herding their young to shore.

Technorati Tags: San Francisco

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Vivienne is now able to sit up unassisted. Every once in a while she teeters over but she rarely complains about it. She loves being on her tummy too and has been doing push-ups and tucking her knees like an inch worm — she's getting ready to crawl. She's quite fond of putting everything in her mouth as pictured above. Max's toys are everywhere so it's quite a chore for us to keep the house picked up and all the chokable items put away.

While browsing through H&M on friday Vivie tried on these sparkly shades and then tasted some pink tights packaging.

I picked up those mesh food bags I'd been hearing so much about — and yes they are a hit and a brilliant product idea. So far we've put in banana, apple, bread and avocado. On the list of foods she's tried via blender or jar are sweet potato (japanese yellow yam is her favorite), peas, pears, apple, butternut squash and lots and lots of rice cereal.

I succumbed and brought the hideous, but oh so helpful, "kingdom" exersaucer out of storage. Our teeny house it done for now there's not a single baby or kid free space!

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I heard a couple of great quotes on the radio today...both felt very profound.

"Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made." — Otto Von Bismarck

"Appeasement means you are feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last" — Winston Churchill

On an unrelated but still profound note...Later this afternoon when I was driving Max to karate, he was saying how much he likes Alanna our new nanny, so I asked him if I should have her babysit he and Vivie one day soon and he said "mom, grown-ups don't sit on babies". What a comedian!

One more kidism to report before I hit the hay so to speak. On the way to Gabriel's house for a playdate on monday I told Max we had to leave by 6 pm so he'd be prepared. He then said, "but mom, I want to stay until one hundred o'clock!"

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Links I want to check out next time I'm surfing...
Design Mom
Wondershop

oh dee doh

The Artful Parent
Pepper Paints

Babble

and another book to get by Taro Gomi

Technorati Tags: web surfing

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When I picked Max up from preschool today he was toting more giant chalk and had been busy writing all over the playground's rubber mats. He wrote his name for me again and then drew me this flower.

When we left school, we headed off to Kid Robot to get more cool zipper pulls (we discovered them when we got one for daddy's birthday) and then we got one little special extra surprise toy (seen here). Max loves him because he has a cupcake on his back. What's not to love about a cupcake eating monster named Maurice?!*#@!^!

Technorati Tags: preschool, preschooler, San Francisco

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It was high noon at Jackson Playground when Ms. Vivienne took her first glide in ye old bucket swing and boy did she enjoy herself.

Technorati Tags: baby, San Francisco

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Happy birthday to lawyer Lexi, may all your wishes come true!

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There's no denying that boys have an unique and intense energy. I experience it when Max eats a piece of bread and then tells me the shape of his bites look like a gun or when he tells me he's taking his gun (thumb up and forefinger pointed) with him to make sure no bad guys are out there — these are moments that I feel I had nothing to do with. I certainly didn't teach him about guns or expose him to them. Somehow he's figured out the gun thing and feels ready to aim, point, and shoot it. I think there's nothing a pacifist such as myself can do other than just wait for him to out grow it. I worry that if I try to suppress his interests in guns, swords etc I'll just encourage his intrigue. I know from my own experience that each time my parents tried to tell me something was bad or that I shouldn't do "x" I wanted to do it more — so I'm thinking that he should just shoot his finger gun until his heart is content and then hope he'll grow up to be a conscientious objector.

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While cruising through a wonderful neighborhood gift shop called Aldea, I saw these lovely new creations by blabla called boogaloos. It's fun to watch blabla's products progress since the days when we bought the darling munkay. These new toys are a little more hip being that they are slightly weird and amorphous like the über famous ugly dolls and they have more quirky details in the stripes, patches and patterns. Seeing these knit stuffies gave me chills of regret wishing I had followed through on my beastie bunnies which I drew back in 2006 but never made. Oh one day soon I hope I'll have time to knit again!!

Technorati Tags: craft, knitting, puppy, San Francisco

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Here is Ms. Vivienne Grace reading an old favorite by Eric Carle while lounging on our deck during a San Francisco heat wave.

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Max was so excited about mother's day, it was sweet to hear him say that he'd hidden a card and couldn't wait to tell me where it was. Then this morning he came into our bed, after sleeping through the whole night on his own — gift enough, and said "Mommy it's Mother's Day, can I give you your present now?" He and daddy came back in a few minutes with a little blue box. Max says, "We went downtown to Stiffany's mommy." No kidding, he has said it a few more time since then so I can confirm the pronunciation of "Stiffanys" — don't you love that?! Inside the box was a beautiful big solid silver heart locket on a chain with a photo of Max on one side and Vivie on the other (good job daddy!). I melted inside while tears of motherhood joy rolled down my cheeks. Then to add to my water works, Max tells me about the card he made for me at preschool. "Mommy, see it's a heart. Here's where I did the gluing and I put letters on it I -L-O-V-E-U" he said. Then I said, "it spells I love you" and he said "no not yuh yuh 'you'" as he sounded out the letter Y, "I didn't use the Y." He also planted me a sunflower in a pot and wrapped it in yellow tissue paper. He put his hands on his hips and said in the cutest voice, "Now what's that mushroom doing in there?"

Technorati Tags: motherhood

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Max, seen here wearing all his favorite things. He asks me every morning if it's a school day, seriously he does. On Saturday when I finally say, "no today is not a school day," he dresses himself in crocks, his superman t-shirt and an almost too small union jack sweatshirt. Super-hero wear and crocks are outlawed at his preschool, oh and so is celebrating holidays — political correctness sucks.

We headed out at about 8:45am via Muni and made it to Blue Bottle Cafe about 9 am. It was already crowded. Normally that would get me down, as I am so over waiting in long lines at the cool kid spots, but today I didn't mind. It's ironic how when you truly don't care and are relaxed, that life flows smoothly. Within minutes three counter spaces in a row by the big window opened up — such luck.


We each enjoyed a delicious fluffy and lightly sweetened belgian wafel and two lattes each (yes two!). I could drink their creamy lattes all day if they didn't cause such jitters. Vivienne took notice of our blue bottle love and dove into the cup for a sip (no she wasn't successful).

Happy six month birthday to baby Vivie.

Technorati Tags: Bay Area, eating, family, San Francisco

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I don't like to be given advice and I often harshly judged those who give it too readily. I feel that advice is something you should give only when asked. I've just been reading Real Simple (May issue), uh hem, yes I feel so middle-aged admitting that, but some of the articles are so satisfyingly cleansing. Plus the tag line gets me every time, "life made easier"! Yes, I too wish that by reading these articles my life would be easier and simplier. I also love attempting to have an organized house and those perfectly styled photos of everything from closets to table settings really please me. Anyway, there's a whole slew of mother articles in this issue since sunday is mother's day and of course they are filled with copious amounts of — advice. Apparently that's what mother's are best at? But there are some I really liked...

No one is paying attention to you, they are all busy thinking about themselves.

Everything tastes better served by candlelight.

If you must leave a party, spill something on yourself.

When you're sad, don't fight it — get some gin and cigarettes then play Edith Piaf — repeat as needed.

Manners matter.

Occasionally do naughty things because that actually makes you happy.

Love and be loved.

The back way is longer but faster.

It's important to write thank you notes.

Whom not who.

Your chance might be miniscule, but that doesn't mean you should give up hope — someone has to win and it could be you.

It's not the last sweater you are going to buy.

The cheap caviar is still quite good.

Technorati Tags: motherhood

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Last night we were waiting outside for a table at Delfina Pizzeria, when Max whipped out a giant piece of chalk (that he'd swiped from the school playground) and started drawing on the sidewalk. This is how I found out that he can write his name. Love it.

Technorati Tags: eating, San Francisco

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This is Vivienne with her great grandpa. There's 93 years between them! I love their matching bright blue eyes. Awe, so beautiful.

When Max melts down during family dinner at Santi (yes, this has happened before) we walk across the street to the tractor sales show room and take a pretend ride. A few minutes of serious fun makes the rest of dinner manageable.

See Miss Vivie kicking it.

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Technorati Tags: baby, San Francisco

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