Weekend Update: Fishies... Fishies!

On Saturday, we stopped by Sergio's in the Valley and picked up some Vietnamese sandwiches. Then we went to spend the day at my parent's house, hanging out and playing with Kaz and Skyler, Sao, Kyle and Kevin, and watching the bunny rabbits in the yard.

My mom made an awesome dinner. Tony & I tried again to sneak away for a movie date, but couldn't decide what to see, so we took Maiya shopping at Sport Chalet spending 2 hours looking at shoes and backpacks (poor kid). We also went to the tropical fish store where Maiya got very excited yelling and pointing at all the fish. The tropical fish were soooo expensive.

On Sunday, we decided to take Maiya to the Aquarium of the Pacific - I've been wanting to go for a long time. Maiya loved all the fishes, although her favorite were the frenetic and very cute Diving Birds. We spent about 10 minutes watching them. My favorite was the Sea Dragons that look like Sea Horses and float and blend into the plants. The nice thing about the Aquarium is that it is small relative to the zoo, and things are close together. When it gets too hot, then you can go back inside to the A/C, watch a movie or just fish watch. I like their message about conservation and the environment, and thought the interactive exhibits were pretty cool.

Cranky Maiya in the hot sun at the Sea Lion and Seal show

Afterwards, we stopped for Chinese food takeout for Tony, and I got a Bionico (fresh fruit salad with crema) and Mango smoothie, and then went to check out a bike for Tony on Craigslist. We talked about maybe someday, somewhere down the line maybe getting some fish for Maiya. I regretted selling my fancy aquarium I sold years ago at a yard sale, but Tony mentioned he had a fish bowl somewhere in our disaster of a garage.

Later, we went with Uncle Bill to the West LA Buddhist Temple Obon Carnival. While we were waiting for Tony to park the car, Maiya and I played the Fish Toss. She was throwing the ping pong balls everywhere but on the board, hitting a little boy in the back of the head, and tossing one behind her, and they kept giving her back the balls. So I took one and guess what? I got it in! I couldn't believe it. Maiya threw a few more, and I tossed another one in... freaky luck, I got another one in. I never won anything before at a carnival, especially never a goldfish, and certainly not 2 of them!

Afterwards, Tony was scolding me about carnival etiquette, that you are supposed to play the games after you eat, saying it was his "burden" to carry the fish until we left. Ha ha. Anyways, here is Maiya chowing down on chili rice, udon and sushi rice, right before playing Triple Threat with Tony and winning a big pink plastic ball and scoring a balloon from a nice Nisei lady. It was so nice to see so many friends at the Obon.

Well, that's the weekend. If you've read this far, let us know if you have any name suggestions for our little fishies. Tony's suggestion is "Sashi" and "Mimi" so that when you call them, it sounds like "Sashimi." I'm thinking "Rainbow" for the white/sparkly one and "Koi" for the orange one with black speckles. Or maybe we should call them "Peace" and "Justice."

Previewing before the Big Reveal

It was a busy weekend. Our baseboards were installed in the house on Friday, but they couldn't paint them until today. Our house is all chaotic, packed up and piled high, so we stayed away this weekend.

In all the mess, can you see our paint colors emerging and our baseboards on the back wall? We're getting ready to order our designer lamp. The plumber came this morning, and we have an appointment with the guys for the new window coverings (It's been newspaper the last few weeks). It's getting so close we can taste it.

4 T's Out of the Closet

Yesterday, we got our baseboards installed throughout the house. We had to empty out all the closets. We already knew we have a lot of excess clutter. I have a strong desire to dematerialize especiallly after seeing how nice the baseboards look. But some things are worth keeping... both for the memories and a good hearty laugh.

Tony wearing his "so old it's see-through" Devo concert shirt. Last month he went to see the Police at Dodger Stadium with Bill, Hector and Danny, the 3 guys who he saw Devo with 25 years earlier with at the Forum.

Iron Maiden rawcks.

Muscle T from 1983. Don't rip it!

A very very snug "Summer Strut" T-shirt from 1982 with Foreigner, Loverboy, Scorpians and Iron Maiden

T OSUMI - Uni Football Jersey #49

Where Tofu Meets its Match

Guess what's coming up! The 12th annual Tofu Festival on August 18-19, 2007 in Little Tokyo presented by the Little Tokyo Service Center, the Tofu Festival brings 20,000 people to Little Tokyo each year. So come out and join us! I'll be out there working in the hot sun as I have so many times before (2nd year as staff). I'm selling raffle tickets-give me a buzz if you're interested in buying a chance to win. We are also still doing a call-out for more volunteers if you're interested in helping out.

Admission tickets for children under 12 and adults over 60 are FREE! If you're between 13 and 59, tickets are only $5 this year - and if you go to the website, you can print a coupon for only $3! Such a deal. Be healthy. Find a mate. Be there.

Maiya's Virtual monkey

adopt your own virtual pet!

Maiya's adopted a little monkey. For now, we're calling him Chango. He looks just like Maiya's favorite friend at home. Click on the word "more" to feed Chango some bananas. He'll appreciate it very much. Drop it anywhere and he'll come get it. Click around on the tree and he'll climb all over it.

Phwim Cwass & Backyard Pool

Swim class at the Y with daddy at 5 months old in 2005:

Same pool in 2007:

In our backyard pool in Summer 2006:

And last week - Summer 2007 at almost 2 1/2 years old:

Decisions, decisions...

For the past 3 weeks Tony has been getting our living room and dining room ready for painting. One of those projects we just didn't get finished before Maiya was born. Packing up our two little rooms, washing down walls with deglosser, scraping, sanding, pulling off baseboards, puttying and spackling the ceiing and walls. That's all the physical work. I have been working hard trying to keep Maiya entertained, safe and out of the way and out of the house while living with plastic and dropcloths, eating in the backyard and hanging out at Uncle Bill's. And of course this all happens during my busiest time of the year at work (until Thursday) so Tony is also juggling swim class and childcare with me. One of the things that hung us up 3 years ago was deciding on the paint colors. But, this weekend we finally selected 3 colors from the ones in the photo above: Oat straw, Firenze and Glacial till. Tony did the ceilings yesterday and the living room today. You'll just have to wait and see how it turns out!

BBQ & Fireworks on the 4th

Helping Mommy peel the corn while daddy cooks a feast

Hello corn, I see you!

Uncle Bill and Grandpa Larry (Pampa) over for BBQ

Steak, salmon, corn, rice, cucumber, zucchinis and mushrooms...

Riding my tricycle with Uncle Bill

After dinner, Tony, Maiya and I walked down to the Marina, a few blocks from our house. After 12 years, this is the 2nd time Tony & I ever saw fireworks together (first time in Detroit). Seeing fireworks through Maiya's eyes was a lot of fun. Something about the awe and wonder of a child's first time experiencing something new. Being out on a summer night, walking with hundreds of other people through our neighborhood (and being grateful for not bringing our car into the crazy traffic) was really terrific. I think next year we'll have to do it again and maybe get even closer to the fireworks. For days after, Maiya wanted to see more "fire."

Evolution of Maiya's room

We've lived in our house for 10 years. For 8 years, our extra room was a 10' x 11' office/junk room. A few times it was a den, with a futon couch and the TV in there. But most of the time it was our office with various desks and configurations. That file cabinet below held dry food and pastas and rice crackers as we never had a pantry. Here is a picture of me, Fall of 2004, several months pregnant and wondering what we're going to do with this room and how it will ever accommodate "the baby." I think this is some time before Tony took out the carpets and we painted the room.

In December 2004, about a month and a half before Maiya was born, we painted her room lime sorbet green. Visitors to our house would look at the green room and say, "Hmmm, green..." or "wow, that's bright." Here is the room in January 2005, all ready and waiting for "the baby." Notice the crib, was only used for a few naps and diaper cover cleaning times since we have chosen to be a co-sleeping family. Maiya once fell out of the crib at about 7 months, which is when we started storing crap (figuratively) in the crib.

In Maiya's first month, the rocking chair became the place where I spent night and day. Notice the lovely baby gift bag window coverings. We were too busy dealing with breast pump parts, sleepless nights and diaper changes to deal with anything else at that time.

Maiya's room has gotten more and more cluttered as the volume of toys and books has increased. Although as I look at the books in the photo below, she now has more than twice as many books as in the picture. Luckily, like her mama, Maiya likes to keep her floors clean--here she is in July 2006 doing her part to help out.

In January 2007, right before her 2nd birthday, Maiya got her new big kid bed--which we use occasionally since we are still using the family bed. Sometimes the bed gets crowded and one of us will wind up in her bed during some portion of the night.

Last month Tony got these cool designer shelves on Craigslist for $50. Here's Maiya showing them off wearing her "Hello Kitty" underpants.

Today, I bought one of those orange storage hanging baskets from Ikea at a garage sale for $3. We'll see what comes next. At some point we are going to have to do a toy purge cause it's getting out of hand. Stay tuned, if I can gather the courage, I will post photos of our office/library/playroom.

Granma's Pix

Playing at HohoemiGranma's house.
Mom, good for you! I got the pictures. Glad you're enjoying your new laptop!

A Dozen Years...

Today is 12 years since me & Tony's first date and 12 years since we fell in love. We keep trying to have a dinner & a movie date (about 4 times since Maiya was born) and haven't quite managed to see a movie yet. But we went out to my parent's house this afternoon. When we first got there, Maiya walked over to each of my parents and gave them a hug, it was so cute. And she's calling my mom "Mamas" as opposed to me, "Mommy." I helped my dad set up a mailmerge on his computer, taught him about folders and I helped my mom set up a new email account on her new laptop.

We managed to go out to dinner at ClaimJumper while my mom watched Maiya for 2 hours. I had a BBQ chicken salad and Tony had BBQ ribs. Tony liked his but mine was just ok. After, we went to Ben & Jerry's and splurged on iced blendeds, $5.29 each! We also went to look at new Hondas since both of our cars are 14-15 years old and his van is in the shop right now. Tony wanted me to see the Honda Fit, but I was much more excited about the Civic Hybrid.

It has been a busy weekend. We went to 3 parties yesterday. Did 3--4 loads of laundry this weekend. Tony's clearing out the front room and planning to prep and paint the living room/dining room this week. We have yet to decide on a color though. We're kind of in the same place we were last November when we painted the kitchen.

Anyways, here is a photo collage of little love notes and cards that I taped onto our hallway door one year. I also made a trail of love letters across the living room floor. Tony, Happy Anniversary - I wouldn't trade the last 12 years for anything. I love you, I love you, I love you.