Kalamazoo Trip

 A week in Kalamazoo Michigan with Tony's family for Passover, March 2013.  We stayed with Fran's cousins Jo and Judy's houses.  We visited freezing Lake Michigan, the Frederick Meijer Garden in Grand Rapids, and just hung out with family.  Grandpa Don bought Maiya her first loom on this trip.

Backblogging January 2012

We'll ignore the fact that it's the middle of October 2012, and that I never finished last year's November NaBloPoMo which was supposed to backblog 2011.  So I still need to catch up on June-December for 2011. I may never get there.  Or, these dates might look a little funky.  Anyways, here are some photos from January 2012, Maiya's last month of being 6 years old.

Maiya took over 100 pictures on this day of her animals.  Each one has a name, age and gender assigned to it. 

One of Maiya's vintage art projects with Daddy.
Making pizza out of cardboard.

Maiya took some Saturday Karate classes to prep
for her Yellow Belt test at Jewish Workman's Center .

Maiya has been here before... for 2005 Jewish Seder (her 3 month bday).

Took Maiya to JANM for their Oshogatsu Festival.
Here we made handprints with our wishes for 2012.

Musubi Making Contest at JANM

Grandma with Grandkids on her 74th Bday

Celebrating Grandma Machi, Kevin and Uncle Shag's Birthday.

 ** Still to come for January 2012, our trip to Santa Barbara for MLK weekend.

Passover Seder 2011

It's been a number of years since we've done Passover Seder at our house.  Tony's Mom aka Granny Franny and Don came to visit for a few days in April.  Fran made Grandma Shereley's Vegetarian Matzoh ball soup.  We also celebrated our sister in law Nina's "39th" birthday (I was the only one who didn't get the joke haha).  We were glad to also have Tony's godsister Beth and her family come as well.  A highlight for me was when Maiya read some of the Haggadah.

This is turning out I'm not so much writing anything.  By the end of the day, I'm really just too tired to try to put words together.  More, I'm just doing photo essays and captions for 2011. Well, so be it. Peace. Shalom. Out.  NaBloPoMo#9.

Staycation: More Unschooling Fun

I had blogged about the list of fun things to do at home last month when we were on vacation.

Making Playdoh food and pretending to eat it. Check.

Maiya's really into making things from construction paper. Tony & Maiya went to the library and brought home the coolest book by one of Maiya's two favorite authors, Leo Lionni, "Let's Make Rabbits." So we made rabbits out of construction paper and origami paper, kind of copying the rabbits in the book. Maiya made the white one, which we drew together. Check.

Playing with blocks. Check. She got out the blocks and the Asian American doll family that I got at Lakeshore when she was a baby. I figured if the girl is going to have dolls, then at least they will be dolls of color.

Dinner with Tony's Aunt Liz, Eddie, Jacob & Rebecca visiting from Idaho. Not on the list, but check!
And finally, not on Maiya's list, but definitely falls under cultural and family ritual. On Friday night, we lit our Grandpa Larry memory candle, talked a little about Grandpa, and had Challah bread for the sabbath. Bubbe & Zeyde would be proud. I'm sure the peanut butter and jelly were kosher.
And, that's the last you'll hear of my summer vacation.

Staycation: Doing Origami

Maiya loves origami. She has decorated her bedroom windows with paper cranes and ribbons. We've been doing a lot of origami at home lately, including 3 times during our recent stay-at-home vacation.

Over the years, we have collected quite a few books and instructions on origami making. There are some complex ones with impossible photos, where you can create all kinds of animals with googly eyes. We have one for Jewish Origami that we've had for years. We recently got a vintage (old but brand new) origami kit and book from Auntie Keiko that is very kid friendly. I am still searching for a detailed and easy set of instructions for the crane, because after all these years, I still have trouble with the cranes.

Jewish horn, dreidel and Jewish star of David necklace

Since I'm on the subject of origami, I'd like to give a quick plug for the book 1001 Cranes, written by our friend Naomi Hirahara. It's written for the young girls, but darn it if I didn't just love it for its cultural references and sweet coming-of-age story. I read it cover to cover really quickly, tears reserved for the end of the book. I know, I know. Anyways, highly recommended for all ages, and a great gift for the tween.

Midwife Hannah's legacy

Jenni, Maiya and Bubbe Fran at birth
When Maiya was born on her due date February 1, we were so lucky that Tony's mom was able to be at the birth. Fran flew down from Idaho on the morning of January 31st, not knowing until we called her frantically at the airport, that my water had broken that morning. She timed her arrival perfectly, I'm sure it was based on her many years of experience as a certified nurse midwife.

She came with us to the hospital, helped us get settled in, monitoring my contractions, walking with us for 3 1/2 hours, keeping me comfortable, reading mantras over and over, and generally keeping everyone calm. Whenever the hospital staff would come in and tell us something, or tell us nothing, we would look to her to confirm or give better explanations in helping us decide how to proceed. She knew that we wanted to have a natural childbirth. She promised me (or maybe she was just estimating to make me feel better) that I would have the baby on February 1st (as opposed to February 2nd), which was a relief to me, as I was in labor for what was seeming like an eternity (37 hours in total, about 20 hours of hard labor). We couldn't have been in more capable hands.



Maiya with Bubbe Fran, 1 day old
When Maiya gets a little older, we will tell her about what a special gift it was that her Grandma Fran was there to help bring her into the world. She will learn about her Japanese American heritage, and she will also learn that not only is her Grandma Fran a midwife, but her great, great, great, great aunt Hannah Sandusky was also a midwife.

Hannah was born in Lithuania in 1827 and came to Pittsburgh in 1861. She delivered 3,571 registered births before passing away in 1913. She was Maiya's Grandma Fran's Grandpa Leon's aunt, and was the birth attendant for her great-grandmother Fannie (AKA Freya) Davis (AKA Davison or bed David) when Fran's Grandfather Benjamin Davis was born in 1874. (I think I got that right).

Here is a link to the Jewish Women's Archive which documents Great great great great aunt Hannah's story.

May Day Seder

Beth & Valerie at Passover Seder - photo by 7 year old Erin


Jenni, Maiya & I with Elijah's Cup at Passover Seder - photo by Erin

Last Sunday, May 1st, was Maiya's first, oops, second Passover Seder. Her first Passover was at my godsister Beth's house in Torrance on April 23. We had a great time seeing my godmom, Valerie; Beth's husband Brian and their daughter Erin along with about 8 of their friends. There was matzoh ball soup, four types of kharoses and delicious chicken and brisket. Oh, and the chocolate covered macaroons were righteous. I'm glad we were invited because with Mom and Don now living in Idaho, we didn't have a place to go this year. This could have been a bummer now that we have Maiya. I want to make sure she gets culture and history from both sides of the family. Like New Year's Oshogatsu, we may need to start taking the responsibility to host Passover ourselves.


Me & Maiya (3 months old) at the Workmen's Circle for the May Day Seder

So back to May 1st--we went to the Workmen's Circle May Day Seder over on Robertson Blvd. It was the first time I'd been to a community seder. I've had my eye on the Workmen's Circle since I first heard of them because of their secular emphasis on Jewishness and social justice. In this year's Hagode, they describe the organization as: "a progressive Jewish cultural and social action organization, advancing democratic frontiers, strengthening civil rights, promoting universal health care, and opposing bigotry and tyranny, working to preserve the unique legacy and beauty of Jewish and Yiddish culture." I'm down for that.

Throughout the meal their very own Mit Gezang Yiddish Chorus and Voices of Conscience Social Action Chorus led us through a variety of English and Yiddish songs like one dedicated to the courageous resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. One very cool part was when they sang Earl Robinson's "May Day Song" and showed an old photo of Paul Robeson singing with the Earl Robinson Singers. One of the singers in the photo is now in the Workmen's Circle choir and it was touching to see him still doing his thing on stage. I guess the historical connection was also meaningful because Jenni and I thought about naming our child Robeson if we had a boy.

Approximately 80 people were there and all of us shared in the reading the Hagode. They said it was their largest turnout in a while. The food was tasty (the choice between brisket, chicken, salmon or veggie plates) and the more common list of 10 plagues that visited Egypt, was replaced with plagues on hunger, homelessness, hatred, ignorance, totalitarianism, greed, war, disease, poisoned air, water and earth, and the nuclear shadow over our lives. At the end we sang the Anthem of the Workmens' Circle and The Internationale with updated words by Billy Bragg and revised by Workmen's Circle Executive Directer, Eric Gordon. Great stuff.

For more info check out the Workmen's Circle website for interesting programing like upcoming Cuban films, art shows and a Jewish take on animal treatment and vegetarianism. http://www.circlesocal.org/300.html