Rockclimbing fun for Kyle's Bday

For Kyle's 7th Birthday, we went to a rockclimbing place. It was Maiya's first time rockclimbing. I was amazed how agile some of the kids were... Maiya did pretty good for a first time. She didn't seem scared as much as it was strenuous climbing and going up bit by bit. She was pretty proud of herself.

Learning the "ropes" or the rules of rockclimbing

Kyle, fast as a monkey, to the top!

Maiya bravely attempting to climb step by step

Coming down fast

"Pretending to climb" while standing on the floor

Ice Cream Cake Time... Happy Birthday dear Kyle....
Only child to accept and eat the fruit :)

Afterwards, we went to Darin & Sao's house to celebrate me, Darin and Grandpa Hiroshi's birthdays. But really, it's not about the adults, all about the kids. NaBloPoMo #10 (I know, kind of missed a week there. Well, I never promised to do it all.)

Grace's trip to LA

Grace Lee Boggs, our dear friend and mentor from Detroit, came to LA in April 2009. At 94 years old, she spoke at a couple of events at USC, and we attended an evening with Grace for young Asian American activists set up by John Delloro. It was great to see her and spend a little time with Grace. I think it was her first trip to Los Angeles since Maiya was 1 years old.

Playing elephant with Shea

Beautiful women

John, Nobuko and Corazon talk with Grace

Maiya bonding with Traci

I am late in sharing these photos... FB gets the news up so much quicker than I can. NaBloPoMo#9 is a chance for me to share these old pics.

R & Z's Bday

Another bday party last weekend. Cute Rockett (4) & Zoe (3) blow out their bday candles. Fun to run around the house after eating Park's Finest. Maiya says that Rockett likes to kiss, but no kissing at school. NaBloPoMo#8

Walking the HomeWalk

So this was me and Maiya's 2nd year doing the United Way HomeWalk, a 5K to raise money and awareness about homelessness in LA County. About 4,000 people participated in the walk, including Team LTSC. We got out of the house by 8:15 in the morning. It was pretty cold compared to last year, temperature maybe in the low 60s when we started.

Larry, Julie & Bill

Carried Maiya for the first block

This was an important statistic for me to share with Maiya

and explaining that 40% represents 4 out of 10

Also walked with Maria's family,

and hey look there's Grant on the left!

Maiya wanted to take a picture

with the guy who looks like daddy

And she wanted a picture with this lady

Signing our names at the end of the walk

So Maiya understands about homelessness from a 4 year old perspective. Her concern is that people who don't have a house might get dirty because they don't have a blanket and they have to sleep on the ground. But because we drive past hundreds of homeless people each morning on our way to her preschool and my work (Skid Row adjacent), she sees them everyday. But lately, she has observed that the homeless people that she sees are mostly all African American, and then also made a comment that she thought that the singer on her "Family Time" CD cover was also homeless (Ziggy Marley). So I have acknowledged that although most of the people we see in the mornings are African American, I have also tried to explain that 4 out of 10 of the homeless in LA are women and children, like me and her. I also pointed out a big poster on a truck during the walk about a man (who happened to be white) who got sick, spent all his savings, and became homeless. These are big concepts for a 4 year old, to be sure, but I think it's important that she learn that she has the ability to use her feet to walk to help the homeless.

Anyways, about the walk. It was fun. Maiya is always happy to see Larry, who she calls "Funny Guy." I was a little nervous about walking with Maiya because last year she rode in the stroller the entire way, and this year, we were going to be without a stroller. But, she did really well, I was actually impressed that she did so well. We found my friend Maria's family in the crowd, and walked with them a bit, and we were walking at a fairly quick pace. Then we'd catch up to the LTSC group, or she would run in between the two groups. Along the way, we also ran into our friend Grant and then towards the end we found Mike (both people we should/could have carpooled with). In the last 1K or so, she started losing it, wandering a bit and slowing down, playing with sticks in the ground, picking up rocks and leaves and acorns and things. So in the end, it was just the two of us.

After the walk, we hung around a bit, and then went to Tokyo 77 for a late breakfast. She ordered her usual, pancakes, bacon and syrup, no butter, and I had a Hawaiian Royal. Went home and I took a little nap in my comfortable bed, and then got up and took a nice, warm, and luxurious bubble bath jacuzzi with Maiya to soothe my tired feet. Grateful to have a nice home to come home to.

NaBloPoMo#7

Gasa Mama starts the day with Family Literacy

NaBloPoMo#6: This morning in the car as I rushed to drop off Maiya before going out to Downey for a training, I was telling Maiya what gasa gasa meant (it means busy). She said I was a gasa mama. My "day off" yesterday was a gasa gasa kind of day. First, Maiya & I went to our local library to celebrate First 5 LA's National Family Literacy Month with our Angelina Preschool Family Literacy program from work. It was part of the kickoff for the Read Early, Read Aloud program, and was an event which included readings by celebrities, including Constance Marie from the George Lopez show.

Maiya enjoying storytime for the first hour

LTSC Family Literacy program on the red carpet

My silly girl wearing her boa on her head

After the Family Literacy event, which seemed like a long morning, we went to drop off some dry cleaning next to the haircut place, first time in about a year, to find out that the dry cleaner is long gone, then went 2 doors down to CVS to look for sale item Halloween stuff but didn't find anything, quick poop stop at CVS. Still early for the haircut place, so we went next door to the little Hello Kitty type store and Maiya got to pick out some stickers. Then, finally at 12:30, got a much needed haircut--first time at a real haircut place (not Fantastic Sams or Supercuts) in years, then took Maiya to lunch at Mitsuwa. She ate an entire huge bowl of soba by herself. We were a little early for my haircut appointment, so we walked around the Japanese bookstore and Mitsuwa for awhile. Then off to my eye doctor appointment, during which time Maiya was getting a little punchy from all the errands. After that, we walked next door to the cake supply store, didn't buy anything, and then had to go back to the eye doctor for a 3rd potty stop, then had to go back to the cake store to look for Maiya's boa, which she had dropped, then went to the get gas, then went to a new dry cleaner by our house, then went next door to share a root beer float (Maiya's first root beer float). She didn't like the bubbles, but did eat all the ice cream.

Was kind of tired by the time we got home, mostly because we both needed a nap. Tony made some frozen ravioli for us with boiled arugula. Spent the rest of the night doing laundry, dishes, cleaning up the kitchen counters and wiping away all the dead and alive ants in our kitchen, quick shower, put Maiya to sleep (she fell asleep after only 1 book-no wonder), setting a new Bejeweled record of 170,000 and stayed up till 2am on the addictive FB. And there, in a nutshell, was my gasa gasa day off.

More Halloween Fun

Ready for Trick-or-Treat with Mommy!

Dinosaur on the prowl for some candy

Ran into Katie & Maddy a few blocks away

Dinosaur's loot

Be scary! Now give me a growl!

Even a dinosaur has to eat some dinner before candy

NaBloPoMo#5

Local Election Results

NaBloPoMo#4: One of the big reasons we moved to this city was for the schools, so I am encouraged by the results of Tuesday's election. I am excited that the Measure to directly support the schools that I voted for passed with 75% of the vote, and the 3 School Board members I voted for were the top 3 vote-getters. I think it was an all white and male school board previously, and now there are 2 women, including one woman of color with endorsements from people I know, two have a green agenda with a strong background of social justice.

Click for School Board results
Click for Measure EE results

And in other political news, last night I heard State Assemblymember John Perez speak in Little Tokyo. He was very impressive. I went to visit his office on Early Learning Advocacy Day in Sacramento a few months ago to get his support on early childhood education, but this was the first time I heard him speak.

Election Day & Nishi Halloween

NaBloPoMo#3: Don't forget to vote! My first Culver City election (Tony still registered in LA I think). Learning about very local politics is pretty interesting. It wasn't hard to figure out the people I support. I thought I would miss LA more, but actually I don't.

And here are some pix from Maiya's preschool Halloween. Again this year, of the girls' costumes, only 3 were non-princessy/girlish (Maiya-Dinah the Dinosaur), a lion and a Silver Surfer (comic character?). I'm pleased that my girl really wanted to be a dinosaur... yet another year that I dodged the princess bullet. So to the many who have told me that the princess phase is inevitable, it isn't. Not that Maiya doesn't like pinkish girly things, jewelry and dresses, but it's all a part of who she is, which includes the girl who turns maracas into numchucks (no thanks to all of Daddy's Bruce Lee YouTube sessions). But I am glad that I haven't yet heard, "Mommy, I want to be a princess."

Hikaru (Batman) and Rockett (Picachu)

LTSC/Nishi kids line up!

Dinah the Dino and Snow White

Teachers dress up too!

45

How the heck did 45 come so quick? Man, it is hump year... halfway between 40 and 50! For my birthday, went to Green Peas for dinner and then got my favorite dessert, and Organic Red Velvet Cake from Wood Cafe. Yum.

and there is NaBloPoMo#2!

Halloween Prep 09 - Part 1

NaBloPoMo#1: Well, maybe I "might" do NaBloPoMo09, but more likely I won't. I sure have plenty of photos to share. We took 116 photos this Halloween. So, I'll share a few of them here. If I post 4 photos a day, that would give me 30 entries over the next month.

This is the first year I bought Halloween decorations. Actually I bought some last year after Halloween. And since it was our first year in our new house, I spent a lot of time looking at Halloween decorations this year. Last Saturday, Maiya & I spent about 3 hours decorating our front yard. Alas, only 1 group of teenagers came to our house last night. I was pretty bummed about that. But, I will still do it next year because me & Maiya had a lot of fun, and we enjoyed putting on the lights every night the last week. Funny because I'm used to not being into stuff like Halloween. Nothing like living with a preschooler to bring back the fun.