The Pledge

Last night during dinner, Paprika surprised me with this little thing. I haven't posted a video of her in awhile, so I thought I would. If you've been reading my blog for long, you know that Paprika memorizes things the first (or maybe second) time she hears them. She's kinda funny that way. I haven't posted a video of her at her current age (3 years old), so I figured it's about time!

I have been having a lot of fun looking through old videos of her at various ages:

Age 1: Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Age 1: How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food

Age 2: Singing The Little Mermaid

Age 2: Reciting "The Big Honey Hunt"

Turning Into Pumpkins

I felt so much better after I got the whole story with our sleep situation off my chest last night. Like there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. A glimmer of hope that things can get better.

Last night was more of the same sleep-wise, and this morning I was really tired. So, while Paprika was at preschool, Mr. Mustard watched Ginger, and I took a long nap til noon. I woke up feeling refreshed and so good. It's amazing how much three uninterrupted hours of sleep can help.

Then, of course, Mr. Mustard was really tired (he was up editing all night at The Amazing Race last night)...so I decided to let him get some sleep, and I took Ginger and Paprika to the Aquarium today by myself. That gave him about four or five hours to sleep while we were gone. I guess we're sleeping in shifts now. Haha!



Paprika has this special thing with the divers in the tanks at the Aquarium. She walks up to them, has long conversations with them, and makes up stories about their lives. She imagines whether they like pastrami on their sandwiches, if they have brothers or sisters, just stuff like that.



Now that Ginger can walk, she is totally unstoppable. Anything Paprika can do, she wants to do, and faster. Paprika kind of pulls her around. She calls her "doggie" - like, "Come here, doggie! Be a good girl, doggie!" Paprika thinks Ginger is the ultimate sidekick.

Ginger has a really really loud voice, so much so that on two occasions today, two different people came up to me to tell me so. One said, "Wow, she really knows what she wants and she isn't afraid to let you know it!" The other person heard Ginger talking and thought a wild animal was on the loose. No joke.



So, this is my self-portrait from today. A bird landed on my head (a Lorikeet). I was carrying Ginger in the Ergo, and carrying my purse, and still managed to take a picture. I was mildly impressed with myself. Haha. ;-)



Paprika has lots of long conversations with the birds. She wants to know about their families, where they came from, what they had for lunch. And, of course, what they dream about.

At the end of the day, I said what we always say at the end of the day, and that is: "Guess who's turning into a pumpkin?" So, Paprika started asking people, "Hey, are you turning into a pumpkin like me and my sister?"



Ginger fell asleep on the ride home. So, I rolled down the windows all the way (it's cool here), and parked in the driveway. Paprika and I sat on the front porch and I read her stories while we watched Ginger sleep in her carseat for about an hour. I guess that counts as a nap. At this point, I'll take what I can get!

The Weekend

We had a busy weekend here. I gave Paprika a makeup set on Saturday, and she had so much fun using it. She loves wearing my makeup, so I figured that having a little set of her own would be right up her alley. Yup, she loved it and it was the highlight of her weekend, for sure.









Ginger is a terrible sleeper. I'm just going to come right out and say it! We're working on it, but man...she had such a hard weekend. She was NOT a happy camper most of the weekend because she was SO TIRED. Basically, if I am not holding her, she is not asleep. So, her naps are basically non-existent, and for a 13 month old, that isn't ideal. Not at all.

So, she was a little bit of a crab apple most of the weekend. She got in a few cat naps while I was holding her, which made everyone's life a little more bearable! Haha!

On Saturday night, we went out to a new restaurant, and it was AWESOME! It was just perfect for us...great food, and it was the kind of place you can get amazing food AND bring kids along (which doesn't happen too often in LA, or anywhere for that matter, I guess...)



I even got a picture of the 4 of us- I had the waiter take it after dinner. I should have had him take it BEFORE we ate...but c'est la vie, right?

After dinner, we all went to Michael's to pick up some craft stuff to do with the girls. When we were there, I started to feel violently ill and realized pretty quickly that the amazing food from the restaurant had given me food poisoning. Awesome.

And you know the funny thing? We had such a good time at the restaurant that I am tempted to go back again anyway...how crazy is that?! I think next time I will just order something different. ;-)

Getting In The Picture!

Last night I ordered a few prints of photos, and realized that we have almost zero pictures of the four of us together. Lots with three of us, and of course a gazillion of Paprika and Ginger...but out of the thousands of photos we have, there are about three photos of the four of us.

So today I decided to change that. From now on, I will be asking people to take pictures of us. Wherever we go. I have no shame. I have found that my "big camera" is a little bit too much to ask the random person to operate...so I am just bringing my little camera.

I figure that if we ask someone every time we go out, before long we'll have quite a little collection of family photos. Today was the start, and hey...it wasn't so hard!

Today was my day to work at preschool. I learned my lesson with the last time I worked (ketchup and mustard finger painting). I was the first one to call dibs on project tables this morning and got playdoh. Score! Someone else had to make blueberry pancakes...from scratch...with fifteen three and four year olds. I was the one drinking my latte this time. It was sweet! ;-)



After preschool, the four of us headed to the beach. We always go by the "90210 house" (where Kelly and Donna lived in college...please say you remember?). Today I took a picture:



It's on the market for $10.5 million dollars at the moment (gee, I wonder why no one is buying it?). Here is the real estate listing in case anyone's interested in snapping it up! Haha!



We went to the little Aquarium, and visited all the creatures in the touch tanks. Paprika wanted to take a few home with us, of course (but of course we didn't)!



We capped off the day at the ice cream parlour, where the ice cream is made fresh daily and is always so good.

Hmmmm...which flavor should I have?:



Oh yes, of course. Chocolate. With Rainbow Sprinkles.

Not a highchair in the whole place. Ginger had to make do with this chair. I think it suits her! ;-)

Paprika's Sunflowers

About three months ago, Paprika bugged me to buy her some sunflower seeds. So, I did. I put them on the kitchen table, and next thing I knew, they were gone. I wasn't sure where they had gone, actually. But pretty soon I figured it out.

Remember when I took out the dead tree in our backyard? Well, I filled in the hole with potting soil, and I guess she thought that looked like a pretty perfect place to plant the seeds. Good thinking...it worked!



These are Paprika's sunflowers. Imagined by her. Planted by her. Nevermind that she planted them all (about two dozen of 'em) in the same 12 inch by 12 inch patch of land. They are growing and thriving, and if you go down the slide too fast, you just might hit one!

Every time I see them, I smile at them. How can you not smile at a sunflower? Hello, summer!

It's Friday, Baby!

Today we spent most of the day at the beach. This morning I took Paprika on a little excursion to Sephora after all my eye makeup was...wait for it...found in the toilet. Ahem. I was not going to wear any of that eyeliner again.



Then we headed to the beach, the four of us. I am really loving that our new house is almost walking distance to the beach. I'm going to see about maybe getting us some bikes, because biking to the beach sounds like fun. I have wanted one of these for awhile now...but then again, we kinda live on a hill, so maybe I'm just liking the idea of it better than the reality? We'll see. Next thing you know I'll have bought a bunch of beach cruisers on Craigslist. That sounds like something I would do.



So, in the past three days, Ginger has started walking. Really walking. She is already a really adept climber. But now she is standing, walking, just the whole nine yards. Everyone keeps saying, "Are you ready for that?" And the truth is....I am sooooo glad she is walking. The crawling stage is just...how shall I put it?...not my favorite. She has had the desire to chase after her big sister for months, and now she has the ability to do it. She is so happy. How could I not be happy for her?



Ginger wants to do everything Paprika does. And today she did one more thing that her big sister does...



She went in the ocean.



She was not too fond of it, but I know she's been wanting to do it for awhile now, and in her daddy's arms...well, she seemed okay with that.

Paprika had a great time running around. She especially loves chasing seagulls. She could make an Olympic sport out of that one. She hasn't caught one yet...thank goodness!



Ginger helped make sandcastles, and then she got tired, so we decided to walk up the beach to the little Aquarium and visit the touch tanks and see the sharks.



And now it's the weekend. I have laundry to fold, and a lot of crayons to pick up...but at the moment, it seems like that's not going to happen. Or maybe I'll stay up until 3am doing it. There is just something so sweet about our weekend days in the summertime...I don't want to miss a second of them. Pure bliss!

Summertime!

This post probably should be called "Constant Vigilance" because sometimes I feel like that is the motto of my life at the moment. Or as Mr. Mustard says, "It's like herding cats."

Don't worry, I grabbed Ginger just as the photo was being taken...one second she's driving the car, the next she's standing up and dancing. She definitely keeps me on my toes. :-)



Today we spent 99% in the great outdoors, aka our backyard. I set up the baby pool, because you know...a hot day is about 110% better with a dip in your very own pool. Ginger was soooooo excited to hold the hose and help fill up the pool:




Then I set up a tent for the girls to use for shade. I have had this tent for ummmm...about 20 years. It's the same tent that my dad and I used to take camping. I have been hanging onto it for some reason or another, moving it from place to place. Now I know why I've held on to it for so long. The girls LOVED it with a capital L. It was their own personal fort.



And they promptly locked me out. Just kidding!



Of course we had to play on the playset and swing!



Wheeee!

The 4th Of July!

We had a great 4th of July! How 'bout you?



We stayed home and got the baby pools out, had some good food, and just enjoyed the beautiful sunny day.



In the morning, the girls painted outside (Ginger got so messy)- and Paprika did a lot of paintings.



We were going to go to the fireworks down at the beach, but by the time it was evening, we had already been playing outside for about 9 hours and we were all sooooooo exhausted! So we decided that we'd just wait and take the girls to Disneyland at the end of the summer...they do fireworks there every night!



Ginger even treated us soooo well yesterday by taking a 2 hour nap AND sleeping for 11 hours last night. Woah! That was really wonderful- so much better than her napping for 20 minutes and then sleeping 6 hours/night, which is what we're used to!

It was a great day of fun, family, and food...which I think is how Independence Day should be!