Almost Too Adorable

One of my favorite finds for Christmas is this set of plates for Erika. These are regular sized usable plates with photos of the most adorable porcelain figures on them. Now if I could only find these porcelain figures somewhere. See http://www.popink.com/ for more kitsch.

Another stellar Christmas. The kids are at the perfect age for Christmas. We gave them a pop quiz on Christmas Eve about the Nativity and they scored nearly 100% and you can bet your bottom dollar that next year they won't forget what type of shrub yields myrhh. Erika fell asleep early, Christian stayed up a little later to leave cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer, and Juliet cried, ate, slept, ate, slept, cried, cried, ate and slept. We were lucky that the kids slept in until 7:00 a.m. before going out to see what Santa had brought them. They were delighted with their booty. Juliet got milk and she could not have been happier. Erika loves her Barbie head. I found the in-laid jewerly table on which it rests on eBay. You open the lid and a Reuge music box plays Arrivederci. We're afraid to leave the head in Erika's room. I wouldn't want to wake up and see that thing staring back at me in the middle of the night. Would you?

A month ago, Christian said Commander Rex from the Clone Wars was his favorite clone. So I bought, masked and painted this helmet in blue with Rex's unique horn markings on the forehead. Then three days before Christmas Christian announced that Commander Cody was his favorite - you know, Cody, with the yellow markings and yellow visor? Well, we can't have everything we want, can we? Christian opened the helmet and was so excited that any thoughts of a Commander Cody helmet vanished. For the purists, a comparison of renderings and computer images of Rex's markings lack continuity. I did my best with this helmet I bought at Target. And for those unfamiliar with AYBABTU, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf9Y--_aY70&feature=related for the original and some of its permutations. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us

I Spy

Meet our new friend, Elf on the Shelf. http://www.elfontheshelf.com/#/home He sees all, hears all, and takes notes. Each night he flies to the North Pole and reports to Santa whether the kids have been naughty or nice. Then he returns in the morning and finds a new perch to observe the kids. When we first introduced the kids to him they would walk straight into the room with their heads cocked to the left and their saucered-eyes fixated on him. The question "is he really watching me?" clearly dominated their minds. We asked the kids what we should name him. They chose Crumpet. Now Crumpet has become one of their best friends. They walk up to him at least once a day and tell him what they want from Santa. I think he's become a little too chummy with the family, and I suspect he's tapped our phones.

Give The Man A Medal

I don't know who the school's photographer is but he deserves a medal. Mind you, Erika is always beautiful to us but she is constantly pulling faces, pulling her eyes and cheeks down, and sticking out her tongue. She's always dancing, prancing, or slinking around the house too. So its nearly impossible to capture her pretty mug on film. Well, her school photographer has the magic touch. Its not a fluke either. When Christian attended Red Brick the same photographer took a picture of Christian with the most natural pose he's ever struck.

Erika's a comedian too. Her favorite joke? "Knock knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange don't like you but banana does, chicken crossed the road hahahahahahah!" Well, she thinks she's funny . . . and we think she's hilarious.

The Remodel

People have been asking how the remodeling is going. Here's The Before. And below is my Photochopped version of The After. Can't afford the real version of Photoshop? Then do as I do - buy a pair of scissors and a stick of glue. With a little care you can't tell the difference between my frugal method and the real Photoshop. I've added to the plans a horse stable on the lower right hand side, and a wedding chapel on the lower left because nothing adds a touch of class like horses, tuxes and wedding gowns.


Actually, the remodel is going very well. We're very pleased with the contractors and the pace is right on schedule. I'll take some photos soon and add them to the blog.

UPDATE: Yesterday Heather ran across the valley and shot a new pic of the construction. Our lair is shaping up nicely. Today they put up the walls and roof for the entry way so even this pic is out of date.

UPDATE: Here's a shot looking southwest. The scaffolding is up now. We hope to have stucco and cedar siding soon.

La Jolla Christmas Parade

It was a little cold and blustery outside this weekend. It threatened to rain but on the coast of San Diego such threats are usually empty. I dragged the kids to the La Jolla Christmas Parade. "Dragged" because Christian and Erika were too cozy in their warm pajamas to be bothered with cold weather. Heather and I pulled clothes over their nearly limp bodies and put shoes on of their floppy feet. I received no assistance from either one as I buckled them into their seats. Their mood improved once we arrived at the parade. The floats, ponies and marchers were all very nice but the most interesting spectacle was in the crowd; a uniquely La Jollan crowd. Nearly everyone had a toy dog under their arm, bling on their fingers and wrists, and large, obnoxious sunglasses on their noses (I should talk). I could have taken some Polaroids of the crowd or the parade but Christian and Erika's mugs are infinitely more pleasing to look at.

TMAG

Heather and I last saw The Morning After Girls in 2006 when they toured with Elefant and BRMC. Their first album was psychedelic gold. Apparently, they're putting the final touches on their next album. You can have a listen for free to one of their new songs at http://www.myspace.com/themorningaftergirls. There first album is posted there too.

Kindergarten Concerto

I came home and found Christian writing the final arrangements for his first concerto. Mind you, he's a kindergatner and he's never had a minute of music instruction. And kindergartners receive no spelling instructions (only "sight word" instruction). Christian thought of his own melody, titles, sounded out the words, spelled them as best he could, and wrote them down without any assistance. Above you'll find a copy of the first page labeled "Christians song and et es cold o I luv u" and a copy of the tenth page labeled "Last port uv Christian song nots." No one prompted Christian to write this song. He laid all ten pages out and played them by humming through grandma's faux horn. He may have misread a few whole, half and quarter notes but he did correctly change pitch (two pitches - high and low) just exactly as written. I know parents are often accused of gushing too much about their children's accomplishments, but hey, you must admit this was quite a feat for a musically untrained 5 year old. Put the Legos on hold, we're buying a piano.

Squanto Meets John Smith; A One Man Play

Christian came home from his school's Thanksgiving celebration with both Native American and pilgrim costumes. Loma Portal Elementary's meticulous attention to detail and dedication to historical accuracy resulted in these authentic, hand-sewn paperbag outfits. Christian said, "It's like 1621 all over again!" The school served Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, and cranberry sauce to which Christian said, "I want French fries."

Last year's announcement that Polaroid is discontinuing its instant film has forced me to use my use my stash sparingly. Hence, I sometimes take one Polaroid and a dozen digital shots of the same subject. Look at the two photos, I prefer the Polaroid, and I guess that's the difference between you and me.

Triplets?

Family resemblance? From top to bottom, Christian, Erika and Juliet. Triplets; one born every three years.

Point Loma Pirates

I came home today to find two pirates running wild in my living room. They held my TV hostage. Their list of demands? Access to their Halloween booty. I quickly responded with an "I'm outta here" and bolted to Rubio's for some fish tacos. Actually, Heather told me to go to Rubio's because 20% of every order made tonight went to the local elementary school. So from now on whenever Loma Portal attempts to extort money from me I can say "Hey, I bought five dollars worth of fish tacos for your school so back off!"

I shot this with my Polaroid land camera, flash bulb, and my last pack of color film. Then I darkened it slightly using Picasa 3.

Tiny Pugilist No Longer

Newborns always remind me of boxers; the puffy eyes, smashed noses, misshapen heads and the jab jab right hook combinations of their barely controllable arms say Jack Dempsey to me. Juliet is now officially out of the tiny pugilist phase. The swelling is going down and her features are starting to pop. Not that I have anything against boxers. I hope she never loses her uppercut.

Calico Critters Find a Home

A few weeks ago I completed a Boba Fett helmet for Christian. Now its Erika's turn. Heather suggested I make something for Erika's beloved Calico Critters. We went online and found some ideas for a diorama/playset (I don't know what to call it) and I had some scrap maple laying around. The pebbles, glitter and popsicle sticks for the fence all came from Michael's. The grass has a thin pad underneath it for a slightly cushy feel. The raised path is bondo covered with speckled paint. Erika was delighted. Next? A music box for Juliet.

Juliet Claire Nelson

Heather made it home around noon today with our new daughter. We threw out all hopes of finding an agreeable Danish name and chose Juliet Claire Nelson. Pretty, not trendy, fits well with Christian and Erika, and an overall good choice. Here's Heather and Erika doting over little Juliet.

Thrice is Nice

We celebrated Erika's third birthday on Saturday at J.W. Tumbles. I thought Mr. Tumbles was going to show up in the flesh for as much as we paid. Alas, his three assistants did an excellent job at capturing the imagination of the fifteen or so kids that came. Mimi, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Keith and Aunt Carol were all in attendance. Heather hoped to make an appearance but she just wasn't yet up to leaving the hospital yet. Under doctor's orders, she had to remain in the hospital reading baby name books for the umpteenth time until a name was found for our newborn.

[Insert Name] Nelson

Meet our new roomie! We love our new little [Insert Name], all 7 pounds 5 ounces of her. Born November 7, 2008 at 2:11 p.m. (a little more than a week early). Heather and Dr. Lim make a great team - another quick, epidural-laced, induced delivery. We have a pretty good idea of what [Insert Name] will look like as she grows because she looks nearly identical to Erika when she was a newborn. And don't you love her name?. . . [Insert Name]? Just adorable. Instead of trying to rush home for Erika's big birthday bash Heather opted to stay one more night at Scripps Memorial. The original plan was to celebrate Erika's birthday before the baby came, but plans can fall through and so often they do. So, I'm now in charge of Erika's Dora-themed birthday at J.W. Tumbles. I hear Mr. Tumbles himself is going to appear. What a weekend!

The Secret Machines

Scott L. and I went to see The Secret Machines last night at the Belly up. Let's say it was a little difficult to get through. Real shame too. There first two full-length albums are amazing, the third album. . . not so amazing. The first two concerts I saw - also amazing. The third outing (last night), you guessed it - not so amazing. I expected them to intersperse a few clunkers from their new album between their more popular songs. However, they played their worst, most plodding, never-ending songs for 45 minutes straight. Everyone around us was thinking "Okay, the next song has got to be a good one" but the good ones rarely came. They started late too which is always annoying. By midnight half the crowd had left. We left early too. The new guitarist was good, and the drummer is always great to watch but they clearly chose to play what they wanted instead of what the audience wanted. What a bust.

All Hallows Eve

Happy Halloween. Our neighbor Denise threw a pizza party before trick or treating. Then we hit a few dozen houses before calling it quits. I made Christian's helmet out of paper maiche, and Heather assembled Erika's kitty outfit.

Please Don't Eat Me

Erika is clearly praying that Br'er Fox doesn't take a bite out of her. Click on the photo and look at those upturned eyebrows. She's obviously thinking "Show no fear, they can smell fear, show no fear" while Christian politely smiles and thinks "Yeah, not my favorite character, where's Mickey?" Summer 2008, Disneyland.

Rrrriiiiiiiiiiight

Christian came home from school last year wearing this headdress. My automatic reply was, "Reaaally? We pay real money for him to go to this school, don't we?" I'm just being sarcastic. Actually, I love this, this, this whatever it is. I've asked Christian and Heather and neither of them can explain it to me. A pineapple? A witchdoctor? Or is his face escaping from the mouth of a muppet? Is it even rightside up? I dunno but I love it. Even better is the matter-of-fact expression on his face. "Yeah, I made this, take it or leave it."

Swimming at Descanso Gardens

If you've never been to Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge, then go. Great cafe, a nice little shop, and beautiful gardens. http://www.descansogardens.org/site/home.cfm Its easy to pass an entire afternoon walking through the gardens or watching the children ride the enchanted railroad. Tired of looking at plants? Then do as Christian did - take a swim. We began our afternoon by ordering lunch. As Heather made the order, Christian played on the rocks around the pond until kersplunk, he fell headlong into the pond. The whole thing happened in slow motion. A woman next to him jumped in up to her leg right after him and dragged him out of the water. With no change of clothes I took Christian out to the parking lot, stripped him down in the van, wrung out his clothes, and laid them out on the hot pavement until they were just barely damp. We returned to the scene of the accident to snap the top shot. Still chilled but happy to have survived the dunk, Christian agreed to preserve the moment on film forever. When asked about it now he says "It really, really, really was not fun." I tried to find that heroic woman who plucked him from the murky depths and buy her lunch but she was long gone. The second shot of Grandma and Grandpa was taken in Pasadena at about the same time as our trip to Descanso.

Monster Bash Bashes Nelsons

Loma Portal Elementary had its annual Monster Bash on Friday night and the Point Loma Ward had its annual chili cook-off/costume contest/pumpkin carving contest/cookie contest on Saturday night. The two events had several things in common - costumed kids, contests, and lots of mayhem. The kids couldn't get enough of the chaos. Star Wars characters were big this year as evidenced by the many store bought costumes. The new Star Wars/Clone Wars cartoon spawned a lot of, well, clones. Christian was the only X-Wing Pilot which made him a star. Last year Christian donned a space shuttle suit because he wanted to be an astronaut. Then he realized that space shuttle astronauts wear the same uniform as Luke Skywalker as he destroyed the Death Star in Episode IV, A New Hope (better known as the first Star Wars). Add a light saber, gloves, snowboots, sidearm and a paper maiche helmet and the costume was complete. He received high praise for having a homemade costume. Erika pretends to be a kitten 90% of the time so her costume choice was easy. A long-sleeve leotard from Capezio, whiskers, tale, and ears were like catnip to her. Heather manned the photo booth from 7:30 to 8:00. For a measly 8 carnival tickets, I paid her to take the two photos above. Now its Sunday and our ears are still damaged from two nights of screeches, screams and howls.

Fun With Boba

With the paint barely dry, Christian donned the helmet and immediately threatened to permanently encase Erika in carbonite. Mom, you can learn more about carbonite here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonite

Boba Fett Fini!

Boba Fett is finally complete. I found the plans at: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-cardboard-costume-helmet/ . The paint was the hardest part. For the purists, yes I know the paint is a little different from the original. There's no rangefinder either but hey, how long do you think the cardboard rangefinder would have lasted with my 5 year old?

May It Never Go Away

If your a big fan of the sun like I am, then check out:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/the_sun.html

I hope it never finds another planetary system it likes more than ours. That would break my heart.

Snowy Surprise

When Christian was 2 1/2 his world revolved around Thomas the Train. I only have myself to blame. No, I take that back. I blame Heather one hundred percent. Sure, I made him a table for his train set but she bought him those incessantly cheerful Thomas videos. His favorite? Thomas' Snowy Surprise. He must have watched that plucky Thomas pull his friends out of an avalanche a dozen times before a lightbulb went off in his head - baby powder looks like snow. He dumped an entire bottle all over his train set and down the front of his outfit. Thomas' Snowy Surprise just became Mommy's Snowy Nightmare. Actually, it was so funny that we couldn't stop laughing during the "perp walk" (when we snapped this photo).

Sand In My Shorts

Today I came home to a pile of sand at the top of the stairs. No one loves sand more than Erika. A day at the beach or the playground always yields enough silica to construct a dozen solar panels. It just pours from her shoes, her clothes, her ears and her hair. No wonder really. The first thing she does when she comes in contact with sand is to hug it as if it were her favorite blanket. After a lengthy embrace, she begins sampling it with her tongue - "Hmmm, this brand of sand may be light in color but bold in oceany goodness with strong Maui notes and a hint of Cabo. A very fine blend indeed." She has to brush her teeth less when she samples sand and I suppose it supplies some good dietary roughage too.

This Polaroid Land Camera shot was taken in Laguna Beach, Summer 2007, when Erika was about 1 1/2.

Another Holgarific Post

Here's another Holgaroid taken maybe two years ago. Christian and his cousin Annicka at Mimi and Papi's cabin in Mt. Shasta. Okay, so the tree and the house are crooked and Christian's foot disappears at the bottom of the photo. To those unfamiliar with the Holga you might ask why so many obvious mistakes? Any amateur with a digital camera and a little sense could frame a better photo. Well, there is nothing automatic with the Holga. Funny enough, it does have a switch for day and night settings but if you take it apart you learn that the switch is not connected to anything. Flip the switch and nothing, I tell you nuttin' happens. Also, the viewfinder is mounted on top of the camera and does not look through the lens. Even if it did, the Polaroid back covers the viewfinder.

Remember the basement scene from Silence of the Lambs where Clarice is in pitch black and the serial killer Jame Gumb is stalking her with night vision goggles? Gumb sees Clarice stumbling around, eyes dialated, shaking her gun in front of her. Well, that's how it feels to shoot with a Holgaroid. You're never sure what your aiming at and you're lucky if you shoot anything at all.

Pretend

Here's another old Polaroid of Erika. Today she pretends to be a cat, or a dog, or a baby jaguar - all reasonable things to pretend. However, when she was two years old she used to pretend to be dirty laundry. At least that's what I figured. What else can explain the constant fascination with laying in the laundry basket?

Storm Trooper Love

I know there's been a lot of posts about Star Wars lately but let's face it, The Clone Wars just debuted on the Cartoon Network and Thomas the Train is so yesterday. Christian drew this today entirely from memory. Oh, you don't think Strom Troopers carry lightsabers on their belts? Well, this just happens to be Luke dressed as a Storm Trooper from "A New Hope", silly.

Bespin On My Mind

Heather and I just finished reading Christian the mind numbing novellete "Crossfire." He loved every minute of it. Ask him what its about and he'll say "Jango Fett is dead and his son Boba finds himself on the toxic planet Raxus Prime under the control of Count Dooku (aka Tyranus) and his henchmen Cydon Prax. Boba escapes with the aid of CT-4/619 and CT-5/501 who work for General Glynn-Beti. Boba adopts the alias Orphan Teff and befriends Garr. Glynn-Beti and his padawn Ulu Ulix show Boba around the starship Candaserri. After a failed spacewalk, Boba abandons the Candassari at Bespin and confronts Aurra Sing the bounty hunter who stole his ship. Aurra knows where Boba's father Jango hid his treasure but can't open it without Boba's DNA so the two reach a tet a tet. The End." Sound clunky? Christian's recitation is sheer poetry compared to the actual book.

Owen Magic Supreme

I own several Owen pieces. I hope to periodically catalog a few of them in this blog. If you're interested in high quality collectible magic, then tune in. Here's a link to their website.

http://www.owenmagic.com/

Go To Bed Already

Christian and Erika have always been good at going to bed. They're great sleepers too. But like vampires they come alive at night. At least vampires stop when you drive a stake through their hearts. Not so with our two Lucha Libre stars. The darker it gets the more they run, chase, and bump into each other. Meanwhile, our energy levels are plummeting. Christian has lifted the lyrics from "Last Day of Magic" and labeled Erika "little tornado" while calling himself "little hurrican-o", and the hours between 6 and 8 p.m. are official disaster zones. Oh, you think reading a bedtime story might calm them down? By the second page they're tickling each other until someone loses their breath. By page three someone is in a wrestling hold. Thank goodness they can drag themselves to bed because we can barely lift a finger by the end of the story.