Fun at the Skirball

In January, I took the kids to the Skirball Center on a Friday afternoon.  It was Lauren's 3rd time and Willie's first.  They had so much fun running around in the very photogenic garden outside that they would have been satisfied even if we hadn't gone in!









But once we did, we got assigned to the 3:00 group, were given time stickers, and we waited downstairs, where Willie tried to infiltrate the display's security system to smash some ancient pots and pans.

Once inside the exhibit, the animal sculptures made of recycled materials are fascinating!

They loved running around playing with the stuffed animals (2 of each, of course)

Their favorite part, by far, was sweeping the rubber fake poop.  I would post a photo of that, but it looks so realistic, it's the kind of thing that might really embarrass them someday, so you'll just have to go there to see for yourselves!  

If you go:

Noah's Ark at the Skirball

   Hours

• Tuesday–Friday, 12:00–5:00 p.m.  
• Saturday–Sunday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
• Closed Mondays
  
  

  Admission

  $10 General

• $7 Seniors and Full-Time Students
• $5 Children 2–12
• Free to Members and Children under 2
• Free to all on Thursdays

Included with Museum admission

Disclosure: We were provided with free passes to get in this trip (thanks, MomsLA!), and we have also been there several previous times on Thursdays when it is always free. 

Homework Help

Willie decides he is tired of all this homework talk, so he's just going to help "Tister" do it himself!

But seriously, I do think she has way too many assignments. When I was in kindergarten, I don't remember having much, if any, homework. And if we did, it was probably something simple like "come back and tell us something in your house that starts with 'A'."

These nights, Lauren usually has to read for 5-10 minutes, practice "high frequency word" flashcards, do 2 pages of math worksheets, 2 pages of "word" worksheets. Tonight's were "circle the pictures that show a short i sound" and "trace, cut out "w-h-y and write a sentence using the word 'why' ". I wish she had written "WHY is there so much homework?" or "Why couldn't I be playing right now or doing anything else except this?".

And don't even get me started on the math homework. Because I did not understand the directions and had to have her skip one of the pages until Ryan got home. Even he had to read it several times before this sunk in: "Have children: 1-2 trace a line from each cube in the first column to each cube in the second column, count and trace each number, then circle the number that is greater; 3-4 repeat and then circle the number that is less."

KINDERGARTEN, people! Can't wait until a few years from now when she comes home and asks me to help her conjugate French verbs. Sheesh!

Mixed Emotions on the first day of Kindergarten

I saved this to drafts a few weeks ago.  Those are two shots from the 1st day of kindergarten and we're now a few weeks in.   For the most part, Lauren loves school and dislikes homework.  I can't say I enjoy it either, sitting with her and reading each line of direction, thwarting her stall tactics ("I have to go to the bathroom again.  It's just that my throat is SO DRY.  This is NOT the best pencil.  Could I maybe do this LATER?").  But we're managing!

Still, I see why "homework clubs" and tutors for little children are so popular.  I'd put helping with homework in that category of "things I'd love to outsource", along with scrubbing the toilet and installing car seats...What would you pay someone else to do if budget was not a concern?  Comments, please!

My, how they grow!

My baby is off to kindergarten this week, and I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic.  Her last day of nursery school was in July.  Here are 2 pictures of the same entrance, same kid, 3 years apart (It looks like a bad paint job covering up some tagging but that's just because I did some down & dirty 30-second photoshopping to take the school sign out!)

July 2008, first day of nursery school

July 2011, last day of nursery school

The Talented Ms. Lori Fusaro

Those photos are two of my favorites from our photo shoot 2 weeks ago with Lori Fusaro. She just came in #4 for Fox LA's Best Portrait Photographer. Anyway, she's awesome. I wanted photos that would look timeless in black and white, and you could look at them 100 years from now and not be sure if it was taken now or 30 years ago or when. And she is so great at accommodating whatever we have in mind whenever we do photos. If Lauren's eye clears up, we may be getting Christmas portraits done soon. If not, Lori is in for a lot of Photoshopping!

Fiesta Ballona with 'Lexa

Fashion shoot

Lauren models Ralph Lauren.

"Spirited Child", a 28 month Lauren update

Lauren's asleep upstairs right now, which is a minor miracle, since avoiding sleep has been one of her goals the past few days. She avoided a nap today. Yesterday, she fought it but then conked out at the dinner table while we were out having pizza with Meredith and Gary. When we got home, she kept asking me "what's the lady's name? Maiwy diff! I like Maiwy diff!"and then she put a blanket around her head and pretended to be Meredith. (No, Meredith does not wear a shawl nor have pink hair!)

She likes to pretend to be other people, and is fascinated with acting. She likes to pretend to be Leora ("I'm Wyder's mommy! I gots a baby bwother in my tummy!") or my lawyer, Dave ("I'm Davey, I got a tie on, see!") Today on the way back from Trader Joe's, we happened to walk past a play rehearsal at Media Park and stopped to watch part of it. She was completely captivated. We wanted to leave after awhile of standing up, holding grocery bags with melting food, but Lauren kept begging, "one more minute." We agreed to take her back to see the real performance.

"Sool" is going well. I'm trying to help her with pronunciation, so now she can call it "sss cool" but she usually slides back into the "sool" sound. There is one problem there though, she keeps pushing two smaller children, Dennis and Claire. Lauren tells me "I no like Dennis. He is yucky." With Claire, she just hugs too enthusiastically and ends up hurting her. Today at Ikea, Lauren got bad at a girl who took a toy she was looking at (of course, this was Ikea, they had a hundred more identical ones for sale!) so Lauren shoved her and then immediately stuck out her hand in a peace gesture and said "Sawwy. I sawwy" but the girl was scared and ran away.

Ikea, for Lauren, is this paradise that she loves to talk about and visit. She likes it even better than Disneyland. Actually, we went to Disney a few days ago and she had an okay time but didn't seem all too thrilled to have to wait on lines. "I'm ready. I want to go NOW. I'm ready right now. I don't wait. I can't do that. I go up there. I go myself." She also got very upset that she was not tall enough for certain rides, notably the swings. I would not have chosen to take her to Disney at this point in her life but my 13 year old cousin Elizabeth was visiting and wanted to go, and Ryan's cousin works there and could sign us in for free so we went.

Elizabeth was with us for a week and is now staying the second week with my parents. Lauren took a liking to her and tried saying "Zidabeth" and "Ezibadeth" and then after a few days, told her "you are Coco" and called her Coco the rest of the week. She wanted to sleep with Coco and when she was tired and cranky, she said "Coco, go home!" but then when Coco left, it was "Coco come back!" Other places we took Elizabeth (and of course Lauren): the Getty Center, Hollywood Walk of Fame & Mann's Chinese Theater, UCLA, Santa Monica Pier, Westwood, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Mulholland Drive, Greystone Mansion, and also she went on a Sony Studios tour with my mom. We were out driving in Bel Air when the earthquake hit, and none of us noticed it. The tram at the Getty was shut down when we arrived, though, and we had to walk to the top. At the top, we found out about the quake.

Lauren figures out the DVD player

Today I was on the phone with my lawyer, who called with some questions at the moment when Lauren & I were putting on her shoes to go outside & play. She said "outside, outside!" (which sounds like "outshyeed, outshyeed") and I told her "not now, I'm talking to Davey, we'll go outside in a few minutes". Then she got down, I thought she was reading her books or something, and I proceeded to talk to Dave while looking up dates in my calendar, phone #s, etc. So I wasn't given her much attention.

After I hung up, I looked over and found her sitting on the couch, watching Elmo! She had gone over, figured out how to turn everything on and hit play, and then climbed back on the couch and was sitting there watching by herself! I asked her about it and she was nonchalant. "Yeah, I turn it on."

The Line

I'm wondering how long I should do this blog about Lauren & her adventures. As it happens, the most interesting stuff can later become the most embarrassing things to her. And even the sweet, touching moments, I feel myself wanting to keep to myself. When she wakes up all warm and cuddly and says "my momma, my honey" it just makes my heart melt and it's great, but not in a way that other people necessarily want to read about. In the same way that I don't share "Ryan wrote me this really sweet email today..." and then the contents.

I could go on and on about how cute it is that she says "twoc late" instead of "chocolate" and she thinks that she should say "yes" in "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus" because after all, he did say "pweas". And that "pink makes me happy, I wuv pink". So maybe I will still write some of it, I almost can't not. But you don't get to know about some of the little private sweet stuff that she comes up with, like, okay, here's one one last time. Today we were lying down and she started talking about how she has, according to her, "Daddy's eyes, no, but brown eyes, I have brown eyes, Daddy's hair, Daddy's hair blonde, Daddy's lips, Daddy's nose." I asked her if she looked like anyone else and she thought about it for a minute and said, "Nonna's knees, Papa's feet." And then I asked her if she had anything like Mama, and she said "Ummm...Mama's ears" and then, thinking she might have hurt my feelings, she quickly added, "Pretty ears. Pretty Mama ears."

Sass

Today Lauren & I & Kate & Mina were outside of Starbucks when these 2 old ladies were admiring the babies. They were about 80 years old. One of them fussed over Mina and then reached out and touched Lauren's ringlets. Her response? She jerked back, swatted the lady's hand away and said "Bye-bye! Bye-bye!"

Then later tonight she tried to stick something into the VCR while Ryan was watching TV. He shouted out "Lauren, NO!" and she replied, "I don't need parents."

Why? A 23 month Lauren update

Lauren will be 2 in one month, and already, she's discovered the word "why". And also the words "can't", "don't" and "won't". And complete sentences. She actually had a conversation with my mom on the last day of our NY trip that went something like this "I talk. Before, I didn't talk. But I do talk. I can." Today she looked deep into Ryan's eyes and said "Daddy, I love..."(Ryan's heart melted)..."Jake!"

This month, we were visiting my parents when their friend Gerry stopped by to visit. My mother asked his advice about her lemon tree. He was in the middle of telling her about which branches she should trim when he took a step backwards and fell right into the pool. Lauren witnessed the whole thing, including him drying off his cell phone and taking ribbing from his wife and friends. At bedtime she likes to talk about everything that's happened that day, and that night, she kept asking me to tell the story of "Gerry, oops, pool" over and over again. The next day, she asked if he could come back and fall in again.

She got jet lag earlier in the week and woke up at 5:00 a.m. saying, "Mama, I *can't* sleep, I just *can't*! I'm *not* tired. " Luckily, that only lasted one day.

She no longer dislikes hats, and adores the attention she gets when wearing one. She also likes to pull one down over her eyes, and we pretend that she's then invisible. She has figured out that the baby pictures of herself are not in fact, Mina, but are "Low yen", and she loves looking at "more Lowyen veedyo, please!"

Her favorite books these days are Clifford, Maisy, and the Arthur series. and anything Sesame Street. If you want to hear something funny, ask her who lives in the trash can.

I'll have to post about the NY trip in a separate post, but she got some new experiences-namely, snow and giant fun parties with loud, dramatic Italian relatives. Which somehow she was able to nap during!

Lauren sees snow for the first time

Mines! A 22 month Lauren update

Lots of new things this month. One thing she likes to do is say "Mine's!" and grab something that is hers. She went from saying "yeah" last month to very clearly saying "yes" and from "thank YEW" to "thanks". Picture her in the living room when she wants me to get something in the kitchen. She will say, "This way. Hand. Hold." and give me whatever she's holding so that her hand is free to pull me where she wants to go. And then you need context for what she wants. "Elmo" in the kitchen means she wants the Earth's Best cookies that are in the Elmo box. In her room, it means she wants to wear something with Elmo on it."Elmo" in the living room means she wants to watch one of his DVDs. We maintain the myth that Mommy can't operate the DVD player so only Daddy watches DVDs with her. Except that recently, she's started showing me how. "Hand, this way, ON" and pushes the television on and then hands me the remote.

If she wants to leave, she will start to put on her own shoes, get her own purse or bag (shopping bag, gift bag, any bag she can find) and fill it with things she wants to take, usually her milk and some toys and a book. Then she'll stand by the front door and say "Open, please. Out!"

She is very interested in having a baby brother (no, I am NOT pregnant, let me reiterate) and will pat my belly and say "baby, please,". Her little friend Sophia has a new baby brother and we visited them in the hospital in November so ever since then, she's been especially interested in the idea of pregnancy and a sibling. She has no idea what the actual sibling would entail! And she's not getting one for awhile, but she likes to remind me that she wants one.

Oh, we do have a new member of the household, though! Ryan's mom bought Lauren a betta fish. Lauren named him Paco. But her nickname for him is Elmo. He's not too exciting but that's okay, if he was, we might be sad at his eventual demise. The lifespan of a betta fish is 1-3 years.

We got a new (well, used, but new to her)MacLaren stroller that she loves and wants to be in, except sometimes she'll be in a certain mood, more lately than usual, and she'll say "hip, please, Mamma" and want me to carry her on my hip. She likes to go "shoppin'" (she leaves off the "g" at the end of verbs) and threw a pout once when we had to leave Macy's. She likes to know everyone's name and for example at one of our favorite stores, she will name the salespeople, "Peter, Tony, Jessie, Monka" (Monka is Monica) as we're on our way there. At the store, any time she sees something a small baby would use, she will tell me "buy this. Mina. Katie." and it will invariably be something that is 1)expensive 2)not something Mina needs. However, she did find some socks once that Kate appreciated. And she actually picks out useful things to buy once in awhile, like a red spatula at Ikea.

In books, she likes to point to the minor characters and tell me who they are. One time in a Sesame Street book, I didn't know the name of one of the puppets so I told her, "um, let's call him...Michael?" and now when she sees this puppet, she says "Michael!" and she'll probably correct whoever tells her the real name. She still loves to read her books and Curious George books and any books about snow have been the favorites this past month.

Lauren mug shot

She was cornered and photographed last night. :)

Orange County Fair, the aftermath

 

Orange County Fair part 2

 
 
 
 

A Day at the Orange County Fair part 1

 
 
 
 

Ryan's favorite pic of Lauren

 

Taken last week. Last post for awhile, I think I'll finally go to sleep!

"Pipping" the BakingStation

 
 
 
 

She just can't help herself, and must rearrange the contents of the baking station every day. Wouldn't be a problem if there weren't some sticky, messy things in there, like molasses, and some poisonous-to-dogs things like chocolate chips. So she's been told by her Daddy not to do it, and tonight he attempted to put child-proof latches on the baking station doors. Didn't work. I'm sure tomorrow she'll pip it again!