the adventures of ander & zaza

At the 'Fu

2012-02-01T20:40:00.000-08:00

(in the cafe)

(we got sidetracked from Harry Potter by "Make 'Em Laugh")

Walking Back from the Library (They Watched Scenes from 'Singin' in the Rain' in Theater Arts Today)

2012-01-30T17:29:00.000-08:00

Sunday Is...

2012-01-29T17:18:00.000-08:00

four crazy-haired people in our suddenly too-small bed watching Brian Selznick and automatons on Sunday Morning
lox, bagels, cream cheese, and bacon (???) on the back patio
pogo-sticking and kumquat-eating on the back patio (who knew kumquats were so...astounding??? [ander, apparently, as he has saved his money to buy a kumquat tree...])
slices of fresh-off-the-tree lemon in ice water (with a flexi straw and bright aqua-blue paper umbrella)
four shiny quarters added to her piggy/elephant bank (allowance day):

homework:

tetherball (thank you Auntie Nicole and Uncle Alan!) with Dubbadad:

putting away groceries that I didn't have to enter a store to purchase (thanks, Dubbadad!)
folding laundry
changing out of my PJs at 4 to play soccer in the front yard (final score: Aliza 5, Mommy 3)
getting a most-excellent 2-lotion hand massage from Aliza
watching the boys play Little Big Planet (is it any wonder that Ander's Sack Boy has a moustache?)

Eyebombing Raid 4 (Near His School Again)

2012-01-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

(ander's)

Reminding Me Why I Love Her School

2012-01-27T18:50:00.000-08:00

...on the walls of the music room...

...where Aliza's class had come to watch this (as part of a discussion about mobiles, and the intersection of art and science):

Eyebombing Raid 3 (Near Her School Again)

2012-01-26T22:24:00.000-08:00

(mine, in the drive-up/pick-up line at Za's school)

(Zaza's, in the school parking lot)

Making its Way Across the Country

2012-01-26T22:22:00.000-08:00

Eyebombing Raid 2 (Around Ander's School)

2012-01-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

(mine, 'bombed' on the way to serving hot lunch)

(aliza's, bombed on the way to pick up Ander, using new Valentine's eyes)

(mine)

(zaza's)

Eyebombing Near Zaza's School (Their First Raid)

2012-01-24T23:07:00.000-08:00

(Ander's, on the shipping container at the end of the playground)

(Zaza's, on the pay-phone outside Ralph's)

(Zaza's, also outside Ralph's)

Thanks to jessica for tipping us off...

Immersed in Time-Tangled Photo Files

2012-01-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

(in-mirror self portrait, by Aliza, the near-past)

I surface hours later, to find that the light has changed, I'm starving, the dryer has stopped, and it's time to go fetch those now-outrageously-overscale children.

Perspective (Whilst Reflecting on Strange Gifts)

2012-01-17T13:18:00.000-08:00

I thought about this all day yesterday:

That I'm weirdly thankful for this little blight we've been experiencing.

Because, just as in the cases of so many other ever-evolving day-in-day-out non-events, I can't remember the Last Time. In this case, I was wracking my brain trying to remember (re-see, re-feel) the last time I washed Aliza's hair for her. And I couldn't remember. Because those lasts go out not with a bang but a whimper.

the Last of the sippy cups (most recently used as bedside water bottles) went to the Goodwill over the Winter Break...

At some point Aliza was able to dump a bucket of water over her own head. A bit later she was able to swim, and understood not to stand in the tub, and was safe to play (with the door open) in the tub alone. My quick trips out of the bathroom to fetch pajamas and turn down beds, became full-on dinner-dish-washing sessions while she played in the tub or Ander read to her. At some point she switched to showers (when???), and was able to dry herself, get her pajamas on, and brush her own teeth. Alexander of course had been doing all this on his own for a while (when did that start???). I was able to finish the dishes before their bedtimes, and even put a load of wash in, or (more likely) check my e-mail before heading off to read stories.

Now and then, when she needs a little pampering (okay, babying) after a trying day, she will ask me to come in and wrap her in a towel, pat her dry, rub lotion into her arms and legs, comb her hair, put it in a towel-turban.

But for the most part I have oh-so-gradually been subtracted from the bathtime-to-bedtime equation.

And I didn't even notice the Last Time when it whimpered into oblivion.

So this past week, despite all the ick and the sore scalps and the endless laundry and the upholstery-cleaning and the car-detailing, I have tried to appreciate the Gift of the Comb-Out.

This past week I have been added back into the equation.*

I get to massage their heads with organic-homeopathic-herbal concoctions. I get to sculpt silly soapy hairdos: a giant Cindy Lou Who vertical spout for her, two owl-like horns for him. I get to rinse and comb and rinse some more, running my hands over the once-visible topography of their scalps, and the whole time we're sitting in our happy-tiled bathroom with the space-heater blasting, and Aliza is asking me to tell her stories about each place I lived growing up.

I am with them, so close, in a peppermint-scented, terry-cloth-wrapped, green-tiled time machine. I have stolen time. I have received a do-over, or at least a do-again.

I tried to explain this to Alexander last night -- how grateful I am for this inconvenience. And I told him about a time when Aliza was maybe a week or two old, and Dubbadad and I were riding in an elevator at the hospital, me carrying Aliza in my arms, the three of us on the way to her first check-up. We were probably chatting about her belly button stump or cradle cap or something. The elevator stopped at a floor below our destination, and another two parents and a child got in. It was hard to tell if the child was a boy or girl, and he or she could have been five or could have been ten. I felt that she was a girl. I think she was bald, but I'm not certain now. But I do remember that she was tiny, and wearing a yellow hospital gown, and that she was pushing her own I.V. stand, and that she walked like every step hurt, and that her parents looked so tired and maybe also a little furious with the world. Dubbadad and I made room for them in the elevator, moving closer to each other and to Aliza, and we all stood in silence until we got off at our floor. I'm pretty sure I was crying by the time we got to the door of our pediatrician's office. Cradle cap, really?

Lice, really? I said to Alexander, and he held my hand, and understood.

* (For twelve-to-fourteen days anyway, depending on where we are in the life-cycle of the Cursed Louse.)

If There's One Thing I Have Learned from This Past Week's Mini-Ordeal...

2012-01-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

...it's that we have too many pillows.

(this isn't even all of them)

Bindis and Welding Goggles: All Ready for a Walk Down Melrose

2012-01-16T23:28:00.000-08:00

Rediscovered

2012-01-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

Old projects (some unfinished), stored in a favorite vintage suitcase.

"Diyery"

Transl:
Introducing Dr. Gizmo's Book of Wonders!
Welcome to the World of Wonders,
where all magic was born.
Now prepare for all the magic and
Beasts you are about to encounter...
(it was empty!)

They don't make these anymore...
In 2009 I was looking for an alternative to Barbie,
hoping to redirect what I thought would be an inevitable phase.
I found Jun, a 'Juku Couture' doll, at Target.
She's only 9" tall, incredibly posable (ball jointed),
realistically-proportioned (ahem), and came with twelve pieces
of mix-and-match harujuku-inspired clothing.
Aliza had ab-so-lute-ly no interest in her.
Until today.

What I Found in the Scarf-and-Glove Bin After I Told Them I Had Lost It

2012-01-16T10:18:00.000-08:00

Between Breakfast and Lunch

2012-01-14T16:22:00.000-08:00

While Zaza Gymnasticked

2012-01-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

I wish I had learned math the way he is learning it. I had no idea there was an Egyptian method of multiplication... (this is not it, above, by the way)

An Adventure We Managed to Avoid for 10 Years (or: Why Oh Why Did We Have to Come Back to School Last Week?)

2012-01-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

(You don't mind that I didn't make this an extra-large photo, right?)

...as documented by Ander's first home-made 'prepared' slide
(made with clear nail polish as the bottle of resin had solidified)

Sometimes, When They're Not Here, I Leave This Window Open All Day

2012-01-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

I scrolly-scroll-scroll as I pass with an armload of laundry.

Or I just leave a favorite picture up.

I'm such a sap, I know, but still.

(I wish we had three weeks of Winter Break...)

His Latest ATC

2012-01-07T17:08:00.000-08:00

Thirty-One Faces
Ink on Parchment
(my favorites are the two at the bottom, in the middle)

Inspired by this puzzle by Bajo, which I found on-line and showed him (because I knew he would have loved it when he was five):

First Thursday of the Month

2012-01-05T19:02:00.000-08:00

They split a mac n' cheese and a cheddar & apple grilled cheese. I had a Border Grille burrito. It was cold, and Aliza's morale was flagging (she had a bad landing in gymnastics tonight). Thus, we took our foil-wrapped nom-nom-ables down the block to Starbucks, where a Christmas gift card bought us warm drinks and whoopee pies (the purchase of which made me feel okay about plunking our food truck grub down on their tables).

While Others of Us Cleaned Out Turtle Tanks and Poured Cement for Tether Ball Sets and Cleaned Out Dollhouses and Did Research for a Project on the Muppets

2012-01-02T22:51:00.000-08:00

inspired (and largely borrowed from) this Klutz animation

His first foray into doing stop-motion using his new camera and iMovie (this will likely be re-shot tomorrow on an actual set of bookshelves, with better 'falling' sequences, and some sort of framing device)

The First Day of 2012

2012-01-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

Evidence
They both made it to midnight,
and then proudly, but floppily, crawled into bed.

We were overdue for a hike.
(The weather has been frustratingly gorgeous. Despite our pretending otherwise, holed up in the house, wearing sweaters, eating toast in front of the fire.)
We paused for a bagel sandwich and honey-crisp apple lunch.

Like Miss Rumphius
'Za sprinkled California Poppy seeds along the way

Watching stop-motion shorts
made by small groups of students in Ander's claymation class

Also today:

Dubbadad used the trombone cleaning kit Zaza made him for Christmas
Zaza interviewed Grandma about her childhood in Brooklyn for an on-going class project
we all watched "The Man in the White Suit"
we ate home-made (twice-fried) french fries and sweetly puckery key lime pie

We're off to a good, good start...

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T22:37:00.000-08:00

A golem formed from Thinking Putty

Ander used Google Translate to look up the Hebrew characters for truth
to inscribe on the putty creature's head.
When this failed to bring the golem to life, Ander thought and thought,
and finally concluded that it hadn't worked "because I'm not a rabbi."

Pfeffernusse and Peppermint Joe-Joes; glasses awaiting sparkling cider and champagne
After a cheese fondue dinner and New Year's baths, Dubbadad made a fire,
and we lazed around the living room, reading, while Dubbadad tuned
(and played, and played) Za's new lap-harp.

A wedding gift (oh so long ago) from Dubbadad's brother
(they look like skulls here, but they're actually dapper fellows wearing top-hats and monocles)

Ander's resolutions
translation:
"remember that my sister is 3 years younger than I am, and cut her some slack"
and
"be mindful and focused and exert some control over my body"

Zaza's resolutions
translation:
"speak up and have my own opinions"
and
"tread lightly: remember that I share this house with others who may want to sleep in"

The Rest of the Day Went Something Like This

2011-12-30T20:24:00.000-08:00

"It's Time to Light the Lights..."

2011-12-30T13:19:00.000-08:00

morning in (pre-tourist) Hollywood

heading into the last week of its run at the El Capitan

in the movie, the El Cap stands in for the Muppet Theater

Aliza's shirt arrived after Christmas,
but just in time for today's outing

Ander's (older) shirt was Sesame Street-related

everybody got a jingle bell bracelet with their ticket,
and we jingled along -- as instructed -- with the live Muppet sing-along
(for the finale, they made it snow in the theater)

"it's time to get things started..."

afterwards, we visited props in the basement

jim, and the Standard Rich and Famous Contract on Kermit's desk

Miss Piggy's backstage makeup table

we've been waiting to go, until after all the fuss of the opening weeks,
and until we could go with these lovely people

Dubbadad provided curbside drop-off and pick-up service
(we may have picked up a hitchhiker at Mickey's Soda Fountain)

It was so worth the wait, and so worth seeing at this theater.

I laughed until my mascara ran during the chickens' rendition of "Forget You."

My masacra may have run for other reasons altogether when -- at the end of the film -- the Muppets leave the theater and walk out onto a fan-packed Hollywood Boulevard...

Observed

2011-12-29T17:49:00.000-08:00

Less Adventurous

2011-12-29T16:39:00.000-08:00

we walked to Golden Apple, and visited Maya, Japan L.A., and T.A.G. on our way home

The Last Time

2011-12-28T18:18:00.000-08:00

November 2003

December 2003

Per the Winter Break To-Do List: Downtown-via-Subway

2011-12-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

one forgets that there is a Downtown, complete with tall buildings

we took full advantage of the Pershing Square farmer's market:
horchata, fresh pineapple juice, and...

...cinnamon almonds (we went back for a second cone of these)

our destination: "Downtown on Ice"

we meant to get there for the first (less busy) session,
but no, we were out there with the masses, in the blazing noon sun

she loved it, and wants to go back tomorrow,
and the next day, and the next day...

the Los Angeles Central Library:
we checked out books on Jim Henson for Aliza's school project,
and had a hold put on a book for Ander about carving gargoyles
(it will be sent to our favorite local branch)

cream puffs and boba at Beard Papa

The Eighth Night: Laughter and Light

2011-12-27T21:54:00.000-08:00

Singing, dancing, hide and go seek, good wine and better latkes, home-made ice cream sandwiches, candles and oil, contagious laughter...

Thank you, thank you, Mishpukhe B!!!

She Slept in the Back Bedroom from Her Birth in 1931 Until She Left to Be Married

2011-12-26T22:40:00.001-08:00

Mary is eighty years old.

Her father purchased our then five-year-old house in 1926.

This afternoon, Mary's very brave daughter (electric-blue sweater, magenta scarf, twinkling eyes, back-swept greying hair) opened our front gate, walked up the sidewalk, and -- catching me on the front steps -- said okay, this is strange, but her mother had grown up in this house, and was in fact waiting in the car, and if it wasn't an imposition, she would love to see the house.

And then there was Mary (with the same twinkling, crinkly eyes), resplendent in a red track suit and matching red earrings, and we were shaking hands and laughing, and I was apologizing for the post-Christmas mess, and then we were walking through the house and yard and back through time and we were all so excited you would have thought this was a sprawling 300 year-old manor house and not the wee Spanish-style bungalow it actually is.

Mary remembered sweeping the front patio, and that the mailbox was on the wall where we have hung our house numbers. Somebody added the mail slot in the front door after her time in the house, but the door itself, with its leaded glass, is original.

There was a baby grand piano right when you came in the front door! Her father's chair faced the fireplace. Their Christmas tree always went to the left of the fireplace, and eventually this was where the TV was placed. The only heat for the whole house came from one floor grate in the living room which Mary remembered standing over. I told her we revived the old furnace when we moved in (the previous-to-us owners had relied on a wall heater in the dining room which we had yanked out), but that the furnace was disconnected and the grate was eventually removed when we added central heat and air and then re-did the floors a few years back.

The front bedroom was her brother's. He was a big chess-player, and there was always a board out in his room. Back then, there was only one closet door in the wall where today two closets pass right through, linking Aliza's bedroom to ours.

Her parents slept in single beds in the room that is now Dubbadad's and mine. Their matching headboards rested against the wall where we have a bookcase. There was a dressing table between the windows, and a bureau where our massive California King headboard now rests.

The bathroom is almost exactly the same, except there was a mirror and no medicine cabinet over the sink. Mary and her daughter were ecstatic to find the tile and arched tub and shower alcoves untouched.

Mary remembered that her father kept his hats -- and later his Saturday Evening Posts -- in the skinny hall closet. There had been a long rug in the hall, another in the dining room, and another in the living room.

Of course there was no half-bath in the back bedroom. Ander's room was Mary's, and her headboard rested against the wall which is now interrupted by the door to the 1/2 bath. Her dressing table stood between the windows, and her bureau stood where Ander's bookcase stands today.

Their dining room buffet stood where ours does, and they also had a rectangular dining room table, though theirs was mahogany, and they almost never sat at it for meals.

Most meals were eaten in the breakfast room. I could tell she was a little sad or even miffed to see that the arched door to the breakfast room is gone, as is the second window in there, and that it has become our office/laundry. In fact, the whole kitchen sort of stopped her in her tracks. Her kitchen was much smaller, with a wall almost bisecting the space we have now. Their larger service porch housed the washer (there was no dryer), refrigerator, and deep sink. There was a broom closet in there too (which is now the half bath). In the kitchen proper, the stove was where our sink is, and the sink is where our stove is.

The agapanthus plants in the front -- which she called Lilies of the Nile -- are part of the original landscaping, but the oak (and the sycamore in the back yard) are not. The bottle brush eucalyptus was always there by the driveway, but there had been many many more all down the street, planted by the City. Mary's family planted fruit trees all along the street side of the house, and a peach tree in the middle of the backyard, surrounded by a Victory Garden. She grew potatoes in the side yard where we have the lemon tree. There was a hibiscus bush near the back steps -- the camellia by Ander's window was not there when she lived here. Her family also had a swing-set, but it was on the opposite side of the back yard as ours, near where we have a fountain. She remembers helping her uncle put in the patio, brick by brick, when she was ten or so. Where we have our swing-set, they had three clothes-lines, attached to their garage on one side, and the next door neighbor's garage on the other. There weren't all those thick stucco walls in back either, just low chain-links, with a back gate at the foot of the back steps, and access to the sidewalk from there.

She was delighted that the doorknobs and fireplace and windows and patios had been left alone.

She remembered walking everywhere -- to the Farmer's market and Canter's.

She remembered that they had some sort of device that let them record their voices onto 78 rpm records, right there in their own home.

Mary's mother's name was Harriet, but her real name was Henrietta Martha Marie (best. name. ever.), and she always wore dresses and lipstick, and she made lemon meringue pies, and she lived in the house from 1926 until she died. We told her we sometimes come into the house and smell ladies' powder, and she smiled, and said her Harriet always wore Coty face powder, the kind that came in the round cardboard box, that you put on with a puff. Her father lived here until 1971, when he moved into a retirement home, and the house was sold.

We exchanged contact information, and I took her picture in front of the house. There's so much more I want to ask her, now that the show-and-tell is finished. I wish she had stayed for tea, and told us all about what the neighborhood had been like. Did she ride the Red Car to Santa Monica and dance to the big bands? Did she go to baseball games on the land that is now the CBS studios? How did she meet her husband? Was she happy here? (I think she was...) What was on her dressing table as a young girl? What color was her bedspread? Did she love how the light changes in that room? (I known I do...) And is the dining room light fixture original to the house? (If it is, it is suddenly way more attractive.)

12-25-11

2011-12-26T00:32:00.000-08:00

the thermos? TOTALLY empty!
(and there's a white [beard???] hair on that mug! zoom in!)
(and the lettuce bowl? on the FRONT LAWN!!!)

stocking time
(freed from Ander's room where they were penned up until Poppy and Grandma arrived)

she went and fetched her new willow wand to try out the spells

perfect, perfect reaction
(she was so proud)

Christmas crackers and Hanukkah gelt
(best cracker joke: "What's the best thing about snakes? They've got POISONALITY." POISONALITY!!! LOVE!)

breaking for brunch

aka 'Endless Brunch
(which -- after the eggs and bacon are consumed -- becomes a buffet of pastries and bagels, to which cookies and sandwich fixin's and pasta salad and gingerbread cake are added as the sun crosses the sky... we had reheated Dutch Babies for dinner!)

showing Grandma her new Audrey Hepburn book

a crash-course in microscopy from Poppy

building the Knight Bus

building the Playmobil pyramid (it took him over an hour)

Ollie was in MY stocking

appropriate biscuits were nibbled whilst watching The Christmas Special

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T23:39:00.000-08:00

for her giraffe-loving brother
(plaster strips over a doctored horse mold)

custom spell-book for his sister
(inking the Brother Banishing Spell)

watching the NORAD Santa-Tracker

poor, neglected Advent Elf
(he got to dole out a week's worth of Hershey's kisses, somewhere around the 12th...)

all ready for the Christmas Eve Chinese Take-Out Feast

thank you Auntie jek!!!
(per my itinerant family's tradition, they got to open gifts that came in the mail)

this year: the last two gingerbread cookies, and a whole thermos of very sweet, very hot coffee for Santa; the last, very bitter arugula from the garden for the reindeer

...and Afterwards

2011-12-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

A bit tricky this year, as Ander has apparently 'graduated' to not sharing an exam room with his sister. They were neither of them too keen on this arrangement, and I had to hop between rooms, and 'Za didn't get to watch Ander get his shots first.

But still: a blessedly clean bill of health for them both is the best gift I could receive this season.

One Morning in December...

2011-12-22T09:30:00.000-08:00

"On every world, wherever people are, in the deepest part of the winter, at the exact mid-point, everybody stops and turns and hugs. As if to say, "Well done. Well done, everyone! We're halfway out of the dark." *

2011-12-21T23:26:00.001-08:00

A&Z walked in wet grass, holding their candles, circling in from the outside edge of the lawn, towards the sputtering candle at the center of my hastily-set-up ribbon spiral. Paused. Spiraled out.

(I was worried they wouldn't be into it, that they wouldn't take it seriously, but I underestimated the lure of open flames and the drawing power of a nighttime garden.)

And then we went inside and they opened the mysterious brown paper package sent via Owl Post from their Magical East Coast Auntie:

Best. Solstice. Ever.

*from last year's Doctor Who Christmas Special, which I wish I had remembered word for word, so there could have been hugs at the center of that spiral-walk...

Triple Play-Date (We're Officially on Winter Break)

2011-12-21T23:23:00.000-08:00

While Ander Fu'd

2011-12-20T16:48:00.000-08:00

I had a honey tea. They had sour apple slushies with boba.

(I am not a fan of boba -- not a fan of squishy things in my beverages, sorry -- but I do love the ginormous straws.)

Guess What I Agreed to Take Home Over the Break?

2011-12-20T11:03:00.000-08:00

(yes, yes, two goldfish AND A slider turtle named Rich Junior)

Holiday Cards for Teachers, Ander-Style

2011-12-19T18:56:00.001-08:00

(they call their teachers by their first names...shocking, i know...)

(john is a big Star Wars {original trilogy} fan,
and teaches a Way of the Jedi class after school)

(Eep wanted to get science teacher Jill an electron microscope)

Still in Season

2011-12-19T14:53:00.000-08:00

(she had already eaten the one off her right thumb)

It's a Real Drag When Your Younger Sister Starts Her Winter Break Before You Do

2011-12-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

He has school today and tomorrow.

We told him not to worry, that we wouldn't do anything fun without him, only maybe we might go to the Zoo and Disneyland.

What They Did While I Wrapped Half a Dozen Packages

2011-12-18T15:32:00.000-08:00

From the L.A. River, to the Old Zoo (with clementines, apples, a Jamba Juice break, and a short drive in between)

He brought his Elves' Faire slingshot and the seed bombs jessica sent him last Christmas (he sent seed bombs clear across the River); she brought bird guides and binoculars (they saw a heron, and sand-piper-like birds, and lots of pigeons).

I managed to put in a load of laundry, wash the breakfast dishes, Holiday-ize the living room (which includes moving the furniture into a pretty but unfriendly-to-TV-viewing configuration), prep dinner, organize the wrapping supplies, and get six things wrapped. Six.

(Why do I like to pretend I will not be up all night Christmas Eve???)

While Waiting for Zaza's Gymnastics Class to be Finished (Instead of Concentrating on His Homework)

2011-12-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

Found in the Ornament Box

2011-12-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

Decorating

2011-12-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

Among the MUST-HANGS:
their old teethers and rattles, and every ornament they have ever made.

jekbot, Year of the Snake plushie, the jumping-jack toy that dangled over Ander's changing table, and the blue-beaked bird that hung over his bassinet.

Ander says he likes a Christmas tree to look
"like a toy box exploded and landed on a tree."

New tradition:
the Gingerfest 'pretzel' gets split and eaten the night we decorate the tree.

Although we spent an hour waiting in line at Home Depot after choosing our tree (waiting to have the trunk trimmed and the tree netted up tightly and the whole thing tied to the top of the car), I did get to chat with an actual chimney sweep (though I forgot to shake his hand!), and Ander saw two friends from school, and we came home with the biggest, fullest tree we've ever had for half the price we normally pay! (I may not even bother with a tree-skirt -- you can't even see under the thing!)

Fellini/Waters-esque

2011-12-11T17:02:00.000-08:00

Yes, those are stapled to the ceiling.

This looks over the tea table.
She's life-sized. I think she moves or talks or sings if you push a button.
(You couldn't pay me enough to push that button.)

Across the room from Chimpanzia.
Also appears to have some sort of animatronic capacity.

The guests of the "Birthday Queen" were greeted as princesses (Aliza visibly suppressed an eye-roll at this point), and were ushered into a vast dressing room
"in order to choose attire more fitting of their royal status" (or somesuch).
There were racks of sparkly, sherbet-colored dresses and high heels.
Aliza zeroed in on the one rack of goth-y/evening dresses.

Parents were asked to wait in an adjoining room while the girls were whisked through hair, nails, and makeup, and apparently coached to come up with a 'runway' persona.

Motherrrrrrr.

See the ribbon-edged lace on the faux mantel behind her?
That trim was hot-glued to every door-jamb and switch plate in the whole "cottage."

This birthday tea at "Olivia's Dollhouse Tearoom" was the third party attended by some configuration of our family this weekend. Yesterday there was a 5th grade roller-skating birthday party (Glendale), and a family house-warming party (Woodland Hills). Which will be remembered as: the party where Ander was the only boy in attendance and fell on his tail bone and we both discovered that we can't laugh hysterically and remain upright on skates; and the party where we all ate pie and visited with Uncle Larry's tropical birds.

Wine (and Juice Boxes) and Cheese (and Cookies) in the Auditorium: the 2011 PTA Art Exhibition

2011-12-09T20:55:00.000-08:00

Aliza's 'collage on painted and glittered background'
(So. Hard. Not. To. Art-Direct. Gah.)

I would totally buy a set of these.

This was called '9 Mona Lisas' and the Kindergarten artist's statement said,
"3 of them are purple, 3 of them are orange,
some of them are drunk, some of them are smoking,
they're all Mona Lisas"

What the fashionable first grader wears to an art opening:
Aster t-straps (covet!) and a belly dancing skirt

Aliza's classmate, Mayor A., submitted
a semi-choreographed piece of dance to the competition.
He leapt in front of the screen and danced along,
every single time
his video came up in the repeating loop of music and video submissions.

Post-kung-fu, Ander and the Chicken Dude took in the video reel.

I'm betting this one will move forward in the competition.

This year's theme was "Diversity means..."

It's always something along those lines, this being the PTA, and a national competition and all.

For Ander and Zaza and I, the Reflections program often leads to some interesting and oddly political discussions -- but not the sort the PTA might have imagined:

Is it more in keeping with the tenets of the program to create a fresh piece of art expressly for the competition, thinking about the theme all the while? Or does one just pore through one's pile of previously made stuff, pulling something that happens to sort of (maybe, kind of) fit? If one creates a new piece, does one make a piece that the judges will like, or does one make a piece that the artist just enjoys making?

Parents are supposed to keep their mitts off these pieces, not even making suggestions, and only taking dictation for the artist statements if the child still struggles with writing. (I suspect that this is incredibly challenging for the parents of kids at an arts-based charter, where many parents are involved with the arts in their work-lives...)

A Walking Field Trip to the Community Garden

2011-12-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

(but how can it be???)

guava up

guava down

"Well, we can't all come and go by bubble."

2011-12-07T22:55:00.000-08:00

As we got stuck in rush-hour gridlock and had to run from the parking lot and couldn't stop to take pictures outside, and as photography is not permitted in the theater part of the Pantages, and as I took these super-slyly with my phone in my lap and in my coat and without a flash, and because it was too cold and Aliza was too tired and we ran back to the parking lot, and as Dubbadad was rolling his eyes at the very idea of blogging this outing, this is what there is to show for tonight's adventure.

Suffice it to say that Ander and Zaza can't stop talking about it. Both A&Z were delighted by the idea of a story that you think you know backwards and forwards only being one version of that story. (They know and love The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, but they are wise to the fact that the wolf is trying to pull one over on the reader.) Tonight, I think they really understood the idea of "spin."

Ander piped up from the back seat to tell me he especially liked "the use of negative space in the poster."

'Za and I practiced our Glinda ("Guh-linda") hair tosses as she got into her pajamas.

But for all of us, it was all about these...

We Thought jessica Would Appreciate the Ensemble

2011-12-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:
Chartreuse leggings, sparkly black leg-warmers, slip-on Airwalks, thrifted dress (with Mama-added mis-matched-and-non-functional buttons), Peanut Butter Moo'd smoothie

Homeward

2011-12-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

...and Then

2011-12-03T22:29:00.000-08:00

they are raising dragons together (on a website somewhere)

(they both got a treat)

...and then their first-ever trip to a movie theater at night to see this -- with both sets of grandparents.

Gingerfest 2011

2011-12-03T16:08:00.000-08:00

His Teacher Scanned and E-Mailed Me Ander's 'Personal Narrative' So We Could Bring it to Tutu and Grandad

2011-12-02T16:24:00.000-08:00

Recycled, Industrial, a Bit Noisy, but Still: Inspiring

2011-12-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

"Whoa, Grandfather! You're a Tree!" (the End-of-the-Native-American-Family-Stories Unit Puppet Show)

2011-12-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

'Backstage' (outside the Artist in Residence Room)

Aliza was the Narrator for her scene.
(Her puppet had a headset and carried a script.)

Sketching while they wait to go on.

Ms. L checks in with Aliza's group

The show is based on the book Morning Girl, with the scenes written by the students (teachers, parents and aides take dictation as the children ad-lib dialogue and narration based on a scene description).

Just before her group went on, Aliza remembered that she was wearing Ander's dreamcatcher necklace.

She explained to her group how Ander was letting her borrow it,
and how it would bring them luck.

When Ander did this puppet show three years back,
the puppets were made from paper bags,
and he ended up being sick and staying home the day of the show.

'Za was very proud of their backdrop.

The feast in the forest

The players introduced themselves and their puppets.

She made her puppet take a bow.

DWoK = "Different Ways of Knowing" (= Social Studies)

Aliza's totem featured the required eagle on top, and then an owl for me,

a moose for Ander, and a duck for herself.

Like a Snow Day, Only More Allergy-Inducing (and With Considerably Less Snow)

2011-12-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

Everybody and their dog (seriously, lots and lots of dogs) was out photographing the fallen branches, and uprooted trees, and smooshed cars, and mountains of fallen palm fronds. I took this picture on Eagle Rock Boulevard, where many, many oooold and beautiful curbside apricot trees were simply snapped off at sidewalk-level. I just felt too crummy to walk the block down from the coffee shop to get the more dramatic images.

We got off easy on our side of town.

Our ginormous sycamore and oak tree got their seasonal professional haircuts yesterday. The guys were raking up leaves and sweeping up sawdust just as the wind kicked up. I lowered the patio umbrella and took down lanterns. By eight o'clock, Ander and Zaza were taking baths by candlelight, and I was pounding the Benadryl and 12 Hour Sudafed. The power went on and off, on and off, all night, and the wind raged around the house, smacking at the awnings, ripping the last leaves off the sycamore tree.

There was no official e-mail from Aliza's school this morning, and nobody was answering the phones or e-mail, so we headed out. Once we got out of Hollywood, I began to realize how bad things were the closer you got to the foothills. Most of the traffic lights were out. Trees were down everywhere. Grocery store and Starbucks windows were eerily dark, their parking lots post-Apocolyptically empty. It took an hour and twenty minutes to get to school, and I used up half a box of Kleenex on the way.

I walked Aliza in, ready to put up a fight if they gave her a tardy slip. But they waved her in, saying school was indeed happening, despite there being no electricity, no phone, no internet, no heat...

I drove away. For twenty minutes I listened as NPR listed all the wise, wise schools that had opted to be closed today, and then I turned around and drove back to Aliza's school. I was building up a head of steam under my Sudafed haze: I smacked a visitor sticker on my jacket and stomped through the dark, cavernous building. Teachers' aides were taking turns escorting groups of kids to the bathroom by flashlight. Taking turns because there weren't enough flashlights to go around.

Telling ghost stories while waiting in line for tetherball is all the rage amongst the second graders these days: Bloody Mary all recess long. I couldn't imagine that Aliza would take a step inside a darkened bathroom.

And she had a substitute teacher today.

So I grabbed her coat and her bag, and got her out of there.

We met Lady J and her kids at Swork for hot drinks and Second Breakfast, but I was not good company, what with my swollen eyes and duffy duffy dose and short short fuse.

So home we went, for cartoons and cuddling and decongestant.

Time Travel and Serendipitous Loveliness (Limiting the Already Scanty Available Parking Near the Boyo's School)

2011-11-30T15:54:00.000-08:00

Apparently, it's this movie, throwing a wrench into drop-off and pick-up at Ander's school.

A few giggly female tourists were poking around, hoping to see 'somebody,' not understanding that this was just where the vehicles were being parked when not being shot.

I waved to the security guard on the vintage-bus-side of the street, tilted my head towards the Red Car (trolley), and pantomimed opening the doors. He looked left, then right, then looked back at me, and nodded the tiniest nod. And so I climbed in through the double yellow doors, studied the vintage ads, and perched for a second on one of the seats, imagining this city when half as many people lived here...

66 Degrees at 11:26 (It Eventually Crept Up Into the 80s)

2011-11-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

We Re-Arranged Her Room (Some Things Didn't Make the Cut)

2011-11-25T11:18:00.000-08:00

(sigh...)

Thanksgiving at Poppy and Grandma's

2011-11-24T20:15:00.000-08:00

Amongst the Elves

2011-11-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

All but * as captured by jek...

Last year it rained, but we made it the year before that.

jessica Made Sure There Was an Adventure Before the Day's Adventures Even Got Started

2011-11-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

workin' the velvet; carrying jek's bedroll

We got to fetch her from a magical villa, nestled within a perfumed, treasure-laden garden. Paths were followed, ginormous bells were rung (sorry, neighbors!), hands were shaken, and overnight bags and a beloved sister-auntie were collected.

It was the sort of neighborhood where -- when one is driving through -- one must stomp on the brakes every few driveways to gawp and goggle and point at the homes.

(If jessica hadn't been wearing a bright green jacket and jumping up and down and waving from the driveway, we would have just gone gawping and pointing right on down the road...)

Like Some Sort of Techie Dumbledore, Her Teacher Has an App That Lets Her Award and Subtract Points from Each Student

2011-11-18T13:32:00.000-08:00

If you get ten points, you get to bring your lunch inside, and eat with the Lovely Ms. L.

Aliza has hovered at nine points all week. (It's so. hard. to not chat with friends whilst in line-up!)

Today I received this via e-mail:

TEN!!!

Not Quite Ice Cream Friday, but Pretty Darn Close

2011-11-16T15:15:00.000-08:00

It Made My Day to See This Waiting by the Back Door, Ready to be Carried to School, Ready for His First Class

2011-11-16T07:31:00.000-08:00

(fret not, jessica -- it was wrapped in a towel... and you just know he's going to practice more than I do and be better than I will ever be...)

Out of the Pens of Babes

2011-11-14T23:28:00.000-08:00

Student-group-made poster at Ander's school.

(Can I have an amen?)

So Much Better Than Mine

2011-11-12T16:39:00.000-08:00

These were the examples that I had hung over the table when A&A and Miss Kitty were working with the plaster strips yesterday (made in a parent-and-me art class with Aliza when she was 4 or 5)

...and these are Aliza's, all painted up this afternoon, using layers of acrylic paint, after oh.so.care.fully. studying mine.

I love everything about hers:
the winking eye, the lovely nose, the wee smiling mouth...

So much freer, so so so much better...

Uncropped, Mostly Outtakes (Photo Fundraiser 2011)

2011-11-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

Consider this a preview of our New year's card.

Miss Kitty Spent the Day (She Has Always Folded in So Well)

2011-11-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

Aliza's moon (with no help whatsoever)
I was kind of stunned

Ander has been wanting to plaster over this styrofoam wig form
ever since I rescued it from a neighbor's garage-purge.
He really thought about what was necessary to make it look more like a man,
and added layers of plaster strips to the jawline and browbone.

Miss Kitty's Pizza

Transformation (while the plaster dried)

While he waited for the girls, Ander perused one of my all-time favorite wedding gifts (trading cards, ahem)

The Next Door Girls accompanied us on a walk to Starbucks, and then came over to join the play-date (bringing along their extensive collection)

This Weekend

2011-11-06T22:41:00.000-08:00

Having the right sheet music on hand
makes all the difference when it comes to practicing...

Ander finished up the charcoal drawing of Calder that he started in art class...

My favorite item amongst the toy groceries:
it opens up, and there's a cloth fried egg inside!

Guests at the tea party

Note the book and Kleenex box on the sofa
(I was pretty much parked here in a Benedryl haze all weekend long)

Yay for snap-together models!

This is the "Lands Game," as opposed to the "Farm Game."

Instead of Movie Night

2011-11-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

Food Truck Night: November 2011

2011-11-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

'Za bravely sampled tandoori chicken,
and then immediately had to cool off her tongue.

She chose something a bit blander (at the Buttermilk truck) instead.

A rep from Jarritos was giving these away in front of American Apparel. Alexander was so thrilled to get a free drink, and so enthusiastic about the product (a glass bottle! sugar! green! bubbly!), that the guy found us where we were waiting for Aliza's food and gave Ander a Jarritos t-shirt. Ander was beside himself with gratitude. (I told him that he is a marketing person's dream consumer...)

Ander and I opted for lamb (him) and chicken (me) Naanwiches:
the sort of meal you cradle in a little hammock of silver foil,
while leaning forward
so the sauce falls on the sidewalk
and not in your lap...

The Day of the Dead Exhibition

2011-11-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

The artwork of all seven grades was incorporated into the show.
(That's Miss Kitty's in the upper right corner)

Ander was deeply home-sick for his old school. He so wanted his own skull-face (sporting a fez and a moustache I should think) on that wall.

The second graders were given one half of a calavera mask, and after a discussion about symmetry, they were turned loose to finish the skull face. (This is Aliza's)

Strings of papel picados (made by the kindergarten and first grade classes) criss-crossed the art studio.

The fourth graders made clay versions of the traditional sugar skulls.

Aliza added these photos to the altar.

This is as close as Aliza would let me get
to taking her picture with the brilliant and inspiring Ms. Serrano (in red).

She Can Put in Her Ponytails Herself

2011-11-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

Altars

2011-11-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

Aliza focused on late, great relatives she wishes she had known

Aliza was middled-named for Auntie Clare (top). The demitasse and cigarette cup were my grandmother's. The lion bookmark, button bracelet, and wooden acorn (actually a mini sewing kit!) belonged to my great aunt Billye.

Auntie B. on Treasure Island (at the Golden Gate International Exhibition in 1939/1940). She was my grandmother's older half-sister, and my mother's favorite blood relative.

My grandmother and her father.

Aliza loves to hear stories about my mother's Auntie Charlotte, who had a whole room just for her hat collection. She was an applesauce heiress, and was one of those 'honorary' aunties who was actually one of my grandmother's best friends. She gave me a whole set of these demitasses as a wedding gift. We didn't have a photo of Charlotte, so Aliza used a black velvet cloche hat as a stand-in (it's the black lump to the left of the mirror, in the top photo).

Like last year, Ander focused on one deceased person
whose spirit seems to mingle with his own.

Spot the Mad Hat...?

Alice

White Rabbit with monocle and pocket watch
(he admitted the ears were a bit of a cheat)

Dee, Dum (with propeller beanies)

Cheshire Cat

Red Queen, Hatter