Braids

This morning when I dropped Lucia off at daycare, she clung to my leg and burst into tears. Don't go Mommy, don't go, she cried. It's been like this sometimes lately; this week with my surgery and heightened stress levels around the house, I think she's picking up on them. Anyway, Charlotte, our daycare provider's youngest daughter (who is about 10) was home from school today and offered to braid Lucia's hair. Lucia lit up like a Christmas tree at the prospect. When I picked her up tonight, she proudly showed off her braids. We took them out to leave the ponytail holders at daycare, but I redid them tonight. She loves them, as you can see and already told me 1. please don't take them out again and 2. she wanted to wear them tomorrow for her swimming lesson. Who knew braids could be so fun?

All done

Things got off to an very early start this morning and all I can say is that it went very smoothly and we are very relieved to have this surgery over and done with. We are not quite out of the woods yet, we are going back for a followup consultation next Monday afternoon to make sure things went well and are healing as it should. Thank you to all who thought of us today!

Say A Prayer?

In our never-ending and fairly heartbreaking ongoing journey to provide Little Miss with a sibling, I am having outpatient procedure tomorrow to correct Asherman's Syndrome. Please say a prayer that all goes well, and the surgery is successful.

Train Ride

We decided to take Lucia on a train ride today from Oakland to Berkeley; it's about 19 minutes and it cost $20 for all three of us. She's been so excited about trains for a while. Today didn't disappoint, though I almost missed the train after the ticket printing machine was so slow. 


Once we got on board, Lucia wouldn't stop talking about ice cream. She asked the ticket man for ice cream, and decided she was definitely having ice cream when we got to Berkeley. Mind you, she's allergic to dairy so she's never had ice cream, she's had gelato and sorbet, but whatever kid. Let's find you some "ice cream." We arrived in Berkeley and it started raining, which was a bummer for sure. We struck finding a non-dairy ice cream somethingorother, but we got her some dark chocolate covered dried strawberries and then she wanted a cookie and then 2 seconds later (and after she took 2 bites) didn't want it anymore. Sigh. 

We walked up and down the shopping district, then decided to have dinner there. We found a great Italian place and Lucia acted like a typical 3 year old, which was kinda stressful, but the food was great. After dinner we spent some time in the bookstore and this gigantic Richard Scarry book captivated her for a while. We didn't buy it for her because of the rain but I have a feeling Santa might know about it. 

That Post

We were gonna write a post that said hey, about that whole giving up the pacifier thing? Totally rocky for a few days, but now it's smooth sailing! 

Except uh, it's been anything but. Bedtime is an epic battle, ranging from 45 minutes to 2 hours to get her from rah-rock to sleeping peacefully. Despite her totally rad ladybug. She gets up between 5 and 6:30 everysinglemorning and basically refuses to go back to sleep. If she's up at 6:30 then I just let her, since I'm not going to spend 20-30 minutes wrestling her to sleep for another 20-30 minutes. She refused to nap Saturday and everyday since then, until yesterday, when she finally conked out for 2 hours. I got her to sleep by 7:40 p.m., only because I started dinner at 5:30. Seriously. 

We are hoping she continues to uh, adjust to not having her friend the pacifier and we can all get some sleep soon. Like her mama, she's a different person when she gets some sleep.  

This Morning's Events, Amended

Pete was behind me and staying back with Lucia, so I had an eye on the action. What actually happened: as I step out the front door to get our CSA box, which the people can't seem to deliver properly, we hear all this ruckus, and I wasn't sure if someone was just joking around in the echo-ey parking garage or what. But we listened closer: this woman was screaming my car my car my car! He stole my car! I ran down the hill and she said, can I use your phone to call my husband? Of course, I said. Then she tells her husband: "I've just been robbed at gunpoint. They took the car." She was badly shaken up. Several of our neighbors were on their balconies dialing 9-1-1 for her; other nearby neighbors came to help her file the police report and provide details including the license plate number of the driver who accompanied this thug. I'm so thankful this woman cried out as loud as she did to get our attention. It was terrifying, especially since we live in a very safe part of town. Not the best way to start Friday.

No shots fired atleast

It makes you a little jittery as you hear it happen, but later you are thankful that you didn't see it, that you were a little late, didn't get involved. As we came downstairs this morning we hear this woman outside scream at the top of her lungs, can't make out all the words, but I do hear "dont take my purse!" 

I stand behind holding the door and Lucia as Heather brings in a carton from outside the front door and she goes out to the sidewalk to see whats going on. A lady who lives on our street was being robbed at gunpoint. More neighbors soon came out to check and we are all very worried now. 

Apparently a young man that looked mexican, stepped out of waiting car to snatch her purse, however she put up a fight and the young man pulled out his gun. He got the purse, got back in the car where his girlfriend was driving and they were off in the direction of the freeway or Oakland downtown. Fortunately, one of the neighbors got the license plate number of the car and I'm hopeful that the police is able to find these criminals soon.
It boggles my mind how it is possible to wake up in the morning and decide that you have to go out and rob people going to work.

Faci Pairy

Welp. 

Tonight's the night. The Pacifier Fairy, who Lucia billed as the Faci Pairy yesterday, is coming tonight. As a general principle, we tend to explain sequence(s) of events for Lucia constantly; we find it really helps her know what to expect and to help alleviate potential anxiety (which she doesn't exhibit necessarily, we're just being cautious). So. We had the basic principle of the Paci Fairy Faci Pairy: she leaves her pacifiers in a package on the front doorstep, the next morning there's a present. But in order to make it even more of a super big deal for her, we created some extra steps so she can really get into it. Truth be told, these are mostly for me too, since I'm scared to give up the pacifier given how disastrous it was back in January. Without further ado, here are the steps. 

1. Identify all pacifier hiding places and gather them into one location. 
2. Have Lucia participate in washing the pacifiers for the babies they're going to. 
3. Kiss each pacifier goodbye. Lucia told me this morning it was probably important to also make sure "they" had enough milk. Not sure I follow, but I like that she's on board with making the pacifiers comfortable for their journey to the babies who really need them under our bed, then eventually the trash. 
4. Dry the pacis. 
5. Place them in a ziploc bag. 
6. Put the bag in the box. 
7. Wrap the box with paper. 
8. Put ribbons all over the box. 
9. Write the Paci Fairy Faci Pairy a note telling her these are just for the babies and that Lucia is a big girl and doesn't need them anymore. 
10. Put the package on the doorstep and say goodbye to the package. 

When she wakes up tomorrow, we'll have this for her and a note from the Faci Pairy telling her thank you so much for the pacis for the babies! We'll celebrate her being a big girl and having a new way to go to sleep. I also rearranged her bedroom slightly last night so that it won't feel so strange without it; it's like we're weaning a smoker, you know? If they constantly smoked while sitting in a certain place, change that place so it's not available. 

I'm nervous. Not just because of how this went in the past, but also because of the uncertainty of the ability to have another baby (a subject for another post). Also, because welp, she's growing up. This is pretty much the last thing we'll say goodbye to about having a baby. She's our big girl. 

Wish us luck! 

iPhone case milestone achieved!

Today we finally achieved a major manufacturing milestone, the first prototype cases are now being machined but it has been a long road with many obstacles and delays making todays events very gratifying. The machining is done in a milling machine that is controlled by a computer that receives data from the computer model I have developed, and we are now engaged in the process of fine tuning the tool's cut paths to make sure the aluminum and the plastic band go together precisely fits snuggly around the phone.

Art Center Car Classics 2011

Finally a weekend all to myself. I can't remember exactly last time I had a weekend without company of any sort and it was a nice break. I stayed with David out in Venice and I am super grateful for his hospitality. He lent me the sofa and the keys to the Jetta. I was also struck by how nice that part of LA is, just a great neighborhood.
I came down to LA to go to the annual car show at Art Center where I went to school a few years ago. This car show is not like any other, its quite unique. Most car shows are either centered around new and coming cars, or vintage classics, or race cars, or hot rods, which are all exciting on their own, but the show at Art Center tends to bring the best and most significant and unique cars from all these genres together in one show. Usually there are other vehicles as well such as aircrafts and motor cycles, but I have also seen u-boats and spacecrafts there. This year was no exception with a very cool amphibious plane on display and although Jay Leno and Chip Foose was not there I met up with old friends and caught up on the latest.
I now have several hundred photos and videos to go through but in the mean time here are a few pictures from the show:

The impressive new concept car from Cadillac: "Ciel"

Very rare Ferrari #1 

Very rare Ferrari #2