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

Two

Two Earthquakes in one day. DISLIKE. Both were around the same size, I was at work for the first one and at home for the second. The second was exponentially scarier due to being at home with Lucia. I yelled to Pete GET LUCIA! GET LUCIA! Terrifying. California is so wonderful in so many ways -- this is not one of them. 

It's in the Eyes

Tonight Lucia looked up at me as we rah-rocked and asked, are your eyes brown? I said yes, and yours are blue, just like Daddy's. And Daddy got his from Ninny. So it went from Ninny to Daddy to you. She thought about that for a minute, and then said, so Big Poppa's eyes are brown? 

Smart girl. I told her Big Poppa's eyes were blue. I have my mom's eye color and my dad's eye shape, I think. Sometime I'll tell her about my dad. 

The Sweet Phase

Last night as I burst through the door, annoyed with myself for not using the restroom before I left the office, missed my bus and had to walk the 7 blocks from the other bus stop, I ran into the bathroom as fast as I could and skipped hellos and kisses. Lucia followed me, looked at me and said slowly, Mommy, I was missin you today. I told her I miss her every day. She asked if sometime could I stay home with her? I said maybe sometime.

This morning I sat across from her instead of next to her, and she asked nicely if I could please come and sit with her so we could hold hands while she ate her breakfast. 

This kid, I tell you. Makes my heart grow three sizes every day. 

Fimming

Now. You should probably know this about me: I am unable to take group classes, of any kind. Some psychotic switch flips in my head and I MUST. BEAT. EVERYONE. Even though it's not necessarily a competition (say, in yoga). And the most hilarious part is, I envision myself as the total badass of the group, and in reality, most times? I'm anything but. I've tested this countless times. Hip hop class most recently: in my head: I AM AN ACCOMPLISHED HIP HOP DANCER WITH SERIOUS MOVES. Reality: so very, very uncoordinated and unable to keep up with most of the moves.

You need to know this to understand how I approached swimming lessons, or as Lucia calls them, FIMMING lessons. Poor thing: in Norwegian it's pronounced SVIMMING so she's just incorporated both to make it FIMMING.

Kicking and Me Acting Like She's Won a Gold Medal. Which? Maybe still possible?

After watching her sink like a stone (and I mean, stone) this summer in our friend's (unheated) hot tub, we decided swim lessons were a MUST. We picked a hardcore swim school because we wanted her to learn to swim, not kick the crap out of another kid or squirt water in eyes and stuff. Those things can be learned for free, yo.

So along comes one of those coupon sites with -- get this! -- half off for one month of lessons at the very place we had selected. Freaking yes. PURCHASED. We go to a family swim one Sunday to make sure we like the place and before we went swimming that day, we headed over to the front desk to register her for classes. Naturally, Insane Overachieving Heather takes over and when asked what level I think she's at, "Perhaps the Tadpoles to start?" I guffawed. "Tadpoles. No, I think she's more like an advanced beginner." We finished signing up and then proceeded to the family swim area.

Only problem is, as soon as we walked into the pool area, Lucia burst into tears and proceeded to give me the death grip on the shoulders. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO she screamed! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I DON WANNA GO FIMMING!

Ok then. So maybe the Tadpoles class will be just fine?

Since then, we've taken about 8 lessons with the Tadpoles class. Our first class went really well, and the teacher told us she was doing great and should be able to proceed up to the next level really quickly. Unfortunately, that teacher wasn't our teacher the next week. Or the week after that. When my parents were visiting, the teacher that week was training another teacher, who apparently Lucia hated. As luck would have it, he became the permanent teacher for our timeslot. Being a new teacher, he doesn't possess the confidence that other teachers do, and Lucia has basically no tolerance for that. It's like she's saying there's no way I'm swimming fimming to that guy; he has no idea what's he's doing. Which may be a fair point, kid.

Back before the other teacher took over

Learning how to get out of the water

Learning that it's OK to get your ears wet

Since then, Lucia's "skills" have stagnated, and I want to say even regressed. This is hard for Insane Overachieving Heather to admit. But it's true. She doesn't want to do "balloon cheeks" and she will barely kick with me. When we went up to Tahoe for the wedding I took her swimming fimming and she let go from the side of the pool and again, sank like a stone. THAT, friends, is the stuff nightmares are made of. (Sidenote: we got her a lifejacket for her birthday).

So we needed to take action. We told the front desk peeps that she didn't like her teacher, and wondered if there was a teacher that all the kids loved. The answer was Selma, and she's French. Having known some French women, I know they are no nonsense. PERFECT. We switched timeslots and had our first lesson Saturday. She was firm and much more confident and well, no nonsense than the other teacher. We're here to learn how to swim, not play in the water. Lucia did much better on Saturday and we praised the heck out of her repeatedly all day. I reminded her throughout the day how proud I was of her. I mean, we went all out. Lucia had a makeup lesson today with Selma (just a one-on-one) and apparently Selma is using some creative tricks to get Lucia to go under the water, since I'm pretty sure I ruined 1-2-3 balloon cheeks when trying to get her to do in Tahoe. We're thankfully back on tracking with swimming fimming lessons and hope she continues to make progress. We have just 6 months to go until summer!

Suggestions please?

We need suggestions for a special present that um, the Pacifier Fairy can bring Lucia. We've thought about a tricycle, but honestly we don't have the space and we live in a very hilly neighborhood. She has a dollhouse. She has movies. We're trying to think of something special and NEW that she will use for a while and really love. HALP! 

Out of gas - electric only

I managed to run the Prius out of fuel on my way to pick up Lucia from daycare. I had about 1 mile left and had been going up a pretty long hill when it happened just about 300ft from the top. I made it there and coasted down the other side, regenerating as much as I could but as I merged with the freeway it was jammed so I had to slow down to a crawl. Ironically the Prius looses energy standing still so that was less than ideal, but it was downhill. I knew there was a gas station past the Daycare and decided to give it a try. This gas station is located at the bottom of a long steep hill so I knew if I could make it to the crest of this hill I would be saved. As the exit neared, traffic sped up and I gained momentum and confidence. Unfortunately there was an intersection with a stop sign I had to go through, I had to break but there was no cars so I decided to sail through and started the last 500m/1500ft slightly uphill section before the big downhill with only one (1) bar left on the battery indicator. It wasnt enough. With only 200m(600ft) left the electric motor gave out and I came to a stop. I called the daycare and Nick showed up minutes later with a can of gas. I am so thankful for his assistance and with a few drops in the tank I made it:

It was a great learning experience though. The Prius actually has a lot less electric energy available than I imagined. It functions a lot like the KERS system known in Formula 1 and is designed to give you a boost, but not run the car over longer distances. I believe there was a lot more energy in the batteries but perhaps the electronic systems kept me from accessing these. That said I'm super happy I was able to go as far as I did, with a regular car I would have had no few options than to stop the car where it ran out, with the Prius the extra battery presented a lot of options as where to eventually stop the car. 

Sketching

I have been using a program on the Mac called Sketch Book Pro for years. It is a pretty awesome sketching program when used with Wacom tablet. I downloaded the free version for the iPad to check it out but was disappointed to see that the iPad screen is way too coarse and doesn't register pressure or pen angle like the Wacom does. Lucia loves it though and has figured out how to change the colors, and she handles the little pen with a lot of enthusiasm without any risk of putting additional color on furniture, clothes etc.

Not Sure Where She Gets This Stuff

Actual conversation in the bathroom this morning, shortly before Lucia told me in detail about her morning poo. 

Lucia: Mommy I'm going on a bicy-cycle today to Sacramento. I'm going by myself. You can come wif me if you want; you can ride on da back.

Me: Ok. Are you going to be home for dinner?

Lucia: No. You're coming with me to Sacramento. 

Me: Ok?

Cold Weather Gear

We're gearing up for our trip to Delaware next month and Norway for Christmas. Behold Lucia's new snowsuit (my mom is totally drooling over the leopard print)

And accompanying boots! I've been obsessively paying attention to the sales for this stuff. Next up, mittens and a hat. Lucia's head is gigantic so she's outgrown almost all of her hats.

Team Hansen Goes Camping

Believe it or not! We were asked to go camping with three other families, and we thought, hmm, that sounds interesting. Eddie's mom, Lauren, spearheaded the efforts to get us organized, divvy up gear and meal assignments and select a campsite. As the weekend drew closer, we thought about backing out because well, we didn't have the best week and thought about just snuggling on the couch. But we decided to go anyway, and boy are we glad we did.

We arrived much later Friday night than anticipated due to the very unfortunate coincidence of renting camping gear from the store that is directly across from our beloved Crissy Field in SF, which happened to be hosting the Blue Angels. Poor Pete got stuck in horrendous traffic. We got there at 9 at night, and Lucia was pretty disoriented and more than a little terrified of our surroundings. Also? Running a fever. All around awesomeness. We got to bed, and froze our butts off but snuggled Lucia in between us so she'd get warm. I forgot pillows so um, we kinda slept terribly. And Lucia would periodically cry out in the middle of the night. Couple that with three other families basically experiencing the same thing, and you have four sets of very tired parents on the start of Day 1. Gah. We sat around the fire (it was chilly up there!) and grilled hot dogs for lunch, took the kids on walks, and just hung out talking a lot. It was awesome. 

Our friend (and amazing photographer!) Annie had to leave the end of Day 1, so she loaned us her sleeping bags and pillows. Night 2 = so much more restful. This morning Pete and I made breakfast (sausages with potatoes, peppers and onions - yum!). Lauren took Lucia and Eddie on a walk afterwards, where she asked Lucia if she wanted to sit on the bench and rest, and Lucia answered that "benches are for old people." So hilarious. I have no idea where she got that. Kids are funny. Pete and I took them out again and saw a real live baby snake sunning itself on the road. The kids were intrigued. 

Lucia didn't try a s'more but she managed to eat tons of dark chocolate from a sampler we brought. She did learn how to pee in the dirt - important life lesson! 

We are so grateful for amazing friends that we can just bliss out with. It was a much needed weekend of soaking in lots of love and easygoing times. Like I said, we're grateful. And we cannot wait to go camping again. So. Fun.


Here are just a few pictures. We'll have more up on Frogstar soon.

Lucia, Eddie and Delilah

Justin teaching Eddie to start a fire

Me lovin on Charli with Lucia and Eddie

Me looking unusually serious with the Perkins Fam in the background

Lucia and Allie getting snacks from Justin AKA Snack Santa Claus

Annie helping Lucia with her pancake

Me trying to get us warmed up

Soon

Soon! So soon! It's happening very very soon! The Paci Fairy will come to collect all of Lucia's pacifiers to take them to babies because babies really need them and in fact, Lucia is now three so she doesn't need them anymore. And then the fairy will leave her a special present to thank her for being such a big girl and giving away her pacifiers. Or so we tell her, often. We're thinking of sometime in November, so Thanksgiving we're not having to frantically FIND THE PACI I NEED MY PACI when we travel. Everytime we talk about our trip to Norway (at Christmas), she pipes up about the Paci Fairy, so I think she might be ready. The question of course, is are we? ;)

Checking out South Lake Tahoe

We went for a little walk after breakfast this morning and found a new pair of sunglasses in a shop near "The Village". This is a small downtown area of South Lake Tahoe thats a little touristy and sits between the big hotels and the ski lift. Her old sunglasses are scratched pretty badly and she didn't like wearing them any longer. These also look a bit more classy I think.

Tahoe!

We are on our way home from a short but very fun trip to South Lake Tahoe for our friends Charles and Laura's wedding. Little miss could not have looked cuter. More pictures and details to come!