Myra & Kaya Visited the Zoo!

I finally got to have some quality mom time with my friend Lake and her daughter Kaya, who's a couple months older than Myra. We visited the zoo, which is always a great place to go (providing it is an animal-friendly zoo). I'm a little busy lately, so not too many posts have actually been published, but I'll get this one cranked out and hopefully it will motivate me to do more. We always feel guilty when we don't update, my husband and I both, because my Grandma reads this blog, (Myra's Great-Grammy!) and we don't get to visit with her as much as we'd like. We love you Grammy!

They got cuddly on the old lion statue!

"'Mingos!"

Elephant

"Hey der! Stinky elephant! Hey!"

Chilling by the monkeys

So as you can see, we had an awesome time. I love the zoo for any day, it always reminds me of happiness and string cheese and enjoying touching my sunburn on the way home. Hope we get to go back there soon!!

Hurry Hurry Halloween!

I told Myra that I had to pee so Tyson would have to help her take her blocks apart. Now, she defers to him about all of her toy problems, while he naps in the sun... I can hear her becoming more and more impatient with him.

"Tyson...... TYSON. HELP. STUCK. Tyson? Ty-SON!! Blocks... broken? Help? TYYYSOOOOOON"

On another note, Halloween is swiftly approaching and we are PREPARED! (For once, I got the costumes early!). I've got a little mask from a dear friend, brought back by her from Venice... or France... or someplace European. I'm planning on dressing up in something nice with it, maybe a bit of fancy makeup. Myra has a charming little zebra costume with a zebra head on the hood, she looks so cute in it! I'll have photos soon, hopefully before night time so the lighting is better. She picked the outfit herself from Target - she had a tantrum the second time we planned to leave without it (the first time it caught her eye I managed to sneak away), so in a way she chose her own costume.

I'm still working on a list of Must Watch Movies for the Modern Young Woman. (MWMMYW for short...ish). Adding the two films Trust and Sabah: A Love Story. I don't like explaining them, but I'll say the first is very emotionally charged and well represented, an important every-angle snapshot of a family in crisis. The second was a simple, realistic feel-good love story. You'll notice that I don't choose typical "feel goods" or high budgets normally because I feel they gloss over the sticky moments. Sticky moments are the reason we're watching these films! They help us see in ourselves what we can't see from behind our own eyes, and see in our friends what we can't see from behind closed doors.

I'll be updating my movie list periodically once it is actually up and running, I hope to also compile a Must Read List for the Modern Young Woman as well... (MRLMYW...!!?). I seem to be crunching quite a few books and odd films lately, (mostly because Myra pegs me down at nap-time with "Mommy, hold me!!") So I figure, someone should benefit! I look forward to connecting with some young women in my area hopefully and forming a book and movie club, but at this time that seems so very, very far off.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Myra & Rapidly Approaching October

So it's been a while sinbce we've updated, I've been doing the house-wifey habits of making fresh breads from scratch & taking Myra to Kindergym (like Gymboree). She's mastered so much in these few months, most other parents guesstimate her age to be more like 18-19 months, instead of a measly almost-16.

Her new favorite words are: Polka-dot, Dinosaur, chameleon, and get this: stackabilly. What is a stackabilly? I have no idea. perhaps it's a stack-of-belly, she's piling that on quite well. Whatever that word means, she came up with it and it makes her sillier than our cat at dinnertime.

She's enjoying her second taste of soy corn dogs as I write, with a mini one in each hand. She calls the "Meat cookies" because we bake them in the oven, like cookies, but the first time she took a bite (after vehemently arguing with me that they were "cookies", not "dogs") she proclaimed "oh! Meat!"

Myra took the choice out of mine and my husband's hands, and decided she will be a zebra for Halloween, but we still have to get the costume. We argued over it a bit, and then one day at target she went nuts for zebras. We now have plastic mini-zebras, a big zebra that neighs, and a couple picture books with zebras in them, not to mention her sing-along video with Z is for Zebra as the last letter - her favorite song. So I guess our star will wear stripes, and that's the end of that!

Here's a couple snapshots for this post, with her exploring her word. When she gets a better grip on her crayons we may add a few of her early masterpieces, before they get too pricey to show for free. (hah, hahah, haha)

Favorite toy currently? Shovel & glasses.

Bath time is essential to a happy Myra

I think she was holding still because she thought the bow would fall off.

Wow! Cars roll!

Sleeping with her best bud

Chowing down on some chicken!!

Waving to her imaginary fans

Yes?

Almost One, and Walking

Myra has been awfully busy lately, and so have I. Doing what, you ask? Learning to walk! She started around the ninth of May and just took off! She now waddles with confidence throughout the house, leaving destruction at new heights in her wake. We recently went to Robert's Park, where we had a wonderful time on the "no borders" playground... It had no stairs, instead it was equip with several ramps, probably specialty built for special needs kids. Myra can walk well on flat, so she was all over it exploring and having fun. She especially loved the tube slide!

Tiny husband of mine...Or giant trees?

Thirsty from pumpkin bread

She had a blast, there were ramps, not stairs!! She was all over the structure.

Attitude for daddy.

She wanted....something?

Huge trees!!

It was a good day~

Why are you photographing me?

Yummy!

Hopefully we'll get out again soon, and this coming Sunday is her Early-But-Still-Very-Important birthday party! Until then~

So Much to Explore!

I realize I really haven't kept up with my blog every-other-day promise, or even my blog every week promise... But here are some updates of what Myra is doing now, as well as me post-pregnancy! I can't believe we've come so far... I still remember that little beady-eyed bundle who always stared at things like a disapproving old woman. She is now a full fledged baby, laughing, exploring, and eating dirt.

Myra is all about the bath. She loves water so much, when we shower together she tries to grab it, hit it, and stick her face in it. We don't do that much classic bathing because she learned to climb out of her seat so she could splash more efficiently. This is her with Mr. Duck, who makes her laugh when he says "cuac cuac cuac".

These photos show that I am not a complete wreck, I have started doing my hair again and dressing up!! We dress matching, most of the time, because.... well, we just do.

Myra has shown she has spunk, and I try to capture this. Kicking up her feet in her walker, bouncing on the bed, she's going places. Really.

Here is Myra hammin' it up, just like her mom!!!! See the resemblance? We even have the same poses, when we're trying to look glamorous. So that's it for now, we're off to clean the room which is overrun with new clothes for Miss My, from our friends Aisha and Hawwa at Walker St. Byebye!!!

Myra Clapping ♥

It's been about a week since I've posted an update on my precious baby girl, so I thought I'd drop in with a video of her being a little doll.... She has learned how to clap and wave, and so late one afternoon I pinned her down in my lap and made her clap for the camera. She was over it, but she obliged when she realized her room-roving freedom depended on it.

Standing! and, could it be, Walking?

Myra has been almost every day this week to the park, where her favorite things, the swings, reside. She glides, she soars, she giggles. But now something else has captured her attention: standing up. Everybody else does it, so why not give it a try? She's a champion crawler, and now, it seems she is a champion pull-er up-er! Here are some of her latest, candid shots.

She pulled up on her favorite smiley car, and then after standing there for a bit, got distracted and stood without holding anything. When she realized what she was doing, she fell, but she got 6-7 whole seconds of glory!

"MOM! What do I do now??" Myra crawled to her walker, pulled herself up, and without anywhere to go from there, stepped onto the small white bar on the bottom, climbing up about two inches!

Good girl saying her prayers!

Glamor shot!!

"Look Mom! I did it!"

Such a happy climber.

Myra also went to her friend Kaya's first birthday party! She had a blast: Crawling around the house, and checking out the patio in detail...

Doing a bit of yoga while we wait for the guests.

Following Kaya through the kiddie tube!

"WOW! Rocks...."

Myra and Lake, Kaya's mom.

"This is a great patio you have, Kaya"

Baby vs. The World

Such a sweetie.

Playing together!

As for me, I'm working on developing recipes for selling at House of Curries on College Ave in Oakland. The owner has graciously allowed me to try out some of my recipes in the open counter space. Yesterday my friend, er - ahem - colleague and I made apple-chai cupcakes and chocolate chai cupcakes. Yummy! The apple ones were a bit dry for I fear I over cooked them, but the chocolate ones were delicious with spiced buttercream frosting. The white chocolate fudge with cranberries was a hit though, they sold 10 out of 30, in two hours! (I'm told for a new product, that's good.... hopefully they all sell out!)

And now, we're off to the park!