Mahalo.ne.Trash

Playing Settlers of Catan with our friends Liz and Linsay earlier this week during their visit to SoCal. Youtube -- Playing Settlers Happy New Year!

Youtube -- Toy Engineering -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ggJReCsz3Y

by erin watching this was a delicious hug this morning: or: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY

by John From mama mia in the comments: "so in my weird need to figure this out, were these pins just placed above and below the bone, thru flesh/muscle tissue, just to keep the bones still while in the cast?" Yup, that's the basic picture! Owen fractured his humerus right at the joint in what the kids today call a supracondylar fracture. From what I understand, it was a vertical crack right between the points where the humerus meets the radius and ulna. The pins were inserted through his flesh into the bone on either side of the fracture, presumably to keep the bone immobilized and to help the two pieces fuse together again. Fortunately, that's all in the past now. Owen's cast is off and his right arm is rehabilitating quickly!

...for christmas trees!

A snow-capped Mt. Wilson and...a palm tree.

by erin the cast is off and the pins came out today (basically the doc just pulled them out through the skin with a pair of pliers). prognosis is good - we do a set of follow-up x-rays next week, but owen shouldn't even need physical therapy! amazing. talk about a tough 4 year old, look at these bad boys that have been holding the bones in place:

by erin her voice is like red wine or maybe coffee and flourless chocolate cake. it's somehow smooth and full, yet has a ragged edge that cuts me just right. yup, i pretty much have a crush on neko case , and i'm not scared to tell you about it! youtube - neko case - this tornado loves you

Looking in through our back door before I left for work this morning.

After his month 13-15 hunger strike, MarMar finally decided he'd like to eat once again. The mouthful of new teeth, rather than a mouthful of teething, is helping a lot. He's 75th percentile in height, 10th percentile in weight, but gaining fast! Here's a quick summary from today's smorgasbord: one pack of instant oatmeal 2 graham crackers salami fold-over sandwich half cup of grapes half of a bagel w/ peanut butter half cup of chicken ABC soup (mommy's original recipe) 3 apple wedges 1 fish stick half cup of cous cous 2 florets of steamed broccoli 5 x 8-oz sippies of whole milk (yes, a forty of whole milk)

I had one of those nights. I just kept tossing and turning, thinking about all the things I had to do the next day. Sleep simply would not come, but the decision to just wake up was similarly elusive. So I turned for an hour, then another. Finally I surrendered and forced myself out of bed half-awake. I had to figure out something to do that required very little brain power. My brain needed to be soothed. A couple episodes of the Daily Show, my old observing-run stand-by, were out. A book would be nice, but my attention span was shot. Oh, I know: Youtube! I surfed around a bit and stumbled upon this video of a Sufjan Stevens concert that was televised on PBS a while back: Youtube - Sufjan Stevens - part8/8 - Chicago That did the trick. I'm relaxed and ready for bed now. Let's hope that sleep will follow me to the bedroom. If not, then the video of The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades... should do the trick!

this morning the boys and i headed foothills of the san gabriel mountains for a hike. along the way owen informed me of his plans for getting his own dog (a topic of frequent discussion in our family lately). owen: mommy, maybe when i'm 6, i can have a dog me: i think that would be great, we could bring the dog hiking too owen: how about a brown and white dog, that's medium-sized? me: okay owen: and we'll call him "musk" me: that sounds like a good plan owen: am i going to be six in one month?

with my mind on my monkey and my monkey on my mind

after an extraordinarily long trip to the post office with 6 boxes to send, a toddler strapped to my back, and a 4-year-old with a broken arm in tow, i decided it was time for a treat. so we headed to the fair oaks pharmacy and soda fountain in south pasadena. it is still a week before thanksgiving, but the drug store was totally decked out in christmas paraphernalia. owen got such a kick out of the christmas trees that were different colors and marcus had such a great time flinging his rainbow sherbert on owen as he saw each bus through the window.

last sunday a trip to the playground got the best of us and landed owen in the ER with a broken arm. tuesday's trip to the orthopedist and additional x-rays indicated that surgery was in order to set the bones and pin them in place. he's been a trooper about the whole thing, and he's adjusting to life with one arm quite well. thanks for all the well wishes for speedy recovery. he'll likely be back on the monkey bars in about a month.

*disclaimer: i'm a bit too proud of how the boys' costumes turned out this year. it was owen's idea to be penguins (he's had a real thing for antarctica lately) and this easy pattern made the process of making costumes so much fun! now, having said all that, aren't these the cutest penguins ever? mar gets his costume nice and dirty owen perfects his waddle mommy makes the final adjustments mar hams it up working his first hard candy, a sugar free cough drop trick-or-treating and meeting lots of our neighbors

Hai!

the loan is funded, the sellers are out. the house on glenarm, is ours, no doubt! so book your tickets, and pack your gear, come pay us a visit can't wait 'til you're here! the privacy hedge in front. the gate looks like it's for hobbits, but really, unless you're over 6 feet you won't even need to duck! so excited about the 5th burner on the gas stove! contemplating the changes in front of the garage/playroom what will we have for dinner out here?!?!? beer & bbq, naturally happy homeowners first family photo in the window seat

Carl Sagan - 'A Glorious Dawn' ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed), linked from the Youtubes

we did it! with your help i raised over $2600 towards increasing breast cancer awareness and research. last weekend, my dear friend sarah & i walked 60 miles in the susan g. komen breast cancer 3-day. friday, we joined 1600 other walkers at the cow palace for the open ceremony and made our way up the golden state highway to the golden gate bridge. after we set up our hot pink tent, we hunkered down for a chilly night of camping in crissy field. saturday morning we headed out across the golden gate bridge, walked through sausalito, and into mill valley. after a quick pit stop for lunch, we made our way back through marin, accross the bridge again, and into camp for another cold night. i'm so grateful to have met marlene, a 17 year b.c. survivor and to have had her courage, spunk, and wisdom to keep us going. she walked 80% of the time with us saturday and always found energy to race to the bottom of the hills. day 3 brought us to golden gate park and through some of san fr

Marcus Johnson, the boy who won't eat anything unless it's liquid or heavily diluted in Vitamin D milk, now likes Noah's challah bread, coleslaw and pickles. Wait a second...curly hair, fair skin. Wasn't our old mailman, Ephram, from New York...?

waiting for the submarine ride well, i've done it. at the young age of 31, i took my first trip to disneyland. owen and i had a special adventure along with my dear friend & cousin, faye, and her sweet daughter, evan. from the minute we arrived in the parking structure, until the moment he passed out in the stroller at 9pm, owen was in a steady state of wonder. we rode about 15 rides, which i understand to be quite an accomplishment for a single day at disneyland. i wish i could capture the level of excitement in owen's voice when he saw mickey mouse from the monorail, the amazement in his eyes at the people getting soaked on splash mountain, and goosebumps on his little arms when we first spotted nemo on the underwater submarine adventure. we loved the hand-dipped corn dogs and cotton candy and were blown away by the fireworks display. Astro Orbiter my favorite part of the day was hearing owen and evan sing their versions of "it's a small world". evan

Today was supposed to be the day that we all went to Disneyland. However, Marcus and I are recovering from a cold, so we revised the plan: Erin and Owen would go to Disneyland, Marcus and I would recover at home. Mar and I had a great time today, despite feeling a little under the weather. I was a bit apprehensive at the beginning of the day because I haven't spent a day alone with Marcus since he's been mobile. Man, I just realized how sad that is right as I typed it, but it's been a busy busy year for me at work. Well, I shouldn't have worried because Mar is a great kid. It dawned on me that as a parent you of course love your child. But there's nothing to say that your kid actually has to be a cool person. Let me tell you, Marcus is a really cool little guy! Ever since he started walking earlier this month, his personality has really bloomed. He just goes about his business with a smile on his face all day long, looking for ways to make people around him laugh. O