Everyday's a Holiday

Memorial Day dawned early in our house, as all days do...with Little calling for milk and her friend, Max. We decided to beat the other trail bounders and break our Eaton Canyon Curse (to set out for, but never quite reach, the waterfall).

Good thing we started early. The 1.5 mile trail was mostly level, but the many creek crossings slowed us to a 1.5 mile per hour pace. I was nervous at first to see Bim balancing on the wet rocks with Little strapped to his back, but I soon gained confidence in my sure-footed hubs. She even fell asleep sitting upright on the way back.

Yes, we made it all the way to the falls! We keep marveling that this real, true hike is so close. We have become so accustomed to city dwelling that this fresh canyon life feels like a miracle. We passed many a Memorial Day hiker just starting out as we headed back to the car. Suckas! Little actually ran full speed for the last 1/2 mile, stripped to the waist and stopping only to greet doggies and practice her jumping.

Following the hike, Little and I indulged in a long holiday nap while Bim worked. When we woke up, Bim suggested that we honor Memorial Day by visiting the cemetery where my grandfather--Little's great grandpa, Thomas L. Halverson, a veteran of WWII--is buried. Little enjoyed the grassy hill and the flowers.


Yet more family fun followed...we stopped by the Taylors' for some grilled food and backyard romping. They have a trampoline...mmmm.

insert title here

"when the eye sees something beautiful, the hand wants to draw it."
-wittgenstein

this has been a week full of beauties, but there is some kind of disagreement going on between my brain and my will. either that or they are both out having brunch, probably somewhere i wouldn't mind going if only i were invited. what i'm stupidly trying to say is, i wanted to write more; i just couldn't.

and so i give you... the (brief) bullet list:

:: rainy days! we have had fog and wind and gorgeous rain. (this after 100 degree weather last week.) it bodes well for the creek filling up again.

:: went to disneyland with jaymie, ruby, max & jane. rode no rides, drank hot cocoa (hot-toe-cho!), got rained out and came home. all had tremendous fun despite Little throwing up in the backseat. poor babe. (she got better.)

:: visited kidspace museum with our neighbors petra & evalyn

:: flew kites all the way from china! that is, the kites were from china (thanks g.a.c.!), and we flew them.

our week in pictures:



let's have a contest of "stupidest face you made to get a laugh from a baby." oh, i win.

up in the air, junior birdman

wet.
romping in chinese jammies from great aunt coy

wet bottom
the up-down game. sitting was never so much fun.

kite-on-her-head

Vroom!

Today in sacrament meeting, Ally was eating Saltine crackers. She bit off two of the corners of one cracker and looked at it. She looked up, smiled, and said, "Car!" and "Vroom!" as she moved the cracker like a car. I don't remember what the speakers talked about . . .

famous hats

Little and i spent the day at the castle with our friends max and ruby. we wore some hats and splashed around and rode the heck out of the steeds in the royal stables. no fox escaped us. good times and finger sandwiches were had by all nobility in attendance.

The List of Famous Hats -by James Tate
Napoleon's hat is an obvious choice I guess to list as a famous hat, but that's not the hat I have in mind. That was his hat for show. I am thinking of his private bathing cap, which in all honesty wasn't much different than the one any jerk might buy at a corner drugstore now, except for two minor eccentricities. The first one isn't even funny: Simply it was a white rubber bathing cap, but too small. Napoleon led such a hectic life ever since his childhood, even farther back than that, that he never had a chance to buy a new bathing cap and still as a grown-up--well, he didn't really grow that much, but his head did: He was a pinhead at birth, and he used, until his death really, the same little tiny bathing cap that he was born in, and this meant that later it was very painful to him and gave him many headaches, as if he needed more. So, he had to vaseline his skull like crazy to even get the thing on. The second eccentricity was that it was a tricorn bathing cap. Scholars like to make a lot out of this, and it would be easy to do. My theory is simple-minded to be sure: that beneath his public head there was another head and it was a pyramid or something.

'i loaf and invite my soul'

just when i think i get me, i swim out from behind one moss-covered rock and paddle like mad for another one, like some kind of common snake-neck turtle, and somewhere in open water, vulnerable and exposed, i catch a glimpse of who i really am. not what i thought at all. don't worry, this isn't going to be one of those navel gazing, self-psychoanalyzing posts. it's not a 'pity me' post, either. it's a good, old-fashioned overshare, and i just hope you're ready.

this is just to say,

yesterday, i picked a fight with hubs about FDR. yeah, franklin delano roosevelt. and it wasn't a passing irksome comment; i came out with my gloves on. eventually i had to bust it up with a dramatical, fluttery-handed, wild-eyed outburst to tell him that he couldn't hope to come out of the argument intact, much less victorious--i was going to have to win and he was not to expect any maturity or reason or leniency or...facts. because.

also, i have been forgetting a lot of things lately. more than usual. and my energy is flat out, so i loaf a lot. and, today while walking outside with Little and her friends, i peed a little. twice.

i know what you are thinking, and you could be right.

tiny brain clusters. it's okay. if they have to remove part of my head, Little can give me some of hers.

hang on to your walls

for mother's day, dad bought me a print of a painting by jacqui larsen, an artist i like. you can see more of her paintings and mixed-media pieces here. prints of her work don't have quite the impact of the originals, which are three-dimensional, but still. i could just look and look at it.

cottage industry, 1997

another artist i'm curious about right now is brian kershisnik. his work is printed in this summer's issue of dialogue.

unknown allegory, 2007

wondrous sweet

travel. why does it feel so good? why does that first 100 miles out of the city make me feel swollen with glee?

spring driving is better than spring cleaning in so many ways. even a weekend away makes the house seem fresh again, and all my senses are renewed. i feel like a wind-blown tent with its doors flapping open. (that musty clap-trap?)

why were we gone? to celebrate some nup-shalls. cousin jenica and her fianz, tyler, are now man and woman--hubs and wife. smart people that they are, they're moving to l.a. for the summer. see you soon, friends!

while in utah we saw all of Little's grandparents (she wakes up in the morning signing for g-pa and asking for "paca." next to the dog, he is her current favorite). we saw cousins and babies and best friends, aunties and uncs and cats and dogs. also, the world's largest thermometer. we ate sushi and mexican food and drank plenty of that most delicious of beverages--you know the one (well, i did, not Little). there's no time like vacation for indulging.

yes, Little and i are feeling invigorated and refreshed. our borders have been enlarged and we've spent time with some of our favorites. but home is sweet and we are back for more.

p.s. no signs of bachelor weekend. hubs does good work.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Krista! Krista has been wanting me to write a blog post ever since she started this blog. Since it is Mother's day, I decided maybe I should finally contribute to the blog.


First, I want to thank Krista for being such a wonderful mother to our daughter. Little could not have hoped for a better mother. It is abundantly clear to anyone who sees them interact, that Krista is full of love for Little, and that Little feels so much joy and peace when she is in her mother's arms. I love it when Krista calls me at work and tells me what they are playing. It makes me want to drive right home and join in the fun. Amazingly, Krista meets all of Little's needs while doing her freelance writing and the majority of the housework (I need to be better about doing my share). Krista really is such a great mother and deserves all the honor of Mother's day every day.


Unfortunately, Krista and Little have been gone for the weekend, so I have not been able to spoil Krista like she deserves. Krista went to Utah to attend her cousins wedding. I am sure she will post all the fun details when she gets home. My highlights from the trip are talking to Krista and Little while they are in the car. Our car has a hands free feature where the phone call is heard through the car's speakers, so when I talk to Krista, Little can hear me too. And I can hear her babbling in the back seat and saying "Daddy." Krista told me that after I hang up, Little says, "Bye bye, Daddy." As much fun as that is, I still wish I could have gone to Utah with them.

Because I didn't go to Utah with them, I have been having a bachelor weekend. A bachelor weekend involves eating frozen pizzas (yes, pizzas), chips and salsa, burritos, cake, and ice cream. All while watching the Utah Jazz beat the Lakers and watching Predator 2 on T.V., Doctor Who, and other science fiction shows (shows that I know Krista prefers not to watch with me). Bachelor weekend also means lounging on the couch trying to stay up late watching the above-mentioned shows (Unfortunately, being married and working a real job has made me soft, and I was not even able to make it until midnight before I fell asleep). Bachelor weekend also means allowing the dishes and pizza boxes to pile up, leaving my socks on the floor, and no shower on saturday. Overall, it was a pretty good weekend. I guess I better go straighten up a bit, so Krista doesn't see the full impact of bachelor weekend on the house when she gets back.

Some things Little likes to do are:

Go up and down stairs standing up like a big person. She'll go up and down with a big smile and giggle when she gets it right. On big steps, she reaches up to hold your finger while she climbs or descends.


Play doggies by crawling around on all fours making doggy noises and, of course, getting chased by the bigger doggies (Mom and Dad).



And go hiking in the nearby canyon, or just be outside for any reason.

why i am a cheater

some of you have asked about the little pinafore i made for Little. it's not my invention - i found it on this lovely site. you do have to make your own pattern, but the instructions are easy cheese. in fact, there are so many online tutorials and wondrous (generous) crafty blogs that i haven't needed to buy a pattern for a while. it's so nice to have pictures guiding you every step of the way. call it lazy if you want but i call it RAD.click here to get the tutorial for this clever shoulder-strap pinny.

and here's one for this cinchy zipper pillow (kind of small but you can modify the pattern easily).


since we're on the subject of things to make (if you're in the bib stage of your life), here are some yaller bibs that i made by tracing out a bib i liked and sewing terry cloth on the back. i'm in a monochromatic mood.

cinco de what-o?

tonight, on my way home from a rambling drive, i waited at the stop sign near our house as an old car ambled through the intersection. in the car was an even older man, rolling along like a turtle on wheels-- rusty wheels.

and the thought came to me: it's okay to be slow here. i am in a slow-going kind of zone. i happily considered what would happen if i decided to stop there in the middle of the road all night: people would go around me. I doubt anyone one would honk. my blood would keep pumping at its steady, languid pace, unstirred by adrenaline. the sun would rise and the breeze would riffle. i'd probably get hungry and cold. the end.

Little, on the other hand, is almost always in a hurry. on our trip to the descanso gardens this afternoon, we disrupted yet another movie set and she reluctantly wore the new pinafore i made for her.

tasting the poppies. good thing i don't do random drug testing.

things i did instead of washing the floor

has your *whole* family ever surprised you by coming to your house one day when all you had planned was to wash the floor? if not, i'm sorry. i hope it happens to you someday.

true, i did have a little more to do than wash the floor (freelancing means that you just might get bombed with a load of work at the absolute wrong time), but with a little maneuvering i was able to both finish the work and have one of the best long weekends eh-vah. first came jt & gracie (we missed you kitti!). then dad, bean and meg & their darling 'lyza. THEN my sis, and finally, eric & peej. did i mention that we have one bathroom?

i hate to do it, but i am gonna have to reduce the highlights to bullet points because they were so many. i am not even promising full sentences.

:: trekkin' in the canyon with the babes. 'lyza couldn't get enough water. Little couldn't get enough of running up the hill and back down again. lizards & tadpoles & gurgling waters & hot afternoon sun.

:: splashing in the backyard inflatable frog. again with 'lyza and the water. the slide. putting the toys in the water and taking them out again.

:: sitting, laughing & talking. grace's needlepoint.

:: the little girls in yellow spring dresses. 'lyza throwing up on hers (also all over the back pew at church).

:: the taylors taking our family pictures on sunday afternoon in the front yard.

:: disneyland!

:: dodgers game!

:: in & out burgers.

:: hunting ladybugs in the grass, watching the planes take off.

thanks, family! don't forget, you're expected back at christmas!

i've decided to waste my life

happy may day! let the blogging resume.

the house is too quiet for this to be may day, but there it is on my calendar. also, it's a chilly one here. my family will hardly believe that, especially after the heat we had this past week, but it's true. Little and i got all bundled in sweaters for our morning walk. she even wanted to wear her boots.

a bit of trivia, courtesy of wikipedia: may 1 is a "cross-quarter day, meaning that it falls approximately halfway between an equinox and a solstice." coincidentally, these are my two most favorite words in the english language.

i have some work to do today--and Little has some napping--but when we're done, mmm, boy. we're going to make a raucous may day out of this one yet. we will answer the burning question: who will be crowned the queen of may? (i think i have a good chance but Little's got more celebrity endorsements and no embarrassing affiliations with ecclesiastical leaders, so, we'll see.)