“Someday I’ll be four!”
– the first words out of Lucy’s mouth one morning
“Poopy old man!”
– Lucy talking to Wubie
“I feel refreshed and ready for anything now!”
– Lucy after pretending to nap for a few seconds
“Let’s make one side of the floor rainbowy colors, because girls like rainbows!”
– Lucy throws out marketing ideas while creating a “store” with her blocks
August is done, finito, history, so last month. Here’s an end-of-the-month post/collage to commemorate its passing. Some stuff from the past month August, 2010:
This weekend we hosted a birthday party for Auntie and Grandpa…our annual August birthday bash.
It was a lovely day so we all decided to have a picnic in the park, then come back home for cupcakes. It was so relaxing in the park, I forgot to take any pictures, so we’ll have to start with the cupcakes Lucy and I made…
the gang’s all here…
about to sing the birthday song…
partygoers and birthday celebrants. Happy Birthday Grandpa and Auntie!
I made my first doll for madame tonight (this morning?!) It was a great deal of fun, and I put a lot of love into this dolly. I hope she lasts til Lucy has babies.
She was from a waldorf doll kit, so basically everything was done, I just had to sew her head to her body, stuff her a bit more, and close the arm seams. I have a new level of respect for dollmakers…even this little bit was a lot of work, and took me a few hours. I can’t imagine making her from scratch.
Here are some pics I took while I was putting her together…
and finally, she is finished!
getting dressed…
at the play table waiting to be discovered. Hope you love her sweetie!
“I can dance beautifully—and that’s why I’m a cool ballerina.”
– Lucy, describing her dancing style.
“Some of the ballerinas are nighttime ballerinas and some of the ballerinas are cat-toy ballerinas and some of the ballerinas are friendly ballerinas. I’m a princess ballerina.”
– Lucy, explaining the various types of ballerinas.
“What are you doing here, Wubie? Screwdrivers are not for cats!”
– Lucy, instructing Wubie to stay away as she tries fixing the fridge handle.
Can ya believe it’s August already? Sheesh. Since July’s in the books, here’s an end-of-the-month post/collage about it. Some notable happenings from July, 2010:
Lucy participated in her first Bon Odori. Pictures | Video
“Hey, stop calling me Lucan! Call yourself Lucan!”
— Lucy’s rebuttal upon being compared to a 70s TV character
Occasionally the kid lets her freak flag fly and expresses her general disagreement with the concept of clothing by running around in her underwear shouting, “I’m half-naked! Can’t catch me!”
Picture a 3′ 3″ blur of hair, undies, and attitude. She basically looks like a miniature caveman with a Pampers sponsorship running amuck. Invariably, I’ll start calling her Lucan, no doubt because the most accessible (and least cluttered) filing cabinet in my brain is labeled:
“Old TV Show/Comic Book/Movie/Music (60s-80s) Trivia—VERY IMPORTANT!”
Lucan was a short-lived TV show in the ’70s that my little sister and I watched semi-regularly. It told the story of a dude who spends his childhood out in the forest and is raised by a bunch of wolves. He eventually gets reclaimed by society as a dirty, snarling, crazy-haired wild-child (the Bundle connection). He then grows up as a guinea pig in some government-sponsored research lab until his inevitable escape. Action and stuff ensue (at least for the season it was on). I’m actually startled by how much of this I’m remembering.
Lucan Attacks!
Anyway, like a lot of useless info, the tale of Lucan is permanently embedded in my brain, probably hunkered down in my hippocampus, shooing away frivolous thoughts regarding the placement of car keys, wallets, and PIN codes.
So this is why I call the kid Lucan. And the funny thing is: this kid, all of 42 months old, takes much umbrage with this label. “Stop calling me Lucan. YOU’RE LUCAN!” she’ll yell as she dashes away from the 30+ year TV show aspersion. I get a kick out of that.
“Wubie crushed my wand — no magic show for him!”
— Lucy’s response after she waved her ‘magic wand’ (stick with a ribbon) in front of Wubie one too many times (he destroyed it).
We went to the SJ Obon with friends recently and had loads of fun, especially Lucy…she got to dance in her first Bon Odori.
Lucy went to her first Obon fest way back in 2008, when she was still a baby. Grandmommy had suggested we go, she had cut out a clipping from the newspaper for us, and urged us to go that very day (it was a Sunday and we had been visiting her in the hospital). We went and had a lovely time. Shortly thereafter Grandmommy got out of the hospital, so we all went together to the Palo Alto Obon fest. That was about a month before she passed away in September, and it was our last big outing together.
The Obon festival is held to remember ancestors and loved ones who are gone…so it seems appropriate that we keep going in memory of Grandmommy. (Posts from last year’s visits here and here.) If she were still here, she would surely be dancing with us!
“Phalaenopsis, phalaenopsis…pretty flower, pretty flower… “(to the tune of Frère Jacques)
— Lucy’s song after visiting the orchid farm
We’ve had a pretty mild summer, a few hot days here and there. On the hot ones we head out of town…to the foggy city or to the cool beach. Here are some snaps from our summer so far, mostly beach pics. Stay tuned for part 2…
With June now over, I thought I’d make a post about it. In addition to the obligatory end of the month collage (above), here are a few notes from the month of June, 2010.
A few Lucy quotes from June:
“That’s Wubie, flowers, bunnies—and me, your little child.”
– when referring to my Father’s Day card.
“The bug on the windshield is crying”
– an observation while riding in the car
“Let’s walk over here Daddy, away from that obnoxious noise!”
– when coming across some city workers breaking up the sidewalk
“Let’s watch something bundley!”
– when requesting some TV time
Speaking of TV, we downgraded our Comcast cable subscription. Jill and I had actually discussed completely dumping cable a few months ago. At the time I said “Let’s wait until ‘Lost’ is finished. Well, Lost ended in May, so I finally got around to calling up Comcast last week.
When I told them we wanted to dump our cable (along with our landline phone), I was told that internet access by itself would cost about $60 a month. However, internet access plus a basic cable package would be about $52 per month. So, I took the $52 deal. So far we haven’t missed it. I’ll probably write up a more detailed post about this sometime in the near future.
