Aimee has launched the very first Kid Art Auction for Earth Day 2008.

How does it work? Your kid makes art. You post it to the Kid Art Auction Flickr pool. And you tell all you know about it so that they can go and bid on the lovely pieces our kids have made. When bidding closes, the parent ships the art to the highest bidder. Simple and fun, yes? All proceeds go to We Can Solve It, a project from the Alliance for Climate Protection.  

Family overseas, sorry, but the bidding is only open to those in North America. But friends with kids under 17 in Canada and the US? Get those kiddie fingers busy.

Here is Tau’s first effort with scissors, markers and glue. Isn’t Happypillar sweet?

Today I bought Tau his first set of kiddie scissors.  We spent lots of time practicing and when I was confident he understood how to cut the paper and not his fingers, I let him go at it.

So I’m in the kitchen and I hear mutter, mutter, mutter coming from around the corner.

“What’s that Tau?”

“I cutta the carpet!”

The cream nouveau shag that looks like mini-noodles. Could have bet big money on that.

We spent Easter Sunday yesterday with Dave’s sister Trish, her husband Bruce and family. Tau loves haves having his teenage cousins Greg and Jess around to play soccer with him and do Thomas the Tank puzzles (thrilling for them, I’m sure!).

It was so hot here that the Easter Bunny had to drop his eggs off very quickly after brunch and we ran out and find them before they melted into globby, gooey little messes.

Pics are over at Flickr. Enjoy!

I don’t believe it! I’m standing by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who said, “The road uphill and the road downhill are one and the same!”

We had a wonderful time in Palm Springs for my 40th birthday this past weekend. Dave rented a gorgeous place with a pool and a hot tub, and we spent the weekend relaxing, sleeping in, going for coffee and yes, the three of us ate a whole birthday cake! It was mostly fruit and sponge cake, or so I keep telling myself.

Also, I have been wanting to buy a digital SLR camera for a long time now and with birthday contributions from various family members (thanks again all!), I was able to order my Canon Rebel XTi and a 50mm lens last week. It arrived in time to take away with us.

Thanks for your lovely cards, calls and flowers all!

Three days we’ve been back at daycare (only a few hours each morning, I might add) and already Tau has a runny nose streaming, no-holds-barred cold. Bah.

Silver linings:

1. Being away the whole month of December, we figure we’ve missed at least half of the worst of the cold and flu season. Figure.
2. Being sick today, he took a nap this afternoon. Which gave me time to do housework. Quite the novelty.
3. Transition back into daycare has been super smooth. Is it that he’s just that little bit older and more resilient? Or that he knows I pick him up at lunch time and we get to play all afternoon?

And speaking of play, Tau and I went out to buy his first bat and ball set yesterday.

He has been hitting balloons and balls with sticks and ferry boats for weeks now and battling to connect. I figured a toddler bat would give him a better chance of actually hitting the ball.

Well, Nanny left dollars to buy him something he needed and as luck would have it, we found the perfect set yesterday. Actually, it was a toss up between the Go, Diego, Go! set and the Spiderman set. But once the boy saw Spidey, poor Diego was banished back to the shelf.

Needless to say, he fell asleep with the bat and ball tucked under the blankets with him last night. (Added Friday: And of course it had to come to daycare this morning.)

Getting ready to ride the neighborhood train
(Tau with A. Mary and Mom in foreground)

We have been busy these past ten days visiting with Dave’s Mom (aka Nanny) and his Aunt Mary, who has been visiting with Dave’s folks in Canada over the holidays.

As always, it was wonderful to have them in San Diego. So great for Tau to have time with his nanny and wonderful for us to have other grown ups in the house. What? You want to read NOW? Go see if Aunty Mary’s awake … she loves reading digger books at 7:00 a.m. ...

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best — we had a storm move through that meant three days of grey and rain. So those days, we took them shopping and down to our favorite dessert place, Extraordinary Desserts.

On the sunny days (and we’ve had a few hot ones recently), we went down to the beach and to various parks. Mom and Aunty Mary also ventured out on their own, spending a day exploring greater downtown SD on Old Town Trolley Tours.

And Tau had a great time, playing trains and bat-and-ball with two ever ready volunteers. (more…)

Perfect day on the beach at Matauri Bay, Northland  

We flew home from New Zealand the evening of December 26th and flew into Los Angeles around lunch time the afternoon of December 26th. No, I’m not suffering from jetlag — it’s all about the international date line!  

We had an absolutely fabulous three weeks in the land of the long white cloud. Spent much of our time with my brother AJ and his family but also did two trips — one to Nelson-Tasman on the northern tip of the South Island and one to Paihia and surrounds on the northern tip of the North Island. We also spent a relaxing two days with AJ and Julie up at their new bach on Omaha Beach, just an hour north of Auckland. 

New Zealand is a fascinating country and we have LOTS to tell. So much in fact that I’ll probably spend much of the month of January posting on NZ-related topics.

But in the mean time, I’d like to point you to a set of our holiday pics on Flickr. I’m without my favorite photo-shrinking and editing software, so photos are posted in full res and without any cropping or editing. C’est la vie! Apologies to those of you with slow Internet access! Also, some are pretty fuzzy — holding out on replacing the camera ’til some time next year.

Click on the mosaic below to view the set in sequence. Once you’ve done that, clicking on the individual pics in our photostream will show the title for each, which should give you a hint as to who’s who and what’s what.

Enjoy! 

Art by niece Jaimey,
aged 6 

L to R: Julie, Dave, Daddy (AJ),
Tau, Sue, Jaimey, Mitchell

All around the Christmas dinner table,
our picture being taken, hence the “Cheese!”

Apteryx Australis 
Giclee Print by J.e. Gould

If things have been quiet here on el rancho nobaddays, it’s because we have been busy with two big decisions.

Number one, I quit my job. Without another to go to. And on purpose. Yes, I did. 

It’s no secret that while I love what I do as a technical writer, I don’t love spending two hours a day in the car in order to do it. It was time for me to find work closer to home.  And time for something new. So yesterday, Friday, was my last day in the office.

I have a history of finishing up jobs on Friday only to start a new one on Monday, with zero vacation time on hand. This time round, I’m taking a month or so off so that I can rest, work on a few things around the house and then start looking early in the year. Ah!

Having the month of December free (FREE!) and Dave having enough vacation time saved up, we also decided (second big decision) to take a good long vacation. Three weeks in New Zealand!

Yes. On the spur of the moment we decided this! Those who know us well know how we agonize over things. Well, this decision took a matter of days. Days, I say! And we are thrilled and excited.

We will spend much of our time in New Zealand with my brother AJ and his family just north of Auckland. But we will also spend a good chunk of time touring around — just the three of us – toes in the summer sand and carefree.

And seeing my brother, meeting his wife Julie and kiddies Mitch and Jaimey, introducing them to Tau, will be truly thrilling for me. I haven’t seen Andy in over twelve years. Twelve! Can you say overdue?

We leave next week. Eek! And while we are away I’ll be taking a break from el blog – but I promise to take lots of pictures and I plan to keep a journal, so we will have lots to share on our return.

Working Playdoh, eating dinner and wrestling a rubber snake. All with one hand. The other, after seeing the orthopedic specialist after Saturday’s fun and games, is now in a dark blue fibreglass cast.

Oh my. I’ve been trying to tell you all about our lovely week away in Santa Barbara for two weeks. And every time I do, we end up having to take our kid to the emergency clinic and so I tell you about that instead.

So, the short version, lest we be interrupted again. And to be honest, it’s Sunday evening and I’d like an early night but I really want to tell you about the fabulous time we had away.

We love Santa Barbara. Love it more every time we go there.

This time, Dave booked four nights in a snazzy little condo he found on the Internet. A property belonging to a couple that have clearly traveled extensively, as evidenced by the eclectic decor and shelves and shelves of travel books. I should mention the gourmet kitchen and the comfy couch that was big enough for all three of us to sit on to watch Clifford the Big Red Dog and the toddler-proof, easy-clean hardwood floors. No carpet to stain. But instead, I’ll suggest you go and take a look at our Santa Barbara set on Flickr. It really felt like home without, you know, feeling like home. (more…)

On Sunday, after the annual neighborhood bike ride, a bunch of riders and friends came over for a barbecue. The last time we hosted this event, two years ago, I was just over eight months pregnant with Tau. He was born a week later.

Though we decided to dodge a formal birthday party this year, I did make carrot-cake cupcakes, frosted in different colors and arranged as a bunch of balloons. And we sang Happy Birthday, which Tau was prepared for because he’s been singing it to himself for over a month!

Because our place is small, it’s always hectic having so many people over, and this time it felt even smaller with toys littering the living room carpet. That said, I think everyone had a good time — I know we did!

My friend Declan had just bought a new camera lens, and so he brought his camera over to try out the lens on the birthday boy. A set of some of my favorites is here on Flickr.

Tau and toddler teacher Ms. Jen

Today was Tau’s last day in the toddler room at daycare. Next week, after his second birthday, he’ll move in with the “big kids” in the two-year-old classroom.

He has been visiting there this past week and when we go to pick him up, he drags us around by the arm, giving us the tour.

The two-year-old classroom has a BIG room (with way cool books and lifelike “dino-nors”) and a BIG playground (with BIKES! and a BIG slide! and a BIG climbing structure! and a wood-chip SAND BOX! with a new-to-him PLAYHOUSE! on it). Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point!

Wonder of all wonders, the two-year-old class also has a BIG potty (regular-sized toilet with a step stool) and a chart on the door with all the kids’ names and green stars for potty attempts and blue stars for potty successes. And we’re all for anything that makes potty training easier at home!

Best of all, the two-year-old classroom has a working water fountain and when you press it — you guessed it — a BIG arc of water shoots through the air and you can catch it in your MOUTH! I don’t think the daycare center realizes how much their water bill is about to skyrocket!

All said, though, we are sad to be leaving Ms. Jen. Things have been up and down in the toddler room over the past couple months and Ms. Jen came in and provided much needed stability and genuine, mommy warmth. His new lead teacher Ms. Dani assures us that he will hold his own due to his size but it is always hard to see your kid move into a class where he is the youngest. And it will be a while before the new teachers learn all his little foibles.

The birthday will be low key. We figure this is the last year we can dodge having a kid’s party. As it happens, on Sunday we’re having a bunch of friends over after the annual community bike ride in our neighborhood, so we will have a BBQ and beer and cake. But not too much fuss.

Today, instead of taking in cupcakes for Tau’s birthday (you are only allowed to take in the store-bought kind and I couldn’t find any that weren’t loaded with sugary frosting), I took in a bottle of blowing bubbles for each of Tau’s toddler friends. Oh to have been a fly on the wall at that bubble frenzy!

And like all good blogging mommies, I will do a birthday post. Because really, not a day goes by that I don’t wish I could capture it in detail before it’s over, that I don’t wish I could just automatically download all of the astounding moments we have with this child directly into the computer, without missing a thing. So that one day he will have some sense of how much we have enjoyed raising him.

Larger image here on Flickr.

Yesterday we had our first rain in months. Many months. So many months that Tau didn’t know what it was.

We ran outside together and stood in the rain, then ran undercover and watched the big drops fall, then rain out into the rain for a few more seconds, Tau gasping as each drop hit his head.

Eventually I coaxed him inside. OK, picked him up bodily and carried him in kicking and screaming. He pulled a chair over to the window so that he could sit and watch the rain dripping off the outdoor umbrella, falling to the ground.

How do you explain rain to a two-year-old? Water, in the clouds, up high. Falling down, down, down on the ground. The best I could do.

Mighty Girl Maggie Mason served up an elegant sliver of etiquette on her blog today. She quoted fashion designer Valentino, who insists on dividing his attention at dinner parties equally, talking to the guest on his right for the duration of the first course and to the guest on his left for the second.

Comments on Mighty Girl’s post pointed out the obvious flaw in this approach; if all the guests at the table followed Valentino’s rule to a tee, they’d spend the whole night staring at the back of another person’s head. I knew there was a reason I didn’t wear designer clothes. Valentino pants are likely stitched so that one leg doubles back into the other.

But I digress. Maggie’s point was that we’ve lost the charm of the intimate dinner party, the kind where you lay out the good china and guests are hand picked to complement and keep each other fascinated all night long with witty anecdotes and scintillating repartee.

Sort of. (more…)