Thanksgiving Pictures

We're back from the trip to LA for Thanksgiving, exhausted. Nevertheless, here are the pictures.

Maile rockin' the Santa hat

and with Quinn looking on in admiration

Isabella, the saddest girl in the world

Kissing the saddest boy in the world

Isabella wisely runs from Uncle Kevin

Lupe making Papi proud by going for the good stuff, a growler from Pizza Port

Rby makes Papi proud by rockin' the Pizza Port hat

Ruby and Great-Grandpa John share a laugh

With Great Grandpa John and Erlinda during our visit to Escondido

Laughs all around

and again

Ruby and Quinn having fun at the Getty

The daredevil showing off his skills

The saddest boy in the world, being sad, as usual

The kids table at Thanksgiving

Ruby with her Nana

Some serious eye-rubbing from some seriously tired boys

My first inclination for this picture was to make some crack about how much Tony is going to teach him, but the more that I look at it, the more I think that these two are going to be full partners in any shenanigans they may get into in the years to come.

These two together has trouble written all over it. They are just too happy. I don't trust those smiles.

At least he's not crying, even though he's being held by a female, in this case, Aunt Alisa.

The inevitable post Thanksgiving coma

Off to LA

We're flying down to LA later this afternoon for Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd put up a quick post (with one kid sleeping on my chest and the other watching Sesame Street) because I probably won't while we're down there.

Everybody in the family but me has been sick at some point in the last couple of weeks, which has been fun. Ruby started preschool a couple of weeks ago.

Alright, now you're caught up. I said it was going to be a quick post. OK, one more item.

As many of you know, there is a phrase that has entered the popular lexicon of the sporting world, referring to the baseball player Manny Ramirez, which is "Manny being Manny". For those of us who live in her world, there is the corollary "Ruby being Ruby" under which we can file this latest bit of Rubyrific-ness.

Last night, our friends Greg and Amanda came by, essentially to say goodbye before moving to Paris in a couple of weeks. After some negotiation, Amanda was allowed to read Ruby her three books that she gets as a part of bedtime routine. After two books, Amanda attempted to tease her by pretending to be done.

Ruby, of course, was not amused. She turned to Amanda and said in utter seriousness, and presumably with more than a touch of condescension, "do I have to count the books?"

We can only assume that she was just making sure that the legend of her precociousness travels as potently as possible to Paris.

Job well done, little girl.

Touchdown!

The quote of the night goes to Ruby, as it almost always does:

Denver scores a touchdown to go ahead, and I have them in the pool, so I say "Touchdown!"

Ruby throws her hands up as well, gives me a big smile, then turns to Mommy, who does not have her hands up, and says to her,

"Put your touchdown on!"

Which, of course, she did.

Live Election Blogging!

Ok, so really it's just a few pictures from when we went to the poll to vote this morning.

Our super, incredibly inspiring polling place. Can't you just feel the pride swelling in your heart to be a small part of the grand American Experience?

The is just after voting.

Someone is excited about election day!

Outside our door as we made our way home.


And, of course, proof positive that voting makes you giddy...

Just a post

I've been a bit busy lately, with a really busy weekend last week and some mild colds being passed around.

Oh, and the election. Every time I get near the computer these days, I get sucked into the political coverage, sometimes for long periods of time. Well, long periods of time for the primary caretaker of two kids.

The good news is that it's nearly over. And, hopefully, there will be more good news when it is. I had Lupe and only Lupe today, and he is finally over his cold, so we headed out after taking a look at the weather prediction, which said that the rain was past us for the day. We first stopped at Blue Bottle Coffee, where there was a stunningly small group of 3 patrons. The barista said that he'd never seen it that dead either. So, even though I had planned to get the beans and the cup to go, we actually stayed since there weren't enough people to be bothered by (or a danger to) a baby crawling around.

Later, we went to Borders, and since they had the learn to read books in the same aisle as the stuffed animals, I was actually able to read through them and make what I felt was a decently informed decision about which one to get for Ruby. As many of you know, I am mildly anti-academic when it comes to the kids, preferring to let them develop cognitive abilities that aren't necessarily strictly structured into the conventions of academic development as we know it in this culture. That being said, Ruby seems to be getting very interested in learning how to read. She has memorized whole books, and will "read" them, as well as making up story lines for books which she has not memorized yet.

And, she quickly proved to be more than ready for it, when she was able to memorize the entire first book on the second try, thereby earning a sticker and moving on the second book in the series.

In any case, when we walked out the door of Borders, it was raining really hard. I had called John earlier to arrange grabbing a beer and lunch at 21st Amendment Brewery, but was a two block walk away from the bus, and then faced the prospect of another two block walk once getting off the bus in order to get to the brewery. As I stood there under the awning contemplating my options (A cab? Call and cancel? A mad dash?), a man standing beside me, whom I had only vaguely registered as being there, offered me his umbrella. I hesitated, and demurred, but he insisted, and I finally gratefully accepted.

A very nice moment indeed. It led to that beer, some good conversation, a bit of simple joy in Lupe's inherent happiness, and a nice (if somewhat rare, for me) fuzzy feeling for humanity. I am also hopefully anticipating a nice fat fuzzy feeling for all of the people who do the right thing, who make and become a part of history tomorrow...