Sebby's First Night in a Hotel

Looks Like We Picked the Wrong Weekend

Moojie never made it to New York. 8 hrs in the airport were not lost, however. He gained a great deal of experience in dealing with airlines, frazzled people behind desks, and other adverse situations. Even Seb and I got to hang out in the International arrivals hall, which was enough to wipe out any doubts I've had about not traveling to San Francisco while Sebby is a baby.

Carnival!

New York, New York

I just gave Moojie one last hug before sending him off to New York alone. He's so excited and I'm so excited for him! Let's just hope he beats the storm and doesn't have to land somewhere South.

Heaven

A Coconut Afternoon

If you want to provide your children with electronic-free entertainment- buy a few coconuts! Freddy loves buying strange fruits or vegetables from the grocery store and the kids have always had a fascination with coconuts. I told them they had to open it without using anything sharp, thinking I would gain at least an hour of peace in the kitchen. A few minutes later, I heard "bombs away!" followed by a coconut flying down in front of the kitchen window and a big splat on the cobblestones outside. Total elation filled the house as they came running in with the split coconut.

Zita set about hollowing out the coconut shell halves, while Freddy and I made a coconut bundt cake using very boring store-bought coconut flakes instead of the real deal. Sadly, the fresh coconut had been man handled to an inedible point. I started dreaming of Almond Joy chocolate bars, and decided to melt chocolate for the top to which Freddy added even more coconut.

Freddy is more of a get the job done frosting spreader than a precision kind of guy.

Pai was as pleased with that coconut cake as he would have been to see a large roasting pig with a bucket of cold beer right there in the middle of the kitchen. All these years I have been using carrot cake as the way to Pai's heart when easy coconut cake could have been my secret weapon.

Zita decided she didn't like coconut cake so reserved some batter for one giant cupcake.

The hollowed shell halves have taken on the role of musical instruments, candle holders, desk ornaments, and Play Mobile props. I begrudged having to buy this one simple coconut thinking it would just be a waste. Little did I know!

Getting in the Picture

I read this article in the Huffington Post a while back, and the blogosphere was abuzz with mothers like myself commenting on how they too never get in the picture.

Based on our photo albums from 1998-2011, the children look like they have been raised by Vasco bouncing back and forth between the farm, the beach, and travelling the world. While Vasco certainly does his part in raising the children, I like to think that I've done a fair bit of mothering myself.

Freddy is the most enthusiastic photographer, which doesn't always provide the most flattering angle.  Gracious I hope this double-chin-at-certain-angles thing in new. Some things were best left out of the picture, but the point in all of this is to capture what mothering on a day-to-day basis is really like, and if that includes double-chins, bad hair, and messy backgrounds in order to remember the sweet stuff, so be it.

I let a friend taller than Freddy in on my new intention to get in the picture and she graciously took a few pictures with my phone.

Heaven is pressing my cheek against Sebby's and just squeezing away. Not sure sure that's his idea of heaven based on his worried expression.