Ahhhhh!

Happy Birthday Dada!

Dada's birthday is just a few days away so I've been trying to get some hints from Baba about what he would like to give Dada as a gift. Every time I ask him he answers the same way. The conversation goes something like this....

Me: Baba, Dada's birthday is coming up...What should we get him?

Baba: A truck!

Me: You think Dada would like a truck?

Baba: Yes!

Me: What kind of truck should we get him?

Baba: A dump truck!

We've had the same conversation a couple of times because I keep thinking I'll get a different answer. No luck. So am I'm ruining the surprise by posting this before Dada's B-day?

Dada - Under the bottom, where the poop comes out

So I don't even know where to start with this post or if it's even a good idea to disclose this information, but here goes. I am in charge of Aiden's bedtime routine. You'd think that would be pretty straight forward, right ? After all, he's just a kid, how hard can it be ? Give him a bath, put the jammies on, read him a story, say night night, close the door, done. Wrong! It's a long intricate routine which he tries to prolong as much as he can. Every day he comes up with a new trick to extend his bedtime. After Mama gives him a snack feeding and leaves the room, I need to read him a story or two, make sure he's got enough water and food, sing a song or two and then on his terms he agrees to turn the light off. But that's not the end of the night, it's the beginning of the end. I have to lay with the prince until he falls asleep. And while I am laying there, he'll ask me all sorts of stuff. He usually starts by asking me 'Where is her'. And when I tell him that she's right outside getting some work done, he'll come up with all sorts of reasons why she's leaving the house. As if his Mama is gone out to party. Then he'll ask me to tell him more stories, give him water a couple of times, hold him (even though I am already holding him), pull the covers up, pull the covers down.... You get the point. Eventually he'll just exhaust himself to sleep.

Well yesterday he came up with a new trick which looks like is going to be added to the daily routine because he repeated it tonight as well. So he likes to pretend that he is different people, animals or things. We like to think that he has a very fertile imagination because he never pretends to be a boy. I mean that would not take much imagination, right? Usually it's just one personality at any given time, but the personalities switch every 2 minutes or so. But yesterday he decided that he wanted to adopt multiple personalities at the same time. So I said to him, well, you'll have to assign different body parts to each person. Little did I realize that this was going to come back to bite me in the butt (literally). So he started with Julietta (his crush), Angelina, Emma & Orio (Uncle Rick & Aunty Elena's dogs), Gianna etc who all got various body parts depending on how much he liked them. So Julietta of course got the face, Gianna got the chest and the rest got his limbs. Then he added Mama to the list and said she was his bottom. Now normally you wouldn't like to be somebody's bum, but his Mama always tells him how cute his bum is, so it's actually a good thing, right up there with the face if not better. Then he added me to the list and I was beginning to wonder which remnant of his body would be assigned to me. Without any hesitation he goes 'Dada, under the bottom, where the poop comes out'. I just could not believe what I was hearing and burst out laughing. He's probably the only person in the world who could call me an A-Hole and make me laugh :)

Karmic Revenge

                    
Remember the last post?  I think Aiden read it because this week, he dished out some karmic revenge.  I went out for the day leaving Dada and Baba to hang out together for some father-son bonding time.  At one point Lac went down to the garage to toss out a diaper, a task that takes less than two full minutes, and Aiden pulled a trick out of his hat that we had never seen.  He locked the door leading down to the garage.  So, Aiden was in the house by himself and Lac was in the garage below unable to get in.  The front door was locked too.  

Did you lock the door, Baba? - Lac called from the other side.  He heard our little angle giggle and run off to play with his toys.  Aiden was fully aware of what was happening.  

The stage was set for a pretty bad situation buuuuut Lac luckily had his house keys in his pocket and was able to let himself in through the front door.  

 The moral of the story is that you have to be careful around those toddlers.  They are the biggest wild card of all because they grow and change so fast it's hard to keep up with what they are capable of doing....

Graffiti Goan Style

Every time I hear a new story about Lac's childhood, I get a little bit more nervous.  Let's just say he was a rascal.  Could that mischievous quality be genetically passed to Baba?  If not, do I have to worry about karma?  Story after story have piled up.  Actually, the stories haven't really stopped....not much has changed in the last 30 years.  

Anyhow, our trip to India revealed a new adventure I hadn't heard about which was made all the more delicious by physical proof, let's call it Graffiti Goan Style.

The artist is none other than 10 year old Chocolate-Daddy and the hiroglyphics boil down to this:  Squatters' Mama you own many coconut trees.

"Mama" is Lac's departed grandmother (that's actually what they call her).  The canvas is Mama's front door.  A stick covers the word "Aba" which refers to the squatters who had set up house on Mama's property in a derogatory way.   The coconuts refer to Mama's status as a property owner.

Mama was not at all happy with the new decorations on her front door but I find it really interesting that she didn't paint over them.  Was Mama rolling in laughter at her grandson's antics when he wasn't looking?

P.S:  The squatters are still there. 

Aiden and Dada

This picture from a trip to the California Academy of Sciences didn't turn out but I love it anyway.

The Beach

It's hard to believe that it took us this long to take Aiden to the beach.  He loved it!

Chocilla's dream team

Mom, Dad, Sister Helena, our super duper nurse midwife, Judi and our awesome Doula, Catherine who drove to our house in the middle of the night all the way from Mill Valley when things got a little too busy. We couldn't have done it without their support. They were and still are simply incredible and we are so glad that we made the right choices when we put together our birth team.

Chocilla makes his entry into the world

Chocilla arrived on July 26th at 6:42am at a birth center in San Francisco. He had a beautiful water birth and shot through the water like Nemo (from "Finding Nemo", one of my favorite animation movies :). He was a very good baby inside the womb, helped Mommy a lot during the pregnancy and especially on his way out into the world. He rarely cries and we are hoping it stays that way :)

Chocilla at 16 weeks in Pacific Grove with Chocolate & Vanilla