West Side of the Boot

Up to my old tricks!

Alia is 4 years old

On Saturday, my little Alia turned 4 years old.

That's right.
A bicycle with training wheels, lovely dresses, coloring books, writing work books, fancy barrettes were among her favorite gifts.

She is a girl becoming aware of things girly. She is articulate, funny, smart as a whip, moody, jealous, silly, sour, pushy, gentle, kind, affectionate, stubborn, single-minded, aware, unaware, beautiful. She is taller, leaner, physically very active. She swims like a mermaid, jumps like a kangaroo, and hops on one foot constantly. Alia loves traveling, visiting new places and places we've been before. She now has memories of our last-summer trip to Turkey and the trip to Napa in March, but she no longer remembers her solid year spent in Miss Cindy's class at Montessori from 8:30 to noon. She loves to be read to. She loves to practice writing letters and sounding out words. She loves jumping into the pool with the worlds biggest smile and swims right over to you. When she comes back up out of the water she gasps for air like she's in a mad panic while smiling ear to ear. Her smile lights up the room. Her interaction with others makes me so proud. She is very friendly with any other adults. Only kind of friendly with other kids. But sometimes very friendly with other kids. It's really hard to pinpoint who Alia is at the moment because she is ever-changing.

Alia loves food and is always up for finishing your dessert. She is also a helper. She loves to help. She loves baking, measuring, stirring, tasting. For that reason I've begun afternoon activities with the girls. Sometimes we make lemonade. Sometimes it's orange juice. They both love participating in food preparation...for Alia it's about the instant reward of tasting what she's created!


So yes. She is many things. She is becoming many things. But she is also not those things. She is challenging. She allows me glimpses of what she's capable of and gives me hope, then slams the metaphorical door on me and regresses.

Ahhhhh, four. So wonderful. So frustrating. So optimistic. So I-want-to-cry-a lot-some-days (me, not Alia...but also Alia too).

This year, Alia is attending several weeks of summer camp at Montessori, from 8:30 until noon. For the summer camp, all kids are together, including Amelie. I was a little nervous about this in the beginning because Alia can be rather rough with Amelie. But now, as the summer goes on, I see a budding interest in Alia's eyes. She is beginning to understand that Amelie might just be a fun little playmate. But then jealousy takes over and there goes that little moment!

Alia is aware of her lovely hair. She loves it braided, twisted, in pony tails, in headbands. She will sit still however long is necessary to do her hair nicely for school. She is also able to dress herself for school now. From underwear to buttons, if she has enough time and isn't rushed she can get herself all ready. Giving her enough time is always the challenge for me, considering I have two littles to get dressed and out the door. But we're learning!

So happy birthday, my dear little big Alia. You are the brightest smile in my world.

Sneaky little girls

A Hot Day in Laguna

Alia's 4th birthday cake in the making

So today we made a birthday cake for Alia after the girls' morning at Montessori. We had just enough time between lunch and nap to get it accomplished.

As we made the cake, I was amazed to see just how mature my almost 4 year old has become. The whole way home from Montessori Alia talked about how she was going to help me make her cake. And after lunch was done and it was time to begin, Alia pulled not one but two step stools to the counter. One for Amelie. One for her. From here, she took turns, making sure Amelie got her turn at pouring, mixing, and counting. I felt truly blessed to be able to create this memory with them.

And as we licked the final bit of the putrid looking green batter, we shared in another great moment...

Team Buffi! Project Runway casting call

Okay, here it is!
The most exciting thing to happen for the family! Ajay's cousin Buffi made it on to Project Runway for season 10. We are looking forward to her debut next week.

http://youtu.be/NvNS-PuhqeY

July 13 2012

It's summer here in Laguna Beach. It's the first year in awhile that we've actually been around to enjoy it. Typically we travel early to mid-summer, and this year our holiday plans are much later.

With the delayed holiday, it feels like this summer is truly summer for the girls. They are enrolled in the Montessori's "summer camp" program and loving it. It's a few hours every morning and they are doing lots and lots of new and creative things. Today they replanted all the planter boxes around the school and unleashed a whole container of live ladybugs to keep everything healthy. They were fascinated!

They also have been doing a lot of things in the kitchen. They baked kale in sesame oil. They made a Community Salad where everyone brings in a fruit or vegetable and they combined it all and that was their snack. They've also done endless painting and craft projects. Let's just say that the few hours they are there in the morning delivers me with happy, hungry kids at noon. And there's something very satisfying about seeing your well-stimulated child eat voraciously and then actually want to take their nap at 1:00!

On the weekends we start out by having dinner on Friday night with the girls at the local Italian spot downtown. Saturdays and or Sundays we swim in our pool in the backyard. We are enjoying entertaining friends, having nice lunches with wine followed by nice naps for all. My typical favorite Saturday or Sunday nap-time finds me in the hot tub floating on a couple of noodles and a hat on my face...asleep...while Pandora plays Buddha Bar on my iPhone. To me...that's heaven...even if it's only for thirty minutes.

I am 100% addicted to making home movies!!!

Today, they perform.

You know, as a blogger (even the rustiest blogger like myself) we are always challenging ourselves to record, record, record. Our thoughts, things we notice, funny things that might be funny to other people, too, as well as landmarks...birthdays, anniversaries, firsts (first word, tooth, steps, and yes, in our case the first f-bomb). But what happens when you become like me and fall out of practice of recording daily, weekly, or even monthly and you find yourself feeling the need to backtrack? 

Well I'll tell you what happens. You start thinking you can type from memory. Only, as you saw in my last blog post, our memory isn't so vivid a year (or even a month) down the road. So here's my choice. Rather than racking my brain to try to recapture the past year, please allow me to summarize it for you so I can be free of the guilt and move on in the present.

This past year was tough. My girls offer me endless joy, as most Moms will tell you. They also showed me why my own mother went mad listening to day after day of my brother and sister fighting, talking back, rolling eyes, disrespecting her, not listening to her, and frankly? We  bought she was just pissed off. Having nothing to do with us, of course.

Well last week I called my dear Mom and apologized to her. I'm 40 years old so this apology has been a long time coming. I told her I was sorry for driving her crazy and for all the fighting, all the bad behavior. Because now I get it. And what's the point of this digression? Well, I'll tell you. My girls have also driven me bat shit crazy this year fighting, picking on each other, asserting their independence (read: not doing what I ask of them), pushing each others' buttons. I haven't written a lot because I didn't have much to say other than I'm losing my mind!

Lately it feels that we've turned a corner, however, and we are doing much better. The girls have been trending much better behavior wise. However, just like with any trend, there's good days and bad days. As a Mom I have to constantly remind myself to not lose my mind. And today? They perform....