Levi photos

I finally got some shots of Levi when he came over the other day. I really like having him over to play with Luna. It gives me a chance to work on her social graces. She sure is a bossy little kid. Her way or the highway. No idea where she gets THAT from... anyway, back to Levi. He's the grandson of the bartender I worked with at Club Massive and lived with a time or two since then. They're both 5. He's in the VPK at her school and gets out at the same time she does.

Brrrrr and babble

We bust out Luna's Yo Gabba Plex hat due to the cold. I look at it and can't help thinking "Dang, the boys would lose anything that wasn't superglued to their bodies, but the girls keep up with their crap..." I'm pretty sure she has the matching Plex mittens around here somewhere. I know Luna has worn her bones gloves, I washed em on Thursday.

I took her outside to get some photos of her new sweater next to the firecracker bush. The close ups came out way better than the long shots. I'm fighting the battle of the blur, folks. She looks like a Hobbit with that backpack on. Wow, the only thing she's wearing that cost more than $4 is her backpack - lol. Her school uniform is that blue polo with the school name on it and khaki bottoms. So glad she likes blue, but darn. I do wish that if a school was gonna go uniform, they'd peek at the Asian school uniforms. Those things are seriously interesting. At the last PTA meeting, they said that 70% of the school population is under the poverty level. Yeah. As always, when the question is "why" the answer is "money". From what I hear, lots of moms are complaining about having to buy khakis. I really like the uniform thing, tho. Even with it, Luna is starting to ask questions about fashion. We're doing our best to keep her from being influenced too heavily by fads and crap. Right now, she's at that "if I see it in a commercial, I want it" stage. Makes me sooooo happy to have a dvr. Record what she's allowed to watch and zoom past the commercials. My goal with child rearing was to be able to create her tv programming and keep her out of the stuff that is bad for her brain and development. The disney channel is horrible with all the stuff they have for kids that gives them totally unrealistic views. I'm all for fantasy, but not fantasy masquerading as reality. Little kids can't really tell the difference sometimes. Every so often, Luna and I play the "real or not real" game about the shows we watch. Wonder Pets - not real. Jon Stewart - real. Sesame Street - not real. Unbeatable Banzuke - real. Iron Man movie - not real. Underdog movie - not real. Morning Joe - real.

The school photo reshoot is on Wednesday. I haven't been doing her hair in bops lately. It's all I can do to drag us all out of bed and get us marginally pulled together in time. Gonna have to muscle it through for the photos, though.

Luna and Natalie

Luna went to Natalie's 5th birthday party. She had a wonderful time. She really does love her cousin to death. We got to meet Natalie's mommy and her Abuela and Abuelo. It seems that the planets aligned to give Natty an art birthday. Everything was dress up or art stuff. That little kid is so beautiful. Wow. Like, wow. I think Mike and Kyle are gonna be spending time at the gun range together in about 5 years. (If Pat was closer, it might be an all boys outing or 10)

My camera is crap, so I didn't get a single useful photo of the girls together. Waaaa!~

There was a bouncy house, which was the absolute hit of the party. The family cooked like mad for the party so there were lots of yummies to be had. It was a really nice time. I'm glad we went.

Abuelita would love to have Luna over to visit with Natalie, but I'm a little worried because it really is a long haul from here. The shortest distance involves about $10 in tolls to go both ways on one trip- not to mention the gas. I'm worried that we'd get her out there and she'd bug out and wanna come home. We'll find a way to handle it, it'll just take some time and logistics planning.

Getting Fancy

I went ebay shopping and found a wonderful leather jacket for Luna. As luck would have it, the lady had a beautiful holiday dress as well and was willing to combine shipping.The jacket is a little more beat than I'd expected, but it's ok - leatherish gets like that. It's a beautiful unique piece that will keep her warm this winter, so happy happy.

Isn't the detail amazing on this thing? Chaaa! $6 jackets rock!

She modeled her dress for Uncle Claude on Skype and kept saying to him:
"Uncle Claude, am I styling? This is my fancy dress, I look fancy! For a party!"
I gotta add that the 1950's groove this thing is rocking is divine on the kid. It even has this odd crinoline in it to keep the skirt poofed out. The dots are a velvet flocking and it has a velvet ribbon and bow at the waistline, with a crystal geegaw in the center. Super cute!

Yeah, I got this dress for $1 plus $2 shipping added onto the jacket I'd fallen in love with. In case you're wondering, she's wearing my stilettos.


Luna and her favorite kitty Skadi.

Luna and Levi

Lou - my mentor from Club Massive days and I still talk. Her daughter has a son Luna's age. He missed the birthday cutoff date, so he's in VPK and she's in K. I've been taking Levi from time to time afterschool until Missy can come get him.

They're both really digging it. Luna's not the nicest kid to play with. She throws a fit if things don't go her way or are all about the Luna. Having him over is a really great way to fix that crap. She also seems to have some separation anxiety issues. I'm assuming it's from the split of the houses. She cries when he leaves. Luna was on the potty last time Levi left and she had an epic. Missy said that Levi wants permission to call Luna on the phone. I gave it. They're going to be moving at some point, so this isn't a forever deal. Luna knows Levi is moving, but I'm not sure she gets what that really means. It's fun watching them. He likes coming over to a girl's house and having action figures to play with instead of girly stuff. Luna's been invited over to Mimi's to hang with Levi and give me a kid break. We'll get it scheduled out. The last time he was here they played games on the computer. That's new for him. I do want him to learn the computer, but they're active kids who need to run around and have fun. (Read: wear each other out for the sake of mommy's sanity)

Again with the photo promises...blah, blah...coming soon...blah, blah, blah.

SpiderLuna did what?

I bust out Luna's Spiderman costume yesterday. This Halloween is going to be the last time she gets to wear it before she grows out of it, so it's time to put some mileage on it. She squeed when I pulled it out and let her wear it. We got out the Lighted mask and the single glove as well. (Yay, we now have two gloves!!) She ran the house in this getup, happy as a clam. Except for the bitching about the mask sliding until I adjusted her hair and the velcro strap. Then happy as a clam again. She showed off for Oupa and spent some time in the mirror.

From there it was SpiderLuna riding Roscoe the Stick Pony up and down the hallway. I truly wish my videocamera would shoot in low light. It was a sight.

I'll try to amend this with a photo and/or a video. I'll shoot something once she gets home from school.

And then there was soup...and the soup was good.

Cold Snap! Time for Soup! Time to bake! Yayyyyy!

Luna loves making soup with me. The main problem is I have to put it into the crock pot before she comes home from school and she doesn't get to help. I think if we do it the night before and toss the crock into the fridge, I might be able to get away with it. Here's hoping!

So far we've made:
Chicken and Dumplings
Beef Vegetable
and Potato Soup is in our very near future.

Pops is digging on the soups, but he can only go 2 days on a soup before he gets bored. Luna isn't into veggies right now, so that's making the soup experience a bit rough. Thank goodness for the Apple & Eve fruit/vegetable juice boxes. They're 20 cents more than Juicy Juice, but they have veggies in them, which is what she's lacking.

Also, been going mad with the beans, rice & cornbread. Biscuits with the soups, cornbread with the beans. Luna's all about using the crank sifter to sift the dry goods and using the biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits. I recently saw a tv show that had this 14 year old boy who was complaining that he didn't know how to make his own dinner. Uh, what?!?! Dang! At 14, Luna is gonna be making this stuff by herself and be completely at ease doing so. I'm working on getting Mike a little more proficient in the kitchen. He's gonna start making cornbread and biscuits with Luna real soon. If I can lay paws on a hook for the Kitchen Aid, we're gonna start experimenting with bread. Pops wants me to find a bread maker. I'm not sold. Those things make tiny loaves and I know he can eat a whole one without breathing heavy. (And with some help from Molly) So if I'm gonna be doing it, I need to be able to do at least 2 loaves at a time.

Luna's asking for beignets again. *sigh* Those were such a pain in the butt. I know it's just that I'm working on theory and odd recipe alone. With some practice I'm sure I can get it down, but I'd love to have somebody in the kitchen showing me what the heck we're supposed to be doing. Little Miss is all about getting down with the powdered sugar on the beignets when we make em. It's fun to watch, hell to clean.

And so winter comes...

It's starting to get chilly outside, so I went through Luna's winter clothes. All I can say is Candace got one heck of a wardrobe from it. We were only able to keep two shirts, her Big Bird hoodie and her zip hoodie from last year. Thankfully, Grandma stuffs Luna into pants that are way too big from time to time, so I have 4 pair of jeans that fit her now.

Ebay and Goodwill are saving my bacon. I just got Luna 2 pair of school trousers, 2 pair of jeans one pair of Clone Troopers nightclothes to replace the Star Wars pants she got from Steele that don't fit her anymore - but she doesn't really wanna give em up. All that, plus a new frying pan for Pop's hash - $13.50 I was also able to find a matching Spiderman glove to go with the lighted mask and glove I got from Kris. New The Children's Place sweater that's in her school colors with appliqued flowers on it, $4.50 and a lovely Yule dress and Embossed pleather jacket for $9.83 via Ebay. I hit Walmart and got her long sleeved tees to go under her uniform shirts, the selection in the boys section was better than in the girl's section and since all you see is the arms it's not like it matters what gender they are for. Honestly, if I can find her four more pairs of trousers and two more sets of nightclothes, she's done. The shorts I got her for this summer are big enough that most will transfer to next year. I'm really glad we have a cousin so close by that can use Luna's outgrown stuff. And a Mom who appreciates it. I do need to invest in some more of those multi-skirt hangers... I've used up all the ones I have with her school pants. It makes it easier for her to choose which she wants to wear.

I have a bunch of boys cargo shorts/pants for Luna. Then brilliance struck. To keep her from looking too boyish, I think I'm going to sew trim and appliques on them to girly em up. Not too much, just something that keeps them from screaming "Future Lesbian of America" (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but kids are mean about stuff). My other goal is to finally fix her Marvel shoes so the tongues don't rub on her foot scars through her socks. I got her thick socks and it still chafed a boo boo on one of her feet. Thankfully, Grandma sent me some thick red fleece fabric, so I've got the tools, I just need the time and inclination.

Bad bad mommy

Ok, so I've not been blogging as I should. Not that I don't care, I just don't care to sweat myself into a hole whilst typing.

Luna has been quite busy doing all sorts of fun kid things. Kindergarten is going well, not one call from the Principal yet. Her midterm report said she was doing fine, but it's Kindergarten - she'd better be doing well or I'm not doing my job. She still rides her bike most days, training wheels and all. She seems to fall off the thing a lot. I figured out that it was due to loose training wheels (and inability to consider the concept of "steering").

I'm pouting bc it hasn't rained hard enough to allow us to break out our raingear.



Today I was able to get her fingerprinted while we were at Lowe's building a firetruck. I asked the fireman to let her sit in the driver's seat. Super cute, right? Trucker monkey! She got to see her little friend Darien again. The gang was there to build another wooden toy. Her apron will be full of badges by Christmas, I think.

I've got a few more stories but I want to get decent pics to show for them. More to come...

Art Camp - Myths and Monsters

The class I was excited about was this one. It sounded so cool. They made wooden gods or goddesses and togas. When Luna does a project, with Mike working so close to home, I generally take her to his work so he can see her all dressed up. Cute!!

Art Camp - Circus!

The local Museum has art camp over the summer. I got my ducks in a row and got Luna lined up for a scholarship so she could attend. It was pretty cool, the teacher was great. They painted clown faces and made clown hats and shoe covers. I don't quite remember what piece was kept to go into the End of Summer Art Show. I think it was the painting. They asked that anyone who received a scholarship send in a thank you card for the sponsor who paid for the class. I made her thank you cards, something personal and cute to show how much we really appreciated the classes.

Loving the Spiderman bike..

Mike took Luna out to ride bikes today. She's still rocking the training wheels. It's odd for her to try to ride a bike since it's so heel driven. You have to work with different parts of your foot to keep the pedals moving. Today she got it. She rode circles around Daddy for a while. Luna got stuck trying to go over that ridge at the driveway. She couldn't quite clear it and kept rolling backwards off of it. It did give her an appreciation for her brake pedals, tho.

Yeah, I'm posting the movie as soon as I get photos loaded up here.

More at the Farmer's Market

Luna and I ran out this Sat am to hit the farmer's market for some veggies. She was determined to get a pineapple. After this conversation, I knew there was no wiggle room whatsoever...

"I wanna make Pineapple Upside Down cake, Mommy!"

"Sure, Kid. We can do that. How about some banana bread for breakfast tomorrow. "

"Great idea, Mommy. That'll go great with Pineapple Upside Down cake."

Yeah, there was no way out. We're making cake once the pineapple gets a little more ripe.

We also found some crazy big carrots. I mean, Chernobyl big. We're making stuffed poblano peppers and lobster & cream filled pastry puffs for Father's day. I needed carrots, but dang. They're cool as heck, tho!

Photo Frame at Lowes

Yep, Luna made a photo frame. Any reason to get out her tools...

As usual, her buddies Darien and Andrea were there as well to build stuff and have fun.

I have movies of her building and painting it, I just have to pull the time outta me hat to be able to do some editing. Whee!

First Swim Class

Luna started swim class today. There are only 5 kids in the class and she's the tallest of the lot. She wasn't too into listening to the teacher, but it is their first day. Maybe she'll get with the program. (Remember, if you click on the photos they get bigger!)





Aww, it's over for the day...

I talked to some of the other moms around the pool and they say that the classes are two weeks not just one. Gonna cause some stepping and fetching next week to make these classes then bolt over to art class. Whooee. Run, Mama, Run!


I've got some movies to edit and toss onto youtube from this class.

The simple joys of summer

When I was a child, every Mom had a handful of these little orange thingies in her cutlery drawer. I can't remember getting a fork anywhere before the age of 13 that didn't have some of these silly plastic things fighting for space. I grew up in Florida. Oranges abound out here. When we had a bunch of kids (and some neighbors who grew oranges) I found a giant lot of them on ebay. I've been giving them away, talking the kids into selling them for spare cash and getting rid of them in new and creative ways. There's only one website selling the little plastic jobbers and they call them "Orange Squeezers".

Luna loves hers. You stick it into an orange and your fruit becomes a fresh drink that you have to squeeze until you get out every drop. Destruction & tastiness all in one unit. Yeah!

Stinkdog gets a bath

Bathed Dad's dog Molly today. She kept getting on things and the smell was critical.

Forgive me, Dog, for I have sinned. It's been two weeks since your last hide scrubbing...

Whilst stinkdog was getting said bath, Pop's cat, Dora, decided to check on Molly. Curious as cats are, I think Dora was a little worried about his canine friend being tossed into the giant white bowl of water torture.

So he bravely hopped into the tub to check it all out.

Sorry about the blurry photos, but this was pretty cute.

Dora loves Molly, Dora loves Molly!!

Wall-E

Luna and I went to goodwill and she found this Wall-E toy by Vtech. It has logic puzzles, so I figured why not? Man, was that a good find. This toy rocks!!! She loves her some Wall-E. His eyes blink and it has a bunch of different games for her to play. I'm so glad they're not baby games, they are totally age appropriate. You can even twist his hands to play certain games. Super cool!

Last Day of VPK

Whee! Luna is out of school for the summer. I've got her laddered with free classes this summer, so she's going to be busy. She doesn't care. She gets to "stay home". We've got her signed up for Kindergarten at Boston Ave Charter School. I'm jazzed, it's such a great place.

They did a recital of all the songs they learned about different things like numbers, bones and continents. I tried to shoot some video but the light values were too low to get good video. Not to mention all the mommies walking in front of me to get a good photo... Ah, well. Her teacher asked that the children wear nice clothes for their last day.

They served cake after the recital, but Luna didn't want to know about the cake, she wanted to get home and maybe go swimming. She was running for the door. Pretty funny. The teachers say she gets along well with the other students and is being social, but I guess that holds a pale candle to being home to play.

Swimming at the Y

Luna is thrilled to be able to go to the YMCA and swim. She's been crazy with her card. The first day she had it we went to get Slurpee refills at 7-11. She pushed her Y card to the clerk trying to pay for her drink, like it was a debit card. Cute! I had her drill a hole in her card so I could string it onto a lanyard for her. (Love the yankee drill!) We tried a swim ring, but they don't allow inflatables at the pool. She is allowed to bring her noodle, though.

The last time we went, little miss was fearless. She was leaping from the edge of the pool towards her noodle or not as she chose. Dunking way down into the water and grabbing hold of whatever was nearest to get herself up to get air. Mike held her and they went under and up a few times. She's doing pretty well. I can't wait for next week's swim classes. Luna can't tread water strongly enough to keep her nose and mouth out of the water. We've been practicing kicking and cuppy hands. She did well opening her eyes underwater. Woot!

We're all getting some color to our skin from all the pool time. It's nice family time. Makes me really miss Steele, but there's nothing to do for it.

I'm having to split our time between the indoor and outdoor pools so we don't fry from the sun. I've got some really nice Neutrogena Sport SPF 70 sunscreen for us, but after a good hour plus in the water it needs to be reapplied. The hours they allow swimming are crazy stupid but it beats nothing, so I'm head down in logistics to try to get us there daily around all the schedules.

I'll see if I can get some good photos of swim class. It's crazy early, so I'm not sure my brain will be nailed on straight.

Flea Market

Wadean, Luna and I went to the flea market to shop for fresh veggies this weekend. It was fun. Wadean had never been. Luna found herself a spiderman hat for $1. Yay! She's learning cheap at a young age, muahahaha!




I'll admit, with that hat she looks way redneck...

Forgive this, but dang...

I saw this advertisement at a local cigarette shop.

Uh, wow. Really? Really.

I didn't buy a pack, but have to jaw drop at the totally mercenary attitude. That's mad sack, man. Mad sack.

Art Camp!

Luna got a scholarship for two weeks instead of just one! She'll be doing the circus one and the myths & magic one. Thanks to all who helped with the papers! Woo hoo! Happy happy happy!

Blowing up youtube

Whee! Odd Luna videos are now available on YouTube on her channel. I've posted a widget that shows her channel on the sidebar.

www.youtube.com/user/violetavenger

Have fun!

The Lowes Racecar part 1

I took Luna to the free workshop at Lowe's. She had fun. One of the kids that she really likes from her VPK class was there, so that was super cool for her! We talked the supervisor out of a little Luna sized hammer since they did not sell the ones the kids were using and the new hammers were all new and shiny. We got one of the old wooden ones. She doesn't care, she has her own hammer!


I didn't want her to put all the stickers on her car so we could come home and paint it all cool for Grandpa. (It's going to be his Xmas present from Luna this year...)

The next post is going to be the painting photos.