On Hiatus

Sorry guys, with the strike ending, it's back to work time. I'm a little overwhelmed right now with work and life so I'm taking a break from blogging. You can still watch my latest videos here.

School Days, School Daze...

Yep, Baby Girl started preschool this morning. Everyone told me to prepare to be sad and maybe even cry. I had quite the opposite reaction after dropping her off - total glee!

OK, I'm not totally a sociopathic mom. Yes, I was excited about having some free time but I'm also really excited for Baby Girl. She loves having other kids around and she just doesn't get enough of that.

After going through hell trying to find the "right" place, we finally found a place that is heaven for her - huge play house area, giant outdoor playground, piles of puzzles, blocks and other building materials and so much more. We actually chose an "arts" preschool...which basically means...more coloring. YAY!

Seriously though, they focus a lot on music, dance, arts and crafts, gymnastics, etc. All the stuff that BG can't get enough of.

Here's some pics of her first day:





She had such an awesome time that the only time she cried was when I carried her out the door to go home. Apparently, I'm not nearly as much fun as a room full of toys and kids. Who knew?

Read a Book, Read a Book, Read a MotherF*@#ing Book

One bonus of spending time at my mom's is that there's no Tivo or Netflix guilting me into watching. It's funny how things that are supposed to make your life more convenient end up making you feel more pressured.

By the time Baby Girl goes to bed, we clean up the debris from our play session, wash dishes & other chores, it's 9 or 9:30. Thanks to Netflix, we pretty much always have 3 movies waiting and Tivo must have 25 hours of stuff that we've taped - both movies and TV shows.

Every night it's a battle to watch as much as we can before I pass out on the couch. Unfortunately, we're losing. I always think I should cancel some shows but then someone will tell me how great this new show is...and I add it too. I really love television but some days, I just want to cancel cable. And my Netflix is a free subscription so no point in canceling that!

Anyway, the point was that at my mom's house, I was finally able to read a book - Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood by Cari Beauchamp. I've had it for a while, thinking I'd read it on the treadmill at the gym, but then I didn't want to get it all sweaty and gross.

Hmmm, now I'm a sweaty gross woman who hasn't read a book. Nice mental picture.

Try to erase that from your mind because it's not fair to the book, which is a fascinating look at Frances Marion, who was Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter - male or female - for almost 3 decades, and the women who worked with her, including Mary Pickford, Marion Davies, Anita Loos and Hedda Hopper.

I couldn't put it down and highly recommend this book if you're a woman, a screenwriter or interested in early Hollywood. If you're reading this blog, I assume you must be.

Either that or you're just looking for a way to humiliate your husband.

Blubbering Idiot

One thing you shouldn't do when you're unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant? Make sure every movie you see revolves around pregnancy or features a pregnant woman.

The last three movies I've seen are Juno, Waitress and Lars and the Real Girl.

Now don't get me wrong. I thought all three were really great movies. However, when everyone else is laughing and you're crying like an idiot? Maybe you should be avoiding these kinds of films.

With all the blubbering I've been doing lately, you'd think I was pregnant but no such luck. It's weird wanting something so much that 10 years ago you prayed would never happen to you.

Turns out it's not as easy as you'd think to get knocked up - oh yeah, saw that movie too.

Am I a glutton for punishment or what?

Thanks-mas

Just got back from a weekend with my mom and it went so much better than I expected. Suffice it to say that my family is an excellent candidate for its own Maury Povich episode.

I would have said Jerry Springer, but there's not enough yelling. It's much more of a passive aggressive "I'm not speaking to so-and-so because 14 years ago, she said such-and-such to me."

Anyway, it actually turned out to be quite pleasant. Of course, the brevity of the visit was insurance. And my severe cat allergy was the back-up plan as my half-sister who now lives with my mom (after being estranged for more than 20 years) has a cat.

Oh, it's such a long story and I'm just too tired to relate it here. The hubby is trying to convince me to write a book about it but I'm afraid it would turn out with too much tragedy to be comedy. We'll see.

In the meantime, I think I'll spend my time worrying about my daughter. I think she's a little strange...

Video of the week

Feeling too lazy to blog so, instead, enjoy this video that we made. And yes, that is Baby Girl in a starring role.

Vacation heaven for little girls

So technically we were on vacation all week. The hubby made plans to take the week off months ago and we started planning our surf trip to Costa Rica.

Then the strike happened, along with some wackiness at hubby's work, and the week in Costa Rica became 3 days in San Diego.

Thanks AMPTP!

I can't complain too much though because we had a great time. We took a chance on a hotel we found on the internet that was right on Mission Bay. Lucky us - it turned out to be toddler heaven.

Seriously. The place not only was surrounded by beach and calm water, it had a heated pool, playground, duck pond and, I kid you not, a seal pond. Yep, with an actual seal in it that you could watch get fed twice a day.

Baby Girl thought she'd hit the jackpot. So did hubs and I when we realized that $100 for a Sea World admission for the three of us was ridiculous when we had a real live seal we could see up close every day.

The only bummer was that it was a bit colder than Costa Rica would have been. We went surfing at Mission Beach, which was a lot of fun for me in my nice warm wetsuit. Not so much fun for hubs and Baby Girl, as she insisted on hanging out in the water until her lips turned purple, then screamed bloody murder that her father could be so cruel as to insist that she warm up.

We decided to skip surfing for the next day and hang at the Zoo. Of course, no vacation for us can be obstacle-free and we had forgotten to take a stroller with us. We spent part of the night trying to find a place to buy a cheap umbrella stroller. I swear that I've seen those things everywhere yet not one place we went to sold them.

I always wondered why I see people renting those strollers at the zoo for $10, but I just couldn't see spending that much to rent something that Baby Girl would sit in for 15 minutes between jumping out to see animals, so we went without. It actually turned out fine as Baby Girl got nice and tired running between exhibits.

She fell asleep at 8 p.m. every night with no fuss. I guess we just need to spend our lives on vacation for her to sleep well. Oh wait...I forgot the nightmare that was Italy. Never mind.

Still, it was nice to spend a full week with the two coolest people I know.