This is what will kill me one day

Remember that day I took you to the park when I shouldn't have?

You would've thought I learned my lesson that day. But I did not. So I took you to the neighborhood pool even after you specifically told me you wanted to go home and "watch Totoro."

But I got all paranoid that I'm turning you into an Anime nerd. One of those kids who hates the outdoors and watches Japanese cartoons about space all day long. No. That will not be you.

So I took you to the pool because they have a playground area. And without going into detail, let's just say you had a series of tantrums that ended with you being naked and muddy and in tears.

By the time I calmed you down and got you out the door, you turned to look back at the pool and said: "Fun!"

And that's when I wished very hard for a glass of vodka.

Six months

Wow. I am such a bad mom. Yesterday was Ella's six month birthday and I totally ignored it because you one-upped her with that whole song business.

But, yeah. Little Ella, or Beela as we call her, she's been around for half a year. And recently, she started showing her personality, and it's much different than yours.

You didn't smile a lot when you were a baby. And you didn't laugh, like genuinely laugh, until you were about a year old. I think it's because you feel comfortable only after you figure out how things work.
Ella is not like this. At least not that I can tell. She smiles all the time. And she laughs, too. Like actual crinkle-nosed laughs. She doesn't need to warm up at a party (most of the time) because she just goes with it. I mean, check out her body language in the picture above.

It's not all smiles, though. It takes her longer to do things than it took you. Obviously it took her longer to, like, be born (two weeks late). And she didn't learn to roll over until she was five months. We won't even talk about the sleeping.

The greatest thing, though, is that you two are interacting a little more. Tonight you fed her a bottle and she smiled so much that instead of the milk actually going in her mouth, it all ran down her chin. And at daycare, I had to leave Ella in her stroller while I backed the car out and when you saw I was moving the car without your sister sitting next to you, you screamed ELLA! ELLA! GET ELLA!

This is what I was hoping would happen. It's why you have a sister in the first place. So you guys can take care of each other when no one else can.



Happy Half Birthday, little Eela Beela.

Your first song

I'm not sure if you realize this, but my job is writing about music. So you can say that music is kind of a big deal to me. Also, the first time I met your Dad was at a local music show (Convoy). So you can say that music is kind of a big deal to him, too.

So, along with your kiddie tunes, you also like bands purely because of parental influences: Pinback (me), Clem Snide (Dad), Mariachis (me and maybe it's just in your genes?).

When we listen to music you usually just bob your head and say the lyrics. But there's never a melody involved. I mean, I don't know if kids your age are supposed to sing yet? But then they show those clips of Christina Aguilera when she was 2 and she was already over-singing, so. Um? The point is you don't do melodies.

OK, so ever since your Uncle Alex (Akis) graduated from CSU San Marcos, you've been requesting one song only: the graduation march. For the last week you make us sing that tune over and over again and at the end, we have to say Alex's name the way they said it at the ceremony: ALEXANDER GARIN!!!

Also, I found my SDSU graduation cap, which is so amazing because you can actually play graduation. You put on your cap and walk around as we sing the song. Which, as a parent you would think would be pretty exciting, but whenever I say: MARINA HALL instead of Alex's name, you tell me to stop. So it's actually not as excitingly ambitious as one would imagine.

But tonight, after eating way too much cake at your cousin Ezra's birthday party, you came home all revved up and ready to graduate. Except this time you sang!

Na! Na na na na na! Na! Na na na na. . .

I always thought your first song would be, like, Bingo or Twinkle Twinkle, maybe even PJ Harvey. But no. Your first song was the graduation march.

And if for the rest of your life we talk to you a lot about college, just think back to this day and realize: you made this happen.

New camera hi-jinx

Introducing the new Panasonic camera!

The cell phone camera would never be able to catch such arty light of off that teddy bear.



Would you believe this is you first thing in the morning? The 12 days a year you don't have a fever, you look like this when you wake up.



You and Ella's new favorite hangout? My bed. Because it has a view of the bird feeder. And there's pillows. And a TV. And you can be close to Ella without having to, like, touch her or anything.



But, come on, how cute is she? Why wouldn't you want to touch her and smoosh her and give her a million kisses?

Here we go again

You had a fever today.
They called me from school and asked me to come get you because you wouldn't stop crying. And when I showed up, you were in the driveway with the head of the entire preschool, smearing your boogers and tears all over her.
At one point the fever was 102.5.
And because I know better, I immediately gave you Tylenol with a Motrin chaser. And your pajamas are not too hot tonight like they were before the seizure.
Call me naive, but I'm getting kind of cocky about dealing with fevers.
They are no match for me.
If a fever couldn't bring me down the week that we moved and I went back to work (and let's say it pretty much almost sent me to the mental hospital) then this new round should be easy.
Oh, I can not wait until three days from now when I read this back and curse myself for being so stupid.

I'm still going to call you Beans

I just wanted to thank you for my new nickname.
For some reason, you started calling me Maminee.
I don't know why but I love it so much more than Mambie.
I even like it more than just plain old Mommy.
Maminee Hall.
That's me.

Boys against girls

I have a friend who thinks there's no difference between boy and girl babies.

So when her boy ate a pile of dirt from our backyard and I told her that you have never, ever even considered touching the dirt, let alone putting any in your mouth, she insisted it had nothing to do with the sexes.

So. Okay. There's no difference. Sure.

But when we went to the park yesterday, instead of running through the grass and demanding to sit on my lap like usual, you grabbed a tree branch from the ground and put. it. in. your. mouth.

Mother's Day

So, along with cleaning the house and doing the laundry, Daddy also bought me a digital camera for Mother's Day. Or maybe it was an iPod for Mother's Day and the camera is for our three-year anniversary on Wednesday.
Either way, I am so super spoiled.
But also it means that we will finally get good quality photos here.
So let us say goodbye to the camera phone with these little gems:

Ella after her first feeding, which did not go as well as it may look in this photo.


Here we are with pigtails in our hair. It was 5 p.m. We were bored. So we put our hair up because that's what girls do, I guess.


Perhaps we will still use the camera phone every once in a while because it can make a crappy photo look kind of arty.

Just like Mommy (please say this in the tune of "Just Like Honey" by Jesus and Mary Chain, thank you.)

I always assumed my laziness on all things domestic was due to how I was raised with housekeeper/nannies who made my bed and did my laundry for me.

But I see now that it is perhaps hereditary. My laziness was passed down to me by my Dad and I seem to have given the lazy gene to you.

Because yesterday, you threw a banana peel on the floor in a fit of babyrage and you refused to pick it up.
That resulted in your first "time-out" outside the confines of your crib. I put you on a bench and you actually sat there.

An hour later you spilled a million dried fruit pieces on the floor and, once again, I asked you to pick them up.

You looked at the mess.

You looked at me.

And you walked right over to the "time-out" bench ON YOUR OWN because there was no way in hell you were going to pick up all those dried, tiny blueberries.

What About Ella?

While I understand that you are Beans and this blog is called Cost of Beans, it shouldn't only and always be about you.

Ella has been doing some things and I've totally been ignoring them. I haven't even written about them in her baby book because it is still packed in a box somewhere (along with yours) and this is likely to traumatize her when she is a teenager. I'll catch her getting drunk in Tijuana and she'll be all "you should have had a blog about me, evil mommy. Now I must drink tequila and kiss boys."

So let's try to avoid that from ever happening.
Here it goes:

1. Ella flips over. Both ways.
You did this very early. Like at 12 weeks. Ella just now caught up. But she is a total champion roller-over. She goes back and forth and back and forth over and over again.

2. Ella can almost sit.
I am so excited about this because sitting is the greatest. It's when you can just plop the baby on the floor and not have to worry about rolling over or crawling. The sitting stage is bliss.

3. We are getting rid of her pacifier.
Because I don't want her to be like those 4-year-old kids who use them.

4. She is still gigantic.
She's been wearing clothes you wore when you were 12 or 13 months old. She is five months.

5. You guys take baths together now.
You pour water on her and I think that's been the highlight of Ella's life. I have never heard a baby laugh the way she does when you are around.

All right. Hopefully this will help avoid any future conflicts.
Now back to All Beans All The Time.

A new obsession: boats!

You went to see boats with Mima last weekend and now you are crazy for them.





You also liked the Kentucky Derby (before the horse went down) on TV. The hats and horses and dresses had you all mesmerized.

It warms my heart to know I am raising the stereotypcial San Diego yuppie.

A new fear (and 100th post!)

The first time you saw a fly was a few weeks ago, when you were delirious with the fever of 08.

We don't have a screen door, so when we go outside and forget to close the glass door, all sorts of creatures find their way inside the house, and that includes lots and lots of flies.

They didn't seem to bug you when you had the fever because maybe you thought they were part of your hallucinations? I mean, I can see how new little black things with wings flying around can be pretty trippy.

But flies post-fever are the most troubling thing going on in your life right now. You seriously flip out if they come near you. You tell them no, you say no in sign language, your eyes swell with tears and you get very agitated.

The thing is, it's also the cutest thing. I mean, the way you get so so upset at the flies and how you're so genuine about it shows me this really sweet part of your personality.

And I mean, not that I leave the door open on purpose or anything, but I'm not going to order a screen anytime soon.