Our life, according to my phone

Because I thought I was going to get an iPhone last week, I cleared out all the pictures that were saved on my phone. They're random and they're not in order, but they show some of our more everyday moments.

This one is from so long ago, at Rancho's in North Park getting fruit smoothies.

This is from Marina's preschool graduation and I love it because she looks so tiny and angelic but also very stylish.

I think this is when Ella turned four and Derrik brought a giant Hello Kitty pinata. When I turned three or four, I also got a life sized pinata at this exact house. So it's a special picture for me.

Here is the time Ella put stickers on her face and then wanted me to take a picture to send to Matt. But I caught her looking all sick and tired and we told Matt she had the Chicken Pox and he believed it.

Matt doesn't like the kids to eat cotton candy but one time we went to a baseball game without him and this happened.

This is the kindergarten field trip, but when I see this photo of Marina and her friend, my mind fast forwards 12 years and I can totally see this in her senior yearbook.

Did you know Ella talks like a baby most of the time? This is the preschool friend who she speaks baby language with. It annoys some parents, but look how happy they are. Who cares.

Oh, this one? It's just Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. We were in a room together for a ridiculous amount of time. But I mean ridiculous in a bad way. Six minutes, I think? They gave three reporters  six minutes to do an interview, all of us at the same time. Six minutes. We each got to ask one question.

The day I bought Ponyo for Ella at Comic-Con. I love this picture because Marina looks so confident and sassy.
 

Sisters being sisters before bedtime.

One Sunday, the farmer's market by our house had a petting zoo and Ella was brave enough to hold a chicken on her lap. Me and Marina, not so much.

This was a closed storefront I saw in Ensenada. Ensenada is where my dad and most of his family live, and it's also where we go on vacation every summer. And Tijuana is where I spent many of my formative teen years and where I've had some amazing times as a grown up, too.

One day at Sea World, we found one of Ella's best friends and had a dance party with fuzzy Sesame Street pals.

The end of kindergarten

I don't even know how to start this post.

For so long, all I wrote about was finding the perfect kindergarten. And then we found it and moved and everything changed - from learning new channels on TV to being able to walk to the grocery store.

And now it's over. Kindergarten happened.

Was all that research, all those days I spent touring school, all the frazzled nerves from uncertain charter lotteries, worth it?

From my perspective: totally, definitely, completely, absolutely.

Watching Marina learn to read, have her handwriting go from baby scribbles to extremely neat, teach me random facts about bugs, sing songs in Spanish and use a computer with no problem, has been amazing.

She's also gone from painfully shy to an outgoing kid who makes friends easily and looks for any opportunity to perform.

But mine isn't the perspective that ultimately matters.

This one is: