{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

day planner

I still keep a day planner.  I've had one for the past 16 years.  When I was diagnosed with breast cancer I needed to write down a lot of things -- appointments, doctors, names of drugs and protocols to look up, clinics, adjuvant and alternative therapies, and secret thoughts -- happy, sad, transcription of a day's event-- that I needed to get out of my head then turn the page.  That's when I started using a day planner.

It may have been the third or fourth year when I realized that my day planner had become such an integral part of my day-to-day that I decided to treat myself to a really nice one that felt good in my hands. I wandered into Papyrus one afternoon and knew I found the one -- a black leather weekly planner with the year embossed in gold letters on the front, its page edges embellished with gold metallic ink (?), and a simple ribbon to help keep my place.  Every year, this was my annual gift to myself and it felt like such a splurge at ~$40 -- and it had maps of the world, international flight patterns and calling codes for my reading pleasure.  I felt so worldly toting it around.  I loved it and picked a different color each year.  

One year, they didn't carry it...or it was sold out(?)...online shopping wasn't around (gasp!) to let my fingers do the walking.  I was bummed, but needed to find a quick replacement because January was right around the corner, so resorted to a black spiral planner from an office store.  Blech, but it served its purpose. I was in a planner funk for a long time after that.  One glorious day, I came across a similar design at Marshall's of lesser quality leather minus the oddly fascinating useless international pages, but it got me back in "style".  After this bargain find, it was hard to think of even going back to the pricey version. Can you believe I hit a dry spell with Marshall's a few years later too?  I gave the Sierra Club's version a chance last year and  realized I missed the ruled lines and journal area in the back.  Nice pictures though!  I am comforted that I found my old style planner at TJ Max for 2013.  It's spring green -- a new color for me.  It has been sitting atop my dresser for about a month now and I'm looking  forward to breaking it in.

I've thrown most of my planners away -- mostly because I wanted to move on from anything I wrote from the past year and start the new year fresh.  The ones I have are still around because at some point when cleaning out the shelves I convinced myself that there were references or contacts I wanted to archive before tossing it out (and somehow also convinced myself that I would actually do it) or have just not made it into my circular filing system.

So, what's with the history of my day planners?  I was catching up on Design Mom and  came across this woman's tribute framed around her late mother's day planner from 1967. It's magical. I wonder if it will influence what I capture in 2013 with the thought that it  may someday fall into Cole's hands as he filters through my old belongings and I try to imagine what insight he'll have on my daily activities. If it were to happen, I would be so delighted if "make granola" reminds him that he used to call it "dodo" and that I didn't do a thing to correct him because his early language was so precious to me.

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

halloween besties

Our first big trick or treating night where we ventured beyond our neighbors' houses.  Cole and William are best buds and were super Super Heroes together.  It was all fun and games until the sugar high turned into a sugar meltdown.  Not too long after they went home, Cole crashed and fell asleep.  These kids can't handle their peanut butter cups!

fish sticks

This morning, Cole played in his room while I was preparing his lunch and getting ready for work. I heard lots of talking going on as he played with his friends.  Mostly, I heard singing.  Wonderful songs narrating what he was doing mixed in with words from Thomas' theme song, Twinkle Twinkle, and Hickory Dickory Dock.

Randomly, he'd yell from his room, "Mom, what are you doing?" "Making your lunch." "Oh, okay. Making my lunch."

Microwave beep.  "Mom, it's ready! Whatchoo makin'?" "Peas for your lunch." "Oh, okay. Peas."

Oven beep. "Mom, it's ready! Whatchoo makin'?" "Fish sticks." "Oh, fish sticks. I like fish sticks.  Can I eat them?"

Out from his room he emerges with Percy.  Turns out Percy is the one who wants to eat the fish sticks, not Cole. "Percy, you can have fish sticks for dinner.  These fish sticks are for Cole's lunch.  Okay?" "Okay."

Fortunately, Cole likes fish sticks too and he ate his lunch...except for the peas and, surprisingly, the cookie treat.

pepper tree

We love pepper trees.  When we began looking for trees to plant at our house, the pepper tree was the first one we added in our front yard.  I feel so "in the know" of trees whenever I spot one.  This is a tree we discovered along a street in San Juan Capistrano that had a hollowed out trunk.

Looking inside the trunk.

Here it looks like a shrub.

Someone's up to something.

cheetah

Whenever we go to the zoo, he always wants to see the cheetah.  Last weekend, he drew one -- a one-spotted cheetah.

{these moments}

{these moments} A Friday-ish ritual. A photo - no words - capturing a moment from our mini-vacay. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

superheroes

Cole likes to sing and hum.  His tone is pretty good too.

Recently, we figured out that a little tune he's been humming is the beginning of the theme for Superman. For a while, Brian would say it's the Imperial margarine tune because it sounded like a perfect fifth.  I had to remind him that Cole has never heard that commercial because, um, he was born less than three years ago. Randomly, he'll ask to wear his Superman cape and grin in the mirror as he turns to try to see his back.

Every now and then, Cole will strum on the open guitar strings and sing the Spiderman song: "Spiderman, Spiderman. Friendly, neighborhood Spiderman. Catches people..." I love how he ad libs.

Another great diddy was, "Bob, the builder.  He likes ham!"

Cole was introduced to Captain America from the Avengers movie. I didn't think he noticed him, but he insisted on this costume when we saw it at Costco. I thought he would go for Spidey, but instead said to buy that for his pal,William.  What a thoughtful friend!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a mud mask on.  When Cole saw me, he asked, "Are you the Green Lantern, Mama?"  Of course, I was. If I was raising a little girl, I wonder if she would have asked if I was having a home spa treatment instead.

jawa

This morning, Brian was teaching Cole about planets as they looked at the pictures from Curiosity on Mars.  Cole asked where the "geng-geh (phonetic translation of jawa-speak according to Brian and Cole)  guys" live.  Brian's response, "a galaxy far, far away." classic.

a little bit

For the longest time, he's asked for "ayidabit" of something -- milk, juice, etc.  I always thought it was cute baby talk until it donned on me that he couldn't say "a little bit" and that at this point may not even realize that that's what he's asking for.  Here's our attempt to pronounce it properly together.  I think I made it worse. We giggled over this for a while before bedtime tonight.  He then took over the camera and shot this scene.

whee

This year is passing so quickly and I've missed capturing so much of Colito's new discoveries and learned skills.  This summer he's been really big on sharing information with his cousins.  He doesn't quite get who or what cousins are, but it's given us a good segue into introducing names and faces of our family members through pictures and Facetime.

Fortunately, his actual cousins, Nic and Dio (honorary) spent some time with us on their road trip to their new home, New Orleans. We had a great time at Legoland, singing (video coming soon!), and swimming in the pool.  We'll be sure to visit them once they're settled in and have some tasty beignets.

Some cute -isms from Coleseph (Nic's nickname for him.  How many permutations of his name can we come up with?):

• If you ask him if he wants to go somewhere and he's on the iPad, you might receive the following response, "let me check my schedule".  Typically, he's free for "two minutes"...according to his schedule.
• When asked if he's hungry for lunch or dinner, I often times hear, "Not really. Maybe next time."
• "I need a hug."  He usually asks for this when he's having a Terrific (ahem!) Twos moment.
• Something I don't have the heart to correct because it's too cute -- he calls the Panda Puffs cereal "panda puffes".  aaaw.
• "I got your spot!" is one of his favorite pranks he pulls on me and Brian when he jumps on the couch or on his bed.

Cole's laughter fills our house.  This kids bellows when he's tickled, entertained, or just plain slap-happy.

You should hear him sing his favorite songs, especially the Mighty Machines theme song in a tough voice and  "Thomas, he's the cheeky one."

i.love.it.all.

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

diapers, your days are numbered

I hope! For the past week, Cole has been using the potty at least 1x a day. Sorry for the TMI to non-parents, but this is a big deal for us. Seeing the light at the end of the diaper tunnel seemed so far away these past couple of years.

He's growing so fast! We are always surprised to hear him participate in our conversations, especially when he uses big words. A few weeks ago, he insisted on getting my cookbook off its stand so that he could "read the instwacshuns". hee.hee. His new thing last week was calling us by our various names -- daddy-o, Brian, father, mamasita, and Kharmen. He especially got a kick out of calling out "father", followed by "call me son."

Cole has also become the jokester. On our drives to school last week he'd quiz me on what the street light colors mean. He'd give me the wrong answer then tell me he's joking. And so it begins...

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

love you

YES, he finally said it to me! Cole has mastered repeating practically everything we say immediately after we say it except, of course, the one phrase he's heard from me about a kajillion times since he was born. Tonight, the three of us were lounging on the living room floor watching George when out of the blue, Cole runs over to hug me and said, "love you." He just made my day forever!

bye bye no more

Cole has a tendency to burst out short exclamations in his sleep which gets me to the baby monitor to make sure he's okay and able to get back to sleep. Tonight, he blurted out that he needed his boat back. Um, no boat in sight. Another outburst woke him up enough that he sat up and asked for more milk. Nope, no milk around either. Both times, I went into his room to tuck him back in. The third time I was there was to pick up the milk cup I gave him. I thought he was back in Dreamland until he said, " You go bye-bye no more, Mama. You lie down." Even when he's half asleep, he melts my heart. Yes, I am sleeping in his room tonight cause I can't resist listening to him breathe and getting wafts of baby Cole scent.

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday-ish ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama