HiiiiYA!

Max got his Tiny Tiger Yellow Belt tonight!

Baby, it's cold outside!

Yesterday the kids were driving me insane by 9:00am, so I bundled them and threw them outside to play. Brrrr.....I think it was about 30 degrees.

The prize of the morning was water frozen in a wheelbarrow...which we proceeded to smash about 10 minutes later.

In other news, I'm starting to panic about what to plant and how to go about starting the whole thing. Last year went as planned, one apple tree in and the yard was "de-suburbanized." I'm debating whether just to focus on the chickens this year and let our CSA run for another year and try not stress about growing things...or maybe just put in another fruit tree.

I know Ron wants it to be some mapped out thing to maximize productivity, but I'm thinking I would rather it just evolve organically. I feel confident the land will reveal what it wants to grow if I just give it enough time instead trying to force it, but perhaps I'm just being totally unrealistic.

My Mom Makes Cheese

Apparently in class, Max is learning _at words, like Cat, Rat, Hat, etc...when the teacher got to "vat," the kids inquired as to what a vat was and the teacher responded with "Oh, it's a big tub where you make stuff like cheese" and Max jumped up and yelled "My MOM MAKES CHEESE!"

Yes, yes she does.

Someday, there will be a therapy appointment just for this

Last night we played Uno!® as a family before bed. The parental goal was to have Max win a couple rounds to boost his ego and encourage him to continue playing (those who have five year old children are well aware of this essential strategy to avoid meltdowns during "fun time"). Well, I should say one of us made a concerted effort to have Max win a game, someone seemed to be out for blood after I won the first game. As it turned out, Ron won one and I won one, by the end of playtime, Max had still not come up with a win. Teeth were brushed, stories were read, water was given, and Max went to bed.

About 9:30, while Ron and I were watching a movie, we heard "the cry;" the one that tells us Max is having a night terror. Night terrors are similar to nightmares, but they usually occur in children as a way to work through an emotion, such as fear instead of replaying or creating a scary event. The child often does not remember what caused the terror, and often will not even recall they had one. Our son has experienced night terrors for about two years now and we have become accustomed to dealing with them. However, since the previous night terror in a befouled toybox and a very confused boy with pants around his ankles, we rushed into his room to see what was wrong.

He was in his bed, shaking and calling out for us and then he started saying "I'm scared, I'm scared!" We did our usual reassuring thing, rubbing his back, telling him he was ok. When we asked him what he was scared of, he yelled "GREEN OR 7! GREEN OR 7!" and then buried his face in my chest, sobbing. Our poor son was dreaming about some terrifying alternate universe where Uno cards come to life and demand "green or 7!"

5 minutes later, he settled down and went back to sleep, leaving him with no memory of the experience and only this story to remember the night Uno!® came calling in his dreams.

Alpaca Extravaganza!!!

So, today Max and I decided to head down to the Alpaca Extravaganza at the Expo center...and so began another weird and wonderful foray into the world of Alpacas....



First, we took the train to the Expo center which I have to say was pretty much painless...well, except for the guy on the train who kept telling his girlfriend that she "was just a bitch" and she would respond with "I'm just trying to better myself" about 25 times two rows down from us. Luckily, Maxwell was pretty oblivious thanks to someone having left a bunch of balloon animals on the train for (I'm guessing) random children to find.






but on to the show...Ok, so there are apparently two main types of alpaca, Huacayas and Suri. The most popular of the alpaca breeds are the Huacayas, which are your typical curly haired fuzzy alpacas. The Suris are actually Huacayas with a few recessive genes thrown in there, but the Suri, with their corded hair and adorable little goofy faces are starting to advance in the US. Although people in South America have been breeding Suri alpacas for...I don't know millions of years or something, they have only been in the US since 1991. Of course, you would never want to mention cross breeding a Suri with a Huacaya to a Suri breeder, because then the breeders will come after you with pitchforks, conveniently already located in the stalls for clearing of hay ridden with alpaca pellets.

They also come in variations of 3 colors, red, white and black, and all of the color variations come from those three colors. I have to say that I did see some beautiful animals there, including this one on the way to be judged...



Max called these "Teddy Bear Alpacas" and started mincing me saying "oh, hello there beautiful, aren't you a beauty?" He wouldn't touch them, but commended me on my bravery for letting them snuff my hand...they have little noses that are like velvet!



He looks mean, but seriously, this was the friendliest alpaca there...



Roving, roving, roving...



I like to call this one a "Rastapaca"



Of course, the Alpaca Cult was there, recruiting as always...





These were all Suri alpacas, but they come with the requisite "enforcer" alpaca in case you start asking too many questions, if you know what I mean...



Max tried his hand at spinning





And then we went back on the train where I gave him smoothie and enjoyed a quiet ride home before the sugar hit...incidentally, did you know you could get a durian smoothie at the Saturday Market? I had no idea...lucky for me Max was more into strawberry and banana than corpse fruit.

Piplup!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Pokemon universe, Piplup is an adorable blue penguin type creature that my son is currently obsessed with.

What's a mom to do? Knit a piplup of course!


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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

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I had some yarn left over, so I made Piplup scarf for Max too.


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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

Cannon Beach Trip

Last weekend Max and I hopped down to Cannon Beach, since we hadn't been to the ocean in a *really* long time.



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I love how you can be in snow along the 26 and then 20 minutes later in the ocean

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Is there anything cooler than playing in the sand?

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Perhaps stalking some fish?

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

On the way back from the beach we stopped at what was, until December of last year, the largest Sitka Tree in the United States.


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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

It seems such an ignoble end to this majestic tree, toppled by a storm after centuries of witness to the land. But, so is life and nothing is eternal. I'm just glad that Max got to see it while it stood.

California Adventures - Day 3

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

Day three was probably the best part of the trip, I saw my friend Clare who I hadn't seen in 20+ years. She has the cutest little boy that Max just loved (right up until he grabbed Max's hair and wouldn't let go)

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

We met Clare in Fairfax, one of the Jewish districts of LA. Only here would you find kosher sushi

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Max was being silly with his mallard duck

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

This is the Hand of Miriam that was above a doorway at the restaurant in Fairfax. It is also known as the hand of Fatima for Muslims although it's believed that the symbol is actually much older than either Judaism or Islam

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

20+ years, 2 religions and 2 babies spanned the last time we met, but she felt like my best friend again in minutes ;-)

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Back on the road again. This was the view I saw for a long, long time.

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We visited Fort Tejon in the grapevine for a little bit. It was kind of "meh" but good to get out and stretch our legs.

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Cows as far as the eye could see!

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After a billion miles of desert (and conservative talk radio the only thing that comes in through central CA along I-5) we saw it, the great Anderson's Pea Soup restaurant

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Maxwell is goofball.

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Maxwell being a cobra

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Tower Mart! Just outside Sacramento is a little town named Lathrop. Aliens have landed there. At the tower mart. And they like milk.

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See.

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California Adventures, Day 2

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

On December 1, 2007 we went to Knotts Berry Farm with my mom

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

This is what happens when you show up at the back gate as soon as an amusement park opens in the middle of winter.

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Koi fish. They will make another appearance later.

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Mom and Max

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Knotts has this little "ranger station" right next to the graveyard, so of course we had to go in. Since they they had just opened it, the "ranger" was feeding all the carnivorous animals. Mealworms...mmm

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I got to hold a walking stick. Alas, cockroaches ever so much more interesting.

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Cockroaches

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And...on to the rides

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It's true. I wooed Maxwell with the "water ride" but never told him about the big drop at the end. I'm a bad, bad mother.

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

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After the log ride.

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Fiesta Cups! Nothing like the teacups at Disneyland at all. Except that it spins. And is exactly like the teacups at Disneyland. This was Max's favorite ride.

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Rocko the triceratops at Camp Snoopy

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This was a "kid powered" ride, a little train that went when you pulled back and forth on the handle.

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

In case you are wondering, the blue blur towards the back is Maxwell

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I was so proud of Maxwell on this ride, he stood in line all by himself!

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Alas, the actual ride, not as exciting as standing in line.

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

I got Max a little duck stuffed animal...of course, he had to go out to the koi pond and show his mallard to a real mallard duck.