Eating Edamame while Sulking

This morning I was outside washing Olive's plastic toys with the hose while Olive was drawing on the stones with chalk. I put all her toys in a big plastic box and let them soak in bleach water. While they were disinfecting, I sat down and watched Olive play with her chalk. I thought she was just so cute and ran and got my camera... took some pictures than set the camera on this high table we have outside. I thought it was too tall for Olive to reach... I was wrong.

Olive grabbed my camera and ran over to the bucket of water. I was dragging the hose out to water the few plants we have in the back yard. Olive drops my camera into the bucket of BLEACH WATER. I saw it happen and ran over to the bucket dumped it out and ran over to a towel and disassembled it. I was too late. My Canon Powershot 1200 is dead. I am so sad.

My camera is my lively hood. I use my camera to take pictures of my baby shoes and post them on my shops site Tortoise and Hare. This is how I make money. Now I have no camera to take pictures with. I am sending in my phone to Canon to see what they can do but I know they will say it is not covered and I will be stuck with no camera. So for now all of my sales on Etsy will go to my new camera fund. I am so upset and sad. :[

So here I sit, typing and eating edamame while I try to not cry. And Olive? Olive is running around the house playing with her big giant pink ball. Like nothing has happened.

But I can't stay mad at Olive. She has no idea what she did. She didn't mean it. Just a curious little baby seeing if Mommy's camera floats... I still love her, a lot. Right before the death of my camera I got some cute pictures of Olive coloring, so enjoy.

Crazy morning curls

Seattle, Dairy and Nose Picking

Some things that are on my mind:

1. Devin, Olive and I are moving to Seattle! I have always wanted to live in Washington with all the rain! Oh it would just be a dream and it is coming true. Devin has a Design job lined up and once school is done (not much longer) we will be headed to the rainy city! I am more than excited. Devin's Uncle Memo lives up there and I just love him and his parter Tom. Two of the nicest people I have met. Not to mention the beautiful houses that are not made out of nasty stucco. And there will be greenery... no boulders and rocks for yard landscape. I can smell the grass now. I can not wait.

2. I have recently become Lactose Intolerant. Weird huh? For a week about 2 months ago I was getting really sick and I had no clue what was wrong. I went to the Doc and they concluded that I was Lactose Intolerant. So now I can't drink milk or eat cheese, which were the two reasons I was overweight so I am calling this a helping hand from God. Ha! I recently found some lactose free ice cream while skimming through my favorite coupon site Couponmom.com. So I can at least enjoy some vanilla ice cream once in awhile.

3. The past few days I have been sewing like a crazy person for my Etsy Shop Tortoise and Hare. I have been working on four new lines of baby shoes. Super cute! I will post some pictures once I am done with them all. But while I was ironing yesterday, Olive was sitting on the ground next to the ironing board picking her nose. I have never seen her do this! Where did she get this from? I mean she was just relaxing there picking her little nose with her little finger. Not sure how to handle this. ha ha.

And here is a cute photo to leave you with

(15 teeth and 16 months old)

Morning Walk

Olive and I go on a walk every morning to the park in our neighborhood. I enjoy our walks very much. She gets excited when she hears a bird or a dog. Her little feet make the cutest noise on the sidewalk. My favorite part by far is when she holds my hand. She knows to hold my hand when we cross the street and when she sees it coming she reaches for my hand. Then we hold hands until we get to the grassed area. I hold her sweaty hand and she holds my sweaty hand.

It's a wonderful feeling being a Mom. But sometimes I forget that she is mine. That she came from me. I get reminded when we hold her sweaty hands. I have had sweating hands since I was born, they are always clammy. When I hold her sweaty hands, my heart always warms up. She is from me.

When we walk I see our shadows on the pavement and I smile. She is so tiny. We walk by flowers, she points to the one she wants and I pick it for her. We do this about 3 times until she has a handful of various flowers grasped in her sweaty palm. She does not let them go. The whole walk home she holds them tight in her hand. When we get home she runs to the kitchen sink and points up. I pick her up and we, together, pin them to the window and throw away the old ones. We do this daily, it's our routine.

Then I put her on the ground, she looks up at her flowers than claps for herself. She is my baby. She comes from me.

Devin's Hometown: LA

Meeting Devin's family was a great experience and a wonderful look into who Devin is a person and what he came from but what was also awesome about the trip to California was seeing where Devin was brought up. Those of you who don't know Devin personally, his Grandma raised him. His mother and himself lived with his grandparents in a one bedroom "house" that Devin's mother was born in. For me the house is equivalent to a regular sized bedroom and a one sink bathroom of a modern home. Walking into the house was like walking into culture. You could tell those walls had seen a lot. At one point this house held 5 children, Mom and Dad. That is 7 people in a one bedroom house.

I sat down in the kitchen after being introduced to everyone and just took it all in. There was so much to look at and I wanted to know everything. The kitchen was smaller than any I have been in and on one wall there were 4 sets of bunk beds nailed into the wall. The living room had one lazy boy, a book shelf full of all sorts of old books, a full size bed and a tv. The one bedroom had a full size bed a vanity mirror and drawers. The bedroom was attached to the bathroom which was attached to the kitchen. The house is a big circle on the inside. Everything is connected. I felt happy in this house. I knew it held some precious memories.

After visiting with everyone, Olive started to get ansy so Devin and I took her on a walk. He pointed out old friends houses and we walked to the hospital he was born at (right across the street) We stopped and talked to one of his old friend's Mom. Her son was in the yard with a chocolate lab pup. I sat in the grass and chatted with the 10 year old boy while loving on the puppy.

Devin seemed so at ease in his old neighborhood. You could tell he missed it. Memories flooded back as we walked the streets. Each house would bring up a new story for me to hear. I loved it. I loved getting to know my husband better. It was like he opened his heart and just pored out everything.

We went back into the house and His Grandma was making her husband lunch, it was like walking into an authentic Mexican restaurant. The smells were intoxicating. She offered us food over and over while we were visiting. Just like every Grandma I have ever met, making sure no one goes hungry. The walls in the house are lined with pictures apon pictures upon pictures. Daughters and sisters, Mothers and Fathers, Granddaughters and sons. But one photograph jumped out at me. Their wedding photo. It make me smile.

When we were leaving the sun was setting in the most gorgeous way. The streets seemed so homey and inviting. Everything was so green. I took a moment to breathe it in, I was so full of love.

I was so grateful to be welcomed into such culture.

California

Four months ago I met Devin's Grandma and Grandpa for the first time, along with two of his Uncles and his Aunt. Such nice people. His Grandma made me feel so welcome and gave me a hug that could cure cancer. Despite the language barrier (she speaks little English) we got along great. I could understand most of what was said, Devin and Maria would clue me in every other sentence. But for the most part I picked up on words here and there and put two and two together.

Olive was scared at first. She didn't want her great grandma to hold her and she wouldn't even walk by her great grandpa. But by the end of the first visit she was climbing in her G.Grandma's lap and even dancing with her. Not much changed with G.Grandpa though, she didn't even let him touch her. At one point during the visit Devin's Grandpa said "I never thought I would live to see a great grand daughter" (except in Spanish) and started crying.

It was a great visit.

Father's Day

Father's Day came early at our house. Devin will be working on Father's Day so I wanted to make sure he had a day devoted to him. I woke him up with wheat waffles with powdered sugar, turkey bacon, fresh strawberries and eggs 'grandma style' (his grandma actually taught me how to make his eggs "the way he likes them"... haha... seriously) and orange juice. Yum!

For lunch we had his favorite, teriyaki bowls. Brown rice, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, teriyaki grilled chicken with sesame seeds on top (makes him feel special) with fresh 'bloody' lemonade. It's just lemonade with grenadine, he calls it bloody. ??

For dessert we had homemade lemon pound cake cake with choco frosting that Olive and I made together. She helps a great deal. It was a nice day. I bought Devin a computer chip t-shirt, a "Fight Club" bar of soap and Olive got him a key chain. The key chain is a rugged piece of metal that was engraved with "I LOVE DADA" with a heart below it. Needless to say he loved them all.

He deserves it all. He is one hardworking man and he does it all for Olive and I. I love him.

It's Official

Well I made the surgery date yesterday for Olive's third kidney surgery. July 20th is the day. When Olive had her last two surgeries she was admitted into the hospital prior to them so I guess I didn't realize how much preparation there is before her surgeries. You see when Olive was admitted they just sent up a nurse to take Olive and myself down to get a VCKUG and her blood tests and urine cultures were all taken while she was in her hospital room. To me, it was just part of the deal with being admitted.

It is very different when we are at home, scheduling for the surgery. In the next month we have to do all of the following in order.

-A urine culture to make sure Olive does not have a kidney infection.
-A VCKUG to determine how large Olive's bladder is and how dilated her left ureters are.
-An ultrasound to determine how much functioning tissue is left in her kidneys
-A blood test for.. well I am not sure, most likely just routine tests before any surgery.
-Updated on her shots, I think she needs 2
-Preregistration with the hospital

The day before the surgery we will have to take another VCKUG and urine culture to make sure everything has remained the same.

Lots of gas will be wasted as all of the places that these tests are done are pretty far away.

But my baby is worth it. I am so not looking forward to all of this. The shots and needles and mean nurses. I hate seeing Olive in pain.

I have been extremely distracted by all of this and have gotten hardly anything done for my Etsy Shop Tortoise and Hare but I did get everything prepped for tomorrow. So the day of major sewing will be Saturday. I have been deep cleaning like a maniac. Since Olive was born something clicked for me, as if I switched places with some other clean freak, I have become so aware of filth. Devin calls me O.C.D. (it's that bad) So it's not like I even have much to clean but with all the pressure for me to make sure Olive does not get sick before her surgery, my O.C.D has increased a thousand fold.