It seems like I do one of these every other month or so. You know, the “I’m sorry I’m a terrible blogger who only blogs like, once a month” post. But it doesn’t make it any less true. I am a terrible blogger. I’m not all that sorry though, if I’m to be completely honest. It was summer, people! We had to do SUMMER!

But alas, summer is over now. I don’t know where the hell it went, but I suspect I lost sight of it somewhere back in July, when the insanity of holiday-birthday-birthday-birthday-birthday-holiday began. Fun was had, oh yes it was. I sincerely hope you don’t expect a full summer recap, because I won’t be doing that. BUT, I will offer you a few photographic tidbits of the last few weeks, hows about that?

First up: Dylan’s Birthday. Oh my god. This kid is awesome, and awesome kids deserve awesome birthdays, so dammit! That’s what she got! Disneyland, party, presents. I had a mad case of the greens all weekend.

She asked for a solid week after it was all over when her next birthday was. She’s still asking for presents. And we may let her blow out candles on her dinner on occasion, just to get her over the hump.

Toms birthday was a couple of weeks after Dylans but it was much more low key. I asked, but he said he didn’t want a pool party and Hello Kitty! cake, so whatever, his loss.

On Saturday, we went to the Ronald Reagan Library to check out the Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit. It. Was. AMAZING. We are major Disney nerds, so for the super fan, this was awesome. Even for the less-obsessed, it’s worth checking out. So much history and memorabilia, from all my childhood favorites, and most of Dylans. We loved it, and also got the chance to walk through the Ronald Reagan museum, which was so beautiful. If you live anywhere near Simi Valley, I highly recommend visiting. I took so, so many pictures of the exhibit itself, and haven’t had any time to edit any of them, but I have a few from the gardens:

And one of Dylan breaking through the Berlin Wall towards freedom:

This is Tom, thinking about how much it would cost to own our own plane:

Dylan is unimpressed.

So, there you have it, some pictures to prove that we were supersupersuper busy and I just couldn’t possibly find the time to write. Oh, and somewhere in there, my kid got all old and shit:

Gosh, she sure is pretty ::loads shotgun to prepare for 14 years from now::

Hey! We also had ice cream:

And we even found the time to go to Costco and ride our bikes!

See? Not a second to spare. But, sadly, summer is over now, and I imagine all the fun will cease immediately. So I’m hoping (trying) to get into a more regular posting groove. I’m not going to promise anything, and I’m not going to hold myself to a certain schedule, but things are slowing down a bit, and I’d like to spend my free time here, if you’ll have me.

How was your summer? As fun as museums and Costco? Doubtful, but I hope it was full of love and memories were made. Stick around, yeah? I’ll be around too.

Hey there. How the hell are you? It’s been a while. Again. I KNOW. Please, allow me to essplain. Not, it is too much, allow me to sum up (random Princess Bride reference FTW): summers are busy ’round these parts. My birthday, Dylan’s birthday, Tom’s birthday, plus 2 of my nieces birthdays, plus it’s summer! The season of fun and beaches and swimming and cold food that requires no cooking! Forgiven? Sweet.

Since we last spoke, I had myself a little birthday. Well, first, America had herself a little birthday, which we celebrated in true patriotic style by going to Disneyland. We don’t need much of an excuse to go to the Mouse House, but we’ve never been on the 4th, so we thought, hey! Let’s do it! It was fun, as Dland is wont to be, but a wee bit crowded. And ::whispering:: kind of a crappy fireworks show. I mean, they have a giant fireworks show every damn night for cripes sake, you’d think they would pull out all the stops for Murica’s big day. But alas, they did not, and Dylan was super pissed that Tinkerbell was not featured prominently (that’s how often we go to Disneyland: my toddler has pretty much memorized the choreography of the fireworks show). Meh, now we know. Here’s a gratuitous picture of my cute kid:

My big day is the 9th, but we celebrated a little early by taking a roader to San Diego with the little, Tom’s brother Charles (whose birthday is also the 9th), and his girlfriend Cheri. Drove down on Saturday, stuffed our faces with seafood and fancy ass cake from Extraordinary Desserts (if you like sweets, and you are ANYWHERE NEAR SAN DIEGO, go to this place. Go now!), got awesome ass presents (a tattoo for meeeeeeeeeee! More to come), and then did the obligatory Sea World trip on Sunday. Now, I had not been to Sea World since I was probably 8, so I had zero idea of what to expect. Which turned out to be a blessing, because I would’ve been really pissed by what we got.

Sea World is, basically, an amusement park with sea creatures. Dolphins, whales, turtles, sharks, all manner of fish and fowl, all present and accounted for, and adorable as all get out. That much I was prepared for, and looking forward to (and thoroughly enjoyed). But the amusement portion of the amusement park? Ummmmm, how do I say…thumbs down. We’ve been spoiled by Disneyland. Nothing compares to it. Food, rides, ambiance, experience: they think of everything. Sea World feels sort of like a big county fair with whales and aquariums. It was weird. But, we got the tickets for free thanks to Charles, and Dylan had a great time, so it was a successful day. Would we go back? For free, yes. I would never buy tickets. Unless Dylan wakes up one day and decides she wants to be a dolphin trainer, in which case I’d buy a season pass and live vicariously through her. Some more gratuitous pictures, for your perusal:

I will say, I was terrified of staying the night in a hotel with Dylan. She’s never slept away from home, and toddlers have this weird thing where they flip the fuck out for absolutely no reason and without warning, so I was prepared for no sleep at all on Saturday. Um, she slept better than anyone. To whit:

Didn’t even wake up when I changed her clothes. The key is, wake them up super early, deprive them of a nap all day, pump them full of sugar 2 hours before bed, and wait for the inevitable crash. Then take pictures and laugh at your passed out kid, and resist all urges to draw on them with a Sharpie and put their diapers in the freezer. Next time.

So that’s our first 2 weeks of July. We’re pretty much catching our breath this week before jumping right back in with more birthdays, parties, Disneyland, maybe another trip or two to who knows where. We’ve got time and a cool as kid. Anything can happen.

I am not a particularly “girly” woman. I’m feminine and all woman baby, but dainty and foofoo and precious? Nope. I’m more Katherine Hepburn than Marilyn Monroe. So it totally makes sense that my daughter, fruit of my loins, would be a complete, pinkified, tutu-ed with a pair of glittery fairy wings, PRINCESS.

Hold me.

I never pushed the princess culture on her. Hell, I don’t even remember introducing her to it. I think the first Disney movie I played for her was Cars. But little by little, her royal DNA has taken over. If it’s pink, she likes it. If it has sparkles, Jesus, she wants to live in it. She notices shoes. Makeup. Clothes. Anyone in a skirt is a “pweeeeety pwincess”. She can recognize and name several Disney princesses, despite having never seen their respective movies. She talks all day about wanting to hug and kiss Pwincess Tinana and Awiel. And lately, the first thing she asks for after the boob and some breakfast in the morning, is her pink tutu and fairy wings. And she wears them. ALL DAY LONG.

I thought it would bother me a little, this obsession with all things pretty. But truth be told, I find it absolutely freaking adorable. It brings me such joy that she’s identified and embraced this part of her ever changing personality. I may not understand it, and the thought of the makeovers in my future is enough to make me shiver, but it’s her. And if she wants to prance around in a tutu and feather boa while she sings her ABC’s, well, who am I to judge? She’s the most perfect prettypretty princess that ever there was. Who also happens to be Asian smart, and tough as a Roller Derby broad.

Plus, she has showed quite the interest in bugs lately. Which, gross. But not pink.

We’ve been to Disneyland 3 times in the last 2 weeks (thank you, annual passes!). You’d think I would be tired of it by now. But you would be wrong. In fact, I’m probably singing my way through It’s a Small World for the 5th time as you read this. And, as you can see by the look of crazed excitement on my childs face in these pictures from her first time (technically, her second time, but she was only 1 when we took her for the first time, so it didn’t really count), it’s shocking we haven’t moved down the street from the place by now.

There is nothing like seeing your child see Disneyland for the first time. It was one of the most amazing moments I’ve had as her mom so far. I am so, so lucky.

We found these sunglasses for her in the dollar bin at Target. These are her car glasses, and every time I buckle her in her seat, she asks for them. “Suglasses? Suglasses mama?” At first, she just played with them, and occasionally aimed well enough to get them close to her head. And then one day, she figured it out, and now she wears them all the time. 99% of the time, she puts them on right. But some days, a girl just needs to wear her shit upside down for a car nap. Amirite?

People, I’ve been drawing stuff. You may have heard of a little app making the rounds called Draw Something! It’s basically Pictionary for iPhone or iPad and Android devices, and it is like CRACK. Of course, never having smoked crack, I can’t exactly verify its addictiveness, but I’ve heard it’s whack. Draw Something! is addicting, but so totally not whack.

I’m not an artistic person. Like, at all. My handwriting is atrocious, I don’t have any sort of vision, and even my stick people look like they all suffer from elephantiasis. So I was initially hesitant to start playing and showcase my abysmal skills to my opponents. Until I played. And realized that EVERYONE is terrible. It’s kind of designed that way. I mean, who can draw a legible picture of Rza from Wutang Clan using their finger and an iPhone? (Incidentally, NOT ME ::shudder::)

Here are some of my finer (i.e. recognizable) moments. I’ve gotten much better, which should give you an idea of what I was like when I first started playing.

Vampire. Duh.

One of my finer pieces.

Celebrities are kinda my thing.

I mean, it’s just a little guitar, right?

This is one my husband played. He knows me very well.

So, as you can see, drawing isn’t really my thing. But, it IS really fun, and seriously addicting. So if you’re in the market for a new time suck, get thee the Draw Something! app, and look me up: Littlebabyblog1. I promise, I am good for hours of entertainment.

Just ask Arnold.

When you give a toddler an iPad, expect to find a shit ton of the following:

(She must open the camera while the case is on and just go apeshit, because I find more of these black squares than I know what to do with).

This is her handy work after, oh, 15 minutes with the iPad and a little freedom. She usually gravitates between the Toca Boca Hair Salon and Easy Bake Treats apps (both found on iTunes), with a Sesame Street video thrown in as a palate cleanser. She loves it, and can navigate her way through the games like no ones business. I don’t think she even realizes that she’s taking pictures, she just likes the little “click!” that the camera makes. I’m gonna introduce her to the actual camera app soon, and show her how to take reverse camera pictures, because I am dying for some shots of the inside of her nose.

I’m taking gallery suggestions for the public unveiling of her (clearly) award winning photography collection next month.

From the First Addition Dictionary of Dylan Rose:

JUMP (actual word): dump (Dylan-ism)

FORK: f*ck (this one brings me endless hours of entertainment)

SPOON: poon (combine with FORK for an extra kick)

APPLE: ass (can be used with any of the above for even more inappropriate laughs)

BLUEBERRIES: booze (even more awesome when she asks for them in public)

Right now, she’s putting together sentences using 3-4 words, so you can imagine how often I try to work these words into our conversations. Getting her to ask for a fork or spoon to eat her apples and blueberries is like the Holy Grail of toddler-speak in our house right now.

I’m expecting my Mother of the Year trophy aaaaaannnnnyyyyy day now.

Having a baby WRECKED my memory. I used to pride myself on being able to remember everything, without having to write stuff down or leave myself reminders. Not anymore. Now, I remember stuff, but stuff that has literally no bearing on my life. Like, I remember the phone number for the first house I remember living in. But I can’t remember my own phone number. Like, my CURRENT phone number. My brain is filled to the brim with completely useless crap.

Which would suck, except I’ve apparently given birth to Little Miss Memory. Dylan remembers everything. Where she left a toy a week ago, where I hid the cookies when I thought she wasn’t looking, what happens on the next page of a book, what happens in the next scene of a show or commercial she’s seen once. To wit: she started doing this weird “NOOOOOOOO” thing and then cracking up, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the hell she was doing, until I saw a commercial on the Disney Channel for some DVD, and a character in the movie says it in the commercial. The scene doesn’t even last 3 seconds, and we’ve never seen the actual movie it’s from. You know how people say that kids are sponges? There is evidently a ring of truth to that.

Now if I can just remember to tell her to remember the stuff I have trouble remembering.

Dylan’s a talker. She starts yapping away the second she opens her eyes in the morning, and literally does not stop (save for the wonderfully quiet 2 hours of nap time) until she finally konks out at night. I don’t know WHERE she gets it from, although my long suffering husband would like me to point out that he is, by nature, the strong and silent type. And I think I was just insulted.

But I digress. Let’s get back to my adorable little squawk box. Now, Dylan’s always had a lot of words. She seems to pick up a new word really easily, and it usually only takes her hearing it once before she remembers it and uses it correctly. Which is awesome! And scary! I can’t even tell you how many blessings I’ve counted that she hasn’t started using any of my, um, saltier word choices. I’m getting much better, but I’m not gonna lie, I’m still a fan of the four letter words.

But now, she’s not just speaking in words. This kid has decided to start speaking in sentences. Like, 3 and 4 word sentences. “I has snack?” “Mama pick up?” “Bath so fun Mama!” “Go outside for bubbles?” I still chuckle every time she says something. It is seriously the cutest thing I’ve ever heard. And I especially love it when she answers my question with an actual thought out answer. Like, if I ask her what she wants for lunch? Nine times outta ten, she’ll tell me what she wants. It’s almost always some kind of cookie, but hey, can’t blame a girl for trying.

It’s all so exciting. But it’s also heartbreaking. She’s not a baby anymore! When did that HAPPEN? She’s a year and a half old. In 6 months, my baby, my sweet, tiny baby, will be TWO. I don’t think I’m ready for that! I think she may be ready though. “I big Mama!” Yes, baby. Yes you are.