My Little Lady

Somebody mentioned my blog the other day and I thought to myself, "Oh, yeah! I still have that blog thing!" And when I visited my ever-neglected blog, I saw my lovely children and noticed how I chronicled the heck out of Cooper's early life!

But as far as Ruby...well, I have not said enough about my Ruby Zuzu. Second child syndrome...less pics, less video and less hilarious blog stories. Apologies to my little dynamo of a gal!

Dear Ruby,

Let me take a moment to talk about a few fantastic things about YOU!



PRINCESS! You love dressing like a princess. You love watching movies about princesses. You keep changing which Disney princess is your favorite. You used to love Arial from 'The Little Mermaid.' Then it was Jasmine from 'Alladin.' Now it's Merida from 'Brave.' That's probably because she has stunning (and difficult) curly hair just like you. She also has a wild way about her. Just like you!

You love to color. You love bubbles. You love hiding and being chased and laughing a huge laugh that shocks people when they hear it..."Was that a trucker? Nope. It was that adorable pre-schooler!"



You are starting to refuse naps and so you pass out when it gets to finally be too much. I just had to take a picture. Please refrain from being the girl who passes out at parties when you're older.

When we took you to Disneyland, you wanted to fly. Cooper's never been into rides at amusement parks. He's like your dad that way. We walked by a ride at the 'A Bugs Life' attraction where you got to sit in a snack cup and be lifted in the air and spin around. You looked at it and said, "Mommy, I want to fly!" I was thrilled. Finally! Someone who wants to go for a ride!

You liked the merry-go-round, too. Look at you in your fur hat with a proud Memere next to you! Everyone in the park smiled when they saw you. And always the same comments, "What a doll!" and "Oh, my! Look at that beautiful hair!"

And your best friend in the whole world is Cooper.

You play so well together. You're the Wonder Woman to his Batman. You like dressing up in sheets and pretending to be ghosts together. You both walk about moaning, "boooooooooo," like something out of Scooby Doo.

When I first heard I was having a girl, I didn't believe the doc. I was certain I was going to have two boys. Then, when there was no denying it, I was scared. A girl in the harsh world...how would I protect you? How would I ensure you would hold your head up high? How would I make sure that you treated yourself with respect and loved yourself?

At nearly 3 years old, I already see the person you are. You are STRONG. You don't take any bs. You work it. You are funny and lovely, but you are not going to let anyone push you around. You, little girl, kick major ass. You may look like a princess, but you march around like a warrior and I am so incredibly proud of you.

Now that we get to talk to each other and you tell me all about your day and all about Jacob and Moses at daycare and about going poo poo on the potty and about how you love milk and lollipops...I just adore the person you are.

And I'm sorry there's not more pictures or postings, but you should know I love you so much. I'm so glad I was given a daughter like you.

Autumnal Times

Fall rolls around and although I have loads of work on my desk and lots of stressful things I'm supposed to be dealing with at my job, I decide to shirk it for something I just haven't done enough of this year...blogging!

We'll start with our annual trip to the pumpkin patch.

It's the first time Miss Ruby Zuzu has the strength to pick up (and run off with) her own gourd. Growing up fast and faster every darn second.

My little fashionista. She throws a fit whenever I try to put pants on her.

"No! Mommy!" she screams as I try with all my might to get her legs into some jeans, "I'm a princess!" That reminds me...gotta write a tale where the princess wears pants.

This pumpkin patch was quite the harrowing experience. They had a petting zoo. $5 admission per person. Jakob didn't have enough cash on hand for the whole family to enter, so he let the kids and I proceed as he hopped across to the Gulf station to use the ATM.

 

I wish the toothless redneck farmer that was running this petty zoo had been a little more forthright with certain information before I handed over my $15. If you look below, you'll see a fat piggy hanging out at the rear of the cage. Ruby went to feed the pig and toothless farmer yells through the chain link, "Careful, now. That pig bites!"

Seriously? My cherub's sweet little face is mere inches away from a moody biter pig? Just great. Then the alpaca in the cage started bucking it's hind legs like crazy. "Stand back!" Mr. No Teeth says, "That alpackie kicks hard. Could knock the kids down."

That's when I decided to leave the petting zoo asap so that "The Trip to the Pumpkin Patch" did not become "The Trip to the ER after being Mauled by a Pig and Kicked by an Alpaca." But it was hard to get Ruby to leave. She liked the goat.

 

After the patch, we headed to the local diner for grub.  Ruby loves Daddy.

 

And root beer floats!

 

Then came my favorite day of the year...HALLOWEEN!

Cooper's Frankenstein was very impressive. He did the stomping and the groaning. True commitment to character.

 

Ruby LOVED her Cinderella outfit. The dress even lit up and sparkled! So did the wand! These kids and there fancy high tech costumes. Long gone are the days of "I'm wearing a sheet as a ghost."

After a quick pose with Frank and Cindy in the front yard, we all headed to Cooper's Halloween parade at Dunsmore Elementary school.

What fun! The Halloween Spirit was in the air. Many superheros, ninja turtles and princesses.

Cooper carved this pumpkin featuring, well, Frankenstein, of course! He wanted the carving tools sticking out of the head for added creepiness.

My pumpkin had a great stem, so I used it as a nose and went with a witch motif. I also did this stacked Tiki.

Night came and it was finally trick or treat time. Here's the front yard all a glow. We had near 40 trick or treaters! I think that's because I was passing out the big bars at the start of the evening and one little zombie yelled, "THEY HAVE KING SIZED!" After that, we had many visitors. Word got around.

Here are the paper mache zombie heads Cooper and I made for our art show. They greeted folks by the door.

School has specifically asked that kids refrain from any gore or bloody make-up...but for trick or treating, we bloodied it up.

 

Jakob took them door to door. He said they were perfect. Ruby took big bro's lead, knocking and waiting patiently. They both chimed, "trick or treat" and once the candy dropped in their bags, "THANK YOU!" Now...if I can just get Ruby to wearing anything else besides the princess gown...

Ushering in the New Year with Mr. Brainwash

Happy 2012 everyone! Enjoy each day as if it were your last, because the Mayans were right about chocolate, so they just might be right about the apocalypse, too.

Cooper and Ruby are magnificent. They are my favorite humans. Jakob's in that category, too, but I met him when he was already 21 and I've know these two little cherubs their whole lives!

I took Cooper to his first art show--Mr. Brainwash's ARTSHOW 2011 exhibit on La Brea Ave in Hollywood. He had a blast running around several floors of the humongous warehouse.



There was a floor covered in old stuffed animals. Despite the fact that I said that we were not allowed to touch the art, the guard told Coop he could jump on in. Well, nobody has to tell Cooper twice to launch himself into objects, so he jumped in! Other mothers were freaked out about germs. They wouldn't let their children frolic. I feel bad for those kids. Their lives are healthier and more boring.

Cooper saw several images he recognized, such as this Snoopy dog made out of tires. Coop was really into the fact that Snoopy was banging the wall apart.

There were lots of animals covered in paint.


I really like this picture. Coop told me at the show that he was going to be an artist and make even more art than all the stuff we were looking at. Something inside me is sure that he will. And I knew the artist inside him was really impressed by one piece in particular:


He ran up and screamed, "It's Mr. Potato Head! He's GIANT!" There were a few giant items...

Cooper said he wished he could paint with this brush.


There was also a giant Polaroid camera and a giant boom box that took up a whole wall.


Coop rocked out.


Cooper really liked this chair and wanted to take a picture of me sitting in it.



Since the guards were being so lax, I had Cooper jump into the driver's seat of one of the art cars. He was so excited to a.) be touching the art that I originally said we couldn't touch and b.) sit in the front seat of a car! and touch the wheel!


It was a spectacular, spectacular day and the end was the best part. We saw Mr. Brainwash as we were leaving the show. There were some guys ushering him past the people in line and I should have snagged a pic, but it all happened so quick. I told Cooper that Mr. Brainwash was the artist and he went up to him and said, "Thanks for the art!" and MBW shook his hand and said, "Thanks for coming!" and then went inside.

So...when Cooper Kingsley White prints start selling at $2K a pop, let's hope he remembers this day and thanks his mom with lots of original pieces :)

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Even if you only know me a little, you know that I love October.

I miss the brilliant foliage show that the trees back in New England throw every autumn, but I like fall here in California, too.

And Halloween is the craziest holiday which makes it the best. We spent some of this weekend making the front yard a bit more spooktacular.



Someone placed the bat on this skull like a hair piece. It's the new, all natural Rabies Toupee...now for bone heads!



It's Memere's last weekend here in Tujunga. For the past to Octobers, my mother has flown 3,000 miles to help me juggle it all. This year she came out to save my sanity whilst hubby was in India. I can't even begin to thank her enough. I'm going to miss her so much.

She's the grandmother anyone would want. She's always in the mood to play or color or do puzzles or cook or read a book. That's what a grandma should be; someone who treasure you non-stop. And she fosters Coop's creative side. We all put together this twisted scarecrow for the front yard using Daddy's old clothes and a burlap mask and some paint.



We noticed that our frightening monster scarecrow lost a lot of his evil swagger when we put a hat on him. Now he looked more,"festive." More like Truman Capote.



Put a smaller, more cutesy scarecrow next to him and now he's a ventriloquist!

"Hey folks, it's great to be here. I wasn't sure if I was going to perform tonight but then I thought, 'What the hay?' Get it? What the hay! HAY-ohhhhh."

Three weeks ago, Cooper wanted to dress up as The Joke for Halloween. Two weeks ago, he changed his mind and wanted to be Darth Vader. Last week he switched it up again and said he wanted to be a pirate. This morning, he says he has made his final decision...he'll be Batman.

Remember when the hardest decision you had to make was what you were going to be for Halloween?

Ruby's Dance!

I don't need to buy another light bulb again, because this lil' lady lights up a room!



Ruby's been a little under the weather with a yucky cold. Never in my whole life did I imagine that I'd have so much snot to deal with. I thought maybe she might be mutating into one of the X-Men and her power was massive booger production.



But it looks like she's on the mend and Cooper has been such a big help. He looks out for his little sister all the time.



He makes her laugh. They play. They get silly and THEY DANCE!



You think you can dance? Not like my toddler. Take it away Ruby Girl!