a new word

last night th4 was writing. she came up to pat and i holding up her paper proudly. "i learned a new word!" it took us a minute to put the pieces together. it was copied off of pat's shirt - a vintage trailer long sleeve T. :)

birds and bees

when i was pregnant this was th4's favorite book. she would pull it off the shelf. spend hours loking at all the pictures. this morning i found her reading to jh4mo. "then you get lots of things ready... you have to take a lot of baths when you have a baby. some girls have to go the hospital. or you can have a baby in this huge tub. this is a daddy. he can watch but he has to sit like this behind the mom." i guess it's never to early to learn about the birds and bees...

view from el paso

organ donors are better livers. (?) signs crack me up

we took a drive to el paso a month or so back. 300miles to eat at taco cabana. it was well worth it. after our late lunch we decided to explore the city. it was a holiday monday and everything was closed. deserted. we ran two red lights after sitting and waiting for them to change, with no traffic in sight. pedestrian or otherwise. it was actually a little spooky being in such a large historic downtown with so little activity. but we saw some fun things. here are two of my fav pics from the day.

as promised -ages ago

driving home at night through the tunnel. taken through a dirty windshield.
three amigos. the art is not mine. the photos are.
reflect.
the innocent.
i don't know the artist. but whoever it is is respected in town. there are more scattered around town. they have lasted for over a year. on the walls, in the parks, in the underpasses. no one has come along with the nasty white-out paint. scan quality doesn't do these photos justice. i share a part of my day. my drive. my meditation.

Our daily bread...

After years of saying "I should be making all our breads" I am. Finally. There truly is nothing like home made bread. I love the smell of dough rising and the yeasty smell on my hands. Flour handprints on my pants. Children running in to steal bits of dough. Children begging to help knead. Children checking on the rise EVERY FIVE MINUTES. Finally the smell of baking. Then at last - we eat. Real food. The work of our hands. Taste of the earth. Thank the spirits...
This week we enjoyed whole wheat cinnamon/cardamon oatmeal raisin bread. Indian chapati. Herbed Hungarian pizza crust and bread sticks. I’ll post these simple recipes soon.

time for tea

i was at a baby shower this weekend and the host had a nice tea selection from mighty leaf tea co. OH WOW. if you are a tea drinker. if you aren't... check these out! it is an experience. the tea bags are beautiful. the teas are fantastic. if only i had 42.00 to spend on tea... http://www.mightyleaf.com

story time

th4 loves to tell stories. i've been writing them down as she tells them. these two were from the other night. in each, she tells of a 'friend' of hers. these friends always have impossibly interesting names - which she spells out so we are sure to pronounce right. enjoy...
"I had one friend. her name was Wazeelia. her name started with an H and t m t w x y n z w o b o. she had one poor foot. she needed to go to the doctors and get one of those carriers, and she had to check her bones. The monters came and stole her bones and she couldn't even walk. and she was normally embarassing. there was one afternoon she was singing 'the monsters stole my bones...' By that time the van came and got her back to life. the end"

"one time my sister went into a castle and saw a monster and said hello my friend. But the girl was afraid and a white horse came by the castle and she wanted to get on but the wicked ol wizard wouldn't let her or give her a chance. she wanted to go home until she came to her mom's boat and she got in. and by the way her name was Wink-len-lia. like, um, b n train 8 w and o. and she sailed home that way and the wicked ol wizard came passing her on a boat but they got home. she made many chances and sailed all by herself to america. no - to mexico. and she got on her own white horse. by that way of time she came by a man. the wicked ol wizard went home and found his gold was gone. the end"

well prepared for this AZ winter

i found these for Pat at a shop downtown. we have been on the search for some and an antique dealer had these sitting outside her shop. original hand made alaskan beaded Ojibway mukluks! well worth the price i paid and they fit him perfectly!

yurt options

we have been looking at various building options. thinking about what to do in the next phase... i like the IDEA of a yurt. i was showing th4 some photos of yurts online. one we saw had a floorplan that included a bathroom. i said - hey look we can even have an indoor bathroom. she replied "but i LIKE to pee outside"...

on a winter day

first laugh ceremony

the boy child laughed for the first time last night. a much awaited moment. further thoughts:

happy photos via http://www.balloonhat.com/laughing/gallery.html

The Navajo believe that prebirth baby showers are premature and can bring evil to a child. Instead, they celebrate a child at its first laugh. The child is thought to assume the personal characteristics of the person who makes him laugh. My nanny told me that for this reason, they always try to keep stingy relatives away from the small babies.
In Navajo theology, babies share a special relationship with the Holy People. Before each child is born, he sits with the Holy People and is granted a certain amount of time on Earth. Reluctant to leave the holy ones, babies must be coaxed into the world with songs. Infants are thought to share a special language with the Holy People, which is why they are unable to communicate with us. Gradually, as the child learns to talk, he becomes part of the human community and relinquishes this connection to the Holy People. Each person then spends the rest of his or her life trying to recreate the intense bond of infancy. Traditional parents do not trim their child's hair until he has a strong vocabulary because the hair is thought to be an extension of thought, and disrupting these early thoughts may prematurely cut the connection with the Holy People.
A medicine man told me that when a baby laughs for the first time, he signals that he is ready to learn to speak. Thus, in my interpretation, the child states his readiness to enter the human world, and the Navajo celebrate by welcoming him to the mortal community with a First Laugh Ceremony. excerpt from http://webweekly.hms.harvard.edu/archive/2004/12_13/student_scene.html

credit due

my four yr old has quite a photographic eye ... i pick up the camera and find she's taken a bunch of bizarre images. this is my pick of the week. the babe is 3 mo. one week.

just "er-lax"

I said I had to sit awhile and let my feet rest...
She said "do you want me to give you a mersaage? You can just lie down you know, and I can rub your back..." So I took her up on it.
"Am I doing a good job? you know mom, I want you to take a bath tonight. With candels you know, to er-re-lax you know... ANd with salt. Ocean salt you know - do we have any ocean salt? And maybe some seasoning you know? I will put some seasoning in for you. For your feet you know... Does that sound like a good ideal? Maybe we can call mo and tell her I gave you a mersaage now."
These are the moments I live for. Few and Far between as they are...

Good luck

This is what you see coming into the US from Mexico at Naco. It never fails to make us laugh. And wonder. Good luck. Not Thanks for visiting. No Come again soon. Not enjoy your stay in America... It says so much - this one little sign. Very much keeping with the spirit of so many of these little border towns. Direct. Honest. No false pretence here. Nothing showy. Just "here it is - it is what it is - it's dirty - life - beautiful and depressing - and real." Good luck. If you want to go - go. Hope you find what you want. Don't expect too much though. If you've made it this far good for you. Now have your identification in hand and proceed slowly though the blockades and past the guards. Good luck.

a glimpse

on days such as this

i say "today we really must do something with your hair..."
she thinks about it "um, i know. how about i can wear a hat!"
me: "that sounds great." we wear hats ALOT