Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

So I've been looking for a new hairstylist for a long time. Every time I go to my current one I'm disappointed afterwards. So I remembered a hairstylist that I went to a few times had started his own salon. It's a salon and a photo studio. Anyways, I made an appointment for last Saturday. I was so excited and feeling desperate to get my hair done. I arrived 15 minutes early. The receptionist told me she was surprised to see me early. "Alec is always running behind and all his clients call in before." How am I supposed to know. They had my number. She could have called me. So she said he was running 45 minutes behind. I figured I would do some shopping at the Lab. After all, I don't get down to Costa Mesa very often. It's 30 miles away from home. My appointment was at 2:00pm so I leave and come back at 2:30pm. I'm sitting there in the studio, which is pretty cool. It has many different rooms in a loft-like studio. It's a good size with very tall ceilings. I've flipped through every magazine they had available. It's now 3:00pm and no one has bothered to offer me a drink or check up on me. I ask how long it should take. She says about 15 minutes. It's now 3:30pm and I'm pissed. I couldn't take it anymore so I left. I wasted 2 hours driving and waiting for nothing. Not to mention the toll road cost $4.50 each way. What a total waste of time. And I'm pissed because Ed was leaving on Sunday for a business trip in Paris for a whole week.

I had to stop by Trader's on the way home. As I leave Trader Joe's there is a pigeon on the hood of my car. I start my car and back up a little wondering when he'll fly away. I back all the way out and he starts walking across the hood and toward the front windshield. I stop at the stop sign and notice other people are starting to notice. I'm picking up speed leaving the parking lot and the darn bird is still walking on my hood. I'm now on the highway and the wind is pressing the bird to my side windshield. His wings are starting to flap, but he won't fly away. All the cars are staring at me and I'm screaming and laughing at the same time. Right before I enter the highway the wind blows the bird off my car and to the ground. The car behind me watched and swerved around the bird. It was the funniest thing I had ever encountered. It was like there was a magnetic force pushing the bird to the car. I don't even know if the bird escaped. The car behind me swerved, but who knows if the car behind her did the same.

What a way to lighten my mood. I couldn't stay mad anymore. But my hair is still overgrown, out of style, and my roots are showing. Wahhhh!!!

Tooth about the spring

Yes, it is true. A tooth is about the break through. I picked up Isabella from daycare today and Vida said that her tooth is about to come any day. She has a technique that always lets her know so she showed me. With a metal spoon she taps on the gum and sure enough I heard the sound of a tooth hitting the spoon. I haven't been able to pry into her mouth to check myself, but I'll try tomorrow.

More big news...she's tried standing on her own. She'll stand up and let go for about 5 seconds while trying to get her balance. And she's been more and more vocal. She'll try to mimic anything. I'll say things like, "let's have some breakfast" and she'll mumble after me trying to say breakfast. Of course it comes out something like "mreh-mreh" but she has to syllables right and tries to pronounce the r's. Trying to get it on video is near impossible. But I will keep trying.

Happy Birthday Asher!

Today is Asher's birthday. He turns one today. Asher is Isabella's cousin (my sister Susan's son). I can't believe how much they've grown. I'm so happy that Susan and I got to experience this together. Asher was born 7 weeks early and was practically talking when he came out of the womb...gee, I wonder where he got that from??? Racing to get ahead and born two weeks before Isabella, he already showed his competitive side with a tooth that was discovered by the delivery nurse after birth. The tooth didn't stay long, but his really baby teeth popped up soon enough. Ed, Isabella, and I want to say...

Video: Scrunchy Face

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Isabella makes this funny scrunchy face and I caught it on my cell phone. The picture quality sucks, but sometimes the only way you can capture those funny moments is with whatever tool you have available. Thank goodness for the video feature.



PS. It only took me an hour to send videos from my cell to my email. I have to say that T-Mobile has great customer service. I only wish it didn't take me an hour to fix my problem. I actually had to speak to three tiers of tech reps.

Cupcake Stand

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

So I've decided to make cupcakes for Isabella's birthday. I envisioned the perfect cupcake stand and have done extensive research. I finally found a source that explains how to build one. So I did...well, almost. I still need to finish wrapping some parts with ribbon. I couldn't find the right size cake drums so I purchased cake boards. I took four and stacked them up, then wrapped them in foil. That's why my edges with the ribbon look a little lumpy. I could double up the ribbon to cover it up, but that would be wasting the ribbon. I would either have purchased the cake drums online or used some seam tape or something and used my pretty ribbon on top.

This is what it is supposed to look like (click on the image to go directly to the website for the instructions):


This is the cupcake stand that I made.


I've been looking for the right cupcake and frosting recipe. I tried Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcake recipe through the Food Network website. The cake was really good. The frosting was a bit more like icing and a little too sugary for my taste. People at work loved the icing. But if you follow the recipe, I would definitely whip the butter first, then add the sugar and milk.

I was inspired by Martha Stewart's very cute ladybug cupcakes. So I tried her One Bowl Chocolate Cake recipe with her Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting recipe. The chocolate cake was pretty good. And one batch made 12 extra large and 12 regular size cupcakes. There was plenty of cake batter. The buttercream was a little too buttery. So, I'm still on the hunt for the perfect frosting. I loved the consistency of the buttercream. It was so light and airy. It wasn't too sweet, but it left that creamy feeling on the tongue. People at work have been loving my experimentations. They've been getting the benefits of tasting all of the cupcakes.


I will definitely take pictures of the birthday party. I still haven't quite figured out the decorations yet. But I've got a few ideas.

Three more weeks

Just three more weeks until Isabella turns ONE! I can't believe how the time has gone by. She is so much fun right now. Every month after she turned seven months has been better than the next.

She loves to babble and mimic. She tries to repeat what you are saying or doing. The latest thing she does is click her tongue or move her tongue side to side.

We finally got baby gates a few weekends ago. She is quite the crawler. When she's determined she pounds the floor and moves fast. She's also cruising around on our furniture. She likes to jump on the couch and crack up laughing when I say "jump, jump." I'll have to take some video footage of that because it's really cute.

What Happens in One Month?

Sunday, August 05, 2007

It's been a long time since I've posted anything. Isabella is getting bigger, stronger, and more developed. Since last month, Ed's uncle, Wadeed, moved to California. He stayed with us for a few weeks until he found a room to rent. He and Ed's aunt, Anna, have decided to live bi-coastal for two years until Alex is finished with high school. So, to make his transition a little easier to manage, we've been showing him around.

Ed just turned 36 last Thursday. For Ed's birthday, I took Isabella to work. I picked her up at noon and she spent the entire afternoon at work with us. She was great the entire time. She loves mimicking sounds and facial expressions. In the past month she has:

• Begun to cruise on furniture
• Wave bye-bye
• Mimics movement: wave, tries to snap fingers, clicks her tongue, scrunches up her face, blows kisses
• Words she'll say on her own: da-da (many, many variations), mom-ma (only when she's tired, hungry, or hurt), hi
• She has started to crawl up the stairs. Yikes! Time to get those baby gates. She climbed up 7 stairs just today. Of course, I was nearby the entire time

Here are a few pictures that were taken this month:


Yesterday, I was making breakfast and outside our window was this amazing bird on our car. It looked like a small parrot.


After breakfast, we went to the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach were we met up with Pearl, Tom, and Cammie. She's gotten so much bigger since the hospital. She now weighs a little over 10lbs and is 7 months old. After carrying Isabella around all over the place, carrying Cammie was like carrying a feather.


No pictures of Ed's birthday. We had dinner at our house with Wadeed. I bought Ed this very cool espresso machine (Nespresso). It is awesome and he absolutely loved it! I did good. It was similar to the one we used in the Maldives. He was so in love with that machine that I knew it would be a good purchase. I'll have to take pictures of it as it is now a part of our family. We don't get our shipment of coffee until Tuesday and we're so sad.

Last weekend I took Isabella to LA to visit Merah and Jack. We had so much fun that we didn't want to leave. But I was so darn exhausted after the sleepover. Merah said we could have her room so I set up the play pen in her room and that night I put her to bed. I completely forgot that I would have to sleep with her in the same room. When I realized this I knew it was going to be a rough night. She is such a light sleeper. It was so hot and I had the blanket up over me and I could barely move the sheets off of me and she would stir. I will never sleep in the same room unless I absolutely have to. She ended up waking up at 6:00am darn it. I forgot to bring my camera, so Merah took all the pictures.

This is my favorite Popeye face.

My parents came out to LA to visit the two grandkids.

The weekend before (7/16) we took Isabella to the beach and into the water. She was "complaining" and having fun all at the same time.

Isabella is a thinker, always in deep thought.

Christine came down for a visit from PA. We went to Laguna Beach and ate at Aegean Cafe. Isabella loved sucking on lemon wedges and eating pita bread. She didn't care for the hummus though. Here are pictures from Chris.