Noah's Ark

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

On Sunday, we took Isabella to the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center. It was awesome and a lot of fun for us all. It books up fast so I made reservations a week in advance and it was well worth it.

The exhibit showcases animals made from all recyclable materials and repurposed everyday objects. My favorite were the zebras made from the keyboard of a piano and other industrial parts. Isabella had fun seeing, touching and playing with all the animals. I think Ed and I had too much fun at the arts and crafts table as we "helped" Isabella make an ark with cutout animals and cardboard.












After spending a few hours at the Noah's Ark exhibit there was a West African dance and drum performance. It was a lot of high energy dance. The performers got all the kids and parents on the main floor to teach them parts of the dance. All the running around in the exhibit made Isabella sleepy. So we just sat back and watched all the kids learn.




The Skirball is an amazing center with many exhibits to visit. After the dance performance, we checked out the Skirball's core exhibition, Vision and Values: Jewish Life from Antiquity to America. It was fascinating to see how far back the Jewish history traces. It was a fun day. I would highly recommend checking out the Skirball Cultural Center.

I took a couple of videos of Isabella horsing around. She was full of energy as we waited to get into the exhibit. Her new favorite past time is jumping off with two feet - a new milestone for her age.

A friend of mine has the same exact birthday as Isabella, except that he's a whole 30 years older...sorry David. Anyway, he told me that Virgos tend to be motivated, determined, anal retentive and moody. I think I may have added the moody part. But so far, I think he's right. She definitely is determined and has tendencies of wanting to be neat and tidy.



Her other favorite activity is dancing. She loves dancing around and is such a free spirit - aka very independent. She does her own thing and doesn't need mommy and daddy all the time.

This Little Piggy...

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Isabella is such the piggy. She'll eat everything in sight and more. At daycare, they tell us how much food she wants to eat. She has breakfast, lunch and dinner at daycare during the week. Then when she comes home she wants to eat some more. Ed and I have stopped eating dinner until after we put her down at 8pm just so she doesn't over eat. And she still asks for food.

Some of her favorites snacks are bagel with cream cheese, nectarine, tangerines, Cherrios and crackers. But she doesn't limit herself to those only. She'll eat anything.





In the video, you can see she can't even be bothered by anything around her.

A few other videos.



She loves to dance and play music. Not sure why she got so shy.

Hot Day at the Pool

For the 4th of July we spent the weekend with Merah and Jack. On Saturday, we went swimming in a pool. We haven't taken Isabella to the pool since last summer and once she got over the initial hesitation she took to it pretty quick.





Of course, she couldn't put her watermelon down while she went for her swim. And she also tried to drink the pool water.



On the 4th of July, grandma and grandpa came over to Merah's for dinner. We all had plans to go see fireworks up the street, but grandma and grandpa decided it was time to leave. Lol.





Oh, and I captured one of her fake cries in action. Below she's happily moving a chair around until she trips and falls to the ground. Notice no tears.





The weekend before we all went to Venice Beach to "smell the ocean" and enjoy the freak show. Something we miss doing when we used to live in San Clemente (smell the ocean, that is). Oh I miss my old house.

Happy Birthday Eva

From Stamford, Connecticut to San Francisco and finally Los Angeles, Ed's parents came down to celebrate Eva's big birthday. For Eva's birthday we had dinner at Asia de Cuba at the Mondrian Hotel and enjoyed the spectacular view. The food was absolutely amazing.







Though it was a short weekend, we did get out of the house to check out the sites from Griffith Park Observatory. I hadn't been there since they've remodeled it. It was hot day and wouldn't have been very pleasant had Isabella not melted down in the Observatory. She's definitely entered a new stage of tantrums, fake crying and melt downs.





A little "gampa" lovin.





Isabella had a great time with grandma and grandpa and misses them when they aren't here.

101 Degrees Outside

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Last weekend was atrocious. It got as high as 101 degrees in LA. The evenings dipped slightly to 85 degrees. I felt like I was in the desert. It was awful, unbearable weekend. We couldn't turn on our air conditioning for several reasons. All the thermostats are disconnected and there is so much dust and junk it wouldn't have been smart.

Here are a few photo updates on the house:

The first phase - took out one main wall and two smaller walls surrounding the fireplace.




We also added a new window to bring more light into the space. We will be adding wood beams (as you can see the sample on the ceiling), canned lighting and ceiling fans.



The second phase - ripped out the existing tile flooring and pulled off the dry wall to prep for new doors and windows.






Third phase - begin prepping to remove the soffit (lowered ceiling above the kitchen) to follow the vaulted ceiling from the dining room.


And today, they removed most of the insulation and two upper cabinets. We already approved the design and layout of our new kitchen so the cabinets are being made as we speak. I hope this goes smoothly...because I only have 8 weeks until my estimated delivery date.


On Saturday, we spent most of the time in the air conditioned car running errands in Orange County. We decided to visit the Long Beach Aquarium to get out of the heat...along with several hundreds of families. It was so packed the place hardly felt air conditioned. I had never been there before. It's a nice aquarium. Isabella's a little young still, but she enjoyed looking at all the "fishies" and seeing the sea lions. She liked see the little sting rays until daddy reached out and touched one. That freaked her out a little.






On Sunday, Isabella was battling a little fever from the heat. Poor thing was just out of it. Christine came over and we spent the afternoon on 3rd Street in Santa Monica to enjoy the cooler temperature. Of course, I forgot to take pictures.

Father's Day

Isabella and I took Ed out on Father's Day in his style. We took him to see "Concours d'Elegance" - a vintage car show on Rodeo Drive. He drooled over all the cars.



After we had brunch at Barney Greengrass, which was just okay. I really didn't see what all the fuss was about. Aside from the fact that its situated on the fifth floor of Barney's in Beverly Hills and the occasional celebrity siting, the food was mediocre and the service was awful. Yes, it was Father's Day, but that's no excuse. The day comes every year and they should anticipate expect a rise in clientele.