A future in law enforcement or crime?

I gave Xela a basket of my old toys which included my troll dolls and the many outfits I designed and hand stitched for them back-in-the-day. Also in the basket was toy belonging to my Dad... a little toy gun.

Ummm..o.k.....not sure if this was a robbery or a crime bust....



Also sure whether this more funny than disturbing, so I think I'm going to put the toy gun away until I decide. They don't even make toy guns that realistic anymore (and probably for good reason)

Notice she put on some protection before taking on Lopan...at least she's thinking ahead.

Happy Easter!

Not much to say. I think we're sayin' it all on Facebook. But for those who aren't connected, here are some pictures from today's family fun.


Xela loves her new giant bubble wand.


But she loves her new bunny even more!


Too much fun with the sidewalk chalk.

A Picture is worth 1,000 words

So I guess 4 pictures is worth 4,000 words. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

More Buffy?

We've fallen into the habit of watching an episode or two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer before bed each night. Xela seems to really enjoy it. Tonight after dinner, she didn't want to wash her hands, drink juice, take a bath, or any of the usual things. All that she wanted was to watch "Fuffy" with us. I think it's had a positive effect on her. It's even motivated her to improve her language skills, and that brings me to the reason for this blog entry. Xela has used the word "more" for months, and it always precedes a food item, as in "more cracker?" But tonight, after watching an episode of Buffy and discussing the need to get ready for bed, she asked sweetly, "more Fuffy?" So we missed our bedtime. How could we refuse?

No!

Transcript of a typical day:

No! No no no! No! Go go horse? No no no no no! Cookie? Cookie? No! No! Bye-bye horse! No no no no no! Bye bye! No! No no no no no no! Yay home! No no no no! Yogurt? No no no no no no no no no no no! Go go horse? Go go horse? No no no no no no no no! More juice? No no no no no! Night-night! Mama! Mama! Mama! Dada! No! No! Dada! Dada! Dada! Mama! No! No! Mama! Dada! (unintelligible babbling) Zzzzzz...

Bribing the Social Security Office

I took Xela down to the Office of Social Security yesterday to apply for her Social Security card and number. A SSN is needed for her college savings account that uncle Paul set up for her and is needed to write her off as a dependent on our taxes.

Anyway, we still don't have her California issued birth certificate, so I took her Guatemalan certificate, and her immigration card with her photo on it, for my 2 sources of I.d. - of course the picture-taken on the day we took her to the Guatemalan embassy doesn't look like her - even Xela doesn't recognize herself as she kept pointing to the card and saying "baby."

Anyway, as the officer was scrutinizing the papers I had brought, I noticed out of the corner of my eye fifteen dollars being waved at him through the pass-through window under the security glass. Xela had rummaged through my purse unzipped my wallet and withdrew $15 bucks to bribe... er... um... maybe tip? the Social Security officer.

Nice try.

He did not take her money but it looks like we were approved and should be getting her official number in 2 weeks.

Just for good luck, (since the bribe didn't go over) we captured a little black cricket frantically looking to escape to Social Security office lobby (much to the curiosity of everyone else in the room) and let him go outside - that should pretty much seal the deal.

Happy second birthday!

Thanks everybody for being with us either in body or in spirit for X's second birthday party, which was the first party we got to celebrate with her. We didn't become a family until right after her first birthday so this year we made up for a lost opportunity. She developed an obsession for horses a few weeks before the party, but our plans were already locked in for a kitty theme. Once you buy Hello Kitty paper plates, there's just no going back! We'll do the horses next year unless she finds a new obsession between now and then.

X was knee-deep in wrapping paper by the time she opened all of her gifts. There were horses, a wagon, puzzles, and even Hello Kitty underpants, but the gifts that we'll all remember are the faces of the young. So here's the birthday girl with her friends. Enjoy!


"Hey, you with the camera! Get some more stickers over here NOW!"


Auntie Ruby let her feline flag fly. Meow!


Kitty vs. Kitty. Who will win?


Ok, yeah, it was a foregone conclusion. As so often it happens in the wild, the winner ate the loser. X froze up under pressure when it was time to blow out the candles, but Mom helped out. For the record, X had a birthday cupcake on her actual birthday a couple of days earlier, and she blew out those candles in one try.


Three beautiful girls in the shiny new Radio Flyer! That's cousin Amelia on the left and good friend Aubree on the right. This wagon already has at least 4 miles on the odometer. And the cooler hanging off the back is for Dad's frosty refreshments. We'll be going for a lot of long walks this summer!