Conversations With Little T

Little T is all about basketball right now. The only thing he’s remotely interested in discussing is sports. Every conversation with him goes like this:

Little T: Ball? Ball? Basketbal!l? Ball? Shoot? Shoot basketball? BASKETBALL! SHOOT BASKETBALL!!!!

It’s kind of funny how Little T is such a little boy. We haven’t made any effort to steer him towards boy things, but all he wants to play with are balls, cars, trucks, trains, drums, dirt, and bubbles. I’m still trying to find ways to get him more interested in books. Maybe I can find some sort of baby book about basketballs…Now, that’s a thought. I found some baby books about basketball on Amazon, hopefully that will do the trick!

A (much needed) Mini Break

I was in need of a mini break, so we took an overnight trip to the Highland Springs Resort in Cherry Valley. It’s kind of a cool place. The whole resort is surrounded by lavender fields and it smells amazing and relaxing. The resort itself was established in the late 1800’s. It’s pretty run down now, but it’s easy to walk by the old tennis courts and pool area and imagine what it was like in it’s prime. It’s a really neat place to wander around, I’ve never been anywhere like it.

But our favorite thing was the lavender fields and the large olive trees. We had a nice dinner at their restaurant and then wandered around as the sun set.

It seems like I’m hardly ever in pictures because I always have the camera, so Big T sat me down and took this picture of me.

Little T liked watching the dust go in the air. He was so dirty after this walk, but much fun was had! He’s such a little boy. :p

And here’s Little T and Big T the next morning playing hide and go seek. He’s such a ham.

Right after this picture he ran into the bathroom and locked himself inside and we had to call security to get him out. I was totally panicked about it, but when we got the door open, he looked at me and said “geez mom, I was just brushing my teeth”. I told him not to put hand soap on my toothbrush next time.

*side note: Sometimes I forget we’re a multi-cultural family, but I was reminded when the security guys opened the door and were surprised to see Little T in there, lol.

We had a great time! We went hiking the next morning and then drove home, making a lunch stop at the Loving Hut and the Last Drop Cafe on the way, because you can’t end a good trip without a vegan banana chocolate chip cookie. That’s the law.

 

An update…

Let’s be real here, I’m still sad, sad, sad about Angel. It made it worse that my foot was injured because I had to sit at home and be reminded over and over again that she isn’t here anymore. Her ashes came and that made it hard too. Even though it’s been hard, there have been good things.

  • Big T got me flowers for Mother’s Day and made me some vegan crepes with bananas and chocolate sauce, and that made me happy.
  • Little T came running out of the room giggling with my bra on, and that made me laugh, the little stinker.
  • We were told that Little T is doing really well with his hypertonia.
  • My foot healed a lot faster than anyone thought it would.
  • I’ve met lots of kindred spirits in the past month through photography.
  • I have fun shoots coming up that I’m really excited about.

Once my foot started to heal, I took Little T to Disneyland because I just wanted to be out and around other people and not at home. We had to take things slow because of my foot, but we had a great time. Little T even drove Autopia for the first time and clapped at the end. I wish I had happier posts to write about, but I know I’ll eventually get back to feeling like myself again. One day at a time, right?

Little T’s Haircut postponed….

On Wednesday, I was feeling really sad and depressed about Angel. Michelle said I had to go out to dinner instead of sit around and wallow on the couch. So my girlfriends and I went to this great vegan restaurant at the Irvine Spectrum called The Veggie Grill. I’m drooling just thinking about it….

Maybe the good food had affected my brain, because on my way back to my car, I tripped walking up the stairs and sprained my foot. It wasn’t one of those little trips that you can pretend didn’t happen. It was one of those loud-everyone-stopped-to-see-what-just-happened trips. Lets just say it was “spectacularly ungraceful”. I assured everyone I was fine, and then realized I wasn’t actually fine when they all left and I realized I couldn’t walk. Michelle had to drive me to the hospital, where we laughed because the last time she checked into the hospital on foursquare was in 2010 when she was visiting me in the emergency room.  Heh heh. We had four fun filled hours together in the emergency room, while we waited to hear if it was broken or sprained.

It turned out to be a bad sprain. It’s funny, because now that I’m actually stuck here, I don’t want to sit on the couch anymore. Funny how that works. At least I’ve gotten a lot of work done, but hopefully my foot will heal soon. 🙂

P.S. My hair is going back to blonde again!

P.P.S. I’ve spent my time recovering from my sprain and losing Angel, by watching countless hours of meaningless television. I actually just downloaded the entire season of “Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaid Edition”.

Little T’s Hair

Big T casually mentioned the other day that he was taking Little T for a haircut. I turned around and said, “WHAT!?!?!? You can’t just go and get his first hair cut! I need to take a picture, I have to call the Grandma’s, I have to figure out the hairstyle!” Sheesh.

I’d originally wanted to have Little T’s hair braided like Jaden Smith in the Karate Kid:

Miss Lou even said she knew someone who could braid it for us. Then she came back and said her family refused to braid his hair because he was a boy and braiding is for girls. So that was nixed and we’re cutting it all off instead.

Before Miss Lou came along, I took Little T to a hair stylist and asked how to take care of his hair. She said to come back in a year when it’s longer and she’d cut it. Then I had to explain that I knew nothing about taking care of his hair and that I needed to know what products and things to buy and how to brush it out. I felt ridiculous, but she was really nice and went through everything for me.

His hair is really curly and long. You’d be shocked if you saw us brush it out and could see how long it actually is. Every night Big T conditions Little T’s hair with avocado oil and brushes it out from the ends down. We turn on Baby Einstein so Little T can zone out while we’re brushing. We also rub coconut oil on his skin. When Miss Lou comes, she’ll recondition his hair for us. Big T and I are honest about where our strengths lie, and hair care isn’t one of them. We’re glad to have her help. Miss Lou gave us the name of a hair stylist and it looks like we’ll be taking a trip to the barbershop soon. I’m going to miss his curly hair! It’s going to be cooler for the summer though, and much easier to take care of.

So, I’ve given up my dreams of Jaden Smith hair. We’ll have to settle for Will Smith hair instead.

Thank You

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has reached out to me on this blog, through facebook, e-mail, phone, and in person to help me get through this past week. I’m so grateful to have all of you in my life. It’s been a hard week, thank you so much for understanding how important my Angel was to me, and recognizing the loss that I’ve felt. I love you guys.

Happenings Via Instagram

Agh, I’m sorry I’ve been gone. I didn’t want to depress you all with my cat. Even though it’s been hard, there have been good moments that I thought I’d share:

Little T’s decided to skip bike riding and go straight to car driving:

On an early morning adventure:

I love how Little T colors with such gusto and intensity.

Playing trains with Grandma K:

Hard at work:

I went to visit Little T’s Godmomma at work, and discovered her and Traci had posted pics of Little T on their door. :p

By the end of the night, the photobooth guy was like….you guys again? teehee

Little T…or the Statue of Liberty?

My little nephew. 🙂

Fountains have the ability to entertain Little T for five minutes. I’ll take it.

Enjoying time with Miss Angel kitty:

Send a Smile to Someone In Need

This past Friday, Little T and I visited the Orange County Ronald McDonald House to learn about HP’s E-smile program. The Ronald McDonald House provides comfort and shelter to families who have terminally ill children at a nearby hospital. Families can stay at the home for free (they do ask for a 5$ donation a night, but this is optional), so they don’t have to commute long distances back and forth to be with their children. Through the HP e-smile program, people can send pictures, cards, and letters of encouragement to the families staying at the Ronald McDonald House. For a short time, HP is donating one dollar for every picture or card that goes through.

Here’s the wall of e-smile cards at the OC house. A few of the parents who were staying during our tour said this wall of smiles meant so much to them:

There are several ways to send a picture or a note, and it only takes a minute or two!

  1. Download the e-smile app for your phone:
  2. Visit the HP Esmile Website and upload a picture or message.
  3. E-Mail your photo or message to: RonaldHouseOC@eprintesmiles.com

While I was there, I downloaded the mobile phone app and sent an esmile of Little T smiling for everyone to see. If you want to help volunteer in other ways, they’re always looking for groups to come and cook breakfast, lunch, or dinner for the families that are staying. They especially need volunteers who can cook breakfast. They also need gas card donations for families who have to travel back and forth to the hospital, and new toys to be given to children on their birthdays or the holidays.

What a great way to support parents who are going through a crisis, and it’s such a clever idea of HP. So please, if you have a minute, take a few seconds to send the Orange County Ronald McDonald House a picture or a note. They do great work over there.

Cats know…

Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties~- W. L. George

My friend Kari called me when she heard about Angel (my cat). She told me to take an entire day off to spend time with Angel and shower her with love. So, Big T stayed home and watched Little T, and I sat in my room and gave Angel 100% of my attention. I put her on the windowsill so she could look outside, I gave her chicken, and I petted her all day while she purred in my lap. It was a bittersweet day. I know the next few weeks are going to be hard. She’s taking steroids right now, but they said to expect them to only help for a week or two. It helped though to have one day with her, where it was just me and Angel. It was like old times, when we lived together on my own during my early 20’s. I can’t begin to tell you how much my heart hurts right now, but I know the reason I feel this way is because of how much I love her.

But yeah, you’ll have to excuse me when I say that this sucks. This totally, totally sucks.

Yesterday: