kat

Seriously.

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Fri, 11 Jul 08 08:26:00 UT

How hard is it to get my last name right. Seriously. Figuerero. Figerello. Figero. Come on! It's the same as a major street in Los Angeles! I can understand not being able to spell it. It does have an awful lot of vowels. But after you ask me how to pronounce it and I say it for you, how hard is it to get it right after that?? And if you don't know my name and you're calling me, I likely don't want to talk to you anyway. But at the very least, pay attention when I pronounce it for you and then *try* to get it right.

On the 4th, some woman backed into our car in a parking lot. Totally not paying attention. She made eye contact in the rear view mirror and then kept coming. And then she didn't even have the courtesy to get out of the car, her husband dealt with it. So yesterday we got the paperwork from their insurance company. How did they spell our last name? Fuergo.

</rant>

Punk rock baby

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Wed, 9 Jul 08 10:23:00 UT

Alex is my punk rock boy. :) His new favorite song that he requests over and over (in addition to Blitzkrieg Bop) is the cover of the Spiderman theme by The Ramones. Yesterday we were listening to it in the car and I watched him in the mirror. He had a pen in his hand and was drumming it on the door actually in time with the beat, banging his head and rocking out. He can't figure out how to bend down his middle and ring fingers without also bending his first and pinkie fingers so he just folds down his first finger and waves his hand in the air. Yeah, he's imitating daddy just a little. LOL

Graduation

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Tue, 1 Jul 08 15:29:00 UT

I know it's taken me awhile to write this, but give me a break, I've been busy. ;)

I didn't really feel it was necessary, but Marc had his pre-school graduation on the 19th. He's officially in the school age class at day care which comes with all kinds of perks like getting to walk to the movie theater every Wednesday to see a G-rated movie and getting to play on the big kids' playground. (No decrease in how much they charge yet though...)

It was actually quite sweet. They even had caps and gowns. The caps were kind of like the way they make Burger King crowns, but shaped like a graduation cap and each kid made their own. Each of their teachers stood up and said something and I thought it was very touching that the one that's been there since they were all in the infant room actually cried while she gave her speech. That's why we chose this day care, because the teachers really really do love the kids.

The whole class (it was about 2 dozen kids) sang "You Are My Sunshine" and then presented a flower to their mothers. And that was it for me - I'd made it dry-eyed up to that point, but I couldn't help it. "You Are My Sunshine" is the song I sing to Marc every night while he falls asleep and my mom used to sing it to me when I was a baby.

I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast. He's starting Kindergarten in less than 2 months.

2 more things

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Fri, 27 Jun 08 13:35:00 UT

As if we needed more to worry about what with the talk about global recession, skyrocketing gas prices, global food shortage (I'm sure the flooding in the midwest is doing great things to help shore up food supplies!) and all that jazz, here are 2 more things to worry about, that were just kind of casually mentioned on news sites:

Honey bees dying off and a good likelihood that all ice on the North Pole will be melted for a period of time at the end of the summer.

Honey bees dying doesn't sound like that big of a deal until you realize that it's a 36% loss in even managed colonies and that it's causing even more of a food shortage because without bees there's no crop. I've noticed myself that my own garden is suffering and that I haven't seen very many bees around.

Hello? Can we get some good news around here??? This is the closest I've got: California on Thursday took a major step forward on its global warming fight by unveiling an ambitious plan for clean cars, renewable energy and stringent caps on big polluting industries.

Alex's weight check

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Thu, 19 Jun 08 10:32:00 UT

I took Alex in for his 3 month weight check yesterday morning. In mid-March, he weighed 20lbs 2oz. Yesterday, it was 21lbs 14oz! Yay! :) He's growing! :) He's still a skinny skinny baby but what a relief!

Thanks to everyone who's been worrying with me and been supportive. :)

Best record in baseball???

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Sat, 14 Jun 08 08:27:00 UT

Is it really possible that the Cubbies currently have the best record? As a long time Cubs fan, I know that they have plenty of time to blow it. And likely they will because they always do. BUT. WOW! I'm certainly enjoying it now!

When they were beating the Dodgers, my brother kept texting me about it (Marcelo is a lifelong Dodgers fan which makes the Dodgers my #2 team if I want to stay married ;) I had fun talking smack with him until I realized... he'd jumped ship a few years ago when the White Sox won the world series. His excuse? When it's been so long since you've won a world series, you take what you can get. White Sox. bah. You can't like the Cubbies and the White Sox anymore than you can be a fan of both the Dodgers and the Angels or both USC and UCLA or Michigan and Notre Dame.

Anyway, I guess I'll just enjoy it while it lasts. ;)

Little parrots

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Fri, 13 Jun 08 10:07:00 UT

Marcelo and I really have to remember that though they don't seem to, the kids hear and remember everything that comes out of our mouths.

For instance... this morning at 7:07 am, the painters knocked on my door. They've been hired by the HOA to paint every unit in the complex. The prepped the front of the unit last night but didn't get to the back. Yesterday, I asked them to please let me know before they needed access to my patio because what the HOA told them to do was just use their ladder to climb up over the roof of the garages to get to the patios. And when they put the ladder down from the garage to my patio they had to put it through the branches of my apricot tree and knocked a ton of apricots off and damaged some of the branches. (Yes... I realize this has become a tangent griping about them...) Anyway, when I took the kids out to go to school, we saw that they'd moved our potted plants around and knocked over our sunflowers. When I tried to straighten them up, both stems snapped in half (they're a good 7-8 feet tall). When Marc saw that he heaved a great sigh and said "Ohferchristsake. The painter wasn't very careful. He broke our flowers!" And yes, sighing and saying "Ohferchristsake" is my child friendly replacement for saying "GOD DAMNIT!" very loudly when I'm upset.

And then last night when I picked the kids up, Marc was telling me about a new kid at school who is very rough and snatches whatever he wants out of other kids' hands. And Alex piped up and said "(name edited for privacy) a chupacabra! He a chupacabra!"

All boy

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Thu, 12 Jun 08 13:50:00 UT

This morning Alex was eating his usual breakfast of sausage, fruit (this morning he chose raisins), and milk with Carnation Instant Breakfast mixed in to fatten him up. ;) I was in the other room, pulling out the clothes for the kids to wear to school today when I hear him giggling. It was that giggle that you just know something is up when you hear it...

So I go around the corner to find out what he's up to and what do I find? He's busy attempting to stuff a raisin up each nostril. As soon as he saw me he started laughing hysterically and greeted me with "Look, Mommy! I got raisins in my nose!"

The worst part was I couldn't stop myself from laughing in time so now he thinks it's a good idea. lol

consequences

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Sun, 8 Jun 08 16:01:00 UT

Is it just me or is all this talk of global recession and weather issues (tornadoes, flooding, etc) and the like starting to sound like what they've been warning might be the consequences of our reliance on fossil fuels and global warming?

I read the news pretty regularly and news just seems to be getting worse and worse.

doesn't that figure

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Mon, 2 Jun 08 12:08:00 UT

I swear... every time we start getting ahead, something happens. At least Marcelo has a new job now, but it's almost 100% commission that's still going to be a bit.

So, my neighbor just sold her condo and part of the sale was that she had to fix a leak in her garage. The plumber came out and opened up the wall in the garage (which is shared with us) and discovered that the leak was coming from *our* water heater. No way we could have known about it because nothing was wet in our garage and the water heater was working fine, but still our problem. The next day we get a letter from the HOA that we have 10 days to get a new one or we're responsible for paying for any and all damages. So, we shelled out about $750 for a new one and to have it installed. Ouch.

Guess what someone was giving away on Freecycle today? A nice, working 50 gallon water heater.

bleeding heart?

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Mon, 2 Jun 08 11:36:00 UT

You Are a Liberal for Life

You've got a bleeding heart - and you're proud of it.

For you, liberal means being compassionate, pro-government, and anti-business.

You believe in equality for every person, and you consider yourself universally empathetic.

Helping others is not just political for you ... it's very personal too.

What's Your Political Persuasion?

meal time

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Sat, 24 May 08 18:26:00 UT

Meal times have become a very stressful time for me. It's always a battle. Marc seems to be on his way to a growth spurt because he's been eating very well (and sometimes asking for more). But, he always asks how many bites he has to eat before he's done. I always tell him "enough bites until you're full" but he doesn't really get it. And he thinks he's only ready to eat when his tummy is grumbling.

Alex, on the other hand, has simply decided that he doesn't need to eat in order to live. He's maintaining at barely 20 lbs, but that's way underweight for a 32 inch 2 year old. The only things he eats a significant amount of are pad thai (the more shrimp the better), anything with shrimp, teriyaki beef, edamame, and of course french fries or chocolate anything. He's got expensive tastes and since we cook at home most of the time, it's not stuff he gets a lot.

The doctor told me I need to get more fat into him so he wants me to keep nursing him and give him whole milk with Carnation instant breakfast in it with every meal. It's not helping. A few people have said his face looks a little rounder, but the scale still only says a couple of ounces.

Bah. Why do I worry so much? At least he's developing well and ahead of schedule.

Thunderstorm

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Thu, 22 May 08 16:48:00 UT

One of the things I really miss about New England and the midwest are thunderstorms. Right now, we're having one, right here in SoCal. :) It doesn't have the power and beauty of the ones I'm used to but the air is still full of the smell of wet earth and the tension that's broken by a storm.

Marcelo hates the rain and it is quite chilly but I've still got the windows open to enjoy it while it lasts.

OMG - Indy was worth the wait!

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Thu, 22 May 08 15:52:00 UT

I won't go into detail because I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but the movie was awesome. Not the best in the series, but not the worst either. It had every element of a good Indiana Jones movie. I loved the use of the Sean Connery quote from The Untouchables. The end was a little cheesy as they're obviously using the movie to pass the torch, but it didn't spoil it.

Go see it! :D

Today is the day!

figueroakat@yahoo.com — Thu, 22 May 08 07:42:00 UT

I'm taking the day off. Marcelo and I have tickets to the 12:15 show! I've been waiting for this movie for 19 years.