A Little Less (Dinner) Conversation, Please

Dinner. My favorite meal of the day, especially at Nana and Papa's house. I like pasta, most of the time with a red sauce, unless I specify otherwise by shaking my head and hands and whining loudly. This indicates that I instead would like my pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese. Put the pasta in a bowl, but don't offer me the bowl. It has to be at least 6 inches away from me and it must be given to me one noodle at a time, preferably by Papa. Shredded carrots are fine, but only if they are dressed in raspberry vinaigrette, not vinegar-y light ranch dressing. The carrots and pasta must be accompanied by baked snap peas and a sippy cup full of milk. If my specifications are met, I promise to eat 1/3 of the food on my plate, and win you over with my adorable smiles and lively dinner conversation.

Signed,

Isabella C. Holsten

Pony Tales

On mornings when I put Isabella in the jogger to go for a run we always make at least one stop to visit the pony in the pen just off of Coombsville Ave. A wee bit filthy and quite possibly depressed, that pony, on occasion, will acknowledge our friendly calls with a snort. We gladly appreciate his/her effort, knowing it must be hard living in a small, muddy pen which he/she must share with a couple of chickens and a rooster. But this is not the pony tale I wish to share today.



Today's pony tale is the one that marks an important day in my days of motherhood. For today is the day that I first combed my daughter's hair into two ponytails.

My theory has been that since Isabella was so bald for so long as a baby, she's simply not used to her hair being touched. So the combing, gathering, pulling, and bundling of her wisps into elastics was probably as awkward a feeling for her as it was for me to do.

The end result though, was worth it...at least for me. Viola! Behold the ponies!

Apparently the significance of this pony tale was lost on Isabella. Within 20 minutes, she'd pulled out her ponytails and thrown the elastics on the floor. Thank goodness for cameras.

Nana turns 29! For the 36th time...

My mom's birthday falls a week after Isabella's, so the family partying continued...
To celebrate her 65th, we ate at my parents' favorite restaurant in Napa, which is where we celebrated my Dad's 65th a couple of years ago. (See black and white photo below)

(Dad's 65th. I was preggers with Isabella and technically on bed rest at the time. My doctor gave me permission to go to dinner that night. )

And here we are again.

Nana opens her gift with I's supervision.

Nana then must share her gift with Isabella (who picked out the color of the scarf--so maybe she just assumes it's half hers).

Isabella busies herself on the cardboard laptop while waiting for dinner. Fun times had by all. Happy Birthday, Mom!

E-ya-bella turns 2!!

Isabella (who pronounces her name E-ya-bella!) turned 2 on April 4.

At 2, here are I's top five:

1. Playground Gan-gak-ico (Playground Fantastico-or any park with swings. They're all fantastico in her book)

2. Chocolate

3. Dirt

4. Singing

5. Water

Since her birthday fell on Easter Sunday this year, we celebrated with a family feast. Nana, Bop and Uncle Dave were in attendance.

As was the Easter Bunny--in cake form.

Yay for Uncle Dave coming to visit! Isabella was too busy cooking her pizza and chocolate chip cookie on her new stove top (thanks Nana and Bop!) to pose for a picture.

My plan was to color Easter eggs (which I forgot about) and to have an Easter egg hunt (which got rained out). We did get around to coloring the eggs after everyone left. Instead of the hunt, we just opened the eggs and ate the chocolate out of them. (Isn't that what the egg hunt is really about?)

And the following day, which was bright and sunny, was a perfect day for trying out the new trike.

At 2, five things we love about Isabella:
1. How she refers to herself in the third person. "Eyabella go outside!" "Eyabella play play-doh"
2. That she is always singing and with great gusto.
3. Her sudden use of "where" questions. "Where's Daddy?" "Mama, where's the pork (fork)?"
4. That face! Those expressions! That 'tude!
5. Her little self. We are very grateful that Isabella is a happy, healthy little girl.

The First Day of Spring

The truth is, it's been a long, rainy winter. Despite the fact that I love where we live, we struggle financially. In part, we've struggle financially because we have had to consistently pour money into our only car each month since last November, the biggie being having to replace the transmission in January. After that it was the alternator, then some line to the transmission that started to leak... Needless to say, our savings has taken a pretty big hit due to the car, and yet for us, this is a more "affordable" solution than getting a new car.

There has also been some weird correlation to the car being sick and me getting sick. Nothing serious, but for several months now I have had back-to-back colds/flu, which has caused me to develop asthma--to which I thought I was immune after living in NYC. (Mark once heard of a study that said that 90% of people who lived/worked in the S. Bronx would develop asthma after so many years of being there. We left having only ever had several bouts of bad bronchitis).

Less than a month ago I learned that I would be laid off for the next school year with pretty much no chance of being rehired. I will be spending the next several months looking for something part time outside of teaching.

In short, we've had our challenges. But sometime around mid-March the sun came out and warmed the air enough to where I could lie out in the hammock and read while Isabella napped. The roses in the backyard started blooming, and the ladybugs arrived. We discovered tadpoles in a puddle of rainwater in the vineyard and collected a few in a jar. Isabella added the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to her growing repertoire of songs she can sing (the ipsy bipsy spidie went up the wadiespout) Even the chickens shook off their winter gloom and all four started laying eggs every day (Raising Chickens 101: egg production is affected by the amount of sunlight they get each day and weather).

AND on the first day of Spring, March 20, 2010, our family was sealed in the Oakland CA, temple. A simple but significant ceremony for us because of our belief that family relationships are meant to endure forever. Mark and I were first sealed to each other and then Isabella was sealed to the both of us, bonding our family together for time and all eternity.

While getting sealed has brought a calm and peacefulness to our family, it certainly does not take away our trials. Case in point: the rain came back, I came down with the flu, Mark got a wicked sinus infection and one of the chickens succumbed to some wild creature in the middle of the night. Then there's that belt in the car that is making a bad rattling noise...But I couldn't be happier.

Beautiful January Part II

See? I'm already behind, although I don't think I've taken one picture the entire month of February, so technically, I'm all caught up. January (and this time in general) is so beautiful here. Warmer weather is starting to creep in. The goats had their babies. The cows are back in the pasture. Our situation is kind of great seeing as we get all the benefits of living on a farm with none of the responsibility!

A double rainbow.

The New Kids on the Block (NKOTB)--way cuter than the boy band.

Their number one groupie. Finally a kid her size.

Offering her paci to the crying baby goat.

What to do in January when it's raining? Get creative with empty boxes.

Daisha and Keontay come for a visit. Mac n' cheese at the kids' table.

Daish's pretty winter coat vs. the mud. The mud won.

Isabella with Sweet pea and Sarah. Back in the barn again.

After many rainy days, Isabella becomes obsessed with boxes.
(this is actually a cardboard dollhouse not intended for Giant Isabellas)

Sit in box. Fill with balls.

Or just sit in box.

Our wimpy little camera did not do this sunset justice.

All Mark wanted to do was cross the raging waters of the "river" created by all the rain. He attempted to pull Isabella through in the red wagon until he realized--duh dun--that the wagon bed had holes in it. The adventure ended pretty quickly after that.

*Bonus pic. Isabella wearing one of my toddler dresses. This was the happiest face she could give me. She did NOT want to be photographed.

Beautiful January (Part I)

It was a very rainy January, but we like that. Rain means puddles to jump in, green pastures, wild mustard and finding ways to keep ourselves busy.

Morning runs with Mama.

Not every morning, mind you, but when I feel so inspired, we get out and explore. Isabella gets a cozy ride. She also gets acquainted with the neighborhood's horses, goats, pot belly pigs, pony, chickens, sheep...

Doing farm chores.
The red wagon comes in handy for loading straw from the barn for the chickens.

Chicken coop maintenence

Giving the very pregnant goats a little scratch behind their ears.

Isabella's favorite article of clothing: Frog boots. She got these as a Christmas gift from Uncle Dave and Janett. They are two sizes too big on her but she wears them everywhere.

Playground Fantastico.

Playground Fantastico is a fantastico children's park in Napa. Mark scoped out the grounds on our first visit there and quickly surmised that a "river" clean up was necessary due to the terrible pollution caused by The Others playing in the park. The mosaic fish were drowning in silt!

Katie impedes the conservation efforts by driving a small pick up into the river.

This minor setback does not deter Mark. He just rolls up his sleeves and works harder. He scoops, dumps, pours, and rinses, finally revealing the beautiful blue tile river bed.

Free at last!

* Post script: After an hour + of river clean up I had to pull Mark away from his project. Isabella was soaking wet and it was cold outside. It wasn't easy for Mark to give up on his work. Just as we were finally leaving, Mark detected a slight change of water flow in the river. "Did someone build a dam?" he asked alarmed and slightly peeved.

(That "someone" would be the three year old scooping up and dumping sand downstream.)

Nana treated us to a trip to San Fran. Isabella liked the ferry boat.

Once in the city, we took a nice long walk from the Ferry Building down to Pier 39.

Isabella discovers a machine holding a million little balls--and is smitten.

She does not like the camera. Or the carousel.

She does like the chocolate store with the "baboons" (balloons)

I like the Mrs. Fields cookie store.