Bummer

(Yes she is asleep.)

I'm officially bummed. It has been a rotten week for the most part. Tonight, we missed our last play because there was no parking. After driving around forever we gave up and came home. Boo. Here is hoping next week is better.

- Then I was up all night with food poisoning from my favorite restaurant. That's what I get for complaining!

Oh What A Life

Art Update

More Salty Watercolors. This is one of my favorite projects. I love the way they turn out.
















A print made from corrugated cardboard, the same way we made the bubble wrap prints. This time it made a striped pattern instead of dots.

Foam shapes, feathers, felt, yarn, seaquins, popsicle sticks, paper, paint, & pom poms glued onto an old piece of foam core I had used for a presentation.This is what New Fish does while we are making art in the backyard.

Playtime

House full of babies. Seeing these two kissing and squeezing their baby dolls makes me feel like I must be doing something right! They know babies should get a lot of kisses.

Family band

Family zoo

International Attire

Outfit from Mexico city. It was actually mine as a baby. My parents played in an orchestra in Mexico City until shortly before I was born.

Shoes from Paris

Shoes from Spain

Chinese dress

Saturday

Clean car. Strawberries. Two hour walk outside. Fresh cut grass. Backyard BBQ and picnic. Bubblebath.

Another Little Sister For Me!

Brother M asked his girlfriend E to marry him!

Here is a picture of the day they met. They met at my brother J's wedding. She caught the bouquet and Brother M caught the garter. I guess it was fate. Pretty funny.

A Typical Schedule

I couldn't keep track of an entire week at once so the days are from different weeks but are fairly typical. No sick days, doctor's visits, dive classes or random emergencies are included. I don't include every diaper change, every bottle, every mess because I can't keep track of all of that. I just wrote the ones that stood out for some reason. I also make a lot of phone calls to my family that I don't keep track of. This is probably only interesting to me but I wanted to keep track of what I do in a day because they all seem to blur together a lot of the time and I want to remember what life was like at this stage.

Monday
12:30 am Feed New Fish a bottle and change her diaper.
5:30 am Feed New Fish a bottle. Put her back in bed
7:00 am Red Fish is up for the day. Two Fish gets up with her while I pretend I'm going to get more sleep. Red Fish pokes me for awhile.
8:00 am Shower,dress and sort laundry
8:30 am Prepare Art Project and acitivities for the day while Red Fish eats.
8:45 am Breakfast while Two Fish feeds New Fish
8:55 am Put in load of laundry
9:00 am find shoes while Two Fish leaves, morning dishes
9:15-1:45 pm Work while girls do activities, play, and eat lunch
2:00 pm Go to bank and post office
2:15 pm laundry and get snack for girls
2:30 pm Girls go down for nap time. Red Fish sleeps for almost Two Hours and New Fish for one if I'm lucky.
2:45-4:15 pm Laundry, Answer email, Feed New Fish, Get some lunch for myself, blog, return phone calls, and make a to do list of work projects. Send out a few invoices.
4:15 pm Girls awake and we play for awhile and do speech exercises.
5:00 pm Make dinner while Red Fish plays with playdough and New Fish plays in her exersaucer.
5:40 pm Red Fish starts watching out the windows for Daddy. Laundry.
6:00 pm Two Fish gets home and we eat.
7:00 pm Try and feed New Fish solids. Feed her a bottle.
7:30 pm Family Home Evening. laundry.
7:50 pm Play piano with Red Fish
8:00 pm Start the bedtime routines
8:30 pm Make shopping list and menu plan
9:00 pm Grocery shopping
9:45 pm Put groceries away and pick up main floor.
10:30 pm Get Ready for bed
10:50 pm Read scriptures and books.
11:30 pm Turn off the lights and go to sleep for 30-45 minutes.

Tuesday
12:30 am Feed New Fish and change her diaper
4:00 am Go in to comfort the teething two year old. (Darn those molars!)
6:30 am New Fish is awake. Two Fish feeds her
7:30 am Red Fish is awake. They both get in bed with me. We watch Little Einsteins and pretend Mommy is sleeping.
9:00 Feed New Fish, blog, and facebook (all in bed.)
9:45 Shower and dress myself and Red Fish
10:00 Blow out. Bathe New Fish and change her clothes.
10:20 Art project
11:15 Speech Therapy
12:00 lunch
12:30 Sing and dance to a new toddler CD.
1:00 Blow Out. Bathe New Fish and change her clothes. Put yucky clothes in washer.
2:00 Naptime. Red Fish decides to sleep in the playpen in my room and New Fish in the swing for a bit.
Design a poster and CD menu.
4:00 Blow Out. Bathe New Fish and change her clothes. I'm really rethinking the pears from the night before.
5:00pm Start making dinner while the girls play with the toy dishes and Red Fish pretends to cook her own dinner.
5:40 Red Fish starts watching for Daddy.
5:45 Feed New Fish a bottle.
6:00 Try to feed New Fish solids and Two Fish comes home.
6:15 dinner
7:00 Vaccum and pick up carpeted areas of the main floor (I'm off schedule because I didn't finish all the laundry on Monday.) I carried New Fish around in the moby wrap.
7:30 Play ball with the family in a circle and do some blocks.
8:00 Bedtime stories and routine
9:00 Finish putting away the laundry and clean my room and closet. Set a bag of old clothes on the porch for a donation pickup.
10:30 Read my book
11:30 Try to sleep while Two Fish finishes reading his book for work.

Wednesday
1:00 am Feed New Fish
5:00 am Feed New Fish and change wet pajamas
7:15 Red Fish is awake. Two Fish goes in to get her.
8:00 am shower and have a little two year old jump in halfway through. Dress and eat breakfast. Prepare art project and music activity. Vacuum my bedroom.
9:00-2:00 Work for five hours designing CD covers and a postcard. Take dog (yes he goes to the office with me.) out for training exercises.
2:00 play with the girls and read a couple books.
2:30 put Red Fish down for a nap. Feed New Fish a bottle and get myself some food.
3:00 New Fish goes down for a nap. I take the dog out front for training.
3:30 Do some work and answer email.
4:00 New Fish wakes up. I hold her and play with her and make her laugh. It's a blast.
4:30 New Fish plays on a blanket with some toys while I clean two bathrooms.
5:00 Red Fish is awake. She has me play the violin for her (her latest obsession.) I play for half an hour for the girls and then we sing songs.
6:00 Two Fish comes home plays with New Fish and heats up the leftovers while Red Fish and I take the dog for a walk and training exercises (I'm trying to retrain the dog right now.) We have several discussions about how dogs "wee wee outside" but people "wee wee in the potty." We step on crunchy leaves and sing a song about a tumble weed because we saw one blowing across the road. We discuss the size of every rock on our path. Red Fish dances, skips, hops and leaps down the sidewalk and demands that I copy her. I can't believe what a big girl she is getting to be.
6:30 Dinner
7:00 Speech practice and some family time in the toy room.
8:00 Stories and bedtime routine. Feed New Fish a bottle.
9:00 Blog and download some pictures. Do the dishes.
10:00 Both girls are up. Put them back to bed again.
10:15 Read book and scriptures.

Thursday
4:30 am Feed New Fish and try and coax her back to bed.
7:15 Two Fish gets up with Red Fish
8:00 Feed New Fish, answer emails and read some blogs.
9:00 put Red Fish in the tub. Take Red Fish out of tub (because she pooped- gross! She never does that!) and stick her in the shower while I clean the tub.
10:00 Clean up the mixture of baby formula and hand soap that Red Fish painted the kitchen floor with when she was "cleaning" while I was using the bathroom.
10:30 Shower while the girls watch Little Einsteins together in my room.
11:30 Gammie picks up Red Fish for a playdate and lunch with her friend Sophie. I spend 30 minutes searching for the contents of my wallet and still can't find my ATM card. New Fish and I head to Costco (with my checkbook.) New Fish loves shopping.
1:00 Put New Fish down for a nap and put away Costco stuff.
1:15 Do a quick project on my computer.
2:15 Red Fish comes home and I carry her up to bed and try and help my Mom clean up some of the mess in the back of her car.
2:40 Get back to my project.
3:30 Spend 45 minutes playing with New Fish and making her laugh because she is too darn cute.
4:15 Clean kitchen (except for mopping because Red Fish pulled my mop apart to see how it worked and I can't fix it.)
5:00 Walk the dog with the girls in the double stroller and do training exercises.
5:40 make dinner.
6:15 We eat and feed everyone
7:00 Two Fish gives the girls another bath while I pick up the house and vacuum.
7:30 Put New Fish to bed and Red Fish reads stories with Two Fish.
8:00 Watch Project Runway on TV and work on emails and billing.
9:00 Read my book and scriptures.
10:00 Watch Lost with Two Fish on DVR.
11:00 Go to bed.
11:45 New Fish wakes up and wants a bottle.

Friday
4:00am Feed New Fish a bottle.
5:30 New Fish is awake. I take her to bed and try to convince her we both need more sleep.
6:15 Red Fish is awake. I go back to her bed while Two Fish keeps New Fish.
7:00 We give up and get out breakfast.
8:00 Shower and dress myself
8:45 Get out the ingredients to make a batch of playdough.
9:00 Two Fish leaves for work
9:15-1:45 work designing 4 CDs and a brochure. Take dog out in the rain for training exercises.
2:30 Put girls down for naps.
2:45 New Fish refuses to nap so we play with some toys.
3:45 Red Fish wakes up and we play a new kids CD and draw pictures.
4:30 We play the piano for awhile and go up to the playroom.
4:45 I vaccum up a shredded (luckily only wet) diaper that the dog got and I go back up to play.
5:15 Clean the bathrooms and start picking up the house.
6:00 Two Fish comes home and we eat leftovers and grilled cheese sandwiches.
6:30 Attempt to get more food into New Fish. Tired babies do not like to eat.
6:45 New Fish falls asleep in the middle of the floor for 15 minutes. We play with Red Fish and try to do some speech exercises.
7:30 Read books to New Fish and rock her to sleep.
8:00 Two Fish is reading stories and putting Red Fish to bed so I finish up some design projects.
9:00 Facebook and blog.
9:15 Two Fish and I catch up on Lost episodes on the DVR.
19:00 Put a wandering Red Fish back in bed.
11:00 Feed New Fish a bottle.
11:20 Red Scriptures and go to bed.

Saturday
is always too random to even write down. We catch up on chores and try to cram something fun in.

Sunday- I know it is technically the beginning of the week but I just don't see it that way.
6:30am Feed New Fish a bottle
7:45 Red Fish is awake.
8:00 Shower and dress everyone. Pack diaper bag with snacks and toys.
8:45 Try and force everyone to take a family picture because they are wearing new clothes.
9:00 Sacrament meeting- We mainly concentrate on not making a spectacle of ourselves.
10:15 Sunday School- I get called out to change Red Fish and lose my seat. I end up standing in the hall for 40 minutes listening to the lesson.
11:00 Relief Society- Try to keep from laughing at an overly happy New Fish and hope she isn't disturbing the whole meeting. I always figure happy sounds are WAY better than screaming right?
12:15 Home. Lunch.
1:00 Both girls take a nap.
3:00 Red Fish and I bake cupcakes.
3:30 Family walk with dog.
4:00 Frost cupcakes. We run out of frosting halfway through.
4:30 Go to family dinner at my Mom's house. Red Fish puts on a show of acrobatics.
7:30 Home. I am rocking both girls in the rocking chair when Blue Fish comes in and pukes 5 times all over the floor.
8:00 I read the girls stories in Red Fish's room while Two Fish (horray!) cleans the carpet.
9:15 New Fish finally goes to bed.
9:30 Red Fish pops out of bed for the 3rd time.
10:00 Spend some time actually talking to my husband.
11:00 Feed New Fish a bottle (yes she wakes up at almost the exact same time every night.) Read scriptures and go to bed.

Baby's First Art Project?

Traveling

I'm still recovering from last week. First I went to NAB in Vegas with my brothers for four days, and then I left with my little family for our first trip as a family of four. We went with our friends Mark and Annie to check a couple more National Parks off of our list. (We have a dream of visiting them all.) I've been to Arches and Cayonlands several times, but Two Fish had never been. We camped right on the Colorado River near Moab, UT. It was the perfect time to go. It was warm but not hot yet.

The actual camping was a little rough with the little ones but doable. It was really nice that the adults outnumbered the kids. Our tent was super lame. I think we need to take it back and get a different one. I want to start investing in some decent camping stuff since I think there is going to be a lot of camping in our future. The drive there was a little painful but the drive home was perfect. Both girls snoozed the whole way home because they were so worn out.

We visited a lot in one weekend. We drove through all of Arches and hiked to Delicate Arch, Broken Arch, Sand Dune Arch, and around Balanced Rock. We also got close to Double Arch. It was beautiful.

Then we went to Canyonlands and walk through part of slick rock and got some great views of the Needles. We saw Newspaper rock and several great look outs. We definitely need to spend some more time there. There is way too much to see for one trip.

We took two backpacks so we could carry both girls on most of the hikes. New Fish pretty much fell asleep everytime I stuck her in my backpack because she thought she was just being snuggled. Red Fish liked having "piggie back rides." She also did some walking but it took forever.

Overall, the trip was a success. Now I'm just trying to get my laundry and house back under control.

Enjoying Spring

7 Months

New Fish has so much personality now. She has just started clapping her hands (it's still hit or miss sometimes) waving, and rocking on her hands and knees. She LOVES solid food now and has started sleeping a little longer at night. She loves her big sister and I love seeing the two of them play together. New Fish is very ticklish and she still loves to be snuggled.

Honor Among Thieves

I attended the NAB convention again this year. NAB is the second biggest convention in the world. A place for artists in many industries (and economic situations) to congregate and work toward their goals. I always love meeting with people from around the world who are working in the music industry. At the production music association meeting, I heard an incredible speech given by David Israelson, NMPA president, on how piracy is affecting the economy and the arts in particular. It has given me a lot to think about.

For some reason it has become trendy to steal music, video, photography and other art because it is considered fighting against “the man.” Sticking it to the huge record labels etc. when in fact it is the songwriters, musicians and other artists who are suffering and not making enough money to support a family. The arts and entertainment industries are being ravaged. If this market continues to be inundated by theft- there will be no market.

When a big artist or company complains about piracy and theft of music and visual media, the general reaction is “who cares? They are so rich it doesn’t matter.” Well here is the thing. If you personally have illegally downloaded a song, video, photography or other art related intellectual property- you have affected my ability to make a living in a very real and tangible way. If you burn CDs of music to hand out as Christmas gifts, you have also robbed every composer, musician, and artist I work with. If you steal from our market- it affects all of us. If I stole auto parts from big car companies on a regular basis, it would affect the livelihood of their entire workforce. This may sound dramatic but it’s a serious situation. I’m not out living out on the street. I’m not starving but when a songwriter who wrote a famous song you listen to some big name artist sing everyday can’t afford to feed their family, there is a problem.

An artist is bigger than their size in the economy. When we don’t get paid for our creation it trickles down to affect composers, musicians, designers, engineers etc. in the labor force. Our work may come into your homes, cars, and computers on a daily basis but that doesn’t mean it belongs to you. Downloading a song from Itunes doesn’t mean you “own it.” You own a license to listen to the song. You get to appreciate the work of an artist and have it influence your life, hopefully for the better.

A Kid Rock video “Steal everything” on youtube mentions that oil companies make billions but if you told your friends and neighbors that you regularly drive away from the gas pump in order to teach them a lesson, you would be seen as a degenerate.

We’ve lost an entire generation to a sense of entitlement and a lack of appreciation for the arts. We don’t teach art, music, creative or visual thinking in schools anymore. Kids have been taught that they shouldn’t have to pay for art or music anymore. Outright theft is now seen as some sort of unalienable freedom to possess the work of someone else. How will this next generation understand the perceived difference between stealing intellectual property and taking whatever they want? Why do we treat intellectual property as a different entity in the first place? Why are we undervaluing a third of our economic property? How will the arts even continue under such attack?

I don’t think the country realizes what a problem this is. This is seen as an issuefor musicians to deal with or adapt to. It is so much bigger than that.

If any other American industry were under this level of attack, there would be a massive government reaction and public outcry. Unfortunately, intellectual property is seen differently than other property rights. I think we all have a responsibility to examine our own morals and take a hard look at what we are saying to the next generation.

The Opposite Of Fate by Amy Tan

I think to really appreciate this book you would have to be an Amy Tan fan and I have not read any of her fiction. A lot of the first half of the book felt a bit like reading someone's somewhat self-indulgent therapy notes. This book is basically a collection of essays that are thrown together in a scattered and redundant fashion. The last essay might explain this, as it reveals that Tan is suffering from Lyme Disease. This book definitely needed a better editor. That said, there were a few things I enjoyed about the book.

I did think the part at the beginning of the book about finding her book in the cliff notes section and the inherent duality of fame was funny. I also found some of the insight into her personal artistic process interesting as well as her disclosure that some of the perceived genius of her writing style is just luck.

Overall, this isn't a book I would recommend.

Easter Morning

We didn't do baskets or anything because I felt like the tricycle and car were pretty extravagant for Easter. (But what else can you do when we all have fall birthdays? Christmas is too far away from nice weather for tricycles.) It was fun to see how excited Red Fish was. She is already trying to be a little daredevil and stand on the handlebars so she will definitely be wearing her helmet outside. New Fish just liked sitting on her little car. I don't think she had any idea what was going on.

After watching general conference we went to Two Fish's moms house for dinner. We had a great time visiting with family and the kids had a fun indoor Easter egg hunt.

Tu-tutorial

I bought 4 yards of 54" tulle for each baby tutu. This will make a really full tutu. I cut it into 44 pieces - 4 across and 11 down. For babies made the elastic about 16 - 18". For the tutu Red Fish is wearing I didn't acutally measure the pieces I just started cutting so it turned out longer.

Sew ends of elastic together. You could do this by hand if you don't have a sewing machine.

Tie strips onto the elastic. You don't have to even double knot them. Just keep tying until the strips are gone.Then have someone cute test the tutu. Here is Red Fish testing one last August.

My cousin Leilani did a really cute boa for her daughter out of shorter strips of tulle. I want to make some for my girls.

Best Way To End A Day

It's snuggle time before we sleep.

We had our biannual dinner out with my family. We girls used to go shopping (maybe we will again when the babies are older) and then meet the boys for dinner after the priesthood session of general conference.

How To Entertain Your Sister

Don't mind Red Fish's hair. She had just dipped her head in the dog's water dish again. I love watching these two starting to really play together!

Art Education- All of My Worst Fears

Art Is Elementary: Teaching Visual Thinking Through Art Concepts
by Ivan Cornia, Charles Stubbs, and Nathan Winters

I love the way this book emphasizes the arts and visual thinking as an important part of education and child development. The book is currently out of print but still easy to get a hold of. I wish the basic concepts of this book could be a part of every child's education.

The text is a tiny bit dry if you were to read it in long sittings but for following the ideas as a step by step guide on guiding children from birth through level seven, the book does a great job of presenting a broad spectrum of ideas.

The introduction expresses almost exactly what I feel about the arts in education:

"The intrinsic values of art education are fundamental to the development of a productive, creative human being: therefore, a sound,successful teaching program in this field is the birthright of every child in school. Some people ask 'Why teach art?'-assuming that art is a gift to a few and that 'either you have it or you don't. But the truth is, art can be learned like any other subject. Further, it not only can but must be learned,for it is the foundation for effective visual perception, and the development of visual perception is fundamental to learning in any field."

My children are only 2 years and 6 months but the state of the education system still keeps me up at night. I can't stop myself from worrying that there aren't enough options left that will offer them a truly well rounded education with the opportunities I want them to have. Thinking about this stresses me to no end. While charter and private schools offered "advanced academics" etc. I am worried that the humanities have been so neglected they are just seen as "extras" rather than fundamental parts of basic education.

I've recently had many opportunities to discuss my feelings on this subject with many interesting people. One of the authors of Art is Elementary was at a recent dinner party I attended. After hearing Mr. Stubbs talk about his work lobbying for the arts in children's education and what has happened in our local school system after Mr. Stubbs retired, I was particularly disturbed. He pretty much confirmed all of my worst fears.