Happy belated birthday Opa

Herzlichen Glueckwunsch zum Geburtstag Opa.

Anne is here

Anne arrived over 1 week ago and it has been so amazing to have her here. I'm getting out reguarly to the gym, as well as eating lots of sweets. She brought us a box of Scottish butter cookies and I ate those in about 4 days. Later she and I went to the 99 cent store and she bought me a box of chinese almond cookies and i ate the entire box in 24 hours. Can you imagine my surprise when I stepped on the scale and I GAINED weight. i couldn't believe it! Then I read the calorie intake for the butter and almond cookies. The almond cookies alone were 80 calories PER cookie. Mind you, I ate the entire box. Since then we haven't purcahsed or eaten any more cookies. To Anne's credit, she doesn't eat cookies - she only eats butterfingers. She ate about 24 bars in 24 hours.

We received a surprise gift from Andi and Uschi. They sent Rocco a little bear which we have named Bernard the Bear. They also sent us a funny letter, a photo of the family and 2 mugs. THANK YOU! They fit perfectly in Daniel's coffee machine. A perfect gift.

On Sunday we went to open houses in the area and saw a beautiful home that Anne thinks is reasonably priced - it's only 1.8 million dollars. As she says, "It was really good!" After that we saw another home being sold for 1.2 million which wasn't as nice.

Yesterday we went shopping and Anne bought me a new pair of jeans. I think she was tired of seeing me wearing the same clothes over and over again. I love them and am happy to have a new pair of jeans to wear. I'm SOOOOOOOOOO close to my pre pregnancy weight (less than 15 pounds away) and I know soon I'll have a whole new wardrobe of clothes to wear.

Rocco has been getting spoiled by Oma. She holds him and sings to him and kisses him every single day. So now he has 2 female slaves - he is very happy. The latest thing with him is that he now stares at his hands all the time and he also screams all the time. He is constantly testing out his voice - oh, we all love it when he screams. It's the best thing to hear at 6:30 AM.

Pic 1: Rocco sporting his new hat (a hand me down from the neighbor)

Pic 2: Oma making Rocco laugh

Pic 3: Squirrels at the Berkeley Marina

Pic 4: Oma Anne and Rocco. This is the only photo she let me publish.

dance fever

As I was cleaning the kitchen, I had my IPOD on Shuffle and when the Earth Wind and Fire came on...this is what happened:

Pump and Style

Daniel recently asked me if I am still hearing voices from the pump and style (see how he enables this craziness). First I have to clarify, I'm not hearing voices. Ok, well, actually the pump in style voice is back. Lately I've been hearing "Paco, Paco, Paco, Paco." Paco is Anja's dog. While I appreciate Paco, I really want to stop hearing his name in the morning. Strike that, I want permanent silence from the pump and style motor. Until then, I guess Paco it is. It's more upbeat and positive compared to the earlier messages. urrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Here's Paco roaming around in Frankfurt, Germany doing what dogs do.

Mama and Rocco

The weather has been so amazing lately. If Anja was still here she'd be outside sunbathing every day (her location was tile A4 to C8). Since the weather has been so phenomenal I sit outside with Mr. Personality for about 10 minutes every day so he can get his regular dosage of Vitamin D. Then we head for a walk, somewhere - usually around the lake or to Piedmont Avenue. If we walk Piedmont Avenue then we have 2 definite stops. First I stop to say hi-ya to the little Vietnamese lady that runs a dry cleaning business. For years - I'd say 7 now - she's been asking me when I was going to have "baby." And when I'd tell her that we were taking our time, she'd tell me "no time, hurry, must have baby." So she is very happy that I'm no longer wasting my time. She now asks me when the 2nd baby is coming. I'm back to telling her that we are taking our time...and she has the same sort of responses. She now regularly gets to see Rocco and each time she tells me how big and healthy he is. I think motherhood has driven me towards narcissism. I love to hear how cute and healthy and big he is. After my vietnamese dry cleaning greet and meet, we head over to the jewelry store where two Italian sisters run the place. Annette has a grandchild in LA who is only 4 weeks older than Rocco and she misses him terribly. So I stop by and she gets to coo and ahh over Rocco and then she tells me all about her grandson and inevitably pulls out all the photos she has of him. I love to see what new jewelry she has in store. She has amazing taste. She has some great rings and earrings and that totally reasonably priced (well that is if you have disposable income). One day when the economy recovers (we all hope soon), and I have a job and our kitchen is paid off, I'll buy myself something.

Rocco is doing great. I feel that I have his diet totally figured out. He is eating a lot these days and is taking Chinese herbs to aid with his digestion issues. He was weighed yesterday and is now 15 pounds, 9 ounces.

So these are pictures I took of Rocco and I on Monday before our walk around the lake. There is also a picture of our never ending back wall. Daniel is almost finished painting it. He has been so busy at work. I hardly see him right now. He's sad that he doesn't see much of Rocco these days. He leaves for work before Rocco wakes up and comes home and Rocco is already in bed. I hope that with time, all of this gets easier. Actually, I take that back. Next week, Oma Anne arrives from Germany to finally meet Rocco. It will be great to have her here. I think Rocco is probably bored by me....the same stories, songs, la macarena dance, etc. He needs more entertainment tricks, more people, more love....and thank god it's arriving soon.

Ok, off to bed -it is almost 9PM.

5 months

Rocco turned 5 months yesterday. As I was washing the dishes I was thinking, wow - my life is so different now. Normally I would have been washing empty wine glasses and by now our glass recycle bin would have been nearly full of empty bottles of beer and wine and probably vodka bottles. Now you can literally count all the alcoholic bottles in the bin on one hand. On the flip side, we are saving lots of money by not purchasing booz or going to bars (boo hoo hoo). One day, one day....

So what has most definitely changed is our comfort level. We are no longer scared of him. Every noise used to freak us out but now we both feel very confident. I'm especialy used to all his noises and little quirks. At the moment, it's the mirror. HE LOVES to look at himself in the mirror. If he starts crying I just take him to the mirror and he stops. He looks at himself and starts to smile. It's very funny. I'll need to capture it on video. He can hold himself up now and he just continues to get bigger each day. And with each new day he also wants more attention. I've come to think of Rocco as the out of town guest that never leaves. You know how you have to entertain guests, keep them busy with the local sites and all. This is my day with Rocco but it never ends...he just wants more, more, more!

Anyway I need to get to bed. I'm on a Senior Citizen's schedule these days- dinner at 5, sleep by 9....etc.

I need to find a local Coco's so that I can take advantage of their early bird special. Seriously, all I need are some dentures and depends and I'm there - 75+ hanging with the older crowd. Anyway, I really need to get to bed. It's very late for me. ....buenas noches.

Out with the old, in with the new...

Daniel and I were glued to the TV this morning. He prepared breakfast and we watched the inauguration of Obama and commented on how lovely and large Aretha Franklin's hat was - that was quite a glittery bow. It was a somber speech I'd say. In fact, it was pretty matter of fact: things are bad, real bad and it's only going to get worse. I was surprised to see that Bush was all smiles even while his failed upon failed policies were being criticized.
Maybe he didn't get it. Very possible. And Cheney looked like a CIA hit man. They belong in jail. We should send them to Guantanamo before Obama closes it down. They should experience the non torture techniques they approved (water boarding isn't torture is it)? I was also shocked to see that they left the white house with high approval ratings: Bush at 22% and Cheney at 13%. How is that even possible? Is inbred America really that big? Is Anne Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity's fan club THAT big? Holy crap - how badly do people need to be fu%^#d over before you stand up and say ENOUGH, I've had it....can i have my pants back?


I wish we could have been there - I can only imagine the buzz, the emotions and the feeling of hope emerging from the hundreds of thousands in the crowd. What a HUGE collective sigh of relief there must be around the world. Unfortunately, it will have to be short lived because the truth is that "we the people"committed atrocious crimes in Iraq. The last body count statistic I saw for Iraqi deaths alone showed 98,000 deaths. And this is a conservative estimate....others say the death toll is in the million range. We all know (or most of us I imagine) how painful losing someone you love is NOW imagine a country plagued by death where every person has lost someone or 2 or 3 or more over the last few years to war. How can this not come back to hurt and haunt us for, well ever? This number doesn't include US soldiers or Afghan deaths. And this is just Iraq - the former administration left a domestic, international and constitutional mess. This is why I don't understand those 22% Bush lovers and 13% Cheney lovers. How? How can anyone condone what has happened? I don't understand it.

Well that's enough cheer from me today. I'm depressed now. Maybe I should watch the inauguration concert again to lift my spirits - dote on Aretha's big hat and all...