One of those days

Today sucks, so far.
Nora will not listen to me. Nora WILL not listen to me. NORA will not listen to me. Nora will NOT listen to me. Nora will not LISTEN to me. Nora will not listen to ME. If you think it was exhaustive to read that repeated line, imagine saying and everything else I've said today about fourteen times. I AM SICK OF REPEATING MYSELF.
She also torn the binding on a small pooh bear book that I miraculously found at a yard sale last month. It was a set of four that are exactly like the ones I had when I was little. When I saw the torn book I was way too upset. I had to leave the room. We are taking away all her books tonight, because this isn't the first (or second or third or fourth or fifth) time she's done it.
I haven't had a day like today in long time. One where people tell you how cute your kid is and you just want to laugh in their face and list all of the annoying things they've done in the past hour, and how it's enough to push you over the edge.
Thank goodness I am leaving for work in an hour and a half.

Beach Baby

Spinning 2
Originally uploaded by jegoffin.

Last night we had a photo shoot at the beach with my friend Kelly. I met Kelly in the fall when I spent about 4 hours at Kinko's printing and trimming photos of our trip to Europe for a photo album. She came in and was trimming these absolutely gorgeous photos. I asked her about her photos and she told me she was a Brooks student (Brooks is a well-known photography school here in town). After a little while I asked her if she might know of anyone who would be willing to look at my wedding pictures (negatives really) and print out whatever ones looked good. She said she would be willing to do that. So, while she's been working on scanning about 85 pictures into her computer and cleaning them up with photoshop, she started taking a portrait class at school. Therefore she needed models for her class. I posed for a bridal portrait both outside and at a studio. We did a family portrait and she did a portrait of Nora, and this time she needed a set of siblings. She took pictures of Nora and her cousins etc. In return she is giving us a few prints and we can buy additional prints too. It's great because we've never done a full on portrait sitting as a family or even for Nora alone.
The girls go home today and I will certainly miss them, they are such helpful, nice girls. Nora will surely miss them as well.

I regret to inform you that there has been another poop incident

I didn't take pictures this time, but you can use your imaginations, oh wait, you don't need your imaginations, just refer to the earlier pictures. Main differences this time: It wasn't on her face, it wasn't all over the wall, just part of the wall, it wasn't all over the crib, just on part of it, Alec had already left for work lucky dog. This time I made Nora sit in time-out/naughty seat for nearly ten minutes. Also my poor nieces got an up-close look at what having a child can be like. One is adopting an older child, the other is an eternal optimist. Me, I can not figure out why she is doing this, furthermore I can not figure out HOW TO MAKE HER STOP. Today I am taking away her priveledges, like a two-year-old knows what that means, no Pooh, Piglet, or Roo. No playing with make-up, no jelly beans. I have no idea if this will work, like most parenting it's learn as you go.

Look Ma, I'm a Pro

Easter Family Portrait
Originally uploaded by jegoffin.

I've finally become a Flickr Pro. Are you happy now, Ali?
This picture is from yesterday, Easter. We had a nice time. My sister came down with her two girls, Morgan and Samantha. And then she drove home without them. That's right, I have three girls for the next few days. If I had These threee girls my life would be pretty darn sweet. Nora loves them and they are so nice. Also they're pretty much raised, so they can help out with Nora, it's pretty wonderful to have someone else (really two sommeone elses) to tell her she can't put her feet up on the table or go outside barefooted. And the weather is finally clearing up. I don't know if I've whined enough about the dreary days of rain we've been enduring, but let me assure you they were Awful. Today we are going to the beach and tomorrow we're going to a photo shoot, my fourth and Nora's second....more on that later.
Here's hoping for a week of sun and house construction leading to finishing the damn place!

Taxes

This year we actually paid a real accountant to do our taxes. Incidentally, this is also the first year I haven't gotten a big fat return, you know, the one that you spend months planning what you are going to spend it on and when it finally arrives you realize you've spend it about fourteen times over. Well, this year because of Alec working as a self-employed man for 10 months we were supposed to withhold taxes ourselves, yeah right. Now I finally understand why people put off taxes until the last minute. Thankfully we've put enough away (not paying rent during construction) to just cover it. But not the accountant's fee. Somehow things always end up working out though. Right? I guess I have finally come to the realization that we will never have enough money. I used to think that once I was done with college (all of it) I would be in my Career and be pulling in some big money. Nope.
Then again, we are very lucky with what we do have. And besides my store/cafe is going to be a huge success.

No More

This weekend we watched the last episode of the last season of Six Feet Under. I know that we are oh, about a year behind the rest of the world (or at least those that have HBO) but WOW. That show was so amazing. The characters are so finely drawn and acutely realized that you feel like these people are your friends. I think about them at work and in the evenings and well, all the time. I got my co-worker hooked but she is about 2 seasons behind me so I couldn't talk to her about the last season. Which was akin to knowing a huge secret about someone and being unable to tell a mutual friend.
But most overwhelming is the sadness. No more anticipation, no more stories. Just like when you finish a really good book and you miss the characters, but also miss the time you spent with them. So you pass the book onto your real friends and try to recapture some of the feeling by thier enjoyment. So anyone how hasn't had a chance to be enthralled, join netflix and start watching, Right Now!

This is how the shitty day ended

Balcony from our hotel room
Originally uploaded by jegoffin.

We went to San Diego and stayed at a nice hotel. This is the balcony and Nora loved it. So did Alec and I. We had a slendid little time.

Friday
Arrive at 6:30 PM (traffic in LA sucks)
Walk the Gaslamp district and have dinner at a nice litte Indian restaurant
Fall asleep in the king bed at about 9:30

Saturday
Nora wakes up at 4 am, we put her in our bed where we all fitfully sleep for about 2 hours
Coffee and warm milk
Walk to a great cafe called Cafe 222 So good we swear we'll be back the next day, eventhough I really wanted to get expensive room service.
Head to the San Diego Zoo, here after know to me as "the best zoo in the whole entire world"
Nora sleeps for about an hour in her stroller, during which we see her favorite animal, giraffes. She wake up somewhere around the polar bears, which are incidentally my favorite, along with the ducklings.
We see the pandas, a tiger taking a shit, and ride the "skyfari"
Leave the park at around 4pm stopping to get Jack in the Box and a Jamba juice for the little one.
Back at the hotel we lay around watching punk'd for an hour and a half and then drag ourselves out of bed to find a West Elm store.
End up at the Container Store, also know as heaven. Eventually we find West Elm, attempt to buy stuff, they are out. We head back to the hotel, get some dinner from the restaurant in the lobby and lay in bed until Nora falls asleep (9:30)

Sunday
Up at 7:00 (really 6:00) and get ready to go to Cafe 222, where I curse the fact that I can't stay here a week to try every thing on the menu.
Back to the hotel to swim in the pool. So fun. I swear I will start swimming laps at the University pool.
Shower, change, and check out.
Go to Ikea, 10 minutes before we get there Nora falls asleep so I go solo.
Then we drive home (LA traffic sucks)

It might not sound like it was all that fun, but it really, really was. I never had weekend getaways when I was little so this was as much for me as for Nora. One of the best things about having kids is you can recapture some of the things you missed when you were little. Seeing the excitement and joy on there face IS to experience that same excitement and joy.
In the end the shitty days are outnumbered by these sorts of days. I hope.