Tara Zandra dot Com


Tuesday, November 29, 2005

I know life isn't fair, but this is really unfair. First I caught a cold from my kids, then I was in immense pain for a week because of the stupid muscle thing and now, now!, I've caught another cold from my husband. So here's to a third week in a row where I'm not doing well. I've been camped out in the living room most of the day with the kids, but eventually, Tivo ran out of Will & Grace shows. Right now I'm catching a few minutes on the computer whilst my two play together. Soon as I get the baby down for a nap, Tabitha and I will do some lessons as I wasn't quite up to them this morning.

I hope to goodness this passes quickly as I really just want to feel well again.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 02:45 PM PST

Thursday, November 24, 2005

That was a very pleasant Thanksgiving. The four of us went to a vegan restaurant that was hosting Thanksgiving. Yum would the word for our meal. You can see the menu here if you're so inclined. Chris and I stuffed ourselves silly, Tabitha chowed on garlic mashed potatoes, Waldorf salad, cornbread, and a little bit of stuffing plus apple cobbler (though she didn't eat the apples). Daisy, however, ate positively everything we gave her. We knew she was a good eater, but goodness did she eat! There was quite a good mix of different types of people, just perfect for a day of giving thanks. Before we ate, Tabitha, Chris and I said what we were thankful for. Tabitha said Daisy, her Disneyland pass, all her crayons and three other things I can't remember. Very sweet to say Daisy, not that she mentioned myself or Chris, lol.
I took loads of pics today, you can see quite a few of them here.

1 (7k image)

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 05:20 PM PST

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

The girls and I were out most of the day today. We started the day off at the donut shop where Tabitha talked me into getting a dozen so we'll be giving thanks for donuts tomorrow morning. Then it was off to Babies R Us where we bought some Christmas gifts for Daisy. We also went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to purchase a wedding gift and while they were wrapping it we walked to Target for a snack and light browsing. Back to the Beyond and the gifts still weren't wrapped so we toured the store before finally heading out. We made a quick stop at the grocery store and came home where I fed both kids lunch and put the Wee Miss to bed. Tabitha got some good dress-up time in while I sat at the computer feeling sorry for myself (still the shoulder thing). Once baby was up she and I sat in the living room for awhile before I called sister time and stuck them in the playroom. I got us ready to go again and off to the mall we went. Good grief it was crowded! You wouldn't think it would be like that before the big sales but it was positively insane. It took forever just to get into the parking lot. I have a "take the first spot I see" policy so at least parking was no big deal. I just head to the back and walk past all the bozos who are too lazy to walk the few extra feet.

I bought Daisy's Christmas Eve. PJs and Christmas Day outfit. I also bought her a dress I saw at Baby Gap the other day and fell in love with. It's totally ugly and I had to have it :) Sadly, they only had a 2T so it will be another year before she can wear it. Until then, I'll just gaze upon it fondly, lol. Tabitha chose a Children's Place doll to add to her collection.

At this point, Chris met us there and took over the girls because I got my hair cut. It's about 8-inches shorter now- eek! I was extremely nervous, but I had the same guy who did Chris's hair last time so that helpped calm me since I'm familiar with his work. I think it's good, but will take some getting used to.

We then made a quick stop at Target where I left the family at the snack bar and grabbed some basics for the next few days as well as bought Tabitha's Christmas Eve. PJs. We got home pretty late but gave Tabitha a decent dinner since she had been living on junk food for the last couple of hours. We finally had both the little ones in bed at quarter of ten and Chris and I were able to collapse with our own dinner.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 10:51 PM PST

I haven't been updating because I'm tired of just typing how I feel. But I'm still not better. I have a heck of a cough that actually had me taking Nyquil for two nights. I only took a half dose though so I wouldn't be comatose in the morning. Sunday as I was in the middle of a coughing fit, I happened to turn my head while violently coughing and somehow pulled/strained a few muscles in my right shoulder, neck and back. So on top of coughing uncontrollably at any given moment, I'm in horrible pain. Two nights ago I tried to sleep on my back all night, I'm normally a stomach sleeper, and that really seemed to help as I felt so much better yesterday and didn't even take Motrin. The girls and I spent the day out at a mall and I was fine. Around dinner time I felt the pain creeping back in and I'm not sure how I slept last night, but now the pain is back in full force. I've taken Motrin, but am really wishing for something stronger.

So that's what's been going on here. I'm not letting the coughing or the pain stop me from going out with the family, but it's still what's foremost on my mind so that's all I want to talk about, it seems.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 06:35 AM PST

Saturday, November 19, 2005

The wee Anc Fam member has finally given me my due. She said mama. Okay, so she sounds like she's from Jamaica and actually says mon-mon and she's not even a little bit directing this word towards me, but I'll take it as a step in the right direction. The irony is I'm begging the baby to say mama and cringe when the oldest says it because she only uses mama as part of a whiny wail. Usually I'm just Mom.

Speaking of a step in the right direction- like that segway?- Daisy's walking is improving rapidly. Last night we all were on the floor and I had Tabitha in my lap and Daisy comes over to me as if to say "Hey! I want love too!" We sent Tabs to Chris's lap and Daisy soon followed. But she was just walking all over the dining room. She loved all of us sitting on the floor like that as we're her favorite toys.

This morning at hula my mommy head swelled a bit as a few women told me how beautiful my children are and how fun it is to watch the big one dance. See, it's not that she's a great dancer, not with my two left feet gene, but she does it with such enthusiasm that you kind of can't help but watch her. I was actually a bit surprised watching Tabitha today because she had her "I'm so happy that I've gone stoic" look on face and it was during a pretty grueling workout of basics. No complaints after class about how hard it was either. Maybe she's maturing a bit. They went over Hawai'ian vocabulary words which prompted her to pull out her study sheet this evening and write out many of the words in both English and Hawai'ian. One thing that kid loves is foreign words and lists.

Chris did some house stuff that needed taken care of which was rerouting the wires from our satellite dish. After that he finished clearing out a bush in the front yard, then I took out two very small bushes and raked all the debris and leaves. Sadly they had to be left in a large pile as both our auxillary trash cans reached capacity. So there's a leaf pile in the front yard until at least Friday when they'll pick up the trash. Next I need to purchase some red woodchips and stepping stones to make the ugly patch next to my front door look more presentable. I want to Disneyfy it, because I'm geeky that way, but I'm not finding what I want right now so I'll just make it look nice and get the right products when I find them.

Now we've bathed both kids while listeing to station Ethel on XM. Soon we'll be childfree for the evening and we're going to sit back with Wedding Date.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 07:18 PM PST

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Yes, I'm still talking about being sick. I awoke feeling fine but hacking up a lung. Very uncomfortable to say the least. Chris decided to take Tabitha with him to work leaving me with just the baby. I got her down to a nap and was then able to just rest for a long while. It did me well as I calmed down quite a bit and wasn't coughing nearly as much. In light of how I felt, once Chris and Tabitha were home, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and went to Disneyland for a couple hours. We mainly visited their Christmas area with reindeer and also squeezed in a couple rides. Of course, Daisy slept on the way home and we all had quite a late dinner so now it's past 9 and neither of my kids is exhibiting signs of being tired.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 09:17 PM PST

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Man, I feel horrid today. Here I thought I'd be on the upswing today and instead I'm way worse. Coughing, hacking and just generally feeling like crap. The baby is good, thankfully, so it's just me. Chris was able to stay until lunchtime which was helpful and then come home a bit early as well. At one point today I was just so dead tired I was honestly just going to fall asleep so I took a nap while Daisy was napping and before Chris had to leave. He was gone when I awoke, Tabitha was watching tv and Daisy was still asleep. I got up but didn't feel any better. After an hour I still felt like I was going to just keel over. I decided a walk in the sun was in order and got the kiddies ready for us to go out. We headed out with Daisy in the stroller and Tabitha scooting, of course. We went to a local park which Tabitha thought was wonderful. I sat on the grass with Daisy, drinking my soda. Chris joined us soon after and a couple girls also showed up so Tabitha had someone to play with. The topic of homeschooling came up and I could hear Tabitha chattering on about it. At one point I guess one of the girls was quizzing Tabitha on multiplication. When I asked Tabs about it later she said she knew them all up until the girls starting going crazy by asking 42x40 and the like, but they were just kidding as she said they asked them too quick for her to actually answer, not that she could have, of course. The whole thing was rather interesting.

Since being home I've done nothing but rest, basically. Chris took care of dinner, Tabitha amused herself, the baby was passed around. I did a math lesson with Tabs after dinner then Chris did spelling with her. I think that's going to be his job from now on. That way her hand doesn't get quite so tired during lessons and we can go back to her writing stories. Plus, I just don't enjoy the spelling, to be honest. I like the program and I'm very happy we chose it, but I don't actually like doing it. So, Chris gets to take over. He's still going to do science experiments with her as well, things just haven't been normal around here with all the sickness so they haven't started any yet.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 08:21 PM PST

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

I slept so much better last night. Chris couldn't stay home with me all day, but enough for me to really sleep in this morning. I don't feel nearly as lethargic as I did yesterday. One more day and I should really be feeling better. For now, I will continue to take it easy though.

Daisy already seems better, I didn't have to wipe her nose even once today. Hopefully she will also start to sleep a little better tonight.

Tabitha finished the latest Unfortunate Events book. She went through it pretty quickly, especially considering it's 350 some pages. I think it took her a total of 3 or 4 days. She had bowling yesterday and she is now the top scorer for girls in her league as well as the highest average. She was pretty darn proud of that fact.

Daisy is progressing with her walking. She now walks first when trying to get somewhere and crawls only after she falls. She is still displaying amazing balance and strength and recovers rather well from her stumbles. I hope to goodness that she masters walking soon and the she can focus on less physical accomplishments and perhaps start talking as opposed to screeching. I love her, but dear goodness she is loud. Almost her entire language is made up of screeches and grunts. The odd thing is, when she does babble, which isn't that often compared to other kids her age, she does it softly. Unless we're in a public restroom in which case she is just like her older sister and takes full advantage of the acoustics.

Back to Tabitha, I must mention that the child is most definitely boy crazy. She drops words like cute and handsome all the time when talking about various boys. She only has one friend that's a boy though, so he is, by default, the one she likes. She speaks so seriously to me about the subject and yet it's hard to hold back my smiles. I don't want her to think I think she's silly, but she is so adorable when talking about boys. Of course, I need to keep her away from them as she's always had some weird charm when it comes to older boys. I don't know what it is, but since she was 3, older boys would always make a point of playing with her, or teasing her, being boys and all, but giving her more attention than any other girl. I don't know how much of a power she still has over older boys, but I'm not looking forward to finding out, lol.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 10:11 PM PST

I need a confession from someone. Who sent me four photos, presumably, of themselves riding Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters at Disneyland? The pics will not show up and I haven't a clue who sent them. Please, someone end my curiosity.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 12:31 PM PST

Monday, November 14, 2005

Tabitha and a friend of hers went to Club Libby Lu at Downtown Disney yesterday. It's a clothing/accessory store where everything is pink, maribou and glitter. They do make-overs for little girls, much to their delight. They do cater to young girls, so they don't end up looking like hookers or anything. Tabitha chose the "tween idol" make over and was quite pleased with her sparkly self.

Stirke a pose
Close-up
Side view

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 03:55 PM PST

The baby and I have been graced with a cold so we're both a little cranky. Thank goodness for Chris.

Anyway, Tabitha had a great day yesterday but I need to edit some photos so I'll be back later to tell about it.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 08:58 AM PST

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Daisy had me up four times in two hours for varying lengths of time. At 5:30 I simply gave up and now here I am. I did go to bed around 9:30 and Chris took all of the early wake ups so I did have a fairly solid 6 hours so here's hoping I don't suddenly crash.

Tabitha had a minor cold this week, Chris had a sore throat and I currently have a sore throat so I wonder if Daisy might now have a sore throat. I gave her some Tylenol just in case and she has been sleeping for the last half hour so that might have helped. On the other hand, she usually sleeps really well between 5:30 and 7:30 so the Tylenol may have nothing to do with it.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 06:03 AM PST

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Today was the Rosebud Parade in Pasadena. It's a jr. version of the Rose Parade where kids can decorate their bikes, wagons, strollers, scooters, any wheeled vehicle, with flowers and ribbon and then march in a little parade up and down Lake Ave. We missed out on it last year so we were all happy we could go this year. Tabitha had a fabulous time and my only regret is that I didn't register Daisy as well and decorated her stroller. On the other hand, it worked out that I didn't because I stood on the sidelines with Daisy and was able to take pics and video as Tabitha went by. The Grand Marshalls were JoJo and Goliath from JoJo's Circus, but we didn't stand in line to meet them since it was ten times as long as when they visit Disney.

After the parade ended, we went in some of the shops to give the parking lot time to clear out so we wouldn't be stuck in traffic. I found some Santa hats with gingerbread on them at Gymboree. They even come in Tabitha's size so I may have to get them at some point. There was also a Talbot's Kids, which I didn't know existed. Nice but very pricey. Other than that, nothing too terribly interesting.

Now we're home and relaxing a bit before dinner. Chris is out actually, helping Santa with a certain gift.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 03:52 PM PST

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Yesterday was quite productive for me. I ran my errands, I deep cleaned my bathroom, cleaned the fish bowl, did 4 loads of laundry, the family and I had lunch with my mil, we took care of something for her, and Chris and I started a big yard project. Not to mention both kids were played with and happy and we were all fed a nice dinner. Once the kiddies were off to bed, Chris and I watched a bit of tv. All in all, a good day :)

I've taken care of some Christmas shopping recently. I ordered Tabitha the bottom level to her dollhouse which Santa gave her last year, as well as a car, baby bedroom set and pet set to go with it. I was very lucky to happen upon a site that had all these items on sale, plus free shipping over $30. Yay! I also ordered personalized big and little sister dolls for both girls. So far so good with my shopping, especially considering how late I started this year.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 01:51 PM PST

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

Tabitha's bowling partner didn't show up yesterday and she was rather bummed about it. However, maybe it was the lack of distraction, but she bowled her personal best, 107. She totally smoked the girl that is ranked right above her as it was that team she bowled against yesterday. She was upset though about bowling alone so I gave her an incentive and told her if she broke her average I'd play air hockey with her after the game. That cheered her up, which was my intention.

Today was hula as it's temporarily on Tuesdays. Class is a bit longer on Tuesdays and at the end of class Tabitha told me her feet were hula'd out and she needed a new pair, lol. They worked on three different dances, all of which she enjoyed so she was even more boisterous than usual after class. It's real fun getting her to bed after she's been excited, let me tell you. I can hear her singing in bed as I type.

Earlier this afternoon we all went to Target for our bi-monthly stock up. I also picked up Tabitha's outfit for Christmas Eve. They had the cutest holiday onesie that Daisy could wear on days we do Christmassy stuff, but they didn't have her size. I checked a different Target while Tabitha was in hula but no luck there either. I'll try a couple more Targets over the next few days before I give up. I did get her a holiday headband though as well as a bib she can wear Christmas Day.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 09:40 PM PST

Monday, November 7, 2005

Yesterday we went to Babies R Us to browse and try to get ideas for Daisy for Christmas. We did okay, though the one we went to seems to have drastically cut their toy section. We're going to try the one by us next week, I think.

The four of us went out to dinner with my mil last night. We just went to Millies who have sweet potato fries right now and Daisy did very well with them. She likes food that she can take bites. I guess she figures since she has 8 teeth she might as well use them. She still loves the pureed stuff I make her, but we're working on adding more texture to her diet as well.

In more Daisy news, last night she took 6 steps in a row towards me. She took three, then stopped and stood there, then two more, stopped, wavered, one more step and Kaboom! But that's the most she's taken at one time. I'm thinking a few more weeks before she does it more often. It was the same way with standing. I could get her to stand, but most often she didn't want to and would sit down instead. After a bit of time she started letting go of things without thinking and just standing there. Now, she stands all the time and has balance. So, walking will probably follow the same pattern. We'll see. She's just turned 9 months on Friday. Speaking of which, here's one of the pics I took for her 9 month birthday. It was taken at Disneyland, though she fell asleep before we made it to a different area of the park where I had hoped to take her picture.

Chris and I were discussing Tabitha's lessons and he has asked to take on some of them as he wants to be more involved. We've decided for now that he will take over Science experiments as I really dislike doing them for some reason. I mentioned it to Tabitha today and she was very happy to hear about this new plan. Right she has math, spelling, Solar System, logic, grammar and spelling for formal lessons with me. After the birthday season we're going to add history and will do another unit on maps and possibly a refresher on cursive. I may wait on the cursive until after maps is done.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 10:36 AM PST

Saturday, November 5, 2005

So I'm at a mall the other day with the girls. Not a local mall, mind you. Nope, I was rather far away from home at one of the rich malls. Not an upscale mall, I mean rich. The kind of mall where people's outfits cost more than our monthly house payment, and that's just the kids. The kind of mall that has a store that stocks an eight hundred dollar stroller. Makes my gorgeous Graco feel like the Geo Storm of strollers. The kind of mall where the inexpensive kid store is Limited Too. The kind of mall that has Bloomingdales with it's three hundred dollar jeans. I had to explain the "medium brown bag" thing to my kid as we don't rightly have Bloomies out here in the 'burbs.

Anyway, it was quite the experience. We did have a good time at the mall. We had a horrible lunch, unfortunately, but shopping was good. I visited my newly favorite kid clothing store, Naartjie. I found the outfit that I've been dreaming about for two months for Daisy's first birthday. Found a matching head band too. I know, her birthday is 3 months away, but it's perfect. Now I just need her to grow to the right size :) We also stopped into Limited Too for Tabitha and picked up a brown, spangled shrug. We've been eyeing it for a while hoping it would go on sale, but no luck so we bit the bullet and just got it for her. She wore it today over a tank top and I thought it looked good on her.

At one point during our trip, Daisy was plucking at her hair. She has a nervous hand and when she's tired she plucks at stuff, usually her thigh or my shirt but sometimes her hair. All her plucking made her hair look raggedy so I pulled out her rubber band to fix the pony tail. Then the rubber band broke and she was left with a Chicken Little mohawk. I could not allow her to traverse the mall looking as such so we went in search of a head band or hat. No luck at Gap Kids so we tried Baby Style. I found rather cute selections of barrettes so Tabs and I decided which one to buy. The store is apparently aptly named, my baby has style as she has been complimented 4 or 5 times on the barrette since we bought it.

Overall, it was still a mall, it just had a lot of sticker shock for me. But obviously, they did have stores I could shop in or at least browse. It was fun to people watch too. There were more housekeepers there with kids than moms with the kids, seriously. The women were dressed so differently than you see out here. I must say I felt a bit frumpy, but oh well. It's fun going to malls like that because they do have the coolest stores, that's for sure.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 11:32 PM PST

To my blonde friend D whose baby shower invitation I received yesterday, please email me as I don't have your email addy.

[/personal message]

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 10:33 PM PST

Wednesday, November 2, 2005

Today the big one and I got into a discussion about money. She did one of her frequent "what if?" questions, as in "What if there wasn't any money?" She's aware of trading and bartering and that people used to use shells and/or stones for money so we talked about value. It was great timing because today in the Mom Store, one of the items was a coupon made by me for a treat at Dairy Queen. She chose to buy that item so it was handy. I got out a blank index card and asked her the difference between them. Then we talked about why one of them was worth something to her but the other one wasn't. From there I likened it to the ten dollar bill I had to show her the only reason it's worth anything is because our society says it is and merchants will accept it in exchange for goods. It's a hard concept that money is simply theory, but she got what I was talking about so I was pleased.

She slipped a bit in spelling, but that's to be expected after a bit of time off. On the flip side, the problem she was having in math seems to have resolved itself with time off. Go figure.

Daisy has only attempted a couple steps here and there. She's not really trying, which is kind of odd for her. She is enjoying entertaining us to no end. She tries to make us laugh so she can laugh too. What's interesting is when she had her cold a month ago, her voice was naturally a little husky. She kept that sound even though there's no way that any part of that cold is hanging on. Bizarre and extremely cute, especially when she laughs.

Whenever Chris gets home he has some work to do here and then when he's up for a break we're going to head to the mall for a bit. Chris needs a hair cut and Tabitha wants to use that Dairy Queen coupon so we'll have a nice little outing.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 12:30 PM PST

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Our Halloween-O-Rama weekend has come to a close. Quick rundown.

Saturday was a Halau meeting first thing in the morning then we went over to my in-laws and dressed both kids in their costumes. In case it wasn't obvious from the pics below, Tabitha was Pocahontas and Daisy was a Pea Pod which was Tabitha's first Halloween costume made by my mother. The in-laws fawned over the kids, gave them treats, gave us lunch and then we were out of there. Off to Michael's we went for a (supposedly) two hour kid event. They did a craft of making a trick-or-treat bag, then did a costume parade through the store, then had refreshments, then it was done. Does that sound like two hours to you? It only ended up being one hour, I don't know why they thought that would take twice as long. But regardless, it was a fun little event and we'll probably do it again next year if offered. After Michaels it was off to my mother's so she too could fawn over the kidlets.

Sunday morning we were up and out fairly early and went to our annual Boo at the Zoo. It sucked. There's no other way to put it. It was good four years ago, even better three years ago, went slightly downhill last year and was downright horrid this year. The sponsors were bad, the games were bad, and we were chased by bees for most of the day. I left the zoo in tears, that's how bad it was. There was one bright spot. Tabitha was in one of the Radio Disney contests and came in second which meant she got to choose between two things for her prize and she chose a stuffed Lucky dalmatian. To be honest, for her, that was better than if she was the main winner as that prize was a DVD and soundtrack to a movie that hasn't come out yet and doesn't seem like something we'd watch. So that was very good. That night we all watched Mickey's House of Villains.

Monday was a regular day, except the kids and I camped out in the living room to watch back-to-back bad Disney TV movies we had recorded. Then it was quickly off to bowling and the our usual trick-or-treat at the mall. That went well and didn't feel quite as packed as in past years so that was a nice treat for us as well. We got home around 6:30 and set Tabitha up in the entry way where she handed out candy for the next hour and a half. She almost loves that part more than getting candy herself. She even gave away some of her own candy so as to prolong the fun. I lined all our pumpkins up in the driveway as a sort of path to the front door. We got tons of comments on the Mr. Potato Head ones. As a side note, we didn't use regular potato head parts, those are new kits from Mr. Potato Head to be used in pumpkins and therefore the pieces are a bit larger. Anyway, as I said, people loved them and it was a pleasant evening all around.

Posted by Tara Zandra @ 08:57 AM PST

to journal archives
archives before April 2003




We are dorks and buy her every outfit we find that says "Daisy" on it.
03/27/06


Tabitha's Place
(updated 04/29/05)

Daisy's Patch
(updated 8/18/05)

D-Land Friends


Quotable Tabitha

"I swelled with pride"


03/16/06

I love when she uses expressions from books





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