The countdown to the "Sanctuary"

One of Matt's players walked into the renovated gym for the first time last week so we could take team pictures and called it her sanctuary. She loved it. I loved it. It's wonderful. The lighting is the same as before (here's me speaking photography language now) but it's lighter in there now because the floor is a little whiter (probably because it's newer). The first thing I thought when I walked in was "team spirit." There is a big ole Falcon painted at half court, the words "Solano Falcons" on the actual floor near the hash marks and it's just big, blue and beautiful in there. The bleachers are awesome and when they are pushed in, one has "SCC" painted on it and the other has "Falcons" painted on it.
The team - and Matt - have waited a very long time and been delayed a lot as to when they are actually going to get in the gym and get to practice in there. The date has finally been set, Oct. 6. Hopefully I am not jinxing anything by posting this. I figure I write enough about me and Diana that I need to give a Matt update every now and then. So, he will be very happy to finally be in his gym on Monday and practice with his team on a regulation floor instead of at Solano Athletic Club where they have been practicing since school started. :)

A horse is a horse, of course!

What a great Sunday!
After starting the morning with an 8-mile run (geez, that's a long way), I got some rest before heading out to Suisun Valley to take some pictures of my co-worker Adrienne and her horse, Rainy. I also took some photos of Adrienne's mom with her horse. Click on my SmugMug link to the left to see a few and check back later in the week as I still have about 75 to edit. Enjoy!

Not busy enough

I need to do more crafts and activities with Diana at nights and on the weekends. I have been better at reading my parenting magazines lately as they have some great ideas in them for stuff to keep toddlers busy around the house.
Most of the projects have to do with recycling things around your house and I ran across a great one the other day. It involves hair bands (we have a ton of those), an empty toilet paper roll (I'm sure I could find one of those) and a toddler (got one of those!).
We keep all of Diana's hair products in her step stool in her bathroom. It's a mess of colorful rubber bands, hair brushes, combs, hair, scrunchies, etc. So disorganized and kinda gross. Something had to be done. So, I finished off a roll of toilet paper today and opened the new cloth hair bands (not rubber, those are horrible) I bought for Diana this past weekend. She had a ton of fun wrapping the hair bands on the empty roll.

So, this is where we will store her hair bands from now on. We cleaned up the rest of her step stool and it's super organized now. Her brush even fits inside the toilet paper roll.

When Matt got home tonight, she immediately ran to the top of the stairs and said "Daddy, we put my hair ties on the toilet paper." I have never seen him more confused! It was hilarious!
I plan on making a list of things Diana does at KinderCare that she seems to enjoy so we can do them at home on the weekends - painting, washing her Barbie in a tub, cutting magazines and gluing, etc.
It's sorta like a New Year's Resolution, I guess. Oh, and I am looking into dance classes for her as well.

An out of town date night

I was so excited when Orshi asked me last week if Matt and I wanted to go to the Stanford-San Jose State football game. I immediately said yes and then when she said it was AT Stanford, it was a double yes. Matt said that he would like to go as well and when Orshi found tickets for only 10 bucks on StubHub...well, we couldn't pass on the opportunity.
I was pretty excited all day but got even more excited as we got closer to campus about an hour before kickoff. There were thousands of people in the parking lot (er, tree groves) at Stanford tailgaiting and having a great time. It was an atmosphere I have not experienced much.
See, I have never been to a college football game, technically. When I played basketball at Solano, we worked Cal football games as security. While I did get to work the USC section one night and hear the two fight songs ALL DAY LONG, it's just the same as cheering and really getting in to the whole atmosphere. Plus, I didn't really have an appreciation for college sports like I do now.
So, seeing the tailgaiting and hearing Orshi yell at her fellow San Jose State rowdies out the window of my car made the experience of attending my first "real" college football game so exciting.
I could go into details about the whole game, but there's no need. The student section was packed, I got to hear some of the Stanford fight song throughout the night (they were on the opposite side of the stadium from us), I learned how bad San Jose State people really do HATE Stanford from the alums sitting behind us and I got to see a Stanford come-from-behind win (much to the chagrin of my husband and friends). It was an awesome day!
Go Cardinal!

M&Ms in the bath tub

It's been nearly three months that Diana has been potty trained and the teachers at KinderCare told us to give it "a few months" before she would start to go No. 2 in the toilet. We encouraged her to go No. 2 when we thought she was going to go in her underwear, but she really showed no interest. Which was fine. Hey, there are things I am not comfortable doing that I don't want to do. On the other hand, there are things I am not comfortable doing that I MUST do (that's a whole other blog post).

I digress. To make a long blog post short, Diana went No. 2 in the toilet last night. On her own free will, she came into the bathroom while I was getting her bath ready and announced that she had to go. I didn't think anything of it so she sat down and then I noticed out of the corner of my eye that she was "concentrating" a little harder than normal. I looked away to give her a little privacy and then sure enough...

I will spare the fine details so if you want to know the fine details, I will be more than happy to email you. I don't think it's necessary to post it here. We proceeded to have a party in the bathroom that concluded with Daddy bringing M&Ms into the bathroom. Diana ate them in the bath tub and she then paraded around the house saying "I went poopy in the toilet! I'm a big girl!"

Hallelujah!

Happy Grandparents Day

I just noticed on the calendar the other day that today is Grandparents Day. I am very disappointed in myself that I didn't notice earlier in the week so I could properly prepare myself for this extremely important day, but Diana and I more than made up for it today. I got a ton of my scrapbooking supplies out and we did some crafts...or "craps" as it sounds when Diana says it. Diana made some cards for all the grandparents so they can be expecting them in the mail this week. She did them all by herself...I had absolutely nothing to do with them. I just sat there and watched football while she made them.

Oh, Diana, you are so funny

I don't know where it comes from, but all of a sudden, Diana has got adult humor. Tonight, while I was washing my face and she was going back and forth from her room to my room playing and changing out of her school clothes, she stopped to watch me wash my face. (She's intrigued by me washing my face and Matt taking his contacts out).
She asked "Mommy, what doing?"
"Washing my face, hon."
She looked at me, tilted her head a little and said "Again?"
All I could do was laugh out loud. It was too funny. That was just the start.

As I was getting her bath ready later in the night and she was supposed to be getting out of her clothes, I walked into her room to find her sitting in her bed, lining up all her "buddies" against her pillow.
"Diana, whatcha doin'?"
"I'm lining them up, Mommy."
I noticed that one of her small ducks, who we call New Duck No. 2, was off to the side of the bed looking very sad to not be with his other companions.
"Well, what about New Duck No. 2, D?"
Without a hesitation, as if she had already put thought into it, she replies with...
"There's not enough space for New Duck No. 2, Mommy."
Again, I had to laugh out loud and then go downstairs to tell Matt. He proceeded to double over in laughter.
I came back up to find Diana putting New Duck No. 2 in a space in between the other buddies.
"I found some space, Mommy."

Too precious, had to share!

A cool new site for moms

My friends Dana and John (and their cutie son, JJ) moved to Washington, D.C., not long ago after John accepted a job with USA Today. Dana was content with being a stay-at-home mom but when an opportunity arose for her to earn some money and still be at home 90 percent of the time, she jumped on it.
She was recently hired by momslikeme.com, which I have come to find out is a great new web site for moms. I have been trying to go on and post to keep some topics fresh but it's been hard what with my training for the half marathon and all. I sent out an email to all the moms I know so hopefully they will sign up and we can share advice and keep in contact with each other's lives. The site is cool because it's broken down by region so I am linked on to the San Francisco part of the site, though, I believe, I can visit other parts and post comments, etc.

Please, please...if you get a chance, go to the site and check it out. It's free and what mom doesn't need some other friendly moms from around the country to share with?

On another note: RIP Matt Garcia. The Fairfield City Councilman was brutally shot on Monday night in a drive-by in Fairfield. He was 22 years old and things like this should not happen to someone who was trying to make a difference in the community where he was born and raised. I wasn't going to post anything here about it but I want to encourage readers (aka Michelle) to visit the Daily Republic and The Reporter's web sites to read the coverage in today's newspapers. The coverage and accompanying photos are excellent. To log on to the Daily Republic, use my username: asportgirl@yahoo.com; password: borchert.

Stop the Violence!