life, back to normal

or, at least, as normal as it can possibly get in the wan household.

the bean is adapting quite well with her transformation from "baby" to "toddler." [sigh] although she's been so focused and excited about practicing her new walking skills that she can't get settled down at night like she used to. last night, she was so busy playing and waddling around and clapping her hands at her achievements that it was a solid 11:00 before i could finally get her to sleep. yikes! and so this resulted in her sleeping in till 8:30. i looked over at her this morning and cracked up at this:

i got an e-mail a couple of days ago about the teen's beloved jonas brothers, who are booked for two semi-local shows in november. one's in san diego, the other in vegas. presale started yesterday. you KNOW where this is going. mm-hmmm, shut your piehole.

the teen started tutoring sessions yesterday at the new place i found in town. this one specializes in math, with the instructor having been part of a program run by jaime escalante, the teacher in that 80s movie "stand and deliver." um, and this place is half the cost of the old one. score! now, let's hope it works. she was grumpy as hell when i dropped her off, saying "moooooom. i'm doing fine in school right now. i don't neeeeeeed a tutor anymore."

she didn't buy my explanation of "preventive measures" - not for a second. but it's true! it makes sense, right? and even the carrot i dangled - the possibility (she didn't need to know that i'd already scored tickets) of the san diego jonas brothers show didn't seem to sway her. i just hope she was PMSing. anyway, with the first quarter of school ending soon (already!), i'm holding on to those tickets until i see that first report card. if it's good, we go. if not, i sell. and i SWEAR i'm sticking to it this time. mark my words.

i went to starbucks the other day and was drooling over their new "signature hot chocolates" - there are hazelnut and salted caramel flavors available. i love fleur de sel caramels, so i was curious about that one, but it's about 675 degrees out these days. no way in hell am i ordering a freaking hot chocolate right about now.

and then when i went to a different 'bucks yesterday, the sign said "try it iced!" so i did - even though i felt a little stupid ordering an "iced hot chocolate." and it was pretty good, with its drizzle of caramel sauce and sprinkling of sea salt. although i couldn't get it made with nonfat milk ("it's already premixed"), so that was a bummer. but as my friend amber said , it might be made differently when hot. i'll give it a shot again in about two months, when it gets to be "soCA cold."

the bean's adventures in table food continues. i bought her a box of organic cereal bars (you know, like nutri-grain bars, which are yummy) and cut it up into pieces yesterday for breakfast. usually, when she's served something new, she'll pick it up, inspect it, squish it between her fingers, taste it, and typically spit it out before trying it again. but the cereal bars were magical! by the time i finished doing what i was doing and turned back around to look at her, she'd already scarfed down damn near half the bar. ha!

we received the CD of pics from the photographer who shot saturday's party. and as we looked at those shots, the hub remarked "it's going to be a little while before this dude can charge actual money for his work." and he was right - i found that i actually preferred the pictures that the monkey captured, and even the ones that i'd taken myself as i scurried from one end of the party to the other. but there were definitely a few good ones, and it's always better to have more pictures than not enough.

that tutu is going to get some use in the next few weeks, with our photo shoot with crissy for the bean's 1-year and our annual family portraits coming up and halloween at the end of the month. yeah, i'm taking the easy way out and dressing the bean up a a ballerina for halloween. come on, she's already got the shoes and the tutu. it's a no-brainer. anyway, i'm totally excited to work with crissy again.

originally, we were going to do the shoot at disneyland, since the CHOC walk is on the same day. but i realized that we always finish early and would have plenty of time to go home, get ready, and meet up with crissy. so now i'm trying to think of an alternate location - preferably a cheaper (read: free) one, and possibly one with a bit more significance in our lives. we've tried to steer clear of the beach (too cliche'd), and the teen said "we should totally do them by the hollywood sign!" i don't know. i'm open to suggestions, though.

i'm off to start working on the bean's thank-you cards. she got lots of wonderful presents, and i want to be sure to get the notes out ASAP, so that our wonderful family and friends know how much we appreciate their generosity.