A Report From The Field

"Hello. This is ace reporter Lily Angela-Rose Scholz, coming to you LIVE from the pumpkin patch, trying to get to the bottom of a very important news story. Hundreds of pumpkins are suddenly appearing throughout the county, without warning! This reporter has never witnessed such a gathering of pumpkins in my nearly 9-month career as a baby."



"I see a group of them over there now. This reporter will attempt to blend in among them and earn their trust..."

"Must...think...pumpkin...thoughts..."






"Dude, you are TOTALLY blowing my cover..."





"Perhaps the young ones will be easier to convince to accept me. After all, we are fellow babies..."






"Um, this may take a while...lemme get back to you..."

Quickies

Just a few items from the last few days of our refugee existence, no particular unifying theme, but fun anyways.

Friday: Lily eats prunes for the first time. She had been a bit, ah, irregular this week in addition to her general grumpiness. Saturday, regularity returns with a vengeance. Coincidence? YOU make the call!

Also Friday, we visit Toto Kevin in the city of Old Orange. Her we are posing in the central square. Lily loves fountains, so we always have to go examine them. Orange is quite cute, actually! Many charming little restaurants and antique stores. But the most remarkable feature of this central town square?

At one end, we have a Starbucks...

...and on the opposite side, another Starbucks! (Strategically positioned, I suppose, for people who are afraid of fountains. Not Lily, that's for sure!)

, Marcus goes down to check out the house. Everything is fine! Yaaay! But you can definitely tell something happened. Look at the soot on my windshield! It's even more impressive in the pool...siiiigh.

Across the main road, in Kit Carson Park, hundreds of out-of-town firefighters are camped out. It's like fire engine heaven. (Sorry, Joshy, I think they'll be gone before Thanksgiving).

Later that night, we go with Tata Rina and family to visit Uncle Trent and Auntie Anna (shown here). Auntie Anna is Italian, and cooks us some killer ravioli. Mmmmmm, ravioli...

Sunday morning, Lily takes her first driving lesson. Eyes on the road, young lady!!

But at last, all good things must come to an end, but not before Nono and Nana have one last picture with all the little girls. For some reason, Lily and Mallory seem to find this puzzling, but Madi takes it in stride, even glamming it up with her tiara.

And then off for home! We now (hopefully!) will return to our more mundane, regularly scheduled blogging.

Just in case there was any doubt...

The picture on the left was taken on June 3rd. The one on the right was taken yesterday. Same chair, same bunny. Lily is officially growing like a weed.



















In other news, we are back in our house! I can already tell that Lily is greatly relieved to be back in familiar environs. She slept very soundly last night, and was positively cheerful this morning. Our neighborhood smells more than a little bit like wet cigarettes, but we have 3 HEPA air filters blazing away in the house so we're making the best of it.

Fun/No Fun

No Fun: Poor Lily is really having a tough time with this whole evacuation thing. Between being out of her element, totally out of her normal routines, and not even able to spend much time outdoors because of the smoke in the air, she's been pretty mercurial. Mostly she's been having trouble getting good naps, which unfortunately translates into a fragile disposition overall. Poor baby.


Fun: In an attempt to make things nicer for her and get her some good quality out-of-the-house time, we went to the Long Beach Aquarium today. That was pretty cool!

"What dat, Ma Ma?"

"Why, that's the spiny crested diver fish, honey!"




Actually, the shows here are really neat. We got to see otters, sea lions, and in this video here you see a guy hand-feeding rays! Yowza!

And, as an added plus, we also found Nemo. We think. Somewhere in there, anyways...

We had such a good time we decided to go ahead and get a membership. See how happy Lily is? Of course, at the time that mostly had to do with the nice lady at the desk flirting with her, but she did like the fish too.

All in all, I'd say a 60-40 fun-no fun split for the day. Not too bad. (and mama just put her down to bed with relatively little drama)

Babylympics, Orange County Indoor Training Facilities

Hi, all,

Let me start by saying that our house is confirmed A-OK! Our cleaners checked it out today, and although it was VERY dusty and the water in our pool is "a different color", everything seems fine! Yay! We're gonna wait at least 'til the weekend to go home because of air quality, but it's quite a relief!

But you know, just because we're up here, doesn't mean we can neglect Lily's athletic training regimen. Fortunately, we have been able to find training facilities up here. For example, there is an excellent indoor swing setup right at Nono and Nana's house. (Sorry, cell phone video is a bit grainy)

We also went to visit Nana at the bank today, and we were able to fit in some workouts there as well. Here, Lily does a little Tai Chi with mama to warm up.

What luck! Famed Russian gymnastics coach/bank employee Bela Karolyi is here! Here he is, giving Lily some tips on her tumbling routine. Point those toes, Lily! Nana is her spotter.

Last but not least...always remember to do a little calisthenics at the end of every workout:

But bottom line, I'm sure the question you're all wondering is, is she crawling yet? Well, for the answer, check out this video we took the weekend before we left (i.e. "fled"):

In other words...not quite. But she's THAT close!

Radio Free Pinklet, back on the air

Hi, everyone,

Just to elaborate on my last brief post, I am VERY happy to report that we are well out of harm's way from the big wildfires in San Diego County. We left our house at around 7 AM Monday morning, just a few hours ahead of the general evacuation order, and are safe and sound with Karen's parents in Orange County (just south of Los Angeles). Not that there aren't fires up here too, but thankfully none nearby.

So far, we think our house is OK (the phone still picks up!), and it is rumored that the evacuation order for our area will be lifted soon. However, we will probably stay up here at least a few extra days until air quality improves.

Thank you all for your concern and well wishes! Rest assured that the only imminent danger we currently face is mild boredom. ;-) Things have been a bit tense, as you might expect, but we're settling into a rhythm of sorts. Poor Lily has had kind of a hard time! As you can imagine, this whole episode has been more than a little disruptive to her usual routine, and as a baby who loves to be outside, the air quality issues we have even up here are a big bummer. But even she is getting back into her groove...she's right now taking her first long nap (knock on wood) since we got here, so that's quite a relief. Mama is following her example. :-)

On the plus side, we have been having fun visiting with our relatives. Nono, Nana and the whole gang can't believe how BIG Lily has gotten! I told Nana that if she wanted us to visit she should have just said so, the wildfires really were unnecessary.

The first afternoon, we met up with Tata Rina and family at a local mall. Malls are actually good places to go during these sorts of situations because the air conditioning filters the air pretty well. Here you see Tata Rina and cousin Mallory hanging out with Lily and mama. Lily seems pretty disdainful of Mallory's rice milk, which is odd because it tastes WAY better than formula.

Later that evening, cousin Madi demonstrates one of her newly learned Tae Kwon Do head strikes on Lily.

Lily responds with a Vulcan mind meld, rendering Madi temporarily incoherent. The battle is ruled a draw.

Carrot, anyone? Separated from our beloved nanny and her home-made baby food, we resort to store-bought. We discover that it is quite a bit runnier than anticipated. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that Lily now wants to help, and grabs the spoon.

Anyways, not much to do but wait. Today's big entertainment was to go to Target and Babies R Us, where we test-drove a jogging stroller. Lily's only feedback were that the straps seemed to be just as delicious as on her regular stroller. But if anything interesting happens, we'll keep you posted!

Love,

Marcus, Pinky & Lily

Scholz Family a-OK, staying with Pinky's parents

In case anyone is wondering about the San Diego area fires, we decided not to take any chances. We're up in Cerritos with the grandparents.

Love you all,
Marcus, Pinky, & Lily

Babylympics

After Lily's exhilarating experience in the Baby Races from a few blog entries back, she has evidently developed a taste for sports.

For example, the Swings:



The 2 Meter Tandem Slide:



The Parallel Bars. Lily's surprise entry into this event necessitated a somewhat hasty lowering of the crib mattress by Dada, lest it become the High Jump.



And last but certainly not least, the Doorway Bouncy Thing.



(but wait...did someone say something about a boyfriend? And a KISS?? Is there a scandal in the offing? I think I heard pictures mentioned, maybe there'll be a blog about it soon...)

Accessorizing, part deux

Hi, everyone!

Since my previous post on accessorizing, I have continued my study of this fascinating subject. I now consider myself to be a bit of a baby fashion maven.

See? This is the same red dress as in the last post, but a different pair of shoes and another hair clip make it a whole different outfit!

Actually, I've found the whole experience of dressing up an outfit to be quite satisfying. So much so, in fact, that I'm encouraging my other baby friends to follow my example. Here, you see one of my BBFF's (Best Baby Friends Forever), Clara, sporting a very handsome pink bow...ALSO gift wrapping from a present, now that I think of it. Maybe I should start a clothing line.

Here you see boyfriend Andy getting in on the act. Andy is evidently very secure in his masculinity.

Hmm...perhaps TOO secure...

OK, yes, you're very pretty, but I think maybe you should stop now.

I also am starting to learn that accessories can play an important purpose. Take for example, this blue dress. Pretty, right? But just last night, I was wearing this very dress but sitting in my stroller so you couldn't see the frilly stuff, and someone walked by and said what a pretty BOY I was. How mortifying! But see, put a hair clip in, problem solved! Hair clips make me instantly identifiable as a girl. (Andy, maybe you should make particular note of that point).

And as an added bonus, my hair has now been trained to stick up on its own, greatly facilitating the application of said clips.

And there you have it! With all my new found skills, putting together a cute oufit is a breeze! Perhaps I shall pursue a career in fashion. Love you, daaahhhhlings!

-Lily Vuitton

I'm accessorizing!

Hi, everyone!

Mama and dada get all excited about some of the new things I'm learning, like sitting up, and eating solids, and ALMOST crawling. But somehow, they've overlooked the most important new thing I've learn...how to accessorize an outfit!

As you can see here, it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive to spice up an outfit. In this picture, I've given an ordinary red dress a sassy twist with this fashionable hair ribbon. And I just found this lying around! I think this was part of one of my baptism presents.

Of course, the right pair of shoes can really make or break an outfit. I think a good pair of bunny slippers is a must for any young lady's wardrobe. Comfortable AND stylish!

This is my favorite! My Aunty Char MADE me this sweater. Can you believe it? Aunty Char has mad skillz. It's fuzzy and cozy and it goes really well with all my pink clothes, which you may have observed is about 90% of what I wear. In this picture, you can see that I have also accessorized with a matching mama. A really high-quality mama is about the best accessory a baby can have.

Last but not least, mama's friend Desiree MAKES these cool hair clips! With the Santa Ana winds blowing thru lately, my hair is just TOTALLY unruly. I don't know what I'd do without a few good hair clips to keep things under control.

Is that it? I guess so...FOR NOW! Dada! Take me shopping!!

A day at the races

Lily and baby Andy throw down! See the amazing neck-and-neck photo finish! And a surprise ending few could have anticipated!

As you can see from her retrograde motion, and her first-time-ever trasition from a prone to sitting position (yay! Good baby!!), Lily is getting very adept at all manner of physical skills. Too bad she does them all by accident because she can't quite figure out how to go forward. Poor Lily wants to crawl SO badly...

Eat it or wear it!

"Well, hello! It's very nice to see you today...why yes, as a matter of fact, these ARE peas! Peas are my new food for this week. I've been eating them the past few days. Dada mixes them with apple juice to make them tastier. I understand they're very high in fiber, which is good for me because, to be candid, I'm not that regular sometimes...why, of course you may take my picture!"

"Hey...why are you laughing? Are you making fun of me? Do I have something on my face?"

"Bye bye, everyone! Love you!"