Just another week in Southern California.
While our friends on the East Coast are unpacking sweaters, drinking pumpkin lattes and donning suede boots, it's still reliably in to mid- to high-90s here every day. We had a couple of 100+ days this week. More problematic was a friend that commented, oh, September and October are our hottest months!
Waitaminute. I'm pretty sure that last year, everyone was telling me that it was just September.
My body is ready for pumpkin muffins and harvest festivals and jeans and down comforters and gorgeous foliage. Instead we have 95+ degree days and more and more sunscreen. But, we do have roses!
See that hairstyle? Easily 15 minutes of crabbing and screaming and cajoling.
When we lived in NJ, we had a wonderful network of moms. I think I might have written about them before, hmm? (eye-rolling may now commence)
Anyhoo, at the end of every season, there would be a couple grocery bags of clothes on my porch. My fellow mamas who had older girls would go through their daughters' outgrown and out-of-season clothes and parcel them out to their friends. I know that many of them, when buying clothing for their own daughters, might think, oh! This is such a Lucy dress! or This is such a Lila outfit! and mentally tuck that item of clothing away to hand down after their fashionable girls grew out of them. I know that I did the same thing until my boys turned four and destroyed almost every item of clothing they wore upon impact. I did manage to outfit The Goose's friend Om pretty well in H&M Spidey shirts and Long and Lean jeans and one very sharp seersucker suit until he moved to Nigeria. His older sisters provided easily 1/3 of The Goose's outfits before the move.
Not finding those shopping bags of fashion goodness on my front porch was one of the things that made me feel super nostalgic and homesick for my beloved SO, NJ. I loved dressing my kids in clothes that I had admired my friends' kids in.
When I was expecting The Goose, two of my girlfriends were also expecting their thirds -- girls after two boys. (Well, one of them was expecting boy-girl twins. What an overachiever.) Our friends threw us a lovely baby shower. Each guest brought one small gift, and the three mamas split the gifts. It was super-lovely, and The Goose's Bitty Baby still wears a sweater Elizabeth's mom knit for baby Goose. But the BEST was that a couple of our friends collected baby-girl clothes from our vast network of friends and presented each one of us with a bin of carefully-curated, clean and neatly-folded little-girl clothes and bibs and shoes and blankets to carry us through the first year. It's probably the most thoughtful gift I've ever gotten, and every time I dressed Baby Goose in a hand-me-down from one of our friends, I am overwhelmed with affection for that mama and that kid and my awesome luck that they are in my life.
Our first year in CA, The Goose's wardrobe was well stocked in Spangler Girl outfits, Maia ensembles, and some Opubor odds and ends. And then my darling girl got GIGANTIC and we passed all those beloved clothes to her friend Stella. And I love seeing those garments on Stella (who's the same age as The Goose but much more petite) as Tracy and Mona and Jennifer loved seeing their daughters' clothes on The Goose.
And then USPS dropped off a box on my front porch in CA.
Tracy and Todd, our nieghbors and friends from two blocks down on Academy St. in NJ, sent a giant box of fabulous frocks and everyday flowery togs and dress-up outfits. Plus accessories!
I found out via Facebook that friends back in NJ just adopted a daughter after two sons. The Goose and I are going to go through our stash and send them a hat or dress or some girly PJs. I have a box of clothes that I am saving for my grandchildren. But I love to chip away at it to send a beloved item of clothing to friends that need a little bit of support from their village.
Arlo got a box.
A couple days later, it was International Talk Like A Pirate Day. We heard a rumor about Krispy Kreme. We dressed up and went to claim our free donuts. We met lots of other pirates on our way.
Of course the kids didn't want to eat the free donuts. We bought 3 donuts WITH SPRINKLES and dropped off 2 dozen donuts at Evan's office.
Friday was Endeavor Day in LA! I practically got into 14 car accidents driving to pick up The Goose from Glendale. Endeavor's flight plan went through Glendale (where The Goose's preschool is) and swung through Burbank, over Griffith Park and the WB Lot and the Universal Lot. Evan and his coworkers decamped to a roof of a building in the WB lot and roasted while getting some glorious shots. Oscar and Arlo hung out in the courtyard of their elementary school and the whole school erupted when Endeavor flew over.
The shuttle flew over the Lot and then turned around and went right over us.
You know all those movies where an alien invasion happens and everyone crowds into the streets to gape wordlessly into the sky? I now know exactly what that's going to look like now.
Arlo brought home his school pictures. I don't know why Oscar's were MIA.
But Arlo would like to tell you that he can't sleep. Because clowns will eat him.
Friday. Haircuts.
No haircut for The Goose.
We were gonna just get Oscar the same haircut he always gets, but then we saw this cover of my boyfriend Joseph Gordon-Lewis on GQ, we thought that maybe he could branch out.
My Oscar B is pretty handsome, right?
Afterwards, we hit Costco. The kids insisted I take pictures of the stuff they wanted for Christmas. Take note, grandparents.
On Saturday, I went to Yoga. I had one of those "ohmigawd I live in Southern California" moments.
The cottage where I take Kundalini yoga.
The same park: sword fighting classes.
Next to the sword fighting class: dog obedience class.
On the other side: tennis.
More dog obedience class.
I met Evan and the kids at a different park after The Goose's ballet class. We practiced baseball, patted a couple bulldogs, and marveled after Josh's lizard, who was out for a walk.
Saturday afternoon, we needed a destination. I was delighted to see that the Santa Clarita Aquatic Center was still open.
Oscar took a deep breath and dove into the lap pool. He swam the full length freestyle -- hand over hand, totally exhausting for my untrained swimmer. But he did it, and emerged out of the deep pool with a giant grin and a bracelet granting him entry into the diving tank.
Off he goes. In the red shirt.
Success.
Somebody is super duper proud of themselves. And I am in awe of how brave he is.
After a couple jumps off the 3-feet boards, he's ready for the 10-feet board. I'm not so ready.
My boy is so brave. Not even a second of hesitation.
So of course, after the first successful leap, he went again and again, until he was pooped and decided it was time to rub it in his siblings' faces.
Little Miss is such a California Gurl. I think she is the most beautiful thing on this earth but I also think this bathing suit that I got for 5 bucks is inappropriate. The jump from 5T to XS has opened a whole world of hootchimama crap.
Sunday morning: pancakes.
Evan is concerned about his morning hair. Arlo obligies.
Oscar and I decamped for the impossibly fabulous Hollywood Farmer's Market.
It was the morning of the Emmys, so it wasn't as fabulous as usual.
Oysters.
Oscar donated to the Shucker's Health Plan.
I slurped down two oysters with a squeeze of lemon juice and a spot of Sriracha.
Oscar and I strolled through the market with lots of starlets wearing kicky little sundresses. (I wore some old yoga pants and plenty of sunscreen.)
Here's the difference between the farmer's market in NJ and CA:
On the way, we check out the Sheets-designed Chase bank.
These gorgeous banks have been on my radar lately. I loved sussing out the guy behind the designs.
And on the way home, the Capitol building.
The Hollywood sign, way off there.
Do you know that it's squirrel appreciation week? I love the squirrels out here, with the tufts of fur on their wee ears.
We went to Costco and along with the endless cheese sticks and frozen shrimp, we bought a $12 pack of customizable figures. I was pleasantly surprised to see the kids spend the next two hours coloring and stickering their figures.
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