The Girl's a Whisker!

Raquel loves to be involved in food preparation, especially if we are making something sweet. I love to bake but I have to wait until about 7 or 8:00 at night to do it because of the heat! That means Raquel usually stays up later than 9:00 on nights when we make something together.

Tonight we made a very basic lemon sugar cookie. Since I allow myself to eat what I want on Saturdays only I turned them into drop cookies so I could get them done quick. If I would have followed the recipe to make rolled cookies I would have had to chill the dough for a while before rolling and baking and since I start so late that would mean I leave them to chill overnight and like I said, I don't eat cookies any day of the week but Saturday!

When Raquel and I bake together, the job of whisking the dry ingredients goes to Raquel. She also beats the eggs. I am getting her involved very little by little. I like her eagerness. She always asks, "Mommy, do you have something else for me to do?" Sometimes when there is really nothing else to do I just make something up, like, "Ok, look through that bowl of walnuts and make sure there's no chocolate chips in it." And she's very accomodating!

For the record, the cookies were too sweet for me and not lemony enough. When I realized how boring they looked I added candied cherry halves to the rest of the dough drops. Of course Raquel was very pleased with them.

Samantha, here's a bug to rival your bug!

Jose found this in the backyard a couple days ago. This is why I really don't go back there anymore. He caught it and I dropped the penny in the cup and took the picture. I don't care how "cool" people think spiders are--I hate them! What kind is it? The burnt-to-a-crisp-after-the-photo-was-taken kind. Boo-yah!

I probably will get some flack, also, for calling a spider a "bug". It's not a bug, is it?

Dodger Stadium From the Expensive Seats

Jose and I have been to Dodger Stadium two nights in a row, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and have decided we never want to sit anywhere but the VIP Baseline Box.

Tuesday night, as you know, the Dodgers slammed the Padres 10 to 1. That night, Jose and I sat right behind homeplate. We got to eat in the fancy all you can eat restaurant down below and rub elbows with celebrities. We saw Kevin Bacon walk right past us, Rob Reiner, too. And I think if I was a 120-lb hottie with bubbling breasts, Jon Lovitz would've been a little more receptive. Instead, he was strictly civil at a bare minimum. Maybe Jose shouldn't have surprised him from behind.

Tuesday night was even better! We took Raquel and Maxine with all the fixins and sat in the VIP Baseline Box on the firstbase side, staring right into the Padres' dugout. These seats, though less expensive than the previous night's seats (those were $500 a pop) were much better and more fun because we had our own little box with a counter top and shelf underneath, we were closer to the game and we had a camera guy right next to us which assured we'd get some air time with two cute kids in Dodger gear. Sure enough, Jose started getting calls on his cell from friends who were watching the game on tv, "Hey, we just saw you on tv!" Him and Raquel got on tv twice that we know of, once while just sitting and another time walking down to our seats holding food and beers in plastic flashing-lights cups, haha!

The Padres next to us...

Our box seats included admission to the dugout club where you get free food, all you can eat. I stayed on the field with Maxine and Jose took Raquel to the dugout club to get our refreshments. Turns out he knows the bartender, so she hooked him up with free $13 beers (in the fancy flashing-lights plastic mugs). While Jose and Raquel were there, Maxine and I got on the jumbo screen and the whole stadium went, "AWWWWW". It was Maxine's first Dodger game. When Jose returned, our phones started ringing again, friends calling to say they saw Jose on tv again and friends who were at the game saw me and Maxine on the jumbo screen. What fun!

The guys sitting in the box in front of us were great, too. They got a kick outta Raquel saying, "Go Dodgers!" and being her charming self. They took pictures of us and with us and are going to send them to my email. I already received one such picture (happens to be my favorite)...

That ball she's holding was a gift from the field security guard who sat next to our box the whole game. We didn't even have to ask for it. He just gave it to her when he came off the field one time. He actually looks like someone I know...

Maxine also got a ball when the Padres' Edgar Gonzales tossed one to Jose who was holding her. Actually, the catch was assisted by one of our box buddies because Jose was carrying a baby. We offered it to him but then he gave it right back to Maxine.

Furcal came to play, too! And I got a picture of the camera guy who made this a night to remember.

And to top it all off, Arizona lost today which puts the Dodgers in the Playoffs, baby!

Family BBQs: Few and Fart Between

Dad's babyback ribs, Grandma Emma's green chile rice, Debbie's fumi salad: things on my dinner table yesterday, none of which I allowed myself to eat. There were also 2 big luscious cakes and Debbie's margaritas that I did not even taste. But everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves, watching football and doing some serious eating at our family bbq yesterday. Susan and I took lots of pictures with my camera (hers finally ran out of battery juice). And when Maxine finally took a nap it was on my dad's chest for almost 2 hours.

Attendees: Debbie and Dad, Kaitlyn, Grandma and Grandpa, Susan and us.

I want to thank my family for being so fun and happy. We hardly ever get this many of us together in one house at the same time, we're all so busy with less important things. I'm so glad we all could take the time to hug, laugh, fart and catch up on being a family.

Day 3 with Susan

Susan ended up using her own camera at Disneyland so I will have to wait for her to give me those pictures. She says she can't take a picture but the ones she showed me are really cute. Raquel was afraid of all the rides, even the ones in Toon Town. I bet if me or Jose were there she would have been fine. I'm surprised at her reaction to the whole Disneyland experience.

Today, Jose woke me up so he could take us all out for breakfast. I wanted to stay asleep SO BAD, I really had to force my grumpy butt outta bed. Susan took pictures of our breakfast but I didn't. I just forgot. We ate at Leroy's in Monrovia and Susan picked up the check!

Here are some pictures from last night and today. The play food is a gift from my Uncle Jim and Aunt Carol. It is the cutest little picnic basket full of noise-making food. Raquel started putting it on Maxine and we thought it was funny!

"Where's my Aunt?"

My sister Susan is in town this week all the way from the state of Virginia. The last time we saw her, Raquel was 2 years old and Susan had so much fun with her. Today, Susan has taken Raquel to Disneyland (I lent her my camera for the day). Yesterday, we all went to the mall and watched Raquel play in the indoor playground. Even my grandparents came but they only stayed a short while so they could beat the traffic back to the Valley. Susan had been staying with them but stayed with us last night and will stay tonight, as well.

When Raquel is looking for Susan, she goes, "Where's my Aunt?".

I'm looking forward to seeing the Disneyland photos and will share with you my favorites very soon.

The Three Martinez Cousins

Too much the cutieness!

A couple of days ago, my siblings-in-law came to town with my nephew Ricky who is 12 days older than Maxine. We hadn't seen him since he was only a week old and MAN did he change! He looks so grown up and has these huge eyeballs, haha! (He's my only nephew so far but for the record I'll have another one come January when my sister Samantha will give birth to her son, Lucas.) Maxine and Ricky got to meet each other for the first time. There was at least one camera flashing at any given moment all afternoon, just waiting to catch that perfectly cute baby cousins picture. Little Ricky was shy and did not want to be posed next to his cousins at first. But we got some cute stuff which I'm sure will be hung up on our walls for years to come. Here are a few that I shot...

Ricky's parents, Miriam and Ricardo: they said they had not one photo of all three of them together. Here's one!

The Sisterhood of the Martinez Girls

At first, Raquel wasn't very interested in Maxine (perhaps because she wasn't very interesting). She has even shown a little bit of jealousy. But in the seven weeks since Maxine's birth, Raquel has gradually grown into a really sweet big sister and shows a lot of interest in her baby sister. She wants to comfort her when she cries, wants to make her smile and listen to her coos and gurgles. And the most heartwarming part of this is that Maxine adores Raquel and all her kookiness. She stares at her big sister with this look on her face that tells me she thinks the world of her. The sound of Raquel's voice, whether she's making weird noises or telling a story, can put Maxine to sleep, it's that comforting to her. And Raquel doesn't seem jealous anymore at the moment but I think it will come and go.

Today Maxine is 7 weeks old. Oh, here's something interesting: Maxine is already too big for some of her 0-3 months clothing. She is a much bigger baby than Raquel was.

Raquel fell asleep in the middle of dinner.

Raquel loves photography and loves to take pictures of her own face.

She took this shot of Maxine on my lap.