I made it...with my own HANDS!

For Ira
Originally uploaded by riblet.

The other day, Ira zeroed in on a small tag on the side of my tank top. This thing was super tiny and he went right for it. I also started noticing that he can fiddle with the tags on his plush toys for days. I wanted to buy him a Taggie, which are these blankety toys that are supposed to be interesting to baby. Different shapes and textures of ribbon go around it and I guess babies are into that. Whatevs. So these things are like $30 bucks or something. I had 80% of the materials in my sewing box, so I decided to make our own. Pow! Take that, unnecessary baby items industry!

For father's day, we took Leon out to Cornerstone. Thank goodness their conditional pass (yellow card) was finally changed to green. Though I did find a sausage in my potato platter, it still tasted great and hey, they didn't charge me extra for the meat. I decided to let it go. Later on we went to my cousin's place to celebrate all the dads in the family. My family fascinates me. There are so many characters. We have our cholos, cabrons, a metrosexual dude, a biker dude, even a maricon, and an aging hippy. Just when I think I've figured them out, they surprise me. Like, when we visited for easter, they were all gathered around the TV watching (not Shrek 2 for the umpteenth time) but a fighting DVD. And not like sports fighting such as boxing, karate, wrestling or UFC, but street fighting. On easter! Or take this, on father's day, they were enjoying the PGA tournament and cheering on Tiger Woods. What, no more fighting DVDs? And for a long time, I thought they were a Raiders family (even I stereotype my own people), but no; they're die hard Forty Niners fans! I love my family functions. They're never boring.

Oh, nature.

Us at Glacier Point
Originally uploaded by riblet.

We took a Neon family trip to Yosemite this week.

Ira was very excited to visit his first national park. He's a mountain mouse like his dad.




We saw tons of amazing nature. Here's Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfalls in North America.




I didn't realize how tall the falls really were until we hiked to the top of Sentinel dome and got awesome 360 views of the park. It seems weird, but looking down on everything actually made me appreciate the size of what I was looking up at from the valley floor.




I wanted to see a meadow, so we hiked to this one. There were signs warning us of bears at the trailhead. I suddenly became extremely bear-anoid. Alas, we saw no bears.




Ira was perfectly happy to ride on Leon's back everywhere we went. Hell, I carried him for 9 months. It's the least dad can do.




We went on a lot of little hikes each day. Here's where we rested our tired bones the last night. Curry Village. It was a bustling rash of tent cabins. I could hear road work all night, just like at home. Next time, if we stay here, I am bringing earplugs.




We couldn't leave without seeing giant trees. Here's an especially big one. It was about 2700 years old. I found that endlessly impressive.



We came home exhausted, but really stoked about our trip. We're already planning for next year.

Just chilling

Neon family
Originally uploaded by riblet.

What is up, mang? I'm just chilling with my crew. That's MC Dad and Lil' Sh*t in the picture with me.

Oh geez. Let's break it down now. What's been happening? If my life were a pie chart, the wedges would look something like this:

40% thinking about, making and scheduling baby foods. Trust me, it's a science!

10% general worrying. What will Ira's next poop look like? Will it 'splode up his back? Will I have enough wipes?! Will Elisabeth Hasselbeck ever see the light?

10% figuring out what combination of frozen foods will be my and Leon's dinner.

10% "cleaning." Or, just putting all the magazines and junk mail in neater piles.

5% trying to practice my Spanish at local taquerias. I get a few puzzled looks from some of the cashiers, like "what, you don't speak Spanish? Aren't you mexican?" I always have to explain, "of course not, I'm Chicano!"

1% taking a spill on a steep trail. Me and Heylove got a little tangled up on Sunday during a Neon family hike in Newcastle. Heylove is fine but I took a nasty fall trying to avoid her. Luckily, the combat-style roll I did didn't land me down the steep, poison oak infested ravine. I got some scrapes and crimped my back a little. Oh, and Ira was on Leon's back, a good, safe distance from my clumsiness.

24% playing with Ira. He's getting so fun.