Nails, cont...

Well, Marielle remains enthralled by her new nails and is not biting or picking at them. Yeah! I told her if she leaves them alone, her regular nails will grow out underneath the fake ones and when we get the fake ones taken off, she can have a manicure on her real (and by then long) nails.

She likes this idea, but I think she likes the fake ones better.

Nails!

So Marielle has had this nervous habit. It started when she was diagnosed with cancer. She bites and picks at her nails and cuticles....so badly that they often bleed. She'll bite them down below the quick...ouch! As you can see in the "before" picture, her nails are very, very short.

I've tried to get her to stop but nothing seems to work. So, I told her I'd let her get fake nails, if she promised to take care of them and not pick or bite them. I figured that plastic wouldn't give her the same gratification.

So today, we both went for manicures. I'd never had a manicure before in my life! I get my hands dirty so much in the garden and the yard, doing dishes, etc. and my nails are hard and grow well on their own. But, hey, if she's going to get her nails done, Mama should, too, right? I loved the manicure (no fake nails for me) . Marielle is in heaven over her new nails! She picked the color so that she would look like a "rocker girl"! Let's hope she cares for them ok!

Marielle was very calm and super patient, by the way, even amazing that gal that did the manicure. I doubt that many 7 year olds are as patient as she is. But having practically grown up at the hospital and clinic, she's used to waiting for long periods of time.

Duck Eggs

So we had the duck eggs with dinner last night. They were very tasty! They are basically similar to chicken eggs, but the yolk is bigger, so the egg is richer. I made mine sunny side up and it was delish! The kids had theirs scrambled and they loved them. (Then they tried to eat my egg because they said it looked better cooked that way but I didn't let them have it...bwaaahhhh. I'm such a mean mommy.)

We will definitely get duck eggs again in the future. I'm going to make a quiche for dinner tonight with some of the eggs (chicken). I found a good recipe on the net...bacon, tomato and leek quiche. Doesn't that sound good? I also found another one that uses salsa and sausage, but want to tweak it to add veggies but haven't decided how to do it yet.

The kids have always enjoyed quiche and fritatas (basically quiche without the crust) and it's great that we have this new source for wonderfully fresh, great tasting eggs.

I am sure we'll take a trek out to the farm again in the not too distant future.

Visiting the Farm

We went to a local farm today. Now, we are "city slickers" and the kids haven't had much experience to farm life, so for them, it was a great adventure.


We went to get some farm fresh eggs. They had all kinds of eggs. We came home with green eggs, brown eggs, white eggs and some duck eggs. I've never had duck eggs before, but we are going to have some for dinner tonight. I wonder how different they'll taste.


The cool part was that the kids got to hunt for the eggs themselves.


Marielle went for it and found us lots of eggs.


Rico, on the other hand, didn't want to put his hand into a space he wasn't sure of. I think he thought that the mama hen was going to come over and peck his hand off if he tried to take an egg. Despite reassurances, he wouldn't pick up any eggs. Well, not until I pulled them out of the nesting area! Then he wanted to juggle them. (No, he was not allowed to do that!)


Then we went and visited some of the horses, cows, and a goat. Marielle was cool with the animals, Rico was scared.

All in all, it was a really fun time!

We'll go back again to get more eggs, after we eat the ones we got today. The nice thing about it, is that the farm is actually really close to us, not more than 20 minutes away. It's Manhattan Farms in Castro Valley, off Crow Canyon Rd. for anyone who is local and thinking they'd like to go. The owners are super nice and the kids had a great experience!

Kitten Love

The kittens are now 2 weeks old and looking more "kittenish" by the day. They are starting to bat and play.

They wander a bit further from Mama Cat...


But they still like being in a group best...


Well, I think they like cuddling with Mama Cat the best...

How cute are they?

Fun in the Summer Sun

We had a great time yesterday, getting together with "internet friends", friends who I'd met on an internet site and have corresponded with for years. The kids all swam and laughed and the gals just had a blast chatting it up.


The weather was great and everyone had a great time.

They concede

"They concede, they concede" is what I thought my husband said as he came running from the bedroom. "Who conceded?", is what I asked.

Uh, no, he was saying, "They can see"....the kittens eyes have opened up. Here's the proof.

Beach time!

Great weather, good friends, what a great day!

Kitten update

The kittens are now a week old and growing day by day. They have started purring, which is so cute. As they suckle at their mama, you can hear the little purrs and it's very sweet. There eyes should open sometime in the next week.

The black and white one is the most mellow of all the kittens. You can hold him and he could care less. He's also the biggest. The little calico is the smallest.

Kittens!!!

Kids today, what are you going to do with them? (Note the one on Mama's head.)


It began last night, around dinner time. The Mama cat, her name is Princess Daisy (named after the Mario Kart character) was excessively licking herself and didn't want to let me out of her sight. Ok, I knew that meant it was nearly time.

Well, all night long it went on. She was purring, cuddling, restless. I dozed fitfully and finally fell into a deep sleep around 3 am, Mama on the bed with me. Around 6 am, she woke me to tell me it was time. The first kitten was delivered around 6:30 am and the last at 9:am. In all, she delivered 5 kittens, with one being born still. All the surviving ones are mostly black, one is black and white and one is calico with black being the predominant color.





Mama and babies are doing well. Marielle and Rico are very excited. They can't wait for the kittens to be old enough to play with.

Skin Color and Michael Jackson

Being a mixed race family, we often have discussions on skin and hair color. Sometimes the kids want us to all be alike. For a while, they insisted that Daddy was brown, like them. Then Rico announced that he was, in fact, peach like me, not brown skinned. I usually just let these ideas play out and don't give too much input one way or another. Let them find their way in our family and in our world.

So today, I was a bit surprised when Rico came in, followed by Marielle and asked me, "Mama, Marielle says that when Michael Jackson was little, he was brown, not peach. Is that true?" I said yes, that is true. Then Rico asked how he went from brown to peach. I told him I didn't really know for sure, but cosmetic surgery was involved and maybe other stuff like creams to lighten his skin.

Then Marielle said, 'Mom, he looked so much better when he was brown. When he was peach, he....he....he just looked weird".

Ah yes, a learning moment! I told her she was absolutely correct. We talked about how sometimes, people don't like the way they look, be it skin color or hair color or shape of their nose or whatever. And they try to change it. Sometimes, they look better because of the change. But sometimes, well, they just look a whole lot worse. And maybe, it's better to just be happy with the way you look because that's the way that you look, than to try and change it.

I hope the lesson sunk in.