Darla's Mom

It is 10 pm. She has crashed my bed and awoken me from my dreams to inform me that

1. Running dinosaurs were the fastest in the West
2. She needs gloves for her Cinderella dress

And for bonus points."Mom, your phone is too bright. How am I supposed to sleep when I can see.mh shadow?"

I wonder if anyone else keeps track of time with
1. I just cleaned the floors
2. The house looks kinda sticky
3. I can’t live like this and have to clean again

I was instructed to
Sit up
Be still
H
I have to get these tangles.
She has never asked to brush my hair before. .. it is sweet. Also painful

When I was pregnant with Darla, I was introduced to Pastrami Pizza with pickles and mustard.
They brought it to me in the hospital after she was born…and here she is at 3.5 years old with her own little pie. She wanted "red spots on it"
She watched Frozen and ate the pepperoni while I had Pastrami and waited for Stephanie to get out of mass. Rather than drive home from Arcadia and back out there tomorrow, we kidnapped her.

Tomorrow is the last season game for the Dodgers and family tradition means we must go.

At the @Arcadia public library

So… she is definitely related to my Grandmothers. She never know you could just straight up BUY chocolate chip cookies.

My little story went up on one of my favorite blogs today, and some of you have wandered over to say Hello!

Hello!

This is a blog without a purpose or mission.

Most of this blog is a collection of photographs of Darla’s life. I was moving so often and everything was Topsy turvey so make good a baby photo album seemed impractical- and also very hard to share.

My Grandma has been kicking for 82 years and has her own Facebook, email and Internet skills. She raised 5 children and is almost certain that the Big Bang Theory is about my Dad and his coworkers at J.P.L. (he certainly the Sheldon style comic shirts pictured).

Rather than sending photos to be developed at her local Target for pick up, I post them here for her to peruse. When I’m having a particularly bad day-i browse them too.

The blog became an accidental chronical of how her family used to look and what it is now without her dad and 2 of her sisters. She likes to see old photos here and choose the new pictures to post.

Because I work on a Los Angeles Co uh nay computer system, I go old school in my office with a cork board.

Darla is the youngest of 4 sisters (Jackie is 20, Abby is 11, Melanie is 10, Darla is 3). Jackie and Darla were born to me, the other girls live with their mother and grandmother about an hour away.

Mixed in with our family photos here are pictures of my "tribe", the Fairy Godmother Network of friends who are also a constant source of love and guidance for Darla.

As for myself, I work with chronically homeless, mentally ill drug addicts who are also parents on cash aid – and I volunteer at http://www.mendpoverty.org. because none of my friends of family understood poverty issues, I started www.homelessinla.com where I discuss whatever is on mind.

Wow. That was a lot of info.

Our little friend Bella had a stomach bug and wouldn’t sit still so we called and sent her this picture (painstakingly drawn by artisans with centuries of training…. or really on the back of a notepad in a staff meeting).

I tell the kids that we all have normal germs but sometimes they throw tantrums and make us sick so our bodies get super hot and bake them until they shrink again.

I might have told Bella to lay still so the bugs and heat stay in her belly and she doesn’t end up with toasted toes from fever chasing bugs to her feet.

Yep. I’m that auntie.

Sometimes my hair can tell you more about me than words can.
Bun- held up by a stylus for a tablet
Bangs- clipped with bright kid hair claws
Color – super Arial Mermaid red, because my 3 year old is super into Ariel right now and she told me to.