This morning he showed us another trick. He figured out how to move a toy from one hand to another. That's a big step.
Oh, one other thing - it seems that he has my mom's lips, my father's eyes, my sister's nose and voice, his father's hands and my but. Yes, we were hoping that he would get his father's but, because it is a perfect guy's but, small and round... but no, he had to get my (pointy) but!
Also, his hair is falling out again, for the second time, and the new one is growing - blond! He was born with black hair, then he grew some brown hair and now he is getting this golden shiny hair! Hmmm... They say that you don;t know what the kid will look like until he/she is two... he changed so much already, how many more variations are we going to go through until then?

This week Luka is three months and three weeks old, and he made so much progress in the past 6, 7 days it just so amazing to watch. Every day he does something new. He is also a very good baby, cries very little and smiles a lot. I have a calendar where I used to mark his "firsts" - when he first discovered his hand, when he first smiled out loud... but now it's hard to do that because new things happen so often so here is a collection of what we/he discovered during the past week:

• he stated reaching for things. He will reach for his toys, for my t-shirt if there is something that stands out on it (like letters or pictures) or my face if it's close enough. Changing is getting hard now, since it seems that he has (at least) five hands because there are so many interesting things around him.


• he has been fascinated by faces for a long time now; he liked to stare at my face examining it, or he would stare at any toy with a face. but now he will reach for my face an examine it with his hands grabbing my nose, massaging my cheeks, grabbing my hair and ears. It seems to me that he is using his left hand more often but I might be wrong.


• he started imitating noises. His grandfather would whistle at him, he would smile, put his hand in his mouth and produce this short, high-pitched little scream that resembles whistling. And he can concentrate on doing this for quite some time.


• rolling on his side is a favorite thing now. He even sleeps like that during the day. The way he does it is, he pulls his feet up and then over, thus rolling on his side. Sometimes in the morning I find him facing the opposite side of the crib!


• he figured how to work the buttons on his mirror. His crib mirror has two big buttons - a green one and a red one - that make noises if you press them. He will now move until he can reach it with his feet and then hit it until he gets the buttons. Or he will roll on his side, facing the mirror. Then he will put his lower arm under the mirror, and then hit it with his top arm. He is not very skilled at getting the buttons yet, but he is definitely trying.


• he stated to get annoyed when he cannot do something! Is this a character trait? He pulls his pacifier out of his mouth, tried to put it back, can't do it because he rotates his hand, and then starts screaming out of frustration. Or, if his foot gets under the mirror so he can't hit it; or if he cannot put something in his mouth - like the mirror or other big objects.


• his favorite pass time is any kind of physical activity - pulling himself up by holding my fingers (with a little help from me of course, but he is very strong), jumping up and down in my lap, swimming in his "euro bath", lifting his head up while on his tummy (except he cannot do that for long because he gets annoyed by not seeing around very well)... He does not want to be in his chair or stroller anymore - he tries to pull himself up on his elbows. But if I move the back of the stroller up, to a more sitting position, he looks very uncomfortable because he can't really sit yet. But it seems that he will soon.


• he now makes a new noise every day. Today it was sort of a caughing sound - it sounded almost in between laughing and caughing. He started fussing today at some point, but I ignored him a bit, and then he made this noise, stopped and did it again, then again... it seems that he can hear himself make these noises and then tried to repeat them. He had a full 5 minute concert tonight when I put him in his crib. We are buying a voice recorder tomorrow!


• just yesterday he started this fake "I am shy" thing. If I hold him (facing me) and someone starts walking towards him saying "where is Luka" or something similar, he will look at them, smile and then bury his head into my shirt for a second , and then look up again. That's just adorable!

He is just so much more alert every day. He prefers being held facing away so that he can look around. And by making noises, he seems to be calling for interaction and responding more. He is a lot of fun!!

Right in front of my house! I don't think so!
About a year ago, maybe a little more, my husband and I came back from a trip, on an early Monday morning. The cab stopped across the street from our house because there was a guy washing a car right in front of it. I did not think much of it, I was tired, hungry and in a hurry to get to work.
Many months later, as I was getting bigger and more uncomfortable I stayed and worked from home on the worst days. As I was sitting in my bedroom that faces the street, all of a sudden I heard a very loud noise - there was that same guy, washing another car. And in front of our house, again! When he finished that car, he left. Again I did not think about it much, until it happened once again. Is this guy running a car wash business in front of my house (I actually saw him once more on our block; I think there was somebody parked in front of our house)? Is this legal? It's not only noisy, he leaves a mess and all the chemicals he is using for washing and polishing, together with the dirty water go directly into the ocean! But who can I call?
I started with a phone number off of my utility bill, and after a few transfers I ended up talking with somebody at the Illegal Dumping Hotline. They were not really clear whether this is legal or not (?) but they said they would investigate. I gave them a phone number off the truck as well as the business name and that was it. I have not heard from them again, and the guy never showed up again. I thought that was it.
Not really. Last Friday as I came back from a walk a different truck was in front of our house, washing another car. I did not react immediately, but when I saw they were on their third car and talking to another lady about doing a fourth one I had enough. And this time I also had a baby trying to sleep in the other bedroom, also facing the street. I went out and, very much annoyed, asked the guy wether he need to do this here! He did not protest, he just said he was sorry and that he would move the car. And he did, right away. Two houses down.
But I got really angry. I just could not believe that this is legal. How could someone just set up shop on a residential street. It is annoying, dirty and noisy. I don't care if it's convenient to some people so that they don't have to go three blocks east and have their car washed on Lincoln Ave. It is probably cheaper too. But why does it have to be in front of my house, on my street; in front of anybody's house for that matter!
So I called again, the same number. This time they told me that this is definitely illegal (by the way, I tried calling the first company but I could never get pass voicemail, and nobody ever called me back).
No one can have any kind of business in front of somebody's house, unless it is non-profit and then they would have to have a special permit. I don't think that a car-wash is a non-profit!
But that's not the end of the story. This Monday the first guy appeared again. Where - in front of my house! Oh, this time I was beyond pissed. I got out again and told them to leave. This guy moved his truck too, but he complained! He said - "But I always wash cars here!" Excuse me???!!! He picked our house probably because, before I was pregnant, both me and my husband were both at work during the day, so there was no one to complain. And we have a huge pine tree in front, under which our neighbors don't like to park because of sap. So, not only did he have an empty spot, he also had a shade.
So, I called again, and I am waiting to see what happens. But this time I will follow up with the inspectors!
I still cannot believe this, and I get so pissed everytime I think about it!

Our baby was born last year, 10/05, which means that I have been in the worst part of pregnancy, in the third trimester, during the summer. Summers here in Southern California are not that hot, especially if you are close to the ocean. We live close enough that in the previous three summers we did not need an airconditioner. We used a fan, oh maybe two days during the whole summer. Opening windows would generally be enough. But this, our fourth summer here, was definitely the hottest one. Or was it just me and the pregnancy?
I started feeling hot very early on, and that was really an unusual feeling for me, since I am always cold. Holding a cold drink in may hand would make both my hands and my feet cold in seconds. But when I was pregnant, even soaking my feet in ice cold water would not make me feel cool. My husband thought that it was unusually hot too, but when I mentioned it to a friend of mine, the one who thinks that summers here are NOT hot enough, he said that I was dreaming and that it WAS just the pregnancy and my hormones talking.
But I was sure I was right, and that my husband did not only feel the "sympathy" heat, so I looked for the temperature data. I thought it would be easier, I actually wanted to get the daily temperatures but all I could find was monthly averages. And here they are - average maximum and minimum temeratures. And was I wrong? Not completely! September really was MUCH warmer than other years we have been here. Not just the hormones after all...
For next time - better planning is needed. No babies born after June 01!!

Just to give you an idea of a different type of sunset we get here in LA, at least closer to the ocean. In the four years we have been here, I have seen dense fog like today mostly in the fall or late summer time. It moves on the land quickly and can linger on for days. But this fall was very strange with the rain that came early, and the unusual cold. So I guess the fall is a bit late... (Click on the picture to see what it looked like just minutes before)
I remember sitting on a beach one Sunday a few years back, in early September, talking on a phone to my husband who just left town for a business trip. I looked over to see Santa Monica mountains disappearing in the fog. In a few minutes the fog was all around me, and when I noticed that I cannot see where Ocean Park Blvd ends at the beach, I decided to go home. It felt really, oh well - spooky, for lack of a better word...
Actually, fog greeted us when we drove into Venice for the first time, on a Wednesday night in October of 2001. The fog did not lift until that Sunday morning. Spooky, but I like it...

This is one of the best sunsets I have seen here in Santa Monica. Today was beautifully warm and clear, which makes for a nice sunset.
January through March is the best time for a sunset - too bad it happens so early in the day, most people are still at work...

The baby slept from about 9:30pm to 5am, two nights in a row!! This is the most I have slept without waking up for feeding, since 10/01/04! But will it last?
In the beginning of December, he slept from 8pm to 3am, also two nights in a row. Then something happened, and he went back to waking up every four hours or so.
Are we over the hill or is it just one of the cycles he is going through....

UPDATE: 01/15/05
Well, it did not last... He woke up at 1am last night and then sometime around 5am. Oh, well...

UPDATE: 01/25/05
He slept from around 8pm to 6:30-ish, with one additional feeding around 11pm, for two days in a row! Yeah, baby.... And, when he wakes up he plays by himself and sings for about an hour! Not too shabby... Maybe we have a system here?

Today, some baby news. One friend of ours has become a foster parent. Even though she is in a foster-to-adopt program, she will keep this baby only for a couple of months. She thinks that it will not break her heart to give her away, because she is going into it knowing she will not keep her. It's going to be hard...
Another friend of ours just told us they are expecting their third child. Is it going to be another girl?

All in all, a good day!

Unbelievable! This gun (Photo: CBS), a .50 caliber military rifle is available for purchase in 49 states, to anyone with a clean record over 18 years (you can't tell this from the picture, but this thing is over 5 feet long!!!)! California is the only state where it has been banned, recently, by the Governor (one good thing he has done since the recall; how he does overall is still up for debate...). It has been designed for military use by Ronnie Barrett, 22 years ago and it is used by military in 35 countries. But, most of the sales barrett makes are to civilians - that's what keeps his company going! It qualifies as just another hunting rifle, but can pierce a steel plate from 3-football fields away! Read the whole story at the 60 minutes site.

This is the first post of the New Year and the first post on the new domain - googee.org. I know, it lookes awfully like google, but no, it has nothing to do with it (actually googee.com is owned by google; I guess it helps with all those typos...). goo and gee are the first sounds our son has made, and is still making when talking to his animals and his hands, on occasion.

This year I counted down to the new year together with my parents. So why is this special, you ask? Because my parents live 9 (nine) time zones away. Thinking about the time zones always makes me sad because it reminds me of how far away we live. When I want to call my mom to tell her that her (only) grnadson has learned how to grab things with both his hands, I realize that it's the middle of the night there, because they are 9 hours ahead of us. But this time it was actually nice. I called them from the beach at 10 minutes before midnight their time, and I actually could get through and we counted down together. Over the phone, but I still felt close to them...

Happy New Year everybody. And lets hope for no earthquakes, big waves, fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural (and other, not so natural) disasters...