Tiny Iron Fists

The Orange Balloon

Leaving Christian's second birthday party, Lulu's special (chosen) orange balloon got caught in a tree. She was worried, but not for long.

Rainbow Convection!

I test baked Lulu's birthday cake this past weekend, for her upcoming big Woodland Fairy and Elf birthday party. I used closet-master baker Gesine's vanilla cake recipe for the foundation and famous pastry chef Gaston Lenotre's French buttercream recipe for the icing (I added raspberry to the latter).

My volunteer cake tasters told me it was yummylicious and since there was not a scrap of cake left on any plate, I believe them. I'm excited to add two more layers of color and cake decorations for the final cake. Baking instructions coming soon, too.

Two Year Old's First Solo Wave!

A milestone I hope to help Lulu achieve someday... few things beat unbridled joy! What a great day for this papa and his adorable son!

Happy 2012 Mother's Day!

We spent Mother's Day making funny faces in the forest (in the wonderful and breezy Escondido Canyon Park). Hope your day was great too!

RELATED: Happy Mother's Day (2010) and A Love Letter to My Mom (2011)

Mango Mama

The mango does not fall far from the tree. Lulu is crazy about mangoes. Just like her mama!

RELATED: Mang, I Love Mangoes! and Goes Down Smoothie

Wild Thing in the Wind

A wonderful windy day for flying kites and capturing stills of my Wild Thing!

Little Goody Two-Shoes

Although Lulu's been wearing two different shoes for a little while now, she's been receiving lots of comments on them from strangers recently. Maybe it's because of the way she moves in her Natives. Or her now very noticeable presence in the room (she's a spunky gal). Whatever the case, I'm proud of my girl's choice to express herself outside of the lines, so early on.

Paper-Hat Princess

Lulu draped herself with a napkin and call herself a Princess. I couldn't argue, she looked lovely.

Growing a Kiwi Crate Garden Kit

Lulu's face in this photo is the reason why I give Kiwi Crate, the crafty, inspiration-in-a-box, a hearty two thumbs up. Thanks to a couple of online specials we were able to order two Kiwi Crates for $20 (normally $19.95/month for one box) and each box has been full of fun.

This month, we received the Garden Crate. Inside were two projects that, "grow with your imagination" including one Window Growing Garden kit and one Designing Flower Pots kit. We decided to grow the vegetables first: "Everything you need to plant, grow, and observe your own beans and squash."

Lulu counted soil circles and deposited the same amount into each window pocket. She then carefully watered the pellets with equal amounts of water and got incredibly animated when the dirt expanded. She then carefully colored in the plant markers and placed them in their respective pockets. From start to finish we had a lot to talk and get excited about.

Now to inspect and water the plants until the sprouts arrive!

I aspire to assemble something as creative for Lulu someday. Science is fun! Sign up today!

Explosive Fun: The Erupting Volcano!

This is the second year we've had the pleasure of attending The Growing Place's annual fundraiser, the Dino Fair. And once again, our little Princess Scientist spent all our money on the erupting volcanoes!

If you are interested in creating your own epic eruptions at home, all you'll need are a container, vinegar, baking soda, a bowl, and trash bags or a drop cloth (it's going to get messy)! Line the floor with the protective covering and then add the baking soda to the bowl, sitting in the larger container. Add vinegar, stand back, and watch the sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid react into a messy bubbling mixture of fizz and fun.

Best of all, this experiement is non-toxic so it's great for all ages!

MOCA: Transmission LA. Do You Copy?!

MOCA: Transmission LA is pretty much the most amazing art exhibit accidentally created for children, ever.

No Matter How Lulu Cut It...

Lulu loves cutting new things with her craft scissors. Paper. Cardboard. Pillow covers. T-shirts, etc. So it was only a matter of time before she discovered cutting her own hair. Lulu didn't lose much, this time. It's not even noticeable where she cut her hair from. I didn't get mad. I laughed! But I did ask her if she wanted to go to a hair salon (no) or wanted her hair cut (no). I'm looking forward to how creative the kid might someday get!

Weekend BBQ with Team BG

Our Saturday got super lazy as the day slowly turned to night during our barbecue with Team BG. Lulu had a great time playing fetch with Inu, eating corn on the cob, and teaching her cousin Ava a few new tricks. We had fun, just being present.

Outfit: Polarn O. Pyret shirt and American Apparel kids patterened polyester spandex legging.

Nobody Tells You: Lies to Get My Kid Moving

Lulu dressed herself this morning. She didn't want to put on a skirt over her tights. I insisted and she resisted. I finally told her that her bottom was so cute, other people would want to pinch it so she should have an extra layer for protection. She thought about it and then agreed with my logic and chose to wear this skirt.

Nobody ever told me I'd start telling such ridiculous lies to get my kid to move faster in the mornings. Nobody also told me, I'd lie about the weirdest things as a parent (e.g. the Owl Man will get you if you don't hurry up and go to sleep or The Force can see everything you do, so do good). Better yet, nobody told me the lies would work so well (they really do)! What ridiculous things do you tell your child to get them out the door faster?!

"An Awesome Book!" by Dallas Clayton

After hearing Dallas Clayton recite An Awesome Book! at work a couple of weeks ago, I immediately pre-ordered it. He was mesmerizing... charming... and full of love. And I wanted to share his good vibes with Lulu.

The book and its complement, An Awesome Book of Thanks! are wondrous. They focus on what's really important -- our happiness! As a parent I'm awed by Clayton's childlike sincerity.

And just like Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go!, An Awesome Book! will be my go-to-grab for awesome and adventurous kids!

Eggcellent Easter!

Pre-Lulu, I wasn't much for celebrating holidays at all. It just wasn't something we did in my immigrant household. But now with Lulu in my life, I find myself looking for reasons to get crafty around the holidays. 

I searched for something fun for the family to do for Easter Sunday. And I didn't feel like rolling up to the local Farmers' Market, again. So I took matters into my own hand and decided to teach Lulu how to dye Easter eggs. I called the local drugstore, checked that they had egg coloring kits and sent Silvio out on errands. I asked him to pick up a dozen white eggs too. Our conversation is worth repeating:

Me: Silvio can you pick up a dozen white eggs too?

Silvio: What are white eggs?

Me: You see, there's an animal called a chicken. And an oval object falls out of its butt and that's a white egg.

Silvio: [Unable to keep a straight face] I know what eggs are!

Me: Then why did you ask?

Silvio: Because you were specifically asked for white eggs so I wanted to be sure! Do the boxes says brown or white eggs on them?

Me: Yes. They. Do. [Pissing in my pants]

Silvio left and returned with a beautiful dozen and two PAAS kits.

Someone could barely wait to dye eggs! Pleading doe-eyes greeted me from the kitchen as Lulu patiently waited for our friends to arrive.

Lulu helped me boil perfect eggs and when Miyuki showed up, we quickly got the PAAS-ty started (pardon the pun, I couldn't help myself). The girls had so much fun prepping and mixing colors.

Lulu was very proud of her pinkish-purplish egg.

And her yellow one too!

Coloring the eggs was a messy spectacle. But it was fun for all of us. Lulu loved to double and triple dip the eggs in the different dyes and in the end, gave up using her little egg dipper altogether. She had chubby little Hulk-hands and they were cute.

In the end, the eggs disappeared as quickly as they came. Creating art worked up Lulu's appetite and no more than five minutes passed since she finished coloring her last egg before she started eating them. While I hoped to have enjoyed the colored jewels a bit longer, the fun was in making them.

I'm looking forward to next year's eggcellent adventure already. I plan to hatch a more eventful afternoon. One that might include a ham, creamy chocolates, Peeps, pastel outfits, searching for compostable plastic eggs, adorable baskets with chocolate bunnies, and decorating and dyeing eggs, naturally.

Happy Easter, I hope you had as bright and colorful day as we did!

Cai Guo-Qiang's Mystery Circle: Explosion Event for MOCA, LA Recap

We secured front row seats shared by the press corps, for Cai Guo-Qiang's highly anticipated Mystery Circle: Explosion Event for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Lulu waited patiently. I waited anxiously.

More about Mystery Circle from MOCA:

Mystery Circle, a site-specific work created for MOCA, will contain four stages of special pyrotechnics. At the moment of ignition, 40,000 firework rockets will form a string of crop circles and launch perpendicular to MOCA’s north wall, toward Temple Street, before falling onto the ground. Amidst a curtain of smoke, approximately 100 spinning pyrotechnic UFOs will sporadically appear from the parking lot grounds, while an imaginary alien-god figure on the left side of the wall is outlined from bottom to top by gunpowder fuses. When the burned fuses reach the “halo” of the figure, mini Titanium Salute rockets will shoot into the air followed by a grand finale. The rockets will create a burned imprint on the museum wall, leaving an outdoor drawing. While Cai’s signature explosion events, Project for Extraterrestrials, have been dedicated to creatures from outer space, his new project at MOCA will be the first time an imaginary alien figure actually appears.

Plenty of Angelenos showed up for the post-sunset fireworks show. 

After much anticipation, the time finally arrived! We experienced Guo-Qiang's site-specific work created for MOCA up close. Maybe too close. When the first humongous explosion ignited, everybody screamed because they were simultaneously scared and excited. People generally expect fireworks to explode in the air, vertically. At blast off, we experienced a wall of 40,000 firework rockets with full visual, auditory, and olfactory senses dialed up on overdrive. Not to mention the heatwave that followed. The spectacle lasted only a minute but it had the crowd chattering all night long. It was an amazing, amazing, amazing event to experience.

[I have a full unedited three minute video too.]

The imaginary alien figure appears on the smoldering firework wall.

After the outdoor exhibition, we toured Guo-Qiang's first west coast solo museum exhibition, "Sky Ladder". Upon seeing this crop circle piece, Lulu pointed excitedly and yelled, "The carpet is on the ceiling!" This made me laugh.

The rest of the evening was spent dreaming about the explosions in the sky.

Visit The Museum of Contemporary Art before July 30, 2012 to view Cai Guo-Qiang's "Sky Ladder".

My Beatboxing Babe

I have always had high hopes for Lulu to master beatboxing -- a skill I wish I'd pursued more seriously as a young 'un. She seemed to have a knack for it as an infant. Sort of. Now that she's 2.75, I'm thinking I should shape that raw talent into something real. See me try to teach her a thing or two.

The female (or male) Asian rap icon role hasn't been filled yet. Does my kid have the potential to be the next big vocal percussion protege?!

Hey Kid! {Kenney Rome} is Hello, Awesome!

I love these portraits shot by photography/styling team, Hey Kid! {Kenney Rome}. They specialize in "creating unique images for children's clothing lines and editorial work as well as styled children and family sessions".  These photos were taken at the Little Warrior boutique opening and I think they are my favorite photos ever shot of Lulu and I together.

Jessie, the photographer was amazing at capturing Lulu's attention, which made for capturing a great moment. Look no further for party pros and special occasions. Let Jessie help transform your memories into art. Check out Juneberry Photos and learn more about her commercial site here.

For Commercial or Portrait inquiries or to request a media kit please email kenney.rome@yahoo.com

Jessie Kenney {co-owner/photographer}
760.580.6286

Heather Rome {co-owner/fashion}
949.290.4055

My Little Warrior on LA Racked

As seen on LA Racked: Lulu caught shopping at the Little Warrior boutique launch we recently attended! My first-time fashion shopper ran for the racks and picked these two adorable items. Even though Little Warrior makes it easy to love everything, I'd like to think Lulu has a good eye.

Aerospace Engineering

Building a Mic-O-Mic airplane with Papa. Thanks to Tata Jean for the present!

Fun at Gary's Fun House!

We visited Lulu's uncle, Gary Baseman's studio and home this beautiful Sunday to check out his nearly finished paintings for "Vicious", a show soon shipping to Milan, Italy. And Lulu enjoyed every minute of it. There was so much to look at (but not touch) and while temptation presented itself at every turn, Lulu did very well. There was great snacking, lots of laughs, lots to explore, and much to learn from Gary. We're looking forward to the next studio Funday!

Lulu wanted to wear a "mask" like all her play-friends.

Hugging herself with excitement.

Gary painted with a smile on his face, all afternoon.

Blackie came out to say, hi. Lulu was excited by his visit.

Hands On The Future

We met up with Carlyn of Crash Space, Tod of ThingM, and Jean and Shawn of NOTCOT today and this little prototype ended up in Lulu's hand. After we all received a turn with the not-yet-manufactured gadget, Lulu got a chance at figuring out what it was. Not sure what to make of it, she did what we did -- she turned it around, shook it a little, and tapped on it. I can't say yet what this object's going to be, but I do hope it gets produced so the rest of you can check out how cool it is! As you can see on Lulu's face, it's mesmerizing!

Farmers' Market Farm Animals

The Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Sunday has a little petting zoo and for $5, you and your little one can feed and visit with the animals. The vendor is really kind and there is no time limit. You can stay however long or short. Pro tip: visit early in the morning for more animal engagement. By noon, they're "stuffed" and have less of an appetite. Today there were lots of new baby goats who were adorable and energetic.

More information about the market can be found here.

Woohoo, Little Warrior!

We attended the boutique launch for our friends' fashionable kids' label, Little Warrior. It was delightful, colorful, creative, and our family had lots of fun. Between bites of delicious macaroons and organic snacks, we painted a bird house, shot a family portrait, and shopped in comfort. As you can see, Lulu couldn't resist wearing her new digs out the door (100% cotton Eyelet Bib Dress available for $36)!

Inside Filth Mart, 1038 N. Fairfax Avenue, West Hollywood (323) 848-8613