Sunday, August 30, 2009

Heard Museum.

We visited the Heard Museum in Phoenix. It was really a neat place to learn about the American Indian in the Southwest, of their culture, traditions and arts. Living here for a few months in the summertime, it got us thinking of how the American Indian pioneers endured the scotching heat inhabiting in the desert back in those days.

"First Man and Woman" sculptures.
Beautifully crafted blankets, and woven bowls, and vases. All of the patterns were imagined in their minds and they just knitted them out as they went along. That's amazing.
Pregnancy outfit.
Who is this baby coming out of nowhere...
Walls of dolls, that tells their stories and daily living.
Gorgeous jewelries.
Dolls for their youngs.
Handcrafted/painted vases.
This is the one I admired the most. How do you suppose to draw these perfect geometrical shapes with bare hands?


Blown glasses.
The design on this silver block reminds me of the Japanese animation Laputa: Castle in the Sky 天空の城 by Hayao Miyazaki. In the movie, the castle was made of square blocks, ancient drawings and signs were everywhere that resemble this. By the way, some of the best animations by Hayao are Totoro, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, and Laputa. Their music are also wonderful. I have been craving to watch them again since our visit to the museum, I particularly love the pure and righteous yet so stubborn characteristics of the main characters in those stories. I am glad that they are also becoming well known in the US lately.
Eli first attempt in conquering "the famous Arizona giant cactus"... thanks to daddy's help.
There were so much more. If you ever get a chance to visit, be sure to take at least one of their well informative tours, they are very child friendly, too. We learned much about how the people who inherited this land before us lived their lives, and truly admired their artistic craftsmanship.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Happy Birthday, Tik.

It's my little sister's birthday today. I can't believe she is already 17!

17 years ago.
2 weeks ago. (Tik with our niece Keira.)
Happy Birthday, Tik. I hope many of your dreams will come true in this wonderful year. 17 is a beautiful age.

Beautiful Sedona.

Since Santino started his new job he was on call every weekend except 2 weekends ago. We decided to go to Sedona to escape from the hot hot Phoenix, even for just a little bit. We enjoyed being in the nature and loved the greens (you know, you don't get to see that much green in Phoenix). It was a very peaceful day.

A nice walk by the river.
Relaxing time hanging out by the stream.
Eli said he wanted some alone time to ponder about things in life :)
An interesting contrast between the red rock nature view up there and cars/shops/pavement down in the foothill.Eli seems even smaller under the majestic view of the mountains.
On our way home we also got to see an amazing sunset. I only wish to be able to catch it with my camera to share it with you. We are so grateful for the nature. It helps to remind us slow down in our daily busy life and remember who we are.

Picture of Ellie.

A few posts ago I mentioned about my watercolor painting of Ellie. With Eli having a more predictable schedule now I finally get a chance to finish it. I haven't been painting that much and got a little bit rusty , but I can't wait to send it off to Ellie and hope she likes it.

Eli 1/2-Year-Old.

Our baby Eli turned 6-month-old yesterday!
We had a busy day. 7 o'clock in the morning, it was overcast and was not too hot (we thought) so we went to a nearby park for a walk. And we saw a coyote trying to keep cool in the shade by the tree.
At 11:15 am, Eli had his doctor appointment for his 6-month shots. One on the left thigh, and 2 on the other. He was mad (at the nurse) more than sad. I thought it would bother him but the rest of the day he was still very active and crawling everywhere. Was he being tough?
After he woke up from his afternoon nap, he was just hanging out (drinking water out of a bottle) and playing around (chasing after his lion friend, and biting his bottom lip because he's teething).
When Santino came home from work we celebrated Eli's 1/2-yr-old birthday. We had a brownie cake, Eli could not resist grabbing a bite.
The cake with his hand print.
Then, it was our real turn to enjoy the dessert...
And Eli was wondering why he could not eat the rest of the cake with us...
It was bed time for Eli and he was ready to go nite nite...
We love you Eli. We are glad that you are growing so fast and healthy.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Putumayo Kids

There is a library just newly opened by our neighborhood. It is awesome, because when the library is new, same as all the books and stuff, too. It is also very kid's friendly. It has a playground in the middle of the library and has waterproof (for baby drools I suppose, especially for Eli) large sitting around it and under the seats has tons of baby and young children's books. I love taking Eli there and it became his favorite place to visit so far. He loves to crawl around the playground, and all the colorful fun furnitures and watch other children running around him, playing and laughing, (even watching them fighting over territories, Eli always seems to be amused by them).

I have been wanting to find some cool music that both Santino & I and Eli could all enjoy, because listening to some baby lullabies in the car started to put me to sleep and it's not a good thing. While at the library, I found our new favorite music:
It has some very fun tracks and great quality sounds and voices of different languages. I highly recommanded it, and check out Putumayo Kids other productions also (I found them on Amazon website). Later I also found out Pandora Radio has a Putumayo Radio station, which has some pretty neat songs also. Enjoy!

Eli's Baby Blessing.

The day after Santino's graduation was Eli's baby blessing at church. My sister Kaye Starr and one of my niece Keira came to join the rest of us for this. (It was a big weekend for us.) Daddy gave a beautiful blessing for baby Eli. We were grateful for the loving support of family and friends who were with us.

Eli and Keira first time meeting each other on Sunday morning.A sweet happy Eli that morning.Grumpy little ones after church.Thank you, Gale, for coming also!With Eli's aunties, Bianca and Sasha.A couple pictures of "bonding moment" of Keira and Eli that Kaye Starr captured.