Shawna’s Whimsical Weblog

There’s a new mandatory recycling law in San Diego, but I was hard-pressed to find any info about it. Jeannine turned me onto a radio broadcast that she had heard about it on KPBS’ “These Days”. I found it a very interesting and informative half-hour listen. Hope you enjoy it too.
These Days broadcast

Yet another year where the holidays blew by in a great big blur of merriment. I really am blessed to have such great family and friends. The days were just packed scheduling to see everyone. On Saturday, Angela, Michelle and I ventured to Ocean Day Spa for our occasionally annual tradition of treating each other to massages as our Christmas presents to each other. I opted for a hot-stone treatment in an attempt to escape the usual winter chill in our house. With the heated massage table, I was completely overheating halfway through! I do know that Michelle and Angela firmly enjoyed their massages though. On Sunday, it was off for high tea with Mamouse and my mom. Molly would have joined us had she not missed her initial flight in (mis-read itinerary). We were delighted by the Crown City Antiques & Tea Parlour in Coronado. I find high teas tend to be overpriced, but we were definitely blissfully stuffed with the delicious food and tea they provided.

Sally and I enjoy a spot of tea

Monday was spent “adoring the baby” before heading to Tom Ham’s Lighthouse for a Christmas Eve dinner. We did have a beautiful view of the city skyline, but I was completely disappointed in the food and wouldn’t recommend the restaurant.

On Christmas, the Hamons and the Sullivans gathered at Grandma Sullivan’s house for the present opening extravaganza. Many fine and thoughtful gifts were exchanged. Marshall is still too young to be interested in opening presents. He did have a grand old time transporting items out of my “loot” pile over to Grandpa Hamon’s loot pile though. He was also a big fan of the Christmas tree lights and ball ornaments. My mom bought us our own cloth diapers and we have been able to successfully launder the diapers without much experimentation needed. The diaper service had just gotten to be too cost prohibitive and I wish we had decided to go down the self-laundering road sooner. Oh well, live and learn as they say. We are still trying to figure out how to keep Marshall dry at night. Disposables are soaked and falling off him by morning. We have had more success with cloth diaper doubling, but are still working on the right fold and combination method.

After squeaking in a sunny walk on the beach with Michelle and Joe (while baby napped at home with Dad), we returned to Recuerdo Dr for a Christmas Eve dinner. As always, my mom put together quite the spread. Delicious! Tim and I happily took home the leftover standing rib roast. That evening we made the trip to Christmas Card lane in Rancho Penasquitos. While I can’t abide by all the energy wasted in Christmas light displays (I’m sure they weren’t all LEDs, not to mention all of those blow up lawn ornaments), it was a lot of fun. I had a great time strolling through the festive houses. I could have easily spent more time exploring more streets, but it was time to take Marshall home to bed. Thus, we closed another Christmas chapter with the Hamon/Sullivans. I’m not sure when the next one might happen. Tim’s parents look ahead to moving to Virginia and Molly has started dating her “dreamboat” pastor. His work commitments kept him from joining us, but I do hope to meet him if they are able to come out to Napa in the spring. Here’s a picture of us at Christmas Card Lane!

Sometime around Dec 18th, Marshall discovered the sign language for “more”. He also can make the sign for “milk”, but that doesn’t have as wide-reaching feeding possibilities for him. “More”, however, has helped bridge the communication gap a bit. Now Marshall and I have conversations as such:
Mom: “Are you hungry?”
Marshall: Signs more

Mom: “Do you want to eat?” (makes ASL sign for “eat” (fingertips to mouth)”
Marshall: Signs more

After one of these interchanges, Marshall will wander to his hi-chair and wait to be placed in it. Marshall does love to eat, especially if it involves his beloved carbs.

Sometimes we try to “teach” Marshall that not everything is appropriate for him to eat, even if we are eating it. While we were out for our family Christmas Eve dinner, Marshall was pointing to the balls of butter on the table and then signing “more”. I figured I would give him one and he would realize that it really wasn’t for consumption. Not to be outfoxed by his mother, Marshall deftly swallowed the butterball and prompty signed “more” even more fervently. However, in a similar situation, Tim was able to teach Marshall that dad’s salsa may in fact not be for normal human consumption. Yowch, poor little babyhead.