Tree Climber

Suddenly Joaquin can climb a tree! Okay it's more of a very sturdy bush called echium. I look over and there is Joaquin two feet off the ground. His face is calm, his demeanor calm and he appears very in control. Two feet off the ground is alot when you're just over three feet tall. I slowly saunter over to be in arms reach. Joaquin seems to understand how to balance his weight between his hands and feet and neatly climbs down, just to climb up again.
I like to think he got Daniel's adventuresome-ness and my balance.

Joaquin's newest friend

Joaquin is getting used to Siobhan. "Baby" says Joaquin when I point to Siobhan. "Yes, she's a tiny baby" I respond.
Siobhan's mama of four weeks, Erin, is one of my closest friends. The first time I held Siobhan, Joaquin suddenly urgently wanted to be in my arms and was none to pleased to see the tiny baby in my other arm.

I made Erin the quilt that Joaquin and Siobhan are modeling in this photo. It's a friendship baby quilt. I gave out squares of fabric to Erin's friends and family. The squares in the center are all designed by her friends. This is the second baby quilt I have made. I actually really enjoy making these quilts because they look so fantastic when done- minor puckering and asymmetries aside.

The Joy of Not Cooking

My mom made us get a microwave. She offered to buy one, even the very particular now discontinued Sharp Half Pint. I didn't let her take me shopping for the microwave. Mostly because I would always rather spend the day with her and Joaquin at the park. But after her last visit, she commented that Brenda looked really excited at the idea of a microwave. Since Brenda is the best nanny I could ever have hoped for and a gift to my life that I thank at least once a week, I decided we needed a microwave.
One rainy day in January, Daniel, the baby and I drove to Target. We picked out the smallest microwave they had.
Oh so quickly I fell in love with this new fangled gadget. I microwaved sweet potatoes- Joaquin's favorite- in minutes. His oatmeal no longer meant a crusted pan in the sink all day. And on and on. Why didn't anyone tell me, I mean really look me in the eye and tell me that a toddler needs a microwave. A need a microwave more than I need a baby monitor, or a even a crib (he sleeps in a portable pack-n-play).
So while I am waxing poetic about my microwave, Joaquin's scrambled egg is cooking in a minute and a half in a little ramekin. Perhaps serving microwaved eggs to your kid is crossing the line. But the clean-up so easy. The funny part is now when Joaquin is hungry, he stands in front of the microwave and does a pointing-wiggling-and-fussing kind of dance. He thinks that's where food comes from. A magic silver box.

Bluegrass Foot Stompin'

I love it when Joaquin dances. Some parents teach their kids the colors, I am teaching him dance moves. He can do a twirl. We ask him to 'dar vuelta' and he turns around.

Little Firefighter

We play at Habitot, a great Berkeley little children's play place. With all the recent rain, we have been there often.

At the park

Ive been short on photos and post lately. Here are a few pictures taken with my new-to-me iphone.

Part-time

I really like my job.

I can't remember that last time wholeheartedly felt that way about work. Ask Daniel or my friends, I do not live to work. My ambitions in life for career grandeur are fleeting. Quickly replaced by dreams of living in a foreign country, by sabbatical years, by trying my hand at hairdressing, teaching, writing, by summers of hiking the grand canyon and staying home with my babies. My most common experience with work is finding it a nuisance that keeps me from being where I want to be- outside, with time unstructured.

Yet, these days I can honestly say that I really like my job as a senior policy advocate at The Vote Solar Initiative. It could be that I have five very clever co-workers and office mates that make showing up in our unheated, warehouse space worthwhile. It could be that after a year and a half, I have gotten the hang of the complicated solar policy design that we promote. The work I do is anything but rote- the outcomes of solar policy are yet to be proved. Often we are learning as we go or from a small set of experiences. It makes it all very interesting, and challenging. It could be that I only go into the office three days a week. Three days a week is the perfect amount to make the thinking and the completing of tasks a treat.
Part-time is all part of my Grand Plan. The baby was just a stepping stone in the Grand Plan to work part-time. In American working society, part-time employment does not exist in jobs that are interesting, substantive and well-paid. I know I looked for them. Americans are productive. And if you can do something well, your boss wants you to do it as much as you can. That's 40 hours or more. So with the Grand Plan in mind, I spent the first year at Vote Solar as a full time employee. I knew once I had a baby that I would have the leverage I needed to request to move to part-time. And it worked. The recession worked in my favor of requesting less hours and less pay. The less pay is taking some getting used to.
However, part-time now doesn't allow for afternoon bike rides, and all day craft projects. But nonetheless, the result is that I enjoy work more than ever. For most people that's a rare thing, for me even moreso.

Here's the team at Vote Solar. This picture is either our album shot or a police line-up.