No more stuff!

Hello! This is Yoshi's mom.

As you may or may not know, our household really wants to have a simple, but full life rich with experiences. And one of the ways to reach this is not to be bogged down by "stuff." Sure, it's just about impossible not to have material goods in this day and age, and we are definitely fortunate that we can live comfortably with modern conveniences, but it seems that when I have a lot of Stuff, I end up worrying about Stuff, and then wanting even more Stuff. Stuff that really isn't important and ends up taking up space, not being used, and then creating a lot of guilt of owning it but feeling bad getting rid of it.

And from an environmental standpoint, Stuff takes a lot of resources. Think about that one plastic bottle of water you drink, the energy it took to make the bottle, to transport the bottle, to package the bottle among other bottles, advertise the selling of the bottle, then the energy to recycle that bottle once it's used. Ugh.

But I digress.

This is another plea not to give us material goods. Chances are if we've gone this long without it, we don't really need it, and probably don't want it. And this rings especially true for things given to Yoshi. She doesn't need anymore things. And to be completely honest, I will probably be offended if you read this post and continue to give her stuff.

If you want to give her something, please, please, ask me first. I hate to be the Mean Mommy when I end up taking away a toy she got from someone else.

And if you have a compulsion to spend money and want to put it to good use, consider donating to a charity or non-profit like Habitat for Humanity, the American Cancer Society in memory of her grandpa, or to her elementary school.

Thank you for your support and love.

Baker Beach

The ocean has a lot of water.

Joke of the day

Me: What smells like a banana and is invisible?

Mommy: An invisible banana?

Me: No. A monkey's burp!

Story: Shapetown

Once inside of Shape Town, there were a couple different kinds of shapes. There was Square and Triangle, Circle, Oval, Diamond, Rectangle. And those were the only shapes.

And one day, five Letters moved in from Letter Town. And then the four friends, the Diamond, the Oval, the Circle, the Square and the Rectangle and the Triangle, they said, “You don’t belong in Letter Town. We do!” The Letters said, “We’re the beginning of the alphabet. We’re A, B, C, D, E! We heard there were more houses and we came to move in. That is why.”

So the four friends five friends moved in. And then the five letters and the five shapes became ten best friends. They played every day. And then five animals moved in. There was a cow, a chicken, a cat, a horse, and a frog. Moved in to Shape Town. And then it was called Anything Town where move five things like Five Bottles moved in. A tall bottle, a fat bottle, a skinny bottle, a soda bottle, a metal bottle. And then five chicken pox roosters moved in. They were covered in red chicken box ‘cause they ate too many red gum! And they got some medicine and then they ate healthier.

And animals kept moving in. And different things keep moving in.

Doo doo dooo, doo doo doo. (sing this)

And one day something big and scary moved in. It had a weapon! It scared everything. They were frightened and cuddled together. It was a giant Transformer named Bumblebee!!!!

They all ran away. And came back. And then the five bumblebee transformers all became friends with the rest of them. They always ate dinner together, ate lunch and breakfast and they did everything together. It was so happy story, that they wanted to always have more friends moving in and one day….

They had a new friend come in. They didn’t know what it was. It was a person in a racecar. Five persons in a racecar. And they became friends, too. And they all had smiles when they met.

The end!

I'm So Sari!

About a week ago, Mommy, Daddy and I went on an airplane. We flew to New Jersey for a wedding. Daddy went to college with Dee. Dee is the bride. I was a flower girl.

A couple days before the wedding, we went to Dee's Mommy and Daddy's house in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I didn't see any cherries or hills there. That's weird. We were there for the Mehendi Party. Everyone wears green. All the girls get their hands painted with Henna. Henna is a plant that is used to make this brown paste stuff that colors your skin. It looks like chocolate, but don't eat it because it's not chocolate. It's henna. Dee got the most special henna designs because she's the bride.

Here I am getting my hand painted:


Waiting for it to dry (see the peacock?):


The rehearsal was on Friday, the day before the wedding. Rehearsal is when you practice. It took a long time for people to rehearse I guess. But I hear practice makes perfect. We must be perfect after all that practicing. I mostly waited around for everyone else because I knew my part well.


Finally it was Saturday, wedding day! I got dressed in my yellow sari made especially for me in India, which is a country far, far away. It's sparkly and I feel like a princess when I wear it. Daddy didn't have a sari because he's a boy. And he wasn't a flower girl either.


After the Hindu ceremony, there was a break so we could get ready for the Catholic ceremony. I changed out of my sari and put on my poofy white dress. I made sure I had all my flowers in my basket. I did my job walking down the aisle and threw flower petals on the ground. Fun!


I got hungry towards the end.


More wedding photos can be seen on Mommy's Flickr.