"Immaculate and ineffable" memories of home...

Dazzling, grayish black sky throwing reflection on the sea.
The call of the sea is so loud and tempting.
Hard rocks on the edges of the walk path.
Nebulous view of the golden gate bridge,on one side
The alluring wooden houses with green plants
Hanging ,prominence was unavoidable
Halcyon walks and endless talks of lovers.
Beauty of Tiburon was abstruse
Leaving the mind puzzled
Unlimited blessings of the eternal God
His omni presence could be felt
Feeling of pulchritude to the soul
The ardent emotions fills the heart with joy
As the evening fades into night
Standing aloof on the tiny ravishing bridge
Redolent flowers delights the mood
Mellifluous sounds goes with the flow
The intensity of the love remains unclear
Sanguine feeling with unending desires to follow with...

A poem written by Fatima Hasan

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...

Mirror, Mirror, originally written By Shel Silverstein,

but modified by dad.

QUEEN:
Mirror, mirror on the wall... um, er... door.
Who is the scariest of them all ... for sure?

FATHER:
Hannah, Hannah, Hannah!
I’ve told you a million times tonight,
Stop talking to the mirror, all right!!!

QUEEN:
Daddy, Daddy by the door,
What would happen if I shampoo'd some MORE?
And then I splashed you wet with a crashing ROAR,
Your picture taking skills would still be horrible - red eye galore
My hair would be sudsy white with water froth all over the floor

MIRROR:
Hey … shampoo face, wooooooweee, YOU ARE GOOOOOD LOOKIN!.

QUEEN:
Oh yeah, you! Hey, Mirror, mirror on the wall.
Who is the scariest, sudsiest and funniest of them all?

MIRROR:
You--you--It’s true
The sudsiest of all is you--you--you.
(Whew!)

Monkeyin' Around at Lincoln Park Playground

Hannah,
While you were scaling to tippy tops
and running around and up and down,
you met two little boys who,
as they played,
loudly sang this song
from the Jungle Book...

"Now I'm the king of the swingers
Oh, the jungle VIP
I've reached the top and had to stop
And that's what botherin' me
I wanna be a man, mancub
And stroll right into town
And be just like the other men
I'm tired of monkeyin' around!

Oh, oobee doo
I wanna be like you
I wanna walk like you
Talk like you, too
You'll see it's true
An ape like me
Can learn to be humen too!"

Sounds like the Jungle Book might be your kind of monkey business...

Sidewalk Smiles

Today I smiled, and all at once things didn't look so bad.

Today I shared with someone else, a bit of hope I had.

Today I sang a little song, and felt my heart grow light,

And walked a happy little mile, with not a cloud in sight.

Today I worked with what I had and longed for nothing more,

And what had seemed like only weeds, were flowers at my door.

Today I loved a little more and complained a little less,

And in the giving of myself, I forgot my weariness.

~~ Author (and Artist) Unknown ~~

New Year's Eve 2009 Picture Poem

New Year's Eve started out with a walk to Rossi Park...

...Hannah skampered, jumped, ran, rode, swung, slid, climbed, kicked, caught...

Until it was dark and time to move on...

From playing in the park to... pizza!
No snow in 'Frisco so instead you and Mommy make "Dough-men."

And walking home is full of fun;
every doorway, parking meter and person is a reason to smile.

You TRY to stay awake and say goodbye to "oHH niNe!"...

This picture says it best:
this eve is your dawn and your reaching and trying will never end,
but next that you conquer will be seen in two-thousand-AND-TEN!

Thanks for a wonderful 2009, Hannah!
Love, Mom & Dad

At Two, Here's a Few of...

My Favorite Things

Artwork with crayons in dark blues and purples
Citikids, Legos and running in circles
Thomas and Gordon and Dad’s hoodie strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Elmo and Ernie and muffins with cream cheese
Driving through tunnels and singing my ABCs
Airplanes and buses and Rossi Park’s swings
These are a few of my favorite things

When a child cries
Police car siren rings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

Motorcycle helmets and President Obama
Sidewalk chalk, Hoppy, and Saira and Katya
The Hungry Caterpillar’s new butterfly wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Reece, Kayla, Tanner Baby, Chrissy and Kyle
Friends small and large who always make me smile
YouTube on Mommy’s phone, Daddy’s cellphone’s rings
These are a few of my favorite things

When a child cries
Police car siren rings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

Memaw and Boppa, Eric-Joy-Kate-and-Jack
Green eggs and ham, or a Big Raisins snack
Swimming and soccer and gel window clings
These are a few of my favorite things

Running down the aisles at any local store
The Letters T and I, being free to explore
Building sand castles while Grandmom Alice sings
These are a few of my favorite things

When a child cries
Police car siren rings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

Ode to Hannah's Favorite Bird (Besides Big Bird)...

Song to a Seagull
by Joni Mitchell

Fly silly seabird
No dreams can possess you
No voices can blame you
For sun on your wings
My gentle relations
Have names they must call me
For loving the freedom
Of all flying things
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry

I came to the city
And lived like old crusoe
On an island of noise
In a cobblestone sea
And the beaches were concrete
And the stars paid a light bill
And the blossoms hung false
On their store window trees
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry

Out of the city
And down to the seaside
To sun on my shoulders
And wind in my hair
But sandcastles crumble
And hunger is human
And humans are hungry
For worlds they can’t share
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry

I call to a seagull
Who dives to the waters
And catches his silver-fine
Dinner alone
Crying where are the footprints
That danced on these beaches
And the hands that cast wishes
That sunk like a stone
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry

Salad Spinner

Salad Spinner
(Bill Berkson)
You must grab time by the hair,
couple subconscious helixes
in the space of a secret.
You must tickle the improbable
and believe in the impossibility
of crossroads.
You must learn to suspend
ten grams of white, five grams of black
in hopes of true scarlet.
You must know how to fall from below
to favor the zenith
of mornings to the manner born.
You must love the four mouths
floating around the silky doubt
of dead assumptions.

Sidewalk Chalk

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Shel Silverstein

Solstice Child

The day never wants to end, to give itself over
To night. So it traps itself in things: obsidian, crows.
Triumphant on summer solstice, the eve of light
Where Hannah's flowers guzzle in the sun.

adapted from Joseph Stroud's Night In Day

The Flowers

All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,
Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,
Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,
Tiny trees for tiny dames--
These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs
Shady fairies weave a house;
Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,
Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,
But the fairest woods are these;
Where, if I were not so tall,
I should live for good and all.

Robert Louis Stevenson

The Ballad of Randall Brown

Randall Brown
He lived on the outside of town
Randall Brown
He lived on the outside of town
With his three cats and nine guitars
And his Subaru broken down.

You looked for Hannah Lacey
You gave her a big smile
Sang and strummed the six-string loaner
Your grand niece is so happy
That she danced around for miles
-Lyrics by Bob Dylan

Confessions of a San Francisco Car Seat Rider

Forgotten Language by Shel Silverstein

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,

Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions

of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?