The Long Family

Reading

2012-02-15T22:12:00.001-08:00

The girls were both reading today. They each selected a few of these BOB books at the library and then sat down to read them. Miranda was a tad better than Eli but they were both really impressive.

Elizabeth plays with her hair

2012-02-14T17:17:00.001-08:00

When she is nervous.

Pod People

2012-02-13T20:54:00.001-08:00

Something is wrong with me. I'm not sure what, but something is definitely wrong. I've been exceptionally tired even though I've been sleeping tons, listless and blah for a little over a week. I've also had some strange pains for about the same time. I had a biopsy about 2 weeks ago but it came back clear except for some polyps which have to be removed. Doctor doesn't think they are related and he's gonna test my thyroid again. I hope it's just that, but it's a drag for sure to feel like this. Not me at all.

Tonight Michael and I both knew something was up when I didn't even want to have a piece of the cake that I made. He said that if he ever had to do "was rachel replaced with a pod person" test, he would offer the 'rachel' some cake and if she didn't take it, he would think it is a pod person.

Parker's Cake

2012-02-13T16:56:00.001-08:00

Miranda wanted Chocolate
Elizabeth wanted Lemon
Michael wanted Pineapple
I wanted Banana
Parker wanted Vanilla, but I threw in some Strawberries (on top and in the middle) for good measure. And whip cream frosting.

I think I'm gonna like this one the best.

Indian war chant

2012-02-12T19:37:00.000-08:00

Parker has been working on this for a couple of weeks, one hand at a time, and tonight after dinner he decided it was time to put the whole thing together. He was so pleased with himself he came upstairs and had me come down to watch him. Which of course I got on video.

Monkey love

2012-02-11T20:09:00.001-08:00

Parker's project

2012-02-11T16:05:00.001-08:00

Parker decided to make a giant track today. He's been working on it all day. Hopefully when he finishes this he will resume work on his roman numeral scroll, where is stalled at 500. I mean D.

Today's Baked Item

2012-02-10T19:11:00.000-08:00

I made these chocolate cookies today. Which isn't a big deal because I've been making chocolate chip cookies since I was 13 years old. I can make them with one hand tied behind my back in about 10 minutes without referring to a recipe. But today, I tried a new recipe...one that was suppose to make chewy cookies. The main difference appeared to be the ratio of sugar to brown sugar. There was much more brown sugar in this recipe.

They were, as if there was any question, delicious. Might be the best ones I've ever made.

Love is....

2012-02-09T20:35:00.001-08:00

Did it.

2012-02-09T16:14:00.001-08:00

Thanks to aunt Kathleen and my mom who both told how to make a pineapple upside down cake, I made one. I followed my moms recipe and although I haven't tasted it yet it looks good. Michael will be very happy.

Old Clothes

2012-02-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

A million years ago, I was interviewing a guy for a job at the SPCA. He was a good looking, strapping lad who ended up not taking the job or not getting it...I can't remember which one. He left his navy blue pull-over at the SPCA at the interview and I took it home thinking that I would contact him to return it. I didn't. I just started wearing it. And I'm still wearing it. One of the sleeves is sort of falling apart; the lining that covers the end of the sleeve is coming off so it falls over my thumb regularly. I have no idea why I continue to wear it or how I've possibly kept it this long when other items of clothing that I care more about and enjoy more have been lost or ruined by baby spit up, other such stains or bad laundering. It's a mystery.

I'm a mom.

2012-02-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it cracks me up that I'm a mom. The feeling usually comes up with Parker.

For example, the other day, he had a friend over and wanted to play with his iPod so he came downstairs looking to see how many poker chips he has (currency in our house that he can exchange for privileges like playing with his iPod). He had none so started scanning the list to see how to earn some quickly (like taking out recycling or cleaning room). I saw him and said, "You can have free screen time with Aidan." He said, "Really?!" and then ran upstairs yelling, "My mom said we could have free screen time!"

Another example happened today when the girls and I were walking back to our car after pick up. One of Parker's friends saw me from the lunch patio and said, "Hey Parker, your mom is right there. I see her. Your mom!" Parker was oblivious, but it still cracked me up.

Eating

2012-02-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

When Elizabeth eats something she likes, she nods her head up and down as if saying 'yes, yes, this is yummy.' I thought she only did it when people were watching to see her reaction (like, "do you like it???") but then I realized she does it even if she is alone and thinks no one is watching.

Delish

2012-02-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

There is another big fundraising party tomorrow night in Piedmont. I can't go (darn) because I am baby sitting for Susan, but I was suppose to help set up, clean up and bring food, so I said I would still bring food. They asked for finger food desserts. Cookies didn't seem fancy enough, so I asked my friend Sara for ideas. Not only did she give me a great one, but she let me borrow her Chocolate edition of the Food Network magazine. Who knew melting chocolate was so complicated. I had to heat to 100 then cool to 82 and then heat to 90. I hope they are yummy.

The horse.

2012-02-07T13:36:00.000-08:00

My friend Jessie has twins plus one. (Twins are in girls' kindergarten class.)
She also has a horse.
I took Miranda to see the horse.
The horse was big.
She brushed the horse.
She watched the horse.
She liked the horse.

Davis

2012-02-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

Ran my 5th half marathon today in Davis. Sara and Leigh did it with me and in general it felt pretty good. Miles 6 through 11 were good, but then I got a little tired for the last two miles and couldn't quite keep the pace. I missed my personal best by 2 minutes and had I not stopped to get water at the last time available, I would have beat it. Nevertheless, it was a good training run for my marathon in late March and at the same time wondered how the hell I'm gonna run 26 miles. Another nice bonus was that Val, who lives in Davis now, came to see us finish which was great.

Little Grey Donkey

2012-02-05T09:39:00.001-08:00

More roman numerals

2012-02-04T15:11:00.001-08:00

Parker is keen on roman numerals these days, and is working on a scroll up to 1,000. I also looked up at his request how to write 5,000. Turns out a horizontal line over any number multiplies it by a thousand. This had never come up before I met Parker.

Banana Cake

2012-02-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

I'm a cake making fool lately. After the chocolate and lemon, I did a banana cake. I didn't have any butter, so I specifically picked this one since it called for shortening which I had. But I forgot that the frosting called for butter. So I substituted some shortening and water for the butter. The result? Disgusting.

The cake was good, but the frosting was slippery and tasted strange. Unfortunately, I didn't figure that out until after I frosted it. Waste of a cake.

Michael has requested a pineapple upside down cake, but I'm thinking that is above my skill level. If this keeps up, I'll need to get one of the cake stands that spins and something to cover the cake in fridge. Fancy!

Ballet

2012-02-04T11:13:00.000-08:00

The girls had costume fittings in ballet class today which I found odd for a whole host of reasons. The recital isn't until June, so I'm not sure why they would want to show the girls the costumes let alone let them try them on 4 months in advance. They also haven't learned any actual ballet which I would think would be necessary before being able to do a recital. I did find out they will be dancing a segment from Cinderalla at the recital. I didn't wear a tutu until I was about 12 or 13 and it definitely wasn't the carrot I needed to continue dancing.

Slothy

2012-02-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling very unmotivated lately and I spend much of time not really doing anything. Most people enjoy doing nothing, but it's exhausting to me.

So yesterday when I made lentil soup from scratch because I couldn't find any at the store in the brand I liked, I felt pretty good about it. Granted, making lentil soup from scratch is about the easiest thing one could make since you just up a bunch of stuff and throw it in the slow cooker. But when I also ran five miles, folded the laundry, made a real dinner that didn't include pasta, and got the kids valentine day card supplies, I was feeling fairly productive.

Today I am back to feeling like a sloth, but the half marathon I'm running on Sunday should fix that.

Bringin' it.

2012-02-02T10:23:00.000-08:00

All three kids brought something to school today.

Parker brought a chart of the Roman Numerals from 1 to 100

Elizabeth brought two books from home to add to the library in the classroom. One for boys about dinosaurs and pirates and one for girls about a woman who rides a pony in a circus.

Miranda brought in the book she made last night to show her teacher.

I hope the teachers appreciate how proud each kid was.

Miranda's Book

2012-02-01T17:56:00.001-08:00

Miranda wrote a book today. Elizabeth has been doing this sort of thing for months now, but this is Miranda's first one that she did on her own for "fun".

Page One: I sang and Owen bowed.

Page Two: The kids swayed

Page Three: Then we left.

The End

Valentines Day Cards

2012-02-01T17:51:00.000-08:00

Parker got the Valentines Day homework assignment...to make cards for all the kids in class. There were several guidelines including the kids have to do it on their own, they have to bring them in when they are done and they had to do one for each kid in class.

He said, "Does that mean I can't NOT do them for the kids I don't like."

I said, "Yup. Are there kids you don't like?"

He said, "Well....no."

Oakland Museum Fieldtrip

2012-02-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

I went on the 1st grade field trip today. Parker was quite happy about it; both that he was going and I coming along.

Although I'm not a lover of art, it was super nice to be in the museum without anyone else there. We were the first school tour and it was completely empty for a good 30 minutes. The docent was good enough, asking questions, but being sure there wasn't any right answer. She really got a kick out of Parker saying things like, "Wow, what a serious thinker." "He has such integrity." "That's an excellent observation, Parker!" It was like he was "that" girl that the teacher always favors. He is much different in the way he speaks compares to the other kids. It always appears very thoughtout and articulate, even if the comment itself it lame. The other mom with us said, "Wow. She really likes him."

Afterwards the kids got to do their art with chalk mashed up with water ("like the Indians did"). Parker couldn't decide what animal to draw until there was only 2 minutes left and then did a crappy spider in some grass.

Back at school, there was some confusion about where they would eat lunch since their time slot for lunch was over. When it was decided they would eat with the 5th graders he started crying saying "He didn't like when things didn't go as scheduled." No shit, Parker. I sat with him and another girl who was equally displeased with the change. Both bounced back quickly and ran off to recess after they recovered.

Roman numerals

2012-01-31T20:32:00.001-08:00

Parker was reading Stuart Little to me tonight, and got tripped up by the roman numeral chapter numbers. So we paused to talk about roman numerals for a while, which I was surprised he didn't know. We looked at a few, and talked about the pattern, and he figured it out in time to predict what 11-14 should be.

Then I said, "An interesting thing about roman numerals is that there is no way to write zero."

Parker sat for a minute the way he does, where you don't know if he heard you. And then he said, "What about IIIIIV?"

Lemon Cake

2012-01-30T22:31:00.000-08:00

Last week I made a chocolate cake for Miranda at her request. Elizabeth requested a lemon one, but upon Michael's advice, I made just one cake.

I made the lemon one today. I used an entire bag of lemons either for their juice or the rind/zest. The cake itself was a three layer cake but since I only had two pans, I had to bake one after the other two. The filling was a lemon curd, which I guess is just corn starch, sugar and egg yolk. Oh, and lemon. The frosting was a lemon cream cheese version. I've discovered when you make a cream cheese frosting you use an enormous amount of powered sugar. I barely used half of what was required and it was still crazy sweet.

The kids didn't like the curd, but really, it was the best part. Now we have 3/4 of a cake to eat. Darn.

I'm so proud, part two

2012-01-30T16:41:00.001-08:00

Parker's love of The Flaming Lips has now intersected with his interest in piano, as I discovered this weekend. When I asked him how he figured out how to play this song, he said, "I just know a lot of notes."

Miranda's Choir Recital

2012-01-30T16:06:00.000-08:00

Miranda's been in this little Piedmont choir group for a while, and they had a recital last week. It was all very charming, except for the instructor whom I loathed on sight, and whose voice and mannerisms made me want to flee her presence. But Miranda was thrilled, and it was nice that they got to sing, um, one of her favorite songs.

Self Portraits

2012-01-29T19:16:00.000-08:00

One for Miranda. One for Elizabeth.

You find them.

More face painting

2012-01-29T19:14:00.000-08:00

Apparently Michael did some face painting when I was away this weekend. Today they all wanted it again but with Mommy doing it. Miranda requested this animal face that I had rejected every other time she asked for it. Today I did it and was a hero.

Vegas Baby

2012-01-29T14:38:00.000-08:00

I returned last night from a couple days in Las Vegas at the Balance Fitness Conference. It was a two plus day event at Planet Hollywood where fitness instructors go to learn new things, steal ideas from each other, and update their current routines. I went with Sara and Kym. Kym is the only actual fitness instrutor of the three of us, but since Sara and I lead stuff from time to time and since I'll probably try to pick up a class or two when the girls are in school more hours of the day, I figured, what the hell.

The flight was smooth, the hotel was nice and the conference was well-organized. In one day I took five classes: a spin class, BOSU workout, butt workout class called Booty Camp, a metabolic training workshop, and a yoga stretching class. They were all pretty good and I learned something in each one. Then at night, after we realized the pool and jacuzzi area were closed we went out to a nice dinner. And by nice, I mean expensive. But it was delicious (we were all starving since they dind't leave much time for breaks and eating at the conference) and we were all quite happy and full afterwards. Kym and Sara went out gambling, but I was pooped and my back hurt so I went back to the room and fell asleep. When they got in, I thought it was Miranda and Elizabeth coming to tell me they had nightmares.

The next day we had another spin class, a zumba class, a TRX class, and a bootcamp class of sorts (that I watched as my back was killing me at that point.) We decided to ditch the final class since it was another yoga stretching thing and had dinner together instead before Kym and I caught a plane back home.

It was a fun, but tiring weekend and we are going show what we learned to our bootcamp on Wednesday. If I can walk by then.

Waking up in Vegas. 16th floor.

Kym in our first spin class on Friday. It was a themed class to the music and plot of the movie 300. It was strange.

My bubbling lemon drop. Delish!

Happy, tired and soon to be tipsy gals.

Kym didn't know what Jimmy Choos were. Silly girl.

What I found on the couch today.

2012-01-24T10:16:00.000-08:00

These dogs read crappy books.

Another Piedmont Meeting

2012-01-24T10:05:00.001-08:00

I went to another Gifted Parents Support Club meeting last night despite the fact that I swore I would not go to any others. I went because some founding members were going to be speaking to how to advocate for your child. Although we've had a good experience thus far with Parker getting different math material than the other kids, we've heard that ends in middle school. The parents were nice enough, but didn't have anything really informative to tell us. Other parents of kids in elementary school kept saying that I was having a unique experience and that their teachers were not doing much for their kids. When I asked if they had spoken to their teachers about it, they said, "Well....no...not yet."

I stayed for the board meeting part of the evening because they were going to talk about how to spend some of the money the club had and I was hoping they would give some to Parker's math enrichment teacher since his teacher said it would end in April. Unfortunately, they weren't prepared to spend any money on 1st grade since the money had to go to GATE specific programs and GATE officially starts in 4th grade. But I did ask some questions of the group about their financials (they weren't recording dues and donations properly but didn't seem to care.). They spent a lot of time discussing a minor issue on the minutes and then discussing the money issue without sufficient backup information to actually make a decision.

It was strange that a group of parents of gifted kids were so lame.

Music Appreciation

2012-01-23T22:12:00.000-08:00

Parker went to the symphony the other day with school. I had the chance to drive on that fieldtrip but thought that taking a bunch of 7 year olds to the symphony would be horrible. Boy, was I wrong. Parker came back entranced. It was a program specifically for elementary kids and had some popular tunes like the Can Can, Carmen, something from west side story and a few others. He really liked it and asked to have the "songs" put on his ipod. We found one for him about a musical clock by Kodaly and he listens to it all the time now. He hangs out in his room with his headphones on listening to classical music. Oh boy.

Miranda's fake bad mood and its aftermath

2012-01-23T19:16:00.001-08:00

Blokus

2012-01-23T16:20:00.000-08:00

Parker wasn't feeling well today but since he couldn't really say what was wrong and I had a feeling he just wanted to watch tv all day like he did last thursday when he had a fever, I took him to school. About 5 minutes after getting home with girls, I got a call to come pick him up.

Miranda wasn't feeling well either so we all just hung out. I cleaned up a bit and got ride of some clothes that didn't fit, the kids ate more cake from yesterday and then we all played some board games. It was a relatively pleasant afternoon.

Wet Hot American Summer

2012-01-22T17:56:00.001-08:00

Last night Michael and I went to SF to see a radio play reading of the movie Wet Hot American Summer. We had never heard of the movie but it had Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Michael Ian Black, Molly Shannon and tons of other stars in it. It was part of the San Francisco Sketch Fest, a comedy/inprov festival going on during January. By the time I heard about it, there were no seats together so we sat in the balcony, but in different rows.

It was a great show. No one was dressed up and they were all holding the scripts and goofing off. Paul Rudd had a huge grin on his face the whole time and you can tell they all had a blast doing it. It started early and was over quick so we met Susan and Roy back in Oakland for dinner.

Here is the only picture I snuck of the show. Can't see a damn thing, but Paul Rudd is up there somewhere.

More chocolate cake

2012-01-22T17:50:00.001-08:00

Chocolate cake

2012-01-22T16:22:00.001-08:00

Ballet

2012-01-21T22:40:00.001-08:00

The girls had their first ballet class at the piedmont ballet academy today. I only watched for a few minutes but they seemed like they had a good time. The teacher complimented their buns. Elizabeth appeared to have better form then any of the other kids. Surprise. Surprise.

Twins

2012-01-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

It's a small miracle Parker is wearing pants and long sleeve shirt. I demanded it as it's raining and they are going to the symphony for a field trip today.

Chess

2012-01-19T17:12:00.001-08:00

I'm really bad at chess. Being bad has it's advantages. I don't get annoyed when Parker makes a lame move because, with a few exceptions, I don't notice. Games also tend to be short since both of us leave our kings exposed often.

Sammy

2012-01-18T19:25:00.000-08:00

Sammy, of Sammy and Charlie, twins a month younger than the girls, came over today. Monika's, the mom, has been a friend since we met at twin support group and she's a regular blog reader. We met weekly back when they were all toddlers, but the kids don't get a chance to hang out too much these days. Today, it just worked out.

Almost immediately, she and Miranda started in on some imaginary animal game and it continued that way for most of the visit. They stopped for snacks and Sammy and I played a quick game of chess with Parker, but most of the time she and Miranda either together or right next to each other were making up stories and activities of their pretend siblings and animals.

Elizabeth wasn't feeling well and curled up on the couch and promptly fell asleep. The girls kept playing right in front of her. They were very quiet and at one point I went over to see what they were doing and here is what I found.

I asked them what they were doing and they said the unicorn was sick and they were helping it feel better. Jesus. What's next? Leeches?

Sammy calls Monika, Monika instead of Mom or Mommy or Mama. I started doing it too. "Sammy, would Monika let you have a corn muffin without eating your lunch?" "Yes, Monika would! Definitely."

It was a good playdate (good being defined as both kids seemed to have fun and I didn't have to get too involved..except the face painting which I'll pretty much do anytime these days.)

Top Five Hardest Parenting Moments...So Far

2012-01-17T13:23:00.001-08:00

5. Realizing Parker was not typical.

I guess we've always sort of known it, but figuring out what to do about it, if anything, has been challenging at times.

4. Not really getting Miranda.

Miranda is an odd kid. She always has been. If she were my only daughter, I'd probably think the same thing. But in comparison to Elizabeth, (and it's hard not to compare, let's be honest), who is very similar to me, it's difficult to really understand Miranda and how she works. It's still a struggle for me, but I'm glad we've bonded over movies.

3. Letting Elizabeth stop gymnastics.

I kept saying I didn't care if Elizabeth did gymnastics or not, but the decision to let her stop has been so emotional, I suppose I did actually care. I don't think of myself as a stage mom or gym mom or whatever it is called, pushing their kid into things or even perhaps trying to relive my youth through her. I just find it so sad that she is so good at it and doesn't want to do it. I know she'll be good at a million things, but this is the first thing she has been good at and not wanted to do. Wonder how my mom felt when I, who wasn't even very good, quit ballet...

2. A tie! Living without sleep when girls were born and breast feeding for first few weeks.

Sleep deprivation sucks. You think you are ok, but you are not and you don't even know it at the time. Only later can you look back and realize, wow, I was a crazy person back then. Breast feeding was painful and tedious and it sucked the life out of me. I'm glad I did it, but man, did I hate it.

1. Giving birth to Parker.

That was the scariest, most painful experience of my life. As Lori and Louise know, I was not a happy camper. The joy of natural labor with the recovery of a c-section. I figure I can do anything if I did that.

Blast from the past

2012-01-16T19:19:00.000-08:00

We've been watching old videos with the kids, which they can't seem to get enough of. But I've been surprised by how surprised I've been by some of them. Here's Parker playing with his numbers about a few months before his third birthday. At the time I knew this was not typical, but with the benefit of having spent a whole lot of time with other three year olds since then, I'm saying that Parker was one freaky little dude. And my god, look at those cheeks!

TPS: Who's smarter?

2012-01-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

Parker: Mom is 999,999,999,999 a number?

Me: Yes, Why?

Parker: Because at the party today we were making up really big numbers for how old Jack is turning and I said, "He's turning 999 billion, 999 million, 999 thousand, nine hundred and ninty nine. And then Owen and Miles said that isn't a number. I told them it was and they said it wasn't. Then Jack told them that I do 3rd grade math. So then Miles said he was better at math than me and did multiplication and Owen said he was smarter than me at math and did division. So I said I did exponents and then no one said anything."

Me: Parker, are any of those kids in your special math group with the 2nd graders?

Parker: No.

Me: Then, do you think they know more math than you?

Parker: No.

Me: You aren't going to meet a lot of kids your age that are better at math than you, but that doesn't mean it's ok to talk about who is smarter or who is not. You can just BE smarter without talking about it and if another kid tells you he is smarter, you can just KNOW that he is wrong without telling him and making him feel bad."

Parker: But they made me feel bad when THEY said they were smarter.

Me: But you are actually smarter, so who cares what they think?

Parker: But they started it.

Me: So you should have ended it.

QED

Botars

2012-01-15T19:03:00.001-08:00

Miranda Sings Everything

2012-01-15T10:10:00.000-08:00

Miranda is still pretty much singing everything that she says as if she is living in a musical. A few minutes ago, she ran over and sang, "Mommy! I am thirsty and would like a drink"and then did a little box step, ending with a big smile and a variation of jazz hands.

I'm taking her to 3D Beauty and the Beast today which I'm sure will only make the situation worse.

MLK

2012-01-13T17:03:00.000-08:00

Miranda just said,

"I'm on Dr. Kings side. If I think the laws are bad, I'm gonna change them."

There was also some talk about a bus and some lady who wanted to sit down.

Guess we did some learning in school today.

Here we go...

2012-01-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

I went to this Piedmont fundraising meeting last night. And when I say fundraising meeting, I mean black tie cocktail party. I "dressed up" by brushing my hair, applying lipstick and putting on pants so when I showed up and everyone was wearing little black dresses and high heels drinking from champagne glasses in a kitchen that was the size of our entire bottom floor, I was a bit concerned.

Luckily, most of these women were on the steering committee (ie the hosts) and the event that we are putting on has a Gatspy theme so they were going with it. When other started to arrive (after the 7pm start time which was when I arrived...damn my punctuality), they looked a bit more like me. Not like me, but I didn't stick out as much. At least I had blonde hair which appeared to be a prerequisite.

We all schmoozed for a while until they called the meeting to order where nothing much was said. I mostly stood by myself in a room of about 35 women all chatting like chickens, but a couple others wearing less than glamorous outfits did come over to talk with me.

I was impressed with the organization of the party, the snacks they had and the handouts (that they had them not what was on them), but the entire meeting was unnecessary. I smiled and nodded and kept my mouth shut when other women asked questions about topics that were just answered.

The whole thing was just an excuse to drink and be fancy...two of my favorite things. I guess we are not in Kansas anymore.

Parker's In Class Assignment

2012-01-12T15:15:00.001-08:00

About Weather

What I know:

rain comes from clouds.
tornados could distroy a whole city

What I learned:

Snow can turn into a snowstorm.
rain gives us water to drink

What I want to know:

How is weather created?
How do phones know the weather?

Screaming at Kaiser

2012-01-11T17:59:00.000-08:00

Parker has some strange bumps on his legs so we took him into the doctor this afternoon. They weren't sure what they were but gave him some antibiotics.

On our way, I knew we had about 15 minutes before the meds were ready and there was no line at the flu clinic so I said, "Let's get flu shots." Parker said, "Yay! I love shots!" and Miranda immediately started screaming "I Don't Wanna Get A Shot!" over and over again and refused to come in the room. She was hysterical. I finally calmed her down and we went in. Parker went first. No problem. I went next and then Miranda literally tried to run out of the room. I just grabbed her and held her down as she screamed and screamed. "I don't wanna get a shot!!!!!" It was hilarious to me.

Then it was over and her crying stopped. When we left through the waiting room, all these parents (and kids) were staring at her. I just kept laughing.

Back at home I said, "That sure was a lot of crying and screaming at the doctor." She said, "Well...I thought it was gonna hurt and I was scared. But, it didn't really."

Decided

2012-01-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

We're gonna let Elizabeth stop gymnastics. I personally don't think she'll ever start again, but I could be wrong. She and I had a good conversation about it last night and it was the first time I could really "hear" her when she said she wasn't interested in it anymore.

Michael and I both think it's a shame because of her talent, but also think she has the whole world at her disposal and will find something else she is good at and likes.

I just hope it's not ballet.

Stuart Little

2012-01-10T09:35:00.000-08:00

Parker is reading Stuart Little now for school. Each day, his teacher puts a new book in his bookbag and he has to read for 15 minutes. For most kids, they get a short easy to read book of about 10 pages. But for Parker and 3 other kids, they get real books and just read as much as they can in 15 minutes.

Stuart little is the hardest one he's had so far and after just looking it up, I see why. It's listed as book for grade level 3.9. I think it's good that he is being challenged and it's a bit hard for him, but he's having a different kind of trouble with it than I imagined.

He can't remember what happened after just reading it. Like this morning he read a paragraph about Stuart pulling on the cord of a shade and getting wrapped up in the shade itself. He literally couldn't tell me what he had just read immediately after reading it. I made him read it 4 times and only on the last time could he tell me.

What is that about? Does he just not understand the vocabulary (shade, cord?) He hasn't seen one of the shades that the book is talking about so maybe.... Or is he not paying attention, just saying the words? Or is his spaciness now overflowing into reading comprehension? This is a kid that can remember what he did 4 years ago and what street he drove on 8 months ago and what mommy said about a specific thing days ago, but he can't remember what he just read? I find it all very strange.

I'm so proud.

2012-01-09T17:40:00.001-08:00

Parker discovered the Flaming Lips on his iPod. He's had his headphones on for the last 30 minutes, dancing around the house like a maniac to Yoshimi battles the Pink Robots.

Chess

2012-01-08T09:43:00.001-08:00

For the longest time, Michael and I have been hesitant to teach Parker chess. It seemed like one of those things that he might start obsessing over and lose all sight of everything else. As one parent recently said to me, 'There are worse things to obsess over than Chess," but he hasn't seen Parker obsess and we have.

But many of his good friends are now playing it and his cousins played in here so we bit the bullet and Michael taught him yesterday. He learned the rules quickly but he's quite bad at it which made us happy. I suck at chess too so at least we are evenly matched.

I signed him up for a class at school offered by Berkeley Chess Club so we'll see how that goes.

Decisions, Decisions.

2012-01-07T13:44:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth is saying she doesn't want to do gymnastics anymore. She doesn't complain about going, but when she is there she tells the coach, "I can't do that" when it is stuff she can do and could do 6 months ago. I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do. On one hand, there is no reason to make the kid go to gymnastics anymore. On the other hand, what a shame to quit when she is obviously so good and so suited for it.

She has said she wants to do Ballet so she can be on stage. These are both interesting to me since she didn't like ballet before when she took the class with Miranda and she is incredibly shy about performing. I reminded her of both and she said she still wanted to do it. In fact, she wanted to do in instead of gymnastics. I told her ballet was hard. She asked if it was still hard after you go on stage and I said, "Harder."

So I looked up the ballet studio in Piemont which is literally across the street and signed them both up (Miranda had been asking too about it) for the next session on Saturday mornings. I was happy to hear it's a fairly serious studio and the girls have to have their hair up in buns with only pink leotards (no skirts, black, costumes, etc). I think this seriousness will not be liked and they will not want to do it again which would be great. There is a recital at a local community college at the end of the session. The director seemed nice and said if the girls were exceptional they would be referred to professional ballet school like SF Ballet and I told her I didn't think this would be an issue. (Neither of them appear to have any gift for ballet.) She added that they cater to kids in piedmont and understand missing classes for soccer games or other such things.

The first class is before I have to decide about paying for the next session so I'm hoping she hates it and decides to skip with gymnastics, but I don't think that will happen.

Here they are in their new ballet clothes and buns.

Oy.

Totally Not Worth It

2012-01-05T19:19:00.001-08:00

Parker has been asking for an air hockey table for a while now. Whenever he goes to Ebba's he plays and loved it. I wasn't against getting a table, but wanted to get in the habit of not buying everything Parker says he wants. I told him he could save up for it. So he started saving. He gets an allowance of $1 each week and can earn extra money by doing chores (like picking up apples in back yard, taking out recycling, unloading dishwasher and this week, doing laundry). He saved up $25 (as I had seen a kids size one on Craigslist for $25 a couple months ago) and I took a look on CL again to see what I could find. I found two for $20, one in SJ and one in Belmont. I checked out what it would cost new for a similar one and it was $70. So I figured even with gas, I was still ahead going to Belmont to get one. And I was glad to be buying something used with only the money he earned.

So I drove there today, picked it up, stopped for a coffee and then was driving home. I wasn't in a rush as I had no where to be. Then I got pulled over just after crossing the San Mateo Bridge. Apparently he clocked me at 83 and 87 miles per hour. I'm usually quite good at seeing cops, but today I had no clue. I had no clue there was a cop on the side of the road and no clue I was going that speed. Only when there were lights in my mirror did I clue in. The cop was nice and wrote the ticket up for "80+" so that I could go to traffic school (I guess 86 was the cut off.) I told him it was my first speeding ticket my whole life. He said, "That's a pretty good record." Joy.

So my $20 used kids air hockey table that I felt all warm and fuzzy about will cost me hundreds of dollars in ticket fees, traffic school and increased insurance. Talk about your warm and fuzzy.

Letters

2012-01-05T07:57:00.000-08:00

For a long time now, Michael and I have joked about writing letters when something upsets us. As in, "I'm going to write the city of berkeley a letter because the traffic lights are not timed well!" or "I'm going to write a letter to the producers of that movie because Mira Sorvino was not naked enough of the time!" I'm not sure how it started, but it's one of our long standing jokes and always gets a good laugh.

So when we had yet another bad service experience at our favorite sushi restaurant and I said I was going to write a letter, we had a good chuckle.

But then I did. I wrote a letter! I told the owners (who I recognized at the restaurant but didn't know their names so I looked them up on the internets) that we love their sushi, but the service had really gone down hill in the last year. I told them we had been coming there for over 10 years and we didn't want to stop, but that it was quite frustrating. I gave examples of things that happened (dinners forgotten, ignored for 15 minutes, unable to pay bill, missed sushi) but kept it all very nice.

I sent it Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday evening, the door bell rang. It was the owner of the restaurant. She came to apologize and explain about the new servers and to give us a gift certificate for us to use. She was so incredibly nice it was crazy. I hadn't left my phone number or address, but I guess I did write it on the envelope. I was shocked and quite pleased.

There is bound to be more letter writing in my future now...

Fucking Pasta Pot

2012-01-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

As you can imagine, we make a lot of pasta at our house. Several times a week. So I thought one of the pasta pots where you just pull out the strainer (rather than dumping out the water and pasta) would make my life easier. I told Michael about this and he got me one for my bday. The first time I used it I realized just how much water you have to put in those things. The strainer isn't close to the bottom of the bottom pot so there is lots of water below the strainer doing nothing. And you have to fill the strainer up to the top to get enough water to actually cover the pasta.

For the reasons noted above, I haven't used it much, but I did the other day when my sister was here since six kids would be eating the pasta, we needed alot. As I was taking out the strainer with all the pasta in it, I realized I didn't have any bowls. So I reached for one, but bobbled the strainer and some boiling hot water splashed on my face and right arm. I was so surprised by this that I immediately got some ice for my face thinking my arm was protected by my clothing. Well... as it turns out, my face was fine. My arm is now bubbled over and peeling and red from the burn that went through a long sleeve shirt.

Good Times.

question from elizabeth

2012-01-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

Eli: Is that the real Mrs. Hannigan singing now?

Me: What do you mean, the real Mrs. Hannigan?

Eli: You know, is it her or just someone dressed up like her?

Me: Mrs. Hannigan is a made up character in the musical story Annie. She isn't real. She doesn't exist. Everyone is just pretending to be her.

Eli: Oh. I knew that. I just meant is it the one from the movie? You know, the real one?

The sneak team

2012-01-03T16:36:00.001-08:00

The sneak team is pretty big around our house these days. It's a made up team that Parker created. I'm not entirely sure what happens when you actually get on the sneak team, but I do know there is a test to get on it. At first, Parker and Eli wouldn't let Miranda on the team because she wouldn't take the test. But when I asked them if they had taken the test, they said no. The test involved one person standing in the middle of the living room turning around slowly while the testee starts trying to cross the living room without being seen.

The whole thing sounds completely idiotic to me, but they love it and their friends seem to be really into it. So far, there are 8 members of the sneak team...my kids, sebastian, fletcher, the neighbor Marcus, Jack ZN and Aidan.

Now Parker wants to have sneak team get togethers, but since I can't imagine what they will do together or that Jack ZN will actually play with Sebastian or Fletcher, I'm not going to worry about that too much.

The worst trip you've ever taken

2012-01-01T16:15:00.000-08:00

Rachel suggested that our trip to Hawaii was worse than our trip to Maui, but I disagree. The Mexico trip was way worse.

Our trip to Maui was less than ideal for many of the reasons that Rachel mentioned, but with the exception of wanting to strangle the kids any time we went in the car anywhere, I think I was able throughout the trip to remind myself that only an asshole complains about a trip to Hawaii, and even with the rain, and the wind, and the other less than ideal aspects, it was still better than all sorts of other places we could have found ourselves. Once you recover from losing the fantasy trip, you can generally make the best of any situation, especially when it's beachfront on Maui.

This is a philosophy I could have used in Mexico in 2006, when I was suffering hard from my preconceptions of the perfect vacation. In early 2006 we got the use of a friend's timeshare in Cabo San Lucas, so we took ourselves a nice family vacation. The place was a resort with poolside umbrella drinks and all the amenities, and I was very much looking forward to sitting by the pool with a series of drinks in my mind, occasionally going for a picturesque swim with lovely wife and my adorable toddler son.

Sounded good on paper. The reality was quite a bit different, however, with the trip diverging from my fantasy in a few key ways:

1. Traveling with a toddler is completely exhausting. I don't know why I was naive on this point, but I was expecting way more idle time and book reading than was even remotely feasible, unless you count very hungry catarpillar. Which I don't. Parker has always been single-minded, even as a toddler, and I must have read that book several hundred times to him during that trip.

2. Rachel was 7 weeks pregnant with the twins, and the plane ride down is when her morning sickness started. She'd had a very rough pregnancy with Parker, including 7 months of morning sickness that began on a vacation, and we both saw this appearance of nausea as the cold hand of doom. We both wanted to believe that this time it would be different, but of course it wasn't different, it was the same nausea for 7 long months. And it began in Mexico, and didn't stop until September 19th.

3. The beach at the resort sucked. I'd wanted to move from the pool to the waves, but our resort was on the wrong side of Cabo, so the beach was a hundred yards of windy sand in front of water too dangerous to swim in.

4. Parker didn't sleep well on this trip, so we spent huge amounts of time each night trying to console him, or at least get him to be quiet. I don't recall what his problem was, but it was all very stressful, and left all of us sleep deprived.

5. Mexico smells funny. I'd forgotten about this in my fantasies, but once I got off the plane I remembered. Peeyew.

So while I'd been enjoying the idea of lounging in paradise, the reality fell far short of that. Instead of idling my days away in the sun, I spent the trip alternately entertaining an insatiable Parker and holding Rachel's hair while she puked. It was maddening to be in what looked like absolute paradise, but to be able to really enjoy so little of it.

The day before we left, Parker cut his head on the metal frame of the shower door, which caused a high degree of screaming and a scar that's next to his eyebrow to this day. This was emblematic of the trip itself - looks pretty, but an unpleasant actual experience.

After several days of this, Rachel and I were both exhausted, depressed, and miserable, so we ended up paying to change our tickets and leaving early.

So Maui was less than ideal. It's a bummer to be in paradise in the rain, but Rachel wasn't sick, and my kids were reasonably self-sufficient, and I wasn't in mexico, so I counted my blessing and had another mai tai.

Some more hawaii pics

2011-12-31T10:48:00.000-08:00

Geeky fun!

2011-12-30T16:18:00.001-08:00

Ven diagrams, anyone?

Cousins

2011-12-29T17:02:00.000-08:00

The rose garden

2011-12-29T14:20:00.001-08:00

Kids, statues, and a funny hat

2011-12-26T19:46:00.001-08:00

Typical Hawaiian view

2011-12-26T19:21:00.001-08:00

Hawaii...rachel's two cents.

2011-12-26T19:00:00.001-08:00

Only an asshole goes to Hawaii for 10 days and then complains about it. I am now going to be that asshole. I wish I could be a glass half full kind of person, but I'm not. I wish I could not worry about the small things and not get stressed when things don't go as expected, but I do. I wish I wasn't an asshole, but an asshole I am.

After a great flight (for me at least...you'll have to read Michael's posts to see his comments on his flight (and the trip for that matter). I sat in between Parker and Elizabeth. Parker played on my iPhone the whole time and Elizabeth made cards, drew, tried to sleep, watched tv and generally hung out.

Our flight got in a bit earlier than our condo check in, but we weren't sure exactly where it was, so we head out to it before doing an adventure. When no one was there and it was ready for us, we went in and took a look around. The inside was lovely. Two bedrooms, updated kitchen, good sized living room and right on the ocean, as promised. I went to look for the pool. And that, my friends, was the beginning of the end. The pool was in the middle of a shit hole condo complex and right next to major roof construction of one of the buildings. There were construction vehicles, men on roofs tearing things up and a cement mixer about 20 feet from our unit. I was not happy. I went back to tell Michael. He was not happy. He suggested we go look at the beach. Although there wasn't direct access to a walkable beach in front of our unit (just rocks and waves up to the retaining wall), a promised gate to the next unit and the beach was 10 feet away. Unfortunately, it was locked with a giant lock for which we had no key. I was not happy. Michael was not either. We did some risky rock climbing that, had the tide been any higher would have been just plain stupid, and made it to a small park. The girls played in the rocks and water while Parker threw the ball with Michael.

I was texting the condo manager to ask about construction, locked gate, missing key, laundry room, wifi access, and a few other things. We took the highway back to the condo after a bit, which was almost more unsafe then walking on the slippery rocks. It was then we asked the kids to try the pool. Parker, who can handle super cold water, jumped in and jumped right out saying, "Ooooh, no way!" I was beginning to think we would not be staying at this condo. When I got the text from the manager saying we checked in too early, the construction was until Christmas and he didn't know anything about the lock, I knew we wouldn't be staying there. Massive construction, no access to beach, and no pool were all deal breakers.

I had no idea what we were gonna do and I was freaking out, but Michael was Mr. Cool saying we would figure it out. I emailed the travel agent to see if she could help and started looking at other places we could stay. As you could imagine, last minute condos for the week before Hawaii were few and far between....not to mention incredibly expensive.

We went to lunch at the near by Whalers Village and it was then that we discovered that the car we got (a regular car rather than a minivan to save money) was a complete mistake as it was challenging at best to buckle in the kids and their proximity to eachother caused immediate fights, teasing, hitting and other such nonsense. I continued checking expedia, freaking out. Michael started walking in and out of hotels on the beach seeing if they had rooms. He was being a real sport since this type of thing is low on his list of fun things to do. "Hey Michael...go into that place, find the front desk, talk to some stranger and ask them the most ridiculous question you can and then come tell me what they say." He loves that shit. He got no good news either.

We drove back to the condo where I was still freaking out. I knew I would be miserable in this condo for 10 days. I knew the kids would be miserable. I knew all that misery would cause Michael to be miserable. I knew we couldn't stay there. But I also knew the only few options were not ideal either. Not ocean front. Not ground floor. Not cheap. Not even reasonable. We stood looking at each other for a while, trying to figure out a way to make this all right and we came up with nothing. So Michael packed up the stuff we had just unpacked as I booked a room on expedia at the nearby Westin. This is the only picture we have of the horrible condo. It was right after we arrived and we were all still thrilled to be there.

After some confusion at the Westin (since we had literally booked the room minutes before we walked up we were not yet in the system), we got to our one bedroom unit. It had a full kitchen, giant bath and all the amenities one would expect with fancy resort condo. It had an ocean view (as in if you stood on the balcony you could see blue out there somewhere) which was apparently an upgrade from what I booked which was a garden view which would have been the parking lot. It was late by then, about 7pm Hawaii time so super late for the kids. Nonetheless, we went down the jacuzzi before heading to bed, the kids in the living room and Michael and I in the bedroom. It had been an incredibly stressful day and although I was glad we were in a good place, I was still freaking out about the money and the stress of the day.

I don't remember many of the details of the next 9 days. Which is good for you because if I did, this would be a very hard post to read (if it isn't already). And good for me since I would still be quite mad about it all. But here are the highlights; good and bad.

It rained every single day. Some days all day. Some days on and off. Some days hard. Some days sprinkling. We saw many rainbows because there was sun as well on most days.

It was windy every single day. Not just breezy. Windy. So windy that we couldn't sit on the lounge chairs without losing towels, clothing, and food to the wind. Sitting on the beach was like getting exfoliated by the sand that hit you on all sides. We think, although this can't be 100 percent confirmed, that our hotel complex was the epicenter of the wind. Something about it's location in front of the valley made it susceptible to huge gusts of wind according to one waitress.

Not being on the ground floor with quick access to and from the room was problematic, as we expected. The kids were cooped up when Mom and Dad were sick of the rain and wind, which was often.

We didn't do many excursions because of the car rental situation. It was just plain painful to sit in the car with the kids without wanting to kill them without 5 minutes.

The resort had many large incredible pools and hot tubs; one with a water slide that Parker loved and went down 200 times total. His original goal was 100, but when that was easily attained, he went for it. After 200 times, he wouldn't go on it anymore as he was afraid he couldn't get to 300. I went on it once which was one time too many.

They also had a kids area complete with pirate ship and playground. The kids had a great time there while I huddled under towels trying to keep warm and dry.

Michael and I had a lot of lava flows, mai tais and pina coladas. I'm not a fan of alcohol but I do like a drink with a little umbrella, piece of pineapple, and cherry on top. I think they all helped ease the pain.

Micheal and I each got in some good runs. I missed one short run during the week due to laziness, but did my two long runs on the Saturdays. The second one was 10 miles which I ran along the beach (not in the sand, but on a path) from Kaanapali to Lahaina and back. This American Life kept me entertained on that run.

We got to sleep a lot. Long at night and naps on many of the days. I find sitting around exhausting, so I was extra tired. The kids watched tv in the morning to keep quiet and that was helpful as Michael and I switched off getting up early to run.

One evening Michael and I left the kids in the room with the tv on and the phone set to call Michael with one touch. We told them we were heading to the restaurant (which could be seen from our room) and they should watch tv, call if there was a problem and not answer the door or phone for anyone. We enjoyed some coconut shrimp, fruity drinks, and quiet before we got the call. I ran up to the room where they kids all said, "Our mouths hurt from the pineapple!" That was it. I stayed with them and Michael continued to enjoy the quiet downstairs.

The kids were incredibly annoying. Fighting a lot. Behaving badly. Bugging each other. And us. And for some reason there were lots of potty accidents. I think the situation (wind, rain, car) stressed them out too although I think they actually handled it better than I did.

I spent too much money on silly things for the kids (stuffed animals, wind chimes, flute in the shape of a whale, etc). I don't why. I think I was trying to buy happiness.

The power went off for the entire resort several times on Christmas eve. Luckily all we were doing was watching tv, as presents had been wrapped and kids were asleep but it was the icing on the cake of the week.

The beach in front of the hotel would have been nice if it wasn't raining and windy all the time. A bit corrally for good swimming but the kids all had fun there doing body surfing at the shoreline and Michael even took them each snorkeling on one day. On one day when it wasn't as cold and windy as normal we went out there with sand toys and enjoyed a good hour and half before it got ugly again. That was the best we got on the beach. Even a trip to the annually successful self named Shark Beach was a bust as it was so cold and windy even Michael and Parker couldn't deal.

Christmas was good. The kids all got the thing they asked for which made them happy as we had threatened them with rocks from Santa for being "bad". ( Elizabeth was convinced she was getting a rock.) When they woke up on Christmas morning we heard them whispering. When Michael went to the bathroom, Elizabeth said to him, "What is taking Santa so long?" They all fully believe the whole Santa thing which I find odd considering I told them last year he (and the tooth fairy) didn't exist.

The last day there, we rented one of the covered pool deck chairs and actually had a good time, ordering pool side lunch, playing in the pool as a family, going down the waterslide, and enjoying the bouts of pouring rain somewhat protected from the wind. I was glad for that day since so many before it sucked.

Me, trying to be happy.

Can you tell how windy it is here?

Trying to keep warm.

Some other random shots:

Christmas Eve

In between the fighting there was moments of kindness.

Yeah, I bought them this stupid dolphin.

All in all, the most expensive and worse trip I've ever taken. Even worse that Mexico in early 2006 when I was just pregnant with the twins. Had I been able to come home early from this one, I would have. But as Michael said about a dozen times there when I complained: It could have been worse. There could have been terrorists taking over the resort.

Happy holidays!

2011-12-15T05:54:00.001-08:00

Pals

2011-12-14T18:37:00.001-08:00

Birthday dinner at fentons!

2011-12-14T17:33:00.001-08:00

Happy birthday Parker!

2011-12-14T06:48:00.001-08:00

SF outing

2011-12-11T19:15:00.001-08:00

I took the girls, Fletcher and Sebastian to the city today for some holiday cheer. We took Bart which is always an adventure. We first stopped at the Macy's windows to oogle the kittens. Then we went to see the giant tree in union square. We had a snack, Elizabeth took some pictures. Then we went to look at another giant tree in Neiman Marcus. Then we got some chocolate, some ridiculous hats and went back home on Bart. Kids were great despite the cold and massive crowds.

TBB Holiday Party

2011-12-11T19:08:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the twins club holiday party. It was the first year that Susan and I had nothing to do with it. Well...Susan helped with some prep but I did nothing and it was great. Ebba's husband Francis was Santa.

Happy Bird Day

2011-12-11T08:44:00.001-08:00

Things Elizabeth whispered to me during Nutcracker

2011-12-11T08:35:00.000-08:00

"Why aren't they talking?"

"Where is the lady with the big skirt?"

"Where's Charlie?" (When Charlie, our 5 year old friend was on stage.)

"No, it's not!" to the girl behind us who said the doll in Party scene was the Sugar Plum Fairy.

"Now, they are gonna have to clean up all that snow."

"What happened to the girl?" (In this version Clara dances with the marzipan and flowers.)

"Are those the chinese?" (When the Spanish dancers came out.)

"Why did Uncle Drosselmeyer where those tight black tights?"

Parker 7 Year Check Up

2011-12-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

Parker is

50 lbs and 11 ounces
4 feet one inch tall
This puts him at the 30 percentile for BMI...in other words, he's a skinny kid.

His sight is 20/25 and his hearing is A O K. I was actually hoping there was something wrong with his hearing since he is so loud and says, "What?" so often, but I suppose that is just Parker.

Good times in Angry Bird land

2011-12-10T18:07:00.001-08:00

Good cake

2011-12-10T17:45:00.001-08:00

Zoe plays pin the beak on the angry bird

2011-12-10T12:59:00.001-08:00

Parker's loot

2011-12-10T11:39:00.001-08:00

Angry bird cakes

2011-12-10T10:25:00.001-08:00

Getting ready for the party

2011-12-10T07:49:00.001-08:00

Almost Party Time!

2011-12-09T21:32:00.000-08:00

Party Prep

2011-12-07T19:32:00.001-08:00

With only two more days until Parker's party, party prep is in full swing Chez Long. I've not only ordered a cake and cupcakes, I tried to make an angry bird cake today. My friend Kika lent me her pan. She did one for her son, Parker's BFF. But Kika is more patient and skilled then I am, so the result is much different. Still, here is my practice cake. I'll give it another go on Friday. See if I can smooth out the fondant better.

We've also been doing lots of cutting. First for the balloons we'll be making.

Then there is the cut outs for the angry bird tshirts we'll be making.

We've also got angry bird tattoos, games, sling shots, posters, figurines, edible cupcake toppers and lots and lots of golden eggs. I made a treasure hunt where each kid finds an egg (which is filled with angry bird gummy candy). And just in case kids are more mellow, some coloring pages. Oh, and Parker's presents...an angry bird lunchbox and angry bird fleece blanket. And the Wheel of Fortune Board Game complete with spinner.

My goal is to so completely immerse these kids in Angry Bird nonsense that we'll never have to hear about it again. Wish us luck.

Shirts

2011-12-07T08:57:00.001-08:00

For some reason this morning the girls both decided to wear the shirts they got from Kathleen and Kay.

It's christmastime in the city

2011-12-04T19:45:00.001-08:00

Parker was at a party, and Rachel and Miranda were at the movies, so Elizabeth and I took it upon ourselves to make the house merry.

Baseball evals

2011-12-04T19:41:00.001-08:00

I'm planning to coach Parker's little league next spring, so I volunteered to help at the evaluation this Saturday. This being Piedmont, the whole thing was highly organized and well done, even despite having 60 7-8 year-olds running around. I took a group of 15 of them through four different evaluation stations, where they caught flies, caught grounded, hit pitches, and ran the bases. Parker was squarely in the middle of the pack the whole way, except for running, where he was tied for fastest. He is always asserting that he's the fastest in his class, so perhaps it's really true. Should be a fun season.

Glass Guy

2011-12-04T19:28:00.001-08:00

Marcus from next door had his 8 year old birthday party today, which was superhero themed, and which involved shooting a movie with the guests, and which Parker was invited to attend as Glass Guy, a superhero who can shatter glass without touching it. To stop crime, one hopes. Here he is, ready to break glass in the service of good.

A busy 10 days

2011-12-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

Only 10 days until we leave for Hawaii, but those 10 days will be very, very full.

Things that need to get done before we leave...

Final preparations for Parker's Angry Bird party where we'll have sling shot, golden egg treasure hunt, angry bird balloon making and other angry bird nonsense. Lots of cutting, taping, and building still to be done.

7 year old check up for Parker.

Dentist appt for Parker.

See our friend Charlie in the nutcracker.

Parker does his first swim meet.

Twins by the Bay Holiday party.

Lunch with Shari in the city.

Supervise a field trip for girls.

Regular slate of classes (piano, gymnastic, clay, choir, swim, bootcamp) and playdates (Zoe, Brady, Karina, Quinn, etc)

Actually have Parker's party.

Pack.

Set up house-sitters.

And I'm sure 10 other things I can't think of right now.

Time

2011-12-04T18:09:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth asked me today...

"Mom was Maria (from the sound of music) around when there were dinosaurs?"

Cat eats cracker

2011-12-01T14:59:00.001-08:00

I don't understand it but there you go.

The girls at the park

2011-11-30T22:08:00.001-08:00

Banana Phone by Miranda

2011-11-30T07:48:00.000-08:00

Derriere

2011-11-28T21:36:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, Elizabeth wore a dress with tights and no underwear. I told her this was not ok and that she had to wear underwear.

Today, when I went to pick them up, her dress came up and sure enough, no underwear. When we were walking back to the car, I said, "Elizabeth are you wearing underwear?"

"No," she said. I again told her it was not ok to not wear underwear with tights. She asked why. I told her everyone would see her butt through her tights. I asked her if she was ok with everyone seeing her private parts and her butt on the playground? She said if she wore underwear they would just see her underwear which she didn't want. I told her seeing her underwear was better than everyone seeing her butt.

She started crying and said, "Mom, please, please stop saying butt! Please say bottom!"

Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T21:04:00.000-08:00

We went to LA for thanksgiving this year. We left Wednesday afternoon after Michael was done with work. There was a bunch of traffic, but it wasn't too horrible. We arrived past bedtime at the hotel in Valencia so the kids were in a bad place. But they fell asleep quickly leaving Michael and I to enjoy some room service for dinner. Then I watched the Rookie, which is a three hankie triumph. The next day, after Michael got up early with the kids to set up some cartoons, we slept in a bit and then got up to have a nice hotel buffet breakfast. I took the kids for a quick swim in the lovely hotel pool and hot tub while Michael packed up the room and car.

Then we were off to Magic Mountain. It seemed like it was crowded in the parking lot, but once inside we realized how empty it was. Michael and Parker walked on to all the big roller coasters without much, if any, lines. I hung out with the girls in the little kid area. We hooked up with the boys for lunch (pizza) and then did some more rides. We all did one together that was very scary. Everyone but me wanted to do it again. I'm such an old lady.

Miranda started to act really bad so we figured it was time to go. After some mood necklace purchases in the gift shop, we took off for Santa Monica. It only took about 25 minutes and the Marcuses were already there when we arrived.

We hung out, listened to my siblings play music, watched Oliver beat my dad in chess, and then ate a great dinner my mom made. I ate way too much (all day) but still crammed in some pumpkin pie custard. The kids went to sleep late again and I felt pretty gross by that point.

My parents got up with the kids early and we got to sleep in until 8. Michael and I did a run together, something that never gets to happen, down to the beach, and back. Then we met up with the Marcuses again for some hanging out and time at a local park where Parker did a lot of running. Then back to mom's for dinner and giant hoho cake made by Dad.

We got to sleep in again (thanks Mom and Dad) on Saturday, hung out for a bit at home and then took off back to Oakland at 10am. We thought we would beat traffic, but there was plenty including a massive accident on the other side of the freeway near Santa Nella. Michael drove the whole way which made me very happy since I always do that drive alone.

Kids were tired and hungry when we arrived home. Parker also had some strange rash all over his body. So after a quick dinner and dose of benadryl, they all went to sleep. Early for once.

It was a quick visit, but a good one. We'll see Amy and the clan soon as they are coming up after christmas.

Riding with the big kids

2011-11-24T13:50:00.001-08:00