Elizabeth eats more green stuff.

This time it is bath crayons. And only after she drew a lovely picture.

Parker's numbers

For the past couple of days Parker has been playing with a math-related coloring book. He likes to trace over the numbers, of course.



And then fill in some blanks.



Do a little subtraction.



And then do a lot of addition.



I'm not sure how much math he actually understands. What impresses me most is his penmanship.



Meanwhile, Elizabeth loves her bunny hat.

Bathtime

Enjoying a bubblebath with all the new toys.

The view

...from room 1410 at the Century Plaza Hotel

She picked it out herself.

And then walked around the house like that for a long time.

Big boy

We are making another attempt at potty training, which means that Parker is wearing big boy underwear, and so are Ted and Lion. Parker just came to me and wanted Lion's underwear removed. I told him that Lion needed to wear underwear because he is a big boy, and big boys wear underwear.

Parker was very exasperated with me, and said, "Lion is not a big boy. Lion is an animal."

I couldn't really argue with that, so I took off Lion's underwear.

Cousins

November 2006



December 2007

Over in the meadow

I was reading Parker books tonight. He is obviously glad to be home in his own bed again. Traveling is nice, but so is coming home, and all of the kids seemed sort of relieved tonight. Me and Rachel, too.

Anyway, I was reading books to Parker tonight, and had selected The Owl and the Pussycat, a classic. Judy brought this to Parker on one of her visits over the past year or two, and it's been with us for a while. It's a beautifully illustrated edition, and she brought him an equally well-illustrated copy of Over In The Meadow on the same visit, another popular classic around here.

We were taking our time with books tonight, chatting between pages, discussing the pictures and whatnot, and when we got to Owl and the Pussycat I asked him if he knew who had given him the book? We had just come from seeing Grandma Judy, and it seemed opportune.

I doubted he would remember since it had been so long ago. And he didn't remember. So I informed him that Grandma Judy had given him this book.

And at that point he grinned like the Cheshire cat and said, "And Over In The Meadow!"

Yep, that one, too.

L.A.

We just got back from our trip to LA. We went down to celebrate Christmas with my sister's family as well as to enjoy Christmas Eve (Grandpa Tony's Birthday) with my family. The trip down was thankfully unevenful. The kids were armed with books, toys, dvd player and food. We stopped at McDonalds to let them run around for a bit, but it was so damn cold, we didn't stay long.


On Christmas Eve day we took a walk over to our old elementary school, then came back for dinner.



First for the kids.


Then for the adults. My mom always does a many course meal followed by a delicious cake from Amy/Eran. Michael opted to have dinner with his family but was back in time for the cake.

The girls found a willing sucker in Eran who was more than happy read to them before bedtime.



The next morning was Christmas. We didn't want to make the Marcus boys wait (since they were the only ones who even understood what Christmas was.) So we woke the kids up early and head over to their house arriving just before 6. Of course, the boys, those eager boys, were asleep. We waited for them and then opened presents. I was quite pleased with the presents we got the Marcuses and then all seemed to enjoy them.





Parker had no interest in any of it, opting to eat breakfast and then play with numbers. He had to be coaxed over with promises of calculators and pianos. Peter helped him open his presents.





We got a spectacular gift from Amy and Eran to help us with our tupperware management issues. "As seen on TV", this gift will not only help us get organized, but it will give us permission to get rid of some old, lidless ones.


After a bit more hanging out, we took the girls to Grandma Judy's and went off to enjoy two days of babyfree/Parkerfree time at a nearby Hyatt. A couple days later, we spent some more time with the Marcuses and then drove home. The kids all seemed happy to be home, in their own rooms, with their own stuff.

Girls Get Second Runner Up!

Yay! Our pic of Elizabeth and Miranda with Santa came in second in The Poop Crying Babies with Santa Contest put on by the SF Chronicle. How ridiculous is that?

Soccer

Parker started his new soccer class today. The uniform alone was worth the price of admission.




He had a great time, and did a lot better staying with the group than I'd given him credit for. I'd say he paid attention a good 60% of the time.



He's in the 3-4 year old group, so there's a high tolerance for being in your own little world.



The class was 45 minutes, but Parker still found time to trace some numbers.

Someone needs to update their address book.

I got some mail today addressed to Laura Sprinson. It had our address (rather than a neighbor's address). Since the mail was neither junk mail nor any recipient that I had seen before, I did a quick internet search and found a match. So I called her up. Sure enough, she lived here about 10 years ago. The first thing she said was: Do you like the kitchen? Apparently, she was the one who did the remodel. She went on to say that she only got to enjoy it for about 6 months before moving so she always wondered if the next person liked it or not. I told her it was the selling point and thanked her again. I got her new address and promised to forward her mail.

Too funny.

Shayna

My friend Shayna has been hanging out with the kids this past week. She's got some time on her hands and I needed the help to do things like take my car to the shop. Today she remarked on how funny it is to notice which baby is good at which stuff and how different they are. For example, she said that Elizabeth is quite aware that she has to bang the ball drop toy very hard to make it work while Miranda has no clue. Both girls seem to like her probably because she indulges their desires to read the same book over and over as well as play with the farm animals.

More Big Fake Dog

Shari

Today we went to Shari's house. She is a old and dear friend that I don't get to see that much since she works, travels a lot and has an actual life. We've been close ever since we met over 10 years ago despite the fact that we are complete opposites. She's been there for me time and time again and I know we'll be friends forever. The kids immediately took to her (everyone does.)

We had some snacks.



Tortured the cat that she adopted from me when I worked at ebspca.


Played on baby gear that was at her house for a friends baby to use.





Jumped on the furniture.


Got tickled.


Explored.




Hung out with the big fake dog.




And of course, made numbers out of jenga.