New Hats

It's getting cold around these parts...so new cozy hats were in order. And you know me, I can't resist the ridiculous hats...

Michael's Next

It seems I finally got what the kids had. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner, but getting it later doesn't make it any better. Actually, it could not have come at a worse time. After planning to go out for nearly a month on my birthday, I started to feel sick Friday evening. Jenna had already come over and we were all set to go out. We did my birthday cake before we left so Parker could have some, put the girls down and then left. I felt ill, but figured it was the mound of mashed potatoes I had for lunch or the pre dinner cake snack. When we got to Kirala and got in with almost no wait (a true rarity), I started to feel really bad. After one bite of tamago, it was worse. I basically didn't eat anything else and escaped the restaurant just in time to throw up in a plastic bag I luckily had in the car.

We went home, I went to sleep in the back house an stayed there until 9:30 the next day. I still couldn't eat anyting and had a fever, so when Michael took the kids to the mall, I went back to sleep. I slept until they got home, had a bowl of cereal with them and then went back to sleep on the couch while everyone napped.

So...it was a pretty lame birthday since I couldn't really even enjoy my cake.

For those still keeping score

That old video of Elizabeth rolling over for the first time is up to 4,000 views on YouTube.

Saturday at the mall

Rachel found an excellent indoor play area down at the Bay Fair mall, and I took the kids down there for some frolicking today. The Bay Fair is one of those weird malls that never seems to have many people there, and has all sorts of oddball stores, and is vaguely unsettling. But man do they have a nice play area for the kids!

Happy birthday Rachel

Lawrence hall of science

Parker and I went to Lawrence Hall of Science today. I forgot to bring the camera, so today's blog comes courtesy of my cell phone.

Naturally, we had to spend some time climbing the strand of DNA out front.



And once inside, he wasted no time going to the marble run, which he played with for about 8 minutes.





We also spent some time playing with the giant foam blocks, which lasted about 1 minute.



We spent about 20 minutes playing with this cool little animation device. I wasn't sure how it worked at first, but Parker was a pro. They had about 15 different little animation strips (bouncing ball, running horse, jumping kangaroo), which you watch through the slits in the side of the spinning cylinder, and Parker played every single one of them.







They have a nice interactive music exhibit, and we spent a good half an hour going from station to station, whacking on whatever there was to whack on. There were a lot of multimedia exhibits, whale songs and stuff, and Parker liked pushing all the buttons more than listening to whatever it was. He liked banging on all the percussion instruments, though.



We also spent a few minutes reading some books, including a spanish language Ten Little Butterflies.



All in all, a good trip.

Impressive

Although I have no idea if writing letters is impressive for an almost 3 year old, I was very impressived with Parker's i's and j's, both capital and lowercase.

Parker's latest thing

Parker got a cool dry-erase book a couple of days ago designed to teach kids to write their letters. Parker went nuts for it, and seemed to be pretty good at it, even though he can only hold the pen like a caveman.




Last night we gave him a plain dry-erase board, and he's been going to town with that.




He also knows the sounds all the letters make, thanks to that obnoxious Hooked On Phonics cartoon he's been obsessed with lately. So I think it's only a matter of time before he puts all the pieces together and starts blogging.

Thanksgiving

We're skipping thanksgiving this year. Rachel is going to spend the weekend working on a consulting project she has been neglecting, and I am going to spend the weekend hanging out with the kids. This morning we all bundled up and headed out to Redwood Park, one of my favorite parks.



Redwood park is about three miles across, filled with lovely redwood trees, and features a great creekside running trail. It also features a little playground about a half mile in, which is where we headed.



I wanted to go to this park because it's in the middle of a big meadow, and so I wouldn't have to worry too much if the girls wandered off a bit. It didn't matter because they were very happy to climb on the structure and play in the sand.



I didn't take too many pictures, because I was occupied making sure neither of the girls fell off the play structure, which they didn't. Parker had a blast, running around and going down the twisty slide, and playing with a truck that some other kid had brought.

So even though there's no turkey today, I did get to spend a nice hour being thankful for the East Bay Regional Parks Department, and for having three such great kids.

Christina Came Over

Christina, a prior employee now friend, came over today to help out with the kids. She is moving to LA in a couple weeks but is helping me on a project I'm doing for Berkeley Humane as well as sitting for me some before she goes.

It was pretty funny to see her try to pick them both up at once. Elizabeth got up first and then Miranda came over asking to be picked up. Christina, bless her heart, wondered how the hell to do it and then figured it out. Very cute!

A good outing.

I met Liz and her kids at a park this morning. Despite it being a tad chilly, it was great to get out. The kids had fun and I enjoyed getting out of the town with children that weren't crying and screaming.

Feeling Better!