RD Mama

San Diego Model Train Museum

2012-01-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

It was no surprise that Porter loved this huge model train museum A LOT. However, the rest of us enjoyed it more than I expected. The detail was amazing and there was room, after room, after hallway of model landscapes with trains and vehicles and people. I also really dug the cute little hobby guys tucked in behind the windows driving their trains, tinkering with controllers and eating potato chips. So cute.

It took him about 30 minutes before he moved from the first viewing window.

The whole place was full of little hidden details. Shark in the swimming pool! There was also a really fun scene with a stegosaurus being unloaded from a cargo train car. And Superman on a clock tower.

I really wonder how many more hours he would have stood at these windows if the museum had not been closing (and we had to drag him out screaming).

The Model Train Museum was within Balboa Park, an amazing park in San Diego. Not only is the park full of beautiful architecture and gardens, but it is crammed with museums. I am not sure how we will ever get to visiting them all, now that we discovered the model trains!

Rainy San Diego Day

2012-01-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

We had planned our second day in San Diego to be a little low key. The weather cooperated perfectly, giving us a nice, relaxing rainy morning to take it slow. We decided our best course of action was a swim in the heated pool, followed by a hot tub soak.

Then off to the beautiful botanical gardens in Balboa Park.

These big old greenhouses always make me nostalgic for my Cornell days, hiding in the greenhouses up there among ferns, orchids, and pothos in the middle of winter.

Next up, a picnic lunch in the park, timed perfectly with the rain clouds clearing out.

These guys are a bunch of goofballs.

After lunch we found Porter's favorite place on earth, an enormous model train museum. I think that probably deserves a post of it's own. The trains left everyone in high spirits, which led to goofy racing around.

Porter's hair is getting a bit long. I love this shot of him shoving it back in between bursts of running.

At this wishing well, together we all tossed in the one lonely penny my wallet contained. Our wish (for awake pandas, not sleeping lumps) came true the next day.

Peek.

Sea World

2012-01-20T22:51:00.000-08:00

We decided to wreck Matilda's perfect attendance record at school and play hookie today.

I don't think she minded!

The theme park was almost deserted today with no crowds anywhere. At lunch we practically had the cafe to ourselves, vying for table space only with the aggressive heron who was quite interested in our food.

Dear Matilda's Mom

2012-01-18T23:16:00.000-08:00

In school right now the curriculum focus for Matilda's class is food. I, of course, cannot help myself and have been offering up lots of ideas and maybe too much "help" to the teacher. She seems to be politely ignoring my efforts to plan a field trip to the farmers market, probably wisely. However, she was quite pleased to welcome me into class yesterday to share a huge variety of produce and talk with the kids about farmers markets. I went totally overboard in my enthusiastic market shopping and brought way more items than we could cover in 30 minutes with 22 rowdy, over-excited kids. I had a blast, but left wondering how they could possibly have absorbed anything from the rushed and disorganized presentation. It also proved to me that I am no match for a kindergarten class. Despite the chaos, the kids all participated eagerly, tried lots of food, and seemed to generally enjoy it. For tasting we cut up purple and white potatoes, turnips, fennel, cucumbers, cauliflower, radishes, purple and white carrots, pommelo, blood oranges and mandarins.

As I picked Matilda up today she was bursting at the seams to share the thank you notes that each child in her class made for me. It was a fantastic treat to read through and see all the drawings. I have included below a few drawings and some of the notes (spelling corrected for your reading ease) written from the children.

Dear Matilda's mom,

Thank you for bringing the carrots and the cauliflower. I really liked them.

Dear Matilda's mom,

Thank you for bringing in the vegetables. I love what you did because I love you.

Dear Matilda's mom,

Thank you for the vegetables.

Dear Matilda's mom,

Thank you for the food but I only liked 1 kind of food and that food was the blood orange.

Dear Matilda's mom,

Thank you for the vegetables because I like the vegetables because the vegetables is healthy.

Dear Matilda's mom,

Thank you for showing the vegetables. I like learning about vegetables because I like vegetables.

Dear Matilda's mom,

Thank you for giving all of the food. I love you.

Dear Mama,

Thank you for the fennel I liked. It was yummy because it tasted like licorice. Matilda

Note that in Matilda's picture above she depicted herself with a big, raised blue hand. She actually did a fairly poor job of raising her hand and waiting to be called on. I suppose if your mom is in class covering all your favorite veggies it might be hard to remember that little rule. It is also worth noting that Matilda ate 2 raw potatoes, 1 big raw turnip and 1/2 a bulb of fennel after the presentation yesterday. At least we won't have a problem eating our way through all the extra produce I purchased for the kids to manhandle!

This picture below is probably my favorite because it really captures the mobbed feeling I had at the end of the class when all the hands were clamoring up at me for the last few sample items I had on my tray. Maybe those sad faces indicate that not everyone got to sample as much as they would have liked?

Today's Cell Phone Pics

2012-01-16T23:13:00.001-08:00

Porter wanted his shirt off for nap time today. My sweet sleeping boy; he is so exhausting these days that naps are especially savored.

Matilda was certain the birthday party we were attending today required "fancy dress" so she donned this Alice meets Wonder Woman ensemble.

My snacker is a goof.

Everything is Sandy

2012-01-16T00:12:00.000-08:00

We had another fun outing to the beach with our sled. This time we invited more friends along to multiply the good time. It is official; I prefer the beach at winter time.

After they lured the birds in with breadcrumbs, the kids all chased them around for a bit. It took quite a while for the gulls and pigeons to give up on more bread and wander off.

Our exciting animal encounter for the day was a pair of sea lions swimming in the surf. They stuck around for a bit for us to see them bobbing up in the water, jumping around and even barking! We all theorized that they were yelling at the surfers not too far from them.

Role Reversal

2012-01-15T00:08:00.000-08:00

One of the really fun things about having these schmancy new phones is easily sending pictures back and forth. Most days I send a picture or two to Tim of our adventures. Often I will send a particularly goofy one to other family members, too. It is a nice way to stay connected and share the kids with family. Today was a work day for me and I got to see how nice it is on the receiving end. Here are some of the pics I got:

Buffalo!

This bearskin rug was pretty much a show stopper for the kids. Porter hollered, "What is that!!?" The tour guide at the William Hart Museum confirmed that kids always are intrigued by the Kodiak carpet.

Chick-Fil-A now features those squeeze pouches of applesauce in their kids meal. If my kids were not already completely enamored, they are now for certain.

Porter Playdate

2012-01-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

I took Porter and one of his pals to the zoo yesterday; they were both so excited to go. His gal pal is a younger sibling too, so she also just gets brought along for her older sister's social calendar without any of her own "social engagements." It was so sweet to see how thrilled they were to be having a special outing together.

Splashing in the water fountain.

Not watching animals, actually entranced by the big excavators and diggers working on the new rainforest area at the zoo.

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

2012-01-12T21:21:00.000-08:00

Now that Christmas cards are well in the past I am finally remembering to post a few cute pictures from the day we got our photo for the card. Tim managed to capture some really cute shots of the kids, individually and together which is always the challenge! It is nice to see them all again a month later.

And here is the final product!

Big Kids

2012-01-10T22:58:00.001-08:00

Maybe it is just because I am sending her off to school all day long again now, but Matilda is looking really mature to me these days. Here she is headed off in the morning the past two days.

In the Batgirl tee picture especially she was giving me a look that I thought made her look older. Or maybe it is just the pre-pre-teen, "I'm just tolerating you Mom" look.

On the bike today Porter and I walked a huge loop around the neighborhood. He is getting so good on it that I am less hunched over him worrying he's going to crash and we can actually cover some ground fast. Seems like there is hope for regular exercise again!

Bullet Points

2012-01-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

Matilda's wiggly tooth is even wigglier. She is beyond excited. Porter will tell you that his teeth are wiggly too. Sympathetically wiggly.
Porter woke up multiple times last night yelling in his sleep about the injustices in his life. The first wake up I went in to find him hollering "Moooommmm.......I want to go sledding!"The complaints that followed are mostly a blur. Matilda never talked in her sleep, but every night Porter yells things. Most often they are food related: "I want a turkey sandwich!" "That is my piece!" "I want it plain!"
Matilda is reading like crazy. Everyday I am surprised over again by her reading as she pieces together the world around her. Tonight while I fixed dinner she read books to Porter. Incredible.
Porter apparently learned a lot from our crab-race-to-crab-for-dinner episode yesterday. At dinner tonight he asked if we were eating pieces of my pet chicken from childhood, Debbie. (His current favorite "story" to be told at bedtime is Tim recounting all of his pets from childhood. Porter can very accurately report pet names with their accompanying cause of death. Quite morose.)
Matilda took some of the pickled watermelon rind I made her and Tim for Christmas packed in her lunchbox today. The container of course did not get sealed back up completely, leaking sticky sweet pickle juices everywhere. I am not sure her lunch box will ever smell right again,
At lunch today Porter was being all goofy asking me gibberish questions. At one point he asked if I am a mama. To play along with the goof I answered back that, "Yes I was a mama and I had one little girl named Matilda and one little boy named Porter." Porter then added that I also had "one Tim with a fuzzy head named Daddy."

Something Fun Everyday: Crabs!

2012-01-08T22:51:00.000-08:00

We headed to the farmers market this morning to celebrate our last leisurely day of "vacation" since Matilda heads back to school tomorrow. While there we were all tempted by the crabs and came home with two for dinner. Of course this meant the kids had the whole day to check on them.

Many times the crabs came out of the fridge to "race" and get held. At one point poor Matilda was going into the fridge for a snack and a crab moved enough to almost fall out of the open door. M was not pleased by that and nervously called for reinforcements to assist her in the precarious situation.

The crabs were delicious just as the farmers market guy promised.

It was just what Tim and I needed after watching all those crabs being cooked and sold at the Fisherman's Wharf area in San Fran last week.

More "Sledding"

2012-01-07T23:52:00.000-08:00

I am officially in love with sledding on the beach. We invested $10 to get our own saucer sled and headed to Malibu today to school Tim in the ways of sand sledding.

He seemed to pick it up just fine!

After not too long, he even got fancy:

For kids, hauling the sled back up the hill seems to be just as hard as I recall from childhood, regardless of whether it is sand or snow. Porter was always trying to convince one of us to carry it for him.

I think I like the beach even better in the winter without the crowds, heat and sunburns. I am hoping for lots more "sledding" outings in our future this winter!

Future NBAer

2012-01-06T23:22:00.001-08:00

As I was snapping pictures of Porter at the playground today I got a shot of his concentration face. He looks just like he is ready to shoot a free throw.

I also got a funny one of him yesterday with static head from the slide that seems like it should be shared!

Wiggly!

2012-01-05T23:52:00.000-08:00

Matilda officially has a wiggly tooth. She is thrilled by this news, as she's been wishing for a loose tooth for months now. It may be a while yet before the tooth fairy visits though as her tooth is just barely loose. It is finally moving enough that Tim and I could both independently verify a slight bit of tooth movement. Matilda now has a finger permanently on her lower front teeth trying to wiggle and move them. Very exciting!

Porter's Latest Obsessions

2012-01-04T23:37:00.000-08:00

While outdoors, this is what Porter can be found doing.

Porter has only had this balance bike put together for two days and he is a speed demon on it. When indoors, you can find Porter in front of his new marble run. It arrived in the mail from Grandma Marge and Grandpa Chris yesterday and Porter has played with it non-stop since opening it. We had to drag him away for dinner last night and this morning I could only manage tooth brushing because we negotiated that he could still HOLD the marbles while at the sink.

Sand Sledding!

2012-01-03T17:03:00.001-08:00

Who needs snow? We had an awesome time today riding sleds, building sand castles and splashing in the waves.

80 degrees in January is alright by me!

Home & Regrouping

2012-01-02T23:28:00.001-08:00

It is always hard to come back to dishes and laundry and the daily grind after a trip. Thankfully all the Christmas loot softened the blow today as we took scooters to the park and assembled Porter's new balance bike from Stella & co. It was really nice to have a slow day and we all rested a bit after days of sightseeing and naps on the go. One day, Porter even managed to fall asleep while riding piggyback on the crazy loud, windy, cold walk across the Golden Gate bridge.

Playground Romp

2012-01-01T22:14:00.001-08:00

At an awesome playground in Monterey today, Matilda was really pleased to be able to climb all the way onto the top if this train. I love this snapshot of our big girl. Thank goodness I have one more week with her before school starts again!

Cable Car Success

2011-12-30T21:10:00.001-08:00

Some fun from our day, not in chronological order. Sea lions and a lollipop!

A few cable car rides.

Creepy old mechanical fun at the Musee Mechanique.

A much needed nap on my chest as we wandered the pier.

Lots of San Fran specialties to fill our bellies: Anchor Steam, Ghirardelli, sourdough, House of Nanking and oysters.

Street Car Ride

2011-12-29T22:39:00.001-08:00

We are in San Francisco for a quickie visit and Porter is quite pleased with the great variety of things to ride here. Today we ticked vintage street car off our list. He is lobbying hard for ferry ride tomorrow!

Also of note, this is my first post done on my fancy new hand-me-down iPhone. Please forgive me if I have already pocket dialed you this week!

Scooter Outing

2011-12-26T22:06:00.000-08:00

We took Matilda's new scooter for a test drive at the Hollywood reservoir today.

Porter is quite thrilled to now have full time custody of Matilda's old blue scooter. They were quite the speedy team rolling down the road. I think I need to starting going along with them in some jogging shoes, maybe for a New Years resolution or something!

As an extra bonus fun thing while we were up there, Matilda found an owl pellet. She was super excited about the discovery and we were so proud of her crazy naturalist skills! After some dissection she found this bone, along with lots of others and some teeth.

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-25T21:42:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely, slow day at home opening presents, playing with presents, cooking yummy food and making memories. I hope you all had the same.

Merry Christmas wishes from our family to yours!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T23:59:00.000-08:00

The Nutcracker was a huge hit with Matilda. She loved the dancing and costumes a ton, although at intermission she said to me, "But Mom, are the dancers real people like you and me?" The world is a confusing place I think when ballerinas look like dress up dolls.

While friends were over for Christmas Eve dinner tonight, the kids got to open one present tonight and it was of course this awesome gift from Gemma and her parents. To say the piano was a hit would be quite the understatement.

In an attempt to calm down after the piano wild times, we all stared at candles and listened to the sweet chimes for a few minutes.

Cookies chosen specifically for the big guy. As Tim was getting Porter settled for bed he was talking with him, asking a serious of questions for Porter to answer. Here is a transcript:
Is Santa's sleigh made of wood or metal? Wood
Do Santa's reindeer have silver bells or gold bells? Gold
What color are the reigns for the reindeer? Red
Does Santa bring snacks with him? No, he gets snacks from the kids!

Here are the letters left by our fireplace.

Santa's work is done here! Very excited to witness the morning fun.

Merry Christmas!

Sweet Together

2011-12-24T07:23:00.000-08:00

These kids are being so lovey to each other lately. It has been really lovely having Matilda home this past week for lots of time to play together and relax. Here's an outtake from Christmas cards that I really love. Matilda and the triceratops were all smiles, but Porter was just snuggling with his sister.

Checking Off the Christmas To-Dos

2011-12-23T23:55:00.000-08:00

Tim's favorite holiday cookies baked -Done.

Plenty of sprinkles eaten while decorating the sugar cookies - Done.

Up tomorrow, taking my girl to her first ballet performance. We will get all fancy dressed up for The Nutcracker. I am not sure who will be more excited, her for the ballet or me for classic daughter-mommy memory. I can't wait!

Alive, but Exhausted

2011-12-22T00:33:00.000-08:00

Hello, are you out there? I am neglecting the blog majorly as we frantically prepare for Christmas with baking and crafting and shopping and nose blowing. Here are some things we've done recently, not too recently though since I haven't downloaded the camera in 6 days.

Hike to the Observatory. During this hike Tim and I walked with a notepad in order to simultaneously "check our list twice" and provide the children with enrichment (i.e. keep them from climbing the walls).

Matilda, with 85 other kindergarteners, got decked out in black and white to sing a medley of nursery rhymes for the school concert. It was as adorable as you can imagine. I had tears, and not just from sheer exhaustion and lack of sleep.

We got a new angel chime, just like the one from my childhood. I had completely forgotten about these awesome things. The kids love it almost as much as I do.

My list is getting shorter, but it still includes wrapping which I always underestimate. I am going to try to get started tomorrow night. The kids are getting more and more amped everyday. Today I opened the front door to find a huge pile of delivery boxes there. Our little reader quickly notified me that the most enormous box was addressed to Matilda and Porter, from their cousin Gemma and family. That huge box looming in the living room now is definitely kicking the fever into high gear!

First Fire!

2011-12-11T23:16:00.001-08:00

It's getting very holiday cheery around here!

Candy Houses

2011-12-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

In Matilda's class today the kids all decorated "candy houses," milk cartons covered in tin foil. It involved copious amounts of sugar and the kids were all justifiably excited about this project. Here is the set up, before the class returned from PE time outside.

Here is Matilda's creation:

She used her tongue depressor (intended for frosting spreading) as the chimney. Very innovative. Although technically the kids were supposed to decorate only, and eat the houses at home, I can verify that much candy was ingested.

Portrait with Cookie

2011-12-06T01:29:00.001-08:00

We went to the tree lighting ceremony at the Biltmore, conveniently scheduled during the power outage so we could enjoy their lights (on the tree and off) AND get a free cookie dinner.

I mistakenly thought that I could magically get THE photo for our Christmas cards at this event somehow.

After no time at all it was apparent that the cookie-love was much stronger than any desire to pose for photos.

I did manage to grab one cute shot with no cookie in the frame, plus I really enjoyed the event as a kick off for the holidays!

Dilly Beans

2011-12-05T01:20:00.001-08:00

Rather than tackle the mountain of laundry that accumulated while we were out of power (aided by the fact that we were already overdue for laundry), today I took care of 12 pounds of green beans. Hopefully in 2-3 weeks these guys will be crunchy and dilly and perfect.

My favorite part of canning is hearing the little pings that the lid makes as the jars cool and the pressure vacuum pulls it down. Ping, ping, ping. So satisfying.

Back on the Grid

2011-12-04T00:40:00.001-08:00

After 72 hours we got our power back tonight! We had hot water and our gas stove to cook the whole time so, relatively, it was not too bad. However, the novelty had worn off and we were quite happy to come home tonight and discover the front porch light on finally!

Our neighborhood was strewn with broken lines so it was not really too surprising that it took so long for the crews to get them all repaired. Here is an impressive burn in the grass from a downed line that is a new landmark on our walk to and from school.

Matilda checks out some good samaritan neighbors who decided to clear this tree out of the street, after the city hadn't gotten to it in 48 hours. They spent two days clearing it!

Our neighbor's Christmas decorations after the storm.

"Camping dinners" and candlelight baths were terribly exciting for the kids.

The trucks finally arrived on our block at 8 a.m. this morning to great cheers from our house! They spent 12 hours just on our block today so it must have been a huge tangle of mess.

Shtick

2011-11-29T22:36:00.001-08:00

Near the end of our long drive back from Arizona on Sunday Porter yelled up to us in the front seat.

Porter: Hey Dad, want to hear the bad news?
Tim: (chuckling) What's the bad news, buddy?
Porter: The bad news is, a squirrel might poop in our yard!
Tim: Oh boy!
Porter: But Dad, do you want to hear the good news?
Tim: (chuckling harder now): Yes, please!
Porter: The good news is that a squirrel didn't poop in our yard!

I don't know where he gets it from, but he sure is funny. Just like his dad.

Things I Am Thankful For

2011-11-25T19:56:00.001-08:00

Somehow this.......

followed by hours of this......

did not result in any ill effects.

Losing a Tooth, Any Moment

2011-11-23T19:37:00.001-08:00

At Matilda's cleaning yesterday, she was thrilled to see the x-rays. You can see the big new teeth coming up to replace her two front bottom teeth. The dentist assured her that means she will loose her teeth soon, although she wouldn't commit to a timeline. Matilda is convinced it will be any moment and is keeping very close tabs on the cute little plastic tooth-fairy-tooth-case that her awesome dentist gave her.

Sneaky Sous Chef

2011-11-16T23:04:00.001-08:00

Tonight while assisting me in making pumpkin soup, I caught Porter drinking maple syrup. He had been left in charge of capping the olive oil and maple syrup after we put each into the soup puree. Instead, while I had my back to him, he very quickly and very neatly managed to pour several dollars worth of syrup into his water bottle. I can't even recall how he tipped me off to the situation, but I was impressed how carefully he accomplished the theft. The last dribbles that he didn't down before my discovery, we used to garnish the top of our soup. Delicious, even with moderate amounts of toddler backwash.

Siblings

2011-11-14T22:50:00.001-08:00

These two have been so sweet together lately.

Snuggling watching a video one morning.

Goofing off together while Tim was trying to get a nice shot with Grammy.

Sharing the rocking chair after another fabulous lunch of fish and pelican watching at Duke's.

Coating the kitchen floor with barley.

These guys got hours of entertainment from a dumped out expired bag of barley. I suspect we will be finding barley on the floor for months now.

Boy Cut

2011-11-11T22:47:00.001-08:00

Before

During

After

Porter and I both got haircuts at home this week. It was the most awesome thing ever. A gal that used to cut Tim's hair was back in LA for a week and looking to make some extra money. It was totally reasonable and I got my hairs taken care of without having to find a sitter or find extra time. Porter enjoyed it, still got a lollipop (thank you Halloween stash), and could busy himself emptying every bin of toys on the floor while it was my turn. Perfect!

11-11-11

2011-11-11T22:22:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Matilda's newfound love of being the "calendar monitor" at school, she was really into the awesome date today. For a week now she has been talking about how soon the date will be "eleven dash eleven dash eleven!" I agree with her that it is super cool.

Thanks to the Veterans Day holiday (Thanks, veterans!), M was out of school today so we could all have some fun together with Grammy in tow. We chose to use the free day to go check out the awesome brand new carousel at the zoo. Stella came too, for an extra measure of fun.

Then we happened upon 4 other kindergarten friends there, so our group was quickly wild and crazy. I was quite thankful for all the other grown-ups helping track the pack today since Porter spent his zoo time moving at this speed: full stride ahead!

After much animal viewing, the bird show and a picnic lunch we finally made it to the carousel. Porter's first choice ride, the preying mantis, was taken. For a moment I thought all hell was about to break loose, but somehow he overcame his disappointment and chose to pull it together and ride the rhino.

Matilda waffled widely, finally choosing this cute little log seat with some owl friends.
Stella got her first choice, tiger!

Grammy also got her first choice of the dung beetle chariot. So cool! The kids obliged my demands for a photo with much yelling of "Ewww, poop!"

We will be back soon to ride the carousel again with the unicorn, preying mantis, serval, okapi and kangaroo in our sights. At the end of our visit, Stella's much nicer mom bought her an ice cream which led to a full on assault by Porter, who I was denying zoo treats. Stella shared really nicely and volunteered a few bites willingly. Porter's sweet tooth was not satisfied and soon he was dashing at Stella like some kind of wild dog after scraps.

Hopefully poor Stella wasn't too traumatized. Porter's wails for ice cream ended as he fell asleep in the car, just feet from the zoo parking exit.

Observatory Fun

2011-11-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

Smiling cutie.

Grammy and Matilda give me a cheese.

Can you see me now?

This boy is happy and getting big so fast. I am glad to see a little baby chub on his face in this picture since it will be gone in the blink of an eye.

Monkey climber.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Porter was calling this a "vacuum truck." I have no idea why.

Kale Avocado Salad

2011-11-07T07:39:00.000-08:00

On Friday as I pulled together dinner I wanted to make a salad but had only kale and avocado.
Solution:

Kale Avocado Salad
So good. Try it!

Muddy Buddy

2011-11-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

Gaurav & I (and our big cheering section) braved the chilly 40 degree temperatures and rain to participate in the muddiest Muddy Buddy race yet. It poured rain on us the whole time making the 6 mile course really slick and treacherous.

Porter helped to keep me warm as we wait at the starting line for our start time.

I mostly ran with the bike during my bike legs of the relay as I was too nervous to bike on the sloppy trails.

Sarah got the best pics of the day I think, catching us as we emerged from the mud pit finale.

Grammy got a nice shot of us all afterwards. (She'll be visiting this whole next week and is posting pictures faster than me if you want to follow our adventures.)

When it came time for the Mini Muddy Buddy race this year, Matilda backed out. We had already pre-registered for it, but I was almost thankful that she passed. I was so freezing cold afterwards being all wet and muddy and Matilda would have been a disaster to get cleaned up. Poor delicate California girl that we are raising does not like to get cold! Instead I will leave you with the pics from last year's race where you can see I seemed to have worn the same outfit for the 2010 race! The whole affair was done by 11 a.m. and we all climbed back into the car to head home for hot showers, hot pho noodles and a cozy nap. The perfect ending to a cold, exhausting morning.

Halloween Night

2011-11-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

We skipped the busy old neighborhood where we have always taken the kids before. Instead this year we stuck to our new block, splitting the time between trick or treating and handing out candy. Our porch had many pumpkins from the annual pumpkin autopsy party. Here is Matilda's pumpkin, completed on her own for the second year. I particularly love it with the crazy eyes she choose.

Here the kids are gathered in the window watching for trick or treaters to start showing up as it gets dark. The anticipation was really getting them super amped up as you can imagine!

It proved to be fairly impossible to get a good shot of the hummingbird, caterpillar and Gruffalo with all the excitement in the air, but rest assured that they were adorable.

Sarah and Gaurav did an amazing job with their homemade Gruffalo costume, even down to the purple prickles on her back and "poisonous" green wart on the nose.

They get into the swing of it at our first house out.

Porter yelling about something, possibly candy.

After just a few blocks, our crew was all happy to come home and hand out candy.

Porter and Matilda both really liked seeing all the trick or treaters coming up. Except for one particular penguin. A grown man in a big penguin costume came marching up the front yard with his beak really obscuring his face. Porter took one look at him approaching and screamed bloody murder. The poor penguin quickly looked up to tilt the beak back and show his face, causing Porter to calm down fairly quickly. I feel a little awful saying that it might have been the highlight of my evening. Poor Porter has the best terrified scream ever. Every time he does it (which seems to be with some regularity), I am torn between cracking up myself and rushing to try and console him. The irony is that the really scary costumes never phased him. He got especially excited for the many Scream mask characters calling them the "open mouth guys."

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T00:05:00.000-07:00

Hummingbird in profile.

CHOMP goes the caterpillar.

Blurry wing action.

Posing in all their adorableness. Look at that boy's face: trouble.

Just two critters conferring in the garden.

Matilda and Porter both very specifically chose their costumes, an orange caterpillar and an Anna's Hummingbird. As always, Tim & I had a really fun time making them a reality and we are all quite pleased with the results.

Happy Halloween 2011!

Priorities

2011-10-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

I just sewed the last bit of Porter's Halloween costume, a fuzzy caterpillar helmet with horns. Matilda's hummingbird costume is freshly washed for a third straight day of wearing. Pumpkins are purchased for the carving party at 2. We had homemade pumpkin pancakes with chocolate spread for breakfast (orange and brown, so cute!). As a result the house is totally trashed, and I am pretty sure that I don't care.

Elementary School Fall Festival

2011-10-29T22:57:00.000-07:00

The big fall event at school today proved to be lots of fun with costume contests, yummy food, car racing and even glittery-paint craft tables (staffed by yours truly). I dressed as a witch with our purple dress up wig and it was more fun than I expected. So many kids were freaked out as I talked to them, wondering who the hell I was and how did I know their name. My personal favorite was poor nervous Stella who Did-Not-Trust the Stranger-In-Purple-Hair despite all reassurances.

The best in show cars were quite impressive. That fifth one in there that looks like it has a fish bowl.....does. Live goldfish swimming around. So cool! I am hoping they didn't race it. The unicorn in the foreground is the work of Matilda's pal M's family - so talented and awesome.

All of us had lots of fun. Can you see the snowcone pouring onto Porter's chest? That spells a good time!

Mixed Up!

2011-10-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

Somehow these pictures loaded in mixed up order from actual chronological time of our Friday. I am too lazy to switch them so here you go.

We went back to the old apartment building to celebrate Ella's 2nd birthday with dinner and cake. Matilda was insistent that everything looked "So different!" Even the bushes in the front yard. Porter was quite pleased with the cake, Matilda enjoyed the Wii dancing game Ella got for her birthday.

8:20 a.m. Halloween parade at elementary school = utter chaos and thorough entertainment. I have a zillion pictures of Matilda gleefully dancing around with school buddies but I am fairly certain I am not supposed to post them publicly. She totally enjoyed it.

Post parade, Stella joined us back home for lots of fun.

I think this is what bershon looks like.

Static head.

After school, driving to Disneyland and then San Diego, per Matilda and Porter's agenda.

These two are so cute together.

Day by Day

2011-10-26T23:53:00.000-07:00

Today Porter decided Ian the bulldog should get dressed instead of him. In the end, we settled on matching outfits for Ian and Porter, instead of a naked boy at the park.

Porter was overjoyed to discover they were resurfacing the parking lot adjacent to our playground of choice today (this one is known as Daddy's playground, because it is next door to his office.) We stayed long enough for a little play, a quick visit with Tim and some lung damaging close supervision of the work. I dragged him away long before he was ready to go, with apparent disregard for noxious fumes.

In the mail today we got our enormous Halloween package from Grammy. Halloween shirts, new jammies, socks, pencils, tea, snacks, and of course boatloads of candy. Very exciting!
Also, Tarte Tatin. Big one for Jo and little one for us. They also look very pretty once they are flipped out with all the apples arranged and drenched in caramel, but I love the crusty tops (bottoms) best. So yummy and caramel-y.

Also, Adam has some really nice pics of our kid crew up from Adlai's birthday if you like that sort of thing. You know you want to see them.....click on over.

Needle Graveyard

2011-10-26T00:36:00.000-07:00

My sewing machine is getting quite the workout. I have never broken a needle before this huge fleece costume of Porter's. Thankfully I am moving on now to Matilda's much thinner more delicate, and fussy material. The sewing machine will be relieved.

2.5

2011-10-23T23:56:00.000-07:00

Porter was 2.5 yesterday. He's still denying it, sticking to just two. Fractions are hard and I can understand his reluctance to keep too close track on the aging process. At his check up this week he was still 90th percentile for everything, 38" tall (up 2.5" in 6 months), and 33.8 pounds (up 1.8 pounds). You might be interested in his stats, but really I just need to record it here because soon I'll lose the post it where I scribbled the measurements and his growth chart is locked up in a filing cabinet that I haven't accessed since moving. Someday soon I will find that key.

Here are some things Porter liked this week-of-turning-two-and-a-half. Tether ball:

He discovered this sport while we hung out on the school yard one day. I think I will not have any trouble finding him the next time he disappears at school. I am confident he'll bee-line back to the tether ball at his first opportunity.

Climbing: trees, couches, sisters, pretty much anything works.

Pony rides. We joined Adlai to celebrate his birthday and fun was had by all.

Except maybe the ponies, they seemed a little tired out today; it is a good thing they get Mondays off.

Family Tree of Matilda

2011-10-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

We finished our first big kindergarten homework project tonight just in time for the deadline tomorrow a.m. The assignment was a "Families are Different" theme project and you could do anything really: photo collage, book, tree. As the son of a genealogist, Tim had no hesitation in choosing our path.

We were all really proud of the final product. Matilda was especially so as she did all the cutting, pasting and printing. I am really excited to go to drop off tomorrow and see all the other projects, too!

Of Note Today

2011-10-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the things of note that happened today, other than the afore-mentionned big birthday.

Porter serenaded me as I drank tea and nursed my head cold.

Matilda tied her shoes (cleats actually). She's needed to learn for a bit now and was finally starting to ask us to teach her instead of refusing to attempt. I think she was feeling the heat since the teachers at school don't permit kids to wear shoes with laces if they can't tie them. Today was the first time in a while I remembered to try with her before we were running late and already rushing to get out the door. She did it great on her first try.

Matilda brought home her first quiz from school. Or at least the first one that we have been informed about. I was actually in her classroom when she took it for my first "parent volunteer" shift. I cannot get over my shock about how fast these kids are being pushed.

With all the soccer and family tree business, I failed to make proper plans for the pinewood derby workshop we are going to tomorrow so our efforts with the band saw will be very improvised I think.

Happy Birthday Grandma Marge

2011-10-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

It's my mom's birthday today. A big birthday. The kind where your co-workers cover your office in balloons and black shrouds and Over the Hill signs. Happy Birthday Mom! We love you. Porter got you a new house and is fiercely guarding your cake!

Costume Sneak Peek

2011-10-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

After much discussion and debate, Halloween costumes have been decided upon and we have two trips to the fabric store under are belt already. I am betting we clear at least 3 more before completion. Here's the progress from this afternoon's effort.

Hopefully as we keep working on the disguise it will look less like a sack of candy corn. I also ordered one of these today, which I am really excited about for the gals transformation. Yay for Halloween.

Urban Wildlife

2011-10-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight while eating dinner outside in the front yard, we started to hear the raccoons that live in our front tree waking up. The tree was shaking and rustling, leaving the kids with mixed feelings. Matilda was fairly apprehensive and expressed a desire to move our dinner party indoors. Porter was excited by it all and using the raccoons as yet another excuse to get out of his chair and avoid actually eating. (His appetite seems to be in a waning phase currently.) We all continued eating, keeping half an eye on the tree as we hoped for a chance to see the raccoons. After not too long, Porter let out a blood curdling scream and came running for me from where he had been fooling around halfway across the yard. Tim, Matilda and I looked up to see a fuzzy little raccoon face peering down at us all from his perch on the front edge of our roof. Poor Porter was so surprised and terrified; I really had to fight my laughter to reassure him. The raccoon was so unfazed by us all that Tim joked how the critter must believe he has an invisibility cloak on.

After a few minutes recovery, Porter and Matilda both were intrigued and excited. They were rewarded with two more raccoons wandering out across the roof. The trio all went over to sniff at our chimney (reminding us maybe a sweep is in order before fire season), before they went up over the peak of the roof and towards the back tree to climb down.

For our encore wildlife, we saw a skunk wandering the back driveway not 30 minutes later. Very eventful around here tonight!

File This One Under Trouble

2011-10-14T09:29:00.000-07:00

I just discovered Porter, standing on the kitchen counter, with a handful or Franken Berry cereal. He smiled and said, "This is my favorite candy!" I think someone's late night sweet snack needs a new hiding place, no?

Emergency Preparedness: Student Food Supply

2011-10-13T23:15:00.000-07:00

Matilda got a letter home from school today instructing us to bring in a ziplock bag full of the following items:

2 fruit or pudding cups
2 granola or breakfast bars
4 cans tuna/spam/sausages
4 packets of crackers
4 fruit roll ups or bags of dried fruit
2 lollipops
2 plastic spoons
1 photography of family with note AND/OR contact information

The letter also reminds us that while we should fill the bag from items from the list, you must also make sure that you select items that your child will actually eat.

I find the whole thing a bit hilarious (of course glossing over any actually thoughts of a major disaster that would require use of this bag). Spam and lollipops were not previously on my disaster preparedness list. While I know that we have already given them emergency contact information, it still seems strange to have that listed as an optional inclusion.

Love Letters

2011-10-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

Tonight after I cut Matilda off from doing her homework (she's supposed to spread the packet out over the week, not do it all at once as she prefers) she turned to composing letters. It is so awesome to see her just writing away and sounding out her own spelling. She did this one for he teacher first: (Dear Ms. G, I love you. I hope you will go to my house. I love you. By Matilda To Ms. G)

I think Tim was pretty touched to find his taped on the back door as he arrived home. (Daddy, I love you. I hope you are coming home soon. I love you. By Matilda To Daddy)

Porter was up next. (I love you Porter. I love you so so so so much. I want you to be my best best brother.) For this one she was stuck and asked me "what makes the "th" sound in brother?"

And for her final letter an ode to mama. (I love you Mom because you are my favorite. I love you so so so so so much. You're my favorite.)

Tim take note, I have it in writing now. I am the favorite.
I like her a lot, too.

Things

2011-10-11T01:07:00.000-07:00

Matilda and her classmate were accurately explaining nouns on the walk home from school today. I did not study nouns in kindergarten.
Porter is saying "What the heck!?" as his leading exclamation on most things lately. Cute, but maybe inappropriate?
Tim got the kids to sleep tonight after I failed on both attempts. I was so grateful.
Breaking Bad was awesome.
I am apparently in charge of coordinating volunteers to assist in Matilda's classroom. Would you like a slot? All you need is to fill out a stack of paperwork and get a TB test.
It's late and I should've gone to bed hours ago.

Pumpkin Farm

2011-10-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

We headed out to Underwood Farm to get the fall feeling and hear some fun Folk music today. They had a few pumpkins.

Pig racing was a huge hit with all the kids in our party, and the adults.

Porter and Stella cheese it up on the wagon ride.

Matilda making funny faces for no reason.

The corn maze there is always challenging and did not disappoint this year. We spent quite some time zig-zagging back and forth.

Matilda did not seems to enjoy it at all and carried this concerned look through the entire experience, as if there really was some danger of not ever getting out.

As always, after the fact she claimed to love it. M was genuinely pleased with choosing pumpkins so all was well in the end.

Porter-centric Fun

2011-10-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

Some pics of our adventures this week. Over lunch today he told me how fun is was "visiting this baby steam roller."

We also indulged in a super slow pony ride. Aside from the astoundingly slow pace, this pony had to stop completely for a big pee mid-ride. Porter was spell-bound.

After early-release on Tuesday (a fun new weekly occurrence to allow for teacher staff meetings) we went straight to the zoo. It was a perfect way to burn some energy and head off the post school grumps (OH MAN what a grump she is some day, possibly a side effect of being ordered around all day).

We got some good rain this week and new rain coats for both kids so we could go on fun rain walks.

With wrangling two kids, it has been forever since I took the train downtown to meet Sarah for lunch. Porter was quite thrilled with a train adventure, equally enjoying the subway ride there and watching the Amtrak trains.

Quiet Weekend

2011-10-04T22:14:00.000-07:00

We are trying to keep the weekends a bit quiet around here for Matilda while we adjust to our new, exhausting kindergarten schedule. While I took Matilda to soccer and then spent the day with her at home, Porter and Tim went off to the Getty for lots of fun. I particularly love this shot of Porter drawing in the kid's room.

Sunday during Porter's nap, Tim took Matilda off to a fancy mall for a treat and some water fun.

This morning we got our third produce delivery and we are still totally loving it. Here's the loot, although those grapes are gone already. We would need way more than 1 pound of grapes to last for any time in this household with our fruit loving boys.

Love Love

2011-09-30T22:22:00.000-07:00

This week we had a playdate with one of the old preschool pals whose French father happens to be an out-of-work chef. He made us amazing crepes for a snack because he knew how much Matilda had gone crazy for them when he came in to cook during International Week at school last year. Matilda ate three crepes, preferring the plain sugar filled crepes to the Nutella or marmalade ones. Porter was not as into them as I expected. He had a few bites of one, but then preferred to spend his time with all the awesome new trucks and dirt piles available for play. Over dinner we were recounting it all to Tim (who was terribly jealous), and we asked Porter if he didn't like the crepes. He said, "I don't not not love them, I LOVE LOVE them!" A perfect example of him trying to express himself so well lately. So, he claims he loved the crepes, but lucky for me I got to eat most of his, in addition to my own. M & I both would have happily eaten more but I cut us off in an attempt to keep up good manners or appearances or something.

Disney Day

2011-09-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

To top off our already over-scheduled week, I thought it would be fun to treat Matilda to a Disneyland day Thursday since she had a holiday from school. Alwyn was game and met us there with Adlai for some good times.

It was fun to see the whole place was decorated for Halloween, except for maybe this poor horse who was pulling our trolley. I think a big handsome Clydesdale deserves a little dignity.

The day before when I told the kids our plan, Porter, on his own, concocted a story about wanting to find Mickey Mouse and stand with him for a picture. (The kids have never stood in line to take pictures with characters really so I am not sure where he was getting this.) With some luck, we found Minnie in her witch costume, which was close enough for him and he's calling her Mickey.

We also came across the Queen of Hearts terrorizing kids. The baby in the stroller was actually giggling at her big face, but Matilda was cowering behind me while Porter and Adlai were carefully observing the whole situation.

These kids look so big to me lately.

Adlai, Matilda and Porter all enjoyed the Zephyr ride so much that we rode it two times in a row. The California Adventure side of the park was blissfully quiet, unlike Disneyland proper.

Alwyn was kind enough to wrangle the two boys a few times to let Matilda and I ride a few "big kid" rides.

I even managed to convince Matilda to finally try the swing ride. She's been tall enough to ride with me in a tandem seat for a while but wasn't quite ready. This time she acquiesced finally and claims to have loved it, although there was definitely some concern mid-ride.

All in all, another fabulously fun day at Disneyland and only moderately exhausting. We tried to leave early (staying ONLY 5.5 hours) partly because I didn't want to wear them out too much, and partially because we had tickets to my birthday concert last night, Gillian Welch with Dave Rawlings. It was a fabulous show but after the day at Disney and 4 hours standing on a crowded dance floor I was feeling my age a bit.

New Hand Me Downs

2011-09-28T23:53:00.000-07:00

Matilda got a big bag of fun clothes today from a friend whose outgrown them. Her favorite item (and mine for certain) may be these pink, rhinestone studded horn rimmed cat eye glasses. Just the thing every 5 year old needs. She also got a matching pink princess phone, which I think is functional but will be a play phone around here.

Awesome glasses paired with new silk beaded tank and black tutu with a kitty cat tail.

She wore the glasses all night and is currently sleeping with them inside a new hand me down purse clutched in her arms.

Here she is hooting with laughter as she discovered a naked Porter in his new favorite hiding place. We just got this new ottoman for storage/seating by the computer desk. I think Porter will be quite disappointed when it is filled up and not available as his personal jungle gym.

Natural History Museum Day

2011-09-28T23:04:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite parts of the new leisurely days with Porter is getting to go at his pace more. We can wander through a museum with less "hurry up" and "slow down" to keep two kids in pace together. Today we went with one of Porter's pals (admittedly a younger sibling of a Matilda preschool friend, but he loves her so) to get some more dinosaur lovin' time in. It was awesome to be there now that school has started because we had the whole place to ourselves. They kids actually got a chance to use this awesome touch screen:

After the animated dinosaur is buried, they get to choose tools and "excavate" by rubbing their fingers on the screen. They both thought it was pretty cool.

In the Insect Zoo section a docent was available to introduce P & I to a hissing cockroach. It even hissed for us!

This museum has an awesome kids discovery room and we spent a lot of time there looking at taxidermied animals and other specimens.

My favorite new addition is this enormous T rex puzzle! The skeleton was supported by metal brackets so you had to find the right bracket to fit each rubber bone. I am a little puzzle obsessed so I spent a lot of time trying to convince Porter to come back and help me see it through to completion after he had lost interest.

Side Effect of Kindergarten

2011-09-26T00:09:00.000-07:00

Matilda seems to really love doing her homework and her long days at kindergarten seem to have gotten her really into writing and coloring more than before. Porter has always had more endurance for crafting and coloring than she has. These days the two of them are spending a lot of time around the kitchen table with markers and scissors scattered everywhere.

It's a good way to get dinner cooked! Also, at some point here, I will drag my sewing machine out and properly finish the bench cushion by sewing a cover so the foam isn't exposed by kids wriggling the fabric loose. It will be so great then.

Dying of Soccer Cuteness

2011-09-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

Matilda had her first AYSO soccer practice and scrimmage today. They get uniforms; I almost couldn't take the cute. She seemed to really enjoy it, especially the drills part. Once it got to the game she was cracking Tim & I up with her ability to avoid the ball, but yet run with the bunched up herd of players.

Each time she found herself caught in the crowd running by she would throw her arms up flailing like she was under attack by mosquitos. Thankfully she heard my cheering more than my giggling. At one point during the game, she and her equally adorable new gal-pal team mate were holding hands as they spaced out together.

As an enormous bonus, there is a huge patch of field that is not used by the many teams of 5 years old. Porter got to run himself silly dribbling a ball back and forth for the entire 90 minutes with fairly little redirection needed! I can't wait for next week's fun.

Birthday Photo Dump

2011-09-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

To my delight, I discovered a new coffee truck at the (formerly coffee-less) reservoir. Perfect for a post run refreshment while Porter enjoys the playground.

Today the Fern Dell bear had some new duds. Birthday sweater, perhaps?

Lovely lunch with my boy, quiche for me and snake dog (dog wrapped in pastry and baked) for him.

In Tim's absence, Matilda takes pics while I open presents, including new earrings she picked for me.

Cutie kids.

Cupcakes complements of Sarah, Gaurav and Stella. At one point this morning Matilda looked at me all panicky and said, "But WHO is going to bake your cake?" I think she was nervous Tim had left her in charge of that!

CSA Box

2011-09-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

For a while now I have been flirting with the idea of getting a CSA box, but could never quite bite the bullet. Finally last week I signed up to try one. We love the experience of going to farmers market, but are not getting there as often as we like with all the other busy things going on in our lives. This morning our first scheduled delivery of fresh, organic produce showed up on our steps before 9 a.m. I had talked to the kids about it they were both really excited. Porter acted like it was Christmas and wanted to open the box immediately, before even taking it to the kitchen.

Our delivery included lettuce, arugula, carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, apples, pears, pluots, and grapes.

As soon as we opened it Porter ate some grapes and a pluot. He is always a good eater, but his excitement level made me think how signing up for produce delivery might get some picky eaters to try new things. Both my kids are intrigued by the farmer who brought us these things and that might translate to better eating for some kids out there.

I am excited to see how this experiment goes, especially as the seasons change and we get different items. Hopefully nothing languishes in the back of my fridge too long and I continue to see it as a fun challenge to use the box of surprise items we get each Tuesday.

Candy!

2011-09-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

P, p,p what begins with p?

A princess party for preschool pals with pool, pizza and a pinata.

(To much Dr. Seuss around here I think.)

This was Porter's first experience (maybe ever, or maybe just that he could remember) with a pinata and he was pleased. Much later in the day he kept recounting how "I hit that thing and candy came down!"

The scramble for candy was a little terrifying and there were several kids left in tears. Sweet Matilda quickly offered up some of her candy to two boys standing near her who were crying over their empty loot bags.

I was a not so sweet Mommy, as I tossed candy AT Porter in the middle of the fray. All the candy fell in one big pile which was quickly covered by a pile of kids, leaving many others to scour the barren grass. As one parent tried to distribute the candy a bit, Porter kept turning the wrong way and missing it. To head off a crisis from him I quickly grabbed a few pieces and tossed them over the whole crowd, aiming poorly. Luckily he was completely unfazed by the direct hit and just happy to finally have custody of a big huge lollipop. He quickly scurried off into a corner to open it.

Blog as Baby Book: Misinformation

2011-09-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the things that Matilda has reported to us about school.

The playground has a rather large, spiral water slide that they get to play on at recess. Matilda requested I pack a bathing suit in her backpack one day.
One day M blew her nose in class and had a bloody nose so she got sent to the nurses office. She reported that the nurse was really nice and she "gave me an injection with her syringe."
After eating lunch one day they all sent their lunch boxes zooming down the slide. Matilda said her green beans went, "Weeeeeee!" and waved their green bean selves all around.
Matilda explained how they have ballet class at school where she gets to dress up in a large silver ballerina dress and wear ballerina shoes covered with diamonds.

For homework, you can determine which items are fictional. Your guess is as good as mine.

Friday Progress Report

2011-09-16T23:20:00.000-07:00

Today's lunch:

Matilda ate only the sunflower seeds at school. I don't understand how she is functioning on so little fuel at school. The mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, cornbread and pears were all devoured at 3:30. So far, her "late lunch" everyday does not appear to be impacting her dinner appetite, so in theory it is all fine.

For today's fun Porter went to his first zoo class. The focus was movement and for the animal guest we got to meet and pet this rainbow boa and see how he moved. Porter was so darn cute marching around in his backpack full of zoo class toys and education prop things.

After zoo class we went downtown with Stella to the fabric district to find material for my bench cushion project. Then Stella and Sarah joined us to witness the chaotic Kindergarten pick-up.

Matilda screamed and laughed when she saw who we had at the gate. It was very sweet.

Two days in a row with no tears at pick-up = progress. We all went to Froyolife for frozen yogurt to celebrate. Today's crazy frozen yogurt flavor: Maple Bacon Donut. It was pretty good and not too bacon-y.

Non-school Related Doings

2011-09-15T00:22:00.000-07:00

Kindergarten is going. Each day is a bit better. I am trying to hold my tongue and give it some time before I freak out or complain more. When not getting teary worrying about M while she is gone, I am thoroughly enjoying my time with the boy. Today at the park we found a parked street cleaner and it was like Christmas for Porter.

He was so in awe of it.

I even let him touch the bristles.

We also did a lot of swing time. This boy loves to swing.

Now that the school year has started, I am starting to tackle all my get-settled and unpacked projects. One of which is this bench I am making for seating at our kitchen table, inspired by this. I have foam for the cushion already (thanks to Sarah Jo) and will go Friday to the fabric district Downtown for the hard decision of what to cover it with. Very exciting.

From the bench project I had a little extra wood scrap and some nails that the kids were more than happy to hammer in for me. They probably spent an hour taking turns hammering and pulling these nails back out, only to re-hammer them in again. It was so fun to see their excitement.

Week 2 Will Be Better

2011-09-11T23:55:00.000-07:00

On Friday, we experimented with giving Matilda money to buy milk at lunch for the first time. She was really excited about it and even had a new Hello Kitty change purse to carry her fifty cents in. As I picked her up, one of the things I asked was how it went with buying milk. She reassured me that she bought it, she was very excited to buy it, buying it was fun, and that the milk was in her lunchbox. I guess I hadn't explicitly told her to drink it. So, at 2:35 she busted her lukewarm milk out of the lunchbox and downed it outside the school gate. Here is lunch for Monday (this is my inspiration/goal), already packed to make the a.m. mad dash tomorrow a bit less hectic: roast beef sandwich, apples with peanut butter, tomatoes, green beans and pickles. I am trying to pack Matilda her favorite foods to make her more likely to actually eat something. I would put my money on this lunch coming home 95% intact tomorrow. She will then devour it in the first 20 minutes at home.

Weekend Funday

2011-09-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

We discovered an awesome mini golf place in LA today at Matilda's buddy's birthday party.

We will take Tim and Porter back there very soon!

This evening Stella and co. came over for pizza and play.

After a big dance party Porter started practicing his music video hair moves in front of the new fan.

It's Not Just Glueing Macaroni Noodles Anymore

2011-09-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

OK, there are a million unanswered questions we have about what is going on all day at new school, but the one thing I know is LAUSD gives homework to kindergartners, on their first day.

Each week, the kids are sent home on Monday (or Wednesday in this case) with a packet to work on and turn in Friday. Here are the three pages she had this week:

Cutting practice, by far her favorite. She is in love with cutting things up, especially with her new school scissors that work, unlike the old toddler pair she had that just rip paper. If you need confetti made I have your gal.
Fine motor skills practice apparently. She had little patience for this and tore through tracing the lines haphazardly.

Matilda is not much for coloring so the fact that she managed to (over two nights) fill this page in astonished me.

My overall impression at this point: today was better than yesterday, there was less crying from her at pick up, it is a big adjustment for all of us. Talking to the teacher today she said Matilda is very bright but has a hard time waiting her turn. It seems M gets out of her chair to go ask the teacher questions when the teacher is helping another of the 23 kids out, which is not allowed and earns her a demerit in their smiley face/green light-red light system. I am not sure how I am ever going to get used to this whole scenario myself in order to endorse it to her.

Fever Boy

2011-09-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

Porter is miserable with this virus thing he has. Today he shrieked anytime he met the slightest resistence from his perfect ideal vision of the world at that moment. While playing outside this evening he was feeling cold (due to the fever I assume as we are in an outrageous heat wave), and rather than agree to wear pants he insisted on a his favorite hand-me-down Cars hoodie.

Adorable and exhausting.

Final Report on Day 1

2011-09-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

It is so hard to drag any details out of Matilda, especially ones not embellished by likely fantastical elaboration (like the one that the Principal really liked meeting her and invited her for a sleepover). However, after much gentle questioning it seems that today she had her name erased from the "smiley face list" on the board for not listening. She also somehow got released at the gate and missed me in the crowd so was (quickly) found sobbing by another preschool-mom-friend. The final straw is that she may be getting whatever is causing Porter's big fever. Add all these infractions, on top of new school, new rules, long day, and I can see how it was easily a really rocky day. As the evening wore on, she got more and more positive about Kindergarten so we'll start fresh tomorrow. I am really hoping that she doesn't have a fever in the morning so she can go make some more good memories and not dwell on her first hard day.

Tim very thoughtfully brought her flowers home at the end of his day. Matilda was so thankful and sweet and happy about it. He also brought me my own bouquet - we are lucky girls.

As an aside, Sarah Jo passed this link along to me mid-morning which sent me into a fresh round of tears and heartache about my girl growing up. If you are a parent and need a good cry, follow that link.

Conflicting Reports

2011-09-07T18:18:00.001-07:00

So far in the past 4 hours Matilda has reported, tearfully, that she does not like Kindergarten and she does not want to go AND, giddily, that she LOVES her Kindergarten. Thankfully it is trending more towards love as she's gotten some food, drink and rest. She ate all but one of her California rolls (claiming she saved the other for Porter - so sweet), but did not appear to eat or drink anything else during her 7 hours at school. That may explain a lot of the walk home melt down.

I am patiently trying to coax more and more details out of her so we'll see how it all settles out.

First Day of Kindergarten

2011-09-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

As you can imagine, we seem to have thoroughly documented this momentous morning with photos. Matilda was so excited and a champ. All set here with new dress, shoes, backpack and lunchbox.Headed out for the walk to school.
Running along the way.
We met the crossing guard, Hugo, who was so friendly and awesome. He was greeting kids by name, even switching over to French to say good morning to kids headed to the French school a few blocks over.
On the front steps of her elementary school.
They sent all the Kindergarteners and their families to the auditorium to meet their teachers.
She was starting to get a little jittery here, as we waited a long time in the auditorium for the teachers to arrive. Once they did and I pointed out her teacher standing up front, Matilda said "Can I go now?" She was so ready.We were supposed to say goodbye in the auditorium but the crowd of parents trickled along to the classroom door and then stood there peaking in and taking pictures until they finally had to close it on us!
The best news of the morning is that the AC in the classroom got fixed, so the kids won't be keeling over from heatstroke on the first day. I don't even know what to do with myself for the 5 hours until pick up, I am so proud and excited and teary-eyed.

First Lunch is Packed

2011-09-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

Kindergarten Readiness Report:

Matilda went to bed only 40 minutes after the time sanctioned by her kindergarten teacher. Not too shabby for a first try I guess.
Matilda will have one of her oldest preschool pals in her class. And 21 other kids. That is a lot of 5 year olds in one medium sized room.
Lunch is ready and waiting in the fridge. New lunch box from Grandma Marge. New cute little bento box containers that hopefully she can open herself without dumping lunch in her lap (and hopefully don't get lost immediately). Her request was California rolls and miso soup. Since it is going to be outrageously hot tomorrow, I nixed the soup part. Sushi rolls, lots of pickled ginger, cukes, tomatoes, Triscuits, mandarin oranges and a juice box. Normally I will not pack a juice box but after SWEATING like crazy in her classroom with broken AC for an hour today I caved at the grocery store and wanted to get her anything hydrating I could. Among many other interesting facts at the orientation today I learned that kids can choose between chocolate and white milk on Friday only. Anthony, I thought you had resolved that problem?
I also talked Matilda out of this outfit that she had chosen as her first day of school ensemble. The crazy hot velvet pants had me worried so instead she'll wear her new dress from Grammy.
The Kindergarten teacher had us make these signs for pick up the first few days. I know she has a lot of us to get to know, but the whole thing screams airport chauffeur a bit too much for me.
Porter had a high fever tonight so it seems he will not get to fully enjoy his first day of "Matilda vacation." We shall see. Regardless, I will report back tomorrow a.m. with First Day of School pics.

Resist, Resist

2011-09-05T00:43:00.000-07:00

Porter went to bed at 11:45pm. He was so tired but every effort we made to get him to sleep was failing. Here he is rubbing his eyes open while Tim tries to lull him with YouTube.

I don't know how we are supposed to be ready for an 8:05 start time for Kindergarten with this trend!

Not Good: Poop in the Pool

2011-08-31T23:52:00.001-07:00

So today there was some excitement at the fabulous, new public pool that I have recently started taking Matilda to everyday to quell the non-stop stream of chatter from her about which friend-with-a-pool we should call to just-say-hello-to. About 5 minutes before we were already planning to leave, the lifeguards made a rather gross discovery and ordered us all out of the pool. This lead to an insatiable stream of questions from my 5 year old.

Who pooped in the pool?

Why? Why would someone poop in the pool. (This is exactly what I want to know!)

How did they poop in the pool, were they not wearing any bottoms?

What are the lifeguards going to do? What is that long pole thing?

Why would someone poop in the pool?

Porter chimed in as well, asking if it was a big poop.

Life's little mysteries.

7 Days to Kindergarten

2011-08-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

We are enjoying our last days free summer schedule days here with lots of swimming and friend meet-ups. Up tomorrow, a Dodgers game and a swim in a preschool friend's pool. Thursday = playdate at the park with an awesome fake stream thing for waterfun. Friday Porter will have a sitter while I take M for a "mommy date" to do a little shopping and lunch out and whatever else we find to entertain us.

NY was awesome, as always, with lots of swimming in gorges, pond and pool. Since getting home I somehow weaned Matilda off of her floaty/life vest/inflatable dependance. Much to her surprise, she discovered that she can really swim. It is so fun to see her finally comfortable to go without floating assistance.

Lots more NY pics to come, maybe after school starts when I have hours and hours of Porter-napping time to burn.

Shaking!

2011-08-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

So everyone here in Ithaca has been accusing me of bringing a West Coast style earthquake along for some vacation excitement. I can't claim responsibility, but I can say it added a little fun to my beer buying experience at Ithaca Beer today. As I jumped out of the car and ran inside, I thought the employees were all being wacky with their funny wide legged stances. Then as I stood still I could totally feel the shakes. I managed to restrain myself from saying I was just visiting from LA where earthquakes are more commonplace, as I didn't want to poo-poo their excitement. I do feel bad that Grandma Kathy missed feeling it though, because I left her in the car with a napping Porter.

Earthquakes aside, we are having a really great time here with the perfect summer weather for swimming, lots of animals to love and good family time. two more days to cram in as much as we can before the trip back.

Guest post from Uncle Brian : Golf Lessons, Motorcycles Races and Family Time

2011-08-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

It is so great having Mom, Kristen and the kids here. We got lots of quality time in today with a nice diner breakfast, a trip to Gia's ice cream store and tons of playing with the little ones around the house. Gemma gets a real kick out of Matilda and Porter. I am happy that she is old enough to laugh because seeing her with the kids was a riot. Great weekend!!!!

Poolside

2011-08-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

We spent almost our entire day today at the pool. Gia's parents hosted us with a huge spread of yummy snacks and a zillion awesome pool toys. Gemma enjoyed some prunes on the pool deck (followed by a poop-tastic diaper change later on the pool chaise lounge!).
Porter was really pleased to be "swimming by himself" in this floaty fish.
Worn out after many hours and in need of a recharge.
Matilda spent approximately 5 hours doing this:
As we were wrapping up at the pool Gia's mom brought out their golf cart for us to drive around. Down in the hedgerow the kids discovered the fun of milkweed pods for the first time.
Our happy crew out for a spin.

Snippets of the Day, in Reverse Order

2011-08-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight we discovered that Matilda finds the Talking Karl game funnier than almost anyone on earth. It was sending us all into hysterics just listening to her giggles as Karl repeated every word (and giggle) that came out of her mouth. Porter was really pleased that Grandma brought a little ball along from Michigan. He wouldn't even let me play with them, insisting that only Grandma got to play.

Matilda spent hours and hours in Gia's parents pool this afternoon. She only got out with promises of a return trip tomorrow.

Gemma enjoyed some time poolside as well. She is such a sweet, calm baby and it is so fun to get more time with her. This afternoon Gemma was laughing like crazy watching some goofy Matilda antics, that M was more than happy to repeat to infinity for her giggling cousin.
Our gal has strong survival instincts. I thought she would like seeing the big ice cream freezer at Gia's store today, but she was immediately freaking out as the door closed behind us. Even after I showed her that we could open it from inside she refused to come back in to check it out.
Technically this was breakfast for Porter. He was quite pleased to get a behind the scenes peek at the ice cream shop.

Matchy!

2011-08-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

Matilda is so pleased to finally meet Gemma. Even better, Gemma's mom dressed her in a dress that matches the one Matilda put on today. So thrilling! And cute.

Kindergarten Prep

2011-08-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

Our reaction to "real" school starting soon for Matilda seems to be one of spoiling her with as much quality time and attention that we can. I am making a concerted effort this month to ignore the unpacking and house projects that I should do and just enjoy summer with the kids.

Last weekend Tim took M away for a Daddy-daughter weekend to see Hearst castle, eat oysters, view the wild zebras of San Simeon, and just generally let Matilda dictate the agenda. They had a blast. Here they are lunching in SLO.Matilda said about 10,000 times how much she wanted to swim in the pools on the castle tour. Porter was only slightly jealous of the trip and has since asked her about any remotely fancy building he sees, "Is that the castle, Matilda?"They also hit the Santa Barbara zoo on their way back.To continue the "quality summer fun," the kids and I head to NY tomorrow for one last trip to see family there before we are forever (or for 15 years) tied to the school calendar for travel.

Jam!

2011-08-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

Tim & I miscommunicated about the market shopping last week and as a result he came home with several more pounds of apricots than we needed. I used it as motivation to kick start all the experimental canning I have been wanting to do and made some jam from this apricot jam recipe.

Not only did the jam turn out really yummy, but the jars seemed to actually have sealed properly, AND we now have apricot syrup as a byproduct that I can't wait to try on pancakes.The kids were both super into watching me make it last night. Porter pulled one of his late night party/refuse to go to bed evenings so he had some toast with jam for a late late night snack. Matilda was the first one up after me this morning and the first thing she said as she found me at the (new!) computer dest was, "Now can we try some of that jam on toast!?" Tomorrow's canning project: Spicy Nectarine Refridgerator Pickles.

Architectural Salvage is Awesome

2011-08-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

So here's that project from last weekends flea market and salvage yard romps. A new desk!We found the old door at the architectural salvage yard and the sawhorse legs are from IKEA. It is a bit bigger than we originally intended but I think that just gives us more room for wires tangles and mail piles. I am so pleased with it and pledging to really work to keep the paper piles at bay from burying the desk. I am also very happy that the (very scary) Mr. Clean Magic Eraser wiped the sharpied-on dimensions right off that front edge. Seriously, those erasers are creepy and amazing. I am tempted to see what else they can do, but moderately afraid.

Sloth Race

2011-08-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

We went to the Tar Pits today to see just how slow the Ground Sloths were.

Breakfast Mutiny

2011-08-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

Matilda has developed this shtick lately where she hollers "Everybody panic!" and then yells "Aaaah!" as she shakes her head around and waves her arms up. Porter quickly picked it up and they are quite a sight.

Weekend Snippets

2011-08-07T23:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday: Pure Fun

We took Tim to the lagoon that the kids have really been digging and convinced him to go down the water slides. I can never go because I don't trust M & P to stand back and watch me.

I was rightfully so in my distrust, as they were so excited by Tim's trip down the water slide that they were practically vibrating. Plus it is so darn cold I just plain don't want to go down. After Tim surfaced from his dunking he gave a big whooping yell of shock. No thank you.

After water fun, we had birthday party bonanza. Our old neighbors (who have also since moved to a new, amazing house) had pizza, cake, mojitos, a trampoline, a rope swing, and about 100 preschool friends/parents mixing it up. Matilda was particularly enamored with the swing. What princess doesn't need a rope swing?

Sunday: Functional Fun

Today we focused our adventures on obtaining some missing furniture pieces for our new place. The Pasadena Flea Market was super fun and we scored an old fashioned school desk complete with old gum on the bottom! Then we headed off to an architectural salvage place to find more supplies.

The kids really loved looking at the items there and Matilda declared that she wants a water fountain installed in our new place. Tim said that maybe in our next house we can arrange that!

We topped it all off with some meatballs at IKEA to commemorate the kids eat free week AND to get some table legs for our new desk. Win win.

The People in Your Neighborhood

2011-08-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

Most nights when we are out in our front yard playing we'll cross paths with our very friendly new neighbor, A. One night this week Matilda told him how she had just graduated preschool. Upon finding out, he said that he wanted to get her a present and he excitedly told her, "Name one thing, anything that you would want!" Matilda paused for a moment, and then replied, "Lettuce!" Her answer got a good laugh from both A and his adult son. Then he asked, "Do you like mangoes?" He proceeded to give us several of the tastiest mangoes we have had in a while.

Disney Weekday

2011-08-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

The kids were treated to a highly anticipated Disneyland playdate with Alwyn and Adlai today. It did not disappoint! Everyone seemed to have a blast despite the heat with only a few minor meltdown/not-the-happiest-place-on-Earth moments.

Here the boys keep a sharp look out on the Casey Jr. Train from inside the monkey cage. One of three other train type rides today; Porter was pleased.

For the duration of the Small World ride Porter yelled to Alwyn detailing the various points of interest as he noticed them.
Matilda was quite pleased to return to the dancing-princess-etiquette-faire thing. So creepy. But at least now we know how to do a proper curtsey and address others when we are royal family members. Matilda did this swing/zip-line thing two times in a row. I was really proud because I expected her to be a bit too timid to try it but she was really gung ho and ran right off the first time yelling about how she wanted to go again. Thanks to an unusually short line (it was BUSY today) she looped around the waiting area and got right back on.
Soon after Porter woke up from his nap and joined her for more fun and climbing on the big adventure ropes play area.Quite pleased, and pretty, with her frozen lemonade treat. She really wanted cotton candy but we compromised on something that might actually hydrate her a bit for a day in the summer sun. All in all a super fun day that is sending me to bed early!

Staying Cool

2011-08-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

It has been hot around here this week, for the first time since we've moved into our new, hotter home. We are finding water fun most everyday (although I am working hard to teach Matilda we can't just invite ourselves over to other people's houses all the time to abuse their pool). Yesterdays fun found 20+ school friends at the beach......pretty great.

Porter is comfortable in a pink shirt. Beach fun followed up by a front yard pool dip. Tomorrow's fun will involve more hot weather and a certain Mouse in Anaheim.

Doe vs. Matilda

2011-08-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend Porter said Matilda's name a bunch of times, more than we have ever heard. It was pretty sweet to hear. I think he may keep calling her Doe for a while, which is fine too, of course. I'll be so sad when it disappears from his vocabulary.

Matilda was also super excited by the whole thing and got extra lovely with him.