March 2013

Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

The marquee event of the month came in the first week: We all went to see Yo Gabba Gabba! live! Considering the cost of the meet-and-greet tickets and the fact that Annika had seen it before plus Lukas was too young to really appreciate that part of it, we got regular (but very good) seats for a Tuesday afternoon show at the San Jose Civic downtown. It was so awesome! High energy, a great mix of their best songs, DJ Lance coughing and apologizing to Muno (who said, “It’s okay!” in character), Annika old enough to enjoy it even though it was loud, Lukas absolutely enthralled, and going home with some good merch and wads upon wads of the tissue-paper streamers they shot out of cannons at the end. Really, really fun experience for all of us. 

At the park

So with nicer weather and nothing to do on many afternoons, we spend a lot of time at the park adjacent to the library. It used to be somewhat relaxing for me, but these days it’s just nonstop. Annika tends to find a kid or group of kids and just take charge; she’ll play along with whatever game is going on, if there’s one in progress, but if there’s no leader, she is IT. While she’s bombing around playing lions or whatever (and occasionally coming to me in tears to report someone’s failure to act right), I just trail after Danger Baby -- he figured out how to do the slide all by himself in about two tries, he can climb onto things that are at his chest level, he is fearless, restless, tireless and pretty much terrifying. 

Our Little Raja At Table

Lukas is a picky eater. Mercurial in his tastes (one day he LOVES blueberries, the next day he’ll happily accept the first one, only to crush it between his fingers, crying, while he looks right at you), sensitive to how often a thing is served (the main course today shall not be served fewer than three days hence or it shall end up on the floor mit force), prone to weeping if the food displeases him (which it nearly all does), fond of the bait-and-switch (eating nearly an entire box of expensive yuppie toddler munchie things in Target, then steadfastly refusing to ever tolerate the sight of them again once you’ve bought three boxes of them). He likes to be fed, to be coaxed, to be jollied into eating; if your attention wavers, that food’s going to the floor. And in case it’s not clear already, I’ll be straight: His meals are a righteous pain in my ass. R. is really good at getting him to eat; I am bad, and getting worse. I feed the boy a variety of things I think he might like, or that he has liked in the past; I buy the expensive yuppie organic whatever, to make myself feel better about all that processed crap he’s eating (like Jammy Sammies); I count Snapea Crisps as a vegetable; I broke down and bought a few more cartons of baby food because hell, at least those have protein. And the results are utterly inconsistent and utterly frustrating, on top of which I resent the way I’m reduced to scuttling around trying to find something he might like at every single meal, exactly as if he were a raja just being picky on purpose to mess with his underlings. Of course it’s all complicatedly mixed up with his allergies -- so I can’t just give him some of Annika’s pasta or a cut-up hardboiled egg or whatever like I used to do with her -- but really it’s just that each kid is a pain in the ass about something, and this is his thing.

Holidaze

Two big calendar events this month: St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. March 17 fell on a Sunday, and we were invited to a house party at Annika’s little friend NM’s. They had tons of food & drink and a bouncy house for all the million little kids. It was a good party, but mostly we trailed Annika and Lukas around keeping her out of meltdown and him out of danger; I think that’s just the way parties go at this stage of our lives (which was why we got a babysitter so we could go alone to the housewarming party of R.’s colleague the following week -- best decision ever! heh.). Then Easter was on the last day of March, bringing with it new clothes, egg dyeing, a special box for Annika from Mamalah, and of course, a big Easter egg hunt that morning! Lukas was pretty good at finding eggs, but had no clue why he was doing it; Annika, on the other hand, was almost as psyched as she is on Halloween or Christmas, and found some fairly trickily-hidden eggs. In the sorting afterward, she gave him the eggs with bunny grahams inside, and kept all the ones with chocolatey treats -- she’s very careful about his allergies, and as ever, proud to be the big kid who’s allowed to eat treats. On another note, we’re relatively sure this is the last year she’s gonna buy the Easter Bunny business -- she asks such pointed, probing, logical questions (the kind of questions I didn’t think to ask until, like, college!), and our coverall “It’s magic!” answers aren’t going to satisfy her much longer. Sharp mind, that one! 

Sunday on Ice

Every once in awhile I get an idea for something to try with Annika, and this month it was ice skating. They have “bucket sessions” at Sharks Ice, which is when you can use a stack of plastic buckets for balance at one marked-off end of the rink during open skate, so we went, leaving Lukas and Daddy to hang out watching basketball on TV. We rented skates and made our way onto the ice -- my first time since about 1989, so while I was OK on my own, I was very glad of the buckets to stabilize her! About 10 minutes in, it looked like this was a big fail -- she got frustrated and started to break down. But then she decided she wanted to try again, and we got a couple of unsolicited but helpful tips from a few kids a little older then she is, and by the end, she really didn’t want to leave! So it ended up being a fun outing, but it’s kind of expensive and a long-ish drive; I think we’ll wait awhile before we try it again. 

Briefly: 

--SBDC Spring Repertory Concert: The more advanced dancers (ages 10 and up, it looked like) from her dance school put on a show at the theater where their recital will be in June, so I bought tickets and Annika and I went together to the matinee performance. Once again, this kid’s theater manners were awesome -- she liked the music, and loved pointing out kids she knew from the school. It was a lot of fun! 

--Brown Bear’s visit: Annika’s class has a teddy bear, which goes home on the weekend with one kid at a time; the kid is supposed to take pictures of where they went and what they did with the bear, paste them in the Brown Bear notebook, and return the whole bundle on Monday. On our weekend with Brown Bear, he went to dance class with us, and then to the hair salon (haircut store); Annika wrote it all up herself, and both she and Lukas were very sorry to have to give BB up after his stay with us. 

--Birthday party independence: Annika was invited to a school friend’s princess birthday party at her house -- and the invitation specifically said we could drop the kids off and pick them up at the end! This is a major development, because the kid-birthday-party culture around here is very much 1:1 parent:child attendance up to a certain point. I had no idea what point that would be, though -- so it was nice that the invitation made it clear, heh. A year ago, I’m pretty sure she would have wanted me to stay with her, but she’s more independent now and it turned out she was super-excited to go it alone. Yay!

Lukas says ... 

The little guy’s verbal development is out of control, he’s learning new words all the time, but there are a couple worth mentioning: 

--cloud, bird, more (moah), kitty (kiggeh!, which applies to all animals equally)

--He says please and thank you! Especially thank you, which sounds like “Dek doo!” or “Dek dough!” And he waits for your “You’re welcome!” before he’ll stop saying it. Beyond hilarious! 

--If you say “There’s a party in my tummy!” and/or “Party, party!”, per Yo Gabba Gabba’s song “Party in My Tummy,” he’ll light up, lean his head to one side, and squeak out “Yeaahhhhhhhhhhh!” I’ve got a couple instances of this on video -- to miss it would be a crime. 

The Quotable Annika

--cha-ching S’s: her description of dollar signs

--in re: Grandpa’s email about the 59th anniversary of him joining the Army (I read the email to her, which led, as these things tend to do, all the way down to the atomic level of explanation to Annika): "But what is army?" "Did Grandpa have to get shooted at?" "Is he still in the army?" "What is Red River?"