July 2013

Top o’ the mornin’ to ya
These long summer days that get started so early, and no worries about missing Circle Time at school, have generated a new morning routine: Annika comes into our room no earlier than 7:00 by our rules (and often later! sometimes 7:15! or 7:20! wooooooo!), and gets into bed with us. Whichever one of us can get both eyes open and functioning first will read her another chapter of whichever Little House book we’re on. And if Lukas wakes up while this is happening (which he usually does), we’ll pause, and she’ll go into his room, turn on the lights, give him a few books and probably Beaw, and he’ll happily putter around in his crib till we’re done with the chapter. Sometimes she’ll even pre-emptively go in there before coming to our room; it’s gotten so that he wakes up asking for her (“AH-Kah!”) instead of us, most days, which is really so sweet and cute. 

The Glorious Fourth

We had a great Fourth of July this year! We woke with the dawn, as usual (KIDS), and in the late (and very hot) morning we went to the fun little neighborhood parade a short drive from home. We met up with some friends who have recently bought a house in our area (D., who is one of R.’s direct reports, and his wife and two young daughters). The kids cleaned up on candy, we grownups got some free sangria, and we hatched a plan to do it again next year -- with chairs and a cooler. Heh. Then it was back home to eat a quick lunch and get in the pool for the rest of the day. There was grillage. And finally, the fireworks -- which is just this entire area setting off illegal firework ordnance all over the valley. Lukas went off to Sleepytown at the regular time with his usual happy lack of resistance, but Annika didn’t want to go to bed, so we installed her in our room to watch the works from our bed till she fell asleep. Good times! 

First movie in a theater

Over the long weekend of the Fourth, I decided to take Annika for her first movie in a movie theater; she could’ve handled the situation years ago, but there was really nothing we thought was good enough to go see. Finally, though, Monsters University came out (and she already loves Monsters Inc.), so this was the right time. She and I went at 10:15 Saturday morning, and it was awesome -- we shared a popcorn, the movie was great fun, and we took pics of ourselves in a photo booth at the theater just for kicks after. 

A family field trip to the underwater world

We decided to take a trip down the coast to spend the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium; the last time R. and I had been there, I was pregnant with Annika and it was a weekend -- so we knew we should make it a weekday! R. took the day off, and we piled in the Highlander and hit the road. The aquarium was AWESOME. The kids were both out of their minds with excitement at things to look at, and touch, and learn, and bomb around about -- their eyes were as big as dinner plates, for real. Lukas kept shouting “Fisssssh!” and “TAR!” (star, aka starfish); Annika wanted to see and learn EVERYTHING (as is her way). The jellyfish were probably the most mesmerizing, but the gigantic tank with the really huge fish in it (including small sharks) was a close second. They both fell asleep on the way home -- THAT’S how absorbing it all was. A great, great field trip and a really fun day as a family. 

Fun Lukas tricks

The little guy is a man in motion these days. His favorite pastimes include playing peek-a-boo, watching Yo Gabba Gabba (he’ll spread his arms wide to say “Yohhhhhhhh!” in request), biting his sandwiches into trucks and making them vroom all over his tray, pointing out “MOON!” wherever it is in the sky, grabbing the god damned remote controls and trying to punch in the right things to make the TV play baseball or YGG, going to Five Guys Burgers & Fries and eating like a pound of french fries (“feh-fiiiiigh!”) for lunch on Thursdays between Annika’s tumbling (12:00 - 1:00) and swimming lessons (3:30 - 4:00), and doing the beat of the day, Biz-Markie-on-YGG style (say “Lukas -- give us the beat of the day!” and he’ll drop it for ya). 

Annika’s advancements

The kid has been on a roll this summer: 

• Winning her Sea Turtle ribbon in swimming (with eyes always on the prize of the Hammerhead Shark ribbon, ten or so levels from now)
• Making huge improvements in Saturday piano lessons with Daddy (she loves to practice with him, and is really picking up things at great speed)
• Earning money by doing extra chores (e.g. helping me clean out and organize her bookshelf, the unused tower in the hallway, and the built-ins in the living room). Most of it she turns around immediately and spends on these little Ty stuffed animals (her “pets”), but she has goals for saving ... 
• Finishing her Grade 1 workbooks and starting on Grade 2 (whoa!)

Grace becomes a friend

Grace’s mom A. & I actually made good on those promises to keep in touch after the dance year ended, and she and I are really simpatico -- and our daughters LOVE each other. Our sons seem to enjoy the party, too; S. is three, and has a lot of great toys to defend from Lukas (ha!). We had a park playdate, then traded hosting, and found out we had independently signed the kids up for the same community center tumbling class, so we’ve seen a lot of each other this summer. It’s a great thing, all around -- we’re all happy to have made such a great little group of friends.

The Quotable Lukas

• Hey-oh! [hello]
• Bye [his word for phone]
• Beaw [bear -- a specific stuffed animal]
• Pi-boh! [peek-a-boo]
• Co-co-coon [cocoon; we’re reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar a lot lately]

The Quotable Annika

• “Daddy’s mind would blow right out of his head if he saw that.” [flatly declarative, in response to something not-OK that Lukas did]
• Names of her many stuffed animals: Owlie the owl, David the dalmatian, Sam the Rottweiler, Sarah the kitten, Goldie the unicorn, Chloe the hammerhead shark, Mihira the Chihuahua, ______ the horse