August 2014

First Grade!
—We got the school classroom assignment a few days before school started: Annika would be in Mrs. Casey’s class … while her friends Vilma, Alana and Niamh would all be in another class together. Ooof. I was worried (OK, freaked out, kind of ranty), but luckily had time to cool off — especially since she didn’t seem all that worried about her friends being in another class (“We can play on the playground at recess!” she explained, reasonably).
—The first day went very, very well: R. and I both went into the classroom with her, and it was a well-lit, well-organized, welcoming and happy oasis (quite a contrast to the shabbiness of her Kindergarten classroom, for sure). One of her buddies from last year, Cayli, was in her class, and that was enough for her. :-) Then, when I went to pick her up at the end of the first day, she came out, saw me and gave me a hug, and with arms wide open, said “I love first grade!"
—Mrs. Casey is awesome: I am thrilled that my worries about Mrs. Casey (which at root, honestly were worries that the social thing would be weird for Annika) were for nothing; she’s the greatest! Sweet, charming, brilliant at keeping the room under control and all the kids engaged … ahhhhhhh! Wonderful.
—Funny: Mrs. Casey keeps a prize box as a reward system (there are several such systems … I can’t begin to understand them all), and one day Annika’s new buddy Mackenzie (who is new to the school, actually) didn’t get to pick a prize, so Annika made a prize box at home, stocked it with her own little treasures (pencil erasers, stickers, etc.) and took it to school so Mackenzie could pick one!
—Vilma et. al. at recess: As Annika assumed, she and Vilma play together nearly every recess — it’s all good. Sometimes, apparently, she brings this girl Alexis (who is a … well, I’ll call her a Mean Girl, because the other things I’ve called her are very much not nice), and Annika hates her — but they all seem to be working things out, and I’m not interfering. Gosh, that’s hard … 
—Scooter City: From the second day of school onward, we’ve been scootering to school in the mornings, sometimes meeting up with our new neighbors enroute (mom Janeen, sons Grayson, who’s in Kindergarten, and Anders, who’s 2). I push the stroller at a run while Annika scooters; the way back is much more leisurely, and often includes a park stop for Lukas. It gets us to school on time, and is a nice little outing in the cool morning. We don’t scooter home in the afternoons, though — it’s invariably 95 (actual) degrees, and I end up toting both kids in the stroller while they bitch and crab at each other and at me; the air-conditioned car is much better for that trip. 
—New skillz on the playground: Annika’s getting much more confident on the equipment, learning stuff like how to hang from the monkey bars (which terrified her absolutely, as recently as early summer).
—Brotherly greetings: At pick-up time, Lukas drops whatever he’s doing as soon as the door opens, and rushes to Annika (sometimes all the way into the classroom, ha!), to hug-bomb her; he does the same at drop-off, when her class is going into their room after the Pledge — I sneak in one last kiss and “I love you,” and he demands a hug too. It is SO CUUUUUTE how sweet he is.
—New facts learned: Within the first couple of weeks, we could tell (as if we hadn’t already gotten the idea) that this class was going to be much different; Annika comes home telling us all about Venn diagrams, "digital numbers” (i.e. numbers of more than one digit), and so on.

Grandparent-palooza and other fun stuff
With Grandma and Grandpa here, and the kids (rightly) ignoring my and R.’s existence, the two of us slipped away for a one-night “Senior Sauce” — i.e. the first non-childed Sauce since late 2006. It was epic — the band rawked till 3:00 a.m., we drank more than was advisable (and paid for both for like the next two days) — and best of all, the kids were having so much fun, they didn’t miss us at all. I also absconded for a night to a hotel in Lost Gatos, where all I did was read (new books, a 10-month backlog of The New Yorker, etc.) — well, after I got the massage that was one of my birthday gifts from R., ha! A nice break, especially since I knew the kids and R. were well cared for too. :-) 

Friends & such
—Verna playdate: Having met back up with her dance-class buddy Verna at dance camp, Annika wanted to do a playdate, so we did — we invited them over for a swim, but Verna can’t swim, so the kids just ran all over the house like maniacs for a couple of hours. It was fun — she’s a really sweet girl, and we’re glad to count her as a friend.
—Petroglyph with Anne & Grace: Another time grandparent babysitting came in handy! Anne invited us to go to Petroglyph, a paint-your-own ceramics place, with her and Grace. That’s not really Lukas’s scene yet, so he stayed home with Grandma & Grandpa while we went and painted, then hit a candy store and also had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Annika painted a puppy (black, of course), while I made another To Kill A Mockingbird quote mug. I’m gettin’ good at those. Heh.
—Spy Club: Annika has developed an interest in spies and spying (she’s even made her own “spy phone” out of a Tic-Tac box), so she plays Spies all the time, including at a playdate at Vilma’s. It seems to have been sparked (or enhanced?) by these Top Secret Adventure kits she talked me into getting her from Highlights Magazine; they are folders with workbooks and maps and a little book about one country at a time (China was first), and the stuff it asks you to do is really too advanced for her (all this decoding, reference lookups, deduction, etc. — at least fourth-grade level), but damn if she doesn’t plow through, page by page, to figure out the “mystery” and get her “visa” stamped. This is one goal-oriented kid!
—Victor’s party: Annika’s old pal Victor (whom we met at AppleSeed and was in her Kindergarten class) had his birthday pool party at his house across the street from the school. She had a blast with Vilma, and jumped off the diving board like a hundred times.
—Labor Day weekend: Just two weeks into the school year, we had Labor Day off, and the weekend was a great, low-key one with grilling, pool time, and not much else going on. Exactly what we needed!
—Annika the inventor: I almost think we should never buy this kid any tech toys, because when she’s denied one — say, her own iPad Mini — she just makes her own. She did one out of cardboard with a blue back cover for herself, and one with an orange back cover for Lukas, complete with apps, power button, and all; she’ll sit there for quite awhile, swiping this way and that, pretending to make and watch videos, looking stuff up — hell of an imagination!
—Dora and Friends: Into the City: Move over, PAW Patrol — there’s a new queen of our TV, and it’s Dora and Friends. This is a new show featuring an older, longer-haired Dora the Explorer and, of course, her friends (Alana, Emma, Pablo and Naya, a supportive, multitalented, and endlessly collaborative ensemble), and the usual mix of total insanity that makes you wonder if you’ve been taking crazy pills (e.g. dogs that can sing and talk, but only as viewed through a camera phone that was covered in dog-slobber — I am not making this up). Both kids are frickin’ fanatics for this show. It’s … ahh … of limited appeal to adults, but hell, if they like it, I like it.
—A new ballet class: Annika is continuing at her dance school, and this year she’s in a ballet-only class for kids 6-8. We got a lecture the first day about how, at this level, the kids had to have their hair in “a proper ballet bun,” not “just thrown up there,” so when we got home, I watched a YouTube video to figure out — finally — how to do it (it involves bobby pins, a certain pinning technique, and a sort of hair net dealy). She likes the class, but Grace is no longer in the same one (she wanted to go the opposite direction — jazz & hip-hop — and also had conflicts with soccer), which also means I don’t see my friend Anne nearly as often as I’d like, so that’s a bummer — not to mention that Lukas is now the lone little brother, causing mayhem in the lobby … 

The Quotable Lukas
—“Not now! I want some more whiles!” (a protest at being told it was naptime)
—"Ha-wai-oh" = Ohio
—He has memorized several of his most-often-read Critter books, and likes to “read” them to us — SO CUUUUTE!
—“that kind of" = how he asks what kind of thing something is (appended to the end, e.g. "What is that bug kind of?”)
—Nonverbal but cute: He’s started pointing and squinting at what he's asking about, with tilted head, as if it is on the far horizon, even if it’s two feet away. Heh.
—“Is dat Dewek Jeter?” Every time a baseball player is on TV … which is a lot around here. 

July 2014

The Glorious Fourth
We got home from Hawaii late on July 1, so we spent most of the next couple of days recovering from vacation jet lag and swimming in the pool, but by the Fourth, we were ready to re-enter the world. First, we went to the Montevideo neighborhood parade (as is now our tradition); we met up with R.’s co-worker Daniel and his family (with shandies for the grown-ups and juice for the kids), and a good time was had by all. Then we came home, grilled & swam, and eventually got ready for the city-sponsored fireworks in Almaden Lake Park. We walked over with the stroller about 15 minutes before the start time; it was crowded, but we found a great vantage point right near the entry (which also made for a better exit). The fireworks were awesome — just the right length of a show for the kids, super-loud (due to proximity and geography), and the perfect capper to a great day. 

Summerdays
—We went swimming nearly every day. It was a very hot, dry July, and I more or less stopped bathing the kids — we’d rinse off Annika’s hair, but that’s about it. Swimming pool counts as bath! (Especially in this drought. Very responsible of us.) —Vasona Park: I took the kids on a couple of local field trips, and Vasona Park was a highlight. They have really cool playground equipment (e.g. a WWII bomber — just the structure, no guts), a restored old carousel (Lukas was terrified the first time he rode it, but then wanted to go again and again), and a little train that made about a 10-minute loop around the park (which both kids LOVED).
—Mini golf: Ray took the morning off of work one weekday and we all went to play mini golf at GolfLand. It was kind of hilarious — the kids were better at it than I’d imagined! But it got hot toward the end, and we were glad we’d come early.
—Visiting Precious Preschool: With the idea that Lukas should start some kind of preschool in the fall, I took both kids to visit one that is a)very close to Annika’s school, and b)comes highly recommended by several of our friends. It was just about perfect, but there’s one big problem: They won’t take kids who aren’t fully potty-trained — which leaves our Lukas out. [sigh] Annika is vehement that we not send Lukas to Appleseed, so we’re kind of at an impasse for now. Still, good to know there’s a good local option.
—Dance Camp and Camp Galieo: Annika went to two weeks of local day camp this summer, which happened to be back-to-back the last two weeks of July/first of August. The first was at her dance school: Dance Around the World, with a different style of dance each day (plus crafts and such), and a performance at the end (it was great! so cute!). Camp Galileo was at her school, and this year she chose the Road Trip theme — it was all about Route 66; they built cardboard cars, made roadside diner signs, etc. She really loved it, and is looking forward to doing it again next year.
—America’s Got Talent: Both the kids got really into watching the show with Daddy. Lots of fun in general (including the one where they heard the song “Baby’s Got Back” for the first time, because the opening line — “I like big butts and I cannot lie” = COMEDY GOLD — seriously, they both repeated that for weeks, collapsing into helpless laughter each and every time).
—The earning of badges: From sources unknown, Annika got very into the idea of earning badges for awhile. She had me print some out from the Daring Book for Girls, requested badges as souvenirs from every place we went, and made dozens of her own (for herself and for her friends). She said she wanted to joint the Girl Scouts — for the badges. I will wait and see how long this obsession lasts.
—Homemade helicopter: Springboarding from her obsession with Paw Patrol, Annika spent a couple of weeks designing, building, and improving a helicopter out of cardboard boxes and bits. This sucker had a back rest, multicolored dials and buttons, a working joystick, front and back rotors, a windshield, foot pedals, side panels that opened to reveal the engine — and she painted it blue, of course. Lukas was allowed to ride in it, sometimes, but not to wear the goggles she also made (which she wore while flying the helo, and while doing engine maintenance). Amazing. 

Playdates and Other Social Events
—Playdates: We arranged a few get-togethers — one at Grace's, the blonde mafia (Alana & family, Vilma & family) here in the pool, etc.
—Mike and Angie visit: Our friend Good-Looking Mike (GLM) and his fiancé Angie, who is about 6 months pregnant, came down from the city with their large, gentle black doggie for a day of swimming and grilling. Our kids were on their best behavior — which is always nice for expectant parents to see. :-)
—Grandma & Grandpa arrive: Near the end of the month, the Dorks came for a visit; the kids were, as usual, out of their minds with excitement and filled with plans for the next couple of weeks. 

BabyGuy
Lukas tells us all the time how big a boy he is, but OMG he is fighting potty training like the very devil, and really wanted to keep the pacifier — although when we started the same method we’d used with Annika (cutting it just a little eensy bit more every day, and saying it couldn't be fixed), he gave it up after about two nights. So … there is hope for the potty? 

The Quotable Kids
—Lukas: "Hey! I was just doin' somethin'!" (protesting his innocence as I found him trying to open a package of SweeTarts)
—Spider-Man everything: The little guy names everything SpiderMan (e.g. a SpiderMan school, his imaginary Spider-Man puppy, a Spider-Man train, etc.).
—“Hobercrack”: His interpretation of “hovercraft.” 
—“Gummy”: His interpretation of Gumby.
Annika: “Vikini”: Her interpretation of “bikini.” 

June 2014

End o’ the School Year
—Another lost tooth: Annika has now lost all of her front teeth, and is starting on the sides. The Tooth Fairy is having to work pretty hard these days!
—Mathea's birthday party: Annika’s friend Mathea had her 6th birthday party at the aquatic park in Morgan Hill while Mamalah was visiting, so R. took her and Mom and I stayed here with Lukas. Annika was fearless — jumping off of diving boards, splashing around in the water, etc. At a shift change, a lifeguard said she needed to do a swim test to be allowed to stay in the lap pool, so she just knocked out a 25-meter lap like it was nothing (she’s been doing that at swim lessons, having moved from the baby end of the pool), and earned a bracelet showing she was OK to be in that area. Go, little mermaid!
—Kindergarten park day: During the last week of school, all of the K and TK classes took a field trip to a local park, about a one-mile walk from campus. I went as chaperone, and it was every bit as chaotic as you would expect a five-hour stay at a sun-drenched, bathroomless playground for 150 5- and 6-year-olds would be. But she had a fantastic time, and slept like a rock that night, so it went much better than I anticipated. Even Lukas enjoyed himself, barreling around on equipment that was much too big for him — he seemed to really dig the chaos. Oi.
—The last day of school: I think this was a bigger deal for R. and I than for Annika … she was glad to be getting done with the school year, but it wasn’t a big momentous thing. After we picked her up, Lukas and I took her for ice cream, and then we came home and got into the pool — a good end to a good first year. 

Dance recital week
So the week after the end of school was more or less entirely given over to preparation for Annika’s dance recital — rehearsals, picture day, dress rehearsal, finale rehearsal (all of which involved separate trips to Campbell, at very specific times), and finally the recital itself.  We decided to go ahead and take Lukas — it was a gamble, because he’d behaved like a feral monkey at dress rehearsal (and I’d had to remove him to outdoors, where — luckily — we’d found a skate park nearby and he had stared in total fascination at the “big kids” skateboarding), but he did really, really well. Annika’s dance was ADORABLE, and she was clearly enjoying being up there on stage — all smiles, nailing all the moves, having a great time. She was also thrilled to be in the finale (her group had been too young last year), and for the next month would keep adding finales to just about everything. We got some great pics of the little dancer, who says she wants to take the summer off and then do “ONLY BALLET” next year (instead of the combo ballet/tap class she’s been in these two years). All righty then! The only drawback of this recital was its timing — it was on Father’s Day, and it meant that we had to sell our tickets to see the Yankees in Oakland (bought months ago, because of its being Derek Jeter’s last trip out here, before we knew which one of four recital programs her dance would be in … a one in four chance, and it was the jackpot). Ahh, well! :-)

Annika’s interests these days
—Blue is Annika's favorite color: After years of PINK ONLY AND ONLY PINK, Annika has decided that blue is her favorite color. Now nothing but blue will do.
—Maximum Maxi Dresses: The Blue Rule goes double for the new style of dresses she prefers: the maxi dress. I bought her several, based on her Frozen love, all of which touch the floor or almost do. They’re ALL SHE WEARS. There is sadness upon the land if a destination or activity doesn’t fit the maxi dress. There is sadness when laundry must be done. Only maxi dress can stop the sadness.
—Engineering: Influenced by the omnipresent PAW Patrol, she decided she wanted a helicopter — so she built one from a cardboard box. It has multicolored buttons, seat cushion, etc. (all fashioned from paper, cardboard, and about six thousand yards of scotch tape). It is painted blue, has top and back rotors and front windshield, and is openable at the sides to reveal the engine. Note proper safety goggles, also handmade; they come in handy both while flying the helo and while attending to mechanical maintenance with power tools (including a Spider-Man pincer thingy and a "drill" from a Home Depot kids' set).

Lukas the hilarious
We’ve started getting pizza after dance class every other week or so, at this great new NY pizza joint. One evening while we were waiting for our order at the counter, Lukas wandered off and when I looked for him, he had climbed up into a booth with a family who were eating their dinner. I found him sitting there, smiling all around, acting like he was their third kid, just makin’ friends … they were charmed, and he thought he was hilaaaarious. Heh. 

Hawaii
The second half of the month was the most fabulous: We were in Hawaii! 

—For the first couple of days, both kids were total bastards. The flight went OK, but as soon as we got there, they each became their worst selves — Annika whiny and prone to meltdowns, Lukas stubborn and difficult and both completely unfixable by any means we tried. They didn’t like all staying in one hotel room the first night (neither did we, but in the planning stages, it had seemed like the right call after the 7:00 a.m. flight, rather than driving on to Hilo that day), they hated the drive across the island to Hilo (we rather liked it — lunar landscape, little-seen vistas, fog and rain at the summit), they hated the house in Hilo (it was really weird and janky, but that’s Hilo, unless you want to pay $500/night for something super-luxe), the food was all wrong, there were no swimmable beaches, etc. etc. etc. to infinity. They were miserable, and they made us miserable as well.
—There was a big slide — curvy and two stories high — at the hotel in Kona. It was a little scary, but Annika did it with R. — and then again and again by herself. That’s our brave girl!
—Volcanoes National Park was great. We joined a short walking tour, saw some of the extinct calderas, watched smoke rise from a distant, active one, and enjoyed the visitors’ center. We're looking forward to longer hikes once the kids are older (and not being bastards).
—Underwhelmed by the east/Hilo side of the island, we cut our visit there short by a day and drove back across to our home base in Kohala (the Fairways Mauna Lani). We stopped on the way for malasadas at a famous little restaurant (amaaaaaazing), and made a short detour to Waipi’o Point, this astonishing lookout high atop a cliff, where you could see the lines of where tsunamis had struck in the past. But we were all so thrilled and relieved to be “home” when we finally got there — we just ditched all our bags, put on swimsuits, and hit the beach club. I didn’t even ask R. if he wanted a beer from the restaurant — I just went up there and got us one. Vacation rebooted!
—The bizarre magic of Paw Patrol: Safely back on familiar turf, R. finally got it out of Annika that one of the things making her miserable was that she didn’t have her customary 2 episodes of Paw Patrol to watch each evening. Well. At that point, we would have given them each a pony and a wad of candy bigger than a Volkswagen if it would have improved their (and thus, our) moods, so R. bought some episodes on the computer and set the kids up. It was like MAGIC. Magic. They weren’t perfect the rest of the time, or anything, but balance in life was restored and they more or less quit acting like demons from hell, so — win!
—Annika was an ace snorkeler, this trip; she had her own mask and fins (and R. went ahead and bought a set for himself, given that he would need them for two weeks this time, and hopefully many times after), and she just took to the water like a born mermaid. The two of them would go out for 45 minutes to an hour, once or twice each beach day, swimming far out, going around the point at the edge of the cove, etc. It was amazing to watch. One outing, when R. was teaching her to free-dive in the channels between the coral, she even came face-to-face with a manta ray — a big one, which R. estimated had about a 7-foot wingspan. She surfaced immediately and kind of fled back to the beach, but half an hour later, she was back in the water. Wow! She also worked on boogie boarding, and a little bit of stand-up boogie boarding (“surfing”) with Daddy pulling her along with the rope. She’s got great balance and could stay up for pretty good distances. Maybe next time she’ll want a surfing lesson for real!
—Lukas the robot/Giant Alex: Lukas went in the water a lot, and loved it, but didn’t have quite the stamina that Annika. Often, he would stomp around going “Fi! Fum! Giant Owex, here I come!” — which is his version of a Paw Patrol episode where one of the pups has a dream in which a little kid — Alex — turns into a giant and says “Fee! Fi! Fo! Fum! Look out, here I come!” If Annika’s fins were not in use, he would put them on, to enhance his stomping; occasionally, he would mix it up and be a robot (wobot) instead.
—The luau: We went to a big luau at the Fairmont one night. The show was pretty good; the kids were really wowed by the fire dances, although Lukas was a little scared by some of it and needed to sit with Daddy for most of it. They both got big Polynesian temporary tattoos (part of the cultural education before the show started) and ate chunks of coconut hacked apart by a machete, island-style. Annika loved the music so much that she asked for (and received) the soundtrack. 

R. and I, as always, can’t wait to go back — so much of it was so awesome — but given the tetchiness of the kids even after we discovered what ailed them, plus Annika’s newly-developed fear of flying (she threw up during our landing in San Jose, poor kid), we’re going to have to work on them first before we attempt it again. Whew!

The Quotable Lukas
—“Gween Gwob-win” aka The Green Goblin, one of Spider-Man’s many nemeses
—“NO! I WANT DADDY! DADDY DO IT!” … and variations on a theme (e.g. “NO! YOU go to wuhk! DADDY stay home wif Wukas!”). He’s in a major, major Daddy phase.
—“I burped my butt!” His rather original term for farting.