Wednesday, May 6, 2015

April 2015

Spring break
Annika’s spring break happened to coincide with Daddy’s trip to Las Vegas for work, so it was mostly me soloing with both kids, and we did all right, I’d say! Highlights included:
—Chuck E Cheese: Both kids LOVED this place, and honestly, I’m not sure there’s more fun to be had for $20 worth of tokens. Really fun time!
—The tea party restaurant: One day while Lukas was at school, Annika and I went to this tea place in the Pruneyard for a very girly outing together. We ate tons of those little cinnamony cookies with lemon curd, I let her put all the sugar cubes in my tea, and we nibbled little bitty sandwiches like fancy ladies. A new tradition!
—The Children’s Discovery Museum: Glad we had free passes to this one … it was fun, but 60% of the place was under construction, so there wasn’t that much to do, and we bailed early to eat “breakfast for lunch” at a diner near home. 
—Sharks Ice: Another girls-only outing, for a little ice skating while Lukas was in school. Annika’s skills have really picked up!
—Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: An excellent day on our new season passes, full of rides and junk food and no meltdowns! This one we did after Daddy got back, of course, heh. Annika made a friend, a little girl who was there with her aunt, and rode a bunch of rides with her while Lukas did the baby belugas ride like seventeen times. 
Lukas’s school days
The little guy is still doing great with preschool (well, when he goes, which is only about 70% of the time, considering he’s gotten every illness in Northern California in his short tenure there). He still loves Gymsters, on Mondays, although he has quit basketball for reasons undecipherable. He's always excited when he has a school day, and his smile when I come to get him is just the best. 
Annika’s wild life
—Party time:
This month, she went to Alana’s birthday party at Pump It Up, then a couple of weeks later, to Petroglyph for Raina's party.
—The mystery rash: One Thursday night, she said her knees were itchy, and by the next evening, her knees and elbows were like cauliflower with painful hive-like bumps. We went to a doctor on Saturday, who had nothing of value to tell us, and then to a dermatologist the next Wednesday, who at least gave us a cream that seemed marginally effective, but by that time she had a 101.5 fever and had thrown up in the car, plus the welts had spread over her thighs and ankles, so she was out for the rest of the school week. The next Monday afternoon, her own doctor took a strep swab, which came back positive, so it looks like that might have been the mystery ailment — here’s hoping!
—School singing performance: The first grade had a short concert at Castillero Middle School one evening, so the whole family went to see it. Annika did beautifully, and even Lukas loved it (I took video of him copying the arm gestures of one of the songs — hilarious!).
—Club Penguin: Annika got obsessed with this one kids’ online game called Club Penguin. It’s incomprehensible to R. and I — we can’t tell what is the object or why you would care — but she really does love it, and after a month of playing the free version and racking up “coins,” she made a very considered and thorough pitch to be allowed to become a member ($19.99 for 3 months) so she could upgrade her igloo (?), wardrobe, and music library with all those coins she’d saved. So far, so good, although — seriously — WTF is this game? and why god why? Oh well … 

Quotable
—“If I close my eyes, you can't see me.”
—Lukas, on invisibility
— “I got a machievement sticker!” — Lukas, on the 90-day sticker he won on the toothbrushing timer app.