April 2016

Family Fun
—Gilroy Gardens: What a great discovery! During Annika’s spring break — the February week is actually “winter break,” whatever that is — R. took a day off and we all went to this family amusement park. It was so, so much fun! There were a couple of mild but rough-riding rollercoasters that Annika loved, and lots of kiddie rides for Lukas, so we ended up staying past closing time, and buying a season pass.
—Daddy to Vegas: Work sent R. to Las Vegas for 48 hours, so the kids and I turned in early the night he was away, and Annika camped in Lukas’s room while I stayed up way too late watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix.
—Chuck E Cheese w/Anna & Ella: Also on spring break, the kids wanted to go to Chuck’s and invite friends, choosing the twins to meet us there. Once again, Annika saved up her tickets for next time, and Lukas bought some cruddy thing or other that he was very happy with. :-) Good time all around. 

Annika’s stuff
—Anna & Ella sleepover: Yet another entry in the Era of the Sleepover! Annika went as primarily Ella’s guest to the twins’ sleepover and had a great time; she never wants to leave when I show up to fetch her, which says a lot to me.
—The school multicultural faire: Annika got a bee in her bonnet to represent Finland at the multicultural faire, so I parachuted into the event already in progress (I didn’t go to a single meeting … whoops), borrowing Finland stuff from the Finnish family that moved to Sunnyvale (the Vaisanens put me in touch with Heli, the mom), making a “national costume” per Annika’s vision (white shirt, white skirt, blue apron made from a pillowcase, burgundy tassels with yarn pom-poms I made myself, braided hair) for the International Fashion Show … and R. and I repped his heritage for three hours with Finn Crisp crackers and butter while Lukas partied at Kidspark. Exhausting.
—Tori’s party at Pump It Up: TBH, Annika didn’t want to go and I wouldn’t have made her; Tori is kind of a bully. But it seemed like not many people were going, so I suggested she go … and since Sydney was going, she agreed. It was the night of the Multicultural Faire, so … yeah that was a long night. But it ended up being fun for her, so we had that going for us. 

Lukas’s stuff
—Steele’s bday party: Lukas’s friend Steele (I think it’s funny that two of his best friends at school are inanimate objects: Cole [coal] and Steele [steel], heh) had his birthday party at Pump It Up, and of course Lukas was out of his mind with excitement! It’s still such a cute big deal for him to go to his own parties, and not as Annika’s plus-one at her parties. :-)
—The allergy wanes: It’s not an event, just an observation — Lukas seems to be outgrowing his allergy at last! I’ve fed him cheese, he ate regular (homemade) cupcakes with real buttercream icing at Steele’s party without any reaction, he can apparently eat milk chocolate, etc. I’m still not ready to feed him eggs scrambled in butter, but it’s definitely milder, almost to the point of vanishing. YES!!!!

Quotable
—X-ray swing fighters: Lukas’s take on “X-Wing Fighters” 

March 2016

Family Fun
—The most important movie night: We finally decided both kids could handle it, and they were both begging for it … so we closed the drapes, covered the entryway, and fired up the movie screen for Star Wars. Wooooooooo!!!!! Both kids loved it, neither were too awfully scared (although I think they missed the burnt skeletons at Aunt Beru & Uncle Owen’s place), and now they want to see all the rest of the movies! Yes!!! A new generation learns the ways of the Force!!!
—Aunt Lesley visits: My sister came out for a few days on her spring break, which included Easter Sunday; she dyed 36 eggs with us, and witnessed the hilarity of our annual egg hunt the morning after the Easter Bunny came. It was great having her here; the kids love their “Aunt Weswey” (Lukas’s rendition). 
—Theo’s party at Happy Hollow: Eleni’s younger brother Theo, who is in kindergarten, loved hanging out with Lukas at our house, so he invited us to his birthday party at Happy Hollow; we all went, including Aunt Lesley. Annika had a blast running around with Sydney — including riding the little roller coaster for the first time, and Lukas spent over an hour in the giant play structure (climbing ropes, big slides, nets, passageways, etc.). 

Lukas Life
—Lukas goes to Little Gym: That boy needed a place to spend some of his maniac energy, and to do flips and jumps somewhere other than our living room, so I signed him up for Little Gym on Tuesday mornings. He LOVES IT, loves it loves it! Yay! Kid Fearless, that one …
—The Dark Side: Lukas got into some serious behavior issues this month, including 1) sneaking down stairs to steal candy from the pantry in the middle of the night, and lying about it, and 2) wiping poop from his own butt on the living-room furniture. On the plus side, it’s clear that Hershey’s Kisses don’t trigger his milk allergy, but on the other hand: NO. So he lost his treat for two weeks, and his allowance for one, and we have started to lock the pantry at night, among other things. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Action Annika
—Monterey Bay Aquarium field trip: The second grade went to the MB Aquarium, and she requested specifically that I *not* go with them as chaperone. I am still not sure why, but I am trying to encourage her independence, so I agreed. She had a great time, wasn’t worried or scared at all … so, I guess it was a good call!
—Sleepover at Sydney’s: Speaking of independence, it’s apparently the Era of Sleepovers; she was invited to Sydney’s, and once again had a blast. The only thing I really worry about, now, in re: these parties, is what I always worry about anyway: head lice. Hahahah! [but really] 

February 2016

Tahoe!
We went to Tahoe with the Carneys again on Annika’s spring break, and this time there was a big nasty storm forecast for the Thursday we’d been planning on driving up. So we went up on Wednesday instead, and got a hotel room for the night. The kids handled it well, and woke up to a couple of feet of fresh snow! Woooooo!! We got to the cabin, moved in, got groceries, and the other family arrived late that afternoon while we were out at a snow play area (with sledding, snow tubing, and a big field in which we built forts and furniture). The first full day, we put all the kids in a 3-hour ski lesson and we adults made a couple of runs … just a couple, because nothing was groomed, and we were all afraid of breaking a leg, but it did feel good to do it again after a 10-year hiatus (the last time R. and I went was … 2006?). The kids didn’t love their lesson, but it was still worth doing. The next day we all just hung out in the cabin and played for hours in the backyard — epic snowball fight, making a sled run, flopping down and making snow angels, etc. Then we had to pack up and head home on Sunday, another surprisingly easy drive home after a great trip. Excellent vacation with friends!

Annika’s busy life
—Girl Scout cookie sales: OK, now this is real. We had to get inventory, make the pitch to customers, get Daddy to take boxes to work (he ended up being the real hero of sales, selling out his inventory nearly every day till the end), and take our turn at booth sales (one outside of the Lucky near us, one at the Safeway farther away). Annika loved booth sales, and I tried to stay out of it, only being the responsible adult presence and letting the girls manage themselves — it worked surprisingly well, and we sold quite a few cookies; the girls did very well against their troop goals.
—Orca ribbon: Annika got her Orca ribbon at last — the shiny black one — and there are now only three levels to go until she, in her own words, “graduates” AVAC’s program. Go, little mermaid!!
—Grace’s birthday: Annika was of course invited to Grace’s birthday party, at Rockin’ Jump, which is just a warehouse with a mess o’ trampolines. She LOVED it, of course, and now wants to go there all the time.
—The Journey of Orthodonture begins: Three appointments this month, the first two for measuring and insertion of spacers, and the final one for the insertion of the expanders (upper and lower), which she’ll wear for four months. Annika took it all like a champ, even though some parts of it were clearly painful. Each time, I took her for ice cream after school to make up for it. I have to turn the key to expand the expanders a little bit every evening for two weeks, which is just … ugh. It makes me feel so bad to do a thing that hurts her, even though it’s for the long-term good. Poor kid — and a little tiny bit poor me! Next appointment is six weeks away. 

Just bein’ social
—Super Bowl Sunday: We had the Carneys over again, cause last year was a good time — and so was this one! The game was fun, the kids got along, we ate a bunch of crappy food and drank a lot of beer. Murica.
—Lukas’s trio: The Girl Scout troop went ice skating, so I had three little brothers over to our house while the girls were away: Lukas, Eleni’s little brother Theo, and Brianna’s little brother Brandon. Within about three minutes, they were all playing Star Wars, and the afternoon included a ton of popcorn, an hour of dot-painting art, and numerous high-speed laps around the pool. They all had a blast, but by the end I wanted to have a large Scotch and go straight to bed … 

Quotable Kids:
—Powerful Blue Panthers: The name of Annika’s basketball team at recess. They like to wear blue headbands.
—bazombies: Lukas’s take on the undead
—play Star Wars with me: What he wants everyone to do, all the time.
—windmills = wing fighters: He saw some windmills, and called them “wing fighters,” aka X-Wing Fighters. Heh.
—“What is this world called? Truckee? I think that's because there are lots of trucks there. Little trucks, like Crusher's trucky that he loves.” Lukas making sense of the name of the town we were in on the way to the Tahoe cabin, incorporating Minecraft, observation, and Blaze & The Monster Machines.
—robot dinosaurs: AT-ATs (Star Wars)
—“Why does every single superhero have to stop a train from a broken track?” Keen observation in re: world-saving tasks performed by the superheroes in his picture books. 

January 2016

Family fun
—Senior sauce: With the grandparents here, R. and I were able to go on the rare grownups-only Sauce night — and once again, the kids barely even noticed we were gone!
—Movie nights: It’s cold, often rainy, and nighttime comes early, so we’ve had quite a few movie nights this month, including screenings of all three Despicable Me movies. The kids are so nuts about those that they can (and do) actually sing the Universal Studios theme song … 

Annika’s things/life/whatnot
—Minecraft: The pointless wanderings of Minecraft have finally come to our house. Annika is heavily into it, forsaking all else, at least for now … my friends with older kids tell me there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but like six or seven years from now. Oh boy …
—Annika in the kitchen: She’s “helped” me for years, the way very little kids do, but as of this winter, Annika is truly a partner in the kitchen — she did fully half the work for some cookies we made for Sauce, and the Swedish pancakes we made with my new plettar pan, and so on. She can measure anything, pays attention to the right way to do things — I’d let her in there by herself if she wanted!
—Piano lessons: She has started piano lessons, half an hour on Monday afternoons, with a young teacher recommended by the parents of her friends Anna & Ella. The teacher comes to our house and Lukas and I vacate the room, and from what I’m able to hear, she’s making real progress — learning about music and notation generally, besides getting better at the piano specifically. So far, she’s liking it — yay! — and isn’t fighting doing her 15 minutes of practice daily.
—Braces ahoy: We went to her first orthodonture consultation, and their assessment aligns with what her dentist has been saying, so we’re going to start the whole years-long process now. She’ll get spacers in February, then other stuff eventually. She’s adjusted to the idea, which she used to vehemently oppose, because fully half of her classmates are on the same track — it’s no big deal now. Whew.
—Cayli’s sleepover birthday party: She finally went to her first sleepover, which was a birthday party at her friend Cayli’s house. This was ideal, because not only were some of her best friends there, but also, Cayli’s mom is Annika’s teacher (Mrs. Merrell). She had an absolute blast, and now wants a sleepover like every night of the week. Heh.
—Noping on out of there: It’s kind of a bummer, but Annika quit Spy Adventures: Star Wars Edition after two meetings, basically because she's the only girl. I wish that didn’t matter, but she’s at the age that I guess it kind of does.
—Girl Scout cookie rally: We went to the big kickoff for cookie sales, where, among other things, she set her sales goal: 1000 boxes! I like her enthusiasm, but I don’t think I’m gonna buy 995 of ‘em … 

Lukas Life
—The TK/Kinder tour: I’ve been hearing such universal raves about our school’s TK class that it’s got me considering enrolling Lukas. So R. and I went on one of the tours the school offers, which was pretty impressive — the TK kids have a great classroom, they were all engaged and behaving, and the program sounds like it might be a fit for Lukas. Based on all of that, I’m going to make an enrollment appointment for him, and keep the option open; at this point, I’m about 90% for it. We shall see. 
—Shanaya’s birthday: Lukas was invited to his classmate Shanaya’s birthday party at Pump It Up. He’s an old pro at that place by now, and was SO EXCITED to go! He had a great time, of course, and I got to talk with the other parents, a few of whom are considering sending their kids to TK as well — more information is always good!
—The ubiquitous Iron Man pajamas: You never know, with this kid — one day, he wanted to wear his beloved Iron Man pajamas all day, so I let him (not on a school day, so who cares), and then he did not want to take them off, ever; he changed back into them the second he got home from school, he cried when I had to take them to wash them, he did his Iron Man moves everywhere we went. It was so cute, we indulged him — at least until they got a hole in the knee big enough to put his head through, ha! And then they went back to being home-only clothes.  

Quotable Lukas
—“Mom: I bezent you my DINOSAUR LAND!" Proudly presenting me with a piece of paper covered with dinosaur stickers.
—“Mick-tunior" His favorite website — aka Nick Jr.
—“Santa Claus Beach Boardwalk” His take on a favorite family destination
—“Mommy and daddy / is a wonderful place to come” A little ditty he sang when he crawled into our bed, several mornings in a row 
—“I won't eat gatoregg. It has egg in it.” On the suggestion that he drink some Gatorade while he had a cold.
—“Are you the sweetest boy in the world?""Yes!" “How sweet are you?” "I'm 18 miles sweet!” Quantifying the sweetness.