July 2016

Grandparents’ visit
So G&G came for three weeks this summer, straight from NY (where they are fixing up the Long Island house for sale). It was the usual mix of Lukas & Grandpa rowdiness, Annika & Grandma sequestration, afternoon swimming, too much screen time, and a couple date nights out for R. & I, except for two things: 1) G&G’s anniversary dinner, in which the six of us went out to celebrate 56 years for the guests of honor (the kids held up much better than expected — a gift all by itself!), and 2) Grandpa getting vascular surgery five days into the visit to repair a blockage before it could do any damage to the old guy. It went extremely well, and Grandpa only spent a single night in the hospital before coming home to recover with ease — couldn’t have asked for an easier experience (at least for those of us who didn’t actually have the surgery!).

Family fun
—The Glorious Fourth: We had a great 4th of July weekend, featuring a spot of bowling, a lot of time in the pool and grilling out for nearly every meal, a day visit from everybody’s favorite Tom, and on the 4th, a short trip to see our local parade with R.’s work friend and his family, plus that evening, an awesome fireworks show, where we were joined by the cousins & Uncle Paul & Aunt Amy.
—Gilroy Gardens: We needed to make use of those season passes we bought, so we cleared a weekday and went again. Another fun trip for all! Annika sure does love that one roller coaster … :-)
—The abortive trip to Marin: Our friend Ian had a book reading & signing at a bookstore in San Rafael, and we were invited over to their house after to hang out and eat dinner. And everything was perfect … until we got stuck in absolutely insane traffic on the way up, and yada yada yada, three and a half hours later, still on this side of the Golden Gate Bridge, we called it — turned around and came home, feeling horrible about missing everything we’d planned with our friends, but with no prospects of getting there before sundown. Ugh. Hell of a day. 

Annika
—Brownie swim party: Annika’s Brownie troop had an informal get-together at the twins’ house (Rachel & Rebekah) for swimming and whatnot, so she spent a crazy town afternoon there, after having really not seen her friends since school let out.
—Pokemon GO!: This mobile game has more or less taken over the world, and our lives — good thing it really is so much fun! When we finally figured out what we were doing, A. and I really started to get into going on walks and to parks to hunt the little critters. We even got to go Pokemon hunting with Paul and Alyna, when their family came over to visit G&G.
—Mom & Annika time: While she’s still out of school but Lukas hasn’t finished at preschool yet, Annika and I did a bunch of just-us things, e.g. bowling w/o her obsessing about Lukas getting a better score than she did; going to the tea party restaurant and the new coffee shop near the house (for crepes and coffee); seeing Secret Life of Pets in the movie theater, and spending a couple of hours at two different paint-your-own pottery places — the kind of thing a younger sibling couldn’t really handle yet. 

Lukas
—Goodbye to Discovery Years: At the first of the month, I turned in our 30-day written notice, withdrawing Lukas from preschool. We have high hopes for TK, and it’s just time to do this; his teacher was very sorry to know we’d decided for certain to take him out, and spent the rest of the month making a fuss about it, but the deed was done!
—Mornings with Lukas: On another note entirely, Lukas has turned into quite the morning cuddler/snoozer; he’ll sneak into our room verrrrrry quietly in the morning and climb into bed with us. Some mornings, it’s nice, and he’s sweet, and he’ll give lots of kisses and sometimes even go back to sleep draped on top of one of us; other mornings, he’s the frickin Tasmanian Devil and rousts us both out of bed, grumpy and angry at him for disturbing our rest. You just never can tell with this one. 

Quotable
—“I like Rusty Rivets because he can fix anything, just like you!” -Lukas, to Daddy

—“Lukas did that. He says it's his booger army.” —Annika, with the most perfectly deadpan eye-rolling comedic delivery of all time, when I catch sight of some stuff wiped on a wall in the bathroom.

—“You’re a monkey, Lukas!” —Grandpa
“No, I don't like bananas!” —Lukas, indignantly defending his honor

 —“Why does Batman have to verse Superman?” —Lukas asking the age-old questions