Wednesday, January 27, 2016

December 2015

Christmassy stuff
—Advent calendar treasure hunt:
From the “biting off more than one can chew” department: I bought these cute unpainted wooden advent calendar xmas trees last year on clearance, figuring we’d paint them and I’d put little treats in them for the season. Well … the first part went beautifully, but the second got way out of hand. The boxes for each day were only like 1”x1”, so really nothing but an M&M would’ve fit, so I ended up putting in a clue as to where the treat was hidden. The kids liked the clue-hunt part so much that I somehow found myself making a 4-clue treasure hunt of it every single day. They loved it, it was fun, but … oh man, please tell me I didn’t sign myself up for this as a yearly thing? I’m out of ideas! LOL.
—The tree: We got the tree early this year (well, for us), following the Kiwanis to their new location the first weekend of December. Decorated it the same day, with both kids finally old enough to actually help, instead of the younger one just getting underfoot, heh. As always, it was one of my favorite parts of the season, and the fresh tree smell made it seem like Christmas.
—Lukas’s holiday potluck and musical at preschool: Just like for Thanksgiving, Lukas’s school held a potluck holiday lunch, but this one had a singing performance beforehand; Grandma & Grandpa were already here, so they came along to see it. Lukas’s class, the oldest, went last and made the most sense — he was hilarious and very proud of himself for singing all the words.
—Holiday Fantasy of Lights at Vasona Park: This year, the lights were much easier to see — they had a ticketing system, sort of like the FastPass, where you were given a window in which to show up, which minimized waiting. We went on December 26; Grandma & Grandpa got to see it for the first time, and the kids were thrilled all over again.
—1000 cookies: We baked a lot — and Annika is now a full partner in the kitchen, yay! — mostly cookies. The funniest thing was the cream cheese cut-outs; I quadrupled the recipe, thinking that’s what I had done last year, but no … it made so many cookies, we covered the bar top from end to end. Annika and I iced and decorated them, and everyone ate them for more than a week. Hilarious!
—Christmas Eve & Day: After a solid month of build-up, the kids were out of their minds for Christmas to actually be here. We watched Christmas shows, ate dinner early, put out cookies for Santa, and got the kids to bed. The next morning, niiiice and early, the kids got up and Santa had indeed been here! So! many! presents!!! They got to plunder their stockings and eat candy before breakfast, then open a couple of presents, then we had to get the turkey in the oven before getting back to the gifts. Lukas was particularly entertaining, freaking out over pretty much all of his gifts — so much fun! The cousins came over, and there were more presents! The kids got bikes! We had an awesome Christmas dinner! It was nuts, and so, so, so much fun.
Daily life
— Grandma & Grandpa arrive (after a night in the Denver airport):
G&G were supposed to get here on the 15th, but the weather had other ideas, and they ended up spending the night in the Denver airport and catching another flight to SJC the next day. It was pretty hard on them, especially since Grandpa had a cold, but they caught up on sleep that day and were more or less normal within a few days, getting woken up at the crack of dawn by the kids every day as usual …
—Lukas’s room is finally finished! Well, except for getting the doors painted. But he got his big boy bed and a nightstand at last, and with Daddy’s careful painting and the gorgeous moldings, it’s now the nicest room in the whole house.
—The new bikes from Santa: Annika got a bigger bike, since she’s so much taller now than when she got her old one, and Lukas got one with training wheels. We took the first nice post-xmas day and went to the school blacktop. Annika got the hang of hers right away; Lukas entertained himself by stomping on the brakes ever two or three revolutions of the pedals, to the point where R. and I were so exasperated we let him ditch it and ride his scooter instead. Oh well — he’ll change his mind soon enough.
—Holiday Bowling: R. was home for those two weeks, so we were able to go bowling mid afternoon one day while Grandma & Grandpa, both kind of under the weather, took much-needed naps. I wore my new bowling shoes (xmas present!), and the kids managed to not fall apart, so — good times!
—Build-a-Bear: Annika got a gift card for Build-a-Bear for her birthday, so we took Grandma and Lukas and went to put it to use. She immediately selected a sparkly white reindeer named Glisten, while Lukas dithered forever trying to pick something; he ended up not with a bear or animal, but with two blue light sabers ("light savers are the best savers”) meant for the Star-Wars-branded bears to hold — and they actually did light up! The funny thing was that, although they have not seen any of the movies (on grounds of they both say it’s waaaaay too scary), Lukas — making his saber selection — discarded Kylo Ren’s fancy red one for a simple blue one, because “Onwy de bad guys have wed wight savers. De good guys have bwue ones.”
Friends and whatnot
—Family party at the Thomases’:
We were invited to a holiday party at the twins’ house (Anna & Ella), where the kids acted like maniacs and we enjoyed some tasty beverages and food and got to know the parents better.
—Annika’s Brownie tea party: The troop had a little tea party for its last meeting of 2015, and invited the moms. It was so sweet how hard they all worked to set it up and act as waitresses — I could get used to that!
—Billy Beez: Lukas was invited to a party at Billy Beez — a kids’ play space in the mall — which was just nuts (a giant indoor playground with slides, bouncy areas, all kinds of pretend-play toys, etc.), and while we were there, Annika and her friend Sydney went to Raina’s, where they decorated a gingerbread house and played ninjas and whatnot (the three of them are a tight little group these days). 

Quotable
—“Mommy this is SEWIOUS: Santa has two magic eyes that can see whether you're asweep!”
(Lukas, both hands on my face, reporting with great urgency)
—“handkerchip” (Lukas’s interpretation of what Grandpa uses instead of Kleenex)

November 2015

Everyday happenings
—This month, the kids were STILL bunking together
(and Lukas was, frankly, being an a-hole, what with the all-night jumping around, flopping around, bothering Annika, not going to sleep, etc.), until — on his birthday! — the little guy finally moved back into his own (85%-finished) room! Yaaaaaaaaay! He was still sleeping on the futon mattress, but at least, it was on his own floor …
—A brief Yo Gabba Gabba renaissance: Lukas found some old Gabbas on Annika’s phone, and they both started watching them, which led to watching them on TV for like two solid weeks. It was nice while it lasted!
—Annika gets her ears pierced: Years ago, I said she could do it when she was eight … and she remembered! A few of her friends are starting to get their ears pierced, too, so it was time. I did some research, but we ended up going to Claire’s in the mall, where we got ‘em done with the ol’ piercing gun (with one person on each side of her, so it was over quickly). She was a champ up in that chair, picked her earrings out, and squeezed her eyes shut - boom! Pierced! She looks adorable, of course, and loved picking out a bunch of earrings to wear when the 6-week trial period is over. 
Lukas’s birthday
—Pump It Up!:
The Saturday before his actual birthday, we invited his preschool friends, plus Grace and Sean and Lawson & Niamh, and ended up with about 12 kids for his party at Pump It Up (bouncy houses & whatnot). He had an absolute blast, except for when he was told to sit in the birthday throne for the presentation of the Spider-Man cake he chose from Lucky — at that, he wept, thinking he had to sit there the whole time instead of sitting at a table to eat with his friends! Poor kid — once we figured out what was wrong, he went back to having a blast. :-) The next day, same time, we went back for Sean’s party at the same venue; Lukas was pretty wiped out, but the allure of PIU is strong, and he had a great time for the most part (minus a small overtired meltdown or two, heh).
—The glorious 18th: We had a family birthday dinner for the little guy on his actual bday, with his favorite meal (PB!) for him and regular food for us, plus a vegan cake I’d baked and Annika decorated (with red icing, his favorite color). He got a ton of presents, mostly superhero and/or action-based, plus some books and Pixar merch). Hard to believe he’s actually FOUR YEARS OLD!!! Sweet boy, habitual line-stepper — that’s our precious little Lukas-man. 
School days
—Lukas’s school Thanksgiving:
The preschool had a potluck Thanksgiving party, which I went to; it was adorable, with all the kids in either Pilgrim or Indian construction-paper hats. Lukas of course wanted to come home after the party, so we made an early day of it.
—Annika’s first solo field trip: The second grade went to see a play at the Campbell Heritage Theater, and since so many parents want to chaperone, there’s a one-field-trip-per-parent policy; Annika preferred I come on the trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the spring, so I sat this one out. She had a great time; it’s really fun to see her gain independence as she gets older!
—Annika gets into the Titanic: Browsing the shelves at the school library, Annika came across a section on the Titanic, and immediately became almost as fascinated with it as I had been at about her age. She made her favorite of the books the subject of her November book report, and asked me repeatedly to look up pictures on the internet. I did explain that it was a terrible tragedy, and kind of walk her through that part of it — Tragedy 101, I guess? — but I think she’s mainly into the grandeur and the hero/villain narrative, which sounds about right to me.
—Lukas goes to Cole's Pump It Up birthday: I think we started a trend among the preschool set! Back to PIU for another session of bouncing till he can’t bounce no more …
—Dandy Day honors: Annika, it turns out, raised the most money by any individual in the whole school at the walk-a-thon: $1250.00!!! Fully $500 was from Uncle Jake and Aunt Jill, who pledged $10 per lap (she walked 50 laps! hahaha!). Her prize was an iPod Nano, engraved for the occasion, and she was presented it at an assembly in front of the entire TK-K-1st-2nd grades — what a thrill!
Thanksgiving
We woke up Thanksgiving day to a cool frosty morning (there was so much frost on the neighborhood’s roofs that the kids thought it had snowed!) with a crazy full moon still in view. We all watched the Macy Day Parade while the turkey roasted, and everything came together on time for a great Thanksgiving dinner for the four of us. Truly one of our better turkey days — good times all around! 
Social stuff
—The city and P-Town:
We were invited to a first birthday party for Mike & Angie’s daughter Viv, so we made a Saturday of it — first the party, then a leisurely drive down to Pacifica to walk the old neighborhood (it was a gorgeous sunny day, with whales visible not far offshore as we strolled the ocean walk), then an early dinner at Celia’s (with plenty of takeout for the next couple of days). It was fun to see the old places and point them out to the kids; Annika remembered some of it, but of course, Lukas had never been there. Great day!
—Play dates: We had a couple of get-togethers with newish friends: A surprise/impromptu play date at Sydney’s, and a Thanksgiving-week after-school play date at Anna and Ella’s. We’re getting to be better friends with each of these families, and looking forward to getting to know them.

Quotable
—"The Minion Bunch”
(Lukas’s conflation of two new things in his life: the minions, from the Despicable Me movies, and the Brady Bunch, one episode of which we screened for the kids, to much appreciation (the one where “mom always said don’t play ball in the house!”)
—"Let's have a band for the birds!” (Lukas making a happy suggestion, while I practiced bass and he banged around on the keyboard, and a bunch of birds were flying around just outside our window)