November 2018

Lukas is SEVEN!!!
Of course the highlight of this month was the littlest maniac turning seven! As the dates lined up this year, he had his party on his actual birthday (a Sunday); we went off the beaten track and had it at Airborne Gymnastics, and all the guests (and their parents) were wowed in a big way. The wildfires of the last couple of weeks, which had meant indoor recess and cancelled afterschool activities and so forth, factored in to the massive energy-release of a couple of hours bouncing around a huge gymnastics facility, for sure! The kids had an awesome time, the cake turned out great (Star Wars theme) — everything worked out perfectly. Later that day, we had our family party, with the raspberry-chocolate cake that the kids always request, and a bunch more presents; the kid cleaned up on all things Lego, Star Wars, Nerf shooters, etc. He’s such a hilarious little munster, full of beans and twice as wild — seven started off well for the sweetest boy in the wide world. :-) 

School days, friends, and so forth
—Lukas earns free dress: Taking a page from Annika’s book, Lukas saved up his PRIDE tickets (Lion’s Paws) and turned a bunch of them in to get free dress one Friday this month. We were proud of him for earning that many in the first place, and for not spending them on smaller things when what he really wanted was the free dress day!
—Parent/Teacher conferences: We had our meetings with Mrs. Morcate and Mr. Lozano on the same day, one right after the other. They’re both doing really well: Lukas is “such a pleasure to have in class!” and his reading and math scores are in the highest range; Annika is thriving in general and “seems to really enjoy and understand math” ( … really? she … hates it , but … ok dude! lol).
—The grandparents finally make the real move: Bit by bit, we got G&G moved into their new place, and they spent their first night there mid-month. So far, they love it — it’s so quiet and peaceful and everything works! Heh.
—Annika gets a job: During the conference week, when the kids were dismissed at 1:00 every day, Ami and I took the boys bowling while Annika babysat Amira; Grandma and Grandpa were here at the time, but Annika was the responsible party. She got paid $20 and now wants to babysit all the time!
—Fun stuff: Family friend Sean’s birthday party was at a laser tag place, which both kids loved but were kind of put off by how many non-party kids were in the arena with them (life is tough, eh?). We did a rare Sunday movie night — Veterans’ Day weekend — featuring Incredibles 2, which even the grandparents loved. The kids and I spent an afternoon at Petroglyph, making useful art, and inadvertently discovered a great new (super-old) deli in Willow Glen.

Thanksgiving
Ahhh, my favorite holiday! This was a really good one, too. I recruited both kids to help in the kitchen (it’s well past time for that!), we watched the Macy Day Parade together, and we had G&G over from the condo (they spent the night, of course). R. made one of the best turkeys ever; I got ambitious enough to do more sides than usual (creamed pearl onions, green bean casserole), and there was pie for all. The rest of the weekend, pretty much everybody sick but we rallied to have a couple of movie nights anyway — the last two Wimpy Kid movies, one after the other. It was FINALLY cool and rainy, so we mostly hung around and looked at screens the rest of the time.

Quotable
—“There’s no school Monday because it’s vegetarians day!” (Lukas, dispensing the wisdom)
—“That’s my coccyx—” pointing to the area just left of his tailbone, “and that’s my cocc-seven!” pointing to the same area, but on the right. (Lukas explaining anatomy).