August 2021

 Family fun

I wouldn’t say we’re back to pre-pandemic social levels, but we did get out a bunch this month: The kids got back-to-school haircuts, met up with friends here and there, and so on. At Annika’s request, I took her and Raina to Gilroy Gardens, with Lukas and Manir (all of us masked in the car, times being what they are); the girls peeled off right away to do their own thing, and I sorta trailed the boys as they more or less did the same. It was a fun (but hot!) day, and felt kinda like old times. The whole fam met up with all the Patels at the Beach Boardwalk for another truly epic day out (a complete stranger, a teenage girl, told Annika she had beautiful eyes — which of course she does! — so that was a fun little thing for her.) And finally, the temperature stayed high so late this time of year that we had a couple of sessions of night swimming with the awesome lights in the new pool — best way to end the summer.

Annika’s bidness
As eighth grade looms on the horizon, the kid — who’s now officially taller than me, having grown an inch since May 31 — had her class orientation (where somebody told her she looked like Billie Eilish!) and got her schedule, which included the Art class she was somehow not sure she’d get into, and two classes with Raina (Art and Geometry) bookending the day. Not too bad! 

Lukas Life
This kid is in constant motion (in between hourslong sessions of slurping up YouTube …). He did another week of skate camp (during which he did his first rail slide!), and we organized an epic field trip to a giant skatepark with Ben, Sam and James, where the boys went from super-tentative to, at the end, taking a terrifying (to me) ride down the world’s largest full pipe. They also rode their bikes on a pump track (hilly on purpose) — I thought they might be there ten minutes, but we stayed nearly four hours! Lukas and pals kept meeting up on Mondays to do Blade Team activities, usually adding a session of “balls” with Dad beforehand — meaning, playing catch and/or basketball, while Annika and I stayed home and watched Stranger Things. There would have been a party for Emmett’s birthday, but it got canceled because the family had had a close covid exposure (from old family friends who did not disclose that they had not gotten vaccinated — AAAAARRRRGGGH). And finally, Lukas got his braces off! It’s retainer only, for a couple of years until Phase Two. Yaaaay! 

First day of school
Few things have been both as dreaded and as anticipated as the actual start of this particular school year. Lukas got Mrs. Carvajal for his teacher, along with pretty much all of his same class from last year; he had wanted Mr. Dinh, but I really think Carvajal is a better fit for him, and especially since his friends are all in there with him. Both schools had new start and end times — an HOUR earlier than last year, wtf? — so I will be driving them both; there’s no way to get Annika there on time otherwise. On the first day, there was lots of nervousness all around; we did our traditional first-day photos in the front yard, then had a meetup with the Gividen boys and the Patels at Caitlin’s for pics, and then walked the whole big group across the street to campus (parents only allowed as far as the sidewalk, and all masked up). At the end of the day, Lukas was all smiles, but Annika not so much; it was a LOT, you know? Just social and emotional overload, especially after this isolated last year. However, milkshakes did help cheer things up. On Day 2, Lukas was asked out for ice cream with the Patels, while Annika and I went to Office Depot and Michaels for school supplies. And on Aloha Friday, things were better still; I had Lukas home in time to take a bike ride, since hanging around on campus isn’t allowed anymore, and then she and I went to Starbucks for a little Friday afternoon treat. Sometime in the first couple of weeks, I realized that if I left home maybe five minutes earlier than normal, I could actually walk to get Lukas and we could walk home together, and then drive to get Annika, so I started doing that anytime it was possible; the time with Lukas quickly became one of my favorite parts of the day. :-) 

Quotable
—“I’m an electric toothbrush guy, myself.” (Lukas, to classmate Dorothy Jackson’s question about toothbrushes at the Grants’ outdoor movie night in summer 2020)
—“Gavin has long hair and a broken left arm.” (Lukas, re: a classmate he hasn’t seen in awhile)