Just a day at home with the kids cheesin’…!
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dylan’s pajama day at school – 11/20
perfect day for Pajama Day at school. I Dylan’s teacher–they made veggie friendship stew, cornbread (Dylan even got to make his own vegan version), and hot cocoa (his with soymilk). With the cold and rain, we decided to keep on with the day’s coziness, so he got more hot cocoa at home.
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dylan’s first piano recital – 11/16
Dylan had his first piano recital in mid-November! It happened to be on the same day as Grandpa Mike’s bday, so it was very nice that he and Lola drove up to see his very short performance! The recital was at the nearby Quaker meeting house and he played 2 songs, “Ode to Joy” (a very simple and abbreviated couple of lines from the song) and another piece I can’t remember!
He really only practiced “Ode to Joy” which he played as a duet with his piano teacher Michael. I had no idea he was actually supposed to play 2 songs (my bad as I’d been stealing away to work on the SunSpec contract during his lessons instead of tuning into what was going on), so I wasn’t prodding him to practice anything other than “Ode to Joy”! So, while “Ode to Joy” was beautifully played, he faltered on the second piece.
The dear boy did not lose his stride, though! He ended his section of the recital with grace and a smile…and a nice bow!
Lola and Grandpa Mike gave him roses and, after all of the performances (some very, very well done!), we enjoyed a few snacks at a reception. Then, we helped rearrange the chairs into the very specific configuration required by the Quakers!
Afterwards, we headed back to Auntie Christina’s house to celebrate Mike’s (and Tom’s) birthdays!
Here’s grandpa Mike with his cupcake tree!
I think he was given some tricky candles!! He finally got help from Jason and Tyler!!
As usual, everyone enjoyed themselves! And hanging out with the fam was a nice way to end a very busy day!!
Update: Just found a vid link to Dylan’s performance!
1/3
Just getting 2014 off to a fun start!
Someday soon, these precious little teeth will be replaced by big, permanent ones!
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Los Angeles
On the way home from Legoland, we went to visit the family in LA. Always a great time for the kids and it’s always nice to catch up with the big un’s, too!
Rocky is so sweet with the little girls! And, she has inspired Cameron to want to try out some ballet!
We got to see Uncle Michael, too!
It was really sweet to see how Chloe so quickly warmed up to everyone.
And the bigger kids made snow! We managed to avoid taking some home.
It was a short visit, but the kids really crammed a lot of activity in! Eli and Dylan built lego stuff and tinkered with Eli’s Snap-Circuit set.
We were looking forward to the next visit the second we headed out Grandma Sharon and Papa Willard’s door! And, hopefully, we will see everyone again within the next few weeks. Until then, Peace Out!
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November Legoland trip
The following weekend, we were at Legoland to celebrate T. and K’s birthdays! Since we’d been there recently, we scored a good deal on admission by upgrading to season passes! So, our smiles (for the savings) were about as wide as these two big kids’!
Chloe loved this ride (Fairytale Brook)! She sees this picture and just chants “boat, boat” and then giggles. She still makes the Hansel and Gretel “mmmmm mmmmmm” sound (while raising up her hand like the animated Lego figures in the ride do)! It’s still a hit with our big kids, too. They tend to like minimal excitement, although Cameron is more of a thrill-seeker than Dylan!
Here’s Chloe. She has mastered “cheesin'” for the camera.
Just look at that cheesin’!
So that’s where she gets the cheesin’.
This ride had an incredibly long line. I guess it was worth it! I think the kids enjoyed it.
Cameron is a much better driver this year! This picture cracks me up, though. She is focusing soo much!
We got separated from HAKT for a smidge because our kids didn’t want to do the roller coasters, so got a pic of them in front of the Lego holiday tree on our way to meet them!
Then, I made Dylan pose in front of this lightpost becaues I liked the guy fixing the sign.
Chloe was actually big enough for just a few rides–this one (Cargo Ace) and the LEGOLAND Express. She loved this! We took her on it at least 4 times!
I will never know what appeals about these rides–the ones that just bounce you up and down, but Cameron wanted to ride Beetle Bounce several times in a row! Good for her, I say. We were gettin’ our money’s worth on those season passes.
Her enthusiasm was enough to recruit a few more riders!
Another amusement park hit is the overpriced junk food. We try to eat healthier by bringing some of our own snacks, but we always run out. Then we just hit the stir fry place near the Driving School. Inevitably, though, we run out of drinks. So, frozen lemonade it is.
Miniland is a BIG, big hit with Dylan. He can stay there for hours! But, the rest of the kids like it, too!
Poor Chloe is extremely sensitive to loud noises! When we were in SF, she walked around with her hands over her ears…just like this…muttering, “too loud. too loud.” Dylan is also very sensitive, so sensitive, in fact, that his teacher is planning on asking the OT at school if she has an extra pair of earphones he can wear to cover his ears!
My favorite rides were the mellow ones where we could all ride together. But, since Taliana is a bit of thrill seeker (and Cameron, too! She rode the Dragon Coaster twice!), I got to ride the Technic rollercoaster with her! I was pretty stoked because Dylan had no interest in riding it, but I had a mild interest! And the lines were so short, we rode it twice (or was it 3x??).
On our second day at the park, we repeated all of the favorites! I ended up taking Chloe to Duplo Village, though, because I began to feel bad that she wasn’t riding much. I took her on the train and squeezed myself on the play structures so we could slide down the slides together. She loved it!
We definitely got our money’s worth from our season passes already, but part of me hopes we’ll be able to go back at least one more time!
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first weekend of November
We began November with a staycation-ish/running event in SF. Last year, Tom ran the US Half Marathon in SF last year and we all had so much fun that we decided we would do it again this year. And, this year, Tom got a PR! This was a hilly course, no less. The kids and I got to the finish line in time to see him cross, but before he was across the line, we saw all sorts of very strong-looking runners looking pretty beat! The course has hills!
The kids love the bling, our’s and their’s. It’s great support, though. They make us feel so good and so accomplished when they get all excited about our medals!
So Tom got to run across the Golden Gate bridge again. This year, there was no construction, so the path didn’t bottleneck as severely as last year. I got a picture of this on Expo day (the day before the race). We spent the day browsing the goods at Sports Basement (got Dylan a much-needed new jacket and fleece) and walking back to the hotel from the Presidio (a good 4 miles or so and Dylan walked them all!!).
On the way, the kids picked lots of dandelions. Lots. I still love how Dylan MUST stop to pick flowers. If he sees one in the grass, it’s instant brakes.
And, of course, Cameron must stop to pick some, too!
We had the stroller, but OF COURSE, Chloe preferred being carried instead but not by just anyone–she needs to tucker out my arms and my arms alone!
On race day, we started with breakfast in the hotel and a picture near the concierge.
And, we snapped some photos of some of SF’s old-school trolleys.
It just so happened that Heather’s birthday was the same weekend as Tom’s race and she wanted to celebrate at the Exploratorium. Quite fortunately, the Exploratorium moved to its new location at the pier, so the kids and I were able to take the trolley there! They were so cute and so excited! I thought we were going to be late (so Tom stayed behind to load up the car and drive it to the Exploratorium), but the trolley ride closed the distance between Point A and Point B so quickly, we were there before anyone else!
The Exploratorium has lots of outdoor stuff to look at, including this interesting evolution exhibit out in front. We played with that until Heather, Assaf and the girls arrived.
There is something for everyone there…love this place! Chloe was glued to this really kind of boring (on the relative scale of exhibit quality/excitingness!) exhibit where you look through and watch a train go around on a track. Really, the exhibit is about color perception, but she didn’t care about that part! We spent an inordinate amount of time waiting for her to move on to something else!
And, here’s a picture that is out of sequence–big kids on the trolley! Little girl is in the Ergo, so not visible!
Another picture out of sequence: Dylan playing with that evolution exhibit outside while waiting for HAKT to arrive.
I think one of the most interesting exhibits to me was one on the changing definitions of madness. There were some interesting profiles of psychiatric patients from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s who were committed to asylums for syphilis and depression, conditions that are now treatable with medication. I was also surprised to see an old grad school professor of mine (who now teaches at Stanford) featured as one of the specialists (so her video was rolling on one of the video screens).
Anyway, I got to steal away and read all of this stuff because Chloe was tired, tired, tired and I was walking her around to try to get her to sleep. I never succeeded, but at least I got to read some interesting stuff while I tried!
Chloe got her 47th or 59th wind once we all went outside to see what was there.
It was so cold outside, but you couldn’t tell by the kids’ clothes! They were alllll running around like mad. Despite the cold, I liked being outside better and the lighting, though still drab and overcast, was much nicer for pictures.
And, finally a pic of the bday gal. The whole weekend was a lot of fun! So much fun, in fact, I think this US Half thing is going to become tradition (and, hopefully, Heather’s bday celebration in SF will be, too!)!
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finally, an update!
Ok. It is just ridiculous that an entire month went by without a single post to the blog! It is definitely not for lack of something to write about! We’ve been busy!
I took on a new contract which initally was pitched as having an end-of-the-year end date, but the first milestone date was changed to Thanksgiving!! Huge difference in time/scope. I spent a lot of nights working late and a lot of mornings skipping activities with the girls. Tom has been (and continues) to rush the girls off in the mornings so I could be on a daily 9am call and sound professional (i.e., not have kids screaming and yapping in the background)….it’s taken its toll in so many ways.
But, the kids are finding time to smile…and make us smile! November was incredibly busy with visits to Legoland (and LA!), Tom’s half-marathon in SF, Heather’s birthday, adoption day celebrations for both K. and T., Tom’s birthday, my step-dad’s birthday, birthday parties for kiddie friends (Evie, Margot, and Rachel), Thanksgiving, Chanukah. It was non-stop.
To top it all off, Tom and I were both in a marathon training cycle which required huge chunks of weekend time (2-3-ish hour runs for each of us) each week (he just ran his marathon yesterday and I will run mine next weekend). I honestly don’t know how we managed to survive November.
The kids have been busy doing their Thing: growing up. Chloe is talking so much and she has such an amazing sense of humor. She just “gets” jokes by the intonation and inflection of speech! She also mimics the non-verbal stuff–head nodding/shaking/bobbing, hand gestures–it’s so much fun to talk to her! You can tell she is a thinker!
I always try to ask open-ended questions to encourage her to talk, so when I ask her how her day was, she starts off with an enumeration of the folks she saw that day: “teacher Al.ma, Drea (Teacher Andrea), Asher, Teo (Mateo), Willa, Aba (Ava), Kayla”. Then, she often tells you, with lots of nods, that her day was good! She is a very expressive talker!!
Oh, and she sings (as they all do!). Happy Birthday, Music Together Hello Song, ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, Princess Princess (variant on Twinkle Twinkle), Ring Around the Rosies….
Now, Cameron…she is already beginning to read–little words, of course, and she still needs plenty of help, but she has a tremendous interest in learning. And she write and writes and writes and, as a result, is pretty good at writing all of her letters and numbers already.
She is also remarkably good at math! She already conceptually understands adding +1 to a number, and she often comes up with the correct answer to simple addition problems before Dylan does ( Dylan is 3 years older than you are, so how old will you be when he’s 11? And different variations of this type of question; simple drills like what’s 2+2, 3+3, 4+4…)!!
As for Dylan, we had his parent-teacher conference just before Thanksgiving and had no surprises: he is still slow to finish timed tasks (he did not complete one of his tests!), but he is reading well above grade-level and keeping pace in math (though he still needs more practice with “math facts” and word problems). Although he is not good about finishing his grade-level books, he will actually pick up and read Harry Potter.
There is lots that has been going on and I’ve been remiss in noting it all down! But when Dylan asks me what he was like at Cameron’s age or Chloe’s age and my memory comes back with a 404 (not found!), I’m reminded of why I’m writing this blog…and that I should get back to it! So, I will try to do so, picture by picture, bit by bit!
Posted in cameron, chloe, dylan, milestones, talking
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halloween 2013
This year, we went with the Harry Potter theme and, for the most part, Dylan is still really the one who is driving our Halloween themes. I imagine it’s going to get trickier now that Cameron has her own ideas for what she wants! Already, she broke from the group and went with her own thing–a mermaid!
In any event, here we all are: Hagrid(me) and Norbert the baby dragon (Chloe), Voldemort (Assaf), Dumbledore (Dennis), Snape (Tom!), Moaning Myrtle (Heather), Trelawny (Bozsi), Harry Potter (Dylan), Cho Chang (Taliana), Hermione Granger (K.), and our little mermaid!
We had all sorts of activities that day…of course! The girls had their parade and then Dylan had his….
Ok. There were lots of Harry Potters this year…but our’s was the handsomest, even if his lighning bolt was a little out of place!
Sawyer, one of the little guys that went to SG2 with Dylan is now in first grade and he was Harry Potter, too. He wanted to take a picture with Dylan. So sweet.
Tom was a great Snape!
And little Chloe had a blast trick or treating. She really got into it and even said thank you to some folks!
But, still, she is still so little! It was a bit loud for her and Cameron tuckered out, too, so we ended up breaking from the rest of the group to head back home early. On the way home, we hit a few more homes and we ended up getting back only a couple of minutes before Dylan and Tom! Overall, another fun halloween. the kids have already forgotten about their candy, too! Woot!
home from trick or treating and the kids went straight for the berries. First. ;-) October 31, 2013 at 07:55PM
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