Our first truly successful car trip

I'm very excited that we finally managed to have a car trip that took more than an hour that involved almost no crying or whining.

To what do I owe this success? Older kids, and a long stop in the middle.

On our way up to Tahoe, we took a VERY long break in Sacramento, checked out the famous Train Museum, which is indeed all that it is cracked up to be, and visited Sacramento's venerable food COOP(what is up with me and my obsession with food COOPs?)

Oh, and one other thing that saved the day at the end of the car ride - pulling out the Annie's whole wheat cheddar cheese bunnies. Boy were those a hit. Shira begged me for more for a solid week. Nothing like saving the special treat food as last resort. I guess there are some (almost none) advantages to being the mean mom who almost never lets her kids eat anything good.

The Search for Chanukah Celebrations

Samuel has begun to identify very strongly with being a Jew and that combined with some Jesus/Christmas drama at preschool (don't get me started) has left him constantly asking where the Chanukah representations are amidst the bombardment of Christmas accouterments.

So I went on a search for some public Chanukah celebrations. We kicked off the first night of Chanukah at Santana Row. It was fun, lots of singing and stories, but the tiny menorah was kind of disappointing.

Then I thought, 'Isn't there a freaking huge menorah in Union Square? We've got to go check that out.' So we trekked up to the city, met some friends, and stood out in the cold for an hour while we waited for the menorah to be lit (they were a half hour late). Not to be negative, but what was billed as a big celebration, was not, and the 100 foot Christmas tree that stood 10 feet away from the menorah took away from the ambiance slightly.

But not to worry, I managed to find excitement for us. I had yelped a Pakistani place to eat at (it was Christmas Day, and I lean toward Indian ethnic over Chinese). It was in the Tenderloin, but it was just a few blocks from Union Square, and really, that's just the way it is in SF anyway, right? Tenderloin, Nob Hill, whatever.

I made the kids sprint to the restaurant since it was getting late, and I figured I could wear them out a little and maybe they would sit still for 5 minutes and 30 seconds so I could eat. Our crew of four adults and four kids - 2 four year olds, a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 week old - all of us very white, walked into the restaurant to discover I had indeed found a very ethnic, very authentic restaurant as every last person there seemed to be Pakistani.

I won't bore you with the details of trying to steal enough room for the eight of us to sit down, but we had managed to cobble together a table and enough seats just in time for a fight to break out among some other patrons. A couple of the kitchen staff showed up to push one of the guys out the door, just as a circle was forming around the participants. The guy wouldn't leave, and came slamming back through the door, making it crack like a gunshot. After some more high drama, the whole thing got calmed down, and everyone went back to normal.

The food was very good, and so cheap it was practically free.

But I wouldn't be surprised if Eric and Kristen don't let me choose the restaurant ever again.

Chanuka Party 2011

Ultimate Frisbee Tournament

Samuel has been begging to watch Steve play Ultimate, so when Steve had a tournament on the weekend, we loaded up the lion and Winnie the Pooh chairs and headed out to watch.

Shira was content to watch for about 5 minutes before she insisted that we head over to the park to get some of the swing and slide action that she noted on our way to the field.

Samuel, on the other hand, thought it was fantastic and was perfectly happy to eat the snacks that were brought for the players and watch the games for hours. He was so engrossed, that he didn't mind sitting on the side lines by himself while Shira and I went to the playground.

Biggest disappointment of the day for Samuel - Steve and his teammates were so worn out (old men! and women!) from winning their first two games that they didn't actually want to win the third and be in the playoff game. Samuel and his drive to win and beat all things seems to extend to a desire for his father to win and beat everyone as well.

And more exciting bike news...

We bought Samuel the next size up bike yesterday (yes, it's blue). He's now on 16 inch wheels. As soon as we put it in the car to take home Samuel said that he wanted to ride it to the farmer's market. I was a little hesitant, as I didn't want to get to the market, hear how tired he was, and then have to endure meltdown on the mile ride home.

But he did it, no problem. Rode all the way there, all the way back, and then rode straight over to Graham (after a quick snack and drink of water) to ride some more. What a treat for me to ride a bike with only an extra 30 lbs (Shira and her seat) rather than an extra 70 lbs.

And how exciting for Samuel. He now has a serious mode of transportation on his hands. Can't believe what a big kid he is now. In addition to doing the 2 mile round trip completely under his own steam, he rode in the street with us, and used the exact right amount of caution necessary. Amazing.

Also, he told me yesterday that he thinks that instead of playing football at Michigan, he will "probably race on both of the bike teams." (Both refers to mountain bike and road racing, of course). That's my boy! Of course, Steve isn't sure they've got cycling teams at Midwest schools, but we can work that out later. I'm not sold on Samuel going out of state, but I have a few years yet to work on the Michigan obsession and replace it with "Go Aggies!"

In more bike news, Shira wants to ride a bike with pedals badly. She talks about it every time bike discussions come up (daily). My response has been that she can have a pedal bike as soon as she can go super fast on her balance bike.

And what is the result of that? She now rides that balance bike pretty super fast. All the while chanting "super fast, super fast, super fast". I may be in trouble. Can a two and a half year old learn to ride a pedal bike? I don't know if she has the coordination to turn the pedals in a complete circle. We may be finding out very soon, though. She knows that Samuel's two wheeler now belongs to her.

Remember that tandem I just bought?

I knew I'd figure out a way to get us all rigged up on it...

Reading!

We arrived at preschool this morning to see several index cards with a separate word written on each one. They were meant as props for the kids to write gift cards to their parents.

The exciting news: Samuel read each one of the cards! First, "Mommy", then "Daddy", both with no help or visual hints. I got him started on sounding out the "and" and he figured it out himself. The "love" took a little more scaffolding.

Samuel didn't seem to think it was a very big deal, but I was thoroughly impressed.

The writing - he's working on the letters, but not quite there yet.

Visiting Grandma Sarah and Grandpa Sol

Immediately after Thanksgiving dinner at Grandpa Lou's house, we zipped the kids into their jammies, brushed teeth, said goodnight, and got in the car for the long drive to Bubbie's house. The next morning we left Steve behind to get a break (he had spent the last couple of weeks taking care of everybody as I got over the plague) and loaded ourselves into Bubbie's car to visit Great Grandma Sarah and Great Grandpa Sol.

Samuel had a nice time playing with Grandpa Sol, tossing the basketball back and forth. Samuel even set up a bucket as a basket and tested Grandpa, to see if he could get it in, moving it back each time Grandpa made it. Pretty impressive for a blind guy.

Shira got cuddly with Grandma, and we all had a very pleasant visit. I wish we could visit more often, but that 6 hour drive is a killer.

Stone Soup 2011

This year we made sure to bring Shira. Almost as frigid as last year, but I was prepared this time. Our contribution were CSA shelling beans, herbs from the garden and leeks.

Samuel loved performing the song that the kids had been practicing. The smile of pure joy when he saw Steve standing with all the other parents was priceless.

Can't get much more with the season than jumping and hiding in huge pile of leaves.

Reading and Writing for one, Super Emo for the other

Within the last couple of weeks Samuel has begun to exhibit a strong interest in letters, words and spelling. It began with his preschool placemat. Every night at dinner time he would point to each photo of a student with their parent and ask about the letters in their names. As the nights went on, he started naming the letters in each name, and within a few days he was associating the sound with each letter. We've begun the adventure into sounding out words.

Yesterday I asked Teacher Rachel for some curriculum books, and tomorrow we will get started practicing writing. Samuel is very excited. Rachel gave us a little chalkboard to go along with the writing workbook and Samuel immediately picked it up, drew an "L" and told me what it was, what sound it made, and a few words that started with "L" (including "Lisa", of course).

Mainly I just want to make sure he can write his name, since he will be asked to do that a lot in kindergarten, but he's so excited about it, I think we'll be running with it. Next up is checking out some "Bob" books, which are apparently books for the early reading set that are written using only words that are spelled phonetically. We already knew how non-sensical English spelling is, but now that we are sounding out words with Samuel left and right, it really hits home how difficult it is to teach someone how to spell properly in English. I remember when I was studying in Italy and I learned that the subject "spelling" simply doesn't exist in Italian schools. Since Italian letters always sound the same, you can just sound out any word to spell it correctly.

Shira is definitely listening to Samuel and his letter interests, it wouldn't surprise me if she started reading and writing very early just because of it. She has been singing the alphabet of late. But her most notorious new skill at the moment is her use of colloquial English. She can be heard saying "Oh man!" with just the right intonation repeatedly through the day. She said "Oh jeez!" yesterday, and I hopefully nipped that in the bud (though Samuel got confused and told her not to say that but "Damn it!" instead, which I then had to remind him I didn't want either of them to say either. Oy.)

She also enjoys the superlative "super" and uses it frequently to describe her emotions. As in, "Me super sad because ball undies (her fave underwear that has soccer balls, baseballs and basketballs on them) are in the laundry," and "Me super happy I see Bubbie next week and she sew buttons on my shirt." Also, yesterday she informed me, totally unprompted, "Me had super good time with Fabiola. We went to park and made popscicles."

Most days they are just so perfect it almost hurts. I almost never want to give them away to strangers anymore.

The Hair Cut

Thanks baby for finally growing it for me. I don't miss it too much, though, now that it's gone.

Goodbye Tandems, Hello Tandem

At 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, December 6, 2003 I emailed a guy that I had been corresponding with through JDate to ask if he would be interested in test riding a tandem with me (I had always wanted a tandem and decided I would buy one for myself for my recent birthday). I didn't expect him to respond in time, since I doubted that he was awake, or checking email at 8am, but shortly after I wrote to him, he called me.

Steve said he'd be happy to check out the tandem with me, but was taken aback when I asked him what kind of car he drove. He decided he would meet me after all, when I explained that I was only asking to see if his car was big enough to transport the bike home should I choose to buy it. The answer was obviously no, since his Toyota Corolla was barely bigger than my Toyota Tercel.

When we arrived at the house of the gentleman who owned the Schwinn Twinn we were about to ride, I informed Steve that he would need to captain it (ride in front and steer) since I am much smaller than him. This was news to Steve, but he got huge points for still being willing to try it, on a first date, with the date being an experienced cyclist. What guy is confident enough to do that?

The tandem ride lasted only minutes, but the date lasted 5 more hours. I bought the tandem. This December will mark the eighth anniversary of that tandem ride, and though I just sold the tandem (it was a tank and Steve hated riding it), I can't imagine anyone I'd rather ride our new tandem with.

I also said goodbye to our Trek. Now that we have kids, we never get a chance to ride either of these tandems.

And the purchase that made these two sales necessary: I finally found a tandem that I can captain. In order to warrant purchasing a new tandem, I had to clear out the old ones. Samuel and I have a blast riding this together, and within the next year, Shira will be hooked up behind us on the trail a bike.

It was easy to sell the Trek.

But selling the Schwinn that Steve and I rode and I purchased on our first date, was hard to come to terms with.

Trains

Have been very popular recently. I finally feel like buying all that Brio was worthwhile. Samuel and Shira built this entire track on their own.

Preschool with Shira

Shira's favorite station - handwashing after the painting project.

And her second favorite - the painting itself.

Loves the lawn mowers and doll strollers.

And snack time.

And after preschool for Shira, we head over to Samuel's preschool for storytime and the goodbye song.

And whew, preschool is tiring work. Face plant in art project.