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.