January 2012

January was a full month. Samuel and Steve worked hard on Samuel's school project. Samuel chose to study our solar system.

Here they are about to leave for the presentation

And then they presented it at school, to the delight of a number of other children (and a parent or two) who are space/planet/solar system afficionados.

Steve says Samuel was a little hesitant in the beginning of the presentation, but by the end he couldn't stop sharing all of his information.

I took a part time job teaching College Readiness at a somewhat famous local charter school. Weird to be back in a classroom.

It was a month that Samuel and Shira really didn't like Steve leaving for work everyday. They never like it when he goes, but this month getting him out the door could be kind of tricky.

Tahoe with no snow

Our trip to Tahoe this winter was devoid of snow for the most part, but that didn't ruin our fun.

We used the bottom of a run at Heavenly to sled once the lifts had been shut down.

No surprise that Samuel was willing to go for solo runs.

But I didn't know Shira was going to love it so much that she wanted to do it solo too.

Samuel was very worried about Shira getting hurt, you can see him in this picture running next to her to make sure she didn't go off the edge.

Samuel, ever the big brother, actually volunteered to haul Shira up the hill. The days of complete meltdown when requested to walk more than 5 feet seem to be over (Yay!)

And since there wasn't much reason to pay the big bucks for limited skiing on man made snow, I realized we could do my favorite thing to do in Tahoe - Hike!

Can't remember the last time we had the opportunity to do some serious hiking - Two days in a row, no less!

Amazing views, amazing hiking, amazing husband. Doesn't get much better.

Spent an afternoon hanging out watching the gondola in Heavenly Village. Two years ago I took Samuel on this gondola after a day of skiing. Too bad we didn't have the passes to do it again this year - without a ski pass, the gondola costs 30 bucks! But it is pretty awesome (and a little nerve wracking - I seem to have acquired a minor of fear of heights, or perhaps a small bit of caution, who can tell the difference?)

And of course the best part of the vacation - spending time playing endless games with Bubbie and Popsi.

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.