Spacebears!

We got a wonderful book out of the library: "What Happens on Wednesdays" by Emily Jenkins. In it, a little girl narrates her day, starting with, "What happens on Wednesdays is I wake up when it is still dark out...I sit on the counter while Mommy makes coffee....When the clock says six, we wake up Daddy." She takes us through her typical day in Brooklyn: walking to the bagel shop; playing with her friend in the park; preschool;  naptime; swimming with Mommy; dinner; night time. 

Given that our weekdays are scheduled from 6 am to 9 pm, I do try to slow down and appreciate the daily routine.  I'd like to make a Wednesday book for Xander. It would start with, "On Wednesdays, Daddy carries Kai in to Mommy, and I come in a few minutes later and we all snuggle in bed."

This weekend was extremely packed. We saw Justin, Jen and Henry again on Saturday. Micah grilled a whole chicken (spatchcock style). Micah is a fabulous cook. On Sunday, we BARTed over to the Mission with Tony and Cleo and their twins (three days older than Kai), and met Meredith and Sasha (two months older than Kai) for Sunday Streets. Kid-to-adult ratio was 1:1. We all managed to keep it together for about an hour, so I consider it a success.

In the spirit of "What Happens on Wednesdays," here's some shots of typical activities.

Kai after a successful yogurt face mask breakfast.

Xander wearing his new apron.

Xander loves the apron Grandma Dixie made for him. Thanks! He refuses to make a normal face when we take his picture. Much like Calvin, which is giving me ideas for Xander's Halloween costume this year.

Xander made a space ship in our living room this afternoon. Micah, Kai and I all took turns flying around in it with him. Note the luggage on top. He's prepared for everything.

Xander's space ship. They just hit a space bear in this photo.
Luggage includes Pikachu, two U-locks,
all of Kai's baby toys, the library books.

Micah and Xander exploring space.

Close-up of the map taped to the bottom of the coffee table.
Space is big--you should always bring a map.

When I get some time later this week, I'll try to upload the video Xander and I made inside the space ship.

SoHum

During a typical week, the kids get in the car two, maybe three times, for an hour total of vehicle time. We more than make up for this, however, in our semi-monthly trips to visit Grandma Ellen and Grandpa Denis in Southern Humboldt County. Every two months or so, we pack two kids, all their gear and all our gear into a two-door Honda Accord and make the journey north. If everything aligns, we make it in five hours with one or two stops. Last night, the return home took nearly nine hours with four stops.

Grandma snuggles with Kai in the shade of the house.

Grandma and Grandpa live a forty-five minute drive from town, down narrow winding roads. The terrain is hilly, rugged, even. Valleys are cool and wet, shaded by giant redwoods. The hilltops are hot and dry, with red-barked manzanita and bay laurel trees.  The climate is drier and hotter in the summer than the Bay Area - reached eighties this weekend - and colder in the winter than the Bay Area--we've had white Christ-mukkah's there.


We stayed in the "guest shed," which was perfect for us - enough room for our bed, Xander's bed, Kai's borrowed peapod tent (an amazing baby-containment unit-every parent should have one) and a play space for Xander. A nest of birds kept us entertained.

One of the parents sits on the nest they built in the shed window.

This past weekend, we squeezed in a lot of fun activities.

Saturday

Micah and I had date night at the Garberville Theater. (Wow, I just checked ticket prices--when was the last time you could see a movie for $7?) We watched the Bada Bling Burlesque Troup/fundraiser for the theater. It was packed. It was fun to run into a lot of Micah's former high school classmates.

Sunday

Micah started the day with a mountain bike ride on the newly opened single track section of the Paradise Royale Trail.

Paradise Royale single track.
(Image from Bicycling Magazine article)

That evening, we visited Micah's childhood friend, Justin, and his family: Henry just turned three, and Jen is pregnant with another boy, due later this fall. We planned our visit to coincide with their visit from Chicago. Justin took some great photos of the boys.

Xander and Henry play in Humboldt.
Photo: Justin Brown

Monday

Monday we started the day applying daga - a mixture of sand, local dirt, and concrete - to the front wall of Micah's parents' rammed-earth house.

Micah mixing the sand, concrete, and dirt
for the daga mixture.

Ellen and Micah apply daga while Denis sprays the wall
with water to keep it moist.

Ellen demonstrating her daga application technique.

The wall is nearly finished. We did the square section
just to the right of the front door.

So while all this was going on, I was mostly watching the kids. I did get a little daga application in. Later that afternoon, Micah, Xander, Kai and I traveled to the Mattole River to meet Justin and his family for swimming. The river warrants an extra-large photo, it is so beautiful:

Mattole River, Micah's childhood swimming hole.
Photo: Justin Brown

Micah and Kai at the river.
Photo: Justin Brown

Jen and Henry coo at Kai while Justin's dad, Gary, relaxes in the shade.
Photo: Justin Brown

That night, we had the Browns over for dinner.

Dinner Monday night. From left to right, Henry, Gary, Denis,
Jen, Lauren, Kai, Ellen, Xander.
Photo: Justin Brown

Tuesday

Urgh, back in the car. Good thing these kids are so cute and (mostly) well-behaved. Tip for parents wanting their children to be good travelers: start them young - like two months old - on crazy-long, eight-hour car rides. Then a three-hour ride will be a piece of cake. Oh, and get the Frog and Toad anthology on audiobook.

Xander and Kai. The lookalikes.

Imagination

We're going to be off the grid this weekend-we're visiting Micah's parents in Humboldt County-so I won't be able to publish until later in the week. I meant to put up just a brief post, but things got a bit out of hand, as you can see.

Lately--OK, for a long time now--I've been fascinated by Xander's imaginary play. It brings me back to my childhood when we'd put together cities, dream up intricate scenarios, and turn anything into something bigger and better than it actually was. (I remember spending what seemed like hours looking down into our stand-up humidifier, my hair blowing as I watched the brown, plastic, wicking conveyor belt slowly move into the pool of water at the bottom of the machine and then reemerge to evaporate and cool the room. I stuck little plastic army men into the conveyor belt and watched them as they explored an imaginary jungle river, deep in South America.)

Starting from a pretty early age, Xander has been telling stories (out loud) with his cars. Even before spoke in sentences, his cars would act out scenarios. Typically they took this form:
Little blue car: [on floor, with urgency] "Mommy, Mommy!"
Red fire engine: [on toy box] "Baby?"
Little blue car: [more urgent]: "Mommy!!MOMMY!"
Red fire engine: [moving down to floor, reassuringly] "Baby."
Little blue car: [releived] "Mama."
[Cars kiss.]
End Scene
Later, he started acting out scenarios from the park--kids not sharing, being scared of the side. Now the stories are exponentially more complex, and he brings in words and concepts that I know we didn't teach him. (It's amazing what sponges they are at this age, and a good reminder to watch what we say.) 
Everything these days is decorated with imagination. Our bike ride to school involves multiple red lights, train crossings, at least one flat tire or pit stop for gas, and the rocket blast-off (counting down the garage door numbers on an apartment building). Brushing teeth involves getting the sugar bugs ("I can get the big ones, but you need to get the small ones. They are too small. They hide.") And the daily BM involves anthropomorphizing the results. (Look a mommy poop, a daddy poop and two baby poops!)

Garage doors we bike by on our way to school. Nicely numbered 1 through 10,
thereby facilitating the bike-rocket blast off.

And just so you get a more accurate impression of our neighborhood,
here's what the street looks like just a few doors down from the apartment complex.
(We love our neighborhood and feel very lucky to have scored an affordable apartment here.)

Micah and I have learned to leverage this imagination for our benefit. (Where do you think the idea of sugar bugs came from?) Most recently, I used an elaborate ploy to get him (Xander, not Micah) out of the bathtub into p.j.'s. I will spare you the details, but it involved George the sad towel who just wanted to hug Xander, Sally pull-up, and three competing footed PJ's who jumped around anxiously asking to be worn by Xander.
Watching his imaginary play has made me realize how much I miss having that creativity in my day-to-day life.

To conclude, a long, but sweet video of Xander discussing the train tracks he built with his friend Teddy last Saturday.

Yard Sale, Army Crawling

Xander gets a ride on our neighbor's trail-a-bike.
He couldn't reach the pedals very well, so I jogged behind them.
All the stuff is from our massive three-family yard sale.

The most relaxing part of the week is always Monday morning, after Xander's been dropped off at school and the nanny has arrived to take care of Kai. The boys are wonderful, but wow, a lot of work. Fortunately, every day is filled with moments that make it all worth it. 


This week's big activity (aside from Xander's play date with a friend from school on Saturday) was the yard sale. We teamed with our upstairs neighbors and one of their friends and filled the front yard and driveway with an incredible amount of stuff. We've been going through closets, the garage, storage shed, and under bed storage for a month to cull only the finest items for the sale (like my used Fimo, which I insisted would sell, but did not, and Micah's antifreeze, which I had doubts about but was one of the first items gone that day). Net income after subtracting the price of coffee and banana bread (an attempt to increase attendance): $80 or minimum wage. On the other hand, we donated a trunkload of kids items to Children's Hospital, and another truckload to Goodwill.


Lately, Xander has been a sweetheart. And a goofball. For example:


"Mommy, I love you all the time. I love you when you snuggle. I love you when you don't snuggle."


Sitting on the porch eating breakfast with Micah: "Daddy, I love you."


"Frackles! Pickles! Frackles! Pickles! That rhymes, right?"
"You mean freckles?"
"NO, frackles."
"Like spots on your face?"
"Yes, frackles. Frackles! Pickles! Frackles! Pickles!"


"Gyroscope, gyroscope, gyroscope."
"Are you singing a song, Xander?"
"No, I'm just saying gyroscope."
We laugh.
"It's NOT funny!"

Me, reading a Dora book. "Will you come to my birthday party? (pause) Xander, are you going to go to Dora's birthday party?"
"No, mom, I'm not in the book."

Saturday morning there was lots of giggling coming from the boys room.

Kai is officially mobile. He rocks on all fours, and pulls himself along in a surprisingly fast army crawl. It's fun to see what interests him: the computer, certain toys, mommy. He gets really excited when I come home and nearly launches himself out of the nanny's arms to get to me.

He loves eating. His menu has expanded to include spinach, broccoli, yogurt, and tofu. Whenever he hears someone eating something, he looks around and sees if he can get in on the action.

Pear and spinach: a big hit.

Kai has perfected the teary-eyed, hold me look.

  

Kai has also perfected the chunky baby look.

I leave you with a peaceful image: I'm reading on the sofa, Micah's making dinner in the kitchen, Kai's asleep, Xander's entertaining himself with something. Ahh, a moment of relaxation! And then, from the bathroom, Xander calls, "Who wants to wipe my bum?"

Busy Weekends

This past week flew by. All I can recall is the last two days, which were filled with spontaneous play dates, an impromptu dinner party, and a delicious brunch in the Mission with my friend Brooke, who spent something like 6 hours (and an overnight dough rest) making amazing, yeast-risen, sugar-bomb waffles.

It's great that we can bump into kids and parents in the neighborhood and just invite them over to play for an hour or so. That happened twice this weekend, and it seems now that we're getting to know the parents and kids at Xander's school, we meet people on the street all the time. Forget alcohol, kids and dogs are great social lubricants.

This afternoon, Meredith came over with her little girl, Sasha, who is nearly 9 months old. Kai and Sasha had a nice time lounging around on the grass in the back yard.

Sasha and Kai's picnic.

You look lovely in the hat, my dear. 

Kai may end up being a linebacker,
judging from his girth at 7 months.

Barbershop Harmony in Portland

I love it when separate plans come together into one great big, fun event. Our Fourth of July vacation was like that.

We decided to go to Portland, Oregon since my mom was going to be there with her friend John for the International Barbershop Harmony Competition. Our trip ended up being a mini family reunion: Micah's sister Emma and her family lives there, we stayed with Emma's in-laws, Micah's parents drove up from Humboldt, Eric and Colleen--friends from UC Berkeley--drove down from Seattle with their adorable two-month old, and we met up with one of Micah's friends from high school.

Over the course of the five days we were there, we went sailing, bouldered at the local bouldering gym, shot off fireworks in the driveway, soaked in the hot tub, made and ate amazing barbecue, watched John compete in the Barbershop Competition, got some running in, drank lots of beer and wine, and watched the cousins run around.

Portland knit-bombers strike again.

Some highlights:

John's chorus, the Sounds of Concord, was great. They were one of twenty-eight choruses competing.  Micah and I got to watch, and were amazed at the quality of the choruses, including John's. My dad sang in Barbershop quartets and choruses for many years, and hearing the music after nearly a decade was really nice.  Check out this video of John's chorus singing All Aboard for Dixieland:

Xander did some rock climbing at Circuit Gym. The kids section was great. Even better: Colleen and I bouldered V1's and V2's while Eric and Micah watched Xander, Kai, and Milo.

Micah spotting Xander on the kids bouldering wall.
He made it all the way to the top, then did it four more times!

Xander and Kayman played hard every day. These boys completely rile each other up. And love to take off their clothes and run around naked. Oh, to be three again.

Emma with 1-year old Walker Falcon

And a miracle: while we were there, Kai started sleeping through the night. Not sure what triggered it, but it is just in time. We were going to do cry it out when we got back from vacation.

In other news, Kai can now sit unsupported on his own. He's getting his belly off the ground, and is rapidly making progress toward crawling. (We're betting on two weeks from now.)

I'm sitting up on my own, mom!
And moving so I'm all blurry.

Locomotion

We've added to our travel modes over the last few months. When Xander turned two, Micah and I gave him  a push bike for his birthday. We were so excited, we even gave it to him before his birthday. Of course, he would have nothing to do with it...until this past May. I took Xander to the Bike Away From Work Party in downtown Oakland on Bike to Work Day. We took BART there, and brought his bike (actually his second push bike--Micah felt that the first one we got him was inferior). A miracle occurred, and Xander insisted on riding his bike back to the BART station after the party. Hardly a day goes by that he's not on it. He rides it to school with us, and is probably going to get a pedal bike for his fourth birthday.

Kai is moving around on his own, too, though I can't figure out how. He's still belly-heavy, but somehow manages to inch, and scootch, and roll across the floor. A long way. Quickly. Unobserved. In an attempt to figure it out I started filming him using time lapse.

And just to make this a truly multi-modal post, here's an old video of us on the Tilden Steam Train with Xander when he was two and a half. This is one of our frequent family outings, and at $3 per person for a 10 minute ride through the redwoods, a great deal.