Monday, January 31, 2011

Long time, no blog

Yeah, well, it's been a busy year so far. I can't believe it's almost February! Here's what I wanted to blog about, but missed:


Giddey Up! Jake got to go see Memaw and ride her horse, Boo. He also got to meet "his" horse, Casey. He rode on a real saddle for about 30 minutes and loved every second of it!

The weekend of blood: I stabbed myself in the hand with a pair of pruning shears while removing a nonedible vine in hopes of replacing it this year with raspberries. I have visions of Jake asking for a snack in August and me sending him out front to eat berries off the bush. It makes me happy. The tetanus shot I needed did not, however, make me happy. The next day we went to the snow. Jake went down the hill on his sled. Steve came after on a disk. A little too soon after. In order to avoid a collision that would easily have very badly hurt Jake, Steve took an impressively graceful and heroic facer into the very icy snow. The new motto: Blood in the snow, it's time to go. On the way home Jake wasn't feeling well so I stopped to let his tummy settle for a while. In the ballet of me getting his car seat off, him taking his sunglasses off, and getting out, we hit upon the exact combination of movements to shove the arm of his glasses up his nose. No idea how, so don't ask. High altitude + week-long cold + sunglasses up the nose = blood (with a side order of hysterical child and a little moment of mommy-panic). Ah. Ok. Now everyone has bled, we're done. Done, do you hear me? Thankyouverymuch.

You've Got A Friend In Me: Jake had his school performance. His class sang "You've Got A Friend In Me" from Toy Story. All the classes did Disney stuff. It was super cute and really well done. Jake sang and did the moves and looked all-around great. Especially since all he did last year was cry and scream for me. Progress! Sadly, the pictures were largely too dark. I'm expecting video from his new school.

New school: Jake is really happy at his new school. He has a new BFF, Ernesto, who we had the pleasure of having a zoo playdate with this last weekend. The boys are darling together. They lent him a book (Skippyjohn Jones: Lost In Spice) because he loves it, which I thought was not only sweet of them, but I was impressed that they know what books he likes so well. Also, I get e-mails from his teachers weekly with the suff they're doing, which is just amazingly wonderful! To show how much he loves his new school, I dropped him off this morning with nary a peep of "Mommy don't go." Honestly, he never did that even at the old school when he'd been there 2 1/2 years. So, in short, he is really happy there. We made a good choice on this one.

Growth spurt: So I stood the boy up against the wall where we mark his height on Saturday. I thought he looked taller. He's grown 2" in the last 4 months since his birthday. Holy schnikeys! So all his pants are floods because, while the 4s fit ok in the leg, they fall off his skinny little butt. Boy, if the kid weren't cute I'd hate him for that. *Jealous*

How does our garden grow: So far we've planted peas and carrots in the garden. Jake planted one barrel of peas, I planted another. His are doing waaaay better than mine. I guess he got Gran's green thumb. We went to the nursery to get seed starting stuff on Saturday. He loved the kitty (Casper at Tallini's on Folsom) and was very upset when he thought I said that he didn't have a favorite nursery. He loved all the plants too. I love this kid!

I'm sure there's a ton more I've forgotten. As Calvin and Hobbes used to say, "the days are just packed!"

And I have an idea for the next installment but it's a secret.... shhhhh!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Hey-Ho the Holidays are OVER!!

The jingle of bells is softening. The blinking lights are off. The hustle and bustle of having way the hell too many things to do and far too little time is winding down. The joyous season of not-the-holidays is finally upon us. I doubt my Santa-crazed 3 year old would agree, but let’s face it, he didn’t have to bake pies or shop for presents. So, as I reach the time when I simply can’t put off taking the tree down any longer, I want to recap, for those who couldn’t join us, the highlights of the holidays.

Knights, dragons, and castles. Yup. That was it. Jake got a ton of cool knights and dragons. He got a really cool castle from Santa (to which his stunned response was simply “WOAH.” What could be better?). He got a dragon puppet from his Uncle Dave, which he adores. He got knight books, knight Legos, and knight Playmobil toys, and gift certificates to Barnes and Noble, which he used to buy MORE knight books. I think you get a good picture of what the house looks like now. If we are surrounded by the SCA, I think we’re covered.

New Year’s Eve was a fun day. Mom, Steve, Jake and I went to the California Academies of Science in Golden Gate Park. Jake loved the sharks, bat rays, penguins, jellies, tide pool interactive area, rainforest, the giant skeletons of whales and dinosaurs, and the cockroaches. OK, he mostly loved the cockroaches because they made Mommy and Ama go “EEEEEWWWW!” but he’s a boy, what do you want? He got his picture taken hugging the white alligator (no, not the real one) and played in the indoor snow. That place is all kinds of cool. He can’t wait to go back and neither can I! I love that, while he’s not ready to learn about any of the things he saw yet, he loved going and exploring. I foresee many more trips to the city and the Exploratorium coming soon!!

The rest of new year’s weekend was rainy, so we went to Wacky Tacky in Roseville/Rocklin. This is also someplace where we will spend a lot of time. It’s like the biggest McDonald’s playground you’ve ever seen x4 and add pneumatic guns and a fountain that shoot foam balls. Without the crap food. It was cool.

So the rush is over. The presents are unwrapped. Santa is safely back at the North Pole doing whatever the heck it is he does for the other 11 months of the year. And my child is already asking if it’s Christmas yet again. I guess Macy’s isn’t the only one that wants it to be Christmas all year, but as for me… I’m so very glad it’s over.