Happy Birthday, Jake!

I see I haven't written since Spring. Yike. Well, Spring sprung, Summer passed, and Jake is now 4. Amazing how time flies. I wonder where it flies to?

Anyway, we made a decision this year that Jake's present from Daddy and I would be a trip or event instead of a thing, so we went to the Academy of Sciences in SF on August 28th to start the (apparently month-long) birthday festivities. We went specifically for the "Summer of Slither," which was awesome. After that, we went to Ocean Beach where Jake played tag with the waves. Fenton's on the way home, of course. I could make a whole book (and just might) of pictures of Jake playing on the beach, but I will just include my favorite. :-)

For Sir Birthdayboy's party this past weekend we held a tournament a la Ren Faire with jousting, quoits, and archery. All the kids got armor and blow up swords. The girls, who I was afraid wouldn't want armor, took to the Hello Kitty armor like fish to water and also got flower garlands with ribbons, which went over really well. It would have been lovely (and probably was for everyone but me, Ama, and Daddy - and possibly Jake) if the key to the building had fit. See, the key that I got from Sacramento Parks and Rec that said "East Portal Clubhouse Master" apparently didn't open, you know, the DOORS. And, after an hour of waiting, it turned out that Park Security, who was very nice in the face of my complete and utter panic, didn't have the key either. So there I was. 11 a.m., 50 people arriving, no power for the crock pot, no way to chill drinks or food, no tables, no chairs: nothing. CRAP. I was crying. Ama was crying. People were arriving. Jake was (unbeknownst to me who was not paying adequate attention to the sweet kid I was supposedly doing all this for) starving. Not a good scene.

Fortunately, I have the BEST friends in the whole wide world, one of whom (as his lawyer in this matter I refuse to diulge his name. I'm sure you understand. We'll call him Superman.) opened the door with a credit card at about 11:30 and saved the day. YAY Superman! All my dear friends sprang into action, setting up tables and chairs, mixing fruit salad, covering the tables, whatever needed to be done to get ready. You know, all the stuff I had gotten to the park at 9:30 a.m. to do. So we got to joust. No quoits. No archery. No mac and cheese (Jake's one request. Sorry, baby!). But there was plenty of food, the cupcakes were awesome, if a little melty, and the kids loved the dragon jousting. The weather was wonderful (thanks Nana. If it'd been threatening rain like it is today my meltdown would have hit "hurricane force" really quickly) and everyone ELSE seemed to have a good time.

After everyone left Jake and I passed out some of the balloons that we bought but never really put out. He got to experience making other people happy, which was a really good thing. He was also asleep at 8:20, poor kid. Of course, I was asleep at 8:40, so which of us was worse?

Thanks to all who came (if you're reading this) and a special thanks to all my dear dear friends without whom the party would have been an actual tragedy, not just a logisitcal nightmare. I love you all.

Happy Birthday, my beautiful, amazing man. I love you to forever and back. Next year you have a 10 guest limit.

Spring is here.

What a weekend! Friday we had the Ladybug Social (a/k/a The Great Ladybug Massacre or The Ladybug Stomp) at Jake’s school. He loved having us at his school and loved playing with the ladybugs. He was wonderful this year (at not squashing them) and braver than most of the kids who wouldn’t hold them at all!




Saturday Jake had his first swim lesson! He was hilarious. As soon as he saw the pool the shoes came off, the shirt came off… he was ready to drop trou right there on the deck as long as it meant he could go SWIM! Once dressed he hovered at the shower waiting for the teachers to be ready. His teacher explained that she was going to get a bite to eat and walked over to the side. The second she stepped away from the area where she had been eating, he was on her: “are you done eating? Can we go in now?” He did great. He kicked. He paddled. He blew bubbles. She was super impressed with him and he smiled the whole time. It was fun. Lessons start full-time (every weekend) starting in May.
Monday was Passover. Jake and I have been reading a selection of Passover books for weeks now (mostly Matzoh Ball Boy and Dinosaur on Passover) so he was completely looking forward to the seder. He has learned many new words in preparation for this particular holiday including yarmulke, plague, recline, afikomen, bubbe, rabbi, yenta, feh, and nosh. He was looking forward to the following things, in no particular order: wearing his yarmulke, saying the four questions, dipping “kid wine” (grape juice) out of his cup for the plagues, and finding the afikomen. I coached him to say “Ama, what’s it worth to you?” when he found the afikomen – for which he got a new Chuggington chugger. Very exciting. He did a great job with all of it, including being patient while we went through the ceremony (quickly. Most of it.). He also loved dinner (he mostly ate eggs, matzoh ball soup, and strawberries and rhubarb). All in all, I think he’s hooked on Passover (but it will probably fade when Hanukkah comes around).
In other news, he’s doing really well with his guitar, having fun at school, and still loving the new bike. Spring is here and the days are just packed!

Super Jake!

OK, he was being Metro Man (from MegaMind), but Super Jake is cuter...

3 1/2 years!

Well, Jake turned 3 ½ on the 28th. It’s been ages since I’ve updated this blog, and there’s no way to cover all the darling that’s occurred since January, so I’m just going to have to settle for this weekend.

Friday: We got to try out the bike trailer that my wonderful brother gave us. At first, Jake was scared to be on it, because he’s only been on a bike with training wheels and this one tips like a real bike as Steve rides (at the moment it only hooks to Steve’s bike, but we’re working on that). He was making these sad little panting noises, it was terrible. But after about 3 minutes on it, as I suspected, he was in love! He can pedal, although it’s almost too big, and goes just as fast as we do! It makes our rides to LoLo’s house quick (and easier that jogging behind him as he rides his bike) and will make going to ice cream on Tuesdays much faster. I can’t wait for the water to go down so we can ride on the bike trail by the river!

Saturday: I had to go to San Fran again for my last Bar Grading meeting so, after guitar (Jake is doing really well and playing like a big boy already!), Jake and Steve went to the Sac Zoo for their Earth Fest. Mostly because they had face painting and Jake wanted a spider. Back up: Jake wanted a Spee-I-Der, like MegaMind says it. In fact, he wanted an Arachnis Deathicus, just like in MegaMind. However, Jake had not yet mastered his “th” sound and still says it like “f,” which leads to it being and Arachnis Deficus. Well, that would be a totally different spider, and certainly not one that you would want on your face (ew! A poop spider!). This pronunciation also led to a lot of laughter on the part of his sadly-not-Latin-deficient parents. Well, Jake hates nothing more than being laughed at, so he actually taught himself to say “th” just so he could say “Arachnis DeaTHicus.” He over-pronounces and spits a little, but it’s progress and it’s SO cute. Good going Jake!

In general, Jake is a happy, smart, and polite little guy. He is also 3 ½. He tells me “NO” on a regular basis. The benefit of this rebellious period, as opposed to when he’s 16, is that he’s still small enough for me to pick his sorry little butt up and make him brush his teeth. Sweetie, the harder you cry, the easier it is to reach your molars. But, as he will tell you, he’s a BIG BOY now, and he’s getting better at doing things by himself all the time. I had him go in his room and change his shirt all by himself yesterday! Ok, he put it on backward, but he put it on himself! So proud. It seems like no time since it was only ½ and I’m sure it’ll be no time at all until there’s a 1 in front of that 3. Thank heavens he’s such a cool kid that, no matter what, it’s always fun.

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!

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.

Happy Winter

Two fun things happened last weekend (well, more than that but I'm speaking broadly). First, we met Santa. Second, we went to the snow. Santa was an accident. We were going to Country Club Mall to buy a sled for the snow. I figured this was pretty safe since Country Club Mall is the zombie of malls - it's dead and it doesn't know it yet. Also, it will eat your brain given the chance. So I figured there was no way they had the scratch to have a Santa there. Yeah - WRONG. We walked through the doors at 10 a.m. and there was "the chair" and the trees and the giant creepy fake Jack-in-the-box. Everything but the elves. Well, my 3 year old isn't stupid. He knows what all that means this time of year. So we were stuck between a tantrum and a hard place, as it were. But Santa wasn't going to be there until 11, so we had some time. Buying the sled took about 25 minutes. Jake was wearing his grey sweats and a pirate t-shirt, not an outfit I thought appropriate to meet and have one's picture taken with Santa. So I went to Ross and bought him the only outfit I could find in his size that wasn't ridiculous - jeans and a polo. By the time I got back, the line had formed and Steve and Jake were 3rd. Nice! A quick change and it was almost time for the jolly old elf to appear. When he arrived, he stopped and talked to Jake for a minute. He even complimented his nail polish: a fact for which I will always go back to Country Club at Christmas. By the time it was Jake's turn, he was actually glowing from the joy of talking to Santa. He told him he wanted knights and dragons for Christmas and took a great picture on his lap. He spent the rest of the weekend telling anyone who listened that he "knows Santa." Like they do lunch and go on vacation together. It was awesome. 3 is the BEST age for Santa!

Sunday we went to the snow at Adventure Mountain at Echo Lake. It's a really fun snow park/sledding area that we had been to last year. Only about 80 miles from home. We got there before the rest of the playgroup because I know my boy and snow and 2 hours was simply NOT going to be enough. We sledded for about an hour before everyone else came. Then we sledded as a group for another 1-1.5 hours. Jake went down all by himself most of the time! He tried Brandon's saucer and it went too fast for him (plus, I tried to stop him at the bottom and ended up splitting the poor kid's lip :-() but his sled got great use. We had lunch, made a snowman (that should be in quotes...), and had a great snowball fight. The snow was perfect, the day was warm and sunny, the company was fun - it was a great way to kick off the snow season! Of course, he didn't sleep at all on the way home (unlike his Daddy) so took a late nap at Ama's house, which made getting to bed hard. But totally worth it and we all can't wait to go again.

Coming up we have Hanukkah with the family (yes, I know it's been over for over a week), Christmas, of course, including a surprise addition to the requested knights and dragons, Uncle David's visit, and much more fun. Happy Holidays everyone, from our family to yours.