adventures of kevin, sunny, lucas & maggie

Cousins, swords and Easter eggs

2009-04-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

My cousin Cathy and her family came into town for Easter weekend.

On Saturday we hit the Cherry Blossom Festival in SF. They had lots of martial arts performances which we thought would be fun for the kids to watch. But mostly, they were into eating and looking at all the funky little toys at the Japanese stores in the Japan Center.

Lucas scored a wooden sword, which he proceeded to wield about on the empty downtown streets as we walked back to the BART station.

On Easter morning my sister's family came over too. Here are all the kids together in one photo, miraculously, everyone's looking at the camera.
The Easter egg hunt was mostly just Lucas and Milan. Cassidy and Connor also picked up their fair share of candy, there was definitely plenty to go around. Of course Lucas was very concerned about being able to find the most, while Milan is still at the age where the few that she finds is just fine with her.

Take me out to the ballgame!!!

2009-04-08T06:02:00.000-07:00

I got four free tickets for the SF Giants opening day from work (thanks Clif Bar)! Since Lucas had never been to a professional sports event, I figured this would be a big treat.

We invited Miles, and Lindsey, his mom, would join us at the game.

It was raining this morning, pretty hard too, but we hedged our bets and headed out to the BART station anyway.We got there via BART and Muni, with about an hour to spare before the game started. So the boys inhaled their hot dogs as we sat there. Lucas was marveling at the enormity of AT&T Park. They boys were trying to guess how many people could fill up the seats. I think they agreed on somewhere between one million and 350.

We still had time to kill before the game, so the boys cajoled me into getting cotton candy.

The boys were pretty excited with the opening ceremonies - the fireworks, the unfurling of the big flag, the singing.

But then the game started. We weren't even at the bottom of the first when they started asking me, "Is it over yet?" I told them that we had to wait for Lindsey before we went to the big slide in the kids area. About every 5 minutes, one of them would say, "Is it over yet, when will it be over?"

Thankfully Lindsey arrived somewhere during the 2nd inning with garlic fries in hand. We snacked on garlic fries then we left during the 3rd inning to hit the big slides.

As the boys waited in line for the slide for the second or third time, Miles looked at Lucas and said, "This is so much more fun than watching that boring game." Lucas heartily agreed.

Spring soccer!

2009-04-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

Unlike the last time when Lucas played organized soccer, this season looks much more promising for him. He's really into it and is like a magnet with that ball.

Pets = siblings

2009-03-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

I love driving the morning carpool to school. I get to be the "fly on the wall" listening to a five year old, six year old and seven year old.

Lucas to Bella: Why don't you have a pet?
Bella: Because my mom says that even a fish is too much work to clean the tank.
Marlee: Really, even just one fish?
Bella: Well I have a sister (age 4) instead.
Lucas: A sister is not a pet.
Bella: If you don't have a pet, a little sister is kind of like a pet. I can tell her to follow me and she will. Plus, she has hair that you can pet, kind of like a dog.

Interview with Lucas

2009-03-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

This was one of those Facebook quizzes that was passed around. I thought Lucas' answers were so cute, here they are:

Kid Questionnaire
Ask your child(ren) to answer the questions and type their answers in.
Tag other moms with older kids who might have fun with this. :)

Lucas, age 5.5

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Time for breakfast

2. What makes mom happy?
When I’m being nice.

3. What makes mom sad?
When I wipe your kiss off.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
By telling me funny jokes or doing your Yoda voice

5. What was your mom like as a child?
You liked to play in school

6. How old is your mom?
38

7. How tall is your mom?
I don’t know. 100 pounds? (I love this boy!)

8. What is her/his favorite thing to watch on TV?
We don't have a TV

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Take a nap

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Telling the truth

11. What is your mom really good at?
Napping and being funny

12. What is your mom not very good at?
You don't like guns

13. What does your mom do for her/his job?
Make Clif Bars

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Ice cream

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Giving me things to eat and playing with me

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Mickey Mouse

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Play basketball and kickball

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Our skin

19. How are you and your mom different?
You’re bigger and I’m smaller.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Because you always tell me that and you come to see me when I ask you to.

21. What does you like the most about your mom?
Your laughing

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Tahoe and Sketch Ice Cream

All Star Wars, all the time

2009-02-18T05:41:00.000-08:00

To say Lucas is in a Star Wars phase is an understatement. He lives, breathes, draws, and plays Star Wars - all the time.

He goes through so much paper drawing various Star Wars characters in different acts. He said to me one day, "Mommy, I think I was born to draw Star Wars characters." (photos to come)

His LEGO building is also all about Star Wars. After making dozens of fighter ships, rockets and such, he made this. I thought it was nice that he took a break to make something different - the Star Wars Cafe.Clone Trooper #475: Fighting those Rebel forces sure is hard work.
Clone Trooper #7935: I agree. Hey, I think this hot cocoa could use some extra chocolate.
Clone Trooper #475: I think you're right. Someone's got to do a better job training these droids.
Clone Trooper #7935: No time for it now. We have to get back to our Clone Trooper Fighter Ship and finish this battle.

Peace and love

2009-02-13T05:55:00.001-08:00

Lucas has been walking around the house singing this little song:

"Peace is sharing
Peace is caring
Peace is filling the world with love"

I love hearing him sing when he doesn't think anyone is listening. When I asked him where he learned the song, he said he wasn't sure where he knew it from. But sources say it's a song they have been singing in school.

My mission - shop locally!

2009-02-09T22:50:00.000-08:00

(To all two of my loyal readers...I am so behind on this poor neglected blog. It's kind of been replaced by Facebook, but I'm going to make a more earnest effort to record things here again.)

I have been so disheartened by all the local businesses who have shut down in the past few months. On Sunday I was out running errands and I made a promise to shop locally whenever possible. I even went and returned a dog bed that I had purchased an hour earlier at Pet Food Express, and bought a slightly more expensive version at Animal Farm. My fear is that we will soon end up having to buy everything at a place like Target or Wal Mart.

Here are some of the places I used to frequent that are now closed. May you all rest in peace.

Cotton and Company - the best place to fit little kids for shoes
Codys Books - the anchor of 4th Street!
Elephant Pharmacy - late night browsing, meeting place for my walks with Lindsey and Jennifer, the "Target" for the more conscientious shoppers
Babystyle.com - the best place to get cute baby stuff from people's registries (so much more fun to shop than Babies R Us)
Oh Baby Baby - cutest baby and little kid clothes, just up the street (not sure if they're closed yet)
Cafe de la Paz - the service was mediocre but they had really good South American-inspired food
Elmwood Pharmacy and Izzy's Soda Fountain - I hadn't been there in ages, but there was no place else where you could get a cough drops and a kick ass ice cream sundae in the same place

I have a mental watch list of the places I fear will close soon. So I'm making a special effort to go there more and bring my friends.

SF adventure express

2008-12-29T22:07:00.000-08:00

Today Lucas and I set out of the house for a 3 hour San Francisco adventure.

9:15 - Lucas and I boarded the ferry for Lucas' first boat ride. We took the ferry from Jack London Square to the Ferry Building in SF. It was amazing, I had never taken this ferry before. Luckily for us, we got a respite from the frigid temperatures we were experiencing. It was a gorgeous day! Blue blue skies and not too cold.9:45 - We land at the Ferry Building. When we got to SF, we walked across to the Embarcadero. He has a great time running around Justin Herman Plaza, but we saw that the ice skating rink was about to open. So Lucas embarked on another first.

Lucas did great for his first time on ice skates! He would fall, laugh and just get back up. We had a fun time.

10:30 - We left the ice skating rink. Lucas' pants were soaked and I didn't have an extra pair because ice skating was an unplanned event. Knowing we still had to go to the Ferry Building for lunch and catch the 12:15 ferry back to Oakland, we risked it and went in search of a kids clothing store so I could pick up a dry pair of pants for Lucas. We found a Gap Kids in the Embarcadero, and picked up some pants

11:00 - We went back towards the Ferry Building. Lucas wanted to play tag, so we ran each other around the JH Plaza. He did a fair share of pigeon chasing too (yuck!) and I snapped some photos and video.11:30 - We made it to the Ferry Building and found suitable lunches for each of us. Of course, then we treated ourselves to Recchiuti chocolates and we were on our way.

12:15 - We boarded the ferry back to Oakland. We packed a lot into our 3 hours, but we had a great time!

Small talk at dinner

2008-12-09T06:02:00.000-08:00

Lucas' friend, of mini dude fame, came over last night for dinner. After much deliberation I ended up taking the easy way out - Chinese take out. This is part of the dinner conversation I was privy to:

Mini dude: What's your favorite kind of food?
Lucas: Chocolate, cookies and ice cream. What are your favorite foods?
Mini dude: Well my first favorite is parmesan cheese.
Lucas: What's after that?
Mini dude: Cheddar cheese. And then fried rice (which he was eating voraciously while he was talking).

Then silence for about 20 seconds

Lucas: Do you like the white cheddar or the orange kind?
Mini dude: I've never seen white cheddar cheese. Are you sure it comes in white?
Lucas: Yeah, we have some white cheddar right now. Mom, don't we have white cheddar cheese now?
Me: Yes, we do.
Mini dude: Can I see it?

So I go and fetch the white cheddar cheese from the fridge.

Mini dude: Can I taste it?
Me: Sure. (I fetch a knife and cut off a piece and hand it to MD, he tastes it thoughtfully).
Mini dude: I think I like this better than the orange cheddar cheese.
Mini dude: So my favorite foods are, in this order, parmesan cheese, white cheddar cheese, orange cheddar cheese, and fried rice.

Way to diversify, Mini Dude!

Keeping up with the boys

2008-11-30T21:58:00.000-08:00

Today I went biking with Lucas and his friend and his mom, Becky.

Mind you, back in the day I was a decent mountain biker with a real mountain bike. Then the bike got stolen, I got pregnant and bought a more sensible street cruiser instead.

My cruiser has been good for all the biking Lucas and I do around town. But today, we took the boys to Tilden to go down some trails. But knowing that we would be going down easy trails, I had no reason to worry that my bike would not be able to rise to the challenge.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. The boys went screaming down the first big hill, I couldn't keep up. Going uphill was easier for me to keep up, since both boys struggled a bit with their little dirt bikes that don't have gears.
But they pushed hard and made it up all the little uphills, while going no holds barred down the little hills.

At one point, Lucas turned around and said, "Why are you going so slow?"

Time for a new bike for mom!

Mini what?

2008-11-30T21:27:00.000-08:00

The other morning, in anticipation for the afternoon play date, I asked Lucas what he and his friend usually play at school. I was expecting him to name some obscure Star Wars character, but I didn't hear those words. He said something that started with "mini" but I couldn't make out the rest of it, "Mini what?" I asked? He said it a couple more times, I still didn't get it.

Lucas: Mom, we play mini duuude! (WTF??)
Me: Wait, it's called mini dude? I haven't heard of that before, how do you play?
Lucas: You squat down and pull your shirt over your knees and walk around like this (demonstrating).
Me: Oh, interesting. I haven't ever seen that game before (trying hard not to laugh).
Lucas: Then we try and push each other over or pretend we're playing with light sabers.
Me: Like Star Wars?
Lucas: No mom, it's mini dude? Didn't I just tell you that?

Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten

2008-11-19T21:27:00.000-08:00

Some sage advice that Lucas has passed on to me in recent days. Maybe he'll look back on this blog entry when he's older and appreciate the things he learned in kindergarten.

Lucas and I were drawing pictures. I was in the middle of drawing a tree. I had the trunk and the big green blobby thing that makes up the tree top. I started drawing in branches and a few leaves here and there. Lucas looks over at my drawing and says, "I see you're adding in some details, you're doing a good job adding in those details."
I was just about done with my drawing, so I sat back and said, "I think I'm done." Lucas looks at me and says, "When you say you're done, you've just begun."
I told Lucas that I had some things to do and would play with him when I was done. He asked if he could help and I told him that I would just finish it up really quickly and then we could play. He said, "You shouldn't exclude other people. If someone wants to do something with you, you should always let them in."

He's said some other things to me that I know he's learned at school, but I can't seem to remember the others now.

Okay, so this doesn't really have to do with this entry, but here's Lucas standing next to the kolam that he made on the school chalk day. According to Lucas a kolam is "making and coloring your own dot-to-dots, but in India". That's pretty close. Wikipedia defines it as "a form of sandpainting that is drawn using rice powder by female members of the family in front of their home. It is widely practised by Hindus in South India. A Kolam is a sort of painted prayer — a line drawing composed of curved loops, drawn around a grid pattern of dots."

Email from Lucas

2008-11-14T15:14:00.000-08:00

Lucas sent this email to me back in October, but I just found it in my monstrous inbox...

i hav a pet dog she haz a small head girl dog her nam is maggie ilikethrowing the ball for her i love my mom and my dad and my self and mydog i like flying in a airplane its fun you git treats

A little late, but "Yes we did"

2008-11-07T00:32:00.000-08:00

After months and months of losing sleep being on media watch online, discussing politics with friends and co-workers, canvassing for Obama over a weekend in Reno, and general hand-wringing...Obama won the election. I know, this is old old news at this point.

But here's my recap of election night anyway. I took Lucas voting with me around 7pm on Election Day. Afterward we went to gelato, they had the tv on at the chocolate stand next door. We were watching it along with about 20 other folks. People were going nuts because at this point, it was pretty clear that Obama was going to win this thing.

I looked around and thought how cool this is to be standing with all these people I don't know, but everyone cheering and realizing together that this was happening for real. The chocolate shop owner who is French was walking around, patting us all on the back saying, "This is such a great day for America. A great day for the world." It was such a nice feeling, we were all so connected, the other folks were probably like me, no tv at home, or maybe just hungry for gelato and fancy chocolates, standing there watching history in the making. It was so cool. We were all feeling the same things, amazement, relief, and joy at the good news that kept pouring out of the tv.

By the time we got home, McCain's concession speech had just started. Then Obama's acceptance speech, I felt like running through the streets, banging pots and pans. I started crying during Obama's speech. I couldn't help it, I felt so hopeful and inspired by that man and his words.

Later that night after Lucas was in bed, I was emailing with friends other cynical folks like me. We were saying how proud we are to be Americans now, and how America now feels like a place for hopes and dreams to come true. Showing our country and the world that we're not as stupid and closed-minded as we have been in the past.

The next day I wished I had an American flag t-shirt or something that just said USA on it and I would have worn it. I wore my Obama shirt instead. If someone had knocked on our door selling big American flags, I would have bought one on the spot and hung it in front of our house.

Even when I called my sister that morning on the way in to work, she said, "You know I woke up and it just feels different." I felt the same way, things just felt good.

And it was great to go online and read what people around the world were saying about Obama as the new US President:

Australian Broadcasting Corporation's website: "Americans have elected Democrat Barack Obama as their first black president in a transformational election, which will reshape U.S. politics and reposition the United States on the world stage."

One man in the Kenyan village of Kogelo told a reporter: "Because Obama has won, we will have a change in the whole world." A school teacher in Kogelo remarked: "Obama and America have shown the world what true democracy is all about...."

Executive news editor in Dubai: “This is a historic moment not only for the United States, but so we can all get away from perceptions about religion and race and instead consider the quality of the person."

TV writer in Argentina: “The biggest economy in the world has a leader that the world can talk to. There is the feeling that for the first time since Kennedy, America has a different type of leader.”

Student in Moscow: “The U.S., that is country that is really majestic. I feel it is a country where everything is possible.”

Happy Halloween x 2

2008-11-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

Lucas' school celebrated Halloween on the 30th this year, since they had parent conferences on the 31st.

Lucas decided that morning to wear his Spidey costume from last year. Here he is as Spiderman, with his buddy Spencer.

Spencer had an awesome costume...Wall E. The classes marched down to the main yard. There were some very elaborate costumes. The communication sent home by the head of school last week included this line:

Five of Lucas' classmates and their families came over tonight for pizza and then for some good old trick or treating in our neighborhood.

The 5 Star Wars characters (one may have been a Power Ranger, not sure) and one vampire shark were all brandishing light sabers, even the vampire shark.Luckily we escaped the house and started trick-or-treating before anyone got hurt. We came back and the boys counted and sorted their candy, and then everyone went home and went to bed with sugar coursing through their veins.

Genesis, according to Lucas

2008-10-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

"You know that God made people out of clay. He first made a boy and a girl. And he gave them hearts and brains."

Lucas' thoughts on women

2008-10-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

I don't remember what we were talking about prior to this, but all of a sudden this came out of left field.

Lucas: You know that women are like infinity.
Me: How are women like infinity?
Lucas: Because women have babies, and their babies have babies, and their babies have babies.
Me: Yeah, I guess so. Who told you about that?
Lucas: I just thought of it myself because I have a good imagination.

Reno for Obama!

2008-10-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Lucas, Rocky and I roadtripped to Reno a couple weekends ago -- to visit with my cousin Cathy and her family, and to help the Obama campaign out there.I was somewhat dismayed when we drove up to the Obama campaign office in Reno. It was pretty desolate - depressing actually -- an old storefront in a two-store, rundown strip mall. We walked in and there were just two people there. The woman asked if we were from California, I told her yes. She said, "Oh, all the California people are down the street." She gave us directions and we drove over.

That's when things started to look up. There was a woman directing traffic, she let us know that the parking lot was full and to look for parking on the street. We parked a few blocks away and walked over to the building. There was a line out the door and around the building, volunteers from California waiting to spread the word of Obama to the good people of Reno.

Rocky and I made friends in line with folks who were from Berkeley and El Cerrito, the two towns bordering my own. Some of these folks have done this before, in 2000 and 2004, driven to Reno to campaign for the Democratic candidates at the time. But they said they have never seen anything like what they were seeing this time for Obama - the enthusiasm and numbers of people were unparalleled.

There were so many volunteers, other people who had come from all over California, wanting to make sure they could do everything in their power to get Obama elected. It was inspiring to say the least.
During the training, they covered hot topics with Nevadans. Regarding guns, the campaign manager said, "We love our guns. Don't tell them that Obama wants to take their guns away, tell them Obama will let people keep their guns, he just wants to keep guns out of the hands of criminals."(Meanwhile, Lucas is at a grand opening of a new ultra sporting good store. This is the photo Cathy sent to me of Lucas and his cousin Connor on the day we learned about guns in Nevada. You know what they say, when in Rome...)After our training we went off to our assigned precinct. I've never done this kind of work before, but I have to say that it was pretty well organized. The systems they have in place and type of knowledge volunteers get about the doors they are knocking on is very helpful and well thought out.

I don't know if this was every Californians' experience, but the people Rocky and I were assigned to were identified as either definitely (OB1) or probably (OB2) going to vote for Obama. For these folks, we just had to make sure they planned on voting, and to inform them about early voting.

I didn't know about the importance of early voting until Reno:

Voters are sometimes dismayed by long lines on election day, and will walk away thinking, "What's the difference if I vote or not". But in a place like Nevada, every vote really does count.
Voters are sometimes swayed by the onslaught of negative ads in the final days before e-day.
Voters sometimes get to the polls on e-day, only to find that there was something wrong with their voter registration. If you vote early, you can find this out and have time to get it cleared so you can vote.

I was so surprised by the friendliness and openness of the people in Reno. No one asked who it was when we rang their doorbells, they just opened their doors to us. As most people were predisposed to voting for Obama, they were uber friendly...saying things like, "Thanks for letting me know, I didn't know I could vote early" or "Keep up the good work". Even when people come to our door at home for Obama or the DNC, I still let them know I'm in a hurry to close the door. (Note to self, be nicer to people who come to our door at home).

Over the course of two days, we hit all sorts of different neighborhoods close to downtown Reno (the self-proclaimed "biggest little city in the world") - beautiful tree-lined streets with old traditional homes filled with families, little apartment complexes with young 20-somethings or elderly folks.) I silently thanked the campaign organizers for not sending us two Asians into any rural trailer parks. They probably save those for the native Nevadans.

Did I mostly knock on doors with no one home. Yes.
Did I persuade anyone from the McCain camp to Obama? No.
But did I feel like I made a difference? YES.

You can see below, if you squint carefully, just how divided it is in Washoe County , Nevada. This was a common sight - a McCain sign sandwiched between two Obama yard signs. It was amazing how split this county is.
And since our trip to Reno, I've been reading so much about the battle for this state.

It was written up in the NY Times, and this from a 10/24 article on the UK's Telegraph online news source:

This month, for the first time in 30 years, the number of registered Democratic voters in Washoe has inched ahead of Republicans.
Nevada has backed the winner in all but one general election - Jimmy Carter in 1976 - in almost a century and is viewed as critical territory by both sides.

Republicans have won Nevada in eight of the 10 past presidential election. In 2004, Mr Bush beat John Kerry by 21,000 votes. But the latest polls show Mr Obama with a four-point lead over Mr McCain.

And it seems like Obama's campaign and presence is definitely outweighing McCain.

Many in Reno say they have witnessed unprecedented levels of campaign activity and passion this election. The Obama campaign, which has been working furiously in Nevada since before the state's winter caucuses, has 15 field offices (the McCain operation has nine), hundreds of staff and has flooded Nevada with thousands of volunteers, many from California, who have ventured into every corner of the state.

"Obama's just out-campaigning McCain at the moment," said Eric Herzik, political science professor at University of Nevada-Reno. "He has more people on the ground, he's more visible and he's running more ads on television. At an anecdotal level, the last three weekends, I have had Obama people at my door - and mine is a mixed household of registered Republicans and Democrats. I haven't seen a McCain person."

I wish I could have gone for more than one weekend, it was such an awesome experience.

In other Reno news, aside from guns, Lucas was also introduced to the Wii. He had a lot of fun playing some Star Wars game with Connor.
And then of course, sharing a monster brownie with Connor and Cassidy at dinner one night.It was such a great trip on all fronts. I'm continuing to watch Nevada closely in the polls, and keeping my fingers crossed.

20 years ago

2008-10-09T05:23:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago I graduated from Campolindo High School in Moraga. I lived in Moraga from when I was in Kindergarten till I graduated high school.

Here I am pre-graduation ceremony with Jeanne and Ruth (June 1988).And here I am with Jennifer, who I've been good friends with since 6th grade. Caps off, we just finished the graduation ceremony (June 1988).

Our graduating class had a 5-year and a 10-year reunion. And for more than the past year I've been on the committee to make our 20 year reunion a reality. I didn't do much except read the emails from the committee and give my two cents, but it was fun to be part of it just the same.

This past weekend was the big reunion and it was more fun than I thought.

Friday night was the "alumni only" event, out at a brewery in Walnut Creek. Here's a "now" photo of me and Jennifer. She lives less than a mile away from me and our kids went to the same preschool. We still see each other at least once a week for walks and what-not.It was a little weird at first to see people, who for the most part were different versions of their former selves. Even with name tags, some people would come right up to me and say, "Hi Sunny." I would look at their name tags, look at their faces, and still have absolutely no idea who it was.

But there were a lot of people who I was really glad to see, people who I'd lost touch with over the years. Chris and I have known each other since kindergarten. He and Jennifer were boyfriend/girlfriend for a couple years in high school.

I've known John since 1st grade. And we both ended up at USC, where we became better friends.
And here's Michael Fisher, one of my favorite people, who I didn't really get to know until after college when we both lived in SF. It was good to catch up with him too. Like I said, it was an amazing night, so good to reconnect with all of these people from my past. And because Moraga is such a small town, a lot of people I've known since elementary school.

Saturday night was the fancy dinner/drinks/dancing at the Orinda Country Club. It was so interesting to meet people's spouses. I was the unofficial photographer, which gave me a good excuse to walk around and talk to people to take their pictures. And some people who didn't make it on Friday night, turned out for the Saturday night event.

While I would love to write about each of these people, I just want to post this and catch up on my other posts. Maybe I'll come back and write captions later.

So, here's me with a bunch of people you don't know.

Kids Q&A

2008-10-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

I learn a lot toting the carpool kids back and forth from school. In the morning when I drive the two first grade girls, I definitely learn a lot more…their conversations go way beyond Star Wars and bathroom humor of Lucas and his friend in the afternoon.

This morning the girls were talking about the questions they were batting around in class earlier in the week. Every kid in their class got an opportunity to ask a question and give their own answers. I asked the girls to repeat some of the questions while we drove so we could all weigh in:

What’s your favorite time of the year – summer or winter? 3 for summer, winter for me.
Would you rather have two noses or three eyes? 1 for two noses so she could smell cookies better, the rest of us said 3 eyes, as long as the 3rd one is on the back of our heads
Would you rather talk to animals or live forever? 3 for talking to animals, 1 for living forever.
Would you rather fly or see through walls? Everyone wanted to fly.
Would you rather be able to jump high or run really fast? Two for two.
Would you rather have no hair or no shoes? The girls freaked and said of course they would give up anything before losing their hair. Lucas would rather have his shoes so he could kick soccer balls.
Would you rather be a princess or Hannah Montana? 2 for HM, Lucas and I said, “WTF?”

Lucas' storytime

2008-09-23T05:57:00.001-07:00

We were at my mom's over the weekend. I was in the kitchen and looked over and saw this.

Lucas was reading one of his chapter books to Milan, and baby Jack (not pictured, but laying close by on the blanket). It was one of the cutest sights ever.

Lucas' book group

2008-09-22T22:47:00.000-07:00

We are involved in carpools up the wazzoo to get Lucas to and from school. Even though it seems complex, with four different people driving him during the week, including myself, it's been a lifesaver. Plus, when I drive Lucas and his friends I get to overhear their conversations.

On the way home the other day, Lucas and his buddy were talking about their day's trip to the school library.

They were talking back and forth about different books, their conversation going something like this:

"Have you read the Magic Treehouse book 'Pirates Past Noon'?"
"That was a good one. How about the one about polar bears?"
"Oh, Polar Bears Past Bedtime, yeah I liked that one too"

And so on and so on.

After dropping off his friend, I said to Lucas, "You know how you and Linden were talking about books, that's like what I do in my book group. You and Linden were having your own little book group."

Lucas, not impressed, said, "Yeah, but we didn't get to have dessert like you." I guess not all book groups are created equal.

A conversation I overheard

2008-09-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

So I admit, I'm addicted to Facebook. I use it more than email now to communicate to my friends. And the best part is, just like at a dinner party, I can overhear snippets of conversations, which I can jump in on or not, as the case may be.

Here is my friend Julie's status update:

Julie forced her vacationing mom to watch all 5 hours of the DNC and has just introduced her to the comedic genius of John Stewart. Lewis Black is next. 8:30pm - 11 Comments

And the following exchange that ensued...

Timothy at 5:37am August 29 - enough of the liberal tear jerking. dont you have Texas roots? reach deep into those roots and see the light.

Julie at 7:23am August 29 - Where do I live, Tim? Where. Do. I. Live? [she lives in Berkeley]

Timothy at 7:26am August 29 - hilarious. but in private i know you will be GOP.

Timothy at 9:21am August 29 - sarah palin baby. thats all i can say

Julie at 9:34am September 7 - The more I learn about her, the more despicable I find her. If you had daughters, you might feel differently...I think of the world I'm leaving my daughter, and I shudder at what the GOP assholes want to do to her.

Timothy at 10:37am September 7 - oh shit, its just a VP. lighten up. mccain wont rock the boat socially either. hes a border line liberal. what you get with mccain is an effective tax reduction supporter and small business hero.

Julie at 1:35pm September 7 - He's just another meat puppet of Rove's. I swear I saw the strings during his acceptance speech.

Sunny McKay at 2:29pm September 7 - julie, you're not crazy. i saw those strings too. and i agree, it's not just a vp, mccain is not going to last in office - he's 72, but being a pow, his real age is probably pushing 80. then we'll all be truly fucked!

Julie at 9:15am September 8 - Yeah, seriously...and NOT in the good way. Their slogan should be "Killin' & Drillin'....yee-HAW!"

Timothy at 9:16am September 8 - you know i have a county gop meeting on thur and we may well adopt that slogan

Julie at 12:38pm September 8 - Don't make me fly down there, Tim.

My heart is full of what?

2008-09-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

Lucas and I play this game where he's usually appointed the big tiger, and I'm reduced to playing a baby mouse, or baby owl, or some other infantile creature. Oh, and no matter what creature I am, he always says, "And your name is Chubby."

Anyway, we were playing this the other morning (me playing Chubby the baby mouse) and Lucas is ready to go off and hunt for food. I said to him, "Are you sure I'll be okay here? I'm just a baby mouse." Lucas looks at me to assure me that he will be back soon after he hunts for food for us. Then he says, "You will be strong if you need to be, because your heart is full of secrets."

WHAT? Yep, I asked him to repeat it and he said, "Your heart is full of secrets." I asked him later about it and he denied that he ever said anything like that.

Kindergarten - days 2 and 3

2008-08-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

I don't plan on chronicling every single day of Lucas' school life, but bear with me...

Lucas continues to love his school. This has been such a huge relief for us, as we remember how it used to take Lucas a long time to warm up to new things, and the going was never easy.

I think back to the school tours, open houses, and other pre-admissions events for all these schools, and the one thing that stood out about this school was that they really emphasized how from day one they foster and promote a shared sense of community and respect. And it really shows, even with just 3 days under our belt.

- I was waiting for Lucas after school and a few of the older kids were walking by. One boy said to the other, "It's pretty fun to have a whole new group of kindergarteners here." And one of the girls said, "Yeah, did you see how cute they are?" It was really nice to hear that. I'm sure there will be issues, but at least on day three, they felt a sense of responsibility toward the littler ones.

- When Lucas' friend was on one of the Flying Turtles and fell off face first, immediately one of the school plans went into effect. The older kids with him shot up their arms and yelled, "He's hurt! I don't know his name, but he's hurt!" And two of the after school teachers went over to see how he was (he survived the Flying Turtle incident with just a few scrapes).

- The one hard part about this school is that it's hard to drag Lucas away. When I went to pick him up the other day he just kept playing. The after school director went up to him and essentially said, "We all manage this program together. One of the biggest rules is that you need to listen to other kids, the teachers, and your parents. That's why the after school program works so well and that's why we get to have fun here." Then he asked Lucas repeat it back to him and we were on our way.

- Aside from the Flying Turtles, the other most-coveted items are the bottom boards. They're little skateboards that they ride on, sitting on their bottoms. They can ride down this little ramp (see above), or tie ropes to them and pull each other around on the black-top. One of the other things about after school is that the older kids teach the younger kids how to do things, instead of the teachers doing it. Lucas tried the b-board on day one, but was very cautious and mostly kind of scooted down the ramp. But by day 3, he had mastered it with the help of his coach, who's standing off to the side.

On Friday morning parents were invited to stay for the morning all-school assembly to raise the flags. The 4th graders are in charge of raising the flags every day, but this was the first time this year. The 4th grade teacher talked about the flags, but what I thought was nice, was that she started with a world view, with a school alum singing the "World Anthem", she had an amazing voice and I got the chills. Fresh from watching a lot of the speeches from the Democratic National Convention, I was feeling especially patriotic. Then all the kids sang "This Land is Your Land" and I got downright weepy.

Then when I picked up Lucas yesterday afternoon, I saw pieces of paper taped up along the main corridor. Here's one of the signs.
The rest were more general, "Go Obama", "Vote for Obama", "Obama for Change". You gotta love living in the Bay Area.

1st day of kindergarten!!!

2008-08-28T05:28:00.000-07:00

(This is a long post, so if you just want the synopsis - Lucas loved everything about school! Yay)

I'll start with the day before K, which was Tuesday.

We went to a kindergarten get-together at a local park the day before school with his future classmates and their teachers. Even on the drive over there, thoughts were bent toward the first day of school, "Will I have fun at my new school? What if I don't like the teachers?" Once we got there we introduced Lucas to his teachers. And we all, parents included, sat down in a big circle time. Kevin and I were surprised when Lucas raised his hand during circle time to ask a question. "Will we have circle time at school?" The teachers assured him that they would have not one, but two circle times a day. At the end of circle time the teachers gathered the kids around to read a book about a kid who is getting ready to go to kindergarten (surprise!).
After the book, the kids went running wild throughout the park. I introduced Lucas to a boy who, rumor had it, loves LEGOS and Star Wars as much as Lucas. And immediately they were off and running. Lucas' new buddy invited us (actually he really invited Lucas) to dinner with him. So we hit Rubio's with Lucas' new found buddy and his family, plus another incoming kindergarten family.It was hard for Lucas to tear himself away from his new buddy, but we finally tore those two apart. Lucas talking on the way home about organizing a play date, etc.

Lucas awoke the next morning with some extra energy, which I account for as nervous energy. He got dressed in his school t-shirt and expressed his energy with a long string of potty talk. We told him to get his jollies out before he got into that classroom because it would end there. During the drive, he again expressed some concern about his new school, "I think one of my teachers is a vampire."

But once we got to school, he was all business. He was too busy to pose in front of the school sign, like the kid in the upper left, he wanted to get to the playground and start playing.

We also tried posing for a family photo at the playground, but it was hard to contain Lucas, so this is the best one we got. Lucas immediately sought out his new buddy. They found each other and started to do what any crazy 5-year olds would do on the first day of school...
Actually, they weren't trying to escape, they just wanted to get up to that tree and swing from the branches.

At 8:40, the kids lined up and filed inside their new classroom, found their cubbies and hung up their goods.

The class starts each day with a morning "meeting", this time the parents were invited to stay. The teachers, Liz and Diep, introduced themselves and asked all the kids to introduce themselves and tell everyone their favorite animals. Lucas of course said his was a tiger.The first order of business was the calendar and weather chart. Lucas looked at me with a smile because they did the same thing at his old school. And Lucas, like most kids, loves routine and familiarity.
They talked about bathroom etiquette (they taught them to use the sign language sign for bathroom, which surprisingly, is not holding your crotch) and directed them to the bathroom which is in the classroom (another source of concern for Lucas, "What if I can't find the bathroom?"). Then they went through the rest of the day's schedule and took roll call.

The the teachers said, "Now it's time to say goodbye to your parents." The kids turned around and waved and we were ushered to the music room with the other kindergarten parents. At this parent coffee, I signed our lives away to eScrip, joined probably one too many committees and chatted it up with the other parents. Even Kevin was unusually social, the parents seemed relaxed and relieved that the first drop off was over.

Back at the office, it was hard not to think about Lucas and how he was getting along on his first day of school. I left work early so I could pick him up just a little bit after the afterschool program started.

I got there and he was still in his fencing class. I peeked in and saw him, with some of the kids from his class. He was having a great time. Aside from fencing with these foam swords (not much difference than the light saber wars we have at home), they had lots of jumping exercises.After fencing we walked down to the afterschool area. And once we got down there he didn't want to leave. He and one of the kids from his class were playing LEGOs, then some older girls taught him the finer points of the flying turtle.After about an hour, Lucas was finally ready to leave. He was talking to me about all the things they did that day, nonstop, and could not stop smiling.

We have recess and lunch outside, and recess is the same as playtime at my old school, but recess is for bigger kids.
I played LEGOs and there are all sorts of different LEGO pieces at school, like windshields.
So-and-so also had a Speed Racer snack box, just like mine.
We did a scavenger hunt, but not to find treasures, to find things in the classroom, like tissues, glue, paper...
I got to do fencing with some of the older kids (I think his class is K-2) and I did really good.

I think this photo as we left school sums up Lucas' experience on his first day of kindergarten.

Yet another day at the office

2008-08-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

I have pictures of all of Lucas’ big events, except for what happened today at work. He was at work with me all day. Chris, one of the guys in our warehouse told me that when I bring Lucas in, he will give him a ride in the forklift.

Of course, this was huge news for Lucas and he looked forward to it all day.

Post-lunch we headed over to the warehouse. Not only did he get to ride in the forklift, but Chris let him DRIVE the forklift…yes, drive.

Lucas got to control the gas and brake, steer (though after a couple minutes Chris took over the steering), and he also got to do some real work. Chris had him go over to a pallet of Clif products, pull the lever to lift it up onto the lift, and drove it over to the other side of the warehouse.

Lucas’ mouth was wide open the whole time. I thought he was going to start drooling any minute. I, on the other hand, was sweating. Lucas couldn’t believe it. And frankly, neither could I.

Another day at the office

2008-08-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

I'm fortunate enough to have found a job working at ClifBar, yes the company that makes those little bars that you eat when you go for a hike, or in our case, when you're sitting in traffic with a hungry 5-year old.

On Tuesday we had a party at work. Lucas and Kevin came by to check out my new office. Clif has all sorts of fun things for big and little kids to do.

Lucas got to sit in the forklift in our warehouse.And they both had fun on the climbing wall in the office.

As far as my job goes, it's been great so far. My title is "Women's Experience Manager" for the LUNA brand. And specifically, I market LUNA to pregnant women, moms, and other folks who we call "Mavens", who are ambassadors to the LUNA brand and go out in their community and hand out LUNA samples and tell people all the great things about LUNA bars.

Clif has tons of employee perks, which I immediately started taking advantage of:

- on site gym with free personal trainers
- 30+ fitness classes a week, also free
- on site nutritionist, free
- subsidized massages ($30 for an hour, half that for half hour)
- $5 organic lunches on site a couple days a week
- dog-friendly office (Maggie has enjoyed coming into the office with me a few times already)
- on site hair cut appointments
- on site car wash and detailing (I've washed my car more times in the past month than in the last three years)
- and of course, as many Clif products as I can eat (I'm currently trying to wean myself down to 1/2 a bar a day)
- beginning mid-October, I'll be able to take half days on Friday.

Anyway, that's where I am during the day. Not too shabby for a full-time gig.

Kindergarten jitters

2008-08-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

With kindergarten starting up this Wednesday, Lucas has been dealing with leaving his friends and teachers who he loves behind and starting up at a brand new school with all new kids. Unfortunately, none of his friends will be going to his school.

A couple weeks ago we had a informal picnic at his new school with other incoming kindergarten kids. There were about 10 kids there, all girls, but a couple in his class. He had a great time and on the way home asked, "Mommy, when can I go back to that school?" I assured him that in a few weeks he would be going Monday-Friday and seeing those same kids plus many more.

Then last week I made the fatal error of having one of his preschool teachers babysit. They had a wonderful time, but the next day he said, "I'm never going to see Catherine again!" And it kind of went down hill from there.

When he said, "I want to go back to Growing Light," I told him that all his friends are moving on to different schools so we went through his class photo and talked about where all the kids are going. I assured him that we would still do play dates with his friends and continue to meet up on Sundays with a few of them for baseball/soccer/sport du jour.
He asks me at least once a day, "Will I have fun at my new school?" I ask him what types of things he likes to do at school, and for the most part, I can assure him that he will be able to do those same things at his new school.
I also remind him of the other fun things that he will do at his new school that they didn't have at his old school - fencing and playing in the loft in his classroom, both of which he is very excited about.

Not sure if this is related, but it probably is, Lucas has been talking a lot about death. Like "I don't want to die. I don't want you or daddy to die. I don't want anybody to die..." and the list goes on.

On the outside I reassure him that no one he knows is dying or has plans to die anytime soon. But on the inside I'm thinking, "Dude, no one's dying, it's just kindergarten!"

Playdate from hell

2008-08-23T04:59:00.000-07:00

This past week Lucas was home with Kevin. Kevin had some work to do so we set up a couple kids to come over to play with Lucas.

The first one went swimmingly. Lucas and his friend mostly made mud pies in the backyard. Kevin fixed them a lunch of yogurt and chips and guacamole (!!). According to Kevin, "They were really good. I peeked in on them a couple times but they were just having a great time." Lucas' friend went home happy, albeit muddy.

Then we had the second play date a couple days later. Throughout the day I checked in with Kevin, these are the reports I got back:

- they were making mud pies using Maggie's pooh
- Lucas' friend picked up Maggie's pooh by hand
- they cut a hole in the screen so they could climb out onto the roof (luckily, they only cut the screen and Kevin caught them before they went AWOL)

We were both anxious for Lucas' friend's dad to come back and get this little urchin out of our house.

When I got home, I asked Lucas how his play date went. He told me most of what happened. Then he also added in this tasty tidbit, "And my friend ate Maggie's dog pooh." Some other things this wild child did:

- climbed to the top of Lucas' closet and opened up all my new cans of tennis balls and left those sharp little lids everywhere
- ripped photos out of a book
- ripped some pages out of a book
- smudged the walls along the staircase

Granted, it could have been Lucas who had done these things, but I highly doubt it.

He did it!

2008-08-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

Lucas graduated from his preschool today. There was a big celebration, each of the 4 classes took their turn on stage to perform.

Lucas' class sang a song, which was hard to hear because it was really loud in the room (everyone, including kids, had already been sitting for almost an hour and were restless) and the kids, while I'm sure they sang their hearts out, had masks on, which covered their mouths.The best moment was when they called Lucas' name to get his diploma and he went up and got it. (Last year when they called his name, he refused to go up and get his diploma.) There was no bowing, posing for the camera, or other theatrics on his part. He just went up and took it from the teacher, but that was fine by us.
I wonder if Lucas is thinking, "Yay, I graduated!!!"

Afterward Lucas and his friends had a great time running around and engaging in general 5-year old rowdiness.

Talking politics

2008-08-14T21:29:00.001-07:00

Lucas and I walked to the store tonight to pick up a few groceries. On our walk we passed by multiple Obama signs in people's windows or in their yards.

Lucas: Who are you going to vote for? Barack Obama or John McCain?
Me: Barack Obama.
Lucas: Why, is John McCain a bad man?
Me: He's not a bad man, but I don't agree with some things he says.
Lucas: Does he say bad things?
Me: I think some of the things he wants to do aren't good for the country or the world.
Lucas: Is it because he's so old and forgets things? You know, his hair is all white. He's very very old.

Cute as a ...

2008-08-10T23:25:00.000-07:00

As of today at 12:25 pm, I have a brand new nephew named Jack. I know his parents don't like me to post photos of their kids, but believe me, he's a cutie!

Crowning around

2008-08-08T00:07:00.000-07:00

"What's for dinner?"

2008-08-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

For years I've fantasized about meal planning...yes, meal planning. The idea that you would sit down on Sunday night and plan out each and every meal for the week: to shop more efficiently, to diversify the menu, and to mitigate any dramas at meal time (Lucas, not Kevin). I think Mrs. Cunningham and June Cleaver probably did this with their families, and look how easy their lives looked!!!

So three weeks ago, the weekend before I started working again, Lucas and I sat down and mapped out what he would eat for breakfast each weekday morning. We started with breakfast because Lucas is not a morning person, so our weekday mornings can be the most challenging time of the week. It went surprisingly well that week, and he ended up eating something different every morning.

The next week, I was just planning on doing breakfast again, but Lucas suggested we do all our meals. So we did. We had a couple incidents when our plans changed and we had to move things, but overall, it went well. It was the first week without a single quesadilla for dinner, and only one peanut butter sandwich for lunch!

I can't believe I never did this before, but it makes so much sense. Tuesday dinner is chicken, that means Wednesday lunch he gets chicken noodle soup, of course!

And of course, the shopping is so much easier. We just look at the list, assess what we have in house, and go to the store. No more meandering the aisles, lost in a daze about what I should buy. It's very liberating actually.

So this past weekend, Lucas said to me, "We have to make our menu for the week!" (Success!) I think this has worked so well for us because Lucas knows he has a voice in the process and gets to make a lot of the choices. We also have a couple standards...Friday night is macaroni and cheese, and every Sunday morning we have waffles.

My ultimate goal is to get to at least 10 weeks of menus so we can just rotate them in and out.

Now playing on a wall near you

2008-08-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

We haven't had a TV in our house since we moved when we redid our house, I guess that was 2005. So we have been watching DVDs, shows on iTunes and other online sources all on our computers, mostly our little laptops.

But a few weeks ago, Kevin came home with a new toy - a projector! So now we watch movies like regular people, the wall in our living room shows the picture at about 6 feet by 4 feet ... pretty awesome! Now we can sit comfortably in a room, instead of huddled together like media-starved monkeys. We also came through on our promise to Lucas that he could watch Star Wars when he turned 5. I anticipated that the morning of his birthday, he would be asking us when we could watch the movie. But he didn't even bring it up until a few days later. So we got the DVD and watched it.

I don't think he was really into the story, he had much more fun asking questions and trying to identify the characters, spaceships, and creatures that he saw on the big "screen".

Now all we need is a sticky floor and the smell of popcorn drowning in butter, and it'll really be like we're at the movies.

Welcome to the year 2008!

2008-08-03T21:40:00.000-07:00

My mom made her first online purchase. I'm so proud of her.

Where did that come from?

2008-07-31T22:28:00.001-07:00

I'm embarrassed to even write about this, but Lucas has picked up some odd vocabulary lately:

"That's wicked y'all!"
"Chicka chicka boom boom...yea baby yea!"

He said he heard the chicka boom boom thing from his friend at school, who he calls Alex C. Riley, one of the calmer boys in Lucas' class. Whenever I see Alex C. Riley at school, I try to imagine him chanting this, but I can't. It's just wrong.

Spelling bee for the new generation

2008-07-26T05:29:00.000-07:00

As we were in the car the other day, Lucas said, "I know how to spell 'dot com'. D-O-T-C-O-M. Or you can just spell it with a dot, then C-O-M."

Lucas' birthday fest

2008-07-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

Seems like we spent this week celebrating Lucas' birthday. Here are pics from today's party with his cronies.

Lucas kept flip-flopping on whether he wanted a soccer or baseball party, so we just brought a bunch of sports equipment for whatever they wanted to do. I think baseball won out.There was also some tree climbing and other non-sport activities going on.
Per Lucas' request, he got a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. I had asked if he wanted any decorations, like soccer balls or baseballs, oddly, he said, "No, just strawberries."

Lucas didn't want a pinata, and we decided against doing any gift bags. But we didn't want the little tykes to leave empty-handed, so Kevin came up with this idea of just getting a couple bags of candy and throwing handfuls across the field.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The kids had a great time. For some reason, Lucas wasn't into this candy free-for-all, but I saved him a couple pieces anyway.

Art excursion

2008-07-19T04:50:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, we were on BART and Lucas pointed to a poster and said, "That's Frida Kahlo! She's a great artist. She was married to Diego Rivera." His class studied art for more than a month and he was really into it. He has a special notebook of all his "still life sketches" and would tell me about paintings he saw in class from famous artists like Monet and Picasso.When my friend Jeanne had her baby boy, Jackson, Lucas said, "I know two boys named Jackson. And there's also Jackson Pollock, the artist."

So I planned a trip to SFMOMA, especially to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit. We took BART into SF and dined on peanut butter sandwiches outside of the museum. As Lucas said to me, "We're going art-ing."

On BART, Lucas asked me all sorts of questions about the actual museum - what it looks like from the outside, how tall it would be, and what it looks like on the inside. Lucas was not very impressed by the outside of the museum. He thought it would be tall and colorful and have artwork on it. When I asked what he thought, he said, "It's just brown."

Once we entered the museum, Lucas was very impressed with the lobby. According to him, "It's so colorful. It's crazy!"Lucas wanted to see paintings by artists he knew. We had about an hour and a half to kill before our reservation to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit, so we meandered through each floor looking at art, especially by artists he recognized.

It was fun to see what Lucas was drawn to, mostly really beautiful, colorful pieces, like these.He especially wanted to know the names of different pieces that he saw. Sometimes I would ask him why the artist named it what he did. I pointed out this one by Jackson Pollock, "Guardians of the Secret". According to Lucas, "Jackson Pollock had a really big secret. He painted it on this, then covered it up with all these colors and things, so no one would know his secret." I asked him if he had any ideas what the big secret is. Lucas' responded with, "Jackson Pollock was so good at painting and he put so many colors on this. No one will ever know his secret, but it's probably a really good secret."We looked at this painting by Diego Rivera. Lucas said, "That girl is kind of creepy looking."
Finally it was our turn to go to the Kahlo exhibit. Even with the timed-ticket system, it was super crowded in there. It was a little overwhelming - the crowds, combined with the fact that we had already been there for an hour and a half. So we cruised in and out of rooms (they wouldn't allow pictures to be taken in there) fairly quickly.

I asked him what he thought about Frida, and he said, "She liked to paint a lot of pictures of herself. And she liked to paint animals too."

We went in to see this surreal mixed media and video installation by Alexander Hahn and Yves Netzhammer, which is where we were just prior to going in to see Frida. The video was some computer animation, showing drops of water, primates, and faceless people. It was a little creepy to me, but I think Lucas liked being able to sit finally, on the floor, in that dark and quiet room for a change of pace.

On the way home, we stopped at Specialty's for one of their fabulous chocolate chip cookies. I split the cookie in half and offered him to choose which half he wanted. He started arguing with me that I always get to split the cookies. I told him I was letting him choose which half he wanted and tried to explain to him that it was a better deal this way, since whoever doesn't split it always has the first choice. But he was being overly stubborn about it, and forfeited his right to any of the cookie (lucky me!).

But once we got outside and started walking back to the BART station, he was all smiles again. I asked him what his favorite part of the day was. He said, "Looking at all the beautiful artwork and going in the elevator."

Obsessed with Legos

2008-07-18T00:02:00.000-07:00

Lucas has really been into his Legos lately. I think going to Legoland spurred a new kind of creativity in his Lego-making.

I love this one that he made. I like the way he angled some of the pieces. It's cool in a bug-meets-alien spaceship way.

A new game in town

2008-07-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

Driving Lucas home from school today, he asked me if I knew how to play Greasy Baby.

Me: No, I've never heard of that game before, how do you play?
Lucas: Well, I play on the big yard with Jack and Olivia, and Trace, he's in the toddler room. When Trace runs after us, we run away and yell, ""Greasy baby! Greasy baby!".
Me: Why do you yell "Greasy baby"?
Lucas: Because Trace's face is all greasy, and he's a baby.
Me: What do you mean, greasy?
Lucas: He has so much spit on his face that it's greasy.
Me: Well, you know little kids drool a lot, and it probably just gets on his face.
Lucas: It's so gross.
Me: How do you think he feels when you call him Greasy Baby?
Lucas: I think he feels good about it. He just runs after us and laughs.
Me: Do you think it hurts his feelings at all?
Lucas: He doesn't have feelings, he's just a baby.

Lucas hits the big 5.0

2008-07-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

Lucas had been eagerly anticipating his 5th birthday for months now. There was much more significance attached to this birthday than any previous birthdays, from his standpoint.

For his birthday breakfast, per his request, he had bacon and a bowl of syrup to dip the bacon in. And then we were off to school.

sun. Lucas walked around the sun carrying a globe, while the kids sang a little song, that starts something like, "The earth goes around the sun, the sun, the earth goes around the sun...". Each time he walked around, the teacher asked him questions, "What did you like to eat when you were one?", "What did you like to play with when you were two?", etc. I also put together a poster with photos of him from every year. The teacher would point to the photo corresponding to the year she was talking about. Then when Lucas walked around 5 times, he gets to blow out the candle. At his school they have a pagan-like ritual they do for kids' birthdays. The teacher lights a candle that represents theAfter the ceremony, we snacked on the blueberry muffins with vanilla frosting that Lucas and I made.

For dinner, we went to Fenton's for his birthday dinner with my family. We told Lucas all about ice cream sundaes and told him he could have one for his birthday. I guess we've been used to getting smaller servings at our local ice cream places like Sketch and Ciao Bella, because even the petite servings at Fenton's were HUGE! Kevin told them it was Lucas' birthday so when they brought out his sundae, the wait staff led the entire restaurant in a round of "Happy Birthday". Surprisingly, Lucas seemed to like the attention, or maybe he was just so happy with the size of his sundae. He ate all the whipped cream, and just barely dug into the actual ice cream.

We let him stay up past nine o'clock so he could play with his new toys. When I asked him what his favorite part of the day was he said, "I liked it all the best," then he added, "But going out for ice cream was really really fun."

Cleaning out the closet

2008-07-08T22:55:00.000-07:00

In our guest room/office, we have a closet. This would be the perfect closet for parties, where guests can hang their coats and bags. Or a closet for any overnight guests we may have, so they can hang up a couple things during their stay.

But, thanks to me, this closet has not been used for any of the above. Since we moved back into the house in spring of 2005, this closet has been crammed with stuff...mostly photos, Christmas decorations, Lucas' old baby stuff, and any other miscellany that needed some kind of half-way home before getting organized and shuttled off to its forever home.

After many fits and starts for taking on this project, I finally did it this past weekend. I threw away so many photos, mostly pre-digital photos with a cameo of my thumb, or people with their eyes blinking. It took me a long time, but it was definitely worth it because there were some keepers in there. I found photos that I had taken with my 110 Kodak camera back in elementary school, and my Kodak Disc camera in middle school. Once I get them organized, I'll post some here.

In the mean time, I'll have to have a party since I now have a place where people can hang up their coats.

Patriotism -- Berkeley style

2008-07-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

Our little town had a 4th of July celebration. It felt very small town, which was nice. There were old men in red-white-blue hats handing out little American flags to everyone. To show our patriotism, Kevin and I sported our Obama shirts. Typical Berkeley, I got tons of positive comments about my shirt.Kevin participated in the watermelon eating contest. Surprisingly, he did not win.

Lucas spent most of the time at the dunk tank. He was on a roll. Everyone standing around was impressed by his ability to hit the target again and again.
We had a great time. And topped it off with watching Finding Nemo till the wee hours (okay, just till 10pm, but that's late for Lucas).

Save the date!

2008-07-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

As we drove to a birthday party over the weekend, Lucas said to me, "I love Ahbi (the birthday girl)."

Me: That's great, she's such a nice girl.
Lucas: Yeah, and she says she loves me too. We're going to get married!

Tonight he gave me a verbal invitation to the wedding.

Lucas: Mommy, you can come to my wedding, when Ahbi and I get married.
Me: Where will the wedding be?
Lucas: Where did you get married?
Me: Outside, kind of like at a park.
Lucas: Oh, I guess we'll get married at the soccer field. And the wedding will be April 9th, 2009.
Me: Great, I'll make sure to write it on the calendar. What will you wear?
Lucas: What did you wear to your wedding?
Me: A long white dress.
Lucas: What did daddy wear?
Me: A tuxedo - black pants, black jacket and a white shirt.
Lucas: I'll just wear the black pants and white shirt. I don't think I'll need a jacket.
Me: What will Ahbi wear?
Lucas: Just her clothes.

Excuses, excuses

2008-07-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

By now, I'd thought I heard all the excuses from Lucas for coming out of his room at night, when he's supposed to be sleeping:

I'm scared.
I heard something.
I'm not tired.
I can't go to sleep.
I don't know how to go to sleep.
I want to see what you're doing.

But Lucas just came out and informed me that he's turning into a shark. He pointed to his calf and said it feels like he's growing gills. I inspected his leg and told him I didn't see any sign of gills. He said they're the kind that only he can feel.

I told him to go back to sleep and that if he wakes up as a shark-boy, I'll find a big container that he can go to school in.

This seemed to appease him and he went back to bed. And I haven't heard a splash out of him since (about 10 minutes).

Field trips to San Francisco

2008-07-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

We commuted into SF last Friday for Lucas' final preschool field trip. During the field trip, I realized that Lucas' first trip into SF was also with Ella.

Here is Lucas with Ella, on the street car, en route to the Aquarium of the Bay.
Here are the two of them on Lucas' first BART trip into SF, when Lucas was a mere 20 months old.
We had a great time at the Aquarium...it's the perfect size for this age, not too big and overwhelming. We ditched our peanut butter sandwiches after the field trip and stopped for lunch at the Ferry Building .And again, here we were in almost the same spot, 40 months later.
Lucas and Ella have known each other since Lucas was born (and Ella was about 6 months old). They have also been in the same class since they started school at age 2. Now here they are, wrapping up their last year in preschool, with kindergarten coming up in a couple months.

Even though they didn't always play together, they both were comforted knowing that the other one was in the same class. I'm sure Lucas will ask me if Ella will be in his kindergarten class. And sadly, I'll have to say no.

Giddyup!

2008-07-01T21:47:00.001-07:00

This conversation occurred as we exited the freeway today.

Lucas: What's that big building?
Me: That's the place where people sit to watch the horses on the racetrack.
[He gave me a puzzled look, so I elaborated.]
Me: There's a track shaped like an oval and horses race around and around the track.
Lucas: Oh, I've been to a racetrack before.
Me: You have? [completely surprised] When?
Lucas: A long time ago. I was on one of the horses.
Me: You were?
Lucas: Yeah, don't you remember? And the horses went around and around.

Then I realized what he was talking about.

Road trip to Los Angeles

2008-06-28T05:50:00.001-07:00

Lucas and I made a road trip to Los Angeles for a few days. My goal was to visit friends and his was to visit Legoland. There are tons of pictures in this post, so if you don't want to scroll all afternoon, just know that we did both and had an awesome time.

Even the drive down in 100+ degree heat was fun. Lucas was a real trooper during the long ride. I was armed with hours and hours of audio books, but most of the time he just hung out. I would peek back once in a while and he's be playing with his stash of cars that he brought, looking at his watch, or just looking out the window.

We turned off the air conditioning and rolled down the windows as we drove up the Grapevine to prevent our car from overheating. Luckily, it was only in the high 90s for most of this part. We kept ourselves cool by drinking tons of water and our washcloths, which we would soak in water and refresh our skin - it really did the trick. Lucas never once complained about how hot it was, even when temperatures hit 113 in Valencia - the hottest weather I had ever experienced!

We got to Jeanne's house in West LA and headed straight for Venice Beach. Lucas LOVED playing in the ocean.

We went out to dinner straight from the beach. We walked down Main street to World Cafe in Santa Monica. It was one of my favorite haunts when I was in my 20s, where I would go to eat and drink with friends. One crazy night, I remember (well, I didn't personally remember, but my friends told me later) that I took over the piano in the restaurant and belted out some classical tunes. This time, we dined outside on the patio and had a great time (and yes, I kept my cocktails alcohol-free).
After the picture was taken, he opened his mouth and showed me all the bread he had stored in his chubby little cheeks. What a cheeky little monkey!

When we weren't at the beach, we kept Lucas cool, and entertained, in her backyard by spraying him with the hose. He loved it and could have done this for hours.

Jeanne and I are big Scrabble players. We played Scrabble sitting next to each other on the same couch, passing the laptop back and forth, so we could finish our games on Facebook.
Inside the house, Lucas befriended Jeanne's cat, who he affectionately renamed Jellybean, and who I not so affectionately renamed, "Stay the hell away from me". But I was glad to see that my dislike of cats hasn't affected Lucas. Though sometimes he would squeeze Jellybean a little too much, that cat was very tolerant if things got too intense. When Lucas would be jumping around the house, JB would run and hide, which of course Lucas saw as a sign to play hide and seek. Poor cat!When he wasn't playing with Jellybean, Lucas was taking photos with my iPhone. He would mostly take pictures of his toys. On day 2, we headed out to the beach in the early morning with my rollerblades and Lucas' bike. I had been telling Lucas that one of my favorite things to do was rollerblade up and down the boardwalk along the water. He couldn't wait to try it. We rode for a long time. Lucas was racing up and down the boardwalk, having an awesome time, I couldn't keep up with him. He was good about respecting the rules of the road and stopping once in a while so I could catch up. People would turn and look at him and comment on what a good biker he is.

Then we headed to south Orange County to stay with my friend Venita and her family. Again, it was still so hot, but the kids wanted to go out so we biked along this path and went to a park.

Monday morning we were bound for Legoland! We were pleasantly surprised to learn that our Volvo afforded us a premium parking spot, just by the main entrance.

However, I was not so pleasantly surprised when the tickets to get in to Legoland for me and Lucas were almost $100 (it would have been over $100, had it not been for a nice lady who handed us a coupon as we approached the ticket gate).

Lucas spent a lot of time in this position, pointing and saying, "Mom look, it's made of Legos!"

Some of the things were pretty incredible, like this area where all the little models were made of Legos. Here Lucas is pointing out the cable car that is made of Legos. Or this mini replica of the Hollywood Bowl, and all the little people were also made of Legos. I told Lucas that maybe when he grows up his job could be to make these models for Legoland. He looked at me in astonishment that such a cool job could exist for grown-ups.Lucas could have spent a lot of time in this area, but we decided to move on and go on some rides. We did the roller coaster several times in a row, since there wasn't much of a line. Legoland was great, becuase most of the rides were just at his level, but Lucas has a cautious streak that made a couple rides a little scary for him.

Here's a sweet photo of Lucas and Isabella holding hands as we walked through Legoland.

This was probably one of the most exciting moments at Legoland, when Lucas stood next to Darth Vader and R2D2, both made entirely of Legos.

There were still a few things we didn't get to do. We walked by the Lego building stations, but I didn't really want to spend all that money so Lucas could play with Legos (which he can do all day at home for free). And then there was the water park. While we were prepared with his swimming gear and extra dry clothes, it looked a little chaotic with lots of bigger kids running around. And I didn't have my swim gear to go in with him. But he had so much fun at the other parts that he didn't really miss them.

We hit the road before rush hour and went back to Venita's. The fun part about Southern California is that almost all my college friends still live there. So Venita invited our college roommate Toni and her son over for dinner that night. I hadn't seen Toni since 1993 - 15 years! Even though we had not spoken in all that time, we had so much fun, it was like no time had passed at all.

It was great to see our kids playing so well together. Even Lucas gladly stopped running around for a minute to get his photo taken with the rest of the kids. We were sad to leave the next day. We had such a great time and Lucas got to be such good friends with Venita's kids. I packed up the car and we drove north.

We stopped off in West Hollywood to have brunch with another college friend of mine. We reconnected via Facebook earlier this year, but only emailed back and forth. When we met up at the restaurant, it was like no time had passed, let alone 13 years!

We tried to piece together how we lost contact all those years ago, we had never had a falling out or fight with eachother. But I guess that's just what happens sometimes. After we talked about that, Natasha said, "Now I know we'll be friends forever," and I agreed. Then we moved on to the present. She got me caught up with what she was up to and the other folks I had lost contact with over the years. It was so nice to make that connection with her again.

The ride back home was nice, much cooler than the ride down to LA. Of course, I introduced Lucas to Andersen's pea soup. While he never touches my split pea soup, he sopped up the soup at Andersen's with lots of good crusty bread.

While we had a great time, it was nice to come home.

Yoga on the go

2008-06-25T14:03:00.000-07:00

Lucas struck up a nice child's pose at Elephant Pharmacy as he watched a yoga video in the yoga section of the store.

I love the fact that our drug store even has a yoga section ... only in Berkeley.

Namaste.

Overcoming your fears

2008-06-21T00:07:00.000-07:00

Lucas has some issues with eating certain fruit: oranges that are "too juicy" or eating any fruit that has mild brown spots. And until just recently, he would refuse to eat a fruit salad, even if he liked all the fruit that was in it, preferring instead to eat the fruit separately.

The other day I served him up a fruit salad for breakfast. We had had somewhat of a trying morning, so he was silently eating his meal.

Then he said, "Mommy, look I'm all done," and he showed me the empty bowl.

Me: Wasn't that a good fruit salad?
Lucas: Yeah, I even ate the pieces of juicy orange.
Me: Really? What did you think?
Lucas: I still didn't like it, but I ate it. It made me shiver. See, I'm still shivering (I look over and indeed, he was.)

Looking for answers?

2008-06-17T22:14:00.001-07:00

We strolled through the book store this evening and en route to the children's section, we passed through the philosophy section. A book cover caught Lucas' attention. It was called "The Big Questions" or something like that. I think he picked it up because the cover was black and somewhat menacing.

He picked it up and asked what it was about. I took this as a sign that maybe I could get some answers to life's biggest questions from my 4 11/12 year old. So I rattled off some of the questions on the inside flap of the book:

Me: What is love?
Lucas: It's when you like someone very very very much.

Me: How can people best adapt to change?
Lucas: If you find some coins, just leave them there because they belong to someone else. (Obviously he thought the question was about THAT kind of change.)

Me: Why is it so hard to achieve peace?
Lucas: Because some people don't act nice to other people.

If you want answers to any profound questions about life, just ask Lucas.

Day trip to SF - Kiteboarding races

2008-06-15T05:42:00.000-07:00

On Friday Lucas and I headed out for our SF adventure, with the ultimate goal of getting to Crissy Field in San Francisco to watch the national kiteboarding championships.

As always, Lucas had fun just riding on the BART train over to SF. He entertained some out-of-towners sitting across from us with facts about BART, like "You know we're going to go underwater soon. But you can't see the sharks because we'll be in a tunnel. Actually, it's called the Tube."

It was still warm and sunny when we arrived in SF, reason enough for Lucas to caper down through the streets to the Ferry Building where we picked up some lunch to-go.En route to Crissy Field, we stopped for a pit stop at this candy store. Upon entrance they accost you with huge baskets and tell you you can fill it up with candy for something like $5. I politely declined and opted for the 4-year old torture route, telling Lucas that from these barrels and barrels of candy, he could pick out two pieces. As you can imagine, this took quite a while as he deliberated among the array of brightly-colored taffies, chocolates, and other sugary doo-dads. He opted for a piece of chocolate chip taffy and a chocolate square.
When we finally made it to Crissy Field around noon and it was freezing! Plus we were informed that the races wouldn't be starting until 1pm. It was so cold and windy that Lucas even asked for his sweatshirt, but still opted to hold out on the long pants which I packed just in case.

This picture doesn't show it, but Lucas really enjoyed his fancy sandwich of brie, arugula and fig jam. The crusty bread was a far cry from the standard soft sandwich bread he gets at home. But he loved it and made pirate sounds as he ate.
We whiled away the time playing on the beach. Yes, even I, with the motto, "I love the beach, except for all that sand," laid down and played in the sand as that was the only way I could keep warm. I was tempted to ask Lucas to bury me in the sand, but I decided I would only do that if the temperatures got lower than 50 degrees.

After about an hour, we ventured to the little cafe nearby for some hot chocolate to warm up my old bones. We sat down with our hot chocolates and Lucas looked into his and said, "I don't think they put extra chocolate in mine," which he's heard me mutter often enough when we go out for cocoa.
As we ran back out, we saw the kites already up in the sky. This guys even let us look at his kite up close. We watched the races for a bit, it was pretty cool, but Lucas was more interested in playing in the sand.We started the long trek back to downtown to catch the BART station. With a pit stop at Cocoa Bella. After much hemming and hawing, Lucas finally chose a hazelnut chocolate ganache truffle. I'm sure the somewhat snooty salesperson was amused when Lucas said, "Can I please have the one that looks like a snail?"

I scream, you scream...

2008-06-13T05:33:00.000-07:00

I guess we eat a lot of ice cream. Actually, it's just when we get together with my family, which seems to be often. Maybe we get together so much because we all need/want a good excuse to eat a lot of ice cream?

Here are some random shots of us from the past couple weeks, eating ice cream...

While I was sleeping

2008-06-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

I love taking long afternoon naps. But yesterday I found these pictures on my camera. Kevin and Lucas were quite the mischievous duo -- just look at Lucas' face!

From now on, I'll have to hide my camera.

Viva Lake Tahoe!

2008-05-31T22:14:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a fabulous trip to Lake Tahoe with my family to celebrate my mom's birthday. Her birthday isn't till August, but since my sister will be having baby #2 then, we bumped up the celebration.

We were really looking forward to this, as it's the first Choi family vacation since Banff in 1998, when Kevin and I were newly engaged, and my sister and her husband were "just friends". And I hate to admit this, but after coming to Tahoe at least once a year when I was a kid, it's my first trip up to Tahoe in more than 15 years!!

First of all, the house was amazing! Even by Dollar Point standards, I was still surprised. It was right across the street from the lake, and it was huge! Kevin, Lucas and I had our own suite upstairs, which featured a Jacuzzi tub and shower/sauna.

Back to our vacation ... We had a wide range of weather while we were up there (and it had snowed just days before we arrived). Chilly, sunny, hail, thunder, and rain. That being said, we still had a great time. We took daily walks to the beach, swam, biked, and hiked.
We also spent a lot of time indoors playing pool, playing board games, and just relaxing. With a house like this, there were plenty of nooks and crannies where you could go and curl up with a book, or just take a nap!
Lucas is at that age (4 and 11/12ths) where he's really into board games, especially when the rest of us are engaged in a game. I taught him the finer points of Scrabble, which he thoroughly enjoyed. We also played a game called Apples to Apples (which was way above his head with things like "the Mafia", JFK, atomic bomb). But he was a trooper and played as best he could. He would even look at the cards in his hand in the most discerning way, probably not comprehending or even able to read most of them, and put one down saying, "I'm going to have to go with this one," or "Aha, I have the winner," and other things he would hear us say.

One of our other favorite indoor pastimes was eating, of course...we ate in for every meal taking turns cooking and cleaning so my mom didn't have to take up her usual station in the kitchen. We ate ice cream every night after dinner and snacked all day ... we were quite indulgent.

But a Choi vacation wouldn't be the same without karaoke. My mom has a nifty little karaoke gadget that has a slew of Korean songs, but also some American and pop/rock tunes. While my mom took care of the Korean tunes and her token Elvis songs, Kevin rocked the house with his renditions of "Staying Alive" in this crazy falsetto voice. The rest of us took our turns "on stage" and took the jeers and mocking that came with some of our performances.

Here's Rocky and I doing our standard version of "Fame" with Kevin providing some seated dance moves.
We also had the cutest backup band ever. Lucas took the microphone a couple times and belted out "Row Your Boat" and "This Land is Your Land". Bedtime was another rule we broke on this vacation with the kids staying up to at least 10 every night.

Here's a Choi family photo on the beach. It took several takes for us to get one where we're all looking in the right direction (kids), smiling (kids+Kevin), and not blinking (everyone).
Lucas and I engaging in some shadow boxing as we were getting ready to leave.

And this is our family dream house, right down the street from where we stayed. It's on sale for a cool $4.5 million, so we're putting our pennies together. We'll be back!

New trick

2008-05-25T19:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a new game Lucas and I made up.

If you're wondering what is on Lucas' head, it's a very plush eye shade I got for my 3-day walk for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Another possible career for Lucas?

2008-05-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

Lucas came home with this the other day. I wasn't sure what it was, but I know they're studying art at school this month.It took a little bit of online research for me to realize he 's dabbling in art forgery. Here's the original. Although there is a bit lost in the finer details, at least he used the same color scheme.

"Home work"

2008-05-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

On the way home from school, Lucas was telling me how he showed one of the younger kids one of the "works" in the classroom. ("Work" refers to the various tasks and projects in a Montessori classroom). He told me he would show me the work once we got home.

As I was putting dishes away, Lucas set this up all on his own, even the sign.If you have problems reading this, it says "Practical life number #1". The task? Essentially pouring water from one cup to the other, and back again. After he gave me the "lesson", I did this a few times. I must have done a pretty good job, because he said, "Excellent work, mommy!"

Did I mention Lucas' bug bites?

2008-05-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

(Okay, it's 8:36 and the boy is still sleeping, must be from all his rare bites from our camping trip.)

Since we got home from camping I've been complaining about all my mosquito bites, about 10 total. Not to be outdone by me, Lucas has revealed that he has about 27 bites, but not from your run-of-the-mill camping pests. Lucas claims to have bites from the following types of critters:

cracken
boa constrictor
wolf
tarantula
cougar
yellow jacket

I may have missed some, but that's what I can recall. In reality, he has not a single bite anywhere on his body that I can see.

Our "not quite camping" camping trip

2008-05-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

To call our weekend trip to Rancho Cicada "camping", is an insult to true campers. Here are the reasons why I don't think it qualifies as camping:

- We were met in the parking lot buy one of our hosts, Bill, with an ATV to tote us and our stuff down to the "campground".
- We slept in tents that were already set up for us. Some people slept in wood cabins, but we decided to "rough it" in the tents.
- The tents had real beds in them (not aerobeds).
- There were two great cooks who prepared all our meals for us in the working kitchen (our food included: pancakes, frittatas, curried chicken salad, tri-tip sandwiches, cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies). We ate outside on a nice covered deck.
- There were refrigerators and freezers where we could store any snacks we brought along.
- There were bathrooms with toilets, sinks and showers with real hot water! And did I mention the hot tub?

And this is why it's called camping in my book:
- No private bathrooms.
- Lots of mosquitoes.
- It's out in the sticks, about 15 minutes off the main highway.
- No "general store" where I could buy more insect repellent when I misplaced mine.

Nevertheless, we had an amazing time. It's a private campground so the only ones there were the people we came with. Aside from the river, hot tub, and rattlesnakes (more on that later), everyone felt safe letting their kids run freely. There were 29 adults and about 20 kids, mostly around 5 years old, so there were lots of kids for Lucas to play with.

It was HOT, nearly 100 degrees, but there's a river that runs alongside the campground where you could go in and cool off. Lucas and Kevin spent most of the time in or around the river. (Do you see Kevin? He's the one pulling the raft for Lucas and his buddy.)

Me? I spent most of the time lounging and reading on the grassy area next to the river. There were huge shady trees and a bunch of hammocks. This was my view from one of the hammocks.At night we made s'mores at the fire pit. And in the morning, we woke to the sounds of geese and the rushing river. At one point, as I was relaxing in the hammock, looking around at the kids running around playing, I thought, "This is how those utopian societies start, minus the crazy religious freaks."

We knew just one other family going into this trip, but everyone we met was so nice. It was so re-assuring that we could just go on this trip with a group of people we don't know and find so many interesting folks to talk to and spend time with.

On Sunday morning, our hosts, Bill and Dave, took some of us up to see their antique cars and Abe, a 250-pound tortoise. Here's Lucas and another boy inspecting an authentic Hudson Hornet (just like Doc, from the movie Cars).The whole time, we were made aware of the rattlesnakes that were in the area and were constantly reminded to be careful and stay on the paths when we were up in the brush. Unfortunately, one of the kids went off the path, climbed over some rocks, stepped on a rattlesnake and got bit in the leg. It was very surreal and scary as I saw this boy being carried away quickly, past all of us toward the cars. He was rushed to the hospital and is now doing fine.

This was a trip that Lucas will probably always remember. Luckily, plans are already in the works for next year's trip to Rancho Cicada.

Kids these days

2008-05-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

Lucas drew this "citey map" at school yesterday, inspired by Google maps.

It shows the driving directions between his two friends Ella and Ahbi (who actually don't live together) and our house. He drew our house too. He was super impressed he could see our house and even our car in front with Google Maps.

Phone tag drama

2008-05-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

This past week: Lucas and one of his girl friends at school asked me to set up a play date for them.

Thursday: After hearing that I hadn't called the girl's mom yet, Lucas took the matter into his own hands and told me when I picked him up that he wrote down his phone number and put it in a girl's file at school.

Friday: The girl and her mom left a voice mail for Lucas. I coached Lucas a bit before calling her back, "If someone answers you say, 'Hi this is Lucas McKay. Can I please talk with XXX?'". He practiced it a few times and then eagerly called the girl back. I also coached Lucas on what to say if we got her voice mail, "Hi this is Lucas McKay, calling for XXX. Please call me back at XXX-XXXX." As luck would have it, we got her voice mail and Lucas left a message.

30 seconds later: Lucas wanted to call back again. I told him he should wait for her to call back.

Within the next 30 minutes: Lucas asked to call her at least five times. (I thought about that scene in Swingers when Jon Favreau's character keeps calling the girl back and leaving these awkward mesages. I didn't want that to be Lucas.) I reminded him that he just left a message and she would call back when she could.

Saturday: She called back and left a message, with some concrete dates for Lucas to consider.

Today: We will call her back and hopefully get a date on the calendar. Stay tuned.

Photos from the Maker Faire outing

2008-05-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

We got these photos from Jeff, the other dad who went to Maker Faire. I don't have any context for these pics, but the boys are definitely having fun.

Lucas' grocery list

2008-05-06T05:33:00.000-07:00

Lucas gave me this before going to school yesterday after he heard me say I was going to do some grocery shopping.
Just the usual grocery items. And he also added in some items for Santa. I guess he thought I might run into him at the market: yoda masc, u gwin (a green) yoda litsabr, yoda wob (robe).

The secret life of boys

2008-05-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Lucas and Kevin headed out on a big all-day outing to the Maker Faire in San Mateo. I urged Kevin to bring the camera so I could see some of the cool things there, but he didn't want to tote it around. I dropped them off at 9:15 at the BART station where they could meet up with his friend Jeff and his two sons.

I didn't plan my day out in advance so I had lots of time on my hands. I'm sure this was good for me because I usually have every minute scheduled. I filled up the morning with a long walk into the Berkeley hills with Lindsey and some window-shopping. Then I got sucked into a television show, Brothers and Sisters, which I could watch on abc.com, courtesy of Red Lobster, Bertoli, Jack in the Box, and other sponsors.

About four hours later, I got busy cleaning, organizing, and grocery shopping. But truth be told, I missed Lucas and Kevin.

I picked them up from BART at 7:30. Eager to hear about their day, I asked a lot of questions, but didn't get much in the way of answers from these two:

It was really cool. Lots of exploding stuff which Lucas wasn't really into.
We ate pizza, ice cream and popcorn.
I saw R2D2.
There was a whole room filled with LEGO stuff.
We saw lots of robots.
I saw some of the geekiest people ever.
We saw cupcake cars.

After Lucas went to sleep, I asked Kevin more about it. He said Lucas was really into this fire truck.

Me: What type of fire truck?
Kevin: I don't know, it said "Maker Faire" on it.
Me: What else? Was there something different about it?
Kevin: I don't remember. It was big and red.

That's it? They spend 10 hours away from home and that's all I get? So much for filling in the details. I guess I'll have to go next year to see what it was all about.

In-house fashion consultants

2008-05-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

When I was trying on different summer dresses the other day for Jeanne's shower, I got some fashion feedback from Lucas and Kevin. Usually they don't really pay attention to what I'm wearing, but since I don't normally wear dresses, I guess they noticed.

Of course, Kevin liked the ones that made me look "curvy" (aka, you could see cleavage). I thought these were a bit too racy for a baby shower in conservative Lafayette. Plus, I didn't really have the shoes to match any of these clingy dresses.

Lucas had other opinions. His first instinct was the black dress, which I was headed for as well. Kevin said it made me look "flat", I wasn't sure what that meant at first, but it wasn't good. I asked Lucas if it made me look flat, he agreed, but the way he agreed I think he thought it was something good.

Then Kevin pointed out that this is a baby shower and I should wear something more spring-y (not sure why I was listening to him, the man only wears blue, grey, black or khaki, and tennis shoes). But I opted for a cream-colored frock with a floral pattern.

Again, none of my shoes really fit the bill. I was lamenting that I didn't have a snappy little pair of silver sandals. Then Lucas said, "How about those white shoes?" He pointed. I tried them on.

Lucky for me I have a slight bit of fashion sense and did not walk out the door like this. I went out with my red comfy sandals that I wear everywhere. But I'm still on the lookout for some little silver sandals.

Star Wars Kid, 2.0

2008-05-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

This is one of the more popular videos on YouTube - the infamous Star Wars kid.

Well, we have a Star Wars kid of our own. And not only is he oh-so much cuter than the original, but I know he could kick the other Jedi-wannabe's ass any day (turn up the volume for sound effects).

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

BRING IT ON!

May the force be with you.

Like old times

2008-04-28T05:15:00.000-07:00

I got together with my two best friends from high school over the weekend. I see Jennifer a couple times a week for walks and because our kids go to the same school. Jeanne, on the other hand, lives in Los Angeles, but was up for the weekend for her baby shower.

We went out to dinner at Fonda, then went back to Jennifer's house for a game of Scrabble. It was just like the good old days (minus the sleepover, acne and bad hair).

At Fonda, 2008

At a random party, circa 1989

I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends from way back when.

Off to the symphony

2008-04-27T05:25:00.000-07:00

Friday morning Lucas literally bounced out of bed, so excited for the big field trip to the SF Symphony.

The BART ride out was as fun as it gets with 15 five-year olds. There were lots of reminders to stay behind the yellow line.As we approached Davies Symphony Hall, we saw throngs of kids/teachers/parents lined up along Van Ness. We walked to the end of the line, which at that point was around the block, and as we waited, we saw more and more groups arrive and fall in line behind us. We still had more than an hour to while away the time.

Lucas' teacher tried to keep things as normal as possible, as much as you can when you have 15 kids waiting in line on a busy SF street. She handed out snacks to the kids and she told them they could start eating without their snack poem (which is usually, "Bon appetit, you may eat). But after the kids wolfed down their snacks, they started to get restless.One of the moms was courageous enough to read a story to the kids, as they huddled around her as best they could on the sidewalk.I'm not sure how others spent that hour, but Lucas went through almost his entire lunch waiting in line.

As it was most of the kids' first trip to the symphony, they quieted down and I think were in awe as we entered the large symphony hall. After some hurried trips to the restroom, the conductor walked up to his podium and the show was underway.

I have never been to a symphony geared toward kids before, but this was an awesome program. They must have done a lot of trials with kids before they got the program so perfectly tuned to kids this young. Benjamin, the conductor, really knew how to engage the kids. He introduced all the musical sections and someone would get up from each section and play a little snippet of something, Row Row Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, etc. The Star Wars theme was by far the most well-received.

Then the symphony began. Before each piece, Benjamin would give a short intro to the kids and sometimes ask for audience participation, like "Raise your hand when you hear the music go from fast to slow", "Everyone shout out 'hello' as loud as you can", "Okay now whisper it very very quietly", etc. The kids were so into it!

The program was over in about 30 minutes, just as the kids were starting to get restless. After the symphony we headed over to a local park where we ate our lunches and the kids could run around and get their jollies out.

Then it was back on BART where the kids kept themselves busy by trying to keep their balance as the train started and stopped, and looking out the windows as we were in the Transbay Tube, looking for monsters I guess.

On the ride home, Lucas and I recapped his favorite parts about the symphony. His favorite piece was Prokofiev's "Love for Three Oranges", and now his favorite instruments are "all the percussions", the gong and drums in particular made quite an impression on him.

Lucas, of course, is eager for his next visit to the symphony.

Book recommendation - for rookie moms (and even not-so-rookie moms)

2008-04-25T21:20:00.000-07:00

When I was pregnant with Lucas and during the first year of his life I immersed myself in all the books du jour for moms-to-be: What to Expect When You're Expecting, 1001 Baby Names, What to Expect Year One, The No-Cry Sleep Solution, The Girlfriend's Guide to___, Superfoods for Baby, Everything You Need to Know About Pregnancy...I had a ton of these books.

But while I was reading about the anticipation of the mucus plug, 101 ways to interpret your baby's cough, strategies to get your baby to enjoy tummy time, and other thrilling topics, I didn't have a good book of fun things to do during that first year.

After Lucas passed year one, my friends Whitney and Heather were both pregnant. When their kids were born they started a web site called Rookie Moms. It's a great a site that gives new moms ideas on what to do with (and without) your baby. And now Rookie Moms is a book. The activities are broken out into months, for the first 12 months. When I look at their site, and now their book, there are so many things I wish I had thought of back when Lucas was really little:

#22 - Go to a theater where crying is allowed
I don't know why we never ventured out to one of these movie theaters that have a designated baby night. Basically, you can take your pre-crawler and there's a lot of crying going on, but you can at least have a good back-up soundtrack and catch a movie before it's on DVD.

#66 - Enjoy modern art
I'm not a huge museum person, I mostly like to buy trinkets at the museum store and go to the cafe. But even those things...I could have done that with Lucas when he was still bound to the Baby Bjorn or stroller, and I didn't.

#195 - Host a board game night
Pre-Lucas, Kevin and I used to attend and host dinner parties that always ended up with some kind of game - Cranium, Taboo, or my personal favorite, Running Charades. I'm not sure why we stopped having these parties when Lucas was born. And now, he's old enough to want to participate.

I'm going to a baby shower tomorrow. I wonder what she'll get from me?

The ULTIMATE lazy game to play with your child

2008-04-24T06:14:00.001-07:00

Kevin and Lucas made up this game called "The Giant's Treasure" or something like that. This trumps my game, Bowling for Mommy, as the game you can play with your kid that uses the least amount of energy on your part.

You (the parent) lay down and pretend to sleep.
Your child puts some kind of treasure on or right around you, something like a marble or whatever your child deems as treasure-worthy at the moment.
Your little urchin tries to take the treasure without waking you up.
You can vary the amount of success your child has, depending on how tired or lazy you are.

Either way, your child will have fun because it's exciting if they can successfully steal the treasure without "waking" you, and it's exciting to get caught by the sleeping giant.

In fact, the other day I was looking at photos on my iPhone and came across this one.
I showed it to Lucas and asked him why he put his calculator and iPhone by me when I was napping (I napped for about an hour last Saturday). He said, "I was playing Giant's Treasure with you, and guess what? You never woke up! So I took a picture of you with your iPhone."

Lucas gets his iPhone

2008-04-23T04:49:00.000-07:00

At my new favorite store in SF's Japan Town, Different Things, I stood in line for 10 minutes to buy a $1.79 calculator for Lucas, which he quickly started to refer to as his iPhone.

As we headed down the streets of San Francisco to the Kabuki Theaters for more taiko drumming, people did double takes as they saw Lucas strolling down the street, presumably texting his friends and talking on his new iPhone.

On Sunday when Kevin and Lucas were getting ready for their bug hunt down at the waterfront, Lucas tried to make a case for bringing his iPhone.

"What if we get lost and need a map? Then I can type in our address so we can get home." (He's seen me use this feature numerous times.)

Leave it to Apple to make things so simple that even Lucas can sell someone on the iPhone's key features.

Spam and other "different things"

2008-04-19T21:26:00.001-07:00

I was excited to go since I have good memories of going there as a kid. I think I won a goldfish at the Festival, many many years ago.

The taiko drummers started up soon after we got there. It was quite a show. Lucas was really into it, just sitting there watching the drummers, he barely moved. I thought he would watch the drummers forever, until quite suddenly he got up and said, "I'm hungry, time to eat sushi."So we headed off to this sub-par sushi place where we overpaid for some rather anemic pieces of fish. Yuck. I was sure that we would find something inside the Japanese mall to get rid of the bad sushi taste in my mouth.

But what did I find? SPAM, all over the place! Spam Musubi to be exact. I didn't buy any, but from what I could gather, it seems like the $1 store version of sushi: a bed of rice, with a piece of fried Spam on top, wrapped neatly in a strip of seaweed. Not that I'm a stranger to Spam. I remember eating it when I was little. I also remember traveling to Japan as a kid and ordering it because it was something I recognized on the menus.

Unlike my parents, I decided NOT to introduce Lucas to the wonderful world of Spam. Instead, I found these little things that I used to like and that my mom still loves. I don't know the Japanese name, but they're essentially pancake-like things, in the shape of fish, with various fillings in the middle. Lucas opted for chocolate, my mom likes the red bean paste in the middle.

We learned that there was a schedule mishap and the much-anticipated martial arts demonstrations had been moved to the following morning. To get in some more authentic Japanese entertainment, we stopped off at a little store called, aptly named, Different Things. It was basically a store filled with cheap things from Japan. More on that later.

Nude dude!

2008-04-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

Lucas is usually shy around the camera, it's pretty rare that I can get him to smile on cue. This goes out the window when he's fresh out of the bathtub. And I mean fresh, sans clothes.
This was after his bath tonight. I had just finished blow-drying his hair and he ran out of the bathroom. I took all these photos within 60 seconds. He was freaking out and running around the living room.

What a nut!

Art evolution

2008-04-18T04:14:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting article in the NY Times last month, examining single-sex classrooms. The story mentioned how girls and boys draw differently. Boys tend to depict action with minimal use of color, while girls draw more still lifes, but with lots of colors.

This has definitely been true with Lucas. I have tons of pictures like this. Basically, two stick figures fighting it out with their light sabers. The light sabers are usually the only colorful items on the picture (Darth is on the left, and Obi Wan is on the right, note the beard).

But this week Lucas has ventured out of his comfort zone. When I saw this, I first looked to make sure I had taken it from the right file, and not some other kid's. It's quite a departure from his battle scenes.When I asked him who he played with at school that day, he named two of the girls in his class. Perhaps he was influenced by the subject of their drawings and their use of color.

Lucas has been writing his own stories to go with his pictures for a while now. They started with his depictions of the Pixar movie, Cars, and have since evolved into the eternal battles between good and evil (Jedis and the Dark Side). So again, I was surprised by this. Kevin and Lucas have been playing Go, an ancient Chinese board game, and he's really into it.The caption at the bottom can be translated as, "This is a Go board. White lost by 12 points, black won by 12 points."

Frankly, I'm excited to see him branch out. There are only so many Star Wars light saber fights we need on our fridge.

Music appreciation

2008-04-15T00:13:00.000-07:00

I love Lucas' school, I really do. Like any school it has its down sides, but Lucas has made some great friends there and has learned a ton, most of which has been chronicled in this blog at various points.

This month they're studying music, mostly classical, in preparation for their field trip to the SF Symphony at the end of the month.

At home Kevin has been playing classical music for Lucas at bedtime too. A few nights ago I cuddled in with Lucas for a little chat before he fell asleep.

Lucas: Mommy, what do you like more the trombone or the flute?
Me: I don't know, I really like both. What do you like?
Lucas: I love the trombone. I want to learn to play the trombone.

Then last night...
Lucas: I love the flute. Can I learn to play the flute?
Me: When you turn 5, you can choose an instrument and start taking lessons.
Lucas: I can't wait till I'm 5!

This was in his file today. See his musical notes? He also drew a picture of himself playing the trombone. Awesome!

And just when we were getting along...

2008-04-10T20:33:00.001-07:00

Dear Lucas,
The last couple weeks have been challenging between us. Lots of attitude that frankly, I didn't think I'd get until you're into your teens.

But thankfully, this week has been so smooth. I've actually been very sick, so I think I won tons of pity points with my hoarse voice and unusually lazy self. You have been super helpful around the house, always showing me that you can fold the napkins, set the table, pass out the plates, etc.

This morning to expedite the morning routine, we even made a special trip to Semifreddis for some breakfast (though I had a substandard hot chocolate, but that's for a later post). Things were going great, at least I thought so until tonight.

You were changing into your pjs in the living room, where we still don't have curtains up. I saw you look out the window, so I asked what you were looking at.

"Mommy, I looked at the window and I saw your reflection, but for a minute you looked just like Jar Jar Binks."

WTF??? I realize by the end of the day, I'm probably not looking my best, but Jar Jar Binks???

Feeling paranoid, I did a photo comparison:

Jar Jar - A Gungan, 6 feet and 5 inches tall, with long ears and eyes mounted on stalks.

Me - Korean woman, 5 feet and 5 inches tall, with relatively normal ears and eyes
(though admittedly, I do have a big head)

Well, I guess there are similarities. I have long hair, he has long ears, which could be mistaken for hair, especially if you are a Star Wars obsessed 4 year old, looking at someone's reflection in a mirror from 10 feet away. Jar Jar's eyes are bulgy, but I guess mine might be kind of puffy since I've been sick.

"Hmmm... yousa point is well seen." Whoa, I just quoted Jar Jar from Episode I.

But seriously Lucas, when you are old enough to read this I hope you really don't see a resemblance between me and Jar Jar. If you still do, we need to talk.

Love,
Mesa your humble servant (aka Mom)

Guilty gastronomic pleasures - under $5

2008-04-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I feel the need to indulge. Here's my list of favorites - each for less than five bucks!

Cinnamon toast (basically, cinnamon and sugar on heavily buttered bread)
Jam shot - At the Cheeseboard, they have these little tiny things of homemade berry jam, just enough to spread on one roll. It comes in a little ketchup container, the kind they have in fast food joints. And it's only $0.25. (I'm not sure what they call them, I'm sure not jam shots!)
Svenhard's cinnamon roll - available at Safeway, individually wrapped, you'll find them right by the Ding-Dongs. Price around $0.79.
Poco Dolce Chocolates - These are tiny squares of dark chocolate with sea salt and some other flavor - ginger and aztec chile are my two favorites. One small square for $1.75.
McDonald's - I don't do this frequently, but my favorite meal from McDonald's is a Filet-o-Fish burger, fries, organge soda and an apple pie. Price is usually about $3
Hot chocolate at Sketch Ice Cream - They melt the chocolate, use whole milk and top it off with one of their delicious homemade marshmallows for $3.50, but it's well worth it. Actually anything at Sketch is well worth it.

Adventures in our own backyard, Part 2: Berkeley park tour

2008-04-04T05:08:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Lucas and I started early on our quest for adventure. Our goal was to bike around to at least three new parks. Kevin armed Lucas with a compass and we were on our way.We usually go to the same 3-4 parks, but there are so many in this area. I found out that Berkeley has 52 parks - amazing!

The first park was over in North Berkeley. I had driven by before and have never seen anyone on this structure. And the whole time we were there, no one else came by to climb. We both had a great time climbing on this huge spider web, which we had all to ourselves.

We ambled up the bike path a little to a more traditional little park. Because he is so into climbing, he found new ways to interact with the regular little tube slide.
(Note: I do not make him wear his helmet when he climbs. But when we got to this park I asked if he wanted to take it off, he said, "But what if I fall down?")

Then we biked up to the Gourmet Ghetto and had to take advantage of all the yummy offerings there. It wasn't quite lunchtime, so we stopped in at Masse's Pastries, for a little snack of cookies and tea.

Our final destination was Live Oak Park. While we have been there before for cultural fairs, I count this as new since we have never actually played there, and they have a relatively new play structure for kids.

After playing on the structure, we went to the grassy area and ate our lunch and played some soccer. And because we were in Berkeley, Lucas took a break and did some yoga. Here he is doing his favorite pose, the Warrior. We rode back home, I was exhausted. Of course, Lucas wasn't. I was sacked out in the living room. Lucas asked if I wanted a snack and I said sure, but then I dozed off for a couple minutes. While I was sleeping he brought over the step stool to use as a little table, a little container of cashews and some tangerines.

Luckily I had my iPhone handy and captured this photo of him, so happy with himself for preparing me such a wonderful snack.

We're so lucky we have such an awesome little kid!

Adventures in our own backyard, Part 1: Saturday at the library

2008-04-02T05:17:00.000-07:00

This was more of an adventure for me than Lucas. Lucas goes to the library with his class a couple times a month. I, on the other hand, have a bit of a phobia about libraries.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a library, I just don't like bringing home books from the library. I used to go all the time when I was little and I have fond memories of the library. I think this started to turn for me as an adult.

College: In the large library on campus, there was a section known as The Stacks. I'm not sure what was kept in the stacks as I kept a safe distance from that area. Rumor had it that people would perform illicit acts, leaving bodily fluids in their wake.

San Francisco: A few times when I lived in SF, I would hit the local libraries. However, I was totally turned off by the number and stench of homeless people who would basically camp out in the upholstered chairs while the library was open.

Until last weekend, we have borrowed a total of ONE book from the library for Lucas, which was just in the last six months. But only after I did a thorough inspection of the book. I've never had anything out of the ordinary happen to me with a library book, but my friend Lindsey sent me this little snippet of someone else's not-so-nice library experience, which totally confirmed my worst fears about library books. And if you read the comments, it gets a lot more gross than just a stinky book (blood, pubic hair, fecal matter and an uncooked piece of bacon).

Speaking of bacon, we had a nice lunch in front of the library. Lucas was so excited to go and get his first library card. After much deliberation, he found five books he wanted to check out. Prior to checkout, I started inspecting the books. Lucas asked, "What are you doing?"

Me: Um, I like to check the books before I take them home to see if someone left something behind so we can give it to the librarian.
Lucas: What kinds of things? Like a bookmark?
Me: Yeah, something like that.

Then, Lucas started looking in the books, seeing if he could find any 'bookmarks'.

New music genres

2008-03-31T22:04:00.001-07:00

We were listening to the radio the other day, Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer was on. Lucas said, "I like this song, it's about superheroes."

After the song was over, I found what I thought was another superhero song on my iPhone, I Am Superman, from REM. But according to Lucas, this is NOT a superhero song, it's a "girl" song.

So then I kind of gave up and we were listening to some international fare. He said, "I don't like this Scooby-Doo music. Turn it off."

The man behind the chocolate

2008-03-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

It's not every day that you meet someone who has had such a huge impact on your life, but last week I did.

Heather and I went to Charles Chocolates, in Emeryville. We met Charles (aka "Chuck"), which was a pleasant surprise, he was super nice.

But we were actually there to hear Gary Guittard speak. Gary is President and CEO of Guittard Chocolates. Guittard Chocolate Company is the oldest family-run chocolate maker in the US (Gary is the 4th generation) and and one of only ten chocolate makers in the US.

If you've been following my blog closely, you know that I'm really into hot chocolate. And Guittard happens to be the chocolate that's used at my two most favorite hot chocolate haunts (Sketch and Semifreddis), as well as my favorite cupcake place, Love at First Bite, and probably a host of other great places that I have yet to uncover.

Gary talked about the aspects of making chocolate, from touring exotic places to source the best cacao beans, to roasting and processing the beans, and keeping in touch with his customers.

Some interesting tidbits about Gary:
- He started working in the chocolate factory when he was 12 years old.
- He rebelled against the family business in the '60s and was a rock climber in Colorado.
- If he wasn't in the chocolate biz, he'd be living in the mountains.
- He considers milk chocolate a confection, and dark chocolate a food.

Gary is a true perfectionist when it comes to his work. He's not in it for the money, but he wants to put the very best product out there for other people to enjoy. He says he's always very excited to see what people, like Chuck or Michael Recchiuti are doing with chocolate these days.

After Gary's talk, Heather and I went up to get our photo taken with him. I haven't been this starstruck since I had my first celebrity run-in with Charlie Sheen as a teenager. I think I started by saying something stupid like, "I'm a huge fan of yours."

Like Chuck, Gary was very cordial and posed for a photo with his two new groupies.Chuck and Gary were both so sweet, I guess that's what happens when you work with chocolate all day.

Memories that stick

2008-03-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

Lucas and I were talking about Fairyland the other day. He said wistfully, "I went there once with uncle Rocky. We sat on the play structure outside of Fairyland. We had a lot of fun. We each ate a bag of popcorn. That was a really fun day."

That trip to Fairyland happened over the summer. I hope when Lucas is an adult and thinks back to his younger days, he'll remember things like that. And not things like:

Last night when I heard Lucas screaming all the way from the house, as he and Kevin walked back after he (Lucas, not Kevin) refused to share or take turns while shooting baskets.
Even later last night when he woke up in the middle of the night and was sent to sleep in the downstairs bedroom because he wouldn't stop screaming.
This morning, shedding big tears while he ate his oatmeal. (Before you feel too sorry for him, let me explain the backstory. I served up oatmeal and raisins for breakfast. Only after I asked if he wanted raisins, and he replied that he wanted them in a separate bowl. Then when he saw the raisins in a separate bowl, he vehemently denied that he wanted raisins in the first place! He threw a hissy fit and was then sent to his room for a time-out. All that being said, there's nothing sadder than watching Lucas' big tears roll off his face into his oatmeal.)

I don't have many memories from before I was five. One thing I do remember is when my sister asked me to help her put her belt through the belt loops. I couldn't do it so she dragged me over to the bedroom door and put my finger by the hinges and slammed the door on it.

Like I said, I hope he hangs on to the more positive memories.

ABCs of yoga

2008-03-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

When I was stretching out on the floor the other day, Lucas assumed the role of yoga master, after a not-so-recent 6 weeks of yoga at school. He walked me through some yoga poses, which according to Lucas "are really good for you and will make you stretchy". He showed me the usual suspects: child's pose, tree pose, and sleeping pose (aka the "corpse" pose, in adult circles). I showed him the warrior and eagle poses, which he was excited to learn.

Lucas asked if I knew the letter poses. I told him I have never done the letter poses and asked him to show me.

He went through the whole alphabet. It was only around M that I thought to get my camera. Some were straightforward, like this pose:Others were more conceptual and free-form:

If Lucas is ever inclined to do this again, I'm going to try and capture all the letters so I can make a more complete yoga poster. Namaste.

"Mom's guilt" - when does it end?

2008-03-18T00:04:00.000-07:00

From the very beginning of life as a mom, even as a prenatal mom, the guilt starts to creep in.

Prenatal:
Am I eating the right things? In my case no, my doctor told me to stop eating so much sugar since I was gaining so much weight. At 37 weeks I had already gained more than 50 pounds. I told the nurse to just stop telling me my weight after that. (And Lucas went to 41 weeks!)

Is it enough to do the prerequisite childbirth prep class from the local hostpital? I cajoled my husband into the childbirth yoga for partners all-day workshop. None of which I really used since I went for the epidural ASAP.

Newborn:
Is he still hungry? He was an avid eater. I nursed and pumped and nursed and pumped. I had enough breast milk in the freezer at any point to feed a small army. I was militant about not using formula for as long as I could, which was about 11 months.
Is he cold? I put a hat or hood on him every time I felt a slight breeze in the air, also because he looked so cute in hats. The day that he could, he started yanking those hats off his head. He won't come close to one these days.

Fast forward four years, because I don't want to recount all the other times I've felt guilty about something I should have done, should have done differently, or shouldn't have done at all.

Today Lucas was one of the last two kids to be picked up from school (more guilt!). Luckily the other kid was his best friend Jack. Lucas and Jack were playing, but also plotting a night of fine dining at TRex, one of our family's favorite spots. They may have expected that we would take them out because the last time they were the two last kids Jack's mom and I decided to go out for Mexican food.

Anyway, not because of any lack of effort on the parts of Lucas and Jack, we decided that we would plan a dinner at TRex for another night, but that it wasn't going to happen on this particular night.

On the drive home the majority of the conversation was centered around why we weren't going to TRex and when we could plan for it. I told him that most of the time when you go to dinner with someone else's family, you have to plan for it.

We pulled up in front of our house and Lucas got out and closed his door, which is when I heard him scream. I ran over and his finger was stuck in the door. I opened it quickly and blood was pouring out of his finger.

After we got him inside, cleaned up, and assessed that his finger wasn't broken, my first thought was, "Why didn't I take him to TRex?" For dinner we fed him anything he wanted, which was cheese, apple, almonds, dry cereal, and yes, a popsicle. I felt bad for him, he was really in pain, plus the popsicle helped to assuage the guilt, just a little.

Another big decision...decided!

2008-03-15T06:23:00.000-07:00

After many months of research, conversations with other parents, school visits and deliberation, we finally know where Lucas will spend his next nine years of school - Prospect Sierra.

We love everything about Prospect, when Kevin and I visited, it looked like so much fun and a great place for Lucas:

Well-rounded curriculum - At least once a week he will get not just one, but all three: art, science, and music
Lots of space to run around - When Lucas came to the school with me this past week, he said, "Mommy, did you see all that grass? Can I play soccer there?"
Two classrooms per grade, 2 full time teachers until 3rd grade - After speaking with Lucas' teachers, they feel that he would especially benefit from a smaller environment with a smaller teacher to student ratio
Warm and wonderful teachers - During the weekend school tour, we had a lot of opportunity to talk with the teachers and really look at the work that the kids had done in class. We also saw them in action during one of the weekday school tours and they seem fantastic.
Fun afterschool program - He can take classes like fencing, Mandarin, baseball, ceramics, chess, carpentry, steel drums, cooking. Many of these classes separate out the kindergarten kids into their own class.
Service learning - If I had more time, I would do more of this with Lucas on a regular basis. In Kindergarten, they focus on the environment and take care of a creek area that is just down the hill from the school. It's also a green school so they bring that into the curriculum and the way things are done at the school - composting at lunch, solar panels, etc.

And knowing what we know about Lucas and after talking with Lucas' teachers, we feel really good that this school is the best one for him.

The whole process was interesting for me. What I learned was:

Just about everyone is super happy with the school their child is currently attending.
Public vs. private is a touchy subject. It reminded me of the working vs. non-working discussions when Lucas was a newborn - people have strong opinions about this, but what works for one family, may not work for the next family.

Also, after visiting the private schools, I was happy to see that they were as ethnically diverse as our community at large, and even more diverse than what would have been our public school, where "diversity" is made up mostly of Asians. I started thinking that maybe Lucas would not be accepted because he is half Asian and half Caucasian. So many of the kids in these private schools and also the prospective parents were of mixed race, specifically, just like us - Asian / Caucasian.

Lucky for us, Lucas got into both schools we applied to, and we had the public school as our back-up plan.

Since Lucas didn't really know he was interviewing, we never really brought it up to him or asked him where he would want to go. A couple of times I asked him where he had more fun, between the two private schools, where he had to go into the classroom with other kids to be observed. He would say Prospect Sierra because they had better snacks and that the grown-ups were nicer to him. He's asked to go back to the "Prospect playground" and about a week ago he taught me this clapping game, which he said he learned at Prospect.

So last week during breakfast one day, after we made our decision, I told him that he will go to Prospect Sierra. In typical Lucas form he said, "You know, when I went to Prospect one of the grown-ups told me that he loved blueberry muffins too." Now he will have at least one thing in common with one of the adults there. So there you have it, we made the right choice!

Random thoughts

2008-03-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

I guess there are a lot of random things that comes out of Lucas' mouth, like the excess spittle when he says the letter "P". But today, I remembered to jot some down:

You know XXX in the preschool class, her dad came in today and he had, like, the biggest butt [holding his hands out wide]. It was really big, but probably littler than yours.

Wouldn't it be funny if you saw a cat wearing a bib?

What if Princess Leia wore a banana on her head? Then when one of the bad guys got her he would knock off the banana and she would say, "Hey, give me back that banana!" [followed by peals of laughter].

[Kevin was talking to Lucas about kachina dolls] I made a kachina doll daddy. Remember, when I studied about Native Americans in my class.

If my Republican friends could see me now...

2008-03-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, all three of them!

Check out my quote posted on McCain Blogette. It's the March 8th posting. She left out the part where I said, "I'm a die-hard Obama supporter, but..."

I'm sure they don't get much fan mail from Berkeley, California. Anyway, I'm still addicted to reading this blog.

Becoming a restaurant patron

2008-03-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

We made plans to go to our new favorite restaurant yesterday, Bui. We had just been earlier in the week and Lucas loved the garlic noodles.

So while we were getting ready yesterday he said that he wanted to order himself. I told him he should say, "Can I please have the garlic noodles?"

Lucas typed away on my computer while I was in the shower, this is what he wrote:

I m having the grlicnoodlz love lucas i love miy mom vire mutr love lucas

(And yes, he ordered garlic noodles on his own at the restaurant.)

My new favorite blog

2008-03-05T22:48:00.000-08:00

I am a die-hard Obama supporter, though I will support Hillary if she ends up as the DNC's nominee. That being said, I just discovered John McCain's daughter's blog - McCainBlogette.com - and I'm totally addicted to reading it.

It's pretty funny, and so personal. I love her POV on what it's like to travel on the Staight Talk Express, and her comments on things about her family, like what they're wearing.

"Check out Mom's shoes before going on stage," Meghan writes.

"Making fun of Dad's totally lame "family pic" sweatshirt!" she comments about what her dad wore at a BBQ for the press.

It makes me feel differently about McCain (not that I'm going to vote for him), because it shows more of the person behind the face. I think that if Chelsea Clinton could write as humorously and candidly, it would help Hillary's image, but I don't really think she has it in her.

March madness!

2008-03-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

Yay! I managed to get through all of February without really breaking the tenets of The Compact (only "new" purchases were: shoelaces, socks, new bike parts, and Lucas' upgraded bike).

Now that March is here and I can purchase new things, I already have a shopping list burning a hole in my pocket:

- cute springy top (already purchased one at Banana Republic)
- pinboard for Lucas (either I will buy it or make one, either way, I'll have to purchase "new" materials)
- cute springy shoes (I'm tired of wearing my boots)
- soup ladle (we don't have one and I love making soups!)
- pizza cutter (for our weekly pizza dinners)

Product design

2008-03-04T05:26:00.000-08:00

Lucas was busy at his art table making something. Kevin went and peeked and I heard Lucas say, "Don't tell mommy what it is yet."

Then Lucas proudly showed me his latest creation.Me: That's really neat, what do you call it?
Lucas: A Blueberry. Because it looks like Daddy's Blackberry, except it's blue. But actually it's really like your iPhone, it just doesn't look like it.

Me: How is it like my iPhone?
Lucas: Because it shows pictures on it, see the picture on the front? That's you, me and daddy.
Me: Oh, I get it. How else is it like my iPhone?
Lucas: See the back, I can write notes with it too, just like with your iPhone.
(Transcription: I LOVE MOM LOV LUCAS)

Love, defined by Lucas

2008-02-28T21:27:00.000-08:00

Lucas and I have this little game where we write notes to each other and put them into the others' respective mailboxes. Usually, it's like the old AOL ad, Lucas will say to me, "Mommy, you have mail."

Last night he was finishing up his snack in the kitchen and he told me I had some new mail.

Me: What is it? A card?
Lucas: Yeah, it's just a love card.
Me: What do you mean, "just a love card". What does love mean?
Lucas: You know, like "I love you"
Me: Yeah, but what does that mean?
Lucas (after a few seconds of mind-bending contemplation): It means I really really really like you, a lot.
Me: That sounds good to me. Can I read my card now?
Lucas: Yeah, sure. It doesn't matter to me when you read it.

Then he left the kitchen to go play. I guess he's not the sentimental type.

New wheels, new tricks

2008-02-25T23:26:00.000-08:00

Lucas got a new, bigger bike over the weekend. It's basically a bigger version of his other bike. Today we took it out to the school across the street. I never saw him go off this big old curb before. It took about five tries for me to capture the exact moment on my iPhone camera.Even though it's new, I think I'm still okay with my Compact February. Why? It's new, not used, but by the good graces of Wheels of Justice, we returned his old bike to them, which they will donate to a local kids' non-profit, and they credited us the full price we paid toward his new bike. So we only had to pay $30, some lucky little kid gets Lucas' well-used bike, and we promote biking as a way to travel about town -- I think even the most compacted Compacters will bless this "purchase".

The Gift

2008-02-20T05:34:00.001-08:00

Lucas has been really big on reading for a while now. In his class, they have these little leveled reading books, once they read it with a teacher and read it on their own, they are allowed to bring them home to read to us. He's always very excited when he brings a new one home, especially if it's a new color, which means a higher level.

The other day his teacher said to me how well Lucas reads. She also said that he wants to read all the time and that sometimes she suggests other things for him to do besides reading.

On Sunday he pulled out the "Giving Tree" from his bookshelf, which he has never picked up before. I read it to him once. Then he said he wanted to read it to me.

By bed time, he had read about 3/4 of the book. I was totally blown away:

1) He had the stamina to plow through it, sometimes letter by letter. The first few pages just have one or two lines each, but then there are big chunks of text. He worked his way through every word. I could tell sometimes he was about to get frustrated, and I would tell him that we could take a break, but that seemed to just strengthen his resolve to get through it.

2) If a sentence started with a question word, like "Can you help me?" He knew to make it sound like a question, with the last word higher than the rest.

3) His ability to correctly guess at some of the words, like "would", using the context of the sentence.

And then there was his "analysis" of the story. He felt sad for the tree when the boy was taking the apples and then cutting it down. I asked him how it made the tree feel, to be able to give those things to the boy. "I guess it made the tree happy, but it's still a little bit sad."

Some say "The Giving Tree" demonstrates the relationship between mother and child. How as parents, we give and give to our kids, which makes us happy. And we don't expect anything in return. I discussed this with Lucas, and he said, "But mommy, I make you notes all the time. And remember the other day I gave you one of my crackers..."

I agreed with him that he is a giving boy. I also told him that listening to him read this book was one of the best gifts ever.

Lucas skis!

2008-02-18T04:08:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went up to Bear Valley. The conditions were excellent...clear, sunny, no wind, lots of powdery soft snow. It was spring skiing at its best and perfect for a beginning skier.

Lucas' two-day skiing experience started out slowly. He worked out some initial frustration at having skis strapped to his feet and was pretty determined to do it on his own.

He took a ski class the first day, but it was a lot of waiting around, and not much instruction. I think he only went down the little slope 4 or 5 times during the 1.5 hour class.

Under Kevin's tutelage on day two, he worked his way up quickly, with some bumps and crashes along the way.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Afterwards we went to a gas station to load up on snacks for the ride home. Lucas started talking with the 20-something kid working the cash register. I overheard part of their conversation.

Lucas: I knew how to ski without even learning.
Cashier: Dude, that's awesome! Did you do some helicopters and flips?
Lucas: I jumped over some hills. I'll do flips next time.
Cashier: You should have entered the freestyle competition, you would have been the only one in your division. You could have won 500 bucks!
Lucas: Yeah.

Lucas later asked what a "freestyle competition" is. I told him and he said he wanted to do that next time.